Hold the Star: Samair in Argos: Book 2 (79 page)

              “Right,” Kly said.  “Then, once that’s happened, they send out demands that they’ve taken the station, they have hostages, blah blah, and we of course, cannot allow such a thing to happen.  So we send in the battlecruiser, loaded with army soldiers, who take it back.”  He paused, thinking.  “We toss a few bodies out the airlock, we get a few vids of soldiers fighting pirates… no, soldiers
killing
pirates.  And then we say that because FP Incorporated failed to protect its workers, Seylonique citizens from harm, we are nationalizing the station.”  They locked eyes.   “It’s all staged, I’m not going to hire Ghovorak and then murder his men with the army.  He’d find us and kill us both.  He gets a bonus if it goes off without too many wrinkles, we get the gas mine and its very lucrative revenue stream, and Eamonn and his pitbull get taken down a notch.”

              “Well then,” Cresswell said, smiling again.  “Call the man and let’s get this moving.  We’ve been doing nothing but waiting for long enough.”

              Recruiting crew for the
Cavalier
was proving easier than Tamara had expected.  She had spoken to several of her business contacts on the ground, who’d spread the word.  The people Tamara found and vetted over the month since corvette had launched had varying degrees of mechanical and technical skill and she was happy to have them.  There had been a degree of romanticism about the whole concept for many of the applicants, something Tamara and Corajen were quick to try and dispel.  While she was certainly happy for their enthusiasm, she didn’t want people in her crew to think that being on a warship was all about flying around and shooting things.  A few of the applicants had seen too many cheap action holo vids.

              “I need you to understand something,” she said to all the applicants who made the cut and passed the vetting process.  They were all standing in the hangar bay of the Kutok mine, readying to board the
Cavalier
and take up their stations.  They didn’t have facilities for dedicated training, sadly, so it would have to be on the job, though Tamara had been certain to find people that had at least a passing familiarity with the some of the systems and put those in charge of complicated or dangerous systems (like the main reactor, hyperdrive or weapons systems) through some brutal but fast tests.  She was bringing a few of her old hands over from the
Samarkand
to help train the crew.  Once they were up to snuff, they’d be returning to their regular duties. 

              “This is a ship of war,” Tamara said, looking her new crew over.  They were a motley mix, that was to be sure, some of them looking anxious, others looking bored.  “Our job as crew on the
Cavalier
will be to protect company assets.  That includes this mining station, the construction ship
Samarkand
as well as the various other projects going on in the system.  If need be, we will defend against external forces that come here to attack us.  Perhaps in the future, we will provide convoy escort for any merchant freighters that belong to the company as well, but that won’t be for a while.”

              “We’re also going to be participating in joint training operations with company starfighter squadron.  It’s going to be a little ragged at first, make no mistake.  But while this is a company ship, it will be held to a military level of discipline.  You’re being paid far more than a military crew normally would be, so believe me when I tell you, I’m going to expect a lot of you.”  Tamara smiled at them and a few of them shivered.  Belligerent and cocky as some of them may be, but all could tell that she was serious about that comment.  “There’s going to be a bit of a learning curve.  None of you have served aboard a warship before, and that’s fine.  But I will be setting goals for all of you and for each department.  All of you will meet those goals or I will know the answer why.”

              She looked at them all, at the determined set of the jaw on one man, or the scared but determined look on the face of a middle-aged woman, to the writhing “leg” tentacles of one of the Romigani males.  No one was being outright in their fear, but she knew it was there.  She wasn’t sure how many believed the reports and the rumors about serious pirate activity and she guessed she couldn’t really blame them.  It seemed that Verrikoth and his pirate brethren had never come to Seylonique and no serious raiders of any kind had been here in over a decade.  That was more than enough time to become complacent, especially with the government’s lack of support for anything military.  For now, it seemed they were only anxious and perhaps afraid of her.  Well, she could live with that and she smiled internally.

              “Now as most of you know, there is another warship currently in the system: the battlecruiser
Leytonstone
,” Tamara went on.  “It’s currently under repair and there’s no indication when it’s going to be ready to actually fly, let alone see combat.  But there is the possibility we might be working with them in joint training ops and stars forbid, in actual combat against an outside foe.  To begin with we won’t be, but it might be something that happens as time goes by.”  She nodded.  “Now, get on board the shuttles.  We’re going to be transferring over to the ship.”  She jabbed a thumb toward the waiting shuttles.  “Now grab your gear and get on board.”

              Corajen was leaning against the hull of one of the small ships as the crewmembers filed past.  She ignored them, waiting for Tamara to approach.  When she walked up, Corajen stopped her.  “What is it?” Tamara asked.

              “Just wanted you to know that the newest batch of my security officers is going to be coming aboard later today, on the next shuttle flight, in fact.  That will bring my division up to one hundred and fifty.”

              Tamara nodded.  “That’s right, I forgot they were coming today.  Well, good.  With the six hundred and ninety-four people we have running this place, that should be more than enough to keep order and protect against anyone coming aboard trying to get feisty.”

              Corajen nodded.  “Yeah.  With only three of the mining sections running, the crew aboard is pretty cramped.  Are we going to be expanding the living spaces?”

              “Yes, that’s in the mix.  Once sections four and five are online, then there are plans to add four more living compartments and six common areas for recreation.”  She put a hand on the hull of the shuttle and leaned against it slightly.  “You think this place is impressive now…”  She laughed.

              “I’ve learned to have great faith in you, Tamara,” the lupusan replied.  “You’ve delivered on every promise that you’ve made, even the crazy and the ridiculous ones.  Always a pleasure to watch you work.”

              Tamara smiled wryly.  “Nice to know I have someone out there who appreciates me.  Though I notice that I’m still crazy and ridiculous.”

              The lupusan smiled, her tongue lolling out for just a moment.  “Can’t let you get a swelled head over it.  Someone needs to keep you humble.”

              Tamara absently rubbed the disruptor on her neck and Corajen suddenly sobered.  “I’m sorry, Tamara.”

              She shook her head.  “It’s all right.  I’m still a little sensitive about it.”  The engineer turned captain sighed.  “Anyway.  I should get on board.  Got a whole new crop of greenies to train.”

              The lupusan nodded, extending her hand and Tamara shook it.  “Good hunting, Samair,” Corajen said in all seriousness.

              “Thanks, Corajen.  I’ll keep an eye out, but I’m leaving you in charge of things here.  Eretria will be running the engineering teams, so you won’t need to worry about that.  But otherwise, you’re the big dog,” Tamara said with a smile.  That was a good choice.  Corajen was popular, a good leader and certainly skilled and scary enough to easily maintain order on the station.  Galina could handle things on the
Samarkand
, it was really only the fighter squadrons that were the loose ends.  The zheen especially were particularly prone to outbursts and flying off the handle.  Tamara had needed to keep a close eye on them, make sure that there were twice daily sims ready for the Aploras and for the Delphon.  Though she only had a dozen fighters in total, both groups were maintaining distance from one another, even calling themselves squadrons, even thought they were each only six fighters strong.  The zheen had picked Aplora Squadron for themselves and the six mixed pilots called themselves Delphon.  There was an order in for more ships, and there was already a waiting list of twenty more zheen to join the Aploras.  She had to ride herd on all of them, to make sure that their type-A personalities and massive egos were focused on training and their jobs but that was something she felt confident she could still do as commanding officer of the
Cavalier
, by expanding their training ops to work with the corvette in addition to their current exercises.

              “Damned right I’m the big dog,” the lupusan replied.  “And don’t you ever forget it.  Have fun out there.”  And without another word or a backward glance, the Security Chief turned and walked away.

              “All right, Mister Wymea, take us to course three-one-four by four-eight-seven,” Tamara ordered.  “Speed one-fifty.”

              “Aye, aye, Captain,” the scrawny human male sitting at the helm replied.  He pressed a few controls and then maneuvered the control levers smoothly and the ship responded.  The crew had been training for a week now and they were starting to get things together.  Learning the new systems, new for the crew anyway, had taken a while, but it seemed as though most of them were shaping up.  It was slow going, of course, as none of Tamara’s crew had ever flow in space before, much less manned a warship.  Thankfully,
Cavalier
was a tiny ship, with a relatively small crew requirement which meant that there were that many fewer people to have to get into shape.  And with the veterans from her engineering crew keeping a close eye on things, Tamara was reasonably confident that the greenies weren’t going to accidently blow up the ship.

              She had told them all from the beginning things would be hard.  "Some of you have previous experience in space in various disciplines, others have only worked in atmosphere or even on ground-based facilities.  While working in space can certainly be of benefit, it can also be a hindrance, as life aboard a starship, a warship can be quite different than what you are used to.  Those of you without experience, although not burdened with the need to unlearn old ways, will have to work twice as hard to keep up with your crewmates."

              "Your training will consist of four parts.  The first will be basic ship's procedures and safety protocols.  In the second module, you will be acclimatized with the areas of the ship in which you will live an serve while underway.  As the majority of our time will be spent here, in system, you can be assured that we'll be stopping either at the mining station or the orbital fairly regularly for liberty and resupply, so your time will be limited to only a few weeks at a time on board.  The third module of your training will consist of drills and simulations, every type an situation conceivable."  She'd looked over her crew seeing the variety of expressions staring back at her.  "This will undoubtedly be the most difficult part of your training and it will last the longest.  In fact, it won't ever really end, for when we're not engaged in combat, I expect at least twice a week drills aboard ship to make sure our skills stay up to snuff.  I will have no weak links in the chain here, people, make no mistake.  In order to be effective in battle, our actions must become automatic.  They must be accurate and without any forethought.  You have to learn to follow orders without question.  Most importantly, you must be able to use your initiative and solve problems on your own, for it is possible command personnel might be absent, due to combat damage, injury or death."  Looks were exchanged, but no one spoke up.  Good.

              "The fourth and final part will be the most important of all of them: damage control training.  When the call goes out for damage control parties in your section, you have to know exactly what to do, because all our lives will depend on it, not just your own."

              Today was weapons’ training.  They were flying a relatively close pass by the asteroid field, about fifty thousand klicks.  She was going to see how well the crew performed weapons’ drills: firing at asteroids with all the ship’s armament.  Tamara needed to judge how well they’d perform in combat, both the weapons and the crew so she was going to start things off easy, a fun little jaunt to shoot at rocks with a few twists along the way.

              “We’ll be reaching the asteroid belt on this course, ma’am,” Wymea warned.

              “I’m aware, helm,” she said calmly.  “Time to arrival?”

              “Eleven minutes, present speed, Captain.”

              “Thank you, Mister Wymea.  Miss Garidhak, bring your weapons online, if you please,” Tamara said to the tactical officer, a young female Severite.  The cat had excellent spatial awareness and extremely quick reflexes, two things prized in a tactical officer.  It also didn’t hurt that she could do multi-spatial mathematical equations in her head.

              “Yes, Captain!” Garidhak said enthusiastically.  The cat was also very excited about the lethal amount off firepower she was now in control of.  The
Cavalier
’s armament was impressive, to be sure, but compared to a great number of ships Tamara had dealt with in the past, it was a paltry amount.  Verrikoth’s cruisers, for all their home grown charm, outgunned this ship.  Even if it was only in a straight up, one on one fight,
Cavalier
would be in serious trouble fighting against those ships.