Kelly Blake 3: Where the Stars Are Few and Far Between

by Rodney Smith

  “You should invite yourself over or I can arrange it for you. Mom would love to see you. Hey, did you know Edgar is a Captain now and Admiral Minacci’s Executive Officer? I ran into him and Janey on the street. Their little boy is so cute.”

  “It would be nice to visit your folks, but I’m kind of busy clearing actions out before my orders come through. I’ll pay my respects before I leave though. I look forward to seeing Timmons again. Have you heard from Angie?”

  Angie Shappelle was the third member of the terrible trio of Kelly’s girlfriends. He had been her wingman before he got booted from Fighter Force. She had always been strictly professional when they were Lead and Wing, but got quite friendly after Kelly left Fighter Force. He’d seen her name come up on a pre-release copy of the Lieutenant Colonel promotions list, but had lost contact with her over the last six months. He assumed she was deployed, but was too busy to check into it. Candy, Angie, and Tammy had all become fast friends and delighted in ganging up on Kelly before his transfer to Geneva.

  His own promotion was approaching. He was on the Commanders list, but his promotion was at least a couple of weeks away. There had been a rumor that Admiral Craddock wanted to promote him before he left for Antares Base, but it was just a rumor.

  Kelly’s eyes were drooping; he had been up since 0400 and it was approaching midnight. He politely told Candy to go away and he would call her later in the week.

  She said, “Okay, you must be beat, poor baby. Here, I got something to give you incentive to get here sooner.”

  Standing up, she stepped back from the video pick up and let her towel drop to the floor. The view was spectacular.

  Kelly reluctantly closed the link, undressed and threw himself on his bed. It took him a while to get to sleep.

  * * * * *

  The deliberations of the elders were the highest secret on G’Durin. Only Chief Secretary to the Elders, Baron N’Gana, and one scribe were ever allowed in their presence while they discussed the future of the Empire. Today’s agenda item was Operation J’Tan.

  The senior Elder led off the discussion. “Fellow Elders, we have received the success code. The Human protectors of their Eridanus sector have been vanquished. It is time to release the Armada.”

  The junior Elder said, “I am still uncertain of our goals and objectives in this operation. Tell me again how attacking the Humans, who have superior forces to ours, the ability to transfer and mass their forces over great distances almost instantaneously using these rings of theirs, and have an industrial capability that could bury us in new ships and armaments, will benefit us?”

  The middle Elder answered, “Calm yourself, Elder, our plan takes advantage of the Human quality of concern for their fellow Humans. We will capture four of their worlds with their populations unharmed. While we hold these 5 billion Humans, they will not dare attempt to retake this sector. Once our Armada occupies the sector, it will not be possible for them to take it back. We will let them attempt counterattacks until they realize they cannot eject us. When they are convinced our occupation is a permanent situation, we will open negotiations from a position of strength and trade their four worlds for eight uninhabited systems in their Taurus sector that are in a salient into our space. We give them something they want. We get something we want.”

  “Of course, all this supposes the humans will react the way we want them to, said the junior Elder. “I am reminded of something an old wise man once said, ‘Hope is not a course of action’.”

  * * * * *

  Recently promoted Lieutenant Commander Tammy Nielsen flew her last shuttle flight up to Antares Station. Although she was no longer technically in the flight detachment, she was allowed to sit in the pilot’s seat and take what had been her S-660, The City of San Francisco, up one last time. She made a picture perfect take off and a bumpless docking at the station. Her crew and fellow officers stood as side boys and piped her off after the passengers had disembarked. It was an emotional farewell, as Tammy was liked and respected by her crew and the other officers.

  Transport duty had become too dull, especially now that the transporter rings were almost fully deployed and mini-gates were being designed for some capital ships. Tammy had made the tough decision to transfer from transport service to the new long-range heavy attack ships.

  With the rings deployed to almost all frontier sectors, a squadron of attack ships launched from Glenn could be anywhere in GR space in hours, if not minutes. She said a final goodbye to her crewmates and went to find the shuttle going to Glenn.

  After an hour-long flight, the shuttle arrived at Glenn. A sign in the worn terminal, desperately in need of repainting, directed her to the ground transport for the transition school. A civilian driver took her bags and loaded them on a hover transporter and she climbed aboard. After four other officers climbed aboard, the civilian drove them to the school.

  Mendez Field was an old mothballed fighter transition base that had been reactivated and converted to the mission of transitioning pilots to fly the A-100 long-range heavy attack ships and the A-120 long-range medium attack ships. The A-100's and A-120's were planet-based attack craft, capable of carrying any fighter or attack ship weapons, plus weapons specially designed just for them. The A-100 was the larger, with the bigger payload, designed to fly in, find the target, destroy it, and fly off to destroy the next target. The A-100 would survive by its stealth coating and resilient structure, as long as it did not carry external weapons. The A-120 was meant for situations where a more maneuverable fighter-like ship was required. Its survival depended upon speed and maneuverability.

  Tammy reported in, was assigned quarters, and received her flight and survival equipment. Tomorrow she would learn how to put it all together. She got her flight gear packed into her kit bag and ready, then checked her messages. There was a message from Candy, saying how much she was going to miss her. Tammy would miss her, too. Candy and Angie Shappelle were her best friends. Perhaps she could visit next time she was eligible for leave.

  The next message was from her best male friend, Kelly Blake. She had met him just as he was joining the Fleet, after having been booted out of the Fighter Force. He was fun to be around. Last year, they had spent a week skiing the Swiss Alps and staying in a quaint mountainside hotel. She had a wonderful time as they skied, dined, and enjoyed the Tyrolean Alps lifestyle.

  Kelly wished her good luck in transition school. He told her to be bold – she was flying a combat aircraft now. Fly it hard, but don’t break it, he said, and most of all, have fun. If you aren’t having fun, you’re trying too hard.

  She sent a message back, telling him she would heed his advice.

  The next morning came early and she was up before dawn. After a quick demonstration on putting her gear together, she reported to her first class on the workings of the A-100.

  Everything became a whirlwind after that. There was class first thing in the morning, followed by a short flight-training mission. Then there was a class in the afternoon, followed by another longer flight-training mission. Every third night there was a class, followed by another flight-training mission. Tammy was exhausted most days. Sleep was never difficult. By the end of a month, she could wring every ounce of performance out of an A-100.

  The A-100 was far from beautiful. In truth, it was an ugly beast. Thirty meters long, twenty meters wide, with ten-meter long winglets on each side, the A-100 faintly resembled a football with tiny wings. The crews affectionately called it the June Bug, in honor of its resemblance to a summer season beetle found in North America. The stub winglets served only as a place for forward firing guns and to hang external weapons. For stealth purposes, it mainly used the internal rotary racks that held up to twelve medium missiles. A fully loaded and definitely non-stealthy A-100 could carry 24 medium missiles, using internal and external racks. A single missile with its antimatter warhead could kill or neutralize a warship of destroyer size or smaller.

  On the day before the last training day, Tamm
y received orders to report to the 112th Heavy Attack Ship Squadron for duty as executive officer. The 112th was stationed on Leonov, and her shuttle flight left immediately after her last training flight. She missed hoisting a last one with her classmates.

  * * * * *

  Admiral Samuel Chang, the Chief of Fleet Operations, glanced out his office window at the rain coming down over City Center Geneva. He was receiving a joint briefing by the Vice Chief of Fleet Operations and the Chief of Fleet Intel on the K’Rang invasion of the Eridanus Sector. The CFO was not happy that he lost TF 121. He was not happy that four Human planets in that sector were under the K’Rang fist. Mostly, he was not happy that this came as a surprise.

  The Chief of Fleet Intel, Vice Admiral Andrea Binder, said, “Sir, the K’Rang built and assembled a large fleet of new ships on the far side of the K’Rang Empire. They did this with no indication to us that they were doing so. Their OPSEC was flawless. If it didn’t make me look like an ass, I’d admire them for it.”

  “They have a new class of enhanced cruisers, destroyers and frigates, and they have built over 200 of them combined. The numbers come out to approximately 30 cruisers, 70 destroyers, and 100 frigates. These ships were given to the Shadow Force fleets, and the Shadow Force ships they displaced went to the general fleet. The K’Rang clearly felt that this new improved and larger fleet gave them enough advantage over us to be able to take and hold the Eridanus Sector against our counterattacks. They have three Shadow Force task forces in the Eridanus sector, with a combined consist of 22 cruisers (15 of the new class), 80 destroyers (40 of the new class), and 150 frigates (60 of the new class).”

  The Vice Chief of Operations, Vice Admiral Charles Brooks took over. “Sir, we can assemble a combined fleet to take back the sector, with an attack to split them in three and defeat them in detail. The plan relies on our new disruptor cannons and our new long-range attack ships.”

  The CFO held up his hand and said, “Stop! We are not going to just take back the Eridanus sector. We are taking the war to the K’Rang. We will conduct an attack into the K’Rang Empire and force the K’Rang to pull out of the Eridanus sector to meet us in K’Rang space. I’m tired of always fighting on our turf. It’s time for them to see war visited on their worlds. You two get your staffs together and get me a plan by next Friday. Andrea, get me an appointment with Tom Craddock. There’s an idea he threw at me once that I want to talk to him about.”

  * * * * *

  Major Mary Chen, all 1.7 meters of her, had four much taller company commanders with their heels firmly locked in rigid attention. “I gave you until 1200 to get your vehicles ready for inspection, then I find two or more major deficiencies per vehicle. I conducted the inspection at 1200 because you asked me to do it early so the Marines who worked so hard on the vehicles could be released for the weekend. If that’s how you want to play this game, you can stand the inspection again on my schedule. I’ll be back here at 2400 to re-inspect the vehicles. You can explain to your Marines why they’re working late on a Friday!”

  She stomped back to the battalion HQ, making no effort to keep to herself the fact that she was pissed. Her boss, Lieutenant Colonel Frank McGuire, called her into his office.

  “What’s up, XO? I guess the inspection didn’t go all that well.”

  She took a slow, deep breath and began reading down her list of deficiencies. He stopped her after the fifth vehicle.

  “How many vehicles had deficiencies and are those typical?”

  “All of them, sir, and these are typical. I didn’t nit pick. I focused on major deficiencies that could cause casualties in combat. How are they going to do when we start combat loading these vehicles?”

  “What are you doing about it?”

  “I’m re-inspecting them at 2400. I’d like the Sergeant Major to drop by. Some of this is poor NCO leadership. He might want to weigh in.”

  “Okay, XO, this is your show. Tell the Sergeant Major I said okay. He’d do it anyway. Let me know how it comes out.”

  “Aye aye, sir.”

  Mary left the CO’s office and wondered why she ever left Special Ops.

  * * * * *

  Major Angie Shappelle, XO of the 35th Fighter Squadron, the Daredevils, popped the hatch on her F-53 and taxied into position according to her crew chief’s directions. His arms crossed and she locked the brakes and parked. As she waited for the boarding ladder, she unbuckled her harness, pulled off her helmet, and stuffed it into her helmet bag. Her tech sergeant helped her out and stayed behind. Angie moved out smartly to work out the kinks in her legs. She stopped in flight equipment to shuck out of her flight gear and her survival vest, and walked to the squadron HQ, as she had been directed on approach.

  She knocked on the squadron commander’s door and was told to enter and close the door behind her.

  He pointed at a chair and said, “Sit down, Angie.”

  Angie, instantly suspicious, said, “What’s up, sir?”

  “So many times in this job I have to give people bad news, this is one time I get to tell someone some good news.”

  “What is it, sir?”

  “Angie, you’ll get the official notification tomorrow and the General will want to see you later, but he’s authorized me to inform you that you've been selected below the zone for Lieutenant Colonel. In addition, you have been selected for the command list. You’ll be promoted in three months and the next F-53 squadron that comes open is yours. That will probably be the 68th when Joe Banks leaves for the Fleet War College. By June, you’ll be in command. Congratulations!”

  Angie sat stunned as the CO came around his desk to shake her hand. She couldn’t believe it, promotion, command – and of the Fighting 68th. She wondered if they still had that ugly red hat.

  * * * * *

  Major Mary Chen’s 2400 hours inspection went much better than her earlier inspection. She had the company commanders’ attention now. She found a large number of vehicles with no major or minor deficiencies. She was happy. The Marines weren’t. She called them all together after her inspection and addressed them.

  “Listen up! A number of you are wondering why this was necessary. Why are you standing in the motor pool, instead of at home with your family or at a bar with a likely hook-up? Well, you don’t get any chance to do things over in combat. You have to be ready to go at any time. This unit was not ready at 1200. It is closer to ready now at 0100, but we still have a way to go. We’ll get there. Company commanders, take charge of your companies.”

  The sergeant major had shown up, but stood aside and let her do her thing. He came up to her as she was walking back to the HQ. He saluted and said, “Good morning, ma’am. That was a nice show you put on tonight. You got their attention and shouldn’t have similar problems in the future. I’ll talk to the first sergeants about NCO leadership at my noon meeting on Monday. I agree there’s a problem there. You took care of the commanders and other officers. I’ll take care of the NCOs.”

  “Thank you, Sergeant Major, it went much easier with you looking on.”

  The sergeant major stopped, causing Mary to stop. “Ma’am, you didn’t need me there. You had their undivided attention because you and your standards were between them and being anywhere else. Now they know you ain’t bullshittin’ when you tell them what you expect of them. They know you will take your own time and theirs to make them better.”

  “One other thing you need to know, ma’am. I knew your old man. I was in his unit when he won that Medal of Honor. In fact, I’m one of the marines he died saving. Ma’am, your father would be damned proud of you.”

  “Thank you, Sergeant Major, that means a lot.”

  “My pleasure, ma’am, you have a good morning, what’s left of it.” He saluted and left her.

  Major Mary Chen was tired, but 1st Battalion, 22nd Marines (Heavy) were better than they had been at 1200.

  Chapter Two

  Admiral Tom Craddock, Director of the Republic Intelligence Agency, met Admiral Chang
in the anteroom and escorted him into his office. They were two old friends at the pinnacle of their careers – confident and no-nonsense.

  “Come in and sit down, Sam. Do you want some coffee? How are Maggie and the kids? I don’t think we’ve seen them since we were in the 4th Fleet together.”

  “Mary is married now and has two kids. Chuck is still single and serving as gunnery officer on the Reliant under Bill Reynolds. How is your girl? Any grandkids yet?”

  “No, no grandkids yet. She’s senior civilian JAG at Antares Base. There’s a guy that she’s sweet on, but no ring yet.”

  Admiral Chang set his coffee cup down and got to the point.

  “Tom, what the hell happened in the Eridanus sector? How could the K’Rang have pulled one over on us like this? I lost an entire task force to a fleet we didn’t know existed, a fleet that is now picketing the boundary of the Eridanus sector. Now they have enough ships in that sector that taking it back will be bloody and too costly.”

  “Tom, I want to hurt the K’Rang for what they’ve done in the Eridanus sector. I think it’s time for that idea you pitched to me in March.”

  Tom Craddock scratched his chin and said, “Sam, we’ve wanted to make contact with the race beyond the K’Rang ever since we learned about them. We just never had the means. Now I think we have the means. What would you say to a frigate-sized ship capable of FTL power 7?”

  Admiral Chang picked up his coffee, took a sip, and said, “I’d say I’ll take a hundred.”

  “Well, I only have one and it’s not quite complete yet. I had it built for other purposes, but what you suggest is a better use of its capabilities.”

  “You say it’s not complete. What does it need?”

  “It has everything but guns and a ring. I wanted to put the new disruptor guns on her, but the Bureau of Ships has the entire production line spoken for.”