All Enemies Foreign and Domestic (Kelly Blake series) (27 page)

      The rest of their crew consisted of Mary, a real estate agent from Tampa, Don, a lawyer from Seville, and Doris and Temple, a married couple from Atlantic City.
 
They were a fairly harmonious group, with no tensions or quirks that irritated anyone else.
 
Sounds from Johann’s cabin late one night suggested that the real estate agent might have taken him up on his quiet hint of availability.

      The men tended to sit in the cockpit in the bimini’s shade.
 
The women occupied the foredeck and sunned in minimal to no attire.
 
The men were solicitous enough to come forward and offer to apply suntan lotion.
 
Brad was the favorite for this, as he kept his hands away from the jiggly bits unless given permission.
 
Ingrid liked the feel of his warm hands on her and gradually gave him more and more freedom.
 
He took his time and did not rush her, but it was obvious that he was only attracted to her, even though others liked his hands.
 
Ilsa made a big play for his attention, dancing topless in his lap after dinner one evening, but she slept alone that night.
 
The next night, Ingrid invited him into her cabin.

      They were a couple from then on.
 
They hit the clubs and casinos in Saint Martin and made it through the two nights with more money than they started with.
 
Ingrid put a fifty-credit chip on the roulette table and won a bundle.
 
They spent the rest of the night dancing and buying drinks for the rest of the crew, then retired to the
Adventurer
and partied until the marina manager finally broke it up at 0400.

      Late that afternoon, after Ilsa’s hangover special breakfast, they loosed their lines and sailed for Virgin Gorda, leaving so late that an overnight passage was required.
 
Johann divided the crew into watches and Brad and Ingrid took the midnight to four watch.

It was a beautiful night, with a bright moon shining down on the rippling water.
 
Ingrid lay back in Brad’s arms and they talked.
 
“Brad, I know we promised not to talk shop, but will there be time for us when we’re deployed?”

      Brad kept silent for almost a moment too long, then said, “I don’t know.
 
What unit are you with?”

      She told him and he said, “We’ll have to make time.
 
You’re in 1st Brigade.
 
I’m in the Aviation Brigade.
 
We’ll have to seize any time available.
 
I don’t know how long we’ll be campaigning.
 
If it’s short, we meet when we get back.
 
If it’s long, we see if we can get R&R time together.
 
I don’t want this to be just a shipboard romance.
 
I want to see a lot of you.”

      Ingrid snuggled deeper into his arms and said, “I want the same.”

      The watch passed uneventfully, with the autopilot holding them on course and the radar alerting them to any danger, the two modern conveniences a sop to their earlier hungover state.
 
The
Adventurer
arrived at Virgin Gorda early in the morning and found a mooring off the famous Baths.

Over the next few days, they swam and explored the large and small islands as they slowly worked their way back to Redhook Bay, and Ingrid and Brad fell deeper in love.

      The
Adventurer
finally pulled into Redhook Bay and tied up at her slip, setting fenders to hold her back from the pier.
 
Ingrid and Brad helped Johann and Ilsa clean the boat, then took a taxi to a downtown hotel for their last night in the Virgin Islands.
 
They visited the jewelry shops normally focusing on the luxury liner trade and Brad directed Ingrid to the rings.
 
He asked her hypothetically what type of ring she would like to be presented with.
 
She kissed him, said yes, and pointed to a plain gold band set with a small inset diamond on the wider of the two bands.
 
He had it sized for her finger and dropped to his knee in the store to make it official, applauded by the staff and customers.

      The next morning, they boarded their transport for Miami and back to Gagarin.
 
It was a three-hour flight to the spaceport in Georgia and a one-hour flight to Gagarin through the gates.
 
At lunch, Ingrid learned her future husband was a flight officer flying a GA-122 ground attack ship, capable of dropping from space to the ground and hitting over a dozen targets with its precision munitions.
 
The GA-122 was also a tank-killer with a kinetic rail gun.

      Ingrid told Brad she was a sergeant commanding a company command tank.
 
They were both impressed with each other.
 
After lunch, Brad reported back into his unit and Ingrid reported into hers only to find that their deployment was being reconsidered.
 
She asked if anyone knew when they might deploy and was told that was being discussed by individuals of much higher rank, but her commander didn’t think it would be long because they hadn’t called the Behemoth’s lighters back to offload their equipment.

* * * * *

      Kelly was called to Duke G’Rof’s suite of offices just before G’Durin’s star went down.
 
He had been pointed to a seat and asked to wait. He had been waiting over six hours now and no one so much as looked his way.
 
Finally, a slim sleek female with shiny dark brown fur came up to him.

      “Captain Blake, I am Shadow Leader T’Jana.
 
We apologize for making you wait and thank you for being so patient.
 
If you will come with me, all will become apparent.”

      She led Kelly through the office into the secure area beyond.
 
They walked down a dimly lit hallway to a sliding metal door.
 
The door slid open as they approached and Kelly entered into the former high value target, which had previously been a liquor distillery disguising a Shadow Force research facility.

      Kelly entered the secret underground command bunker. The K’Rang led him down corridor after corridor, until they came to a guarded steel door.
 
The shadow leader presented her credentials and the guards came to attention and held the doors for them.

      The circular room was massive.
 
A round table sat in the middle of the room and five older K’Rang sat there.
 
Arrayed in five tiers behind and above them in theater seating with consoles were five rows of younger K’Rang.
 
Kelly asked, “What is this place?”

      The shadow leader replied, “It is the Imperial General Staff Special Studies Group.
 
The K’Rang below us at the round table are three former unified force commanders with extensive combat experience and two former armada commanders.
 
They have been analyzing the data sent to us from the Vengeful.
 
They have determined…wait, let me have them brief you.”

      She escorted Kelly over and introduced him to M’Juna, B’Tan, and G’Kac, the former unified force commanders.
 
She introduced him to K’Rel and S’Tec, former Armada commanders.
 
The group was not comfortable with Kelly in the room.
 
The K’Rang in the theater seating had gone silent when Kelly entered the room.
 
M’Juna stood and said, “Captain Blake, we’ve heard much about you.
 
You commanded the Orion at the battle of G’Durin, did you not?”

      “Yes, I did.”

      M’Juna turned to the other four and said, “The Orion damaged or destroyed one-third of the Home Defense Armada as it rushed to the defense of G’Durin.
 
A regiment of their heavy attack ships destroyed the rest.
 
The Orion also destroyed the system fleet of the six planets liberated from the Angaerry.
 
Captain Blake was a very busy Human during the events leading up to the battle of G’Durin.”

      S’Tec came over.
 
“I commanded the Home Defense Armada.
 
Your tactics working with the heavy attack ships were impeccable.
 
You took out our missile defense craft and moved aside while the ships came in on us.
 
Your movement around our flank was a classic maneuver.
 
If I hadn’t been getting pounded to pieces, I might have been impressed more.
 
I bear you no ill will, Captain Blake, but it will be a while before I can accept any Human as an ally.”

      T’Jana got their attention and asked that they brief Captain Kelly on the results of their analysis, but not before Kelly informed them he watched shipmates die at G’Durin also.
 
A flicker of understanding formed and the five put their paws on Kelly’s shoulder and growled in the K’Rang sign of acceptance of a fellow warrior.

      M’Juna started the briefing.

      “The T’Kab in the colonies and the T’Kab on the home and guard worlds are totally different.
 
The home and guard world populations live almost exclusively above ground.
 
We can see no evidence of burrows among the population centers.
 
The sentient T’Kab don’t care to live in the dirt, it seems.
 
The T’Kab home world is not that different from Earth or the Angaerry home world.
 
It has cities with mass transit, personal transportation, high rises, stores, markets, and suburbs.
 
It is when we leave the cities that it gets very disturbing.

      “This picture is of an agricultural endeavor.
 
Notice the open air pens here.”

      Kelly saw some sort of feeding operation going on.

      “Now, let me zoom in two power, four power, eight power…”

      Kelly jumped out of his seat to look more closely at the holograph.
 
“My God, those are bipeds.
 
Zoom closer.”

      M’Juna zoomed to 20 power and it was very clearly humans, K’Rang, and Angaerry in those pens.

      Kelly asked, “How many more places like this are there?”

      M’Juna answered, “There are hundreds, maybe thousands, and slaughterhouses and retail shops.
 
We followed their transports from the farm to the feedlots, to the slaughterhouses, and into the stores.”

      “Okay, gentlemen, you gave me the why, now give me the how.”

      K’Rel took up the briefing.
 
“The T’Kab have a fairly small space fleet for a spacefaring race.
 
We need to destroy it first.
 
There are twenty ships in their home world defense fleet:
 
five battle cruisers, five light cruisers, five destroyers, and five frigate class.
 
They are a mix of Human, Angaerry, and K’Rang weaponry, salvaged off of captured ships.
 
That’s probably where they got their breeding stock.
 
We went back and searched out lost ships in the area.
 
There was a minor battle during the Capricorn War and a number of Human ships attempted a wide flanking movement.
 
Our Armada’s scouts saw you and a fleet was sent in pursuit – neither came back.
 
The point is that most of their weaponry is ages old and obsolete against modern armor and shielding.

      “If we can use your gates, we go in with the 5th Battle Fleet, reinforced by our fleet, and destroy their home world fleet.
 
The battle should last less than an hour.
 
We destroy their shipyards and stations in orbit over all three planets.
 
We destroy their observatories so they can’t plot colony pod trajectories.
 
Then we send in your and our ground forces to neutralize them, occupy their home world, and negotiate a pull back from our space.”

        
Kelly said, “I appreciate the opportunity of meeting with you.
 
I’m not the decision authority on this, but I can recommend we cooperate.
 
Give me a complete set of your analysis.
 
I know just who you need to send some excerpts to in the Senate to get some action on this.
 
Give me a head start, though, before you leak them.”

      This caused the K’Rang to laugh loudly.
 
K’Rel said, “Such subterfuge, Captain Blake.
 
You would have made a fine K’Rang.”

* * * * *

      Candy returned from a meeting to find the Embassy protocol officer standing in her office.
 
“What is it, Penny?”

      Penny reached into her case and pulled out a K’Rang invitation box.
 
This one was different from before, in that it contained the seals of all three Elders.
 
Candy removed the ribbon, opened the box, and pulled out an official memo stating that Mrs. Candy Blake was cordially invited to attend a ceremony to award her the Order of the B’Notil, 1st Class.
 
Formal wear required.
 
The date was four days off.

      She asked the obvious question.
 
“What is the order of the B’Notil, 1st Class?”