First Principles: Samair in Argos: Book 3

by KOTCHER, MICHAEL

  “Oh?” she asked, a smile crossing her lips. She was sipping from what looked like a fruit drink pouch.

  “Yes. I’m impressed you managed to make another paid cargo run from the shipyard to the orbital station. How did you manage to find that?”

  Lujayne laughed. “I got lucky. Senior Malan had a pair of capital scale ion cannons that they wanted transferred to the orbital for some reason,” she said with a shrug. “Thankfully, we were able to disassemble them enough to cram them into the holds so, back we go. But, from there, we’re going to load up on some cargo that we can sell back in Seylonique and maybe restock the galley and get new algae cultures for the Environmental tanks.”

  “Got it all figured out, do you?” he asked, grinning.

  “Shouldn’t I?” she said. “I’m the captain of this ship.”

  “How long do you think it’s going to take?”

  “We’ve got another ten hours before we reach the orbital, then however long it takes to locate, buy and load up more cargo. I’m also thinking of giving my crew a full day off. Give every shift a rest.” She nodded, more to herself than to him. “They’ve been working hard, I wouldn’t want to think that they’re prisoners aboard the ship.”

  Tariq grimaced. “I want to do the same for my crew.”

  “So do it!” she said, smiling. “Show them you’re not entirely the ogre they think you are.”

  He sighed. “I’d like to. But I need to keep out away from the station in order to watch your back, and I can’t do that if my ship is docked.”

  She pursed her lips, thinking. “But you’ve got more than four times as many people on board a ship that’s much more cramped. I can’t understand how your people can stand it in there. The walls area closing in on me on this ship and I only have a dozen people on board.”

  He frowned. “I suppose. But I can’t leave my station to come in and dock, even to give my people some much needed shore leave.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “All right. We’re going to figure out how to make this work, but I want to make sure that our ships are docked next to each other. I’m not going to risk having my people too far away from yours. We need to watch each other’s back.”

  Lujayne laughed. “So, Captain, care to go out for a drink?”

  He considered for all of a moment, his sense of duty briefly clashing with his desire to get off the ship. “Why, yes, Captain Orzo, I think I would like that very much. Let’s see if we can find someplace nicer than the spacer dive bars our crews are inevitably going to end up in.”

  Bellerophon Rose, Station Master of the Orbital, found his eyes widening slightly at the incoming request for docking. Apparently both of the Seylonique ships were requesting to dock in adjacent locks. He had no reason to deny the request, but it certainly made him nervous. There were parties here that were interested in the foreigners, in their excellent quality of parts and trade goods as well as their brand new looking ship. Though it was clear that the corvette had been through the wringer and had full blown repairs. But there was scoring on a few of the hull plates from energy weapon strikes and more than a few of the hull plates had been replaced. But still he was impressed. The ship was running properly, it wasn’t leaking any radiation or air. The systems seemed to be working properly, if the station sensors were to be trusted this time. They’d just been overhauled, so he was fairly confident about the data he was seeing.

  He approved their docking clearance, bringing them in. They would be useful, of that he was sure.

  “Crew of the Cavalier, this is the Captain. I am approving liberty for the next two days. However, in port watch procedures will be enforced. That means that Second section still has the watch.” There were groans from the bridge, and he couldn’t help but smile. “We are in a foreign star system, people, so I expect you to not embarrass the ship or our home. Watch each other’s backs and above all, have some fun! That is all.” There were whoops of excitement and agreement throughout the ship.

  Tariq turned to his XO. “You have the ship, XO. I’m going ashore. I shouldn’t be gone more than a few hours, though. If that changes, I’ll get in touch with you.”

  “Understood, Captain. Have fun!” the XO said with a wink.

  He growled, but then got himself up and left the bridge.

  Lujayne met Nazan Tariq outside the lock of his ship. She was standing there in civvies, in what looked like clothes meant for going out: dark slacks with a pale blue and low cut peasant blouse. She had on a pair of soft leather boots and around her neck was a red stone on a gold chain. It suited her and she knew she looked good. This was confirmed when Nazan stepped out of the passenger lock and stopped, looking at her approvingly. He recovered quickly.

  “Wow,” the warship captain said aloud, smiling.

  Now she couldn’t help blushing. “Thank you. And you cut a rather dashing figure yourself, Captain.” And he did. The darker blue FP military uniform did make him a striking man. And, Lujayne admitted, she did always have a soft spot for a man in uniform. “Shall we go? I inquired and found a decent place on Deck Six.”

  “Of course.” They walked together down the corridor and stepped into the lift.

  Deck Six was a commercial level, filled with shops, but Lujayne led on. She found her quarry: a quiet bar about halfway around the orbital station, after nearly twenty minutes of walking. It was a dark, comfortable compartment, carpeted and covered with what appeared to be wood paneling and wooden furniture. They were ushered to a table and within minutes a waiter appeared to bring them their drink orders.

  The two captains chatted companionably and the drinks continued to flow. After what could have only been an hour or two, Lujayne checked her watch and her eyes goggled. “How in the hell have four and a half hours already passed?” she demanded, sounding hurt and disappointed.

  Nazan shrugged, smiling. “It’s been a great night.”

  She reached across the table and clasped his hand in her own. “It has.” Then she scowled. “But I do need to get back to the ship.”

  “So do I,” he replied, covering her hand with his other one. “Escort you back to the ship, Captain Orzo?”

  She put a hand to her chest. “Such gallantry! I would be happy to accept, Captain Tariq.” A slightly tipsy stumble to their feet and lots of laughter, they put their arms around one another and walked out of the bar, heading back for the lift.

  The load of machine parts First Horizon had lugged here from Seylonique had just sold for a very nice profit and she had bought a cargo of mixed pharmaceuticals and an Ulla-tran built ion engine, a Grislip 460-5, which if nothing else she knew that would probably sell for a few credits. It could possibly give the engineers back home some ideas and it filled up the empty section of the ship’s hold nicely. The people that she had dealt with on the orbital had been a bit brusque, but certainly very interested and excited to get the cargo she was bringing. The fact that it was of such good quality got a lot of eyes to widen and hearts to pound.

  As both ships cleared the orbital, headed out system Lujayne started to relax even further. Her night out on the town had proven to be just what she’d needed. Nazan Tariq had proven to be an interesting conversationalist, and it didn’t hurt that he was good-looking, either. There was definite promise there. It would be something she would need to pursue once they returned to Seylonique.

  Huznall spoke up. “Captain, three of the defense ships are moving in our direction. I’m reading two corvettes and one of their larger frigates.”

  She shook her head to clear the personal thoughts. “They’re just moving in our direction, or they’re trying to intercept us?”

  “Current vector shows they’re moving to intercept us, Captain,” the hak’ruk said after a second’s further consultation of her displays.

  “I can confirm that, Captain,” Trudy put in. “They’re definitely coming after us.”

  “Cavalier is hailing,” Huznall reported.

  “Put them through.”

  There was a click. �
��First Horizon, this is Cavalier. We are showing three ships pursuing us.”

  “We see it too. We’re still a long ways out from the hyper limit,” Lujayne replied. “I have to say it’s getting me a bit nervous.”

  “Have they contacted you yet?” Nazan asked.

  “No, they haven’t.” She glanced over to Huznall, who shook her head.

  “All right,” Nazan said. “I’m going to move up to try and cover you.”

  “Captain, we’re receiving an incoming transmission from one of the corvettes,” Huznall interrupted. A very low-pitched hum was emanating from her thorax, showing her nervousness.

  “Nazan, I’ve got one of the corvettes signaling. Wait one.” She nodded to Huznall, who muted that conversation and brought the corvette captain up.

  “This is the Ulla-tran defense ship Prima to Seylonique ships. You will stop and heave to, I intend to board you.”

  Lujayne pressed a control. “This is Captain Orzo on the Seylonique cargo ship First Horizon. What is the meaning of this?”

  “You will heave to for customs inspection,” the comms officer on Prima ordered. “If you do not heave to, I will fire into your ship. We have reason to believe you are carrying contraband.”

  “What?” she exclaimed. “We were checked by customs at the dock. Your customs people watched my crews and the loading team sent by the station cargo section to bring the cargoes that I purchased on board my ship. It shouldn’t need another inspection.”

  “You will stop and heave to now!” the comms officer demanded. “This is your last warning.” A second later, coherent bolts of green light streaked past First Horizon missing by less than ten kilometers. “The next shots will not miss.” Lujayne hesitated for a long second, unsure of what to do. “Very well. All ships, lock weapons on First Horizon’s engines.”

  “All right! We’re stopping,” Lujayne cried. “Don’t fire!” She turned to Rezal. “Cut acceleration to zero.”

  “Strike your shields,” the Prima officer ordered. “Now. Prepare to be boarded.”

  An icy hand gripped her heart and it felt as though a bucket of ice had filled her stomach. She pressed a button on her control board. The channel closed. She pressed another, bringing Nazan back on. “Nazan, the defense ships just contacted us. They demanded we heave to and strike our shields. They want to board us.”

  He swore. “Two of the ships are moving up to bracket us and to separate our two ships. Do what they say for now,” Nazan said. “Offer no resistance. The quicker they can get on there, the faster they’ll get done. And after that we can depart this system with a silly story to tell to the bosses once we get back.”

  She couldn’t keep the worry out of her voice. “Yes, I suppose so. Can you get to us? Can you stop them?”

  He shook his head. “The only way to do that is to open fire. But so far they haven’t done anything that would necessitate the use of force like that. But you stay on the comms, or if they demand you work with them directly, make sure someone stays on an active comm line at all times. Have them call for help if something goes on, or if we lose contact, I will move in and do what needs to be done.”

  She nodded. “All right. There’s another incoming call from the ships. I have to get this.”

  “Understood.”

  Lujayne pressed the control to mute this call, and then nodded to Huznall who brought in the call. “We are moving in to dock with your ship. Put your Captain on the line.” The voice on the other end of the line was brusque and angry.

  “This is Captain Orzo.”

  “You, Captain, will not engage your engines. You will hold your course and allow my ship to dock with you. Describe your personnel airlocks.” It wasn’t a request.

  “We have two. There’s the forward lock adjacent to the main cargo lock and then there’s the passenger lock on the port side of the ship. However, the forward cargo lock only opens if there is equal pressure.” She clenched her teeth. “The portside airlock can handle six people at a time, whereas the forward can only accommodate one at a time.”

  “You will personally operate the lock, Captain. You will be unarmed and will not be wearing protective gear. You will cycle my boarding party through the lock and offer no resistance. Any disobedience to this order will necessitate the use of force.”

  She swallowed hard. “I understand.”

  “We will be docking in nine minutes. Be ready. You will contact us through the comm panel at the airlock. You will stay on the comms at all time. Go there now, contact me back when we dock.”

  Two minutes later, she was standing at the lock, cycling it open. A few seconds later, six armed individuals, two zheen, three humans and a Secaaran, entered the airlock. Lujayne could see them on the wall display. “We’re inside. Close the outer hatch and open the inner,” came the order from one of the humans.

  Lujayne nodded, then cursed, knowing they couldn’t actually see her. “Understood. Wait one.” She pressed a control to close the outer door, then another to equalize the pressure in the lock with that of the ship. It took less than ten seconds for that to occur. Once it was completed and the indicator lights turned green, she pressed the third control, which cycled open the inner door.

  The six people inside rushed out of the lock and into the ship. Each of them was dressed in a dark gray shipsuit, with a facial airmask on, armed with assault carbines in their hands, with stunner pistols holstered on their belts. One of them, a human male, grabbed a hold of Lujayne and rushed her backward, slamming her against the bulkhead, hard.

  “Move in,” he hissed to the others. “Secure the ship. Make sure you get the bridge and the engine room.”

  “What the hell are you doing?” she demanded. “We’re a licensed trader from Seylonique, here on legitimate business.”

  “We’ll see about that,” the man replied smugly. “But I hear different. I hear that there is contraband on this ship. I find so much as a bag of exotic potpourri on this ship, I will impound the cargo, seize the ship and imprison the lot of you.”

  “Captain, I just lost contact with the First Horizon,” the com-tech said, whipping around in his chair to face Tariq.

  He tapped a fist on the arm of his chair. “Damn it. Sound general quarters, everyone to action stations. Get the shields up and power the weapons.” Klaxons blared throughout the ship and he vaulted out of the chair. He rushed to his stateroom (very near to the bridge) to put on his skinsuit and grab his helmet. Things were about to get out of hand and he wanted to be sure he’d be protected in case of a hull breach. In less than two minutes, he was back on the bridge, helmet in his hand.

  “All stations report ready,” the XO called. “Captain…?”

  “Go,” he ordered, indicating that the XO should hustle out and get his suit on. “Comms, signal that ship, make sure that the ship’s company is prepared for high-g acceleration. We might very shortly be in a battle.” He had a ship’s name and reputation to uphold.

  Book 3: Fallout

  Chapter 21

  Tamara was going over the latest reports, trying to pick up where she’d left off after that last meeting. They’d been experiencing some slowdowns in the shipyard, with a few of her workers suffering from a few injuries when a generator exploded inside of the engine room aboard Persistence of Vision, FP’s newest and most powerful warship, the Republic-class destroyer. One of the workers had the generator on the wrong settings, it overloaded and fourteen techs were injured, with five dead. That, of course, stopped production completely on that ship while Tamara, Nasir and Eretria did a full safety inspection and review of procedures. This had a domino effect on the other destroyers currently under construction, which caused further ripples.

  The admin council had mixed responses to the slowdowns on the work. On the one hand, the council was outraged at the delay, the missing of planned and promised schedules. But, they were of course glad to see that the safety of workers was being reviewed, but then, why were these procedures not already in place? What the hel
l kind of fly by night operation was Samair running out there?

  The third reaction that Samair was getting was a level of glee. Here now was proof that the outlander wasn’t perfect and that FP, Inc wasn’t this invincible juggernaut; the five dead workers, dead citizens proved that. Which of course made it to the newsies in hours who were more than happy to jump on the story. Within fifteen minutes of the information getting to the orbital, and then to the planet’s surface, every single news feed was talking about the deaths of those workers, the slowdowns in work at the FP shipyard, the review of security procedures.

  “This is Vanessa Marchant, with the S-Int News, reporting to you live from Orbital Station One. It’s been five days since the explosion aboard FP’s shipyard and the death of five of their workers. It’s been a scene of high emotion and quickly boiling tempers as the administratory council is reviewing the incident. In a short statement just a few minutes ago, Triarch Kozen’ck had this to say.”

  The feed clicked over to the zheen official, looking as though he had specifically primped for this particular interview. The camera was catching him as he was walking into the council compartments, his official robes looking perfectly straight and ironed. “I have full confidence in Ms. Samair and her people, but this tragedy clearly underlines why the government needs to take a serious look into safety regulations regarding major construction projects and especially with any industry in space.” He raised a hand and pushed through the crowd of reporters and entered the admin compartment.

  “Well, there you have it, straight from Triarch Kozen’ck’s mouthparts. It looks as though the government is not going to sit by and let this incident go unanswered.”

  Tamara scowled and pressed a control on her desk, muting the news feed. She put her head on one hand, leaning her elbow on the desk. It had been like this ever since the incident. They’d been playing that damned clip of the Triarch as well as other talking heads nonstop, reporters blaming FP, blaming her, everyone claiming that stronger regulations were the way to go. No one, of course, had any idea what those regulations should entail, but there were wild and rampant speculations that the days of FP being a corporate entity were coming to an end. Soon it would be a government entity, and Tamara knew that this would be just an excuse to justify a takeover of all her facilities, though they’d probably start with just the shipyard. Then, of course, you can’t have a shipyard without raw materials, so the mining station would be next. And of course, you can’t run the constructs without reactors and those required fuel, so of course the Kutok mine would be up for grabs as well. And that would be that. She had to get a handle on this.