Hold the Star: Samair in Argos: Book 2 (39 page)

              “I wanted to run a few things by you,” he said after only the briefest of pauses.

              Tamara blinked in surprise.  “By me, Captain?  Hey, it’s your ship.  We’ll do things how you want.”

              Vincent chuckled.  “Right.  Anyway, when I was down at the Union Hall, I had the joy of getting my datapad attacked by a number of viruses and malware.  Thanks to your good work, my gear didn’t get infected and the data I uploaded didn’t get corrupted.”  He patted the datapad in his jacket pocket.

              She nodded, not sure where he was going with this.  “I’m glad to hear it.  We really need the people and I know how much of a pain it would have been to have to reenter that information manually.”

              He shrugged.  “Not that big of a pain, but I take your point.  But what I was getting to was that the station’s datanet is a mess, probably as bad as or worse than
Grania Estelle
’s was when you first arrived.”

              She crossed her arms under her breasts.  “And…?”

              “And, I was thinking that we could sell that service to the station.”

              Tamara looked at him in confusion for a second, but then she nodded.  “You want to sell computer cleanse programs to the station?”  She pursed her lips.  “Yeah, I can whip up a package that can be used for commercial applications.  Give me a day or so and Stella and I will get something together.”

              “Sounds good to me.  I’m also thinking we can make the fuel situation a more regular thing.  I want to get a second collector built and set up so that we can keep the fuel intake pretty regular.  The engineers on the station were falling all over themselves to shove credits in my face about it.  I think we can make a very lucrative business out of supplying the station with our helium 3 fuel.”

              She nodded.  “That sounds good to me,” she echoed.  “Let me finish my shift here with them,” Tamara pointed over her shoulders to the techs as they were continuing to cut apart the rock, “Load the replicators with this round of materials and then I’ll get started on the parts for a second collector.  I’ll get Stella on the cleanser package once you and I are done here.”

              “Very good.  I’ll get in touch with the locals, see what they say.”

              “You think they’d want it?”

              Eamonn frowned.  “Well why wouldn’t they?”

              “Having some outsider come in to their station and tell them how they could be doing things better?”  She laughed.  “You know of a better way of making someone dig in their heels?  How would you feel if they were to come over here and tell you how to run your ship?”

              Eamonn shrugged.  “Point taken.  I’ll talk to the engineers on the station we sold the fuel to first, see what they have to say before I bring it up to the admins.”

              Tamara nodded.  “Any bites from the Union Hall yet?  It only took half an hour back at Instow.”

              He checked his datapad.  “Two applications, so far.”

              “Only two?”

              “Yup, and those are for engineering technicians, though I’m not terribly encouraged by their listed experience.”

              Tamara shrugged.  “We can teach skills, Captain.  You know that.  I think it’s more important that they can work with the rest of the crew.  Besides, if we can bring in people in smaller groups, we can get started on training.”

              “You wouldn’t care that you might have to start over with some of the training?”

              “If we get those two in here, cutting up this rock, one of those three can supervise, that frees the other two up to work on other tasks.  I’m sure we can improvise when we need to and work up a more elegant solution when the time comes.”

              By the time the Captain and Saiphirelle arrived back at the station the next day, they were up to twelve people who had put in applications for positions on the ship.  Their qualifications ranged from completely non-existent to those who had reportedly put in several years on either starships or in technical positions aboard the station.  There was even one food handler who wanted to transfer from one of the choke-and-pukes on the station to the mess hall aboard the
Grania Estelle.
  He was a Severite named Noken and by all accounts, a hell of a line cook.  Vincent snapped him up immediately.

              Of the others, Eamonn was less impressed.  Most were maintenance workers, one had worked for two years in the Environmental systems, but the most impressive of the lot was a human woman in her mid-forties, with steel-gray hair and a determined face to match.

              Saiphirelle led the woman into the small interview room at the Union Hall.  “Ms. Eretria Sterling, Captain.”

              The Captain waved the woman to sit with him at the table.  She sat down, her back ramrod straight, her face expressionless.  “Good afternoon, Captain,” she said, her voice very clipped and precise.

              “Good afternoon, Ms. Sterling.  I want to thank you for coming in.”  He got himself more comfortable in his chair.  “I saw your application for a posting on my ship.  I checked what you sent me for your experience. But I’d like to talk some more first.”

              Eretria eyed him critically.  “You don’t like women serving on your ship, Captain?” she asked, her voice challenging.  “Breaking up the men’s club by bringing me onboard?  Or is it that you need someone to warm your bed?”

              Saiphirelle’s ears were flat against her head and she gave Eamonn a look, but their eyes met for just an instant before he looked back to the woman sitting before him.  “On my ship, my Third Engineering officer is a woman.  Up until recently, my cargo specialist was a woman.”

              “She stopped being a woman?” Eretria asked, with a dark look.  Saiphirelle snorted.

              “She stopped being my cargo specialist,” Eamonn corrected.  “In addition, my Chief of Security is female, as is my ship’s communications officer and chief pilot.” 

              Eretria turned and looked to Saiphirelle, who nodded.  “It’s true.  Ship’s AI is a female too.”

              Vincent frowned as Eretria’s head whipped around to look at him.  He hadn’t wanted to reveal Stella’s existence just yet. 

              She eyed him suspiciously.  “You have that many women working with you?”

              He gave a slight smile.  “I’m the boss, but yes.  We all work together to keep the ship up and to get our cargoes from one star system to another.  And there are more in the crew, but those are the most visible.  We’ve had a rough time these last few months, which is why I’m currently hiring.”

              She nodded slowly.  “I understand.  What would my duties entail?”

              “Well, before I get to that, I have a question for you.  I understand you have four years of experience on the freighter
Geldarland
as an engineer.”  He checked his datapad.  “And then another ten working on the station here in the power division.”

              “That’s correct.”

              “So why would you want to hire on to a bulk freighter?”

              Eretria nodded.  “I can understand why you might think that strange.”

              Eamonn gave a small smile.  “Serving on a freighter?  I live and
make
my living on a freighter.  I don’t think it strange at all.  I’m just curious.”

              “I’m tired of station life,” she replied after a second.  “Things are crumbling, constant maintenance is required to keep the lights on and the fans blowing.”  She hesitated.

              He raised an eyebrow.  “And you think my ship is a better choice?”

              “I’m interested in getting back out into space, Captain,” Eretria replied.  “And yes, getting off the station for a significant period of time would make me very happy.”

              He considered her for a moment.  “All right.  You’ll be assigned to our Engineering division, where you’ll be working under Chief Trrgoth and my other two Engineering officers.  Do you have any experience in Environmental?”

              She nodded.  “I do, but I don’t think that’s really the best use of my skills.”

              Eamonn chuckled.  “All right.  Welcome aboard.”  He stood and she did as well.  “I’ll put you with the Chief, he’ll decide where you skills are best used.”

              “What kind of contract are we talking about?” she asked.  “I’d like to know I’m not signing up for what amounts to indentured servitude.”

              This time Eamonn laughed.  “Well, I’m sorry to inform you of this, Ms. Sterling, but you are.  I get the sense that you’re a hard worker and that’s good.  But life on a freighter is no day at the beach, as I’m sure you know.  For now, my ship is undergoing an extensive overhaul and is going nowhere, so until that’s resolved the shares are going to be zero.  I have a copy of the contract right here.”  He gestured her back to her seat and they both sat back down.  He picked up his datapad and brought up the information.  “Do you have a tablet or datapad I can send it to?”

              She shook her head.  “No, Captain I don’t.  I did, but I was forced to leave it behind when I left the
Geldarland. 
Ship’s property.”

              “What about a data account on the station net?”

              “I do have that.”  She gave him the number.

              He worked the controls for a second.  “I’ve sent that off to you to peruse.  I’ve also added the communications code for the
Grania Estelle
for data transmission.  My comms officer will be looking forward to hearing back from you, should you either have any questions or decide to join us.”

              “Can you give me the gist of the contract, Captain?” she asked, frowning slightly.  “I’d like to be able to talk with you about it while we’re both here.”

              “Of course,” he replied, mentally giving her a check mark in the ‘approval’ column.  “You’d be hiring on as a half-share engineman, working under Chief Trrgoth.  Based on his assessments of your abilities, he’ll assign you duties and a watch section.  If he and the other engineering officers sign off on you after a sixty-day probationary period, I’ll bump you to full share.  In the meantime, you’ll receive the standard pay and allowances for all my half-share ratings.”

              Eretria nodded, the frown easing.  “How many crew are currently aboard?”

              He sighed.  “Not nearly enough.  But we have a crew complement of forty-three right now, which is barely enough for full watch sections.  But I’m not just going to flood my ship with people who can’t hack it.”  He eyed her for a moment and she didn’t say anything.  “I’m liking what I’m seeing here, Ms. Sterling.  Take a look at the contract and get back to me within twenty-four hours with your decision.  As I said, the comms watch will be waiting to hear from you.  Do you have any further questions for me?”

              “Only one, sir,” she replied.  “If your ship is stuck here in system because of repairs and such, and therefore our cargo hauling capacity is zero, how would you pay my salary?  And the rest of the crews?”

              “Well, seeing as you’re not a member of my crew, I’m not going to discuss my business with you.  Yet.  But I do have a few jobs going on right now with the station which are paying to stock my galley and pay my people.”

              “I understand.  I did hear that you sold a load of helium 3 fuel to the station.  The admins and the heads in engineering here were going crazy when they heard you had it to sell.”  She chuckled.  “I think they’d have sold their mothers and their children to make sure they secured it.”

              “I had that same impression, Ms. Sterling.”  He stood and again she followed suit.  “Thanks for coming in.  I’ll be interested to hear from you.”

              “Thank you, Captain.”

              “If you do decide to sign on, send my ship a signed copy of the agreement, stamped with your thumbprint and instructions will be sent to you on a time to catch a shuttle ride over to the ship.  For now that’s the only way over, since we’re not docked.”

              “Yes, Captain.  I’ll let you know.”  She gave a sharp nod of acknowledgement and then turned and left.

              After a minute or so, Saiphirelle poked her head in the room.  “What do you think of her, Captain?”

              He stared at the open doorway.  “I like her.  If Quesh or Tamara don’t kill her, I think she’ll do well aboard.”

              Over the next few days things continued to move at a decent pace.  Tamara got the collector assembled and was about to take it up to the gas giant when Ka’Xarian met her in the boat bay. 

              “Tamara!” he called as she was boarding the shuttle. 

              “Xar.  What’s up?”

              He gestured to the woman walking next to him.  “This is our newest member of the ship’s company.”

              Tamara stepped forward and stuck out her hand.  “Tamara Samair.”

              The woman shook it.  “Eretria Sterling.  It’s good to meet you.”