Kelly Blake 3: Where the Stars Are Few and Far Between (20 page)

News of the fate of several planetary defense task forces had reached his captains, so they had an incentive to ensure their ship stopped before the final line. Some captains pressed their ships and crews beyond their limits, and the ships suffered catastrophic failures in their stabilization and artificial gravity systems. Structural failure was the normal outcome, resulting in loss of crew and ship. Some ships lost their entire crew as the sudden inertial forces tore the crew apart. Those ships were never manned or served again. G’Rof ordered the ships that failed the test or were too slow to make best armada speed to an assembly area near G’Durin to add to the defense. He sent 30 ships.

G’Rof slowly built his Grand Armada. 270 ships were on his fleet list. His next task would be to practice the attack maneuver as a whole armada. His three high commanders had exercised their line fleets separately, but now he needed to practice with the combined force.

* * * * *

Angie led her squadron in a CAP mission in front of the fleet, which was travelling at just below FTL due to task forces out destroying K’Rang FTL capability on several nearby systems. She briefly thought about what CAP stood for, even though they operated in a vacuum. Combat Air Patrol was one of those terms kept over from the days of terrestrial navies.

Shaking those thoughts out of her head, she concentrated on her mission of providing Battle Fleet advance security. She spread her two other flights to her left and right, so they covered as much frontage as possible, and scanned to the front as far as her sensors would reach.

She almost missed it when a target popped up on her screen and immediately disappeared. Her wingman saw it and reported it to her. They both left the rest of the squadron behind and went to investigate.

The squadron had standing orders to not fly out beyond the fleet missile engagement zone and she kept that in mind as she moved forward. Approaching the green line on her sensor screen signifying the edge of the engagement zone, she saw three squadrons of T’Pok fighters resolve. She immediately called a contact report back to the fleet and turned to return to her squadron at full speed.

She returned to the other two ships in her flight and called her two other four-ship flights to close up on her. They oriented on the incoming T’Pok wing of 54 fighters, and were about to engage when the Battle Fleet called and told them to stand aside as the fleet cruisers launched missiles. The missiles reached out and flamed 30 of the incoming ships, then the Fleet granted permission to engage.

Her squadron easily outmatched the heavily laden T’Poks. The last five ships fired their missile loads, in the vain hope they had the range to reach the fleet, although they were hopelessly out of range. This loss of mass made their ships faster and more maneuverable, but not as much as the F-53's, which made short work of them. One of the fighters in Angie’s third flight took some damage during the melee, but was able to make it back to the carrier without assistance.

Angie maintained her patrol with 11 ships and was relieved after several hours on patrol. She led her squadron back to the carrier and landed by flights. Debriefing and the required combat reports took three more hours before she was through. It was a tired Angie that turned in after a total of 20 hours on duty.

* * * * *

Lieutenant Commander Gary Breaux, commanding the scout ship Vociferous, was patrolling alone in his sector. Sensors picked up an anomaly on their screens at the limit of their long-range sensors. Whatever it was, it was enormous. He closed in to determine what this object was.

After a day of careful maneuver toward the object, the object turned out to be the K’Rang Grand Armada. Lieutenant Commander Breaux couldn’t believe what he was seeing on his sensor screens. He saw three lines of ships as far as his short-range sensors could resolve. It looked to be about 100 ships in each row. He couldn’t imagine what they were doing when the entire formation started moving forward at the same time. The captain ordered the Vociferous to follow.

The formation ran up to FTL power 4 and continued for a short distance then slammed on the brakes. Only the quick reflexes of the helmsman kept them from overshooting the K’Rang fleet and winding up in a very vulnerable and embarrassing position. Unfortunately, a group of five missile corvettes stopped too quickly and wound up behind the formation. This also put them behind the Vociferous.

The corvettes quickly realized what they had in front of them and launched all their missiles at the Vociferous. The Vociferous instantly accelerated away from the missiles. While the Vociferous had a higher top end speed, the missiles accelerated more quickly. The race was over before the Vociferous reached FTL power 2.5. An expanding ball of orange oxygen-rich flames marked the Vociferous’ death.

* * * * *

An atmosphere of elation pervaded the bridge of Shadow Force Commander (Baron) G’Rof’s Flagship, the Heavy Cruiser, O’Ren. The five corvette captains would all be awarded with high awards. Their quick action protected G’Rof’s masterstroke that would defeat the Human fleets. Baron G’Rof called in 20 frigates from the nearest planetary defense fleets to bolster security for his Grand Armada’s tactical training at its start and end points. He would have no more surprises as he prepared his fleet.

Baron G’Rof felt he was close. He was estimating that the fleet was trained to the 90% level, but he wanted more. He needed every possible ship in line to fire at the same time. He strove for 95% or better – although he was glad this time the corvettes stopped too quickly.

He had to get all the ships to stop relatively on line. If ships were ahead or behind the line, friendly missiles could target them or the missiles of those behind could hit ships of the line. His other problem to solve would be to make sure his Grand Armada came out lined up facing the right flank of the Human fleet.

He called in several Shadow Scout Commanders to his conference room. “Gentlemen, I need you to be masters of your craft. I need you to shadow the Human fleet and report its orientation back to me. The Humans have started altering their course periodically to evade defensive minefields laid by the planetary defense fleet. I have to know their angle in relation to this line, which is a direct line from where they entered the K’Rang Empire to G’Durin. If you report their angle in relation to this line, I can adjust my lines to reflect that angle. Are there any questions?”

The three commanders stood as one and said, “No, Shadow Force Commander (Baron) G’Rof. Long live the Empire!”

 
Chapter Eleven
 

 The A team was assembled in the Orion’s conference room for a final decision on the first contact message. Kelly read through the message that Ambassador Thorson’s translators prepared. He read the message’s Galactic Standard version and was told by Ambassador Thorson it was the same in the K’Rang and the Angaerry text. The message would be in text and audio/video versions. Sensors had found a way to emulate A’Ngarii video protocols.

It started off with greetings from the race beyond the K’Rang. It explained that the message was transmitted in three languages to help with their understanding of our intentions and peaceful purposes. It requested permission to travel to the Angaerry home world and agreed to submit to any security protocols the Angaerry desired, within reason. It briefly described the Orion.

It explained the desire to establish diplomatic relations. These relations could lead to a mutual defense treaty, cultural exchanges, or to trade agreements if ways could be found through or around K’Rang space.

Kelly liked it – it was simple, concise, and to the point. He looked at Thorson and asked once again if he was positive the Angaerry version said what the Galactic Standard version said.

He replied, “It is as close as the two best linguists in the Galactic Republic can make it.”

Kelly pondered for a few minutes aware of the immense responsibility, then accepted that assurance and authorized his comms chief to send the message. Now they would just wait until the Angaerry replied.

* * * * *

What became known as the three-part message caused quite a stir within the Angaerry hierarchy. To ensure the message got to the leadership, the Human message was sent to any address with the government sub heading, the home world extension, and the Angaerry word for leader.

All 23 party leaders got the message, as well as the High Minister of the Angaerry. It was leaked to the press almost instantaneously. Half the recipients thought it a hoax by either the K’Rang or locals. The other half saw it as an opportunity to gain an alliance with a technologically superior race and push back the K’Rang conquest of several of their worlds. The debate became quite heated in the Angaerry Supreme Assembly and gridlock ensued.

In the end, the assembly did what it always did when tough decisions were needed; they passed the decision to the High Minister. High Minister Orwa Senth, Seventh Lord of the Maapery, called in his team of military, diplomatic, scientific, and trade advisors to confer on the matter. Orwa, always a nervous individual, was even more so today. His predecessor, twenty years before, had initiated contact with the K’Rang and subsequently, the K’Rang had robbed them of 6 worlds along their common frontier. What would he do with this new race?

His Military Minister, Jakah Burin, led off the discussion with reports of combat activity quite close along the common frontier in K’Rang space. He posited that these Humans were currently in open hostilities with the K’Rang and were looking for an alliance and a mutual defense pact. He cautiously urged the High Minister to open negotiations with these Humans. After all, it never hurt to talk and they might gain an ally against the K’Rang, something badly needed.

The Scientific Minister, an antiseptic looking creature known among the Angaerry for not having developed any new scientific advances in years, spoke next. He provided an analysis of the Humans from the video and declared them to be bipedal, similar to the Angaerry. Their body structure was very similar to the Angaerry, but they had obviously evolved from a different species. Their technology was obviously quite advanced, judging by their ability to cross K’Rang space and their ability to understand and inject their message into the Angaerry communications system in a format they could all understand. He also cautiously urged negotiations.

The Minister of Diplomacy, a pompous and officious individual with a natural tendency to caution, stood and interrupted the science minister. He paced the room as he recounted their bad experience with the K’Rang. He was troubled about why these Humans put their message in the K’Rang language as well as Angaerry. He couldn’t help but wonder if these Humans were merely K’Rang in disguise.

The High Minister interrupted and asked, “Hotaa Watal, surely this was so that there would be no mistake in our understanding of their message. Wasn’t it obvious from their poor grammar, use of inappropriate idioms, and misspellings that they knew their grasp of our language was poor? Surely they included the K’Rang language version assuming that because the K’Rang and we are neighbors that we would have an understanding of their language. I think it shows prudence on their part. Does not the K’Rang version and the Angaerry version contain the same approximate text?”

The Diplomat retreated to his chair and reluctantly agreed with the High Minister. He still urged caution, lest this turn out to be a K’Rang trick.

The High Minister turned back to his Scientific Minister again and asked, “Macoo Biren, have you analyzed the Human video? If so, what were the results?”

Minister Biren stood up and moved to a large monitor on one side of the room. He keyed up the Human video and started laying out his analysis. “In my opinion, the creatures in this video are actual beings, not artificial constructs. The creature with the short hair and deep voice speaking the Human version of the text is their diplomat and is probably male. These two creatures with longer hair and higher voices speaking the Angaerry and K’Rang versions are undoubtedly his translators and probably females of the species. Note their diminutive size as compared to the male.”

“Our best video specialists have technically analyzed this file and have determined that it was originally recorded in another video format and converted to be compatible with our system. Interestingly, it was shot in one long take. There are no breaks, cuts, or splices in it. Our analysis leads us to believe the video is genuine and the images of the creatures accurately portray them.”

The Military Minister jumped in. “High Minister, they offer to submit to our security protocols. Why don’t we meet them halfway here with a flotilla from our Home Fleet and escort them into a landing at our military spaceport? They did say their ship was capable of landing on the surface. We can control them there and keep the populace away, too.”

High Minister Senth stood and announced, “I have reached a decision. We will confer with these Humans. Minister Watal, prepare a message back to the Humans in Angaerry and K’Rang, telling them to meet our flotilla at a point of Minister Burin’s choosing. Jakah, escort the ship here and have it land at the military spaceport. Send your newest and most impressive ships. Minister Watal, prepare an agenda for a week of introductions, cultural exchanges, and negotiations. Understand, everyone, until proven otherwise, these Humans are our guests and their stated purpose, as contained in their message, is how we will act toward them. Just because we had a bad experience with the K’Rang doesn’t mean that will always be the case. Besides, these Humans say they live beyond the K’Rang. That should provide a buffer to any treachery they may attempt.”

* * * * *

A cheer came from the Ops section. Kelly, in his cabin, was about to investigate when there was a knock on his door. Lieutenant Handel stuck his head in and announced, “Sir, the High Minister of the Angaerry responded to the message. The Ambassador’s translators are working on an official translation, but it appears to invite us to meet a flotilla at a point between here and their home world to escort us in. We are to land at their military spaceport. They welcome us in peace.”