First Principles: Samair in Argos: Book 3

by KOTCHER, MICHAEL

  “I’m on my way up.” And the call ended. Two minutes later, four bodies were pounding up the corridor and through the hatch and onto the bridge. Tamara was flanked on both sides and behind by her guards, all of whom stopped at the hatch. The shortest, Viktoriya, stepped inside with her, but the other two stopped out in the corridor, each taking up position on either side, their weapons held at the ready.

  “I really don’t like your thugs brandishing weapons on my ship, Tamara,” Galina said, her disapproval obvious. Viktoriya, from her spot just inside the door, slung her assault rifle over her shoulder, making sure the muzzle was pointed at the deck. She nipped at her, clamping her jaws as though she would bite. Then the bodyguard grinned. Galina looked away from the guard, as though she was unworthy of the captain’s time.

  “Well, they’re my guards, Galina,” Tamara answered, stepping up to the sensor station. “They go where I go. And when you call battle stations, they get a bit jumpy. What have you got?” She looked at the screens. “Captain, would you be so good as to open a channel to the Leytonstone?”

  Galina nodded to the comms-tech. “Go ahead, Wynnie.”

  The Severite sitting at the communications console pressed a control. “You’re on, ma’am.”

  “This is Tamara Samair aboard the FP Constructor ship Samarkand to the Leytonstone. You’re approaching FP controlled space, I’d love to hear why you’re coming in on what looks to be an attack vector.” She glanced at the sensor display again. “With your shields powered?”

  They waited, but no answer came through. Tamara turned to the furry comms-tech. “Contact Commander Korqath, tell him to launch his fighter squadrons here at the yard. And get me the Maitland.”

  “They’re scrambling their fighters, Colonel,” Ensign Hakami reported from the sensor station. “And one of the company corvettes, the Maitland is moving to interpose itself between us and the yard complex.”

  Gants smirked. “Oh, you’re right, Ensign. They are scrambling now. It’s actually somewhat fun to see.”

  “They’re hailing us again, Colonel. It’s Ms. Samair. She’s sounding pretty insistent.”

  “I bet.” He rubbed his chin. “All right, put her through. This should be good.” An instant later, Tamara Samair’s dark-haired visage appeared on his display. “Ms. Samair, it’s good to see you again.”

  “You here to cause trouble, Colonel? Because we’re just running a business here. One that works with more than just FP ships.”

  “Of course, Ms. Samair,” he said, his voice innocent. “I’m sorry that we startled you. We’re just taking the big girl out for a stroll, just a routine patrol around the system.”

  “I see,” she replied, irritation clear on her face. “And barreling in straight toward my shipyard complex in an attack posture, that’s what? Being neighborly?”

  “Just testing response times, Samair,” he said. “Don’t get yourself all worked up.”

  “Oh, good,” Tamara replied, a dazzling fake smile plastered on her face. “Then you’ll be taking your newly restored ship and will be moving off, resuming your patrol.”

  Gants sighed theatrically, patting the arm of his chair with his palm. “Yes, I suppose we will.” He turned to his bridge officers, looking away from the vid pickup. “Reduce acceleration and alter course. Take us on a vector toward waypoint two.” There were orders repeated from the bridge crew and within moments, the ship yawed around and started moving away from the yard complex.

  “Sorry if we disturbed you, Samair. Just think of it as an impromptu training mission. If you need anything, please do not hesitate to contact me. Gants out.” And he cut the connection. Damn, that felt good.

  “Bastard,” Tamara swore under her breath. The Severite seated next to where she was standing glanced over to her, but didn’t otherwise react, going straight back to her console. Tamara straightened up, glancing one more time over to the sensor station. “Well, I’ll bet he enjoyed that. Send a message to Commander Korqath, please. Tell him to recall the fighters. Have Maitland shadow them for a little bit, but don’t stray too far from the yard.” She turned back to Galina, sitting calmly in her seat.

  “That was rude,” she said harshly. “Scaring us like that.”

  Tamara snorted. “Yeah, I’d say so. Which definitely means we need to get the defensive ships up and running.”

  “Would having two more corvette ships and even another escort frigate be enough to fight off a battlecruiser?” Galina asked, surprised.

  She sighed. “Alone, unsupported, I don’t think so. With all of our fighter squadrons in to help?” She tipped her head to the side. “I don’t know. Maybe. But that’s not really something we should be discussing here. And besides, I don’t want anyone to think that we’re going to be fighting them. We’re all part of the same system defense force.” By the looks exchanged, it was clear that some of the bridge crew didn’t believe that. I don’t really believe it, either, Tamara was forced to admit to herself. Maybe if and when a real threat comes our way Gants could actually be counted on to fight the bad guys. After how he managed when fighting us, I don’t think he’d just tuck tail and run. Not with that battlecruiser up and fully functional again. A problem for another day. Actually, I hope it’s a problem we never have to deal with. I’m starting to turn into a politician.

  “Well, Captain, I’ll leave you to your bridge.” She sighed, looking around. “Hopefully, Colonel Gants will stop using his battlecruiser like a toy and leave us to get back to our work.” She nodded to the lupusan captain, who nodded back, and then took her guards and departed.

  “You can stand down from alert status,” Galina ordered her bridge crew. She pressed a control and the shipwide PA activated. “Crew, this is the Captain. Thankfully, this has been just a false alarm, but you all have performed incredibly. The time to get to battle stations was under three minutes. Very well done. We’re returning to normal operations now. That is all.”

  Tamara sat in her office, leaning back in her chair, her head back against the headrest. Her feet barely touched the floor and she swiveled the chair from right to left, watching as the office swung by in her vision. She wasn’t really seeing it, not even conscious that she was doing it. It was just an unconscious action.

  She was thinking about the yard and about Gants’ hilarious joke of swinging the Leytonstone in the direction of it. FP had a small collection of defensive ships now, even with Mondragon out of the system and that was going to be nearly doubled when Eridain and Angara rolled off the production line and were crewed. But even with those ships, and with the three squadrons of starfighters and Mondragon, they could damage Leytonstone, but they couldn’t beat it. Her shields were too strong and weapons were too powerful and accurate. They’d manage a few good hits with but wouldn’t be able to win. And based on the drive specs she’d seen, Leytonstone was fast. She wasn’t as nimble as Tamara’s corvettes, but with her long reach, and knowing that the FP ships had fixed real estate to defend, she could win.

  As her Construction Manager had said, and she had agreed, building warships was incredibly expensive. The fact that she already had five small warships attested to the wealth of FP, Inc, but the idea that she wanted and needed more meant more money, more resources and of course, more people to crew them. And even through Tamara’s people had found a massive amount of gadolinium, it would need to be sold before it would ever have any real value. Which meant that a trip to Ulla-tran was definitely necessary; they needed to open up that market. Ulla-tran had ships and space-based industry, which were things that meshed well with what FP had to offer.

  It would be dangerous to send Grania Estelle there, at first anyway, considering what had happened the last time they were there. When the first of the new cargo ships was completed, it would probably warrant sending that ship first instead. She sighed. It would also warrant sending one of the corvettes to keep an eye on things as well, at least at first.

  In the meantime… She drew in a deep breath and let it out s
lowly. In the meantime, there was always Verrikoth. He was still out there and he still had a pair of light cruisers. He might even have a few others stashed away or being built in other star systems, if Tamara’s suspicions were correct. And still, Leytonstone was the best hope for this system to defend against any kind of serious incursion by the pirate lord and his forces. But what if the battlecruiser was caught out of position? What if Verrikoth managed to get his ships in orbit of the planet and threatened to drop rocks into the atmosphere and onto the surface? FP’s ships could harass and maybe even damage his cruisers, but they weren’t heavy enough hitters to prevent something like that.

  Which brought her back around to her original line of thought. They needed more.

  The chime on her office door went off. She stopped swinging her chair from side to side and sat up straight. “Come in,” she called.

  The hatch popped and Konstantin Tyannikov stepped inside. Tamara could see Marat standing just outside, to the corpsman’s left, with his back to the office. He seemed completely uninterested in the other lupusan who had just walked in, but after months of looking after her, Tamara was convinced that Marat was probably aware of every particle in his universe.

  “I have some news,” Konstantin said, walking with his hunched gait over to the chair before her desk and helping himself to the seat.

  She smiled at him fondly. “Please, Old Wolf. Sit down.”

  He grinned at her. “So, I’ve been working with Doc Kassix and Nasir, and we think we’re ready to start with surgeries for level two implants.”

  Tamara blinked. “What?”

  The lupusan growled playfully. “I wasn’t aware that I stuttered, Commander. Yes, Doctor Kassix, with my assistance and Nasir’s oversight, is prepared to give implants to our first victim… I mean, patient.”

  “That’s… that’s incredible!” Tamara replied, grinning. “Who’s first?”

  “Well, that’s why I came to you. I think you should get to decide who it is.” The lupusan gestured to her with one of his long fingered hands.

  “Me? Why me? I figure you and the doctor would want to pick the most viable candidate for a successful surgery and then tell me who you had chosen.”

  He barked a laugh. “Can’t pull anything past you, Commander. The good bug doctor and I have in fact already chosen five people for implants, all of them in officer positions, so that they can get used to the implants and then when their workers start to get them they can teach the workers the ropes.” Kassix was a hak’ruk doctor that Tamara had managed to steal from one of the ground based hospitals, convincing him that there were plenty of patients to look after up in space, and the opportunities for research using more cutting edge technology. In the end, it hadn’t taken all that much convincing. And he’d brought a five-person medical team with him. Konstantin had been ecstatic to have him and the others join the team.

  Tamara nodded. “Makes sense. Who are the five?”

  “Well, two of them are out system right now: Captains Eamonn and Leicasitaj,” the wolf said. He blinked and Tamara’s display activated, showing dossier images of both males, with their names, titles, ships and pertinent medical data scrolling next to their faces. “I figured that as majority shareholder in the company, Captain Eamonn would want to get implants as soon as he could. And it’s always good business to give a warship captain every advantage he can get.”

  “Okay.”

  “Then there’s Supervisor Sterling, Ms. Eristov from your protection detail and finally Doctor Turan on the Grania Estelle. Once Turan has adjusted to his implants and the swelling has gone down, he’ll perform the operation on Kassix.”

  “All sounds good. So I’m glad you came to me, and I’m happy to share in your excitement, but I’m still not sure why you came to me about this.” Tamara smiled at him, making sure not to show too many teeth. Konstantin was an old wolf and was well used to the way humans smiled, but he was at heart, a predator, no matter how hard he tried to enlighten his soul. Showing teeth to a predator usually was interpreted as a threat.

  “Well, we thought that since three of our prospects were out of the system, we’d start with Ms. Sterling,” Konstantin explained.

  “Again, not sure why you’re coming to me. I’m glad to know you’ll be pulling her off the line for a few days while she heals and adapts.”

  “That’s just it. I spoke to her about this already,” he went on. “And she’s telling me to move on.”

  “What?” Tamara was thunderstruck. “Having implants would give her so much more in the way of capabilities. Nasir?”

  He sprang immediately into existence above the holo projector. “Yes, Tamara?”

  “Can you please tell Ms. Sterling that I want to see her in here, ASAP?”

  He bowed slightly. “Of course.”

  The two chatted for a couple of minutes before Eretria entered the office. “You wanted to see me, ma’am?” She glanced at Konstantin sitting in the chair and she scowled. “This again?”

  “This again,” the corpswolf replied. “You’ll have so much information immediately available to you, Eretria. As well as scanning and recording abilities. I don’t understand the problem.”

  “I don’t like doctors, ma’am,” she said stiffly, speaking directly to Tamara and ignoring Konstantin. “There have been some very bad ones in my experience. And I certainly do not want to go under the knife to get an elective surgery for something that I really do not need.”

  “You really don’t have any idea of what you’re talking about Supervisor,” Konstantin chided gently. “The Commander and I have worked with implants for many years and I can assure you that they are beneficial in so many ways. You will have instant access to the ship’s computer systems, as well as any data banks in your immediate area. You can call up any information that you need that’s available and your implants will sort the data for you so that you can immediately understand and reference.”

  “Yes, yes,” she snapped. “That sounds fascinating, really, but I don’t have time for this. Ma’am, I don’t need these things and I don’t want them. I don’t want Doc Kassix rooting around in my head with his talons and his knives. I can’t afford to be off the construction floor for that long of a time while I’m waiting to recover from the surgery. My teams can’t afford to have me gone. I’m sorry, ma’am, but I absolutely refuse.”

  Tamara watched her yard supervisor for a long moment and then nodded. “All right, Eretria. I know that you’re very passionate about this. We’ll discuss this another time, perhaps. You can go.”

  “Yes, ma’am, another time.” She nodded brusquely, turned and left, clearly indicating what she thought about this topic of conversation.

  Tamara sighed. “Well, I didn’t expect that strong of a reaction. She is going to need them at some point.”

  The old wolf nodded. “Yes, Commander, she is. And if her teams start getting them and she doesn’t have them, she’s going to get left behind, or in the very least, be less efficient than they will.”

  “I’ll talk to her again. It isn’t like we can just stun her and have her wake up with the implants. She’d quit.”

  “It is a thought, ma’am,” he mused.

  “Don’t even think about it, Konstantin,” she warned, pointing at him. “I was joking, and I think she would absolutely explode if she was operated on against her wishes. I’ll talk to her again.”

  “All right,” he said, sighing. “Then that leaves your head guard.”

  Tamara pulled her communicator out of her pocket and flipped it open. “Viktoriya, can you stop over to my office? There’s an issue that we need to sort out.”

  “All right. Anything I need to be concerned over?” There was a tone of suspicion in the guard’s voice. Clearly, she was concerned that her primary was in danger.

  “I just need for you to come down. There’s just a small issue that I need to speak with you about. Nothing to get worked up over.” Tamara and her bodyguards had worked out a few verbal cues t
o indicate duress, things that wouldn’t arouse suspicion. They had decided that any statements that Tamara made where she expressed excitement would be her sign of distress and that the guards needed to get there quick.

  “Of course, ma’am. I’ll be right there.” The bodyguard arrived in the office less than a minute later. Tamara guessed that she had probably jogged through the corridor of the ship to get to the office, but no one would dare say anything to the lupusan, or try and stop her. They all knew that the boss trusted her guards and that seemed to be all they needed. She stepped inside. “You wanted to see me, ma’am?”

  “Yes, Serzhant Eristov, please come in.” Tamara gestured. “You can relax. No threat here.”

  The lupusan visibly relaxed, though she didn’t entirely stand down. She never did, especially when there was someone outside of her team in the compartment with her primary. “Of course, ma’am. Corpsman,” she said, addressing Konstantin.

  “Serzhant,” he replied, flicking his ears.

  “How can I assist you, ma’am?” she asked.

  “Serzhant, we’d like to talk to you about getting your own set of neuro implants.”

  Viktoriya didn’t even hesitate. Tamara had shown her some of the functionality of the implants a few days after their arrival and the two females had expressed an interest in getting a set for themselves. The advantages they would give! Marat actually seemed to come out of his malaise, asking a number of medical questions concerning the implants, regarding the surgery to install the implants, swelling and other recovery problems, as well as recovery time and follow on issues. “Yes, ma’am. I’ll need to speak with the others briefly, but otherwise, I’m ready immediately.”

  Konstantin barked a laugh and Tamara chuckled. “Oh, the enthusiasm of youth,” the elder lupusan joked. Viktoriya looked as though she was offended by his remark, turning to glare at him. “Calm yourself, young one. I was once young and vigorous as you. When you meet someone in two hundred and fifty years getting their first set of implants, think back on this conversation.”