“I see you have been promoted,” she barely got the words out.
“Yes and so have you so it seems, it was not something I wanted but I thought it must be down to you two,” motioning to Freeman sitting over by the cold water vend. “Anyway I guess it’s just the Admiral’s way of giving me a going away present, before I get my sorry ass flamed.”
Freeman beckoned them both over and they returned to the table with just cold water from the nearby machine.
“I am glad we’ve seen you before you launch tomorrow, I wanted to congratulate you on the promotion. I knew you were being made up though the First Class is a bit of a surprise and also good luck you will need it.”
“Same here,” said Kyle, “I do actually wish you were coming too and am a bit confused that you are not.”
“Thanks,” said Freeman, “We’ve got a part to play but the Admiral is keeping us a bit in the dark for now, so I cannot tell you anymore.”
“Well good luck yourselves and I hope we can all get back together in a few days’ time to discuss our heroic tales.”
After that Kyle drained his water, stood up and saluted, Freeman stood to return it but Esther was still smarting from Kyle’s elevation and she just said, “yes see you Getaway.”
“Good Luck to you as well!” What a bitch thought Kyle, how could I ever have been attracted to her.
It was a disturbed night for most of the crew of Seeker of Moons and at 04:00 ship time Kyle gave up trying to sleep, he collected a double strength Kaffoo from the autovend by the hangar and saw his ship inside, which being his first and probable only command looked beautiful to him. The matt black exterior was at odds with the bright lights of the hangar but the shape was like a thin bullet with little humps here and there.
The entry ramps were both down, the rear one was where supplies and munitions had been loaded, whilst the front one was used for personnel access. He turned to the right at the top of the front ramp and walked onto the bridge, this was tiny in comparison to The Seven Moons of Septimus with just five seats, pilot and assistant at the front, then at the rear comms and navigation. That left the commander’s chair which was raised in the centre so that everyone and everything was visible.
It took him a while to pull himself away from his new domain but he wanted to satisfy himself all was ready.
Turning back out of the bridge he passed the commanders cabin on the one side, then the weapons suite on the other side.
Next going towards the stern, came what served for the mess and galley, which consisted of three square tables and associated chairs with a bank of autovends for food and drinks. The opposite side was the bridge crew accommodation with a number of doors plated with the names of those who would be occupying them.
Still strolling aft in the glow of the green emergency lighting it was the medical bay situated on both sides of the central corridor, operating theatre to the left and recovery rooms and surgery to the right.
Further down the corridor was the lift to the lower floor, where centrally was the engine room with its refreshed reactor and the solitary hangar containing the two shuttles and a dozen escape pods. Kyle also understood that the arsenal was there too, holding projectiles and some ground assault heavy weapons, along with the ships stores but he would explore there later.
Walking past the lift he came to another batch of cabins allocated to the engine room staff. Opposite that area was a multi- purpose training room and gym.
Further towards the stern was a crew recreation area and a very large dormitory, which Kyle assumed was for those they rescued……………if only, he thought.
Turning and heading for the lift, he had a feeling, which turned out to be absolutely right. There bending over one of the various control consoles in the engine room was Bambi and just seeing her in her green fatigues made him smile.
“Hi Bambs, I thought I would find you here and it’s good to see you even with a greasy face.”
“Thanks for coming to my humble workplace Sir, oh and it’s good to see you too.”
“How is it looking, is there any chance we can lift off this afternoon?”
“You had better believe it Getaway, the reactor was working anyway but the fleet engineers have installed a modified cruiser energy accelerator and it should really motor. I’ve run ground tests and all systems are GO.”
“You have done a great job to pull this all together. By the way have you met your team yet?”
“I certainly have and we have carried out some simulations to model shutdowns, emergency re-starts, power transfers and we are getting there. Ivan needs a little work because of his background but he will make it and Barbara had some power systems experience before she got into body repairs so is almost on the money now.”
“Just keep up the good work Engineer. I’ve got about an hour before I take command and things get corporate, can you spare me ten minutes now while I am still Getaway?”
Bambi grinned and still looked angelic, even with streaks of blue ultra, high temperature grease across her face.
Kyle had been studying the room’s layout and spotted a large decontamination shower in the corner. Taking Bambi by the hand they walked and then they ran and then made a race of ripping off their fatigues and underwear before jumping under the warm water. Kyle thought he would remember those ten or so minutes in the shower forever.
It was difficult for them to leave each other knowing that this parting would have to be their last private time together, until their mission was over but one long last hug and they went back to their respective roles.
Kyle carried on his inspection of the hangar and store areas and was sure that he could keep a mental image of what function was where. In 48 hours a pirate pursuit craft had been transformed into a mini destroyer, with impressive fire power but was it all superficial? Only time would tell.
Back on the bridge Kyle was sitting in the command chair, reading the various systems manuals and trying to optimise the tasks against the people available. Most tasks were covered within the allotted roles but the main shortfall was gunnery. Buzz as weapons officer had the central photon canon and missile delivery systems to control, he was going to ask Boots to take the new port canon and Shiner the starboard canon. That left the aft tail canon to man and Lt Kang’s name was down for that. All the systems were based in the weapons control room and each firing position was interchangeable and transferable, so in the worst case possible all four canons could be fired from just one position, Kyle hoped that it would not come to that.
He did his final round prior to the Admiral coming on board and everybody was at their station with Kang and Boots supporting, motivating and cajoling where necessary.
The due time arrived and the Admiral's entourage came on board to be greeted by the assembled crew, who had been coached by Lt. Kang on how to behave as a military crew should.
In return Admiral Ng complimented the assembled crew on the work they had achieved so far, thanked them for agreeing to put their lives on the line and assured them that if successful they would certainly be welcomed home as heroes. He said that he regretted that he could not immediately support them directly but he would do what he could without compromising the Berengian Government. Lastly, he said that if captured their psychological reprogramming would kick in and support the notion that they were bounty hunters out to get the reward for rescuing the prince. He bid the crew dismiss and then took Kyle aside.
“Lieutenant Cassidy, Kyle, I deeply regret sending you and your crew into this danger. Depending on what you find there will impact throughout the settled universe. I want to remind you that I chose you because you are resourceful, understand risk, can lead people and come highly recommended. At this moment there is nobody I would rather have on this mission. Enough now you must go.” Ng shook Kyle by the shoulders stepped back, saluted and disappeared through the forward hatch with his staff officers trailing in his wake.
A dark cloud began developing in Kyle’s mind, there was no go
ing back now.
Chapter 8
Seeker of Moons - The Avenger
“We have received permission to Lift,” Speedy announced through her comms headset.
“Let’s fly, take her out Speedy.”
The hum of the anti-gravity motor was replaced by a deeper rumble as the main reactor powered up and cautiously the Seeker of Moons edged out across the hangar deck and into the void. The course had been pre-entered and dipping to the left the small warship headed back towards the cloud gate. The two pilots were busy at this stage monitoring the crafts performance and everything seemed to be going according to plan.
Back through the cloud gate there was the usual turbulence but it was to a lesser degree than coming from the other direction and then they passed through to the other side of space into the frontier of this little known sector of the universe.
Kyle asked for ‘ops’ reports from all the ships principals and with every system green he confirmed to the navigator to maintain the ship’s heading.
This captaincy game is just too easy he thought, something is bound to go wrong, but so far so good. Everyone went about their jobs and seemed to be getting the hang of their roles quite quickly so it was now time to move to the next level. Each unit officer had to train a deputy on their equipment. Each weapons operator had to run through firstly their virtual targeting training and then when each had gained the required hit rate they moved on to live firing against target drones. This last exercise was the hardest to master but one by one the 4 operators were confident in their roles. Mess breaks had been co-ordinated by Boots who also imposed a combat training session to get newcomers used to their armour and arms.
The route they were taking back to Chamtofi was a long corkscrew of a flight, designed to throw off possible interception on the direct routes but it meant that the journey would last a minimum of 4 days, vital for the crew to come to terms with the capabilities of their craft and themselves.
It was mid-day on the second day when Kyle got his first surprise. It was a hail from a small transport craft miles from the normal shipping lanes and naturally this was regarded as suspicious. He turned to Kang, “Better order General Quarters to be on the safe side.”
“It’s OK Lieutenant, they’re with us.”
“What do you mean they’re with us?” He was livid that something had been kept from him.
“The Admiral has managed to get some help after all but I could not tell you before because I didn’t know myself, the message only came through five minutes ago and I have been double checking that it was genuine.”
“If that is the case spill, now!” Kyle was not sure whether to believe this recent development.
“Yes Lieutenant, I would be as upset as you but I think we should get the unit heads together quickly to save time.”
“OK, Speedy, engines to stasis and Kang round the others up. Meet me in the mess in five minutes, get going.”
The section heads, Boots, Bambi, Speedy and Kang hurried to the mess, no time for drinks it was straight down to business.
“Mr Kang would you like to enlighten us about our visitors?” asked Kyle pointedly.
“The Admiral told you that he had been looking at all avenues for help and this has come right of the blue. We are about to be joined by a platoon of Lillindians marines for this venture. For those of you who have not heard of Lillindia, it is a free world in the southern star sector beyond the Delphine cloud gate.”
Boots interrupted, “Ain’t those guys’ midgets?”
“It would be a good idea if you didn’t use the word midget and certainly not in front of them, I would be obliged if you would pass the word down the line on that …… before they come aboard. Like all the other inhabited planets from the time of the great exodus, Lillindia was settled by a cross-section of humanity. Being beyond the cloud gate of controlled space the people choosing that planet were forming a community of vegans to live life on their own terms. All was going well and they reproduced through generations but there is something in the environment that restricts growth and gradually each generation grew smaller than the last. Some of the people left when they realized this but many stayed on as the climate and crop production is outstanding. The growth phenomenon has now stabilized and as you will shortly see, no pun intended, how the residents of Lillindia have turned out.”
“It doesn’t fill me with hope that they will be able to help they don’t sound much use in a fight,” said Bambi.
“Yes, well let me dispel that myth for you now, like many small people and creatures they are ferociously aggressive, especially by Vegan standards. They are heroically, no foolishly brave and that is what gets them into trouble as they fight first and think later. They are an extremely proud people and we must take care not to upset them, because they will pull their weight and it is up to us to match it. An example of this pride is that they don’t readily take orders from people they see as inferiors, which is why their ranking officer cannot be higher than Lieutenant Second Class or we will have a problem.”
Also possibly why I had a much accelerated promotion thought Kyle, although he did not say it.
Duly the transport pulled alongside and after securing magnetic tags to the Seeker of Moons the other ship extended an air bridge between the two crafts air-locks and the transfer of the troops began. Once the newcomers were all in the air-lock the transport disengaged and after the minimum of pleasantries between the two pilots it headed west, it seemed that they were keen to depart.
In order to indeed show that the Seeker of Moons crew respected their new comrades, Kyle had all the crew except for the Pilots and Shiner turn out on parade to welcome them.
It was Kyle who stood ahead of his crew and saluted when he saw the double line of 3 feet tall marines’ march towards him. They wore brown on brown military battledress, carried their weapons over their shoulders and had rucksacks on their backs. At the head was a dapper officer in his dress cap and Kyle spotted the Lieutenant’s insignia on his shoulder. Mutual salutes were exchanged and the newcomers welcomed. As the tiny troops marched off to the rear dormitory, he could not resist looking at the astounded faces of his own crew. Glancing back at the Lillindians he noticed that they were largely male, but there was something about their bearing that made him think that these really were soldiers and before long they would be worth their weight in gold.
The Lillindians no sooner started settling in, than the section commanders had them practising fire arm drills and running circuits. Their Leader, a Lieutenant Winkler, came to Kyle and asked for his orders, which off the top of his head he gave as, prepare for a ground assault on the fortified compound and to liase with Shiner for the latest situation reports and intel for the landing zone on Chamtofi.
Despite the difference in size between the crew and the troops there was some socialization in the mess and during the combined training exercises. The Lillindians loved the shared unarmed combat classes where they excelled at flooring their much larger allies and there seemed to be an internal competition amongst the newcomers on which one of them was the quickest at disarming their hosts.
It was all going too well…………and so it proved. Two days from Chamtofi, passing through the Treversal asteroid belt, Shiner picked up an old fashioned radio broadcast.
“Help, is there anybody out there? This is planet Edenfall please help! Please help, we are being attacked! They’re killing us …..they….” Then there was silence and the feint message stopped altogether.
Kyle quickly called a meeting of the section heads and included Lt Winkler and Doctor Hussein.
“Lady and Gentlemen, we have a great dilemma, there seems to be some sort of human crisis on Edenfall the largest of the asteroids and we either deviate to help or continue with the mission. I would like opinions from all of you but first, Shiner give us whatever you’ve got.”
“We’ve got the broadcast and I’ve also picked up a ship to ship contact between two Walendian pirate craft confirming la
nding zones, so it’s pretty clear they are at the heart of this. I’ve run three deep scans on the asteroid and its atmosphere and picked up a total of 4 pirate craft on the surface or in the air.
I’ve also done a little research on Edenfall and it’s a relatively small settlement, based on a philosophy of universal peace. The inhabitants shun contact with the outside world and will not have any arms on the planet, with the exception of the odd rat rifle, so they are defenceless. There are no major towns and the citizens live on farms or small settlements, if you were a raider these people would be ideal for plundering.”
“I’ll take your views now, do we try to help and prejudice the mission, or do we press on to Chamtofi?” he asked those assembled.
It was a hundred per cent in favour of intervention from the group and plans were made to get involved. There was slight confrontation between Kyle and Speedy over his plan for Ossie to fly the shuttle down to the surface, but Speedy put up a reasoned argument about her flying skills, she being more suited to this task.
The plan was to take 20 of the Marines under Lt. Winkler with Kyle, Boots, Shiner, Ploughman and Sunshine, as well as the argumentative Speedy.
The group boarded the modified shuttle, which now had more armour and its own 180 degree photon canon. It was a squeeze with those in armour taking more space and the Lillindians having to sit two on a seat but they didn’t mind, it was action and that’s what they lived for.
Seeker of Moons jettisoned the shuttle through the air-lock door, Speedy applied more engine power until the craft reached a point where it was pulling rapidly away from the mother ship. The little craft, which Speedy had named ‘Turbo’, though Shiner felt ‘Turbulence’ would have been a closer match to her flying style, arrowed towards the asteroid. Simultaneously Seeker of Moons increased power and veered on a course to run parallel with the other larger asteroids in the belt, to keep her presence secret just a little bit longer.
Kyle had left the co-pilots seat to Sunshine, whose navigation skills and limited flying experience would be more valuable than his own. He would think about a plan for when they hit the ground.
Seeker of Moons (Cassidy's Command Book 1) Page 13