All Enemies Foreign and Domestic (Kelly Blake series) (38 page)

      Kelly and Ellie were invited to dine with Unified Force Commander J’Rel in his dining room on board his flagship, the Assault Transport Ship A’Keb.
 
Kelly apologized, but neither he nor Lieutenant Colonel Johns had their dress uniforms.

      J’Rel laughed and said, “Neither have I, Captain.
 
I’m going to war –not a soiree.”

      A chagrined Kelly laughed along with him.

      The force commander set a fine table and provided both human and K’Rang food items.
 
He also had an excellent liquor cabinet with 100-year old T’Pala.
 
Kelly wondered if it came in any other ages.
 
He had two fingers worth and sipped it slowly.

      The commander asked Kelly, “What are the gates like and how do they work?”

      Kelly told him, “My parents invented the gates, but even I don’t precisely know how they work.
 
It involves what my parents call the extra dimension, similar to the ether through which radio works.
 
The gate sends matter, memories and personality through this extra dimension like a radio sends voice through the ether.
 
It transmits not just the matter, but the whole person – how he went in is how he comes out.
 
I was one of the first test subjects and I routinely travel through the gates and have had no ill effects.
 
You will feel the coldest cold and see the blackest black for the split second you are in the field, but no other sensations.”

       “I think I understand, Captain.
 
Thank you.”

      Noticing her yawn, J’Rel asked, “What do you think of the T’Pala, Colonel Johns?”

      She shook her head, laughed and said, “I think it is the strongest and smoothest alcohol I’ve ever had.
 
I’m afraid I’m about to fall asleep on you, sir.
 
It has been a long day.
 
With your permission, I would like to turn in.”

      He smiled and said, “Of course, Colonel.
 
Let me call my aide to escort you to your quarters.”

      A junior officer appeared and Lieutenant Johns left to turn in for the night.
 
Kelly, not feeling anything but mellow, stayed and talked with J’Rel deep into the night, learning much about the T’Kab in the process.

      J’Rel poured himself another healthy glass of T’Pala and started his tale.
 
“The war over 100 years ago was a very close run thing.
 
The T’Kab had started colonizing several of what today are major worlds of the K’Rang Empire, but then were just K’Rang outlying colonies.
 
It was a chance result of the T’Kab shotgun approach to colonizing.
 
They and we just bumped into each other.
 
Fortunately, we discovered them before they got too far along and were able to clear out most of the infestations, but on one lightly populated and marginal planet they were able to reach sentient stage unnoticed and activated a beacon to contact the civilization.
 
Months later, due to the distances involved and engine technology of the time, a T’Kab civilization fleet arrived at the world.

      “A chance encounter by a K’Rang survey ship sounded the alarm and the K‘Rang fleet arrived and a great space battle ensued.
 
The T’Kab fleet had space factories, terraforming ships, and a large number of escorts.
 
I think they had eleven escorts of all classes and types.
 
The first fleet we sent was woefully overmatched and went down in one engagement.
 
Then, knowing what they were up against, the K’Rang fleet sortied a massive force.
 
However, the fleet went in too cocky and it took a lopsided outcome to the T’Kab’s favor in the first engagement to wake them up.
 
In the next engagement, the fleet stood off and let their missiles cut the T’Kab fleet down.
 
When they had reduced the T’Kab escorts by half, they went in and finished them off with gun and torpedo.

      “Then it was the army’s turn to deal with the T’Kab.
 
We didn’t have five Unified Forces then, just three.
 
They landed in a mountainous area where the T’Kab couldn’t burrow and fortified themselves until they had most of two unified forces landed.
 
Then they advanced through a valley, killing every T’Kab they found, but the queens could hatch new soldiers almost as fast as we killed them.
 
Realizing the futility of this approach, they set out to capture some queens and managed to bring two in alive.
 
It was not easy, but they transported them to a research facility on a marginal planet.       “They subjected the queens to every type of test they could think of.
 
They eventually settled on developing a disease that affected only the queens and made them waste away.
 
Once the disease found its way into a burrow every new queen hatched had it.
 
Once the queens died off, it was only a matter of time before there were no new T’Kab to replace the dead and soon the world was cleansed.
 
Ships were sent to all infested worlds to spread the disease, and within months the T’Kab were no longer a threat.”

      J’Rel swirled his T’Pala in his glass, swallowed it down and a sad look said, “It was an effective solution, but I question the honor in it.
 
I hope we don’t have to use it again.

      “Now, Captain, I must rest.
 
I bid you good night.
 
My aide will be here shortly to see you to your room.”

      He turned and walked through an adjoining door and Kelly was left alone for the few moments it took for the aide to arrive.
 
There was a tap on the door and the aide stepped in and escorted Kelly to his room, where she left him at the door.
 
He entered to find Ellie in her nightgown sitting in a comfy armchair.

      “What’s this?” he asked.

      Ellie, with an exasperated look on her face said, “This is our room.
 
Evidently it is customary for K’Rang males and females to sleep together when the females are not in heat.
 
I berated that mousy little aide about how we humans are different, but it seems there is no more room at the inn.
 
We can flip for the couch or you can pull rank, but this room is all we got for tonight.”

      Kelly laughed and told her to take the bed.
 
He would be fine on the couch.

      “Thank you, sir,” was all she could say.

      Kelly went into the attached bath, figured out how to use the peculiar K’Rang facilities, and changed out of his uniform to his skivvies.
 
He had no pajamas, so it would have to do.

      By the time he came back into the room, Ellie was a lump under the covers and snoring.
 
She had put a blanket and pillow on the couch for him.
 
He curled up on the couch, pulled the blanket tight under his chin, and quickly went to sleep.

* * * * *

      Ingrid climbed up in the commander’s seat and waited for the first sergeant to give the start engine sign.
 
She had talked to her crew and they were looking forward to the sea cruise, as they called it.
 
She took a deep breath and smelled a crisp pine-like scent in the air.
 
The river before her was approximately 30 meters across.
 
The occasional limb or other debris floating by showed it to be fast moving water.
 
The bank on each side was fairly steep, but well within the grade limits of her tank.
 
Across the way, she saw a wood line at the top of the riverbank.

       She saw the first sergeant’s sign and told the driver to fire it up.
 
While they waited for the engine to warm up, Ingrid watched the artillery pounding likely ambush points on the far shore.
 
AG-122s flew scout missions on the other side.
 
She saw an odd vehicle climb out of the water on the far side and realized it must be one of the new amphibious engineer vehicles, made for surveying river bottoms.

      Her reverie came to an abrupt end when her commander came up on the net and ordered the company to advance.
 
Ingrid had the driver pull up alongside the commander’s transporter.
 
The 1st and 2nd platoons pulled up one to either side and slightly ahead and 3rd platoon, the attached mechanized platoon, was behind, with the exec’s and first sergeant’s tanks trailing.
 
She ordered the driver to button up and closed her own hatch.
 
They went down the bank and slowly moved out onto the water as smoke rounds obscured the far shore.

      The feeling of hovering over water was less steady than over the ground, but not a feeling like they were going to tip over.
 
In short order, 1st and 2nd platoon were climbing up the far bank.
 
As she reached the far bank and was beginning to climb up, the ground beside her exploded.
 
She reacted instantly and told the driver to steer left and increase speed.
 
A second round passed through the space they had just left and exploded in the river.
 
She popped her hatch and stuck her head out to get a better view, while the driver drove an evasive pattern.
 
She saw a flash, then one of 1st Platoon’s tanks exploded.

      Ingrid slewed the turret aimed and fired an antitank charge, and saw no more firing from that position.
 
Popping her head out again, she scanned with binoculars for other firing points.
 
She saw another flash and put a round into that position and again silenced it.
 
The entire company was zigzagging up the riverbank now and it took some concentration to keep from running into each other.
 
They reached the top of the riverbank and passed through the tree line.
 
1st Platoon turned left and 2nd platoon turned right, cleaning out the well camouflaged firing positions from the rear.
 
Ingrid fired at the few tank-like vehicles fleeing the battle and flamed three of them.

      The two other tank companies pushed through the trees and continued clearing operations in the tree line.
 
Captain Kopinsky called the platoons back, then moved forward to scout out a nearby hilltop.
 
He spread the company out and advanced almost on line.
 
As he got closer to the hilltop, he had the vehicles stop in some rocks just shy of the mostly wooded top and had the infantry dismount and check out the wood line.

      It was standard operating procedure to divide wood lines into target sectors among the tanks.
 
Ingrid picked out her sector of woods and had the charger make up equal numbers of antitank and anti-personnel rounds.
 
She had him load up an anti-personnel round.

      The infantry was completely out in the open when Captain Kopinsky came up on the net and said, “Tanks, prepare to fire one round into your sector at any likely hide spots.
 
Infantry, prepare to hug the dirt.”

      Ingrid picked out a suspicious looking clump of weeds and brush and waited.

      Captain Kopinsky ordered 3rd Platoon to drop just as several T’Kab guns opened up from the trees.

      He said, “Fire!” and a dozen tanks opened up on the woods.
 
The enemy guns that had opened fire were quickly destroyed, then Captain Kopinsky sent the infantry to clear out any remainder.
 
In a few short minutes, he called battalion and reported the hill occupied and secured.

      Ingrid turned around in the turret to see the mobile bridge sections entering the water and forming up into two long bridges.
 
Ingrid was fascinated, watching the bridges link to each other until they reached the other side and the special ramp sections.
 
She saw a flash in the sky and looked through her binoculars as a flight of AG-122s passed by, wondering if one could be Brad.
 
Kopinsky ordered the company to pull into the wood line on the hilltop and told them the cooks would deliver lunch.

      The brigades’ wheeled vehicles came across and formed up just below their overwatch position.
 
A wrecker unhooked the one 1st platoon tank that was hit during the crossing and turned it back over to the company.
 
They had patched the dent in the armor and ran diagnostics on the motor; other than the dent, it was good as new.
 
The round hit at just the right angle to bounce off the armor, digging a furrow in the frontal armor.
 
The crew was reunited with the company shortly after the tank had been delivered.
 
The TC’s arm was in a sling and the gunner had a black eye from being slammed into the scope when the round hit.
 

      Lunch arrived and they ate on an even-odd basis, based on vehicle number.
 
When it was Ingrid’s turn, she lined up behind her crew and they huddled around the tank to eat.
 
Kopinsky walked up and told them to relax, the brigade would be moving to the end of the division’s line of march.
 
Ingrid, ever the good soldier, promptly dropped off to sleep, for she never knew when she would be able to sleep again.