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

by Rodney Smith

  He reached into a storage bin and pulled out a small cardboard shipping container. “Here you go, sir. Here’s something for your engineers to start with when we get back. We carry spares.”

  Jotil Lenkva was speechless. She handed the package to her translator for safekeeping while she worked through every position in Gunnery with that toothy smile on her face.

  Chapter Fourteen

  It was a bright sunny day on the uninhabited world when the 112th Heavy Attack Squadron landed on what had been dubbed Victory Base. Tammy was guided in and taxied her ship into a hastily constructed, earthen revetment. She shut her ship down and looked around at her new digs. Row upon row of insta-shelters, looking remarkably like platoons of huge camouflaged turtles in formation, were opposite the runway in a bermed tent city. She crawled out of her harness and backed out of her A-100, unkinking her muscles as she went. A ground car met her as she exited the ship and the driver told her she was wanted at the wing commander’s office.

  She hopped in and was taken to a large insta-shelter, which was functioning as the wing HQ. She asked the clerk at the door where the wing commander’s office was. He led her down a short hallway, knocked on the door, and was told to enter, then stepped out of Tammy’s way as she entered.

  Tammy came face to face with Commander Tanaka in the wing commander’s chair. “Hi, sir, I was told to see the wing commander.”

  “You are. I was notified that Colonel Hammond has been grounded for health reasons. He recommended me as his replacement and I get to pick mine. I choose you.”

  Tammy had to sit down. She never imagined something like this.

  “Surely there are Lieutenant Commanders in the wing senior to me, sir,” she mumbled.

  Commander Tanaka said, “Tammy, I can’t imagine anyone better to take my place. The job is yours. Accept it. Now go take charge of your squadron.”

  Tammy left the HQ in a daze. The ground car was there to take her back to her squadron. She walked in the door of her HQ building and called for an officers’ call.

  It took a while to assemble all her officers and her senior chief, but they all came in eventually. She told them about the wing commander being grounded for health reasons and their former squadron commander taking over the wing. She informed them she was assuming command for the foreseeable future. She moved the 2nd Flight leader to XO and his next senior officer to 2nd Flight leader. She would see Wing about a replacement pilot for their old CO, and the 18th ship would be grounded until the replacement arrived.

  “Now, I have some things to sort out. Everybody get to work. Chief, stay for a moment, please.”

  * * * * *

  Kelly sat in CIC, Jotil Lenkva by his side. Sensors had just reported that they were being followed. Kelly had sensors looking for a place they could get behind or into to get the jump on their tail.

  Jotil Lenkva remarked that there was a planetary nebula just off their current course. Kelly asked her what course to steer. She gave them an Angaerry course heading, but it couldn’t be translated into a course they could use. Jotil Lenkva said, “Turn up this much,” and held her hands about ten degrees apart, “and turn left this much.” She held her hands about 5 degrees apart.

  Kelly ordered the course change and chuckled, saying, “Jotil Lenkva, we will work well together. We both adapt to the situations put before us.”

  True to her word, the nebula appeared ahead of them. They increased speed, passed through the nebula, dropped speed and turned back into the nebula. In minutes, the ship appeared. It was one of the mid-size K’Rang scout ships, like the ones Kelly had defeated in the Pleiades star field encounter while in command of the Vigilant.

  Kelly waited until the scout cautiously moved forward, closer to the nebula, where it had lost contact with the Human scout. When it came in range, five missiles left the nebula and streaked out at the K’Rang scout. The Orion watched as three of the missiles made it through the scout’s evasive maneuvers and countermeasures. The scout ship lost a cloud of atmosphere that turned into a pressure wave as flames from the ship hit it and crushed the ship like a can under a ground car’s wheel.

  The Orion lined up with the course to the Angaerry home world and accelerated to FTL power 5. They would have Jotil Lenkva home by tomorrow evening.

  * * * * *

  Mary Chen sat in her command vehicle on a slight knoll, upwind of her new home away from home. She watched as AS-500 after AS-500 took off from the dry lake bed, blowing up giant choking dust clouds, such that each successive pair of landing ships had a ten minute wait while the dust settled enough for them to see for take off. Of course, the dust settled mainly on the brigade’s equipment and Marines.

  Slowly the brigades of the 1st and 3rd ALG lined up, boarded their AS-500s, and returned to their assault landing carriers, except for Mary’s brigade. Lastly, all but three of her brigade’s AS-500s returned to their carrier, maintaining orbit around the planet.

  Mary toured Victory Base and was amazed that the engineers had accomplished so much in so little time. The entire facility had been bermed. Artillery-proof bunkers with towers were built on all four corners. Bunkers with firing ports were built every 300 meters. Engineers built U-shaped revetments for all attack ships, ship handling equipment, and the three AS-500s. In addition, they built berms around the tent city and HQ areas. She would have to see what the small engineer detachment left behind could do about the dust. Perhaps there was a spray they could use to bind it all together.

  Mary drove down into the facility and made a brief inspection tour of the inside perimeter, which was manned by a company each from the two light battalions. This area encompassed the attack craft parking areas, the tent city, and the HQ areas. A separate berm encircled this entire area, with four manned gates in the middle of the four sides. Bunkers were built in all four corners. Underground bombardment shelters were built throughout the area. She wanted to kiss the engineering officer, but probably wouldn’t.

  Returning to HQ, she called in the recon platoon commander to get him started looking for the missing K’Rang. She didn’t know where they were, but she could feel their presence. She needed to find them before they got into too much mischief.

  * * * * *

  The Orion landed back at the Angaerry military spaceport on Gronir and was met by Kurin Dunit. Jotil Lenkva and translator were told to report to the military minister at once. Jotil Lenkva bid farewell to Kelly and hoped they would ship out again some day, then boarded a waiting ground car and left. Kurin Dunit asked the ambassador to accompany him to the Ministry of Diplomacy with his translator.

  Kelly was asked to remain behind with his crew in the Orion. He noticed security forces in a wide perimeter around the Orion. They were conspicuous in their inconspicuousness. Kelly sensed all was not right in the Angaerry capital. He put his sensor section to monitoring local communications to see if they could tell what was happening.

  Shortly, Alistair came to see him. “Boss, we have a slight problem. It seems the minor parties of the Angaerry Lower Assembly are banding together and threatening to challenge the High Minister’s government. The minor parties have been threatening to switch their allegiance to the number two party if the K’Rang are attacked.”

  Kelly said, “Oops! That is going to be hard to undo. I’m not going to go anywhere near an Angaerry internal political issue. We’ll just have to deal with whoever winds up in charge.”

  Alistair pulled up his pocket terminal and said, “We may not have to. I’ve tallied up the votes and it will be close, but the High Minister’s party and allies have more than enough votes to hold onto power, as long as there are no further defections.”

  Kelly said, “Good. Keep me informed.” and walked to his cabin to catch up on his sleep.

  * * * * *

  Admiral Levi was employing every trick he knew to make the K’Rang flank attack fail. He constantly changed his formation from a line to echelon right to cruisers right. He varied his speed on an irregular schedule.
He turned radically to port and starboard as K’Rang main worlds appeared along his axis of advance, so he could interdict their FTL capability. He flew A-76 squadron patrols out to his right flank where his adversary’s fleet would drop out of FTL. He was sure his opposite number was pulling his fur out from the constantly changing targeting solutions.

  He also had his scout ships running a wide picket around the fleet, looking for the K’Rang scout ships that must be out there watching and relaying their course plot and speed to the K’Rang commander. Six scout ships should find their opposite numbers easily, but it hadn’t happened yet.

  His operations officer informed him it was time to change course to interdict a K’Rang world off to port. He approved the maneuver and the massive fleet turned like a giant snake in space and powered away to ruin another planetary governor’s week.

  He ordered a change to the formation to cruisers right, putting his three cruiser groups on the right side of the formation to provide depth, and put his best anti-missile defenses on the side of the greatest threat. In case of attack, the cruisers would fire their missile interceptors and reload as quickly as possible. He had drilled them in rapid resupply for hours. The best resupply and ready to fire time was 5 minutes and 30 seconds. The worst time was 7 minutes and 10 seconds. Doing it under fire would cut those times by a good margin. He was as ready as he could be – until he thought of anything else he could do.

  * * * * *

  Shadow Force Commander (Baron) G’Rof reviewed his fleet’s plot and saw three long lines of warships following his flagship. His operations staff tried to maintain his position parallel to the Human fleet, but that commander kept shifting his formation, course, and speed. He didn’t need to be perfectly parallel when he dropped out of FTL, because the missiles would home on the ships as long as they were in range. Range was not a problem. He planned to drop out of FTL within several hundred thousand kilometers of the Human fleet, fire every missile, and let the missile guidance systems de-conflict targets. He had enough missiles for several per ship. All he had to do was wait for the Human fleet to move into the gap between the main worlds of J’Tag and G’Lok.

  Meanwhile, the seven drone carriers promised by the Elders had arrived. He formed a fourth line above and behind his cruiser line and practiced a few FTL hops to integrate them into the formation and ensure they were in proper mechanical shape to survive the rapid deceleration.

  Afterwards, he called in the ship and drone commanders and determined the best way to use these craft. The drone commanders unanimously replied that their ships should launch behind the missile barrage to provide cover from Human fighters and make follow-on strikes against Human ships that survived the barrage. They could also cover the fleet’s retirement after the attack, if the Humans were not completely destroyed. The Humans were quite ingenious and may employ some tactic or new device to reduce the attack’s effectiveness.

  G’Rof thought about just that every waking moment. What could the Humans do that would negate his attack? He would be firing over 10,000 missiles at only a few hundred ships. Even allowing for jamming, defensive missiles, close in defensive systems, and radical maneuvers, he should destroy the entire fleet. All he had to do was wait three more days.

  He ordered all ships within two days of G’Lok to proceed there at best possible speed, but the loss of communications hubs meant not all ships got the word. He messaged Shadow Leader J’Tang on the Shadow Cruiser D’Kot to form the arriving ships into a task force, to attack the remnants of the Human fleet left from his attack. One can never have too many ships.

  * * * * *

  The Valiant and the Vicious saw it at the same time, a K’Rang medium scout ship trailing the 2nd Combined Fleet. The two ships were powering to the front of the fleet, stopping 5,000,000km off each flank, and letting the fleet move by them. The rear of the fleet had passed the two scout ships, when their sensors spotted the K’Rang scout ship trailing the fleet by 2,000,000km. They communicated by laser and stayed powered down until the K’Rang passed, then jumped him from the rear.

  Surprisingly quick reflexes on the part of the K’Rang crew saved them as the disruptor cannon bursts hit empty space. The K’Rang ship unexpectedly flew into the middle of the 7th Battle Fleet’s formation. A dozen F-53's and two scout ships chased the K’Rang ship as it jinked and swerved through the formation. The K’Rang ship fired wildly as it attempted to escape the closing ships. Most shots from their particle guns made only cosmetic damage to the cruisers and frigates surrounding the carriers. Shots from the two scout ships and from the F-53's were having an effect on the K’Rang ship. The port winglet had been shot off and one engine had been taken off line.

  Suddenly the K’Rang scout stopped his evasive maneuvers and aimed directly at the Fleet Carrier Juarez. The Valiant launched a missile and it intercepted the scout. The missile hit the scout a glancing blow in the engines, but the momentum carried the scout forward toward the Juarez.

  The Frigate Hamilton had seen the danger to the carrier and powered to a blocking position in the path of the oncoming scout ship. Even though the scout was without power, the scout still had mass and momentum in its favor. The Hamilton fired broadsides at the scout, but it only broke smaller pieces off the larger mass of the ship. The Hamilton took the largest piece of the scout ship just below its rear gun mount and several smaller pieces in the bow. The navigation shields deflected some smaller chunks.

  Damage control kept the Hamilton alive, but they still lost 23 crew killed and 15 injured, the rear gun mount, the port engine, and sensors to the rear. Admiral Levi ordered them to transport to the yards at Gagarin and they left through the ring ship.

  * * * * *

  Ambassador Thorson arrived back at the Orion after dark. He looked tired, as did his translator. He knocked on Kelly’s door and came in to give him a blow by blow of how the day went.

  “I initially walked into an ambush by the number two party leader. He wanted to know why I thought we Humans could come in here and launch attacks against the K’Rang from their space, endangering the Angaerry race. Jotil Lenkva entered the chamber and asked to be recognized by the chair when I was about to point out that we attacked them from within K’Rang space. Jotil Lenkva moved to the front of the chamber, occupied a podium and began an hour-long recitation on the benefits of allying with the Humans.”

  “Jotil Lenkva explained that the Humans had destroyed the K’Rang ship building capability of the former Angaerry world of Naryta. She recounted how you had destroyed a K’Rang first line cruiser with a ship smaller and less well armed than an Angaerry frigate. She explained that the Humans had given her a component that will take away the K’Rang jammer’s advantage against their missiles, with no thought to a quid pro quo other than they make themselves more effective against the K’Rang and take their worlds back.”

  “I tell you Kelly, Jotil is a firebrand. Did she ever say she was a member of the military faction of the Republic Assembly? She kept going after the hour-long diatribe, by opening up to a question and answer session that went on for two hours. I tell you, Kelly, these Angaerry are a passionate lot. I think we should start calling them the Angrys.”

  Kelly laughed and said, “That was three hours of your day, what did you do for the remainder?”

  “The question and answer session ended and they took their midday break. Lobbyists for various defense companies besieged me on whether there was any more technology we wished to share. I told them not at this time, but if they had any specific weaknesses we could help on, just ask. I imagine there will be quite a few messages in our local queue.”

  “After the break, they opened the floor to a number of representatives from the minor parties who made impassioned speeches for and against the alliance. In the end, four hours later, they voted overwhelmingly to support the alliance and to expand it. They voted to fund and man an embassy on Earth. Our friend Kurin Dunit will be nominated as the ambassador and Jotil Lenkva will be nominated to be the first
military attaché. I need to put together a dispatch with tonight’s messages. Have they gone over yet?”

  Kelly looked at the ship’s clock and said, “Not yet, but hurry if you want it to go out tonight.”

  Thorson excused himself and retired to his cabin to write his dispatch. Kelly did not envy him the task. He had spent an hour earlier writing his report back to Admiral Chang.

  * * * * *

  It dawned on Admiral Haddock-Halloway that they had attacked two planets with no K’Rang fleet resistance. The usual futile gesture by a task force of third-rate ships had not happened for the last two planets. He had three choices: the K’Rang were running out of ships or crews, the K’Rang had realized how stupid it was to sacrifice good crews and ships, or they were moving them somewhere else. He called in his flag intel officer and instructed him to determine the most likely reason, prepare a report for Admirals Chang and Levi for his signature, and have it completed in an hour.

  He called up the intel on what was ahead of him and looked to see if he could transfer some of his fleet to Avi and not put his own force at risk. He had a feeling that the hammer was getting ready to come down and the indications were it would strike Avi rather than him. He could always send his cruisers and drop off into space for the time they were gone. Space is a big place. Even something as big as his combined fleet could get lost in it.

  He sent a note to Admirals Chang and Levi that they should consider pausing for a day or two – it may completely throw the K’Rang plan off. Maybe the two combined fleets were being too predictable and a change was called for. He even contemplated a high-speed dash for G’Durin to give them something else to worry about. Why walk into a trap?