Hold the Star: Samair in Argos: Book 2 (54 page)

              “Keep an eye on it,” Xar told him.  “We’ve pulled in rocks bigger than that tug from the asteroid belt and we haven’t had any problem.  But I’d really like to get this ship in without any issue, considering what the Captain paid for it.”

              “I don’t know,” Lorcan said, glancing over at his boss.  “I thought the Captain got these for scrap.”

              “He did,” the zheen acknowledged, not looking up from his controls.  “But guess who’s going to get to rebuild that piece of junk?”

              The big man frowned.  “I thought you were all for this plan?”

              Ka’Xarian chittered.  “I think the idea of expanding a bit isn’t a bad one.  And these shuttles we’ve been using to grab rocks can do the job, but if we can get that tug up to snuff, we can grab one of the really big ones, pull it free of the belt and get to work on it.”

              Lorcan considered those words.  “How big are we talking?”

              “Well, by itself, the tug doesn’t have the acceleration that the shuttle does, but it has a more powerful tractoring beam and its engines have decent thrust but much better structural integrity.”  He nodded.  “It’s a tug.  It’s designed to do exactly this job.  We’ve been using the shuttles for the job because we didn’t have better tools and the rocks we’ve been bringing in have been, so far, sufficient for our needs.”  His mouthparts wiggled a bit, causing his companion to look away.  Lorcan was always a bit squeamish around zheen, something that Ka’Xarian liked to twit him about.  “But, if we can get this baby up and running, and maybe one or two more, we can start hauling in serious some serious weight in metal.”

              The big man smiled.  “You’re really excited about this.”

              Xar locked his course and then glanced over at his copilot.  “Why shouldn’t I be?  Once Tamara brought in the first of the rocks that we needed for repairs way back in the Instow system, I’ve been on the teams that did the cutting down.  And now I’m looking forward to a much bigger job.”

              “You want to give up working on the
Grania Estelle
to cut rocks for a living?” Lorcan asked, shocked.  “I can’t imagine it.”

              The zheen flicked his antennae.  “Who said anything about leaving the
Grania Estelle
?  I just want to start working on cutting apart a really big rock.  We’re going to be in system here for a few more months while the big girl gets fixed up.”

              “What the hell are we doing here, Xar?” the man asked, throwing his hands up in frustration.  “I understand that we need to have the ship fixed up and we’re doing odd jobs here in the system while we wait, but what about these other projects?  Buying tugs?  Building two more fuel collectors?  Bringing in big asteroids?  I mean what’s the point?”

              The zheen shrugged, adjusting to sit more comfortably in his pilot’s couch.  “Well, I’m not privy to everything, but I think the Captain is looking to set up shop here.”  He flicked his antennae.  “Makes sense.  It’s a populated and industrialized system, rich in mineral wealth.”  He gestured one purple carapaced hand toward the belts further out in the system.  Then he swept his hand back toward the station they’d just left.  “Big ol’ battlecruiser in the system for defense, if the locals ever decide to get their acts together.  Several other systems only one jump away, good place to set up a hub for trade, if you ask me.”

              “So then why the other big projects?” Lorcan pressed.  “Well, some of them I can understand.  We’re going to need more fuel, so of course we’ll need more collectors.”

              “Actually,” Ka’Xarian said, his antennae swirling in little circles in excitement, “I think the point now is to make one really big one.”

              Ka’Xarian and his team of five techs entered into Cargo bay Four, where the tug had been set down before returning the shuttle to the boat bay, which was currently full.  Bay Four was also housing the pirate starfighters, which had been, up until this point, all but forgotten.  It seemed a good place to house the tug for now, since no one came down here and there was more than enough room in here to effect repairs.  They could have housed ten more tugs with all the other ships in here and still have had room to work.

              The tug was a squat, angular vessel, with a wide aft end that housed three engines, laid out in a triangle configuration with one engine higher than the other two.  The vessel had a roughly pyramidal shape, which tapered to a flattened bow, about fifteen meters in length.  The cockpit was small, capable of holding a three person crew.  The ship had a capital-grade tractoring beam, which was located aft, underneath the central engine cowling. 

              The ship itself, however, was in terrible shape.  There were scrapes and dings over eighty percent of the outer hull, scorch marks around the port engine cowling from where it had flared and then flared out.  The metal around all of the engines was corroded and pitted and the armor glass around the cockpit was cracked.

              “Well, look at this thing,” Lorcan said, setting his tool box down on the deck.  “I can’t believe the Captain wants us to get this thing working.  Seems like way more work than just building a whole new one.”

              Ka’Xarian shrugged.  “I think he thought it would be cheaper to get a primary design platform,” he gestured with the cutting torch he was carrying, “fix it up and then that way when we get another, or when we need another, we just build another one.  Assuming that this one is decent at doing what it’s supposed to do, we might use it as a template for further tugs if this whole asteroid mining thing kicks off.”

              “You don’t think the locals will be pissed that we’re chewing up their rocks?” Lorcan asked.

              The zheen shrugged.  “Not my problem.  It’s why I’m glad I’m not the captain.”  He looked over to the big man and then to Jesma who was staring at the tug with a look of disbelief on her face.  “All right, I know it doesn’t look like much…”

              “It looks like a piece of scrap metal that we got for a steal,” Jesma said in disgust.

              “Then I’m glad I’ve got you guys here with me,” Ka’Xarian said, chittering a bit with laughter.  “We get to be the ones who can make this work and then you get to make me look like a hero.”

              Lorcan chuckled and Jesma rolled her eyes.  Grabbing up tools, cutters and welding equipment they advanced on the derelict tug.

              Tamara was waiting in the boat bay when the shuttle gently touched down.  A moment later, the hatch opened up and a stooped salt and pepper furred lupusan dressed in mouse-brown robes stepped off the shuttle, a duffel slung over one shoulder.  He looked around the bay, saw Tamara and smiled. 

              She walked over and extended her arms, enfolding him into a hug, which he returned with his free arm.  “It’s good to see you again, Old Wolf,” she said.

              Konstantin chuckled.  “I like that.  I’ve been called many things in my long life, I think I like that name the best.”

              She released him.  “Because you are.”

              He nodded with a smile.  “Because I am.”

              “Welcome to the
Grania Estelle
,” Tamara said formally.  “I want to show you to your quarters, get you settled in, then a quick tour of the ship.”  Her communicator beeped and the lupusan chuckled as she pulled it out of the pocket of her ship suit.

              “It never ends,” he said.  “Though I would have thought you would be taking calls over your implants, not a communicator.”

              “Long story,” Tamara told him as she flipped it open.  “Samair here.”

              “Tamara, it’s me,” Stella’s voice sounded.  “Captain wants you to take the new corpsman to sickbay to meet Doctor Turan.  Once you drop him off, Chief Trrgoth requests you join him in Main Engineering.”

              “I guess the tour will have to wait, old friend,” Konstantin said, not sounding too upset.

              She sighed.  “I guess it will.  Come on.  I guess we’re going to sickbay.”

              “All right, Chief, what do you need?” Tamara asked, walking up to where he was directing two of the newly hired technicians on running a diagnostic.  The enginemen were still green at their jobs and they couldn’t be trusted for too long.  Most of the things that Quesh, Xar and Tamara had them doing were fairly easy, but the time was quickly approaching where they would need to be tested.  Most of them were working hard on study materials but they still had a long way to go.

              The Parkani looked up.  “Continue tracing these lines,” he told the two techs.

              “Yes, Chief,” one of them, a young woman named said.

              “I’ll be back in a minute.”  He stepped over to her.  “Work on the first section of ribs is almost complete.  We’re going to be starting on replating that in three days, which means that we’re going to have to route all the internals through that section so that we can open up the next.”

              Tamara nodded.  “I’ve already gotten stockpiles of the essential equipment and parts ready.  As soon as we’re closed up I can get teams in there to get started.”

              Quesh nodded. “Good.  Keep me informed as to parts availability and anything else you need.”

              “No problem.”  She looked at him.  “Is that it?  You could have done this over the comms.”

              “You’re right, I could.”

              She grimaced.  “So you yank me down here just to show that you’re the Chief?  Thanks, Quesh.”  She crossed her arms under her breasts.

              He sighed, rubbing one hand over his scalp.  “I want to start looking at fixing the sublight engines.  And we’ve been doing very little but patching them over the last few months and years, even when we did the overhauls during the long trip from Instow to here.  So I’m thinking that we need a full teardown and rebuild of all of them.”

              Tamara nodded.  “Yeah, we do need to work on them eventually.  But with all the work on the superstructure, the hull and the internals, you want to start working on that too?”

              “Well, if you’re right and Stella really can handle the hull trusses and get the ribs put back together with only a few workers to supervise and assist, then that would free you up to work on the engines.”

              “There is one problem, Quesh,” she said with a sigh.  “I agree with everything you just said.  And I know that this ship, as glorious as we’re going to make her, is never going to be a speed racer.  We joked about making her the fastest thing in space, but she’s never going to be that.”

              “I know.”

              “But…” she said, “If we can get the engines back up we can make more trips and more money.  I get it.  All right, I’ll get my team together and we’ll check them out, see which one will be the easiest to work with.”  She smiled at him.  “You know you didn’t need to call me down here for this.”

              Quesh smiled back.  “Go on, get out of here.” 

              “I’m going,” Tamara replied walking out of Main Engineering.

              “We have breakout!” the helmsman called.

              The bridge crew immediately set to work, scanning the nearby area for threats, making sure that the way into the system was clear.  “Not showing anything on short range sensors, Captain.”

              “What about
Ravage
?” Commander Duncan Harth asked calmly.

              There was a slight hesitation.  “No sign of… strike my last. 
Ravage
coming out of hyperspace ten light seconds off our port side.  No other contacts within thirty light seconds.”

              Harth nodded.  “Very well.  Maintain passive scan, though everyone in the system probably knows we’re here now.”  The down jump into the system came in a burst that anyone with halfway decent sensors should be able to detect and it wasn’t as though
Legacy
or
Ravage
were attempting to be stealthy about their arrival. 

              The trip through hyperspace in pursuit of that damned freighter had started to take its toll.  The shore leave back at Amethyst had helped a bit with crew morale, but an increasing number of crew was starting to wonder at the mission they were on.  The Argos Cluster wasn’t a horribly big place, not in comparison to the Republic, but still, it had one hundred systems, and they had only two ships.  Two ships that were forced to stay together to maintain a level of security together, since the amount of damage
Ravage
had suffered had somewhat compromised her ability to fight.  The flight here to the Tyseus system was a calculated risk.  It was possible that the Republic ships had simply missed the
Grania Estelle
at Amethyst, but Duncan Harth didn’t think it likely, not after the time they’d spent in the system.  They’d made some educated guesses as to which way the freighter would have gone, and Tyseus seemed the most likely.

              “I have a contact,” Ensign Droven announced from his station at sensors.  “Eighteen light minutes, it’s small, just a picket ship.  Profile shows it’s no larger than a corvette.  It’s holding position in very high orbit above the fourth planet in the system.”