nondescript appearance. It may not be able to accommodate you in a manner befitting your station. I’m afraid it will be a little spartan by your normal standards.”
“I am prepared to deal with whatever inconvenience is required. Fortunately, the mission duration will not be that long. See to it, Shadow Leader.”
The Protector strode purposefully out the door to whatever his next appointment might be. Shadow Leader M’Trang waited a few moments to let his rage cool, before he called in his three deputies.
As the three moved into his office and stood before his desk, he said, “Our next courier run will be joined by an observer from the ruling family, Warriors. The Council of Peers has decided we need oversight and they have sent a most worthy noble to accompany us.”
Sarcasm fairly dripped from his tongue.
“S’Dulla,” he said, pointing to the tallest of the three, “You will assign two of your senior, most competent Shadow Warriors to accompany Imperial Protector M’Talli on this mission. They are to ensure no harm comes to him, but not make it look like that is what they are doing. Let us give this noble the excitement of being on a mission, with none of the danger, and maybe he will leave us alone. Make sure that the captain does not make him too comfortable. See to it that normal rations are in the ships larders, nothing fancy. He should have the full experience. We don’t want him to be too comfortable. Do we?”
The three deputies all smiled and nodded their understanding and then carefully noted the additional special instructions M’Trang gave them for this mission.
Kelly, upon returning to the ship, made a quick inspection tour, retired to his quarters, and found a message from the captain waiting on his terminal. The message told him to report to debriefing at 0800 at building 603. Kelly set his alarm to be ready in plenty of time to accompany LCDR Timmons.
In the morning he had breakfast with the captain, then headed over to building 603. Building 603 was one of the many nondescript office buildings on Fleet Base 17. They headed up the stairs to the second floor and entered Room 2-34.
LCDR Wilton of Fleet Intelligence met them. He led them into an inner office, offered them coffee, which they declined, and left the room for a few minutes. When he returned he brought two other officers, Commander Johnson and Lieutenant Andrews. They sat down and read from a large document in front of them.
CMDR Johnson led off, “LCDR Timmons, you were patrolling in the Scutum Sector when you detected the presence of a ship on the K’Rang side of the frontier.”
“Yes, sir, we were. The ship was first detected on long-range sensors. It was moving toward the frontier. We were on patrol looking for indications of a K’Rang pilotless scout ship that may have been active in GR space in that area. I parked my ship on an asteroid and watched as the K’Rang ship approached. It then crossed the K’Rang frontier into the neutral zone. The ship parked just outside the GR frontier and waited. We detected the Manchu Warrior come into the Scutum sector. A shuttle craft detached from the Manchu Warrior and rendezvoused with the K’Rang ship. We were approximately 2000 meters from the meeting point. We had a clear view of three people moving from the shuttle craft to the other ship. We also saw three people cross back into the shuttle. The two ships separated and the shuttle proceeded to the spaceport on New Alexandria. Two days later it docked with and left with the Manchu Warrior. The K’Rang ship retired immediately back across the frontier and deep into K’Rang space before we lost it on our long-range sensors.”
“Thank you, LCDR Timmons. LT Blake, do you have anything to add?”
“No, sir, it happened just like LCDR Timmons described it.”
“Thank you both. This data you brought back is very interesting.”
Kelly asked, “Sir, could you tell us how the boarding and inspection of the Manchu Warrior went?”
“Well, we didn’t get anything out of the inspection. Any evidence of the docking was wiped from the shuttle memory before our team got to it.”
“Sir, do we have anything further on the Indigo Consortium?”
“They’ve been flying below the radar screen up until now. We are running the shipping schedule for all their ships through the computers to see if anything pops up. We’re still looking, but nothing out of the ordinary has come up yet. We’re doing the same thing with the consortium directors.”
A Lieutenant came into the room and spoke into the Commander’s ear. The commander got up, left the room for a minute, and came back.
He conferred with the LT, then said, “LCDR Timmons, LT Blake, we have your next mission for you. We want you to follow the Gurkha when it makes its next run. It’s scheduled to head to the 6664 system and pick up a load of gold, too. We want you out there again to monitor the visit. You’ll get your official orders through Scout Force.”
“Commander Johnson, when are they expected to be at the 6664 system?”
“They are scheduled to arrive 2321.07.25. You will need to leave in three days or sooner to get there in time. When you get back to the Vigilant, the orders will be waiting for you. Thank you, Captain, that will be all. LCDR Wilton will see you out.”
LCDR Wilton led them out of the building and thanked them for their help.
They waited until they had walked a distance from building 603 before they spoke. LCDR Timmons spoke, “Get the stores list over to Base Supply when we get back. Are the special items I ordered last patrol still on board?”
“Yes Captain, they are still stowed in Engineering.”
“Let’s keep them. They might come in handy this time.”
Kelly had to send his regrets to Candy. Leave would not be possible until they got back. He promised to call her as soon as he returned.
It took them a day to load supplies on board. The next morning, they lifted ship and headed off to the Scutum sector, arriving four days later. They coasted in at sub-FTL speed to make most effective use of their long-range sensors, scanning to maximum range so that they could slip into the area undetected.
It took another complete day, but they moved to an asteroid some several thousand kilometers from the one on which they had hidden last time. The new asteroid had a peak with a shelf in front of it. It was the perfect observation post. They sat and waited for two days.
On the second day, they got initial indications of a ship approaching from the K’Rang side of the frontier. As it got closer, the sensor system resolved the approaching ship. It looked like their quarry from the previous patrol. They compared sensor readings with those in the records. It was the same ship.
As before, it moved through the K’Rang side of the frontier and waited in the neutral zone. Kelly called up the data on the Gurkha and looked up when it was expected in the system. It was several hours before the freighter was expected.
The captain took his seat and said, “Is our friend up to anything?”
“No, sir, he is just sitting there like before. We are running a number of different scans on him to determine how he might be armed. We can detect the signature of plasma generators and not much else. He’s leaking gamma radiation from his engines like you wouldn’t believe. They must have massive shielding to be able to survive in that thing. It can’t have a very big crew. Chief Miller thinks half the ship must be engines in that thing to have a radiation signature like it has. He also says they can’t be all that efficient, so this guy may not be the latest model.”
“It's a shame we have orders to observe and not be detected. I think we could capture this guy. It wouldn’t take much to disable his engines. We could stand off outside his range and take out any guns. We could board this guy.”
“Sir, remember, I had a little experience with a K’Rang scout ship. The one we went after self-destructed rather than be captured. That was just a small two-man ship. I don’t know how this guy would react, but I’d hate to be leading a boarding party as this guy vaporizes himself.”
“I know we don’t know much about the K’Rang other than their military. Have you given any thought that this guy might just be some K’Rang smuggler? Maybe all we are witnessing is a shady transaction between the Indigo folks and some K’Rang entrepreneur.”
“Could be, Exec, that is one of the possibilities that the intel folks thought of. We also don’t know what the Indigo Consortium may be trading to get what they want from this guy. Intel doesn’t really know how much of a mercantile class the K’Rang have. I’m going back for coffee, I’ll bring you some. Keep your eye on him.”
Three hours and two cups of coffee later, the Gurkha arrived in the Scutum sector. The shuttle craft
