“Hello, 1LT Chen, welcome to the Vigilant.”
1LT Chen’s eyes went wide followed by a big smile. “Great, you have your own AI. How are you, Wanda?”
“I am fine, Lieutenant. I have already set up a partition for your files. Do you have any information you would like me to retrieve for you? You’d best do it now. We don’t have connectivity once we leave port, like the bigger Fleet ships do.”
“No, thank you, Wanda, not at this time. I have a data pod in my bag. I’ll upload it once I unpack.”
Kelly looked at 1LT Chen, “I have things to do before we depart. I’ll leave you to unpack and get settled. The head is in there. If you need a shower, I’ll be busy for the next hour. I’ll want to answer some messages before we leave, so I’ll be back in an hour to do that. Until then, the cabin’s all yours. No one will disturb you.”
“I’ll go check how my platoon is settling in first.”
Kelly left to get coffee in the galley before walking around for his pre-departure checks. He started in the bridge and worked his way astern. The bridge crew was going over navigation data with Chief Watson and conducting diagnostics on the main systems. The captain was in his cabin. Some of the senior NCOs from the assault platoon were getting settled in with the chiefs. The galley was working up the evening meal. They would eat before departure. Half the crew and half the platoon would eat in the first sitting, the other two halves in the second.
Kelly checked the two storage bays. The port storage bay had a large cell constructed of metal bars and a small cell. The large cell could hold up to ten, the smaller was enclosed and soundproofed, just large enough for a good-sized man or a medium-sized K’Rang. They would do.
The Starboard bay was packed with 23 marines and two corpsmen. Petty Officer Kumar was in the middle of them, swapping war stories. 1LT Chen was inspecting to make sure her people had gotten settled in. Kelly motioned Kumar to come on out to let them get sorted out. There would be time enough for acquaintances later. 1LT Chen looked up, saw Kelly motion Kumar out, and gave Kelly a look like “corpsmen will be corpsmen.”
Kelly continued his inspection. Sensors were squared away as usual. He checked to see that the new EMP control panel was installed properly and functioning. Chief B was there to inform him that she had checked it out personally and it was operating nominally. It couldn’t be tested in space dock, but all indicators were green. They’d never know it would work until they fired it for real. Kelly tried to imagine how they would accomplish this mission if it was a dud.
The departure was routine and uneventful. The Marines settled in quickly and got into the rhythm of a ship on patrol. They had all spent time on Fleet ships and they knew enough to stay out from under foot. The captain gave them the port storage bay, not devoted to cells, as workout space.
Kelly stopped in during one of his walks around on watch. LT Chen was engaging in what looked like Tai Chi on steroids. Many of her movements were a blur followed by absolute stillness. It was beautiful to watch. She was wearing a thin black tank top and some very short, form-fitting black shorts. It was definitely not regulation. Her outfit left little to the imagination. He could only imagine its effect on her platoon, both the male and female members. Mary Chen was quite a woman. She was definitely testing his professionalism.
“How’s it going, LT Chen?”
She stopped her routine and picked up a towel to wipe her face.
“My people are ready, sir, almost too ready. How long do you think it will be before we meet up with the courier’s ship?”
Kelly walked over to the cell and tested the bars. It gave him something to look at other than Mary Chen.
“We will be near Secundus in another two days. Then it’s up to the Manchu Warrior and the K’Rang courier. If he shows up in the area we’ll know it.”
“Good. I hate waiting.”
Two days later, they entered the Fomalhaut system. They parked the Vigilant in the system’s asteroid belt and monitored for the Manchu Warrior’s movement out of Secundus. They waited two days, watching traffic into and out of the system. They checked the registry and background of every ship moving in the system. No ship appeared in any way to be other than what they were supposed to be. None were engaging in any unusual behavior. If there was K’Rang surveillance in anticipation of the Manchu Warrior’s departure, it was very low key.
The next day, during the second day watch, the Manchu Warrior left Secundus. A large slow ore carrier was no match for the Vigilant. The Vigilant stayed among the asteroids for an hour after it left, scanning. When they found nothing out of the ordinary, the captain put the Vigilant on a parallel course to place them ahead and 300,000 km to starboard of the Manchu Warrior’s path. It wasn’t hard to follow someone when you were faster and knew where they were going. The captain’s plan was to stay well within the Vigilant’s sensor range of the Manchu Warrior, but outside of any one else’s.
They shadowed the Manchu Warrior, uneventfully, for three days, until it made its first port call at Donaldson in the Altair system. It transferred a load of magnesium to the Crabtree Smelter. It picked up a load of silver ore and moved on to the next stop, Tarsus, in the 6822 system. This time, the Vigilant moved out ahead of the Manchu Warrior and maintained a 300,000 km spacing below it all the way into the 6822 system.
The Manchu Warrior dropped its load of silver ore at the smelter on the Indigo Consortium’s asteroid in the system’s asteroid belt. It picked up a load of processed silver and moved on.
This time the Vigilant followed 300,000 km behind the Manchu Warrior. Once again, nothing out of the ordinary happened. The ship stopped in at York Station above the ice planet York. It dropped off a pod of water to replenish the station’s supply, stayed for two days shore leave, then left without taking on any cargo.
The next port of call was Refugio in the 6633 star cluster in the Serpens Cauda Constellation. It had large platinum deposits and a smelter, so the cargo was predictable. It was also the Manchu Warrior’s closest approach to the frontier. The Vigilant took a position 300,000 km ahead of the path of its quarry and preceded it into the Refugio system.
The star charts of the constellation and cluster showed the area between Refugio and the frontier to be barren space. If this was where the meet was to take place, there would be no convenient asteroids to hide behind. The Vigilant would have to hide in the star cluster and find something there to use as a vantage point. Kelly put Wanda to work searching the charts.
The captain called Kelly, Chief Watson, and LT Chen into his ready room.
“Okay, I think it’s almost show time. LT Chen, if you have any last minute preparations, you should take care of that in the next two days. Chief, get the crew ready for combat. We may not have as easy a time as last time. Kelly, check out the EMP device. If we get jumped out there I want to be able to employ it if necessary. Get with Chief B. Make sure her people are on their toes. We don’t want any surprises. If anyone can find us something to hide near, behind, or under, between this planet and the frontier, I would be most grateful.”
“I’ve got Wanda working on it, sir. Nothing shows up in the star charts. Maybe we’ll get lucky with some transient cosmic body moving through the area. I don’t know if this system has a Kuiper Belt like Earth’s solar system.”
“Yes, that would be helpful. A bunch of Pluto-sized ice planets or comets would be useful. That’s all.”
Chief Watson stayed behind. Kelly and LT Chen left. Kelly returned to the bridge, saw Chief Billings sitting in the starboard bridge command seat. He looked at his watch, realized he had been off watch for two hours and was very tired. He went back to see if Chief B was up. She was.
“Chief B, start running a diagnostic on the EMP device every watch. I’m going to get some sleep. When I wake up again, I’m going to check all the wiring from the device to the control box and everywhere else it is connected. The captain wants to be damn sure it will work when we need it. We may need to fire it more than once if we get into a scrap.”