A Greater Interest: Samair in Argos: Book 4

by Michael Kotcher

  “Two more cargo ships are coming off the line in a month,” Tamara said, wrapping up her report. “One for FP, the Yellow Dolly, and one for a private company down on the planet. Ma Mystere, FP’s new tanker ship, finished up trials and is ready to go. She’s going to be making the run to Heb once she fills up her bunkers.”

  “How many ships do you actually have?” the councilor asked, glancing to her aides, one of whom was frantically paging through notes on his datapad.

  Tamara started counting on her fingers. “Two in system fuel tenders, Horton Gravis and Dolcinea, a bulk freighter, Grania Estelle of course. Then there’s First Horizon and Yellow Dolly, medium cargo haulers. And now Ma Mystere, our hyperspace-capable tanker ship. The constructor ship Samarkand, of course. I’m also looking into building another factory ship, but that’s early days yet. And that’s just on the civilian side.”

  Carriger grunted. “Since this is, as you pointed out, a civilian operation, all of your ships are on the civilian side, Samair.”

  Tamara felt a small flash of irritation at the interruption. “Of course,” she said. “A slip of the tongue. I meant more in the fashion of ships that were built to haul cargoes and that would be making money for the company and helping to generate tax revenues. As far as defense ships, we have two in the escort-frigate class: Mondragon and Tsesuko, with Verdun on the way. Verdun is scheduled to be out of the builder’s hands in ten weeks, I’m just working on finding and hiring crew.”

  She went on, ignoring the glances that were not so surreptitiously exchanged. “For the corvettes Maitland is the only one currently in active service. But tomorrow afternoon, we have five that are coming off the line: Cavalier II, Darvano, Badajoz, Coronado and Tristram. We have crews for Cavalier, Darvano and Badajoz, and I’ve got my recruiters scouring for people within the company as well as on the planet for the others.”

  “You built ships without crews for them?” the councilor asked, clearly curious. She wasn’t being derogatory, just asking a question.

  Tamara shrugged. “If you build it, you can find people,” she said casually. “I’m not concerned. If I can’t find the crews here in Seylonique, I’m hoping we can find them in Heb, or perhaps even Ulla-tran.” That caused a stir among the councilor and her aides.

  “You will hire people from outside the system?” one of the aides blurted. None of the others tried to shut the woman up, clearly, they all wanted to know the answer to that.

  Tamara frowned in confusion. “Why is that such a surprise? Yes, for now, First Principles is headquartered here in Seylonique, but we’ve got markets in those two systems and small ones in Bimawae and Bellosha. Why would I not hire from those areas?”

  “You would take jobs away from Seylonique!” the woman declared, outraged.

  Carriger touched her forearm as the aide started to get out of her chair. The bodyguards shifted slightly, but didn’t speak. “Calmly, Mel.”

  “I would take jobs away from Seylonique?” Tamara asked, anger in her eyes. “Are you kidding me? Is she kidding me?” she asked, looking to the councilor and gesturing to the aide. “First Principles is hiring all over the planet. I’ve got more employees than any other entity in the star system but Orbital Station One and the government working for this company and you have the utter gall to whine that I might start looking in other places? The Seylonique Navy and the government are also looking for good people and all of us are jockeying for those who haven’t chosen who to work with.”

  Carriger looked over at the fuming aide. “That was a bit uncalled for, Mel. But we didn’t come here to fight,” she said, looking over at Tamara. “I’m just trying to get my head around what it is that you’re doing out here.”

  Tamara huffed, nodding and making a valiant effort to force down that flare of anger. What is wrong with me? I’ve dealt with irritating politicians and their minions before. I’ve gotten too used to not being questioned, except by people that I actually like and respect, and even then only in the concept of getting the job done. The expressions on the faces of all these people make me think that they’re looking to put the braking thrusters on.

  The lupusan looked back to Tamara. “Apologies, Ms. Samair. They won’t interrupt again.” It wasn’t a statement meant to soothe; it was a statement of fact. And with just the slightest amount of subsonics in her voice put a threat of dire consequences in that statement.

  Tamara just eyed her for a moment before continuing. “That just leaves Persistence of Vision, which is here in the outer system and our other Adder-class destroyer, the Xie Feng.”

  Carriger huffed out a snort, her ears flattening to her head. “Where do you come up with these names? Is there any rhyme or reason to the ones you choose?”

  Her lips quirked in a smile. “Do I have to have one? So a name for the deity who controls the wind is too… what? Esoteric for you?”

  After a moment, the wolf shook her head. “I see. But that’s quite a fleet you’ve built for yourself, Ms. Samair.”

  Okay, I don’t like the tone of that statement. “It’s a defense force, meant to protect the company’s employees and assets. It certainly wouldn’t be enough to challenge the Seylonique Navy, not in any serious kind of way.”

  Her ears flicked. “Well I think we’re all glad to hear that. Now, talk to me about this giant ball of molten metal floating nearby.”

  Chapter 15

  “A shield?” Carriger Hroth asked, awe in her voice.

  “Yes, Councilor, that’s correct,” Tamara replied. “The attack on the Kutok mine by that last pirate cruiser by using a big rock got me to thinking that we don’t have a viable defense out here against such an attack. I mean, it was Captain Raydor’s quick thinking and the hard work of FP’s shuttle and tug pilots, not to mention the good fortune that Leader Korqath had enough of his fighters on hand to blast apart the smaller chunks of the rocks before they could bombard the mine.” She looked down at the table. “We got very lucky.”

  “Sounds like you have very good people and equipment,” Carriger said, impressed. “And that those good people managed to get that equipment into the position where they could do the most good.”

  “Thank you, Councilor. But I want something in place to specifically deal with this, so that those good people could be used more effectively.” She looked up. “Now, I know that any serious hit made by a kinetic strike wouldn’t be significantly slowed down, even by a kilometer of steel.”

  “Then why build it?”

  Tamara shrugged. “Because it isn’t all that hard,” she admitted. “The biggest cost is in using the weapon batteries to melt it down and slowly spin out the impurities. That takes forever. But, we’re almost done with that. Another two weeks and then we get the carbon added, then we can spin it up on a single axis and stretch it out to its proper size. Then we have several months of letting it cool and sadly there isn’t any way to speed that up. But, when it’s all said and done, we’ll have a twenty to twenty-two kilometer wide disk, one to one-and-a-half kilometers thick to work with.”

  “That’s insane,” the councilor breathed. “You can’t possibly need anything that big.”

  “I need something that will cover the Kutok mine-” she began.

  But one of the aides cut her off. “The mine isn’t even close to being that big.” It was the same woman as before.

  Tamara ignored her. “To cover the mine from above and force any would-be attacker to have to throw rocks at an extreme oblique angle, hopefully one where it would be more likely that the rocks would skip out of the atmosphere without hitting anything. Meanwhile, the turbolaser batteries on the rim of the shield will be able to deflect or destroy the rocks when they enter range. The whole concept is made easier because the planet itself is just a big ball of gas. We don’t have to worry about a kinetic strike cracking open the planet.”

  “So you’re just going to have a huge… plate hanging over the mine?” the woman demanded.

  Tamara glowered at her for a moment and
she visible squirmed. There was a small yip from behind Tamara but she ignored it. She turned back to Carriger. “So instead of just having a gargantuan plate hovering over the mine, I want to turn it into a habitat.”

  Carriger’s ears flattened against her head for a moment. “A habitat? Wait, but that would negate the effectiveness of a shield, if you’re putting people on it.”

  Tamara shrugged. “Not on the underside, facing the planet it wouldn’t.”

  “And with a kilometer of armor overhead, it would give a feeling of security.” A smile was forming on the she-wolf’s face. “I like it! And if the amount of weapons and such that are put on are significant, as it sounds it would be, then I can imagine all sorts of things that could be built.”

  “I want it to be a great city in space,” Tamara went on. “And it wouldn’t just be a First Principles only station, I want it to be a port where people can come and relax and trade and then move further in system to the habitable planet and the orbital station there. Right now it’s a week’s journey one way and if anyone comes out here, there really isn’t anyplace to put them. But it is where the fuel is, so I want people to be able to come out here, tank up their ships, while at the same time be able to make business deals and shop while feeling safe they won’t be attacked.”

  “You’re taking business away from the planet!” the woman gasped, unable to stop herself, despite the penetrating glare from her boss. “From the orbital!”

  “I’ve already said it would be a place open to all. Have businesses come out here, or set up satellite offices here on the shield with their home offices back on the orbital or the planet.” Tamara shrugged. “And all things considered, it would still be a space station. There would be plenty of people that would still long for the fresh air and open spaces of a planet’s surface. And if they go to the planet, they’ll need to go to the orbital.”

  “I like it,” the councilor said again. “And it’s certainly a more extravagant place to conduct business than here on the mine.” She held up a hand. “I meant no offense.”

  Tamara shrugged again. “None taken, Councilor. This place is much more utilitarian than even the orbital station. It’s not meant as a vacation spot; it’s meant to collect and process helium 3. I’ll be looking into forming partnerships with some of the ground-based companies to construct habitat structures for the station.”

  The councilor’s ears flicked and she shared a glance with the aides, then over at Tiyaana, who looked confused, and then shifted her gaze back to Tamara. “The same companies that are working on the moon colony project?”

  “Some of those, yes,” Tamara said. “Is that a problem?”

  She shook her head. “No. I was just interested.”

  “And the looking at everyone in the room first thing?” Tamara asked.

  Carriger sighed. “You really just blurt out everything you are thinking, don’t you?”

  “And you’re avoiding the question, Councilor.”

  “I was interested,” she repeated. “It’s common knowledge about the merging of work for the moon colony, the joint venture. But I didn’t realize that you would be tapping those sources again for this… shield project.”

  Tamara forced her face to an emotionless mask. “Why? Is the government interested in getting in on some of the action?”

  The councilor was taken aback by the frank question. “Well now. Perhaps that is something we can discuss.”

  “Tiyaana? If you don’t mind…” Tamara asked, turning to the other woman.

  The station manager looked grateful at the dismissal. “Of course, Ma’am. I have a station to run.” She got up from the table. “Councilor,” Tiyaana said, nodding to Carriger.

  The administratory council member gave her a genuine smile. “Station Manager. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of opportunities to chat in the future. Thank you for the concise briefing.” Tiyaana nodded and then departed the conference room. Once the hatch closed behind her, the lupusan turned back to the engineer turned businesswoman. “Now, should we discuss this a bit more?”

  “Captain, we have a contact,” the sensor operator reported.

  Captain Alexsei Vikashev looked up and over at the man seated at that station. The lupusan commander had been nervous about this trip to the Republic system of Byra-Kae ever since the order came down from Ms. Samair back home. And he had to admit, it was a smart move sending the Maitland here. According to the Republic Commodore, months before, the pirate lord had brought his fleet here, smashed the Republic flotilla and drove the Commodore’s ship away, where she eventually met up with Captain Eamonn and the Grania Estelle. But no one ever had any hard data about what the status of the system was and if there were any Republic assets here now. So, Maitland was tapped for the job. Technically, FP had two other warships capable of making this trip, but Alexsei understood that the bigger ships, Tsesuko and Persistence of Vision were needed to look after the gas mine and the shipyards. The Navy would be helping out, which meant that Maitland was the only ship available that would actually leave the system to do the job. Certainly a Navy ship could be tapped for the job, and probably would be in the future, but now, at this moment, Alexsei and his ship were what were available.

  And he was happy to do it. After that horror show that was the battle in the outer system, the chance to get out and actually see a new star system, hell two star systems was a reward too tempting to refuse. Not that he would have.

  “Report,” he said in his gravelly voice.

  “We’re detecting some debris,” the sensor watch replied. “Two light seconds off our forward to port. Visual sensors are showing what look like Republic markings.”

  “What kind of debris?” Alexsei asked, pulling up the display at his command seat.

  The man hammered a few keys on the control console. “Clearly a ship, sir. Comparable to Maitland, sir. Corvette class, but she’s seen better days.”

  “Send it to me,” he ordered. A second later, the image appeared on his display. It was a corvette, clearly, but unlike the hak’ruk design that First Principles used which had canted wings and fins, the Republic ship was much more sleek, a hammerhead design similar to the destroyer that was now being used and copied in Seylonique. Of course, the ship was punctured in several places by weapons’ fire. The hull was breached in five places, one of the breaches on the starboard side tore through nearly the length of the ship. There was a cloud of debris that surrounded the ship and the hull that wasn’t broken was scored with laser hits.

  “Well, they’ve clearly seen better days,” Alexsei said morbidly. Then he sat back. He pressed a control on the arm of his chair.

  “This is Chief Lexington,” the Severite engineer answered almost immediately. “What can I help you with Captain?”

  “Tobey, I need you to get a team together. I want to send an EVA team over to a derelict Republic warship that we’ve come across. I want your team to get over there and gather up any intel or databases you can get into. Don’t worry about decryption, just get anything you can find and bring it back. We’ll deal with that when we get home.”

  “Understood, Captain,” the cat replied, clearly pleased with her boss’s assignment. “I’ll have a team ready for half an hour. How long will we have?”

  “I’ll give you twelve hours, assuming we don’t get interrupted,” Alexsei told her. “And you will be careful.”

  He could hear her nod. “Of course, sir.”

  Chief Tobey Lexington gathered her engineering team of eight in the shuttle bay and had all of her techs check their own suits, then checked each others’. Once that was done, they all piled into Maitland’s single shuttle and launched out into the void. Within twenty minutes, the shuttle pilot had maneuvered the craft into position near to the Republic ship. Getting aboard the wrecked corvette proved easy enough. The pilot easily matched the slow axial roll of the larger ship and eased forward through the cloud of debris, bits of the corvette pinging off the shuttle’s hull. A couple of puffs on the t
hrusters and the shuttle clunked down on the hull, its magnetic clamps locking the shuttle to the warship’s side. They couldn’t get into position near one of the airlocks as both sets (fore and aft) had been blown out by weapons fire. So, the engineers were forced to land on the hull and then burn through to get inside the ship. No one, especially not Tobey was thrilled about the idea of floating through one of the breaches, which were festooned with debris. Using hand signs only, the tech knew what the Chief wanted, Tobey signaled for one of them to move forward and use the plasma cutter to slice a door into the hull. Twenty minutes of work later and they were through.

  “All right, this is an information gathering mission. If you find anything interesting in the ship, you report it, tag it, and we’ll see if it’s something we can take. Don’t get greedy, trying to take any valuables or weapons.” The female Severite glowered at her techs; all nodded meekly. She went on. “I’m not expecting to find a whole lot of that. This system was overrun by pirates for at least a few weeks and more than likely they picked the ship clean. That said, if you find something, report it. I wouldn’t put it past any of these bastards to booby trap any of the shiny baubles we find. So don’t be stupid. And by the stars, every one of you had better stay on comms the whole time we’re over there. We’ve got twelve hours, and twenty hours on the suits atmo. Don’t worry about the air. But I will be making reserves checks every hour and you all better sound off. This is a dangerous mission, don’t doubt it.” Tobey swept the group with her big, luminous eyes. “Keep an eye out for sharp edges, floating debris… and bodies.” Tobey Lexington had dealt with her fair share of them; three of her own people had been killed in Maitland’s engine room during the battle with pirates. It had been a frightening and sorrowful experience and more than one of her engineers had lost their lunch.