A Greater Interest: Samair in Argos: Book 4

by Michael Kotcher

  “Chief Nymeria does need a commando team to get aboard that ship,” Ekaterina pointed out. “And she can’t spare too many bodies, but Marat and I can go.”

  “You’re needed here,” the serzhant replied.

  “No, we’re not,” Marat said. He sounded like he always did, as though his attention was a million light years away, as though he couldn’t care less for anything that was going on around him.

  “You were recruited to keep me safe,” Tamara said, sounding slightly indignant.

  “Yes, ma’am, we were,” Ekaterina replied, her brindled fur ruffling a bit. “And I’m sorry that we won’t be able to stay here by your side.” She pointed to the side, in the same direction Viktoriya had a few moments earlier. “But you need a team to get on board that transport and disable her before she can get into range. That means we need to move. Now.”

  But Eristov was shaking her great black head. “No. That’s my job.”

  “No, Serzhant,” Ekaterina said forcefully. “You have exactly one job.” She pointed a clawed finger. “Her.”

  “I’m standing right here, you know!” Tamara flared.

  But the lupusan all ignored her. “We all can’t stay here, because if we do, she’ll get killed. And we can’t be here and stop that transport.”

  “Why does it have to be you two?” Tamara demanded. “Corajen has plenty of deputies that can shoulder the load.”

  Corajen shook her head. “Not with their level of training. That’s why I chose them for you.”

  “We can do this,” Ekaterina said, ignoring Tamara and looking straight at her serzhant. “And you know it can’t be anyone else.”

  “Might like some help though,” Marat commented. He was staring off across the Operations center, turned away from the various females around him, apparently interested in what the crewmen across the way were doing. “Two against a whole brigade of soldiers? Plus the crew of the ship?”

  “I have four others that would be good for the job,” Corajen said after a second’s thought. “They’re gearing up now. Meet them in the hangar bay.”

  “Right,” Marat said, shaking his head and then starting to walk off.

  “Hold it right there,” Viktoriya demanded and the tall male stopped, turning halfway, but not looking his leader in the eye. “I haven’t okayed this.”

  Tamara let out a heavy sigh. “Let them go, Viktoriya. They’re right. We need those two reprobates if we want any chance of stopping that ship.”

  The black furred lupusan growled low in her throat for a long moment. Then she closed her eyes and her ears unflattened from the sides of her head. “Go. Be quick.”

  Marat laid a hand briefly on Tamara’s shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze. Well, gentle for a lupusan anyway. The human woman gasped and her knees nearly buckled. She patted his hand and then he released her. And just like that, he was gone. Ekaterina yipped at her, startling the human woman, then she too dashed off out of Operations. Viktoriya watched them go for only an instant, her gaze lingering on the door for perhaps another second. Then she looked back over at the display. “They’re on their way, Chief.”

  “Thank you, Serzhant.” Corajen nodded her head once. “I’d better get going.” But then she stopped. “Any chance you could join the security forces? I could use you on one of the roving patrols.”

  The wolf woman huffed, clearly torn. “I will stay either up here in Operations or down in the hangar bay working on those missiles.” Tamara assured her.

  “If you stay here in Operations, I won’t feel bad about going,” Viktoriya replied, her eyes narrowing. Her ears lay back against her head. “But you step one centimeter out any of the hatches and I will be staying no further than one meter away from you at all times. With Ekaterina and Marat gone, I can’t let you go anywhere unsupervised.”

  “Magnus will be keeping an eye on me,” Tamara temporized.

  She gave a short bark. “Yes, I’m sure he will. But Magnus will have his hands and his security bots full if we get boarded. I can’t risk you being unattended, ma’am. Call me overprotective, I don’t care. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I let you go off alone and you got hurt or killed. Ekaterina was right. I have one job now and that is you.”

  Tamara blinked slowly. “I don’t know whether to feel flattered or smothered.”

  The lupusan shrugged. “Whatever works, but just understand that those are the rules, ma’am.”

  “I need to get down to the construction floor and help with those missiles. We need to have some sort of big offensive punch when those cruisers get too close,” Tamara said, sighing. “Let’s go.”

  “I’ll want to stop off at the security office as well,” Eristov said. “I need to get some armor and a bigger weapon.”

  Tamara sighed. “Fine. Let’s go. You can catch up to me at the work floor…” She started but stopped as soon as she saw the look the lupusan was giving her. “All right, all right. Let’s make this fast.” The hustled out of Operations at the run.

  Korqath hissed as his missile exploded into the engines of one of the pirate corvettes. The engine housing blew outward, ripping open the whole aft end of the ship. The ship rolled over on its x-axis, power fluctuating throughout the remainder of the vessel. A few moments passed and then four escape pods burst from the starboard side of the ship.

  “We’re starting to make progress,” the zheen pilot stated.

  “Spoke too soon, Lead,” one of the Aploras retorted as they made a turn to head back into the fighting. Three of the gunships were hitting the Angara. The corvette was trying to swat them away, but the smaller ships weathered the storm. “Angara needs some help.”

  “First flight, on me,” Korqath ordered. “We’ve got some beetles to scrape off of the Angara.”

  “This is insane,” Alys Flynn breathed, rubbing sweat off her forehead. The ship’s environmental systems were acting up, especially after that last hit for some reason the temperature was going up. Eridain and Cavalier had managed to cover one another, despite the damage to both ships. Both had acceleration issues, their shields were damaged, hulls were breached.

  “We didn’t sign up for it to be easy, Alys,” Nazan replied. The pirate corvettes and two of the gunships had been circling around and around, hammering at the two damaged FP corvettes for what felt like hours now, but had only been about ten minutes by his watch. Eridain and his own battered Cavalier had been giving back as best they could, but with their damage and engine trouble, they couldn’t evade as well as they could have in the beginning of the fight. He cursed fate for bringing these pirates here when there wasn’t sufficient cover. He cursed the bosses, the politicians, everyone who was keeping all of FP’s defensive assets away from the gas giant and the Kutok mine, where clearly they were most needed. But then he gave a mental shrug. Couldn’t leave the shipyard uncovered and right now, the defenses there were stripped down to one ship. Well, one ship and one fighter squadron. With Persistence of Vision piling on acceleration to get here as swiftly as possible, the shipyard was stripped to what could be considered bare minimum. And if another group of pirate ships showed up… Well, FP was done.

  “I didn’t expect easy, boss,” the tactical officer said, pressing a few keys and firing on the approaching corvette with all the weapons they had left. The pirate ship took the hit on their starboard side, rolling to try and spread the damage. A second later, the ship turned away, managing to avoid taking any serious shots to its aft shields. She smiled slightly at the good hit on the other ship, but then her eyes narrowed in concentration as another of the corvettes angled in to attack, with one of the gunboats in support.

  Eridain fired her thrusters, slipping around and over Cavalier’s position, adding her own weight of fire to Alys’s and the gunboat tried to bob and weave around, to no avail. A blistering salvo caught the smaller vessel amidships, punching through the shields and breaching the hull. Cavalier’s own salvo hammered the forward section of the pirate corvette, forcing it to veer off. But the shi
p didn’t veer off before unleashing with all their active weapons. But whoever was in command of the pirate ships’ guns made a mistake on this attack run, splitting their fire between the two FP ships instead of concentrating it like they should.

  “We’re getting heavy spotting on the portside shields,” one of the watch standers called. “We can’t take too many hits on that side.”

  “Very well,” Nazan replied. We can’t really take too many more hits on any side. “Helm, bring us to port, ten degrees, three degrees down.” He turned to the comms officer. “Comms, make sure that Eridain stays with us.”

  “Aye, sir,” the officers chorused. A second later, the comms officer turned to her captain. “Sir, I’ve got Leytenant Rujarrik on the line for you.”

  “Put her through to my chair display,” he ordered. The officer acknowledged and his display activated, showing the lupusan. “Leytenant.”

  “This is getting intense, Captain,” she told him, her voice dripping with understatement.

  “I know,” he replied. “But we’ve got to hold them off as long as we can.”

  “What’s our endgame, here, Captain?” she asked firmly. “I mean, we’re barely holding together as it is, Eridain can’t take too much more of a pounding and I’m guessing Cavalier can’t either. And those cruisers will be in range in only a few minutes.”

  “I know. We won’t be able to hold them off, certainly not with our engine damage.”

  “So then, I repeat, sir, what are we doing?” It was unlike a lupusan to show fear or indecision. “We can’t stand here. We’re doing nothing but delaying our deaths.”

  “No, we’re holding the pirates here, out away from the mine.”

  “For only a few minutes longer, sir,” she pointed out. “And then either those corvettes will get us or the cruisers will.”

  “I have no intention of staying put,” Nazan replied. “Can you keep with us?”

  “My hull integrity is getting lower with each battering we take, but Eridain isn’t finished yet, Captain,” Rujarrik told him defiantly.

  “Good!”

  “Where are you taking us?” she asked, her defiance bleeding off into confusion.

  “Around the gas giant,” he said. “You’re right. We can’t hold out against those cruisers, but maybe we can lure the corvettes and gunships to either try and tangle with the fighters, or get them in range of the orbital turrets around the mine.”

  “It’s an idea.”

  Nazan chuckled. “I’m not thrilled with the idea myself. But you’re right. If we stay here, we can do nothing but die. Bringing them back around, it’ll delay things that much longer.”

  “What about Angara and Maitland?” She actually seemed to be concerned over the fates of Eridain’s sister ships. Her gaze flicked to the side, checking something outside the vid pickup.

  Nazan checked his own displays. Angara was engaged with a few gunboats, but it looked as though she was keeping them at bay, though barely, and was getting some assistance from Korqath’s Aplora squadron. Maitland was holding off the remaining corvette, and as he watched, the FP ship launched a vicious salvo of missiles into the other corvette’s flank, tearing it apart. Before his eyes, the ship exploded outward and Maitland swooped stately past, turning to presumably lend assistance to Angara.

  “Well, we’re all still spaceworthy,” Nazan noted, rubbing his chin. “Can’t say much more than that.”

  “Captain, assuming no serious course changes, those cruisers will be in weapons’ range in thirty seconds,” Alys reported, her words portending doom.

  “Stay with us, Leytenant,” Nazan said to Rujarrik on the display. Then he looked up. “Helm, set a course around the gas giant. Best speed but keep us with Eridain. We’re heading for the mine.”

  “Aye, sir,” the helmsman replied, engaging the ship’s engines.

  Nazan did some quick calculations. Even at their present reduced acceleration, Cavalier and Eridain could outrun the incoming heavy cruiser, but they had no way of outrunning the two light cruisers. Ships like that normally didn’t have the grunt to catch a pair of corvettes, but now? It would be child’s play to run them down and blast them apart. And with Maitland and Angara out on their own, the cruisers would mop up and move in.

  Our only real hope at this point is Korqath and his pilots. He grunted. Never thought I would be pinning my survival on the skill of a zheen. Of that zheen.

  “Coming into range now of the first enemy ship, my lord,” Jensen Tyler reported, standing by the tactical station. His voice was as filled with anticipation as Verrikoth himself felt. After far too long “racing” across space to get into the battle, it was high time, past time to clear Nemesis’s guns.

  “Excellent,” the zheen replied, his fists clenching and unclenching. “Target that sship.” He checked one of the displays in front of him and saw that the local corvette was busy trying to hold off one of Typhon’s corvettes. It was the last of Typhon’s corvettes, Verrikoth thought, hissing in contempt. One on one, it appeared that the local ship was going to be the better in the engagement. “Not any more…”

  “All heavy lasers and turbolasers targeted, my Lord,” Tyler replied.

  “Then by all meanz, Commander,” the pirate lord said, waving one hand grandiosely,

  Tyler nodded to the tactical officer. “Engage!”

  The heavy cruiser’s forward turbolasers opened up, a wave of coherent energy washed out, lancing over from the pirate flagship to the local corvette. The sleek, stubby winged corvette was raked from stem to stern. Five full seconds of pounding later and the ship exploded.

  “We’ve got three escape pods flying away from the ship, Commander,” the tactical operator reported, pointing to the display.

  Tyler nodded. “Shoot them down.” The words were barely out of his mouth when three of the ship’s turrets opened fire. Three shots, three escape pods vaporized. With a nod, the commander turned to Verrikoth. “Target destroyed, my Lord.”

  The pirate lord was on his feet, mouthparts writhing in glee. “I love thiss sship! Find uss another target, Commander,” the zheen demanded, sitting himself back down on the command seat with a royal air. “I believe there is another corvette out there that has been causing our forces considerable difficulty.”

  Tyler’s smile was infectious. “Of course, my Lord. It will be a pleasure. Helm, bring us to two-five-seven.”

  Verrikoth watched as Ganges and Illuyanka broke formation and raced into the fray, chasing after the two corvettes that were attempting to cover each other. It was a smart move, but futile. Two light cruisers would make short work of the two smaller ships. Their only hope would be to try and outrun the larger ships, but it appeared that both ships had suffered significant engine or hull damage, preventing higher levels of acceleration. They were helpless. His antennae swirled in large loops. “Only a matter of time.”

  “No!” Tariq cried, unable to stop his outburst as the image of Angara exploded on the main display. The heavy cruiser moved into range and obliterated it, then just for spite, shot down the escaping crew with three perfectly placed shots, as though turbolaser bolts were being rationed.

  But there was no time for grief. They had their own skins to look out for. “Captain!” Alys called, her voice going up a few octaves. “The light cruisers are accelerating. They’re coming straight after us.”

  “Shades,” he swore. He looked down at Rujarrik’s image on the chair display. “Can you get any more acceleration?”

  The wolf looked to the side, speaking to someone off camera. Then she turned back. “No, Captain. We’re pretty well maxed out. And with the accel those cruisers are piling on, we’re only going to barely make it to the mine before they get into weapons’ range.”

  He gritted his teeth. “Alys, ready weapons. Maybe if we can throw a salvo of missiles in their teeth, the cruisers might pause long enough for us to make it to the mine.”

  “You’re putting an awful lot of faith in the defensive turrets around t
he mine, Captain,” Rujarrik noted. Then she flicked her ears, tipping her head to one side for a second. “Not that I have any better idea. And there are six of them.”

  “They can throw a lot of missiles at those ships.”

  “Might give them pause,” the lupusan admitted. “I only wish I could get some more speed out of this ship.”

  “Just ready your weapons, Leytenant,” Tariq told her. “Once they’re in range, we throw everything we can at them and…”

  “Pray?” Rujarrik asked, one ear flat to her skull and the other up.

  “I was going to say do our best,” Tariq said with a frown. He was having a hard time keeping his breathing calm. This was all going to hell, and as those cruisers were very quickly closing the gap he could feel the noose tightening. Where’s that miracle?

  The missile fabrication was going apace. There was already a production line for the weapons, with technicians and bots, with a smart computer running the whole thing. It wasn’t as big or fast or impressive as the ones Tamara used to have back at the Hudora shipyard, but for their needs now it was adequate. Or rather, it was until a whopping great fleet came storming into the system and they needed a pile of missiles in a hurry. So far, there was about a hundred missiles ready, with another fifty in the pipeline, though whether they’d be ready by the time those ships got here was unlikely. Still a hundred missiles wasn’t anything to sneer at. Even a trio of cruisers would be hard pressed to shoot down that many projectiles before their fire control was saturated.

  Tamara had the techs and bots working, with the station AI overseeing the whole operation and ran down to the hangar bay. The strike team was prepping to depart, the shuttle nearly ready for launch. She rushed up to the hatch of the shuttle, a fist-sized box in her hand.

  “Come to see us off, Boss?” Ekaterina asked, laughing. She was wearing a skinsuit to move around in vacuum, with unpowered combat armor over that. She had her armorglass bubble helmet in her hands, ready to fit over her head.