Scout Force

by Rodney Smith

  Janey Willis came at him with a look of mischief. She locked lips with him.

  Kelly broke the kiss off and said, “Thanks, Janey. Didn’t you and that major in the 73rd Fighter Squadron have a thing going on?”

  “Oh, you mean Fred? That was just a shipboard romance. Once you leave the ship, they’re over. Of course, I do have some time on my hands while we are here on Armstrong.”

  Kelly looked her in the eyes, saw the mischievous look replaced by a questioning look, and decided she wasn’t kidding.

  “Janey, I’ll have to take a rain check. My dance card is filled for the moment.”

  “Oh, too bad. I was looking for someone local to bestow my favors on.”

  “If you can wait, my C.O. will be here in a bit and I can introduce you. He’s available.”

  “Is he cute?”

  “I wouldn’t call him cute, but I think he’s better looking than I am.”

  “Ooooh! Where is he? I need to meet this Adonis.”

  “When he comes in we’ll come find you.”

  Angie walked over. “What was that all about? What did Janey want?”

  “Me!”

  “Oh, she and Fred did say their goodbyes. I wondered how long it would take for her to get feisty.”

  “Obviously, not very long at all.”

  Angie broke out laughing. The night went on quite late. Kelly introduced LCDR Timmons to Captain Willis, but not without warning him first. The two of them hit it off right away. They retired to a table in the corner and got to know one another. Kelly didn’t notice when the two of them left the bar together. The barmaid deftly made her way through the boisterous crowd and returned his credit chit to him, which had been used to buy two drinks for each member of the fighting 68th that wanted one, and a few others. Kelly authorized a generous tip for the barmaid for taking care of it all for him.

  A group of lieutenants up near the bar were breaking out into some of the raunchier squadron songs. One of the female officers, it was hard to tell her rank as she had stripped out of her flight suit into her skivvies, was dancing on one of the tables. Angie grabbed him by the hand and led him through the throng and out of the bar.

  “So, Kelly, would you be so kind as to escort me to the BOQ?”

  Kelly told her he’d be honored.

  The “Q” was only a short distance from the club. It was a Fleet myth that there was a master base design specification that said the “Q” could be no further than max crawling distance for an ensign away from the club. They didn’t have to crawl, but they did arrive in short order and Kelly walked Angie to her room.

  At the door, she turned around to face him. Kelly wondered if he was about to get a handshake instead of a kiss.

  “Kelly, when I said I missed you earlier, it’s not just because of having a lousy wing man. You were fun. In a way I’m kind of glad you aren’t my wingman anymore. I could never do this if you were my wingman.” She leaned into him, cradled his head in her arms, and kissed him. It was not a friendly kiss. It was a take your breath away and leave you swaying kiss. Kelly literally rocked back on his heels when she pulled away. He caught his balance on the doorway alcove wall.

  “I’ve wanted to do that ever since that first day we met on the Bolivar. I’m glad I finally got the chance.”

  “I'm glad you got the chance, too. Now, if my heart will stop palpitating, I’d like to do it again.”

  Angie laughed, grabbed him by the collar, and pulled him into her room.

  The next morning, Kelly got up early, cleaned up, found his clothes, got dressed, and kissed Angie goodbye. She lifted her head off her pillow for his kiss then dropped back onto it sound asleep.

  He took a while longer than usual to find a shuttle. He would find out later that some lieutenants in the 68th had acquired a large number of them and programmed them for racing. The central computer would need a bit more time to reestablish communications with them and reprogram them to their original function.

  Kelly got back to the ship before the day deck watch came on. Chief Watson met him on the quarterdeck with a cup of black coffee.

  “Must have been quite a party last night, sir.”

  “That it was, Chief. I imagine it’s still going on somewhere. You know how folks are after a long deep space patrol.”

  “Yes, sir, I’ve been on a few of them myself. Tell me, sir, do you happen to know what happened to the captain?”

  “He’s not back?” Kelly started laughing. “You might want to draft up a message to Fleet to requisition a new captain, just in case. I left him in the capable hands of my former flight leader. Chief, he may not survive.”

  The chief laughed and walked off, leaving Kelly to retire to his quarters, change into his coveralls, and go get some chow. The captain didn’t make it back to the ship until midmorning. He immediately retired to his cabin and wasn’t seen again until lunchtime. Kelly and the chief kept the crew busy on quiet tasks until he resurfaced.

  Kelly and the captain went to the chow hall for lunch. The captain was still a little unsteady on his feet.

  “Exec, what was in that horrid concoction they referred to as rocket fuel?”

  “Ah yes, rocket fuel, it’s an old squadron tradition. You know that the fighting 68th traces it ancestry to an old earth squadron formed in the mid 20th century. Well, its tradition is to make a punch using alcoholic beverages associated with every major campaign the squadron has been in. There are 79 ingredients as of last count. If we ever find out what the K’Rang drink, there will be 80. Some of the ingredients are damned hard to find. Some of the ingredients are illegal now. I think you get the picture.”

  “My God, I drank two full glasses of that stuff. It’s a wonder I’m still alive. Those fighter jocks know how to party. At least I think they do. I don’t remember too much after that.”

  “How did you and Janey get along?”

  “Well enough that we’ll be seeing each other again while she’s here.”

  Kelly didn’t say anything. He just smiled.

  * * * * *

  On Saturday, Admiral Craddock called a meeting of the officers of the Vigilant and the 68th Fighter Squadron, to discuss the upcoming experiments with the Blakes’ transport system. The captain and Kelly headed over to the large briefing room in the Scout Force HQ.

  Kelly and Timmons were the first to arrive. The conference room was paneled with some exotic deep-grained local wood and had a conference table of the same wood. Plush carpet covered the floor. It was unusual in its opulence.

  Captain Hasselrode met them at the door and escorted them to their places at the main table. Kelly saw that there were also places for LTC Matthews and the senior officers of the 68th. The four flight leaders had seats in the front row of the theater seats at the back of the room.

  Kelly heard a clatter in the hallways and saw Captain Hasselrode move to meet the 68th as they entered the room. The 68th officers and their support transport pilots noisily filed into the room and into their seats. LTC Matthews and MAJ Brown sat down at their places across from Kelly. MAJ Brown beamed a broad smile at Kelly. Kelly looked over and saw Angie also smiling at him.

  The room was called to attention as Admiral Craddock and the Blakes entered the room.

  Admiral Craddock stood while the Blakes sat down and said, “Be seated, please. Good morning. I’ve brought you all together to give you some information on the experiment that you will be taking part in. The briefing you will receive is Secret and the information should not be discussed outside of secure areas.”

  Admiral Craddock paused a moment to let that sink in and then proceeded. “The great limitation of movement in space has been how much we can push beyond the speed of light. At maximum sustainable speed, a journey from the center of the Galactic Republic to the K’Rang frontier will still take up to two weeks. The experiment you are about to take part in will reduce that travel time to seconds.”

  A murmur of incredulity spread through the room.

  Admiral
Craddock continued, “Let me introduce Doctors Andrew and Moira Blake. They will brief you on their experiment.”

  The Doctors Blake stood up and moved to the front of the room. Admiral Craddock sat down. The lights dimmed and a holographic imager rose from the floor in the front of the room. An image of a large ring-like free space object appeared.

  Andrew began. “I’m not sure how many of you are aware how FTL communications work. As you may know, we have the capability to send messages from one frontier of the Galactic Republic to the other in seconds. We accomplish this feat by using a fourth dimension. This dimension exists parallel to the three physical dimensions we are used to dealing with. In simple terms, this dimension is the dimension of time. We take messages and send them from a transmitter into the dimension and receive them at a far transmitter. The transmission travel time is practically instantaneous. The speed of transmission is only limited by the time it takes to format the message for transmission and process the message into useable form at the far end.”

  “What we have been working on is a means to digitize solid matter and transmit it through this same dimension.”

  Moira said, “With electronic data, it’s simple to move it through this fourth dimension. If you garble a message, you just send it again. With solid objects, if it gets garbled in transmission, you’ve lost the entire object. If the object you are trying to move through this dimension is a living being...well, let’s just say there is no margin for error. The living being has to be sent through safely and when it arrives at the far end, it has to be more than a recreation of what went in at the transmission end. It has to be exactly the same living being that comes out at the receiver. With people, what comes out at the far end has to be the same person, with the same memories, the same knowledge, and the same personality. Whoever goes in must come out at the far end unchanged in every aspect.”

  “Ladies and gentlemen, we have accomplished just that.”

  Kelly looked around the room. All eyes were focused on his mom. She had their complete and undivided attention.

  “In our lab at Gagarin in Tau Ceti, we have transported ourselves within the lab. We’ve transported ourselves up to Tau Ceti Station. We’ve even transported ourselves in shuttles within the system. We have transported approximately 35 people with no problems. Andrew and I have personally transported over 160 times apiece.”

  Andrew said, “Your part in this experiment will be to transport yourselves and your craft from here to Tau Ceti. You should get to Tau Ceti ahead of the Bolivar Battle Group.”

  Kelly looked about the room. He could tell some people were having difficulty accepting what his folks were saying. He saw disbelief in some faces, fear in others, and enthusiasm in yet others.

  His father spoke again. “I can see mixed emotions in the crowd. We have a little demonstration to give you some idea of what we are speaking about. Admiral?”

  Admiral Craddock motioned to Captain Hasselrode in the back of the room. Hasselrode opened a side door and Kelly recognized two of his parents’ lab assistants wheeling in two seven foot diameter ring-shaped objects. One of the rings went to the right front of the room, the other to the left.

  Andrew walked over to one of the rings, Moira to the other. Andrew made some adjustments, flicked some switches and turned to the audience while Moira did similar things to the other ring.

  Andrew said, “What we have here are the transporters we built and tested in our lab. We will give you a demonstration of what we are talking about. Switch on the rings.”

  Both rings started to hum. The hum increased in frequency, sounding like a turbine engine warming up. A shimmering haze appeared inside the two rings, as if a diaphanous silver veil had been draped over them. Andrew stationed himself in front of one of the rings, Moira in front of the other. Andrew took a small ball out of his pocket, bounced it on the floor, and tossed it in the air.

  He said, “Moira, are you ready?”

  “Yes.”

  He threw the ball into the ring. MAJ Brown, sitting on the other side of the ring threw his hands up to catch the ball, but it didn’t come through. It appeared from the other ring and Kelly’s mom caught it.

  “Moira, would you send the ball back to me?”

  Moira, instead of throwing the ball, stepped into the ring, and handed it to Andrew as she stepped out the other ring. A gasp exploded from the assembled crowd.

  “What you are seeing is actual teleportation. This is not some stage magician’s trick we are doing here. Admiral Craddock, could we borrow you for a minute?”

  Admiral Craddock joined them at the ring.

  “Tom, we’d like you to walk through the ring right behind Moira. You’ll feel a slight tingle as you go through, but no harm will come to you.”

  Moira stepped through the ring, Admiral Craddock followed behind. They both appeared, one behind the other, on the other side of the room. There were no gasps this time.

  Andrew asked Kelly to come up and follow him through the rings.

  Kelly got up, walked over to his father, and followed him through the ring. He felt a slight electrical tingling, similar to a large static charge and he saw blackness, deeper than he had ever experienced before, and a chilling cold. Then he was standing on the other side of the room, looking at his mom and Admiral Craddock.

  Andrew slapped him on the shoulder, and turned back to the room. “Now, if you wish, we offer the opportunity for all of you to experience the future of travel. If you have no objections, would you line up and walk through the far ring single file. If you will just allow a second between people you will be fine.”

  To the credit of those in the room, all rose, lined up, and walked through the rings. Looks of amazement were on most of the faces as they emerged at the far end.

  Admiral Craddock said, “Thank you, Moira and Andrew. Now if everyone will return to your seats, please.”

  The officers all returned to their seats. Admiral Craddock waited for them to get settled and said, “This was just the first demonstration. We will put on a similar demonstration for the chiefs and crew. In two weeks time the ring will reach here from Tau Ceti. A number of probes will be sent through the rings to fine tune the settings and verify their safety. The Vigilant will be the first ship to make the passage to Tau Ceti and return. Then a single F-53 will make the round trip. That one will be followed by a two-ship formation flight through the rings. When they return, an entire flight will make the trip, followed by the entire squadron’s formation flight with and without the Vigilant through the ring. Provided all the tests are successful, we will recommend convening an admiralty board and determine if the system is ready for acquisition and deployment throughout GR space. We figure we can have twelve rings within the first year, twenty-four the next. We have plans for over 100 rings to connect all corners of the Republic within five years' time. Ladies and gentlemen, we thank you for your cooperation.”

  LCDR Timmons stayed behind to confer with Admiral Craddock, releasing Kelly for the rest of the day. He wasn’t on duty this weekend, so he had the rest of the day and the next two for himself. Angie had squadron on-call duty all weekend. She was not in a good mood. He arranged to see her next weekend.

  Kelly checked to see if there was any word on when Tammy would be coming in. The space-going dry dock was still four days out. It had some sort of engine problem and was coming in slower than expected. Kelly called Candy to see if she had plans for the weekend. Candy was ecstatic when he called. She was taking ownership of her air car that afternoon and invited him for its maiden flight. She told him to pack hiking clothes and walking shoes. Kelly happily accepted and arranged to meet her at her office.

  Kelly went back to the ship, packed a bag, made sure his communicator was fully charged, and left for Candy’s office. He found her on the terminal at her desk. She looked up, saw him, and grinned from ear to ear. She logged off her terminal, threw the papers on her desktop into a drawer, grabbed a large duffle from the corner, and ran out the door
, yelling, “Come on!”

  Kelly quickly followed her out to the shuttle stop outside her office. A shuttle was waiting. They climbed in and Candy programmed it to take them to the air car dealer outside the main gate. Candy regaled him with all the features her air car had. She couldn’t wait to get behind the controls and take off.

  The dealership was small. At the prices they charged, they didn’t sell enough to have a large inventory, but what was there was impressive. The dealer had all the agreements ready for her when she arrived. She quickly agreed and sealed the deal with her thumbprint and credit chit. The salesman expertly ran her through the operating procedures and checked her out in how the aircar worked. It was essentially as easy to operate as a base shuttle, albeit a hovering and flying shuttle. The aircar was equipped with full flight controls, but it had a fully automatic mode that most owners used. The computer actually flew the aircar and it wouldn’t allow an operator to do anything dangerous.

  Kelly had to admit that the air car was beautiful. It was a deep blue, almost purple. The lines were sleek and it just dripped speed. It had wheels for ground operation like a car, but four thrusters on each corner gave it the ability to fly at an altitude up to 3000 meters. The cabin was large enough for four people and it could carry luggage for all of them for a long weekend. It was roomy and comfortable.

  The salesman took Candy out for a quick flight to make sure she understood how to operate the air car. She went in a big circle around the dealership and came back. The salesman leapt out. Candy yelled at Kelly to get her bag and get in. Kelly grabbed her bag and hopped in. The bag was heavier than it looked and threw him off balance slightly.

  Candy programmed the ship, activated the flight program and they were off.

  Kelly asked, “Where are we going?”

  “I’m going to show you my mountain.”

  “Your mountain?”

  “Remember I was thinking about building a house in the mountains? Well, I found the perfect site. It’s a ledge on the side of a mountain, a small meadow with a spring and a small waterfall. It’s going to cost me some credits to put a house there, because everything will need to be flown in. I’m looking at having a house prefabricated and brought in. That way will be cheaper, because they will have minimal work to do on site. Even with the cost of a hover ship to bring it in, it's cheaper than building it all on site. It will take us a few minutes to get there and the car is on autopilot. What shall we do to pass the time?”