LCDR Timmons smiled. “You must mean Rajna, sir. Doc is my Corpsman and a damn fine one at that.”
“Rajna is my little sister’s boy. She always wanted him to be a doctor. I’m glad to hear he’s doing well. Now let me make some introductions and we’ll go inside. Commander Stew Thompson here is from Fleet Intel. He’s here to handle security for us while we’re training for this mission. These two are Majors Jones and Valicelli. Jones is my operations officer. Valicelli is my senior tactics instructor. You’ve already met Captain Starr. Let’s go inside.”
They walked into the building, up some stairs, down a corridor, and came into a room with a set of stepped theater seats facing a curtain-covered wall.
The Colonel motioned LCDR Timmons and Kelly over to sit next to him. Captain Starr sat on Kelly’s other side. The others took seats in the row behind them.
The Colonel turned in his seat, “Stew, set the stage for us.”
The Intel Commander started. “Ed, the ship you shot up in the Scutum sector is a fairly common, inconspicuous K’Rang interstellar freighter. It’s fast, armed, and innocuous looking. We’ve found similar ships in the vicinity every time an Indigo Consortium freighter made a suspicious visit to planetary systems close to the frontier. We expect this is what you will encounter on your mission.”
Colonel Kumar said, “Ed, we’ve built a scale model of the K’Rang ship and have been training our platoon to assault this ship. We also have several other common ship models we’ve been training on, but we have concentrated on this model.”
Colonel Kumar motioned to a Marine in the back of the room and the lights dimmed. The curtains parted to reveal a long window overlooking a mockup of the K’Rang light freighter in a large room. The model hung suspended in the air above the floor and Kelly suspected that the room was an anti-gravity chamber.
Col Kumar motioned again and the far window panels turned into large monitors. The video appeared to be night vision view from a helmet cam. The view was of a group of people in a small space. Kelly assumed it was the inside of an assault pod. As he looked out into the room, he saw an object move up behind the ship model. It was obviously a mock up of an assault pod and docking collar. The lights went off in the ship. The pod and docking collar came up on the port side.
Colonel Kumar said, “Captain, at this point you have just employed the EMP device and all unshielded components in the K’Rang ship have just been fried. You will move against the K’Rang ship and the assault collar will extend to lock with the hull. Explosive cutting charges will open a gap into the hull and the assault party will move into the ship, disabling all personnel on board. Because we won’t be able to separate out the courier, we have worked out the procedures to capture all occupants. Major Valicelli, would you take it from here?”
“The key to taking the ship will be getting the assault party into the ship as soon as possible after the EMP hits them. We need to hit them while they are confused and spread apart in the ship. If they get organized or band together, it will be more difficult and our chances of capturing them all alive will be reduced.”
The Colonel said, “Ed, you’ll need to have your best helmsman at the controls for this. You’ll need to come in fast, employ the EMP, and come up on the port side, just above the winglets there, to line up with the best spot for breaching the hull. It will be tight, but our simulations show it won’t be that hard. The simulator at Antares Base will be announced as down for maintenance for a few days so your helmsmen can practice.”
Timmons looked at Kelly and said, “Kelly, that will be your task. Pick our best helmsman and train them to the task.”
“Aye aye, Captain. Our best helmsman is Petty Officer Samson. She’s not the flashiest, but she is the most consistent.”
“Excellent, work with her in the simulator. Colonel, I think we’ve got the approach and docking covered.”
“Good, now if you will watch the monitors. We have cameras in the ship and on the platoon leader.”
The monitor on the inside camera showed five persons in various locations in the ship. The lights were out and the camera's night vision features were operating, giving the scene a green tint.
A circle on the port side interior glowed white hot then turned to vapor. The light was so bright it momentarily blanked out the cameras. The Marines rushed into the cabin and all five persons fell to the deck, stunned by disabling energy charges. The Marines expertly secured the five individuals and moved them out of the ship into the assault pod. The assault collar was disconnected and the loose contents of the cabin flew out of the hole into the notional space.
At this point the assault pod moved away, the lights in the chamber came up, and the Marines disembarked from the assault pod.
“The colonel said, “What do you think, Captain?”
“Well, Colonel, it’s quite impressive. I noticed that the occupants of the ship made no attempt to fight back. What happens if they aren’t so cooperative?”
A voice from the back of the room said calmly, “We don’t require their cooperation. They're coming with us, no matter what they do.”
Col Kumar motioned the woman in the assault suit to come over and join them.
“Gentlemen, allow me to introduce 1LT Mary Chen.”
Kelly swallowed hard. 1LT Chen was gorgeous. She stood about 5’7” and filled out her assault coveralls very well. LCDR Timmons looked over at him with a bemused look on his face. Kelly looked back and just shrugged his shoulders.
The Colonel said, “1LT Chen is one of our best special operators. I can’t give you any details, but this won’t be her first boarding party action.”
1LT Chen said, “Gentlemen, I am very good at this type of action. My platoon are all hand-picked and volunteers. I've worked with almost all of them before.”
Timmons said, “1LT Chen, I wasn’t questioning your competence. I only wanted to know what you would do if the K’Rang decided to put up a fight.”
“Sir, I and my platoon have trained against every possibility. It makes no difference if the K’Rang resist or not. In fact, if they do it makes our job that much easier. If they resist, we stun them all and bring them back onto your ship. I assure you that if you employ the EMP weapon and quickly move the assault pod into place, we will snatch the courier onto your ship.”
Timmons and Kelly returned to the spaceport to catch the return flight to Armstrong. 1LT Chen and her platoon would join them at Antares Station in a week’s time. Tammy met them at the top of the ramp and talked to them while the other passengers boarded. Being the senior passengers they boarded last and were off. They both quickly fell asleep and woke up only when wheels touched down on Antares Base. Upon debarking, they realized it was past closing time for the messhall and they hadn’t eaten. They retired to the Officer’s Club and had dinner in the main dining room. They ordered quickly and sipped on their wine while waiting for their meal.
“Kelly, I know you are going to be sharing your cabin with 1LT Chen, but I wouldn’t recommend making a move on this one. She could probably put you in sick bay real easy.”
Kelly shook his head. “I knew that was what you were smiling about after she walked into the conference room.”
The captain was still chuckling when their salads were delivered. They launched into their meals and conversation dried up. They finished up and made their way back to the Vigilant, checked on the ship and crew and turned in for the night.
The next few days went by quickly. Kelly spent most of it in the simulator with Chief Blankenship, running the helmsmen through their paces. Petty Officer Samson was clearly the most consistent, but Kelly trained all of them on the task. By the end of the week, only seconds separated the best from the worst. They were as ready as Kelly and Chief B could make them.
At the end of the week, the ship was loaded and ready for patrol. They lifted off from Antares Base on a dreary, rainy day and quickly punched up through the clouds into the sunlight. They were docking at the station within the hour and were met at the airlock by Captain Hasselrode.
“Ed, Kelly, come on. The admiral wants to see you while the yard is fitting the two modules.”
Kelly and Timmons followed Hasselrode through the ever more familiar inner corridors to the admiral’s office in space.
Captain Hasselrode had them wait while he went in first. In a few seconds, he opened the door and motioned them in. 1LT Chen and her Platoon Sergeant, Gunny Smith, were already there.
The admiral motioned them into chairs. “Glad you're all here now. You’ve all been briefed and trained and
