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

by Rodney Smith

  They exited the ring and powered off to do battle. The ring ship folded the ring and moved off to the recovery point. Tammy kept her section below and behind her CO’s lead section. Angie’s squadron trailed behind.

  The K’Rang fighters had yet to make an appearance, but they knew it was only a matter of time. The lead squadron was almost to their weapons release point when 36 T’Pok fighters sprang up from behind the picket line ships. Angie’s squadron accelerated from behind her to engage the fighters. This time the K’Rang had missiles. She saw the indicators for missiles firing on her situational display. Both lead squadrons flew on.

  Tammy saw countermeasure indicators on her display as the lead squadrons deployed jammers, chaff, and heat decoys. The squadrons fired their missiles and turned back toward their rendezvous point. The few K’Rang missiles that survived the countermeasures never caught up with the retreating squadrons.

  Angie’s nimble fighters did great damage to the slower, less agile T’Pok fighters. Her missiles took out three and her guns took out two. One T’Pok squadron hung back from battle. Tammy thought they must have been saving themselves for her squadron.

  Commander Tanaka announced launch point and all ships launched. The unengaged T’Pok fighter squadron came after them. Tammy dropped her rear section a little lower behind the lead section.

  Commander Tanaka was on the net. “Everyone ready, wait for it, just a little closer, okay, execute!”

  At his command, all eighteen A-100's hit their lower forward attitude jets and flipped, facing back at the advancing T’Pok. They mass-fired the missiles mounted under their winglets and fired their attitude jets again. When they faced forward again they accelerated to max speed and left the K’Rang behind to tangle with 216 medium anti-fighter missiles. Missiles were cheap, crews and ships were expensive, as Tammy’s transition training officer had told her.

  The K’Rang lost all interest in Tammy’s squadron while they attempted to evade the swarm of missiles headed right at them. They weren’t quick enough or nimble enough to evade that many missiles. All twelve T’Poks dissolved in bright orange explosions.

  The remaining missiles switched to active scanning, locked on the nearest picket ships or T’Poks, and added to the K’Rang confusion and devastation. Angie’s fighters used this opportunity to disengage and return to the ring ship. The Humans had a good day – no losses and seventeen T’Poks and a destroyer that would never bother the GR again.

  * * * * *

  Admiral Chang sat through an hour of briefings on his request for a plan for the invasion of K’Rang space. After throwing the dismayed briefers out of his office, he called in his Ops chief, plans officer, and a handful of others. They sat around a holographic projector for the rest of the day and into the night, with four yeomen taking notes in relay. After seven hours, they had the skeleton of a plan:

  Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres. (Gaul is all divided into three parts) a quote from Julius Caesar will be our guiding philosophy.

  Admiral Haddock-Halloway will lead the 1st Combined Fleet in an attack from the Pisces sector into K’Rang space, aiming at G‘Durin.

  Admiral Levi will lead the 2nd Combined Fleet in an attack from the Orion sector, also aiming at G’Durin.

  The strategic objective is to divide the K’Rang Empire into three parts.

  K’Rang planets will be bypassed. The combined fleets will destroy any FTL ships, remaining planetary defensive ships, and shipyards. Fleet ring ships will be used for long-range heavy attack ships to control and protect the lines of communication.

  Independent scout ships, not assigned to the two fleets, will patrol ahead of the fleets and do as much damage to K’Rang shipping as possible. They will take out every K’Rang communications relay and navigational beacon they can. They will also find and report on K’Rang shipyards.

  At some point, the K’Rang will abandon the Eridanus sector and pull their battle fleet back to defend the Empire. We need a force to hurry them along, but not so much that they turn and fight. I want to be able to turn both fleets and meet this force head on, so timing is critical. If we do this right, we can defeat them in detail.

  Admiral Chang booted them all out of his office and said, “Now, turn that into a plan and get it back to me in draft day after tomorrow.”

  Chapter Four

  It was a day with a clear sky and a warming sun when Kelly assumed command of the Orion for acceptance trials. Admiral Craddock officially signed for the ship for the Galactic Republic in a short ceremony in the project manager’s office. Kelly’s official assumption of command would happen at a later time.

  Kelly sat down with the yard’s general manager and went over the all-encompassing acceptance trial requirements one by one. They jointly manned the new ship from their resources of engineers and Scout Force crewmen. Kelly had Admiral Hasselrode’s authority to use however many of his personnel as were needed. The number of personnel in the 1st Scout Division had nearly doubled since the briefing in Admiral Minacci’s office, and he had almost 500 to choose from. Kelly knew Admiral Minacci was flogging the personnel system for fillers for all the positions Kelly couldn’t steal from the 1st Division. Kelly tried to hit Admiral Hasselrode only for what he needed to get the ship back to Antares Base safely, since Hasselrode had his mission, too.

  Kelly worked in a contractor-provided simulator to understand ship protocols. He brought in his helmsmen and navigators to familiarize them with the controls. He had his engineering officer and staff train on the engine simulator. The junior weapons officer had already found the weapons simulator and was running his personnel through their paces. The junior operations officer was running drills for his team in the CIC trainer. The supply officer was learning how to work the mini-ring. Everything was falling into place.

  Just after dawn on the day of the test, Kelly did an exterior walk around what would be his new ship. She was 200m long, 45m wide and 45m tall and unlike the Vigilant, more tubular than triangular. She sat on huge landing pads compared to wheeled landing gear on his last ship. It faintly resembled a larger version of the Vigilant, but he noted the glass view ports of the Vigilant were gone from this ship. The three twin-gun turrets sat amidships, arrayed around the hull approximately 120 degrees apart. The three nose guns protruded menacingly from the bow. He walked around to the stern and looked at the four engine exhaust cones that would propel the ship at below light speed. He surveyed the airlock and ramp that lowered between the bottom two cones to provide a quarterdeck, gangplank, and loading ramp for larger items. Any one of the exhaust cones would hold all three of the Vigilant’s exhaust cones. The hull’s surface was sprinkled with radomes, and assorted protrusions and bumps from the various sensor and countermeasures systems. Satisfied that the yard had done its job on the exterior, he went aboard to start preparations for the test.

  Kelly mustered the crew, then went to greet and escort Admiral Hasselrode on board, while his acting Master Chief Petty Officer scared up a bosun’s pipe and side boys for the Admiral’s arrival. Kelly met the Admiral at the bottom of the gangplank.

  The Admiral took him aside momentarily and said, “Kelly, what you will be doing is important. I noticed you were charitable by not taking all my best people, but you get what you need. I’ll be fine.”

  “Thank you, sir, but I put the word out that I needed a crew. Many officers, ratings, and some recent retirees I’ve known over the years are requesting to be assigned to Scout Force to join the Orion’s crew. I’ll have a full crew. I may send some of these back, depending on who shows up. I’m also sure that many of mine will want to ship out on a scout if they can’t go with me. I’m taking care of you, sir.”

  “Thank you for that, Kelly. Now, let’s go see what this ship of yours can do.”

  Kelly took the captain’s seat in the CIC. Admiral Hasselrode sat next to him in an adjacent seat. He had his pocket terminal with the acceptance check sheet ready for annotation. The contractor’s senior engineer sat next ov
er.

  The ship was secured and ready for space. Kelly called the tower for permission to take off. Permission granted, Kelly ordered the helm to make a standard departure and passed them a course for the local ring. They smoothly climbed into the darkness of space and lined up on the ring.

  Kelly ordered Ops to call for transport to Glenn and was told to move off 50km, as traffic was inbound. Kelly gave the necessary orders and watched as three squadrons of A-100's and a squadron of F-53's exited from the ring. Kelly had his display set on navigation, not tactical, so he did not see that his friends were flying by. The control called and said he was cleared for transport to Glenn.

  Kelly had the ship line up with the ring again. He sounded collision and ordered the helm to proceed at 0.1c. The Orion passed through the ring and appeared above the double-mooned planet Glenn. He sent a new course and speed to the helm and had them execute. The Orion left the system and then sped up to FTL power 4.

  Kelly called full stop after thirty minutes, then ordered, “Sensors, call out all targets.”

  Sensors acknowledged the order and came back with all clear. Kelly lined the Orion up on the speed course heading, passed the speed course direction and speed changes to the navigator, and ordered the helm to execute.

  The Orion moved forward at each FTL Power for five minutes before increasing sequentially up to power 7. Sensors along the course recorded true speed and relayed them to the Orion. Kelly was impressed, felling no change through the acceleration. He called over to his Ops officer to get damage reports. All sections reported back negative.

  Kelly called out, “Helm, all stop. Reverse course. Sensors, read out all targets along our reverse course.”

  Again, Sensors acknowledged the order and came back with a negative report.

  Kelly said, "Let’s do it again.”

  He ordered FTL power 5 and the ship smoothly accelerated to the speed, then to FTL Power 7 and the ship sped swiftly through the sector.

  Kelly marveled at the Orion's raw power, looked over at the admiral and the contractor’s chief engineer, and said, “I think we can mark the speed run as passed on the checklist.”

  He ran down the entire list, testing engines, maneuverability, gunnery, sensors, the galley, sickbay, and CIC functions.

  Kelly was most impressed with the disruptor cannons. The nose guns and turret guns were the same caliber. The gunnery test was on an asteroid field, and with the guns set on wide beam, several small to medium asteroids turned into clouds of dust and gas. Narrow beam drilled holes though the asteroids.

  That was enough fun for the day.

  Kelly ordered, “Set course for the nearest ring and get us back to Leonov.”

  The head contractor asked if all sections of the checklist had been satisfactory. Kelly nodded to Admiral Hasselrode and the admiral said they were and he was prepared to sign the acceptance papers.

  The manager shouted so all in the CIC could hear, “Then the drinks are on me when we get back. We’ll have a reception after the formal acceptance ceremony tomorrow, but I’m letting the child out tonight.”

  Kelly and all in the CIC laughed. The entire crew showed up at the manager’s favorite bar.

  * * * * *

  Kelly left Leonov two days later to deliver the Orion to Antares Base for his formal assumption of command. He appointed the junior Ops officer as Officer of the Deck, and ordered Lieutenant Handel to make a max speed run for Armstrong without using the rings. It should only take a day at FTL power 7. He sent a message to the Admiral that he would be making a speed run to test the engines over distance and would arrive 12 hours late.

  Orion was huge compared to the old Vigilant. It had three decks: The upper deck held the bridge CIC, admin section, officer’s quarters, and wardroom. The main deck had chiefs’ quarters, wardroom, galley, junior enlisted quarters, and weapons. The lower deck had engineering, additional weapons, and supply. This was where the ring lived.

  Kelly dropped down ladders to the lower deck to see the ring. He found it in the middle of a central hallway. It was bigger than he thought, about double the size of a man standing. He looked closer and saw it was mounted on a rail system, so it could be moved up and down the hallway. When he looked at the sides of the hallway he saw why.

  There were spaces on each hallway wall for inserting three 25-missile pods. In combat, the supply depot would roll correctly oriented offensive or defensive missile pods up to the ring, wait for approval, and push them through. A forklift-like robotic arm would reach out from the sidewall to maneuver the pods into place and lock them in. Expended pods would be disposed of in reverse order. An identical action would take place for the other missile spaces on the opposite wall.

  Above the missile racks were bins for storing many of the consumables used during a cruise. Next forward was the main engineering space. He entered and climbed ladders until he found someone; a Machinist’s Mate Petty Officer 1st Class was adjusting a piece of machinery. Kelly walked up behind him and looked over his shoulder. He got yelled at for standing in his light. The rating nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw whom he’d just cussed out.

  Kelly patted him on the shoulder and said, “It's okay. I would have yelled at someone standing in my light, too,” and moved on.

  He found the Engineering Officer monitoring an insanely complicated engine control screen. Lieutenant Commander Jake Brown was a 14-year Fleet engineer. This was his first time in Scout Force, but Admiral Craddock brought him in because his team in the Bureau of Ships built the engines. He literally knew the engines inside and out.

  Kelly talked to him for a while and learned he lived only to design and run engines. “The Regulus engine is my brainchild, and the Orion’s four can push the Orion faster than any ship in the Fleet. I think with a bit of experimentation and some tinkering, I could get another FTL power…maybe one and a half more out of them.”

  Kelly thought to himself it would still take them weeks to get to A’Ngarii space.

  He then asked, “At the speed we’re capable of traveling, would the K’Rang even know we were there?”

  Brown replied, “At FTL power 7, the K’Rang would know we’re there, but might not be able to do anything about it. The easiest countermeasure would be to salt our path with more debris than our navigation shields could deflect. I don’t recommend maintaining a straight course for too long. Zigzagging would be good.”

  Kelly thanked him and went up a ladder to weapons and Lieutenant Stewart, junior weapons officer. He jumped up when he saw Kelly enter the compartment and Kelly motioned him to sit.

  “How’s it going, Mr. Stewart?”

  “Everything is fine, sir. Is there anything I can help you with?”

  “I want you to set up a program that will bore sight and lock the turrets to fire forward on command. I may have need for all that firepower facing front.”

  “Will do, sir.”

  Kelly walked through the galley and met Chief Samuel Baker.

  “How are you, Chief?”

  “I’m just fine, sir. Is there anything special I can get you? Coffee? Tea?”

  “I wouldn’t turn down a cup of coffee, but I’ll get it myself, if I may.”

  Fixing a cup, Kelly sat down with Chief Baker.

  “I can run engines. I can shoot weapons. I eventually figured out how to work the sensor suite on my old ship, the Vigilant, but I can’t cook at all. So, I’m not going to ever try to tell you how to do your job. I expect you, however, to provide three hots a day and mid-rats. Always have coffee and tea available. Cookies or snacks out where people can get at them would be nice, but that’s your call. Keep the crew well fed and more than half the morale problems never materialize. Do you have any questions?”

  “No, sir, I just hope you never try to tell me how to do my job.”

  They both laughed at that. Kelly shook his hand and moved on. He came to chiefs’ country and ran into half his chiefs drinking coffee.

  “Is it okay if I come in?”
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  They all jumped to their feet and Chief Quartermaster Leon pulled out a chair for him.

  He spoke for the group, “Of course, sir, it’s your ship after all. You're always an honored guest in our wardroom. What can we do for you, sir?”

  “I’m just walking around meeting people. Tell me who all of you are.”

  “I’m Roberto Leon, Senior Chief Quartermaster. I run your bridge crew. To my left is Senior Chief Cryptologic Technician, Tommy Davis. He runs your sensor suite. Next to him is Senior Chief Intelligence Specialist Joe Robinson. He runs your intel section in Operations. Would like some fresh coffee, Captain?”

  “No, I’m good. As you were, chiefs. I’ll be on my way now. I’m glad to have met all of you. I’m sure we’ll get to know each other better as we go along.”

  Kelly walked up to the bridge. Someone called, “Captain’s on the bridge,” as he entered. He looked around, saw Lieutenant Handel, and asked how things were going.

  Lieutenant Handel responded, “We’re on course for Antares Base with an Estimated Time of Arrival of six hours, sir.”

  A yeoman appeared with a message from Admiral Minacci. It approved his speed run and told him no hurry, as Admiral Craddock was delayed by one day for the ceremony.

  Kelly retired to his cabin and checked out his new digs. He thought his quarters on the Vigilant were posh, but these were sweet. It included a separate bedroom, a combined conference room/work room/sitting room/office, and a separate head with shower. He especially liked the workroom with the big table and multiple monitors. He could run the ship from here and never have to get out of his pajamas. That is, if he wore pajamas.

  Turning on the monitors, he put one on forward view, one on sensors, and one on rear view. He watched for a few minutes, then returned to CIC to learn more about his ship.