The next morning Kelly had breakfast and caught a shuttle to the shipyard, where he identified every bump, antenna, and blister on the Vigilant. After an hour, he felt he had a good handle on all the external sensors. He then went inside and traced every weapon circuit on the ship. This took another hour. The next hour was spent tracing the flight control circuits. By the time his stomach would no longer let him ignore it, he had worked through all primary and secondary flight control circuits. He would have to wait on all the other systems until the refit was complete.
Kelly found a shuttle in the nearest lot and asked it to take him to the Officer’s Club. After a few short minutes the shuttle pulled up in front of the club. He avoided the front door. His coveralls wouldn’t be appreciated. He walked around to the snack bar in back. Feeling a little nostalgic, he ordered a burger and fries. He had a beer while waiting for his lunch to arrive. LT Bell from the Vehement came over.
“Do you mind if I join you?”
Kelly looked up, recognized LT Bell, and said, “No, sir, I don’t mind at all. Can I buy you a beer?”
“Uh, yeah, sure, whatever you’re having,” he replied.
Kelly waved the barmaid over to bring another beer.
When it arrived, Kelly took a sip of his and asked, “How did you like the admiral’s party last night?”
“I got a kick out of listening to the admiral’s stories. I understand you and the admiral’s daughter got along pretty well.”
“Candy has a lot of trouble making friends, considering she is the boss’ daughter. I offered to be her friend. The admiral seemed alright about it.”
“Great, she’s a really nice lady, and not hard on the eyes either.”
At that point Kelly’s burger arrived and the topic changed to the Vigilant’s refit.
“So how is the refit going? Are they going to get you done by the end of the month?”
“It seems to be going pretty well. I just spent the morning learning all the systems that are complete. I traced all the weapon circuitry and flight control circuits. It’s easy, now that most of the bulkheads are down. I don’t know if the yard has asked that your crew keep off the ship and out of their way. If they do, make sure your Chief Machinist Mate stays on board. Chief Miller has been very good at keeping the yard crew honest.”
“Watch out to make sure the yard crew follows the wiring diagram. They will misroute the cabling and then wind up with the wires being too short. These guys don’t splice worth a darn, especially with fiber optic cable. If the wiring doesn’t match the schematics, make them do it over. You will be the one tracing down a wiring problem on patrol, not them. That’s why I spent my morning tracing circuits.”
“Chief Miller and our chief have talked. Ours is right in the middle of the yard crew. They were more than willing to have a knowledgeable and free helper. Their experience with your chief helped us to convince the yard crew.”
LT Bell moved over closer. “Can I give you a bit of advice?”
Kelly, thinking it had to do with the refit, said, “Sure, what is it?”
“Be very careful if you are thinking of getting friendly with the admiral’s daughter. More than a few officer’s careers have come to a screeching halt for trying to advance their careers by dating the boss’ daughter.”
“I don’t think I have anything to worry about in that regard. I offered to be her friend. That’s all I’m interested in at the moment. Besides, the admiral had a talk with me about it last night. He was alright with me taking out his daughter, if I wanted.”
“Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“Okay, I’ll consider myself warned. Thanks.”
Kelly and LT Bell left together and caught a shuttle to the Q. Kelly used the time in his quarters to clean up, change for the party at the O Club that night, and catch up on messages. His message queue contained a video file from Angie. He clicked on it and her face came up on the screen. “How you doing, wingman? I waited to give you time to get settled in with your new unit. How did it go? Who are you with now? Old Bugger Off didn’t screw you too badly, did she? Send me a message and let me know how you are doing. CPT Willis, John, and even LTC Matthews have been asking about you.”
“I have some good news for you. Old Bugger Off is being reviewed for mandatory retirement. Seems she is beyond retirement age and the Fighter Force Personnel Center has her up before a board looking at whether she should be kept on active duty. We’re all rooting for her retirement. There is a rumor running around Flag Country that a number of Flag Officers complained about her and this board is just a way to move her out. You may be famous for being the last officer she cast aside.”
“Send me a message and let me know how you are doing. I miss you watching my six.”
As she signed off, she backed up from the camera, turned around, and was wearing something less than she had ever worn around him on the Bolivar. It was a shame she was several hundred light years away.
Kelly sent Angie a quick synopsis of his current situation, cut and pasted the earlier video of him in his mess dress uniform, and sent it off. He finished clearing out his message queue, looked at his watch, and realized he was going to be late for the party, if he didn’t get a move on. He closed out his terminal and went out to catch the nearest shuttle.
He got lucky again and found a shuttle waiting for him at the nearest lot. He climbed in, punched in his destination, and headed off.
When Kelly arrived at the junior officer’s bar, the party was already going strong. He walked in and Ensign Nielsen called out to him almost immediately. Young male officers surrounded her, but she shrugged them off and came over to Kelly.
She flashed that dazzling smile. “It’s about time you got here. I thought I was going to have to hold off all those guys by myself. Here, let me wrap my arm around yours and maybe they’ll take a hint. It’s a real zoo in here tonight. I forgot that the landing ship crews had arrived to take their ships out of the yard. There must be ten guys to one girl in there. Come on, let me buy you a drink.”
They walked over to the bar, Tammy never letting loose of his arm. Several landing ship officers looked at him with a mix of envy and anger. He wondered how long it would be healthy for him to be here. Tammy asked him what he wanted with a mischievous look in her eyes. He disappointed her by saying, “Just a beer.”
She got them each a beer and they retired to a table away from some of the more boisterous landing ship officers. The gators, as they called themselves, were engaging in some bar games that had the potential to cause major mayhem. One, called Assault Landing, involved two officers each carrying as many other officers as they could the distance of the bar. Two of the bigger male lieutenants were carrying five officers each and waddling to the end of the bar. This was accompanied by yells of encouragement, or derision for the opponents.
The junior officers’ bar was designed to survive such festivities. The bar itself was heavy plasteel. All the alcohol was stored in cabinets under the bar. The fixtures around the room were heavy and washable. The tables were fixed to the floor and the chairs were heavy and hard to lift. Even the gators couldn’t harm this place, designed so officers back from long patrols would have a place to cut loose far away from senior officers’ eyes.
The two large gators that had just done the heavy lifting exhibition saw Kelly and Tammy sitting by themselves and came over.
“Well, look at this. This fellow is hogging the prettiest woman in here.”
Kelly looked up at the two of them and asked, “What can I do for you fellows?” It looked like it was about to get ugly. Kelly figured he might get lucky and take out one of this pair, but not both.
Other gators came over to watch the show. One of them, a Lieutenant JG, seeing the fighter wings on Kelly’s windbreaker shouted out, “Hey Mahoney, Drew, leave this guy alone. I remember him from the Bolivar. He’s like me. He pissed off Old Bugger Off and wound up here.”
The bigger of the two, Drew, asked, “Is what he said true?”
“Yeah, it’s true.”
Drew slapped him on the back, nearly knocking him out of his chair, and said, “Well, let me buy you a beer. Anybody that Old Bugger Off hates is a friend of mine.” A round of further back-slapping ensued.
As the crowd fell away, Tammy asked, “What was that all about?”
Kelly took a sip of his beer and said, “General Bugarov is a senior officer in Fighter Force. She has a penchant for discarding officers. It seems I’m in a rather large and storied group of officers.”
“So tell me. What did you do to get a general pissed off at you?”
“It’s a short story. The general thought she was Napoleon re-born, and I was impolitic to show that she wasn’t.”
“Short story, huh? I bet that’s quite a short story.”
“Yeah, but that’s all I’m saying. I’m tired of telling the story.”
“So tell me something else about yourself. I’m all ears.” She reached up and pulled her blonde hair behind her ears.
“Not much to tell, I grew up on Earth in North America near the Great Lakes, I went to a good school, followed in my parents’ footsteps, and got an Electronic Engineering degree. EE bored me, so I applied for the Academy, went into the Fighter Force, and now I’m here.”
“I get the feeling there is more to tell than just that. I saw your ribbons when you got on my shuttle. You did an awful lot in just a short time in Fighter Force. I’ve seen senior officers without your ribbons.”
“I know. That’s one of the things that so endeared me to the general.”
Tammy laughed an honest laugh. Kelly enjoyed that about her. She was easy to be around.
A shadow fell over the table. Kelly looked up and saw LT Casimirski standing in the light.
He swayed a little bit as he stood and said, “Tammy, who’s your friend? Oh, I know you. You’re the ensign that’s hard of hearing.”
Tammy said, “Stop it Cas. Kelly is my friend.”
“It’s all right Tammy, the ensign and I have met.”
“Yes, we’ve met. What can I do for you, Lieutenant?
“You can leave.”
“Why would I want to do that, Lieutenant?”
“Because you are messing around with something I have a prior claim on.”
Tammy flew out of her chair. “A prior claim! What are you talking about, Cas? I have never given you the slightest bit of encouragement. If you keep this up, I am going to the Detachment Commander and reporting you for harassment.”
Cas recoiled from her anger, backed up, and found LT Drew standing there in his path. Drew grabbed Cas by both arms and said, “Mister, you are upsetting this lady and insulting a friend of mine. I think you’ve had a bit too much to drink. We’re going to help you to a shuttle and send you to your quarters.”
“You can’t do this to me. I’ve got just as much right to be here as you.”
Ten gator lieutenants came and stood around LT Casimirski.
LT Drew said, “We’re not as impressed by your rank as these ensigns might be. Now, you don’t want to argue with all of us. You probably don’t even want to argue with me.”
Drew picked up LT Casimirski by the arms and frog marched him out of the club. The party resumed. Kelly and Tammy sat back down and finished their beers.
“So, Kelly, what have you planned for tomorrow? You do get tomorrow off, don’t you?”
“I don’t have any plans. Are you going to suggest something?”
“There is a pretty good sized lake to the west of here. I was going to rent a skimmer and go out to one of the islands and bake in the sun, splash around, have a picnic. Are you interested?
“Sure, that sounds like fun. Who else will be going along?”
“Just us.” She said with a beguiling smile on her face.
“With such pleasant company, how can I refuse?”
“We’ll leave from the Q at 0800. Just bring yourself and some sunscreen. If they didn’t explain the orbital dynamics of Armstrong, I should fill you in. Armstrong doesn’t wobble on its axis like Earth. There are no changing seasons here. The angle of the planet to the sun is constant. Here in the northern hemisphere it is always Summer. There is no northern polar icecap. In the south it’s always springlike. The sun can burn you pretty quickly here if you don’t use a strong screen. It's especially bad for folks coming off a long patrol. They go from pasty white to cherry red in a fraction of an afternoon.”
She tipped her bottle back and said, “I think it’s your turn to buy the beer.”
Kelly ordered another round, they spent the rest of the night talking and drinking. Periodically, one of the gators would buy a round for the house. As things wound down in the bar, she suggested they should go back to the Q and turn in. 0800 would come awfully early.
They shared a shuttle back to the Q. Tammy lay back in Kelly’s arms. She looked up at him, gave him a slow lingering kiss, and promptly passed out.
Kelly picked her up once the shuttle arrived at the Q and carried her to her quarters. He loosened her clothes, took off her shoes, put her under the covers, and retired to his own quarters.
Charles Delphant, Chairman and CEO of the Indigo Consortium was alone, working late in his office on the top floor of the Consortium’s main administrative building on Secundus, in the Fomalhaut System. The office’s furnishings reflected the wealth and prestige of its owner. Real oak panels covered the walls. Plush wool carpet covered the floor. The desk was solid walnut, imported to Secundus directly from Earth at no small expense. Earth wood and wool were an almost unheard of luxury in the outer worlds. He had let his secretary go an hour earlier, telling her he had only some minor matters to resolve before calling it a day. He finished those matters, then touched a hidden button under his desk.
That button activated a number of special security measures. The door double locked. The windows went opaque. Infrasonic wave generators activated in the walls, doors, and on the windows, foiling any possible listening devices. He logged his terminal off the company network and reconnected to a special network not associated in any way with the Consortium.
He checked messages on a special public account. Ten messages hit his queue. All were innocuous. Two were advertisements. Three dealt with trading cooking recipes. The remainders were short humorous video files. Anyone intercepting them would have been bored mightily.
Delphant attached a small storage device to his terminal and loaded the messages onto it. Shortly, a green light activated on the side of the device. He opened the storage device’s volume and clicked on a small program icon. A small holographic image of the solicitous K’Rang merchant, T’Polla, appeared on his desktop.
“Mr. Delphant, we are very pleased with the business and financial information you have provided thus far. Your monetary system is, pardon the expression, alien to us. We hope the small tokens of our esteem have pleased you. These are but one type of merchandise that we will be able to make available once we have established trade relations with the Galactic Republic. Of course, when that happy day occurs, your company will be our agent for distribution of K’Rang goods throughout human space.”
“We in the merchant class have been working closely with the political class here on the K’Rang home world to gain dominance over the warrior class and improve relations with the Galactic Republic. We have made great strides, thus far. This constant warfare is useless and accomplishes nothing but keeping our boastful and ineffective military in fancy uniforms. Their xenophobic reaction to all other civilizations is most taxing and must be stopped. We long for peace and the eventual benefit and profit that can accrue to both our civilizations.”
“A four K’Andor shipment of the B’Rella, excuse me, flame stones will be transferred over at our next rendezvous. I have included a list of the information on frontier planetary systems that will be needed for us to plan our trade routes and distribution centers. In addition, I don’t know if you will be interested in trading in K’Rang surplus military equipment once peace arrives and our trade relations are cemented, but if you could provide information on these systems’ military capabilities, it would help us to know what armaments might interest them. Even if we won’t be at war anymore, there are always brigands and pirates to deal with.”
“Please give my regards to Mr. Gundersen. I found him to be a most agreeable human at our last meeting. We look forward to our next meeting with great anticipation.”
The K’Rang bowed and the hologram dissolved. A list of ten star systems and associated planets scrolled across his screen.
Charles Delphant thought about the video. The information the K’Rang requested would be easy to acquire. Most of it was easily available over the open network. His contracted research firm could get him the rest. The military information was a new twist.
He had assumed that such a request would be forthcoming. He knew the K’Rang would eventually want something of real value for their flame stones. He would have to make sure that the information on the frontier system’s military defenses was of a low enough granularity that it would do the K’Rang military little good. He could always beg off that such information was classified and unavailable. Maybe he could squeeze a few more cases of flame stones out of the K’Rang before he was done.
He had little hope for the eventual establishment of peaceful trade relations between humans and the K’Rang, but he couldn’t turn down the opportunity to acquire a steady stream of flame stones. He pulled a large one out of a special carved box in his desk and looked at it. Even for someone that had been in the jewelry business for as long as he had, it was breathtaking. The orange-crimson luminescence made it shine like it was on fire, but it was cold to the touch. He loved to watch the colors shift. It also pleased him that this stone the size of a child’s large marble could match his not inconsiderable salary for ten years.
He had almost 30 liters of them, some even larger, at his mine on the Consortium’s Asteroid 4533 in the Rigel System. It would not be long before flame stones would be “discovered” there and he could bring them onto the market in small enough quantities to supply them to a most discerning and wealthy clientele, but not enough to dissipate the demand. He forecasted a 300 percent overall increase in company profits from this “discovery” next year alone. If the K’Rang only knew the true value of these “shiny rocks,” as they referred to them.
Putting the stone away in its box, he concentrated on formulating two messages: one, heavily encrypted, to T’Polla agreeing to his request and another to Gundersen, informing him of his next trip to inspect the Consortium offices on New Alexandria in the 6664 System.
On Sunday morning a sheepish-looking Tammy showed up at Kelly’s door. He was ready to go. She said, “I hope I didn’t make a fool of myself last night.”
“Not a bit. You were a perfect lady up to and including after you passed out,” Kelly chuckled.
“I don’t normally drink that much. Those gators sure do know how to party. Let’s go.”
They caught a shuttle over to the morale services marina, rented a skimmer, loaded their stuff on board, and headed out. Kelly let Tammy steer and watched her at the wheel. She was wearing a pair of white shorts and a white crop top that accentuated all her good features, and she had a lot of them.
A few minutes out, she turned to him and said, “Kelly, would you get my sunscreen from my bag below and put some on my back.”
Kelly went below, found her bag, fished out the sunscreen, and came back up through the hatch. Kelly came to a screeching halt as he got to the cockpit. Tammy was no longer wearing her shorts and top, or anything for that matter. The girl was gorgeous. While the last century of space exploration and settlement had all but killed the Puritan ethic, a pretty woman was still a pretty woman, and Tammy was a vision. Her blonde hair was blowing in the wind and her skin was a golden bronze. She was concentrating on steering and didn’t notice Kelly’s reaction. Kelly moved around behind her and put a liberal amount of sunscreen in his hands and spread it across her back, her bottom, and thighs.
She said, “Hand me the lotion. I’ll do my front.”
Kelly squeezed some lotion in her hands and she rubbed it into her breasts, stomach, and thighs. Kelly was a little disappointed, but tried not to let it show. Kelly took off his clothes and threw them below.
“Come take the wheel,” she said, “and I’ll get your back.”
Kelly switched places with her and enjoyed her hands smoothing the lotion on him. He took the bottle from her and covered his front, paying special attention to the spots that don’t see that much sun on a regular basis. It wouldn’t do to get sunburned there.
Kelly handed the wheel back to Tammy. He didn’t know where they were going. She turned west in mid-lake and headed for a group of three islands. The southern island had a skimmer run up on shore. The northern island had two. A fire was burning on the beach and tents were set up. Tammy piloted around the center island to a small cove on the western side. She sent Kelly astern to fish a small anchor out of a locker. When they got closer to the shore, Kelly dropped the anchor off the stern and paid out line as they moved forward. Tammy nosed the skimmer up on the beach and told Kelly to make the line fast on the cleat.
“Sometimes the reservoir upstream releases overflow water into this reservoir and the stern anchor keeps your skimmer from getting too far away from shore. More than a few people have found their skimmers gone after a day lying on the beach. Help me get the other anchor and we’ll put it up on shore. I like redundancies to my redundancies.”
Kelly fished out the other anchor. He went over the side and waded it ashore. He went about ten meters up on shore and planted the anchor in the sand. Tammy tied the anchor line off and brought a cooler up from below. She passed it over from the bow to Kelly and went back for more. Kelly carried it up above the anchor and set it down. He went back to get a small cooker and put it next to the cooler. She said she could get the rest.
Kelly looked around at the island. It was about a kilometer square in size. A rock escarpment about 15 meters high dropped down into the water on the southern side of the cove. Some sort of yellow moss clung to the rocks and trailed down into the water. Above that was a small copse of trees that looked like pine trees, or their Antarean cousins. There was a break in the trees about ten meters wide, where the escarpment ended in the middle of the island. Beyond that were some local deciduous trees with trifurcate branches evenly spaced from ground to tip. Tammy came up with the last of the gear and proceeded to set up camp.
“Is there anything I can do?”
She looked up at him and said, “See if you can find some dead fall wood. We can burn that. Don’t break any live branches off the trees. That’s against regulations and the local wood really, really stinks if you burn it when it’s green.”
Kelly went up the slight slope to the trees and started gathering wood. He came back with an armful and went back for more. When he’d amassed a pretty good supply he went into the water to wash off the wood bits and leaves. The water was nice and cool. He swam out a ways and dove down. The water was clear and he could see the bottom a few meters below. He was going to swim down to the bottom when he saw something large move to his right. He didn’t know what it was, but it was big and black. Not knowing the local water creatures, he beat a hasty retreat to the beach.
“Tammy, what are the local fish like?”
“There are trout and bass brought from Earth, but they don’t do too well here. The indigenous fish are the wing fish, the Antarean eel, and the black sleeper. The wing fish looks like an eagle flying under water. It has these huge fins sticking out to each side. The Antarean eel looks like a snake with fins. The black sleeper is the catfish of Armstrong. They lie on the bottom where a current flows and filter nutrients out of the water. They usually don’t move unless you disturb them.”
“I just disturbed one. He disturbed me a bit, too. Thanks.”
Kelly turned to go back into the water. Tammy came over to him, handed him a mask, and put one on her face. Each mask had a small light attached to the head strap. They both went into the water together. Her hand found his and pulled him in after her. She pushed off from him and dove down into deeper water. Kelly followed behind, admiring the view. Tammy was a strong swimmer and Kelly had to work to keep up with her. They both came up for air and she told him to follow her.
She dove down toward some rocks and Kelly stayed close behind. She stopped, turned toward him, and made a dive under sign with her hands. Kelly followed her down. As he got to the bottom of a rock wall, Kelly could see an opening. Tammy went in and motioned for him to follow. He went in behind her. She switched on her light. Kelly fumbled with his light until his came on too. As he looked up he could see the quicksilver appearance of an air pocket far above him. Kelly was already treading water in the air pocket. He came up beside her, stuck his head up into the air pocket, and took a cautious breath. The air was cool and fresh.
“This is kind of neat. How did you find this place?”
“I came out here with breather units once and followed my nose. This chimney comes out on the island somewhere. I’ve looked but never found it. Come over here.”
Tammy swam over to a shelf along the far wall and climbed up. Kelly followed her.
“Kelly, did I kiss you last night?”
“As a matter of fact, you did, right before you passed out.”
“Good, I planned to kiss you. I’m glad I succeeded. I just wish I could remember it. Do you suppose I could kiss you again?”
Kelly took off his mask, leaned over to her, and said, “It would probably be easier if you took off your mask.”
Tammy pulled her mask off, and Kelly leaned into her and kissed her.
Tammy closed her eyes and leaned back, breaking the kiss. “I don’t see how I could have forgotten that. May I have another?”
Kelly pulled her close and kissed her again. She melted into his arms, but gave back as good as she got. Her wet body felt soft and warm against him. She was a good kisser. Kelly’s breath got a little shallow.
She broke the kiss, looked around at the size of the rock shelf, and dropped back off into the water. She said, “This shelf is a little small for the large ideas I’m getting. Let’s go back to the beach. Watch your head when you come out of the cave.”
Kelly followed her down the tunnel and back out into open water. She broke the surface to take a breath and then dove down a meter below the surface, swimming to shore. Kelly did the same. When they reached the shallows, she grabbed his hand and pulled him to the shore. They went over to the blanket and threw themselves down. She passed him a towel so he could dry off.
She dried herself off, made a swipe at drying her hair, and wrapped the towel around her head like a turban. She leaned over and kissed him again and drew back.
“Kelly, I like you. I like you a lot. I would like to have you as a lover, but only on certain terms.”
“Terms? What terms?”
“I plan to make a career in the Fleet. I want to see how high I can go on my abilities. I’d like to be an admiral some day. I know I’m only a planetary shuttle pilot now, but this is only my first assignment and I am a pilot. I’ve got a lot of future in front of me.”
“I’m telling you this because my plans don’t include a husband and children. We can have a lot of fun together, but I’m not looking for a home and family.”
Kelly looked at her for a bit and said, “I understand and support your ambitions, Tammy. I feel the same. I don’t know if I’ll make it to admiral either, but I want the opportunity to try. My own situation as such right now is similar. I’m going to be out on patrol or deployment for weeks to months at a time. I’m not looking for a permanent relationship, either. So, I respect your ambition and support you in your drive. I do have one question.”
“What’s your question?”
“Does this mean we can’t have sex?”
She smiled and said, “Ask me this evening.” She then pushed him down and lay on top of him, giving him a long deep kiss. Things progressed from there.
Later, they lay in each other’s arms, luxuriating in the warmth and feel of their bodies. Tammy looked at Kelly and said, “Kelly, if you don’t want to talk about it, I’ll understand. What did you do that got you on General Bugarov’s bad side? Cas has been telling a tale he heard through scuttlebutt. I’d like to hear your side.”
Kelly rolled his eyes. “Cas, what a wonderful individual. What has he been saying?”
“I don’t believe any of it. He’s been saying that you screwed up on a training exercise and almost got some of your squadron killed. Cas doesn’t like you, so we’re all convinced he’s lying.”
“Well, Cas isn’t even close. Quite the opposite happened. I hope you are in the mood for a long story.”
She looked up into his eyes and nodded her head.
“Tammy, are you familiar with the Wall of Fire tactic?”
“Yes, I read about it at the academy, but that’s ancient. Nobody uses that anymore.”
“General Bugarov liked it. She thought of herself as the reincarnation of Marshall Ney, Napoleon’s cavalry chief. She was always reading about ancient battles and drawing all the wrong conclusions from them. She thought she had rediscovered the Wall of Fire tactic and saw it as her master stroke.”
Kelly rolled away from Tammy, onto his stomach and up on his elbows, “I still feel that General Bugarov’s early experience in the planetary defense forces, where most of her combat training was done in the atmosphere, made her too two-dimensional in her thinking and in the tactics she enforced on her fighter units. I once tried to discuss other tactics with her during a post-drill critique and had my head handed to me.”
“Second Lieutenant Blake, when I want your opinion, I will give it to you. As long as I am the Fleet Fighter Commander, we will use the tactics I prescribe. I have spent more time fastening my flight harness than you have in the service. Sit down!”
“It was bad enough to be dressed down by the general, it was worse that she did it in front of my entire squadron. The only thing that softened the blow were the sympathetic looks from my squadron mates.”
“General Bugarov scheduled a major tactical exercise for the entire 15th Battle Fleet. Our squadron commander briefed us that our wing, and those from the carriers Lincoln and Mandela, were to be the blue force and defend against the red force wings of the Juarez and Gorbachev. The battle damage simulator systems on each fighter would be used to count battle losses. They used setting five, so if you were “killed,” your fighter was automatically disabled, your weapons computer would go offline, and your navigation lights would be turned on. Only limited maneuvering was allowed for safety purposes.”
“General Bugarov wanted us to use full squadron formations against the red force to protect the Bolivar and other carriers. Strict formation was to be maintained. We were to use the Wall of Fire tactic against all bandits.”
“I remember inwardly groaning when I heard that.”
“The combination of full squadron formations and Wall of Fire made the fighter pilots’ primary function that of just keeping formation, while the fighters’ networked computers did all the combat work. In essence, the combined tactics required the squadron to fly in a strict single-layered, square formation, much like a flying wall. The computers on all the fighters linked together and in concert chose which fighter would engage which targets. The theory is that the computers can apply firepower much quicker than humans and any enemy will face an impenetrable wall of firepower. The reality is that it made you a very predictable target.”
“The wall of fire is a stupid waste of manpower. The whole point of having a live pilot in the cockpit is to allow the human mind to be creative. In my eyes, the mind processes information as fast as the shipboard computer can. True, drones can maintain large formations, such as the Wall of Fire, much better than human pilots. Unmanned fighters, however, have been tried before, and although they can turn tighter and accelerate faster than manned fighters, the brain is still smarter than a computer. Computers are only as good as the mind that programmed them. If the computer comes up against a situation it was never programmed for, it doesn’t know what to do. A human can improvise. Computers should only assist the pilot, not replace them.”
“When LTC Matthews, my old squadron commander, finished up his briefing, he specifically told me to keep strict formation. He had been instructed to make that point by the general.”
“As the briefing broke up, Angie, my lead pilot, came over and walked with me to the ward room.”
“She said they don’t even teach Wall of Fire in fighter transition anymore. It was like teaching ground troops to use the phalanx.”
“I agreed with Angie, but still felt the earlier sting of General Bugarov’s tongue. I would not complain openly about her orders. I don’t think it’s professional to question a superior’s orders once they are given. My comments at the morning critique were done openly and professionally. It was the general’s reaction that was unprofessional. I was not going to stoop to her level. Whether I agreed with them or not, I would follow her orders to the letter. My squadron commander’s comment was totally unnecessary.”
“Angie knew that the Wall of Fire leaves you vulnerable to an enemy that is willing to stack forces and overload the linked computers’ ability to prosecute targets. They could punch right through by concentrating on a single squadron.”
“Angie also knew that the way the general had the squadrons arrayed, they couldn’t support each other. She had them orbiting the fleet in equally spaced orbits. If one squadron was attacked suddenly, the momentum of the orbits would cause a significant delay before any other squadron could react and support.”
“I could see Angie’s logic. My mind started to work out solutions to the problem. The obvious solution was to layer the orbits so forces could move to block any penetration, but the general’s battle formation contained no such defense in depth. She bet her entire defense on a supposedly impenetrable shield of fighters around the Fleet. I wondered how much freedom of action she had given the Red force commander.”
“As the exercise began, the 15th Battle Fleet split into two task forces. The Bolivar Battle Group, along with the Mandela and Lincoln carrier battle groups, moved toward the frontier. We were out there to be as visible as possible, so the K’Rang would know we were there. The admiral positioned the task force parallel to the frontier. He wanted to make sure that any missile radar lock-ons were aimed away from the frontier. He expected that the K’Rang would come to observe the exercise from their side of the frontier and he didn’t want any misunderstandings.”
“My squadron launched and we moved out to our position. Our starting position was on the frontier side of the fleet. Even though there was to be no exercise combat on that side, General Bugarov made us practice the all-around defense. As we approached the position to form up into the Wall of Fire formation, my computer malfunctioned. It reacted as if I had been destroyed and shut me down. I was drifting in space with my navigation lights blinking on and off. I tried to recycle the battle damage simulator, but it was locked in position 5. It would not let me do anything but slow speed maneuvering.
"I called out to Angie and my flight commander that I was out of action due to a computer malfunction. My squadron commander said to stay where I was and wait for the carrier to send out a recovery craft. I settled in for a long wait. The carrier wouldn’t send out its recovery craft until the combat phase was over. That would be an hour or so.”
“I sat there in my cockpit watching the stars and trying to use my limited maneuverability to keep my fighter masked behind the Bolivar. I didn’t want to give away the fleet’s position with my blinking navigation lights.”
“It turned out to be a useless gesture. The red force fighter attack pulled all the blue force fighter squadrons in their unwieldy Wall of Fire formations to the front side of the fleet. I was quite alone.”
“I tried every trick I knew to get my fighter working again. Nothing worked. I pulled circuit breakers and replaced them. I tried hot and cold system reboots, to no avail. I even tried reasoning with Wanda, my ship’s artificial intelligence.”
“I asked Wanda why I couldn’t reset the combat damage simulator.”
“She responded that she couldn’t get the simulator to recognize the reset command. It was talking to her, but it wouldn’t reset.”
She said that it wouldn’t reset without the proper authentication code. It was not a very sophisticated computer.”
I asked what its orders were.
She told me the ship is disabled, my weapons computer was offline, and your navigation lights were turned on. Limited maneuvering was allowed for safety purposes only.”
“I looked for ways to get it to return control to me. I had Wanda reason with it. I needed to get into the fight.”
“Wanda was apologetic but not able to help. She said that it would only allow me control over the fighter if there were a safety of fleet issue. It would allow me to maneuver to maintain distance from the Bolivar and any other ships or fighters, but no more than that. And the radio didn’t appear to be transmitting either. She had been periodically transmitting our position to the Bolivar, but she was no longer getting their confirmation signal.”
“I couldn’t figure any way out of that fix. There I was, unable to move, shoot, or communicate. I just sat there looking out into space waiting for the hook to pull me back onto the Bolivar.”
“That’s when I noticed a movement across the border. It was probably just a far star blinking in and out, but I caught it out of the corner of my eye in the darkness. Stars don’t twinkle in space.”
“I asked Wanda if her sensors were working or were they out also.”
“She said they were working.”
“I told her I saw something across the frontier at our level, about 11 o’clock. I asked if she could pick out anything?”
“Wanda responded a few seconds later. She couldn’t resolve anything, but there was something out there. In fact, there was more than one. She suggested that if we moved parallel to the frontier, she might be able to triangulate them and get a location.”
“I moved the ship parallel to the frontier and waited for Wanda to make her calculations.”
“She gave me the news I expected. There appeared to be three of them at 583,000 km. They appeared to be just sitting there, watching.”
“I put them down as K’Rang scouts watching the ongoing exercise, but kept Wanda focused on our friends across the frontier. I was sure the Bolivar had its attention focused on the incoming red force fighters and attack ships and probably hadn’t noticed. The blue force fighter pilots were probably all concentrating too hard on their formation flying to notice. If anything was to happen, it was up to me to deal with it-if I could only figure out something to do.”
“An idea occurred to me. I asked Wanda if the damage simulator was smart enough to recognize a dangerous combat situation. I meant, if you input the sensor feed into it could it recognize that the K’Rang out there were a danger to the fleet.”
“She sounded doubtful. She told me again that it wasn’t a very sophisticated computer, but she’d try.”
“She told me that it said that three undetermined ships 583,000 km away were not much of a threat. It still wouldn’t release my ship.”
“I exploded and told Wanda, bargain with it. How close would they have to get for it to consider them a threat?”
“She replied in her normal calm tone that the sensors had resolved the ships. They were K’Rang missile corvettes. The damage control computer said it would disengage if they came within 40,000 km of the fleet. The corvettes’ missiles have a range of 15,000 km. They would have to cross the frontier to engage the fleet. If they crossed the frontier, the ship would be back under my control.”
“I felt relieved. At least at the time I felt relieved. Now, later, I can’t imagine what I could have been thinking. There were three heavily armed K’Rang missile corvettes out there and I was happy that if they attacked the fleet, I would be able to throw myself at them. All I had were guns and practice missiles, but I considered a suicide charge against three superior ships preferable to sitting there disabled by a stupid training aid.”
“If I was going to do something stupid, I’d better be smart first. I had Wanda, pull up all she had on K’Rang corvettes. I was looking for their weaknesses and capabilities.”
“These K’Rang missile corvettes are 150 meters long and 40 meters wide. The sensor probe out the nose gives it a faint resemblance to a dart. The ships have heavy armor on their nose, light armor from amidships to the stern but no shields. They're designed to run directly at their target, survive any defensive fire, fire their six missiles, and run for it. The Fleet tactical guide recommends getting behind them and shooting them aft of amidships where they are vulnerable.”
“Get in behind them and shoot them in the butt. It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was a plan. Now all I had to do was wait for them to get close enough for the damage simulator to give me back control. The navigation light was probably giving my position away to the K’Rang. I tripped the breaker. I then turned my fighter around and moved parallel to the frontier in the direction I came. I wanted to move closer to the frontier. I had the idea to hide myself near one of the GR frontier sensors.”
“I moved as fast as my ‘disabled’ ship would allow me and sidled up next to one of the frontier sensor pods and waited. I waited about an hour. I figured the Bolivar recovery crew might have been wondering where I was by then. If they sent out ships to search for me that might be the best thing. At least they would be looking on the back side of the fleet and somebody might notice the three K’Rang ships out there.”
“Wanda told me that the K’Rang ships were moving toward the fleet. I checked the sensor screen and it showed them heading directly toward the Bolivar. It was obvious that they had my home in their sights.”
“My squadron commander told me when I reported in that we weren’t to engage the K’Rang unless we had superiority of numbers or a significant tactical advantage. I didn’t have superior numbers, but I did have the advantage of surprise. It would have to be enough.”
“The three K’Rang corvettes moved right up to the frontier and stopped. I had Wanda monitor them closely, expecting to see their engines surge for their dash to the Bolivar.”
“If they crossed the border, I was going to fire on them right away. If I got their attention, it might cause them to turn from their attack on the Bolivar to deal with me. If not, I’d at least gotten one of them out of the attack. Either way, it might draw the attention of someone in the combat information center.”
“I didn’t have too much time to wait, the K’Rang sprang across the frontier right in front of me. The battle damage simulator released its hold and the ship was under my control again. I activated my guns and moved in. I was on them before they knew I was there. I came up behind them and took out the center ship’s engine with a gun burst. It was hit with secondary explosions and the two other ships swerved outwards to avoid being caught in the explosion.”
“I turned to follow the ship to port. I fired and took out the port ship’s engines and secondary explosions destroyed it. Missiles from that ship fired off in all directions, none of them threatened the fleet.”
“The third ship turned back on course to attack the Bolivar. I pushed my throttle to the stops in pursuit. The K’Rang ship executed a series of evasive maneuvers to keep me from getting a target lock for my guns. Its turret guns put up an ineffective counter fire, but it was enough to make my aim even less steady. I activated my exercise missiles. They couldn’t do any damage, but the K’Rang wouldn’t know that.”
“I fired off all my exercise missiles in one salvo and watched the K’Rang ship turn hard to starboard and up to throw off their lock. That was all I needed. The K’Rang ship presented perfectly for me to rake it just aft of amidships. My guns cut into their hull. I saw atmosphere escaping into space. The ship’s one gun turret was pointed up and away from me. I sent a stream of gunfire into the missile launch tubes and watched the ship catch fire, burst open, and pinwheel through space.”
“I turned to head back to the landing bay. Fighters from the 34th Fighter Squadron met me halfway there. I waggled my fighter at them to signal I had no comms. Two flights proceeded to the frontier to stand guard. One flight pulled up alongside and escorted me to the Bolivar. At the landing bay, they pulled off and rejoined their squadron.”
“I landed and was escorted to my parking position. A Marine sergeant saluted me and asked me to accompany him as I stepped out of my fighter.”
“I was escorted to flag country and turned over to a stone-faced Fighter Force Lieutenant Colonel, wearing an aide de camp aiguillette on his shoulder. He told me to take a seat and wait. I waited. I waited over an hour before General Bugarov came in. She looked over at me with cold fury on her face. She had some short quiet words with her aide and went into her office. CPT Johnstone, her JAG, followed her minutes later. I waited an hour longer.”
“LTC Matthews and CPT Willis came into the anteroom and came over to me.”
“He asked me what was going on. Like me, they were met when they landed and escorted to flag country.”
“I told him the same had happened to me and that I had been waiting over two hours. I explained what happened with the three K’Rang corvettes and how I was able to get the damage simulator to release control of my ship. LTC Matthews went over to the general’s aide, but was told he was to take a seat and wait.”
“We were ushered into General Bugarov’s office after yet another hour of waiting. CPT Johnstone stood behind her. I was ordered to report in. I moved in front of her desk, saluted and reported.”
“She looked up stone-faced and began, “2LT Kelly Blake, you are charged with three counts of willful disobedience of a direct order. To wit, you did willfully disobey a direct order not to engage K’Rang units without a superior force. You disobeyed a direct order to maintain tight formation during this exercise. You also disobeyed a direct order from your squadron commander to maintain your position until a recovery ship came and got you. You are charged with lying to a superior officer. To wit, LTC Matthews, your squadron commander, when you reported that your ship was disabled. You are also charged with conduct prejudicial to the good order and discipline of the service and with conduct unbecoming an officer. To wit, the above named offenses. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be taken down and used against you. You have the right to counsel and to have them present at all proceedings. If you understand these charges and your rights under the Galactic Code of Military Justice, indicate your acceptance on the tablet in front of you.’”
“I was just about to protest that I didn’t know what she was talking about when Admiral Haddock-Halloway walked into her office. He looked around at what was going on and told Bugarov to send everyone away. He needed to talk to her now.”
“We were ushered quickly out of her office by her aide and told to stand by.”
“LTC Matthews came over and told me that this was bullshit. He would do everything in my power to get me cleared. He wouldn’t let her do this. There were safeguards in effect that would keep her from running roughshod over my rights.”
“Just at that time Admiral Haddock-Halloway stuck his head out the general’s door and told us we were all excused and there would be no charges pressed here today.”
We went back to the hangar deck and saw evidence tape securing my cockpit and a Marine standing guard. LTC Matthews called all of us into his office.”
“He remarked that the episode we’d just witnessed was interesting and that she was obviously overruled. He told me not to let my guard down and that the little drill in her office was personal. She sealed my ship, so no one could check out my story. She probably had every tech in the fleet pouring over my ship with a fine tooth comb.”
Kelly paused for a moment before continuing on. “Well, I wasn’t charged with anything. The fighter's record of the exercise and combat matched my story exactly. That didn’t stop General Bugarov from drumming me out of Fighter Force and sending me here. Of course, Admiral Haddock-Halloway’s parting shot at her was when he presented me with the Space Medal for my action against the K’Rang ships. After the ceremony, he called me into his office for a talk.”
“He told me that he couldn’t stop her from reassigning me out of the Force. It wasn’t right, but it was within her authority and he couldn’t overrule her on that. He told me he’d take me on his staff, but thought that would cause him more trouble than he needed right then. He did thank me for saving his ship. If those corvettes had gotten through, they could have done serious damage to us. He told me that once General Bugarov leaves and if I wanted it, I could have a place on his staff. I was just to let him know and he’d arrange it. No matter where she sent me, he’d get me out.”
Kelly looked in Tammy’s eyes, “The rest of the story you know.”
Tammy uncoiled out of Kelly’s arms and said, “It’s a wonder that someone like her rose to such a high position. Is she still there?”
“As far as I know. That’s enough about me. Shouldn’t we be heading back now? The sun is getting pretty low in the sky.”
“Yes, help me with the cooler. I’ll carry the cooker. Take the blanket and towels. If you’ll get the anchor from up the beach, I’ll get the skimmer started.”
Kelly stowed everything, pulled up the bow anchor, and coiled the line. He climbed onboard, secured the bow anchor and line, and pulled them away from shore with the stern anchor line. They got dressed as they made the run back to base.