First Principles: Samair in Argos: Book 3

by KOTCHER, MICHAEL

  Viktoriya looked less pleased with the implied threat, but she also nodded. “I will make sure Marat is informed as well.”

  “Good.” Tamara said. “Now, let me see what we can do here.” She pressed a few controls and in less than a minute, one of her slimer grenades appeared. She plucked the device out and tossed it lightly to the smaller female guard. “I call this a slimer grenade. It sprays a heavy and rapidly expanding foam that quickly hardens into a solid. Really good for crowd and riot control as well as helping out for snipers.”

  Viktoriya nodded appreciatively. “That would be very helpful. And I’m starting to get an idea of where you get all of your weapons.”

  Tamara smirked. “So, what would you like? Like I said before: I have a large assortment of options.”

  The guard leader slowly grinned. Reaching into a pocket in her vest, she pulled out a data clip and handed it over. “Chief Nymeria indicated there might be an opportunity to arm up, so I made a list.”

  Tamara took it, pressing it to her data jack on her right thumb. Her HUD sprang up and a text list of items appeared. She was impressed; the list was rather comprehensive. Shotguns, assault rifles, handguns, batons, stunners, body armor and the list went on. “I think, Serzhant, that we might be able to get what you need.”

  “Which of those will you be able to make for us, ma’am?” Viktoriya asked, pleased.

  Tamara winked. “How about all of it?” The lupusan gaped in shock. “I can’t accommodate much in the way of explosives. We’re going to be primarily on space stations or ships and the very last thing you want in those cases are things that blow up. If and when we go groundside, I might be willing to let you use explosives, but otherwise, no.”

  Viktoriya nodded. “I understand, ma’am. I haven’t done much in the way of space operations, but I can understand that. We’ll make it work.”

  “Excellent. I’ll get started on these items here for you. They should be ready in a few hours. Nasir will notify you when things are ready.”

  “Thank you, ma’am. I’ll make sure we’re ready to collect everything. Now, would it be possible to get a tour of the ship? We’re looked over the blueprints, but I will need to actually go through each compartment, especially the ones that you’re going to be in primarily.”

  Tamara smiled. “Of course. Let me load the specs for these and we’ll take a tour.”

  Hyacinth Cresswell sat in front of her comm terminal in her home office on the orbital station. She’d been monitoring events in the system, keeping up on her own investments and interests on the planet, as well as current events in the system. She was tracking the arrival of Eamonn’s huge cargo ship, but was surprised to see another ship coming in with him.

  She pressed a control. An irritatingly long time later, the plump face of Harmon Kly appeared on her display. “Why are you calling me, Hyacinth?” he demanded. “It’s extremely late.”

  “I’m well aware of what time it is, you asshole,” she spat. “Did you happen to catch the new ship that just arrived in the system? Hanging out with the FP construction slips?”

  He harrumphed. “I couldn’t care less about the escapades of Vincent Eamonn and his stars damned ship. You called me this late to talk about him?”

  “No, I called about the ship that accompanied his big freighter into the system.”

  Kly blinked. “What ship that accompanied him in? You’re not talking about that little tramp indie freighter are you?”

  “It’s not a freighter. It’s a warship,” Cresswell said.

  “Where the hell did he get a warship?”

  “I don’t know,” she said irritably. “But from what my sources are telling me, it isn’t just some rusted out bulk cruiser. It’s a damned Republic destroyer.”

  “What?” Kly seemed to be reeling from that. “Well, Byra-Kae is only a few light years away; clearly they must have come from there.”

  She shook her head, scowling. “Amazing. You figured that all out yourself.”

  He huffed. “All right. So there’s a Republic destroyer in system. So what?”

  “How the hell did he get one of those?”

  “How the hell am I supposed to know that?” Kly demanded. “Why the hell would a Republic skipper come here of all places?”

  Cresswell bit her lip. “There aren’t a lot of reasons why they would,” she admitted. “And I don’t think I like what that might portend.”

  “What? That the bullshit story Eamonn has been peddling ever since he got here might be true?” Kly asked. “That pirates are among us?” He scoffed, but Hyacinth noted a touch of certainty in his voice, his face. “No, it can’t be true. It can’t.”

  “I don’t really believe it either,” she said. “But somehow, pirates attacking or destroying the Republic outpost seems impossible. Hell, even someone considering an attack on a Republic outpost is ludicrous.”

  “Well we need to find out why they’re here and more importantly, why they’re working with that clown,” Kly said, nodding.

  “Well what do you think about it?”

  He blinked. “What? Why that Republic ship is here?”

  “Well, that and why they’re working with Eamonn.” Cresswell put her elbows on the desk, laced her fingers and leaned on her chin, a scowl on her face.

  He glared at her. “Well, he’s been spending a hell of a lot of time out of the system, leaving his business in the hands of that woman Samair. Based on the vector his ship took and returned on, he went to Heb. Now there’s no way he was spending an additional two months in that system. They don’t have any space industry and the what’s on the ground? Nothing. Nothing of any interest, anyway. They’re what, at an atomic level of development?”

  Hyacinth nodded. “As far as I knew, but that’s from my own files from fifteen years ago, and the FP files they made public.”

  “Wait, how the hell did you get FP’s files?” he demanded, astounded.

  She shrugged. “Called in a favor. That’s not important.”

  Kly stared at her for another long moment, but then went on. “Anyway, yes. Atomic level of development. Well none of his ships or stations use fission reactors, so I can’t imagine he’d care about that.”

  “Would he sell them a helium 3 fusion power reactor?” she wondered.

  “Who knows? I mean he might, considering they’d have to get the parts, computers and fuel from him. It would be a good investment because it would make them beholden to him for a long time,” he said grudgingly. “But what the hell would they pay him with? With all the mining he’s doing here, it isn’t as though they could give him a whole lot in the way of precious metals. And their tech is going to be crap compared to what he’s using. Besides, it isn’t about what’s going at Heb with those primitives, it’s what happened at Byra-Kae. How he managed to get the Republic ship to accompany him back here.”

  “We need to investigate this. If he’s somehow managed to broker a deal with the Republic, it could be dangerous.”

  Kly nodded. “Yes. If the Republic starts making deals here… The last thing we need is for them to start thinking they can annex us back.”

  “It seems unlikely,” Cresswell argued. “Seylonique and Byra-Kae are a long way from the Republic.”

  “True,” he said. “But if they can get a large enough grouping of systems, and if there are strategic or monetary reasons for them to do so…”

  She grimaced. “That’s a very long way to travel. I can’t imagine there’s much out here that would interest the Republic now that hasn’t interested them since the war.”

  “All right. I’m going to make some calls. Maybe I can dig something up.”

  The screen blanked. Cresswell sat there for a few minutes, looking into the dark, thinking. Gritting her teeth, she nodded and then typed in a new comm code. A moment later, a man’s face appeared, and she could see the dark collar of the uniform tunic for the Seylonique Navy, lieutenant’s bars glinting on the fabric. Behind him she could see a bulkhead with a consol
e that had been torn apart, wires and circuits hanging out.

  “Leytonstone, Lieutenant Bunchen,” he said, looking to her.

  “Lieutenant, this is Hyacinth Cresswell, I’m one of the admins on the council.”

  He nodded. “Yes, ma’am. I recognize you. How can I assist you today?”

  “I need to speak with Colonel Gants. Can you please connect me?” It wasn’t so much a question as an order.

  He winced, looking extremely unhappy. “I’m sorry, ma’am, I’m afraid I can’t. He is in his stateroom and gave explicit orders that he is not to be disturbed for any reason.”

  “Very well, lieutenant. Put me in touch with your supervisor. I know you have one. You’re not in command of the ship or the watch section.” She glared at him, putting the full force of her ire into it. He flinched visibly.

  “Very well, ma’am. Wait one, please,” he said, and the screen switched to the hold screen.

  Hyacinth fumed with impatience for several long moments while she waited, until finally the screen changed back, showing a middle aged man in Naval uniform. “Good day, ma’am. I’m Lieutenant Commander Paxton, ship’s executive officer.”

  She frowned. “Yes, I remember you from the inquiry a few months ago, Lieutenant Commander. But I seem to recall you being a Lieutenant at the time.”

  He gave a small smile. “I was promoted, Ma’am. Despite how everything turned out, my superiors were impressed with my performance in the action.”

  Her eyes narrowed slightly, but she didn’t comment on it. “Very well, Lieutenant Commander Paxton. I need to speak with Colonel Gants.”

  He nodded. “Yes, ma’am, that’s what Bunchen told me. But I’m sorry, the colonel did indicate very explicitly that he was not to be disturbed by anything short of an attack on the orbital or a hull breach.”

  Hyacinth growled, grinding her teeth. “When will he be free again?”

  “Zero nine hundred, ma’am,” Paxton replied instantly. Hyacinth suspected that everyone on the ship was secretly counting down until the Colonel would once again be available. “Can I ask what exactly it is that you need, ma’am? Perhaps I can assist.”

  She took a long breath and then blew it out. “Yes, Lieutenant Commander, perhaps you can. There is a situation that is brewing that I think we need to be prepared for. Could you please give me an update on the repairs to the Leytonstone?”

  Now it was the Executive Officer’s turn to exhale deeply. She could see that he was clearly considering the situation. The ship had been a floating wreck when it returned to the orbital several months ago. It had sat with little more than a caretaker crew while the inquiry was ongoing and then a month after that, and then shortly thereafter, the ship’s crew and a load of civilian contractors managed to get their hands on a dozen of FP’s A2 replicators as well as setting up a steady purchase of refined metals from the same company. It was annoying, really, Hyacinth thought, that after a devastating battle between forces where the battlecruiser was trashed, the government was now paying for FP to repair all of the damage its forces had caused.

  But it seemed after a clear deliberation, Paxton made a decision. “Well, there’s a lot to talk about, ma’am. The ship was a mess, as you know, when we brought it back to its berth at the orbital. Since then, we’ve managed to tear out the sublight engines, strip down and rebuild the hull. The engines haven’t been replaced yet, but the hull integrity has been restored, which I can tell you makes me breathe a bit easier.”

  She nodded. It certainly didn’t sound good, but she could agree that having the hull closed back up again properly would be a boon. “How about power? I know that Colonel Gants was very concerned about that. In fact, he was quite vocal about the fact that the lack of power is what ultimately lost the fight.”

  Paxton nodded. “Yes, ma’am, I would have to agree with him on that. We simply did not have the power to do the things we needed. We couldn’t get the ship up to speed, keep the shields strong or get all the weapons online with the amount of power we had available. We’ve been working to correct that. As I understand it, command negotiated with the FP people and we got our hands on two Zakiris Z429 milspec reactors and we’re getting the power conduits and transformers that we need in installments from them as well. We need three to bring the ship fully up to power, but as I understand, the government only was able to procure two.”

  Hyacinth nodded, though her scowl deepened. There had been a lot of under the table dealings going on in the last two months, ever since the repairs on the ship had commenced. First had come the deals for the A2s, but then it was determined that power generation was something that the ship needed and needed quickly. And while new reactors for the ship could possibly be constructed by local companies, but they would need six months to build one. Somehow, word got back to FP and then Samair had stuck her oar in. She could build two of the things and have them done in six weeks. The admins had balked at the amount she had charged them and had been outraged by her arrogance.

  Samair, however, refused to allow their bluster to affect her. “Well, I believe you have two options,” she had told them, managing to keep her face completely calm. “You can either take it, or leave it. Discuss it and let me know.” And then she walked out of the meeting, causing human jaws to drop, lupusan ears to lay back and zheen antennae to circle in astonishment and anger. Heated arguments ensued for two days over that stunt among the admins, but finally, they had agreed. Credits for reactors, fuel and materials, paid in installments. Samair, the bitch, had even managed to be humble and gracious in her victory.

  “I assume you are installing the power reactors now?” Hyacinth asked, trying not to take out her residual anger for Samair out on Lieutenant Commander Paxton.

  “Yes, ma’am,” he replied. “Reactor One is already in, tested and powered up. Reactor Two is in the process of being tested and I’m told by the engineering people that it should be operational within twelve hours.”

  “You mentioned that the sublight engines were completely torn out?”

  Paxton nodded, blinking slowly as he did. “Yes, ma’am, they were completely destroyed in the fighting. I understand there is a company, R3 Systems that is in the process of fabricating new engines for us. It’s a lot of work because no one in this system other than FP has ever built anything like this in a long time. But Colonel Gants was of the opinion, and I agree, that it wouldn’t be a good idea to get any more beholden to FP Inc than we already are.”

  Hyacinth wholeheartedly agreed with that. While she couldn’t doubt FP and Samair’s ability to deliver on every promise they made, as well as their impressive tech base and work ethic, she didn’t like how that company had skyrocketed to the top in such a very short span of time. Especially since the company was run by outsiders, people who owed no allegiance or favors to anyone on the admin council.

  “What kind of a timeframe are we looking at for the engines?”

  He rubbed the back of his neck. “Another week for the first engine to be completed, then it has to be shuttled up to the ship and installed. That’s at least another week. Once we get that first one in, though, hopefully we’ll be able to shave a few days off the install on the other five. After that, we’ll be getting an engine every two weeks.” The ship’s XO actually managed a smile. “Lots of power and restored engines, ma’am. I have to say it will be good to be able to bring the ship up to full acceleration.”

  Her lips quirked at his enthusiasm. “Bottom line this for me, Lieutenant Commander. When will this ship be ready for space?”

  Paxton gave a heavy sigh. “Well, ma’am, we need a third reactor. It’s much more capable with two but we need three to get maximum performance. That’s something that command is going to need to procure for us, either through FP or another fabricator. But aside from that, we’re talking probably five months minimum to get this ship up and running, assuming no problems with parts or materials coming in. More likely seven.”

  Seven months. An eternity in which any number of
things could happen. The issues with the Republic could flare up and we might need this ship up and running sooner. That bastard Eamonn might be right about the pirate threat, though I can’t imagine it’s more than propaganda. “Very well, Lieutenant Commander. Thank you for the update, I will pass it along to the admin council.”

  “You’re quite welcome, ma’am. And I’ll forward you a copy of the repair estimates and schedules.”

  “Excellent,” she said, and meant it. Paxton was proving himself worthy of that promotion from tactical officer to XO of the ship. “And please make sure you get a message to Colonel Gants that I need to speak with him soonest.”

  “Of course, ma’am.”

  Cresswell nodded once more and cut the connection. “Seven months,” she whispered.

  Tamara looked up as Viktoriya poked her head into the office. “Yes, Viktoriya?”

  The lupusan had been standing guard outside, having just taken over from Marat an hour earlier. Since she had been scheduled to depart the Samarkand in a few hours for the yard, Viktoriya wanted to be at Tamara’s side when she did with Marat with them. Ekaterina had been sent on ahead. Not that there was much danger of someone trying to attack and cause her harm, but the female lupusan was taking no chances.

  “I apologize for disturbing you, ma’am,” she said. “But Captain Eamonn is here to see you.”

  Tamara pressed a control on the desk and the display blanked. “Thank you, Serzhant. Please send him in.”