A Greater Interest: Samair in Argos: Book 4 (37 page)

              “Well let’s not get out of hand here, Mister Hardison.  But I’d like to get my story out there and I’d like to get paid for it as well.”  Frederick crossed his arms over his chest.  “That datapad is the only copy of the sensor data and digitals that I have with me and you can’t download any of that onto your network’s computers.  You won’t be able to just steal it from me.”

              The journalist actually managed to look hurt.  “That’s not how I operate, Captain Vosteros.  I deal fairly with my sources.”

              “Uh huh,” Frederick replied, not looking convinced.

              “I do,” he protested.  “You cheat your sources then word gets around that you can’t be trusted and then nobody will talk to you again.”  He tried to maintain eye contact with the freighter captain, but his eyes kept straying to the datapad and the images on the screen.

              Frederick smiled.  “All right, I can buy that.  So, what is a proper copy of that data worth to you?”

              “I want it all,” the man said immediately.  “No holding back.”

              “I know.”

              Nanjek Hardison considered it for a long moment.  “I’d be willing to go as high as eight.”

              “Eight what?” Frederick asked, keeping his tone level and even.  This was a business negotiation, a trade deal like he’d been part of many times before.  “Thousand?  Forget it.”  He knew that wasn’t what the journalist was talking about.

              Nanjek looked annoyed.  “Are you kidding me?  These are worth far more than that.  No, I was thinking about eight million.”

              “You can do better than that, Mister Hardison,” Frederick replied.  “I’ve asked around about your network.  And this story is going to bring in all sorts of interesting people… and their money.  Make me a better offer or I walk.”

              Nanjek smiled.  “Fifteen.”

              “Twenty,” Frederick countered.  “And that’s just for me.  I want five million each for my crew members.”

              The journalist’s expression took on a sour cast, and he gritted his teeth.  It was a little high, Frederick reflected, but he could tell that the man
wanted
this story.  Wanted it badly.  Then, abruptly, he nodded.  “Very well, Captain Vosteros.  Get your legal counsel together and we’ll get you a contract.  And then you will get me that data.  And then we’ll get you to makeup, because you and your crew are going to be my first interview tonight.”

              “We get those contracts signed and the credits transferred and we’ll be there,” Frederick promised.  He’d seen Hardison’s news program before and the man was a straight shooter.  He didn’t bring people in and then ambush them.  He was trying to get the best story possible to his viewers, not score points with cheap shots.  It would be nerve wracking, to be sure, but not a horror show.

              But the thoughts of the screams of anguish coming from the powers that be at S-Int when the news got out that he’d gone to them first and they’d shooed him away made him smile.

Chapter 12

             
Nemesis
’s arrival back in the Tyseus star system wasn’t filled with the excitement and pomp that the warlord wanted for the return from the heavy cruiser’s maiden mission.  It was more with a sense of relief that they had returned to a safe system than exulting as triumphant victors.

The raid on Seylonique had been a mixed bag, though Verrikoth had been willing to call it an expensive success.  The loss of three of his four corvettes and all but eight of his fighter craft, all but one of his gunships, as well as heavy damage to
Ganges
and minor damage to
Nemesis
wasn’t anything to sneer at, but the haul from the target star system had been good.  The warlord’s ships were still functional but he was hardly the conquering hero.  Thankfully, the holds of his cargo ships were laden with refined minerals, He3 fuel and various odds and ends plundered from the Seylonique mining station.  He also had eighty-seven technicians captured from the mining station; twenty or so of them were supposed to be transferred over to General Typhon’s ships as part of the General’s cut.  The General, however, had decided to disobey orders and then tore off on a different hyperspace vector.  It wouldn’t be hard to figure out where Typhon had gone, most likely back to Esselon Moor, but that was a problem for another day.  But his departure made the transfer of some of the prisoners much easier; now, Verrikoth didn’t have to give
any
of them over.  And that suited the warlord just fine.

It seemed that the technicians and workers in the yards here had been busy in the fifty-one days the zheen and his warships had been absent.  Another dozen gunships were patrolling the perimeter of the yards.  It seemed that the yard supervisor had decided to continue building the things after the flotilla’s departure, which was fine for now.  The small ships had packed a good punch against light combat ships and Verrikoth was interested to see how they could be integrated into a proper line of battle.

They’d had weeks during the return to Tyseus to stew over the problem, the rather poor showing his forces had done at Seylonique.  Verrikoth had held daily meetings with Commanders Tyler and Sokann where they tried to come up with solutions to the problem.  His forces had been shredded in an embarrassing showing and against nothing but light forces.  Not a single cruiser among the defenders.  And the dreaded battlecruiser, the bane of pirates, warlords and Republic captains everywhere, had been a no-show. 

“My Lord, I’m still convinced that it was the lack of proper fighter cover that turned the tide for us,” Sokann put in, an argument that he’d been making for weeks.  The other zheen had been more than a little bitter that his squadron had been destroyed, all the
Sepulcre
s destroyed in a single missile salvo, and all but eight of the nimble
Muon
s destroyed as well.  Then of course the strikes on the
Nemesis
and then on General Typhon’s ships proved that a proper fighter screen would make all the difference in the next fight. 

“Yess, Commander,” the warlord said, his antennae swirling in lazy circles.  “I know.”

“My Lord,” Jensen Tyler interjected, before Verrikoth could deliver a properly scathing comment to his starfighter commander, “It occurs to me that we might be able to do something about this.”

Both zheen turned to face the human.  It was the first time in weeks that he had inserted himself into the conversation about starfighters.  “Do ssomething about what, Commander Tyler?”

The man pursed his lips, absently touching them with his thumb and forefinger with one hand, lost in thought.  His lord’s words jarred him back into reality.  “Hmmm?  Oh, I’m sorry my Lord.  No I was thinking about starfighters.  We don’t currently have the facilities here to build any, despite the shipyard here, nor do we have any designs for anything other than the
Muons
or
Sepulcres
, which I think we can all agree are completely outclassed by the ships the Seylonique pilots were flying.”

Sokann hissed in dismay, mixed with agreement.  “I want to disagree with you, Jensen, but I can’t.  Only the best of my pilots managed to stay alive in there.  Even if we hadn’t been so badly outnumbered, I don’t think we would have been able to hold up much better against those ships.  I wish we could get some of those.”  His antennae and mandibles wiggled in rapture.

“Well, that’s what I’m talking about,” Tyler went on.

“Wait, you can get some of those fighters?” Sokann interrupted, leaning forward.  Verrikoth turned his head to take in both of his officers, interested. 

Tyler sighed.  “Well no.  I’ve got some of the sensor techs scrubbing through as much of the data as we can on those manta-fighters that the Seylonique defense forces were using, but I don’t know how much we’re actually going to be able to get.  Some engine specs, hull design, but we won’t know anything about computer speeds, full engine capabilities, shields, all that.  We’d have to extrapolate, but it wouldn’t be exact.  We’d essentially be designing a whole new ship and we don’t have the people for that.”

Sokann hesitated, then spoke.  “We’re in a shipyard, Jensen!” he almost roared.  “We’re surrounded by engineers and builders!  Of course there are people here that could do those things.”

But the human shook his head.  “Yes, Commander Sokann, I’m sure those are things that we can and probably will do in the months coming up, but I was thinking something a little more direct.”

Both zheen looked confused now.  “What are you talking about, Tyler?” Verrikoth demanded.

“I was thinking about Hecate, my Lord.”  There was a pair of mandible clacks.  “They have their own wing of starfighters. 
Centurion
fighters, I believe they are called.  And as I recall, the engineers there were working on a refit to put a basic shielding package onto them.  I think they were doing a redesign on the fuselage for missile capacity as well.”  He shrugged ruefully.  “At the time, I was a little more concerned with getting
Ganges
’s hyperdrive active so I wan’t paying as much attention as I might have.”

“I like where you’re going with thiss, Commander,” Verrikoth said, tapping the table with one blunt finger.  “I will sspeak with the engineerz here and ssee what it will take to work on dezigning a sstarfighter for me here, but getting a ssquadron or two from Hecate would be a good sstart in the right direction.  I would need a sship sent to Hecate anyway to put in an order for another cruizer.”

Neither of his officers said anything.  They knew that the warlord had a huge treasury and how he chose to spend the money was his business, not theirs and if he chose to spend some of it on building new warships, all to the good.

“I like thiss plan, Commander,” Verrikoth said, giving a very human nod.  He made a note on a datapad.  “It iz proactive and I’m ssure the builderz at Hecate can provide for my military needz.  With our own Republic technicians here, we can see about making any upgrades as needed.”  He turned to his chief pilot.  “Commander Ssokann.  Pack your bagz.  You are going along with the sship to Hecate.”

Sokann looked confused and slightly dismayed.  “My Lord?  I have duties here.”

“Your dutiez are whatever I ssay they are.  Bessidez,” the warlord went on.  “I am not ssending you out to Hecate because I am disspleazed.  I am ssending you along on the mission because if you are going to be acquiring sstarfighterz I will need ssomeone to be able to fly them.  And, I will need pilotss.  Who better to recruit than my chief flyer?”

The zheen pilot looked over his lord carefully for a long moment.  “I understand, Lord Verrikoth.  And I appreciate your faith in me.”

“Do not fail me, Commander,” Verrikoth said with casual confidence.  His tone belied the threat, but neither of the other two officers was the least bit fooled.  “Bring me back a fighting force.  I will be ssending two sshipss.  One to carry the fighterz back and another for esscort.  I expect you to impress me, Commander.”

“With the proper tools, my Lord, I will,” Sokann vowed.  Verrikoth waved a hand at him and he stood from the conference table, bowed and exited the compartment.

Verrikoth buzzed a sigh after the younger zheen had left and the hatch closed behind him.  “I want to believe he will ssucceed.  I ssurely hope sso.  He iz a good pilot.”

“If anyone can bring you the fighter complement you need, my lord, I believe that Commander Sokann can.  He was one of the few of your pilots to survive and even bring down a few of those manta-fighters.”

“I know, which iz why I am allowing him to go on this mission,” Verrikoth replied.  “And I will admit, your idea to buy fighterz from Hecate iz a good one.  I do not know if they can sstand up to the onez in Sseylonique, but they are better than the
Muon
fighterz I sstill have left.”  Another buzz.  “But will it be enough of an upgrade?”

Tyler looked troubled.  “I don’t know my Lord.  But I do know that the cruisers you ordered will be finished by now and should be on their way here.  If they’re able to push into the Green levels of the rainbow, the one from Hecate will get here in roughly forty-five days.  From Cetetia, what, sixty-five?  Seventy?”

“That ssoundz about right,” Verrikoth replied.  He rubbed his scarred hands together in a gesture that looked like one a lower insect might make.  Thankfully, for the sake of Tyler’s stomach, the zheen didn’t belch up a load of slime onto his hands when he did so.  “But they won’t have crewz.  Just the bare bonez needed to fly the sshipss here.”

“Our latest recruiting drive should be bringing in conscripts and recruits within the next month, my Lord.  Be here just in time to get them integrated into the new ships once they arrive.”

“I will expect you to get my sshipss ready for battle, Commander Tyler.”

He nodded.  “Of course, my Lord.  We’ve patched up the battle damage, but I want to have some of the yard techs double check everything aboard the ship,” he said, glancing around, indicating the ship as a whole.  “Need to make sure the flagship isn’t going to have a critical breakdown and some of those patches were only really temporary.”

“Of course,” the warlord said, bobbing his antennae.  He waved a hand impatiently.  “In fact, go ssee to the repairz and the unloading of materialz now.  I have other captainz in my fleet to sspeak to now.”  Tyler also rose to his feet, gave a short bow and then departed.  Verrikoth watched him go, his multi-faceted gaze on the hatch for a long moment after the man had closed it behind him.  Then he chittered to himself and turned to the communications controls in front of him.  Pressing the correct sequence, a display appeared before him.  A zheen’s face was on the display.

“Yes, my Lord Verrikoth, this is
Ironhide
.”

“Get Commander Sskygexxz on the line,” he ordered tersely.  “I would sspeak with him.”

“Of course my Lord,” the comms watch replied, and then his image vanished.  Only a few seconds later, the face of another fellow insectoid appeared. 

“Lord Verrikoth,” Skygexx replied, upon seeing his face.  “We’ve completed docking maneuvers with the outer yard complex.  I’ve begun transferring the few prisoners I had aboard and once that is completed, I will begin taking on supplies and fuel.”

“Excellent, Commander, excellent,” Verrikoth said.  “I am well pleased with you and your sship’ss performance in the raid on Sseylonique.  But I do have two itemz to disscuss with you.”

The destroyer’s captain nodded and the slight vibrations of his mouthparts and his antennae betrayed how hard he was fighting to keep a calm demeanor.  “Of course, my Lord.”

“During the battle, you had medical assisstance transferred to
Sskale
instead of concentrating on your objective of dissabling the mining sstation’z defensez.  Only once that waz completed did you return to your duty.  Explain your reazoningz.”

If Skygexx was human, he would have gulped.  As it was, he couldn’t hide the curling of his antennae in sudden fear.  But then he straightened his posture, his tone confident but not defiant.  “My Lord, I felt it was my duty of secure the objective, but also to preserve your ships.  Losing
Skale
would not have secured the mining station any faster, nor would it have in my mind, have taken more than a few minutes to do.  The station wasn’t a military one filled with secrets.  And I did not believe that the crew of that station was going to blow it up to keep the tons of ore away from us.  These were civilians, regular people, not fighters.”

“And had there been heavier rezisstance?”

“Then I would have altered my tactics accordingly, my Lord,” he replied.  “But after having to watch that Republic cruiser destroy your corvette
Wrath
here in this very system with me powerless to do anything about it, I decided that I would not let more of our fleet’s people die if I could help it.”  There was a slight, very slight, edge of defiance in his tone now.  He might be staring at his death and at that moment, he was ready.  He’d done right (in his mind) by his lord and his fellow spacers and his conscience was clear.

“I ssee,” Verrikoth said finally.  Then he waved one hand dismissively.  “But az I ssaid, I am well pleased with your sship’ss performance.  And you were able to bring back another of my sshipss with mosst of it’ss crew.  Well done.”