“Yeah, she was a real piece of work.”
The yard crew came on board the Vigilant and ran a series of diagnostics on the engines, sensors, shields, and weapons. They pronounced her in fine shape. The only damage they found was some minor stealth coating damage to the nose. They scheduled the Vigilant for two days hence to be put into drydock 7 for the paintwork. Kelly’s debriefing took place while the yard crew was doing its diagnostics.
Kelly’s debrief went quickly due to his detailed logs and reports. They had only minor questions about Captain Alden and his fleet’s consist. A few questions about Steven Maynard were short circuited when Kelly pointed out the detailed biographical report in the file that they had missed. In less than two hours, he had answered all their questions and was released to go.
CDR Johnson called Kelly into his office after the debriefers were finished.
“Come in, Kelly. Sit down. I have something I’d like to discuss with you.”
Kelly was offered coffee, which he accepted, and he sat down.
“I’d like to talk to you about your next assignment after you give up command. The normal career progression for a Scout Force officer is an assignment with Fleet Intelligence between ships. You’ve really impressed us. We’d like you to start thinking about what you’d like to do next. With your record, you can pick your next assignment. We think we can offer you a more rewarding job than shuffling paper in some headquarters. You have a long time to make up your mind, but think about what you want to do next and include us in your deliberations.”
Kelly, sensing the office call was over, put his coffee down and stood up to leave. CDR Johnson personally escorted him out of the building, making small talk on the way out. All the way back to the Vigilant, he thought to himself that that was the worst sales pitch he’d ever heard.
When Kelly returned to the Vigilant, there were two messages from Candy in his queue. The first was a voice message, “Hey, Kelly, Dad tells me you’re back in town for a while. Do you have time to come over to my place? You know you can stay as long as you like. Tammy has a few days off and she is staying with me. We’d love to have you over even, if it’s just for dinner. Say you will. It’ll be fun.”
The second was a video message obviously from her house. Candy and Tammy were lounging in Candy’s living room, wearing their lounging pajamas — at least the tops.
“Hey, give us a call back. I have a case of the latest vintage of the vidal blanc you like so much. It’s even better than the last year’s vintage, if that’s possible. We’ll cook some steaks and throw in some vegetables and have a feast. Come on.”
Candy and Tammy stood up and twirled all the way around before sitting back down and closing the video. They were testing his resolve. That’s for sure.
Kelly checked his schedule. He actually could squeeze in a week when the Vigilant went into the yard. It would take a few days to paint her and a day or two to dry. He could manage a week then. He filled out a leave form and emailed it to CDR Timmons. He reviewed other messages, and marveled as his approved leave came back almost instantaneously.
Kelly looked through his calendar entries and saw no conflicts. He sent Candy a message, saying he could come over in a day for a week, and to chill down lots of the vidal blanc. He hit send and almost immediately a videoconference request came back. He saw it was from Candy and accepted.
Candy and Tammy must have just come from the pool, because they were wearing only towels — and those loosely. Kelly looked over his shoulder to make sure he was alone in his cabin. He was.
“Hey there. We just saw your message and had to see you. How are you?”
“I’m fine. I’m also glad I didn’t have a conference table full of crewmembers.”
Candy and Tammy laughed, cast aside their towels, and Candy said, “Why do you think we were wearing the towels?” The two dissolved into giggles and Kelly assumed they were well into a bottle or two of the vidal blanc, even though it was still a while before lunch.
“Vigilant is going into the yard for a paint job. I can come over late tomorrow, if that’s okay.”
Candy and Tammy said in unison, “Of course it’s okay.” Candy continued, “What time should we pick you up?”
“How about dinner at the club at 1800?”
“How about we pick you up at the club at 1800 and have dinner here at 1830?”
Kelly laughed and said, “Okay, I’ll meet you at the club at 1800. I have to go do captain stuff now. Later.”
He clicked terminate to end the video call and tried to get back to work. It was after lunch before he could fully concentrate again.
Admiral Minacci sipped a soft drink while the Chief of Fleet Operations, Admiral Christos Pouledoris, handled a call from Senator Colleen Santori that interrupted his office call. He couldn’t tell the topic, but by the Admiral’s body language and responses, it must have been good news. He put his drink down onto the coaster on the walnut end table as the call ended.
“Well, that was good news. Senator Santori just informed me the Defense and Commerce Enhancement Bill passed with only one nay vote from that cowardly bastard Livingstone from Shepard and one abstention from that wishy washy Steele from Gagarin. Why does he even show up? He votes present or abstains more than anything else.”
“While you were away, the Republic’s Assembly debated tripling production of transporter rings. It seems the freshman senator from New Alexandria, David Colton, is a whiz at bringing together a consensus. A massive transporter ring production station will be orbited over Carpenter. In a year, when the station is complete, they‘ll be able to produce one every two months after six months of initial production. The rings will be built in three separate pieces, so they can be laid side by side and sent through the existing rings to be opened on site. In another eight months they will have four rings to do a basic outfit of the second tier worlds. In five years most major systems will have a ring and all parts of the republic will be reachable in two days. Pretty soon, FTL power 6 will seem so slow.”
Paulo said, “That’s great news, sir. My nerves really could have used some reinforcements on this campaign. If that private fleet hadn’t shown up, I might have lost it all. Even with them ready to spring the trap behind me, it was very disquieting to see that reduced, but still quite lethal K’Rang fleet in open space before me. A cruiser squadron would have been handy.”
“Paulo, don’t sell yourself short. Of course we all want to have overwhelming force in any engagement, but you did a damn fine job with what you had. You destroyed a fleet more than twice your size, with only the loss of an assault landing carrier, a frigate, and a few light ships. I’m putting you in for the Distinguished Service Star.”
Minacci whistled inside his head. The DSS was the second highest award for combat action in the GR.
The Admiral continued, “If you have any officers or ships that deserve special recognition, let me know and I’ll expedite the processing and Senate confirmation.”
“Sir, I’m recommending CDR Mike Milton for the Galactic Medal of Honor. He was my best assault landing carrier captain and he came up with the tactic of using the emptied carriers against the K’Rang. It was a heavy blow to lose him and the Yellow Jacket, but his attacks took out a large number of enemy ships, especially their support ships. He took out three of their supply ships and three frigates in his first attack. His second attack destroyed a light cruiser and damaged a second before they got him. He took away a large part of their defensive missiles with the support ships and their long-range offensive capability with the light cruisers. The final fight with the K’Rang would have been a lot more in their favor without Mike’s attacks.”