First Principles: Samair in Argos: Book 3 (71 page)

              “Yes, they are. 
Mondragon
is leading the way.  The ships appear to be in good order.  Sensors aren’t showing any problems from here.  They also haven’t sent any communications talking about distress.”  The AI clasped his hands in front of him.  “I’m not seeing any problems.  I think that they’re just back from another trade run, moving in for refuel and to drop off their cargoes at the orbital.”

              “Good.  Set up a call with them once they get into range.”  She pursed her lips.  “I want to know how it went in Heb.”

              “Any reason?” Galina asked.  “We’ve been getting a fair amount of good resources out of there, foodstuffs, primarily.”

              Tamara nodded.  “Yes, but I’m thinking that
Grania Estelle
is being underutilized.  She’s a bulk freighter, but all we’ve been having her do is haul some fuel and then bring back one maybe two holds of goods.  But a lot of what they’re bringing back isn’t all that valuable, minus the food, of course.  But they can’t manage a harvest every time they go back.  So I’m thinking that we need to send
Grania Estelle
out farther.”

              “Is that really the best idea, Tamara?” Galina asked.  “I mean we both know there are pirates out there, though they seem to be leaving us alone for now.”

              But Tamara shook her head.  “I think that they might be regrouping after that assault on Byra-Kae, to be honest.”

              “Then all the more reason not to go sending our biggest cargo ship off gallivanting with scant protection.”

              Tamara sighed.  “We can afford to pull in our assets for a while, but you know Vincent.  You think he’s going to consent to just sitting around in this system, carving up space with constant orbits?  You know he won’t.  In fact, I think that now that he’s here in the system, he’s probably starting to get that wanderlust itch again.  By the time he gets to the Kutok mine he’s going to start bellyaching about how long everything is taking.”

              They both chuckled.

              Trammen Gokon sat in the cramped bridge of his ship, studying the displays before him.  The
Toroj
had jumped out of hyperspace ten light hours from the limit, well out of anyone’s sensor range.  Their own passive sensor scans had confirmed that there was nothing and no one anywhere close to his location and thus he’d ordered the helm to engage the sublight engines on a course for the limit.  They were going to accelerate at a very slow rate to make sure that no one in-system would detect them.  Gokon knew his business; this was the same tactic they’d used at Heb only a short few weeks ago.  At the time there hadn’t been anyone in the system to detect them, but it didn’t make the maneuver any less effective.  And when the ships from Seylonique arrived, the spysat had been in position to detect them and relay the information to
Sessilan
and
Toroj
in time for them to duck behind one of the planetary bodies and avoid detection.  Even with their warship pinging away with active sensor probes, they didn’t manage to find Gokon and his fellows and thankfully, the fools gave up without searching too far away from the inhabited planet or the vector from Seylonique.

              The cutter continued on for hours, moving closer to the hyper limit.  At ten light seconds from the limit, Gokon ordered that the ship perform a braking maneuver, but again, slowly so as to avoid any detection from within the system.  At five light seconds from the limit, the spysat was launched under full stealth. 

              “Connection is secure,” the comm-tech reported.  “But we’re going to have to set it up for burst transmission after it gets beyond one light minute.  We can’t maintain constant communication with the device, not without being detected, anyway.  And it would blow through the spysat’s power reserves.”

              The zheen chittered.  “Very well.  Set for burst transmissions every ten hours, make sure they’re directed back here at us.  I don’t want the locals here picking up any stray transmissions.”

              “Understood, Trammen,” the comm-tech said, using his rank.  “I locked it out, so it can’t broadcast in the clear or omnidirectional.  I’ve set the bursts to transmit on a rotating tri-D encryption.  Even if they catch it, unless they have the cipher, it’s unlikely they’ll be able to crack it.”

              Gokon nodded.  “Good.  Then I guess we wait.”  He made a buzzing sound.  “The long, fun task of waiting for days or weeks.  I hope everyone is comfortable.  We’re going to be here for a while.”

              Nineteen days of waiting before they finally hit paydirt.  The burst transmission that came in finally showed something of interest.  “This is actually quicker than I expected.”  The data showed a lot of real estate, a lot of structures away from the habitable planet.  “What the hell are those?”

              “That one,” one of the sensor techs, “is holding position at the edge of the asteroid belt.  Looks like some sort of mining platform.  See, there’s tugs and workpods there that are moving to and from the big rocks.  Looks like they’re hauling the big ones closer to the platform so they can work on them.”

              Gokon rubbed his hands together.  “All right.  What about that one?”  He pointed.

              The sensor operator rubbed his chin.  “Well, it’s in the atmosphere of the gas giant.  Only one reason for them to have a structure like that.”

              “A gas mine?”

              “Yes.  And a big one.  And,” he added, nodding.  “And, it looks like this one is still under construction.”

              “What?”

              “Look, there are room for twenty of these collection and refinery stations,” the man said, pointing.  “There is still room for a few more of them; it looks like it can support four more.”  The man whistled as he did some quick mental calculations.  “And that is a
lot
of fuel.  Millions of tons of it.  Probably every day.  And then that means that these there and there,” he pointed on the display, “are fueling depots.  Tank farms.  All that fuel, just sitting there waiting to be grabbed.”

              “We’re not here on a snatch and grab mission, Tate,” Gokon chided.  “Remember that.  Besides, there are all these gifts here for the captain when he brings ships here.  Fuel and processed minerals, all these shuttles and tugs.  Hell, a massively productive system, thousands of workers, ships, shuttles, tugs.”  His mouthparts waggled.  “I think the captain will be well pleased with what this system has to offer.  A lot of this looks new.”

              “Weathered a bit,” the tech replied, nodding, “But yeah, built within the last five years or so.  We’d need to get closer and take active scans to get much more accurate information than that.”

              His antennae straightened.  “What do we have on warships?”

              “Three corvettes around the mining platform and the gas mine.  Looks like there’s a larger warship, a frigate similar to the one with the freighters we were following that’s hanging out here by this third structure.”

              “Do we know what that is?” Gokon asked.

              “Could be a shipyard complex,” the sensor tech said, scratching his head.  “Hard to tell from these images, but that would be my guess.  These big boxes here could be construction slips.  But the spysat’s in the wrong spot to look inside.”

              “Very well.”  Gokon sat a little straighter, nodding to himself.  “Now, what about this battlecruiser that is supposed to have taken up shop here.  The thing that everyone is afraid of, this massive juggernaut?”

              “No sign, Trammen,” the sensor operator reported.  “I’ll go through the sensor data, but so far, we’re not seeing it.”

              “Could it be gone?  Either decommissioned, or destroyed or scrapped?”  His voice was almost eager, hopeful.

              The man gave a half shrug.  “It’s possible, Trammen.  But there is a lot of star system.  It could be behind a moon, it could be at the habitable planet.  The spysat is concentrating on the area here, out from the planet, where these structures are,” the man pointed out.  “But perhaps the ship is simply out of range.  Hopefully, it will move into range of the spysat so we can get a good look at her.”

              Gokon nodded again, his antennae waggling.  “Yes.  Carry on.  We’ll wait for ten more days.  After that, we’re getting out of here.  I want to get back and report.”

             
Grania Estelle
pulled up to the shipyard, with
Mondragon
splitting off from her charge and moving off to the tank farm. 
Silver Dawn
wasted no time with either of them, having vectored away from the others almost immediately after emerging from hyperspace, heading to the orbital station.  Both cargo ships would end up there eventually, as they both had cargoes to sell, but Vincent Eamonn decided he wanted to stop at the shipyard first before going to the orbital.

              “So talk to me, Madam Chief of Operations,” he demanded over comms.  “What is going on in this shipyard?  I see that there are tugs and workpods and people in suits all over the place, but what is actually going on here?”

              Tamara smiled at him.  “Well, Mister Eamonn, owner and senior FP Captain,” she replied.  “Our first Adder-class destroyer, which everyone keeps calling the Republic-class, is just about finished.  There were some construction slowdowns and some build problems, but nothing serious.  We lost almost a month having to clean up and replace some components after a generator had an issue.  But,
Persistence of Vision
should be ready for shakedown in four days.”

              Vincent sighed, smiling a bit and gripping the arms of his command chair.  There were smiles around the bridge.  “I’m glad to hear it.  Do we have a command crew yet?”

              “No, I’m still working on who’s going to command her.  And don’t say me,” Tamara warned.  “I’ve got far too much work to do running the rest of this crazy circus to command a destroyer.  I’ve had my fill of commanding big warships like that, thank you very much.  I will be there for the shakedowns.  I’m thinking I’ll want to be there to help out and get a feel for the big girl before I get a proper warship captain on board.  But I’m still running people through our training complex here in the yard, and we’re working up crews on our ships here.”

              “Thinking of bumping someone to command?”

              She gave a half-shrug.  “Possibly, but those ships are just starting to get a good rhythm going and I don’t want to interrupt that.  We’ll figure something out.  For now, though, it seems as though the government is trolling through the population, sweeping up anyone with the slightest talent or interest in serving in the space defense forces.”  She sighed.  “My talent pool is starting to run dry.”

              “Should I be concerned?” Vincent asked, sounding concerned.

              Tamara shrugged again, then ran her hands through her hair, taking a deep breath.  “I am.  I have recruiters bringing in people for work crews, ship crews and such, but officers are, well, coming up short.”  She shook her head, clearing it.  “But that’s my problem.  Yours is that ship of yours.”

              His concerned eyes narrowed.  “What about that ship of mine?”

              “Vincent…” she started to say, but then cut herself off.  “No, this is something we should be discussing in person, not over the comm lines.”

              “All right, now I’m concerned.”

              “I’ll bring my ship over,” she said, pushing away from her desk.  “We can talk about what we need to over there and then I can hop back while you’re headed to the orbital.”

              “All right.  We’ll be waiting.”

              And he was.  Some people would be intimidated when the captain of the ship was waiting for them in the bay as they stepped off their ship, but Tamara smiled at him as she stepped onto the
Grania Estelle
’s deckplates.  Vincent had his arms crossed over his chest and he grimaced as two of Tamara’s lupusan guards stepped off the ship just behind her.  Viktoriya had an irate expression on her face, much more so than normal.  If Vincent had to guess, he would say that his irritating Chief of Operations had pushed past her bodyguards and stepped off her ship before they could, which would be bringing an argument to their boss’s door once they were alone again. 
Well
, he thought with a mental smirk,
it wouldn’t be anything she didn’t deserve.

              “So, you’re here.  What is it that couldn’t be discussed over comms?”

              Tamara smiled.  “Glad to see you too, Vincent.  So glad your trade mission to Heb went safely.  Yes, of course, there were some issues here, but everything is continuing along nicely, thanks so much for asking.”  She put her hands on her hips.

              Vincent scowled.  “Is there a reason you’re being more irritating than usual?”

              “I have several pieces of news,” she told him.  “News that you need to hear.  News, that I think is going to give us a big jump on our competitors, be they the local governors or the pirates, or even the Republic.”  She frowned at that last.  “Well, at least even the playing field with the Republic, I think.”