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

by Rodney Smith

  “After we convince them we're not the K’Rang, we start jockeying for contact with their highest authority. We don’t want to be talking to some provincial governor whose agreements will be cast aside by the big boss. Of course this all may be moot if the A’Ngarii have no central government. Then we find the biggest warlord and negotiate the best deal we can get.”

  Kelly sighed, “Thank you all. I will continue to play blind man’s bluff until we locate the A’Ngarii. Then I’ll turn it over to you, Ambassador.”

  The meeting broke up and Kelly had a slightly better feeling about the mission, but not a great feeling. He would just have to find the friendliest A’Ngari he could.

  * * * * *

  Baron N’Gana, Chief Secretary to the Elders, was called before the Council of Peers. He rushed to put on his official robes, then entered the great hall and strode to the dais at the front of the great room.

  “Members of the Council, how may I serve the Empire?”

  The Council Chairman stood, strolled up to Baron N’Gana and said, “Baron N’Gana, we wish to confer here with the Elders. We wish them to enlighten us on their strategy, goals, and expected outcome of this war with the Humans. A number of our members have lost all contact with their constituents. All contact is lost after the Human fleet overtakes one of our main worlds. We understand that our Fleet is marshaling to deal with the Humans, but that leaves us with no way to know what has happened to our worlds. Are they all dead? Are they just out of communications? What has happened to them? In many cases, our members’ families are there. We would like to have a joint session with the Elders to know what they know.”

  Baron N’Gana winced at the thought of the Elders being summoned to the Council of Peers, no matter how sweetly worded, but he would carry the message to them.

  “I will carry your request to the Elders, Mr. Chairman.”

  The chairman thanked him and dismissed him.

  * * * * *

  Tammy flew her ship out of the 1st Combined Fleet ring ship and turned onto the vector provided by the scout ship Victorious. She flew until she could see the ships on her sensor screen. Per the Victorious report, there were 12 K’Rang ships in double line formation, running from the planet in the fleet’s path. As her CO brought the squadron through, she recommended bringing in a second squadron. The K’Rang task force was heavy with new ships and could survive just one squadron attacking. Commander Tanaka agreed and called for a second squadron to assist. They used the time waiting for the second squadron to get ahead of the task force. Twenty minutes later, a second squadron came through the ring ship and lined up on a vector to come up behind the task force. Tanaka let the 112th fly in until they were well within the task force’s sensor range before launching their missiles. This brought the K’Rang’s attention and most of their defensive missiles to their front. The second squadron waited until they were well within sensor range before firing their missiles, which overwhelmed the K’Rang defenses, turning the task force into so much scrap metal. Commander Tanaka thanked the other squadron CO for the assist, then all headed for the ring ship and home.

  * * * * *

  Shadow Force Commander (Baron) G’Rof pondered over the best way to divide the forces of the Great Armada. He had over 400 ships to organize for combat against two human fleets. With the Elders’ beneficence, he would have the addition of 20 drone ships and 30 torpedo ships. The drone ship crews were being trained to attack Human carriers, and the torpedo ships were being re-equipped with the new faster torpedoes. They might give him the edge he needed to meet the Humans in open space and win.

  He desperately needed to find a way to defeat the Human carriers. He would need to attack with his entire fleet to fire enough missiles to saturate the Human carriers’ defenses. There would be more than 15,000 missiles in flight at once.

  He needed a way to match velocities of 500 ships and brake them all on the same line in space so that when they dropped below FTL speeds, they were in three stacked lines and ready to fire, a most difficult feat. It also excluded some of his older ships, whose stabilizers wouldn’t stand the strain of such a sudden drop from FTL power 3 to 0.1c. He could chance it, hoping they would survive to increase his ship strike numbers, but how would he face the families of the warriors who died, crushed inside the hulls from stabilizer failure or from sudden explosive decompression as the hulls’ integrity gave way under the strain?

  He would need to get the opinion of each ship’s chief engineer as to whether their ship would survive the stresses. The captains may be too eager for combat glory and ignore their advice. He could always organize them as a force to come in after and kill off any wounded ships or survivors.

  His plan required four high commanders: A cruiser and specialty ship commander for the top line, a destroyer commander for the middle line, a frigate/corvette commander for the bottom line, and a follow-on force commander for the remainder. He had four Shadow Leaders in mind that had the requisite experience and background to lead these ships to victory. He summoned them to his flagship.

  * * * * *

  Admiral Chang analyzed his plan, looking for weakness. If the K’Rang became organized in time and simultaneously launched every ship at their disposal, including the fleet in the Eridanus sector, against one combined fleet, they could outnumber them, defeat them, and then turn on the other. He needed a way to keep a large portion of the K’Rang occupied. So far, he had planned for the activities of the scout ships to hold forces in place, but the K’Rang didn’t seem to feel the impact of the scouts yet, two weeks into the campaign.

  Admiral Chang had approved the scout force patrol plan, keeping half the scouts home for the first month and then sending them out to replace the scouts previously on patrol. This gave time to refit and rearm before they went out again, but it meant there weren’t enough force out to affect the battle. He was about to issue an order to send all scouts out now when his communicator buzzed.

  It was Admiral Minacci. “Sir, Paolo here. I’d like your permission to change my patrol plan. I don’t see that we are having any significant impact in the K’Rang rear area. I’d like to send my second patrol contingent out to increase our presence and start doing some real damage to the K’Rang.”

  Admiral Chang answered, “Paolo, I was just getting ready to send you an order to that effect. Get your scouts in there deep where the K’Rang are marshaling their forces, and do some damage like you did during the New Alexandria campaign.”

  “Will do, sir. I’ll push my currently deployed scouts deeper to start the program and have my second layer follow them in once they get there.”

  “Thanks, Paolo. Oh, by the way, who's your spy in my HQ, telling you what I’m thinking?”

  Minacci chuckled and replied, “I can’t tell you that, sir, it would give away my advantage. Will there be anything else?”

  Chang laughed for the first time since the campaign began and said, “No, good luck and good hunting.”

  * * * * *

  Admiral Minacci hung up the call and summoned Edgar Timmons. Captain Timmons stuck his head in the door.

  “Edgar, send John a patrol order to send all his deployed scouts deep. Chang wants us to worry the K’Rang in the rear more, and tie down some of the K’Rang fleet so they can’t all hit him at once. Tell John to send out his second set of scouts now. Let’s get everybody in the game. Tell him to get in there and make some trouble. Chop him the five scouts we held here as fleet support replacements.”

  Captain Timmons went back to his desk and composed the message relaying Admiral Minacci’s intent. It was short, but he thought Admiral Hasselrode would understand. Admiral Minacci signed off and out it went to Hasselrode on Glenn.

  * * * * *

  Admiral Hasselrode was inspecting his scout division, but his chief yeoman tracked him down. He read the new order.

  “John, let loose the dogs of war. Deploy all patrolling scouts deeper into K’Rang space. Find and harass the building K’Rang fleet. Destroy a
ll commercial ships encountered. Accept five scouts from Scout Force reserve. Deploy all remaining scouts now. Good luck and good hunting. Minacci.”

  Admiral Hasselrode reread the message and turned to the scout ship captain. “Lieutenant Commander Kim, fix these minor deficiencies and prepare to deploy tomorrow.”

  With his note taker, he marched off back to his HQ, where he assembled all his squadron commanders to sort out his new order. The next day, 17 scout ships left Glenn and Antares Base to wreak havoc in the K’Rang rear. The 12 previously deployed scouts got orders to go deep and kill as many warships as possible.

  Chapter Nine

  The Virulent was the first ship to draw blood under the new orders. Having been the relay ship to forward the Voracious’ contact report, the captain knew exactly where to look. The scout ship made a high speed run for the Voracious’ patrol area to join up with them.

  They passed through the nearly empty patrol sector and flew together to the location of the last sighting. Once they located the K’Rang fleet, they split up to attack it from two different directions.

  The K’Rang fleet hung in black space like lights on a Christmas tree. Running lights provided positive locations for ships as far as the eye could see. Sensors called out known identifiers for 75 ships and established new identifiers for 63 more. Support ships moved from ship to ship throughout the formation, in a pattern making sense only to them.

  Lieutenant Commander George ordered the Virulent into the stream of support ships. No one paid any attention to another ship in the formation. He selected the biggest ships in the group and programmed two missiles for each of them. He noticed the K’Rang had been kind enough to park all the ships in lines by type to make it easier for the support ships and much easier on him.

  Lieutenant Commander George lined the Virulent up between two lines of 20 former Shadow Force cruisers now belonging to the regular force. He fired off all 20 of his missiles and ran down the length of the twin cruiser line. His gunners fired the disruptor cannons on narrow beam and large strips of hull and superstructure disappeared from the cruisers. Secondary explosions broke out behind the Virulent as it shot out the end of the line and into empty space. In all the confusion, twenty missiles bore into the next row of ten heavy cruisers, with no defensive reaction on their part.

  The Voracious fired its missiles at a line of new build destroyers, one per. The missiles flew unopposed into the destroyers – twenty lit up like suns and ceased to exist. As the Voracious departed the area, her gunners took out the engines on three support ships. One of the support ships, obviously loaded with ammunition, drifted up to two cruisers and exploded in a fireball that destroyed all three ships.

  Unknown to the Virulent and Voracious, the scout ship Volatile was targeting ships on the other side of the marshaling area. Twenty missiles leapt out of the launcher and twenty more front line destroyers ceased to exist.

  The Virulent stayed behind to maintain contact with the K’Rang force, while the Voracious and Volatile retired to the 2nd Combined Fleet’s ring ship to reload on Glenn Spacedock. It was a shame there was no way to fit a ring to a Valiant-class scout ship.

  Virulent watched as the fleet powered up and moved to avoid the damaging debris kicked out by the explosions. Three frigates were disabled as large chunks of destroyed cruisers flew into their superstructures, wiping away their sensors.

  The reduced concentration of ships moved off to a new marshaling area and Lieutenant Commander George followed them, reporting on their activity until two additional scout ships relieved him. He marked down ten heavy cruisers destroyed, three fighter defense cruisers destroyed, 17 fighter defense cruisers damaged, two frigates damaged, and one support ship destroyed as the Virulent left the area.

  * * * * *

  A similar, but smaller concentration of ships existed 20 light-years from the 1st Combined Fleet, and the Vanguard and Vindicator were poised to strike. Both captains were amazed at the K’Rang lack of security. No GR fleet would be marshaled like this without at least a screen of frigates maintaining a perimeter picket.

  The two scout ships divided the ships between them and proceeded to see how much damage they could do to this grouping of 68 ships. The group consisted mainly of frigates and corvettes, with more coming in as they watched.

  The scouts hovered around the formation like hungry wolves circling a clearing of grazing livestock. The two captains coordinated their strikes. All 20 missiles from each ship left the launchers at once and aimed at 40 preprogrammed targets: three Shadow Force destroyers and 37 regular fleet frigates.

  As the missiles struck their targets, the two scouts launched into the midst of the destruction, with their shields at maximum, and fired their turret disruptor cannons at any undamaged ship. When they retired from the area to reload, every K’Rang ship was destroyed, damaged, or experiencing secondary explosions.

  * * * * *

  Shadow Force Commander (Baron) G’Rof raged at the aide that brought him the news of the ship losses. He couldn’t believe that he had lost 120 ships to the Humans in his own rear area. He ordered all fleets to establish all-around security at every marshaling area. If there were any more instances of poor security, the fleet commander would pay with his life. He looked at his reserve fleet of structurally uncertain ships, to find the best of them to replace his losses.

  He contacted Baron J’Kol to coordinate their mutual strike against the Taurus Fleet, using two of his precious reserve FTL communications hubs. Baron J’Kol appeared on the monitor.

  “Baron J’Kol, I hope you are fairing better against the Humans than I am today.”

  J’Kol replied, “I’ve lost three ships to their fast attack ships today. How are you doing?”

  Baron G’Rof dropped his head and said, “I only wish my losses were that small. I considered having you lead the initial strike, but the minute you move forces out of the Eridanus sector the Humans would be alerted. I, at least, have the benefit of surprise.”

  “If we coordinate our attacks properly, the Taurus Fleet will cease to exist as a combat formation within 30 minutes of our first strike. If it looks like my missile strike is successful, I may call off your attack. There is no use wasting missiles on burning hulks. Of course, much depends on how they have their carriers arrayed in the formation. If we can take out half of their carriers, then there is nothing to stop us from wiping them out.”

  * * * * *

  Tammy unstrapped from her seat and climbed out of the cockpit. Even though it was only a two-hour flight, the tension made her back sore for a good while after each raid. She wished Kelly were around. He had the best hands for working out knots in her back, but she guessed she would have to find a new masseur, now that he and Candy were married. She thought about that and realized how really happy for them she was. She enjoyed Kelly’s attention, but the thought of marrying him was discarded long ago. She appreciated how natural it was at their house to be naked around each other, with no thoughts of sex.

  Tammy had lain sunning on a chaise lounge beside Candy’s pool while on leave for Kelly and Candy’s wedding and watched Kelly very obviously going through the mental calculations on whether he’d made the right choice. At the end, the smile that came over his face when his eyes moved from her to Angie and finally back to Candy communicated that he was immensely satisfied with his choice.

  She and Angie vowed to each other after the wedding that they would do everything in their power to see that Kelly and Candy stayed happily married for long enough to have great grand kids. Tammy smiled as she headed to debriefing.

  * * * * *

  Mary Chen was bored out of her skull. Being the Ops officer for an embarked Marine Brigade was the most boring job in the universe. The brigade was ready. Their equipment was already combat-loaded in the AS-500s. The troops were trained to a fine edge. In fact, they might be too well trained.

  Mary got no guidance from her brigade commander, Colonel Shaun Maxwell, who was obviously happy with what sh
e was accomplishing. He gave her a commendation for organizing the central loading well into a physical training area with a third of a kilometer-long track. She arranged for each battalion to have an entire watch with exclusive use of the area. Paunches on some of the retired reserve returnees were visibly disappearing.

  Mary had only had one problem with Colonel Maxwell, when he let his hand brush across her breast ‘by accident’ one too many times after he’d been warned. As Maxwell picked himself up off the floor, she told him if he ever did that again he had better be prepared to lose the use of that arm for at least six months. Surprisingly, she never had any further problems with him and there was never any attempt at reprisal.

  * * * * *

  Kelly pushed the Orion through A’Ngarii space. They had passed numerous uninhabited planets with no sign of the A’Ngarii anywhere. No stray ships, patrols, commercial shipping, nothing.

  Sensors called in that they may have found something. Kelly went over to the specific operator and asked him what he’d found. He handed Kelly a set of headphones and Kelly heard what sounded like music, strange music, but music nonetheless. Kelly asked for a bearing and ordered the ship to change course. Maybe this time they’d find something.

  Chapter Ten

  The Orion was a day away from the source of the music, but that was at max speed. At a speed more conducive to gathering intelligence, it took two days. As Orion got closer, the sensor section was picking up more music – what they guessed was popular music, classical music, and what had to be a regional rougher style of music. CT1 Stang tried to convince Kelly it was A’Ngarii country & western music, but Kelly wasn’t biting. Within a day of the source, they could hear what were obviously voices singing words. The two State Department translators sat with the sensor operators and made notes.