Scout Force

by Rodney Smith

  Candy gave him a blinding smile in response.

  “Tell me, Candy, who does the gardening for your folks? I was awestruck by the way the grounds look.”

  “We don’t have a gardener. Mom keeps up the grounds. She has a real green thumb. She could plant a burnt stick and get it to flower.”

  “Well, I’m impressed. Are they local plants or were they brought in?”

  “Come on. I’ll walk you around and give you the tour.”

  The two walked out the front door and over to a large planting bed. The flowers were arrayed with short ones in front and larger plants in the center. The effect was like a layer cake. Reds and crimsons were on top, blues through the center, and whites along the base. A sweet scent filled the air, mixed with the smell of the approaching rainstorm.

  “These white plants are alabaster stars. They come from the southern hemisphere here on Armstrong. The blues are Antarean asters. They grow on Plymouth Island to the southeast of here, near where this wine comes from. The red and crimson flowers come from a Blood Bush native to the polar region and a parasitic plant called the Strangler Vine, native to this region. It grows on low-lying bushes and sucks them dry of nutrients. It eventually kills its host plant, thereby causing its own death, but not before it releases its spores. It’s beautiful, but so tragic.”

  “Wow, that is tragic, but you're right, they are beautiful.”

  They walked along together, enjoying the garden and each other’s company until the rumble of distant thunder caused them to look up at the approaching clouds. They walked back to the front door, where Candy put her hand on the handle and stopped. She looked at Kelly and said, “I wonder.”

  Kelly looked at her and asked, “What do you wonder?”

  “I wonder if you might be brave enough to date the admiral’s daughter?”

  Kelly paused for a moment and said, “I’m brave enough, but I’m not looking for anything serious at this time. My present is too uncertain. As you said earlier, it is only a matter of time before I go out on patrol or a deployment. I could be gone a few weeks or a few months. I have no way of knowing. I’m afraid we couldn’t be much more than friends. There is one other thing. Although I’m no lady’s man, there are at least two other young women interested in me.”

  She smiled that dazzling smile again, “That works for me. I could always use more friends. I’m not looking for a monogamous relationship right now, either. I just spent six tough years in school and I want to party a bit before I settle down.”

  “Okay, Candy, I’d be honored to be your friend. Let’s get inside before this storm catches us out here.”

  They rejoined the party. A large relish and canapé spread had been set up on a buffet table in the den. Everyone was eating, drinking, and watching the approaching lightning storm. Candy took his glass to the bar to refill it. Kelly made a mental note to slow down his drinking. This local Vidal Blanc appeared to have higher alcohol content than he was used to. It wouldn’t do to get smashed at his admiral’s house.

  Mrs. Craddock came over. “Are you enjoying yourself, Kelly?”

  “Yes, ma’am, Candy was showing me your plantings. They are magnificent. I was impressed with them when I drove up. I asked who your gardener was. Candy told me you tended them. They really are remarkable.”

  “I’ve always liked gardening. I’ve made sure we had a garden everywhere we’ve been assigned. I really like using the local plants. They are so much hardier and vibrant than plants brought in from Earth.”

  Candy walked up and handed him his refilled wine glass.

  Mrs. Craddock saw that and said, “I should warn you about the local wine. It's a good bit stronger than Earth wines.”

  “Mom, I was trying to ply him with liquor and you spoiled it for me. Kelly here has agreed to be my friend. I hinted that he could be more than a friend, but he was a gentleman about it and pointed out that his patrol and deployment schedule might not allow for him to get more serious with me.”

  Mrs. Craddock got a little goggle-eyed over her daughter’s last announcement, looked at Kelly, and said, “You’ll have to excuse my daughter, Kelly. We didn’t beat her enough when she was young.”

  Candy and her Mom both broke out laughing at that.

  Admiral Craddock walked over, “Now, what’s so funny over here?”

  Mrs. Craddock spoke up. “It appears that Ensign Blake here and your daughter are friends.”

  “Well, Candy is of age. Kelly comes from a good family. Why shouldn’t they be friends?”

  Candy said, “Kelly is the first of your officers I’ve met that isn’t so afraid of you that they wouldn’t have anything to do with me. It is a refreshing change.”

  Admiral Craddock put his arm round Kelly’s shoulder and told him, “Kelly, it is perfectly all right for you to see my daughter. Not that she would require my consent anyway. She is a bit willful. I don’t know where she gets it from.”

  Kelly replied, “Thank you, sir. I consider it an honor to be her friend.”

  Admiral Craddock, his wife, and Candy replied in unison, “As well you should.” All three broke into peels of laughter. Kelly noticed that Candy had an honest, throaty laugh. The admiral then said, “Now, let’s rejoin our other guests.”

  Kelly trailed along behind, chuckling to himself.

  The storm arrived with a fantastic display of pyrotechnics. At times the lightning strikes were so close that they were both blinding and deafening at the same time. One particularly close strike caused Candy to jump into his arms. He had to admit she felt awfully good against him. She was a little slow in disengaging, so he assumed he felt pretty good to her, too.

  The storm blew on and the night progressed. About 2200, CMDR Okanma and his wife expressed their gratitude to their hosts, said farewell and left for their quarters. This started the exodus. The unofficial protocol for one of these receptions was to not be the last person to leave. This sometimes made for a bit of creative jockeying around the front door. Admiral Craddock asked Kelly to hold on for a bit, making him the last to depart.

  Mrs. Craddock and Candy moved the party detritus into the kitchen. The admiral motioned for Kelly to follow him into his study and Kelly tagged along. He waved Kelly to a large wingback chair in front of the fireplace and walked out of the room. Kelly perused the decorations and awards on the walls. He also checked to make sure the chair wasn’t an antique. The admiral came back a few minutes later with the unfinished bottle of Vidal Blanc and a wineglass. He closed the door behind him, poured wine into his glass and offered the rest to Kelly. Kelly topped off his glass and waited.

  “Don’t worry, I didn’t bring you in here to have a father-suitor chat. I want to talk to you about your parents. Do you know they are going to be here in a few weeks?”

  “Yes, sir, I got a message from them just before I came here tonight. They said they were coming here for a few months to work on a project for Fleet. They didn’t say what it was.”

  “Your folks have worked magic again. They've come up with a way to have almost instantaneous travel anywhere in GR space. We’re going to test it here.”

  “Scientists and science fiction authors for centuries have predicted that almost instantaneous travel from point to point was possible. Your folks have figured out how to make it work. It's based loosely on their FTL communications technology, but transmits solid objects, not digital signals. The strategic value of such a system is enormous, but the impact on the Galactic Republic will be almost inconceivable. A series of these set up near the frontier and we no longer have to maintain multiple battle fleets at the far reaches of Republic space. They can be kept at fleet bases outside the reach of K’Rang forces, but almost instantly available in an emergency. Logistics and distance are no longer a limiting factor.”

  Kelly was impressed. He had lost track of his parents’ work since he left for the academy. “How does it work, sir?”

  “I don’t know the technical details, but the system will consist of a series o
f transporter gates, essentially giant rings. The production models will be enormous, large enough for two carriers to pass through at the same time. A ship enters at one gate, programs in its travel to another destination gate, and the ship comes out light years away in a matter of seconds. The only limiting factor is that there has to be a gate where you want to go. You can’t use this to go where there isn’t a gate. I'm very much looking forward to your parents' arrival.”

  “I am too, sir. I haven’t seen them since my graduation from the Academy.”

  Kelly drank his wine at the same pace as the Admiral. When they had both finished, he thanked him and bid farewell. Mrs. Craddock walked him to the door and handed him his hat. Candy walked him out to an awaiting shuttle.

  Kelly thanked her for the guided tour and a very pleasant evening. As he climbed into the shuttle, she leaned in and gave him a kiss. She tasted pleasantly of strawberries.

  “Don’t be a stranger. I want the opportunity to give those other two girls some competition.”

  On that she closed his door, turned, and did a sultry walk back to the house. Kelly’s eyes followed her all the way inside. He punched in his destination and thought about Candy all the way back to the Q.

  Chapter Five

  The next morning Kelly had breakfast and caught a shuttle to the shipyard, where he identified every bump, antenna, and blister on the Vigilant. After an hour, he felt he had a good handle on all the external sensors. He then went inside and traced every weapon circuit on the ship. This took another hour. The next hour was spent tracing the flight control circuits. By the time his stomach would no longer let him ignore it, he had worked through all primary and secondary flight control circuits. He would have to wait on all the other systems until the refit was complete.

  Kelly found a shuttle in the nearest lot and asked it to take him to the Officer’s Club. After a few short minutes the shuttle pulled up in front of the club. He avoided the front door. His coveralls wouldn’t be appreciated. He walked around to the snack bar in back. Feeling a little nostalgic, he ordered a burger and fries. He had a beer while waiting for his lunch to arrive. LT Bell from the Vehement came over.

  “Do you mind if I join you?”

  Kelly looked up, recognized LT Bell, and said, “No, sir, I don’t mind at all. Can I buy you a beer?”

  “Uh, yeah, sure, whatever you’re having,” he replied.

  Kelly waved the barmaid over to bring another beer.

  When it arrived, Kelly took a sip of his and asked, “How did you like the admiral’s party last night?”

  “I got a kick out of listening to the admiral’s stories. I understand you and the admiral’s daughter got along pretty well.”

  “Candy has a lot of trouble making friends, considering she is the boss’ daughter. I offered to be her friend. The admiral seemed alright about it.”

  “Great, she’s a really nice lady, and not hard on the eyes either.”

  At that point Kelly’s burger arrived and the topic changed to the Vigilant’s refit.

  “So how is the refit going? Are they going to get you done by the end of the month?”

  “It seems to be going pretty well. I just spent the morning learning all the systems that are complete. I traced all the weapon circuitry and flight control circuits. It’s easy, now that most of the bulkheads are down. I don’t know if the yard has asked that your crew keep off the ship and out of their way. If they do, make sure your Chief Machinist Mate stays on board. Chief Miller has been very good at keeping the yard crew honest.”

  “Watch out to make sure the yard crew follows the wiring diagram. They will misroute the cabling and then wind up with the wires being too short. These guys don’t splice worth a darn, especially with fiber optic cable. If the wiring doesn’t match the schematics, make them do it over. You will be the one tracing down a wiring problem on patrol, not them. That’s why I spent my morning tracing circuits.”

  “Chief Miller and our chief have talked. Ours is right in the middle of the yard crew. They were more than willing to have a knowledgeable and free helper. Their experience with your chief helped us to convince the yard crew.”

  LT Bell moved over closer. “Can I give you a bit of advice?”

  Kelly, thinking it had to do with the refit, said, “Sure, what is it?”

  “Be very careful if you are thinking of getting friendly with the admiral’s daughter. More than a few officer’s careers have come to a screeching halt for trying to advance their careers by dating the boss’ daughter.”

  “I don’t think I have anything to worry about in that regard. I offered to be her friend. That’s all I’m interested in at the moment. Besides, the admiral had a talk with me about it last night. He was alright with me taking out his daughter, if I wanted.”

  “Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  “Okay, I’ll consider myself warned. Thanks.”

  Kelly and LT Bell left together and caught a shuttle to the Q. Kelly used the time in his quarters to clean up, change for the party at the O Club that night, and catch up on messages. His message queue contained a video file from Angie. He clicked on it and her face came up on the screen. “How you doing, wingman? I waited to give you time to get settled in with your new unit. How did it go? Who are you with now? Old Bugger Off didn’t screw you too badly, did she? Send me a message and let me know how you are doing. CPT Willis, John, and even LTC Matthews have been asking about you.”

  “I have some good news for you. Old Bugger Off is being reviewed for mandatory retirement. Seems she is beyond retirement age and the Fighter Force Personnel Center has her up before a board looking at whether she should be kept on active duty. We’re all rooting for her retirement. There is a rumor running around Flag Country that a number of Flag Officers complained about her and this board is just a way to move her out. You may be famous for being the last officer she cast aside.”

  “Send me a message and let me know how you are doing. I miss you watching my six.”

  As she signed off, she backed up from the camera, turned around, and was wearing something less than she had ever worn around him on the Bolivar. It was a shame she was several hundred light years away.

  Kelly sent Angie a quick synopsis of his current situation, cut and pasted the earlier video of him in his mess dress uniform, and sent it off. He finished clearing out his message queue, looked at his watch, and realized he was going to be late for the party, if he didn’t get a move on. He closed out his terminal and went out to catch the nearest shuttle.

  He got lucky again and found a shuttle waiting for him at the nearest lot. He climbed in, punched in his destination, and headed off.

  * * * * *

  When Kelly arrived at the junior officer’s bar, the party was already going strong. He walked in and Ensign Nielsen called out to him almost immediately. Young male officers surrounded her, but she shrugged them off and came over to Kelly.

  She flashed that dazzling smile. “It’s about time you got here. I thought I was going to have to hold off all those guys by myself. Here, let me wrap my arm around yours and maybe they’ll take a hint. It’s a real zoo in here tonight. I forgot that the landing ship crews had arrived to take their ships out of the yard. There must be ten guys to one girl in there. Come on, let me buy you a drink.”

  They walked over to the bar, Tammy never letting loose of his arm. Several landing ship officers looked at him with a mix of envy and anger. He wondered how long it would be healthy for him to be here. Tammy asked him what he wanted with a mischievous look in her eyes. He disappointed her by saying, “Just a beer.”

  She got them each a beer and they retired to a table away from some of the more boisterous landing ship officers. The gators, as they called themselves, were engaging in some bar games that had the potential to cause major mayhem. One, called Assault Landing, involved two officers each carrying as many other officers as they could the distance of the bar. Two of the bigger male lieutenants were carrying five of
ficers each and waddling to the end of the bar. This was accompanied by yells of encouragement, or derision for the opponents.

  The junior officers’ bar was designed to survive such festivities. The bar itself was heavy plasteel. All the alcohol was stored in cabinets under the bar. The fixtures around the room were heavy and washable. The tables were fixed to the floor and the chairs were heavy and hard to lift. Even the gators couldn’t harm this place, designed so officers back from long patrols would have a place to cut loose far away from senior officers’ eyes.

  The two large gators that had just done the heavy lifting exhibition saw Kelly and Tammy sitting by themselves and came over.

  “Well, look at this. This fellow is hogging the prettiest woman in here.”

  Kelly looked up at the two of them and asked, “What can I do for you fellows?” It looked like it was about to get ugly. Kelly figured he might get lucky and take out one of this pair, but not both.

  Other gators came over to watch the show. One of them, a Lieutenant JG, seeing the fighter wings on Kelly’s windbreaker shouted out, “Hey Mahoney, Drew, leave this guy alone. I remember him from the Bolivar. He’s like me. He pissed off Old Bugger Off and wound up here.”

  The bigger of the two, Drew, asked, “Is what he said true?”

  “Yeah, it’s true.”

  Drew slapped him on the back, nearly knocking him out of his chair, and said, “Well, let me buy you a beer. Anybody that Old Bugger Off hates is a friend of mine.” A round of further back-slapping ensued.

  As the crowd fell away, Tammy asked, “What was that all about?”

  Kelly took a sip of his beer and said, “General Bugarov is a senior officer in Fighter Force. She has a penchant for discarding officers. It seems I’m in a rather large and storied group of officers.”

  “So tell me. What did you do to get a general pissed off at you?”

  “It’s a short story. The general thought she was Napoleon re-born, and I was impolitic to show that she wasn’t.”