All Enemies Foreign and Domestic (Kelly Blake series) by Rodney Smith
Authors: Rodney Smith
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office.
As he sat talking over the project with Klaus, Alistair stuck his head in and said, “Hi, it’s about time you got here. When you get a moment, come see me.”
Kelly introduced Klaus to Alistair, and said the new embassy would arrive in a few days for Klaus’ people to assemble.
Alistair beamed and said, “Great, anything I can do to help you do your job better, faster, cheaper, you just let me know. I’m a little cramped in this place and looking forward to my facility in the new building.”
Kelly asked what Alistair was doing up so early.
“Oh, like you, I came through out of time cycle and can’t sleep when my body thinks it is 1000 hours. So I’m in here making my night shift’s lives hell by asking weird questions. Do you mind if I join you for breakfast?”
“Of course you are welcome to join us. Candy is making herself prettier. She’ll be here in a moment and we can all go down together.”
* * * * *
The next day, two other sentient queens that had spent the night with her in the colony pod learning what was required, joined the first sentient queen in the furry bipeds’ ship. The three used the claws on their forelegs to manipulate tools found onboard to undo mountings, disconnect cables, and, with the help of several workers, remove the ship’s navigation system. The workers carried the equipment to the pre-arranged pick up point, where a ship from the Civilization would arrive to take it back for extensive study. As the three queens left, they gave instructions on clearing out the alien bodies and sending them to the three nearest burrows for food. The three queens touched antennae together and shared a ghoulish joke at the K’Rang crew’s expense, essentially conveying the message, “Meat is meat.”
After the corpses had been cleared out, the insectoids evacuated the ship, having no further need of it until specialists arrived from the Civilization. She assigned a group of soldiers to maintain around the clock guard of the exterior.
The queen considered sending some soldiers down the furry bipeds’ trail while the scent was still lingering, but she had other things of higher importance to do, and what harm could three of the furry bipeds do?
* * * * *
Captain Jim made the rounds of his ship. He wasn’t technically a captain, nor was this his ship. His job was caretaker of the Galactic Republic Reserve Ship Behemoth, lead ship in its class of six ships designed and built too late for employment in the Capricorn War, but capable of transporting an entire heavy division in one movement, deliver them from space to the battlefield, support them with bombardment and precision fires and logistics, plus hold off any space counterattack with her and her escorts’ organic weapons. They were the largest class of ships ever built by man, more than half again as large as a fleet carrier. Too slow initially to traverse distances in a timely manner, they were up-engined after twenty years and now could keep up with the maximum speed of their light cruiser and frigate escorts. With the addition of the transport gates, they could be anywhere in GR space within a week.
A fully equipped Behemoth could land the equipment of a heavy division, 200-300 hover tanks, 100 to 200 armed, armored hover transports, 50 hover guns, 30 hover recon, its 15,000 soldiers, an aviation brigade of 90 light attack/reconnaissance ships, 60 light transport ships, 30 medium transport ships, and 30 heavy transport ships in under a day with its heavy lighters. In addition, she carried supplies for six months of heavy combat and, employing all cargo lighters, could deliver it to the surface in less than a week.
Behemoth and her sister ships – Gargantuan, Giant, Leviathan, Gigantic, and Colossus – and escorts
As he sat talking over the project with Klaus, Alistair stuck his head in and said, “Hi, it’s about time you got here. When you get a moment, come see me.”
Kelly introduced Klaus to Alistair, and said the new embassy would arrive in a few days for Klaus’ people to assemble.
Alistair beamed and said, “Great, anything I can do to help you do your job better, faster, cheaper, you just let me know. I’m a little cramped in this place and looking forward to my facility in the new building.”
Kelly asked what Alistair was doing up so early.
“Oh, like you, I came through out of time cycle and can’t sleep when my body thinks it is 1000 hours. So I’m in here making my night shift’s lives hell by asking weird questions. Do you mind if I join you for breakfast?”
“Of course you are welcome to join us. Candy is making herself prettier. She’ll be here in a moment and we can all go down together.”
* * * * *
The next day, two other sentient queens that had spent the night with her in the colony pod learning what was required, joined the first sentient queen in the furry bipeds’ ship. The three used the claws on their forelegs to manipulate tools found onboard to undo mountings, disconnect cables, and, with the help of several workers, remove the ship’s navigation system. The workers carried the equipment to the pre-arranged pick up point, where a ship from the Civilization would arrive to take it back for extensive study. As the three queens left, they gave instructions on clearing out the alien bodies and sending them to the three nearest burrows for food. The three queens touched antennae together and shared a ghoulish joke at the K’Rang crew’s expense, essentially conveying the message, “Meat is meat.”
After the corpses had been cleared out, the insectoids evacuated the ship, having no further need of it until specialists arrived from the Civilization. She assigned a group of soldiers to maintain around the clock guard of the exterior.
The queen considered sending some soldiers down the furry bipeds’ trail while the scent was still lingering, but she had other things of higher importance to do, and what harm could three of the furry bipeds do?
* * * * *
Captain Jim made the rounds of his ship. He wasn’t technically a captain, nor was this his ship. His job was caretaker of the Galactic Republic Reserve Ship Behemoth, lead ship in its class of six ships designed and built too late for employment in the Capricorn War, but capable of transporting an entire heavy division in one movement, deliver them from space to the battlefield, support them with bombardment and precision fires and logistics, plus hold off any space counterattack with her and her escorts’ organic weapons. They were the largest class of ships ever built by man, more than half again as large as a fleet carrier. Too slow initially to traverse distances in a timely manner, they were up-engined after twenty years and now could keep up with the maximum speed of their light cruiser and frigate escorts. With the addition of the transport gates, they could be anywhere in GR space within a week.
A fully equipped Behemoth could land the equipment of a heavy division, 200-300 hover tanks, 100 to 200 armed, armored hover transports, 50 hover guns, 30 hover recon, its 15,000 soldiers, an aviation brigade of 90 light attack/reconnaissance ships, 60 light transport ships, 30 medium transport ships, and 30 heavy transport ships in under a day with its heavy lighters. In addition, she carried supplies for six months of heavy combat and, employing all cargo lighters, could deliver it to the surface in less than a week.
Behemoth and her sister ships – Gargantuan, Giant, Leviathan, Gigantic, and Colossus – and escorts
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