First Principles: Samair in Argos: Book 3 (14 page)

             
And now I’m working for her. 
She nodded to herself before turning to the young deputy who was looking on, her face completely awash in relief at having the boss back, so now she could dump the whole security situation in
her
lap.

              “All right, Jenelle,” Corajen said, gesturing for her to speak.  “We need to discuss the security situation as it is now.  What’s going on, who’s where, everything.”

              “Yes, Chief,” she said, turning to face her.  “Well, like I said before, the station security situation is just a big mess right now…”

              By the next day, Tamara and the engineering team had twenty-two security drones up and ready.  She showed them to the security chief who was delighted.  As she’d indicated, she’d kept the main body of the cleaning bot unit, pulled out the cleaning gear and replaced it with a small power unit, a stunner and a surveillance package.  There was a small communicator integrated to the device, which would allow security to issue commands, to disburse a crowd if needed, or issue directives. 

              Corajen was well pleased with them, as were the rest of her deputies.  It certainly eased their considerable burden, allowing them to monitor the various parts of the station more effectively than they could by using only the station’s security monitors.  And in keeping one of the deputies in the office, it allowed them to respond to problems much quicker, even if it only meant sending one of the bots there. 

              “I just have one more thing to ask of you, Tamara,” Corajen said, as the two of them sat in the security office.  Corajen was watching the monitors and Tamara was taking a much-needed break, sipping a cup of coffee.

              “And what’s that?” she asked, good-naturedly.  “I’ve got you all these bots, I’m going to be bringing you out to the orbital to pick up more people.  What more do you want from me?”  She laughed.

              “Implants.  We need at least the basic identification kind that Turan was giving out to the crew of the
Grania Estelle
.”

              Tamara blinked in surprise.  “Okay, I wasn’t expecting that.  Um, sure.  Actually,” she said, pursing her lips, “That’s a good idea.  If we outfit all FP employees with an ident implant, then we can control where they’re going.  Keep them out of restricted areas, I mean.  We can also track movements and with the security AI in place, it will help us predict patterns and hopefully keep trouble to manageable levels.”

              Corajen nodded.  “That’s why I want them.  We’re going to have to speak with the doctors, see how long it will take to set up.”

              “I’d like to do this now,” Tamara agreed.  “In fact, if the
Leytonstone
and the
Kara
hadn’t decided to come and throw my whole schedule out of whack, we would be able to.  I’m sure Turan would like to be involved, but I’m not interested in waiting for months for them to get back from Heb.”

              “When are they leaving?”

              She checked her chronometer on her HUD.  “They’re scheduled to go in two hours.  I’ll set up a conference call with Turan and Doctor Meilaa.  Maybe they can work something out.”  She checked the chrono again.  “But I’ve got a trip planetside to make.  I’ll be in touch, though it’ll be about two weeks before I get back.”

              “How are you going?  I mean in what ship?”

              “My new cargo ship,” she said proudly.  “But we’re going to have to have others come out.  My ship can only carry about forty people, packed in tight.  And it would be a miserable trip.  Maybe we should work on a passenger liner for trips like this.”

              Corajen raised her hands.  “Hey, I’m just the Chief of Security on this station.  Transport is your responsibility.”

              Tamara sighed.  “Well, I guess I know what we’re going to be working on.  It only makes sense, really, having a passenger shuttle making regular trips between the mine and the planet.  The kiddies are eventually going to want some leave and it will help with bringing out personnel transfers.”  She smiled.  “Yet another priority tasking for my construction people.”

              Corajen grinned at her.  “Hey, you wanted to be the boss.”

              “Actually, the
captain
wanted me as the boss,” she retorted.  Then she laughed.  “But you’re right, now I do.”  She slapped the desk.  “But you’re right, that’s my problem.  I’ll figure something out.  Once
Grania Estelle
leaves, I’ll give you a call and we can head to the planet and start looking for new security people.”

              She nodded back.  “I’ll be ready.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

              Vincent met Tamara as she stepped out of the port side airlock.  “I’m surprised to see you here, twenty minutes before our scheduled take off.  What brings you?”

              She shrugged.  “I can’t come over and wish you good luck?  Vincent, I’m hurt.”

              He eyed her.  “It’s not that you can’t, but as I said, I’m just surprised.”

              “I’m actually coming up with excuses to use my new ship.”

              He chuckled.  “I do like it.  It’s a little too big for my boat bay, but it’s a nice looking ride.  No hyperdrive?”

              “No, it’s a little too small for that.  The
Testudos
are really only meant for in system work.  A little too small to shoehorn in a hyperdrive.  Or if I did, once it was all over, there’d be no room for any kind of cargo.  A two-person passenger ship?  Not worth it.”

              He shrugged.  “No, I can see that.  And with the size of the ship, you wouldn’t be able to get any serious kind of speed out of her.  You’d be stuck in the high reds, low orange level of the rainbow.”  He grimaced.  “That’s at least two months in hyper to get to the nearest system.  Yeah, not worth it.  So what will you be up to while I’m gone?”

              “Well, since you’ll be gone for over two months, I’ll have plenty of time to get the mining station and the yard up.  Well, I’m thinking the station first and then the yard.  And I really want to get the corvette and the fighters…”

              Vincent laughed.  “I’m guessing I’m barely going to recognize this system by the time I get back.”

              She smiled back.  “I’m also thinking of selling a few A2s to the orbital and to some of our clients down on the ground.  Which means that the mining business in this system is about to get really moving.”  She put on an innocent face.  “I mean, where are they going to get all the materials for the projects and repairs that they’re going to need?”

              “I just have one last question about those A2s you’re so freely parting with.”

              “Hey,” she said, indignant.  “I’m not
giving
anything.  They’re paying good credits for them.  Credits that I in turn intend to turn around and put to good use.”  He just looked at her.  “What’s your question?”

              “What’s to stop our customers from just making new replicators?”

              “The lockouts are still in place, Vincent,” she told him.  “I’m not just going to hand them the keys to the kingdom.  And, I’ve removed a lot of the more sensitive items, like weapons, from their databanks.  If in the future, we need one of the A2s to make specialized items, like those same weapons, the information will need to be uploaded into the device’s database by an external data drive.”

              He nodded, a look of relief clear on his face.  “That makes me feel a bit better about this endeavor.  Where are you keeping the master database?”

              “The full list is on the
Grania Estelle
as well as the
Samarkand
.  I’ve also got it under lockdown on my ship as well.  But other than that, all the other replicators have the same restriction.”  She smiled.  “I’m on top of it, Vincent.  I’m not going to give away something that serious.”

              “Good.  I expect to see lots of good things when we get back.  Oh!” he said, remembering.  “This time, make sure your security ships understand who I am and what ship I’m on.  I’m glad that the pilot was so diligent, but I don’t want to have to keep worrying that some twitchy kid is going to shoot up my ship simply because it’s his first day on patrol.”

              Tamara chuckled.  “I’ll take care of it.  Just don’t provoke my pilots, Captain Eamonn.  I don’t need you causing any accidents.”

              “They’re
my
pilots, Tamara,” he growled.

              “Yes, of course they are, Vincent,” she said, smiling sweetly.

              “Get off my ship!” he said, punching her lightly on the arm.  She gave a mocking bow and then held out her hand. 

              He took it and they shook on it.  “Good journey, Captain Eamonn.”  Her voice was serious.

              “Good hunting, Captain Samair,” he replied, equally as solemn.

              Tamara turned and exited the ship, her very short visit over.

              The A2 replicators had proven to be a resounding success.  Tamara had brought eleven of them with her on her trip over to the station, as well as four drums of He3 and crates of replacement reactor parts for the orbital power plants.  The station engineers were ecstatic to see these and Tamara’s contact Miklos Jollin was immediately on the comms to the admins of the station, telling them that they had better find a way to pay for these things, because he needed them.  And when she offered to sell him two of the A2s, the man’s face went completely white. 

              “Are you serious?” he demanded.  “You want to sell me two of these replicators?  And they can make me the reactor components, and all the other things that I need?  Hell yes, I’ll take them!”  His eyes had bulged nearly out of his skull in his wide-eyed excitement.  “And more!  If you have more to sell to me, I’ll take them!”

              “Lease, Miklos.  Lease,” Tamara said with a smile.  “But yes, I can have more to you in a few weeks.  I have other companies that have already placed orders, but the next round can be for you.”  It was a small lie, but one she felt needed saying.  She hadn’t told anyone outside of her small circle that she was going to be selling the A2s, and she wasn’t about to allow Miklos to bully her into giving them all up to him.  She intended to sell to nine small companies on the planet, to spread the word.

              The engineer stroked the boxy devices that were sitting, unmoving, on a hover pallet.  “This is incredible.  I can’t believe this is happening!  I can finally get this station up and running properly!  No more shoestring repairs, no more making do with substandard parts!”  The man was in near ecstasy.

              Tamara laughed, but then quickly turned serious.  “You get me the payment, Miklos, and I’m happy to lease them to you.  There are contracts to sign.”

              He whirled, immediately turning on her.  “Don’t you move one centimeter,” he told her, pointing one meaty finger at her.  Then he dashed off, heading for his office and his comm panel.  Two minutes later, he was back, a huge grin on his face.  “I got the authorization I need.  I’ll have payment for you in half an hour for all of this,” he said, gesturing expansively. 

              She nodded.  “No problem.  But this order and especially those two devices do not move from this spot until I see payment.”

              Miklos looked hurt.  “Tamara, how long have we been doing business?  A few months?  Have I ever stiffed you on a payment?”

              She shook her head.  “No, Miklos, you haven’t.  I know you’re an honorable man, and you want to do things right.  It’s your bosses that have proven themselves less than trustworthy.  So I think I should warn you about a few things before the A2s change hands.”

              His excitement dulled somewhat.  “What things?” he asked, suspiciously.

              Tamara’s smile faded.  “This is a serious subject, Miklos.  Believe me when I tell you that this is important.  You need to keep off the restricted list.  I’ve removed a number of items from the replicator’s databanks, but there are still items there that you can’t make without my direct authorization.  And by that I mean I, personally, have to physically be present for the device to make them.  You can’t build hyperdrives or nanites or other replicators.  You can build parts to repair and maintain these devices, but not the constructor matrices.”

              “Why not?”

              “Because they’re restricted,” she said simply.  “And I don’t want people stealing my tech.  That’s why.  You’re going to begrudge me a profit?”

              He eyed her for a long moment, but then he shrugged.  “Actually, it’s fine.  I don’t need to be building weapons anyway.”  Then his face darkened.  “Of course, it’s going to piss off the admins knowing that you’re putting a restriction on these devices.”

              “Well, isn’t that just too bad for them,” Tamara said, smiling.  “If they want to buy parts from me, I’m more than happy to sell to them.  But if they want to use my replicators, they have to follow the rules.  Speaking of which,” she added, sobering again, “if you try and access the restricted list without my authorization, the machine will lock up and then melt down.”

              “Melt down?” he asked, his hand clenching unconsciously.

              She nodded.  “Melt down,” she repeated.  “The nanite constructor matrix will destroy itself and the replicator itself.  Completely.  And I’m not kidding around about that, either.  And you will
not
be refunded for the device if you destroy it.  So I think it would be a good idea for you to have a meeting with your people and lay down the law.”

              He was nodding vigorously.  “I will.  With a device like this…”  His voice trailed off.  “Don’t worry, I will put the fear of death into them.”

              “Good, make sure that you do.”  She gave him a very stern look.  “Because if you break my toys, I will not let you play with them again.”

              Miklos smiled.  “I think I like the sound of that.”

              Tamara chuckled.  “Ease down, Miklos.”

              “Hey, I’m a station engineer who works sixty-five to seventy hours a week.  I’m not dead.”  His gaze was speculative.

              She couldn’t help but smile.  “Enough,” she said, shaking her head.  “So, we’ve got another twenty minutes or so for the money to be authorized?”  Then she frowned.  “And it takes that long?  What, are they bringing cash down here to the hangar?”

              Miklos had the grace to look embarrassed.  “Well, I got approval from Triarch Kozen’ck, but he said he would get back to me.  He needed get the okay from the rest of the council.”

              Tamara sighed.  “Great.  Well, I think I might just start packing up this stuff now.”

              “Come on, Tamara,” he said.  “Be reasonable.  You know that any payment for government property has to be authorized by the council.  It’s been that way since you started selling me fuel and parts.”

              She shrugged, feeling uncomfortable for the first time in Miklos’s presence.  “I guess I never noticed before.  Though I guess that’s what I get for surprising you with this.  If I’d called ahead, they’d have had the money ready.”  She grimaced.  “Though I don’t understand why it takes so long to set up a simple funds transfer.  And,” she added, “I never had a big strapping engineer hitting on me while I was dropping off cargo before.”

              He grinned at her.  “I have to tell you, Tamara, it isn’t often that I get gorgeous women bringing me everything I ever asked for.”

              She rolled her eyes.  “Oh, please.”  But she couldn’t help but smile.

              Flying the
Testudo
down to the planet proved to be remarkably easy.  Yes, she was a bigger ship than the original cargo shuttles that Tamara had based the design on, but she was a very stable platform and her engines were more than able to keep the ship level and bring her down easily.  In fact, Tamara was sure that with a few tweaks and maybe some ablative armor plating, it might make a decent drop shuttle for Marines.  She’d consider it, but for now there were plenty of items already on her plate.  She chuckled to herself.  “You’re starting to get
way
ahead of things.”  But it was a good idea, one worth researching in the future.

              She landed outside the small village where FP’s first groundside company had set up shop.  The sleepy hamlet had changed considerably in the last few months.  Where once had been a ramshackle collection of prefab buildings, strewn with trash and parts of half-finished projects.  Suriaya, the proprietress of the establishment, had been running a small construction company building shuttles and small atmospheric runabouts. 

              Now, however, the business had expanded.  Suriaya had expanded her operations from just the one small garage to five other surrounding buildings.  Whereas others might have packed up shop and moved to bigger facilities, the round engineer apparently decided she liked her current surroundings and simply bought the nearby buildings.  There were the sounds of a machine shop all around her as Tamara set the
Testudo
down on the landing pad, which was also new, and popped open the side hatch.  Securing the ship behind her, Tamara began walking over to the main building. 

              A trio of techs were busy working on a small ship on the compound’s forward work bay, welding panels onto the side.  Another had her hands into the electronics up nearly to her armpits, and it was clear she was unhappy about what she was finding.  She was swearing up a blue streak, but she was keeping her voice low enough that Tamara couldn’t actually hear what she was saying.

              “Tamara!” came the booming voice of the owner from the far side of the bay.  She looked over to see the round, squat form of the engineer Suriaya ambling across the bay toward her.  When she approached, she stuck out a meaty paw and Tamara clasped it fondly. 

              “Suriaya, it’s been too long.”  She stepped up and surveyed the bay.  There was the one ship being worked on just before them, but it appeared that there were two others in various states of repair, with workers crawling all over them as well.  Tamara grinned.  “Look at this place!  You’ve certainly been busy.”

              “Bah, we’re actually behind.  I’ve been having problems machining up the right parts,” the big woman replied, but Tamara noticed a hint of pride beneath her irascible mask.  “Its fiddly bits, mostly, electronics and small components in the navigation systems.  Holding up the whole production line.”

              Tamara’s smile turned conspiratorial.  “I might be able to help out with that, if you’re interested.”  She explained her offer with the A2. 

              The round woman through about the offer for all of five seconds, though to be fair, there was no actual thinking involved, it was more that the other woman was in shock over the idea.  “So you’re going to sell me one of these A2 replicators?” the woman asked.  “Of course I’m in!”

              “Lease, but yes.  It should help you with those fiddly bits you mentioned, help you get your shuttles out to your customers.”  Tamara nodded in satisfaction.  “Actually, having other ships in local space can only help things.  I’ll be very happy once that starts happening.”

              But Suriaya wasn’t listening.  “Where is this device?  I’ll need to see it.”

              She nodded.  “Of course.  Let’s go.  I have it on my ship.”  She led Suriaya out to the landing pad and over to her cargo ship. 

              “Where’d you get this baby?” she asked, impressed, eyeing the ship.  “I know they didn’t have anything like this at the orbital.”

              “Nope,” Tamara agreed, keying open the hatch.  “I built her.  A
Testudo
class cargo ship.  Sublight only, but I didn’t want something that needed a big crew to operate.”

              Suriaya was eyeing the ship speculatively.  “I don’t suppose I could get one of those?”

              Tamara smiled.  “I think we can do business.”

              Several hours later, Tamara took off, her cargo hold empty of all the goods she’d brought over, having done what she’d intended and sold off the A2s to several small businesses, gotten a few contracts for more, and orders for two
Testudo
cargo ships.  Her credit accounts were considerably heavier and her mind was already moving on to the next several projects.  She wasn’t going to be able to make runs like this all the time.  She was far too busy handing FP’s operations to go swanning off on individual cargo runs like this. 

              She really needed to get a local office set up, either on the planet or on the orbital for FP, Inc.  It would make local trade so much simpler, instead of having to come all the way out here from the Kutok mine to make transactions.  Just set up the office, make the transactions, and then ship the goods to and from the mine.  She had avoided doing so up until now because she was concerned at how the admin council was going to react.  And with the whole misadventure with the soldiers on her mining station and the
Leytonstone
shooting up local space, she was still a bit undecided about how to handle the whole idea.  She certainly didn’t want to leave important files or data where security troopers or paid thugs could get their hands on it. 

              Tamara sighed, leaning back in the pilot’s couch.  The autopilot was engaged for the long flight back to the Kutok mine, so barring any mishaps, she would just need to keep an eye on things.  Yet another issue she was going to have to sort out.  Not to mention start putting pressure again on the local government.  Triarch Kozen’ck had said he’d get to the bottom of the whole “incident” as it was being called, but she hadn’t heard from him in quite a while. 

              “Actually,” she said, activating the ship’s comms, “I think we need to have a little chat with the good Triarch.”  Pressing a few commands she sent out a call to the zheen politician.

              It took an annoyingly long time for him to pick up.  She was concerned that the call was going to be shunted off to an answering service, but he actually picked up, his image appearing on the cockpit’s small display.  “Triarch Kozen’ck, this is Tamara Samair.”