Kelly Blake 3: Where the Stars Are Few and Far Between (34 page)

* * * * *

Former Shadow Force Commander (Baron) J’Kol surveyed his command. The Shadow Scout P’Tong seemed to be all that was left of his once mighty command, now that he had been relieved. He pondered why he was being recalled to G’Durin. Surely, he thought, his throat could be slit out here and his body spaced much easier than on G’Durin. Why did they tell him to bring an aide? Had something happened to Baron G’Rof? All these questions swirled through his head, but no answers were forthcoming.

He enquired of the P’Tong’s commander for any news of the Human fleets or of events on G’Durin or the Grand Armada.

The scout commander replied, “The Humans have silenced the communications hubs between us and the home world and I have no news to impart. Baron J’Kol, be assured that you have my loyalty and the loyalty of every K’Rang on board if you have need.”

J’Kol thanked the commander and assured him, “Whatever fate awaits me, if it is in service to the Empire, I will accept it gladly. I thank you for your loyalty Shadow Leader, but service to the Empire is our ultimate responsibility. If you wish to serve me, then wring every bit of speed out of your engines. The faster we get there, the sooner this mystery will be solved. Above all else, get me there before the Humans arrive.”

He called for his aide and the two retired to his cabin. He showed the message to G’Motta and asked him what he thought of it.

“Baron J’Kol, I think you should not worry about this message. They asked you to turn over your command, board your fastest ship to arrive before the Humans, report to the Elders day or night, and bring an aide. If this were to lead to a punishment, they would have sent the message to your second in command, not you. They would have had you arrested and imprisoned on the flagship, not devote a warship to bringing you to G’Durin. If you were to be reprimanded or otherwise punished, they would not have you report to the Elders at any hour. They would have you held and brought before them at their convenience. Lastly, condemned men do not have aides.”

“No, sir, I do not see you being punished upon arrival. More than likely, you are being brought in to perform some service for the Elders. I would suspect that it relates to the defense of G’Durin, planetary defense commander, or maybe Baron G’Rof is incapacitated and they need you to assume command of the Grand Armada. Whatever your fate, I do not believe you have been recalled for punishment.”

J’Kol could not fault his aide’s logic. He now had to wonder what command or duty awaited him. Planetary defense was an option, but that wouldn’t require meeting with the Elders at any time of day or night. If he was to replace G’Rof – and G’Rof was out of communications – that would be a very difficult task. He had no idea where the Grand Armada would come out of FTL. He would have to leave G’Durin to rendezvous with G’Rof’s flagship, fly through a likely Human attack, not get destroyed, and assume command under fire. G’Rof had three or four subordinate commanders as capable as he, so it was unlikely he was to take over the Grand Armada. He could not figure why he was being recalled. Thanking G’Motta, he dismissed him for the night, and then crawled into bed, but sleep evaded him for hours.

* * * * *

Shadow Force Commander (Baron) G’Rof was receiving his first briefing on his organization for combat movement order. The cruisers were all in their positions. The destroyers were forming a ring around the drone carriers and would be in position in three more watches. The frigates were moving laterally into positions on each flank, above, and below the formation and would need two days. The corvettes and supply ships could not exceed FTL power 4 and attempts to move them into position caused them to fall behind the formation. Their repositioning was on hold.

G’Rof asked to have the flagship’s chief navigator report to him with an assessment of the impact of a decrease in fleet speed to FTL power 3.8 long enough to reposition all ships and achieve the completed new battle formation. The navigator reported each 15 minutes at FTL power 3.8 would cost them one hour on their arrival at G’Durin. G’Rof gave the authority to his flag Ops officer to reduce fleet speed to FTL power 3.8 for no more than 30 minutes, at his discretion. If he needed more than 30 minutes, he must ask G’Rof for more time, with a full analysis of exactly how much time was needed.

* * * * *

Admiral Chang reviewed reports from scout ships shadowing the K’Rang Great Armada. The fleet was slowly converting from their four columns to a more appropriate combat formation. He saw cruisers leading and forming a roof and floor for the drone carriers. The drone carriers would also be protected by a forming circle of destroyers. The frigates were forming an outer anti-missile/anti-fighter ring of protection. The corvettes, torpedo ships, and support ships were at max speed and held their original positions. Chang assumed the commander would either slow his fleet to give them the ability to maneuver into position or wait for arrival at G’Durin for them to move into position.

Admiral Chang had to give the K’Rang credit, because reorganizing in high FTL was a gutsy call. A nervous helmsman could cause a bump, which would be disastrous to both ships and any others near them. A collision would collapse both ships’ FTL envelopes and bring them to an immediate halt, disastrous for the crews and any ship traveling behind them. Fleet had toyed with a FTL-capable torpedo for years, but couldn’t get enough speed out of them with the small FTL engines of the time to make them effective against today’s FTL ships in anything other than a head-on shot.

He thought it might be worthwhile to renew that effort with the new smaller high FTL engines in development. He could see some scouts armed with such a torpedo getting in front of a massed formation and letting loose a number of high FLT torpedoes into its midst. The closing speeds would make evasion almost impossible. Relativity would preclude any defensive fire. It could be an effective weapon for destroyers, too.

Admiral Chang called in his Ops officer to answer some questions. When he arrived, Chang said, “Ops, we have enough tracking data on the K‘Rang Grand Armada. Figure out where he is going to come out of FTL for battle and when. I also want you to do the same for the Armada coming in from Eridanus. The scouts have done a good job of killing their FTL comms router hubs, so they can’t coordinate their arrival and link up until they get here. I have my idea of where they will wind up, but I want your unbiased estimate on this, so I’ll keep it to myself for now.”

The Ops officer answered, “Sir, we’ve been maintaining a running estimate of just that for two days now.”

Admiral Chang smiled and said, “Good work anticipating me. So what does your estimate say?”

The Ops officer activated the holographic projector and said, “Sir, we estimate at current speed and trajectory the K’Rang Grand Armada will drop out of FTL one hundred fifty million kilometers behind and above their home system.”

He pointed to a spot in space behind and above the system.

“The K’Rang commander is reorganizing as he flies. It is a prodigious feat. I give him chops for doing it. It is slowing him down slightly so that he can get his slower ships in position. He’ll be there in eight days and 13 hours. The Eridanus armada also appears to be aiming for a spot one hundred fifty million kilometers above their home system. They are estimated to arrive in six days and three hours. Our current ETA is 4 days and seven hours.”

“Good work, Ops, that’s pretty close to my estimate as well. Put all that in a data file and get it to the Orion for the Angaerry.”

Admiral Chang got up, stretched the kinks out of his sore back, went for a cup of coffee, and asked if his Ops officer would like one, too. The Ops Officer got up to fix a cup and sat back down.

The admiral sat down, took a sip, and asked, “What do you think, should I move the Montpelier to G’Durin or stay put? I’m concerned about my ability to command and control four fleets from here. I’ll tell you what we’ll do. Bring the Resurgent back, in case we need to hop in there. Get it back from its cruise to Sirius system, best possible speed. Then I have a way to get there if things go south. That’s all I have. Do you have anything more for me?”

The Ops officer shook his head, picked up his pocket terminal, and left.

* * * * *

Candy sipped her wine and looked up the stars. She did that a lot lately – looked at the stars and wondered where among them her husband was. She hadn’t gotten a message from him in a few days. She remembered her mom sitting and reading, waiting for Dad to come back from patrol or one of the frequent skirmishes with the K’Rang. She remembered how she kept a calm serene look on her face as she read the same page over and over. Candy remembered one of Dad’s deployments where Mom was still working on the same page until he came home.

She knew the brave face was for Candy’s benefit and under the surface she worried. Candy remembered one time, in her fourth or fifth year, comforting her mom by telling her not to worry, Dad was too smart for any dumb old K’Rang to get the best of him. She remembered how Mom laughed and some of the tension left her face. Candy almost let the thought out that she wished she had a child to keep her company and give her something to think about other than herself, but she pushed it back. Kelly would get through this just fine; he would be back with her soon, and they would have a family together. She finished her one glass of wine and went to bed.

 
Chapter Eighteen
 

 Admiral Thomas had all the K’Rang translators in her battle fleet identified, tested, and alerted to movement to support key positions once the fleet came under Angaerry command. She prepared simple lesson plans on battle fleet operations and sent them to Kelly to show to the Angaerry Commander and staff.

She prepared three liaison teams to go to the main Angaerry fleet staffs. Each consisted of two qualified Space Warfare Officers in the ranks of Commander and Lieutenant Commander, two qualified Fighter Force Officers in the rank of Major and Captain, one senior chief intel specialist, and four translators. She left it to the chief and commander to develop their equipment list. Kelly had said the Angaerry liked sushi, so she had them take along a food tester set, just in case.

As far as feeding the Angaerry, she had the replicator recipes that Kelly had provided. She sent those recipes to each food service officer on the ships that would be hosting the Angaerry liaison teams.

She made room in her Flag Staff spaces for an equal number of Angaerry liaison personnel.

* * * * *

The commanding officer of the GRS Resurgent got a message directing him to reverse course and proceed to a rendezvous with the GRS Montpelier at best possible speed. Commander Thomas reversed course and pushed his speed to FTL power 4. He wondered who couldn’t make up his or her mind.

* * * * *

Shadow Force Commander (Baron) G’Rof received his fourth briefing on the reorganization for combat. He had just completed 30 minutes at FTL power 3.8 and resumed level 4. He waited while his operations officer verified the positions of each ship. Finally the operations officer turned to him and said, “Baron, we are complete.”

Smiles broke out all over the room as realization hit that they were organized to come out of FTL and engage the Human fleets. G’Rof’s smile was biggest of all. He had wrestled with the options and not really liked any of them, but his operations officer put together a plan to achieve his vision.

He still planned to drop out of FTL beyond and above the orbital plane of the home system. He was not able to coordinate with J’Kol because of the communications blackout imposed by the Humans. He would have to work on the assumption that J’Kol would think like he did and drop out of FTL far beyond the system and come back once the Grand Armada appeared. If he had time, he would integrate J’Kol’s armada into his force by type. If not, he will bring him above his formation and go at the Humans en masse.

He now had a chance to defeat these Humans, but to do that, they would have to get in close. These new drone ships were fine in theory, but missiles traditionally won battles for the K’Rang. To get in close, he needed to know where the Human’s main body was. He approved his operations officer’s plan to drop out the Armada’s scout ships before the Grand Armada dropped out of FTL. The scouts would find the enemy fleet or fleets, report their location and ship consist, and maintain contact at all cost.

* * * * *

Kelly finished his final lesson plan on carrier operations for the Angaerry fleet Commanders and staffs. He felt they had as good a grasp on the subject as someone who understood theory, but had never done it for real. The questions he answered showed a good understanding of the theory. Admiral Thomas and Pappas agreed to keep it simple: Find enemy, launch fighter CAP, launch attack craft, recover attack craft, maintain fighter CAP. The Angaerry were similar to the K’Rang in wanting to get in close and duke it out with missiles. The concept of standing their fleet off and using the attack ships to carry the war to the enemy was not what they were used to. Kelly won most of his audience over by explaining that the attack ship missiles would syphon off the K’Rang’s defensive missiles so that more of the Angaerry offensive missiles made it through to their targets. The Angaerry commanders liked that.

After the general videoconference, Jotil Lenkva asked Kelly to stay on. Kelly waited for the other stations to drop off. When it was just his ship and the flagship on, Jotil Lenkva asked, “Captain Blake, what is your opinion of our ability to use your carriers effectively?”

Kelly thought for a moment to make sure he had her intent right, then answered, “Jotil Lenkva, you and your commanders will do fine. Keep to the basics and you will be just fine.”

She paused and said, “I wish I could have you as my adviser during this battle, but that is not possible, I understand.”

Kelly answered, “No, but the officers that will be on your liaison teams will be experts in all aspects of fleet operations. They will be Space Warfare Officers and Fighter and Attack Qualified Officers. They will be current on all matters of Fleet Operations and able to advise you as well as or better than I. If you need my help, I am only a communicator call away.”