by Rodney Smith
“We’re going to return them to a non-spacefaring civilization, to convince them not to do these stunts. We should have counterattacked after New Alexandria, rather than let them build up like this. This is what we get for not following through. Now we have to listen to the war cries of politicians that voted to slash our budget after New Alexandria, because they were all convinced the K’Rang had learned their lesson. We had them on the ropes and let them go.”
* * * * *
Kelly reached for the wine bottle and the blanket dropped off Candy. She groaned at him in her semi-awake state and pulled the blanket back over her and off of him. Kelly got up, picked up the wine bottle, and filled his glass. He moved over to sit on the couch and looked down at her.
She was beautiful. He considered her red hair and fair skin to be her best features. They even topped her womanly features, which were spectacular, because no other words described them. She was smart, a great conversationalist, witty, funny – everything he looked for in a woman.
He looked up and realized she was awake and looking at him.
She asked, “What are you looking at, so deep in thought?”
Kelly replied, “A very beautiful woman.”
Candy beamed, throwing the blanket off and assuming a Tri-Vid glamour star pose.
“Do you really think so?”
He looked at her in all her glory and said, “Yes, because it’s true, sweetie.”
She beamed again and said, “Why, thank you, sir. I try to do my best with what nature gave me.”
Kelly dropped back to the floor and pulled her into his arms. She pulled the blanket about both of them and kissed him.
She grinned and said, “I think you're pretty special, too.”
* * * * *
Angie Shappelle was in her dress Fighter Force uniform. Her forest green waist length jacket topped a black mock turtleneck shirt. She wore a white scarf signifying a fighter pilot with no squadron affiliation. Her forest green trousers were worn tucked into calf high sturdy boots. She checked herself in the mirror and thought she looked pretty good.
Colonel Stu Ramey, the wing commander, stuck his head in and said they were ready.
She formed up on his left side, her predecessor, Lieutenant Colonel Joe Banks, on his right, and they marched into the hangar. A band struck up the Fighter Force March. They marched out to the head of the formation. The squadron first sergeant stood at attention, with the unit flag held by an airman behind him.
Colonel Ramey gave a speech, congratulating the outgoing squadron commander on his accomplishments and introducing the unit to the new commander. Lieutenant Colonel Banks gave a too long speech that Angie tuned out. When it was Angie’s turn, she made a very short speech about being home again in the fighting 68th.
At a command from Colonel Ramey, they formed a box, with Angie facing Banks and the colonel facing the first sergeant. The first sergeant took the flag from the enlisted flag bearer. He passed it to the outgoing squadron commander, who, in turn, passed it to the wing commander. The wing commander and outgoing commander both held it for a second before the wing commander took it. The wing commander then turned and passed the flag to Angie. Angie was now the squadron commander. She passed it back to the first sergeant, who passed it back to the flag bearer.
Angie took off her white scarf and replaced it with the black and white checked scarf of the fighting 68th, then directed the first sergeant to dismiss the formation. She marched off to the reception with Colonel Ramey and Lieutenant Colonel Banks.
Hours later, in her quarters, she thought to herself, “Well, you got it. What are you going to do with it?” She stripped down to her skivvies and filled four pocket terminal pages with goals and objectives. Then she went to sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day.
* * * * *
Shadow Leader G’Motta lost his fifth ship to the Human heavy attack craft. Even reinforced, he could not fire enough defensive missiles to survive a two or three squadron attack. Every tactic he tried was overcome by sheer force of numbers. The new K’Rang ships weren’t invulnerable. Their fast tracking guns couldn’t kill all the incoming missiles. Most irritating of all, he had not been able to hit a single attack ship.
An inspection visit by the Armada Operations Officer, during which an attack occurred, resulted in rotation of all task forces through the picket duty. Task force commanders made sure to send their older warships on this duty. The losses continued.
* * * * *
Admiral Hasselrode sat in his underwear in VIP quarters, nursing a beer from the mini bar, as he studied the K’Rang space on a desktop hologram projector. He looked for planetary nebula, gas clouds, free asteroid fields, and anything else the ships could hide in. He saw a lot of likely hide positions, many close to what the K’Rang called main worlds. He hoped he would have a chance to pick Timmons’ and Kelly’s brains before Kelly shipped out. He looked for how he could divide the K’Rang Empire into patrol sectors. He would initially have twenty-four scout ships to patrol K’Rang space. Admiral Minacci suggested he might move more ships or squadrons to his command later.
He looked for logical ways to divide the Empire, but nothing jumped out at him. Maybe once he saw Fleet’s operation plan, he would get a better idea.
Hasselrode turned the projector off and crawled into bed. He would sit down with Scout Force operations and intelligence tomorrow to learn what he could and maybe see whom he could poach for his own staff.
* * * * *
“This is your father, Candy. Answer the call.”
Candy activated the video pick up and said, “Hi, Dad, what’s up?”
“Put Kelly on.”
Kelly moved into the video pick up field. Fortunately, they were both clothed. In fact, Kelly was in uniform.
“Yes, sir, what can I do for you?”
“You can report into Scout Force. I’ll be there in two days and I’ll need to see you on something important. Be there.”
“Yes, sir, I was on my way to report in this morning. Candy is taking me in when she goes to work.”
“I’ll see you in a couple of days then. Candy, can I stay with you while I’m there? It will mean my security detail wandering about your pasture, poking into things. They’ll have their own hover ship with sleeping quarters.”
Candy laughed and said, “Sure, Dad. You know you and Mom are always my guests of honor. I’ll see you when you get here.”
“Bye, Candy.”
“Bye, Dad.”
Candy looked at Kelly and said, “So, the war caught up with you after all.”
Kelly embraced her and said, “I wonder what your dad wants with me, other than for me to make an honest woman out of you.”
Candy pulled away and said, “Watch what you’re saying.”
He pulled her back in and kissed her. “I am watching it…very closely.”
* * * * *
Lieutenant Commander Gold received a late phone call, as he sat preparing for his next day. It was from Senator O’Toole’s secretary. She said, “Please hold for the Senator.”
O’Toole’s booming voice came over the communicator. “Lieutenant Commander Gold, how are you tonight?”
Gold replied, “I’m just fine, sir. What can I do for you?”
The senator from Glenn replied, “It’s actually what I just did for you. The Senate just passed the Special Defense Supplemental Bill tonight. We adopted the House’s version word for word. It’s law. I just wanted you to know that it wasn’t my nephew’s special relationship that moves legislation favorable to the Fleet. When you provide back up material that moves people to support your bill, they move. Pass that on to my nephew for me if you get the chance. You have a good night. Oh, by the way, if you're there preparing for the Defense Committee hearing tomorrow, it's been superseded. Go home.”
“Thank you, Senator.”
Lieutenant Commander Gold hung up the phone and pulled up a congressional contact report. He groaned because that would take longer to comp
lete than the briefing material for the cancelled hearing.
* * * * *
Tammy looked at her assembled crew: Her co-pilot, Lieutenant George Duke, flight engineer Air Crewman Pete Dawkins, turret gunner Air Crewman Frank Hayes, and tail gunner Air Crewman Sue Innes. They were a veteran crew now, with seven missions under their belts. She noted their casual demeanor that hid an excitement to go up again and give it back to the K’Rang, and silently pledged to keep them alive through this conflict, but still accomplish her mission. She knew it wouldn’t always be this easy. Eventually the K’Rang would figure out how to stop them.
She thought she knew what that might be. She emphasized gunnery in preparation for K’Rang fighters showing up – she knew they would. It was the only defense they could use that would have any effect. She tried to convince Commander Tanaks to have every other ship fly inverted to bring the top turret to cover the lower hemisphere of the formation. In space it didn’t matter which end was up, anyway. She was glad they had been fitted with the new disruptor cannons. She had four in her winglets, in addition to the turret and tail. It was a lot of firepower, but the A-100 was big and slow compared to a fighter and could not match a fighter in a dogfight. She put a bug in the CO’s ear about requesting fighter support.
* * * * *
Shadow Force Commander (Baron) J’Kol visited his new reinforcements. His request for fighter support had been granted and his newest command arrived on his base. He watched as thirty-six new T’Pok attack ships landed at the recently completed spaceport – three squadrons of nimble dual-purpose ships he could use to keep the Human heavy attack ships at bay. He called the wing and squadron commanders into a meeting.
“Warriors, as you may know, the Humans have been attacking us daily with two or more attacks by heavy attack craft. We have been virtually defenseless against these attacks and have lost nine ships, including three first line ships. You have been brought in to even the odds in our favor.”
“For the first attack today, I would like a total effort. I want the entire wing to scramble for the first attack and see if we can catch them by surprise. If they follow the normal pattern, there will be two to three squadrons of eighteen ships for you to attack, preferably before they launch their missiles. Destroy as many of the Human ships as you can. Let’s teach them they are vulnerable, too.”
* * * * *
Kelly reported into Scout Force and was promptly told to report to Captain Timmons. Kelly walked up to the Admiral’s offices and Edgar Timmons, his old captain, greeted him with a bear hug and a hearty handshake.
“Kelly, damn, it’s good to see you. Congratulations on the promotion, Commander Blake. The Admiral wants to see you as soon as he gets out of this briefing.”
“How have you been? Janey’s been bugging me for you to come over ever since I told her you were probably in town. She wants you to come over for dinner as soon as you can. Junior’s heard Janey and I talk about you and he wants to meet you, too. I’ll warn you, he’s a real talker. He’ll talk your head off. He’s got more questions than anyone has answers for.”
Admiral Minacci’s door opened and a throng of officers wandered out. Admiral Minacci came out with a dogged staffer still trying to turn him to his position. The admiral ducked into the command head to escape.
Moments later, the admiral came back out, saw Kelly, and walked over to shake his hand.
“Damn glad to see you, Kelly. Come into my office. You, too, Edgar.”
Kelly followed the admiral into his office and was waved into one of the cushy seats. A yeoman brought in a tray of coffee and pastries. Kelly took one and added sugar. The admiral sat down opposite him and sipped his own coffee, looking over his cup at Kelly with a questioning look in his eyes.
“Kelly, Admiral Craddock will be here day after tomorrow to discuss a mission with you. In the interim I have been told to make you a job offer. I have two jobs to offer you: First, I have three squadrons of Valiant class scout ships coming out of mothballs on Glenn. One of them is your old ship, the Vigilant. You can pick your squadron. It’s a desk job, if you’re feeling like you need to settle down for a while. You’d be under Admiral Hasselrode, who is forming these three squadrons and the 18th into the 1st Scout Force Division, based on Glenn.”
“The other choice is a new ship, a super scout that Admiral Craddock and the Bureau of Ships designed. It needs an experienced captain with an innovative mind and a sense of adventure. Everyone we talk to says you are the only choice. Edgar, cue up that briefing on the Orion.”
Edgar cued up a series of briefing charts on the large monitor. The first was a side-by-side size comparison of the Orion to a Courageous class frigate. It was slightly smaller than the frigate, and with less firepower. Kelly could see two medium gun turrets with probably a third on the port side. He saw protrusions on the nose, suggesting three nose guns. It looked very much like an enlarged Valiant scout ship, but with no glass ports.
The next slide was specifications. The ship would have a crew of 150, ten officers, ten chiefs, and 130 enlisted. Her armaments were three medium turrets, three nose guns, 100 defensive missiles, and 50 offensive missiles. She had a full sensor suite, both active and passive. Kelly whistled when he saw her top speed at FTL Power 7 plus. That was faster than anything other than experimental ships.
The next slide laid out the crew organization. Its organization was more like a conventional Fleet ship than a scout ship. She had an Executive Department with the XO, yeoman, cooks, admin, legal, and ships’ services. The engineering department and weapons departments were fairly large. Operations ran the CIC and operated/maintained comms and sensors. Supply Department was small, with just two officers, a chief, and three ratings. He asked about that.
Edgar answered, “The ship has a mini-ring. Anything you need is sent to you by the ring – food, missiles, replacement personnel, specialists, you name it.”
Admiral Minacci said, “Kelly, you don’t have to make up your mind right away. There is more to this offer. Admiral Craddock will be here day after tomorrow to talk to you about the mission that comes with this ship. Take today and tomorrow to do your inprocessing. Get set up in the Q for now. We’ll get you better quarters, depending on which choice you make. Be back here 0600 day after tomorrow.”
Chapter Three
Tammy suited up for her next mission. This would be her eighth mission against the K’Rang picket line. Commander Tanaka came over and sat next to her as he put on his gear.
“Tammy, someone at HQ thinks like you do. They're transferring a squadron of F-53's from Gagarin to here. It will be here tomorrow.”
“That’s good news, sir. I just wish they could go out with us today.”
“Today we’re on our own. I had an idea last night. It’s a take off on your idea to have half your section fly inverted to protect our bottom. I would rather we flew each section one way or another. I think there would be too much chance of collision your way, but I like your idea. Here’s my take on it. If fighters jump us, invert your section and tuck under mine. That way we have all turrets pointing the same direction so we can mass fires.”
Tammy responded, “Good idea, boss. That’s even better. This way you control the upper hemisphere. I’ll control the fight in the lower. There’s less chance we’ll shoot each other.”
Suited up and checked out, Tammy launched her ship and her section formed on her as they rendezvoused with the lead section at the Leonov ring. They moved through the ring as two nine-ship sections. Hers would be the third squadron to fire today, coming up under the picket line and firing their missiles. The two other squadrons' missiles would already be absorbing the K’Rang defensive missiles. Tammy’s squadron’s mission was to fire a dozen missiles at each ship in the picket line instead of concentrating on just one ship. They changed their tactics every day or so to keep the K’Rang on their toes. They were just about to launch missiles when an excited voice on the common mission net came on and shouted, "Bandits!"
&n
bsp; Tammy’s blood ran cold. The lead squadron commander, the mission commander, came over the net and calmly reported thirty-six small attack craft accelerating from a world deep in the Eridanus sector. This wouldn’t stop them from launching, but the ships would be on their heels as they left. The mission commander advised the two other commanders not to lead the fighters back to the ring ship. His advice was to go to max speed and try to outrun the fighters, then return to the ring ship after the fighters returned to base.
Tammy had co-pilot George Duke monitor the fighters and track their location. Commander Tanaka came up on their net and calmly told all to prepare to launch missiles. Tammy armed her missiles and watched Commander Tanaka’s ship. When he launched his missiles, she launched hers and the remainder of the two sections launched.
The lead section turned up and left. Tammy pulled up under the lead section and had her ships invert. The commander gave a course correction to lead them away from the ring ship and increased their speed to max. The formation sped up to just under FTL and moved directly away from the dozen fighters that broke off to pursue them. Tammy saw the other squadrons doing likewise. No one made a run for the ring ship. The mission commander told the ring ship captain to fold up and move away from the K’Rang picket line as fast as he could. He’d call him back when it was safe to transit.
The ring ship captain acknowledged and wished them luck. The attack ships literally ran for their lives.
Tammy saw the fighters slowly closing the gap. They seemed to be only a little faster than her, but still less than FTL. The squadron commander called all pilots to tighten up the formation and gunners to get ready. They would be on them within five minutes.
