First Command

by Rodney Smith

  This prompted some murmurs from the three Marine brigade commanders. The admiral had Kelly stand up.

  “Ladies and Gentlemen allow me to introduce LCDR Kelly Blake of the Scout Ship Vigilant. We owe him and his crew for all the information you’ve just seen and loaded on your ship’s data systems.”

  “Now that I have this information, my battle staff will be formulating my plan. I am favoring a direct assault from the entrance of the star cluster. I think my F-48s and MJ-9s can clear us a path through the mines, sensors, and torpedo ships. We bring up the plasma frigates and the A-76s to destroy all ships at the spaceport, soften up the Ascetics, and take out planetary defenses, if any. Then we land the 1st Brigade west of town and the 2nd Brigade east of town. The two of them push to link up and clear any hostiles in their path. 3rd Brigade will land its heavy units north of the Ascetic barracks and clear them off the ridgeline down into the valley, where 1st and 2nd brigades will be coming together. A platoon of the SOC will be embarked on the Vigilant to retrieve the Debran women, if the reporting officer currently on the planet’s surface locates them in time. The remainder of the SOC will assault the artificial moon to disable the space doors, trapping any ships inside. I will have plans out tomorrow first thing. Review them carefully and get your recommended changes back to me by 1200. I will issue my final order by 1800. We will attack just before local dawn day after tomorrow. Are there any questions?”

  There were no questions, so the room was called to attention as he left. CDR Milton grabbed Kelly by the elbow and escorted him to follow the admiral. He was led to a smaller briefing room deeper in flag country. CPT Chen was already there. Her smile upon seeing Kelly lit up the room. She was just as beautiful and deadly as she was before.

  “How you doing bunky, sir?” she said with a mischievous look on her face, as she vigorously shook his hand.

  This got several strange looks from the three officers around the table. Kelly saw their looks and suggested CPT Chen should explain that they had shared a cabin on the Vigilant, when she and her platoon were embarked on a mission.

  The admiral entered the room and they all came to attention until he told them to take their seats. Kelly again had taken a back row seat, but the admiral motioned him to come sit at the main table.

  Kelly moved up and CDR Wilton beamed the briefing slides onto his pocket tablet. Kelly settled back as the room lights dimmed.

  The admiral looked at him and said, “Kelly, I don’t know scout ships like you do, so don’t let me do anything stupid.”

  Kelly said, “Aye aye, sir.”

  CPT Chen presented a well thought out plan and Kelly could see no flaws in it. Provided Alistair found the Debran women, Kelly would take the Vigilant down in close proximity to their location, far enough away to not alert security forces, but not so far as to impede the platoon closing on the location and subduing the security forces. All that was missing was the women’s location. Kelly hoped Alistair was still safe.

  * * * * *

  Alistair had already checked out the security HQ. It was a guardhouse and nothing more. He observed it from across the street in an alley for an hour before sending in one of his bugs. The flying sensor, disguised to resemble a moth, flew across the street. It searched for an entrance and quickly passed through the door as it was held open to let a guard with a heavy box through. Alistair watched its progress through the facility.

  He went through room by room and found nothing but duty personnel, bunks of sleeping Ascetics, and assorted supplies. After it had mapped out the facility and seen inside every room, Alistair had the moth return to him. He held open its box a few minutes later and the moth flew in for a landing. Alistair closed the box and left the alley, heading for his next target, the Defense HQ.

  It was a good ways off so he picked up the pace, looking like a late shift worker in a hurry to get home. He favored alleys and used them whenever they were going in his direction. It was starting to get light and almost time for a report. He sat down in an alley near what looked like a vegetable garden and composed his report. He must have been too focused on it, because he suddenly realized there was a man standing in front of him.

  The man looked down at him and asked, “You aren’t planning to steal my herbs, now are ya?”

  Alistair, caught off guard, stuttered for a second or two and composed himself.

  “No, I’m not a thief. I’m on my day off and trying to get to the park downtown. I seem to be lost.”

  The man looked at him like he didn’t believe him and asked, “Why are you out so early?”

  “It’s my first day off and I wanted to get there early. I hear they have a flea market and I wanted to see if I could find uniform insignia. I collect them.”

  The man softened his stare as he listened to him. “Man, you are all messed up. The flea market is on Fifth Day. The only thing you’ll find in the park today is people flying kites.”

  Alistair stood up, looked down, and kicked the ground. “There you go. My day off is wasted. I know my boss won’t let me change days. If it wasn’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.”

  The man laughed and said, “Come with me. We were just getting ready for breakfast. You look like you could use a meal.”

  Alistair, realizing he had no local currency, tried to beg off. “I can’t afford to eat here and I never accept a gift when I can’t give one back.”

  The young man held out his hand, “I’m Russell. I work here and my woman is the chef. Breakfast is on the owner, who is probably sleeping off last night’s drinking. What he don’t know won’t hurt him.”

  Alistair went with the young man into the restaurant, not knowing how to get away without raising further suspicions than he had already.

  Inside he was introduced to Sally, the chef. She asked him where he was from.

  Alistair answered truthfully, that he was from Archimedes. This elicited a strong reaction from Sally.

  “So you’re from the lost settlement?”

  Alistair answered that he was.

  She asked, “What was it like to quickly go from the 19th Century to the 23rd?”

  He responded that it was easy for some, not so easy for others. Some embraced it. Others ran from it. Those that couldn’t make the transition were allowed to stay on Archimedes in a nineteenth century enclave, protected from the outside universe. He occasionally heard of people leaving the enclave and of others entering the enclave who could no longer cope with outside. Himself, he enjoyed the future.

  She asked him how he got here on Barataria and he changed the subject by saying that he had been invited in for breakfast, not twenty questions. Sally apologized and started heating three skillets. A handful of eggs were set next to the first. Bacon went in the second. Potatoes went into the third.

  Alistair asked if there was someplace he could wash up and was directed to the staff restroom. He closed the door behind him, pulled out his communicator, uploaded the report, and sent it. After he put away his communicator and washed his hands, he went out to the smells of glorious food cooking. It was real food, not anything processed or manufactured.

  “My, but that smells wonderful. I haven’t had real food since I left Archimedes.”

  Sally spoke up, “Well, that’s all you’ll get here. We don’t use replicators or ready-made meals. Everything is made fresh.”

  Sally moved over to a prep table, scooped out equal quantities of eggs, bacon, and potatoes onto three plates. Alistair was handed a plate and flatware and they all sat down at a small table in the kitchen. She let Alistair get his first fork full of eggs then asked, “Now who are you really? You may be from Archimedes, but you sure as hell aren’t from here. Are you from security checking up on us?”

  Alistair took a bite of bacon chewed it and asked, “What makes you think I’m not from here?”

  She looked at him like he was an idiot, pointed at her neck, and said, “First thing, you don’t have a scar on your Adams apple where they put the chip in. This
means you are either slumming or from security. Which are ya?”

  “Neither. Let me ask you something. Do you like it here living in slavery?”

  Sally exploded, “Do I like it? Do I like it? What are you, a moron? Of course I don’t like it. Who the hell would like being someone else’s property?”

  Alistair let her calm down some and said, “I’m with the cavalry. In a day or two all hell is going to break loose. This pirates’ den is going to be turned upside down.”

  She looked at him with wariness in her eyes, “What are you trying to pull?”

  “I’m not trying to pull anything. These pirates thought they were invulnerable in this star cluster. That is no longer the case. The Galactic Republic is tired of their raids and retribution is coming. You say you have a chip. Show me where.”

  Sally put down her fork and stood up. She pointed to where her Adam’s apple would be if she were a man. “See the scar?”

  Alistair pulled his hand sensor from his pocket and waved it at Sally’s throat. He did the same for Russell.

  “I don’t know what they told you, but there is no chip in your neck. I bet it hurt like hell when they poked you, too.”

  “What do you mean there is no chip? If I didn’t have a chip I couldn’t travel to the moon and I’ve been there twice.”

  “There is no chip in your neck.”

  “But I could feel it after they put it in!”

  “What you felt was probably a grain of rice or the scar from them poking you with a big damn needle.”

  Russell said, “Wave that thing at my neck again.”

  Alistair did the same for him and said, “No chip.”

  “This is what they use in some prisons to cut down on escape attempts. They’re cheaper than using real chips that prisoners sometimes cut out.”

  Sally asked him, “Okay, now that that is settled, why are you here?”

  “I’m looking for three recent captives. These are three women that are worth a lot of credits in the form of ransom.”

  Sally and Russell looked at each other and exclaimed at the same time, “That’s what that was.”

  Alistair looked at them and said, “That’s what ‘what’ was?”

  Sally started off. “We got three special orders in here a few days ago. One of the orders was for pearlfish fillets. I thought, what moron thinks we can get pearlfish here? It had to be someone new and rich or showing off. I substituted another local fish and fixed the meals. The guards were in a big hurry, so I had to drop everything and make those meals. Well, we plated and packaged the meals, but the Ascetics guards were scared they would spill them, so they took Russell along to wrangle the meals. Russell, you take it from here.”

  “They took me to this big house up on the ridgeline. This house looks like something out of Pride and Prejudice. It comes complete with liveried servants in powdered wigs and the long coats and short pants. I spoke to one of them and he told me there were three important women there.”

  Can you show me on this screen where the house is?”

  Russell looked at the hand sensor screen and pointed to the general vicinity. Alistair zoomed in until Russell was pointing at the exact house.

  Alistair finished his breakfast and thanked them for saving him a lot of useless walking. He warned them to stay away from military facilities for the next few days and wished them luck. He would look them up after this was over.

  Alistair set off to the northeast in search of the big house. He stuck to the alleyways as much as possible. While the chips were a fraud, the neck scars were not and he didn’t have one. When he left the northern outskirts of town he sat behind a tree and sent out a special report. He told the Vigilant that he had probably found the women, but he was going to verify they were there.

  * * * * *

  Captain Ben Alden arranged his ships in the formation he wanted for the initial assault on the pirate world. He led with five missile boats, followed by the two corvettes. The fighter carrier came next, followed by the medium gunboats. The armed cargo ships with their troops trailed in the rear, protected by the remaining missile boats. His four special operatives were on the fighter carrier, ready to ride in the jump seat behind the pilots.

  His plan was to go in and just tear things up. He assumed there would be additional patrols, seeing as how the scout ship had gone in and kicked over the hornet’s nest. He needed to tear up their defenses so the fighters could get his operatives down on the planet. He needed them to find the women.

  Once he had them arranged and briefed on his plan, they were ready to go. He came up on his communicator and said, “Tally Ho.” He didn’t know what it meant, but it sounded cool to say it.

  The formation accelerated slowly and entered into the star cluster. He had given instructions to the missile boats to kill the early warning sensors as the came up on them. They did their job and the first dissolved into a cloud of debris.

  One of the lead missile boats called out, “We got company – twelve ships dead ahead, coming in fast. These are probably those torpedo ships. We’ll launch on them when they come in range.”

  Ben looked ahead, but saw nothing. He saw one of the missile boats turn into a fireball.

  Another called out, “They have active mines deployed out here on the flanks. Keep your eyes open. Range on the torpedo ships in five seconds. Prepare to fire.”

  Ben saw twelve missiles streak away from the missile boats ahead of them.

  One of the missile boats reported, “Missiles away, but they have fired on us, too. I count 22 torpedoes inbound. I’m switching to guns.”

  All the missile boats switched to guns and fire bursts reached out toward the speeding torpedoes. Ben added his long-range fire to the missile boats’ gunfire.

  Success against missiles and torpedoes was measured in black clouds of smoke, failure for manned ships a short blossoming of orange flames, before the breached atmosphere dissipated in space’s vacuum. Ben counted two missiles boats taken out by torpedoes and 16 torpedoes destroyed. He saw that the two destroyed boats had ripple-fired their missiles before they were hit. Those had been good pilots. He kept up his fire and looked over to Captain Mac’s ship, whose corvette was matching fire with his. He watched the massed missiles hit the torpedo squadron and saw eight ships burst into orange flames, as their internal atmosphere fueled their demise. That left only two missile boats to sweep the path clear and four torpedo boats left in their way.

  Ben saw one of his long-range bursts take out another torpedo ship. He swung right and killed another. Captain Mac took out the other two. Ben ordered Captain Cho to launch her fighters and get the operatives on the ground before the next torpedo squadron got between the planet and his fleet.

  Ben watched the four fighters accelerate past him and streak forward to the planet. Now all they had to do was hold on long enough to recover the fighters.

  * * * * *

  The message from Alistair caused quite a stir in the 3rd ALG flag country. Kelly’s communicator buzzed during CPT Chen’s briefing. Several scowling eyes stared at Kelly until he read them the message that Alistair thought he had located the Debran women. Kelly interrupted the briefing to take over the holographic projector controls. He found the house that Alistair referred to and centered it in the hologram.

  Instantly the concept briefing became a planning meeting as the admiral started looking for the best place to land the Vigilant. In fifteen minutes, the concept had gone from a plan to an execution order. Kelly instructed LTJG Cortez to dock the Valiant to the Yellow Jacket and prepare to embark a platoon of Marines and their equipment. He instructed her to clear out the starboard stores locker and consolidate anything in it to the port storage locker.

  Just as quickly, everything came to a screeching halt when his emplaced sensors showed combat taking place in the star cluster. No one could figure out just who the pirates were fighting. Admiral Minacci ordered Kelly to get in there and figure out what was going on. Kelly ran for the admiral’s gig�
�s airlock and made a speedy trip back to the Vigilant. When he was on board and the gig was away, the Vigilant was already moving. LTJG Cortez had taken Kelly literally when he said get us moving as soon as I’m aboard. By the time Kelly sat in the command chair, they were already at FTL Power 3 and accelerating.

  In an hour, the Vigilant was in amongst the brown dwarves, parallel to the main avenue of approach. Their sensors showed the hulls of destroyed torpedo ships, spent torpedoes, and the burnt out hulls of ships Kelly had never seen before. With the exception of a squadron of torpedo ships, no other ships were within sensor range.

  Chief Johnson called to the bridge that he could identify them and he was enroute to the bridge.

  Chief Johnson pulled up his pocket tablet and showed Kelly data and images of an obsolete commercial missile boat. He said they were mostly parked in bone yards or melted down, but there were still a few used by fleets for hire.

  Chief Johnson said, “Kind of makes you wonder who would have the need and enough credits to hire a private fleet, doesn’t it sir?”

  Kelly had already made the connection. It had to be Debran working both ends against the middle. Bastard probably didn’t care about his family. He only wanted to make sure the pirates paid for their affront to him. Kelly considered him a sick individual.

  Kelly had the Vigilant held at their current position while they prepared a report for the admiral and waited for Alistair’s latest report. When Alistair’s report came in and the admiral’s report went out, Kelly made another high-speed dash across the sector.

  * * * * *

  A beat up transport ship badly in need of a paint job and TLC moved slowly into the Rigel Aldebaran sector. Its pitiful exterior did not match the interior, which was K’Rang state of the art. The K’Rang research vessel H’Gou moved toward Rigel, having been ordered to provide data on this sector. Its twin, the T’Rak, concentrated on Aldebaran.