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

by Rodney Smith

  “What does it need, Tom? How many guns?”

  “It needs three medium turret guns and three medium fixed guns. We designed her to have the same gun mount dimensions as particle beam turrets and fixed rail guns. The disruptors should be a perfect fit.”

  Admiral Chang put his coffee cup down and leaned forward. “I may be able to help you out, Tom. We have a new production line up and running and I haven’t decided what ships to change out yet. I can get you your six guns. Now, how did the K’Rang steal a march on us like they did?”

  Tom Craddock sat down close, next to Admiral Chang and said quietly, “Sam, about five years ago we rolled up almost the entire K’Rang agent network in GR space. In retribution, they did the same to us. Most agents we didn’t lose went to ground. We’ve been almost blind inside the K’Rang Empire since. They built this new capability fleet on the far side of the Empire. We had only rumors they were up to something, but we never knew what. Our analysts thought they were developing new systems to upgrade their entire fleet, not build a whole new fleet of ships.”

  Chang leaned back and crossed his legs. “Well, what’s done is done. Have you got a good captain in mind for this super ship? I can send over a list.”

  Craddock waved him off and said, “No, I have just the right person in mind for this ship – if he’ll accept the job. I think he will.”

  * * * * *

  Rear Admiral Sue Thomas, Chief of Legislative Liaison, entered the main conference room and the assembled personnel came to attention. She took three steps into the room, told everyone to take seats, then walked to the front and joined Kelly in front of the Galactic Republic flag.

  “Kelly, are you ready for this?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Admiral Thomas said, “Yeoman, publish the order.”

  The Yeoman stepped up to the podium and said, “The President has reposed special trust and confidence in the patriotism, valor, fidelity, and abilities of Kelly Pierce Blake. In view of these qualities and his demonstrated potential for increased responsibility, he is therefore promoted to the rank of Commander, with date of rank of 2328.09.01(Earth), signed, Cyril Mason, Captain, Fleet Secretary.”

  Kelly removed his coat and a yeoman handed him another, with three full stripes on the sleeve.

  The admiral shook his hand, turned to the audience and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Commander Kelly Blake.”

  The room broke out into applause and everyone jumped up to be first in line to shake his hand.

  The admiral asked him to stop by her office after all the glad handing was done.

  Thirty minutes later, Kelly was escorted into Admiral Thomas’ office. She motioned him to a chair.

  “Kelly, first, Admiral Craddock sends his regrets. He wanted to be here, but the Senate had other plans for him. Second, I have your orders. You are to report to Antares Base within three weeks. See my yeoman on the way out. He’ll flash it to your pocket terminal. I want to thank you for your wonderful service here these last three years. I know this has not been a dream assignment for you, but you performed admirably. Three Defense bills with increases in our budget all three years. We’ve made up for that disastrous budget cut we took in 2324. Ships are being upgraded, other ships are coming out of mothballs. New weapons on new ships. We have the means to take back the Eridanus sector. All of this is partly a result of your presence on my staff. No, I’m not exaggerating. You have a knack for this job – and not just because of your uncle. You’ve done a great service to the Republic.”

  Kelly replied, “Thank you, ma’am. I appreciate the sentiment. It’s been a real learning experience here these last three years. I appreciate the guidance and mentorship you’ve given me. Aren’t you coming up for reassignment soon?”

  “Yes, I hope to get a fleet, but haven’t heard anything definite. There’s talk of forming a fleet or two from the mothballed ships at Glenn. I might get a full battle fleet with a Bolivar class carrier as a flagship.”

  “Well, I hope you do, ma’am. I have some things to pass to Lieutenant Commander Gold for this afternoon’s commitee hearings. I should get on that.”

  Admiral Thomas walked him to the door and shook his hand again as he left. Commander Blake received his orders and went to his office to start closing out actions. It would be another late night.

  * * * * *

  Candy Craddock sat at her desk, reviewing contract proposals. Ever since the K’Rang invasion, contract money was falling out of the sky. Antares Base was booming. Two squadrons of scout ships were brought out of mothballs and retrofited with the new disruptor guns. Practically every assault landing ship in the Fleet was being brought in for fitting with new guns and mini-rings. Logistics was simplified by providing a small transporter ring for each major combatant. Logistics today was no more than literally walking requisitions through to a supply base and pushing those supplies through the ring onto a ship.

  Candy was currently reviewing a set of proposals for retrofitting the rings on classes of large ships, frigates and above. Candy reviewed all three proposals and passed her legal review along to the contracting officer.

  Three more of these and she sent the last packet on to the contracting officer, then called it a day. She closed her office and practically sprinted to her car, fired it up, drove out the gate and headed north out of town. When she passed the high tension lines, she climbed up to 1,000 meters and hit the autopilot. Her car took her home.

  Once in her house, she stripped down and lowered herself slowly into the hot tub, feeling the day’s tensions and muscle knots fade away. Then she heard the communicator signal.

  She almost let it go, but she pulled herself out of the hot tub and trudged to the communicator, dripping water all over her floor. She moved the camera up so only her face showed and hit answer. Much to her joy, it was Kelly.

  “Hey, gorgeous, could you put a sailor up for a couple of weeks? I caught a hop and I’m here on Antares a little early. I’m worried someone from Scout Force will see me and make me report in, so I’m hiding out in Flight Ops. Can you come get me?”

  Candy shouted, “Yes, stay hidden, I’ll be right there.”

  She dried off, threw on some clothes, and made a speed run back to the base. She snuck Kelly into her car, threw his bags in, and they were off. They left the base, climbed to 1,000 meters, and started another speed run back to her mountain home.

  Turning on the auto pilot, she turned to him and asked, “Why didn’t you let me know you were coming?”

  “Transportation told me that it would be two weeks before I could get out to Antares Base using their shuttle service, or arrange my own transportation and be reimbursed. I called an old buddy, Lieutenant Commander Steve Guilford. He commands a flight detachment of Fleet logistics transport ships. He was able to get me a flight here if I could leave today. I signed out of Fleet HQ, hopped on an S-700, and here I am.”

  Candy melted into his arms and said, “I’m so glad you did. I’ve been miserable here with all my friends gone. Do you really have two weeks before you have to sign in?”

  Kelly pulled out his orders. “See right there? Report no later than 2328.09.27(Armstrong). Two weeks, even allowing for Armstrong’s eight day weeks.”

  Candy expertly landed her air car and moved Kelly’s belongings into her guest room for the remainder of his leave.

  * * * * *

  Shadow Leader G’Motta had fought off his fifth attack of the day. The Humans were up to something, but he didn’t know what. Every time they attacked, he lost a bit more capability. They never attacked in force; only single combatant ships ran at him, fired a barrage of anti-ship missiles at max range, then retreated. To keep his force supplied with defensive missiles, his supply ships were making constant trips back to their base on an uninhabited world.

  So far he had not lost a ship, but four had partial weapon losses. The cruiser and destroyer damaged during the initial battle were repaired by a mobile repair station and returned to him. He
sent two ships damaged by missiles to the repair station when they arrived. At this rate, he could hold the line indefinitely, but he knew this would not continue forever. The Humans would gather their forces and come to remove them from their territory. Even with their new ships, they could not match the Humans’ ability to mass forces quickly. G’Motta thought of how long it had taken them to bring the Shadow Armada into this sector, even at max speed.

  His musings were brought to a halt when his sensor operator reported a massed formation of what appeared to be small ships coming right at them. G’Motta ordered battle stations.

  * * * * *

  Tammy flew her A-100 at the sensor blips indicating the K’Rang picket line. Commander Mark Tanaka, her squadron commander, led the lead section of nine A-100's. She led the trail section of nine. Her mission was simple: fly at the K’Rang picket line, fire four of her ships’ medium missiles at the K’Rang flagship, apportion the rest of her section’s missiles at other ships, and return to base. After the K’Rang fired their defensive missiles, another squadron approaching from another angle would fire all their missiles at the same targets. The goal was to saturate the K’Rang defenses so some of the missiles got through. Tammy counted the blips. The flagship was the ninth ship from the right as she looked at the line, on the basis of the last recon flight.

  Tammy watched as 108 missiles left the lead section’s internal bays. They banked up and right to clear the way for Tammy’s section. As they cleared her firing line, Tammy ripple fired her 12 missiles and watched them accelerate away from her. When all ships reported missiles away, she keyed her communicator and said, “Lets go home, boys and girls.” She pulled up and left to head back to base.

  Tammy felt pretty good. She had just flown her first combat mission. It was just like training, only easier. That was a function of how hard Commander Tanaka had trained them. She accessed her rear sensor view and saw a cloud of defensive missiles reach out for her missiles. Moments later, she saw another cloud of missiles launch from the right side of the screen. 216 missiles were inbound to the K’Rang task force from the 123rd squadron. The K’Rang load of defensive missiles would not be enough to stop them all. Some of those ships were doomed, because their commander had them spread too far apart to effectively support each other. They were about to be taught a lesson.

  * * * * *

  Shadow Leader G’Motta recognized too late what the Humans were doing. He ordered his flagship to turn to bring his close in defense system to bear. Fifteen surviving missiles of the original barrage of over 200 Human missiles sped in through the cloud of defensive missiles, to be taken out by guns and close in defensive systems. Other ships’ defensive missiles took out some of the second barrage of missiles, but not enough. He notified all ships to prepare to recover escape pods.

  His close in defense system destroyed three of the missiles but the others penetrated to turn space bright as day. A dozen anti-matter warhead missiles plowed into the Shadow Cruiser V’Gol, next to him in line, totally obliterating it. G’Motta wondered what twist of fate saved his flagship from that fire. As he reviewed his fleet disposition after the attack, he saw it was fortunate that he had put the recently repaired and returned light cruiser on the port side of his formation.

  * * * * *

  Captain Edgar Timmons was called into Admiral Paolo Minacci’s office. Admiral Minacci, commander of Scout Force, wanted to know the whereabouts of one Commander Kelly Blake.

  “Sir, he signed out of Fleet Headquarters on Monday, then I lost track of him. I suspect he caught a hop and he is probably on Gagarin with his parents, or more likely, thirty-five minutes from here at Candy Craddock’s house in the mountains. His communicator isn’t on, but I can call Candy.”

  Minacci grinned and said, “No, let him have his leave. Legislative Liaison is a tough job. I once thought it was as close to combat as you can get in peacetime. He probably needs to spin down. He’ll be here when his orders told him to be – probably not a moment sooner. Next topic: when’s Admiral Hasselrode getting in? Don’t tell me you’ve lost him, too.”

  Edgar chuckled and answered, “Sir, he’ll be in tonight on the ring shuttle. I’ll pick him up and get him settled in VIP quarters. He’ll be in to see you first thing in the morning, right after your briefing.”

  “Have him get here in time for the briefing. He might as well see what he’s up against.”

  “Yes, sir, anything else, sir?”

  “Edgar, you’ve been with Scout Force a while. Did you ever imagine we’d have enough ships to form a second division?”

  “No, sir, but I also never expected us to have to mothball two squadrons four years ago. It hurt to have to put my old ship into conserved storage.”

  “Wait until you have to turn one over to a wrecking yard. That’ll bring a tear to many a salty eye.”

  “I imagine it would. When does this new ship come in, that we’re supposed to convince Kelly to take?”

  “That will be up to Kelly. It’s having its guns fitted now. Then it moves to Shepard to have a mini-ring installed. If he takes the job, he goes to Leonov to space test it before it comes here.”

  Timmons said, “Sir, don’t worry, I’ll bet my next paycheck he’ll take the ship over a desk job as a squadron commander.”

  * * * * *

  Shadow Force Commander (Baron) J’Kol reviewed his situation. He had three main task forces under his command, all with competent, able leaders, a combat force of over 250 warships and half that in new ships. There were small K’Rang occupation forces near the four inhabited worlds if maintaining order became a problem, but otherwise he would leave the population alone. He had a good picket line to provide early warning. Support facilities were on and orbiting the chosen uninhabited world, with supplies to last for over a year in sector and more on the way, when needed.

  If anything was missing, it was aircraft and aircraft carriers. He never understood the Elders’ reluctance to build and deploy aircraft carriers. They would stop a lot of the sniping the picket ships were experiencing. The V’Gol, G’Fou, and K’Nar could have been saved if he had some fighters to keep those attack ships at a distance.

  He would see if he could get Shadow Force to send him some attack ships to station at the logistics base on the uninhabited world. If he had four squadrons, he could rotate them to provide top cover to the picket line. If only he could determine from where the Humans were basing their attack ships. G’Motta told him they appeared from all directions. It must be that Human stealth coating he was briefed on.

  * * * * *

  Commander Jason Thomas, captain of the Resurgent, moved to his next set of coordinates. His ship was not the prettiest ship ever turned out by a Fleet shipyard, but she was sure useful. In twenty minutes, his ship could transform from a non-threatening, armed Fleet auxiliary ship to a fully functional transporter ring. His was the lead ship of the class of ten ships built or being built to employ mobile ring technology. Four other ships of the class were already serving with the fleet.

  He had been moving from location to location in support of heavy attack ship strikes against the K’Rang picket line. So far he got support credit for a heavy cruiser, a destroyer, and a frigate. All he had to do was make sure he opened up at least 200,000,000km from the picket ships, aligned roughly parallel to the picket line, and in the right spot. The attack ships would take it from there. They left their base in Leonov, climbed up to their local ring, entered, and came out here. When they returned from their mission, he sent them back to Leonov and folded down his ring until next mission. At their speed, the attack ships were never in flight more than three hours. Lucky bastards were probably drinking in the O club an hour after they landed.

  * * * * *

  Rear Admiral John Hasselrode reported to Admiral Minacci bright and early. Minacci saw to it that he had a cup of coffee and dragged him into the morning briefing. The briefing covered all aspects of Scout Force Intel, operations, logistics, and administration. Admiral Hasselr
ode waited to ask questions of the admin briefer.

  “What is the status of the personnel requisition for the ships at Glenn?”

  The briefer pulled up another slide and said, “Ten officers and 257 ratings are already on Glenn, assisting the contractor with removing the ships from conserved storage. The full crews for all twenty-four ships on Glenn are expected over the next three months. The transfer of the 18th Scout Force Squadron is in process. Some personnel shifts between squadrons are being made to accommodate family issues, but the whole squadron should arrive at Glenn in three weeks.”

  Admiral Hasselrode thanked the briefer and settled in for the rest of the briefing. Afterwards, he and Admiral Minacci retired to Minacci’s office.

  Admiral Minacci refreshed his coffee from the thermos on his conference table and motioned John to sit opposite him.

  “Admiral, what will be my mission in this? I can count hulls and all the squadrons here are out supporting the fleet. What will my four squadrons do?” asked Hasselrode.

  “Chang is ticked that the K’Rang pulled this stunt. He’s pushing for more than just a counterattack in the Eridanus sector. He wants to take the fight to them, capture a few K‘Rang worlds, draw their fleet into open combat, and defeat it in detail. He wants to use some of our advantages like the ring ships, disrupter guns, and something Kelly Blake is going do for us, that he just doesn’t know yet.”

  “John, it’s good to have you here. You can start getting ready for our independent mission in this campaign. I want you to train your captains to operate inside K’Rang territory. They are to perform intelligence and interdiction missions like Scout Force did in the New Alexandria campaign. The Fleet wants us to put a serious crimp in K’Rang internal trade, and identify their FTL ship construction facilities.”