Scout Force (37 page)

      
He walked over to LCDR Timmons and shook his hand.
 
“Captain, I’m James Marcus, Special Assistant to the Governor.
 
Let me first thank you for your help in the Battle of New Alexandria.
 
That’s what we are calling the K’Rang invasion.
 
If you will follow me, I'll take you inside the terminal and brief you on the events we have planned.
 
We want to clear everything with you, of course.”

      
They were led into a plush VIP room in the terminal, where a host of functionaries were waiting.
 
After brief introductions,
 

Mr. Marcus started his briefing.
 
“There will be a reception today at noon at the Jefferson Hotel for you and as many of your crew as you can spare from your ship.
 
There will be rooms for all of you.
 
If you will let me know how many and the name and rank of your personnel, I will arrange it.
 
In fact, if you could furnish me with a complete crew roster, it will make preparing the awards easier.”

      
“There will be a memorial ceremony for those lost in the attack at 1400 hours.
 
As many of your crew as you wish may attend.
 
Just let me know how many and their ranks so that I may set aside seating.
 
There will be an award ceremony and dinner at 2000 at the Governor’s Mansion.
 
The Governor’s Security Office has asked that no more than ten of your crew attend and that you not be armed, not even with ceremonial weapons.
 
Tomorrow, there will be a breakfast with the Planetary Defense Commander for you and your second-in-command.
 
There will be a second award ceremony at Defense Force Headquarters for you and as many of your crew as can attend at 1000.
 
Finally, there will be a victory ball at the Jefferson Hotel at 2000 hours for your entire crew or as many as you can spare.”

      
“I will arrange for transport for you and your crew to all of the events, if you will give me that list with names and ranks.
 
I have a van and driver that will be parked here at the terminal for your use.
 
Just call the number on this card and it will come to the gangway and pick you up.
 
Here is my card; if you need anything else, call me.”

      
The next two days were a whirlwind.
 
The Vigilant was given a unit commendation by the Governor of New Alexandria.
 
LCDR Timmons and Kelly were each given the New Alexandrian Order of Valor, a gaudy gold and bejeweled medal on a red and white neck ribbon.
 
The Chiefs were all inducted into the New Alexandrian Legion of Valor, a smaller, but no less gaudy medallion on a blue neck ribbon.
 
The whole crew was awarded the Golden Shield of New Alexandria, a gold medallion in the shape of a lion’s head that went on the left breast pocket.
 
If Kelly was going to fit all these awards on his uniform, he would have to gain some weight.

      
The officers and crew were feted for two days.
 
No crewman bought a single drink.
 
The single ladies of New Alexandria all wanted to be on the arm of one of their gallant male defenders.
 
Kelly, with his bemedaled mess dress uniform, was in particular demand.
 
He never wanted for a pretty and attentive escort.
 
He had to arrange to be called away on important ship’s business a couple of times to save him from a too-attentive escort.

      
The men of New Alexandria also strove to have a female crewman on their arm at the festivities.
 
Chief Blankenship as the senior female crewman was in high demand.
 
Kelly had to admit that she was a fine figure of a woman in her mess dress uniform.

      
The receptions, ceremonies, and dinners were almost too much for the crew.
 
Hungover crew members, chiefs, and officers lifted ship the third day and headed back to Antares.

      
On the final morning, Kelly worked through his hangover.
 
They had managed to download messages while on New Alexandria.
 
His message queue seemed to be filled with messages from young ladies of New Alexandrian society, asking him to return again some day.
 
Kelly quickly scanned through them, and found messages from Candy, Tammy and Angie.

      
Candy’s message was news of her new job at the base JAG.
 
She was staying with her folks until he returned.
 
She wanted him to help her hunt for some land around the base.
 
Her hiring bonus would allow her to purchase an air car, so distance was not a concern.
 
She was thinking about a place in the country.
 
There were some mountains to the west that she wanted to explore.
 
He was invited to accompany her.
 
She might even have the air car by the time he returned.

      
Kelly thought wandering in the mountains with her might be fun and looked forward to it.

      
Tammy had sent three messages.
 
The first was more on her transition training.
 
She was really enjoying the orbital component of her training.
 
Her instructor pilot had let her have free rein on one orbital flight and she had really put the transport through its paces.
 
She described it as almost as good as sex.

      
Her second message was to tell him that she had done so well in training that she would be returning to Armstrong early.
 
They were sending her back with the first of the new S-660 transports.
 
It would be transported on a space-going dry dock ship.
 
She would be a week getting back to Antares.
 
She hoped to be back by the time his patrol ended.
 
Her third message was to tell him that she had loaded her transport on the dry dock ship and she was shipping out.
 
She would see him when they both got back to Armstrong.

      
Angie’s message was short and sweet.
 
She would be on Armstrong for a month as their fighter squadron would disembark from the Bolivar and be stationed at Antares Base for a time.
 
They were supposed to be taking part in some experiment.
 
It was all hush hush and they wouldn’t know what it was until a week after they arrived on Armstrong.
 
She insisted that he be there to greet her and show a lady a good time.

      
Kelly thought to himself, how was he going to juggle three women at the same time.
 
Oh well, he hoped they would all like each other.

      
After he got his personal messages out of the way, he set himself to the task of figuring out what signature had given them away to the K’Rang torpedo.
 
The Valiant class scout ships were supposed to be the stealthiest ships in the Fleet.
 
They had special scan-reflective hull coatings, their engine exhaust was shielded, and not even their shields emitted a recognizable signature, at least that was the theory.
 
What could have given them away so readily?

      
He left his quarters to seek out Chief Blankenship.
 
He found her sitting at one of the sensor positions, with headphones on, and concentrating hard on a sensor display in front of her.
 
Her jump suit was unzipped to the waist and pulled off her shoulders.
 
She was wearing a thin tank top normally part of the physical training uniform.
 
When Kelly tapped her on the shoulder after unsuccessfully attempting to get her attention, she nearly jumped out of her chair.

      
“Damn, sir!
 
Don’t sneak up on me like that!
 
You just scared the hell out of me.”

      
“Sorry, Chief.
 
What had your attention so riveted?”

      
She looked down and took a few calming breaths.
 
Kelly watched her chest move up and down, but broke contact and was looking in her eyes when she sat up straight.

      
“I’ve been analyzing the data from the original torpedo.
 
That thing picked us out of the whole Scutum sector.
 
I’m trying to figure out how it did it.”

      
“That’s exactly what I was coming here to talk to you about.
 
It was almost as if they knew we were here.”

      
“Exactly, sir.
 
The Vigilant should have appeared like any other spot in space.
 
What could they have homed in on?
 
When we get back, we need to have our ship tested against this new K’Rang sensor we have installed.
 
I’m running diagnostic tests on the ships sensor array to make sure we aren’t emitting some unintentional signal and missing it.”

      
“Chief, I’d like you, Chief Watson, and me to meet with the captain on this.
 
We need to figure out what gave us away so easily.”

      
Kelly arranged for all four of them to meet in the ready room.
 
The captain also wanted Chiefs Miller and Billings in on the discussion.

      
“Exec, this meeting was your idea.
 
Why don’t you start us off?”

      
“All right, sir.
 
I have concerns with how easily the K’Rang torpedo was able to pick us out of the entire Scutum sector.
 
That torpedo was launched from the K’Rang ship and made a high speed run, just below FTL, through the longitudinal axis of the
 
sector.
 
On its return trip it turned toward us and proceeded to make a weaving path toward us, as if it was constantly refining its bearings as it got closer.
 
If we had stayed where we were, the calculations show, it would have hit us dead on.
 
Now Chief B and I have gone over the sensor logs and the ship logs.
 
We found no signal emitted from the ship.
 
We found no movement of the ship or of the turrets that could have given us away.
 
The K’Rang torpedo shouldn’t have been able to home in on us like that.
 
It was not actively scanning.”

      
Chief B said, “Sir, I have run a full diagnostic on the ship’s sensors.
 
They are operating better than specs.
 
If there is something giving us away, it’s something the sensors can’t pick up.”

      
Kelly broke in, “Sir, we’d like to modify one of the probes we have on board to apply the K’Rang sensor suite to it.
 
We’ve checked the inventory.
 
We have enough spare parts on board to rig it up.
 
I’d like to launch that probe and use it to analyze the Vigilant’s signature.
 
We’re going to be out here on patrol for another week; we can schedule it so it doesn’t interfere with our normal patrol duties.”

      
“Good plan, Exec.
 
Do it when we are in dark space between the star systems.”

      
“Yes, sir.
 
Chief Miller, would you work with Chief Blankenship to modify a probe?
 
How long do you think it will take?”

      
“I can have it ready in two days, sir.”

      
“Chief Billings, when will we be in the dark space exactly between Scutum and Aquila sectors?”

      
“It should take us about three days.”

      
The captain stood up.
 
“Okay, let’s aim for running out the probe in three days.
 
Are there any questions?
 
None?
 
Good, back to work.”

      
Chiefs Blankenship and Miller configured and tested the probe in a day and a half.
 
Chief B fine tuned the data link to increase its data flow to be the sensor equivalent of the Vigilant.

      
On launch day, Chief Billings confirmed the coordinates, Chief Miller loaded the probe in the launcher, and Chief B confirmed the area was clear of ships and stellar objects.
 
Except for space dust, normal background radiation, and normal gravimetric influences there was nothing for a long way.
 
The captain gave the order and the probe was launched.

      
The probe set into an increasing spiral around the Vigilant’s horizontal axis.
 
When it reached 10,000 kilometers, it shifted to a decreasing spiral around the vertical axis.
 
This was repeated on the two 45 degree axes between the vertical and horizontal axes.
 
Then the spirals were switched to cover the 22.5 degree axes between.