First Principles: Samair in Argos: Book 3 (64 page)

              He paused, thinking.  “Is that going to hamper your duties aboard
this
ship?”

              She grinned.  “Of course not, Captain.  Not with all the spare processing cycles I’ve got right now.  I shouldn’t have any problems.  Up until now, I’d been staying out of it, letting
Mondragon
’s crew do the work, but I think it might be a good idea to help them out.”

              Vincent nodded, smiling a little.  “Ask, Stella.  If Leicasitaj declines, try and be more persuasive.”

              “And there they go,” Mogrin said softly, seated in his command chair on
Sessilan
’s bridge.  The three ships had broken orbit and were heading out, on a course for Seylonique. 
Why Seylonique?  And how the hell did they get past the battlecruiser that those people are supposed to have?  Lord Verrikoth would certainly want to know what is going on in that system, if there’s any threat there.

             
“What is the status of
Toroj
’s fuel reserves?” he asked, turning to the communications station.

              “One moment, Leader,” the young man replied, pressing a few controls, linking with the cutter’s datanet via whisker laser and querying for the information.  “Seventy-two percent, Leader.”

              He nodded.  “Get Trammen Gokon on the line.”  A moment later the zheen cutter commander’s face appeared on the small display on the arm of Mogrin’s chair.  The commander of the cutter was wearing a blue and yellow surcoat, and Mogrin could see a bandolier going over one shoulder.  “Gokon, close in on
Sessilan
.  I want you to link up with us and tank up.”

              The zheen hissed.  “Why?  We have more than enough fuel to make it to Tyseus from here.”

              Mogrin nodded to him, irritated at the question.  “Yes, I know that.  Don’t act as though you’re in charge here.”  Gokon hissed back at him, but his antennae drooped.  “Good.  Now close up, thrusters only and tank up.  You’re going somewhere.”

              “And where am I going?” the zheen asked, irritation tinged in his voice.  It was no secret that Gokon resented the fact that Verrikoth had promoted a human to the more prestigious of the two commands, but he wasn’t strong enough to try and challenge the man for his position.  And it wasn’t as though
Toroj
was a garbage scow; no she was a recently captured Republic cutter, captured by Gokon himself with a few of his current crewmen.  Some of the glory had been taken out of that capture by the fact that the old crew was dead when he’d boarded and the ship’s systems were blown out, but in just a few hours, auxiliary power and life support were restored and the bull breach had been patched.  Three days and a team of engineers later,
Toroj
was fully combat capable, once again.  And it wasn’t that he wasn’t proud of his new command, his
first
command in fact, it was that he didn’t want to be working with Mogrin, to be working
under
Mogrin.

              It was no secret that the two males despised one another.  It had been a long-reaching feud that had been going for years.  Verrikoth kept it going because their frequent competitions amused him and it kept many of the others in his crew in line.  But Mogrin had been assigned to the corvette and he was sent to the cutter.  It would have been a perfect arrangement had they not been assigned together, but again, their hatred amused the pirate lord.  He told them to bury their feelings toward one another and perform this task, and they had relented.  But now that they were far from their lord, that old hatred was starting to reassert itself.

              “You’re going to be following that small convoy,” Mogrin ordered, gesturing in the general direction of the three ships.  “They’re on a vector that seems to be toward Seylonique and I think Lord Verrikoth would like an idea of what is going on in that system.  No one’s gone there in any serious capacity in decades.”

              “And you want to risk
my
ship for this?” Gokon demanded sourly. 

              Mogrin shrugged.  “I don’t want to risk any of the ships under my command, but I think this is information that Lord Verrikoth needs to know.”  He leaned slightly forward.  “You’ll go in, run your stealth systems until those ships jump, then follow after them.  Make sure to jump short.”

              “I
know
how to do this,” the zheen said shortly.  “I will take care of it.  We are moving into position now and once the refueling is complete, we will follow the tradeships.”

              “Good.  Get on it.”  Mogrin cut the connection.  He turned to the other bridge members.  “Prepare for refueling ops. 
Toroj
is going to be coming alongside and linking up.”  The small bridge crew acknowledged the order, readying their consoles and the ship’s systems.

              The Leader watched on the monitor as the smaller ship moved closer and eventually moved right alongside the hull, less than a meter away from the corvette.  The pilots of the two ships were running on automated controls, organic beings unable to truly maintain such perfect positioning unassisted.  Another display indicated the linkages hooking up to the cutter and then the fuel transfer initiating. 

              “It’ll take approximately seventy-nine minutes to complete the transfer, Leader,” the watch stander reported. 

              Xoxix looked over from his station.  “Leader,
Toroj
is requesting we transfer our remaining spysat over to them.  Should I authorize it?”

              Mogrin considered it.  He was tempted to refuse, just to piss off the bug, but he knew why Gokon wanted it.  And having a satellite under stealth inside the Seylonique star system could only be a good thing.  Unfortunately, once the spysat was launched,
Toroj
wouldn’t be able to recover it if the infamous battlecruiser was actually there.  Not without being detected, anyway, which would defeat the purpose of sending it in under stealth.

              “Fine.  Have engineering transfer the spysat over.  Continue with fueling ops.”  Mogrin flicked his fingers in Xoxix’s direction and the zheen turned back to his console.  If things worked out, there was going to be a whole lot of new data flowing in for Lord Verrikoth to peruse.  And either Seylonique was going to remain a no-fly zone, or it might be another system to demand tribute of. 

              Two hours later, the
Toroj
raced away from the safety of the moon, heading for the hyper limit on a vector for Seylonique.  None of the small convoy ships were in sensor range, thankfully, and Gokon knew better than to let them see him.  That was a bit tricky, making sure not to accidently get too close, but the danger was what made it fun.  The crew of his small ship was nervous, of course, but they were determined.  The jump to Seylonique was going to be ulcer-inducing for the entire crew.  The possibility of jumping into a star system that had a battlecruiser was certainly something that would get the blood pumping.  Of course, the likelihood that that warship would be in a position to hit
Toroj
was so slim as to be ludicrous.  If need be, the cutter would drop out of hyper several light seconds from the limit, launch the spysat and just let the data flow in.  Gokon had no need to go anywhere near the actual system proper and no need to enter the system proper; that was what the satellite was for. 

              The question was: how long should Gokon wait and watch?  It would be his decision, once
Toroj
was clear of Heb, and Gokon was relishing his freedom in this endeavor.  It would require several days at the very least to get a decent look around the system, possibly even a couple of weeks.  The zheen and his very small crew were preparing themselves for a long, boring and tense few weeks.

Lujayne Orzo couldn’t help but smile.  Her ship,
First Horizon
was approaching the hyper limit to Ulla-tran, about to breakout of the first hyperdrive trip the cargo vessel, her crew and her captain had ever made.  It had been a long trip, thirty-seven days so far, but the crew had held up well.  There were duty shifts to get through, and most of the crew had found activities to keep themselves occupied.  Lujayne didn’t allow gambling on the ship, but there were friendly games of cards and dice.  Some of them had books to read, a few studied for ratings exams.  Samair had gotten updated study materials and encouraged Lujayne to study the materials herself, at least to have an idea of what the crew was doing.  She also thought it might be a good idea for her to go over and familiarize herself with the cargo material, figuring it would be a good idea for the captain of the ship to be well-versed in picking as well as futures.  Of course, a keen eye would be needed as well, which was not something she could learn in a book.

“Five seconds until breakout,” Rezal Forge, the Severite lead pilot reported.  “And… now!”  He pressed the lever forward, and in a burst of tachyons, the cargo ship jumped back into normal space. 

Lujayne straightened in her chair, exhilarated.  True, the engines were well tuned and with the exception of a fine tremor through the deckplates and a high-pitched whine from the engines both of which quickly dissipated, it hadn’t been a rough transit.  “Wow, that was a rush!”

Trudy Slattery turned around and looked at her, grinning.  “I know!  I’ve never done a hyperspace jump like that before.  Just think about it!  We’re light years away from home!”

Rezal blinked furiously in happiness, his right ear flattening.  “We’ve been flying faster than light for a month.  Faster than most of the people on Seylonique have
ever
done!  And hardly anyone has ever been to another planet in the star system, much less another one!”

Lujayne took a long, deep breath, letting the elation fade a bit.  She was still happy and would celebrate properly later, but for now, they had jobs to do.  She pressed a control on her chair.  “Crew, this is the Captain.  Welcome to Ulla-tran and I would like to congratulate all of you for a smooth breakout.  Engineering, secure the hyperdrives and get the sublight engines up.  We’ll be heading in system to the orbital station.  Keep up the good work.  That is all.”  She pressed the control again and the shipwide PA deactivated.  “Trudy, plot us a course for the orbital, please.”

“Yes,
ma’am
,” the girl said with relish, her fingers hammering on the console’s keys.

Rezal scanned his console while the young woman was working.  “Sublights are up, Captain.  We’re ready to roll once Trudy has a course for me.”

Lujayne frowned, rubbing her chin with two fingers.  “I feel like I’m forgetting something.”

“None of us have ever jumped into another system before, Captain,” Rezal told her. 

“I’m not picking up anything on sensors, Captain,” Huznall said from her seat at the Operations console.  Huznall was a black-carapaced hak’ruk, one of the few currently living in Seylonique.  Her race was rare in that system, there were only a small community of fifty of the midnight insectoids living in the system.  She had proven to be an expert at crochet (of all things), well read, soft-spoken, and a diligent sensor operator.  Huznall, like the rest of the crew, was green at her job with only a few months on the FP payroll, but Tamara had hired her to work on one of the
Testudo
cargo ships as copilot and sensor operator.  When the opening on
First Horizon
popped up, the soft-spoken hak’ruk jumped at it, having to fight seven other candidates to win the coveted slot.

Lujayne snapped her fingers.  “That was it.  Yes, thank you, Huznall.  Please keep a sharp eye out.”  She kicked herself. 
How could I overlook something as important as that?  We could have run right into something, another ship, a stray asteroid, who knows?  Thank the
stars
Huznall was on top of that.
 

“I have a hyper footprint,” the hak’ruk said, her voice getting a very high pitched buzz.  It wasn’t piercing or annoying, but it was definitely distinctive.  “A small ship is coming out of hyperspace fifty thousand kilometers off our port side aft.”

Lujayne’s heart flew into her throat for just an instant.  “Wait, run their ID.  Is it
Cavalier
?”

The long-taloned fingers pressed a few more keys on the console.  “Identity confirmed, Captain,” Huznall replied, sounding slightly received, the buzz seeping out of her voice.  “It’s
Cavalier
, Captain.”

Lujayne let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding in.  “Damn it, I forgot about them!  I mean, we haven’t seen them in over a month, and because we were in hyper the whole time, we had no way of keeping in contact.”  She took a deep breath.  “I actually feel better about it now.  Ms. Slattery, where’s my course?”

The excitable young navigator gasped and winced.  “I’m sorry, Captain.  I have a preliminary course for the orbital station around the inhabited planet.  I’ll refine it as we get further in system.”

“I’ve got a course, Captain,” Rezal said.

“Get us moving, Rezal,” she told him.  “Ease up the engines.  I don’t want to break anything trying to hot rod across the system.  Besides, I don’t want to blow through fuel here.  I’ve been told that the fueling station is someplace we want to avoid.”  Ms. Samair was explicit in her orders that no one from
First Horizon
or
Cavalie
r
go anywhere near that fueling station or have dealings with its station master, Goris Hana.

“Incoming transmission, Captain,” Huznall said suddenly. 

Lujayne blinked.  “From whom?”  That sense of cold panic was starting to set in again.