ready to go. I just want to impress on you how important your mission is. The K’Rang are up to something. We need to know what it is. The information this courier is supposed to be carrying should let us know what that is. Close the trap quickly. The courier must not be allowed to destroy what he is carrying. Be quick, be accurate, and leave no evidence behind. It is critical that you leave very little trace of the K’Rang ship behind. 1LT Chen, make sure the antimatter explosive charges are set before you break loose.”
“Aye aye, sir. We’ll get it done.”
They left the admiral’s office to return to the Vigilant. On the way they learned that 1LT Chen was in her third year in the Corps and recently returned from a two-year combat tour with the 1st Assault Landing Group. She had been the Midshipman Captain at the Fleet Academy. Her father had been a career Marine NCO and won the Galactic Medal of Honor at the Battle of Taurus, posthumously. Mary Chen was impressive.
They went on board the Vigilant. Gunny Smith and Chief Watson took off to billet the platoon. Kelly took 1LT Chen to show her where she’d bed down.
Kelly grabbed one of her bags and told her to follow him into his cabin. “Come on in. That’s your bunk up there. There is stowage here in this cabinet and in the fold down bunk. If you’re shy, privacy won’t be an issue. I’m supposed to be on watch every other six hours. My watches usually go on for longer than that. You’ll have all the privacy you’ll need whenever I’m on watch.”
“That won’t be a problem for me, sir. In two years in the 1st ALG I got over any notions of modesty.”
“Great, when I’m not on watch, I sleep. Don’t make a lot of noise and we’ll get along fine. I’ll let Wanda know to set you up on the terminal.”
“Who is Wanda?”
Kelly said, “Introduce yourself, Wanda.”
“Hello, 1LT Chen, welcome to the Vigilant.”
1LT Chen’s eyes went wide followed by a big smile. “Great, you have your own AI. How are you, Wanda?”
“I am fine, Lieutenant. I have already set up a partition for your files. Do you have any information you would like me to retrieve for you? You’d best do it now. We don’t have connectivity once we leave port, like the bigger Fleet ships do.”
“No, thank you, Wanda, not at this time. I have a data pod in my bag. I’ll upload it once I unpack.”
Kelly looked at 1LT Chen, “I have things to do before we depart. I’ll leave you to unpack and get settled. The head is in there. If you need a shower, I’ll be busy for the next hour. I’ll want to answer some messages before we leave, so I’ll be back in an hour to do that. Until then, the cabin’s all yours. No one will disturb you.”
“I’ll go check how my platoon is settling in first.”
Kelly left to get coffee in the galley before walking around for his pre-departure checks. He started in the bridge and worked his way astern. The bridge crew was going over navigation data with Chief Watson and conducting diagnostics on the main systems. The captain was in his cabin. Some of the senior NCOs from the assault platoon were getting settled in with the chiefs. The galley was working up the evening meal. They would eat before departure. Half the crew and half the platoon would eat in the first sitting, the other two halves in the second.
Kelly checked the two storage bays. The port storage bay had a large cell constructed of metal bars and a small cell. The large cell could hold up to ten, the smaller was enclosed and soundproofed, just large enough for a good-sized man or a medium-sized K’Rang. They would do.
The Starboard bay was packed with 23 marines and two corpsmen. Petty Officer Kumar was in the middle of them, swapping war stories. 1LT Chen was inspecting to make sure her people had gotten settled in. Kelly motioned Kumar to come on out to let them get sorted out. There would be time enough for acquaintances later. 1LT Chen looked up, saw Kelly motion Kumar out, and gave Kelly a look like “corpsmen will be corpsmen.”
Kelly continued his inspection. Sensors were squared away as usual. He checked to see that the new EMP control panel was installed properly and functioning. Chief B was there to inform him that she had checked it out personally and it was operating nominally. It couldn’t be tested in space dock, but all indicators were green. They’d never know it would work until they fired it for real. Kelly tried to imagine how they would accomplish this mission if it was a dud.
The departure was routine and uneventful. The Marines settled in quickly and got into the rhythm of a ship on patrol. They had all spent time on Fleet ships and they knew enough to stay out from under foot. The captain gave them the port storage bay, not devoted to cells, as workout space.
Kelly stopped in during one of his walks around on watch. LT Chen was engaging in what looked like Tai Chi on steroids. Many of her movements were a blur followed by absolute stillness. It was beautiful to watch. She was wearing a thin black tank top and some very short, form-fitting black shorts. It was definitely not regulation. Her outfit left little to the imagination. He could only imagine its effect on her platoon, both the male and female members. Mary Chen was quite a woman. She was definitely testing his professionalism.
“How’s it going, LT Chen?”
She stopped her routine and picked up a towel to wipe her face.
“My people are ready, sir, almost too ready. How long do you think it will be before we meet up with the courier’s ship?”
Kelly walked over to the cell and tested the bars. It gave him something to look at other than Mary Chen.
“We will be near Secundus in another two days. Then it’s up to the Manchu Warrior and the K’Rang courier. If he shows up in the area we’ll know it.”
“Good. I hate waiting.”
Two days later, they entered the Fomalhaut system. They parked the Vigilant in the system’s asteroid belt and monitored for the Manchu Warrior’s movement out of Secundus. They waited two days, watching traffic into and out of the system. They checked the registry and background of every ship moving in the system. No ship appeared in any way to be other than what they were supposed to be. None were engaging in any unusual behavior. If there was K’Rang surveillance in anticipation of the Manchu Warrior’s departure, it was very low key.
The next day, during the second day watch, the Manchu Warrior left Secundus. A large slow ore carrier was no match for the Vigilant. The Vigilant stayed among the asteroids for an hour after it left, scanning. When they found nothing out of the ordinary, the captain put the Vigilant on a parallel course to place them ahead and 300,000 km to starboard of the Manchu Warrior’s path. It wasn’t hard to follow someone when you were faster and knew where they were going. The captain’s plan was to stay well within the Vigilant’s sensor range of the Manchu Warrior, but outside of any one else’s.
They shadowed the Manchu Warrior, uneventfully, for three days, until it made its first port call at Donaldson in the Altair system. It transferred a load of magnesium to the Crabtree Smelter. It picked up a load of silver ore and moved on to the next stop, Tarsus, in the 6822 system. This time, the Vigilant moved out ahead of the Manchu Warrior and maintained a 300,000 km spacing below it all the way into the 6822 system.
The Manchu Warrior dropped its load of silver ore at the smelter on the Indigo Consortium’s asteroid in the system’s asteroid belt. It picked up a load of processed silver and moved on.
This time the Vigilant followed 300,000 km behind the Manchu Warrior. Once again, nothing out of the ordinary happened. The ship stopped in at York Station above the ice planet York. It dropped off a pod of water to replenish the station’s supply, stayed for two days shore leave, then left without taking on any cargo.
The next port of call was Refugio in the 6633 star cluster in the Serpens Cauda Constellation. It had large platinum deposits and a smelter, so the cargo was predictable. It was also the Manchu Warrior’s closest approach to the frontier. The Vigilant took a position 300,000 km ahead of the path of its quarry and preceded it into the Refugio system.
The star charts of the constellation and cluster showed the area between Refugio and the frontier to be barren space. If this was where the meet was to take place, there would be no convenient asteroids to hide behind. The Vigilant would have to hide in the star cluster and find something there to use as a vantage point. Kelly put Wanda to work searching the charts.
The captain called Kelly, Chief Watson, and LT Chen into his ready room.
“Okay, I think it’s almost show time. LT Chen, if you have any last minute preparations, you should take care of that in the next two days. Chief, get the crew ready for combat. We may not have as easy a time as last time.
