A Greater Interest: Samair in Argos: Book 4 (66 page)

              Tamara looked back at her.  “I won’t leave it all to them, Galina.  The Navy.  I can’t do it.  Gants seems to have a good head on his shoulders, but I have a feeling that if we go too many more months without an attack or even a sighting then the council will cut the defense spending down to the bare bones.  I’m sure they can’t like this heightened state of alert they’re on.  Hell, I know I sure don’t.”

              The lupusan looked at her in concern.  “You can’t take on the weight of the world, Tamara.  Even someone as old and wise as you needs rest,” she teased.  “How long has it been since you took any time off?”

              Tamara looked up at the overhead.  “It’s been a while,” she admitted.

              Text scrolled across both females’ HUDs.  [It’s been more than five months since her last day off.  Even in transit across the system she was working.]

              She scowled at the message.  “I have far too many well-intentioned babysitters.”  She crossed her arms over her chest.

              Galina yipped at her, then barked a laugh aloud.  “We just don’t want to see you run yourself, and by extension the company into the ground.”

              “Gee, thanks.”  She slumped a bit in the desk chair.  “There’s too much to do.  I can’t just take time off.”

              “I can handle things for a week or two while you take some time off, Tamara,” Galina told her.  She turned to the closed shipyard office door.  “Serzhant?” she called loudly.

              The door slid open and it wasn’t the short black-furred lupusan who stepped inside, but Kayla instead.  “Ma’am?”  Her tone was polite, but her eyes danced.

              “Captain Samair is taking two weeks vacation back on the homeworld,” Galina told her.  “Please get with your Serzhant and get the travel arrangements sorted.”

              Kayla straightened and gave a crisp, military salute.  Without a glance at her dumbstruck principle she rotated in place and marched out of the office, the door whispering shut behind her.

              Tamara watched the exchange with open-mouthed disbelief, having the certain knowledge she had just been ‘handled’ by her subordinates.  She closed her mouth, blushing slightly in embarrassment and irritation. 

              “Nothing but usurpers and traitors in this company,” she groused, but her tone was light, taking the sting out of the words.  Not that Galina would have taken any offense anyway.  “I’ll let you have your way, this time.”  It wouldn’t hurt to make some visits to a few of the planet-based customers; get a feel for things.  Plus there was that race at the Grand Xitark Speedway she’d been meaning to see.  Oh and then there was dinner at Silvanost’s…

              Robert Kreighton looked at the diagnostic panel and nodded with satisfaction.  The engineers had worked miracles with the sublight engines savaged in the attack.  The fixes weren’t pretty, a lot of spliced wires, reconditioned components, and jury-rigging, but they worked.  Two of the main propulsion units were a complete loss without proper replacement parts, but they’d managed to get one fully functional again: a huge victory as far as he was concerned.

              The commander again nodded to himself. 
At least we’re mobile again
.  The teams had done very good work under extreme conditions.  Luckily, the pirates hadn’t come back, content to simply steal their prize and race off.  That had been enough humiliation for one afternoon, thank you very much.  They were gone and Robert, for one, was glad.  Against the speed and maneuverability of the cutter
Kingston
in her current condition would be hard pressed to fight her off.  The cutter could just keep to
Kingston’s
stern and continue hammering her and there would be very little the corvette could do to stop them.  He didn’t like admitting that to himself, but that was the truth of it.  Oh, he’d put on a good show for the crew, but he was certain they all knew the truth.  And bless them, the crew were all putting on a good show for him.  They were all upset and complaining, but their blame was focused on the pirates, not on their captain.  It was surprising that they had so much faith in him.  He wasn’t sure he’d earned it.

              “She’ll work, Commander,” the exhausted engineer stated proudly.  “But it’s a jury-rigged fix.  I can give you maybe seventy percent on that one engine but it’ll only last for twelve minutes, pushing it that far.  Anything more than forty percent and she’ll burn out for good in very short order.”

              Kreighton nodded, refusing to let this news dampen his spirits.  “Understood, Lieutenant.  Hopefully, we’ll not need to push them at all.”

              The man smiled at his commander.  “Thank you, sir.  I’d much appreciate it.”

              Kreighton’s communicator buzzed.  He pulled it from his pocket and flipped it open.  Internal comms were still on the fritz; there simply weren’t the parts available to repair the system.  And after two months of trying, the engineers finally gave up and accepted that they would have to use the hand communicators full time.

              “Captain here.”

              “Captain, we’ve got a ship approaching.  It’s the
Equinox
.  She says she’s here to relieve us.”

              A giant weight seemed to come off his shoulders.  Help had finally arrived.  “Tell them welcome to Bimawae and we await their arrival.”

              He turned to the engineer.  “The cavalry has arrived, Lieutenant. 
Equinox
is approaching.”

              The man brightened.  “I hope they brought the parts to fix the hyperdrive.  I’d hate to have to scuttle the ship.  She’s still brand new.”

              The commander’s blood ran cold.  The idea that the ship might have to be destroyed had not occurred to him, not after all the work that the crew had done to save her.  She was still spaceworthy, damn it!  As the lieutenant commented,
Kingston
was still a new ship.  Heavily damaged and patched, but still functional.  High Command wouldn’t write her off… would they?

              “Hopefully not, Lieutenant,” Kreighton said heartily.  “We got most of the serious damage covered.”

              But the engineer shook his head.  “You know them credit pinchers back at headquarters, Captain.  If it’s more cost effective to junk this young lady,” he patted a stanchion fondly.  “They they’ll pull us off, vacuum out the databases and blow her apart.  More’s the pity.”  He looked melancholy. 

              “Buck up, Lieutenant,” Kreighton said.  “At least we can look forward to someone else’s canned air for the new few days or weeks while we get the hyperdrive back up.”  The man just stared at him, not appreciating the humor.  Kreighton let his expression harden a bit, to cover his embarrassment.  “Carry on, Lieutenant.”  He turned and left the engineering spaces, headed for the bridge.  He knew he should contact the captain of the
Equinox
and be there on the bridge when the destroyer closed the distance.

              This sort of situation wasn’t covered in officer training in the Academy.  Having one’s ship rescued.  What was the protocol?

              Several minutes later, the call came from
Equinox
, who was within visual range, only a few thousand kilometers.  Kreighton was seated in his command seat and he pressed the control key to bring up the comm display window at his seat.  When the window activated, the very irritated face of a gray-furred lupusan stared back at him.

              “This is Commander Kreighton,” he began but the lupusan cut him off.

              “Well, well, it looks like you managed to stay alive after all,” the wolf sneered.  He made a careless wave, though the contempt in his eyes didn’t change.  “It seems I owe my XO five credits.  He clearly has more faith in your abilities than I do.”

              Robert bristled.  “How dare you, sir!  You weren’t here.”

              But the wolf cut him off again.  “Oh, be silent you silly puppy.  You’re whining like you’ve been caught rolling around in the garbage.  That is a multi-million credit warship you just trashed!”

              “We were attacked,” he shot back, though the words felt feeble.

              The lupusan grinned maliciously.  “Yes, you were ambushed.  By a… single… cutter.”  His words were slow, deliberate.  “One little ship.  Clearly the pirates have far superior tactical abilities than you.”  He growled lightly.  “You’re a disgrace, pup.  We should recruit that cutter captain.  We could hardly have anyone worse in command.”

              Kreighton sat there, gritting his teeth.  “Thank you for your critique, Captain.  And I appreciate you coming out here to get us.”  He was trying to remain polite and on task.

              “Oh, it wasn’t my idea, pup,” the other commander spat.  “But the Colonel decided to salvage that piece of Seylonique government property and for me to bring back the waste of atmo that is currently her captain.”

              Kreighton felt his cheeks flaming with humiliation and he gripped the arms of his chair hard enough to nearly bend the metal.  Before he could speak, the destroyer captain interrupted again.  “Maintain your current orbit,
Kingston
. 
Equinox
will close on your position and initiate docking maneuvers.  With your engine damage and the tenuous skill at the helm, I wouldn’t want to risk a collision.  Long live the
king
and all that.”  The sneer on his face was almost incandescent.  Then the connection dropped.

              Silence hung over the bridge as the shocked crew tried to decide how to react.  Kreighton recovered fastest.  “Helm,” he croaked.  “Maintain course and speed.”  He cleared his throat.  “Let
Equinox
close the distance and dock.  Drop shields.”  Robert clenched his jaw, forcing himself to calm down.  He absolutely refused to let that arrogant bastard undermine him in front of his crew. 
Well, any more than he already has
.  “All right, people.  We have a ship to fix.”  He squared his shoulders.  “We are not done here, people.  We still have a lot of work to do.”  He could see their spines stiffen, as he drew them back out.  They didn’t like hearing disparaging words against their captain, but even after all they’d been through, they still had confidence in him. 

              Upon arriving in Bimawae, the freighter TC2741 began moving toward the cluster of drive signatures clumped at the mid system gas giant.  “There’s a group of cargo ships holding very high geostationary orbit over the gas giant, but they’re just sitting there,” Braelock reported, checking his displays.  “They’re still active.  I’m showing power and drive system but for some reason they’re all gathered here.”

              “How many ships?” Nerezek asked, one of his master sergeants standing beside him. 

              “Eight,” Braelock confirmed, then he pointed to the display.

              Both soldiers’ smiles were feral.  “Excellent.  We can pick and choose.”  The sergeant growled, clenching and unclenching his fists.  He was obviously pleased.

              “Depending on the crews, we should be able to grab three or four,” Nezerek mused, stroking his muzzle with one claw.

              Braelock turned to him, his ears flattened but not in a submissive way.  “I apologize.  It seems you were right.  It was good to come here.”

              The major clapped the elder wolf on the shoulder.  He shook his head.  “All that matters are those prizes, Lieutenant.  And that we get to back to the general with one
hell
of a triumph.”

              “We’ll be able to move in with the shuttles in four hours, Major.”

              “Thank you, Lieutenant.”  Nezerek flicked his ears.  “We’ll be ready.”

              Boarding operations went as smooth as fangs into flesh.  Two teams of ten wolves boarded two of the cargo ships.  The terrified crews, completely unaware of the stealth shuttles that had closed with them, immediately and unconditionally surrendered.  One ship carried a crew of twelve, the other ten; half of each crew was shuttled back to TC2741 along with two troopers each to watch them.

              “More ships for the fleet,” the major said, rubbing his hands together.  “Once this round of prisoners is secured, we will send the shuttles out again.”

              “None of the other cargo vessels has so much as twitched,” Braelock said in satisfaction.  “We might get six or even all of them if none of them get a message off to the others.”

              “We won’t be greedy,” Nezerek chuckled.  “I think the general would be satisfied with six ships.”

              The elder wolf grinned.  “Yes, considering he only sent us out for a resupply mission.  Getting six ships with cargoes and crews, well, I suspect he will be happy.”

              “I’d say so.  Keep two or three of the ships in operation, strip the others for parts; I’m sure that would work out perfectly.  Nezerek looked pleased.  “I think we’ll send these two ships to the hyper limit to wait for us.  No sense in anyone getting ideas.  Get them out away from the others in case any of the other freighter captains start getting suspicious.”