First Principles: Samair in Argos: Book 3 (70 page)

              “Working within our parameters?” Galina asked.

              “You know, supplying the businesses on the Kutok mine, supplying transit services to and from the planet.”

              The lupusan nodded.  “Yes, I heard about that.  A passenger liner service?”

              “It’s pretty big,” Tamara nodded.  “I heard they can take something like two hundred passengers at a time.  Cabins aren’t that big, but I hear that the lounges are nice.”

              Galina huffed out a chuckle.  “You thinking of taking a ride in one?”

              “No.  I have my own ship for that sort of thing, thank you very much.”  She grimaced.  “I’m sure it’s nice, but my guards are paranoid enough.  I don’t think they’d appreciate me being on a ship with two hundred potential threats, with no way out.”

              “No probably not,” she admitted.  “But you’re thinking this is a good thing, aren’t you?”

              “I am.  While it’s been great so far, being the only game in town, I’ve never been big on monopolies,” Tamara replied.  “I mean, like I said, it’s been great, but I like having more people in the pool.  Leads to more ideas, competition, new innovations.”

              “Even if that means they eventually overshadow us?” Galina asked, ears flicking.

              “I don’t intend to stagnate,” Tamara said firmly.  “Once these warships are done, I’m going to start looking into doing more.  And I think,” she hesitated.

              “You think…” Galina prompted, clearly interested.

              “I think it’s time that you got to travel a bit,” Tamara said.  “I know you’ve wanted to be doing more for the company, and I’ve certainly appreciated your help, but I think it’s time to get
Samarkand
out building again.”

              “Sounds good to me,” Galina said, nodding.  “Where did you want to send us?”

              “I’ll be staying here, setting up shop either on
Moxie-2
or over in the yard.  Eretria is going to stay here and take up her permanent position in the yard.”

              “Who do you have lined up to take over for her?”

              Tamara pursed her lips.  “Kay’grax has been doing well.  Nasir and Eretria are rather pleased with his work.”

              “Do you think he’s ready to take the step up?  I mean he’s been working for the company for little over a year, okay, sixteen months if you count his time aboard
Grania Estelle
.”

              “Mmmm.”  Tamara tapped her lips with one finger.  “No, you’re right, of course.  He isn’t really ready to lead the whole engineering gang.”  She raised her eyebrows thoughtfully.  “He has been doing excellent work leading his own team, though.  I’ve been impressed with what I’m seeing, as had Eretria.  But I’m not sure I’m comfortable with him running the whole gang.  Maybe as shift supervisor.”

              Galina huffed another laugh.  “Are you sure?  I know he’s going to want to make sure he keeps working on the floor.”

              “Oh, he will.  I’m not going to lose him to admin.  I can’t stand being away from the construction floor too much myself.”

              “Yes, Tamara, I know.”  Galina laughed.  The fact that the COO of the biggest company in the star system liked to go out on the construction floor and get her hands dirty with the techs was actually a matter of public record.  It also gave her the whole “blue collar” vibe that played well with a lot of the non-government clients.  The media didn’t really know how to handle it, truth be told.  Some of them thought she was just playing an angle, trying to make herself look marketable, others thought she was not playing at all, but was a blue collar worker who had been given keys to the factory and was just a figurehead.  Anyone from the government, with the exception of the engineers on the orbital, despised this side of her, thought this made her “too much of a peasant”.  Not that the government people needed any further justifications not to like her.  Most of them didn’t like her as it was.  And most of them didn’t want to admit how much they did like the amount of jobs or cash she was bringing into the economy, the invigoration of the citizenry, things they were more than happy to take credit for.  “Everyone knows.”

              Tamara smiled ruefully.  “I’m not going to apologize for that.”

              “Nor should you.  You do good work, the crews like working with you, it helps your image.”  Galina turned her hands palms up.  “And I know you take care of your people, speaking as one of them.”

              “I want everyone to know that they’re looked after,” Tamara replied.  Then she nodded.  “So long as they’re productive.  Work needs to get done.”

              “Of course.  We don’t have time to waste on people that won’t pull their own weight.”  Galina had little sympathy for deadbeats or anyone just looking for a handout.  She would help them if they were sick or injured, and then she’d throw them out.  She cocked her head to the side.  “You said you wanted to send
Samarkand
out to do some building.  What, exactly?”

              “Well, another of the survey probes picked up some interesting things over on Mautt-6, the sixth moon of the gas giant.”  Tamara’s eyes twinkled. 

              “Oh?”  The lupusan folded her hands in her lap.

              “There are some interesting minerals that they found there.  Nothing as interesting as what we found out in the belt, but there’s still quite a bit there that we might want to get a hold of.”

              Her ears flicked.  “Interesting how?”’

              “No gadolinium, but some nickel, iron, copper, tin, beryllium, even some gold.  I think we might want to get some sort of base set up there.”  She smiled.  “Never would hurt to have even a small facility there to start to exploit it.”

              “Actually, it might be a good idea to put forth to some investors for this venture.”  Galina waved a hand to forestall an argument.  “Oh, I’m not saying that FP shouldn’t make our presence known.  What I’m saying is that if we can get multiple investors or companies to decide to put forth money or teams or resources, I think we can drum up some real interest in what we’re doing out here.”

              Tamara was nodding slowly.  “If the minerals are right, I think we might be able to expand a small mining base into a much bigger and commercial facility.  Similar to what we’re doing at the Kutok mine.  And that could be bringing some more money opportunities as well.  Yes, Galina, that is a good idea.  Start making some calls, see if you can drum up some interest.  Perhaps you can hint that there are some very lucrative deposits there.  Confirm nothing, but see if you can get any of them to draw comparisons to our find in the belt.”

              “You want them to think that we’re going to be finding gadolinium?  We can’t tell them that.  Besides, there’s no proof at all that there is any gadolinium
on
that moon.”  The lupusan looked horrified at the idea.

              “I’m not saying that there is any,” Tamara agreed.  “And I’m not saying you should lie.  I’m just saying that you should imply that a great deal of valuable minerals are there.  It’s true, just probably not to the level the investors might expect.  I don’t think we’re going to strike it as rich as we did out in the belt, but I think that we could do some good business out there.  Besides, some of those minerals on that moon aren’t
available
in the belt.  At least not where we currently have that station set up.”

              “That’s where the gadolinium is,” Galina pointed out.  “And I think we managed to pull quite a lot of other strategic metals out of there.  I mean hell, we built all this infrastructure and all those ships with what we’ve gotten so far.”

              Tamara nodded in agreement.  “Yeah, but there are a few things on that moon that I believe are worth getting.  Some rare trace elements, for starters.”

              “I think we can swing it.  We’ll have to start small, build a facility out on that moon, get people suit qualed,” Galina said, starting to tick points off on her long, clawed fingers.  “Get enough mining equipment and suits to get a good sized haul.  Then we’ll need a few
Testudos
to haul everything away, or some other cargo ship.  Maybe you could get the locals to scrape together funds to get a barge built?  We have the
Testudos
load it up, and then it chugs its way over to the orbital while we start working on the next load.”

              Tamara smiled again.  “Sounds like you’re making a good pitch.  Write up a proposal then start making those calls.  I’ll see if there are a few contacts of my own I can try.  Though I’d like to get at least seven or eight groups involved, if we can.”  Then she stretched, but quickly recovered.  “Actually, I think there’s something just as important that we need to discuss, Galina.”  Her look to the
Samarkand
’s captain was speculative.

              “Oh, what’s that, Tamara?” the elder lupusan asked.

              “I need someone to step up and take over the Chief Financial Officer’s job,” Tamara replied.  “Now, so far Nasir’s been holding down that slot and I know he’s more than capable of doing the work, but I think I need someone else to take it over, which would free him up for other tasks.”

              “He’s an AI, you know,” Galina reminded her unnecessarily.  “I think he might be much more capable of doing the job than I would, since I suspect you’re going to volunteer me.”

              Tamara shook her head.  “I’m not going to force you to do anything,” she corrected.  “And while Nasir has the processor power to do the work, he doesn’t have your… flair with people or with numbers.  Besides, he’s an Engineering AI, with some Administration software, but not enough to keep doing the job without help.”

              But Galina shook her head.  “I’m an Administrator, a people person, not an accountant.”

              “No, you’re not, not officially anyway, but you managed the books and the revenue stream for your own ship back in the day.”

              “One ship,” Galina protested.  “Not a multi-billion credit company with thousands of employees, Tamara.  I don’t have the expertise for that.”

              “No, perhaps not,” she admitted.  “But I didn’t say that you’d be working all alone, either.  I think your time working solely as the captain of this ship has come to an end, my friend.  And you have been saying that sitting on a ship that barely goes anywhere anymore or does much of anything is quite the bore.”  She smiled.  “Don’t deny it.  We just had that discussion about two days ago, didn’t we?”

              The lupusan let out a growl.  “How many are you going to bring onto my team?”

              “Well, you’ll be working with Nasir still, he’ll be your adjutant.  And I think we’ll bring Melissa over and her people to work with you.  So I apologize, Captain Korneyev,” Tamara said formally.  “Your services aboard the
Samarkand
have been exemplary, but I’m afraid they are no longer required here.  I am promoting you to CFO, effective immediately.  It comes with a raise and a nice profit-sharing package,” she added, pressing a few buttons on her datapad.

              Galina checked her own at the receipt of a data packet.  Opening it, she yipped in surprise, her ears folding back against her head.  “Wow.  I should say so.  You’ve been cheating me these last few months.”

              “Up until now, Galina,” Tamara told her, “You haven’t wanted to step away from the Captain’s chair.  But now I need you to.”

              The lupusan nodded.  “But who’s going to command this ship?”

              “We’re going to move Radha up to take the slot,” Tamara replied, referring to Galina’s current executive officer.  “And I’m going to bring in Xiong Pyangong as the new XO.  He’s been working swing shift on the Kutok mine and doesn’t have a
lot
of experience in command, but I’ve been hearing good things.  Tiyaana raves about him.  And among those things, I’ve been hearing, is that he’s looking for more responsibilities.  I want to see if he can handle it.”

              “That makes sense.  If you don’t mind, though I think I will be keeping an eye on him myself.”

              Tamara couldn’t help but smile.  “Try not to get underfoot, Galina.  I know you want to see this ship is taken care of, but your focus needs to be higher now.”

              Nasir appeared on the holo projector.  “Tamara,
Grania Estelle
is back.”

              She nodded.  “Good.  I hope they brought back some interesting goodies this time.  Any word on
First Horizon
yet?”  The AI shook his head.  She sighed.  “No, I guess I shouldn’t have expected them back yet.”

              “They should be within the Ulla-tran system by now, Tamara,” Nasir assured her.  “Most likely they’re docked at the orbital and trading cargoes by now.  Don’t worry,” he said, trying to sound soothing.  “Captain Tariq is there with her.  He’ll watch Captain Orzo’s back.”

              Tamara only nodded.  “I assume
Mondragon
and
Silver Dawn
are with
Grania Estelle
?”