Kelly Blake 3: Where the Stars Are Few and Far Between (6 page)

Tammy’s blood ran cold. The lead squadron commander, the mission commander, came over the net and calmly reported thirty-six small attack craft accelerating from a world deep in the Eridanus sector. This wouldn’t stop them from launching, but the ships would be on their heels as they left. The mission commander advised the two other commanders not to lead the fighters back to the ring ship. His advice was to go to max speed and try to outrun the fighters, then return to the ring ship after the fighters returned to base.

Tammy had co-pilot George Duke monitor the fighters and track their location. Commander Tanaka came up on their net and calmly told all to prepare to launch missiles. Tammy armed her missiles and watched Commander Tanaka’s ship. When he launched his missiles, she launched hers and the remainder of the two sections launched.

The lead section turned up and left. Tammy pulled up under the lead section and had her ships invert. The commander gave a course correction to lead them away from the ring ship and increased their speed to max. The formation sped up to just under FTL and moved directly away from the dozen fighters that broke off to pursue them. Tammy saw the other squadrons doing likewise. No one made a run for the ring ship. The mission commander told the ring ship captain to fold up and move away from the K’Rang picket line as fast as he could. He’d call him back when it was safe to transit.

The ring ship captain acknowledged and wished them luck. The attack ships literally ran for their lives.

Tammy saw the fighters slowly closing the gap. They seemed to be only a little faster than her, but still less than FTL. The squadron commander called all pilots to tighten up the formation and gunners to get ready. They would be on them within five minutes.

The first K’Rang fighter attack was a rear hemisphere attack. They didn’t count on there being tail guns and the disruptor guns disintegrated three of the fighters. The suddenly much wiser fighters broke off, passed the formation on the right and came back at the formation head on. The squadron commander had all pilots fire their forward-facing winglet guns as the K’Rang opened fire. The massed fire took out three more K’Rang fighters. The K’Rang then split into three two-ship groups and made all-aspect strafing runs. The turret gunners kept them from being too accurate, but no more fighters were destroyed. They eventually broke off and flew back toward the K’Rang picket line, leaving all eighteen ships of Tammy’s squadron with only minor damage.

The other two squadrons didn’t fare so well. Those formations didn’t invert the trail section as Tammy’s had done and the K’Rang took advantage of the soft underbellies of their formations. Seven attack craft were destroyed, including the mission commander. After the K’Rang ships broke off, the next senior commander, Commander Tanaka, took over, rallied the squadrons on him, and coordinated a rendezvous with the ring ship. In an hour they were back on Leonov. A dozen K’Rang ships and seven A-100's didn’t make it back to their base that day.

Tammy reviewed the mission tape as part of the debriefing. They killed two frigates and a destroyer. She also noticed the K’Rang had not used any of their plainly visible missiles. “I guess the stealth coating really works. Luck was with us today,” she thought.

Commander Jason Thomas reviewed his sensor logs on the Resurgent’s bridge. He saw how the attack ships selflessly moved away from his ring ship, to protect it at their own peril. Seeing the fighter attacks on the squadrons and their losses, he no longer begrudged them the O Club after a mission or considered them lucky bastards.

* * * * *

Angie loaded her gear in preparation for their transfer to Leonov and carefully considered her mission. Her squadron had been chosen to fly escort missions for the heavy attack ships. She saw the report from yesterday’s combat and the sensor record. She thought the fighters that the attack ships faced were the new T’Pok attack ships.

They were not really a fighter in Angie’s eyes, more like an attack ship with guns. They were fast flying straight ahead, good for bomb, missiles, and strafing runs, but slow in turns and not as maneuverable as the F-53. Her fighters could clear the stars of them easily.

Her XO stuck his head in her office door and reported all ready for departure, except for her. He groused humorously as he picked up her bags and had them loaded into her fighter. She inspected the fighter line and looked each pilot in the eyes. She’d had time to work with them, but wished she had time to get them more skilled in fighter tactics. Only one of her flight leaders had any combat experience. Her XO hadn’t seen combat, either. It was a hell of a way to fight a war.

She gave the order to prepare for take off. When all pilots gave the ready signal, she powered up and taxied to the runway. She punched it and felt the familiar G-forces push her back in her seat. In seconds she was in space. Her squadron formed up behind her starboard wing, like ducks in an echeloned row, and she led them through the ring to Leonov.

* * * * *

Kelly stood in Admiral Minacci’s outer office, waiting for Admiral Craddock’s arrival. Minacci was at the landing field and Edgar was at the building’s street entrance awaiting Craddock. A yeoman had prepared an office for Craddock to use during his stay, and Craddock’s advance security man was installing numerous communications terminals and security devices. When all was as it should be, he cleared the room and stood guard outside.

Minacci brought Craddock up to his office and closed the door. Kelly was amazed at Craddock’s entourage of only seven people. Three were obvious security people. Two were his secretary and executive assistant. One was a Fleet Commander aide. One must have been his systems guy, as he went into the prepared office and checked out all the equipment.

Admiral Minacci opened his door and motioned Edgar and Kelly inside. Admiral Craddock got up from the couch and shook Edgar’s and then Kelly’s hands. He motioned Kelly to sit in a chair adjacent to him. Kelly waited for Admiral Minacci to sit first, then sat down.

Admiral Craddock said, “Kelly, I have a mission I think you would be perfect for. It involves the Orion and a very long journey. Do you remember that navigation system you and Edgar got off that K’Rang courier ship years ago?”

“Yes, sir, I do.”

“Good, it’s still our best map of K’Rang space. It also mentions a race inspiral of them called the A’Ngarii. We’ve wanted to contact them for years, but never had the capability. FTL comms wouldn’t work because they don’t have a receiver, plus their technology may not be compatible with ours. No ship was fast enough. Well, we think we now have a ship that is fast enough – the Orion. It's perfect to get humans through K’Rang space and carry a diplomatic team to negotiate a defense treaty with these A’Ngarii. I and a lot of other smart people think you would be the perfect captain.”

Kelly thought about what they were asking him to do. He thought about one other thing, too.

“Sir, there is one thing we should discuss before you make me a final offer. Maybe we should discuss it in private, though.”

“Kelly, if you’re going to ask me for my daughter’s hand in marriage, you have my blessing. Now, let’s get back to work.”

Admiral Minacci and Edgar were dumbstruck. Kelly was slightly more so.

“Thank you, sir, but couldn’t you have given me the courtesy of letting me ask? My only concern is the appearance of a conflict of interest.”

“Don’t worry about that, Kelly. I can fly mighty high top cover if I need to. No one will think anything at all. Your reputation precedes you.”

“I don’t know what to say, sir. Of course I’ll take the job.”

“Fantastic. Let me give you one piece of advice. Let Candy and her mother plan the wedding. You’ll only get headaches if you get dragged too deep into the preparations.”

Admiral Minacci and Edgar congratulated Kelly on his upcoming marriage and his impending assumption of command of the Orion.

Kelly swore them all to secrecy, as he hadn’t asked Candy yet.

Edgar laughed and said, “Who better to keep a secret than the occupants of this room?”

* * * * *

Angie finished briefing her squadron pilots on their upcoming mission. She knew they could easily defeat any T’Poks sent out after her charges. She just hoped her pilots felt that way, too. You just never knew how people would react to being shot at, but she would find out today. She taught them the basics and she had reinforced them time and time again, telling them, “Stick to the basics and you’ll come out of this alive.”

As they were about to walk out to their fighters, she fixed them with a steely glare and said, “Remember what I taught you about close formation flying. Use your peripheral vision to keep track of the attack ships and use your main vision to scan for bad guys. Maintain your situational awareness.”

They turned, climbed into their ships, and waited for the heavy attack squadrons to get ready for take off. It was only a few minutes before she heard the tower grant the 112th squadron permission to take off. That was Angie’s key to fire up and follow. She was under strict radio silence from now until the fighters broke away from the heavy attack ships.

All her ships powered up and followed the 112th squadron into space. Her fighters pulled up between and slightly below the attack ships. If sensors picked them up at all, they would think the fighters were under wing munitions. Now all they had to do was make sure the attack ships flew a tight formation. Angie prepared for the cold and black feeling as the attack ships lined up for the ring. She matched velocities with the two attack ships above and to either side and in they went, experiencing the momentary blackest black and iciest chill of a ring transfer, and then she was out in open space.

The attack craft increased speed to 0.9
c
and Angie’s fighters matched speed. She turned on her targeting sensors and picked out the K’Rang picket line. She also saw the concentration of T’Pok attack ships behind and to the right of the line. She counted 24 ships. Well, two to one weren’t bad odds in her book. She wondered when they would strike.

She didn’t have long to wait. As the 112th lined up to fire its load of missiles, the T’Pok pounced. To their credit, the 112th bore on, waiting until optimum firing distance as the K’Rang aircraft approached just below FTL. Finally, the 112th fired their missiles and turned up and left, away from the K’Rang. Now it was Angie’s turn. The fighting 68th flew straight ahead as the 112th turned back. Now the K’Rang were facing a squadron of stiletto-sharp, nimble F-53's, not a bunch of roly-poly slow attack ships.

Angie divided the K’Rang amongst her squadron and pointed her ship at her two. When the K’Rang fighters came in range, she ripple fired four mini-seekers as the rest of her squadron did, too. The K’Rang formation broke up as the missiles slammed into ten of the K’Rang ships. She told her wingman to hang in close and launched her ship against the closest T’Pok. A burst from her new disruptor cannons made the K’Rang squadron commander disappear. Another burst took out his wingman. Her wingman lagged back slightly and caught a K’Rang trying to get on Angie’s tail. Angie got one more and the space was free of K’Rang ships.

Angie formed up her squadron and watched the 130th and 302nd attack squadrons complete their missile runs and return to the ring ship. She maintained her position until the attack ships were back through the ring. Then she turned 30 degrees away from a direct course to the ring and accelerated to max speed. When she was parallel to the ring, she turned, closed with it, and slowed down to transition through the ring ship.

Her squadron exited the ring above Leonov and landed without any radio contact other than on their internal low probability of intercept link. As she taxied to her parking spot, she saw a familiar face standing just outside the fence. She parked and popped out of her ship before the crew chief had even placed the ladder.

Angie ran to and gave Tammy a big hug.

“Tammy, what are you doing here?”

“I work here. Who do you think you were flying with today? Your ship was just under my wing until we pulled away. Nice shooting, two to one, and you got them all.”

This was almost too much to take in. Sweet transport pilot “trash hauler” Tammy was now a heavy attack ship pilot.

“Tammy, when and why did you switch to heavy attack? You had a nice safe, cushy rear echelon job.”

Tammy shrugged, “I guess I got bored. I wanted to get into the fight.”

“You’ll get into the fight all right. Those K’Rang ships would have caught you today if we hadn’t surprised them. They would have been on you in five minutes.”

“They were on us yesterday, Angie. Why do you think there were only 24 today? And did you notice something today? The K’Rang fighters didn’t fire any missiles. They didn’t yesterday either. We have stealth coating, which may make it difficult to get a missile lock on us, but your F-53's sure don’t. Why do you suppose they’re holding their fire?”

* * * * *

His senior aviation advisor stood before Shadow Force Commander (Baron) J’Kol and literally shook with rage. He struggled to contain his anger as he waited for the Armada Commander to acknowledge his presence. Finally, Baron J’Kol looked up from what he was reading.

“Explain to me why I have no T’Pok attack ships, Shadow Leader?”

“As I explained two days ago, Armada Commander, the missiles in our supply depot are not compatible with the T’Pok attack ship. We were told we would not get T’Pok ships, so we could not stock for them. It would have been best if we had waited until we had the proper munitions. We have a supply of the proper missiles inbound. They will be here tomorrow.”

“Why were their guns not sufficient to take on these large attack ships?”

“Sir, we did do well against the large ships yesterday. We attacked within their formations and destroyed seven of their ships, but their massed fire and a new type of gun that causes massive damage drove us off after we lost twelve ships. If they had gone in with the proper missiles, the Human ships would never have made it back to their base. We may have been able to save those two frigates.”