First Principles: Samair in Argos: Book 3

by KOTCHER, MICHAEL

“Yeah, well, we went through two star systems, made some trades, made some money,” he replied. “I think we did pretty well for ourselves, but because of that, my fuel reserves are down to four percent.”

  “Damn,” she said, amusement in her voice. “Cutting it pretty fine, aren’t we?”

  “Yeah, a little. I dropped my fuel collector off in Bimawae and we topped off when we were there and then continued on to Castiana.”

  “And now you’re on fumes.” It wasn’t a question.

  He sighed. “That’s right. Now, I have cargoes to trade, but I don’t have the credits for refueling yet. I’ll have to go to the orbital to get them and then come back.”

  She paused. “It sounds like there’s a question hanging in the wind here, Frederick.”

  “Yeah. I spoke with your person over there on the mine and they told me that my account is nearly tapped out. I have cargoes to sell,” he repeated, “and once that’s done I’ll have credits for the fuel. But I’m afraid that I’m not going to be able to make it in system to the orbital and then all the way back here.”

  Tamara sighed. “Frederick, I can’t start making exceptions,” she said. “You’re not a company ship. I can’t extend a credit line to you.”

  “What? After all we’ve been through together? Why can’t you? Aren’t you the Chief of Operations?” he demanded.

  “Yes, I am,” she told him. “But I have other customers who buy fuel. And the company has a very strict payment policy that I’ve had to institute up front because we’ve had more than a few people who thought they’d get fuel and then leave me hanging without payment. I’ve had to blacklist more than a couple of freeloaders.”

  “I’m not like that, Tamara,” he insisted.

  She sighed. “I know that, Frederick. But I can’t change the rules for you. You need to understand that.”

  Looks were exchanged around the cockpit, but Vosteros stared with fury directly ahead. But then he spoke. “Understood. Sorry to have even brought it up. Hopefully we’ll catch up later.” He cut a finger across his throat and Kotor cut the connection.

  “Captain, nothing’s changed,” Maya said. “We do not have the fuel to come all the way back out here from the orbital to refuel. We can make it to the orbital and then maintain power for four days. After that, the injectors are going to seize up and the reactor will scram.”

  He sucked in a deep breath. “There’s nothing for it. We do not have the funds. Not until we get to the orbital and sell the cargoes. All right, Oberst. Set a course for the orbital. Minimum fuel usage. I’m going down to talk with Zhahal about powering down everything we absolutely don’t need. We’re going to find every scrap of power there is on this ship and then… we’re going to find some more.” He got up from his seat and exited the cockpit.

  Tamara watched from the pilot’s couch of her ship as Redcap Madness turned away from the mine and accelerated in system, rather sluggishly, she noted. There really was nothing she could do; she could not break the rules for a customer, even one as close as Vosteros, a friend.

  Nasir appeared. “There was nothing you could do, Tamara. If you start making exceptions, then all the customers at the orbital or on the planet are going to start expecting them. You have to stay firm.”

  “I know, Nasir,” she said, her voice heavy. “I’m just hoping my needing to stick to the rules hasn’t just cost me a friend. We have been through a lot together.” She nodded. “All right. Divert Tanker One to the station, fill the bunkers on Redcap Madness.”

  Nasir blinked, his image actually flickered. “I’m confused. Didn’t we just have a discussion about this? Why are you now extending them credit?”

  “I’m not,” she said. “I’m giving it to them. I’m not going to put my friend in that kind of situation. He decided to go independent in a part of the Cluster where that isn’t easy. Or safe. Especially with that pirate lord somewhere nearby.”

  “And a tank of He3 is going to fix all that?” the AI asked.

  Tamara sighed, altering her ship’s course. “Nasir, I’m trying to maintain some goodwill. And if and when Vosteros asks about the fuel, tell him it’s a gift and I’m sorry if I embarrassed him. But he will be paying for the next ones.” She pursed her lips. “I think it might not be a bad idea to have all the nearby systems be outfitted with a fuel collector.” She gestured in the general direction of the building slips. “Especially if we’re going to have other ships out plying the spacelanes in the nearby systems. If they’re going to fly off to much further pastures, we’ll have to look into other options, maybe selling a collector that they could bring with them.”

  “You did that with Redcap Madness already,” Nasir reminded her.

  “I did. But it seems that they left it in Bimawae for whatever reason. But that’s something to look into later. For now, let’s head back. I think Frederick is very angry with me right now and would probably have me spaced if I tried to talk with him now. In fact, record the following message for timed delivery. I want it to be delivered to Redcap Madness when Tanker One shows up for fueling ops.”

  “Ready. Recording.”

  Tamara started to speak.

  ~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~

  “Well, we have another week before the first cargo ship rolls off the line,” Tamara was saying to the small meeting in Samarkand’s small office.

  “I’ll be happy to see that ship gone,” Eretria remarked. “If I have to listen to Oberon from R3 Industries gush about how wonderful it is that he’s finally going to have his own hyperspace capable ship, I might strangle him. And of course he keeps demanding nearly hourly updates on the work my teams are doing and saying that since he and his investors are shelling out so many credits, he is entitled to as many updates and status reports as he wants.” She looked plaintively over at Tamara. “Ma’am, is there anything we can do about him?”

  “It’s only another week, Eretria,” Tamara reminded her.

  “Yes, but if he’s harassing me and my people, we’re never going to get finished.”

  “Then tell him no,” she said simply. “Give him the standard line that you can’t give him any more updates, and that he’s just going to have to wait.” She waved a hand. “I’m sure you can figure it out.”

  “And when he inevitably starts screaming at me?”

  Tamara raised her eyebrows. “Then you transfer him to me and I’ll set him straight.”

  Eretria smirked. “Make sure you have your schedule cleared, ma’am, because I’m going to send his last time-delayed message to you and then you can both calm him down and tell him to piss off. I’ll be really interested to watch you do that.”

  Tamara shook her head, smiling wryly. “No, Eretria, you aren’t going to be watching me do anything, because you are going to be in the yard, making sure that the build stays on track. I want that ship completed and out of here right on time, so I can get Oberon up here, get him his ship and get him the hell out of here.” She grimaced. “I certainly like him and his credit balance, but the man is a pig.”

  “And certainly not in a good way,” Eretria agreed. “I gave serious consideration to smashing him upside the head with a spanner the time he tried to grab my ass because he said I filled out a jumpsuit well.”

  Tamara chuckled and nodded in sympathy. “I wouldn’t have blamed you. And the lawyers would have loved it when I slapped his ass with a lawsuit.” Smiles broke out around the table. The ship’s captain, Galina, had also shown up for the meeting, asking to be more involved in the day-to-day operations of the company, as she had become bored with simply being a ship driver. Things had been different when she’d been traveling between star systems, but being in command of the Samarkand hadn’t contained nearly as much travel or excitement. She’d asked Tamara to start looking into a new commander for the ship and to find something more challenging for her to do. Since there were no other ships in the FP fleet yet that would be departing Seylonique, Tamara had asked the lupusan to keep command for a while longer, but she’d be
involved more in the inner workings of the company. Galina had agreed.

  “What about the second cargo ship?” Galina asked, folding her hands under the sleeves of her robe.

  “We’re still on schedule for that, but we’re about another month in construction,” Eretria commented, consulting her datapad.

  “About what I expected,” Tamara replied. “I’m fine with that. The clients for ship two are far less annoying than Oberon.”

  Nasir suddenly looked up, as though he’d spotted some distant prey animal trying to hide in the underbrush. “Apologies, ladies, but Grania Estelle just exited hyperspace on a vector from Heb. And she’s traveling with another ship.”

  Tamara perked up at the news of the bulk freighter, but then blinked in surprise at the mention of another ship. “What kind of ship?”

  “They’ve only just crossed the hyper limit and I’m only getting reports from the sensor drone we have out there. It is a warship of some kind.”

  That got their attention. “What? Do we have any more information?” Tamara demanded. “Show me the feed.”

  Nasir shrugged. “I have only the beacon ID, Tamara. They’re too far out for a visual identification.”

  “A Republic warship?” Tamara exclaimed after reading the beacon. “What the hell? What the hell is that man doing?” She stared at the display, willing more information to appear, but of course, nothing more did.

  “Should we move the defense ships into position to intercept?” Nasir asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

  Tamara nodded. “Open a channel to the Cavalier and the Maitland, please.” Nasir blinked slowly, then nodded.

  The display changed to a split communication screen. The squid-like face of Leicasitaj looked back at her from the bridge of the Cavalier. Another face was looking at her through the display as well, the golden furred wolf muzzle of Alexsei Vikashev, commanding the Maitland. “Ma’am, what’s going on? Nasir said something about a Republic warship escorting the Grania Estelle?”

  “That’s right, Leicasitaj,” Tamara replied. “I want you boys to take your ships out to intercept. Assuming everything is fine, I want your ships to escort those two in. If not… Well, get in touch with Captain Eamonn first if you can. I’ll be trying to contact him as well from here. If it happens that the Republic warship has hostile intent, do what you need to do. I’m giving you the go to engage.”

  The two women in the room with her stiffened, but she ignored them. Both of the males aboard the company warships nodded, their expressions calm. “Understood, ma’am,” Leicasitaj replied. “What about the fighters?”

  “I’m going to keep them closer to our main area of operations,” Tamara said. “If it becomes clear that your ships are unable to handle that ship, I’ll release the fighters to move in. I don’t want to send them out there with pilots stuck in their cockpits for hours on end if I can help it.”

  Both males nodded again. “Very good, ma’am. They’re about fifteen hours out, assuming they hold to their current speed, we’ll be able to intercept them with about nine hours to go.”

  “Then you’d better get moving.” She gave them one more nod and cut the connection.

  “Should we start getting worried?” Galina asked, her tone clear that she had already started.

  “Not just yet,” Tamara said, her voice soothing. “Nasir, get with Korqath, tell him he will be launching in seven hours unless I order otherwise.”

  “Understood, Tamara,” the AI replied. “He and his pilots will be ready. They’re getting started on fueling and arming their birds now.”

  “Good. I just hope that we don’t need them.” She paused. “But even if everything turns out to be okay, I want to have all the fighters launch half an hour out. Korqath and both squadrons of pilots are to fly defensive maneuvers before the mine. I want an exclusion zone; that ship is not to get within a million kilometers of any of our real estate without my express permission. And I want it understood that it’s my orders that are to be followed here. Captain Eamonn will not be countermanding any orders and all orders to our defensive ships are to come through me. If he tries to issue commands, respond politely that he needs to contact me for confirmation.”

  “Understood,” the AI repeated. “I’ll take care of it, ma’am.” He flicked his ears in amusement. “The captain isn’t going to be happy about that.”

  “I’m going to be sending him a message in a minute, telling him what’s going on.” Tamara put her elbows on the table and rested her face on her hands, staring down at the tabletop. Vincent, why the hell do you have a Republic warship with you? What the hell did you get us into now?

  “Captain! We have two ships moving on an intercept vector from the vicinity of the gas giant furthest in system,” Klieg called from his sensor station. “I’m afraid I can’t get much more detail than that, what with the sensors still out of alignment.”

  Another problem that had cropped up because of the damage caused in the battle, one that hadn’t been readily fixable, had been that the main sensor array had taken several hits. There wasn’t time or resources to do a serious repair before they jumped, so they had to make do.

  “Understood,” Brianne answered. The commodore was not seated in her customary command seat next to Brianne’s on the bridge. She was on a hover chair that had been whipped up by the engineering department aboard the Horus, which was not as comfortable as her bed, but it did allow her much more freedom of movement.

  Theodosia checked the display. There were two blips that were approaching the “Horus” icon in the center of the screen. “Anything you can tell me about the two ships, Mister Klieg?”

  The zheen hissed. “Not a whole lot, Commodore,” he replied. “They’re moving pretty quickly, piling on a lot of acceleration, which makes me think they’re very small, perhaps frigate or corvette sized.”

  “Well that’s something,” Brianne said. “Tactical, what’s our status?”

  “We could hold our own, Captain,” the young female lieutenant replied. “Our shields are still damaged, holding at thirty-four percent. Forward turbolasers are online, but port side weapons are down, destroyed actually. Starboard missile tubes are damaged, but we only have three missiles left anyway. Hull integrity is actually back where it needs to be, Captain. The FP techs do good work.”

  “Very well, thank you Lieutenant.” She turned her gaze to the communications watch. “Open a channel to the Grania Estelle.” The Secaaran glanced over at the commodore, who gestured for her to go ahead.

  A moment later, the petty officer seated at comms gave her a thumbs up. “You’re on, Captain.”

  “Grania Estelle, this is Commander Crgann on Horus. Our sensors have detected a pair of what we assume are corvettes or frigates heading in our direction on an intercept course.”

  Vincent Eamonn’s face appeared on the display. “Acknowledged, Commander. We’re detecting them as well. You can stand down. They’re company ships, probably only sent out because your ship is flying with mine. I’ve been in contact with them; they’re going to escort us in.”

  They want to keep an eye on us. Can’t say as I really blame them, especially if they’ve got some real estate here they want to protect. “Understood. We’ll be on our best behavior. Just tell your ships not to get trigger happy.”

  “Of course, Commander. We’ve had a good relationship so far, I have no intention of jeopardizing that. Eamonn, out.” And the display cleared.

  “So, the freighter captain has his own warships?” Brianne mused.

  “Can’t say that I blame him,” Theodosia said. “What with the pirate activity in the nearby area.”

  “But where did he get them?”

  The commodore shrugged. “Could be that he and his people salvaged the ships, either here or in another system. Of course, it is also possible they built the ships.”

  “I’m not sure I like the sound of that,” Brianne admitted.

  “This place is not really under our jurisdiction, Brianne,�
�� Theodosia reminded her. “All the local systems are allowed to have their own space defense forces. Just because they’re a short jump away from Byra-Kae doesn’t mean that there’s a problem.”

  “Doesn’t meant there’s a problem? A civvie population has functional warships and you don’t see an issue?”

  Theodosia sighed. “No, I don’t think there’s a problem. If there are sufficient defenses here it will give the pirates pause, if nothing else.”

  “Ma’am, that’s silly. They just crashed over our flotilla in Byra-Kae and we had quite a lot more in the way of defenses than they do.”

  “With respect, Commander, we don’t actually know what they have here. All we’ve seen so far is a bulk freighter in good repair and a pair of small, fast warships. They could have much more.”

  “I think we need to assume that they do,” Brianne said forcefully.

  “Agreed. But if that is the case then we need to maintain our composure. Especially since our own defenses and weapons are compromised. Once we’ve got our feet back under us again, we can think about working from a stronger position.”

  The Secaaran took a deep breath. “Yes, Commodore. You’re right, of course. We have to get ourselves up and running again.”

  “And once we do that, actually, while we’re doing that, I want you, our sensors and every one of the crew that goes off the ship to absorb as much information about this system, that company and its people.” Her voice was very firm. “We’re going to be heading back to the Republic once we get the ship repaired and victualed,” Theodosia reminded her flag captain. “This one ship can’t deal with all the problems in this Cluster and we have to get back and report to the Admiralty. I don’t know exactly what they would do about all of the pirate activity-…”

  “Hopefully, Admiral Tandred would bring his task force into the Cluster and squash the bug under his heel!” Brianne said forcefully.

  Theodosia smiled. “I would hope so too, but I doubt it. More likely, the Senate will order the Admiral to stand down. And then we get absorbed into Second Fleet.”