First Principles: Samair in Argos: Book 3 (44 page)

              Tamara and the Captain had sat down with Nasir and Stella to set up some sort of currency exchange.  The likelihood that the people from Heb would continue to be able to pay in volatile compounds was slim, though all four had agreed that trying to get at least some of the payment in foodstuffs was a good idea.  And it seemed as though with more ships making trips between Heb and Seylonique there needed to be a conversion between currency, and Tamara had suggested getting on the comms with
Silver Dawn
’s Captain and purser while the two ships made their way to the hyper limit, get her involved.  They’d work it out, Tamara was sure. 

              Upon seeing the hooplah associated with the two ships being launched, another company petitioned FP to build one for them as well, to which Tamara happily agreed.  Dry dock two and three were open and Tamara happily assigned dock three to the task of building another cargo ship and Eretria sent them to work immediately.  In addition to the new ship, Tamara also received a huge commission to build two more He3 power plants and to sell the plans for power conduits to the planet for other contractors to build.  She quickly snapped that contract up.  If the company was going to make a name for itself in clean energy, who was she to complain?

              “So you’re building another corvette?” Nasir asked.  The AI had been involved in all of the deals and all of the builds, yet he was constantly surprised at the pace Tamara was setting.  She was making sure that her crews were decently rested; she didn’t want strikes or mutiny, but she never allowed them to sit too long.  “I’ve checked the numbers, Tamara.  We have a rather healthy credit balance right now, especially with the power plant deal and even after the expenses from that are paid.”

              She nodded, looking over a report.  “Yes, I saw that as well.  And I’m not willing to just sit around on my laurels.  I want to make sure that company assets are protected.  I also plan to build another escort frigate once this corvette is done, funds permitting.”

              The lupusan flicked his ears.  “That’s a lot of ships and a lot of credits, Tamara.  Wouldn’t money be better spent building cargo ships?”

              She nodded.  “Yes.  And once the ship in slip two is finished, we’re going to be building a new cargo ship of our very own.”  She pursed her lips, rubbing her chin.  “And I’m thinking of expanding the business.”

              “Oh?  In what way?”

              “I’m thinking that once we have more than one cargo ship plying the local spacelanes, we will have to break the business into different departments.  One for mining and fuel, and the other for building and transport.”

              The AI nodded his head slowly, putting his hands behind his back.  “Seems like a good idea.  Might be able to get a bit better business if the divisions are more focused.”

              “That was my plan.  I’ll have to run it by Vincent, but if I can show him more credits flowing into the coffers, I doubt he’ll complain much.”

              Nasir grinned.  “From what I’ve seen of the good Captain, no I don’t think he will.”

              “Any progress on the de-worming?” Tamara asked.  With Stella out of range, it had fallen to Nasir and Magnus to continue the work.  As a slight joke, Tamara had told them to work their magic and get this fixed and the male AI’s had decided to take that to the next level.    Whenever Tamara would check in on them, she would see the pair of them standing together on opposite sides of a flame pit.  Floating above the blaze was a crystal orb, translucent and filled with shimmering, shifting smoke, as though a spirit lay within.  Every so often, she could see a solid shape inside and a cobra’s hooded head would move to the edge of the crystal, hissing, only to disappear back into the smoke.  The lupusan Nasir and warthog Magnus stood staring into the crystal, muttering to themselves, their eyes blazing with an inner heat.  Magnus had his hands folded over the hilt of his massive sword, while Nasir simply folded his large hands in front of him.  It looked like some sort of ritual to exorcise an evil spirit; which is essentially what they were attempting to do.  When Stella had been in range to help, the young woman had joined the two larger males around the fire, but she had done all she could.  It was now in the hands of the boys to get the job done.

              Of course, they were AIs, not mythical creatures performing magic spells.  The bit of theater was for the organics who looked in on them.  Both AIs had more than enough spare processing cycles to be working on breaking the worm as well as performing all their regular tasks.  But every so often, the two AIs would show image on Tamara’s display, just to remind her that they were still working on it.

              “It’s a pretty good piece of work,” Nasir admitted.  “I’m impressed at whoever coded this worm.  Stella, Magnus and I unwrapped the first few layers of defensive coding, only to find buried subroutines.  The three of us managed to prevent the worm from activating and we returned it to its slumber.  Magnus and I have been slowly peeling it apart.  And we are confident that we will be able to eliminate the worm within the allotted time frame.”

              Tamara nodded.  “All right.  Keep me informed.  Because if this worm can’t be eliminated, I’m going to have to put the squeeze on the Commodore.  And I’m almost hoping that you
can’t
get rid of it.”  Her smile was feral. 

              “I’m sorry, Commodore, but I think that will be quite impossible.”

              McConnell sighed.  The meeting she’d attended at the orbital was not going the way that she’d hoped.  The admin council had been more hidebound and short sighted than she’d feared.  After six hours of arguing, Triarch Kozen’ck, the damned bug, had finally laid down the law. 

              “We have our own military assets here, Commodore,” Kozen’ck went on.  “The
Leytonstone
is going to be ready for a shakedown cruise in a little more than a week.  In addition to First Principles’ warships there is enough here to keep our system safe.”

              Theodosia raised an eyebrow.  “You are partnering with FP Inc?  With Tamara Samair and Vincent Eamonn?  The company that your ship attacked only a few months ago?  You’re going to tell me that the government and that company are working together?”

              “In the interests of keeping this system safe, yes, we are.”  The zheen was projecting confidence and her scans of the bug weren’t showing any signs of deception.  If nothing else, he truly believed what he was saying.

              She pursed her lips.  “I see.  Well, considering the amount of firepower I’ve seen that the pirates have, I’m concerned that even having a battlecruiser to fight them might not be enough.”

              “Bah!” Harmon Kly exclaimed.  “I’m still not convinced that this ‘pirate’ threat is as dangerous as everyone is claiming.”

              Had her legs been back to full strength, McConnell would have had a difficult time restraining herself from leaping to her feet.  It was the first time she was actually glad that she wasn’t one hundred percent yet.  “A lot of good people died fighting them, Mister Kly.  I’ve provided the sensor data from the logs of my flagship, which detail the attack on Byra-Kae and the destruction of my flotilla.  Did you bother to review them?”  Her voice was frozen helium.

              Kly waved a hand in dismissal.  “Yes, yes, we’ve all watched the logs.”  He smirked viciously.  “Terrible shame about your ship.”

              McConnell managed to keep her face blank, not revealing any of the blistering fury welling inside her.  “Yes, Mister Kly, it was.  But my ships were outnumbered and outclassed, and we still managed to take down one of the pirate cruisers.”

              “At the expense of nearly your entire flotilla,” he pointed out, that smirk never leaving his lips.  “And then, of course, you fled.  Ran away from your responsibilities and fell into the waiting arms of Vincent Eamonn.”

              “I did manage to find the Captain, yes.  We worked out an arrangement.”

              “How wonderful,” Kly replied, his eyes narrowed, malice oozing out of his pores.

              “I have a question, Commodore,” Hyacinth Cresswell asked, leaning forward, her elbows on the table.  She sneered.  “You say you want to offer us help.  That you want to secure basing rights for the Republic here in the Navy.”

              McConnell nodded, trying to keep the suspicion off her face.  “Yes, that’s correct.”

              “Well, I’m just curious.  Unless you’re going to just station your ship here on a permanent basis, you’d have to travel all the way back to the Republic, get approval and ships and soldiers and support staff and
then
fly
all
the way back here.  That’s at least a year, assuming your superiors decide to go for this deal.  So a year plus, we’d be without your… generous protection.  And if this pirate threat is as real and as urgent as you claim, why would working with you benefit us at all?  You could be months away while we are attacked by this pirate lord.  You might get all the way back to the Republic only to have your… Excuse me,
our
, request denied.”

              McConnell fumed as all the council members heads swiveled in her direction.  She had hoped that none of the council members here would detect that flaw in her argument.  She nodded.  There wasn’t any way to sugar coat or lie about this.  “Yes, that is a possibility, Ms. Cresswell.  I’m not going to pretend that it isn’t.”  She sighed.  “Yes, it will take some time to get proper forces out here.  But with an actual threat out here in the Argos Cluster, I believe it will light a fire under the Admiralty.”

              Triarch Kozen’ck shook his head, his antennae waggling.  “I think it more likely, Commodore, that the Republic will pull back its forces.  I imagine there is enough going on in and at the borders of the Republic to keep your fleet occupied.  I suspect the minute your ship arrives back home you will be retasked and the attack in Byra-Kae will be quietly forgotten.”

              McConnell shrugged.  “That is possible,” she admitted, gritting her teeth.  “But I can assure you that I would do everything in my power to get ships and resources out this way.”

              Pandemonium erupted as all of the council members started throwing furious recriminations all over the conference room, mostly at the Republic as a whole, but there was plenty of vitriol for the Commodore in particular, Commander Crgann for her failure to fight her ship properly and even at fate for bringing a Republic ship into their system in the first place.

              “This is ridiculous,” Chakrabarti said loudly, cutting across the chatter.  The room quieted.  “Commodore, can you assure us that you would be successful in securing warships and supplies to bring back here?  Can you
assure
us?”

              She paused for a moment as all eyes bored into her.  “No, sir, I cannot.”

              “Of course not,” Cresswell spat.  “Why are we wasting our time with this nonsense?”

              “It isn’t nonsense!” McConnell protested.  “The threat out there is very real, I can assure you.  I fought them.” 
Why won’t they
listen
?
  Her right fist clenched in frustration at the situation before her. 

              “And lost,” Chakrabarti put in.  Kly chuckled.

              Kly looked around the table at the assembled council members.  “I think we’ve heard enough here,” he said with a sneer.

              “Yes,” Cresswell agreed, leaning back in her chair and casually placed her hands on the table in front of her.  “This was a waste of time.”

              Kozen’ck nodded to the Republic officer.  “Thank you for coming in, Commodore.  I appreciate your suggestion, but I believe we will politely decline.”

              McConnell slowly rose to her feet, using the cane to support her weight.  She nodded to the table at large and started to walk to the door.  But before she touched the control to open it, she turned back.  “We still have a bit of time before the
Horus
will be ready to depart the system,” Theodosia said, making a monumental effort to restrain her fury.  She could see all their faces looking back at her, most of them looking with contempt, a few with pity.  The Triarch was an impossible read, though.  She couldn’t tell what he was thinking, only that he was clearly going along with what the others were thinking.  “If any of you wish to talk, you know where to find me.”

              “Ha!” Kly scoffed.  “Whatever it takes to get you moving from our star system, Commodore,” he said condescendingly.

              McConnell nodded to the group and then exited the conference room.

              “
Damn
their oily hides!” the commodore raged, slamming a fist against the bulkhead of the shuttle.  She managed to hitch a ride back to the yard complex on one of the FP shuttles, whose pilot wasn’t all that thrilled to be carrying a Republic VIP back to the yard.  But, the pilot had her marching orders; she was to provide the Commodore transport back to the yard from the orbital.  The woman did so without complaint, but it was clear that the woman shouting and banging on the bulkhead of the ship didn’t make her any happier about having her aboard.