First Principles: Samair in Argos: Book 3 (39 page)

But it seemed after a clear deliberation, Paxton made a decision.  “Well, there’s a lot to talk about, ma’am.  The ship was a mess, as you know, when we brought it back to its berth at the orbital.  Since then, we’ve managed to tear out the sublight engines, strip down and rebuild the hull.  The engines haven’t been replaced yet, but the hull integrity has been restored, which I can tell you makes me breathe a bit easier.”

She nodded.  It certainly didn’t sound good, but she could agree that having the hull closed back up again properly would be a boon.  “How about power?  I know that Colonel Gants was very concerned about that.  In fact, he was quite vocal about the fact that the lack of power is what ultimately lost the fight.”

Paxton nodded.  “Yes, ma’am, I would have to agree with him on that.  We simply did not have the power to do the things we needed.  We couldn’t get the ship up to speed, keep the shields strong or get all the weapons online with the amount of power we had available.  We’ve been working to correct that.  As I understand it, command negotiated with the FP people and we got our hands on two Zakiris Z429 milspec reactors and we’re getting the power conduits and transformers that we need in installments from them as well.  We need three to bring the ship fully up to power, but as I understand, the government only was able to procure two.”

Hyacinth nodded, though her scowl deepened.  There had been a lot of under the table dealings going on in the last two months, ever since the repairs on the ship had commenced.  First had come the deals for the A2s, but then it was determined that power generation was something that the ship needed and needed quickly.  And while new reactors for the ship could
possibly
be constructed by local companies, but they would need six months to build one.  Somehow, word got back to FP and then Samair had stuck her oar in.  She could build
two
of the things and have them done in six weeks.  The admins had balked at the amount she had charged them and had been outraged by her arrogance. 

Samair, however, refused to allow their bluster to affect her.  “Well, I believe you have two options,” she had told them, managing to keep her face completely calm.  “You can either take it,
or
leave it.  Discuss it and let me know.”  And then she walked out of the meeting, causing human jaws to drop, lupusan ears to lay back and zheen antennae to circle in astonishment and anger.  Heated arguments ensued for two days over that stunt among the admins, but finally, they had agreed.  Credits for reactors, fuel and materials, paid in installments.  Samair, the bitch, had even managed to be humble and gracious in her victory.

“I assume you are installing the power reactors now?” Hyacinth asked, trying not to take out her residual anger for Samair out on Lieutenant Commander Paxton. 

“Yes, ma’am,” he replied.  “Reactor One is already in, tested and powered up.  Reactor Two is in the process of being tested and I’m told by the engineering people that it should be operational within twelve hours.”

“You mentioned that the sublight engines were completely torn out?”

Paxton nodded, blinking slowly as he did.  “Yes, ma’am, they were completely destroyed in the fighting.  I understand there is a company, R3 Systems that is in the process of fabricating new engines for us.  It’s a lot of work because no one in this system other than FP has ever built anything like this in a
long
time.  But Colonel Gants was of the opinion, and I agree, that it wouldn’t be a good idea to get any more beholden to FP Inc than we already are.”

Hyacinth wholeheartedly agreed with that.  While she couldn’t doubt FP and Samair’s ability to deliver on every promise they made, as well as their impressive tech base and work ethic, she didn’t like how that company had skyrocketed to the top in such a very short span of time.  Especially since the company was run by outsiders, people who owed no allegiance or favors to anyone on the admin council. 

“What kind of a timeframe are we looking at for the engines?”

He rubbed the back of his neck.  “Another week for the first engine to be completed, then it has to be shuttled up to the ship and installed.  That’s at least another week.  Once we get that first one in, though, hopefully we’ll be able to shave a few days off the install on the other five.  After that, we’ll be getting an engine every two weeks.”  The ship’s XO actually managed a smile.  “Lots of power and restored engines, ma’am.  I have to say it will be good to be able to bring the ship up to full acceleration.”

Her lips quirked at his enthusiasm.  “Bottom line this for me, Lieutenant Commander.  When will this ship be ready for space?”

Paxton gave a heavy sigh.  “Well, ma’am, we need a third reactor.  It’s much more capable with two but we need three to get maximum performance.  That’s something that command is going to need to procure for us, either through FP or another fabricator.  But aside from that, we’re talking probably five months minimum to get this ship up and running, assuming no problems with parts or materials coming in.  More likely seven.”

Seven months.  An eternity in which any number of things could happen.  The issues with the Republic could flare up and we might need this ship up and running sooner.  That bastard Eamonn might be right about the pirate threat, though I can’t imagine it’s more than propaganda. 
“Very well, Lieutenant Commander.  Thank you for the update, I will pass it along to the admin council.”

“You’re quite welcome, ma’am.  And I’ll forward you a copy of the repair estimates and schedules.”

“Excellent,” she said, and meant it.  Paxton was proving himself worthy of that promotion from tactical officer to XO of the ship.  “And please make sure you get a message to Colonel Gants that I need to speak with him soonest.”

“Of course, ma’am.”

Cresswell nodded once more and cut the connection.  “Seven months,” she whispered. 

Tamara looked up as Viktoriya poked her head into the office.  “Yes, Viktoriya?”

The lupusan had been standing guard outside, having just taken over from Marat an hour earlier.  Since she had been scheduled to depart the
Samarkand
in a few hours for the yard, Viktoriya wanted to be at Tamara’s side when she did with Marat with them.  Ekaterina had been sent on ahead.  Not that there was much danger of someone trying to attack and cause her harm, but the female lupusan was taking no chances.

“I apologize for disturbing you, ma’am,” she said.  “But Captain Eamonn is here to see you.”

Tamara pressed a control on the desk and the display blanked.  “Thank you, Serzhant.  Please send him in.”

She stepped away from the door and gestured politely for the man to go in.  He eyed her for a second, clearly unsure, then stepped through the door and the hatch closed behind him.  “Corajen got you a lupusan bodyguard?”

Tamara chuckled, holding up her three fingers.  “She got me three.”

“You trust them?”  His tone indicated he certainly didn’t.

“I trust Corajen,” she replied.  “She wouldn’t hook me up with bodyguards that couldn’t be trusted.  She said they went on a hunt together and that was all she needed to know.”

Vincent nodded.  Lupusan were strange creatures, with alien ways of thinking.  They formed bonds during their predatory activities, and a lupusan hunt was among the most powerful, allowing the wolves to do what they did best, work together to bring down a prey animal.  If Corajen said that they’d gone on a hunt and they could now be trusted, then they could be trusted.

“So what brings you here?” Tamara asked, slightly concerned.  “As I understood, we weren’t meeting up with the Republic Commodore and Commander for three more hours.”

“No, you’re correct.  But I wanted to come over and get a full on update on all the company’s activities.  I’ve been out of the system for a few months and I wanted to get up to speed on things.”  He shook his head in disbelief.  “But you’ve gotten a huge amount of work done.  I am impressed.”

She bowed her head briefly in acknowledgement.  “Well, these are all things that Stella can get for you,” she pointed out.  “I mean, she’s an AI, she can pull up all the pertinent data and parcel it out into a proper report for you.  I imagine she’d have it ready for you in a few minutes.”

“I understand, but Stella isn’t my Chief of Operations.  She’s my ship AI.” 

Tamara nodded.  “All right.  Well, as you saw, we expanded the yard and built up a mining station to take over those operations from us on this ship.  Ops over there have expanded as well, they’re bringing in
lots
of useable metals.  Fuel operations on the Kutok mine have expanded again, up to twelve sectors for processing and refinement.”

Vincent nodded.  “That’s all good news there.  I assume that the demand has increased as our supply has?”

“Yes.  Even the government has decided to get with the program,” she said, smiling a little.  “Metal and fuel.”

Vincent grinned.  “Excellent.  I hope you’re not giving them wholesale prices after the unpleasantness of a few months ago.”

“Not entirely, no.  About one point above that, though.  I don’t want the admins getting pissed off at me because they think I’m gouging them on materials.”

“I understand.  Just so they know we haven’t forgotten.”

Tamara smiled.  “That was the idea.  So, we started on a third defensive ship, an escort frigate.  I went over the numbers with Eretria, Galina and Nasir, and we knew that as of that time, there wasn’t enough in the budget to be able to afford it.”

He frowned.  “Then why build it?”

“Because we need it,” she replied.  “Especially if the pirates show up.”

“You wanted to build a bigger ship, one that we can’t afford, with personnel we don’t have to crew it, to deal with pirates with much greater firepower.”  He leaned back in the chair, rubbing his forehead.  “I’m confused.”

Tamara sighed, leaning her elbows on the desk and folding her hands.  “Vincent, that ship will have just shy of twice the firepower of one of the corvettes.  Can it stand up to Verrikoth’s light cruisers?  Most likely not.  But without it, our defensive and offensive punch is considerably less.  Besides, I didn’t commission it to go headlong into a hopeless fight.  I commissioned it to potentially escort freighters going to nearby systems.”

He raised an eyebrow, intrigued.  “To pay for protection?”

She nodded.  “That’s the thought, anyway.  Whether it will work out, I don’t know.  Maybe if
Grania Estelle
and those two new freighters I’m building decide they’re going to Heb, or the next system over, that ship could fly along with them, for a modest fee.”

“Yeah, talk to me about those freighters,” he said.  “Are you trying to expand the cargo transport side of this company?”

She shrugged, smiling.  “While I’m certainly not adverse to the idea, no.  We were already elbow deep in the frigate when we got a message from not one, but two different companies wanting us to build a freighter for them.”

Vincent chuckled.  “Oh, I bet the admins were
thrilled
about that.”

“I didn’t ask the admins,” Tamara said.  “It isn’t their business.  We’re licensed to build ships; we have facilities, the personnel and the plans.  All we needed was a client.  And we got two.”

“Who are they?”

“Well, the first one was led by an old spacer who’s been stuck groundside for the last three decades.  He’d managed to scrape up half a million credits, which apparently was enough to convince a group of land owners with some terrestrial mining interests to throw in with him.”

“They got a name?”

“They’re calling themselves Light in the Woods.  I guess they deal in natural gas, petroleum, oil and they even have themselves a serious platinum deposit.”

Vincent frowned, rubbing his chin.  “And how did they come up with Light in the Woods?”

She shrugged.  “Damned if I know.  Not my business why they’d come up with that name, but hey, if it makes sense to them, good on them.  They could call themselves the ‘I Hate Tamara Samair Society’ but as long as they’ve got the credits, I’d be fine with that.”

Vincent threw back his head and laughed.  “So long as they’re willing to shell out those credits, you mean.”

“Well, yeah, that was understood.”  She leaned back.  “Anyway, they wanted a ship.  Apparently word of your first trip to Heb had made the rounds and their thinking that they might be able to make a profit selling their goods to the people there.”

Vincent nodded, staring at the front of the desk before lifting his eyes to meet Tamara’s.  “Well, if we have more ships going to Heb; that can only be good, right?  Get some serious commerce going.”

“I think so too.  Groger, that the name of the wolf who wants the ship, he seemed really excited about the idea.  I guess he’s been missing being out in the Deep Dark for a long time.”

“Another lupusan, huh?” Vincent asked. 

“They make up thirty-two percent of the local population, Vincent,” she reminded him.  “Humans are at thirty-five, with zheen making up the next largest percentage.  We’re going to see a lot of those three races here.”

“All right, so that’s one client.  Who’s the other?”  Tamara was silent for a long moment.  “What?  What…?”  His tone got lower and suspicious.