All Enemies Foreign and Domestic (Kelly Blake series) (13 page)

      The Milton, or Fighting Mike, was the first of a new class of Assault Support Carriers designed to eliminate an old problem:
 
lack of command spaces to support both a Rear Admiral group commander and a Major General Marine assault landing division commander.
 
The Milton had two Flag Officer spaces for task force and ground force staffs, space for three squadrons of A-76 attack ships, two squadrons of F-48 fighters, a mixed support squadron, a squadron of new AG-155 close support ships, and a squadron of AS-600 stealth transports capable of deploying Mary’s battalion and the other units embarked on the Milton in one lift.

      She commanded the newly created 1st Special Operations Battalion embarked on the Milton, a first for an assault-landing group.
 
Her battalion consisted of three 100-Marine special operations companies, a headquarters company, and a special support company.
 
She was rightly proud of her unit’s capability to operate in space, the air, on the water, beneath the water, and on the land as individuals, teams, platoons, companies, and as a full battalion.
 
There was nowhere the enemy could hide she could not find them.
 
It was her dream assignment and one she had trained for her entire career.

      Her sergeant major came up to her while she waited for Rear Admiral Oliver Digg, Marine Major General Greg Allans, and the official party to arrive.
 

      “Ma’am, I passed word to the admiral’s command chief that if they don’t get on with it we will all need a pee break before the start.
 
One of the senior officer’s wives is suffering through a bout of space sickness.
 
It seems one of the flag deck gravity panels malfunctioned while she was above it and she’s been heaving ever since.
 
He said he would let me know soonest if we can take a short break to attend to bodily functions.”

          
Mary thanked the sergeant major and asked him to inform the other sergeants major.
 
He told her he already had and moved to the rear of the formation, while Mary tried not to think of her own bladder, now that the notion had been placed in her head.

* * * * *
 

      It was two hours past midnight on this moonless world.
 
Captain M’Taso had three of her crew cover her approach to the S’Kauf with their sidearms while she and two crewmen low-crawled slowly and silently through the gully towards her ship.
 
Additional crew were in positions to shoot the other guards at the first sound of alarm.

      She dropped as low as she could and silently padded up the dry wash until she was past the guard and inside their perimeter.
 
She rose up only slightly as she left the top of the gully and high-crawled to the base of the ship’s gangplank.
 
When her two crew members joined her under the deep shadows of the gangplank, they one-by-one climbed stealthily up and into the dark and silent ship.

      The ship had the smell of an abattoir as they slunk forward.
 
The bugs had not been too efficient when cleaning up the remains of the crew; rotting body parts littered the ship’s compartments and passageways. For the highly sensitive noses of the K’Rang, it was almost unbearable.
 
Captain M’Taso and her crew members suffered through it, knowing that the reactivation of the ship’s systems and their escape had to happen as close to simultaneously as possible, or risk being overpowered by the insectoids guarding the ship.
 
If the guards reacted quickly enough, they could jam the gangplank doorway and possibly force it fully open again.
 
She stationed one crewman to kill any insectoids coming up the ramp before the outer door closed and sealed.
 
The third crewman, a ship’s engineer, went aft to examine the state of the engines, internal power, and readiness to lift off.
 

      M’Taso went forward to the bridge to assess the flight controls and see how much of the ship they had carried away.
 
She found a hole where the navigation computer had once been.
 
They would never find their way out of this system without it, but she could make their rescue easier.
 
The stench was making her sick and she toyed with the notion of activating the ventilators, but satisfied herself with putting all switches in position for activation once the power from the engine room was restored.
 
She calculated which systems would be needed to get the S’Kauf off the ground in the shortest period of time.

      Back in engineering, the crewman checked systems and found all ready for duty and needing only a few switches to have the ship fully ready for lift-off.
 
He too considered activating the ventilators to remove the odor of death on the ship, but was unsure of what noise they might make.
 
He suffered silently and waited stoically for the captain’s call.
 
She had kept them together and alive so far; he had faith she would get them off this planet.

      M’Taso had all switches in the correct position.
 
One circuit breaker was all that was needed to initiate her plan.
 
She took a moment to make sure all was properly aligned.
 
The first action would be sealing the exterior hatch, followed by gangplank retraction.
 
That would seal the ship from insectoid attack.
 
Next would be ventilating the ship and closing all external throughhull fittings.
 
As the hatch closed and sealed, the guard crewman would occupy the top turret and kill any insectoids around or approaching the ship.
 
This would give the crewmen on guard outside the insectoid perimeter time to exfiltrate back to their rendezvous point.
 
Finally, power would be applied to the bottom thrusters to lift the S’Kauf up and away in the opposite direction from its eventual landing spot.

      Captain M’Taso licked the fur on her right paw in an ancient K’Rang wish for good luck.
 
She called her crewman at the hatch and asked if the insectoids had reacted.
 
He responded in the negative, so she told him to stand ready for plan activation in thirty seconds.
 
She called engineering and, when told the engines were ready, told the engineer to stand by for activation in ten seconds.
 
She turned to her command panel and flicked two of the last three switches.
 
When her timer clicked down to zero she hit the final switch.

      The guard above the gully barely heard the hatch start to move.
 
By the time he saw the hatch moving in the dark, it was within centimeters of closing and sealing.
 
When the gangplank made its noisier retraction into the hull, it left its post at speed to alert the colony.
 
The S’Kauf was in flight and away before the sleep-addled colony soldiers even left the burrow.

      As she passed overhead, Captain M’Taso could not help activating the bottom turret and plasma blasting the insectoids’ burrow.
 
Plasma balls created massive holes around the exit to the burrow, killed large numbers of workers and soldiers reacting to the S’Kauf’s passing, but did no harm to the queen safely ensconced in her birthing chamber many meters below the ground.

      M’Taso activated the ventilators, which only slightly moderated the stench permeating the ship, but any reduction was an improvement.
 
She followed the mountain range south for one hundred kilometers then turned north towards the designated rendezvous point.
 
The crewman that had manned the upper turret moved to sensors, entered an identity signature for insectoid burrows, and started plotting them in the ship’s geopositioning system.
 
He saw a pattern forming, where the higher, rockier terrain was free of insectoid burrows.
 
He started plotting alternative landing zones in this rougher terrain, should the insectoids discover them at their landing site.

      Captain M’Taso was elated as the report came in that all teams were at the rendezvous point and awaiting her arrival.
 
She made her approach and set the S’Kauf down in the high mountain clearing.
 
In seconds, the teams and their equipment were loaded on board.
 
M’Taso lifted off again and took them up into the highest mountain valley that sensors could find.

* * * * *

      Lieutenant Commander Consuela Cortez, Captain of the GRS Orion for all of two weeks, was in the middle of conducting work-ups, getting her crew to act as a crew and not as a bunch of individual sections, when the message came in for her to make best possible speed to a planetary system on the fringe of K’Rang space.
 
She was to accept a K’Rang liaison officer on board, who would join her enroute through the mini-gate.
 
Her orders further directed her to assess the situation on the ground and in the surrounding space.
 
It instructed her, within capabilities, to destroy any unidentified ship entering, orbiting, or attempting to leave the system.
 
It further instructed her to make contact with Captain M’Taso of the K’Rang deep space survey ship, S’Kauf, and render aid as required.
 
It directed her to make no planetary landing except to effect rescue of the S’Kauf’s crew.

      Connie called her executive officer, Lieutenant Sina Totuofu, and her master chief, Master Chief Petty Officer Johnson, and informed them of the change of mission. She instructed her XO to work on gunnery during the passage and to get the sections’ patrol supply lists and shift delivery to the mini-gate.
 
She ordered Chief Johnson to work out some issues between Sensors and Operations that seemed to be due to previous bad blood between Senior Chief Julie Marquette of Sensors and Senior Chief Jon Kolasinski of Operations.
 
It seems they were previously married and had a bitter divorce.
 
Personnel should never have assigned them to the same ship, much less one as small as the Orion.

      “Chief, sort them out or send one home through the gate.
 
I won’t have them hissing and spitting at each other at a critical moment.
 
We can always make an emergency requisition.
 
It’s a hell of a thing to do to throw someone new into the middle of a potential combat, but I won’t have that discord on my ship.
 
Understood?”

      Aye aye, Ma’am, I’ll throw some ice water on them and cool them down.
 
If I send one home it will be the end of their career.
 
That seems kind of harsh for just a bad assignment decision by some far off personnel specialist.”

      Connie sighed, “Chief, sort it out and let me know what you recommend.
 
Just get them under control.
 
Marquette’s outburst during the gunnery drill today was uncalled for and damn disruptive.
 
In combat it could have gotten us all killed.”

      “Yes, ma’am, I’ll see to it there are no more repeats.”

      Connie dismissed them and wondered to herself, how did Kelly make it look so easy?

* * * * *

      Candy awoke on the cot that had been brought into the small detention cell by a shadow warrior some hours before.
 
He did not speak to her and she had seen no one else.
 
Her request for the use of sanitary facilities had gone unheeded.
 
She really needed to go.

      She shouted out in her best K’Rang, “Hey!
 
I really need to use a toilet.
 
I need to use it now or it is going to get really messy in here.
 
I’m pregnant and don’t have as much bladder room as I used to.”

      In a few moments the door opened and a senior K’Rang ground force officer stepped into the room accompanied by a K’Rang female.

      “May we have your name, please?” asked the senior K’Rang.

      Candy saw no harm in letting them know who she was and replied, “ I am Candy Blake, assistant legal council to the Galactic Republic embassy.
 
I am accredited through your Foreign Ministry.
 
My abduction is in violation of the terms of the treaty of G’Durin with respect to immunity and inviolability of diplomatic personnel and their possessions.”

      The senior officer paid no attention to Candy’s last statement.
 
Instead, he conferred with the female K’Rang for a few moments before turning back to Candy.

      “Candy Blake, I apologize for you having been brought into this.
 
The team conducting the extraordinary rendition of Elder J’Gon exceeded their orders.
 
You will be returned to your embassy as soon as secure transportation can be arranged.
 
I sincerely regret your being inconvenienced.
 
This female will escort you to the nearest sanitary facilities.
 
They will be a little different than you are used to, but this facility was built before the absurd notion of humans living on our planet was even imagined.”