A Greater Interest: Samair in Argos: Book 4 (45 page)

              “I got it, Ma’am,” he replied, as the ship accelerated into the atmosphere.

              An indicator light activated on Tamara’s HUD.  An identifier icon showed there was a message incoming from the
Leytonstone
.  “Well, it looks as though our gallant protector has returned,” she said and despite her words, she felt a great weight lifting from her shoulders.  Having the battlecruiser back in the system, even after all the heavy events of a few months ago, still lifted her spirits.  “Would have been nice if he’d been here when the pirates came knocking.”

Can’t blame Colonel Gants for being off on a mission that I put in the admin council’s ear.  I suggested it, and things snowballed from there.  Sending the
Leytonstone
was only a prudent and logical choice, especially since we had what we thought were sufficient defensive resources here at home.  Who was to know that a stars-damned fleet was going to pop over the hyper limit and attack the gas mine?
 

Tamara thought-clicked the accept icon, then transferred the call to the cockpit monitor.  The familiar image of Colonel Gans looked back at her from the ready room of the battlecruiser.  “Colonel.”

“Captain Samair,” the man replied.  She’d spoke with him on many occasions and Tamara could tell that he was suppressing some sort of unpleasant emotion.  “It’s good to see you again.”

She gave a smile. 
Liar
.  “Thank you, Colonel.  I’ll admit it’s good to see you and your ship back in the system again.” 

He nodded, a grimace spreading across his lips.  “I understand we missed a bit of excitement.”

“More than a bit,” Tamara replied, that old feeling of frustration and helplessness welling back up again. 
It’s not his fault.  It’s not
your
fault.  Stop it
.  “But that’s old news.”

“Not to me, Captain,” the man told her, his voice harsh.  “I get back and find out that all hell has washed over my star system.”

Tamara nodded.  “I was hoping that we would be able to get some assistance from the Navy ships.”  Then she sighed.  “No, actually, that’s not true.  I was
hoping
that the company defense ships could take care of everything on their own and I could thumb my nose at the Navy after having shown you all that my flotilla was just as if not more capable than your Navy ships.”

The smallest of smiles quirked the corner of Gants’ mouth.  “And how did that work out?”

Tamara felt bile rising in her throat.  She swallowed hard, grimacing at the burning sensation.  “Not as well as I could have hoped,” she admitted, drawing a glance from Mike in the pilot’s couch.  “Too many people died and too many ships were lost.  And in the end, it was only because the pirates decided to leave that saved us.”

“Wait…” Gants said, raising a hand.  “They
left
?”

Tamara nodded.  “They just left.  They ransacked my mining station, drained and then shredded my tank farm and defensive platforms, grabbed a shuttle and almost a hundred of my employees.  Seylonique citizens.  And then, to add insult to injury, the Federation cruiser lobs a big fucking rock at my gas mine.”

The colonel shook his head.  “Just what the hell happened here in this system while I’ve been gone?”  He turned his gaze directly on on her, focused on her.  “I spoke with Captain Greer.  He tells me that you have been less than forthcoming with sharing the tactical records of the fight.”

“Captain Greer has come into my house and started demanding things that don’t belong to him,” Tamara replied, gritting her teeth.  Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Mike acting laser focused on his controls, as though he couldn’t hear a single thing that was going on in the small space.  She was also completely certain that the guards in the next compartment could hear every syllable.  “If that arrogant shit had just
asked
me for the records, I’d have sent him a copy.  But no.  Just came charging right in and started issuing orders.”

Gants actually had the gumption to smirk.  “Can’t have the most powerful person in the star system start taking orders from a lowly Navy puke, now can we?” he mocked.  “Sounds like your pride is going to start getting you in trouble, Samair.  Sounds like it already has.”  He gestured to the space around him, clearly indicating the outer system and the battle that had raged there.  “Perhaps if a Navy corvette or two had been out here, assisting your defensive forces…”  He let the idea hang in the air.

She had to clench her jaw to keep from grinding her teeth.  “Things might have been different,” she admitted, feeling the bile again.  “You want the records?”

“See?” he said, nodding.  “Even someone who’s been around since the Re/files/10/75/75/f107575/public/Federation war can learn.”

Then her eyes narrowed.  “But you want something else, Colonel.  I can tell.”  She was certain of that and a second later she was rewarded when her hunch paid off.

Now it was his turn to grit his teeth.  “Yes, I do want something.  The
Leytonstone
took some damage in Ulla-tran and now she needs some serious repair work.”

“And now you want
me
to fix your ship for you?”  She was flabbergasted at his presumption.

“I’m asking that you do it for the good of Seylonique.  Not to mention the local area of space.”

Tamara chuckled.  “You’re really going to pull the ‘greater good’ argument here?  You make me eat humble pie and then demand things from me?  Damn, Colonel.  You have got some serious balls.”  She leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest.

“I’m serious, Samair,” Gants pushed on.  “Think about it.  This ship is probably the most powerful warship in the Argos Cluster.  You’ve traveled far more around this area of space than I have.  Am I wrong?”

Tamara sighed, shifting a bit in her seat.  “From what little of the Argos Cluster I’ve seen… no.  You’re probably not wrong.  Though the fact that the pirate ‘lord’ there has himself a heavy cruiser and a pair of light cruisers isn’t good.  Where there’s one there’s more.  And I know that Ulla-tran has a heavy cruiser of its own too.  So while yes, the
Leytonstone
is the heavy hitter in the Cluster, you won’t be in command of the
only
heavy hitter forever.”

“But while Seylonique
is
in control of the heavy hitter, there is a certain degree of… stability in the local space.  Or if not stability,” he went on quickly, seeing her frown, “then caution.  If the pirates think that a battlecruiser might drop in on them if they come here, then they’re going to act differently then if they know it won’t.”

Tamara stared at him for a long moment.  “You have a point,” she growled.

“Ah,” he said, nodding, leaning back in his chair, slightly, flicking a pointing finger toward the vid pickup.

“I’ll admit, we need to get that ship of yours fully operational before the pirates decide to come back here.  I’d like to have a serious surprise waiting for them.”

“I’d like to have
several
surprises waiting for them when they come back here,” Gants said wryly. 

“
I’m
working on my end, Colonel,” Tamara replied, her tone challenging.  “I think you need to speak with the admin council and your fellow Navy officers and noncoms and civilian contractors and come up with a few on your own side.”

“Yeah, about your side, Samair,” he said, crossing his own arms over his chest.  “What the hell is the story with that giant ball of molten iron you have floating out there?  And with the huge batteries of turbolasers heating it up?”

“Well, dear Colonel,” she said, “I’m trying to keep the bastards from dropping rocks on my peoples’ heads.”

He stared at her, uncomprehending.  “And you plan to do that with a giant ball of metal?”

“Oh, no, Colonel Gants.  I intend to do that with a giant shield made of metal.”  Her face was completely serious, without a trace of humor or irony.  “I’m replacing the ships lost and I’ve got two other ships on the schedule.  Another destroyer and another escort-frigate.  Not to mention all the weapons platforms we’ve built out here: bigger, nastier ones.  I’m trying very hard not to get caught flat-footed again.”  She sighed.  “And I’ve even got Navy ships patrolling the area around the gas mine.  I’ll send you the data packet showing the complete record of the battle from my ships and satellites.  I absolutely want you and your officers and ships to be prepared when they come back.  And make no mistake, Colonel, the fact that they left without trashing the outer system means that they will be back.  And they’ll be better prepared next time.”

He considered his words.  “I will await those records, Captain,” he said, giving her the courtesy of her rank.  “And I would like to speak with you further about getting my ship repaired.”

Tamara sighed.  “I’m afraid you’ll need to wait on that score, Colonel.  I have a meeting with Councilor Hroth in a short while.  She’s setting up shop on the Kutok mine, or rather out here in the outer system until a more suitable location is constructed.”

Gants nodded in understanding.  “I completely understand.  I’ve had more than my share of meetings with the admin council and I know how demanding they can be.  I’ll be in the area for at least another day, though.  I have some meetings of my own to attend.”

“I’ll try to get back to you in a day or so, Colonel.  I know you don’t want to wait and I don’t want to keep you waiting.  But I have some other things to deal with first.  Once I get those things nailed down, we can get your ship into one of the slips.”

“Thank you, Samair.  I’ll speak with the council myself and work out the payment for this.”

Tamara nodded.  “Thank you for thinking of that, Colonel.  And for not making me be the materialistic weasel who demands payment.”

He took a slow, deep breath and then let it out just as slowly.  “Samair, I know that you and I have been on opposite sides of the fence before.  We squared off in battle and you managed to pull a victory from what should have been a defeat.  I respect your prowess and that of your tech and your people.  You’ve proven you can be a stars-damned pain in the ass.  But if we can figure out a way to…”

“Just get along?” she drawled and she saw her pilot cover a laugh by pretending to cough.

“Work together to protect this star system, its citizens and its assets,” he corrected.  “I don’t expect us to get along.  I don’t expect that you and I are ever going to be firm friends, or even standing on the same sides of an argument.  But I would like to think that we could work toward the same goals.”

You assume, dear Colonel, that all our goals are the same. 
But what he was saying made sense.  “I can agree with what you’re saying, in principle.  I would like to see those things strengthened and protected, but I can imagine that on many issues we’re going to have differences in opinions on how that should be carried out.”

“I daresay we will,” he agreed.  “But I’d like to think that two people as capable and powerful as we would be able to figure a way to get the necessary things done.”  He cleared his throat.  “I’ll look over those files and get back to you.”  Gants ended the transmission.

Tamara turned and smacked the pilot on the arm with the back of her hand.  “Get us in to the station, Mike,” she growled, flopping into the copilot’s couch and setting up the communication’s link to the battlecruiser to transfer the files over.

The arrival of Councilor Carriger Hroth was as close to a non-event as it was possible to be for a member of the administratory council.  She arrived with a staff of six, stepping out of the airlock, leading the way forward.  She, unlike the First Principles Chief of Operations, had no bodyguards, though by the various scans performed by Chief Nymeria as well as the Security AI Magnus, it was determined that two of the aides were armed with pistols under their jackets.  Tamara’s guards, as well as a contingent of Corajen’s deputies were all standing by; the guards with their weapons held openly and the deputies with their stunners holstered at their sides. 

The harried-looking Tiyaana Moreetz stood by Tamara, with Corajen standing on the Station manager’s other side.  The lupusan chief of security looked relaxed, almost bored by the whole proceedings.  She had to know that by having a member of the admin council residing on the Kutok mining station, her own base of operations, her job just got that much harder.  It wasn’t as though the gas mine was an open port, filled with wanderers and cutthroats, but just having the councilor underfoot would complicate things.

The councilor approached the trio of females, her hands outstretched and reaching for the young Station Manager.  Tamara hung back, not offended by the gesture.  She might be in charge of the company, one slot below the owner, but she’d put Ms. Moreetz in command of the station.  It was only courteous and polite that Tiyaana be greeted first.

The long, clawed fingers of the lupusan councilor closed gently over the smooth hands of the human woman.  “Station Manager Moreetz, what an absolute pleasure it is to see you.  I understand that there has been a great spot of bother out here.  I’m hoping that we can avoid that sort of thing in the future.  But I was pleased to hear that you were a female capable of keeping a cool head in the crisis.”

Tiyaana beamed in surprise.  After a second of holding the woman’s hands, Carriger released her.  “I’m glad to have you along, Councilor,” the woman said, both confused and pleased by the councilor’s words and actions.