First Principles: Samair in Argos: Book 3 (40 page)

She sighed.  “A group of humans working in a steel mining foundry down on the planet.  Apparently, they’d been working in the business for something like two decades and had squirreled away every single credit they could, living on nutritional supplements and noodle soup cups for years.  I guess,” she said with another deep breath, “that they were tired of working for someone else, especially some big corporation, and they all up and quit.  Then we arrived, and some of the crew left the ship.”

Vincent nodded.  He crossed his arms over his chest.  “I think I see where this is going.”

“One of the former cargomen on
Grania Estelle
, Neville Corvan, met one of the guys in a bar.  They had some drinks, got to talking, and the rest is history.”

“Corvan,” the captain said, stroking his chin.  “That was one of Taja’s least favorite people.  After me, I suppose.”  His expression grew dark.

“Slacker?” she asked.  “I wasn’t really familiar with all the cargo people.”

He nodded.  “A bit.  She had to really keep on him to make sure he was pulling his weight.  I was actually happy to be rid of him.  I guess if he convinced these guys to buy a ship from us, I’m happy to hear his name again, though I’ll be surprised if they will be happy to work with him, once things get going.”  He chuckled.  “Oh, so what did those guys call themselves?”

She gave a dark chuckle, rolling her eyes a bit.  “Well, they were undecided, actually.  They just came to me with a bunch of credits, a couple of outside helpers and a desire for a ship.  It wasn’t until Ms. Sterling pointed out the flaws in the design of the ship and the solution to making it better that they came up with the name.”

“Which was?” he asked, a grin on his face.

“Cosmic Expedited Freight,” she said.

He grimaced.  “Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.”

“No, but the changes Eretria made in the design will make the ships go quickly enough and carry slightly more cargo, so it make sense from that perspective.  I wasn’t happy about the changes at first, but she sold me on them,” Tamara admitted.

“So, two new ships.”

“Yes, Captain,” she said, emphasizing his rank.  “They’re not company property, but once other companies start seeing our ships out there bringing goods back and forth, it can only help.  Keep on waking up the people of this system; get them out of that lethargy.”

“You’ve done good work here, Tamara,” he said.  At her raised eyebrow, he hurriedly went on.  “I mean it.  You’ve exceeded my expectations.”

“Well, there’s more.”

“More?  You just landed a huge pile of credits on me, with the certainty for more, considering how much fuel we’re going to be selling those two companies and now you’re telling me there’s more in the works?”

Tamara just grinned.  “Well, you’re either growing or you’re dying.  And I made an executive decision, one that I’m sure is going to get me yelled at.  But I moved forward on it because I think that there’s only so much bad blood we can stomach.”

His gaze turned suspicious.  “I’m not sure I like where this is going.”

“The
Leytonstone
.”

“Oh, hell, no,” he said, slapping his hand on his knee.  “What did you do?”

“Vincent, that ship was the only reason we came to this system,” she reminded him.  “We came here for protection.  In the process-…”

But he cut her off.  “In the process, Tamara, we’ve set ourselves up with an incredibly profitable business.  You’ve built up more infrastructure than I’ve ever thought possible.  Ships and a gas mine.  And those bastards over on the orbital got scared.  They have it in their little greedy minds that we were going to come in and push them off their comfortable little pedestals.  So they sent that very ship to shit all over us.  You were
there
, Tamara!”

She sighed.  “Yes, Vincent, I was there.  So were you.  Good people died that day.”

“And we emerged victorious,” he shot back.  “Now I agreed with you that we couldn’t board the ship.  And once they restored power and started limping back to the orbital, honestly, I was happy to see them go.  And now you’re going to help them fix it up?”

“I’ve already done it,” she told him.

He was on his feet.  “What the fuck do you mean you already did it?”

“Sit down, Vincent,” she said coldly.  “You put me in charge of Operations with this company.  I didn’t want the job,
you
guilted me into it.  And now that I’m here, I’m going to do the best job that I possibly can.”

“And how…” he sputtered.  “How the hell does fixing up a warship equate to ‘doing the best job you can’?”

Tamara pointed to the chair behind him.  “Sit!” she barked. 

The hatch popped open and Viktoriya’s red and brown furred face poked in.  Tamara shook her head but the guard didn’t leave until the captain sat himself down stiffly in the chair.  Once he was sitting, Viktoriya nodded slightly and slipped back out, closing the hatch behind her.

“The whole reason we came to this system was because needed protection from the pirates.  You, Taja, Cookie, Xar and Frederick Vosteros came up with that plan,” she reminded him.  “You all came up with that idea.  And I’ll admit, it was a good one, considering the situation we were in.  And knowing that eventually Verrikoth is going to figure out where we are, where
Grania Estelle
is and knowing that the defensive assets in the system probably can’t stand up to his flotilla, that ship is what’s going to save us in the end, Vincent.”

He just sat there, staring at her.  “That ship, our salvation?  That ship nearly
ended
us a few months ago, Tamara.  Ended us.  They attacked and broke your ship, shot down nearly all the fighters and it was pure luck that we survived the attack. Their haste and stupidity allowed us to win.  They sent a paper tiger after us and even then it took all we had to bring it down.”

“We couldn’t just take the ship, Vincent. 
I
couldn’t.  They managed to get the ship’s power restored and they started the long trip back to the orbital.  But by that point we had nothing left.  We had seven Aploras and one Delphon left. 
Cavalier
was trashed; we barely got back to the mine for rebuilds.  Yes, we could have landed the birds to rearm and refuel and send them back out, but eight fighters didn’t have the punch to take down that ship.”  She eyed him.  “And in order to take the ship, we’d have had to murder the crew and all of the soldiers aboard.  The battle at that point was over.  We had our own wounds to lick and I wasn’t willing to take it further.”

He took in a deep, shaking breath.  “So what did you do for them?”

She looked at him, defiant.  “I sold two milspec He3 reactors, the upgraded power conduits, a dozen A2 replicators, metals and fuel.”

He sat and fumed for a moment.  “All right.  So you help them fix up that ship.  They bring the battlecruiser to its former glory.  What’s to stop them from just flying here and either blasting us into oblivion or forcing us to bend a knee?”

“I’m sure they might consider it,” Tamara conceded.  “But I thought about it too.  Which is why I hard-wired the reactors with a fail-safe.”

He blinked.  “What fail-safe?”

“Eretria, Nasir and I worked it into the base code of the reactors,” she explained.  “It’s physically programmed into the components, burned in so that a simple wipe of the computer system won’t get rid of it.  I got the idea from the pirate rigging that they did when we were on course for Amethyst.  Remember?  Our course was locked for Amethyst.”  He nodded.  “But we got the failsafe into every component in those reactors.  When the ship receives a specific signal, the reactors will immediately scram, shutting down completely.  The ship will be suddenly dark and ballistic, running on battery power.”

Vincent just stared at her, dumbfounded.  Then he chuckled.  The laugh bubbled up into his throat until he was giving a full-throated guffaw.  “I
love
it!”  But then he sobered.  “But what if they find the failsafe?”

She shrugged.  “We were subtle about it.  That’s not to say that they couldn’t find it, but they’d have to know what to look for, first of all, and then they’d have to think to look in the components themselves, instead of in the software which is where it would be easier and more obvious to look.”

“Very good work, Tamara.  I can’t say I’m not still concerned that they might try to come after us,” he said, worry plainly etched in his face.

Tamara nodded, raking a hand through her hair.  “I can’t say I’m not either.  But as far as the battlecruiser is concerned, I think we’ll be all right.  And I’d rather have the ship online and ready when Verrikoth comes a-knocking.”

He grimaced, tapping two fingers on the arm of the chair.  “I can’t say I can argue with that,” he admitted.  “I’m just not comfortable with the admins having that ship under their command.”

“I wish there was a better option,” Tamara admitted.  “But there really isn’t.”

“If you were in command…”

But she held up her hands and shook her head vehemently.  “Oh, no.  No, no, no.  Captain, I’m an engineer, not a command officer.  I took command of the
Cavalier
because we literally had no one else even remotely trained for the job.  We’ve got a small corps of officers being trained at the Kutok mine on simulators and in classrooms, and then they get swapped with crews on the
Cavalier
and the
Maitland
.  I’m cycling the crews and officers, other than the captains, through the ships.  I want to get everyone trained up so I’ll have people ready when the frigate is operational.”  She shook her head.  “But a battlecruiser takes several thousand crew to run properly.  And we simply don’t have people trained for that.”

“I can appreciate that.”  Then Vincent’s eyes narrowed.  “That’s really why you’re building that other ship, isn’t it?”

“It’s certainly one of the reasons,” Tamara admitted.  “But honestly, a pair of corvettes, a frigate, and two squadrons of starfighters could
not
stand up to a fully operational battlecruiser, even if we all fired missiles in one monster salvo.”

Vincent shook his head, as though there was a small, irritating fly buzzing around his head.  “So I’m confused.  We’re pinning all our hopes that this failsafe of yours is going to act as a deterrent?  They don’t even know that it’s there.”

“Very true, so as a deterrent, it won’t work.  What I’m hoping is that because I’m the one, or rather
we’re
the ones providing fuel, metals and credits into the local economy that they won’t risk losing popular support with the citizens.”

He pursed his lips but then shrugged.  “Somehow the idea of the people keeping the admin council from running roughshod over anything they see as a threat doesn’t seem like the best strategy.”

Now it was Tamara’s turn to shrug.  “Then that’s what the failsafe is for.  And once that ship is dead in space, all of the company defensive ships will tear that battlecruiser to bits.  Tugs will come in and tow the burned out hulk into one of the construction slips.  Then I will hold the biggest press conference and demand the arrests of all of the admin council, showing that they yet again cannot be trusted and that they were willing to attack and kill their own citizens for no reason other than they were willing to work for a huge corporation.  A corporation that is willing to build up infrastructure, create jobs, build up the economy and bring in foreign goods.  Hell, sell domestic goods in other systems.”

Then she nodded, tapping a fist on the desk.  “Which reminds me, we need to talk about some refits to the
Grania Estelle
.”

He blinked.  “Wait, what?  When were we needing refits?”

She sighed.  “Nasir?  Get Stella on the line with us here.  And open a channel to the
Grania Estelle. 
Please see if Chief Trrgoth is available to talk now.”  The AI appeared on the display and nodded.

“Why do I feel like I’m being ambushed?”

She grinned.  “Oh, Captain Eamonn, that’s because you are.”

              Once everyone was present, either in person or digitally, Vincent Eamonn folded his arms over his chest.  “All right, Tamara.  What refits are you wanting to make to my ship?”

              “The biggest one that I’m thinking of involves keeping the ship safer, Captain,” she said, folding her hands on the desktop.  “For the longest time, it really hasn’t mattered since there had been very little in the way of active threats in the Argos Cluster.  Or rather, the number of threats in the Cluster was fewer.”

              “Until Ulla-tran.”

              She nodded.  “Right.  Well, Hecate, really, but certainly Ulla-tran.  And we got so very lucky in that escape.  So incredibly lucky,” Tamara said, looking down to the desktop for a second.  “I know you did the best you could to try and fight the ship, Vincent, but a bulk freighter fighting against three light cruisers and a corvette, there was only so much we could do.”  They all were silent for a second, as they all remembered that terrifying time. 
Grania Estelle
had done what she could to try and escape the pirate flotilla throwing everything at the enemy, but the lumbering freighter had been, quite simply, overmatched.  The cruisers had swooped in and bracketed the massive vessel while the corvette had shot out her sublight engines.  There had been no escape.

              Tamara brightened.  “What I’m proposing is to refit bay eight into a hangar bay for a full squadron of starfighters.  That bay is massive, more than big enough to accommodate twenty fighters.”

              Vincent was frowning, but Stella looked delighted by the idea.  “A pocket carrier?” she squeaked.  “I think that would be amazing, Captain!”  Her holographic image hovering above the projector was nearly jumping up and down with excitement.

              “Do we have the fighters for this?” he asked, instead.  That was a surprise.  Tamara had fully expected that he would object to the conversion of the bay from cargo to hangar.

              “I have the ships,” she said, nodding.  “Been thinking about this for the last month.  Korqath has been recruiting and training, but the newbies are nowhere near ready.”

              “What about the standing squadrons?” he asked.

              Nasir was the one who nodded this time, his image on the display.  “Delphon Squadron is the best choice for this, I think.  They have just been reconstituted and have had a few months to work up.  They’ll be able to do more in simulation while the
Grania Estelle
is in transit.”

              “It will give Xar a chance to work directly with the
Zlk’vzn
-class fighters he designed,” Quesh said from the split screen on the monitor he was sharing with Nasir.  “And I think I have a few ideas for berthing spaces for twenty ships, plus spare parts, fueling tanks.”

              They spent the next hour discussing the project.  Tamara was also concerned by the lack of communication from the big bulk freighter, even though the ship had been only a handful of light years away, one star system over.  So the idea had been suggested to cut the bay in half, separating the massive cargo doors so that they would open over half the bay, and a bulkhead put in to differentiate between the sections and to maintain atmo in the closed section.  One half of the bay would hold the fighters, and a large plate would be added to give a second level for which to launch and land fighters.  A large cargo elevator would be installed at the inner section of the fighter bay to move goods and personnel from one level to the other.

              The other half of the bay was reserved for a hyper capable ship that could jump out of the system and bring word back to home base.  Eretria, Kay’grax and Nasir (using a lot of processing cycles) had managed to retrofit one of the
Testudo
cargo ships into a fast packet.  They had to cut the cargo space down to almost nothing, giving only three metric tons of cargo space, but in return they wedged in a huge fuel bunker, a class four hyperdrive, and upgraded shields.  The ship had no armament, but it wasn’t intended as a warship.  It was intended to have long legs.  At top speed, the ship could theoretically make it into the low levels of the Green in the hyperspace bands.  That way,
Grania Estelle
could call for help if the need arose, or even just send the ship back to inform home base that they would be staying an extra month for an extended build project.

              There had been talk of other upgrades: improved shields, an updated hyperdrive, combat drones and an AI to manage them, clusters of missile launchers, even a turbolaser battery in the aft section, but in the end, Vincent decided that all he was going to take was the refit to the cargo bay.  His ship had been in port only a few days and already he was getting the feeling that he needed to get back out into space. Tamara promised her teams would be able to refit the bay within a month, with the assistance from
Grania Estelle
’s engineering division.

              Eventually, the meeting broke up, the AIs and the Chief Engineer disappearing, leaving only the two humans in the compartment.  “All right, so what can I expect from the Commodore?” Tamara asked.

              He sighed.  “Well, she’s going to want her flagship fixed up, I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that.”

              “Thank you, Captain Eamonn,” she simpered.  “I never would have figured that out without your expert assistance in this matter.”  She gave him huge wide eyes, blinking a lot.

              “Cute.  She’s not the friendliest of people.  Kind of reminds me of some other women in my life,” he said, grinning.  She growled at him and he went on.  “In her case though, I think a lot of it comes from the fact that her task force was crushed by the pirate flotilla.”

              Tamara nodded in sympathy.  “I can understand that.  She’s also a high ranking officer.  She’s probably very used to being in charge and having to defer to civilians probably won’t sit too well.”

              “And how will working with you be different?”

              She gave a half shrug.  “I’m not sure it will be from her perspective.  I’m certainly not going to tell her that I’m Republic Navy.”

              “All right, let’s go and get this over with.”

              “Done with engines, ma’am,” the ship’s helmsman reported.

              “Thank you, Mister Douglas,” Brianne replied.  She pressed a control, opening a channel to Engineering.  “Are the mooring lines secured, Mister Blucas?” she asked her chief engineer.

              “They are, Captain.  I’ve powered down into standby mode.  Reactor One is completely powered down.  She was starting to develop a twitch that I don’t like.  It’s going to require a full teardown and rebuild.”

              Brianne nodded, grimacing.  “Very well, Chief.  Keep me informed.  As I understand, the representatives from First Principles will be here soon and we’ll have civilian engineering teams here to assist.”

              There was a heavy sigh over the comms.  “Captain, are we sure about these people?  I mean, if we were back in the Republic, at one of the major shipyards, I wouldn’t have a problem with it, but here…”

              She chuckled.  “Chief, you hate it when
any
civilians start working on this ship.  And I can’t say I blame you.  Especially out here in the Cluster, I absolutely understand not trusting the civilians.  But we don’t have a year to sit around while you and your teams make the necessary repairs.”

              “That was a low blow, Captain,” Blucas grumbled. 

              “But I think it was one you needed to hear, Chief.  We need to get my ship back up to her fighting trim, and to do that, we need these people.”

              “Captain-…” he started to plead.

              “No, Chief,” she said.  “Not over the comms.  In fact, meet me in my cabin, please.”  She cut the connection.

              The man arrived in her cabin less than five minutes later, and it looked as though his steam lines were about to burst, judging by the nearly purple color to his face.  “Captain, I know that we need these people and that you think that this is a good idea and all but, I just I cannot-…”

              “All right, Chief that is enough!” Brianne barked.  The man gave her an incredulous look but before he could speak again, she pointed at a spot on the deck just inside the hatch.  “Close that hatch, now.” 

              He worked his jaw, but turned and closed the hatch.  Then he immediately turned back, his mouth open as though to speak.  “Right there!” she said, her voice rising slightly in volume and she stood taller, swelling to her full, impressive height.  “Standing tall!”

              His expression sullen, the engineering officer did as he was ordered.  He braced to attention, staring at a spot through the Commander since she was taking up the back half of the compartment and he was unable to see around her.  She stepped up to him, invading his personal space, looking down at the shorter man.

              She glared at him.  “Lieutenant, I know we’ve all been through a lot.  And I also know that you and your teams have done everything possible to keep this ship running.  But I’ve had enough of your bitching about working with the FP technicians.  Now.”

              “Aye, aye, ma’am,” Blucas replied, stiffly.

              “So, you’re going to obey orders and like it, Cormaran.  I know you don’t want civilians crawling all over the ship, but that’s the way it’s going to be.  I’m expecting Captain Eamonn and his Chief of Operations to be over here in a few minutes.  So you’re going to adjust that attitude of yours, sailor, and you and I are going to meet with them.  We’re going to discuss the repairs to my ship.  Then, we’re going to plan the repairs, and then you and the FP people are going to perform the repairs.  And you will do so with a minimum of fuss.  If I have to break up any fights, if I hear about any serious disagreements between you and their representative, you and I will be having a discussion.  And then I will be finding a new engineer.  Am I clear, Lieutenant?”

              The man swallowed hard.  “Aye, aye, ma’am,” he said, his voice strained but a little louder than before.  He stared straight ahead, which happened to be right at her throat.

              She nodded slightly.  “I expect you to be there, ready and raring to go when their people arrive.  Dismissed,” she barked.

              “Aye, aye, ma’am!” he barked, did a crisp pivot and marched out of the cabin, closing the hatch gently behind him.

              Once he was gone, Brianne seemed to deflate slightly, her presence no longer taking up half the cabin.  She was just a female Secaaran again, a very tired one.  She leaned a hand against the bulkhead breathing hard for a few moments.  It took her far longer than she wanted to regain her composure.  Once she got things under control again, she straightened up, adjusted her uniform tunic and then headed out of the compartment.

              Brianne met the commodore in the corridor heading to the airlock.  The boat bay had been sealed off but never repaired, so for the moment anyone coming aboard the ship had to do so via one of the personnel airlocks.  The destroyer had maneuvered into one of the construction docks, and mooring lines had secured the ship.  Minutes after that, boarding tubes linked up with the airlocks from the dock’s interior compartments. 

              The sailor standing by the airlock control put a hand to his ear.  “Captain, the dockside control is indicating the representatives are going to come through.”

              Brianne nodded.  “Go ahead, cycle them through.” 

              The sailor did as he was bid, and the airlock hissed and then opened.  Five individuals stepped through.  The sailor’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head and he sent a frantic message to the Commander’s implants.

              [Captain, there are three lupusan in the airlock.]  He seemed a bit panicked.  [And all of them are armed to the teeth.]

              Brianne cursed herself for a fool.  She nodded in acknowledgement and then shot a message off to security, demanding a response team to the airlock on the double.  She wasn’t sure what they would be able to do against lupusan, but it was better that they get here and stand sentinel than not having them. 

              Two humans led the way; their dogs were lining the wall behind, all three looking well-armed and menacing, though none of them made any hostile or threatening moves.  Captain Eamonn stepped up to the commodore and extended his hand.  “Commodore, good to see you again,” he said, chuckling.  “Not as though we haven’t been talking every day over the comms.”

              Theodosia nodded, shaking his hand.  She was still confined to the hover chair.  The limbs that Turan had made for her were ready, but she had refused to leave
Horus
until they arrived at the docking facility and Turan couldn’t perform the surgeries necessary to attach the new legs until she did.  “Good to see you again in person, Captain.  And who’s this?” she asked, taking in the sight of the others.

              But Brianne interrupted him.  “Captain, I must say, I don’t appreciate you bringing armed guards onto my ship.”  She indicated the lupusan.