Yorktown: Katana Krieger #1 Read online

  "My pleasure, Miley, please call me Katana."

  "Thank you, Katana. Let's start with the obvious question. How does it feel to be the most famous captain in the Navy, and to have rescued the crew of the Packard?"

  "First, I'm part of a team, the crew of Yorktown and the entire Union Navy. Anything we did, we did together. And what we did is our job. It's not heroic, or special. It's what all of us do every single day."

  "Why don't you take us through the battle." I pause for a second to think it out.

  "I was with our Marines investigating the wreckage of CSS Trump on the surface of Gamma Omicron 1 and my First Officer was commanding Yorktown in orbit. Commander Perez spotted Orion coming in, got Yorktown into a position where we could see them and they could not see us, and waited. Once Orion left orbit for another planet, Yorktown picked me up and we maneuvered onto Orion's tail without being seen, planning on stalking her until we could circle around in front and take them out."

  "The plan was working well, until Packard jumped into the system behind us. Orion turned to go after the civilians, and we had to chase them down from behind, giving up our advantage of surprise. We got there just in time, and fortunately, our gunners were better than their gunners."

  She pauses now for a second.

  "You must be very proud of your crew."

  "I am, they're the best in the fleet, and I'm proud of the crew of Congress that was out there with us. But we can't forget that the crews of Bainbridge and Richard didn't make it home. Every time I think about our success, I also remind myself of the cost."

  "You have a history of making last minute saves, don't you. You saved Ayacucho in a battle with pirates, and you saved a Marine company with what I was told was a brilliant maneuver."

  "Both of those were teams efforts, many of the Navy officers who made me look smart those days are still with me on Yorktown today. I was just the one who gave the order to go."

  "The person who took the risk."

  "You could say that. Or the person who trusted their team."

  "This time you did it with a defective ship."

  "Not defective. Crisis doesn't wait for flight testing, unfortunately. We had to go to war before we could test our new engines, and we had some problems. We'll make sure they get fixed, and that the same problems don't happen to our sister ships. I think it proves the soundness of the overall concept that we did what we did with two engines out."

  "So your adventure proves that the frigate fleet was a good investment?"

  "Absolutely, though in the old days we'd have sent a battleship and it's combat group to Gamma Omicron and it would have been a whole lot shorter and less dramatic. It worries me that we have so few ships these days to cover so many systems."

  "We're not at war, we haven't been at war in almost 100 years, we don't need a big Navy, do we?"

  "I think we do. We inhabit 47 systems, and will someday inhabit hundreds. Right now we have 46 heavy Navy ships. It's not enough if we get a bigger pirate problem, or a real war breaks out."

  She thinks for a while, decides to change the subject. Probably was hoping to get me say something I wasn't going to about the Navy, and is giving up.

  "You're from Colorado system. Tell me about growing up there."

  "My parents own a farm on Colorado 2 outside of Boulder, growing coffee, teas, and spices. It's a red dwarf world so the flavors are uniquely strong. I had a great life growing up, playing with my brothers and sisters, learning to make my own flavors of tea, raising dogs. But I have 10 brothers and sisters, and eventually had to find something to do with my life, since the farm wasn't in my future."

  "Ten brothers and sisters?"

  "Yep. My oldest brother Kent runs the farm now, with his wife and the cutest little nieces and nephews you have ever seen. My sister Kenna and her husband live there too, first little nieces or nephews a couple months out. All the rest of us have moved on."

  "Don't tell me you all have ‘K' first names."

  "Kent, Kenna, Kiana, Kristopher, Katana, Kolby, Kadin, Kelly, Kaelyn, Kaycee, and Keanu, in order. Five sets of twins and me, so not as hard on my mom as you might have thought."

  "What made you choose the Navy as a career?"

  "All of my siblings loved the earth. Besides farming, they work as park rangers and mining engineers, those kind of jobs. I always looked to the stars. I wanted adventure."

  "You certainly got your wish. What's next for Katana Krieger?"

  I laugh. "Sort out the engines on Yorktown, and go where the Navy wants me to be."

  "I hear you are something of a naval historian, that the quote you gave at christening is your favorite. Going in harm's way is what you do."

  "It is. The officer who first said that along with a task force of ships smaller than Yorktown took on one of the most powerful battle fleets ever assembled and beat them. They didn't make it home, but they saved thousands of other Marines and sailors. Possibly the most important moment in US naval history."

  "And the future? Governor Krieger? Senator Krieger? President Krieger?"

  "No. Admiral Krieger would be nice some day." Shelby laughs from behind us. "But I really don't think much beyond my captain's couch on Yorktown. I already have the best job in the known universe."

  Ms. Langston waves a hand and the light goes off. "That was perfect, thanks. We made a deal with the Navy to keep it short in exchange for it being exclusive. I assume they told you."

  "No, but that works out great. We'll be off to do engine tests in a couple days anyway."

  She floats toward me and holds out her hand for me to shake. We do the quick zero gee shake so that neither of us ends up upside down. Then she holds out her pad, and mine beeps.

  "That's my number. I'm sure I'll see you again when you get back, but if you think of something that would make a good story, or should be part of our interview, let me know. Thanks again."

  I smile. "That you for making this painless."

  They clear out, Benson's aide having a chat with them as the three head off the ship, and it's just Shelby and me.

  "Admiral Krieger? You want to be Admiral Krieger?"

  "You know, I had to say something, and that's what popped into my head, so maybe I do."

  My pad beeps again, Benson's aide messaging me with a "good job." I send back a thanks.

  I look at Shelby. "There's something I didn't say in the interview, but you need to know."

  She looks at me funny. I talk to her about strangled cats and 0.0001. She just stares at me when I finish. I have to come up with something else to say, since she apparently has nothing.

  "Let's do an inspection, see what the repair crews are up to."

  She rotates 90 degrees, indicating I should lead the way, and we're off. What we find on deck one is Yorktown's stores fully replenished and stickers indicating the station crews have run the diagnostics on the top guns. I make myself a note to check quantities on engine spares. Second deck is all Marine spaces, we take a cursory look, but generally leave them be.

  Third deck has the command cabin, and crew spaces in the front section, and engineering space in the aft. We wander back into engineering, discover an out of uniform Emily Powell and two of her Petty Officers watching the folks in the red Electric Boat uniforms swarming over engine two. They are where I know the defective part was, floating at different angles. When you look at engineering on a diagram, it makes no sense. When you see crew working in the space at zero gee, you realize how smart the engineers behind it all are. Engineering is three decks high (actually, six if you consider the tanks) in one open space with pipes and machinery arranged for both easy floating and convenient access.

  "How are the repairs going, Emily?"

  "All done, Skipper. These people are part of the design team. When we docked, I sent eBoat a file of suggestions attached to the information on the bad parts. Yesterday we got the criminal investigators and then the repair team. Today they are considering whether I might not be right and they shou
ld makes changes on the other ships while they still can."

  "Just remember, Lieutenant," I try to use my light hearted voice, "you have a lot of work left to do for Yorktown before you can run off and make a fortune working for a civilian contractor."

  She is not lighthearted in her response, a heavy scratch across the hairless plane before speaking. "I could never be happy sitting behind a desk, sir."

  "Are we going to make any alterations before we go out?" I'm wondering if there's something new that might break this time, but I don't want to say that exactly that way, especially with Electric Boat within hearing range.

  "No sir, it would take a while to design and test new configurations. Would you like a closer look? They're on two, we can go look at four."

  "Good idea. Lead on."

  We float over and she takes me through the replacement part, and the steps they took to ensure there were no metal shavings or other debris left within the engine.

  I look at her when she finishes. "And if I want to run a nine gee test, you're go?"

  "Skipper, I would be upset if you didn't take her to nine at least once on this trip." She laughs. Shelby laughs. I laugh. The Electric Boat guys behind us applaud.

  Shel and I exit engineering and head to deck four, all missiles, cannons, and two docking ports. There's a red shirted team working on the business end of tube 24, which wouldn't take the missile last time.

  The aft section of five and six are water and fuel tanks, the mid section is the boat deck, both sections two decks high. The front section of five is storage, and the front section of six is instrumentation, including out flight computers. Two red shirts down here as well, not sure why, but we leave them be, though they look familiar for some reason.

  We finish in the boat dock and grab a pair of portable thruster packs from the work crews, small ten pound devices that make it easier to get around the dry dock in the air. Kids who live in space stations use them very effectively to play superhero. Until their mom's catch them at it.

  Takes us two hours to visit all eleven hull penetration sites, and look at the repairs which are as good as I have ever seen. Make a point to go over and visit with the dock crew, and complement them on their work. Then Shel and I exit the dock, and go grab some lunch at one of the little cafes on the station, in the normal grav area. Hamburger, fries, and tea, all sitting there on their respective plates or in their cup, in no danger of floating away. You can even squirt ketchup and it stays where you put it.

  Three times we're interrupted by officers wanting to chat about our tactics, and once by a little girl, looks to be five years old, long black hair, who wants me to sign the back of her pad. Shelby laughs the whole time, but I do it. Turns out her dad put her up to it, she has no idea who I am, but she likes my hair. I tell her to make sure she keeps growing hers.

  "Well, if you're done being famous, can we get back to work?"

  I think for a moment. "Actually, Shel, how about we see if my fame can't get us a reservation at the High Gee Spa on Argo Station? Massages and maybe a swim in the pool?" She hands me my pad.

  "Make it for three, can we invite Tony?"

  It's 10 hours before I'm back aboard Armstrong, rested, muscles totally relaxed, stomach full of the most interesting delicacies I've eaten in a while. Shelby and Tony decided to stay the night, so I came back alone, but at least I have the silk sheets waiting for me. Maybe famous is good. And then it's even better. There's a package from mom sitting outside my door, full of my favorite fresh tea leaves.

  Chapter 9

  My body wakes me at 0600 as usual, but the sheets and my pleasant soreness from the massage and swim combine to make me lay there for a half hour before I move. Finally, I push myself out of bed, turn on UnionOne for some noise, and hit the shower.

  My interview pops up first on the seven a.m. news, while I am working on drying the hair.

  Langston starts by showing her path through the ship to my ready room, giving their viewers a good idea of how tight space is on board, and then cuts to me floating in front of the screens. She points out that I have my own variation on the official Navy uniform, and then runs the whole interview, edited to get rid of our pauses.

  By 0730 I have cleaned my stuff out of the room, and my duffel and I are headed back to Yorktown. I won't be bunking anywhere else for a while, not sure how long. The Navy crew is all aboard by 0800, the Marines not here, but drilling somewhere else. Apparently, Lt. Palmer wants to make sure he's had a chance to practice assaulting the Orion class ships, and the Marine Commandant accommodated him by building them a mockup in world record time. Good idea, since it remains my intention to stand on the command deck of one of those ships soon.

  We spend two days running diagnostics on every system, making sure our inventory is right, and otherwise doing all the boring detail work necessary so we can do the important work. By 1600 on our last day at home, we're ready for departure, except we're short of missiles. Won't take care of that until we exit the dock tomorrow. I send the crew off to get ready for dinner with the Admirals.

  With the Marines still off ship, we borrow their utility space, by far the biggest open area on the ship. We've got the ward room and the mess, but neither is very big or unoccupied. The Marines have a 600 square foot open area that they use for just about everything other than sleeping or their zero gee exercises. It's where we had the buffet set up before we left on our first mission.

  A half dozen enlisted folk arrive with containers of hot food, still in tubes, but fresh is always good. We'll be eating freeze dried and frozen again starting tomorrow. It's me, Shelby, Matt, Maria, Emily, and Courtney, not a Lieutenant yet, but close enough. Summerlin and Palmer are there too. At exactly 1900, the two Admirals enter, and one of them yells "at ease" before we can straighten up. They must have been hiding somewhere on board to be that precise.

  The enlisted who brought the food leave, my guess is the admiral's aides are waiting a deck down, and as soon as we finish, everyone will be back to clean up. I had lunch with an admiral once, Benson in his office when I took the Yorktown commission. I left hungry. His crew brought out tubes of soup. He asked me a question, and while I answered, he drank his soup tube dry. They came and got both his empty and my full, before his even hit the table.

  They brought out the main course, sandwiches made to stay together in zero gee, sticky that is, and he asked me another question. While I answered, he ate the sandwich. As soon as he finished, they came and took mine away. And so with dessert.

  This time, I am going to make sure I get something to eat.

  Turns out not to be a problem, they invite us to eat first. The food is eaten and removed, except for some little dessert cakes and the beverages, before either of them says another word other than discussing their families with my crew. Everingham is a grand father, cute grandkids living on Buenos Aires, Benson has a newlywed daughter, but no kids yet.

  FRIGCOM floats over to the screen, actually a projector here that gives us a six foot high picture on the wall, and connects his pad.

  "You are all familiar with the tactical situation. At least three large vessels out there, probably in one of the Gamma Systems." The screen shows a photo of that cargo class of ship, and the names of the three missing ships.

  "Your orders are to hunt and destroy, taking only reasonable risks while doing so. If they have a base, we want it identified and neutralized. We also have many unanswered questions which you are to attempt to answer. Again, no unreasonable risks, we want the ships and crews home in one piece."

  "We have analyzed the coating on Orion. While that analysis is still incomplete, it is a titanium based compound with a variety of other components. The exact chemical composition is not listed in any reference, current or historical, that we can find. As you know, an excellent insulator, better than anything we use, creates a stealthy ship that's hard to shoot."

  "We have not learned anything useful about the 41.22 inch cannons, including why that size is being used, an
d no luck with the encryption they are using."

  "The autopsies of the crews from Trump and Orion showed that they had been injected with a fungus, a fungus we have never seen before. That is not surprising, given that there are more than 100,000 known fungi, and every Earth-like planet we discover has new unique fungi growing on it."

  He flips to a slide with a picture of something green, and a chemical formula.

  "What is interesting is that this particular fungi produces a chemical similar to scopolamine. It is a drug widely used in the 20th and 21st centuries on Earth by criminals. Under the influence, a person does whatever they are told, and has no memory of what they have done. If I slipped some into your drinks, you would willingly transfer every credit from your bank accounts to me and not remember doing it tomorrow. These pirates are taking control of the crews of the ships."