Hold the Star: Samair in Argos: Book 2

  “Don’t you come down to my shop and start disrespecting me in my own house!” the woman roared.

  “Knock it off, grubby,” Corajen growled, putting plenty of subsonics into her voice.

  “You threatening me, bitch?” the woman asked, completely unfazed.

  “No, ma’am,” Vincent replied. “What I’m doing is coming to speak with you about a business opportunity.”

  Chapter 22

  “What the hell are you talking about, a business opportunity,” the portly woman replied, suspicious.

  “I’m Vincent Eamonn,” the captain introduced himself. “I’ve sent up a few businesses in system and I heard through the rumor mill that you are a business woman looking to get her hands on several metric tons of various metals for the shuttle you’re trying to build.”

  She eyed him suspiciously. “And how the hell would you know that?” She crossed her arms over her chest.

  “Because you’re Suriaya,” Vincent replied. “A man that I trust told me about your little problem, and that I might have the things that you need.”

  “And why would I trust you?” Suriaya asked. “Some fast talking foreigners coming down to my shop, insulting me and selling me lies.”

  Tamara reached into her knapsack and extracted a rectangular bar of metal, about the size of her hand if she held her fingers straight. Stepping closer, she handed it to the other woman.

  Suriaya eyed her suspiciously, then turned her attention to the bar. First she held it close to her face and smelled it, then started in surprise. She squinted at it and Tamara’s own scans on her HUD indicated that the grubby mechanic was scanning it with her optical implant. After a moment, she looked up, the suspicion having receded somewhat, replaced with a mix of awe and pleasure.

  “Duralloy ingot. Where did you get this?”

  “Made it,” Vincent answered. “Mined the ores from the asteroid belt, refined it on my ship. And there’s a lot more where that came from.

  “It’s ninety-four percent pure,” the mechanic said, a touch of wonder in her voice. “I’ve never seen any better than eighty-one percent.”

  Vincent shrugged. “I have good equipment and better crew working for me.”

  “I need forty-four metric tons of this for my project,” Suriaya said, clutching the ingot with her metal hand. It was clear that she was not going to give it up without a struggle.

  “Easily done,” Vincent said. “Five thousand credits and I can have it shipped here in an hour.”

  “You came all the way here, with all your goons, just to sell me five thousand credits worth of duralloy?” Suriaya asked. “That doesn’t track.”

  “As I said, I was looking to make a business deal and hopefully get started on a more lasting relationship,” Vincent explained. “My source up on the orbital also said that you might be able to point me in the direction of others who might want similar deals. There are some projects that I’m looking to get started on and making good contacts and buyers would only help me.”

  “I could do that,” she admitted. But then she shook her head. “But right now, all I got is this and your word.” She held up the ingot. “You bring me the shipment you indicated, I’ll pay you the credits and we can talk.”

  “That is something I can do,” Vincent replied.

  An hour later, a second shuttle came down from orbit, delivering the agreed upon shipment. Suriaya was suitably impressed by the pair of cargo shuttles in such good order. But upon seeing the pallets of metal stacked neatly her mouth dropped. She looked over at the freighter jocks and her resolved stiffened. She went into the shuttle’s cargo bay and examined the shipment, nodding as she determined that Vincent had not exaggerated his claims.

  “All right,” she said, excitement getting into her voice. The duralloy had been cut into sheets two meters wide and ten meters long, ten centimeters thick, perfect for use in skinning the shuttle she had been building. “This is amazing.”

  Vincent nodded. “Would you require any assistance in cutting these up?” Tamara was already pulling the hover pallet down off the shuttle, pulling it from the landing area over to the main entrance of Suriaya’s shop.

  “I can’t believe this is happening,” the portly engineer said, shaking her head slightly as Tamara expertly steered the hover pallet to a stop inside the main doors.

  “Believe it,” Tamara replied, looking up from what she was doing to her. “I can have my bots,” she gestured to the two hovering machines, “unload these right here, unless there’s somewhere else you’d like them.”

  “Just move it over to the pallet there,” Suriaya indicated a grav cart that had seen better days, though Tamara judged it adequate to hold the sheets of metal alloy.

  With a quick command entered on her datapad, the bots hustled over and using their small tractoring beams, they collected up the sheets of metal and in moments had it all transferred to the grav cart. A few more quick keystrokes and the bots were pulling the hover pallet back over to the shuttle on their own. “All set, just need the payment,” Tamara said, holding out her datapad.

  Suriaya scanned the display on the device, then nodded, and thumbed the acceptance, transferring the agreed upon credits to the Captain’s account at Ganner and Saoirse. “Well worth it,” she crowed. “Finally gonna get my baby to fly!” She rubbed her hands together in delight. Then she looked over to the Captain. “And I’ll talk to a few people. You’re a man of your word, Captain. I know a few that would be interested in working with you. Not necessarily for duralloy, you understand,” she said. “But they might want that, or other materials. I also heard that you were selling refined helium 3 fuel to the orbital station.”

  “That’s right,” he said, nodding.

  “I know ol’ Joxxas would be interested in having a conversation with you,” Suriaya said. “He’s

  been hankering to get his hands on some since you all showed up.”

  “Then I think he is someone I would be interested in talking to,” the captain replied.

  “And how do I get in touch with you again?” she asked. “When I need more resources?”

  Vincent smiled. He handed her a slip of flimsi. “This is a secure comm code that you can call at any time to set up another meeting, or if you prefer, a transaction.”

  She took it, looking it over and nodded. “I’ll be talking to you?”

  But he shook his head. “One of my associates, or possibly Commander Samair here,” he indicated Tamara, “who is my Chief of Operations here in Seylonique in my absence.”

  “Your absence?” Now she was starting to get suspicious again.

  “I’m a freighter captain, Ms. Suriaya,” he explained. “My ship is in final stages of refit and once that’s done, I’m going to be heading out to try and establish trade routes with some of the nearby systems. Commander Samair is going to be heading up things here while I’m gone.”

  She hesitated for a long moment, then she nodded. “All right then. Commander,” Suriaya said, “I will be in touch.” Then she turned and went into the shop.

  “All right, Captain, let’s get going.”

  Over the next twenty days, Tamara led the group to over a score of small businesses, and by the end of her travels she had established business relations with all of them. All were small business owners, ranging from building of ground cars, construction bots, and even one who built bridges for over the numerous rivers and tributaries that crisscrossed the local area. All needed metals and fuel and all were interested in continuing the business relationships. Money was starting to flow into the company coffers, but it was far short of the goal needed to purchase the Samarkand.

  “Over a hundred and eighty thousand credits, Tamara,” Vincent said. “In twenty days you made as much money as we did with that first sale of fuel to the station.”

  “You exaggerate, Captain,” she said. “We made over three hundred on that first deal.”

  “Yeah, to the station,” he replied. “And you made a number of contacts,
at least half of whom want to continue purchasing metals and fuel from us.”

  “All good things, Captain,” Tamara agreed. “But while that is a large pile of money, it’s not nearly enough to purchase the ship.”

  “No,” he acknowledged, “But it is enough to shake the ship loose. We lease it for now, continue making payments.”

  “Really? I thought the locals weren’t willing to play ball.”

  “Well, I haven’t spoken to them yet,” Vincent admitted. “But if we can put a big enough down payment on the ship…”

  Tamara crossed her arms. “Captain, Stella said that you had already secured an investor for this project.”

  “Triarch Kozen’ck, yes,” he said.

  “Talk with him. Get him to front the money to purchase the Samarkand and get us off the ground. We need to get moving on repairs before Grania Estelle leaves.”

  “I won’t deny that,” Vincent said. “All right. Let’s you and I go see Rattanda Vae.”

  “Rattanda Vae?” Tamara asked skeptically. “Who is that?”

  “She’s the one we need to speak with. She runs the scrapyard that owns the ship.”

  “Severite?”

  Vincent smiled. “How did you guess?”

  “The name sounds Severite. One of the local families, I’d wager.”

  “And you would be correct,” Vincent replied. “She’s from the Azavina Family and a respected businesswoman. Hopefully as well as respected, she’s also willing to be open minded.”

  Tamara put her hand on his arm. “Call the Triarch first, Captain. I get the feeling that this Rattanda Vae isn’t going to accept anything but money and if the Triarch is interested in making money off us, then he needs to act the part of the investor and actually invest some money.”

  Vincent nodded. “All right. Head down to the boat bay and get the shuttle prepped. I’ll call him and see what we can swing.”

  “A ship?” Kozen’ck asked, his face looking puzzled over the display. “You need me to buy you a ship? But why? You already have a ship. You have several ships.”

  Vincent nodded. “Yes, but my main vessel, Grania Estelle, is going to be departing this system in a few days to try and establish a few markets in the local area. I need a mobile platform that will allow my associates that remain behind in the system to operate. The station is too far away and too cumbersome to work from. My people would be spending hours in transit between the areas of operation and the station, losing valuable time, wasting fuel and having my people tired out. If there was a ship we could use, we could bring the work platform anywhere in the system.”

  The zheen didn’t answer for a moment. “That does make sense. But what is to stop your people from simply taking the ship and flying off?”

  Vincent chuckled. “I understand your concern, Triarch. It’s one that I myself shared when I considered working with a partner in a cooperative. What was to stop them from simply sailing off and leaving me in the lurch? The answer was nothing. I couldn’t stop them. But I decided that I needed to try and develop some trust, which I understand is sorely lacking in the Argos Cluster these days. You started down that path already, Triarch, when you decided to work with me.”

  “Yes, I suppose I did.” He sounded unsure. “But seven million credits…”

  “Yes, Triarch,” Vincent said, nodding. “It is a lot of money. But what were you expecting? We are looking to start some major infrastructure in this system. Yes, in the end it will make exponentially more than you put into it, but there are going to be some costs. I’m not trying to run things on the cheap, but I’m not going to throw away money here. I want the things we build to last and I want my crews to be safe. But at the same time, we’re not making things out of platinum and diamonds.”

  “Good. I’d have a very hard time selling that to anyone else.”

  “Screw anyone else,” Vincent said heartily. “You’re getting in right at the beginning. In a month, we’ll be harvesting minerals from the belt in a much more serious way and we’ve already got a few orders in. Think about what’s going to happen when other ships start coming here? And when the businesses on the planet’s surface realize what they can do with the materials I can sell them? Don’t worry about getting your investment back.”

  “Won’t all this just make the system a more tempting target for the pirates?” Kozen’ck asked. “If all these buildings and structures and all this industry just starts springing up, it’s going to paint a fat bull’s-eye on this system. A big flashing beacon that says ‘Come and get me!’”

  Vincent nodded. “That is a concern, yes. I’m hoping that as I get things rolling the people who are supposedly in charge of this system are going to see that the money maker is something that needs protecting and will take steps accordingly.”

  “You mean the Leytonstone.”

  “I mean an actual space defense force,” Vincent countered. “That one ship is certainly impressive, but even if it was fully operational and fully outfitted it can’t adequately defend the system. Not by itself. Which means that more ships are needed. More assets. It’s the price that needs to be paid, Triarch. If you want more wealth to start coming into your accounts, then you need to defend it. Anonymity will only protect you for a short time. If the ships from Ulla-tran decide to come back, they’re going to see what we’re working on and the secret will be out. And right now, those two frigate warships that they brought could destroy everything that you’ve already built in this system, Triarch. You know that already. Your colleagues know that. And they seem to think that this attitude of sticking their heads in the sand is going to protect them. ‘It’s always worked before’ is the mantra that they keep repeating. I’ve seen what the pirate lord Verrikoth already has and if he decides to come here, you’re in trouble. We’re all in trouble.”

  “You’re not making your case, Captain,” Kozen’ck pointed out. “In fact, you’re making a much stronger case to stop all this and go back to what was.”

  Vincent shrugged. “I suppose you could try,” he admitted. “But we’ve already jump started several businesses on the surface and I have my operations officer working on hunting up several more. The engineers are already clamoring for more help, with fuel and parts. You think that you can put that genie back in the bottle?”

  Kozen’ck buzzed a sigh. “All right. I’ll speak with the others and I’ll see what I can do.”

  Vincent nodded, not really satisfied, but knowing that there wasn’t much more he could get out of the zheen. “Thank you, Triarch. And the money?”

  Another buzz. He looked off screen at something outside the display’s pickup. Vincent’s datapad beeped. Picking it up from the wardroom table, he glanced at its display. A feed from Ganner and Saiorse popped up, showing a deposit in his main account there for the requested seven million credits. “Thank you, Triarch.”

  The zheen looked straight at the pickup, his antennae perfectly straight, his expression serious. “Don’t make me regret this, Captain Eamonn.” And then he cut the connection.

  Vincent leaned back in his chair, blowing out a long breath and scrubbing his hands over his face. Then he sat back straight. He flipped open his communicator and entered in a code.

  Tamara’s voice spoke. “Samair here.”

  “Tamara, it’s Vincent. We’re good to go. I have the funding we need. Let’s get you a ship.”

  Tamara and her team of engineers walked through the airlock and into the entry tube heading to the Samarkand. Kay’grax was buzzing with excitement, as he led the hover pallet full of spare parts and tools down the tube. Eretria Sterling was just behind him, pressing a control on her datapad, which she hooked into her tool belt. Once she pressed it, ten flying saucers followed her down, as she led the cleaner bots onto the ship. Others piled in behind, twelve in all, all of them bringing tools, parts, and crates full of various supplies, everything from medical items to foodstuffs. Tamara brought up the rear of the engineering group, with Corajen being the last to board. Tamara
was leading the most important pallet of all of them, a brand new class-five replicator. Without it, this ship would be going nowhere. They would have entered through the lower cargo bay on the Samarkand, but there was an issue with the cargo doors on the freighter, which froze when they were half open. The shuttle was unable to fit through the opening and with the doors open, the bay was depressurized, so they couldn’t enter through that way. Pulling alongside the ship, they mated the boarding tube from the shuttle’s personnel hatch to the Samarkand’s forward airlock.

  “All right,” Tamara called. “Eretria, take your people to the lower bay, suit up and get to work on those doors. I want to get the shuttle aboard asap.”

  “Copy that, ma’am,” Eretria replied. Taking out her datapad, she pressed a few controls and the cleaner bots all went whizzing off, humming contentedly, working their magic on the ship. She wrinkled her nose at the appearance of the ship. Thankfully, the ship didn’t stink, but there was a musty smell, a green smell, one that indicated the environmental plant was getting close to failure. Eretria nodded to the two techs working with her, who headed off toward the ladder leading to the lower decks.

  “Kay’grax, you and Folsky over to Environmental. I want you to check out the plant down there, get it ship shape,” she ordered.

  “On it, Commander,” Kay’grax said, sketching out a sloppy salute. The two zheen flounced off down the corridor in the direction of Environmental.

  “And we,” she said to the others, “are off to Main Engineering. I want to get the reactor flushed and online right away.”

  Corajen stood in the corridor for another moment before turning and heading back down the tube back to the shuttle. She’d only be in the way for the moment and Tamara needed to be able to move freely. The lupusan took one last look around, then sealed the hatch behind her. There was a hissing noise as the tube depressurized and then retracted.