First Principles: Samair in Argos: Book 3 (91 page)

              “I am thinking along those lines, yes,” the president replied, steepling his fingers.  He motioned for the aide to resume playback.

              Hana’s face unfroze.  “But I’m going to give you a chance to make it up to me.  You will transmit a copy of the agreement to me, I’ll look it over and make any changes that I feel are… appropriate.  Then I will transmit it back.”  He looked insufferably smug.  “Of course, you could
not
comply with this.  Let’s follow out the likely chain of scenarios from there.  You refuse.  I get angry and threaten you again.  You now refuse because backing down will make you look weak.  So I cut off the fuel to the orbital and to the fleet.  You have to make me back down, so you send the fleet and the troops over to my station and you try and fight.  I can promise you, the casualties will be high.”  He looked very certain of that.  “And I can also promise you, I will be the only one in control of the fuel for this system.  It won’t do well when there is
no
fuel and you all need to explain to the citizens why that is.  Why you destroyed their livelihoods and possibly even killed the citizens aboard the orbital and the ships all because you wouldn’t budge on a trade agreement.”  He leaned in toward the camera.  “And rest assured, the public will be receiving transmissions that note everything that I just described.” 

              The toad, looking as though he had just come across a pond full of flies, leaned back in satisfaction.  “I await your response.”  And the message ended.

              “Was there anymore?” Nikolas asked.

              Gerard shook his head.  “No, Mister President.  No, that was the whole message, nothing attached or appended.”  He nodded.  “I had the security people scan the messages and that’s apparently it.  No malware or hidden messages.”

              “That’s a surprise, especially considering what happened with all the defense pinnaces all those months ago.  What was it, a year ago?”

              “Roughly,” Koton replied.  “Perhaps a bit longer.  So what are we to do about this?”  He gestured to the screen.

              “What can we do?” Shayenne snapped.  “If we ignore him, he cuts off the fuel and things escalate.  If we bring him into the negotiations, he could derail this whole summit.”

              “What about the Seylonique people?”  All eyes turned to Gerard, who had spoken up and offered an opinion to the group of councilors.  The man flushed and ducked his head.  “I apologize, Councilors.”

              Koton hissed in anger and the others looked disgruntled that a lowly aide would speak about matters of Great Importance here in front of the governing council, but the president looked thoughtful.  “No, continue, Gerard.  What about the Seylonique people?”

              The man had a slightly panicked look on his face and looked sharply from left to right.  “I’m sorry, Mister President.  I should have known better-…”

              Nikolas nodded.  “Well you didn’t, Gerard.  You should have thought of that before you blurted it out.  So, continue please.”

              The young man looked around nervously at the assembled important personages then squared his shoulders.  “The delegation from Seylonique, Mister President.  A few days ago, one of their councilors, Kly, I believe, made mention of the large gas mine that they have and the huge amounts of fuel that were being produced.”  He quickly accessed his datapad and scrolled through some of the information.  “Here, yes.  ‘One of our largest corporations has constructed and operates a gas mine out of our largest Jovian.  They supply mostly Helium 3 fuel, but they also collect a number of other gasses from the planet’s atmosphere as well.’  Could we trade for the fuel from them?”

              The other members of the governing council exchanged looks.  “It could be something to consider,” Shayenne admitted.

              “They will ask why we want their fuel when we have our own.”  One of the other councilors said.  “The subject will come up.  I don’t imagine they will simply say ‘sure’ and then sell us the fuel.”

              “Kly would,” another one muttered.  There was a chuckle around the table. 

              “But what about Chakrabarti?” Shayenne asked.  “He’s the head of their delegation.”

              Nikolas sighed, looking around the room at the other council members.  “All right.  Recommendations?  Because I sure as hell don’t want to deal with the wrench Hana is trying to throw into the works.  If we can get a portion of what we need from Seylonique, it would reduce the stranglehold he’s got on us.”

              “This is not going to fix anything.”  Koton sounded quite sure.  “Hana will find out at some point that shipments of fuel are coming here from Seylonique and he
will
retaliate.”

              “Then if necessary,” the President said, getting to his feet, “I will send Commodore Saroyan in to deal with the problems at the fueling station.  In the meantime, put out some feelers with the Seylonique delegation.  Get a sense of their reaction to the idea of selling us large amounts of fuel.”  He tapped his lips with his forefinger.  “I want to get an idea of their reactions before I bring it up officially.”

              When
Nemesis
dropped out of hyperspace at the assigned coordinates, Verrikoth came to his feet in relief.  It had been as enjoyable a trip as could be expected, from Tyseus to the edge of Seylonique.  Riding in his new flagship and learning all its ins and outs, its strengths and weaknesses occupied most of the zheen’s time.  The rendezvous point was well beyond the hyper limit of the system, several light hours, in fact.  It would take several days to get in close enough to get a good picture of the system, to say nothing of actually moving in to engage the local forces, but the pirate lord wanted to take no chances.  The reason he had signed off on this raid as soon as he had was because of the way the space real estate was set up in the system, with the three distinct sections of their space defense forces spread out far enough that they couldn’t cover one another.  And of course, there was that battlecruiser to worry about.  He had no intention of engaging that ship, not now, certainly.  With only
Nemesis
,
Ganges
and
Ironhide
representing the heavy firepower in his order of battle, he knew his forces would stand little chance in actually taking down a fully equipped ship of the line like that one.  And if General Typhon showed up, adding his own light cruiser to the mix wouldn’t add enough firepower to Verrikoth’s side to justify engaging a battlecruiser.

              “Report,” he ordered, turning toward the sensor station.  It was still something he was getting used to, having a larger bridge than that of the
Ganges
. 
Nemesis
was a larger vessel and therefore had a larger bridge.  It was still cramped, space was at a premium aboard a warship, but there was still a noticeable increase in room.

              “I’m detecting one ship, my lord,” the sensor tech, another zheen, replied.  “It’s a cutter.  They’re broadcasting ID.  It’s the
Toroj
.”

              “Only one sship?” Verrikoth demanded. 

              “Confirm that,” Commander Tyler barked. 

              “Confirmed sir,” one of the other techs reported.  “The
Toroj
is the only ship within sensor range.”

              Verrikoth sat a bit straighter in his command chair, seething.  So, it appeared that General Typhon had chosen to spurn his offer and disrespect him.  He gave a mental shrug.  “Open a channel to the cutter,” he ordered.  “I want to sspeak with Trammen Gokon.”

              A moment later, the monitor on the arm of his chair activated and Gokon’s face appeared.  “My lord.”

              “What do you have to ssay for yoursself, Trammen?” Verrikoth demanded with no preamble.

              The other zheen’s antennae drooped.  “I went to Esselon-Moor as you ordered, lord.  I met with General Typhon, and I gave him the coordinates and the time of the rendezvous.  Then he ordered my ship out of the system or he would destroy the ship.”

              “Iz he going to join with my forcez?”

              “I do not know, lord.  He seemed slightly interested in the offer, lord, though it seemed clear that he would have demanded a higher percentage of the cut.”

              Verrikoth hissed.  “Ungrateful beast.  A third iz more than he dezervez.”  Gokon didn’t answer, he simply sat and waited.  “Did he give any indication that he would be arriving?”

              “No lord.  Only that he seemed interested in the offer.  Something about his soldiers getting fat and lazy.”

              The pirate lord grunted.  “That does ssound like the General.  Very well.  I am dissappointed that you did not bring the General’s forcez here, but you followed my orderz.  Link with
Cierre
for resupply.”

              “Thank you, my lord.  I’m glad that we didn’t miss the attack.”

              Verrikoth said nothing, cutting the connection. 
Why in the blazes did that beast turn me down?  This is a rich system with some defenses, but not enough to give us a serious problem.  We can actually draw some blood this time, something that the General revels in.  A reason to use his ships and his soldiers.
  He sat back in his chair and fumed. 

              Tyler turned to his commander.  “We do still have some time left, my Lord.  By your original timeframe, there is still three hours left.”

              “Then we will wait three hourz,” Verrikoth ordered, his voice harsh.  “And one way or the other, we leave at that time.”

              Tyler nodded.  “Of course, my lord.  I will have the Navigator prepare a course in system.”

              “Excellent.  I will be in my cabin.”  He rose from his seat and stepped off the bridge.

              Ten minutes before the clock was scheduled to run out, Verrikoth stepped back onto the bridge.  Tyler looked over and stepped over to the command seat as the zheen sat down.  “Anything?”

              “No, my lord.  I would have contacted you immediately.”

              “I know, Commander.  I was holding out hope that the General-…”

              “Hyper footprint!” one of the sensor techs called.  “Multiple ships dropping out of hyperspace.”

              Verrikoth turned forward.  “Ssenssorz, put the information on the big viewer.”

              “Seven ships, my lord,” the sensor operator reported.  “Led by… beacon reads as the
Illuyanka
– a light cruiser.”

              “The general finally arrivez.  He sseekss to tesst my patience by arriving sso closse to the deadline.”  His mandibles flared back and forth.  “But he iz here.  Open a channel to the cruizer.”  A moment passed and the black-furred lupusan appeared on the screen.  “General Typhon.  I ssee you decided to accept my offer.”

              The lupusan grunted.  “Yes, ‘Lord’ Verrikoth.  I have.  I brought my ships and my soldiers here, but we need to speak about shares of the cut.  Because a third is a better offer, but it is still inadequate.”  He sounded as though he was ready to bargain but irate at the same time.

              “You ssound az though I have inssulted you, General.  The fact that I invited you at all iz a compliment of the highesst order.” 
How dare this… dog join
my
party and then demand a larger cut of the spoils!
 

              Typhon flicked his ears.  “I’m sure you think of it that way, ‘Lord’, but when your messenger came into
my
system and gave your insulting offer, I nearly blew him out of space.”

              “Then if my offer was sso inssulting…” Verrikoth demanded, letting his voice trail off for a second.  “Then why are you here now?”

              “Because as I told your messenger, who came with respect,” Typhon admitted, “I was interested in the idea of a raid on this system.  The possibility for loot is high.  No one has gone there for as long as I can remember.  Certainly in all the time I’ve been in the Cluster.  And I’ve been here for just over two hundred years.”

              “And sso you wanted to come here for what?  The challenge?”  Verrikoth’s tone was disbelieving.

              Typhon tipped his head from one side to the other.  “I have great faith in the skill and strength of my wolves, Verrikoth.  But pitting a light cruiser and three corvettes against a battlecruiser?  Even my people aren’t that good.  We’d never get close enough to put boarding parties aboard her and take her from within.  Which is what my Grenadiers are best at.”

              “Then my sshipss will clear the way for your boarding teamz,” the pirate lord replied.  “There iz a lot to take in and a lot to take in this ssysstem.”

              The lupusan considered him for a long moment.  “I’m sure that there is, Verrikoth.  But what is our actual plan for this raid?”

              “Near and around the gass giant iz a refinery sstation.  It iz there that we will sstrike.  There iz a tank farm in very high orbit above the sstation.  The sstation has many workerz and engineerz that would be perfect for our purpossez.  But, there iz a ssecondary objective.”  He rubbed his hands together unconsciously.  “There iz a mining sstation only a couple of light minutess or sso from the gass giant.  According to sscanz, they have a sstockpile of refined mineralz floating nearby.”

              “Something else we should grab,” the general replied, nodding.  “What kind of defenses are we looking at?”

              “There are three defense corvettess on patrol in that area, az well az at least a ssquadron of fighterz at the gass mine.”  He pressed a few commands on this control console sending a data packet to the
Illuyanka
.  “Here iz the ssenssor data our recon probez collected.”

              The general nodded, looking over the information as it appeared on his display.  “But, there is the possibility that the battlecruiser or those destroyers could show up?”

              “It iz a possibility.”  Verrikoth didn’t look happy at that particular scenario.  “One that I must admit I am not hoping will occur.  Our entire fleet will be hard pressed to sstand off against it.  But we will launch ssenssor probez to determine the location of the battlecruiser.  At least to make ssure the coast iz clear.”

              “You’re being extremely careful about this operation,” Typhon noted.  “A trait I’m not used to seeing in someone such as yourself.”

              “I am not known for ssimply throwing away my troopss and sshipss.  Though I will admit,” he said wryly, “That ssending in my armed freighterz againsst that Republic corvette two yearz ago waz not my finesst decision.  Too many sshipss losst that day.”  He remembered that battle, how the
Fury
had torn his ships apart and even when crippled, doing it with ease.  Then he shook himself, pulling himself away from the memory.  “But I do not intend for that to happen here.”

              “When do we go in?” Typhon asked, leaning back in his chair.  Verrikoth could see other lupusan, members of his bridge crew moving around in the background.  “I am not known for my patient and sweet disposition, Verrikoth.”

              The pirate lord hissed.  “I am not here to make you wait, General.  I waz waiting for you and I have already ssent in one of my cutterz to do forward reconnaissance.  They are sseveral hours ahead and have launched another ssenssor probe.  We sshould have the necessary information with plenty of time to avoid the battlecruiser sshould it be in our path.”

              The lupusan general nodded.  “Then let’s get moving.  The sooner we get going, the sooner my cargo holds will be full.”

              “Very well, General.  We are going to accelerate for only an hour and then we will move in completely ballistic.  I want to make it az difficult az posssible for their sshipss to detect uss.”

              Typhon looked at him and then shrugged.  “I still cannot reconcile what you’ve been saying with the reputation you’ve cultivated over the last few years, Verrikoth.  And I’ve seen you in action.”

              “Now iz not the time to get into thiss, General.  Let uss ssee how thingz unfold and then you can be judgmental of how I operate.”  He turned to Commander Tyler.  “Get uss moving, Commander.”  He looked back to the General’s image.  “Are you coming?”

              Typhon barked a laugh.  “I’d challenge you to a race, but then that would defeat the purpose of the stealth entry.”  He pointed to someone off camera.  “My ships are forming up alongside yours.  Lead the way.”  And he cut the connection.

             
The wolf always tries to make me feel as though he is ceding leadership to me, as though he is doing some sort of grand favor.  Almost as though this was all his idea in the first place and he is letting me feel important by being out in front.
  He let out a buzz of irritation.  “Alert all sshipss.  Make ssure that they are aware of what our maneuverz will be, Commander.”  The man nodded.  “I want no sstray ssignalz coming from this fleet.  Whissker lazerz only for communicationz from thiss point forward.”

              “Understood, my lord,” Tyler said.  He gestured to one of the communications techs, who nodded, speaking into his microphone.

              Eighteen ships began accelerating, moving into a phalanx type formation, with the heavy cruiser in the center, the two light cruisers,
Ganges
and
Illuyanka
flanking on either side with
Ironhide
taking position above.  The corvettes took position in a box formation around, with the assault transport HT-626 and the six freighters trailing in formation behind the warships.  Eighteen warships plus the fighter escort and eight additional gunboats constituted the largest gathering of ships for one attack since the Republic-Federation war two hundred and fifty years ago.  Verrikoth felt a stirring in his thorax.  It was a glorious sight, made all the more impressive by the fact that this was
his
fleet.

              Tamara Samair looked at the display in front of her with satisfaction.  “You’ve done a lot of work in a short period of time, Tiyaana,” she said to the station master, who was seated at the console.  They were on board the Kutok gas mine, with Tiyaana seated in the Operations center of the station.  “I’m impressed that you managed to bring seventeen of the twenty collection and refinery sections online.”