Kelly Blake 3: Where the Stars Are Few and Far Between (2 page)

Kelly was coming to the end of his three-year tour at Fleet HQ Legislative Liaison Division, and today was introducing his replacement around the GR Congress. His first stop was his uncle, Brian O’Toole, the Senate Majority Leader. He flirted briefly with his uncle’s new receptionist, until his uncle was ready to see Kelly in his interior office.

Brian O’Toole was in his middle fifties, with white hair starting to appear amongst the red. He stood about 1.8 meters and was getting a bit paunchy about the middle, the result of too many lobbyist dinners. Brian had an earnest air about him, but with the constant look of a precocious child about to get in trouble.

Kelly walked up, shook his hand, and said, “Senator, allow me to introduce Lieutenant Commander Kevin Gold, my replacement.”

Lieutenant Commander Gold, a razor sharp Fleet officer recently transferred in from a frontier task force, gave Kelly’s uncle a firm handshake and said, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir.”

Kelly continued with a grin, “Now, Uncle Brian, I expect you and your staff to extend every courtesy to Kevin here, the same as you did me. After all, you kept insisting that you weren’t doing things I wanted just because I’m your older sister’s boy.”

The Senator burst out laughing, sent out for coffee, and spent an unscheduled additional thirty minutes getting to know Lieutenant Commander Gold. By the time they were ushered out, Kelly knew there would be no change in Fleet’s relationship with the Senate.

Kelly spent the entire day walking Kevin Gold around the various congressional buildings and introducing him to various movers and shakers of all parties, major and minor. When they returned to the Legislative Liaison Office, the sun had set long ago on Geneva, the Galactic Republic’s capital. Kelly sat down with Kevin at his terminal and shared good message addresses, especially the ones from all the pretty and influential staffers that wanted to share a cup of coffee or more with a man in uniform.

He finally finished around 2200 and logged off for the night, then took the subway home to his small apartment and called up his messages for the day. The first was from his mom, asking how her baby brother was and if Kelly would be stopping by Gagarin on his way back to Antares Base. His second was a video from Candy, asking when he would be arriving at Antares base and saying how lonely she had been in the three years he was gone. Even though she had spent a week or two with him whenever they could synchronize their leaves, she would still be pretty much alone, since their close friend, Lieutenant Commander Tammy Nielsen, was transferring out to Glenn for transition from transports to Heavy Attack Ships. Tammy had been the daily shuttle pilot on Armstrong in the Antares system, home of Scout Force Headquarters. She was one member of the terrible trio of Kelly’s girlfriends.

He advised Candy and his mom that he hadn’t gotten his orders yet, but would let them know when he knew. He hit send and got an almost instantaneous request for a video call. Since it was from Candy, he accepted.

The screen opened to Candy wrapped in a big fluffy towel, drying her hair. Candy was Admiral Craddock’s daughter. They had become quite close friends and lovers while he was assigned to Antares Base. She was now the senior civilian lawyer in the base Judge Advocate General Office and in charge of contract law.

“Hey, there. I saw your reply and figured you hadn’t gone to sleep yet. So, you don’t know when you’ll be back here?”

“No, the yeoman has promised my orders to me this week, but he can’t say for certain. I’m hoping they get me out of here before the Defense bill hits the House floor. I’ve greased the skids as much as I can, but you know how they love to debate things and there are some controversial items in there.”

Candy sat down and the towel dropped to her waist. She laughed and pulled it up, then said, “I suppose I should have asked if you were alone. Have you run into Dad?”

Candy’s dad had been the Commanding Officer of Scout Force when Kelly first joined. He then got his third star and became Chief of Fleet Intelligence. He was instrumental in getting Kelly into the Legislative Liaison Office when Kelly turned over command of the Scout Ship Vigilant. Kelly was now approaching the long anticipated end of his three-year tour. Vice Admiral Craddock had been nominated for his fourth star and to be director of the Republic Intelligence Agency.

“Your dad has been a little busy lately. I passed him in the hallway on his way to his confirmation hearing yesterday. He looked good.”

“You should invite yourself over or I can arrange it for you. Mom would love to see you. Hey, did you know Edgar is a Captain now and Admiral Minacci’s Executive Officer? I ran into him and Janey on the street. Their little boy is so cute.”

“It would be nice to visit your folks, but I’m kind of busy clearing actions out before my orders come through. I’ll pay my respects before I leave though. I look forward to seeing Timmons again. Have you heard from Angie?”

Angie Shappelle was the third member of the terrible trio of Kelly’s girlfriends. He had been her wingman before he got booted from Fighter Force. She had always been strictly professional when they were Lead and Wing, but got quite friendly after Kelly left Fighter Force. He’d seen her name come up on a pre-release copy of the Lieutenant Colonel promotions list, but had lost contact with her over the last six months. He assumed she was deployed, but was too busy to check into it. Candy, Angie, and Tammy had all become fast friends and delighted in ganging up on Kelly before his transfer to Geneva.

His own promotion was approaching. He was on the Commanders list, but his promotion was at least a couple of weeks away. There had been a rumor that Admiral Craddock wanted to promote him before he left for Antares Base, but it was just a rumor.

Kelly’s eyes were drooping; he had been up since 0400 and it was approaching midnight. He politely told Candy to go away and he would call her later in the week.

She said, “Okay, you must be beat, poor baby. Here, I got something to give you incentive to get here sooner.”

Standing up, she stepped back from the video pick up and let her towel drop to the floor. The view was spectacular.

Kelly reluctantly closed the link, undressed and threw himself on his bed. It took him a while to get to sleep.

* * * * *

The deliberations of the elders were the highest secret on G’Durin. Only Chief Secretary to the Elders, Baron N’Gana, and one scribe were ever allowed in their presence while they discussed the future of the Empire. Today’s agenda item was Operation J’Tan.

The senior Elder led off the discussion. “Fellow Elders, we have received the success code. The Human protectors of their Eridanus sector have been vanquished. It is time to release the Armada.”

The junior Elder said, “I am still uncertain of our goals and objectives in this operation. Tell me again how attacking the Humans, who have superior forces to ours, the ability to transfer and mass their forces over great distances almost instantaneously using these rings of theirs, and have an industrial capability that could bury us in new ships and armaments, will benefit us?”

The middle Elder answered, “Calm yourself, Elder, our plan takes advantage of the Human quality of concern for their fellow Humans. We will capture four of their worlds with their populations unharmed. While we hold these 5 billion Humans, they will not dare attempt to retake this sector. Once our Armada occupies the sector, it will not be possible for them to take it back. We will let them attempt counterattacks until they realize they cannot eject us. When they are convinced our occupation is a permanent situation, we will open negotiations from a position of strength and trade their four worlds for eight uninhabited systems in their Taurus sector that are in a salient into our space. We give them something they want. We get something we want.”

“Of course, all this supposes the humans will react the way we want them to, said the junior Elder. “I am reminded of something an old wise man once said, ‘Hope is not a course of action’.”

* * * * *

Recently promoted Lieutenant Commander Tammy Nielsen flew her last shuttle flight up to Antares Station. Although she was no longer technically in the flight detachment, she was allowed to sit in the pilot’s seat and take what had been her S-660, The City of San Francisco, up one last time. She made a picture perfect take off and a bumpless docking at the station. Her crew and fellow officers stood as side boys and piped her off after the passengers had disembarked. It was an emotional farewell, as Tammy was liked and respected by her crew and the other officers.

Transport duty had become too dull, especially now that the transporter rings were almost fully deployed and mini-gates were being designed for some capital ships. Tammy had made the tough decision to transfer from transport service to the new long-range heavy attack ships.

With the rings deployed to almost all frontier sectors, a squadron of attack ships launched from Glenn could be anywhere in GR space in hours, if not minutes. She said a final goodbye to her crewmates and went to find the shuttle going to Glenn.

After an hour-long flight, the shuttle arrived at Glenn. A sign in the worn terminal, desperately in need of repainting, directed her to the ground transport for the transition school. A civilian driver took her bags and loaded them on a hover transporter and she climbed aboard. After four other officers climbed aboard, the civilian drove them to the school.

Mendez Field was an old mothballed fighter transition base that had been reactivated and converted to the mission of transitioning pilots to fly the A-100 long-range heavy attack ships and the A-120 long-range medium attack ships. The A-100's and A-120's were planet-based attack craft, capable of carrying any fighter or attack ship weapons, plus weapons specially designed just for them. The A-100 was the larger, with the bigger payload, designed to fly in, find the target, destroy it, and fly off to destroy the next target. The A-100 would survive by its stealth coating and resilient structure, as long as it did not carry external weapons. The A-120 was meant for situations where a more maneuverable fighter-like ship was required. Its survival depended upon speed and maneuverability.

Tammy reported in, was assigned quarters, and received her flight and survival equipment. Tomorrow she would learn how to put it all together. She got her flight gear packed into her kit bag and ready, then checked her messages. There was a message from Candy, saying how much she was going to miss her. Tammy would miss her, too. Candy and Angie Shappelle were her best friends. Perhaps she could visit next time she was eligible for leave.

The next message was from her best male friend, Kelly Blake. She had met him just as he was joining the Fleet, after having been booted out of the Fighter Force. He was fun to be around. Last year, they had spent a week skiing the Swiss Alps and staying in a quaint mountainside hotel. She had a wonderful time as they skied, dined, and enjoyed the Tyrolean Alps lifestyle.

Kelly wished her good luck in transition school. He told her to be bold – she was flying a combat aircraft now. Fly it hard, but don’t break it, he said, and most of all, have fun. If you aren’t having fun, you’re trying too hard.

She sent a message back, telling him she would heed his advice.

The next morning came early and she was up before dawn. After a quick demonstration on putting her gear together, she reported to her first class on the workings of the A-100.

Everything became a whirlwind after that. There was class first thing in the morning, followed by a short flight-training mission. Then there was a class in the afternoon, followed by another longer flight-training mission. Every third night there was a class, followed by another flight-training mission. Tammy was exhausted most days. Sleep was never difficult. By the end of a month, she could wring every ounce of performance out of an A-100.

The A-100 was far from beautiful. In truth, it was an ugly beast. Thirty meters long, twenty meters wide, with ten-meter long winglets on each side, the A-100 faintly resembled a football with tiny wings. The crews affectionately called it the June Bug, in honor of its resemblance to a summer season beetle found in North America. The stub winglets served only as a place for forward firing guns and to hang external weapons. For stealth purposes, it mainly used the internal rotary racks that held up to twelve medium missiles. A fully loaded and definitely non-stealthy A-100 could carry 24 medium missiles, using internal and external racks. A single missile with its antimatter warhead could kill or neutralize a warship of destroyer size or smaller.

On the day before the last training day, Tammy received orders to report to the 112th Heavy Attack Ship Squadron for duty as executive officer. The 112th was stationed on Leonov, and her shuttle flight left immediately after her last training flight. She missed hoisting a last one with her classmates.

* * * * *

Admiral Samuel Chang, the Chief of Fleet Operations, glanced out his office window at the rain coming down over City Center Geneva. He was receiving a joint briefing by the Vice Chief of Fleet Operations and the Chief of Fleet Intel on the K’Rang invasion of the Eridanus Sector. The CFO was not happy that he lost TF 121. He was not happy that four Human planets in that sector were under the K’Rang fist. Mostly, he was not happy that this came as a surprise.

The Chief of Fleet Intel, Vice Admiral Andrea Binder, said, “Sir, the K’Rang built and assembled a large fleet of new ships on the far side of the K’Rang Empire. They did this with no indication to us that they were doing so. Their OPSEC was flawless. If it didn’t make me look like an ass, I’d admire them for it.”

“They have a new class of enhanced cruisers, destroyers and frigates, and they have built over 200 of them combined. The numbers come out to approximately 30 cruisers, 70 destroyers, and 100 frigates. These ships were given to the Shadow Force fleets, and the Shadow Force ships they displaced went to the general fleet. The K’Rang clearly felt that this new improved and larger fleet gave them enough advantage over us to be able to take and hold the Eridanus Sector against our counterattacks. They have three Shadow Force task forces in the Eridanus sector, with a combined consist of 22 cruisers (15 of the new class), 80 destroyers (40 of the new class), and 150 frigates (60 of the new class).”