Kelly was impressed with this artificial moon, and couldn’t imagine how the pirates could have constructed such a massive facility. It was huge, about one-fifth the size of Earth’s moon. He suspected it might have been left behind by some earlier and more advanced civilization. Nonetheless, it was an impressive facility.
The Vigilant cautiously moved into closer orbit around the planet. Just because they hadn’t detected any early warning or fire control sensors didn’t mean there weren’t any. Chief Johnson had the sensors recording at their fastest speed, mapping every house, warehouse, business, and government facility. They mapped the road system, mines, quarries, wells, and lumber mills. They searched for any defense facilities on the planet, but found only one headquarters facility near the spaceport and three ground unit barracks near the edge of the main city.
All this information would be needed by the 3rd ALG, when they conducted their assault on the planet. Kelly considered landing on the planet to conduct a more thorough reconnaissance (he had some time available), but settled for launching ground sensors onto the high ground north of the city. He launched one sensor to attach itself to the moon near the entrance hatch. They would provide information on the spaceport, military units’ barracks, and the comings and goings from the moon.
Having accomplished all he could reasonably do, he withdrew from the planet and conducted a high speed run out through a higher gravity tunnel in an area of brown dwarves with gravity no higher than 3G. The pirates’ cordon and search accomplished nothing and they eventually gave up.
The K’Rang sector outside the entrance into the star cluster had always been a backwater, never rating any units higher than a flotilla. Its current senior officer was the captain of the missile corvette J’New. Admiralty looked at the number of ships coming into the sector and decided they needed to assign a senior flag officer to command them. Fleet Commander J’Kalt was temporarily reassigned to command the task force being assembled.
He chose the Shadow Force Heavy Cruiser H’Kom as his flagship, even though he was not a member of Shadow Force. It was a Task Force commander’s prerogative. Shadow Force ships had extensive command suites, communications, and sensor packages. It would provide him the best picture of the battle and excellent command and control facilities. In addition, the increased armor of a heavy cruiser would give him the greatest survivability.
He analyzed the ships coming from the surrounding sectors and organized them into what would be his eyes and ears. He organized his forces into three task forces: The two scout ships would lead the way by a couple of days, finding the best path through the star cluster and identifying threats; his flagship, the three light cruisers, the six destroyers and the six missile frigates would follow the path cleared by the scout ships and destroy any forces along the avenue of approach; the two Shadow Force destroyers and the four gun frigates would follow and bombard any fixed or planetary bases along the path; the support ships would follow the ships they were loaded to support. The missile corvette J’New would maintain position at the entrance to the star cluster, to provide communications relay to the main worlds.
His was a simple plan: sweep the enemy from his path, destroy any enemy bases, reload, and prepare to hold at the enemy entrance to the star cluster. If he came across little resistance, he might advance further and see what he could accomplish. After all, the Human side of the star cluster may be a backwater for them too. He dreamed of avenging the defeat at G’Dranu.
Steven Maynard, uneasy with what had been reported to him from the sweep, ordered his operations section to have the torpedo squadrons maintain a 24 hour patrol of the star cluster approaches. If he couldn’t find this mystery ship, he could at least make it more difficult for it to sneak back in.
He called a meeting of his torpedo ship squadron commanders. It was time to reinforce the need for clear and concise reporting upon contact. He also thought about that shipment of space mines the Excelsior had captured. He ordered his operations staff to start having them placed in an all around defense surrounding Barataria. He wanted the path mined in both directions, in case the mystery ship came around behind them.
A torpedo ship could carry and deploy mines as easily as torpedoes. He ordered all the Charybdis models loaded with mines for the first three patrols. That should build them a good defensive shield quickly, and then they would fill in the gaps with later patrols.
Maynard felt better, now that he had a plan in effect.
Thorson spent Fourth Day with Julia Debran. There was little he could do until his ship was completed and launched. As usual, she dragged him into her bed and worked hard to wear him out. Afterwards, he pulled her over on top of him and told her that he wanted her for more than just sex. He didn’t say it, because it was foreign to him, but he undoubtedly loved her.
He told her that if she wanted, he would take her and her daughters with him when he had his ship. He could see to it that she never had to see her husband again.
She appreciated the thought, but knew that Steven Maynard would never let her go and lose out on the chance of 100 million credits. She kissed Thorson and told him he was crazy. She rubbed against him until this insane thought left his mind and other feelings took over.
When Thorson fell deeply asleep, Julia slid out of bed, walked across the room, and looked down at her two daughters sunning by the pool. She wished it was possible for them to leave with Thorson and free herself and her daughters, but Maynard and her husband would never let this happen. She walked back to her bed and looked down at the exhausted Thorson. She wouldn’t admit it to him, barely to herself, but she loved him, too.
Kelly called a meeting with his command group, Alistair Bennett, and Chief Johnson, while the Vigilant travelled to a rendezvous with the 3rd ALG. The goal of this meeting was to see if they could find a gravity tunnel, other than the sensor-seeded path they went down today, that would be large enough to bring the 3rd ALG secretly on top of the pirate base. Not all the ships of the 3rd ALG were built with the structural strength and integrity of the Vigilant. They would have to find a wide gravity tunnel of 2-G or less to bring the group through.
After two hours of twisting and turning the holographic representation this way and that, they had found no path large enough or with low enough gravity to bring them through. They would have to go through on the main path they traversed today.
Next he put his brain trust to finding a way to eliminate or blind the early warning sensors along the path. Chief Blankenship suggested seeing if they could infect the system with a virus. Kelly reminded her that they turned in the wartime virus kit after the New Alexandria campaign was completed. She suggested she might be able to make one. Kelly asked her what she might need to start constructing just such a virus. She leaned over to confer with Chief Johnson and said, “We might have all I need on the sensor data files from today.”
“How long do you think you’ll need, Chief?”
“Oh, about a day, I believe.”
Kelly excused her and Chief Johnson to get started. He told her to keep him informed of status.
At that, he released LTJG Cortez to turn in and get some rest. Kelly asked Alistair to stay behind.
“Alistair, did you notice that the EW sensors were all they had? They had no other early warning sensors, surveillance sensors, or fire control sensors on the planet, either. With the exception of those torpedo ships and a few cutters, they were virtually defenseless.”
Alistair responded, “Captain, they may have figured that the star cluster would provide them with all the protection they would ever need. Another hypothesis is that we came for them before they were ready. Did you notice the barracks on the north of the town?”