First Command

by Rodney Smith

  Kelly got an idea. “His order said stand by in orbit, but it didn’t restrict us in other ways.”

  Kelly called in LTJG Cortez and Chief Blankenship. “Connie, Chief B, program one of our long-range probes for travel to the K’Rang side of the star cluster.”

  Kelly quickly called up the K’Rang navigation chart that they captured in the Scutum sector. He picked a spot between two K’Rang main worlds. “Have it come out here.”

  Chief Blankenship took down the coordinates. Connie asked, “What do you want it to do, Captain?”

  “Have it scan the sector and report all combatants. Return it here after it completes its scan.”

  The two women said, “Aye aye, sir,” and departed to complete the task.

  In fifteen minutes, Connie stuck her head in and said the probe was ready. Kelly gave the order to launch and it was away. Kelly calculated that he should have a report just before Admiral Minacci’s arrival. That should give them something useful to talk about.

  * * * * *

  The probe left the Vigilant on a direct course for its destination, but its internal sensors adjusted its route to avoid gravity eddies and celestial bodies. It took it a quarter hour longer than Kelly’s shirtsleeve analysis determined. As it approached the edge of the star cluster, its self-protection program caused it to halt, as a K’Rang missile corvette was patrolling just within sensor range. The probe waited for it to pass, advanced into K’Rang space, and immediately sensed 33 K’Rang combatants and support ships of various class and type. With no other combatants within the sector to find, the probe retired back into the star cluster, and returned to the Vigilant, transmitting its report once out of sensor range of K’Rang space.

  Kelly whistled when he was handed the report. Minacci might get his chance for glory after all.

  * * * * *

  Fleet Commander J’Kalt impatiently paced the carpet in his command suite. The two Shadow Scouts should have reported by now. Was the pathway into the star winding, filled with dead ends? Was there a Human invasion fleet waiting that destroyed them? He was blind and could not formulate a final plan without that information.

  He thought about his options if the scouts did not report back. He could just form up his fleet and conduct a recon by fire, as suggested by the Elders, and attempt to spring any Human trap early by destroying potential hiding places they encountered. He could conduct a meeting engagement and try to overwhelm any Human force before it could do the same to him. He could establish a defensive perimeter here opposite the known exit from the star cluster.

  The recon by fire offered a possible offensive option, but failed if it ran into a larger Human force. The meeting engagement was another offensive option and worked best against an unprepared and slow to react enemy. A smaller force able to react quicker in a surprise-meeting situation has overwhelmed many a larger force. He couldn’t plan on the enemy commander being stupid, but it is a gift he would accept. The defensive option was the safest course of action. He could array his weakest ships nearest the exit and his stronger ships in depth. He could probably commandeer the planetary defense fleets to add more depth. This would be the most likely to be successful, but he always felt fortune favored the bold. He called a commander’s conference for six hours hence, whether the scouts reported or not.

  * * * * *

  Admiral Minacci called Kelly to his flagship, but not to chew him out. He wanted him to bring the raw sensor files from the probe to be analyzed by his own Intel staff. He congratulated Kelly on discovering the K’Rang fleet. He did mention that he might have overstepped his authority by forcing the surrender of the pirates.

  Kelly pointed out that in engaging the K’Rang scouts he was carrying out his priority responsibility to the fleet of counter-reconnaissance. Per Fleet doctrine, it was a scout ship’s duty to deny the enemy information on friendly forces.

  Admiral Minacci realized he was beaten and said, “How did you induce the pirates to surrender?”

  Kelly just shook his head, “I don’t know, sir. I think the realization that the K’Rang knew of their existence convinced them that surrendering to us kept them alive longer. It surprised me as much as you.”

  The admiral changed the subject. “You did take a hell of a chance, taking on those K’Rang with the Debran women on board.”

  “Couldn’t be helped, sir. It was worth more than all of our lives if the K’Rang ships got away with the knowledge of the pirate world. How are they settling in here on your flagship?”

  “We rousted some junior officers and gave them a cabin to themselves. It will do until a transport arrives to carry them home. Mr. Debran has been notified and has a transport on the way. He’s coming himself, I’m told.”

  “The pirates want to hold a surrender ceremony and sign a formal surrender document as a sovereign independent world. My lawyers tell me this is required by Galactic Republic law and lets the pirates off the hook for execution for piracy. I guess we won’t be holding mass spacings after all.”

  The admiral fixed Kelly with a steely, but bemused glare and said, “I’ll expect you, as the conqueror of whatever this world is called, to share the reviewing stand with me.”

  Kelly deflected the glare. “Barataria, sir, it’s called Barataria. I’ve gathered some other info on them while in orbit. It seems their data banks aren’t too secure. The population is about 400,000, about 300,000 members of the Brotherhood and the remainder captives. One of our terms must be to release the captives immediately. The moon is full of captured ships in various stages of cannibalization and some pirate ships being constructed. They have one called the Leviathan that is bigger than your flagship. It’s a giant clamshell looking thing with an EMP projector. It would come up behind ships and fire the EMP, disabling the ship. The clamshell opens, they use tractor beams to swallow the ship, and transport it back to the moon. It’s quite a monster.”

  “Steven Maynard has built quite an empire here, completely under the radar. Too bad it’s built on captive labor. He’s got farms, factories, mines, and mills – all the features of a second tier world. If they hadn’t gotten greedy, we’d still be wondering where the ships went.”

  The admiral changed the subject to the K’Rang fleet on the other side of the star cluster.

  “I’m glad you put that probe out there. That K’Rang fleet could have ripped us badly if they’d hit us unaware. Even knowing they’re there, there’s not much we can do about them. My tacticians put us being wiped out in five scenarios out of eight. Even adding in the pirates, it’s a close run thing with the odds only improving slightly.”

  “I’ve sent a dispatch requesting a cruiser squadron to reinforce us, but none are in close enough range to reach us in less than a week. Now if the K’Rang will just cooperate…”

  Kelly thought back to the mystery fleet that attacked the pirates and pondered on how he could enlist their aid. He wondered where Mr. Debran was.

  * * * * *

  Steven Maynard called up to speak with Admiral Minacci. “Admiral, I have a request to make of you, on a matter of legalities. Due to long mutual distrust, we don’t allow lawyers here on Barataria, except for unique circumstances. Our surrender is one of those circumstances. We have need of legal advice in regards to the surrender.”

  Admiral Minacci impatiently wanted Maynard to come to the point, “Yes, Mr. Maynard, what does this have to do with me?”

  “Admiral, we have an unarmed ship we use for courier runs that we would like to send to Aldebaran to return with our legal team, if you will allow it. It will require crew transport by our shuttle up to the moon. You may board or scan the courier ship to verify it contains no weapons or contraband. We may be forced to delay the surrender if we don’t have our legal representatives here.”

  Minacci responded, “All right, Mr. Maynard. Have your ship come up to my flagship and stand off 50 km for boarding. If we scan and detect any weapons, explosives, or anything we don’t like, we will vaporize your ship. Do you understan
d?”

  “Absolutely admiral, there will be no tricks. It’s just as I say.”

  Maynard closed the comms channel and turned to Thorson. “Thorson, pick your crew and take these dispatches to the law firm of Rondage and Jompe, in Santana City on El Nath Prime. They’ll know what to do. Return here tomorrow or the next day at the very latest.”

  Thorson rode the shuttle up to the moon and boarded his incomplete ship. When he purchased the engine and weapons upgrade they had removed the old engines and weapons, but had only replaced the engines before the surrender. He felt naked in a ship with no weapons, but the reduced weight and faster engines made him one of the fastest commercial ships in the area.

  After a thorough but, thankfully, expedited inspection, the Eclipse was on its way. During the trip, he worked on a little something the lawyers could do for him. His refund for the weapons should cover it.

  * * * * *

  Friedrich Debran departed Rigel Station for Barataria in the custom executive transport. He would stop off first to retrieve his family, and then on to the planet. He couldn’t let a habitable planet go to waste. His pilot followed the path through the star cluster provided by Admiral Minacci and rendezvoused with his flagship. He wasn’t allowed to dock with the warship, but a launch was sent over with his family on board. There were no tears of joy from his wife and daughters when they came aboard, only a request to know where were their cabins and were there fresh clothes to change into.

  Friedrich had the steward show them to their quarters. He joined the captain and had him request permission to land on Barataria. Permission was denied and Debran just kept going higher up in the chain of command until he was put in touch with Steven Maynard. Maynard told him that he was busy surrendering his planet and didn’t have time for social or revenge calls right now.

  Debran quickly laid out the outline of a financial proposition, to act as Maynard’s Galactic Republic land agent for settling the unoccupied portions of the planet. The proposition interested Steven, and he authorized Debran’s ship to land.

  * * * * *

  All the captives were released from their labors. This date would be henceforth known as Barataria’s Independence Day. Russell and Sally took the day to visit the main city park.

  Sally had made a picnic lunch for them, and they searched out a shady hillside patch to spread out their blanket.

  Sally was pensive as the two of them lay beside each other. She had been quiet during the walk to the park. Russell could tell something was bothering her.

  “Sally, what’s wrong?”

  Sally kept quiet and turned away from Russell.

  Russell pulled her over into his arms and asked again.

  She seemed to shrink away from him even as he held her tight.

  Quietly, she said, “I don’t want this to end.”

  “You don’t want what to end? The captivity?”

  “No, us, the restaurant, the time we’ve had together. It’s all going to go away. I’ve been so happy here in this intolerable situation. Of course, everything is going to change now. I’ll have to go and find a job in the Algol, Rigel, or Aldebaran system. I’m sure running a restaurant as a pirate’s captive will seem exotic, but won’t get me my own place. And you, you’ll go back to being a merchant sailor again. Everything will change.”

  Russell continued to hold her and kissed her head.

  “What will happen to us now that you…we won’t be forced to be together? You won’t continue to be happy with me, when you can have your choice of younger, prettier women.”

  Russell looked down at her and said, “You idiot! Don’t you know that I love you? I want YOU! You’re more than pretty enough and young enough for me. I couldn’t imagine living with you if you were younger. You work twice as hard as any one my age. You wear me out as it is, in the restaurant and in bed. I’ve chosen you.”

  Russell continued to hold her as tears streamed down her face. He leaned down and kissed her, tasting the saltiness of her tears.

  She looked up at him and said, “I’m sorry for being such an idiot. I never expected to find someone as wonderful as you in my life. Forgive me for being an insecure, emotional woman.”

  “You’re forgiven – now fetch me out a sandwich. I’m hungry.”

  The tears vanished and her smile returned as she laid out their feast.

  * * * * *

  The Vigilant was chosen to take the admiral and selected officers down for the surrender ceremony. Chief Blankenship and the chiefs motivated the crew to make the ship gleam. When she came for Kelly to do his inspection walk-through, she reminded him how hard the crew worked and they would appreciate him recognizing their efforts.

  Kelly conducted his walk-through inspection and was impressed when he saw the shape of his ship. The crew really exceeded his expectations. He was effusive in his compliments and issued two on-the-spot awards for exceptionally well-maintained spaces. Chief B gave him a thumbs-up when he was through.

  Kelly ordered the probe launched again to maintain a watch on the K’Rang fleet. It would hover near the spot it had observed from before and pop out every hour or two to maintain contact with the K’Rang ships. It wouldn’t do to get caught unaware, with the only scout ship parked on the planet below.

  At the appointed hour, the Admiral’s gig pulled up to the airlock and docked. Kelly met him in his dress uniform and six side boys stood for his arrival. The party consisted of the admiral, his aide, his protocol officer, the captains of two of the three assault landing carriers, and his entire JAG section. The Yellow Jacket would be sending CPT Chen and the SOC down in an AS-500 as an honor guard.

  The gig pulled away and the AS-500 pulled up beside the Vigilant. Kelly called down to the spaceport and received permission for the two ships to land. Kelly ordered the helm to make a standard approach to the spaceport, and advised the AS-500’s pilot of his intentions. The pilot responded back that he would follow them down.

  They spiraled down through the atmosphere and lined up to put down at the designated spaceport parking spaces. An obvious government functionary met them at the gangplank. He introduced himself as Roger Delvane, secretary to Mr. Maynard. His first question was if it would be possible to move their ships to another location. The ceremony would take place at the main parade field across town. If the people could see the presence of the fleet in the form of these two ships, it would do much to calm down certain reactionary elements in the Brotherhood, and raise the spirits of the former Prisoners of War.

  Kelly caught the reference to POWs. Someone in the Brotherhood knew the Galactic Republic law on non-aligned worlds. They were safe from execution by spacing as long as they could maintain this farce that they were a non-aligned world and secretly at war with the Republic. Kelly conferred with the admiral and the pilot of the AS-500, and they agreed to move to the parade grounds. Mr. Delvane had a hover ship waiting to lead them to the new location. Kelly and passengers loaded back up and held position until Mr. Delvane’s hover ship arrived to lead them across town.

  Kelly put the crew in their dress uniforms for the ceremony. They would form part of the honor guard. He would leave the sensor watch, two turret gunners, and the bridge watch onboard, in case they needed to leave in a hurry. Connie had the ship. She complained about missing the show, until Kelly pointed out that from the elevated position of the bridge, she would have a better view than he did from the reviewing stand, and an air conditioned view. It was quite warm and humid today in Lafitte City.

  CPT Chen marched her Special Operations Company out of the AS-500. They were quite impressive with their white hats, blue blouses, and red trousers with gold stripe down the leg. They were armed with the M-57 blast rifle. Kelly considered issuing his troops – at least the chiefs – with side arms, but decided their weapon was the deadly black ship behind him. He had twelve torpedo ships and two K’Rang scouts to his credit for this campaign.

  While he waited, he had Chief Miller survey the hull for damage. He did a cl
ockwise walk and Chief Miller counter-clockwise. When they each made a full circle and met at the nose, they concluded that the ship was in good condition. It would need a paint job when they got back to Antares Base, but not much else.

  Mary Chen and her sergeants positioned her Marines in accordance with a diagram Mr. Delvane provided. Her sergeants put down markers where key personnel would stand so that others would line up on them, in lines so straight you’d think they were laid with a laser. First Sergeant Don McMaster helped Chief Blankenship do the same for the Vigilant’s formation. Formations and marching were not Fleet strengths.

  Mary Chen came over to Kelly. “I’m happy for your promotion, frocking, and command selection, but I really wanted to meet you as an equal. I had plans for you and me. Why did they have to make you a Lieutenant Commander?”

  Kelly choked slightly and responded, “I had to be frocked to qualify for this command. If it’s any consolation, it was a surprise to me, too.”

  “It isn’t any consolation. Here we are again in a war zone, too. I could get really pissed at the K’Rang. They are so inconvenient.”

  Kelly’s communicator buzzed. It was Sensors, reporting that the probe just reported no change to the K’Rang fleet disposition. Kelly went to report to the admiral. Mary walked back to her marines in a less than rosy mood. First Sergeant McMaster warned those near him and they passed it back.

  * * * * *

  Friedrich Debran met with Roger Delphant in his office on board the executive transport. Mr. Debran was in an upbeat mood.

  “Roger, I don’t know if you noticed that there were two yellow suns off to starboard as we made our approach. I would bet that our friends here haven’t made a proper survey or claim on any planets or exploitable asteroid belts that might be there. Get our usual survey specialists energized and in here quickly. I want those systems surveyed and filed with the GR courts as soon as possible – as in days Roger, not weeks.”