Now was the time for the mystery of the trade between the Indigo Consortium and the K’Rang to be solved. Kelly and Timmons were called to building 603 again a week later. They were met at the security desk by LTJG Taylor and escorted to the fourth floor. As they got off the elevator, they turned to the right and went through a set of double doors with a cypher lock.
“Welcome to Fleet Intel,” said a Fleet Commander, “I’m CMDR Will Johnson. Come with me please. LTJG Taylor, we’ll call for you when were done.” LTJG Taylor left and CMDR Johnson took them into a small briefing room.
“Captain Timmons, we want you to trail one of the Indigo Consortium freighters when it makes its next run. The Manchu Warrior will be leaving Secundus on the 15th of this month. That gives you a few days for some modifications and four days to get there. We want you to trail the Manchu Warrior such that they never know you are there. We also want you to trail them so that anyone else trailing them doesn’t know you are there, either.”
Timmons asked, “Is there anything about this situation that you want to tell me, Commander? Following a freighter doesn’t require much from me and my crew. What else is going that on I should know about?”
“Relax, Captain, I didn’t bring you here just to tell you what could have been put in a one page deployment order. We have more information to give you. You are not to share it with your crew. Only the two of you can know of this information until you are on your second day of patrol.”
He fixed them both with a withering stare. “Do you understand?”
They both nodded their understanding.
“Alright, members of the Indigo Consortium board of directors have been conspiring for some time with the K’Rang. As you stumbled onto, the voyages of the consortium’s freighters have been the method they have been using to transfer information in exchange for flame stones.”
“Mr. Delphant‘s death was in retaliation for the loss of the data you intercepted. We have been able finally to break the cypher on the information you brought us. It appears that there is a great deal more information there beyond just the technical information on the Blakes’ inventions.”
“The consortium has been selling inside information on fleet deployments, composition, personalities, weapons developments, and other details. We think we have a solid lead on the source of the leaks. We also know that he needs to deliver one more block of data to a K’Rang courier. The K’Rang used Delphant’s death to convince this individual they were serious. We will close the noose on that individual shortly after you move out on patrol.”
“We expect the Manchu Warrior to make a rendezvous with a K’Rang ship carrying their courier to receive the last data block. They will probably do it like the way you saw and interfered with, or they may not. Either way, we expect an exchange to be made on the next run of the Manchu Warrior. We will have Fleet Intel teams on the ground at all of their port calls. They will take care of the courier if the exchange happens on the ground. You are to take care of it if it happens in space or if the courier slips by our cordon.”
“Your mission is to capture the K’Rang courier alive, with the data. You are not to interfere with the information exchange this time. It is imperative, however, that you take the courier alive and return him here. To that end, we will be sending you out with a special device in your weapons bay. It will be an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, weapon. It's designed to fire a very precise EMP charge, thereby frying any circuitry in its path. The beam is very focused, so that none of your circuits will be harmed. You will use it to disable the ship carrying the K’Rang courier. It won’t hurt the crystal data storage devices the K’Rang use, so the data will be safe. We will install a retractable assault docking collar in the rear of your weapons bay in the space dock. A boarding party will use it in breaching the courier’s ship’s hull.”
Timmons was just about to speak, when CMDR Johnson continued.
“You will embark a Marine platoon to act as your boarding party. They will be equipped with lethal and non-lethal weaponry to quickly subdue any forces on board the courier’s ship and snatch the courier. The platoon leader has been handpicked for this mission, as have the platoon members. They've been training for over a month.”
“You'll get meet the platoon tomorrow. We'll shuttle you to Gagarin, to the Marine Special Operations Training Center, and introduce you. We have a special demonstration set up for you to show the effectiveness of our techniques. It's important that you have faith in the abilities of your boarding party.”
“Captain, do you have any questions?”
LCDR Timmons said, “Sir, the Vigilant is not that big a ship. We don’t have a brig. How many prisoners do you expect we’ll have to haul back here? How far away do you anticipate we will be when we grab them?”
“Well, Captain, it could be as few as one and as many as five or more. You could be ten or more days away.”
Well, conditions will be pretty austere, but we can handle that. Do I have to wait until I’m in space dock to modify a space as a brig, or can I start now? If I have my crew work on it now, it can be ready before we lift off.”
Commander Johnson mulled that over for a few seconds and said, “You can have your crew start now, but don’t tell them what it is for. Tell them you will be picking up some prisoners and bringing them back for court martial.”
Timmons nodded his assent and asked. “Kelly, how about you? Any questions or concerns?”
“No, sir. I might have some when I see the demonstration tomorrow, but nothing at this time.”
CMDR Johnson said, “Good, then I’ll call LTJG Taylor to escort you out of the building.”
LTJG Taylor met them at the double doors and led them down the elevator and out of the building. They walked in silence to a waiting shuttle and rode back to the Vigilant.
When they reached the Vigilant, LCDR Timmons ordered Chief Watson to start fabricating a brig to hold up to six prisoners in the port stores bay. He told him that they would be picking up the prisoners to bring them back for court martial. He told him to make up a fully enclosed separate space to lock up one of the prisoners that would be testifying against the others. He told the chief that the prisoners were politically sensitive and to limit information to the absolute minimum. When Chief Watson started to ask a question, LCDR Timmons just told him firmly to follow his orders. Chief Watson was an old school chief. He said “Aye aye,” and carried out the order without further question.
Timmons motioned Kelly into his ready room.
“I’ll hold off on telling the Chief that we'll have about thirty guests on board, in addition to the prisoners, until we get up to space dock. We’ll just open up the starboard stores bay and install bunks. You'll have to bunk with the lieutenant. Pull down the overhead bunk in your cabin for him. We’ll put the senior NCOs in with the chiefs. The rest will go into the stores bay. Stack them three high. Better lay on some extra rations.”
“Aye Aye, sir. I think we are okay on rations. We still have about a month and a half’s worth of rations in the stasis lockers from our last patrol.”
“Okay, lay on two weeks’ more rations to give us a full two months worth. Don’t get anything fancy. We’ll feed this to the prisoners. Read up on what the K’Rang eat.”
Kelly excused himself, went back to his quarters, and researched K’Rang dietary needs. He was not surprised to find their preferred diet was proteins, mainly fish and meats, raw or cooked. Vegetables were only a minor part of their diet. He laid on two weeks worth of some of the poorer cuts of meat and fish for the prisoners and arranged to receive them in space dock.
When Kelly finished the requisitions, he looked up at the clock, realized how late it was, and turned in. The trip to Gagarin was the next day.
The next morning, Kelly got up early and went off to breakfast. Kelly joined the captain, and they ate quietly together. LCDR Timmons read the news on his pocket terminal during the meal and didn’t say much. Kelly shared his mood and did the same. Wisely, none of the Vigilant crew that entered the mess hall came over to sit with or near them.
At 0900, Timmons and Kelly rode over to the Shuttle Detachment. When they checked in, they were led out to the ramp and escorted to the new S-660. Tammy met them at the top of the ramp and welcomed them aboard.
“Commander, welcome aboard the maiden flight of the City of San Francisco. Please follow me. You are my senior passengers today, so you can sit anywhere you please. I’m very proud of my new ship. If you would like a tour of the cockpit, we have a few minutes before the rest of the passengers arrive. I expect clearance from the tower shortly.”
LCDR Timmons turned down her invitation, but he waved Kelly forward and took a seat. Kelly followed Tammy into the cockpit and was impressed. The S-660 was fairly robust for a planetary shuttle. In addition to the normal instrumentation for an atmospheric shuttle, he saw exoatmospheric instrumentation. With the transporter rings in the Antares and Tau Ceti systems, this S-660 had an interplanetary, interstellar capability.
“This is nice, Tammy. It’s a lot more complex than I thought it would be. This cockpit looks like a dual position version of the F-53. I’m impressed.”
Tammy practically beamed at Kelly’s compliment. “Of course, it lacks weapons; however, it’s got everything else that a Scout has, but the FTL drive. I hear the new 700 series coming out will have an FTL drive. But with your parent’s invention, we may not need to have FTL in the future.”
“You may be right, but I think the military will still need FTL to cover the areas that won’t be served by rings.”
Tammy’s co-pilot entered the cockpit and told her that all the passengers were onboard.
“Kelly, meet Ensign Jim Stevens, my co-pilot. You’ll have to go back and take a seat now. I’ve got a ship to fly.”
Kelly rolled his eyes, shook Ensign Stevens’ hand, said, “Aye aye, Captain,” and went back to join his captain. He settled into a seat, buckled up, broke out his pocket terminal, and caught up on messages.
He was absorbed with his messages during lift off and climb into space. He completely missed Tammy’s announcement as they came into orbit. It wasn’t until she announced that shortly they would be docking at space dock that he even looked out the window. He noticed a frigate on one of the external docking arms.
“Hey, Captain, did you know there was a frigate up here? It looks like the Tenacious.”
LCDR Timmons leaned over to look out his window. “Yeah, that does look like the Tenacious. I wonder why they're hanging around. When the Bolivar Battle Group came through here last week, they must have broken something. Why don’t you see if there is anything in the reports?”
Kelly keyed up his terminal and saw the yard report of a blown FTL engine. It was waiting for parts that were due in this week. He wondered why they didn’t just head through the ring to the better equipped yard at Gagarin.
Kelly watched as Tammy made a perfect approach to the docking arm. She came to a complete stop next to the arm, applied side thrusters, and made a bumpless connection to the docking flange. Kelly was impressed.
In the cockpit, Ensign Stevens looked over at Tammy and said, “Your friend should have been impressed with that one. I think that was your best docking ever.”
She grinned and said, “I had to. I wasn’t about to give him anything to kid me over. You get to do it on the way back. I hope you’re up to it.”
The transfer of personnel and equipment onto and off of the space dock went smoothly, and in under 30 minutes they were on their way. Kelly watched as the space dock receded and the transporter ring came into sight. He felt Tammy line up with the ring and increase speed. The ship went through the ring and Kelly felt the familiar cold and blackness, but with the increased speed, it went by much faster than during the initial tests, just a few weeks ago.
He looked out as they came into orbit around the planet, Gagarin. Kelly felt the thrusters fire and the shuttle orient into re-entry attitude. Ships no longer burned into the atmosphere as in olden times. Modern engines gave the ships the ability to make a controlled spiral into the atmosphere. Heat shields were no longer a part of modern ship construction.
They landed at the military spaceport and Kelly and Timmons left the ship behind a Fleet Commander that had gotten on at the Antares space dock. A marine captain met them at the bottom of the ramp and escorted them to a hover vehicle.
“Commander, I am Captain Roger Starr. I’m an instructor at the Marine Special Operations Academy. I’ll be your escort. It will take about thirty minutes to get to the academy. Relax, gentlemen, while I get us going.”
The captain, actually equal in rank to Kelly, moved forward to sit next to the pilot and the shuttle lifted off. It quickly achieved altitude and sped off to the west. Kelly sat back and spent the time working though more of his messages. By the time he finished, they were maneuvering into a parking space near a large warehouse-like building. A group of marine officers were standing waiting for them as they debarked. The senior individual was a marine full colonel. Two majors and a Fleet commander accompanied him. Kelly and Timmons walked over to the colonel and saluted. His nameplate said Kumar.
“Sir, I’m LCDR Timmons. This is my exec, LT Blake.”
The salute was returned. The colonel reached over to shake Timmon’s hand and said, “I’m Rashid Kumar. Welcome to the Marine Special Operations Academy. I believe you know a nephew of mine.”
LCDR Timmons smiled. “You must mean Rajna, sir. Doc is my Corpsman and a damn fine one at that.”
“Rajna is my little sister’s boy. She always wanted him to be a doctor. I’m glad to hear he’s doing well. Now let me make some introductions and we’ll go inside. Commander Stew Thompson here is from Fleet Intel. He’s here to handle security for us while we’re training for this mission. These two are Majors Jones and Valicelli. Jones is my operations officer. Valicelli is my senior tactics instructor. You’ve already met Captain Starr. Let’s go inside.”
They walked into the building, up some stairs, down a corridor, and came into a room with a set of stepped theater seats facing a curtain-covered wall.
The Colonel motioned LCDR Timmons and Kelly over to sit next to him. Captain Starr sat on Kelly’s other side. The others took seats in the row behind them.
The Colonel turned in his seat, “Stew, set the stage for us.”
The Intel Commander started. “Ed, the ship you shot up in the Scutum sector is a fairly common, inconspicuous K’Rang interstellar freighter. It’s fast, armed, and innocuous looking. We’ve found similar ships in the vicinity every time an Indigo Consortium freighter made a suspicious visit to planetary systems close to the frontier. We expect this is what you will encounter on your mission.”
Colonel Kumar said, “Ed, we’ve built a scale model of the K’Rang ship and have been training our platoon to assault this ship. We also have several other common ship models we’ve been training on, but we have concentrated on this model.”
Colonel Kumar motioned to a Marine in the back of the room and the lights dimmed. The curtains parted to reveal a long window overlooking a mockup of the K’Rang light freighter in a large room. The model hung suspended in the air above the floor and Kelly suspected that the room was an anti-gravity chamber.
Col Kumar motioned again and the far window panels turned into large monitors. The video appeared to be night vision view from a helmet cam. The view was of a group of people in a small space. Kelly assumed it was the inside of an assault pod. As he looked out into the room, he saw an object move up behind the ship model. It was obviously a mock up of an assault pod and docking collar. The lights went off in the ship. The pod and docking collar came up on the port side.
Colonel Kumar said, “Captain, at this point you have just employed the EMP device and all unshielded components in the K’Rang ship have just been fried. You will move against the K’Rang ship and the assault collar will extend to lock with the hull. Explosive cutting charges will open a gap into the hull and the assault party will move into the ship, disabling all personnel on board. Because we won’t be able to separate out the courier, we have worked out the procedures to capture all occupants. Major Valicelli, would you take it from here?”
“The key to taking the ship will be getting the assault party into the ship as soon as possible after the EMP hits them. We need to hit them while they are confused and spread apart in the ship. If they get organized or band together, it will be more difficult and our chances of capturing them all alive will be reduced.”
The Colonel said, “Ed, you’ll need to have your best helmsman at the controls for this. You’ll need to come in fast, employ the EMP, and come up on the port side, just above the winglets there, to line up with the best spot for breaching the hull. It will be tight, but our simulations show it won’t be that hard. The simulator at Antares Base will be announced as down for maintenance for a few days so your helmsmen can practice.”
Timmons looked at Kelly and said, “Kelly, that will be your task. Pick our best helmsman and train them to the task.”
“Aye aye, Captain. Our best helmsman is Petty Officer Samson. She’s not the flashiest, but she is the most consistent.”
“Excellent, work with her in the simulator. Colonel, I think we’ve got the approach and docking covered.”
“Good, now if you will watch the monitors. We have cameras in the ship and on the platoon leader.”
The monitor on the inside camera showed five persons in various locations in the ship. The lights were out and the camera's night vision features were operating, giving the scene a green tint.
A circle on the port side interior glowed white hot then turned to vapor. The light was so bright it momentarily blanked out the cameras. The Marines rushed into the cabin and all five persons fell to the deck, stunned by disabling energy charges. The Marines expertly secured the five individuals and moved them out of the ship into the assault pod. The assault collar was disconnected and the loose contents of the cabin flew out of the hole into the notional space.
At this point the assault pod moved away, the lights in the chamber came up, and the Marines disembarked from the assault pod.
“The colonel said, “What do you think, Captain?”
“Well, Colonel, it’s quite impressive. I noticed that the occupants of the ship made no attempt to fight back. What happens if they aren’t so cooperative?”
A voice from the back of the room said calmly, “We don’t require their cooperation. They're coming with us, no matter what they do.”
Col Kumar motioned the woman in the assault suit to come over and join them.
“Gentlemen, allow me to introduce 1LT Mary Chen.”
Kelly swallowed hard. 1LT Chen was gorgeous. She stood about 5’7” and filled out her assault coveralls very well. LCDR Timmons looked over at him with a bemused look on his face. Kelly looked back and just shrugged his shoulders.
The Colonel said, “1LT Chen is one of our best special operators. I can’t give you any details, but this won’t be her first boarding party action.”
1LT Chen said, “Gentlemen, I am very good at this type of action. My platoon are all hand-picked and volunteers. I've worked with almost all of them before.”
Timmons said, “1LT Chen, I wasn’t questioning your competence. I only wanted to know what you would do if the K’Rang decided to put up a fight.”
“Sir, I and my platoon have trained against every possibility. It makes no difference if the K’Rang resist or not. In fact, if they do it makes our job that much easier. If they resist, we stun them all and bring them back onto your ship. I assure you that if you employ the EMP weapon and quickly move the assault pod into place, we will snatch the courier onto your ship.”
Timmons and Kelly returned to the spaceport to catch the return flight to Armstrong. 1LT Chen and her platoon would join them at Antares Station in a week’s time. Tammy met them at the top of the ramp and talked to them while the other passengers boarded. Being the senior passengers they boarded last and were off. They both quickly fell asleep and woke up only when wheels touched down on Antares Base. Upon debarking, they realized it was past closing time for the messhall and they hadn’t eaten. They retired to the Officer’s Club and had dinner in the main dining room. They ordered quickly and sipped on their wine while waiting for their meal.
“Kelly, I know you are going to be sharing your cabin with 1LT Chen, but I wouldn’t recommend making a move on this one. She could probably put you in sick bay real easy.”
Kelly shook his head. “I knew that was what you were smiling about after she walked into the conference room.”
The captain was still chuckling when their salads were delivered. They launched into their meals and conversation dried up. They finished up and made their way back to the Vigilant, checked on the ship and crew and turned in for the night.
The next few days went by quickly. Kelly spent most of it in the simulator with Chief Blankenship, running the helmsmen through their paces. Petty Officer Samson was clearly the most consistent, but Kelly trained all of them on the task. By the end of the week, only seconds separated the best from the worst. They were as ready as Kelly and Chief B could make them.
At the end of the week, the ship was loaded and ready for patrol. They lifted off from Antares Base on a dreary, rainy day and quickly punched up through the clouds into the sunlight. They were docking at the station within the hour and were met at the airlock by Captain Hasselrode.
“Ed, Kelly, come on. The admiral wants to see you while the yard is fitting the two modules.”
Kelly and Timmons followed Hasselrode through the ever more familiar inner corridors to the admiral’s office in space.
Captain Hasselrode had them wait while he went in first. In a few seconds, he opened the door and motioned them in. 1LT Chen and her Platoon Sergeant, Gunny Smith, were already there.
The admiral motioned them into chairs. “Glad you're all here now. You’ve all been briefed and trained and ready to go. I just want to impress on you how important your mission is. The K’Rang are up to something. We need to know what it is. The information this courier is supposed to be carrying should let us know what that is. Close the trap quickly. The courier must not be allowed to destroy what he is carrying. Be quick, be accurate, and leave no evidence behind. It is critical that you leave very little trace of the K’Rang ship behind. 1LT Chen, make sure the antimatter explosive charges are set before you break loose.”
“Aye aye, sir. We’ll get it done.”
They left the admiral’s office to return to the Vigilant. On the way they learned that 1LT Chen was in her third year in the Corps and recently returned from a two-year combat tour with the 1st Assault Landing Group. She had been the Midshipman Captain at the Fleet Academy. Her father had been a career Marine NCO and won the Galactic Medal of Honor at the Battle of Taurus, posthumously. Mary Chen was impressive.
They went on board the Vigilant. Gunny Smith and Chief Watson took off to billet the platoon. Kelly took 1LT Chen to show her where she’d bed down.
Kelly grabbed one of her bags and told her to follow him into his cabin. “Come on in. That’s your bunk up there. There is stowage here in this cabinet and in the fold down bunk. If you’re shy, privacy won’t be an issue. I’m supposed to be on watch every other six hours. My watches usually go on for longer than that. You’ll have all the privacy you’ll need whenever I’m on watch.”
“That won’t be a problem for me, sir. In two years in the 1st ALG I got over any notions of modesty.”
“Great, when I’m not on watch, I sleep. Don’t make a lot of noise and we’ll get along fine. I’ll let Wanda know to set you up on the terminal.”
“Who is Wanda?”
Kelly said, “Introduce yourself, Wanda.”
“Hello, 1LT Chen, welcome to the Vigilant.”
1LT Chen’s eyes went wide followed by a big smile. “Great, you have your own AI. How are you, Wanda?”
“I am fine, Lieutenant. I have already set up a partition for your files. Do you have any information you would like me to retrieve for you? You’d best do it now. We don’t have connectivity once we leave port, like the bigger Fleet ships do.”
“No, thank you, Wanda, not at this time. I have a data pod in my bag. I’ll upload it once I unpack.”
Kelly looked at 1LT Chen, “I have things to do before we depart. I’ll leave you to unpack and get settled. The head is in there. If you need a shower, I’ll be busy for the next hour. I’ll want to answer some messages before we leave, so I’ll be back in an hour to do that. Until then, the cabin’s all yours. No one will disturb you.”
“I’ll go check how my platoon is settling in first.”
Kelly left to get coffee in the galley before walking around for his pre-departure checks. He started in the bridge and worked his way astern. The bridge crew was going over navigation data with Chief Watson and conducting diagnostics on the main systems. The captain was in his cabin. Some of the senior NCOs from the assault platoon were getting settled in with the chiefs. The galley was working up the evening meal. They would eat before departure. Half the crew and half the platoon would eat in the first sitting, the other two halves in the second.
Kelly checked the two storage bays. The port storage bay had a large cell constructed of metal bars and a small cell. The large cell could hold up to ten, the smaller was enclosed and soundproofed, just large enough for a good-sized man or a medium-sized K’Rang. They would do.
The Starboard bay was packed with 23 marines and two corpsmen. Petty Officer Kumar was in the middle of them, swapping war stories. 1LT Chen was inspecting to make sure her people had gotten settled in. Kelly motioned Kumar to come on out to let them get sorted out. There would be time enough for acquaintances later. 1LT Chen looked up, saw Kelly motion Kumar out, and gave Kelly a look like “corpsmen will be corpsmen.”
Kelly continued his inspection. Sensors were squared away as usual. He checked to see that the new EMP control panel was installed properly and functioning. Chief B was there to inform him that she had checked it out personally and it was operating nominally. It couldn’t be tested in space dock, but all indicators were green. They’d never know it would work until they fired it for real. Kelly tried to imagine how they would accomplish this mission if it was a dud.
The departure was routine and uneventful. The Marines settled in quickly and got into the rhythm of a ship on patrol. They had all spent time on Fleet ships and they knew enough to stay out from under foot. The captain gave them the port storage bay, not devoted to cells, as workout space.
Kelly stopped in during one of his walks around on watch. LT Chen was engaging in what looked like Tai Chi on steroids. Many of her movements were a blur followed by absolute stillness. It was beautiful to watch. She was wearing a thin black tank top and some very short, form-fitting black shorts. It was definitely not regulation. Her outfit left little to the imagination. He could only imagine its effect on her platoon, both the male and female members. Mary Chen was quite a woman. She was definitely testing his professionalism.
“How’s it going, LT Chen?”
She stopped her routine and picked up a towel to wipe her face.
“My people are ready, sir, almost too ready. How long do you think it will be before we meet up with the courier’s ship?”
Kelly walked over to the cell and tested the bars. It gave him something to look at other than Mary Chen.
“We will be near Secundus in another two days. Then it’s up to the Manchu Warrior and the K’Rang courier. If he shows up in the area we’ll know it.”
“Good. I hate waiting.”
Two days later, they entered the Fomalhaut system. They parked the Vigilant in the system’s asteroid belt and monitored for the Manchu Warrior’s movement out of Secundus. They waited two days, watching traffic into and out of the system. They checked the registry and background of every ship moving in the system. No ship appeared in any way to be other than what they were supposed to be. None were engaging in any unusual behavior. If there was K’Rang surveillance in anticipation of the Manchu Warrior’s departure, it was very low key.
The next day, during the second day watch, the Manchu Warrior left Secundus. A large slow ore carrier was no match for the Vigilant. The Vigilant stayed among the asteroids for an hour after it left, scanning. When they found nothing out of the ordinary, the captain put the Vigilant on a parallel course to place them ahead and 300,000 km to starboard of the Manchu Warrior’s path. It wasn’t hard to follow someone when you were faster and knew where they were going. The captain’s plan was to stay well within the Vigilant’s sensor range of the Manchu Warrior, but outside of any one else’s.
They shadowed the Manchu Warrior, uneventfully, for three days, until it made its first port call at Donaldson in the Altair system. It transferred a load of magnesium to the Crabtree Smelter. It picked up a load of silver ore and moved on to the next stop, Tarsus, in the 6822 system. This time, the Vigilant moved out ahead of the Manchu Warrior and maintained a 300,000 km spacing below it all the way into the 6822 system.
The Manchu Warrior dropped its load of silver ore at the smelter on the Indigo Consortium’s asteroid in the system’s asteroid belt. It picked up a load of processed silver and moved on.
This time the Vigilant followed 300,000 km behind the Manchu Warrior. Once again, nothing out of the ordinary happened. The ship stopped in at York Station above the ice planet York. It dropped off a pod of water to replenish the station’s supply, stayed for two days shore leave, then left without taking on any cargo.
The next port of call was Refugio in the 6633 star cluster in the Serpens Cauda Constellation. It had large platinum deposits and a smelter, so the cargo was predictable. It was also the Manchu Warrior’s closest approach to the frontier. The Vigilant took a position 300,000 km ahead of the path of its quarry and preceded it into the Refugio system.
The star charts of the constellation and cluster showed the area between Refugio and the frontier to be barren space. If this was where the meet was to take place, there would be no convenient asteroids to hide behind. The Vigilant would have to hide in the star cluster and find something there to use as a vantage point. Kelly put Wanda to work searching the charts.
The captain called Kelly, Chief Watson, and LT Chen into his ready room.
“Okay, I think it’s almost show time. LT Chen, if you have any last minute preparations, you should take care of that in the next two days. Chief, get the crew ready for combat. We may not have as easy a time as last time. Kelly, check out the EMP device. If we get jumped out there I want to be able to employ it if necessary. Get with Chief B. Make sure her people are on their toes. We don’t want any surprises. If anyone can find us something to hide near, behind, or under, between this planet and the frontier, I would be most grateful.”
“I’ve got Wanda working on it, sir. Nothing shows up in the star charts. Maybe we’ll get lucky with some transient cosmic body moving through the area. I don’t know if this system has a Kuiper Belt like Earth’s solar system.”
“Yes, that would be helpful. A bunch of Pluto-sized ice planets or comets would be useful. That’s all.”
Chief Watson stayed behind. Kelly and LT Chen left. Kelly returned to the bridge, saw Chief Billings sitting in the starboard bridge command seat. He looked at his watch, realized he had been off watch for two hours and was very tired. He went back to see if Chief B was up. She was.
“Chief B, start running a diagnostic on the EMP device every watch. I’m going to get some sleep. When I wake up again, I’m going to check all the wiring from the device to the control box and everywhere else it is connected. The captain wants to be damn sure it will work when we need it. We may need to fire it more than once if we get into a scrap.”
“Aye aye, sir. I’ll put it in the watch log. If you don’t mind the company, I’ll run the wiring with you.”
“Sure Chief, see you in about six hours.”
Kelly went back to his quarters. He had lost track of when LT Chen was on and off watch, so he went in as quietly as he could. They had managed to miss each other so far in the patrol.
She was in. She was asleep and snoring slightly. She was also naked, at least from the waist up. The blanket covered the rest of her. He stripped down to his skivvies and crawled into his bunk. He’d shower when he got up. In a few minutes he was asleep and dreaming about LT Chen.
Six hours later he awoke, rested and ready for a shower. LT Chen was gone and her bunk was folded up into the bulkhead. He stripped down, took a quick shower and checked with Wanda to see how her search was coming.
“Kelly, I’ve found no asteroids or other debris out in the area between the cluster and the frontier, but I may have found something that will be useful. There are the remnants of an old supernova in the area. One or more of the gas tendrils may serve your need. I’ll put them on the screen for you.”
“One of them is across the frontier, it’s the largest. The second largest is almost perfectly positioned for your need. The third is here about to enter the cluster. A fourth is approximately 100,000 km off toward the Hercules Constellation, to port of our current course. It is near the frontier.”
“Thank you Wanda, make this information available on all the command group terminals and message it to the captain.”
Kelly left his cabin and went onto the bridge for the start of his watch. He relieved Chief Watson after hearing that there were no indications of anything unusual along their path or near the Manchu Warrior behind them. He checked the sensor feed on the path ahead and astern of them, 300,000 km to where the Manchu Warrior was poking along. Nothing, good, now to trace the wiring.
He turned the conn over to the senior petty Officer in the bridge watch and proceeded astern. He met Chief B in Sensors and they ran a diagnostic on the EMP device. All indicators came up green. Kelly crawled under the instrument console with a flashlight and started to trace every circuit into and out of the controller. Chief B joined him with the schematic on her pocket terminal. When Kelly had to pull himself into a cramped space to follow the wiring, Chief B took the flashlight and crawled up on Kelly to position it on where the wiring went through a grommet in the bulkhead. Having an attractive well-built woman lying on top of him would have been pleasant under other circumstances, but here it was just awkward.
Chief B looked down at him and said, “Promise me you’ll respect me in the morning, sir,” and burst out laughing.
Kelly just shook his head as they disentangled and crawled out of the console.
If there was any tension in the situation, it was gone now. Kelly moved around the bulkhead and followed the fire control wiring as it snaked down the side of the ship. They traced it until it moved upward into a wide cable conduit leading into the dorsal weapons bay. Kelly stuck his head up into the conduit, but his shoulders were too broad to fit. He could see about a foot of the wiring to where the conduit made a turn and he lost it.
“Chief, can you fit in here to see where the wiring goes?”
Chief Blankenship lifted herself up into the raceway and could see about three feet further. She dropped down out of the conduit and said, “I hope you aren’t too easily shocked, sir.”
At that, she unzipped her coveralls and stripped them off. She stood there for a heartbeat wearing only her boots, socks, panties, and a sheer tank top. In his peripheral vision he could see she was spectacular. Kelly had the good sense to look her straight in the eyes.
“Sir, if you boost me up there, I’ll follow the wiring up and meet you in the weapons bay. Take my coveralls with you, please. I’m not bashful, as you can see, but it wouldn’t be good for me to walk back here in my skivvies. It would make a bad impression on the younger members of the crew, much less the Marines.”
Kelly boosted her up into the conduit and watched as her very nice derriere and legs slid up and around the turn. He went back to the ladder leading to the weapons bay with her coveralls over his shoulder. He climbed up, opened the hatch and lifted himself into the bay. He found the light switch and went over to open the hatch on the conduit.
He saw a light shining in the conduit and called out, “Chief, are you okay in there?”
She chuckled slightly, “I’m fine sir, I just got snagged on a wire bundle tie. I’ll be there in a second. So far so good. No splices, nicks, or strains on the wiring.”
Kelly backed up as she got closer.
When she was almost to the hatch she called out, “Sir, you might want to set my coveralls down and turn around.”
“Why? What happened?”
“Well sir, I snagged my skivvies on the way here and I’m sort of out of uniform, if you get my drift.”
“Oh,” Kelly said, “Your coveralls are by the hatch. I’ll be following the wiring to the EMP device.”
Kelly set her coveralls next to the hatch and followed the wiring to where it went into the rear of the device.
A few seconds later Chief B came up behind him with a twinkle in her eyes. “Sorry about that, sir. Now aren’t you glad you brought my coveralls with you? Damn wire bundle tie reached out and almost ripped my shorts in half before I even knew what happened. I got a hell of a scrape on my right hip. I’ll let Doc look at it when we are done here. He’ll get a thrill out of that. Some of those new plastic compounds can cause a nasty allergic reaction if they break the skin.”
“Thanks, Chief. I ran a self diagnostic on the device from here and got the same reading as from the console. Let’s go run the power wiring from the console into engineering and you can get your hip tended to.”
Kelly sealed the conduit hatch, let Chief B go down the personnel hatch into the ship first, turned out the lights, and followed, sealing the hatch behind.
The power wiring into engineering also was run properly with no nicks, wears, splices, or strains. The space dock yard crew had done a very good job.
Kelly thanked Chief B, saw her off to see Doc, and went back to the bridge. Cookie had just finished baking, so he grabbed some cookies to take to the bridge crew.
He took the report from the senior petty officer as he reassumed the conn. Nothing out of the ordinary on sensors and the ship was performing normally.
The captain stuck his head out of his cabin and motioned for Kelly to come in.
“Kelly, I like this largest tendril as a hiding place and I think we need to get there sooner than our current pace will allow. This smaller one between the system and the frontier is too exposed and too obvious. I’m concerned that a K’Rang scout or a sensor pod may be out there watching the meeting point and see us when we move in to monitor the rendezvous.”
“I’m not worried about violating K’Rang space. My orders allow me to go anywhere I need to successfully intercept this courier.”
“I’m, therefore, going to take us to max speed, make a wide loop around the star cluster, cross the frontier here where this other tendril is up against it, and slip into the gas cloud around this largest tendril from the K’Rang side. With our sensitive sensors, we should be able to spot any K’Rang ships or scouts before they can spot us. Here’s the new course. Execute.”
Kelly went back out onto the bridge, forwarded the new course and speed to the helm and navigator. While they entered the new instructions, he told Sensors to go into a maximum 360 degree scan and report all contacts.
As the Vigilant sped off on its new course, Sensors started calling out all targets within a half million kilometer bubble around the ship. All were initially shown as yellow on the screens until they were determined to be friendly, blue, a threat, red, or not a threat, green. There were no red symbols. The Manchu Warrior, now falling quickly behind, was alone in the depth of the dark space between systems. No ships were near them or on a path to intercept.
Kelly focused on the edge of the bubble between the system and the frontier. He saw no ships or objects between the frontier or within 100,000 km. He switched to star charts and scanned for the nearest K’Rang habitable planets. None of the other stars in the cluster on the K’Rang or GR side had habitable planets. Most of the stars were proplyds, a sun with a protoplanetary disk, billions of years away from having life-supporting planets. He searched as far into K’Rang territory as his incomplete chart went, and the nearest habitable planet was more than a week away at max speed.
They approached the tendril near the frontier and slowed slightly. Kelly felt someone looking over his shoulder, turned, and saw the captain looking at his display.
“Damn, it’s quiet out here, Kelly. Let’s put a move on and get settled into the dust cloud Wanda found for us. Call us to battle stations and bring the ship through the frontier.”
The klaxon sounded and the crew smoothly moved into their battle stations. Marine squads positioned themselves equidistant along the center corridor. LT Chen and Gunny Smith stood at parade rest behind the bridge command positions, fully armed.
Kelly brought them as far into the supernova’s tendril as he dared. They were quickly through the frontier and without any reaction from the K’Rang sensor buoys or mines. Kelly increased speed to max as they cleared and then cut power to the engines, allowing them to coast and get maximum sensor sensitivity. Sensors still reported no contacts in K’Rang space.
Kelly brought the ship back up to full speed and completed the fishhook movement to bring them into the back side of the large tendril. They moved into the dust cloud this time and picked their way through the tumbling rubble and gases to the top, to drop off a remote sensor pod. They then moved down to settle underneath the gas cloud. They moved to just far enough out for their ship’s sensors to have a full view behind into K’Rang space, below, around, and ahead. With the remote sensor pod above them, they had full coverage.
They waited. When two hours had passed and there was nothing on the sensors around or approaching them, the captain released battle stations. Kelly recommended, and LCDR Timmons agreed, to keeping the two lower turrets manned at all times.
They settled in and waited. Kelly realized he hadn’t eaten. He made a run back to the galley for a couple of sandwiches, a glass of milk, and some cookies. He sat down and was joined a moment later by LT Chen.
“So, sir, when do you think we’ll know anything?”
“I don’t know. The Manchu Warrior is a day and a half away. They’ll be in port for two or more days to offload their cargo of platinum ore and pick up a load of ingots. The Refugio cargo station is pretty primitive. It could take a while. Meanwhile, we wait and we watch. It’s up to the K’Rang now.”
They didn’t watch for too long. Eight hours later Sensors spotted a large K’Rang ship coming in at power three. They assessed this might be the FTL-capable ship bringing in the courier’s ship. It moved to within 200,000 km of the Vigilant’s position and stopped. Two K’Rang Scout ships and a heavy attack fighter launched from the ship and fanned out, moving toward the gas cloud hiding the Vigilant. The captain ordered the ship closer to the charged cloud. They settled into a pea soup thick area, several times larger than the Vigilant, with vapors gassing around its edges. Vigilant vanished in this fog.
The three ships passed the cloud and the Vigilant by. The attack fighter set up forward of the cloud's leading edge, facing the frontier, and the other two fanned out to the sides. The captain let them get out of range and dropped the Vigilant back down to give the sensors full field of view. The K’Rang ship ahead could not scan through the charged gas field, so they were safe from him. The larger K’Rang ship behind them just sat and waited. The two outlying scout ships moved out to 100,000 km on either side and waited.
Twenty-two hours later, Sensors picked up the Manchu Warrior coming into the 6633 system. They slowed to below FTL and moved through the outer planets toward Refugio. No shuttle craft left the Manchu Warrior as before. The ship docked in the cargo station and offloaded its cargo.
The Vigilant waited and watched for two days. No shuttle left the Manchu Warrior. The K’Rang ships stayed in their positions. No courier ship left the large FTL-capable ship behind them. The captain was starting to get antsy.
“Kelly, I’m beginning to feel we are on a wild goose chase. I’m just a little concerned that we are out here now, in K’Rang space, with a K’Rang heavy fighter within spitting distance, two scouts flanking us, and that big guy behind us, with Lord knows what in his cargo bays yet to fly out. I’m not feeling real comfortable at the moment. I wonder if the exchange is taking place down on Refugio. I hope those Fleet Intel operatives know what they are doing.”
The exchange had indeed taken place, not on Refugio’s surface, but in the cargo station. Two burly longshoremen in full exposure suits and thruster packs had left the cargo handling level for the aft cargo bay of the Manchu Warrior. They expertly floated up to airlock, locked themselves in and operated the mechanism. In two minutes they were at full atmosphere. The airlock’s inner door opened and two recently employed crew members of the Manchu Warrior helped the longshoremen off with their suits. As the helmets came off the feline faces of two shadow warriors came into view, the two crewmen stepped back for a second, looked at each other, shrugged and got back to helping them out of their suits. The crewmen were being handsomely paid for this task.
The K’Rang disassembled their life support packs and pulled out two large packs from inside.
The two crewmen led the warriors down deserted passages to the owner’s large cabin. The man inside waiting for the two K’Rang warriors was not the owner, but he had the owners’ every confidence. Alan Shepler, an Indigo Consortium negotiator, was also a little nervous. He had never met a K’Rang before and was not sure what to expect. He had made many other transactions of all types, legal and otherwise, for the consortium. He would manage to make this one work too. This one, though, would garner him a vice presidency.
“Come in, gentlemen. Please take seats. Make yourselves comfortable. Frank, Clyde, you can leave, but don’t go too far away. See that we are not disturbed.”
The two crewmen left the room to stand guard outside the door.
The man turned back toward his guests and saw they were still standing.
“Please be seated, gentlemen. I assure you we are quite safe and secure here. You may verify that if you brought the appropriate sensors. Would you care to join me in a drink or do you prefer nepetalactone? If so, I have the finest blend from Earth for you.”
The larger and Tabby-colored warrior threw down his pack and spoke, “We do not care to drink and no, we do not care for catnip. We are Shadow Warriors, not kittens. Let us get down to business. These pleasantries irritate me.”
The other Shadow Warrior took a step forward. The man took a slight step back, looking at the two of them, recovered, and moved over to a wooden box on the desk in the corner of the room. He opened it, took out a small cloth pouch, and carried it over to the warrior.
“I believe this is what you are here for.” He handed it to the K’Rang courier.
The K’Rang took the data storage device from the man. He inserted it into an obvious pocket terminal he pulled from a pouch on his coveralls. He checked the data on his terminal, verified it was as promised, removed the data device and inserted another small device where the data storage device had been. After a few seconds he put the pocket terminal away and the smaller device into his breast pocket. He handed the data storage device back to the human.
The Shadow Warrior spoke. “The data is as promised. Our payment is here also as promised. Make wise use of them-they are rare and increasingly hard to find. Many K’Rang died gathering this amount for you.”
As the second K’Rang laid his pack on top of the first, it was opened for inspection by the human. The senior Warrior thought how stupid these humans were to place such value on something so worthless that K’Rang children used them to skip across the water on home world. It did not matter. They now had the information they needed to push the Humans back and keep them back from the three K’Rang main worlds in what the Humans called the Scutum sector. Once the one Human world was destroyed, they would fortify the area and take back their territory. With fewer habitable worlds in the K’Rang Imperial space than in the Galactic Republic space, their few main worlds needed a buffer zone to protect them.
The larger K’Rang turned to the man, with a semblance of a smile on his face, “Please forgive my earlier rude outburst. It has been a long journey and a tense wait for us. Now that our initial business is complete, perhaps we can have that drink you promised us. And while we choose not to partake of the nepetalactone, perhaps we could have some to take back as a gift from you to our superiors.”
The Human positively beamed. “Why, of course, take as much as you want. Take all of it. Here, let me get you something to drink. Is Scotch all right? This is Real Scottish whiskey from Earth, aged 50 years. It’s the best single malt Scotch there is.”
The Human babbled on about the Scotch for hours as the two K’Rang Shadow Warriors sipped theirs and made pleasantries. If it wasn’t that they still needed him to get them on their way across the frontier, they would rip his throat out with only a flick of their claws.
Kelly had done some research on the K’Rang ships around them. The heavy attack ship was a third the size of the Vigilant. It carried guns and 12 medium anti-ship missiles. It was the greatest threat. The scouts were the medium class scout ships, not the small mosquito-looking one he’d dealt with before. They had a small caliber particle beam turret, but it was mainly for self defense, not for attack, so were no threat. The big unknown was what was still on the FTL ship behind them. If it had more fighters, things could get real dicey here on this side of the frontier.
Their best course of action would be to take out the attack ship first. It had no idea the Vigilant was there, so surprise and superior firepower was on Vigilant’s side. After taking out the apparent threat, Vigilant could deal with the scouts if they made any move. Finally, if the larger FTL ship launched something unpleasant, Vigilant would have 5-10 minutes to employ the EMP device against the courier’s ship once it showed up, board it, grab the courier, and scoot back across the frontier, blowing a hole through the mines with Vigilant’s guns.
In a few minutes, Timmons briefed him on the same plan. He did come up with a twist though; he was going to use the EMP device on the attack ship and take it out. All Vigilant had to do now was wait for the courier ship to come along.
“Shadow Warrior,” began Alan Shepler, “We will be leaving the system soon. Come with me and I will introduce you to our shuttle’s controls.”
“That is not necessary Mr. Shepler. We are both proficient in piloting this type of ship.
Shepler continued, “Well then, relax here until we are out of the system. We will parallel the frontier for a time before turning toward our next destination. You will drop off before we turn. You may take the shuttle with our compliments. Would you care for some more Scotch?”
Sensors called to the bridge that the Manchu Warrior was departing the 6633 system. Kelly brought the sensor plot of the Manchu Warrior up on his monitor. It was leaving Refugio and heading toward the frontier. It made a turn to starboard. Kelly expanded the field of view to encompass the FTL ship behind them. He expected to see the courier’s ship belch forth for the meeting. Nothing appeared.
The captain took his seat on the bridge.
“Kelly, I think we’ve been suckered. The courier’s ship should have appeared by now. We’d better get ready for our run to the border. We’ll take out this guy above us with the EMP and go out the way we came in. We’ll wait ‘til the Manchu Warrior is out of range before we scoot. That EMP burst will show up a long way on sensors.”
“Bridge, Sensors. We have a shuttle leaving the Manchu Warrior. It's heading for the frontier and directly at us.”
The captain looked up in surprise. “What the hell? What can it be meeting up with? Oh hell, it’s meeting the fighter.”
Kelly called up the schematic on the fighter. “It can’t, sir. The fighter has no docking collar or hatch. Same thing for the scouts. It must be going for the FTL ship behind us.”
The shuttle punched through the frontier without a stir from the K’Rang sensors or mines. The two scouts out on the flanks turned and headed back toward the FTL ship. The fighter above them started to pull out of the tendrils’s mists to join up with the shuttle.
The captain keyed the intercom and said, “All sections to battle stations. Prepare to employ the EMP. Marines, to your boarding stations.”
There was only a small amount of movement as most of the crew had been at or near their battle stations for two hours. Everyone was anticipating this action.
Chief Watson reported, “Sir, the Marines and all sections report ready.”
The captain said, “Helm, take us out and in pursuit of the fighter. Weapons, prepare to fire the EMP on my order, and heat up the guns. We’re about to need them. Don’t fire on the shuttle, but everything else is fair game.”
“Kelly, if the EMP doesn’t work, lock on, and kill this guy.”
Kelly switched his monitor to weapons control and sat ready.
The Vigilant jumped out of the cloud, directly under the emerging fighter. The Vigilant turned upwards and aimed squarely at the center of the fighter’s belly.
The captain keyed the intercom, “EMP device, stand by.”
The Vigilant quickly closed the distance.
“Weapons, fire the EMP.”
There was no light or sound, but the fighter above them lost engine power and stability. It started to tumble. The turret gunners targeted the missile bays and guns. The Vigilant shot through the exploding ball of fire and debris that previously had been the fighter.
The shuttle reacted to the fighter’s demise by kicking into high speed and making a beeline toward the FTL ship. It would not get there in time. With the fighter gone, there was nothing in range that could come to their aid in time. The captain ordered the helm to pursue, and the distance closed in seconds.
The EMP pulsed again and the shuttle lost propulsion and stability. The helm closed in on the shuttle, locked it in place with the tractor beam, and turned to align the assault pod with the port side of the shuttle. The dorsal weapons pod hatch opened and the pod’s docking collar extended, preparing to attach to the side of the shuttle.
A slight shock was felt as the docking collar contacted the shuttle. The captain had the tractor beam hold the shuttle in place to keep it from tumbling away. Kelly switched his monitor to LT Chen’s helmet cam feed.
As in the training simulation, the white circle flared and a section of bulkhead fell into the shuttle. Two marines with stun guns rushed into the cabin, followed by LT Chen and the rest of the assault squad. The two K’Rang occupants hit the deck immediately and were quickly bound, gagged and transported out the hole into the docking collar.
The two scout ships had turned to try and come to the aid of the shuttle, but they would be too late. At max burn they would find only empty space when they got here. The captain keyed his intercom and said, “LT Chen, place your charges, but don’t set the timers yet.”
“Kelly, how long for the scouts to get here, exact as you can get, please?”
Kelly punched a few keys on his console and answered, “Sir, they will be here in two minutes and 28 seconds.”
The captain keyed his mike again, “LT Chen, set your timers for two minutes 30 seconds from now. Let’s get moving. We’ve got company coming. Sensors, is there any movement from the FTL ship back there?”
“Not a bit, Captain. They are just sitting there. Their comms are active though.”
LT Chen came up on the intercom, “Captain, all charges set. We’re all back in the collar. We’re closed up and ready to separate on your command, sir. All personnel accounted for with no casualties.”
“LT Chen, separate now. Get your Marines and our guests back inside.”
“Helm, get us back across the frontier, full speed ahead. Close up the weapons bay hatch. Let’s go home. Kelly, go check on our guests.”
Kelly went aft to the makeshift brig in the port stores locker. Three Marines each carried the two unconscious and bound K’Rang into the cells. They didn’t know which was the courier, so they put one in the big cell and one in the smaller cell, for sorting out later. They stripped the two down to their fur and scanned them for any hidden or internal devices.
Each K’Rang had a small blade in a surgically emplaced pouch on their hips. The corpsmen removed these with ease. One K’Rang had a small electronic device in his ear. This was also removed and sent to Sensors for analysis. Small pins were found bound into their fur. A small pair of scissors removed these. Their clothes were searched and two weapons were found, along with a small data crystal and a small electronic device. All the devices were scanned for explosives, found to be clear, and sent to Sensors. When the search was completed, the K’Rang were dressed in extra large hospital pajamas, untied, and left guarded in their cells.
The two K’Rang scout ships arrived simultaneously at the site of the tumbling, lifeless shuttle craft. Five seconds later it exploded in a large fireball, consuming all three ships. The courier ship’s debris intermingled with that of the scouts ships.
Kelly rejoined the bridge crew and reported that their guests were in their quarters and resting. Chief B came up behind him with a small electronic device in her hand.
“Captain, this should make it easier for us to cross the frontier.”
“What is it, Chief B?”
“Captain, this is what the K’Rang used to cross through the frontier unmolested. I think it turns off the mines. Want to try it?”
“Well, we’re almost there and going through anyway. It can’t hurt. Sound collision. Here we go. Punch it, Chief.”
“Chief B punched the white button on the device as the Vigilant passed through the frontier. One mine that had activated and oriented on the Vigilant returned to its normal position. They were through.
The captain said, “That wasn’t so bad. Put us on course for Antares. Maintain full speed. Chief B, would you link into comms through Refugio and send the success code?”
“Aye aye, sir.”
The Manchu Warrior continued on, showing no reaction to the activity across the frontier.
Ten days later they were back at Antares Station. Surprisingly, their passengers had survived the journey. It required restraints and occasional intervention by the three corpsmen, but they made it.
The Vigilant was directed to a remote docking station in the back corner of the station. The Marines, heavily armed and in full body armor, escorted the K’Rang Shadow Warriors to the station’s special holding facility. Their interrogations would begin shortly.
1LT Chen was packing when Kelly came into his quarters.
She looked up at Kelly as he came in, smiled and said, “Sir, I know this may be out of line, but I really enjoyed working with you and sharing your cabin. You were always a complete gentleman. I only hope that there may come a time when we could meet under less formal circumstances. Perhaps I could buy you a drink someday.”
Kelly smiled, “I’d like that too, Mary. You know we are actually the same rank. Why don’t you call me Kelly from now on.”
“All right, Kelly, I’ll do that in private for now, but wait until I’m no longer attached to the Vigilant before I do that in public. We must observe the protocols. Here is something else I’ll do in private.”
She moved up against him and gave him a slow, soft kiss.
“Sorry, Kelly, but I’ve wanted to do that since I first saw you at the Marine Special Ops Academy.
Kelly straightened his uniform, although it wasn’t wrinkled, and said, “Thank you, Mary, it was my pleasure. If you're all packed, let me help you with your gear.”
Captain Hasselrode came onboard to escort Kelly and Timmons to the admiral in his station office. They were told to bring all the items taken from the K’Rang. They made their way to the familiar cypher door, went through Admiral Craddock’s outer office, knocked, and were told to enter. The admiral was at his terminal sending a message.
When he sent the message, he looked up and a broad smile came on his face. “Ed, Kelly, I’m glad you made it back safely. I just sent the identifying data on our guests to Fleet Intel. We might know who they are by morning.”
“Sit down, sit down. Make yourselves comfortable. I'm so proud of you two. You're making quite a name for yourselves and the Vigilant. Ed, I’ll need any recommendations for awards from you by the morning.”
“I’ll send them as soon as I get back, sir. 1LT Chen did a great job. She and her platoon deserve all the praise. The boarding was done superbly, under great time pressure, and was 100 % successful. She accomplished her mission in the finest tradition of the Corps.”
“Well, get me your recommendation and I’ll see what I can do. Now why don’t you get back to your ship and down to Antares Base? We’ll talk again tomorrow. Captain Hasselrode will contact you when we have the debriefings set up. 1LT Chen is released back to her command when you reach planet-side and the debriefings are done. The orders will be on your terminal when you get back to the Vigilant. Have a good trip. Oh yes, I’ll probably be sending you back out shortly. So you’d better undo all the modifications to your ship.”
Kelly and Timmons stood up, saluted, and left to return to the Vigilant and planet-side.