“And it’s off to endless patrols in the Cassius Quadrant,” Brianne put in darkly.
Theodosia snorted. “Probably. But, maybe if we get a load of intel about this system, and if their tech base is high enough, we might be able to set up a trade partner of some kind. Maybe we could get basing rights here.”
“Do you think they would after our own flotilla got hammered in the next system over?”
“Well,” the commodore said, considering, “It probably wouldn’t be the easiest sell. It would be better for our sakes, if we participated in the defense of the system.” She smiled. “Striking a critical blow that either ended the battle or drove the dread pirates away.”
The Secaaran’s rocky eyebrows rose. “And the grateful populace would fall all over themselves to make sure their brave protectors stayed here?”
“Well, that would be a desired outcome,” Theodosia admitted, still smiling. “But that’s a plan for the future. We’ll have to work something out. For now, everyone keep all their senses open and report back. And make sure that none of their people are around when the reports come in.”
“Captain, I think there are some things in the system that you’re going to want to see,” Stella said. The small convoy was approaching visual range of the FP real estate near to the gas giant. The Kutok mine was right where it was supposed to be, but it appeared that another two sectors for collection and refinement had been completed, bringing the total to twelve. That was now more than half of the scheduled sectors were on line, which meant a huge amount of He3 fuel was being processed. A tank farm was hovering in geosynchronous orbit above the station, and it looked like shuttles were bringing more fuel up to them. Sensors were showing a large signature at the edge of the asteroid belt, a station of some kind, but one that hadn’t been there when the bulk freighter had been here last.
Also, at the nearly Lagrange point, less than a light minute from both the gas mine and the other station, was a cluster of artificial structures. “What are these, Stella?” Vincent asked, though it was clear everyone on the bridge was hanging on that question.
“Three different things, Captain,” she replied with a smile. “I’m showing a tank farm for He3, enough to refuel an entire fleet of ships, it looks like. Right nearby are three construction slips, all of which are in use.” She snapped her holographic fingers and the image on Vincent’s display, mirrored on the main one, increased in size and resolution.
The construction slips were rectangular boxes, but strange protrusions on the lateral edges. Further inspection showed that the upper and lower walls of the boxes were not squared off, but were actually circular. Rectangular plates connected the two circular plates on the sides, which meant that what would have been a single construction slip now became three. Two small ships, possibly shuttles or tugs were being constructed on the sides of one of the slips.
“They’ve been busy,” Vincent mused. “All three of the slips are in use. They’re building a ship in each one.”
“The slips are huge,” Serinda noted. “But the ships inside barely take up any of the space. I don’t understand why Tamara would build slips so large.”
Stella’s image disappeared from the holo projector, her face transferring to all the monitors on the bridge. The image of a golden-furred lupusan took Stella’s place at the projector. “The answer is quite simple, Serinda,” he replied. “To accommodate this ship, of course.”
The bridge crew, Vincent included, look confused and alarmed. “And who are you?” Vincent asked.
The lupusan flicked his ears in amusement, grinning. “I am Nasir, Captain Eamonn. I am the AI for the Samarkand. I apologize for simply appearing, but I figured it was a perfect opportunity to interject and introduce myself.”
Vincent turned his gaze suspiciously to Stella’s image on his display. “And I’m sure you knew about this?”
“About Nasir? Of course. Tamara and I collaborated to bring him to life. He was still in his build phase when we left for Heb. He and I have been in contact ever since we got in communications range of the Samarkand,” she said smugly. “And I wouldn’t have allowed him to invade the comm system if he wasn’t authorized.”
“That’s good to hear,” Serinda muttered.
“But going back to your original question, Serinda, the reason the slips are so big was to accommodate the Grania Estelle. We wanted to be sure that we built construction and repair slips that could handle this ship and we decided it would be simpler if they were all this big, so that we didn’t have a queue forming if you showed up in need of maintenance and another ship was in the largest slip.”
“Makes sense,” Vincent mused. “I applaud the ingenuity.”
The AI gave a small bow. “Thank you, Captain. It was my idea actually.”
“How did you build the slips?” George Miller asked. “And why are the upper and lower sections of the slip round?”
The lupusan AI gave another grin. “That was actually another spot of ingenuity, Mister Miller. Tamara thought of that. We took several asteroids that had high concentrations of nickel iron and superheated them using the Cavalier and the Maitland’s energy weapons. It took a while, but eventually we got them hot enough and then we used tugs to spin them.”
“Spin them, of course!” George said, tapping the console gently with his fist.
The comms officer looked completely lost. “Spin them? I don’t understand.”
“If you heat the metal up to a high enough temperature, and then use the tugs to spin the superheated chunk on a perfectly flat vector,” Nasir said, taking pity on the poor woman. “The metal rapidly starts to flatten out. It was actually a bit of a pain, because the heated metal wanted to wobble. We had to have the corvettes retarget and use their energy weapons three times on the first plate because the tug pilots couldn’t keep the spin steady.” He huffed in frustration. “Took nearly a week longer than it should. Once we got that one done, we had the process down, so we did the rest all at once. The side plates we just sliced off parts of other spun plates and bolted and welded them together.” He shrugged. “Time consuming and fiddly work, but not too hard. Then there was a set of compartments added for power, life support, habitation. The slips are now all connected, as you can see, forming a small dockyard of sorts. There are habitation areas, reactor spaces and construction floors that connect directly with the slips.”
“Damn.” Isis’s sentiment was shared by all of them. In the few months they’d been gone, a huge amount of work had been done. “Three ships.”
“Yes, what about those ships?” Vincent asked Nasir. “What the hell is she building?”
“Well, the two ships in the slips facing your current vectors are small cargo vessels commissioned by clients. The third, which you can’t see from this direction, is the third company warship, an escort frigate.”
“She’s building another warship?” Serinda asked. “We need more?”
Nasir barked a laugh. “I’m afraid even when this ship is completed, we will still be woefully under defended. More warships than most of the systems out in the Argos Cluster, but until the Leytonstone is fully operational and perhaps even after that, Seylonique is vulnerable.” He gestured. “You know what forces Verrikoth has in space. Two corvettes and a pair of fighter squadrons will not be enough to face down even what you all saw at Ulla-tran.”
“And he’s very likely to have more,” Stella put in. She shrugged. “We did see the Ganges under construction at Hecate; I can’t believe he doesn’t have any more stashed away somewhere. Sadly, we don’t have access to any of the pirate databases so we can’t confirm.”
“We can worry about the buildup of military forces later,” Vincent put in. “It is important, and we will get to it. But for the moment, I’m a bit more interested in where the hell these ships came from. What I mean is, who commissioned them and how much is the company being paid?”
“Why Captain, how miserly of you,” Stella said, pretending to be disappointed. Her smirk betra
yed her.
Vincent chuckled. “I am wondering if the bank balances are still into the green.” As he was speaking, Stella and Nasir each put a macro up on his command seat display, showing the financial reports for the company. He nodded. “I’ll take your word for that. But thank you both for checking.”
“Of course.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Continue on course for the Lagrange point,” Vincent ordered. “We’ll refuel at the tank farm there. And then I think it will be time to get Tamara and the Commodore in the same room together and hammer out a deal that we can all live with to fix up that Republic ship.”
“Well this is just great,” Tamara said from the privacy of her office. “A Republic ship here in Seylonique.”
“This isn’t a bad thing, Tamara,” Vincent argued from his chair on the bridge of the bulk freighter. “That warship is currently the most powerful military asset in the system. Yes, yes, I know there’s a battlecruiser here,” he said abruptly, before she could contradict him. “But unless you’ve worked your magic on it, it won’t be of any help. Verrikoth just trashed Heb about six months ago and this ship managed to escape. But if he’s the least bit competent, and we both know he is, they’ll have tracked the ship to Heb. If he goes there, it won’t take him a lot of effort to figure out that it came here.”
“So you’re leading pirates to our door as well?” she asked, but she knew he was right. “But I’m already working on bolstering our defenses here. But that’s not it. We need to talk, in private.”
“Fine, I’ll go to the wardroom and we can talk.”
“Good,” she said. Turning her head, she addressed Nasir. “Nasir, send the security packet.”
“Sending now,” he replied, nodding once.
An instant later, Vincent reappeared on Tamara’s display, the background clearly indicating he was no longer on the bridge, but at his customary seat in the wardroom, with his back to the large monitors. “All right, Tamara, what’s so all-fire important?”
“Stella will be receiving a data packet,” she said. “Nasir is sending it. It’s an encryption packet for the comm system on the Grania Estelle. It’s safe, I promise. I’ve been working on it with Nasir, for just this sort of occasion. I wasn’t expecting a Republic warship, but I guess this is as good a time as any to test it out. Switch your transmitter over from broadband to a laser transmission.”
“You’re getting awfully paranoid about all this aren’t you?” Vincent asked, a grimace on his lips.
“I’m not taking any chances,” Tamara said. “Once Stella sends confirmation to Nasir saying that the packet is uploaded, I’ll continue with this conversation.” She leaned back in her chair, trying to force herself to remain calm. This was such a bad situation they were in. It hadn’t quite tipped over the precipice into catastrophic, but the potential was there.
A moment later, Stella appeared on the display, gave a wink, and then disappeared. “All right, Tamara. The comms have been switched over. We’re on as secure a channel as you want. Now what the hell is such a problem?”
She sighed. “You brought a Republic warship into this system, Vincent. Into our system.”
“Yes?” he asked, his voice sounding very tired. Clearly, he wasn’t understanding.
“Why is it that this company has such a leg up on all of our competitors?” Tamara asked, her question clearly leading.
He frowned. “Well, the replicators, of course.”
She nodded, her expression blank. “And why is it that we are able to get so much in the way of components and parts from them?”
“Because you have access…” His frown deepened. “Wait, what are you saying/”
“How was it that I came to be aboard your ship? Originally, I mean.”
“We picked up your escape pod in Hudora as we were passing through,” he said. “You’d been in hibernation sleep for almost two and a half centuries.”
“Yes, Vincent. I was in a damaged escape pod, sleeping the years away as the pod hurtled away on a ballistic trajectory from what once was the Hudora orbital shipyards.” She took a deep breath, as all those dark memories escaped their prison and washed over her, through her. “I was on the verge of being convicted for crimes I did not commit, not that anyone at that court martial believed that. The Federation attacked at precisely that moment, postponing my fate-…”
“And then that officer of yours took you from the station, tossed you into the escape pod and launched you into the void. You’ve told me this story before.”
“Then stop spitting back the story to me and think,” she demanded. “I was on trial for serious crimes. Sumggling. Theft of Republic military property. It wasn’t a capital crime like Islington and Bythe wanted, but it was bad enough. I’d have been cashiered out of the Navy and thrown into the stockade for decades, if not longer.”
Then it hit him. “You were never acquitted. But you’re probably listed as killed or missing.”
She shrugged. “Most likely missing, presumed killed. But my records wouldn’t have been expunged.” She sighed, raking a hand through her hair. “Nasir tells me that the ranking officer on board that Republic destroyer is a Commodore…” Tamara consulted her datapad, “McConnell?”
Vincent nodded. “That’s correct. I haven’t really gotten much of a chance to talk with her. Turan has though, what with all of her injuries and the time she spent in my sickbay.”
“Vincent, if Commodore McConnell, who outranks me even after all this time, figures out who I am and decides to try and press charges, I would be back in the same boat I was back in the old days.”
“And First Principles, Incorporated would be totally screwed,” the freighter captain finished.
She nodded. “Pretty much.”
“Wait, but after two hundred and fifty years, there’s no way that those old charges would still stick,” Vincent protested. He rubbed his jaw. “There’s no way that smuggling and theft charges would still be valid after all this time.”
“I think you mean that the statute of limitations would be up,” Tamara replied.
“Exactly. Like you said, this wasn’t a capital crime. Why the hell would she care about a crime that happened two and a half centuries ago?”
Tamara sighed, rubbing the back of her neck. “There’s no reason that she would. But what if she isn’t all that happy about the amount of replicator access we have? What if she decides she really does care about crimes that old? She wouldn’t be able to throw me in a stockade, but she could throw me out of the Navy.”
“You’re not in the Navy now,” Vincent objected. “You’ve been a civilian contractor.”
She shrugged. “I’ve never left the Navy,” she told him. “My contracts have always indicated I’m still a Republic Naval officer. Not that it really matters, as you’ve pointed out. But for the legal niceties, Stella and I managed to slip that in there, into the fine print.”
“So what will happen should the Commodore decide to push the matter?” he asked gruffly.
“At best? Nothing. Worst case, she throws me out of the Navy, which means my implants will either be locked, or the firmware will be wiped, removing all my access. I’ll have no more access than any of you.”
“I can’t keep you away from her, Tamara,” he said after a moment’s thought. “She needs to get her ship fixed up and you’re the only one with any real experience in working with Republic vessels. And before you say that Ms. Sterling could do it, I have no doubt in her abilities but as I said, she doesn’t have experience building those types of ships.”
Tamara let out a long breath. “So what do I do? While I can’t really argue with you about that, the instant I meet with her, or any of the Republic crew, if they ping my implants, they’ll be able to determine my identity.”
“But they can’t affect your implants wirelessly, can they?” Vincent asked.
“Well no,” she said. “She’d have to physically interface with me to affect them.” She chuffed a laug
h, her fingers touching the disruptor on her neck. “Wow, the first time this damned thing has proven to be a boon rather than a burden. And I’m not concerned that she’s going to see me and recognize me. But spacers talk. And all it will take is for one of my people to tell one of her people who I am – who I was and this whole mess will start up.”
Vincent straightened. “How about this then? If and when the subject comes up, I tell her that you’re off limits,” he stated flatly. “She wants her ship fixed up, she leaves you alone.”
“I’m not sure she’d go for that,” Tamara warned. “In fact, I’m pretty sure-…”
“Stop being such a worry wart,” he interjected. “Look, I know this is a serious issue. But agonizing over every possible outcome isn’t going to do anything but give you an ulcer.” He sighed. “Since she isn’t going to be able to access your implants anyway, I think that we just deal with it as the situation comes up.” Then he paused, eyeing her speculatively. “If she orders you recalled, will you go?”
Tamara started. “I… I hadn’t thought about that.” Then she scowled. “No. The Republic stole my career and ruined my life. And if even half of the stories I keep hearing about the Navy’s activities in this Cluster are true, I’ll never go back.”
He nodded, pleased at her answer. “Then it’s settled. You stay here with us.”
“Yes. I’m doing good work here.” Tamara chuckled. “I don’t think even back in the old days with tons of equipment and personnel have I built so much.”
“I certainly have never seen this level of industry before,” the freighter captain admitted. “And I’m going to have Corajen assign you a security detail.”
Tamara sighed. “I’m not going to be able to do anything if I have a bunch of armed goons following me around.”
“Tamara, I honestly don’t care what it is you’d like. In this instance, I am taking no chances. I don’t want to give the Commodore or any of her crew an opportunity to grab my Chief of Operations over issues that are centuries old. I need you right where you are and you just told me you didn’t want to go back.”
First Principles: Samair in Argos: Book 3 Page 30