“I’ll do what I can, Paulo. The Senate has been a lot friendlier lately. I don’t know why, but I’ll take advantage of that for you. Is there anyone else?”
“Yes, sir, there is. You know I’ve been pushing to have a scout ship attached to each fleet, task force, and group. I had a young scout ship captain supporting me and he did one hell of a job. I would go so far as to say he was primarily responsible for my victory. His name is Kelly Blake. He’s a recently promoted Lieutenant frocked to Lieutenant Commander by Tom Craddock so he could take over his ship. If Blake is a typical Scout Force officer, I want a dozen. He was smart, capable, intuitive, and deadly.”
“He won’t admit to it, but he forced the pirates’ surrender singlehandedly. He let me take the credit for it, but he lured two K’Rang scout ships into a very visible ambush that convinced the pirates they would rather surrender to us than the K’Rang. He blinded the K’Rang commander in the process. The K’Rang commander had to advance against me with no knowledge of the battlespace or my force. I’m putting a personal letter in Blake’s file to see to it he becomes a real LCDR as soon as possible. I’d like to recommend him for a DSS as well, sir.”
Admiral Pouledoris took a sip of his coffee, thought a moment, and replied, “What other decorations does he have?”
He glanced at his pocket terminal and said, “He has a Space Medal, a Silver Galaxy, a Joint Meritorious Service Medal, a New Alexandrian Order of Valor, and a Golden Shield of New Alexandria.”
The Admiral whistled. “That’s a lot of hardware for only a frocked lieutenant commander.”
“I told you he was good, sir.”
“Put in your recommendations, Paulo. I’ll support them.”
LCDR Kelly Blake moved the Vigilant to the paint dock and gave authority to Chief Blankenship to start releasing half the crew on up to two weeks leave. The other half would start getting their leave after the ship was released from the yard. He put Connie in charge while he was gone. That evening, he met Candy and Tammy outside the O Club. They were both wearing thin shirtdresses that were buttoned low and hiked up well beyond the limits of propriety. They had Kelly sit in front with Candy, while Tammy climbed into the back. They motored out the main gate to a grocery store and left Kelly in the car, while they hopped in for some breakfast items. They came out later loaded down with bags of groceries and tossed them in the trunk.
Candy turned left out of the parking lot and headed toward the outskirts of town. Within two blocks she hit the flight controls and smoothly climbed to 1000 meters. She turned on the autopilot and leaned into Kelly.
“Kiss me, you fool!”
Tammy started laughing. “No, kiss me.”
Kelly kissed Candy because she asked first and then Tammy. They were both good kissers. Candy set her car down softly next to her house with hardly a bump, gathered his things and the groceries and went inside.
Candy showed Kelly up to a guest room and had him put down his stuff. Taking advantage of her being alone with him, she melted into his arms and gave him another smoldering hot kiss. She led him down to the kitchen, where Tammy was busily fixing dinner, wearing a chef’s apron and not much else. She took a break as the pasta was cooking to sit on his lap and give him a kiss.
Tammy got up to tend to the pasta and Alfredo sauce, while Candy poured them all big glasses of the Armstrong equivalent of champagne. She handed one to Kelly and set one next to the stove for Tammy. Tammy came over and all three clinked glasses to toast Kelly’s arrival. Tammy plated up three servings of hot pasta Alfredo and carried them to the table. Candy brought over silverware and they all sat down to eat.
Candy was first to ask, “How did your patrol go?”
Kelly for once had a patrol he could talk about, and did, “Not too bad, rescued three damsels in distress, took out two K’Rang scout ships, and had a world surrender to me. Then for good measure, we helped to defeat a K’Rang invasion fleet. It was a typical day at the office.”
Tammy looked sternly at him, with one breast partially peeking out past the edge of her apron, and said, “Okay, okay, if you can’t tell us, we understand.”
Kelly threw up his hands and gave up.
The next morning a very tired, hung over, but happy Kelly woke up to Candy and Tammy giggling from the doorway to his room.
“Come on sleepy head, the pool’s waiting.”
Kelly said he’d be right with them, as soon as he could find his feet. It made for a very enjoyable week.
Chapter Nineteen
Kelly climbed back aboard the Vigilant, changed into his coveralls, and took a walk around the exterior with Connie, Chief B, and Chief Miller. They inspected to see that the paint crew had done a proper job. Chiefs B and Miller found three spots where the paint crew had painted over particle beam abrasions without filling and sanding first. Kelly had Connie tell them to do those spots over, as the rest rode an antigravity man lift and inspected the sides and upper surfaces of the ship. Chalk circles marked four other places where the same condition existed. Connie supervised, while the crew repaired them to her satisfaction.
Afterwards, Connie came to see him in his cabin about taking two weeks leave. He told her to put in the form and he’d approve it. He asked where she was going. She told him Alistair was arranging a cabin for them in the southern continent near Lake Tranquility. Kelly wished her a good leave and was there anything else.
She asked, “Sir, how do you do it?”
Puzzled he asked, “How do I do what?”
“How can you watch the death of a ship and 700 crew and not show emotion? I was almost in tears. When the Yellow Jacket was killed, you never showed any emotion.”
Kelly paused for a second or two and responded, “Connie, rest assured I experienced emotions when the Yellow Jacket was destroyed. As captain, you can’t let those emotions control you. I have responsibility for the Vigilant and the lives of her 47 crewmembers.”
“In the heat of battle, you can’t mourn your shipmates. That has to wait until later. Why do you think the military has so many memorial services? You have to stay focused on the fight. If you stop to mourn, the battle goes on, and it could kill you. You push it down and let it come back later. They taught me that in fighter school, but it applies equally here. CDR Milton was a good officer and a good man. He left behind a wife, Jenny, and two children, Robbie, eight and Billy, six. I’ve already sent his wife a condolence message and donated credits to her son’s college funds. In combat, keep your mind in the game. Mourn later.”
She looked at him and he could see the wisdom in what he said. She also felt she had gained a greater insight into her boss.
As Connie left, Kelly reviewed the logs and message traffic. These quiet times in homeport were one of his favorite times as captain. Nothing unusual or out of the ordinary was in the logs from overnight. He called up Wanda, his AI.
“Wanda, what message traffic has come in?”
“Wanda’s older sister alto voice came over the speaker. “How are you, Kelly? I hope you had a good visit with your friends. Message traffic since our arrival has been low. Two messages to captains about FTL power 6 problems that the Valiant had. One says to avoid acceleration to power 6 from below power 4. The other says check your engine synchronizers for conditions out of spec greater than 5 %.”
“There are two messages containing Chiefs Austin’s and Pennypacker transfer orders. One item I culled from the traffic stream for you. CPT Shappelle has been chosen for Advanced Fighter Weapons School as a student then as an instructor. She reports into Gagarin in three months.”
Kelly thought what a prize for Angie. He also thought it would put him back to juggling three women. It’s a good thing they all like each other.