* * * * *
G’Fin was not the last visitor that Kelly received that day. The next two created quite a stir. Baron N’Gana, Secretary to the Elders, called and asked if the Elders G’Tol and J’Kol could call on the ambassador and Captain Blake to express their apologies for the recent events, their concern for Candy’s safety, and check on Kelly’s condition. The ambassador said that his schedule was open and he could meet with the Elders whenever suited them best. The Galactic Republic Embassy would await their arrival. Baron N’Gana said he would call back with at least a two-hour advance notice of the elders’ arrival.
The ambassador had a long talk with Kelly to convince him to participate in this visit. “Captain, I know you want to be pursuing leads to help get Candy back here safe and sound. Perhaps this will do more good than browbeating your staff, which is capable of working more efficiently when you aren’t asking for status reports every ten minutes and looking over their shoulders the other nine. You have good people that know their jobs. Let them do their work.”
Kelly saw the logic of the ambassador’s statement and backed off to let his people work. He knew they wanted Candy back almost as much as he did, and would do anything in their power to return her to Kelly safe and sound. He prepared to receive the K’Rang Elders.
What followed was a flurry of activity as Marine guard dress uniforms were assembled and donned, the honor guard was assembled and drilled, and all available embassy staff were dragooned into dusting, mopping, and buffing the halls and main reception room. By the time Baron N’Gana called back three hours later, the embassy was ready for a state visit.
Kelly had a bit of a struggle fitting into his dress uniform, requiring some on the spot alterations of ripped seams to fit the trousers around his leg cast. He looked at himself in the mirror and declared himself all trussed up like a Christmas goose, but presentable.
The elders arrived in a highly secured motorcade and were allowed entry into the embassy’s fenced compound. The vehicles were directed into the inner courtyard, where the Marine honor guard stood at attention. The ambassador stood at curbside next to the color guard, ready to greet the elders. Kelly sat in his grav chair on the ambassador’s left side. A slight breeze ruffled the Galactic Republic flag carried by an immaculately dressed Marine guard.
The K’Rang security detail dismounted from their lead and chase vehicles, formed a perimeter around the elders’ vehicle, faced out, opened the vehicle doors and stood aside. The two elders were relatively young and healthy K’Rang, needing no assistance to exit the vehicle.
As the two elders left their vehicle, the Ambassador stepped forward and welcomed them to the Galactic Republic. A quizzical look on J’Kol’s face was answered by the ambassador’s explanation that under the Treaty diplomatic protocol section, the embassy was considered sovereign Galactic Republic territory, just as the K’Rang embassy in Geneva was K’Rang sovereign territory.
J’Kol nodded, said, “Of course,” and shook the ambassador’s hand. G’Tol next shook the ambassador’s hand. The ambassador asked if they would like to inspect the honor guard, which they declined. He then led them into the embassy main reception room. Baron N’Gana, two military aides to the elders, and a protocol aide for N’Gana followed the elders.
In the main reception room, G’Tol signaled for N’Gana and the aides to wait outside. The ambassador waved Kelly in, but motioned for the others to stay outside.
G’Tol noticed the wave off and said, “Good, Ambassador, you have discerned our intent. This meeting requires both our discretion.
“Captain Blake, our heartfelt apologies to you and your wife for having been involved in this. We know who has your wife and why our brother elder was abducted. We have a plan in motion to retrieve your wife and our fellow elder unharmed and soon. One of our investigators noticed a pattern of unexplained absences by several key personnel, only to have them re-emerge a day or so later with no memory of where they had been. All were responsible for key aspects of the defense of G’Durin.
“As you know, not everyone is satisfied with the outcome of the battle of G’Durin. Largest of this group is the Imperial Army, which sat out the war on its home planet of K’Rol. It is almost a blood insult to them that they were not called in to defend G’Durin. Chief of the Imperial General Staff Marshall T’Kana is especially aggrieved. We have discovered that he is conducting military tribunals remotely from K’Rol. The abduction of J’Gon and your wife was one of these extraordinary renditions gone wrong.
“We have sent word to T’Kana to stand down and that he is relieved of command of the imperial ground forces. He is to release all prisoners and prepare to stand court martial. Supreme Shadow Commander G’Rof has been recalled to duty and made supreme commander of all K’Rang forces. He has redirected an armada of six ships, enroute to rescue one of our survey ships close to our spiral arm’s outer boundary, to proceed to K’Rol and place T’Kana under arrest.”
J’Kol then took up the narrative. “This gets us to the reason for our extraordinary visit today. One of our deep space survey ships, the S’Kauf, was on a routine mission to survey new habitable words for future colonization and landed on a world with a large concentration of T’Kab. They were sending routine reports until their last, which was an imminent capture report. They reported being overrun by large insectoids, then nothing.
“Ambassador, we request immediate assistance from your government. We have reason to believe that Captain M’Taso and a handful of crew survive on the planet. With our task force diverted to K’Rol, we have nothing that can reach the planet within a month. You have a very fast scout ship that can make the journey in a week and a half. Rescue our crew, Ambassador, and find out what is happening with the T’Kab and our ship. If the T’Kab establish a foothold on that planet and access the navigational records from the S’Kauf, none of our worlds are safe – not ours, not yours, not the A’Ngarii’s.”
He handed a data crystal to the ambassador and leaned in to impress upon the Humans the true danger of the T’Kab. “The T’Kab colonize by firing thousands of colony pods containing non-sentient larval queens. If the pod lands on a habitable planet, she hatches and proceeds to lay thousands of eggs. If the pod never lands on a planet or has some mishap they just breed new larval queens. Most eggs become support for her colony, but she produces queens as well that swarm from the original nest and form colonies of their own, which repeat the process until the entire planet is under their control. At that point, sentient queens are hatched that make contact with their civilization. Large civilization ships follow to emplace the infrastructure needed to sustain a long-term sentient T’Kab presence on the planet. We assume that the pod that landed on the world the S’Kauf found was part of a new colonization push into our space. That data crystal has all we have on the planet and the T’Kab.”
J’Kol came to attention and said, “We formally request that two to five of your carrier task forces be sent to the picket of our frontier, destroy any pods transiting through that space, and stand off any civilization ships sent to strengthen their hold on this new planet, in accordance with section XII, paragraph 5 of the Treaty of G’Durin. We will assemble an assault force and clear the T’Kab from this world and any others we find.”
The ambassador sat back and attempted to absorb all he just heard. After a moment he spoke. “Let me ensure I understand you: In invoking section XII of the treaty dealing with mutual defense against an outside foe, you want us to send the Orion to rescue your ship and crew, establish the situation on the planet, and for us to deploy at least a battle group on your frontier to screen against further colonization pods coming through. We will need every scrap of intelligence you have on the T’Kab and the immediate safe return of Mrs. Blake. Once she is safely home, I will give my recommendation to my government on your request.”
The two elders exchanged glances and nodded. J’Gon said, “We have the safe and speedy return of Mrs. Blake and our senior elder as our highest priorit
y. I believe we are finished. Thank you for your time, Ambassador.”
J’Gon and J’Kol marched out, rejoined their aides, loaded into their vehicles, and, with a final salute to the ambassador and Kelly, departed.
One Marine corporal commented as they drove away, “Five hours of prep for a 28 minute visit. Ain’t that a bucket of shit?”
His Gunny glared at him, but chuckled after the corporal walked out of sight and mused, “Yeah, corporal, that is a bucket of shit. Get used to them.”
* * * * * *
As the motorcade sped down the tree-lined avenue, G’Tol turned to J’Kol and asked, “When does your ship leave?”
“I take the shuttle up to the Shadow Scout G’Joku at midnight. They need the time to retrieve some crew on liberty.”
G’Tol wrinkled his brow in irritation, but kept it out of his voice. “Brook no insubordination from T’Kana. You are an elder now. Your word and command are absolute. If he hesitates, argues, or tries any subterfuge, declare him a traitor and execute him on the spot. Use the power of the Empire and we will have no more of this tribunal nonsense.”
J’Kol pondered for a moment and replied, “Of course, if his bodyguards cut me down in mid-attempt, my absolute authority won’t do me or the Empire much good. I will handle T’Kana.”
“Whatever you do, get Mrs. Blake back here unharmed. We need the Humans if the T’Kab are on the march. There are two main worlds and eleven worlds within range of that planet. We have to assume they have control of Captain M’Taso’s planet and their civilization ships are enroute. If they have our navigation system data and learned from their encounters with us a century ago, we can expect multiple colony pods on all of those worlds within six months. We will buy some time if the Humans can intercept the civilization ships.”
“Why not have the frontier worlds start preparing local defenses and patrols while I’m gone? The sooner we detect a T’Kab colony, the sooner they can be destroyed. Use local forces to deal with the early non-sentient stages. Save the Army for the later sentient stages.”
“These are all good ideas. I will call in G’Rof and have him consider them in his planning.”
Chapter Six
Lieutenant Colonel Mary Chen stood in front of a representative company of Marines from her Special Operations Battalion and waited for the ceremony to begin. She had been waiting a long time. Her unit and representative companies from the 3rd Assault Landing Division, the major embarked unit of the 1st Assault Landing Group, were formed up on the hangar deck of the soon to be launched Command Assault Support Carrier GRS Michael D. Milton. Commander Michael Milton had been the Captain of the GRS Yellow Jacket, an Assault Carrier destroyed in the Battle of Barataria. He was posthumously awarded the Galactic Medal of Honor for his innovative and courageous use of his ship in defending the human population of Barataria, and inflicting great damage on a vastly superior K’Rang force, before his own ship was destroyed in battle.
The Milton, or Fighting Mike, was the first of a new class of Assault Support Carriers designed to eliminate an old problem: lack of command spaces to support both a Rear Admiral group commander and a Major General Marine assault landing division commander. The Milton had two Flag Officer spaces for task force and ground force staffs, space for three squadrons of A-76 attack ships, two squadrons of F-48 fighters, a mixed support squadron, a squadron of new AG-155 close support ships, and a squadron of AS-600 stealth transports capable of deploying Mary’s battalion and the other units embarked on the Milton in one lift.
She commanded the newly created 1st Special Operations Battalion embarked on the Milton, a first for an assault-landing group. Her battalion consisted of three 100-Marine special operations companies, a headquarters company, and a special support company. She was rightly proud of her unit’s capability to operate in space, the air, on the water, beneath the water, and on the land as individuals, teams, platoons, companies, and as a full battalion. There was nowhere the enemy could hide she could not find them. It was her dream assignment and one she had trained for her entire career.
Her sergeant major came up to her while she waited for Rear Admiral Oliver Digg, Marine Major General Greg Allans, and the official party to arrive.
“Ma’am, I passed word to the admiral’s command chief that if they don’t get on with it we will all need a pee break before the start. One of the senior officer’s wives is suffering through a bout of space sickness. It seems one of the flag deck gravity panels malfunctioned while she was above it and she’s been heaving ever since. He said he would let me know soonest if we can take a short break to attend to bodily functions.”
Mary thanked the sergeant major and asked him to inform the other sergeants major. He told her he already had and moved to the rear of the formation, while Mary tried not to think of her own bladder, now that the notion had been placed in her head.
* * * * *
It was two hours past midnight on this moonless world. Captain M’Taso had three of her crew cover her approach to the S’Kauf with their sidearms while she and two crewmen low-crawled slowly and silently through the gully towards her ship. Additional crew were in positions to shoot the other guards at the first sound of alarm.
She dropped as low as she could and silently padded up the dry wash until she was past the guard and inside their perimeter. She rose up only slightly as she left the top of the gully and high-crawled to the base of the ship’s gangplank. When her two crew members joined her under the deep shadows of the gangplank, they one-by-one climbed stealthily up and into the dark and silent ship.
The ship had the smell of an abattoir as they slunk forward. The bugs had not been too efficient when cleaning up the remains of the crew; rotting body parts littered the ship’s compartments and passageways. For the highly sensitive noses of the K’Rang, it was almost unbearable. Captain M’Taso and her crew members suffered through it, knowing that the reactivation of the ship’s systems and their escape had to happen as close to simultaneously as possible, or risk being overpowered by the insectoids guarding the ship. If the guards reacted quickly enough, they could jam the gangplank doorway and possibly force it fully open again. She stationed one crewman to kill any insectoids coming up the ramp before the outer door closed and sealed. The third crewman, a ship’s engineer, went aft to examine the state of the engines, internal power, and readiness to lift off.
M’Taso went forward to the bridge to assess the flight controls and see how much of the ship they had carried away. She found a hole where the navigation computer had once been. They would never find their way out of this system without it, but she could make their rescue easier. The stench was making her sick and she toyed with the notion of activating the ventilators, but satisfied herself with putting all switches in position for activation once the power from the engine room was restored. She calculated which systems would be needed to get the S’Kauf off the ground in the shortest period of time.
Back in engineering, the crewman checked systems and found all ready for duty and needing only a few switches to have the ship fully ready for lift-off. He too considered activating the ventilators to remove the odor of death on the ship, but was unsure of what noise they might make. He suffered silently and waited stoically for the captain’s call. She had kept them together and alive so far; he had faith she would get them off this planet.
M’Taso had all switches in the correct position. One circuit breaker was all that was needed to initiate her plan. She took a moment to make sure all was properly aligned. The first action would be sealing the exterior hatch, followed by gangplank retraction. That would seal the ship from insectoid attack. Next would be ventilating the ship and closing all external throughhull fittings. As the hatch closed and sealed, the guard crewman would occupy the top turret and kill any insectoids around or approaching the ship. This would give the crewmen on guard outside the insectoid perimeter time to exfiltrate back to their rendezvous point. Finally, power would be applied to the bottom thrusters to lift the S�
�Kauf up and away in the opposite direction from its eventual landing spot.
Captain M’Taso licked the fur on her right paw in an ancient K’Rang wish for good luck. She called her crewman at the hatch and asked if the insectoids had reacted. He responded in the negative, so she told him to stand ready for plan activation in thirty seconds. She called engineering and, when told the engines were ready, told the engineer to stand by for activation in ten seconds. She turned to her command panel and flicked two of the last three switches. When her timer clicked down to zero she hit the final switch.
The guard above the gully barely heard the hatch start to move. By the time he saw the hatch moving in the dark, it was within centimeters of closing and sealing. When the gangplank made its noisier retraction into the hull, it left its post at speed to alert the colony. The S’Kauf was in flight and away before the sleep-addled colony soldiers even left the burrow.
As she passed overhead, Captain M’Taso could not help activating the bottom turret and plasma blasting the insectoids’ burrow. Plasma balls created massive holes around the exit to the burrow, killed large numbers of workers and soldiers reacting to the S’Kauf’s passing, but did no harm to the queen safely ensconced in her birthing chamber many meters below the ground.
M’Taso activated the ventilators, which only slightly moderated the stench permeating the ship, but any reduction was an improvement. She followed the mountain range south for one hundred kilometers then turned north towards the designated rendezvous point. The crewman that had manned the upper turret moved to sensors, entered an identity signature for insectoid burrows, and started plotting them in the ship’s geopositioning system. He saw a pattern forming, where the higher, rockier terrain was free of insectoid burrows. He started plotting alternative landing zones in this rougher terrain, should the insectoids discover them at their landing site.
All Enemies Foreign and Domestic (Kelly Blake series) Page 8