Scout Force (13 page)

      
They walked over to the bar, Tammy never letting loose of his arm.
 
Several landing ship officers looked at him with a mix of envy and anger.
 
He wondered how long it would be healthy for him to be here.
 
Tammy asked him what he wanted with a mischievous look in her eyes.
 
He disappointed her by saying, “Just a beer.”

      
She got them each a beer and they retired to a table away from some of the more boisterous landing ship officers.
 
The gators, as they called themselves, were engaging in some bar games that had the potential to cause major mayhem.
 
One, called Assault Landing, involved two officers each carrying as many other officers as they could the distance of the bar.
 
Two of the bigger male lieutenants were carrying five officers each and waddling to the end of the bar.
 
This was accompanied by yells of encouragement, or derision for the opponents.

      
The junior officers’ bar was designed to survive such festivities.
 
The bar itself was heavy plasteel.
 
All the alcohol was stored in cabinets under the bar.
 
The fixtures around the room were heavy and washable.
 
The tables were fixed to the floor and the chairs were heavy and hard to lift.
 
Even the gators couldn’t harm this place, designed so officers back from long patrols would have a place to cut loose far away from senior officers’ eyes.

      
The two large gators that had just done the heavy lifting exhibition saw Kelly and Tammy sitting by themselves and came over.

      
“Well, look at this.
 
This fellow is hogging the prettiest woman in here.”

      
Kelly looked up at the two of them and asked, “What can I do for you fellows?”
 
It looked like it was about to get ugly.
 
Kelly figured he might get lucky and take out one of this pair, but not both.

      
Other gators came over to watch the show.
 
One of them, a Lieutenant JG, seeing the fighter wings on Kelly’s windbreaker shouted out, “Hey Mahoney, Drew, leave this guy alone.
 
I remember him from the Bolivar.
 
He’s like me.
 
He pissed off Old Bugger Off and wound up here.”

      
The bigger of the two, Drew, asked, “Is what he said true?”

      
“Yeah, it’s true.”

      
Drew slapped him on the back, nearly knocking him out of his chair, and said, “Well, let me buy you a beer.
 
Anybody that Old Bugger Off hates is a friend of mine.”
 
A round of further back-slapping ensued.

      
As the crowd fell away, Tammy asked, “What was that all about?”

      
Kelly took a sip of his beer and said, “General Bugarov is a senior officer in Fighter Force.
 
She has a penchant for discarding officers.
 
It seems I’m in a rather large and storied group of officers.”

      
“So tell me.
 
What did you do to get a general pissed off at you?”

      
“It’s a short story.
 
The general thought she was Napoleon re-born, and I was impolitic to show that she wasn’t.”

      
“Short story, huh?
 
I bet that’s quite a short story.”

      
“Yeah, but that’s all I’m saying.
 
I’m tired of telling the story.”

      
“So tell me something else about yourself.
 
I’m all ears.”
 
She reached up and pulled her blonde hair behind her ears.

      
“Not much to tell, I grew up on Earth in North America near the Great Lakes, I went to a good school, followed in my parents’ footsteps, and got an Electronic Engineering degree.
 
EE bored me, so I applied for the Academy, went into the Fighter Force, and now I’m here.”

      
“I get the feeling there is more to tell than just that.
 
I saw your ribbons when you got on my shuttle.
 
You did an awful lot in just a short time in Fighter Force.
 
I’ve seen senior officers without your ribbons.”

      
“I know.
 
That’s one of the things that so endeared me to the general.”

      
Tammy laughed an honest laugh.
 
Kelly enjoyed that about her.
 
She was easy to be around.

      
A shadow fell over the table.
 
Kelly looked up and saw LT Casimirski standing in the light.

      
He swayed a little bit as he stood and said, “Tammy, who’s your friend?
 
Oh, I know you.
 
You’re the ensign that’s hard of hearing.”

      
Tammy said, “Stop it Cas.
 
Kelly is my friend.”

      
“It’s all right Tammy, the ensign and I have met.”

      
“Yes, we’ve met.
 
What can I do for you, Lieutenant?

      
“You can leave.”

      
“Why would I want to do that, Lieutenant?”

      
“Because you are messing around with something I have a prior claim on.”

      
Tammy flew out of her chair.
 
“A prior claim!
 
What are you talking about, Cas?
 
I have never given you the slightest bit of encouragement.
 
If you keep this up, I am going to the Detachment Commander and reporting you for harassment.”

      
Cas recoiled from her anger, backed up, and found LT Drew standing there in his path.
 
Drew grabbed Cas by both arms and said, “Mister, you are upsetting this lady and insulting a friend of mine.
 
I think you’ve had a bit too much to drink.
 
We’re going to help you to a shuttle and send you to your quarters.”

      
“You can’t do this to me.
 
I’ve got just as much right to be here as you.”

      
Ten gator lieutenants came and stood around LT Casimirski.

      
LT Drew said, “We’re not as impressed by your rank as these ensigns might be.
 
Now, you don’t want to argue with all of us.
 
You probably don’t even want to argue with me.”

      
Drew picked up LT Casimirski by the arms and frog marched him out of the club.
 
The party resumed.
 
Kelly and Tammy sat back down and finished their beers.

      
“So, Kelly, what have you planned for tomorrow?
 
You do get tomorrow off, don’t you?”

      
“I don’t have any plans.
 
Are you going to suggest something?”

      
“There is a pretty good sized lake to the west of here.
 
I was going to rent a skimmer and go out to one of the islands and bake in the sun, splash around, have a picnic.
 
Are you interested?

      
“Sure, that sounds like fun.
 
Who else will be going along?”

      
“Just us.” She said with a beguiling smile on her face.

      
“With such pleasant company, how can I refuse?”

      
“We’ll leave from the Q at 0800.
 
Just bring yourself and some sunscreen.
 
If they didn’t explain the orbital dynamics of Armstrong, I should fill you in.
 
Armstrong doesn’t wobble on its axis like Earth.
 
There are no changing seasons here.
 
The angle of the planet to the sun is constant.
 
Here in the northern hemisphere it is always Summer.
 
There is no northern polar icecap.
 
In the south it’s always springlike.
 
The sun can burn you pretty quickly here if you don’t use a strong screen.
 
It's especially bad for folks coming off a long patrol.
 
They go from pasty white to cherry red in a fraction of an afternoon.”

      
She tipped her bottle back and said, “I think it’s your turn to buy the beer.”

      
Kelly ordered another round, they spent the rest of the night talking and drinking.
 
Periodically, one of the gators would buy a round for the house.
 
As things wound down in the bar, she suggested they should go back to the Q and turn in.
 
0800 would come awfully early.

      
They shared a shuttle back to the Q.
 
Tammy lay back in Kelly’s arms.
 
She looked up at him, gave him a slow lingering kiss, and promptly passed out.

      
Kelly picked her up once the shuttle arrived at the Q and carried her to her quarters.
 
He loosened her clothes, took off her shoes, put her under the covers, and retired to his own quarters.

* * * * *

Charles Delphant, Chairman and CEO of the Indigo Consortium was alone, working late in his office on the top floor of the Consortium’s main administrative building on Secundus, in the Fomalhaut System.
 
The office’s furnishings reflected the wealth and prestige of its owner.
 
Real oak panels covered the walls.
 
Plush wool carpet covered the floor.
 
The desk was solid walnut, imported to Secundus directly from Earth at no small expense.
 
Earth wood and wool were an almost unheard of luxury in the outer worlds.
 
He had let his secretary go an hour earlier, telling her he had only some minor matters to resolve before calling it a day.
 
He finished those matters, then touched a hidden button under his desk.

      
That button activated a number of special security measures.
 
The door double locked.
 
The windows went opaque.
 
Infrasonic wave generators activated in the walls, doors, and on the windows, foiling any possible listening devices.
 
He logged his terminal off the company network and reconnected to a special network not associated in any way with the Consortium.

      
He checked messages on a special public account.
 
Ten messages hit his queue.
 
All were innocuous.
 
Two were advertisements.
 
Three dealt with trading cooking recipes.
 
The remainders were short humorous video files.
 
Anyone intercepting them would have been bored mightily.

      
Delphant attached a small storage device to his terminal and loaded the messages onto it.
 
Shortly, a green light activated on the side of the device.
 
He opened the storage device’s volume and clicked on a small program icon.
 
A small holographic image of the solicitous K’Rang merchant, T’Polla, appeared on his desktop.

      
“Mr. Delphant, we are very pleased with the business and financial information you have provided thus far.
 
Your monetary system is, pardon the expression, alien to us.
 
We hope the small tokens of our esteem have pleased you.
 
These are but one type of merchandise that we will be able to make available once we have established trade relations with the Galactic Republic.
 
Of course, when that happy day occurs, your company will be our agent for distribution of K’Rang goods throughout human space.”

      
“We in the merchant class have been working closely with the political class here on the K’Rang home world to gain dominance over the warrior class and improve relations with the Galactic Republic.
 
We have made great strides, thus far.
 
This constant warfare is useless and accomplishes nothing but keeping our boastful and ineffective military in fancy uniforms.
 
Their xenophobic reaction to all other civilizations is most taxing and must be stopped.
 
We long for peace and the eventual benefit and profit that can accrue to both our civilizations.”

      
“A four K’Andor shipment of the B’Rella, excuse me, flame stones will be transferred over at our next rendezvous.
 
I have included a list of the information on frontier planetary systems that will be needed for us to plan our trade routes and distribution centers.
 
In addition, I don’t know if you will be interested in trading in K’Rang surplus military equipment once peace arrives and our trade relations are cemented, but if you could provide information on these systems’ military capabilities, it would help us to know what armaments might interest them.
 
Even if we won’t be at war anymore, there are always brigands and pirates to deal with.”