A Greater Interest: Samair in Argos: Book 4

by Michael Kotcher

  “No good is my guess,” Galina said, her voice bitter. But then she shook her head. “But it’s a moot point. You’re not really thinking of mounting an expedition to the Republic are you?”

  “No, though I wish we could manage it somehow.” Then she waved a hand. “But that’s a plan for another time.” Then she looked to her CFO. “So what are we doing about Heb?”

  Galina blinked in confusion at the abrupt change in subject. “Other than our regular cargo runs and the small defense squadron sent by the Navy, I wasn’t aware we were doing anything about Heb.”

  “I’m thinking we should send a team out there.” Tamara sounded more as though she was talking through an idea to herself than carrying on a conversation. “Yes, I’m thinking we should.”

  “Tamara, be reasonable,” the she-wolf chided. “Yes, the second factory ship is out of the yard hands, but we area still trying to scrape together a crew for her, an engineering AI, to say nothing of the engineering team she needs to run her. Tamara, the ship doesn’t even have a name.”

  “I know,” the woman replied. Then she shrugged. “What if the ship was crewed by techs and engineers recruited from Heb? We get people from FP here in Seylonique to work as supervisors and officers on the ship, but we get the actual workers in Heb. We train them up and eventually they take over the more difficult aspects of running the ship.”

  “What is it that you want, Tamara?” Galina asked.

  She chuckled. “There’s no rule stating that we have to stay bound to one star system, Galina. We can hire people from other systems, even set up offices elsewhere. It’s a brave new world out there, my friend.”

  The wolf looked disgusted. “I’m sure the council won’t be thrilled about you branching out,” she noted sourly. “The council doesn’t even like you very much in this star system.”

  Tamara grimaced. “Considering how much First Principles is paying in taxes, they should be ecstatic whenever we come up with some new moneymaking idea.”

  “And now you want to go to Heb to, what? Make more money? You don’t have enough riches here in this system? You have accumulated enough wealth to try for a council seat, Tamara. So could Vincent.” She considered her words. “So could I, actually.”

  “Well,” she said sheepishly, “it makes sense. But what I want is for us to have completely safe passage in all star systems and just focus on industry and hauling cargoes.”

  “We both know that’s not going to happen,” Galina harrumphed. “So you sent the new factory ship to Heb and… what?”

  “Well,” she said, “I like Captain Hogan’s idea of an orbital platform to store goods. And while it really wouldn’t require something as potent or dedicated as a factory ship to put together, it would be a good starting point for the tech crew that would actually be doing the building. Something interesting and important for the team to cut their teeth on. Might as well start somewhere.”

  But Galina shook her head. “But that’s not the real reason to send the factory ship to Heb.”

  “But it is a good one,” Tamara countered.

  “But it’s not the real one,” Galina insisted, smiling. “Blast it, Tamara. I’m your CFO. You can’t conceal things from me.”

  Tamara sighed. “I’m not trying to hide things from you, but my thoughts weren’t fully formed on the subject. But I’m further along now.” She hurried along, seeing the wolf’s impatience. “I’ve been thinking about this ever since the council cracked down on our defense spending.”

  The wolf’s ears perked up in understanding. “You want to build more ships.” It wasn’t a question.

  Tamara nodded gravely. “I do, but not for the reasons everyone thinks. I don’t want to overthrow the admin council, or challenge the Republic or storm the Federation, or even carve out my own little empire here in the Argos Cluster and crown myself Empress. Thos are ridiculous. I want more ships because we have growing industry and prosperity being threated by these pirates and their warlord. Now I know money is an issue for the government. There’s only so much to move around.”

  “Surprisingly, there isn’t a whole lot of graft and stealing going on,” Galina admitted, clasping her hands before her. “I was surprised and pleased when I found that out. Took a fair bit of doing to get that information, to be honest. I can’t believe things are running so aboveboard.”

  Tamara made a face at her. “Well, it’s manageable, certainly, but even with that minor miracle, I think we’re approaching the bottom of the barrel of what Seylonique’s Navy can reasonably afford to build and maintain. There’s maintenance, upkeep, fuel, supplies, crew salaries. What am I saying?” she laughed. “You know all this.”

  Galina nodded. “Well, I think if push came to shove, they’d come up with the money for the ships and the crews.”

  “I don’t think there’s any pushing or shoving going on. And honestly, the Seylonique Navy centers around the Leytonstone,” Tamara pointed out. “Without that battlecruiser, our Navy here is nothing more than a light squadron. Verrikoth already has three cruisers and if he were to come back and fight smart, even with the Leytonstone, we’d be in serious trouble. We don’t currently have the firepower to stand up to his forces as they were during the battle a few months ago, and you can’t honestly sit there and think that he won’t be adding more ships to his line of battle. We need more, no. We need more and we need better.”

  “You want to build cruisers in Heb?” Galina asked, incredulous. “They don’t have the mineral wealth to do the building, Tamara. You’ll have to ship in the goods and materials from here. As well as fuel. Seems like a huge waste. And who’s going to pay for all this?”

  “For the moment, we will,” Tamara replied simply. “I’ve looked at the numbers, Galina. We could build two of those modified pirate cruisers. We can afford to build them,” she repeated.

  “But with the company funds available, and assuming you don’t want to run any department in a deficit, we’d only be able to fully fund one. And I have to tell you, Tamara, I’m not thrilled with these numbers.”

  “More cargo runs, then?” Tamara mused. “Or more cargo runners?”

  Galina shifted on her seat. “Well of course that would help. More runs mean more profits, but we can’t afford anything huge like Ma Mystere or Grania Estelle. And certainly not with the bulk freighter’s crew levels.”

  “All right,” Tamara stated. “We’ll put a pin in the cruiser conversation for now.”

  “Thank you,” the lupusan said, relieved.

  “But not in the plans for Heb,” Tamara went on. She waved a hand at the lupusan’s disgusted look. “No cruisers for now, I promise. Not yet, anyway. No, I’m thinking that Heb could use a small repair slip. For the Navy corvettes, of course.”

  The wolf seemed to brighten. “Of course. And if we can use your idea of hiring local workers, we can start trining them up, perhaps even get more interested in joining.” But then her expression hardened. “What else are you planning?”

  Tamara got a faraway expression for a moment, then blinked and looked at her. “Well, I just cut orders for two more cargo ships. The same size and class as the First Horizon and the Yellow Dolly. And once those are done, I think we’ll pause in the number of new projects, at least until the recruiters can get more bodies on the roster.”

  “Thank you, Tamara,” Galina said with a huff. “I know you’re enthusiastic about expanding, but racing forward too fast will leave us overextended and in trouble.” She raised one of her taloned fingered hands. “I’m not saying that we can’t ever move forward or capture opportunities, just slow down a bit.”

  “Yes, mummy,” Tamara said with a smile. Then she sobered, rubbing her forehead. “I know, it’s the old ‘ask me for anything but time’ argument,” she lamented. Then she shook her head. “The pirates aren’t done, Galina. I can feel it. They’re coming back. Maybe not today, but they will be back here.”

  Galina nodded gravely. “But bankrupting the company is not the way to defe
at them, Tamara. You have too many people depending on your good judgment for you to wreck the company on a topic that isn’t even our responsibility.”

  Tamara looked back at her. “I won’t leave it all to them, Galina. The Navy. I can’t do it. Gants seems to have a good head on his shoulders, but I have a feeling that if we go too many more months without an attack or even a sighting then the council will cut the defense spending down to the bare bones. I’m sure they can’t like this heightened state of alert they’re on. Hell, I know I sure don’t.”

  The lupusan looked at her in concern. “You can’t take on the weight of the world, Tamara. Even someone as old and wise as you needs rest,” she teased. “How long has it been since you took any time off?”

  Tamara looked up at the overhead. “It’s been a while,” she admitted.

  Text scrolled across both females’ HUDs. [It’s been more than five months since her last day off. Even in transit across the system she was working.]

  She scowled at the message. “I have far too many well-intentioned babysitters.” She crossed her arms over her chest.

  Galina yipped at her, then barked a laugh aloud. “We just don’t want to see you run yourself, and by extension the company into the ground.”

  “Gee, thanks.” She slumped a bit in the desk chair. “There’s too much to do. I can’t just take time off.”

  “I can handle things for a week or two while you take some time off, Tamara,” Galina told her. She turned to the closed shipyard office door. “Serzhant?” she called loudly.

  The door slid open and it wasn’t the short black-furred lupusan who stepped inside, but Kayla instead. “Ma’am?” Her tone was polite, but her eyes danced.

  “Captain Samair is taking two weeks vacation back on the homeworld,” Galina told her. “Please get with your Serzhant and get the travel arrangements sorted.”

  Kayla straightened and gave a crisp, military salute. Without a glance at her dumbstruck principle she rotated in place and marched out of the office, the door whispering shut behind her.

  Tamara watched the exchange with open-mouthed disbelief, having the certain knowledge she had just been ‘handled’ by her subordinates. She closed her mouth, blushing slightly in embarrassment and irritation.

  “Nothing but usurpers and traitors in this company,” she groused, but her tone was light, taking the sting out of the words. Not that Galina would have taken any offense anyway. “I’ll let you have your way, this time.” It wouldn’t hurt to make some visits to a few of the planet-based customers; get a feel for things. Plus there was that race at the Grand Xitark Speedway she’d been meaning to see. Oh and then there was dinner at Silvanost’s…

  Robert Kreighton looked at the diagnostic panel and nodded with satisfaction. The engineers had worked miracles with the sublight engines savaged in the attack. The fixes weren’t pretty, a lot of spliced wires, reconditioned components, and jury-rigging, but they worked. Two of the main propulsion units were a complete loss without proper replacement parts, but they’d managed to get one fully functional again: a huge victory as far as he was concerned.

  The commander again nodded to himself. At least we’re mobile again. The teams had done very good work under extreme conditions. Luckily, the pirates hadn’t come back, content to simply steal their prize and race off. That had been enough humiliation for one afternoon, thank you very much. They were gone and Robert, for one, was glad. Against the speed and maneuverability of the cutter Kingston in her current condition would be hard pressed to fight her off. The cutter could just keep to Kingston’s stern and continue hammering her and there would be very little the corvette could do to stop them. He didn’t like admitting that to himself, but that was the truth of it. Oh, he’d put on a good show for the crew, but he was certain they all knew the truth. And bless them, the crew were all putting on a good show for him. They were all upset and complaining, but their blame was focused on the pirates, not on their captain. It was surprising that they had so much faith in him. He wasn’t sure he’d earned it.

  “She’ll work, Commander,” the exhausted engineer stated proudly. “But it’s a jury-rigged fix. I can give you maybe seventy percent on that one engine but it’ll only last for twelve minutes, pushing it that far. Anything more than forty percent and she’ll burn out for good in very short order.”

  Kreighton nodded, refusing to let this news dampen his spirits. “Understood, Lieutenant. Hopefully, we’ll not need to push them at all.”

  The man smiled at his commander. “Thank you, sir. I’d much appreciate it.”

  Kreighton’s communicator buzzed. He pulled it from his pocket and flipped it open. Internal comms were still on the fritz; there simply weren’t the parts available to repair the system. And after two months of trying, the engineers finally gave up and accepted that they would have to use the hand communicators full time.

  “Captain here.”

  “Captain, we’ve got a ship approaching. It’s the Equinox. She says she’s here to relieve us.”

  A giant weight seemed to come off his shoulders. Help had finally arrived. “Tell them welcome to Bimawae and we await their arrival.”

  He turned to the engineer. “The cavalry has arrived, Lieutenant. Equinox is approaching.”

  The man brightened. “I hope they brought the parts to fix the hyperdrive. I’d hate to have to scuttle the ship. She’s still brand new.”

  The commander’s blood ran cold. The idea that the ship might have to be destroyed had not occurred to him, not after all the work that the crew had done to save her. She was still spaceworthy, damn it! As the lieutenant commented, Kingston was still a new ship. Heavily damaged and patched, but still functional. High Command wouldn’t write her off… would they?

  “Hopefully not, Lieutenant,” Kreighton said heartily. “We got most of the serious damage covered.”

  But the engineer shook his head. “You know them credit pinchers back at headquarters, Captain. If it’s more cost effective to junk this young lady,” he patted a stanchion fondly. “They they’ll pull us off, vacuum out the databases and blow her apart. More’s the pity.” He looked melancholy.

  “Buck up, Lieutenant,” Kreighton said. “At least we can look forward to someone else’s canned air for the new few days or weeks while we get the hyperdrive back up.” The man just stared at him, not appreciating the humor. Kreighton let his expression harden a bit, to cover his embarrassment. “Carry on, Lieutenant.” He turned and left the engineering spaces, headed for the bridge. He knew he should contact the captain of the Equinox and be there on the bridge when the destroyer closed the distance.

  This sort of situation wasn’t covered in officer training in the Academy. Having one’s ship rescued. What was the protocol?

  Several minutes later, the call came from Equinox, who was within visual range, only a few thousand kilometers. Kreighton was seated in his command seat and he pressed the control key to bring up the comm display window at his seat. When the window activated, the very irritated face of a gray-furred lupusan stared back at him.

  “This is Commander Kreighton,” he began but the lupusan cut him off.

  “Well, well, it looks like you managed to stay alive after all,” the wolf sneered. He made a careless wave, though the contempt in his eyes didn’t change. “It seems I owe my XO five credits. He clearly has more faith in your abilities than I do.”

  Robert bristled. “How dare you, sir! You weren’t here.”

  But the wolf cut him off again. “Oh, be silent you silly puppy. You’re whining like you’ve been caught rolling around in the garbage. That is a multi-million credit warship you just trashed!”

  “We were attacked,” he shot back, though the words felt feeble.

  The lupusan grinned maliciously. “Yes, you were ambushed. By a… single… cutter.” His words were slow, deliberate. “One little ship. Clearly the pirates have far superior tactical abilities than you.” He growled lightly. “You’re a disgrace, pup. We should recruit
that cutter captain. We could hardly have anyone worse in command.”

  Kreighton sat there, gritting his teeth. “Thank you for your critique, Captain. And I appreciate you coming out here to get us.” He was trying to remain polite and on task.

  “Oh, it wasn’t my idea, pup,” the other commander spat. “But the Colonel decided to salvage that piece of Seylonique government property and for me to bring back the waste of atmo that is currently her captain.”

  Kreighton felt his cheeks flaming with humiliation and he gripped the arms of his chair hard enough to nearly bend the metal. Before he could speak, the destroyer captain interrupted again. “Maintain your current orbit, Kingston. Equinox will close on your position and initiate docking maneuvers. With your engine damage and the tenuous skill at the helm, I wouldn’t want to risk a collision. Long live the king and all that.” The sneer on his face was almost incandescent. Then the connection dropped.

  Silence hung over the bridge as the shocked crew tried to decide how to react. Kreighton recovered fastest. “Helm,” he croaked. “Maintain course and speed.” He cleared his throat. “Let Equinox close the distance and dock. Drop shields.” Robert clenched his jaw, forcing himself to calm down. He absolutely refused to let that arrogant bastard undermine him in front of his crew. Well, any more than he already has. “All right, people. We have a ship to fix.” He squared his shoulders. “We are not done here, people. We still have a lot of work to do.” He could see their spines stiffen, as he drew them back out. They didn’t like hearing disparaging words against their captain, but even after all they’d been through, they still had confidence in him.

  Upon arriving in Bimawae, the freighter TC2741 began moving toward the cluster of drive signatures clumped at the mid system gas giant. “There’s a group of cargo ships holding very high geostationary orbit over the gas giant, but they’re just sitting there,” Braelock reported, checking his displays. “They’re still active. I’m showing power and drive system but for some reason they’re all gathered here.”