Tamara eased her fighter down, landing in the boat bay aboard the bulk freighter without even a bump. She took a few moment to power down the ship, then popped the canopy. Removing her helmet, she climbed out of the fighter.
There was a small party waiting for her as her boots hit the deck. Ka’Xarian didn’t even wait, he came over and embraced Tamara, startling a gasp from her before she hugged him back. “Good to see you, Tamara.”
She laughed. “It’s good to see you too, Xar.” She released him and looked back around the bay at the two shuttles under construction. “I see you’ve been busy,” she commented, flicking her chin in their direction.
The zheen nodded. “Yes, we are. Had to replace the one we gave you and then the one we sold to the people at Heb.”
“You’ve put together shuttles a hell of a lot faster than that, Xar,” she pointed out.
He nodded again. “Right. But we only started on these two about a week ago. Should be done in a few days.”
“I’m sure you’ll handle it.” She turned to the others. “Quesh… I mean Chief Trrgoth,” she corrected herself, forcing a blank mask on her face, but her eyes twinkled. “Good to see you again.”
He stood motionless; both sets of arms crossed over his barrel chest. A stern look was on his face. “Didn’t expect to see you back here, Samair,” he said. He bobbed his head. “Though I will admit, it’s an impressive amount of work you’ve gotten done out there.”
“Want a job?” she asked with a smirk. “I need someone to run construction ops on the gas mine.”
“Hey!” a voice came from the main door of the boat bay. Vincent Eamonn stood there, a frown on his face. “Don’t you try poaching my people, Tamara. You have your own people.”
She turned on her heel, ignoring Quesh’s grin. She gave him a crisp military salute. “Of course not, Captain Eamonn, sir.” She stood there, holding her posture rigid.
He sighed and returned her salute. “Knock it off, Tamara,” Vincent said, trying hard not to smile. “Now, get your ass off this boat bay and to the wardroom. We have a lot of things to talk about.”
“If you get Noken to bring up something to eat, you’ve got a deal, Captain,” she countered. “A girl’s got to eat.”
“I think we can manage something,” Vincent said, beckoning her to follow.
“So, talk,” Vincent said as they sat down in the wardroom.
Tamara shook her head. “Such finesse, Captain,” she admonished him. “You are still such a charmer.”
“Tamara, I’ve been out of the star system for months, when I left things had barely started and now you’ve got the mine already up and running,” Vincent exclaimed. “I saw shuttles and tugs and fighters and hell, miner bots chewing up big asteroids! And I’m interested to see the books. I suspect if I check them I’ll find a healthy balance?”
She nodded. “Yes, Captain,” she answered. “Somewhere around eight million credits.”
Vincent stared at her, dumbfounded. “What?”
Tamara glanced around, as though confused. “Yes, Captain. A little more than eight million.”
“But… How?” he asked.
“I’ve been selling materials,” she replied simply. “And parts for things. We’ve gotten a few helium 3 reactors built and then sold to a few cities down on the planet. Got a good price for them. And now, of course, they’re buying their fuel from me. Well, us,” she corrected herself. Then she grimaced. “But, sir, there is a problem.”
“Oh?” he said with a laugh. “Not from where I’m sitting, Moxie,” he said, addressing her with the nickname he hadn’t used since her imprisonment by the pirate armsman.
She flushed at the name, but it wasn’t from anger. Considering the amount of money she’d put in his bank account he’d earned the right to call her a silly nickname. Besides, it was… nice… to hear him call her that again. As though things were coming back to a degree of normalcy again, despite the fact that things were changed more now than they’d ever been.
“The problem,” she said, clearing her throat slightly, “is that so far, we don’t have any kind of official name. I’ve been operating just as the Chief Operations officer for the company of outsiders. Most of our customers have been asking who we are, what company do I represent, and I never have any good answer for them. I’ve told them that I represent you, the captain of the Grania Estelle, but no one seems to like that answer very much.”
Vincent pursed his lips. “I never really thought about it before. I opened the business account in my own name, but it was never really more than a placeholder. I knew it at the time, but other things came up, and my priority was with getting things moving and getting the ship repaired. But you’re right, Moxie,” he said. “I’ll give it some thought and let you know what we’re going to call the company.”
Tamara nodded. “Sounds fine to me, Captain.”
Vincent looked up at the overhead for a moment and then sighed. He looked over at the display on the wall. “Stella?”
She immediately appeared. “Yes, Captain?”
“Can you give Tamara and I a few minutes of privacy? I’ll call you back when we’re ready to talk shop again.”
Stella hesitated for just an instant, her eyes flickering to Tamara’s face. The engineer had a blank look but nodded ever so slightly. Stella looked straight ahead for just a moment and then she nodded and her image blinked out. The images on the display cleared, leaving just the message of “NO SIGNAL”.
Tamara raised an eyebrow, leaning back a little in her seat and crossing her legs. “Sending Stella away. Should I be nervous, Captain?”
“Vincent, Tamara,” he said, a little exasperated.
She frowned. “What?”
“It’s my name, Moxie.” He glared at her slightly. “Call me Vincent.”
She blinked, slightly started at the force behind her glare. “Why the sudden change, Vincent?”
“Was that so hard to say?” he asked, still looking slightly angry.
“Why are you suddenly so angry with me?” she demanded.
Eamonn sighed. “I’m not. I’m damned surprised and grateful at the amazing job you’ve done here, Tamara,” he said seriously. “And I know our relationship has been… strained to put it lightly as of late.”
She gave a wry smile, but there was less warmth as memories flooded in. It wasn’t as overwhelming as it had been in weeks past, but there was a degree of chill moving through her blood at the reminder. “I’d say that’s a fair assessment.”
“I’m tired of that damned stain on my life, Tamara,” he said. “Ulla-tran and all the horrible things that went with it. Our fighting on the fueling station and that damned asshole Goris Hana attacking the Emilia Walker. Our desperate run and fighting with the pirates and all of those nightmares. I want to get past it. And I know it doesn’t matter and it might not help, but I want to apologize to you, Tamara. For everything that you went through.”
She just sat and regarded him for a long moment. She nodded. “Thanks, Vincent. But I think it’s just a time in all our lives that is best past and forgotten.”
“I wish none of that had ever happened,” he said bitterly. He tapped a fist on the table. “But it has, and we can’t just forget it. We both know that Verrikoth and his fleet won’t just go away. We will see them again.”
She nodded. “Most probably. But right now we’re not in much shape to be able to do much about it.”
“I know. Your small fighter compliment here is a start, but you’re right, it isn’t going to be enough. Oh, maybe against one of those converted merchant ships he’s got. But against those light cruisers?”
“Yeah,” she said, tapping her fingertips on the tabletop. “They’d come in here and trash everything I’ve built over the last few months and there’s damn little I could do to stop them.”
“What about the battlecruiser? The Leytonstone?”
Tamara grimaced. “Well, as I’m sure you noted, the locals are working on it, but they’v
e been pretty quiet about what they’re actually doing. Neither I nor any of my people have been allowed aboard. They’re not buying any kind of parts from me to fix it up. I know that because I haven’t been selling any to anyone. They might be able to get it up and running, but it’s slow going. I don’t even know if it’s mobile yet. And if it is, it’ll be slower than this old girl here.” She patted the tabletop. “But I put some plans in motion to try and help us out.”
He nodded. “I figured as much. That’s why I sent Stella away.”
She chuckled. “I should have known you’d have figured me out. What have you been working on?”
“Down on the planet, I’ve got four different companies working on modules,” Tamara told him. “R3 Systems, Uniplex Industries, Nch’gall Corp and Ysevey Industries. They’re slow and they’re doing things the long way, but I’ve been getting reports from them every other day.”
“The long way?” Vincent asked, slightly confused.
“Essentially by hand,” she told him. “I’m not releasing replicators to the general population. And as far as I could tell, they don’t have any of their own to use. I chose these four companies because they’ve got their own foundries capable of making trusses and plate metal and such things. They can also make conduits and control junctions and work electronics. The only thing they really can’t make is power reactors, but I can take care of that.”
“What exactly are you having them build?” he asked, fairly sure he already knew the answer.
“A warship, Captain Eamonn,” she told him and he nodded, having guessed correctly. But then she spread her hands. “It isn’t a big one. A corvette-sized ship. An old Republic design because I didn’t want to go out and try and come up with something from scratch. It’s a hak’ruk design, if you can believe it; venerable, a workhorse from back in my time. I checked local records, they of course don’t have any notion of that sort of ship out here in the Cluster since a decade or two after the war. I’ve updated a few things, power systems and a few things with the shields, but otherwise, I’ve left it alone. I’m not going to fix what isn’t broken.”
He nodded. “Makes sense. What about the local government? Have they been giving you any hassle with it?”
Tamara sighed. “No, because I haven’t told them I’ve been doing it.”
“What?” he said, surprised. “How have you managed? I’d assumed they’d be all over you for building a warship on their soil without their permission.”
“Well, I talked with your friend Triarch Kozen’ck. He’s given me implied approval for doing this. More of a ‘I don’t want to know, don’t make this my problem’ but so far he’s helped to smooth over any rough spots. Your lawyers have also done a good job of it too. I made all the businesses sign non-disclosure agreements and made it perfectly clear that if anyone can’t keep their mouths shut, they will find themselves out in the cold and I’d make sure no one works with them again.”
“Harsh, Moxie,” he said, though he couldn’t quite suppress a smile. “Why build it on the ground? Wouldn’t it be a lot easier to build it in space?”
“Infinitely easier,” she agreed. “But a hell of a lot harder to hide. Space might be big, but I’d have to find a place to put it, and then there’s the problems of supplying it with materials and parts, ferrying personnel and bots to do the actual building.” Tamara shook her head. “For this first one, anyway, we’re doing it on the ground. If I can finance another one, that one might be on the ground too. After that, maybe we can get the locals involved.”
“And getting it out of the planet’s gravity well?”
“We send the four tugs in and drag it up to low orbit, and then her own engines will take care of the rest. Simple. It’s just a matter of making sure everything’s done to spec. Which sadly means I have to drop in unexpectedly every week on each business to make sure they aren’t cutting corners to save a few credits.” Tamara sighed. “That’s why I didn’t call you when you first came into sensor range. I was on the planet, kicking some ass. Uniplex and Ysevey decided that they didn’t need to go to full spec on the trusses they were making, so I had to make them scrap the whole line, melt it down and redo the everything. That took two days and a lot of screaming at people.”
He smiled. “Sounds like fun.”
“Oh, it was,” she said with a smile. “But it is exhausting.”
“Where are all of these modules being put together for final construction?”
Another sigh. “We’re bringing them together at R3 Systems’ complex, they have an open field that’s perfect for that. The others weren’t terribly happy about that, but when I pointed out the fact that all of the others were in urban areas without enough space to actually assemble the ship, they grudgingly agreed.”
“When will it be done?” This was fascinating. He’d never been involved, even peripherally, in a project this large. Actually building a ship, something bigger than a shuttle. Hell, no one other than the pirates had done this since the Republic left the Cluster. And now he was the owner of the company that had not only done this, but started up serious industry in this system, built a gas mine, who knew what else?
Tamara actually thought about that. “Another week, the components will be done. Then at least a few days getting everything to the R3 Systems complex and a few more to put it all together. Say two weeks. Then I’ll just need a crew. People we can trust to fly it.”
“Hmmm,” he said, contemplating that. That was more troublesome. “As of right now, we don’t know anyone who we can trust to captain that,” he said. “No one that doesn’t have some sort of hidden agenda or who might not turn on us.”
She held up a hand and shook her head. “You can stop right there, Captain,” Tamara told him. “If you’re thinking of making it my ship, you can forget it. I’m already trying to keep everything together with the stuff I’m building. No, sir. You can find someone else.”
“Tamara,” he said, “Be reasonable.”
But she shook her head more vehemently. “No. I’ll be happy to consult with the new captain, help out where I can, but I’m not taking on that responsibility. Besides, if anything does hit the fan, I’m of better use in my fighter than on the bridge of a big warship.”
“A corvette is hardly a big warship, Tamara,” Eamonn said.
She gave him a look. “You know what I mean.”
“Yes, I do,” he said heavily. “Well, for the moment, get it up and running, go through your shakedowns. I’ll work to try and find someone we can work with.” He threw a hand up in disgust. “I don’t know where the hell I’m going to do that. But sure, what the hell? I’ll look. Oh, and speaking of finding things, where the hell did you get those needlenose starfighters?”
Tamara laughed at that. “Would you believe I found those in a warehouse down on the planet? Just rusting away. They’d been there for decades. There were twenty-five of them, but most were in pretty bad shape. I cannibalized parts from most of them to salvage the good ones, replicated a few more parts and got those six off the ground and ready for action. I’ve got four more that need a few more things and they’ll be good to go. The rest we just cut apart and fed into the replicators for raw materials. Once those four are ready, I’ll have sixteen ships. I’ve already got the pilots. So, not quite a full squadron, but certainly enough to give make people stand up and notice.”
“Including yours?”
“Oh, no. So seventeen then. The hangar facilities on the gas mine are up and running, and they’re actually designed to old two full squadrons so for the moment, we’ve got plenty of room. I’m working on either finding or building a few more fighters soon, but I want to get the corvette up and running first.”
“What were you going to name the ship?” Vincent asked. “Well, you said it was hak’ruk design. You could name it for Kutok.” His voice was very quiet.
Tamara felt ice flow into her stomach. “No,” she replied, just as quietly. “Kutok was a sweet person, who didn’t deserve any o
f the terrible things that happened to her. But above all, she didn’t want to hurt anyone. I’m not going to name a ship of war for her. A freighter maybe, but never a ship designed for destruction.”
“It would be meant as protection, Tamara,” Vincent said. “A defender.”
“No,” she said adamantly. “Not for Kutok. I won’t dishonor her like that.”
“It’s my company, Tamara,” he told her, though his voice hadn’t changed pitch or tone. “I could order you. I could make the name official on my own initiative.”
“And two seconds after that, you’ll be finding a new Chief of Operations and dealing with all the headaches and issues,” she said, folding her arms over her chest. “I told you, I won’t do that to her.”
He sighed, grimacing. “If you weren’t so damned good at your job, Moxie, I wouldn’t put up with your shit.”
She smiled sweetly. “Thank you, Captain. I won’t name the ship for her, but I would consider naming the mine for her.”
“The Kutok gas mine?” Vincent said, trying it out. “Actually, it would be Kutok Hakanae gas mine. Her family was from Hakanae.”
“I like that.” Tamara felt a warmth flow through her chest as though the universe was approving this. “I think she would too.”
“So that’s one crisis solved,” Vincent said with a smile. “I know all of this has to be difficult.” He hesitated. “Do you need Stella to stay here? We can disconnect her from the Grania Estelle and plug her into the Samarkand. I know it can be done. You could write us some updated software for controlling the reactor. I know you could do it.”
She nodded. “I could. And I know she would be a huge help. But no.” Tamara patted the table. “This is her home here. She can come and visit when you’re in system, but she belongs on the ship.”
“You’re sure?” he asked. “I mean I don’t want to give her up, but if you need her…”
“I’m sure,” Tamara said. “We should bring her back in though. She’s about ready to blow a processor from curiosity if I know my little AI.”
Hold the Star: Samair in Argos: Book 2 Page 61