Scout Force

by Rodney Smith

  “Yes Captain, they are still stowed in Engineering.”

  “Let’s keep them. They might come in handy this time.”

  Kelly had to send his regrets to Candy. Leave would not be possible until they got back. He promised to call her as soon as he returned.

  It took them a day to load supplies on board. The next morning, they lifted ship and headed off to the Scutum sector, arriving four days later. They coasted in at sub-FTL speed to make most effective use of their long-range sensors, scanning to maximum range so that they could slip into the area undetected.

  It took another complete day, but they moved to an asteroid some several thousand kilometers from the one on which they had hidden last time. The new asteroid had a peak with a shelf in front of it. It was the perfect observation post. They sat and waited for two days.

  On the second day, they got initial indications of a ship approaching from the K’Rang side of the frontier. As it got closer, the sensor system resolved the approaching ship. It looked like their quarry from the previous patrol. They compared sensor readings with those in the records. It was the same ship.

  As before, it moved through the K’Rang side of the frontier and waited in the neutral zone. Kelly called up the data on the Gurkha and looked up when it was expected in the system. It was several hours before the freighter was expected.

  The captain took his seat and said, “Is our friend up to anything?”

  “No, sir, he is just sitting there like before. We are running a number of different scans on him to determine how he might be armed. We can detect the signature of plasma generators and not much else. He’s leaking gamma radiation from his engines like you wouldn’t believe. They must have massive shielding to be able to survive in that thing. It can’t have a very big crew. Chief Miller thinks half the ship must be engines in that thing to have a radiation signature like it has. He also says they can’t be all that efficient, so this guy may not be the latest model.”

  “It's a shame we have orders to observe and not be detected. I think we could capture this guy. It wouldn’t take much to disable his engines. We could stand off outside his range and take out any guns. We could board this guy.”

  “Sir, remember, I had a little experience with a K’Rang scout ship. The one we went after self-destructed rather than be captured. That was just a small two-man ship. I don’t know how this guy would react, but I’d hate to be leading a boarding party as this guy vaporizes himself.”

  “I know we don’t know much about the K’Rang other than their military. Have you given any thought that this guy might just be some K’Rang smuggler? Maybe all we are witnessing is a shady transaction between the Indigo folks and some K’Rang entrepreneur.”

  “Could be, Exec, that is one of the possibilities that the intel folks thought of. We also don’t know what the Indigo Consortium may be trading to get what they want from this guy. Intel doesn’t really know how much of a mercantile class the K’Rang have. I’m going back for coffee, I’ll bring you some. Keep your eye on him.”

  Three hours and two cups of coffee later, the Gurkha arrived in the Scutum sector. The shuttle craft separated from the freighter. Unlike the previous time, the shuttle did not take a leisurely approach to the K’Rang ship. It made a beeline for the K’Rang ship at almost full speed. The K’Rang ship moved forward through the frontier into GR space. The two ships docked, as before, and three personnel moved across into the K’Rang ship. No cargo could be detected on the shuttle.

  Three personnel returned to the shuttle after about 30 minutes on the K’Rang ship. The two ships separated. The shuttle turned away and proceeded at a much slower pace back to the 6664 system.

  “Sensors to bridge, the K’Rang are charging plasma weapons.”

  The captain hit the battle stations alarm and ordered, “Gunners, target the K’Rang ship’s weapons and engines. Fire when ready.”

  Before the crew could react the K’Rang ship turned toward the shuttle and fired its plasma weapons. The shuttle took three hits broadside. The shuttle floated dead in space with atmosphere leaking out into vacuum.

  The Vigilant’s top turret opened fire and took out the plasma guns on the nose of the K’Rang ship. The K’Rang ship turned and started to run for the frontier.

  The captain said, “Helm, lift us up and get on the K’Rang ship’s tail. Comms, jam any transmissions from the K’Rang ship.”

  The helm hit the bottom thrusters and brought the Vigilant up from the asteroid. He pushed the throttle forward to move the ship onto the path of the K’Rang ship. Kelly had to restrain himself to stay off the controls. The helmsman was being a little too cautious for his liking. Kelly brought up the targeting template on his terminal. The crosshairs lined up on the K’Rang ship as the helmsman increased power and turned the Vigilant in pursuit.

  The lower turret gunners fired and took out the K’Rang ship’s engines. The K’Rang ship drifted in space just short of the frontier.

  Kelly keyed his intercom and said, “Sensors, watch for any indications of a self-destruct mechanism being activated.”

  The captain came up on the intercom and asked, “Sensors, what do you see happening on the K’Rang ship?”

  “Bridge this is Sensors, we don’t see any activity. We can count 10-15 life signs on board. They seem to be congregated in the bow of the ship.”

  “Comms, patch me through to the K’Rang ship.”

  “Captain, you are patched through on standard hailing frequencies.”

  “K’Rang ship, this is the GRS Vigilant. You are in Galactic Republic space. You have fired on a Galactic Republic vessel without provocation. Prepare to be boarded.”

  The comms channels were silent.

  The captain keyed his intercom, “Chief Miller, come to the bridge.”

  Chief Miller appeared almost instantaneously. He had to have run from the engine room. “What can I do for you Captain?”

  “Chief, where would a self-destruct mechanism be on that K’Rang ship?”

  “The simplest place would be in the engine room. Frankly, sir, that thing is practically self-destructing now. It's leaking so much radiation that I wonder if the crew isn’t already radiation poisoned.”

  “Is there any way to put the self-destruct out of commission from here?”

  “We could target the engine room and try to destroy the engines before they can be overloaded, but it might just kill the crew if they don’t have good interior hatches.”

  “Bridge, Sensors, we’re picking up a power surge over there.”

  “Helm, back us out of here! Full reverse now! Forward shields on full.”

  The Vigilant went into reverse. The K’Rang ship shrank in the monitors.

  “All stop! Exec, if this guy is going to blow himself up, I’m not so worried about damaging him. Do you think you could cut the engines from the rest of his hull. I don’t care if he has good interior hatches or not.”

  Kelly took over helm and aligned the turrets and fixed guns. He moved the ship forward, pointed the Vigilant at the K’Rang ship, and opened fire, attempting to use the plasma and particle cannons like a saw to cut the K’Rang ship in half. The nine cannons made short work of the K’Rang ship’s hull. In seconds the ruined engine compartment was drifting away in space.

  “Bridge this is sensors, the power surge has ended. The engine area is without power. There are bodies floating free in space. The forward part of the K’Rang ship has lost all life support. We are detecting atmosphere vented into space. Captain, we read no life signs on the K’Rang ship.”

  “Thank you, Sensors. Damn, Exec, I hoped to take some of them alive.”

  “Don’t lose any sleep over these guys, Captain. If we hadn’t done anything they‘d all be vapor right now. We should see what we can glean from this ship and the shuttle.”

  “ Let’s go for the shuttle first. Chief Miller, break out that gear stowed in Engineering. Exec, you, Chief Miller, and Chief Blankenship get suited up in those EVA suits. See wha
t you can find. Make sure there aren’t any nasty surprises. Once you give me a thumbs up, we’ll bring the shuttle alongside and magnetically lock it to the hull. Then we’ll do the same with the K’Rang ship. We’ll haul them both back to Antares’ orbiting dock. That will give the tech intel boys something to salivate over.”

  Kelly went back to Engineering, to be fitted into the EVA suit. After he was suited up, he and the two chiefs went to the airlock. Chief Miller keyed open the airlock and they all stepped in. Chief Miller had a portable work light and Chief Blankenship had a pulsar pistol. The door closed behind them. Kelly looked out the hatch at the shuttle. It had three large holes seared open by a volley of hot plasma. He felt the suit expand slightly as the atmosphere was pumped out of the airlock.

  “Ready to open the airlock when you are, LT.”

  “Let’s get out there, Chief.”

  The airlock opened and the three lunged out into the blackness of space toward the silent shuttle. They reached the shuttle’s hull simultaneously. Once activated, their magnetic gloves attached themselves to the hull. They alternately activated and deactivated their gloves to crawl across the hull to the plasma blast holes.

  Kelly came to the smallest hole first. He had Chief Blankenship use her pocket scanner to make a scan of the interior. Nothing hazardous was found. He poked his head in and used his helmet light to illuminate the interior. He couldn’t see much. The plasma had burned through the hull and charred everything in its path. All he could see was burnt wire and blackened panels.

  Kelly moved to the next blast hole. This hole was much larger and appeared to hit an open area of the inner cabin. Kelly was able to pull himself in. He was half way into the hole when a burnt, naked corpse floated into his path. Kelly let out a yell.

  “LT Blake, are you all right?” said Chief Blankenship with alarm in her voice. Chief Miller grabbed Kelly by the legs and braced himself to pull him out.

  “I’m okay. One of the crew just came over to say hello. Scared me a bit, that’s all.”

  Kelly pushed the body out of the way and keyed his mike. “Captain, you’d better send about six body bags over here. The whole crew was fried by the plasma.”

  “We’ll put them in the airlock. Send one of your team over.”

  Chief Blankenship spoke up. “I’ll go get them, Exec. If the crew is all dead, you don’t need me covering you.”

  Kelly pulled himself all the way in. Chief Miller followed. Once they were both inside, Chief Miller turned on the portable light. The rear of the compartment where the plasma bursts hit was blackened and melted. The front of the compartment was relatively unharmed. Kelly activated his mag boots and was able to walk around. His first finding was that the ship’s log was intact. Kelly pulled the log file and put it in the pouch on his belt, then continued his search.

  “Hey LT, I think I found something here.”

  Kelly went over to where Chief Miller was standing. Chief Blankenship pushed a pack of body bags through the blast hole and followed it in.

  “Chief B, start packaging the crew. We’ll take them out when we leave. What did you find, Chief M?”

  “There’s a case here. It has K’Rang markings on it.”

  “Let’s not open it just yet. Chief Blankenship, bring the scanner here.”

  Chief Blankenship pulled out her pocket scanner and scanned the box. “I get a mineral reading only. No explosives or hazardous materials that the scanner can pick up. I say open it. Better here than on the Vigilant. This ship is already screwed.”

  “Yeah, but we aren’t. Chief Miller, can you rig a line to that thing to open it from across the cabin?”

  “Sure LT, just give me a minute.”

  Chief Miller played out a length of line, secured the box to the bulkhead, rigged a line to the latch, and backed off.

  “You want to do the honors, sir?”

  “No, Chief, you rigged it, go ahead.”

  Chief Miller gave a tug on the line. He must have been a little nervous, because he forgot to activate his mag boots. He managed to pull himself halfway across the cabin. He sheepishly pulled himself back to where they were behind a console, activated his boots, and gave the line another yank. The lid popped open and nothing happened.

  As they walked over to check the contents, Chief Miller mumbled, “Not a word about that last thing, please.” Both Kelly and Chief Blankenship chuckled in their suits, with the mikes turned off.

  The reached the box and found the inside suffused with a red glow.

  Chief Blankenship spoke first, ”Flame stones! Hundreds of millions credits worth.”

  Flame stones were very rare and very valuable. Kelly had never heard of more than a handful in any one place in all of the Galactic Republic. Here were ten liters or more in a box.

  “Seal the box, Chief B, but first scan it to make sure there isn’t something more in there.”

  Chief Blankenship used her pocket scanner on the case, confirmed it contained only flame stones, and sealed the case shut with suit repair tape.

  “I think we have enough for now. We’ll seal up the blast holes so nothing floats out on the trip back. Let’s get the bodies and jewels over to the Vigilant. We have another ship to inspect.”

  They took time to have some lunch, before they suited back up and went out to the K’Rang ship. The three made the short leap to the remains of the K’Rang crew compartment, and used their mag boots to walk to where the engines had been cut away. They reached the open end of the crew compartment and flipped around to the interior. Chief B had her pistol ready as she came around.

  Chief Blankenship put her pistol away immediately upon seeing the inside of the crew compartment. The explosive decompression literally tore the bodies of the K’Rang apart. It looked like a particularly gruesome way to go.

  Chief Miller set the light up, then they split up to search the compartment. Kelly looked at the control panel and tried to make sense of it. The K’Rang were feline bipeds without opposable thumbs, and he couldn’t figure out how the controls worked. There was a trackball in the middle of the control panel. Above that were three buttons, one red, one green, and one blue. Below the trackball was a slot about big enough to fit his hand minus the thumb. He didn’t know what anything did.

  Chief Miller called him over to the port side. “What do you think of this, LT?”

  He pointed at a large rack mounted device that was affixed to the port bulkhead. It had several dials and what appeared to be a monitor screen. With no power, it wouldn’t be possible to figure out what it was.

  Chief Blankenship made the big discovery. She called the two of them over to the starboard side of the cabin. She had searched one of the bodies and found a small data storage device of decidedly human design. Kelly took it and placed it in his belt pouch. They went back to their areas and continued searching. Kelly looked at the control panel some more and discovered a lever under the hand-sized slot he had seen before. He flipped the lever from left to right and a cassette popped out of the slot. Kelly supposed that he was holding the flight log in his hand. He put it in his pouch and also took a picture of the slot, so the engineers would know where it came from.

  The bodies of the crew were almost unrecognizable, but they gathered what parts they could find and placed them in body bags. They tied the bags together and prepared to drag them across to the Vigilant. Kelly made one more turn around the cabin and joined the two chiefs at the open end of the cabin. Chief Miller took the light down and made ready to move across to the Vigilant.

  Kelly was getting ready to swing around to the outside of the ship when he saw something in a bundle of twisted wiring. He shone his flashlight at the object and saw it was a hand and part of an arm. He reached up to untangle it and to place it in the nearest body bag. He looked closely and saw a ring on one of the fingers. He looked closely at the ring and saw that it had a planet with three moons. Two were on the same orbit and the third was on a separate orbit. He took a picture of the hand with the ring an
d placed it in a body bag.

  He sent Chief B across with the other end of the line. Once she was anchored to the Vigilant, she pulled the body bags across. Kelly and Chief Miller kept the body bags from tangling or tearing on the wreckage. After the bags were stowed in the airlock, Chief Miller and Kelly leapt across.

  LCDR Timmons was waiting for them as they came out of the airlock. Kelly pulled off his helmet and heard, “What did you find, Exec?”

  Kelly pulled the GR data storage device and the K’Rang cassette out of his belt pouch. He handed over his camera and said, “That data device is human. The other thing is probably the K’Rang ship’s flight log. It came out of a slot in the middle of the control panel. Chief B found the GR data device in the pocket of one of the K’Rang bodies, or what was left of one. I think we should have Chief Miller double check all our seals. Explosive decompression is messy.”

  “Get changed. We’ll send Chief Watson and a couple of others to seal the plasma holes in the shuttle and the end of the crew compartment. The bodies go in the cargo compartment. The jewels, the ship’s log, and the data device all go into one of the locking storage bins in Engineering. I need to get us back to Antares. I’ve probably got a lot of explaining to do to the admiral.”

  Chief Watson and two engineering crewman made short work of closing off the holes in the shuttle and the gaping hole in the back of the K’Rang ship’s crew compartment. After some discussion, the captain decided not to take the rear half of the K’Rang ship back. The self-destruct sequence had been started and there was no guarantee that stray voltage or radiation might not set it off. The shuttle and the K’Rang ship were mag locked to the hull. The Vigilant moved a safe distance from the K’Rang ship’s engine section, and the gunnery section made short work of it. In seconds there were no pieces larger than a man’s hand.

  The shields were extended around all three hulls and the Vigilant started the long trip back to Antares. Kelly and the captain spent much of the return voyage working on the patrol report. The admiral would want a full report with emphasis on the justification for firing on the K’Rang ship. The captain had no qualms. He knew he had done the right thing.