by Rodney Smith
She dried herself off, made a swipe at drying her hair, and wrapped the towel around her head like a turban. She leaned over and kissed him again and drew back.
“Kelly, I like you. I like you a lot. I would like to have you as a lover, but only on certain terms.”
“Terms? What terms?”
“I plan to make a career in the Fleet. I want to see how high I can go on my abilities. I’d like to be an admiral some day. I know I’m only a planetary shuttle pilot now, but this is only my first assignment and I am a pilot. I’ve got a lot of future in front of me.”
“I’m telling you this because my plans don’t include a husband and children. We can have a lot of fun together, but I’m not looking for a home and family.”
Kelly looked at her for a bit and said, “I understand and support your ambitions, Tammy. I feel the same. I don’t know if I’ll make it to admiral either, but I want the opportunity to try. My own situation as such right now is similar. I’m going to be out on patrol or deployment for weeks to months at a time. I’m not looking for a permanent relationship, either. So, I respect your ambition and support you in your drive. I do have one question.”
“What’s your question?”
“Does this mean we can’t have sex?”
She smiled and said, “Ask me this evening.” She then pushed him down and lay on top of him, giving him a long deep kiss. Things progressed from there.
* * * * *
Later, they lay in each other’s arms, luxuriating in the warmth and feel of their bodies. Tammy looked at Kelly and said, “Kelly, if you don’t want to talk about it, I’ll understand. What did you do that got you on General Bugarov’s bad side? Cas has been telling a tale he heard through scuttlebutt. I’d like to hear your side.”
Kelly rolled his eyes. “Cas, what a wonderful individual. What has he been saying?”
“I don’t believe any of it. He’s been saying that you screwed up on a training exercise and almost got some of your squadron killed. Cas doesn’t like you, so we’re all convinced he’s lying.”
“Well, Cas isn’t even close. Quite the opposite happened. I hope you are in the mood for a long story.”
She looked up into his eyes and nodded her head.
“Tammy, are you familiar with the Wall of Fire tactic?”
“Yes, I read about it at the academy, but that’s ancient. Nobody uses that anymore.”
“General Bugarov liked it. She thought of herself as the reincarnation of Marshall Ney, Napoleon’s cavalry chief. She was always reading about ancient battles and drawing all the wrong conclusions from them. She thought she had rediscovered the Wall of Fire tactic and saw it as her master stroke.”
Kelly rolled away from Tammy, onto his stomach and up on his elbows, “I still feel that General Bugarov’s early experience in the planetary defense forces, where most of her combat training was done in the atmosphere, made her too two-dimensional in her thinking and in the tactics she enforced on her fighter units. I once tried to discuss other tactics with her during a post-drill critique and had my head handed to me.”
“Second Lieutenant Blake, when I want your opinion, I will give it to you. As long as I am the Fleet Fighter Commander, we will use the tactics I prescribe. I have spent more time fastening my flight harness than you have in the service. Sit down!”
“It was bad enough to be dressed down by the general, it was worse that she did it in front of my entire squadron. The only thing that softened the blow were the sympathetic looks from my squadron mates.”
“General Bugarov scheduled a major tactical exercise for the entire 15th Battle Fleet. Our squadron commander briefed us that our wing, and those from the carriers Lincoln and Mandela, were to be the blue force and defend against the red force wings of the Juarez and Gorbachev. The battle damage simulator systems on each fighter would be used to count battle losses. They used setting five, so if you were “killed,” your fighter was automatically disabled, your weapons computer would go offline, and your navigation lights would be turned on. Only limited maneuvering was allowed for safety purposes.”
“General Bugarov wanted us to use full squadron formations against the red force to protect the Bolivar and other carriers. Strict formation was to be maintained. We were to use the Wall of Fire tactic against all bandits.”
“I remember inwardly groaning when I heard that.”
“The combination of full squadron formations and Wall of Fire made the fighter pilots’ primary function that of just keeping formation, while the fighters’ networked computers did all the combat work. In essence, the combined tactics required the squadron to fly in a strict single-layered, square formation, much like a flying wall. The computers on all the fighters linked together and in concert chose which fighter would engage which targets. The theory is that the computers can apply firepower much quicker than humans and any enemy will face an impenetrable wall of firepower. The reality is that it made you a very predictable target.”
“The wall of fire is a stupid waste of manpower. The whole point of having a live pilot in the cockpit is to allow the human mind to be creative. In my eyes, the mind processes information as fast as the shipboard computer can. True, drones can maintain large formations, such as the Wall of Fire, much better than human pilots. Unmanned fighters, however, have been tried before, and although they can turn tighter and accelerate faster than manned fighters, the brain is still smarter than a computer. Computers are only as good as the mind that programmed them. If the computer comes up against a situation it was never programmed for, it doesn’t know what to do. A human can improvise. Computers should only assist the pilot, not replace them.”
“When LTC Matthews, my old squadron commander, finished up his briefing, he specifically told me to keep strict formation. He had been instructed to make that point by the general.”
“As the briefing broke up, Angie, my lead pilot, came over and walked with me to the ward room.”
“She said they don’t even teach Wall of Fire in fighter transition anymore. It was like teaching ground troops to use the phalanx.”
“I agreed with Angie, but still felt the earlier sting of General Bugarov’s tongue. I would not complain openly about her orders. I don’t think it’s professional to question a superior’s orders once they are given. My comments at the morning critique were done openly and professionally. It was the general’s reaction that was unprofessional. I was not going to stoop to her level. Whether I agreed with them or not, I would follow her orders to the letter. My squadron commander’s comment was totally unnecessary.”
“Angie knew that the Wall of Fire leaves you vulnerable to an enemy that is willing to stack forces and overload the linked computers’ ability to prosecute targets. They could punch right through by concentrating on a single squadron.”
“Angie also knew that the way the general had the squadrons arrayed, they couldn’t support each other. She had them orbiting the fleet in equally spaced orbits. If one squadron was attacked suddenly, the momentum of the orbits would cause a significant delay before any other squadron could react and support.”
“I could see Angie’s logic. My mind started to work out solutions to the problem. The obvious solution was to layer the orbits so forces could move to block any penetration, but the general’s battle formation contained no such defense in depth. She bet her entire defense on a supposedly impenetrable shield of fighters around the Fleet. I wondered how much freedom of action she had given the Red force commander.”
“As the exercise began, the 15th Battle Fleet split into two task forces. The Bolivar Battle Group, along with the Mandela and Lincoln carrier battle groups, moved toward the frontier. We were out there to be as visible as possible, so the K’Rang would know we were there. The admiral positioned the task force parallel to the frontier. He wanted to make sure that any missile radar lock-ons were aimed away from the frontier. He expected that the K’Rang would come to observe the exercise from their side of the frontier and
he didn’t want any misunderstandings.”
“My squadron launched and we moved out to our position. Our starting position was on the frontier side of the fleet. Even though there was to be no exercise combat on that side, General Bugarov made us practice the all-around defense. As we approached the position to form up into the Wall of Fire formation, my computer malfunctioned. It reacted as if I had been destroyed and shut me down. I was drifting in space with my navigation lights blinking on and off. I tried to recycle the battle damage simulator, but it was locked in position 5. It would not let me do anything but slow speed maneuvering.
"I called out to Angie and my flight commander that I was out of action due to a computer malfunction. My squadron commander said to stay where I was and wait for the carrier to send out a recovery craft. I settled in for a long wait. The carrier wouldn’t send out its recovery craft until the combat phase was over. That would be an hour or so.”
“I sat there in my cockpit watching the stars and trying to use my limited maneuverability to keep my fighter masked behind the Bolivar. I didn’t want to give away the fleet’s position with my blinking navigation lights.”
“It turned out to be a useless gesture. The red force fighter attack pulled all the blue force fighter squadrons in their unwieldy Wall of Fire formations to the front side of the fleet. I was quite alone.”
“I tried every trick I knew to get my fighter working again. Nothing worked. I pulled circuit breakers and replaced them. I tried hot and cold system reboots, to no avail. I even tried reasoning with Wanda, my ship’s artificial intelligence.”
“I asked Wanda why I couldn’t reset the combat damage simulator.”
“She responded that she couldn’t get the simulator to recognize the reset command. It was talking to her, but it wouldn’t reset.”
She said that it wouldn’t reset without the proper authentication code. It was not a very sophisticated computer.”
I asked what its orders were.
She told me the ship is disabled, my weapons computer was offline, and your navigation lights were turned on. Limited maneuvering was allowed for safety purposes only.”
“I looked for ways to get it to return control to me. I had Wanda reason with it. I needed to get into the fight.”
“Wanda was apologetic but not able to help. She said that it would only allow me control over the fighter if there were a safety of fleet issue. It would allow me to maneuver to maintain distance from the Bolivar and any other ships or fighters, but no more than that. And the radio didn’t appear to be transmitting either. She had been periodically transmitting our position to the Bolivar, but she was no longer getting their confirmation signal.”
“I couldn’t figure any way out of that fix. There I was, unable to move, shoot, or communicate. I just sat there looking out into space waiting for the hook to pull me back onto the Bolivar.”
“That’s when I noticed a movement across the border. It was probably just a far star blinking in and out, but I caught it out of the corner of my eye in the darkness. Stars don’t twinkle in space.”
“I asked Wanda if her sensors were working or were they out also.”
“She said they were working.”
“I told her I saw something across the frontier at our level, about 11 o’clock. I asked if she could pick out anything?”
“Wanda responded a few seconds later. She couldn’t resolve anything, but there was something out there. In fact, there was more than one. She suggested that if we moved parallel to the frontier, she might be able to triangulate them and get a location.”
“I moved the ship parallel to the frontier and waited for Wanda to make her calculations.”
“She gave me the news I expected. There appeared to be three of them at 583,000 km. They appeared to be just sitting there, watching.”
“I put them down as K’Rang scouts watching the ongoing exercise, but kept Wanda focused on our friends across the frontier. I was sure the Bolivar had its attention focused on the incoming red force fighters and attack ships and probably hadn’t noticed. The blue force fighter pilots were probably all concentrating too hard on their formation flying to notice. If anything was to happen, it was up to me to deal with it–if I could only figure out something to do.”
“An idea occurred to me. I asked Wanda if the damage simulator was smart enough to recognize a dangerous combat situation. I meant, if you input the sensor feed into it could it recognize that the K’Rang out there were a danger to the fleet.”
“She sounded doubtful. She told me again that it wasn’t a very sophisticated computer, but she’d try.”
“She told me that it said that three undetermined ships 583,000 km away were not much of a threat. It still wouldn’t release my ship.”
“I exploded and told Wanda, bargain with it. How close would they have to get for it to consider them a threat?”
“She replied in her normal calm tone that the sensors had resolved the ships. They were K’Rang missile corvettes. The damage control computer said it would disengage if they came within 40,000 km of the fleet. The corvettes’ missiles have a range of 15,000 km. They would have to cross the frontier to engage the fleet. If they crossed the frontier, the ship would be back under my control.”
“I felt relieved. At least at the time I felt relieved. Now, later, I can’t imagine what I could have been thinking. There were three heavily armed K’Rang missile corvettes out there and I was happy that if they attacked the fleet, I would be able to throw myself at them. All I had were guns and practice missiles, but I considered a suicide charge against three superior ships preferable to sitting there disabled by a stupid training aid.”
“If I was going to do something stupid, I’d better be smart first. I had Wanda, pull up all she had on K’Rang corvettes. I was looking for their weaknesses and capabilities.”
“These K’Rang missile corvettes are 150 meters long and 40 meters wide. The sensor probe out the nose gives it a faint resemblance to a dart. The ships have heavy armor on their nose, light armor from amidships to the stern but no shields. They're designed to run directly at their target, survive any defensive fire, fire their six missiles, and run for it. The Fleet tactical guide recommends getting behind them and shooting them aft of amidships where they are vulnerable.”
“Get in behind them and shoot them in the butt. It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was a plan. Now all I had to do was wait for them to get close enough for the damage simulator to give me back control. The navigation light was probably giving my position away to the K’Rang. I tripped the breaker. I then turned my fighter around and moved parallel to the frontier in the direction I came. I wanted to move closer to the frontier. I had the idea to hide myself near one of the GR frontier sensors.”
“I moved as fast as my ‘disabled’ ship would allow me and sidled up next to one of the frontier sensor pods and waited. I waited about an hour. I figured the Bolivar recovery crew might have been wondering where I was by then. If they sent out ships to search for me that might be the best thing. At least they would be looking on the back side of the fleet and somebody might notice the three K’Rang ships out there.”
“Wanda told me that the K’Rang ships were moving toward the fleet. I checked the sensor screen and it showed them heading directly toward the Bolivar. It was obvious that they had my home in their sights.”
“My squadron commander told me when I reported in that we weren’t to engage the K’Rang unless we had superiority of numbers or a significant tactical advantage. I didn’t have superior numbers, but I did have the advantage of surprise. It would have to be enough.”
“The three K’Rang corvettes moved right up to the frontier and stopped. I had Wanda monitor them closely, expecting to see their engines surge for their dash to the Bolivar.”
“If they crossed the border, I was going to fire on them right away. If I got their attention, it might cause them to turn from their attack on the Bolivar to deal with me. If not, I’d at leas
t gotten one of them out of the attack. Either way, it might draw the attention of someone in the combat information center.”
“I didn’t have too much time to wait, the K’Rang sprang across the frontier right in front of me. The battle damage simulator released its hold and the ship was under my control again. I activated my guns and moved in. I was on them before they knew I was there. I came up behind them and took out the center ship’s engine with a gun burst. It was hit with secondary explosions and the two other ships swerved outwards to avoid being caught in the explosion.”
“I turned to follow the ship to port. I fired and took out the port ship’s engines and secondary explosions destroyed it. Missiles from that ship fired off in all directions, none of them threatened the fleet.”
“The third ship turned back on course to attack the Bolivar. I pushed my throttle to the stops in pursuit. The K’Rang ship executed a series of evasive maneuvers to keep me from getting a target lock for my guns. Its turret guns put up an ineffective counter fire, but it was enough to make my aim even less steady. I activated my exercise missiles. They couldn’t do any damage, but the K’Rang wouldn’t know that.”
“I fired off all my exercise missiles in one salvo and watched the K’Rang ship turn hard to starboard and up to throw off their lock. That was all I needed. The K’Rang ship presented perfectly for me to rake it just aft of amidships. My guns cut into their hull. I saw atmosphere escaping into space. The ship’s one gun turret was pointed up and away from me. I sent a stream of gunfire into the missile launch tubes and watched the ship catch fire, burst open, and pinwheel through space.”
“I turned to head back to the landing bay. Fighters from the 34th Fighter Squadron met me halfway there. I waggled my fighter at them to signal I had no comms. Two flights proceeded to the frontier to stand guard. One flight pulled up alongside and escorted me to the Bolivar. At the landing bay, they pulled off and rejoined their squadron.”
“I landed and was escorted to my parking position. A Marine sergeant saluted me and asked me to accompany him as I stepped out of my fighter.”