Friedrich Debran, CEO of Debran Industries, Inc., was finishing up some details on a new acquisition. It was a small electronics firm that built a key component for the transporter rings. He had ten plants that produced components for the rings. His firm made everything from the massive rings’ outer framework, to power couplings, to the non-ferrous bolts that held everything in place.
The new transporter rings, once fully deployed, would allow for a ship to enter a ring at one side of the Galactic Republic and come out at another ring on the other side of the Republic. It cut travel times from weeks or months to seconds. It had the potential to revolutionize the defense of the Republic’s space. It also would give a boost to commerce, as shipping times and costs decreased dramatically.
His political contributions to the Colonial Party and specifically to Senator Coleen Santori (C-Grissom) gave him access to information that helped him steer his acquisitions into new and fruitful enterprises. His acquisitions of ring-related industries now gave him a management problem to solve. He needed someone with military experience and connections. It had to be someone with extensive military command experience that could use the right words to seal the deal. They had to be words that the senior officers sitting across the table would understand.
He had always considered himself a great negotiator, but these military types didn’t respond to his normal techniques and several times he came close to losing crucial contracts because of it. He needed to have an edge, someone that would understand his goals and objectives and be able to translate those into military speak.
He had his chief of staff, Roger Delphant, contact some executive placement agencies and culled down the extensive lists through personnel committees to a select group of 10 candidates. Delphant himself trimmed that list down to the three top finalists. The executive vice presidents interviewed these candidates to determine the best suited. Debran interviewed the top rated candidate first. If acceptable, the candidate was offered a position. If not, the next on the list was interviewed and offered a position or rejected and so on, until one was hired or a new list was developed.
Debran liked this procedure, even though it was slow. He hadn’t picked a bad candidate yet. He had the first interview scheduled for 1300. It was 1245 now. He looked forward to picking his new Vice President for Defense Consolidated, a newly organized 10-industry subsidiary of Debran Industries.
Debran cleared his desk and called out to have Roger bring in the first candidate when ready. The intercom buzzed and he was informed Mr. Delphant was here with the first candidate. Roger Delphant led the candidate in and said, “Mr. Debran, allow me to introduce Major General Irina Bugarov, Fighter Force (Retired).”
Dinner at the Officers Club was very enjoyable. It was a perfect concentration of good friends, good wine and good food. Commander Timmons and Janey were obviously becoming a couple. When Janey kissed Kelly to congratulate him on his new rank and position, Kelly had Commander Timmons glaring at him and Janey had Tammy, Candy and Angie glaring at her. Kelly couldn’t help but burst out laughing.
After Janey kissed him, Kelly had to kiss Angie to congratulate her on being the leader of her own four-fighter flight now. Then he just had to kiss the other two women at the table so they wouldn’t feel left out.
It was getting late and copious quantities of alcohol had been consumed. Kelly was starting to wonder how they were going to get to Candy’s house safely. It was several kilometers from the base and Kelly wasn’t sure he could drive, much less Candy. Candy was about to order another bottle of wine.
Kelly waved the waitress off. “Candy, if we’re going to your place, we’d best start to sober up.”
“Well, you have a point there. My air car will fly by itself, but it doesn’t land very well by itself. I recommend we call the dessert cart over.”
Kelly called the waitress over with the dessert cart. They each had a large slice of cake and lots of coffee. Shortly after, Commander Timmons and Janey bid good night and departed. All three of Kelly’s ladies looked at each other and smiled the same mischievous smile. Kelly just chuckled.
After another pass at the dessert cart and lots more coffee, they were recovered enough to make the flight to Candy’s house. The three women paid a last visit to the ladies’ room and they were off.
They all piled in and Candy punched in the destination. They drove out the main gate, turned right, passed the power lines, then the car lifted straight up and headed west. They flew around the northwestern corner of the base, over the deep and cold western lakes, and into the craggy mountains. The air car started circling over the familiar mountain peak. Candy pushed a switch on the dash and lights came on in her high mountain field.
Candy expertly guided the air car to a landing next to her house perched on the mountain ledge. It was the first time Kelly had seen it as other than a 3D rendering. It was spectacular.
The house looked as if it had always been there. It was clad in a local stone similar to limestone, shining white in the landscape lights. Kelly noticed that the pool was in the back of the house, not in front as on the original plan, and asked her about it.
“The builder convinced me to put the pool in the back, so it could be fed by the natural spring. It cost a lot of credits to move several thousand liters of water up here. This way I only have to fill it once. When I’m not using the spring to top off the pool, it fills my cistern.”
Angie and Tammy had never seen the house, even as a plan, and were astounded. Candy ushered them inside.
The house was spacious and very tastefully decorated. The main room had a number of couches arranged in a large conversation area. A large fireplace stood in one corner, and the kitchen was opposite, similar to the one in a house Candy rented when she lived in the southern hemisphere, but slightly larger. It was well furnished and contained all the modern conveniences. The two remaining corners of the main room held matching sandblasted glass doors that opened into what appeared to be a library and, opposite, a music room.
Candy had decorated the house with numerous pieces of art. Alcoves carved into the walls held small statues. Art hung on the walls, including a large tapestry depicting the Antares system. Chandeliers made of Orion crystal hung above the conversation area, the front door, and the long kitchen counter.
Candy escorted them out the rear glass doors onto the patio.
“This is the best part of the house,” she said as she hit a switch on the wall. The back yard was flooded with light. Spotlights shone up through the shrubbery. The medium-sized pool was suffused with a pale blue light.
They walked out onto the patio, through a large portico. The portico sheltered an outdoor room outfitted with sturdy furniture, including a wooden dining set, rattan-style chairs and couches, and a large coffee table. There were three boxes, wrapped with bows, on the table.
Candy called them all over. “Here, I have a present for each of you. I know it is traditionally the guests at a housewarming that provide gifts, but I like to be a little different. Let me pass these out. Don’t open them until I say to.”
She picked up a box with a red ribbon and handed it to Kelly. The next box had a blue ribbon and it went to Tammy. The box with a white ribbon was passed to Angie.
“Okay, open your boxes.”
Each pulled the ribbon off their box and slipped the two halves apart. Tammy was the first. She let out an “Ooooh!” and held up two pair of blue silk lounging pajamas, similar to ones that Candy had worn when Kelly visited her in the south. Angie stood up with two white versions of the same. Kelly opened his box and found two pairs of red silk lounging pajamas.
Candy smiled at them, “Okay, as I said before, you don’t need to pack much in the way of clothing when you visit me. Let me take you upstairs and let you get settled in. Then I expect you to change into these new outfits and wear them or nothing else while you are here. Gather your bags and follow me.”
They went upstairs, and each went to one of three guest rooms on the second floor. Kelly remarked, “Candy, I thought you were only going to have three bedrooms.”
Candy smiled and replied, “Living this far out, I realized that visitors would be staying the night. So, I had them redesign it to have four bedrooms. In a pinch, the library and music room downstairs can be set up as spare bedrooms.” Candy pointed Kelly into his room and she went into her master bedroom.
Kelly changed into his new outfit and checked his visage in the mirror. The thin silk didn’t leave much to the imagination. Kelly remembered what they said in Fighter Force, “No guts, no glory.” He headed downstairs. As he went by her door, Candy called out for him to open a bottle of wine.
The kitchen was so similar to her former rented house that Kelly had no problem finding the wine, the opener, and four glasses. He poured four glasses, put them on a tray, and went out to the pool. As he looked down at his attire, it occurred to him that it was the perfect color for spilling wine upon.
The three ladies came downstairs together and out to the pool. Kelly’s jaw dropped. They were all ravishing in their pajamas. Candy was obviously comfortable in hers, but the other two were slightly self-conscious. Kelly looked on with a big grin on his face and Tammy and Angie smiled back.
Angie spoke first. “Well, it’s not like we’re showing anything you haven’t seen before or we haven’t seen ourselves.”
At that point they all broke into laughter. The ice had been broken. They all relaxed around each other and spent the rest of the weekend thoroughly enjoying each other’s company.
Valeri Yestepkin looked around at his laboratory. It was sparse and a far cry from what he enjoyed when he worked for the Blakes, but was sufficient to his needs. A non-competition clause in his previous contract with the Blakes prohibited him from working on projects using the same or similar technology as the Blakes developed, but he was content to be working on his own.
Valeri had an idea for a weapon, an idea he had gotten when working for the Blakes, but did not use their technology. It was a weapon that did what the transporter gate did in disassembling the molecules of an object, but it had no ability to put them together again. It was, in effect, a disrupter beam.
He had applied for and received a government research grant that paid for his laboratory and two assistants here on Shepard. He had already produced a prototype demonstration weapon, per the grant requirements. A team at Fleet Ordnance had his weapon prototype and was testing it to determine its efficacy and suitability.
Valeri was now working on scaling his system to different sizes. He worked with a computer assisted design program to bring the size down to that of a hand weapon. If he could get it that small, he could easily scale it up to an assault rifle-sized weapon. Valeri thought it would make a replacement for the heavy M57 blast rifles that assault troops currently carried. If his calculations were correct, the disrupter rifle would be half the weight of the M57 and shoot twice as far.
Scaling up beyond personal weapon size was a bit of a challenge, because the power requirements expanded faster than the size increased. A weapon scaled up to be a cruiser’s main armament would require its own engine for power. There was a way to make it more energy efficient, but it eluded him at the moment. Until he figured it out, he would work on the personal weapon design.
Cindy Matthews, one of his research assistants, came back from lunch. She was a very pretty woman, several years younger than Valeri. She was tall, well built, and usually favored skirts or dresses that showed off her long legs, her best feature. Today she wore a light white blouse and a short blue skirt with braid-like piping along the hem. She pulled him away from the terminal and handed him a pastrami and Swiss on rye sandwich, his favorite.
“Eat, damn it! Valeri, you’re no good to us unconscious from lack of food.”
He saved what he was working on and turned to eat his sandwich at the workbench. Cindy poured a cup of coffee and fixed it for him, then set it down next to the sandwich and left the room. She came back in a few moments, wearing her lab coat.
He asked, “Where is Ron? Shouldn’t he be back from lunch now?”
“Ron took the afternoon off to take care of some personal matter. You said he could have the time off. Don’t you remember?”
“Oh, yes, something to do with his taxes as I recall.”
She went over to the work outline board and stood staring at it for a while. Valeri finished his sandwich and his coffee.
He asked, “What, no dessert?”
This brought a laugh from Cindy. She turned around, holding open her lab coat, revealing only her. Her blouse and skirt must have been left in the other room. She walked toward him, dropping the coat off her shoulders as she approached. She sat on his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck.
She stared into his eyes as she said, “How’s this for dessert? I’ve been waiting for us to be alone for a long time, you workaholic.”
Later, Cindy lay against his side on his office couch, her left leg draped over his. Her head rested upon his chest and she twirled the hairs there.
“Valeri, I hate to talk shop, but you can’t keep working on that old terminal. You’ll make yourself blind. It’s so slow. If you’d gotten that bonus for working on the Blake’s invention, you could have afforded a new one. Just how hard did they push for you to be included?”
Cindy had been unhappy about Valeri’s failure to get the bonus for the transporter rings that all the other workers on the team received. She kept harping on how much he contributed to the project for nothing. He’d been gone less than a month when they announced the bonuses. One would think they could make an exception. Moira Blake told him they had pushed hard to get him included in the bonus fund, but the finance bureaucrats said no. Moira even offered to give him her bonus, but he couldn’t accept. Besides, Fleet owed him the bonus, not Moira.
Cindy kept bugging him about it as if there was anything more he could do. Even now, after this unexpectedly memorable lunch, she couldn’t leave it alone. He wondered if this was just a set up to make him go back and tilt at the bureaucratic windmill…again. He smiled, because if it was a set up, it was one he could get used to.
Friedrich Debran was impressed with Irina Bugarov. She carried herself well, and was knowledgeable about Debran Industries holdings and recent company activities. She had done her homework. She also had a pretty good idea of what her job would entail, and had several ideas she offered freely to improve the company’s exposure in the defense market. There were changes and upgrades needed to Fighter Force aircraft that could be marketed to her former colleagues, if they could be simultaneously marketed to key members of the GR Assembly.
He liked her sense of duty, commitment and political manipulation. She freely told him that she had no romantic, family, or other commitments, and could devote however many hours the job required to ensure it was done right.
His mind was made up. He offered her the job at a reasonable salary, by private sector standards, but significantly more than a two-star general made. He enjoyed giving Flag Officers low initial salaries, as it fueled his sense of superiority. She accepted.
LTJG Cortez pushed the engine modifications through in record time. A big incentive was the fact that she couldn’t leave for her new assignment as the Vigilant’s XO until she had the modifications installed and tested. In a week and a half, the modifications were fitted to the Vigilant and ready for live testing.
Half of Connie’s team from the Repair and Refit Directorate embarked on the Vigilant for the in-space trial. There were wires run everywhere to connect all the instrumentation that had been brought aboard.
Kelly truly took actual command of his ship for the first time, when he requested permission to take off for the test. Upon approval, he gave the order to lift off and experienced almost an electric rush of excitement as the ship, his ship, rose into the air. They quickly left the atmosphere and moved out of the system.
Connie was afforded the use of the XO’s position on the bridge for test monitoring purposes, although technically she was not yet the XO. Her boss, LT Roger Dahlens, who Kelly had met his first day on Armstrong, was the senior engineering officer on board and in charge of the test.
Kelly watched their progress through the system and ordered them to FTL Power 1 as they crossed the last orbital plane, leaving the red giant Antares behind. Chief Blankenship sent the helm a transit course though dark space, the ship smoothly speeding up to light speed. Kelly asked for a status check from the engine room. Everything was operating well within tolerances. LT Dahlens nodded at this information and turned to Kelly, “Captain, would you increase speed to FTL Power 3, at your discretion?”
Kelly gave the order and the ship smoothly accelerated to many times the speed of light. He called back to engineering and got a report that all was still well within tolerances.
LT Dahlens acknowledged the report and gave clearance for a full speed test. Kelly gave the order and watched the FTL meter on his display climb to FTL Power 4, FTL Power 5, and then to FTL Power 6. It felt no different than FTL Power 1. The indicator continued to climb slowly until it stopped at FTL Power 6.6.
Kelly called for a status check from engineering and a jubilant Chief Miller came back, “Sir, she’s purring like a kitten. There was not so much as a spike while she climbed through the numbers. I believe we just set a speed record for a Fleet ship, Captain.”
Kelly let the ship run for 30 minutes and said, “ Helm, bring us down to 0.9 c.”
The helmsman backed off the speed control and the Vigilant smoothly coasted down to just below light speed. He answered, “We are below light speed at 0.9 c, sir.”
Kelly looked at his display and ordered, “Helm, all stop. Sensors, report all contacts. Engineering, report status.”
Helm answered, “All stop, sir.”
Sensors answered, “Conducting a sweep, sir. Sensors report all clear, sir.”
Chief Miller reported all systems normal.
“Helm, turn us around. Line us up with the reverse of the course that got us here.”
When the ship was lined up on the new course, Kelly turned to LT Dahlens and asked, “What will happen if I punch it? What happens if I take us to FTL Power 6 as fast as I can?”
LT Dahlens turned to LTJG Cortez. “Connie, it’s your design. What do you think will happen?”
“I think she’ll run like a scalded cat, sir.”
Kelly turned to Chief Blankenship and said, “Sound battle stations. Sound the collision alarm, Chief.”
People all over the ship hunkered down in their seats. Those off watch ran to their battle stations. The helm and navigator tightened their harnesses.
Kelly looked around at the orderly chaos, waiting for battle stations to be reported from all sections. As the last report came in, Kelly ordered FTL Power 6. The compensators and artificial gravity increased power to keep everyone in their place. The helmsman called out the numbers as they came and went. The Vigilant topped off at FTL Power 6 in 23 seconds. LT Dahlens let his breath out in a rush. Kelly laughed.
“What’s the matter, Lieutenant? Didn’t you trust your own handiwork?”
“Oh, I trust what my people did. I just didn’t necessarily trust what the original shipyard workers did. I’m glad they built a good, strong ship. I never figured any captain would do what you just did. That was a lot of stress on the hull, sir.”
“It may save my life and all on this ship someday. I had to see what would happen. Lieutenant, do you need to conduct any more tests or are we done?”
LT Dahlens responded, “You’ve exceeded all my requirements, sir.”
Kelly said, “Well, thank you and your crew, Lieutenant. Navigator, lay in a course to Antares Base. Helm, bring us to FTL Power 5. Secure from general quarters, and take us home.”
The short trip back to Antares Base was uneventful. LT Dahlens said his goodbye to LTJG Cortez. She would transfer to the Vigilant as soon as they got back and the order was cut.
Kelly turned the conn over to Chief Blankenship and made a quick tour of the ship. He picked up a cup of coffee and some cookies from the galley as he made his way back forward, then took his seat and watched his bridge crew at work as they approached Antares Base and landed. Now, with a full crew, he could plan his work ups and make this ship his own.
Workups went smoothly, almost effortlessly. Kelly thought he would have a lot of difficulty getting the crew to gel, what with the crew changeover as Kelly took command, but his chiefs had other ideas. They worked separately to get their individual sections in shape and then worked together toward a cohesive whole. Newly arrived Chief Josiah Johnson, the new sensor chief, increased sensor efficiency and won a bet with Chief Blankenship. His years as the senior sensor instructor at the Fleet Sensor School were put to good use.
Kelly put his crew through its paces in five days. Around the clock drills sharpened the crew’s responsiveness. Every crewmember could work not just his or her own job, but also the job of the person next over and the person above in the chain of command.
There were a few humorous moments, such as one unexpected call to general quarters, when one of the female members of the damage control party showed up on the bridge to deal with a simulated leak wearing just a towel. It snagged on a panel almost immediately and dropped off, leaving her in just what nature gave her. Undeterred, she finished her simulated repair and received a standing ovation from the bridge crew. She donned her towel, bowed deeply, and left the bridge with Chief Blankenship hot on her trail.
Kelly had the crew practice skills that had kept them alive in K’Rang territory. He had them make multiple FTL jumps from one arm of a local nebula to the other. His goal was to be at FTL power one by the time they left the near nebula arm and be at dead stop within the destination nebula arm’s cloud.
He found an asteroid field and met two training goals. He had his helmsmen, in turn, pull over an asteroid, land quickly and softly, lift off again, and do it again. He had them do it over and over, until they all did it to Kelly’s satisfaction.
The gunners practiced firing on small asteroids, from stationary positions and while moving. Kelly timed all gunners to see how quickly they dispatched the targets, until he was satisfied with their performance. He then picked larger targets and had the nose gunners fly and point the ship onto the targets, then fire on targets with just the nose rail guns and with the combined nose guns and turrets locked forward. He didn’t forget the tail guns, designating targets for the tail gunner to take out.
He practiced with the tractor beams to see how big an asteroid they could pick up. He moved asteroids around and even engaged in asteroid bowling. The Vigilant used it against the K’Rang during the New Alexandria campaign, so Kelly didn’t feel guilty about having a little fun.
He taught his gunners the finer points of off-axis shooting, and had his nose gunners practice flying the ship and pivoting the ship away from the direction of travel, to engage targets parallel to their direction of travel. That was also a tactic used against the K’Rang. While it was mainly a fighter tactic, the Vigilant was nimble enough to accomplish it, too.
Kelly tested out the galley’s ability to prepare food during combat conditions by giving them a specific menu to prepare while gunnery drills were being conducted. Cookie did a superb job, splitting the meal and cooking half in the traditional way and half in the replicator. He challenged Kelly to pick which was which. Kelly couldn’t tell the difference.
Kelly conducted a mass casualty drill to test Doc Kumar’s ability to function in a combat setting. He had coordinated with the Antares Base Hospital for combat casualty symptoms and pinned them to random crewmembers. Kelly sent two or three crew at a time to sickbay with wounds or burns or radiation sickness. Rajna came through professionally and calmly, correctly diagnosing, triaging, and treating each case.
The Vigilant was ready for combat two days ahead of schedule. Kelly would work out any other issues on the transit to their patrol zone. He prepared to give the crew two days liberty in appreciation for a job well done.
Kelly felt LTJG Cortez would quickly grow into the job as XO. Her experience in the repair and refit directorate gave her a good feel for the ship. He got a kick out of her shaking as she took over the helm position, but settling down as she got a feel for the ship. She had good intuition, like Kelly, and always seemed to be in the right place at the right time to stop potential problems before they occurred. She was a far better cook than Kelly was. Best of all, she relieved Kelly of a ton of extra duties. Kelly was a happy captain.
Kelly called LTJG Cortez into his office for “the talk.” Kelly had gotten it twice, once as a fighter pilot and once as XO of the Vigilant. He thought he had it memorized by now. It was Connie’s turn. He called her into his ready room and had her sit down. He noticed she was sitting at attention and he told her to relax.
“I want to tell you a little bit about why we’re out here. I know it’s not taught well enough in the Academy. It’s important to know why you may be asked to put your life on the line way out where the stars are few and far between.”
“I know you learned about the Milky Way in Astrography. I’ll bring you up to date, but first let me cover a little history. You know the Milky Way is a bar spiral galaxy and Earth’s solar system is in a small spiral off of the nuclear center of the galaxy, not one of the bigger spirals further outward. Even though our galaxy is called the Milky Way because of the apparent cloud of stars as seen from Earth, there are vast distances between the stars. These areas we call dark space. This is where we Scouts operate best.”
“I’m sure you learned about the first galactic human settlements over a century ago. When our first long-range probes and scouts went out, they found our little corner of the galaxy was largely unpopulated and mostly devoid of life. We quickly populated human settlements on the few habitable planets in this part of the galaxy. Huge settlement ships were built and they carried mankind out into the far reaches of space. We populated the 10 closest worlds first and spread out from there. Those first settlers had it hard, and we lost a lot of good people. Life on the frontier before we came up with reliable long distance FTL communications 25 years ago was rough. There are now over 150 human-inhabited worlds and moons in this arm of the Milky Way.”
It wasn’t until our scouts pressed further outspiral, away from the core of the Milky Way, that we ran into the Moosilian Empire. The Moose were fairly benevolent and we signed the First Intragalactic Treaty with them in 2133. We agreed to the establishment of a buffer zone between our races. Trade is allowed and encouraged, but they don’t want us moving any excess population in there. Our patrol forces on the frontier guarantee we don’t trod in each other’s space. It’s held up pretty well.”
“Our scouts surveying inspiral found a similar situation. Life is not as common as most early philosophers, authors, and scientist expected. One scout pushing out further inspiral on a deep-space patrol found a curious artifact floating in open space. It was a spinning, glowing triangular dipyramid. They scanned it from all sides, recorded all they could, and would have brought it back to the nearest star base if it hadn’t been twice the size of their ship. After a great deal of study, the best human brains determined it was a no trespassing sign. The scouts had run into the frontier of the K’Rang Empire.”
“While the Moose are a benevolent race, as you know, the K’Rang are not. They are a rat nasty bunch and want nothing to do with humanity. In fact, their standard response to meeting a human ship in space is to immediately annihilate the human ship. No warning, no “get out,” they just blast away.”
“Actually, rat nasty is an inappropriate description of the K’Rang. They’re evolved from a cat-like species. They walk on two legs, but retain many feline traits and characteristics. They have the fur, claws, teeth, and balance of a cat. They can leap three times their own height. They are unbelievably quick. A K’Rang warrior can cover short distances with incredible speed. If they get in close, they can make full use of their claws and fangs. In space they react similarly. They like to get in and duke it out at close range — something we have learned to use to our advantage.”
“After the Capricorn War, which we and the K’Rang fought to a draw, we withdrew back from the frontier, established our mutual sensor and mine fields to provide advanced warning of any incursions, and pretended each other didn’t exist. No armistice or ceasefire — we just withdrew to lick our mutual wounds. Neither side able to gain the advantage. Neither side wanting to provoke the other has existed for quite some time. That situation, unfortunately, has changed.”
“Fourteen months ago, a survey team from Hodgkin’s World, Inc., in Capricorn, flew to examine some not so nearby star systems for human inhabitability. Mark Carter, Hodgkin’s World, Inc. president and CEO, wanted to export some excess population and gain some territory. His survey ship stumbled on a solar system the K’Rang were terra forming. As stupid as it was, Carter mounted an expedition of his own resources to take this world and the K’Rang terra forming technology for his own. Needless to say, K’Rang reinforcements showed up and wiped out the Hodgkin’s World fleet, but not before the Hodgkin’s forces had killed all the K’Rang terra forming party. Fortunately, Mr. Carter paid for his stupidity and perished along with his fleet.”
“The K’Rang stewed for a while and then tried to invade and take New Alexandria in the Scutum sector. Our new transporter gate allowed us to move in a massive fleet and annihilate their invasion force. They are arrayed in a purely defensive posture at this time. We hit them pretty hard and completely by surprise.”
“The K’Rang are no pushovers. They fight well and are fearless in battle. They have good tactics and adapt quickly to battle situations. We lost many ships to them in the Capricorn War. We captured a few of the K’Rang, but no matter what we do, they die in captivity. Our best minds think they just choose to stop living and die. We know more about their physiology than their military or society.”
“We watch them. They watch us. Half our Fleet intel guys say nothing will happen. Half say in the right situation, they will go on the offensive. Either way, we patrol and make sure they know we are there. They do the same thing. The longer this impasse continues, the more we build up the capability to use our transporter gates to quickly reinforce the frontier.”
“Our mission is to find out what the K’Rang are up to. We are not out there to start a war, but, hopefully, to keep one from happening. Keep that in mind as we patrol around the frontier. The buffer zone we and the K’Rang have set up is wide enough so any incursions won’t be a mistake.”
“We also have strict orders pertaining to any confrontation with the K’Rang. This is why I’m having this long chat with you this morning. It’s imperative these orders be followed completely.”
“The K’Rang don’t get to shoot first. Our orders are that we will not engage in any confrontation with the K’Rang unless they are firmly on our side of the buffer zone and we have an overwhelming numerical or tactical advantage. Our leadership wants to make sure we defeat the K’Rang in any engagement. Now, of course, those orders can and have been changed, but for now they stand.”
“Do you have any questions?”
“No, sir, I think I understand. We use overwhelming force or surprise when dealing with the K’Rang. We never intentionally fight from a weak position.”
“Good summation, Exec.”
Yeoman Benitez knocked, was told to come in, and brought Kelly a message to report to CMDR Timmons before he released his crew.
Connie Cortez saw to securing the Vigilant from work ups and helped Chief Blankenship to keep the crew gainfully employed until the Captain returned. She found several inconsistencies in the ship’s wiring, and set up several teams to trace wiring circuits for ship’s systems and correct the ship blueprints to match how things really were. She would have several things to say to the yard boss when she could break free. First, she needed a moment to spin down and retired to her cabin to work on paperwork.
She was exhausted, operating on about four hours sleep in eighteen for the entire cruise. She noticed that the Captain was overlapping the beginning of her watch and Chief Blankenship was overlapping the end of her watch. She changed her routine and overlapped theirs. That didn’t leave a lot of time for sleep. She would have to speak to the Captain about sleep discipline. It wouldn’t do to have the senior leaders suffering from sleep deprivation on a long patrol. Maybe it was just that they were all new in their jobs and things would settle down with more experience in the positions.
Even without the sleep loss, Connie would still have been beat. She had so much to learn. Even with the simulator time she put in, she had never piloted a spacecraft before. When LCDR Blake turned the controls over to her, she couldn’t stop her hands from shaking. She had to admit it was a rush to have all the ship’s power in her hands. The majority of the time, she just roamed the ship and looked for things out of place.
She made a lot of on the spot corrections, like instructing the gunners to always leave their turrets locked facing forward when not actively manning the turrets. This kept the maximum firepower forward if needed in an emergency. She helped Chief Johnson fine-tune the sensors and win his bet with Chief B. She took a turn at cooking and taught Cookie one of her mother’s recipes for fried chicken, which he programmed into the replicators. She spent so much time with Chief Miller learning all the engineering systems that the Captain had to send Chief B to remind her that there were other parts of the ship she needed to learn.
It was a good first cruise for Connie. She looked forward to their mission.
Chief Blankenship had a chiefs’ meeting after the major elements of securing from the work ups were accomplished. She wanted to get a feeling from the chiefs on how their sections had done and what needed to still be improved. She also wanted a sense of how the new XO had done.
Chief Miller led off. “Engineering was in good shape. The new algorithms for the increased speed gave them better stability at all speeds. My section has all started on preparations for their proficiency exams. If there was anything that could be improved on, I don’t know what it could be.”
Chief Johnson was next. “The new XO is all right by me. She is technically proficient and not afraid to say she doesn’t know everything. She was willing to listen to why something she suggested was not a good idea, as long as it was done tactfully and in a manner that increased her knowledge of the ship. She’s smart, but still realizes she has a lot to learn. As far as the section goes, I have a couple of single stripers that are a little hesitant to make a call, but I’ll break them of that by the time we get to our patrol sector. It happens with a lot of the newbies, but you know that.”
Chief Pennypacker said, “Gunnery did well. We have a few that are below the average, but more work with the simulators will fix that. The XO proposed keeping the turrets locked forward when not manned, and did it in such a way she made me think it was my idea. She’s slick. Some of my guys have started on proficiency exam prep, but I’ll get all of them cranking on it on our next patrol.”
Chief Austin followed. “She can cook. I think she’ll do fine as soon as she gets more used to the crew. Remember she was an engineer, not a command track officer. She’s used to having a supervisor look over her shoulder. She’ll learn to be more forceful and direct.”
Chief Billings took his turn. “Bridge crew did fine. It was almost funny to watch LT Cortez when the skipper gave her the helm. She was shaking so bad when she first sat down, but she calmed herself and did a good job at helm. She eventually loosened up enough to try some loops and rolls. By the time she finished, she was having fun with it. I have one helmsman that doesn’t yet have that level of comfort. I’ll work with him in the simulator. The rest are good.”
Chief B gave them all some last minute taskings and broke up her meeting.