First Command (11 page)

      
Yes, he could see a lot of improvements, but first he needed a new plant manager.
 
The son of the former owner asked to stay on as the plant manager, but he had one of his shift foremen from Fomalhaut in mind for this job, the one with the trim muscular legs and spectacular abs.
 
What good was it to be the boss if you couldn’t enjoy some perks?

      
He was entering the main office when his pocket terminal chimed for an incoming message.
 
He looked at the header and stopped dead in his tracks.
 
The executive secretary and office manager looked at him.
 
He regained his composure and told them he had to take a call and he was not to be disturbed.

      
He quickly entered the executive suite and closed and locked the door behind him.
 
He started up his personal terminal, and when it was ready, opened his personal folder and accessed the public network.
 
He scrolled the list of sites until he found the right one.
 
He entered the site and downloaded two messages on single skillet meal recipes.
 
As the recipes downloaded, he pulled out a data device and plugged it into his terminal.
 
A light came on at the side of the device and he hit Enter.
 
A small holographic image of the solicitous K’Rang merchant, T’Polla, appeared on his desktop.
 
He must be a prosperous merchant, because his robes look like they were embroidered with gold thread.

      
“Mr. Shepler, it is so good to find you again.
 
I was worried I would never make contact with you.
 
That would have been such a loss, because my sources in the Imperial Hall tell me that the K’Rang Empire is considering offering to exchange ambassadors and establish diplomatic and trade relations with the Republic.
 
The recent defeat at G’Dranu convinced the merchant and political class that the military class was leading them down a path to destruction.
 
We voted as a bloc in the Imperial Assembly and cancelled all future weapons programs.
 
We will be using the credits saved to rebuild our merchant class consumer goods production and shipping capability.”

      
“Of course, one of our first actions will be to invite Human military authorities in to witness our decommissioning and destruction of all but a small self-defense force of deep space ships.
 
Once this is accomplished, we will petition to be included in the Human ring network so our merchant ships can speed goods in and out of the Empire and the Republic.
 
I understand that the official offer will be made in two of your weeks.”

      
“I ask if you can acquire any information on these transporter rings.
 
We will need to put in our orders to the yards soon for new merchant ships to handle the expected trade resulting from our new relationship.
 
It wouldn’t be good to leave the yards idle for too long.
 
The workers would revolt.
 
We will need to know dimensions to know how big to make our freighters.
 
What physical principles do they follow, so we can determine if any of our engines or systems would be adversely affected?
 
Do they require any modifications to our ships?
 
In essence, anything you can find out for us.”

      
“Our agreement with the late Mr. Delphant is still in force.
 
Indigo Corporation has an exclusive license to import flamestones from the Empire.
 
Please pass our condolences to Mr. Delphant’s family.
 
His passing was a terrible loss to Empire-Republic relations.”

      
“I am not one to ask favors of you without a quid pro quo, as you call it.
 
I have a 10-liter shipment container of flamestones that I can turn over to you at our next meeting.
 
Contact me at the link on the other message when you are ready to trade.”

      
“Again, it is so good to find you well and we look forward to trading with you.
 
Farewell.”

      
Shepler knew what T’Polla was asking for and why.
 
He knew that T’Polla was probably a K’Rang agent, but he didn’t care.
 
Neither did Delphant when he was alive.
 
Of course, if they had gone to the K’Rang with the measly data Delphant had procured, there wouldn’t be 30 liters of flamestones on their company asteroid.
 
It had been easy to acquire the info they really wanted.

      
Shepler knew there was no way the K’Rang Empire was ever going to conquer the Republic.
 
All they could do was snipe around the borders.
 
Eventually the Republic would tire of this and go in and conquer them world-by-world.
 
He could give them everything they asked for and it wouldn’t change the inevitable.

      
Now, whom did he know that could get him what he needed?

      
      
      
* * * * *

      
H’Topa took off his heavy merchant robe and hung it on a hook.
 
He supposed it was the type of robe a merchant would wear.
 
The K’Rang had no merchant class or political class.
 
There were the nobles and there were warriors.
 
The nobles ran the Empire, electing the three Elders that ran the day-to-day affairs.
 
There was no longer an emperor.
 
Years of internal palace intrigue left the K’Rang weakened and disjointed.
 
The K’Rang Empire was heading to ruin when the dukes and barons revolted against the Emperor.
 
The Emperor was put to the sword, as were all his palace minions.
 
The three main blocs of nobles each voted an Elder to run the Empire.
 
The blocs shifted and changed over the years and only one of the original three blocs still provided an Elder, but the Empire prospered under their rule.

      
The rest of the K’Rang were warriors.
 
K’Rang females traditionally were warrior mothers.
 
They gave birth to warriors and administered the crèches, but of late, had started to become warriors.
 
There was initial resistance to this, but experience showed that while they were not the same as male warriors, they brought unique skills and aptitudes that males sometimes never develop.
 
Kittens were warriors in training for the day they were ready to serve the Empire.

      
Warriors comprised two classes:
 
warriors and shadow warriors.
 
Shadow warriors were the best of the warrior class, as determined through rigorous testing from kittenhood through adult.
 
Those judged best at providing skills the Shadow Force required became shadow warriors.

      
Shadow Force was the K’Rang Imperial Guard.
 
A regiment always guarded Imperial Hall.
 
A Shadow Force Task Force always orbited G’Durin.
 
Shadow Force always had the first line equipment and ships.

      
Regular warriors’ weapons and ships were always a touch inferior to their Shadow equivalent, and also older on average.
 
Shadow Force ships were upgraded in the yards every five years.
 
The warriors’ ships were modernized every ten years.
 
Although the warrior fleet outnumbers the Shadow Fleet, they were kept stationed on the outer reaches of the Empire.
 
The Shadow Fleet patrolled the Empire’s inner main worlds.

      
Technically there was no merchant class.
 
There were warriors that were in charge of production and supply for the warrior class and the women and kittens directly.
 
Some even were in charge of providing luxuries and necessities to the nobility.
 
Warriors supporting other warriors ran factories, shipyards, farms, mines, and lumber mills.
 
The K’Rang just considered it logistics.

      
While only royalty and their relations were allowed to live permanently on G’Durin, a small number of military and bureaucrats lived on the home world during their assignments, such as the Chief of the Regular Fleet and his staff.
 
H’Topa and J’Kraul’s duties as Shadow Warriors in the Intel HQ also gave them authority to live on G’Durin.
 
Provided Mr. Shepler was able to acquire what was needed, they would continue to stay on G’Durin and above ground.
 
The main military cemetery so close to the city center was a constant reminder that there was more than one way to be granted permanent residence on G’Durin.

      
H’Topa thought, “Mr. Shepler was helpful before in getting us long-range communications design information.
 
Let us see if he can get what we need this time.”
 
H’Topa had seen Shepler’s eyes light up at the thought of a reestablished supply of flamestones.
 
“Perhaps he will be motivated to do what we ask if we ask him the right way.”

      
“Captain M’Toth, set course for Shepard.
 
It seems our friend is not on Fomalhaut after all.”

* * * * *

      
Alistair Bennett noticed the highly encrypted data stream pass through the network.
 
It drew his computer’s attention because it followed the same data path as a posting to a suspect forum.
 
He would never know the contents, but he suspected something was being put in place.

      
He ran his trace routine to see if he could pinpoint the terminal that received the stream.
 
Not only was the stream encrypted, but the data packets comprising the stream were de-multiplexed and sent though multiple links to be multiplexed back together at the receiving terminal.
 
He let the computer work on it, but did not hold out hope.

      
Turning his attention to other matters, he set the computer to work on correlating suspected espionage activity and ship arrivals and departures.
 
He was looking for patterns that would lead to K’Rang courier ships bringing in instructions and leaving with reports and/or equipment.
 
The computer broke out a number of ships that were in the area during periods of high espionage activity.
 
He had the computer look for any information on these suspect ships that related to registry and ownership.
 
The K’Rang had the same problem he would have if he wanted to task an agent in the K’Rang Empire.
 
There were no direct communications or data links between the two adversaries.
 
All message traffic had to be carried in and input into the communications stream once the courier ship came in range of a network node.
 
There were K’Rang ships in Human space doing the same thing.
 
Alistair took another nap while the tireless computer trudged through the network, looking for those ships.

* * * * *

      
Kelly took a tour around his ship and liked what he saw.
 
He sat down for coffee with Chiefs Austin and Pennypacker, thanking them for their service to the ship and saying how much they were going to be missed.
 
He kidded Cookie about not being able to teach him to cook.
 
He then asked them, even though their transfers were months away, if they had any recommendations for their replacements.
 
Both Chiefs recommended people on other Scout Force ships.

      
Kelly was unsure if that could be made to happen.
 
He told them both that he was considered sort of a favorite with the Admiral, but not so much that he could raid from other captain’s rosters.

      
Chief Austin replied, ”Culinary Specialist First Class Donna Robinson is first cook on the Virtuous.
 
I trained her.
 
She’s good.
 
She just came out on the Chiefs’ list.
 
She’s low on the list, but she’ll be looking for a job when she makes Chief.
 
The Virtuous won’t have a billet for her then.
 
That should be right about the time I’m out-processing.
 
Let Yeoman Benitez ask personnel for who is coming up for promotion about the time I leave.
 
They’ll do the research for you and take the hit with the captain of the Vigorous for stripping away his first cook.”

      
Chief Pennypacker said, “Gunners Mate First Class Tom Hendrickson, on the Vengeance, must be in the same boat as Robinson. He won’t have a billet either, once he makes Chief. He’s one of my wife’s cousins, but he’s a good gunner.
 
The Chief he works for is lazy and makes him do all the work.
 
He’s ready for his own section, where he gets the credit for what goes right and not just the blame when things go wrong.
 
I suggest you have Benitez ask about filling both our positions as Cookie suggested.
 
Personnel will make the transfers to keep their books straight.
 
Let them take the heat from the other captains.”