First Command Read online

  “We have a crew of 48 – two officers, six chiefs, and 40 lower ranks. The ship is divided into five sections. There is the bridge section, gunnery section, sensor section, engineering section, and mess section, with a chief in charge of each section. They manage their sections and assign their people to watches and other duties. The Chief of the Ship, Senior Chief Petty Officer Barbara Blankenship, is an eighteen-year Fleet veteran. She’s new to the job, having been the sensor chief until Chief Watson left us and I moved her up. She’s getting used to the job and should be fully acclimatized by the time we leave for our first training cruise in a few days.”

  “Aft of the CO’s and XO’s cabins are the six chiefs’ cabins. Chief B’s cabin is configured like mine, with a small conference room attached. The rest of the chiefs’ cabins are like the XO’s, only slightly smaller. Aft of Chiefs’ country is weapons. This is where all the guns are controlled. These three positions are for the three turrets. I’ll get Chief Tony Pennypacker to run you through some training simulations, so you can get a feel for it. This position is for the forward and aft fixed guns. This next position controls the missile launcher or special weapons pods, when installed. Next aft is the sensor section. Petty Officer First Class Yiao Chang is filling in as Sensor Chief until Chief B’s replacement arrives next week. Chief Josiah Johnson from the Fleet sensor school will be filling that position. We have the normal collection of spectral receivers, magnetic anomaly detectors, infrared sensors, electro-optical sensors, electromagnetic spectrum sensors, chemical sniffers, and also the mass optical array, which lines the hull of the ship. It gives us a real advantage out in dark space where, sometimes, the only indication of another ship is when it passes in front of a star.”

  “Next is the galley. Chief Culinary Specialist Bill Austin runs it. They just changed his rating’s name and I still haven’t gotten used to it. ‘Cookie’ can work miracles with patrol rations. In accordance with base regs, we don’t run the galley in port. Cookie does keep enough capability for coffee, tea, and occasional snacks. He can cheat some on the base regs, because we have a replicator installed and he has to train his cooks on it. If you haven’t tasted food from a replicator, you are in for a real treat. As long as there is a menu entry for the item, it can be replicated. Cookie has been working on some non-standard menu items. He is almost to the point that if you can describe it, he can replicate it. Come on, I’ll introduce you to Chief Miller, he runs the engine room.”

  They proceeded further aft down the central corridor, past crews’ quarters and storage bays, to an iris door that opened as they approached. Chief Miller met them at the door of what had to be the cleanest area on the ship. It practically gleamed.

  “Good morning, Captain, what can I do for you?”

  “LT Connie Cortez, this is Chief Machinist’s Mate Glenn Miller. Chief, this is LT Cortez. If the Admiral approves, she will joining us as our new XO.”

  Chief Miller wiped his hands on a rag and extended his hand to LT Cortez. Chief Miller was always wiping his dirty hands off on a rag, but no one could ever figure out how he was getting them dirty in such an immaculate space.

  “I’m glad to meet you, ma’am.”

  “I’m glad to meet you too, Chief. How do you like the new Diomede engines?”

  Chief Miller was impressed with LT Cortez at that point. Any junior officer that knew what type of engines had been fitted into his ship was a step up in his rating.

  “I like them just fine, ma’am. We tuned them up on our shake down cruise and are able to get her to FTL Power 5.89. Any faster than that and the engine synchronizer can’t keep up. We’d wind up corkscrewing or worse.”

  “One of the techs in my section has been working on that very problem. I’ll see if I can get her data and pass that to you. Better yet, I’ll have her come by to see you. She thinks she can get FTL Power 6+ out of three diomede engines like you have.”

  “Chief Miller whistled slowly, “Ma’am, that would be sweet. I’ll be looking forward to her visit.”

  Kelly thanked the Chief and moved back forward. “If you didn’t know it, you just scored major points with Chief Miller, our resident curmudgeon. With only two officers on board, the XO fills in as engineering officer. I think the two of you will get along fine – at least you will until the first time you enter engineering with a coffee cup. Chief Miller is a little protective of his space. He won’t stop you from coming in, just don’t spill any coffee on his deck or I’ll never hear the end of it.”

  “Now, who have I left out? Oh yeah, our Corpsman is Petty Officer First Class Rajna Kumar. Sickbay is here to port, just forward of the port stores locker. He can diagnose most anything and provide most treatment just short of organ transplants. Petty Officer Benitez is our Yeoman. Chief Billings is on leave right now, but he is our quartermaster and runs the bridge crew. That completes the 50-credit tour. Let me walk you to the quarterdeck.”

  Kelly wished her good luck and saw LTJG Cortez on her way. When he returned to his cabin, he called his boss, CDR Timmons, and Captain Hasselrode, Admiral Craddock’s executive officer, to let them know he had a recommendation for XO and to set up appointments for LT Cortez.

  Kelly was relieved that he had finally found someone that he could trust with his ship and crew. He could see she had a lot to learn, but so did he when he first came aboard. He would have to retrain her from the bad lessons she probably learned in the R&R Directorate. Here there would be no decisions by committee. There would be no inspector leaning over her shoulder reviewing her work for accuracy and completeness. She would have to be able to make correct decisions on the fly that affected all on board. Not that Kelly worried about such things, but his command and career would ride on her decisions. Chief B would have to do what all chiefs did, train a new officer in her duties. She and Kelly had their work cut out for them.

  * * * * *

  Commander Edgar Timmons looked at his patrol schedule after he closed the communication with Kelly Blake. There was a hole in the schedule, waiting for the Vigilant to be ready for patrol. He would have to send the next ship in from patrol back out on an expedited turnaround to meet his taskings if Kelly couldn’t get his ship ready. He had faith that his old XO would get the job done.

  He called Captain Hasselrode and they scheduled LTJG Cortez’s office call with the Admiral; Edgar scheduled her office call with him for just before. He would escort LTJG Cortez up to the Command Group, to ensure she got there on time and knew where to go. He put both appointments on his calendar and informed Kelly and LTJG Cortez.

  Edgar looked around his office and missed the Vigilant. As captain, he was master of his fate and out among the stars. As squadron commander, he sat behind a desk and watched other men go out where the stars are few and far between. He couldn’t really even accompany one of his ships on more than a brief one day inspection cruise, due to the lack of guest quarters for senior ranks on a Valiant–class scout ship.

  Edgar looked up and saw Master Chief Watson standing in the door with the coffee pot in his hand.

  “Excuse me, sir, but I know just what you’re thinking. It’s the same thing I’m thinking. Why on Armstrong did I take this promotion and give up my ship?”

  Edgar let out a hearty laugh and said, “Is it that obvious, Chief?”

  Oh, yes, sir, it’s that obvious, because I see the same look in my eyes when I look in the mirror each morning. I have the answer to the question, though.”

  “What is that, Chief, but I think I can guess?”

  “We’re here to pass on our knowledge and experience to a new crop of ship’s captains, so hopefully they won’t make the same mistakes we made.”

  “Yes, Chief, so they can go out and make new ones. Now are you going to share that coffee or just keep your hand warm with it?”

  Laughing, Chief Watson walked over and filled Edgar’s cup.

  “Did I hear that LCDR Blake has selected an XO?”

  “Yes, he chose LTJG Connie Cortez from the Repair an
d Refit Directorate.”

  “I read something about her in the base notices. She got a commendation for the ion gun redesign we recommended after our run in with that K’Rang torpedo ship. I’ll pull her record for you.”

  Chief Watson left and Edgar reflected on what he said. Of course that was why he was squadron commander, but he still wished he could get out in space and have some fun sometimes.

  * * * * *

  In an inside office in a non-descript office building in a northern suburb of the capital city on the K’Rang home world sat Shadow Lead Agent H’Topa. He perused recruitment reports forwarded to him by his senior source within the Galactic Republic. This was a fruitful source and one he had developed from an initial recruitment report from his former senior source.

  H’Topa had worked this source carefully from the start to one of great worth. This source was good at identifying prospects early in their career, but with the right future potential. This was good for H’Topa because he was patient. Haste was not a good quality for an agent handler. The Humans had a saying, “The race does not always go to the swift.” H’Topa believed this.

  The case folders before him contained intimate details on prospective sources. He knew their wants, their needs, and their aspirations. He had a knack for finding those unwilling to wait or needing an edge to get ahead. Occasionally he found one that just needed credits, or love, or sex, or commitment to a cause. He could use them all, although he stayed away from those that needed chemical stimulants.

  His network was extensive and secure. He had a Human support network of credits handlers, dead drop servicers, transporters, enforcers, and other specialties when he needed them. They helped him service his agents.

  Credits handlers ensured payments got to the right people on schedule. Dead drop servicers passed messages, credits, and equipment to agents and picked up messages and bulky items from agents, all with no physical contact between them. Transporters were his mules and moved packages to or from dead drop specialists. They were the only Humans to make contact with the K’Rang, but even they passed packages through multiple cutouts. Enforcers took care of sources that got greedy or who talked to Human security forces, or ones that just got sloppy.

  Human remorse was one of H’Topa’s greatest impediments to greater success. Too many times, he spent resources on a source, only to have it run crying to security, commit suicide, or lose itself to gambling, chemical stimulants, or sex. If he ever found a drug that eliminated Human remorse, there was nothing he couldn’t accomplish.

  Of course, this would be oh so much easier if he could freely travel in Galactic Republic space. For years, he had urged establishing diplomatic relations with the Humans, but he was always shouted down by the reactionary element within the military. No matter how much value he could show them to having an embassy and consulates with full intelligence staffs, they were just too xenophobic to hear him out. H’Topa suspected they did not want the Humans to see just how weak the K’Rang Empire was in relation to the Galactic Republic. “Our 56 worlds are a fraction of the 150+ Human settled worlds. Perhaps if we spent a little less credits and time on ill-conceived military adventures and more on settlements, we could match the Humans,” he thought in irritation.

  * * * * *

  Fleet Reporting Officer Alistair Bennett placed his ship in geosynchronous orbit around Shepard and linked into the planetary communications system. He let his computers download the planet’s data buffer containing the last year of data and voice signals to process, and took a nap. In an hour, he had a list of suspicious communications for further study. He discounted a dozen on the list as normal criminal or immoral activity and no concern of his. Two were overly secretive lovers planning and coordinating affairs. Seven were shady business dealings, more of interest to securities regulators than him. The remaining two were possible covert communications to authorities in the K’Rang Empire. Alistair followed up on these.

  Both communications sets were similar in that they contained hidden data. One set contained hidden video files in a cooking recipe email. The other contained hidden instructions on placing and receiving something from a dead drop. Alistair had his first clue toward dismantling the cell or cells. Now he searched the data for links from the recipients to others. Pretty soon, he found he had nothing. He had never seen a cell with such tight security.

  Alistair ran down the specifics on the recipients. He got their names, photos, addresses, aliases, and all sites that they frequented regularly. He looked for similar interests, friends, and activities, then cross-referenced their known IP numbers against other aliases and email addresses – and found the common link.

  * * * * *

  Shadow Lead Agent H’Topa reported promptly to Shadow Leader J’Kraul as ordered. The Shadow Leader kept his attention on what he was working as H’Topa patiently stood at attention before his desk. It was a standard trick to put your visitor off balance. H’Topa and J’Kraul had attended many of the same espionage training courses together and knew all the techniques. It did not work on H’Topa.

  Unimpressed, he asked in a strong voice, “Was what you called me here for of importance, Shadow Leader, or should I come back later?”

  J’Kraul started laughing. “No, my friend, sit down, relax. I wanted to make sure time had not softened you. I have a top priority assignment for you from the Elders. They want the transporter ring technology from the Humans, but don’t want the Humans to know we have it. What can your network do to get it for us?”

  H’Topa took a moment to stretch. “Your information exists in five places in the Human space. It exists in the minds of Andrew and Moira Blake. It exists in their notes locked in a triple-sealed safe in their high security lab on the planet they call Gagarin. The notes are in their own coded language that only they speak. It exists in a triple-sealed safe in their Fleet HQ on their main world, Earth, and the production design exists in three parts in three safes at the manufacturing facility on their main world Shepard. No one has access to all three safes.”

  “The factory is the easiest to access. I have two agents working there, but they have yet to gain access to any of the three data sets. The humans jealously guard this data. Whoever their security chief is, he is good.”

  “One of my agents asked about all the security and was told that even if the K’Rang got hold of the manufacturing design sheets they wouldn’t be able to make them work, because each ring has excess components. There is a code unique to each ring that tells it which components to activate. If it doesn’t activate in the right sequence, it shuts down until a special restart code is entered. That code has to come from a special office in their defense HQ and be entered by hand.”

  “As you can see, I am on top of the situation. I just haven’t found a way to break through their security. I do have a prospect. It is one of the Blake’s research assistants that helped them develop the prototype ring they used against us at G’Dranu. I have been suggesting to him that he didn’t get sufficient credit for the work he did helping them develop it. It seems he unwisely left their employ, planning to start his own research establishment, just before the government bestowed large bonuses and recognition on the research staff and the Blakes. The Blakes insisted he be rewarded, but the bureaucrats said no. I’m twisting that knife slowly for maximum effect. I judge that he may favorably consider an offer to work for us if he feels slighted enough.”

  J’Kraul quietly said, “I hope, for both our sakes, that you are correct.”

  * * * * *

  Kelly’s terminal in his cabin chimed to let him know he had an incoming message. He keyed up his terminal and Commander Timmons’ face appeared.

  “Kelly, I just heard back from Hasselrode. The Admiral has approved Connie’s assignment as your XO. She has some things to close out at R&R before she can report in. One of those is the engine tweak up to FTL Power 6. She told the Admiral about that and he wants her to see if she can make that happen before she reports in. R&R has better computers
to work out the algorithms. The Admiral suggests you postpone your training cruise until the engine modifications can be made. He left it up to your judgment, though.”

  “I can hold off, boss. I didn’t want to do the training cruise without an XO anyway.”

  “Good! Why don’t you come join me for dinner at the club tonight? Somebody is visiting me and wants to see you. Meet me at 1930 in the main dining room. Your old Flight Leader is in town. Janey wants to help you wet down your new rank.”

  “Janey’s in town!? Great! I’ll be there. The drinks are on me.”

  Commander Timmons signed off. Kelly thought things were really going his way: First, he finds out his choice for XO was approved. Next, he gets news his ship will be one of the fastest ships in space. Then he gets to have dinner with Janey Willis, his old flight leader from when he was in Fighter Force on the Carrier Bolivar. Life was good.

  At times Kelly couldn’t believe his luck. Just under two years ago he had been drummed out of Fighter Force for stepping on the toes of a senior Fighter Force General Officer, Major General Irina Bugarov. She had a penchant for disposing of good officers, an infamous legend throughout the Fleet. Kelly had managed to be in the right place at the right time to expose one of her serious tactical errors and save the Fleet Carrier Simon Bolivar from a K’Rang sneak attack.

  She beached him on Fleet Base 17, expecting him to spend the rest of his time in the service overseeing toilet repair requests. Things didn’t work out as the General planned, because Kelly came to the attention of Admiral Craddock, Commander of Scout Force. He took Kelly on as XO of the Vigilant and gave him his second chance.

  He flourished under the tutelage of Commander Timmons, so well that he succeeded Timmons in command of the Vigilant. Life was definitely good.