The post-refit re-launching ceremony was not much of a ceremony. Admiral Craddock made a short speech. The crew, standing out in the hot sun in their dress uniforms, appreciated the brevity. Then the crew boarded, lifted the ship, and moved it from the dry dock a quarter mile to the spaceport. From start to finish, the ceremony lasted 35 minutes.
It took the crew another two weeks to sort out all the things the yard crew had gotten wrong. The crew moved all their gear on board and stocked the ship for a patrol. Kelly spent much of the time crawling through every space onboard the ship, following cable raceways and piping. If there was a problem with the ship he wanted to be able to track down the source.
He also spent time learning the crew. Chief Blankenship, from the simulator, was the head of the sensor section. Chief Miller ran engineering. Chief Pennypacker ran the gunnery section. Chief Billings, the Quartermaster, ran the bridge crew. Chief Mess Management Specialist “Cookie” Austin ran the galley. Corpsman “Doc” Kumar ran sickbay. Yeoman First Class Benitez was the admin specialist. Kelly watched the crew work together and looked for tensions or problems that might come up during the patrol. With the exception of some normal ribbing for the new crewmembers (including Kelly), the crew was harmonious and worked very well together. The chiefs were firm, but fair in the real sense of the term. They looked out for their people and made sure each knew his own job and the job of the person next up in the chain of command. It was a good crew.
The chiefs took great pleasure teaching Kelly their jobs. Gunnery was a cinch after his performance in the simulator. Sensors took a little bit longer. Each sensor package required a different technique. With ten different sensor arrays, it took him a while to gain a sense of how they worked. He’d never be a techie, but he thought he understood what the sensors were doing. Engineering was made easier by how much automation had been worked into the system. Simulator time had taught him all the positions on the bridge.
His attempts in the galley were his only failure. He was just not meant to be a cook. His souffle fell. He burned the roast. His baked potatoes came out crispy. The only thing he prepared properly was coffee. If anything good came from his stint in the galley, it was a healthy respect for the cooks and their work.
During the shakedown flights, things went smoothly. A few glitches came up, but the crew resolved them quickly and efficiently. The captain put them through drills and still the crew came through brilliantly. True to his word, the captain gave him (and all the helmsmen) the controls and let them have their way. To his credit, he didn’t spill a drop of food in the galley, while he got the feel of the ship. The artificial gravity and stabilizers really did their job. He missed the feel of G-forces pushing him down in his seat, but he would get used to this.
At the end of three weeks, the captain got called one morning to meet with the admiral. When he came back, he called Kelly and Chief Watson into his cabin’s conference room.
“We got our orders. We have been ordered to the K’Rang frontier. We are to patrol along the buffer zone adjacent to the Aquila and Sagittarius sectors. The K’Rangs are supposed to have developed a new remote reconnaissance drone and we are to see if we can gain any information on this drone. There are indications that the K’Rang have been running it across the frontier into Galactic Republic space. As you know, that sector of space is almost completely dark space. There are only five or six solar systems in that area. Only one of them, 6664, has a habitable planet. We are to try and find out what the K’Rang are so interested in.”
Chief Watson spoke up. “Captain, maybe that’s just how they conduct operational testing of their systems.”
“No, Chief, if they were going to do operational testing, they have plenty of their own space to do that. Fleet Intel think they are after something in that sector, but they haven’t a clue what that might be. They haven’t gotten a track on one of these, but they did intercept some strange signals in the Scutum sector, right here in the middle of our patrol area. The habitable solar system is in there.”
Kelly asked, “So when do we leave, Captain?”
“We leave in three days and will be gone for a month. I won’t tell the crew what our mission is until we are underway. No talking about this, except among us three. Chief, plot our fastest course to Sagittarius Sector. Exec, study the patrol sector so you know your way around with your eyes closed. Look for any stellar objects that may not be connected with the planetary systems. I want you to know everything we can use to hide near or behind, if we need to. That is all for now. Let’s see what Cookie has cooked up for us.”
Lunch was magnificent. Even though patrol ships of this size didn’t normally run their galleys when in port, Cookie had new galley equipment he was training his team on and had a training exemption. The main new addition to the galley was a synthesizer. It was supposed to be able to take trash and turn it into edible copies of common food items. Cookie wasn’t ready to try to create an entree with it, but he found it made excellent soups, stews, drinks, and snacks. Cookie had made a soup using fresh ingredients and one in the synthesizer. Neither the two officers nor Chief Watson could tell the difference. Coffee made in the pot and made in the synthesizer tasted the same. When Cookie served them beer, the captain pulled the plug until they could figure out how to lock that output and any other alcoholic spirit without using the captain’s password.
“Kelly, do you have our requisitions into base supply yet?
“No, Captain. I was about to send them off when you came back from seeing the admiral.”
“I left a list back in my cabin. When we finish here, see me for the list and add it to our requisitions. They might come in handy on this mission.”
“Aye aye, Captain.”
The third morning arrived. Kelly rolled over and kissed Tammy on her bare back. She squirmed contentedly. By the time he loaded his gear bag, Tammy had made coffee and handed him a cup. She looked beautiful in her blue silk robe, and a little sad.
“You haven’t said how long you’ll be gone.”
“No, Tammy, I haven’t. I’ll get back when I get back. That’s all I can tell you. I don’t even know how long this patrol will be.”
“You take care of yourself out there. There are no strings between us, but I would like to see you when you come back.”
“I’ll be back. Don’t get too lonely while I’m gone.”
“Oh, I won’t, but I’ll always make time for you.”
Kelly kissed her goodbye, picked up his bag, and went out to find a shuttle. He got to the ship before LCDR Timmons and stowed his gear. He walked through the ship, checking that everything was ready for patrol. Cookie handed him a cup of coffee as he passed the galley. Chief Pennypacker verified that the turrets were bore sighted so they would fire forward, aligned with the forward-firing cannons. Kelly had suggested to the captain that as nimble as the Vigilant was, having all nine barrels firing forward could make for a lot of firepower. It could come in handy in the right situation. Kelly had Chief Pennypacker put a computer program in to slew all turrets forward on command from the bridge.
As he proceeded to the stern, he checked sensor diagnostics with Chief Blankenship. They were all operating at full efficiency. He looked into the crews’ quarters. Petty Officer third class Stinson was recovering from a bout of food poisoning, acquired on leave in the southern hemisphere. Corpsman Kumar was tending to him. All the rest of the crew was on watch or at breakfast. As he completed his inspection, he found that engineering was immaculate, as usual. Chief Miller fretted over Kelly’s coffee mug, in fear that he might spill coffee on something. The captain, Kelly, and Chief Watson were the only people allowed to bring coffee into Engineering. Kelly complimented Chief Miller on the state of Engineering and thanked him for keeping watch on the refit crew.
“Thank you, sir, now please get your coffee out of here.”
Kelly left, laughing, and went back to the galley. Cookie had his favorite, biscuits and gravy with two eggs, ready and waiting for him. He sat down with Corpsman Kumar and asked about Stinson.
“He’ll be all right, sir. I warn these guys about the local establishments down south, but they don’t all listen. Stinson might listen to me in the future.”
LCDR Timmons came in, loaded his tray, and sat down with Kelly. “How’s it look, Exec?
“I just did a walk around from bridge to engineering. Looks pretty ship shape to me, Captain. I think we’re ready. The extra equipment you had me order came in last night. It’s stowed in engineering.”
“I haven’t seen Chief Watson yet, have you?”
Kelly looked up. “Here he comes now, Captain.”
Chief Watson went through the chow line and came over and sat down. Corpsman Kumar finished eating and left to give them the table to themselves.
“Chief, are all the crew aboard and ready for patrol?”
“Yes, Captain, all present and either at their duty stations or here in the galley, except Stinson. He’s in his bunk, recovering from a case of stupid. As soon as he gets well, his butt is mine. Kumar told him the places to stay away from down south.”
“Okay, then. We’ll secure the quarterdeck watch at 0900. Request permission from Port to launch and be on our way. Nobody leaves the ship without my permission.”
Kelly excused himself and went to his cabin to check for last minute messages or changes to their orders. He had transferred Wanda’s personality file into his personal terminal. He wasn’t the captain, so couldn’t load his old fighter’s AI on the main computer, but she didn’t seem to mind being in just a terminal. She told him there were no official messages, but he had a few personal messages. One was from his parents, telling him when they would arrive and that they would be staying in VIP quarters on base, rather than having to do the daily shuttle from the civilian sector east of the base. Kelly sent them a message that he would see them when he got back. The second message was from Candy Craddock, wishing him a bon voyage and to be careful. She also said that she hoped he would come see her when he got back from patrol. The next message was a video file from Tammy, obviously created shortly after he left, she started the video wearing a towel, and got dressed for work while telling him to be careful and that she would be here when he got back. The last message was from LT Bell, wishing him good luck and thanking him for the suggestions helping to make their refit go smoother. Kelly looked at the time display, locked the computer and went to his launch position on the bridge.
The captain was already in his seat. Kelly sat down beside him.
LDCR Timmons keyed his mike and said, “Chief Watson, bring up the gangplank and secure the quarterdeck watch.”
Kelly heard the gangplank come up and lock in place. He felt a slight pressure change in his ears, signifying a good seal on the gangplank. Chief Watson joined them and reported the gangplank up, locked, and the quarterdeck watch secured. The ship was ready for space.
The captain keyed his mike again. “Antares Base, this is Vigilant requesting permission to take off.
“Vigilant, this is Antares Base, you are cleared for take off. Good luck and good hunting.”
“Helmsman, take us up. Yeoman, start the log.”
Kelly consciously kept his hand away from the controls. He was the exec, not the pilot. The ship rose smoothly, made a slow turn to port, and moved out to the west. After the ship was over the lake, the helmsman added power and pulled back on the yoke. The ship smoothly rose up, as the blue of the sky turned to the inky black of space.
“Chief, would you enter our course?”
“Aye aye, Captain. Navigator, your course is coming up.”
“Helm, as soon as we clear the minimum safety distance, engage power 3 light speed and let’s get out of here.”
The helmsman replied, “Course is locked in, minimum safety range in five seconds, four, three, two, one, engaging power 3 light speed.”
The change over to FTL was smooth and the only indication of the change in speed was a slight blurring of stars in the view screen. The captain got up from his seat and said, “Exec, you have the conn. Chief Watson, join me in my ready room.”
Kelly answered, “I have the conn.”
The captain and the chief went into the ready room. Chief Billings came up and took Chief Watson’s seat. One of the galley crew brought fresh coffee. Kelly kept up a sharp watch on the sensors until they left the orbital plane of the farthest planet of the Antares system. They were now in clear space. It was never safe for FTL ships inside a system. There was always the chance that an in-system ship without a flight plan would move into their path. Kelly relaxed slightly and increased the sensor range as the helmsman increased speed in accordance with the course specified by Chief Watson. Chief Billings was just about to make a correction when the navigator increased the navigation shield’s strength in sync with the greater speed.
Chief Watson came out of the captain’s cabin and motioned Kelly to the captain’s cabin. The chief took over the conn.
“Captain, you wanted to see me?”
“Yes, Kelly, sit down. We’ve got some time here. Tell me how a 2LT earns the Joint Meritorious Service Medal.”
Kelly paused to gather his thoughts and began. “Well, sir, I was involved in an action to capture a K’Rang Scout ship well on our side of the frontier. My lead pilot and I chased the scout down until they employed their self-destruct mechanism. We at least kept them from transmitting their data on the fleet back to the K’Rang Intel.”
“I bet there was more to it than that, but that’s fine for now. It doesn’t always serve you well to display too much humility. If you don’t toot your own horn, don’t expect anyone else to. That is all. Thank you.”
The ship settled into patrol rhythm quickly. The concept of day and night or a 24-hour day did not apply in space. The three watches rotated through the watch schedule in turn, one six-hour watch in an eighteen-hour day. Each individual was on six hours duty, then 12 hours to sleep, relax, do off-duty maintenance on the ship, and study for rating exams. The captain, Kelly, and Chief Watson weren’t in the watch schedule, but they tended to stick with a different watch team, the captain with the red watch, the chief with the yellow watch, and Kelly with the blue watch.
Kelly wandered the ship during his watch. He would relieve the helmsman occasionally by taking over the helm controls from his position. He sat position in the sensor section to gain a better understanding of the sensor grid. He never tried cooking again, but he would now and then filch a snack as he passed through the galley. Chief Pennypacker ran drills for his gunners and Kelly would periodically sit in to keep his gunnery skills up. Chief Miller, at first, merely tolerated Kelly’s presence, but after Kelly beat him to the solution of electronic problems a few times, a new respect took hold, as long as Kelly didn’t come into engineering with his coffee cup.
After four days of cruising, they arrived in their patrol area. The captain, Kelly, and the chief had worked out a course that would allow them to sprint and coast through their patrol area. The plan was to come up to speed and throttle off the engines. They would cover the greatest distance, have the greatest sensor range and sensitivity, and emit the least signature.
They followed this pattern for thirteen days before they got the slightest indication out of the ordinary on their sensors. It wasn’t much, but anything unusual was subject to investigation. Kelly called the captain to the bridge.
“What do you have, Exec?”
“We’ve got emissions from across the frontier in open space. Something is over there. I recommend that we move to these asteroids to starboard, park next to one of them, and monitor this area for any further activity. Those emissions could be nothing more than our K’Rang counterpart doing what we’re doing, but it's the first activity we’ve seen.”
“Good call, Exec, move us over to the K’Rang side of that big rock and park us above it.”
Kelly ordered, “Helmsman, all stop, move us slowly over to that asteroid to starboard and position us 100 meters above it. Use thrusters only. Keep us parallel to the frontier.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
The ship moved slowly under thruster power to a position 100 meters above the asteroid. Kelly went aft and found the entire sensor section up and monitoring their systems. Kelly had Chief Blankenship send two-thirds of them back to their quarters. This watch would go on for hours, maybe days. It wouldn’t do to have the entire sensor section dead on their feet this close to the K’Rang Frontier.
Kelly moved aft. Chief Blankenship knew her job. She didn’t need him hovering. He went to the galley, refilled his coffee, snagged a handful of cookies and went back to gunnery. Kelly found Chief Pennypacker.
“Chief, keep one gunner on the top turret at all times. Rotate them through to keep them fresh. If something comes through the frontier at us we want to be ready.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
Kelly went back to the bridge. The captain was waiting for him.
“How are things, Exec?”
“We’re good, Captain. I had to send most of the sensor section to bed. They all were back there monitoring their systems. I told Chief Pennypacker to keep a gunner on the top turret and rotate them through to keep them fresh. There are fresh chocolate chip cookies in the galley. Here, have a couple.”
The captain took two cookies. “Thanks. Good work, keep everyone on the watch schedule. This will be a long patrol. We need to keep the crew rested and alert.”
The intercom buzzed. “Bridge, Sensors. We’ve got movement across the K’Rang frontier. It hasn’t reached our side of the frontier yet.”
The captain headed back to Sensors. Kelly keyed the intercom and said, “Sensors, the captain is on his way.” Kelly keyed up Sensors on his monitor and tried to analyze what they were up against. He overlayed the two frontiers and buffer zone on his screen and plotted in the known locations of the target, gaining a rough course plot. The target was moving from several hundred thousand kilometers beyond their frontier. If it kept on current course and speed it would cross the frontier in an hour. It was in no hurry.
“Sensors, Bridge. Is the captain with you?”
“Exec, this is Timmons. What have you got?”
“Sir, this guy is taking his time coming through the frontier. He’s slowed down, probably scanning for someone like us. I recommend we settle down onto the asteroid to make it harder for him.”
“Good call, Exec, take us down. Don’t bend anything in the process. I’ll stay here. If we start to lose too much sensor coverage, I’ll tell you and we can ease back up slightly. Take it smooth.”
Kelly instructed the helmsman, and watched the sensor fields on his monitor. The Vigilant settled onto the top of the asteroid with only a slight bump. This helmsman was smooth. He would remember her if he needed a delicate touch on the controls in the future.
He keyed up his mike and said, “Bridge to Sensors, we are settled on the asteroid.”
“Thanks, Exec. No reaction from our friend out there. I’m headed back forward.”
LCDR Timmons resumed his seat on the bridge. “Exec, why don’t you turn in? This guy is going to be in no hurry to cross our frontier.”
Kelly didn’t want to turn in, but he had been up for about 16 hours and he needed some rest. He turned his position over to Chief Blankenship, who was chief of the watch, and retired to his quarters. If anything happened he was only 20 feet away. He keyed up his terminal and set Wanda to alert him if the target crossed the frontier. He pulled off his coveralls, crawled into his rack, and fell asleep almost instantly. He awoke several hours later, checked the tactical situation on his terminal, saw there was no change, and then made a run through the galley. The lunch meal was being served so he had a sandwich, milk, and potato salad, then returned to the bridge. Chief Watson was the chief of the watch.
“Where’s the captain, Chief?”
“He’s in his ready room. He’s in there with Chief Blankenship. He said for you to go in once you came back on duty, sir.”
Kelly knocked on the ready room door and heard the captain tell him to enter. He did so and saw Chief Blankenship and the captain studying the wall display screen.
“Exec, come on over here. Chief, set up the spectral and visual data for the Exec.”
Chief Blankenship went to the terminal, punched a few buttons and said, “This is the phenomena we’re looking at.”
A blown up shot of the region of space containing their quarry showed up on the screen. Kelly could make out something roughly cylindrical on one end (he assumed it was the bow), with a fat midsection, and three cylinders toward what he assumed was the stern. The rear glowed red, showing heat, and the front was purple.
“Chief, what does the purple around the bow of the ship mean?”
“I don’t know, sir. That’s what the captain and I were trying to figure out. The purple implies extreme cold, but that doesn’t make sense if that is a cockpit.”
“Chief, how big is this thing? I can’t tell scale from this image.”
“It’s about half our size, sir. It’s about 50 meters long and 20 meters wide at the widest part. One of my guys drew up a rendering of what he thinks it looks like. Here, I’ll bring it up on the screen.”
She clicked a few buttons and a picture of a small scout-class looking ship appeared on the screen. It looked slightly conical, with a small cylindrical bow, a fat conical midsection, and three cylinders, presumably engines, at the rear.
Kelly said, “Chief, put the two images side by side.”
He waited while she manipulated the images, putting the rendering in the same orientation.
“Maybe what we are assuming is a cockpit is really an IR sensor array. Remember way back when they would supercool the IR sensor to make the sensor more sensitive? That could be what we are seeing here. The purple could be the result of the supercooling of the sensor here on the nose cone.”
“You may have a point there, Exec. Chief, have we gotten any new emissions since they entered the buffer zone?”
“No sir, they’ve been quiet as a tomb. They haven’t used any active sensors that we've detected.”
“Okay, let’s break this up. I think we’ve got all we can from these images. Thank you, Chief. Keep your eye on this guy.”
Kelly went back out on the bridge and took his position. He called up the tactical display on his monitor. Nothing had changed. Feeling uneasy, he keyed up his intercom and called to Chief Blankenship, “Chief, let’s not get tunnel vision on this. Make sure that some of your people are watching the long-range sensors as well.”
“Aye aye, sir, I’ll keep one of my people on long-range sensors.”
Kelly thought to himself that it wouldn’t do to have somebody sneak through into the sector while they were watching this guy. He keyed his monitor to read the long-range sensor display. He saw a few ships near the Scutum sector. It was mostly in-system ships moving between the habitable planet, New Alexandria, and the nearby asteroid field that they mined for precious metals. He watched one FTL ship come into the system. He watched it closely until he saw something break away from the ship before it entered the 6664 system.
“Bridge, this is Sensors.”
“Sensors, Bridge. What have you got?”
Chief Blankenship came on. “Sir, we just had a small ship separate from an FTL freighter over near the 6664 system in the Scutum sector. It’s heading in our direction.”
Kelly hit a switch on his intercom. “Captain to the bridge.” LCDR Timmons startled him by leaning over his shoulder and looking at his monitor.
“Is that small blip this side of 6664 what they’re talking about?”
“Yes, sir, I watched it pull away from the freighter. Sensors says it’s coming our way.”
“Okay, Exec, plot this guy’s course. How close will he come to us? Recommend if we need to reposition. We should do that before he gets too close. Call up what you can on the freighter.”
Kelly did a quick search and found the freighter registration information. It was the Manchu Warrior, an ore freighter registered out of Fomalhaut. Its record was clean and it carried a small shuttle. The freighter belonged to the Indigo Consortium, a mineral trading company headquartered in the Fomalhaut system. It had just come from the Aldebaran system and was coming into the 6664 system to drop off mining equipment, and pick up a shipment of gold to take back to Fomalhaut. The records showed the consortium had a gold mining operation on a large asteroid on the opposite side of the 6664 system. There was nothing in the files on why a shuttle from that freighter was now heading in their direction, near where a K’Rang ship was waiting. Kelly relayed a synopsis of the data he found on the freighter to the captain.
He plotted the shuttle’s course and determined that it was going to pass far enough away from them that they wouldn’t be detected where they were. If the shuttle was coming to rendezvous with the K’Rang ship, they were in the perfect position.
“Captain, we can stay right where we are and watch the whole show or take any other action that may be required.”
“Good enough, Exec, let’s do just that. Let’s see if we can figure out what business an ore freighter’s shuttle and a K’Rang scout ship have with each other.”
LCDR Timmons retired to his quarters. It would be several hours before the shuttle came even with their position. He had time for some shuteye.
Timmons came back onto the bridge as the shuttle drew near. The shuttle was going to pass a little closer than Kelly had calculated, but they were still in no danger of discovery.
“Sensors, see if you can get a reading on what’s in the shuttle as it passes.”
“Sensors, aye.”
All the passive sensors of the Vigilant scoured the shuttle as it passed a mere 2000 meters away. Kelly looked at the readings that appeared on his monitor. He saw that the shuttle had no discernible modifications. There were five life signs on board. If there was anything in the cargo hold, it didn’t appear on the scan.
The captain said, “I didn’t see anything on the scan. Did you?”
“No, Captain, just the five life signs on board. If there is any cargo there, it doesn’t show up.”
“Let’s just sit here and see what comes up.”
It didn’t take long for something to come up. As the shuttle approached the frontier, the K’Rang ship crossed into Galactic Republic space. The two ships pulled up side-by-side and a docking tunnel extended from the K’Rang ship to the shuttle. The two ships docked and floated free in space. Sensors on the Vigilant picked up the movement of three people from the shuttle to the K’Rang ship. About thirty minutes later three people moved through the tunnel to the shuttle. The tunnel retracted and the two ships parted company. The K’Rang ship turned and re-entered K’Rang space. It continued on a straight path until it moved out of short-range sensor range. Long-range sensors would follow it until it receded out of long-range sensor range. The shuttle moved back to the 6664 system and landed at the New Alexandria spaceport. Two days later, the two ships lifted off together, rejoined once in space, and the freighter cleared the system and went into FTL travel. The Vigilant watched the freighter leave.
“Chief Watson, copy all the sensor readings we’ve acquired and make them ready to transmit back to Antares Base. Recommend to Admiral Craddock that someone follow the Manchu Warrior to its next port call, board the ship, and scan the shuttle computer banks. Stand down the reinforced watches and return to normal watch schedule. Let’s get back to patrolling.”
“Aye aye, Captain.”
The patrol went on for another 22 days, until they reached the farthest limit of their patrol sector, but nothing further out of the ordinary showed up. Kelly spent time researching the Manchu Warrior and the Indigo Consortium. The ship was not the least bit unusual. Its port call records showed a normal schedule for a freighter of its type and class. It visited only planets with mineral deposits and its subsequent port calls were to planets where those minerals were needed. It seemed as if the Manchu Warrior was a fairly profitable venture.
The Indigo Consortium was also plain vanilla. Its financial statements showed it to be a moderately successful mineral trading company. It owned four freighters, the Manchu Warrior, the Old Guard, the Grenadier Guard, and the Gurkha, all identical. Apart from the quaint practice of naming their ships after historical warriors, there was nothing out of the ordinary about the company. If it hadn’t been for the witnessed rendezvous between their shuttle and a K’Rang ship, they would be singularly unremarkable. Kelly closed his terminal down and retired to his cabin for some rest. He’d let the analysts at Scout Force HQ sort this one out.
As he lay in his bunk, he thought back to when he told the captain his abbreviated tale of how he won his Joint Meritorious Service Medal. There was a good deal more to the story than he had told the captain. Kelly remembered it quite well.
Kelly remembered sitting in his cockpit; his instrument lights were dimmed to a minimal glow. He let his eyes adjust to space’s velvet blackness. He stared out his screen and saw millions of stars, a nebula or two, and over a dozen far galaxies. His new fighter’s sensors watched the close space around the ship to warn of any objects near him. He had programmed his computer with a woman’s voice just slightly older than Kelly. Wanda, as he had chosen to call her, spoke to him only when she had information he needed to hear. He instructed her as to just what he did and did not want to hear.
The artificial intelligence program did an uncanny job of making Wanda appear to be a thinking reasoning person, not just a disembodied voice. He thought he even detected a faint petulance when he corrected her for being too talkative.
As his eyes adjusted, he slowly moved the fighter ahead. He was on free flight, 200 kilometers from the Fleet. He had successfully checked out on the F-53 and had been granted an opportunity for free flight in open space. Kelly gradually increased the speed until he was at 50 % power. The distance from the fleet was progressing dramatically. He worked the fighter through a series of two and three G turns, climbs, and dives. The seat automatically gripped and released his legs to keep him from blacking out. It didn’t take Kelly very long to feel the difference between the F-53 and the trainers he had flown before.
After he got the feel for the ship in turns, dives, and climbs, he tried some quick spin rolls without losing any forward momentum. The F-53 spun on its axis very quickly. The computer could spin the ship and then stop with the front pointing precisely along his back track. This was a handy move if you had an enemy on your tail and couldn’t shake them. It was risky and had to be done almost instantaneously or the tailing bad guy would realize what you were doing and put a missile into your cockpit.
Kelly brought the ship to a dead stop and said, “Wanda.”
“Yes, Kelly, what can I do for you?”
“Wanda, take me back over the track I just flew, matching my maneuvers as closely as you can.”
“Kelly, would you like me to do the maneuvers in reverse or forward of what we just completed?”
“Forward back to where I started. Can you do that?”
“Yes, Kelly, I can. Would you put your hands on your knees and away from the control stick? Good, hang on.”
The ship took off and the computer matched the maneuvers Kelly had completed almost exactly as Kelly had done. He noticed that the turns were not as crisply done as he had done, but were well within the range. As the ship reached the starting point, it executed a perfect spin roll and braked to a stop.
“How did I do, Kelly?”
“You did very well, Wanda. I did notice that you did not do the turns as crisply as I had, but your response was acceptable.”
“I did not do the turns as crisply as you, because I knew the exact point in space to make the turn and purposely softened the turns so as not to discomfort you too much.”
“Thank you, Wanda, but in the future if I ask you to do something as I did, you are to do it as close to exactly as I did as possible.”
“As you wish, Kelly, you are the boss. Kelly, there is another F-53 approaching from below and behind. The IFF is turned off, but I can tell from the way it is flown that it is 1LT Shappelle.”
Kelly took over the controls, fired up his firing simulator, and did a snap spin to face directly at Angie’s approaching fighter.
“Hello, Angie, state your intentions or I’ll send a mini-seeker your way.”
“Damn, you’re quick. Thought I was going to sneak up on you.”
“Not a chance. Wanda saw you coming a long way off.”
“Who is Wanda?”
“She’s my ship mate, literally.”
“Oh, I see. Getting acquainted with your ship’s computer, are you?”
“Yes, and she’s doing pretty well. She’ll do better once she stops worrying that she might hurt me.”
“Kelly, come over here and set up in the wingman position. Let’s do some formation flying for a bit, unless you need some more solo flying.”
Kelly fired his thrusters and assumed the echelon right position, behind and to the right of Angie’s fighter.
“Now, try and keep up with me.”
Angie took off and Kelly followed, maintaining a perfect two-ship distance. They would fly closer in combat, but two-ship distance was as close as non-combat regulations allowed. Angie ran through a series of rolls, loops, climbs, and dives. She did some retro fire flips and some corkscrew rolls. She leveled out and executed a max-G burn.
Kelly thumbed off his communicator and said, “Wanda, how did you know it was LT Shappelle sneaking up on me?”
“Kelly, I have access to all the information stored in the Bolivar’s databanks. Even though to you I was only initiated yesterday, I have a memory as long as the Bolivar’s. LT Shappelle has a distinct flying style, as do you, so I recognized it.”
“Thank you, Wanda. That’s good info to have.”
Kelly flipped his communicator back to hot. “Angie, are we going to start flying anytime soon?”
“Okay, smart guy, keep up with this.”
Kelly did an outside roll away from Kelly, which caught him a little off guard, but he snap rolled to keep up with her. She executed a complicated set of rolls, loops, dives, and corkscrews. Kelly stayed right with her. She went into a tight inside loop and Kelly stayed with her. She started tightening the loop and Kelly started to feel the G-forces increase.
“Wanda, if I black out, break away from Angie’s ship for me.”
“Of course, Kelly, I would have done that anyway.”
“Thank you, Wanda.”
The loop got tighter still. Kelly stayed right with her. Angie surprised him by snap rolling away to the left and flying away at a 90-degree angle from the previous loop. Kelly recovered and quickly got back in formation with her.
“That was a good one. I’ll have to remember that one.”
“I thought you might like that one. You know, now I know who you are.”
“Oh? Who am I?”
“You're that snot-nosed junior classmen that shot my ass out of space in fighter school. You know, I took a lot of ribbing for that.”
“What can I say? You flew in front of me and I shot you.”
“How about let’s head back to the Bolivar. I think we’ve had enough of a workout for now. Follow me. Let’s see how well you land.”
Kelly followed her back to the Bolivar landing bay and the two of them executed a perfect two-ship formation landing. They taxied into their parking spots and powered down their ships. The crew chiefs came over and helped them out of their ships.
The Carrier Fighter Wing Commander was waiting for them.
“Lieutenants, that was some pretty good flying out there. How long have you two been flying together?”
Angie looked a little sheepish and said, “Uh, that was the first time we’ve flown together, sir.”
“It was? Then that was pretty amazing that you two flew that well out there. Good job, keep it up.” The commander turned and walked away from two very amazed lieutenants.
As the shock wore off Angie said, “Come on, let’s eat. I’m starved. Snap rolls and tight loops make me hungry.”
Kelly walked with her to the dining facility, where the two filled their trays and wolfed down a major lunch. Other pilots stared and made sure to keep their hands away from the hungry pilots’ mouths. As they finished up, CPT Willis, their flight leader, came over and sat down with them.
“Are you two about through? You’re scaring the other pilots.”
“Almost, ma’am. Don’t worry, we won’t lick the plates.”
CPT Willis laughed at that and said, “I can see you two are going to be a piece of work. Just don’t get too cocky. There are scores of other pilots that would just love to burst your bubbles. It won’t be long before they find out about the CFW commander’s comments and they’ll be gunning for you. Watch out.”
Kelly and Angie looked at each other. Kelly said, “You’ve already heard what the CFW said?”
“Oh, yes, the word got back to us very quickly. The CFW called the Squadron Commander and he called me. I came to find you. I was a little worried when I saw you two eating. I made sure as I came up not to startle you or to get between you and your food. If you’re done, let’s go to the briefing room for your debriefing.”
The two got up, carried their trays to the re-processor, and followed CPT Willis to the briefing room.
LTC Matthews and the squadron exec were waiting.
“Well, here are our star pilots now,” began the CO, “Come in and sit down, please.”
The two cast each other sidelong glances, wondered what they were being set up for, and sat down.
“You two really impressed the CFW. What did you two do out there?”
Angie spoke first. “Sir, we were just practicing formation flying. We were pushing the envelope, but I don’t think we did anything all that spectacular.”
Kelly spoke up. “Sir, we were pushing it pretty hard, but we were well within the safety limits of the ships. You can review the flight tapes if you need confirmation.”
“Relax, you two. This is not a dressing down. You aren’t in trouble. The CFW just wanted us to know that you two flew like you had been flying together for years. When he found out you two had just been paired up he wanted to let me know that, whatever I was doing to train my folks, I should keep it up.”
Broad smiles flashed onto their faces.
“You had us worried, sir,” said Angie. “We thought we were in hack.”
“No, you aren’t in trouble. We want to review your flight logs and the Bolivar sensor logs to see exactly what the CFW saw that was so impressive.”
They called up the flight and Bolivar logs on the holographic briefing table. It showed the flight of the two fighters as Angie attempted to shake Kelly from his wingman position. Kelly was amazed at Angie’s flying ability and she by Kelly’s ability to stay up with her. He never got further than three ship’s width’s away from her the entire flight. LTC Samuels and CPT Willis also appeared to be impressed.
“I can see why the CFW was so excited. That was some pretty fancy flying. Were you two doing that on purpose or were you just screwing around?”
Angie spoke up. “Sir, I challenged Kelly to stay in formation with me. Then I proceeded to try as hard as I could to shake him off. He stayed with me through all the maneuvers.”
“All right, you two are dismissed. Tomorrow, CPT Willis, I want you to concentrate on four ship formation flying.”
Angie and Kelly headed off to change out of their flight suits and get cleaned up.
CPT Willis turned to LTC Matthews and asked, “Do you have any idea why the CFW would be so interested in those two, sir?”
“No, Captain, but I’m sure we will find out soon enough.”
A jet-black hole in space was watching and listening 100,000 kilometers in-spiral from the fleet’s position. The K’Rang scout ship D’Rella was monitoring the Fleet activity, its sensors in full receive mode.
“Shadow Warrior K’Tella, the human fleet is conducting training drills only. I detect no indications of any preparations for movement against the Empire.”
Slightly bristling at his technician’s presumption, the Shadow Warrior shot back, “Shadow Technician M’Drek, our mission is to collect. Let us leave analysis to those better able to make such judgments. Remember, we only see a small piece of the total picture. Concentrate on making sure that we collect all that there is to collect. The Imperial Analysis Cabal will draw its own conclusions from our data.”
Recoiling from the rebuke, his ears flat on his head, the technician responded, “I understand, Shadow Warrior. Forgive my impertinence. I will double my efforts to gather as much data as I can. We are gaining valuable information on their new interceptor ships. They turn tighter and fly faster than our best ships. I will emphasize collection on these ships. I detect no new capabilities in their escort class ships. Their capital ships appear to have some new weaponry, but they have not conducted any gunnery exercises that I have been able to detect.”
“Shadow Technician, we are coming up on our communications window. Prepare all you have collected in this period for transmission.”
The technician spooled up all his data, encrypted it, compressed it and prepared to transmit. At the push of a button, a turret on the top of the ship rose and rotated an antenna to face in-spiral, to an awaiting relay satellite just over the frontier. As the timer counted down, he watched the compression indicator light go from orange to pale red to bright red. As it reached bright red the light blinked.
“Shadow Warrior, the data is ready to transmit on your order.”
“Send it.”
The technician pushed the button next to the compression indicator light. A green light came on. As the data streamed out the light grew dimmer and dimmer until it blinked and went out.
“Shadow Warrior, the data has been sent and acknowledged.”
“Continue our monitoring mission. I will rest now.”
Shadow Technician M’Drek turned back to his scopes and gauges and concentrated on his mission.
CPT Willis pulled Angie and Kelly out of the breakfast line before they’d had a chance to pick up a tray. “Come with me,” was all she said. Kelly wondered what trouble they had gotten into now.
The two followed her down the passageway and to the upper decks near flag country. LTC Matthews met them in the hallway and the four of them proceeded past the Marine guard at the entry to the flag office spaces. LTC Matthews knocked on a door. The door was opened by the CFW.
“Come in, all of you.”
They proceeded into a dimly lit, large room, with a double height ceiling. As Kelly’s eyes adjusted to the light, he saw the CFW, two Fleet Commanders, a Fighter Force captain that Kelly didn’t recognize, General Bugarov, and Admiral Haddock-Halloway. He looked over to Angie and got a “What have we gotten ourselves into now?” look.
Admiral Haddock-Halloway said, “Now that we are all here, please be seated. CFW, would you begin?”
“Thank you, sir. As you all know, the Bolivar has been here close to the frontier for a week now, conducting fighter training and fleet formation drills. About four days ago, the frigate Tenacious picked up an echo on its sensors. At least, that is what they thought at first. After a day monitoring this echo, they noticed some inconsistencies. Echoes normally maintain a constant bearing and distance from the ship that detects them. This echo, however, shifted around. It was subtle and took all day to sort it out, but the Tenacious thinks we have a K’Rang Shadow Scout ship monitoring our fleet operations from our side of the frontier. It’s about 100,000 km away and in-spiral of us. Admiral?”
Admiral Haddock-Halloway stood up and moved over to the tank. The tank was a large holographic projector used for fleet battle management and took up most of the room. The room lights dimmed further and a representation of the space around the fleet appeared in mid-room. The admiral stood within the projection.
“The fleet is arrayed here in the center. The echo is represented by this green dot. The frontier is in-spiral of us and is represented by these two curtain-like bands. The red band is their side of the frontier. The blue one is ours. As you can see, the distance from us to the echo is greater than the distance of the echo to the frontier. We could not turn the fleet or launch fighters and catch them before they could cross the frontier on maximum burn. We are going to need to be pretty slick to catch these guys. We are going to have to find a way to trick them. That will not be easy, because their ship is just one big sensor pod.”
“The CFW and I have wrestled with this problem for a couple of days now. He came to me yesterday and told me the last piece of the puzzle had fallen into place. As you all know, we have very strict orders dealing with any engagements with the K’Rang. We have to have a significant tactical or numerical advantage to take on the K’Rang. We think we have that.”
“We are going to try and draw the Shadow Ship further into our space. To do this, we are going to move the fleet further out-spiral and conduct gunnery exercises. This will undoubtedly cause the scout ship to follow us. We are going to leave two fighters behind for the scout ship to pass by. These two ships will become the hammer. A four-ship flight will drop off behind the fleet, hide and become the anvil. Once we have the Scout between our two fighter groups, we will spring the trap.”
“Lieutenants Shappelle and Blake, you two will be the hammer.”
Angie and Kelly exchanged matching stunned looks.
“When we move the fleet forward, we will parallel this asteroid belt, shown here in brown. The K’Rang will most likely assume we are going to use the asteroids as gunnery targets. We will drop you two off to hide in the asteroid field. We think we can do it in such a way that even the most sensitive sensors on the scout won’t detect. I’m calling a fleet captains' conference. The captains’ skiffs from all the fleets’ ships will converge on the flagship. After a reasonable amount of time all the skiffs will return to their ships. LTs Shappelle and Blake will accompany the Tenacious’ skiff back to the frigate. You will magnetically attach your fighters to the exterior of the Tenacious. The Tenacious will move closer to the asteroid field, allowing its shields to move some of the bigger rocks. You will detach yourself and hide in amongst the rocks. We have analyzed them and found a large amount of iron, nickel, and lodestone in them. Your fighters will blend right in.”
“The fleet will keep moving off. At an appropriate distance, CPT Chang here, from the 34th Fighter Squadron, will move and hide his flight in the asteroid belt. He will employ a similar technique with the Transcendent. Our expectation is that the scout ship will follow behind the fleet at about the same distance it is now. It will move forward cautiously. Our estimate is that it will take about five to ten hours to pass your location, LTs Shappelle and Blake. Once the scout has moved to 200,000 km from the border, we move. Lieutenants, your mission will be to drive the scout toward the fleet and CPT Chang’s waiting flight. While you six are chasing the scout around, we are going to FTL the frigates Tenacious and Transcendent into space between the frontier and him, locking him in.”
“CPT Chang, 1LT Shappelle, and 2LT Blake, your orders are to capture the scout, if possible. We want you to chase these guys around space until they figure out they can’t get away and give up. Just keep them from turning back toward the frontier. We want to study this ship. Of course, there is the strong chance that they won’t surrender. If that is the case, you will request authorization to fire on and destroy the scout.”
“LTs Shappelle and Blake, when you two did your pas de deux yesterday, the CFW found the lead and wing man combination we were looking for. We needed a pair that could keep up with a K’Rang Scout ship and not get separated. If they can split you up, they can take you out one at a time, but if you stick together they have to keep running. That’s what we want. We want them to keep running thinking they can find a way to get away. We will execute this operation in ten hours. Any questions? LTs Shappelle and Blake, you deploy first. Report to your squadron ready room.”
Angie asked, “Sir, is it all right if we go get breakfast first? We were brought here before we made it through the chow line.”
“I think that would be okay, but speak to no one of this. LTC Matthews and CPT Willis, you haven’t had breakfast yet either, I presume. Why don’t you join them?”
“Aye aye, sir,” said the squadron commander. “Come on, you three.”
“Shadow Warrior, there is an increase of activity in the human fleet. The fighters have all landed and small craft from each ship have converged on the carrier. I believe they are preparing for some new activity, possibly departure or gunnery drill. There is an asteroid field along their current trajectory that could be used as targets.”
“Shadow Technician, continue to monitor their activity. Inform me of any further changes in their actions.”
“As you command. Their screening ships have moved closer to the asteroid field. I detect that they are scanning the asteroid field. Indications are strong that they will conduct gunnery training soon. I recommend we move closer to record their weapon emissions and effects.”
“Continue to monitor. Scan the space between us and the human fleet to see if there is a path we can use that will provide us the least likelihood of being detected.”
“Scanning,” said the technician, dropping his head to his scope. “I see a way to cover our approach if we hug close to the asteroid field. It is heavy with high iron content asteroids. It should confuse their sensors and allow us to get within 50,000 km. At that range, we will be able to record the energy levels and effects of their weaponry. It will be a major coup for us, Shadow Warrior.”
Shadow Warrior K’Tella imagined himself promoted and honored for this action. “Plot your course and enter it into the flight computer, Shadow Technician.”
The technician lowered his head to his scope, ran his claws over the keyboard and replied, “It is done, Shadow Warrior. We must proceed cautiously. I will maintain a continuous scan ahead of us to detect any reaction from the human fleet.”
“Let us proceed.”
The K’Rang ship moved forward, slowly, stealthily, cautiously, alert to any reaction from the fleet.
LTs Shappelle and Blake left the dining facility for the squadron briefing room, where they studied the specifications of every known K’Rang scout ship. They studied everything from the 100-meter long bulbous planetary exploration ships with crews of up to 70 to small two-man ships that looked remarkably like mosquitoes. They headed to the hanger deck where their ships were prepared for the mission. As they came onto the hangar deck, they did not see their ships. A Marine guard at the base of the stairs stopped them, inspected their ID, and waved another guard over to escort the LTs. He led them through a personnel hatch in the blast shield at the end of the hangar deck, leading to a small area between the blast door and the outer atmospheric door. Their two ships were waiting for them. At least, they assumed they were their two ships.
The fighters had been fitted with some sort of cover that hid the sleek lines of the fighters and made them look more like rocks. Kelly walked over to the officer in charge and asked, “What the hell is that, sir?” pointing at the covering on his fighter.
“That, Lieutenant, is called camouflage. If the K’Rang ship is to pass you by without noticing and flaming your ass, you will need to look more like a harmless rock and less like a sleek deadly Fighter Force F-53 waiting to snatch them up. The camouflage cover is kinetically identical to your bare fighter. It won’t slow you down. It won’t throw you off balance. Other than a slight decrease in vision to the rear, you won’t even know it’s there. If it does become a problem there are explosive bolts to blow the cover. Now come over here to your cockpit and let me show you something.”
Angie and Kelly walked over with the squadron maintenance officer to the open cockpit of LT Shappelle’s fighter.
“If you look here on the panel you will see a slightly different throttle than you are used to. We replaced the standard throttle with an experimental model that electronically increases thrust to your engines. It will give you an additional 25 percent thrust. There is a stop on the throttle that engages at full military power. Push this button on the throttle to gain the additional thrust. Come back here to the rear.”
They followed him around to the rear of the ship.
“We modified your thrusters to help hide the exhaust. I recommend that once you break the magnetic lock from the Tenacious, you run your engines just to get you pointed toward the asteroid field. Then coast until you get within the field and use your retro thrusters to bring you to a stop and position you in among the rocks. Other than that, we did a major tune up and inspection of both ships. If anything was more than two percent out of spec we replaced it. Your ships are better than when they rolled off the factory floor.”
The squadron commander entered the space and came over to them.
“Are you two ready?”
The two came to attention and saluted. The squadron commander returned their salute and told them to be at ease.
“The fleet commanders are about to break up and get ready to return to their ships. The Tenacious’ skiff and two others will pass by this door. You will move out and fly formation with them. The other two skiffs will break off once you reach the Tenacious. Try and be set up at that point to be able to drift up against the Tenacious using only your retro thrusters. If you have any questions or last comments, now is the time, because we need to get you two strapped in and ready to go.”
He waited a second and neither officer said anything. “Okay then, if you need to hit the head, now would be the time.”
Both junior officers assumed stunned looks as they both realized they had left a significant aspect out of their mission preparations. They excused themselves and scurried quickly to the nearest heads. They came back a few minutes later with slightly sheepish looks on their face. The squadron commander and maintenance officer were both laughing as they returned.
“Its okay, Lieutenants, we all have made that mistake at least once. Usually the worst thing that happens is the crew chief makes you clean and disinfect the cockpit. Let’s get you strapped in.”
The crew chiefs stepped in to help the two pilots into their ships. Once they were strapped in and adjusted to their seats, the squadron commander came to each ship and wished them good luck and good hunting.
At a signal from their crew chiefs, they fired up their engines at the idle setting and sealed their cockpits. Both crew chiefs saluted their officers and moved out of the space through the door in the blast shield. The squadron commander and maintenance officer gave them a thumb’s up and also left through the personnel hatch. As the hatch closed and sealed, the lights went out, leaving them in blackness. The sensors in the ship showed the atmosphere in the bay reducing. After a few minutes, the sensors showed zero atmospheres. The outer door of the hangar deck opened. Angie and Kelly raised their ships up off the deck and applied minimal power to move them out into free space.
The Tenacious’ skiff passed by the two fighters and they moved out to join in formation. Two other skiffs came up and lined up next to each of the fighters. They flew along through open space for a few minutes until they could pick the Tenacious out of the blackness. As they ran the length of the Tenacious, the two other skiffs broke off and continued to other ships further on in the darkness. The Tenacious’ skiff pilot said goodbye to the other two skiffs, which was Angie’s and Kelly’s signal to drift into the side of the frigate. They judiciously applied their retro rockets to gently bring their ships against the hull and energize their electromagnetic pads to hold them to the frigate.
After about twenty minutes, the fleet began to move. The Tenacious moved out ahead of the fleet and then began to coast. As the ship ran along the fringe of the asteroid field it increased the radius of its shields, causing asteroids to be moved and ricochet off of each other. The Tenacious sent a signal to the flagship. The encrypted signal was the sign for the two fighter pilots to release from the frigate and move into the asteroid field. The sensors on the Tenacious could barely pick out the two small fighters from the rubble in the asteroid field. Angie and Kelly moved into a small pocket in the side of one of the larger, undisturbed asteroids and settled in to wait.
“Shadow Warrior, the human fleet is moving. Their small courier vessels returned to their home ships. The two escort ships on the port side of the fleet are bounding past one another, scanning into the asteroid field. They lack discipline, Shadow Warrior. See how their shields extend into the asteroid field and disturb the asteroids. My Pride Mother could track their movements.”
“Move us closer. The clutter from their disturbance of the asteroid field will confuse their sensors and cover our movement. Let us see how close we can get. Monitor them closely. Tell me when you even think they have detected us. Have your recorders operating at maximum efficiency. We must glean as much information as possible during this opportunity. What we are doing will be dangerous, but with danger comes high glory. Long live the Empire!”
“Long live the Empire!”
Angie and Kelly had extended their sensor probes out until they rested against each other’s ship. This gave them a rudimentary and un-interceptable communications means. Their sensors picked up the vibrations of each other’s voices and translated it into speech.
“Have you detected anything, Kelly?”
“No. I have all the ship’s passive sensors scanning as far as possible, but nothing yet. Wanda, do you detect anything?”
“No Kelly, I detect no sign of the K’Rang ship. I will inform you the second I do.”
An hour passed by and then six more. Kelly’s back itched in a spot that he could not reach. The blackness of space hung before him punctuated by only a few far stars. Kelly rubbed his back against the seat trying to scratch his itch.
“Say, Angie, can you come over here and scratch my back? There is a spot right between my shoulder blades that itches like crazy.”
“Yeah, hang on, I’ll be right over.”
Wanda broke in. “Kelly, perhaps I can help.”
“Yeah, right, I wish.”
“No, I can help. Lean forward a little.”
As Kelly leaned forward he could hear the seat adjust behind him.
“Lean back, Kelly, and rub against the seat.”
Kelly leaned back and found a bump in the seat right between his shoulder blades. The relief was instantaneous and felt wonderful.
“Thank you, Wanda, that feels great. You can return the seat to normal now.”
“You are welco… Kelly, we have company. I am detecting something blocking stars directly in front of us. It is moving very slowly. I do not have enough of a sensor lock to be able to tell you anything about it, but it is out there, dead ahead.”
“Angie, did you hear that?”
“I heard it. I don’t see anything yet. Try not to lose contact with it.”
“I see it. At least, I see where it was. I just had a star blink on and one blink off. I’m adding all that I have into the targeting computer. Once we fire up, I'll transmit it to you.”
“I think I see it, too. I can’t get a sensor lock, either. I get the impression it is only a few hundred kilometers out from us, but that is just a guess.”
Angie and Kelly spent another hour waiting. Their sensor picture of the K’Rang ship slowly fleshed out. Each additional detection of its movement added a bit more information. After another hour, they had enough information to determine that it was one of the smaller scout ships and not one of the larger and better-armed ships. After yet another hour, the scout had passed out of sight of their sensor and about 20 thousand kilometers past their current position. To maintain their contact, they would have to move out from the pocket on the asteroid. If they used only their retro thrusters, chances were good that the scout would not detect them.
“Shadow Warrior, we are approaching 175,000 kilometers from the frontier. We are within 80,000 kilometers of the human fleet. I have no indication that we have been detected. The asteroid debris from their gunnery exercise is obscuring my sensors somewhat. I have set maximum sensitivity to our forward sensors. The data I am collecting is of very high quality. I am detecting pulse cannons, energy beams, and particle cannons. We have suspected the humans had developed and fielded particle cannons, but this is the first confirmation of that. We have done well, Shadow Warrior; we should retreat behind the frontier now.”
“Shadow Technician, I wish to record some of their tactics as well. Can you see how their battle cruisers form a shield on the enemy side of the carrier? Do you see the way the large escort ships use their pulse cannon turrets to destroy the bits of asteroid coming at the fleet from the field? Look there. One of the small escorts is using a tractor beam to pick out asteroids and hurl them into the fleet. Even their supply ships have pulse turrets. We must get closer to gain as much of this data as possible.”
“Shadow Warrior, this data will do us no good if the enemy discovers our presence. This type of information is only useful if the enemy does not know we possess it. I urge you to turn back.”
K'Tella's ears pointing straight forward and his pupils wide open, he responded, “No, I am moving us forward. Concentrate on gathering information on their tractor beams. Our designers may be able to use this data to make our ships stronger.”
Kelly did not want to take a chance of alerting the K’Rang ship, but he and Angie couldn’t stay where they were and still monitor the scout ship’s movement. He came up with an idea.
“Angie, I think I know how we can change our view point without tipping our hand to the K’Rang. They put those extensions on our engine exhaust cones. If I push my ship back against the asteroid using my retro jets, I think I can move the rock. It won’t be much, but I should be able to move us a few degrees. I need you to monitor for when we get the K’Rang ship back in our sensor field.”
“Okay, but take it real slow. They may notice something as large as this rock if you move us too fast.”
“I’ll take it real slow. Now watch for when they come back into view.”
Kelly slowly applied his front thrusters until he felt the ship touch the rock. He nudged back further until all three exhaust cones were firmly pressed against the back of the indention. He slowly fired a sequence of short retro thrusts to try and determine the feel of the rock and the minimum thrust necessary to slowly spin the rock. After a few minutes he thought he had a feel for it and applied a long burst and stopped. The rock moved ever so slightly. A few more bursts and he had the rock slowly moving in the direction he needed. He let the rock spin and then told Angie, “I need you to back up and do the same as I just did to stop us when we get lined up.”
“I’ll try. I’m not as comfortable with banging up my ship as you are with yours.”
Angie backed her ship against the rock and emulated Kelly’s retro thrusts. The rock slowed.
“Don’t push too hard. We need another ten degrees to be facing right at them. I just have them at the edge of my sensors.”
“Say when,” she said as she hit the thrusters again.
“When. Don’t over correct.”
Angie gave a couple of thruster bursts and the rock slowed to a stop.
“How’s that?”
“Great view. I think if we give them another hour, we have them.”
“Shadow Warrior, we are at 190,000 km from the frontier. We are 20,000 km from the fleet. I have collected a great deal of data on their tractor beam. Once again, I recommend we retire and deliver our information to our forces.”
Reluctantly, the Shadow Warrior conceded his point. “Agreed, Shadow Technician, I will hold here. Prepare the data for transmission.”
“Kelly,” Wanda announced, “the scout ship has stopped moving. I am detecting some sort of turret rising up from the hull of the scout ship. It appears to be swiveling toward our position.”
“What? Do you get any indication of a weapon charging up?”
“No, Kelly, but it is still swiveling in our direction.”
“Angie, he’s got some sort of turret swiveling in our direction. He may be on to us.”
“Didn’t that mosquito looking thing have some kind of comms turret on the upper hull?”
“Yeah, I think it did. If he’s stopped moving and is getting his comms turret pointing back our way, he must be getting ready to send any data he collected back to his forces. I say we jump him. Maybe we can stop him from getting his data home.”
“I agree, fire up and let’s go get him.”
Angie fired her main engines and blasted out of the hole in the rock. Kelly followed close behind. As they cleared the asteroid field, the magnetic interference on their sensors cleared. The image of the scout ship appeared in high resolution on their screens. They were looking at one of the K’Rang mosquito ships about 40,000 km in front of them. They moved their throttles beyond the detent to give them maximum speed to close the gap quickly. It would only be a few seconds and they would be on them.
“Shadow Warrior, our data will be ready to transmit in 15 seconds. The communications turret is deployed and lined up with our relay satellite near the frontier.”
The Shadow Technician looked down at his control panel and saw the orange light come on and waited for it to progress to red. With the large amount of data they had collected it would take a while. As he waited he returned his sensors from emphasis on front coverage to all around coverage. A bright spot appeared instantly directly behind them. It resolved quickly to indicate two human interceptors closing on them at a high rate of speed.
“Shadow Warrior, two human interceptor ships in-spiral of us at 30,000 km and closing fast! Evasive maneuvers now!”
After a split second’s hesitation to look at the sensor scope, the Shadow Warrior rotated the ship 90 degrees and applied full power. This caused their ship to shoot upward perpendicular to the human ships approach. He looked over his shoulder at the technician and said, “Send our data, now!”
“Shadow Warrior, it will require a few more seconds to compress and be ready to send.” He looked down at his instruments and said, “It will be 20 more seconds before the data can be sent.”
“Shadow Technician, send the data as soon as it is ready. Do not ask for permission. Just send it. We must get that data back to the home world.”
“Kelly, follow me. Let’s cut the corner on this guy and cut him off from getting back in-spiral.”
“Make the turn, I’ll be right here beside you. Just let me know when you are going to turn toward me or slow down quickly.”
The two fighters, wingtip to wingtip, turned up at an angle and headed to where the scout ship would be in a few seconds.
“Kelly, what is that turret doing?”
“Hang on. Wanda, what is the turret doing? Transmit to Angie and I both.”
“LT Shappelle, the turret keeps pointing in-spiral. It does not appear to be a weapon turret. I believe it is a communications turret. I am recording the position of the scout ship and the angle of the turret. We should be able to triangulate the location of wherever it is pointing to.”
“Good work, Wanda. Keep tracking that turret. Fleet will want to know where it is pointing.”
The two fighters were closing the distance on the scout ship. They turned in closer as the distance reduced. The scout ship would not be able to get in-spiral of the two fighters.
“Shadow Warrior, we cannot outrun these two fighters. We should turn out-spiral. If we can get them to close with us, we may be able to cause them to overshoot and pass us by. We should then be able to get turned back in-spiral.”
“Shadow Technician, power up our weapons. I am going to try and split these two ships apart. If we can get between them, you will need to be ready to fire on both of them. This tactic was briefed to me as effective against these pilots. Is the data ready to be transmitted?”
“Not yet, Shadow Warrior. It will be ten seconds more and then will take 32 seconds to transmit. I recommend that you turn toward the fleet once it begins to transmit. This will give us the best chance of getting and maintaining lock on the relay satellite. They won’t fire on us if they think they may be able to capture us. Do you want me to prepare the ship for self — destruct?”
“Yes, Shadow Technician M’Drek. If I determine there is no hope, we will make the ultimate sacrifice for the Empire.”
“They’ve turned out-spiral, Angie. We should see CPT Chang’s four-ship flight appear any moment now.”
“Slow down to military power. Let’s not overshoot this guy. As long as he’s running toward the fleet, let him think he can get away.”
The fleet disposition showed on Kelly’s tactical monitor. The fleet was still arrayed in gunnery formation. The Tenacious and Transcendent were still on the port side of the fleet against the asteroid field. They would not warp to their position in-spiral until CPT Chang’s flight advanced. The scout ship flew straight at the fleet.
“Kelly, do you think this guy is running at full power or is he sandbagging us?”
“I think he is powered back some. I expect him to do something to try and throw us off any second now. I am powering up two mini-seekers in case he should split us up. He may fool us, but he won’t get away.”
“Don’t shoot without asking for permission from fleet. Remember our orders.”
“You should power up two mini-seekers too. If this guy should get one of us, the survivor shouldn’t take a chance on him getting away.”
“Good idea, powering up. Here comes Chang’s flight.”
“Shadow Warrior, there are four more interceptor ships that have just appeared 20,000 km in front of us. We need five more seconds before our data is sent. I will inform you when the transmission is acknowledged.”
“Excellent, Shadow Technician. I will hold course until the data is sent. Then I am going to see how brave these humans are. I am going to fly right at them. If they destroy us, we have still succeeded in our mission. If we get through them, I am going to turn into the asteroid field. Let’s see how good pilots these humans are. If we make it into the asteroid field, I want you to shoot nearby asteroids to throw debris in their path. We may just live through this, M’Drek.”
CPT Chang led his flight forward out of the asteroid field. His flight was positioned to block the scout ship from reaching the fleet. He expected the scout ship to turn away any second. His flight were all seasoned pilots. They had trained together two years, and he knew their every move. As they advanced toward the scout ship, he spread his two-ship teams apart. He intended to chase this scout ship down himself. The lieutenants Shappelle and Blake would get to watch his flight in action. He would thank them afterwards for running the scout into his snare.
He keyed his mike and spoke to his flight. “Careful with this guy, I don’t think he realizes we are here yet. Prepare to shoot his engines once he comes in range. We’ll see if we can stop him without damaging the ship too much. LT O’Brien, you take the port engine, I’ll take the starboard one. LT Connell, you take out that turret on the roof. LT Obagwe, see if you can take out his life support. Aim carefully; we want these guys alive and the ship as intact as possible.”
“Shadow Warrior, the data transmission is complete. The transmission has been acknowledged. You may take any action you wish now. We have successfully completed our mission. Our names will be read in the scrolls of M’Drella.”
“Tighten your seat straps, Shadow Technician. I am about to test these pilots’ skills. Turn your sensor recorders on and prepare a data pod for launch if we do not make it. Maybe we can get some more data back to home world after we are no more. If you wish to send a personal message to your clan, you may do so. I will be adding a message to my Creche Mother.”
“Thank you, Shadow Warrior. They will sing of us during the fire festival. It has been an honor to serve under you.”
“Thank you, M’Drek. Prepare to fire on them if we make it through them. Perhaps we can slow their pursuit if they are not as brave as we are.”
Kelly watched the situation unfold on his tactical display. It looked like it was almost the end for the scout ship. The scout ship closed the distance on the flight of fighters. Suddenly, the K’Rang ship accelerated and aimed itself at the four-ship flight. The distance closed dramatically. The four-ship flight broke into two pairs of fighters and split apart as the scout blew through their formation. CPT Chang and his wingman had to execute a max-G turn to avoid collision. The move was so unexpected that none of the fighters had a chance to get off a shot.
“Kelly, CPT Chang’s fighter and his wingman’s are out of position. We need to go in after the scout or he might get away.”
The scout ship made a radical turn to port and headed for the asteroid field. If it could get deep into the field it would be hard to catch and it might be able to get away. Angie and Kelly followed hot on its tail. CPT Chang and his flight reorganized and followed Angie and Kelly.
“LT Shappelle, this is CPT Chang, turn aside, and make room for us to pass. We will take up the pursuit.”
Angie replied, “Negative sir, you won’t catch up until they are in the asteroid field. We could lose this guy if he gets too far into the field. You hold your position. We’ll turn him and send him back out to you.”
“LT Shappelle, this is Fleet Command, stay on the scout’s tail. CPT Chang, move your flight out-spiral and prepare to move into the asteroid field to block his retreat. We are jumping the Tenacious and Transcendent at this time. You have permission to disable the ship’s weapons and engines, if required.”
Angie and Kelly followed the scout into the asteroid field. They had to weave up and down, left and right to keep up with the scout. As they approached a congested part of the field, the K’Rang ship used its weapons to blast asteroids into big chunks swirling in their path. Angie and Kelly climbed, dove, and jinked to avoid the bigger bits and stay on the scout’s tail. Their ship’s shields repelled the smaller chunks away.
Kelly keyed his mike and asked, “Is it just me or is it getting crowded in here? Following this guy is not going to work. We need to get past him and turn him back out of the field and out-spiral again.”
“Roger, I agree, Kelly. Let’s see if we can get in-spiral of and past him.”
Angie made a hard turn to port around a large asteroid and increased power. A relatively clear path opened up on the far side of the large asteroid and Angie accelerated. Kelly followed her, one ship’s width away from her. Once they cleared the asteroid they were in-spiral and just ahead of the scout ship. The scout ship turned out-spiral again and Angie and Kelly stayed just 1000 meters off the port side and just ahead of the scout. The scout turned to fly out of the asteroid field. Angie keyed her mike, “CPT Chang, they are coming out your way.”
“I see them, we’re waiting for them.”
“Shadow Warrior, the four interceptors we blew through before are waiting for us just past the asteroid field. They have too much power and are too maneuverable for us to escape.”
“Shadow Technician, enter the final codes to arm the self-destruct mechanism. Enter them as Shadow Warrior M’Drek. You have earned the title. I am proud to promote you to Warrior of the Empire.”
“ I am honored, Shadow Warrior.”
“You may address me as K’tella, fellow warrior.”
“I am doubly honored, K’Tella. The preparations are complete. Self-destruct will commence when you push the omega button on your console. How long a time lag do you wish?”
“Make it a five second delay. I may need to maneuver at the last second to assure the most effect. Set the data pod to eject at three seconds.”
Upon exiting the asteroid field, the K’Rang ship turned out-spiral and ran toward the fleet, some 30,000 km away, at maximum speed. CPT Chang’s flight flew in pursuit. Angie and Kelly left the asteroid field, kicked it into full power and came up alongside the scout ship between them and the asteroid field. This blocked their escape into the field again. They both felt it was only a matter of time before CPT Chang’s flight disabled the scout or he surrendered. Knowing the K’Rang’s predilection of dying rather than live in captivity, he didn’t think they would give up.
CPT Chang increased his speed to close the distance to the scout ship. He wanted to get closer so his targeting computer could achieve maximum accuracy. The three other ships maintained formation with him. He was almost to optimum firing range when the K’Rang ship hit reverse thrusters and CPT Chang's flight shot past the scout. As the last fighter of the four-ship formation passed by the scout ship’s pulse guns fired, disabling LT Obagwe’s ship.
“Kelly, follow me in. We’re going to take away this guy's fangs. I’m going under him and take out his guns. You take out his engines.”
Angie made a hard turn to starboard to come back at the scout ship. Kelly followed, toggling his weapons from the mini-seekers to guns. The two fighters dropped down below the scout ship and rose up. Angie’s guns reached out and destroyed the scout’s guns. Kelly fired his guns into the rear of the ship, taking out the port engine. The two fighters shot past the scout, executed a sharp loop with the help of their vectored thrust, and Kelly took out the starboard engine. The two shot back under the scout, executed another loop, and a roll to end up above and to port of the scout ship. The scout coasted in space, venting gases, and sparking where the engines had once been. The scout yawed and tumbled in space.
CPT Chang’s voice came over the communicator, “K’Rang ship, this is CPT Chang of the Galactic Republic Fleet. You are disabled in Galactic Republic space. Prepare to be towed. Disable all your systems but basic life support. Any deviation will result in your ship being destroyed.”
There was no response from the K’Rang ship. CPT Chang flew his fighter over to do a visual check of the scout.
His voice came over the inter-ship frequency, “LT Shappelle, would you and your wing man tow LT Obagwe’s ship back to the carrier. We can take the scout from here.”
Kelly switched to Angie and his private frequency and said, “He can take it from here? He let the K’Rang ship outfly him twice, got one of his ships shot up, and had to have us take it out for him, but he can take it from here. What kind of BS is this?”
Angie replied, “Relax, the data captured by the Bolivar will show what happened here. Let’s let him tow the hulk in.”
Wanda said, “Kelly, I am picking up a strange reading from the K’Rang ship. I sense an energy build up on the scout ship.”
Kelly’s turned his eyes toward the scout ship. CPT Chang and his two remaining fighters were pulling up to the scout ship to affect the tow. The revelation hit him in an instant. He keyed his mike on the fleet frequency and yelled into his mike, “Chang, get away from him. He’s activated his self-destruct. Get out of there now!”
CPT Chang and his two escorts didn’t hesitate. They hit max power and had blasted to several kilometers from the scout when it lit up the black space like a supernova. The blast wave rocked Angie and Kelly, but did no damage to any of the fighters in either group.
Angie said, “Well, that was fun. Let’s go get LT Obagwe and tow him to the carrier.”
Kelly said, “Thank you Wanda, you saved a bunch of us just then. It’s good to fly with you.”
“Thank you, Kelly, it’s good to fly with you, too.”
The two ships moved to LT Obagwe's disabled fighter and engaged their tractor beams to tow his fighter back. A shuttle from the nearest frigate was dispatched to retrieve as much debris from the scout ship as they could find.
As the six fighters proceeded to the Bolivar, a data pod sped in-spiral. Its laser communicator extended and transmitted the last data collected by the late K’Rang Shadow Scout Ship D’Rella. The data stream sped to the waiting relay satellite. The data transmission completed and the personal messages of Shadow Warriors K’Tella and M’Drek were sent out. M’Drek’s message was to inform his father and clan mates that he died willingly in service to the Empire and to remember him at the reading of the M’Drella. K’Tella sent a message to his Creche mother that his sacrifice was in honor of her and she should remember his sacrifice to his creche mates. At the end of the transmission, the pod waited for acknowledgement, received it, and then self-destructed.
In-spiral of the fleet, another larger black spot in space waited. Inside it was the orderly buzz of activity indicative of a military vessel.
A sensor crewman looked up from his screen, “I think that is the last of the data pod transmission, Captain.”
“The captain of the GRS Vehement, latest ship in the Valiant Class of Scout Ships, nodded at his crewman and called across the bridge, “Exec, how long will it take to shut down that K’Rang satellite in our hold?”
A Fleet Lieutenant, Junior Grade walked over from his console and replied, “Captain, it will take about a half hour to spin down and secure the satellite’s electronics. I’m closing the hold doors now. We should have normal atmosphere in there in a few minutes.”
“Okay, Exec, take care of it and then set course for Antares at best possible speed.”
The captain walked over to the sensor crewman and said, “Poor bastards, their sacrifices were for naught. Did we get all the data the K’Rang ship sent since they crossed the frontier?”
The crewman looked up from his screen again and replied, “Yes sir, nothing got through. We got it all, every last photon.”
Kelly discontinued his musing, shut down his terminal, and turned in.