First Principles: Samair in Argos: Book 3

by KOTCHER, MICHAEL

  As Kly started to turn purple, Nikolas intervened. “I think we’re getting to areas that we might need to discuss.”

  “I agree.” Chakrabarti turned and looked at his colleague, who sat back in his chair, saying nothing. “Perhaps we could discuss this issue further.”

  “Yes, I believe it is a place to start.” Nikolas took a sip of water. “Ulla-tran, in principle, believes that an agreement between our two governments can only be beneficial, but we will not relinquish any right over inspection for contraband.”

  “Nor should you,” Arathos put in. “And neither would Seylonique.”

  “What we’re looking for is to have freighters traversing the local systems without needing to have warships for escort,” Chakrabarti said. “I know that you’ve sent your freighters in convoy to Seylonique under escort.”

  “Yes, that’s correct,” Nikolas replied.

  “I think it would be to everyone’s benefit if we could get to a point where we don’t feel that warships are necessary to escort our cargo ships,” Chakrabarti said. “Just have the freighters flying back and forth between the local systems.”

  “That isn’t possible,” Shayenne stated. “There are hostile ships in the nearby star systems that have threatened this system once already. A battle was fought here some months ago between the Republic and these forces. It was only through some sort of divine intervention that no Ulla-tran installations were damaged and no citizens were injured or killed.”

  “I understand,” Kly replied. “We haven’t been attacked directly, but we have received reports about the same pirate raiders in nearby systems. They attacked and occupied Byra-Kae and forced the Republic contingent out.”

  “What?” Nikolas demanded, leaning forward, his palms flat on the table.

  “That’s impossible.” Shayenne was on her feet, fury and panic blazing in her eyes.

  Chakrabarti shook his head. “I wish it was. But the survivors of the attack managed to limp out of Byra-Kae and met up with one of our ships. Our ship captain brought the Republic survivors to Seylonique and they told us what had happened.”

  “You brought Republic survivors out to your own star system? They had a ship?”

  “A destroyer,” Chakrabarti replied. “Yes, we helped fix up their ship and then they left, heading back to the Republic.”

  “Wait,” the president said and all eyes turned to him. “There was a Republic warship that came through this system a couple of months ago, but they didn’t stop at any of our facilities or the planet. They just transited through the system, kept out of our traffic patterns and then jumped to hyperspace once they reached the hyper limit on the far side of the system. You say they came to you for repairs?”

  He nodded. “Yes, they did. One of our large corporations got them into their shipyard and made the repairs. They exchanged repairs and resupply for the technical readouts for the ship.”

  “You have Republic tech?” Nikolas asked.

  Chakrabarti nodded. “Yes and we’ve built several of our own. Two of them, in fact, Equinox and Solstice are here in the system.”

  Nikolas exchanged glances with the others on his side of the table. “Perhaps that might be something we could discuss.”

  Chakrabarti didn’t bother looking at his colleagues; he already knew what their expressions would betray. Kly would be a cross between greed and suspicion, and Arathos would be amused, reluctant but willing to sell parts of the Republic tech base, if the price was right, but so long as Seylonique retained the juicier bits. And perhaps even that, if it would help to solidify relations between the two star systems.

  “We can certainly do that,” Sebastian said, also nodding.

  Leicasitaj sat in the ship’s mess hall, a bowl of krill stew in front of him. He was making this a working lunch, as his datapad was in one hand as well, reading system status reports while he ate. This “extended patrol” was turning into an exercise in boredom. Oh, there were normal ship operations to keep everyone busy, but he was reluctant to schedule any serious drills when the ship was in what most likely could be considered a hostile environment. But after a week of just maintaining station relative to the orbital and just watching the local system traffic, the crew was starting to get restless.

  An indicator light popped up on his HUD. He pulled out his communicator from his pocket and flipped it open. “Captain here.”

  “Sorry to disturb your lunch, Captain,” the comm-tech answered. “We’ve got an incoming transmission from Colonel Gants.”

  Leicasitaj took another swig of his food, then stood. “I’ll take it in my cabin. Pipe it there.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  Once in the cabin, he sat at his desk and activated his display. “Colonel Gants. How can I assist you today?”

  The man looked back at him, a scowl on his face. “Captain. It has come to my attention that you are carrying a large load of gadolinium aboard your ship.”

  The Romigani twitched his facial tentacles. “I’d like to know where you got that information, sir.”

  “Don’t you worry yourself about that,” Gants replied, his scowl deepening. “So I can assume that it’s correct.”

  “Yes it is.”

  “Why the hell would you keep that information from me?” the man demanded, flushing.

  “Because the councilors didn’t think you needed to know, Colonel,” Leicasitaj said calmly. “I was instructed by my superior to bring along a load of gadolinium to either sell or be used a bargaining chip in the negotiations. I was told to keep quiet about it otherwise.”

  “That doesn’t mean from me!”

  “Colonel,” he said patiently. “I was told not to tell anyone. Anyone. My boss wasn’t specific as to why or to whom I exclude. The councilors were the only ones outside of this ship who were aware that I had the cargo aboard.” He eyed the man for a moment. “So I assume that you found out when one of the councilors told you?”

  “That’s not important. But I want you to transfer the gadolinium over to the Leytonstone immediately.”

  But the Romigani refused. “No, sir. I’m sorry, but I have orders.”

  “Yes, you do!” the colonel flared. “You have orders from me!”

  “No, sir, I have orders from my superiors. I’m sorry but I can’t transfer the gadolinium without the councilors giving me a direct order.”

  Gants growled. “I am relaying those orders.”

  “Sorry, I don’t want to be difficult, sir, but I must insist. I would need one of the councilors to tell me to transfer the load.”

  The colonel stared at him for a long moment without speaking and Leicasitaj felt no need to fill the silence. It stretched on until finally it appeared the man could not take it any more. “I won’t forget this, Captain Leicasitaj.”

  The Romigani sighed. “No, Colonel Gants, I didn’t think you would. I will await a call from one of the councilors.” Gants growled and cut the connection. Leicasitaj sighed. “That could have gone better. But I do have orders.”

  He sat at his desk, pulling up some reports that needed going over, knowing that he would be receiving a call soon enough. Less than five minutes later, the comm panel beeped. “Sir, we have an incoming call from Councilor Kly for you.”

  “Put him through.” He sat up a bit straighter. The man’s face appeared. “Councilor Kly, how can I assist you, sir?”

  The man’s face turned beet red. “I am in the middle of critical and delicate negotiations right now, Captain. I should have you arrested for wasting my time.”

  He sighed. “I apologize for any inconvenience, Councilor. But I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean.”

  There was a five-second delay due to light lag. “Playing dumb is not a smart move, Captain. I can promise you that.”

  “I apologize, Councilor, again. But if you could just tell me what it is that you mean?”

  Kly was glaring at him the whole time he was speaking, and an additional five seconds later, the man was still glaring. Leicasitaj wa
sn’t particularly intimidated; humans thought they were terrible, frightening creatures, but compared to other species they were tame. He looked like a native fish on the homeworld, a type of puffer fish that would change colors and increase in size to try and frighten off predators. The fish didn’t have any spines or poison sacs but its size when fully inflated did tend to make predators look elsewhere for food. That’s how the councilor looked now, as if by inflating himself he might bring the Romigani to heel.

  “Your ship is holding an amount of gadolinium.”

  He nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  “I am ordering you to have it transferred to the Leytonstone. You are to have it on a shuttle and on the way over, immediately.”

  “Understood, Councilor. I will have it on the way to you shortly.”

  Kly didn’t answer, he just ended the call.

  Leicasitaj sat in silence for a long moment, just thinking. He’d just caused a lot of trouble for himself. There was no way either Gants or Kly was going to forgive or forget this slight against their authority. He pressed the comm control, ordering the cargo loaded onto one of the small shuttles.

  “So where do we stand, do you think?” Kly asked, flopping down onto one of the chairs. They were in the executive suites that had been set aside for them on the orbital. The day had been long and not entirely futile. Everyone was in favor of this agreement, but of course it was the details that everyone was getting hung up on. Whenever Chakrabarti and his team had managed to get one thing nailed down, the Ulla-tran team would demand something else. There were things that the Seylonique team would not budge on, others they wanted to use as bargaining chips, and the Ulla-tran people were the same way. It was maddening; the arguments tended to get quite heated, with various members getting up from chairs and shouting at one another.

  Kly couldn’t remember when he’d had more fun in his entire life.

  Chakrabarti shrugged. He took a sip from the glass of scotch, sitting down on the couch. One of the aides was wandering around the suites, a sensor wand in her hand, waving it around, looking to discover any surveillance devices that the locals might have set up in here. So far, she’d discovered two such devices and had neutralized them.

  “I don’t know, really. I think we’re making progress, and the bringing in of the gadolinium certainly got their attention.”

  “We should thank Tamara Samair for having it sent along.”

  Kly grimaced. “Arathos, please don’t bring up that woman’s name in regards to these negotiations. I was in such a good mood.”

  “Let it go, Harmon,” Sebastian said. “Anytime someone says her name, you fly off the handle. I don’t want that happening here.” Kly didn’t answer; he just nodded and rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. “Things are delicate enough as it is, I don’t need you losing your cool if one of the people in there brings her name up. I can’t imagine why they would, but so far no one has noticed that one of the warships in our flotilla isn’t part of the Seylonique Defense Forces.”

  “Why should that matter?” Kly asked. “It’s a Seylonique ship, that’s all that should matter.”

  “No, it isn’t. Well, I mean it is,” Chakrabarti said. “It’s a ship that has a Seylonique designator, but it isn’t actually one of the government military vessels. If they discover that there’s a powerful company with a strong military presence, there might be trouble with these negotiations.”

  “Should we bring it up ourselves, then?” Arathos asked. He was seated on another of the chairs in the room, his datapad on the coffee table in front of him. “Bring everything out into the open. It isn’t as though they don’t already know about First Principles. They’ve had some of their ships come here and sell cargo, after all. Had inspection teams go over the cargo ship.”

  “It is something to consider,” Chakrabarti replied, rubbing his chin. “As you say, it isn’t as though they don’t know about the company. And being up front about it will allow us to get past it.”

  “Or it’ll just mess things up more,” Kly put in. “Give them something more to bitch about and try and squeeze concessions from.” He turned to one of the aides nearby. “Get me one of those, would you?” he asked, pointing to the drink in Sebastian’s hand. The young man nodded, hustling over to the small bar.

  “Oh stop complaining,” Sebastian said sourly. “You’re loving every second of this. Admit it.”

  When Kly didn’t respond, Arathos spoke up. “I’ve been watching you as much as our opposite numbers. You are loving this.”

  “All right I am!” he snapped. Then he couldn’t stop a smile from spreading over his face. “And it is exhilarating. We’re working on the first real interstellar pact, agreement, whatever that this Cluster has seen in years, decades, most likely. This is high-stakes diplomacy!”

  “Don’t get ahead of yourself, here, Harmon,” Arathos said, nodding. “I understand your excitement and I share it, but this is only between two star systems. An important step, yes, but it isn’t the be all end all of the universe here.”

  “Yes, Arathos, you’re right,” Kly said placatingly, “it is only a step. But it’s the first real step. We’re the ones hammering this out. And who knows, if we can get this settled and signed, then perhaps we can work out an arrangement with another system.”

  “Now you really are getting ahead of yourself,” Sebastian chided, then he took a sip of his drink. “I’m all for looking to the future, but we need to keep our focus on the here and now, especially to get this pact signed.”

  Kly accepted the drink that the aide handed him. “Thank you, Darian.” He took a sip, made a gasp of pleasure, then took a large gulp of the liquor. He waved his free hand. “Ahhh. And you’re right. We need to get this squared away. Maybe once that’s done, we can look into surrounding systems.”

  “Other systems?” Arathos replied, interested.

  “Yes! An agreement between two systems is one thing, but if we can get ourselves more friends and allies, we can make a strong area of protection and commerce, a place that these pirates would be loath to approach.” Kly had a look of such conviction that the lupusan gave a yip of laughter.

  “All right. We’ve had a long hard day. Who’s up for some food? We should order in.” Arathos turned to one of the aides. “I think we need food and drink. I know I’m famished after today’s events.”

  Chakrabarti chuckled, but Kly just glared at the most junior of his colleagues. “You’re always talking about food.”

  The lupusan wasn’t fazed. “You’re honestly going to sit there and tell me that after six hours with nothing but water, coffee and that booze there, you’re not the least bit hungry?” He gave another small laugh. “Because if you do, I’ll know you’re lying.”

  Kly scowled, putting a hand unconsciously to his stomach. “All right. I could go for a steak or something.”

  Arathos pointed at him. “I like the way you think, Councilor Kly. I’ll take three!”

  “I have to say, I think things are moving in the right direction,” Nikolas said, nodding to his two colleagues. “We’ve got the issue of foreign warships hammered out. As well as tariffs.”

  Shayenne waved that away. “Yes, yes, that’s all wonderful. But what we truly need to ask ourselves is: can we trust these people to abide by any terms we establish here?”

  He looked at her, a tiredness he didn’t realize he was feeling beginning to seep over him. “Shayenne, if they had no intention of abiding by any agreement, why would they even bother with this? And I know what you’re thinking,” he said, raising a head to stop her objection. “You’re thinking that the whole reason they came here was to get a measure of our defenses, or industry and our responses?”

  “It is something we need to consider,” Koton said. “You know it is. We cannot simply act all blind and happy, believing that everything is perfect. I would like very much to believe that, but we cannot simply be that naïve. We cannot afford that.”

  Nikolas sighed and then shrugged. “No,
you’re right. But I do want to believe the best of these people.” At the looks of scorn he received from his colleagues he smiled sweetly. “That’s why I have you two, to make sure that there is a healthy dose of skepticism and derision.”

  “I think things are indeed going well, Mister President,” Shayenne said. “We’ve only been at this for a few days, but I think we won’t take much longer. Assuming they don’t throw up any further blocks, I think we might have a tentative agreement ready for signatures in one, possibly two weeks.”

  “Good. What’s the story about the cruiser?” Nikolas asked.

  Koton clacked his mandibles. “The construction is nearly completed. I spoke to the yard supervisor this morning. They are closing up hull plating today and internals will be completed in another month. Weapons and shields will be completed in the same time frame.”

  “So when can we potentially get the ship launched?” the president asked, sounding anxious.

  “The ship will be ready for space in a month, Mister President,” Koton replied. “Which means that we need to have crews ready to take control, so Commodore Saroyan is getting personnel into the simulator complex, and others will be pulled from current ships to make up an experienced core of spacers for our heavy cruiser.”

  “That’s good news. I know that having one more ship in our space defense forces won’t change everything, but having a serious hitter like that on our side will ease my troubled sleep a bit.” Nikolas smiled. “It’s not a match for Seylonique’s monster out there, but having a heavy cruiser added to our order of battle has got to give any pirate forces out here in the Cluster pause.”

  “Yes, Mister President, I agree.” Shayenne said, tossing her hair. “I know that our own space defense forces are strong enough to protect this system and having a heavy cruiser will only make us stronger.”

  He eyed her suspiciously. “Yes, there will be a heavy cruiser added to Ulla-tran’s system defense forces, but that ship will not be used to attack outside enemies. So you can get that look of conquest out of your eyes and off your faces. There are pirates enough in the surrounding systems, we will not join their ranks.”