Over the next three weeks, additional cell members were identified and gathered up. The only hole at the end of the investigation was the identity of the human that controlled Bart and Silke. Bart was willing to give him up, but had no useful information other than three phone numbers used to contact him. All three turned out to be out of service numbers.
Kelly followed the courier ship to its exfiltration point. He had to time his attack to ensure he identified his point of exit without letting him get through it. They were still several days to the frontier, but Kelly was pretty sure he knew where they were going. There was an area of few stars and no habitable planets in the Perseus sector. It was a backwater area and only lightly patrolled, even by the K’Rang.
That was where he appeared to be making a straight line for and the most logical place to quietly cross the frontier. He would give him one more day, then attempt to get him to surrender or destroy him. Kelly’s experience with the K’Rang was that they preferred auto-destruct to surrender. In the two cases where he had K’Rang vessels stopped and ready to be boarded, they activated their self-destruct mechanisms rather than be boarded. He’d give it one more day to be certain of his destination and move in.
Alan Shepler wasn’t sure what had happened. He had tried to log into the cooking forum, but it was down. He used his last clean phone to call Bart Morton, but a stranger answered the phone. He immediately stripped the phone down to its major components and drove around, discarding them at various crossings over the Mercury River.
Something bad must have happened and he didn’t want to be around for it. Claiming a problem at the main facility, he paid a premium price to contract for the son of the former owner to run the plant until his replacement arrived. He caught the next available transit to Fomalhaut. It wasn’t until the ship left the atmosphere that he relaxed. He had the flight attendant bring him two whiskeys and a glass of ice. First class was the only way to travel.
The extra day was up and the courier ship was still headed right for the spot Kelly thought he was heading. There was no other place he could be going. At its current speed, they would reach the frontier in two days. He ordered battle stations.
Kelly ordered FTL Power 4 to close the distance quickly between Vigilant and the Red Eagle. The distance decreased slowly, too slowly for Kelly, so he ordered an increase to FTL power 5.
As the Vigilant reached missile range, Kelly ordered the helm to match speed. Kelly came up on the communicator and hailed the courier ship. “Red Eagle, this is the Galactic Republic Scout Ship Vigilant. You are charged with espionage and of having received stolen Galactic Republic property. Come to a halt and power down your engines. Prepare to be boarded.”
The Red Eagle did not stop. It did not power down its engines. It accelerated.
Kelly instinctively shouted out, “Helm, emergency evasive, now!”
The helmsman did not hesitate and hit the evasive maneuver button. The Vigilant automatically dove down, turned to starboard, and dove down again. These semi-random maneuvers were designed to accomplish two things. One was to throw off an enemy missile’s target lock, and the other was to put the Vigilant in a position to return fire quickly.
Kelly gave the order to fire one of mini-missiles and take out the courier ships engines. As the gunners lined up and acquired missile lock, the Red Eagle also went into evasive maneuvers. The two ships, set for evasive maneuvers, moved around each other like dancers on a stage. The Red Eagle made a hard turn to starboard just as the Vigilant made a hard turn to port. The distance between them increased. Kelly ordered to secure from evasive and sent the Vigilant in pursuit.
H’Topa’s growing confidence crashed to the deck when the crewman announced a GR scout ship had just appeared astern and was closing on them. When it increased speed and hailed them, he felt it was the voice of doom. The captain, unfazed, stated, “I knew it was too easy. Our friend out there doesn’t know what he’s
up against. This is no ordinary cargo ship. Helm, increase speed to FTL power 5.5.”
The two ships traveling at FTL speed were unable to use their guns. The captain ordered the Red Eagle to evasive maneuvers as he saw the scout’s missile bay open. Both ships jinked across space dangerously close to each other. The chance of collision became too great and the courier ship captain ordered a sharp turn to port and down. He looked for anything to hide in or amongst and found nothing. This area had been chosen specifically for its lack of space objects. It left nowhere to hide, either. The nearest star system was 23 minutes away, an eternity against a faster opponent like the scout ship. Captain M’Toth ordered his ship into a sharp turn and ran headlong towards the Vigilant.
Kelly did not expect the courier to turn back toward him. He ordered a mini-missile aimed at the courier ship engines, to bring him to a halt. The missile left the pod, streaked past the Red Eagle, turned back, and lined up with the exhaust nacelles just as the Red Eagle made a hard turn to port. They didn’t hit the engines, but blew off part of the Red Eagle’s port atmospheric wing. The Red Eagle slowed to below FTL to be able to bring his gun turret to bear. Kelly slowed down to below FTL to keep him from getting too far behind and slipping away. The Red Eagle gunner, with a powerful particle beam cannon, got in a good shot and took out the camera and the dorsal or upper tail gun. Vigilant was now blind astern. If he had fired a little lower, he might have taken out the top engine. Kelly decided to end this deadly ballet and lined the Vigilant to bring all guns to bear amidships on the courier ship. He ordered a sharp turn to port and brought the Vigilant around to fire on the Red Eagle, probably cutting it in half.
Kelly asked for damage reports as he awaited the firing solution to present itself. Engineering reported damage to the dorsal engine nacelle and rear camera. Gunnery reported the top rear gun was out of commission, but the other two were still functional. Engineering reported one man to sickbay for burns from an arcing relay.
Yeoman Benitez came up on the shipboard communicator and announced, “Captain, I have a message from Admiral Craddock for you — let the K’Rang courier escape. I say again, let the K’Rang ship escape.”
Kelly, confused, asked Benitez to confirm the order. She told him she already had. It was a genuine order.
Kelly ordered his gunners to miss, but miss closely. The top turret gunner missed a little too closely and took out the K’Rang ship’s turret. Kelly ordered evasive to start the ship tumbling then cut power to the engines. The Vigilant passed beneath the courier ship and tumbled off through space.
The K’Rang ship did not hesitate. It increased speed to FTL power 5.5 and left the Vigilant behind. Kelly kept the ship tumbling until the courier ship was off their short-range sensors.
While the K’Rang ship sped away, he sent a message saying the order had been carried out and asked for clarification. The reply merely said return to base and job well done.
Kelly ordered the helm to make course for Antares Base at FTL power 5. He was anxious to find out why he let a K’Rang espionage ship escape across the frontier with the secret to the Republic’s strategic advantage. His order didn’t make sense, but he checked the raw message file and it was sent from the Admiral. His release code was on the original message, confirmation, and subsequent order.
Kelly secured from general quarters, turned the conn over to Chief B, and did a quick walk-thru inspection of his ship, occasionally mumbling to himself about strange orders and admirals.
H’Topa was overjoyed. The enemy scout was disabled, possibly with their top engine damaged, and they were able to slip away. Nothing stood between them and the frontier. H’Topa ordered M’Toth to increase speed to maximum and was told they were already at maximum. He fidgeted and paced across the bridge until M’Toth kicked him out, telling him to wait in his cabin if he was nervous. He was disturbing the bridge watch. M’Toth would let him know when they were safe.