All Enemies Foreign and Domestic (Kelly Blake series) (2 page)

      “I thank you for those kind words, Baron.
 
I knew my father would do his duty to the empire.
 
Knowing that my father died well is a comfort to me.
 
Tell me, who comforts you, Baron?”

      She boldly snatched his glass, saw his eyes flare briefly and just as quickly mellow, and she took a sip from his glass.

      “I see you sitting here out under the stars all alone, drinking this very fine T’Pala, by the way.
 
May I have some?”

      She handed his glass back.
 
G’Rof reached for a glass and poured her two claws worth and handed it to her.
 
She sipped it, choked slightly and then downed the glass.

      “May I have another?”

      G’Rof frowned at the disrespect shown a fine T’Pala, but poured her another glass and said, “This is 100 years old.
 
Take your time with it, like it is an old dear friend.”

      T’Jana took the glass, stood up, and softly swayed to music playing at the main campfire.
 
She looked over to the party and saw K’Lana dancing to a much more fevered rhythm.
 
All eyes were on her, as the scent of her coming into heat caused tension, occasional shoving, and even fights to break out amongst the males.

T’Jana turned back to G’Rof and, with a slight slur to her voice, said, “This stuff is good.
 
Where was I?
 
Oh, yes, who comforts you?
 
I’m sure the faces and voices of men lost in battle, like my father, must haunt you.
 
Who softens that burden for you?
 
Your wife died, what, ten years ago?
 
Both your sons were lost at the Battle of G’Durin.
 
Who is there to ease your troubles?”

       She swayed to the music again, came around to the front of his chair, and eased into his lap.
 
She tipped her glass to his lips.
 
He took a sip and she nuzzled noses with him.
 
She tipped her glass to his lips again and he finished the remainder of her glass.
 
He noticed a faint bitter taste, but assigned it to the scent of the B’Notil trees.

      She nuzzled him again and said, “I’m nowhere near in heat, but I can provide you with less frenzied passion, if you wish.
 
I hate it when estrus drives me to mate with any male fast enough and strong enough to take me.”

      G’Rof smiled a wistful smile and said, “I believe my days of howling after a frisky young female are behind me.
 
My line is at an end anyway.
 
With my sons’ death, I have no one but my nephews to pass my legacy to and I fear they are not worthy of it.
 
Come, let us explore each other in a calmer, less hurried manner.”

      G’Rof stood to escort T’Jana into his tent, but his legs refused to hold him up.
 
He crashed to the ground, striking his head on a tent pole.
 
He lay there quite conscious, but unable to move or even shout for his bodyguards, as four Shadow Commandos dressed all in black emerged from the shadows of his tent.
 
They each grabbed an extremity and carried him off into the darkness as he drifted into unconsciousness.

      Her part in this action finished, Shadow Warrior T’Jana walked over to the main campfire and plopped into the first lap she came to.
 
It was G’Rof ‘s chief bodyguard G’Jiu.
 
If he were not executed within the month, he would be a fortunate, but disgraced Shadow Warrior.

* * * * *

           
Chief of the Imperial General Staff and Land Forces Marshall (Baron) T’Kana, Hero of the Battle of C’Tenu, Guardian of the Empire, and Life Member of the Imperial Guard, paced the length of his conference room.
 
His staff and major subordinate commanders sat patiently, awaiting the purpose of this hastily called meeting.
 
The usual coughs and shuffling were noticeably missing this morning.
 
Normally, the purpose and agenda were sent out a week before, to give the subordinate staffs time to prepare their commanders for whatever questions might come up during the meeting.
 
This was not the case today, when the meeting was called with less than one day’s notice.

      They were gathered in the Imperial Staff Headquarters on K’Rol, the military planet.
 
K’Rol was the headquarters and garrison planet for all K’Rang ground forces, less the Imperial Guard Regiment.
 
It housed two training combined units, five unified force headquarters, 25 shadow combined units, five shadow commando units, and various specialty and logistics units and sub-units.
 
Above the planet were five space stations, each holding the ships of five combined unit troop transport task forces with transports, escorts, and support ships.
 
Miraculously, the Humans had never found K’Rol or its stations during the war.
 
Good operational security and a location far off the normal trade routes and away from other military installations left them unscathed and combat ready, but they had never been called into the fight, not even to defend the home world.
 
This enraged T’Kana – over 150,000 warriors sworn to defend the empire to the death, and they were not even called into the battle.

      With his anger overflowing, T’Kana addressed his audience, his tone sharp as a dagger’s point.
 
Several senior commanders, all combat veterans, shivered involuntarily as he spoke.

      “Fellow warriors, it is with a burning rage that I address you today.
 
A rage fueled by the knowledge that our beloved empire has been conquered by an unholy alien alliance, a conquest that was aided and abetted by incompetent or traitorous actions at the highest level of the empire.”

      A murmur went up from the assembled officers, but stopped when T’Kana began anew.

      “Warriors, we cannot let this situation stand!
 
I propose that we take steps to bring the K’Rang Empire back to its former glory.
 
I have a list here of 21 K’Rang official, civil and military personnel that presided over or let this fiasco occur.
 
The gutless Council of Peers has told us for two years that they would hold full hearings on the events culminating in the Battle of G’Durin.
 
I believed them, but they lied!
 
They have moved on to rebuilding what was lost and are not even questioning the principals; therefore, it falls to us.
 
These 21 individuals will be brought before military tribunals, presented with their crimes, tried, if found guilty, sentenced, and, if the tribunal so rules, executed.
 
After the traitors and incompetents are weeded out we will move on the capitol and the regional centers of government for the main and secondary worlds. The K’Rang Empire must prevail!”

      Murmurs and shouts both for and against rose up from the assembled officers.
 
Most of the shouts dealt with what would be the Human and Angaerry response if this plan was carried out.

      “Hear me out.
 
The Humans and the Angaerry will stay out of this as long as they see it as an internal K’Rang matter.
 
We will give them every assurance that this is just an internal rearrangement and no threat to them, until such time as we have rebuilt our fleet with proper ships and leadership.
 
Then we will remove their representatives and spies from the Empire and seal our borders.
 
My calculations show we have enough undamaged shipyards that we can build up to 20 ships a month once we are up to full production levels.”

      T’Kana projected a list of names onto the main screen and the group hushed.
 
He pronounced these K’Rang to be the main suspected perpetrators of the disaster that resulted in the battle of G’Durin and the Empire’s defeat.
 
The list was replaced with a series of single slides with each individual’s picture, name, charges, and evidence synopsis.
 
The list included Baron G’Rof (former commander of the Grand Armada), Senior Elder J’Gon, General F’Roku (ground forces liaison to the Elders), Baron N’Gana (Secretary to the Elders), Shadow Leader G’Motta (former commander of the lunar defense facilities), Baron B’Tala (head of K’Rang Intelligence), and fifteen more high level military and governmental officials.

      One unified force commander, M’Juna, stood and addressed T’Kana.
 
“Sir, I have no love for those that directed this debacle, but I also have no desire to see the commanders’ battle decisions questioned by those who were not there.
 
You know as well as I that decisions made during the battle are made with incomplete information and within split seconds.
 
The historians pore over all the records for months and then point out how stupid we were to turn left when any fool could see the obvious and correct choice should have been to go right.
 
Of course, bombardment frigates are not pursuing these academics and killing a company of warriors with each blast so close you can feel the heat from the plasma ball.
 
How are we to judge these commander’s decisions?”

      T’Kana replied, “It is exactly because we have been in life or death situations that we can accurately and fairly judge these leaders.
 
Who could be better than we to decide whether their actions were prudent and militarily justifiable?
 
The tribunal will review the circumstances, assess blame or credit, determine guilt or innocence, and release or pass sentence.
 
We owe it to the Empire to which we have all sworn an oath.”

      Another unified force commander, B’Tan, stood and asked how the ground forces would reset the balance without space superiority.

      “Baron, forgive me, but I have seen the battle loss reports.
 
We have barely enough fleet left to provide escorts for our troop transport task forces.
 
The Humans outnumber us two to one in capital ships and the A’Ngarii match us in raw numbers, but with cruisers and battle cruisers to our frigates and destroyers.”

      T’Kana, famous for his fire breathing, did not bristle at this question, but said, “I am not yet ready to reveal my full plan at this time.
 
Suffice it to say that when the time comes we will have the ships.”

      The five shadow unified force commanders were each given four names off the list and ordered to hold their tribunals as soon as the individuals were delivered to their custody, in person or virtually.

* * * * *

      Captain Kelly Blake sat in the Antares Base engineer battalion commander’s office, waiting for his return and confirmation that the new embassy building was complete and ready to transport.
 
The State Department Security Officer, George Strange, sat across from Kelly in the somewhat stuffy office.
 
Kelly took an instant dislike to him before he’d even completed Strange’s “dead fish” handshake.
 
He was a pompous ass with petty bureaucrat stamped all over him, and it seemed security issues were stopping the building’s completion certification.
 
Kelly had heard reports from the contractor and engineer battalion personnel that security supervisors often overturned the findings from the security inspectors, with inconsistent rulings bordering on arbitrary and capricious.

A dry dock/transport ship, the F. R. Reynolds, waited in a holding orbit.
 
The Reynolds was the largest class of ship capable of landing on the planet’s surface, and could be sent through the Antares ring to the Resurgent, a ring ship in orbit above G’Durin.
 
For now, it was earning an exorbitant amount of money doing nothing more challenging than orbiting the planet sixteen times a day, while its crew waited to do their real job.

      Kelly had been brought in by the ambassador to see if he could cut through the red tape and get the building delivered on time and on budget.
 
The State Department and the Republic Intelligence Agency had made the decision to build a prefabricated embassy and deliver it to G’Durin ready to be dropped onto a site-built foundation, rather than try and construct a secure, bug-proof facility built completely on-site.
 
K’Rang intelligence was as good as any and the Galactic Republic didn’t want to make their job any easier.

      The minimally-manned Galactic Republic Consulate on G’Durin was operating out of a leased K’Rang office building that was less than optimal.
 
The negotiation for which building to occupy took over a year.
 
The K’Rang wanted the embassy near the northern mountain range and away from the Imperial Palace.
 
The GR wanted to be adjacent or as close as the Imperial Palace as possible.
 
The final agreed temporary facility was close to the Palace, but was riddled with sensors, some known and some unknown.
 
It was too small for the entire embassy staff to work out of.
 
Simultaneous with these negotiations was choosing the site for the new embassy, which took another year.

      The new embassy was built at Antares Base by Antares PreFab, Inc., the same company that built Candy Blake’s mountain aerie.
 
They built the modular, multi-story building on a special framework that would allow it to be lifted off the transporter in two-floor sections and set down using the transport’s normal load handling equipment.