First Command (51 page)

      
Kelly looked through his calendar entries and saw no conflicts.
 
He sent Candy a message, saying he could come over in a day for a week, and to chill down lots of the vidal blanc.
 
He hit send and almost immediately a videoconference request came back.
 
He saw it was from Candy and accepted.

      
Candy and Tammy must have just come from the pool, because they were wearing only towels – and those loosely.
 
Kelly looked over his shoulder to make sure he was alone in his cabin.
 
He was.

      
“Hey there.
 
We just saw your message and had to see you.
 
How are you?”

      
“I’m fine.
 
I’m also glad I didn’t have a conference table full of crewmembers.”

      
Candy and Tammy laughed, cast aside their towels, and Candy said, “Why do you think we were wearing the towels?”
 
The two dissolved into giggles and Kelly assumed they were well into a bottle or two of the vidal blanc, even though it was still a while before lunch.

      
“Vigilant is going into the yard for a paint job.
 
I can come over late tomorrow, if that’s okay.”

      
Candy and Tammy said in unison, “Of course it’s okay.”
 
Candy continued, “What time should we pick you up?”

      
“How about dinner at the club at 1800?”

      
“How about we pick you up at the club at 1800 and have dinner here at 1830?”

      
Kelly laughed and said, “Okay, I’ll meet you at the club at 1800.
 
I have to go do captain stuff now.
 
Later.”

      
He clicked terminate to end the video call and tried to get back to work.
 
It was after lunch before he could fully concentrate again.

* * * * *

      
Admiral Minacci sipped a soft drink while the Chief of Fleet Operations, Admiral Christos Pouledoris, handled a call from Senator Colleen Santori that interrupted his office call.
 
He couldn’t tell the topic, but by the Admiral’s body language and responses, it must have been good news.
 
He put his drink down onto the coaster on the walnut end table as the call ended.

      
“Well, that was good news.
 
Senator Santori just informed me the Defense and Commerce Enhancement Bill passed with only one nay vote from that cowardly bastard Livingstone from Shepard and one abstention from that wishy washy Steele from Gagarin.
 
Why does he even show up?
 
He votes present or abstains more than anything else.”

      
“While you were away, the Republic’s Assembly debated tripling production of transporter rings.
 
It seems the freshman senator from New Alexandria, David Colton, is a whiz at bringing together a consensus.
 
A massive transporter ring production station will be orbited over Carpenter.
 
In a year, when the station is complete, they‘ll be able to produce one every two months after six months of initial production.
 
The rings will be built in three separate pieces, so they can be laid side by side and sent through the existing rings to be opened on site.
 
In another eight months they will have four rings to do a basic outfit of the second tier worlds.
 
In five years most major systems will have a ring and all parts of the republic will be reachable in two days.
 
Pretty soon, FTL power 6 will seem so slow.”

      
Paulo said, “That’s great news, sir.
 
My nerves really could have used some reinforcements on this campaign.
 
If that private fleet hadn’t shown up, I might have lost it all.
 
Even with them ready to spring the trap behind me, it was very disquieting to see that reduced, but still quite lethal K’Rang fleet in open space before me.
 
A cruiser squadron would have been handy.”

      
“Paulo, don’t sell yourself short.
 
Of course we all want to have overwhelming force in any engagement, but you did a damn fine job with what you had.
 
You destroyed a fleet more than twice your size, with only the loss of an assault landing carrier, a frigate, and a few light ships.
 
I’m putting you in for the Distinguished Service Star.”

      
Minacci whistled inside his head.
 
The DSS was the second highest award for combat action in the GR.

      
The Admiral continued, “If you have any officers or ships that deserve special recognition, let me know and I’ll expedite the processing and Senate confirmation.”

      
“Sir, I’m recommending CDR Mike Milton for the Galactic Medal of Honor.
 
He was my best assault landing carrier captain and he came up with the tactic of using the emptied carriers against the K’Rang.
 
It was a heavy blow to lose him and the Yellow Jacket, but his attacks took out a large number of enemy ships, especially their support ships.
 
He took out three of their supply ships and three frigates in his first attack.
 
His second attack destroyed a light cruiser and damaged a second before they got him.
 
He took away a large part of their defensive missiles with the support ships and their long-range offensive capability with the light cruisers.
 
The final fight with the K’Rang would have been a lot more in their favor without Mike’s attacks.”

      
“I’ll do what I can, Paulo.
 
The Senate has been a lot friendlier lately.
 
I don’t know why, but I’ll take advantage of that for you.
 
Is there anyone else?”

      
“Yes, sir, there is.
 
You know I’ve been pushing to have a scout ship attached to each fleet, task force, and group.
 
I had a young scout ship captain supporting me and he did one hell of a job.
 
I would go so far as to say he was primarily responsible for my victory.
 
His name is Kelly Blake.
 
He’s a recently promoted Lieutenant frocked to Lieutenant Commander by Tom Craddock so he could take over his ship.
 
If Blake is a typical Scout Force officer, I want a dozen.
 
He was smart, capable, intuitive, and deadly.”

      
“He won’t admit to it, but he forced the pirates’ surrender singlehandedly.
 
He let me take the credit for it, but he lured two K’Rang scout ships into a very visible ambush that convinced the pirates they would rather surrender to us than the K’Rang.
 
He blinded the K’Rang commander in the process.
 
The K’Rang commander had to advance against me with no knowledge of the battlespace or my force.
 
I’m putting a personal letter in Blake’s file to see to it he becomes a real LCDR as soon as possible.
 
I’d like to recommend him for a DSS as well, sir.”

      
Admiral Pouledoris took a sip of his coffee, thought a moment, and replied, “What other decorations does he have?”

      
He glanced at his pocket terminal and said, “He has a Space Medal, a Silver Galaxy, a Joint Meritorious Service Medal, a New Alexandrian Order of Valor, and a Golden Shield of New Alexandria.”

      
The Admiral whistled.
 
“That’s a lot of hardware for only a frocked lieutenant commander.”

      
“I told you he was good, sir.”

      
“Put in your recommendations, Paulo.
 
I’ll support them.”

* * * * *

      
LCDR Kelly Blake moved the Vigilant to the paint dock and gave authority to Chief Blankenship to start releasing half the crew on up to two weeks leave.
 
The other half would start getting their leave after the ship was released from the yard.
 
He put Connie in charge while he was gone.
 
That evening, he met Candy and Tammy outside the O Club.
 
They were both wearing thin shirtdresses that were buttoned low and hiked up well beyond the limits of propriety.
 
They had Kelly sit in front with Candy, while Tammy climbed into the back.
 
They motored out the main gate to a grocery store and left Kelly in the car, while they hopped in for some breakfast items.
 
They came out later loaded down with bags of groceries and tossed them in the trunk.

      
Candy turned left out of the parking lot and headed toward the outskirts of town.
 
Within two blocks she hit the flight controls and smoothly climbed to 1000 meters.
 
She turned on the autopilot and leaned into Kelly.

      
“Kiss me, you fool!”

      
Tammy started laughing.
 
“No, kiss me.”

      
Kelly kissed Candy because she asked first and then Tammy.
 
They were both good kissers.
 
Candy set her car down softly next to her house with hardly a bump, gathered his things and the groceries and went inside.

      
Candy showed Kelly up to a guest room and had him put down his stuff.
 
Taking advantage of her being alone with him, she melted into his arms and gave him another smoldering hot kiss.
 
She led him down to the kitchen, where Tammy was busily fixing dinner, wearing a chef’s apron and not much else.
 
She took a break as the pasta was cooking to sit on his lap and give him a kiss.

      
Tammy got up to tend to the pasta and Alfredo sauce, while Candy poured them all big glasses of the Armstrong equivalent of champagne.
 
She handed one to Kelly and set one next to the stove for Tammy.
 
Tammy came over and all three clinked glasses to toast Kelly’s arrival.
 
Tammy plated up three servings of hot pasta Alfredo and carried them to the table.
 
Candy brought over silverware and they all sat down to eat.

      
Candy was first to ask, “How did your patrol go?”

      
Kelly for once had a patrol he could talk about, and did, “Not too bad, rescued three damsels in distress, took out two K’Rang scout ships, and had a world surrender to me.
 
Then for good measure, we helped to defeat a K’Rang invasion fleet.
 
It was a typical day at the office.”

      
Tammy looked sternly at him, with one breast partially peeking out past the edge of her apron, and said, “Okay, okay, if you can’t tell us, we understand.”

      
Kelly threw up his hands and gave up.

      
The next morning a very tired, hung over, but happy Kelly woke up to Candy and Tammy giggling from the doorway to his room.

      
“Come on sleepy head, the pool’s waiting.”

      
Kelly said he’d be right with them, as soon as he could find his feet.
 
It made for a very enjoyable week.

Chapter Nineteen

      
Kelly climbed back aboard the Vigilant, changed into his coveralls, and took a walk around the exterior with Connie, Chief B, and Chief Miller.
 
They inspected to see that the paint crew had done a proper job.
 
Chiefs B and Miller found three spots where the paint crew had painted over particle beam abrasions without filling and sanding first.
 
Kelly had Connie tell them to do those spots over, as the rest rode an antigravity man lift and inspected the sides and upper surfaces of the ship.
 
Chalk circles marked four other places where the same condition existed.
 
Connie supervised, while the crew repaired them to her satisfaction.

      
Afterwards, Connie came to see him in his cabin about taking two weeks leave.
 
He told her to put in the form and he’d approve it.
 
He asked where she was going.
 
She told him Alistair was arranging a cabin for them in the southern continent near Lake Tranquility.
 
Kelly wished her a good leave and was there anything else.

      
She asked, “Sir, how do you do it?”

      
Puzzled he asked, “How do I do what?”

      
“How can you watch the death of a ship and 700 crew and not show emotion?
 
I was almost in tears.
 
When the Yellow Jacket was killed, you never showed any emotion.”