First Command

  First Command

  by Rodney L. Smith

  Copyright 2011, Rodney L. Smith

  Second book in the Kelly Blake Series

  Other books in the series

  Scout Force

  Cover Photo Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech

  http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA13445

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual events, or locales, or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

  Dedication

  I dedicate this book to my reviewers, who have pointed out where I have done well and not so well. You are the voice of my readership.

  Chapter One

  It was a grippingly cold, blustery, and overcast day at the Fleet Ordnance Proving Grounds. It was the kind of day that makes one want to stay inside in slippers and robe while drinking hot cocoa. John Banks, Chief Test Officer, was just wishing he’d worn a heavier coat. The cold breeze was finding every gap around his neck, waist, and sleeves to crawl inside with him. He was so grateful when the gun was aimed, the target steel plate was in its framework, and he could get back inside the blockhouse.

  The damp, slightly dank warmth of the blockhouse felt good after the biting cold outside. He adjusted the final voltage to the Yestepkin Gun and sounded the range siren. He looked around at his various test monitors at their consoles and asked if they were all ready. He got a thumbs-up from each station and fired up his own terminal. As the readouts stabilized, he thought back to how many of these prototype guns, shields, missiles, gadgets, and doodads developed by some talented amateur or backyard scientist he had tested. So few of them amounted to much. Almost none of them lived up to the hyped up sales pitch from their developer.

  He did admit that Valeri Yestepkin stayed away from the more grandiose statements made by other weapons developers. In fact, his request for appraisal said only that, “Prototype weapon in accordance with paragraph 1.C.56.a of block grant 1601.7c is submitted for your review and appraisal.” It was most unusual in its brevity and lack of adjectives.

  His terminal was ready, he dialed up the huge amount of necessary power, and he hit the siren button again. The gates around the test range closed and locked. The flashing red warning lights activated. People on nearby ranges put on their goggles and hearing protection. John Banks charged the gun and set it for narrow beam. He paused a moment, to ensure everyone was ready and recording. He hit the fire button, lights dimmed, and a silent, invisible beam of energy reached out and bored an 8 cm diameter hole in the 5 cm thick steel plate.

  That was impressive. So far, so good. He activated the trolley system and moved the steel plate over two meters, to offer up a fresh target for the wide beam. He sounded the alarm again, waited for the gun to charge and hit the fire button. As before, the unseen beam of energy reached out and a two-meter circle of steel disappeared, as did a piece of the backing berm.

  A technician in the front row exclaimed, “Whoa, is it supposed to do that?”

  John Banks wasn’t sure. He called up the grant paperwork and read the section on expected design characteristics. The gun employs radical new technology to disrupt the molecular bond of objects and cause the target to dissipate as a cloud of disaggregated atoms.

  He left the blockhouse and approached the target steel. The holes made at narrow and wide beam were equally smooth and cool to the touch. He could smell a slight acrid odor as the wind shifted around. He walked around back of the target frame and inspected the berm. The two-meter diameter circle continued behind the target to a depth of one meter. In the center of the bigger circle was a smaller circle. John squatted down and could see daylight on the other end.

  Sudden realization hit him like a bucket of icy water poured down his back. In a panic, he scrambled over the berm to see what damage had been wreaked on the other side. Fortunately, the adjacent range was not in use. He walked down that range to its blockhouse and saw the hole in its forward face, but it only went in 8 centimeters.

  He trudged back to his range, climbed over the berm, and called his supervisor.

  “Boss, I think we have a game changer weapon here. Oh, and we’ll need some repairs to ranges six and seventeen.”

  * * * * *

  Shadow Leader J’Kraul was called unexpectedly before the K’Rang Elders. He barely had time to change into his formal uniform, after returning hurriedly from the range where he had been qualifying on a new pistol. He was still adjusting the hang of his cape, and handing over his weapons to the Imperial Guards, when he was instructed to enter. The three elders on their high bench viewed him dispassionately as he marched to the traditional spot four paces from the bench, halted, and saluted.

  J’Kraul calmed his racing heart as best he could and addressed the Elders. “Excellencies, I am Shadow Leader J’Kraul reporting as ordered. How may I serve the Empire?”

  The middle Elder spoke. “Shadow Leader, we wish a report on your efforts to acquire information on the Humans’ ability to rapidly shift large forces within their space. I know we asked for the report three weeks hence, during the last time you were before us, but the true extent of our defeat at G’Dranu moves us to an increased level of concern.”

  J’Kraul came to stiffer attention and spoke. “Excellencies, our agents within Human space have confirmed that the Humans have developed a teleportation gate capable of transporting their largest ships vast distances to another gate almost instantaneously.”

  “When we attacked the Humans at G’Dranu, they had only a prototype pair of rings. They moved one of the rings to their sector adjacent to G’Dranu and pushed through a massive force. Our fleet did not have a chance. The Human force was more than six times the size of our invasion force, and even outmatched our additional task forces sent to reinforce.”

  “We have made gathering information on these rings our number one collection priority. We have gained an immense amount of data on the system, but nothing that will allow understanding how it works or to help us build our own. That information is being guarded like nothing we have ever experienced before.”

  “The technical information on the system’s operation exists within a small research community that is highly secured and operates on a compartmentalized basis. Only a few people know how all the components work together. We are attempting to determine who these individuals are and if there are any others that may have access to this information. There is almost always a research assistant or administrative assistant that has access to the data because of sloppy security or a personal relationship with one of the researchers.”

  “Once we locate one of these peripheral individuals, we will induce this individual to allow us access to the operational data. We have even considered abducting the lead researchers and bringing them to our theoretical physics research institute on T’Pifa, but feel that would result in open war with the Humans. In our weakened state and with their transporter capability, we calculate the cost would be much greater than the gain.”

  The left Elder said, “We concur, Shadow Leader. This will require traditional, classical espionage to be successful. The Humans must not know we possess their technology, until we are prepared to deploy it in operationally significant numbers. If they suspect we are building this system, it may precipitate a war we are unprepared to fight. Keep us informed of your progress. Thank you, Shadow Leader.”

  Having been dismissed, J’Kraul bowed, saluted, and backed out of their presence. He met his aide, who had retrieved his weapons from the stoic Imperial Guards. The aide passed his weapons back to him and they walked in silence until they passed out of the guards’ earshot.

  J’Kraul said softly to his aide,
“Have H’Topa come to me first thing tomorrow morning.”

  * * * * *

  Kelly Blake, the new captain of the Galactic Republic Ship Vigilant, was the youngest Captain in the Fleet. Having been recently promoted to Lieutenant, he was frocked to Lieutenant Commander and assumed command of the Scout Ship Vigilant. Frocking was an ancient tradition, in which a junior officer was allowed to wear the next higher rank in order to assume a position requiring that rank. It was generally used when there were more positions than officers of the right rank or qualifications to fill them. In Kelly’s case, it was based on merit. Kelly would have almost all the privileges and responsibilities of a Lieutenant Commander, but would still be paid as a Lieutenant.

  Kelly may have had the honor of being captain, but he also had the headaches. The Vigilant sat on the Scout Force parking apron of Fleet Base 17, otherwise known as Antares Base, preparing for his first training cruise as captain. Kelly was up to his ears in paperwork. He, LCDR Timmons (his former captain), and Chief Watson (the former senior chief of the Vigilant) all were promoted within a month of each other and moved up the chain of command. Commander Edgar Timmons left the Vigilant to become Commanding Officer of the new 21st Scout Squadron. That made him Kelly’s boss again. He liked Commander Timmons, but wished he hadn’t taken Master Chief Watson with him. Kelly moved Senior Chief Blankenship up from Sensors to be the Chief of the Ship, on Chief Watson’s strong recommendation and his personal experience.

  She was doing well adapting to her new job, but Kelly was left with no executive officer. That meant Kelly dealt personally with the paperwork required to man, operate and stock the ship. The Admiral had promised Kelly his pick of any of the junior officers on Fleet Base 17, but the process was not going well.

  He had conducted over half a dozen interviews and none of the officers had been right. The XO was the only other officer on the Vigilant and Kelly wanted someone he could trust with his command. Kelly had plowed through more personnel records and was ready for three interviews that morning.

  The first two interviews were repeats of the previous six. The officers presented themselves well, had good records, gave all the right answers, but just weren’t right. Kelly was getting discouraged. He knew that if he didn’t find someone soon, the Admiral or CMDR Timmons would pick one for him. He waited for his last interview of the morning to arrive.

  Lieutenant Junior Grade Consuela Cortez showed up late. Kelly was filling the time working through the requisitions for his upcoming training cruise. His Chiefs did a good job of preparing the requisitions for his approval, but they tended to think only of their own departments, not of the entire ship. It was Kelly’s job to sort through the wish lists and balance the requests against practicality and the ship’s budget.

  There was a knock on his cabin door and Kelly said to enter. It was Chief Blankenship.

  “Sir, LTJG Cortez is here to see you.”

  Kelly turned away from the desk terminal and said, “Show her in, Chief.”

  Kelly got up as LTJG Consuela Cortez entered his cabin and moved over to shake her hand. LTJG Cortez had an easy smile and a firm grip. She was just slightly shorter than Kelly, had short black hair, brown eyes, olive skin, and a slender build. She was in her duty uniform, not her dress uniform, as all the other candidates had worn. It fit her well.

  When she saw Kelly looking at her uniform, she said, “Excuse my uniform, sir. I had to go into work this morning and sort out some problems. I was just released a few minutes ago.”

  Unconcerned with her uniform, Kelly replied, “Where do you work, LT Cortez? But first, how do you prefer to be addressed?”

  “Please call me Connie, sir. I work for the Base Repair and Refit Directorate. It was my crew that engineered the new electron guns that hide your engine exhaust plume. That was a good catch, sir. If the K’Rang exhaust homing torpedoes had hit our fleet unaware, we would have lost a lot of ships. I want to thank you, by the way. I got a commendation for the engineering design.”

  Kelly remembered when they first came up against a K’Rang Torpedo Ship. One of the homing torpedoes had picked them out of the clutter of an asteroid field and almost took them out. It was only the Vigilant’s superior speed that kept disaster at bay. The Vigilant’s subsequent investigation determined that the torpedo homed in on the ion trail from the ship’s engines. Their recommendations for masking the ion plume had been retrofitted throughout the fleet and had saved several ships during the recent New Alexandria Campaign against the K’Rang.

  Kelly picked up his pocket terminal and reviewed Connie’s record. She graduated from the Fleet Academy two years ago and had been with the Repair and Refit Directorate since. Her degree had been in shipbuilding and her fitness reports showed she excelled at her job.

  “Tell me, Connie, why do you want to transfer from engineering to command?”

  She paused slightly and said, “Well, sir, I want to get out into space, and command is the fastest way to get me there. I’ve been making a lot of runs up to Antares Station to work on ships and send them on their way. I can hear space calling to me.”

  Connie, momentarily distracted, looked over Kelly’s shoulder and said, “Pardon me, sir, but I see you have requisitions on the screen behind you. You aren’t using the latest format. That will slow down your requisitions because they have to be re-entered once they get to the Repair and Refit Directorate. Those will go to the bottom of the pile. Here, I have a data device with the latest forms and a translator program that will convert your data to the new forms.” She showed Kelly a small data transfer device.

  “If you’ll permit me, I can do that for you in a flash.”

  Kelly moved out of the way. Connie sat down at Kelly’s terminal and had the requisitions reformatted in five minutes.

  “Sir, I notice that your Chiefs have duplicate items on some of these requisitions. Would you like me to cross-level these and get rid of the duplication?”

  Kelly was amazed. LTJG Cortez had just done in five minutes what would have taken him a good portion of the morning to do.

  “By all means, LT, go ahead.”

  She called up all the requisitions, combined them on one form, and highlighted all the duplications and high cost items.

  “Here you go, sir, this should make it easier to sort through these and determine where you want to apply your resources. If you want, I can leave this data device with you or load it on your system. I’ve been hounding the Directorate Chief to call in all the unit supply officers and go over the new forms. It would save everyone, but he doesn’t see this as his problem to solve.”

  Kelly realized he had just found his XO.

  “LT Cortez, you’re hired. You’ll have to interview with CMDR Timmons, my Squadron Commander and with Admiral Craddock, the Commander of Scout Force, but I’m going to recommend you for the position as my XO. I don’t think you’ll have any problems, but Scout Force is a small organization and the Admiral likes to meet all of his officers before he approves their assignments. Come on. Let me walk you around and give you a tour of the ship.”

  Kelly led a smiling LTJG Cortez out of his cabin into the aft part of the bridge. “This is the bridge. As you can see, the Vigilant still has glass ports. It’s one of the things I like most about her. I came here from flying fighters in a carrier task force and I like to have a direct view of my surroundings not interpreted by a computer. Even as smart as computers are, I want them supplementing my senses, not replacing them.”

  “There are three banks of positions here on the bridge. The lowest two positions are for the helmsman and navigator, and the next level up are engineering, sensors, and weapons. The three positions on this highest level are the command positions. The Captain is in the center, the Chief of the Ship is to port, and the XO is to starboard. The tiered seating gives all positions a clear view ahead, above, and to the sides. The three command positions are multi-functional. Any or all of the other five functions can be controlled by any or all of these three te
rminals. In an emergency, one person can run and fight the entire ship.”

  “The Vigilant’s main mission is to find the enemy for the Fleet and never lose contact. Stealth and our sensor suite are our main weapons. We only use our armament to protect ourselves or Galactic Republic citizens. If we have to, we have a pretty good sting. There are three twin particle beam turrets arrayed around the hull. We have three new fixed heavy caliber rail guns forward. In the stern we have three medium caliber rail guns faired into the engine nacelles. Anybody trying to fly up our exhaust, where our turrets can’t reach, has a surprise coming. We also have a cargo hold on our top dorsal fin that can mount a launcher for 20 missiles. They give us quite a punch.”

  “Sir, that seems like an awful lot of firepower for a scout ship.”

  “We don’t use weapons much in our work, but when we need them I want as many as I can carry. We had a direct combat role in the New Alexandria Campaign. The Vigilant alone destroyed a K’Rang command ship, four battle cruisers, four missile cruisers, four destroyers, seven frigates, and an armed support ship. We damaged a destroyer, two frigates, and another armed support ship before we were through.”

  She marveled goggle-eyed, “You did all that with this one ship?”

  “Yes, but those four ships we only damaged almost finished us off. If another scout ship hadn’t come along at precisely the right moment, we’d be floating bits of debris in K’Rang space right now.”

  Kelly walked across the bridge and opened a door. “This is the XO’s cabin. As soon as the Admiral approves, you can move right in. You’ll be expected to live onboard. It has a berth, desk with terminal, pretty good storage, a private head with shower, and an upper berth that can be folded down from the wall if we embark passengers or specialists. I don’t know how this will compare to your quarters on base, but I found it quite spacious, compared to my shared four-man cabin on a carrier.”