First Principles: Samair in Argos: Book 3

by KOTCHER, MICHAEL

  “I understand.” Galina nodded. And she did. “Are you sure you can do this?”

  “Yes,” Tamara replied. “And I think it’s time to start reviewing our policy on leasing those devices. I don’t want this happening again.”

  Galina nodded. “I agree. Though I think once the word of this gets around, anyone who’s still got them won’t want to lose them, and anyone who wants one is going to think twice before they try and sell them off.”

  “I sure hope so. I don’t want to lose business over this, but I don’t want to start throwing our weight around, either. I’m trying to build up this company’s reputation and if I have to keep stomping on people that misbehave, no matter how right I am, people are just going to see me and by extension FP, as the evil corporation that wants to control everything and just line my pockets.”

  Galina considered her for a long moment. “Well, if you need me, don’t you hesitate to call.”

  Tamara chuckled lightly. “I will.” She ended the call. Taking a few moments to calm herself, she pressed a control, readying a message to record. “Yuri Beckett, this is Tamara Samair with FP. Earlier today, I received confirmation that two of my A2 replicators, A2’s that I leased to you, I might add, were now in the hands of one of the freighters on its way out of the system…”

  “We have breakout!” the pilot said excitedly.

  Leicasitaj turned to his sensor officer. “Report.” This was the first hyperspace trip Mondragon had ever made, in fact the first any of this crew had ever made, and he was determined that it would go smoothly. The frigate had barely been out of drydock when they had gone on a short patrol of the FP real estate in Seylonique, and then Samair and Eamonn had decided that Mondragon would be escorting the small convoy to Heb.

  “No contacts, Captain,” the sensor watch specialist replied calmly. Then she frowned. “No sign of Grania Estelle or Silver Dawn.”

  The Romigani showed no sign of emotion. He wasn’t concerned about the bulk freighter or the smaller cargo hauler, yet. He’d purposefully had the pilot increase the speed of his ship so that they would arrive ten minutes before his charges, in case there was some problem that needed to be dealt with. Properly tuned, Mondragon could reach well into the Green level of the hyperspace rainbow, which was a full level higher than either of the two cargo ships. Left alone, Leicasitaj’s ship could make the same trip in twenty-one days, as opposed to the Grania Estelle’s thirty-three. He was intensely proud of this ship and its crew. He was the captain of the company’s flagship, the most powerful vessel owned by First Principles. For now anyway, he knew. It wouldn’t take long for Tamara Samair to start cranking out more, bigger and better ships. But for now, for this brief, shiny time, Leicasitaj controlled FP’s strongest military asset.

  “Maintain passive sensor scan. We should be seeing the two freighters in the next few minutes.” The Romigani spoke with confidence, as if there was no doubt in his mind about the outcome. There was a very small degree of worry, but not much. He had confidence that Grania Estelle would arrive, with her fellow freighter in tow because he knew Captain Tamara Samair’s work. Hell, it was Samair and Sterling that had built this ship, and they’d made it here to Heb without any problems.

  “Hyper footprint!” the sensor watch called, sounding excited. “Two ships… it’s them, sir.”

  “Confirm that!” the ship’s executive officer snapped.

  The sensor watch specialist nodded. “It’s confirmed, sir. Markings on the hull match our records from back in Seylonique, and they’re both broadcasting their IDs.”

  Leicasitaj nodded. “Very well. Confirm with Captain Eamonn. We will be heading in system. Match speed with them, but bring us out ahead of them one light second.”

  “Aye, Captain,” the XO replied.

  The captain of Mondragon settled himself for a quiet journey in system. It would be several days in, but then he would be able to see his first new planet. He most likely would be forced to remain aboard the ship, which was slightly disappointing, but he’d come here to defend the two cargo vessels, not go sightseeing. But in the meantime, it didn’t mean that they couldn’t use the time to look at absolutely everything this star system had to offer. Sure, Grania Estelle had been here several times already, but the good freighter captain hadn’t taken the time to properly appreciate the real estate; he’d just gone straight to the business meeting. Not that Leicasitaj could blame him. The man was a cargo hauler, a businessman, not an explorer. He’d done an amazing job in getting around the Argos Cluster for as long as he had, but now he didn’t need to. He didn’t need to jump blindly into each star system. He had Leicasitaj and the other company warship captains to do the hard work for him. All Eamonn needed to do now was concentrate on his primary job: signing the pay vouchers for Leicasitaj and for the members of his ship’s company. He gave a watery chuckle. The XO glanced over at him, but said nothing.

  “XO,” he said after a few minutes. “As we get closer in system, I want to launch a series of sensor drones in system. I think it might be prudent to do as much of a survey of the system as we can.”

  The young officer, a man named Mason Dietrich, looked over to his captain. “A survey, sir?”

  “Yes, Lieutenant,” Leicasitaj said, “A survey. I want to have the sensors pull up as much information as we can possibly get about this system. We’re probably going to be confined to a fairly close in patrol near to the habitable world, to keep our charges safe, but I want to try and get as much information about the whole system as we can.”

  Dietrich looked over to his captain. “Any particular reason, Captain?”

  “Well,” he drawled, “it just makes sense from a security perspective. Get an idea what might be here as far as moons, asteroids, and any ships that might think they can hide out in the area.” He shrugged one tentacle hand. “I’m not really expecting to find any ships in the system except for us, but you never know. And it helps to be vigilant.”

  “Understood, sir.”

  “And I’d also like for you to get with our engineers. See if they can get a communications satellite set up that we can drop about halfway in system. And then we’re going to need another one to put in orbit of the habitable world.”

  Dietrich nodded, pulling up his datapad and making a few notes. “I’ll get right on that, Captain. Things are running smoothly down in engineering and I think the Chief might be getting bored.”

  Leicasitaj chuckled. “Don’t let him hear you mouthing such blasphemy, XO. He might set you straight. But I want to get those satellites prepped and I want to get those sensor probes launched. Maybe we’ll find something interesting.”

  The XO looked thoughtful. “Maybe there’s a moon or something with another huge vein of gadolinium! We could strike it rich!” Smiles broke out among the bridge crew, but were quickly hidden.

  “Somehow I doubt it, XO,” he replied, some of his facial tentacles twitching. “I’m thinking it more likely we might discover that there are a few more moons around the gas giant than on the Grania Estelle’s original sensor sweeps. Who knows? There might even be some leftover tech from when the Republic was big in this area.”

  Dietrich looked skeptical, but didn’t contradict his captain. “Yes, sir. I’ll just call down to engineering and get the chief on those comm satellites.”

  “Very good, XO, thank you.”

  “Looks like Captain Leicasitaj is keeping busy,” Vincent Eamonn said softly to himself, watching the sensor feeds as Mondragon launched a sensor probe. “What is he doing?”

  “It appears as though he is launching sensor probes, Captain,” George replied.

  Vincent turned in his command chair and glared at his operations officer. “Yes, thank you, George. I can see that. Why is he sending out sensor probes?”

  George grinned. “I’m sure that I don’t know, Captain. I can call him. He must think that there is something on the far side of the fifth planet that warrants closer scrutiny.”

  Vincent sighed, rubb
ing his eyes with one hand. “George, I’m having a good day so far. Please do not give me a headache over this. Yes, please call him and ask him why he is blasting several thousand credits worth of hardware out into space?” The probes probably didn’t cost thousands of credits, but they were expensive. It wasn’t just that the company could afford it, but was it really necessary to just start dropping the tech toys?

  “It seems the good captain wants to do a full survey of the entire system, Captain,” Serinda reported a few minutes later. “I mean, we did one of the gas giant on our first trip here, but Captain Leicasitaj wants to take the opportunity to map out all of the ‘real estate’ as he calls it.”

  “Any particular reason?” Vincent asked, trying to stave off the headache he could already feel building behind his eyes.

  The young woman put her hand up to her ear, concentrating for a moment and then speaking. “He wants to give his sensor operators some training. He says to tell you it can’t hurt.”

  Vincent sighed. “Put him on, please.” Serinda pressed a control and one of the indicators on Vincent’s command seat lit up. He pressed the control and the virtual display activated. “Captain, what’s this I hear about sensor practice?”

  The Romigani looked stolid and uncaring. Vincent had never dealt with one of his species before meeting this one, and even then, he’d been preoccupied with his own ship and affairs. They’d spoken a few times, mostly as they geared up for this run, but they certainly weren’t close. He wasn’t quite sure how to handle the squid-like alien, but Tamara had voiced for him so he couldn’t be all that bad. “I am launching sensor probes throughout the system, Captain Eamonn. I am attempting to get a full survey of all of the space, planets and moons in the system.”

  “And why is it that this survey is needed?” he asked, trying to sound less tired than he felt. Yes, that headache was definitely breaking over the horizon.

  Two of Leicasitaj’s facial tentacles curled. “To be perfectly honest, it probably isn’t. But I was charged with protecting you and the Silver Dawn, and I plan to do the best job of it that I can.”

  “And protecting us requires you to fire off several thousand credits worth of sensor probes across the system?” he asked, watching as Mondragon fired off two more of the devices on diverging vectors. “More of them, Captain?”

  “Yes, Captain Eamonn, more of them,” the warship captain replied. “I want to make sure that by the time we’re in orbit of the habitable world there are no blind spots to Mondragon’s sensors. The probes will be set up to scan and broadcast for thirty seconds every twelve hours. That will extend the life of them, and if anything does show up, on those settings, the probes should be able to detect it giving us enough time to respond.”

  “All right,” Vincent said grudgingly, “It sounds as though you’ve given this some thought. But I have to say I’m still not comfortable with all the equipment you’re blowing through.”

  More tentacles curled. “The equipment is there to be used, Captain Eamonn. And I don’t want to be surprised if something does come up.”

  Vincent sighed. “I get what you’re doing with this, but it still seems like a waste.”

  “Well, hopefully it will come to nothing. I’ll let you know if something comes up. Mondragon out.”

  Vincent blinked. He just ended the call on me! “George, you have the bridge. I’m going to be in the wardroom.” He rose from his seat and walked off the bridge. He could have sworn he saw George trying to hide a smile as he passed the Operations console, but Vincent decided to ignore it. As the hatch to the bridge closed, he heard Serinda suppress a laugh. He sighed. Walking the short distance down the corridor to the wardroom, he closed the hatch and sat in his customary chair. “I cannot believe he just cut the transmission on me. I’m his boss!”

  Stella appeared on the holo projector above the table, standing, but she flopped to a sitting position, cross-legged. She laughed. “Well, Captain, you might be his boss, but it’s his job to protect you. And you know Tamara would flay him alive if he let something back happen on his watch. Especially if he’s armed with his brand new escort frigate. He’s just being cautious.”

  Vincent grumbled to himself, activating his datapad. “He needs to learn who’s in charge around here. He might be in command of that ship, but who owns that ship? Me, that’s who.”

  Stella sighed. “Captain, you need to understand. You might be the owner and he definitely respects you, but I don’t think you can call yourself his boss.”

  “What?!” he bristled, putting the datapad down. “I own fifty-two percent of the First Principles, Inc,” Vincent said forcefully. “I absolutely am his superior, his boss; however you want to classify this.”

  “You’re the owner of the company, Captain, but to Leicasitaj, all you are is a senior captain. Someone who deserves to be treated with respect, but you’re not in command of him, his ship or his actions. As far as he’s concerned, I’m sure Captain Leicasitaj considers Tamara to be his boss. You,” she said, sounding more confident with each word, “are just the freighter captain of one of the ship’s he’s been ordered to keep safe. So if that costs a few thousand credits in sensor drones, so be it.”

  He glowered at her, putting his palms on the table. “How the hell would you know all that? Since when have you been spending so much time with him?”

  She shrugged. “When Serinda made that call, I uplinked with Mondragon and went through the ship’s security footage on the cameras. I’m very well versed in doings and actions of him.”

  Vincent blinked, surprised. “Wait… what? You went through the all of that ship’s security footage?”

  Stella nodded. “Yes. It only took about an eighth of a second. I went through a few of the files more than once. I wanted to get a feel for how Captain Leicasitaj acted and reacted to situations. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any footage of him dealing with any really serious or high stress situations, so I can’t really say I have him fully pegged.” She pursed her lips. Then the AI slapped her hands to her cheeks. “Oh! Of course! The internal security footage aboard the Cavalier! Oh, I should have thought to download that before we left!” She slumped. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.”

  “I’m still stuck on the fact that you went through all that security footage already.” Vincent leaned back in his chair, studying the young AI where she sat.

  She looked up at him and brightened. “Captain, I know I might look human and Tamara programmed me to have the personality of a teenage human woman, but I’m not. I’m an AI.”

  He nodded slowly. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I sometimes forget.”

  She smiled. “It’s no problem. Anyway, that’s why he’s going to send out the probes and he probably isn’t going to apologize for it. In his mind, Leicasitaj is just doing his job.”

  Vincent sighed heavily. “All right.” She looked at him and he put his hands up in surrender. “All right! I’ll let it go. I guess with the amount of money we’re going to make on this run, and with what Samair is bringing in back in Seylonique, I suppose I can write off the cost of a few sensor probes.”

  “Thank you, Captain,” Stella simpered.

  Leicasitaj was seated in his cabin, reading over the status reports on the sensor probes, nodding every so often at some interesting tidbit. For the most part, there was nothing all that interesting to be found in this star system. A mixture of planets and gas giants, only the one inhabitable world, a sparse asteroid belt, and a number of moons orbiting the various planets. The habitable one only had one moon, which once had a mining operation there, once upon a time, but it had been abandoned for decades, centuries, most likely. It didn’t look as though there was anything that anyone would really want in this system, as far as pirates were concerned. Oh, perhaps the people on the planet had goods or materials that were worth taking, but there was no space-based industry here. Though he did find one item of interest: in the atmosphere of the gas giant was a fuel collector, one of the small ones
that FP used on ships that jumped out of the system. From what he remembered, Grania Estelle had one, and if he’d read the files right, Samair had sold one to Vosteros on the Redcap Madness. How did that get here?

  He realized it was probably left behind here by Captain Eamonn on one of his previous trips to this system, either for the locals to use, or for him to keep the bulk freighter’s tanks topped up. Either way, he could feel himself starting to get an idea. An idea to make himself feel useful and perhaps to prove his worth a bit to Captain Eamonn.

  And then of course, Vincent Eamonn would murder him, once he figured out what it was that Leicasitaj had done. It might be worth it though, to get the crew the training and to see the look on Eamonn’s face.

  He pressed a control. “XO, this is the captain. Sound general quarters, set condition one throughout the ship. We’re going to have an impromptu drill.” He outlined the parameters, and uploaded them into the ships computer, ready for activation.

  “But Captain,” Dietrich protested. “It’s the middle of the ship’s night. You really want me to wake them up?”

  Leicasitaj growled. “I apologize, Mister Dietrich. I wasn’t aware that I had phrased my statement as a request. I am the captain on this ship. I know this because you just addressed me as such. You will carry out my order. Now.”

  He could hear the XO getting himself under control after the rebuke. “Yes, Captain.” An instant later the general quarters alarm began sounding, its gong-gong-gong noise blaring through the ship, followed by the XO speaking over the PA system. “General quarters, general quarters, general quarters. All hands, man your battle stations.”

  Leicasitaj rose and exited his cabin, hustling for the bridge. Once there, he sat himself down on his command seat and pulled up his displays. “Report status,” he ordered.

  Dietrich stood just behind the tactical station, looking at his datapad. “Shields are up, Captain, weapons are online, we’re still passive only on the sensors.” He paused for a moment. “All hands are at battle stations, Captain.”