“It doesn’t matter who we are,” Yanakov replied. “But since it matters so much to you, I am the leader of these particular squads of soldiers. And I’ve taken this ship as a prize.”
“Not yet you haven’t,” the voice shot back.
“All that is standing between me and having control of this entire ship is a metal door,” Yanakov told him. “And that is no challenge for my combat engineer. Most of your crew are now my prisoners. If you make me blast this door open, you will not enjoy the treatment you receive.” He sent a message over his comms, calling for the combat engineer. While all of the Grenadiers could be considered explosives experts, there was a platoon of soldiers within the division that were particularly trained and experienced in using those tools for more than just killing.
In under a minute, the combat engineer in question arrived, unslinging her pack. Without a word, the she-wolf popped open her face shield and started pulling breaching tape from the pack and adhering it in a long rectangle over the bridge hatch. While she was smoothing down one side, she yipped.
“So much easier to concentrate when I’m not getting shot at while I’m doing this,” she commented.
“Less talk, more tape, Sigma,” Yanakov said with a smile.
“Yes, sir.”
Yanakov signaled the bridge. “You test my patience. Now you will pay.” Sigma finished her workand stepped back, taking cover around a corner bulkhead. The others did the same. Yanakov nodded to her and with an impulse sent through her implants, to the detonator, Sigma triggered the breaching tape. A bright flash sizzled outward, illuminating the outline of the doorway. Ten seconds of burning later, the tape had done its job and the metal door crashed to the deck, its edges cherry red.
“Move!” Yanakov ordered and all four charged in, weapons ready.
The mostly-human bridge crew were on their feet, hands over their heads in submission. One man, presumably the ship’s commander was standing next to what looked like a command seat. “Do you surrender this ship?” Yanakov demanded.
The man gritted his teeth, but nodded. “I surrender this ship to you.” It sounded as though he was trying to speak through a throat filled with crushed glass. “Did you take the Equinox as well?”
Yanakov stepped up to the human. He was tall for a prey animal, nearly two meters in height. He was thin, spindly in the pirate lieutenant’s opinion, but then a goodly number of the “healthy” ones were. Still, some meat was on his bones, but sadly, the human was an officer so it would be unlikely that the General would consent to killing him and allowing the boarding teams to feast on his flesh. The lieutenant grunted and then gave the commander a hard jab in the solar plexus, doubling the man over. “You don’t get to ask questions like that. Now, who is in command of this ship?”
The man had collapsed to his knees on the deck, trying to suck air back into his lungs. He wasn’t paying attention. The others on the bridge were silent, terrified by the armed wolves pointing weapons at them.
“Who is in command?” he asked again after a moment as the gasping human quieted.
“I am,” the man groaned.
Yanakov kicked him in the stomach and he crumpled into a ball on the deckplates. “Who is in command of this ship?” he asked a third time.
“Stop it!” the zheen standing at the helm cried. “Leave him alone. You’re killing him!”
“I haven’t even started hurting him if he doesn’t give me the right answer,” Yanakov replied, his voice level as though he was a teacher in a classroom dealing with a recalcitrant pupil. “Last time, human, and then the pain truly begins. Who is in command?”
The man moaned in pain and slowly pushed himself on all fours. “You are,” he said, his voice barely a whisper.
“Excellent,” Yanakov said, smiling in satisfaction. He pointed at the comms operator. “You! Hail the destroyer.” The human female jumped as his finger stabbed in her direction but then she jumped again and turned to her console.
Yanakov nodded to himself. Yes, today was a very good day.
Major Nezerek grunted at the report from the lieutenant. Another warship captured for the General, with incredibly light casualties. “Now for the rest,” he said aloud. “Niko, have you deciphered their control interface?” He looked over to the wolf at tactical.
“It’s an unusual layout, Major,” the wolf told him, pressing a control and checking the readouts in the display. “But I’ve got it.”
“Train the guns on the remaining freighters. I don’t want any escaping. Crippling shots only, Niko. Do not destroy them.”
“No, sir,” Niko replied, powering up the warship’s weapons. “Ready, sir.”
“Comms, hail the freighters.” Nezerek waited a moment while the captured operator complied. The woman looked scared to death, which pleased him. Unfortunately, his own people couldn’t run the whole ship, so he had to trust that some of the crew could run the majority of the ship’s systems. She gave him a shaking thumbs up. “Attention all vessels in the vicinity of the gas giant, I am Nezerek and I am in command of this warship. Both warships,” the major corrected. “My guns are now trained on all of your ships. You will signal your immediate and unconditional surrender or I will open fire. I expect your response within five minutes. Out.” He signaled the horrified comms specialist, who cut the connection. Within two minutes, all of the ships had reported in. A clean sweep.
Chapter 23
“Then we need to look to expand our recruiting,” Tamara was saying, trying to stay calm. Having the two other senior officers in the company yelling at her was not helping to maintain her composure.
“No, no, no,” Vincent Eamonn stated loudly. “Look, I’m all for building more ships, it would only increase trade. But you’ve got company resources all over the fucking system, Tamara! We’re working on two more of our own cargo ships; we’ve got ships being built for Navy contracts. We’ve got our own tradeships going to Heb, Bimawae, Ulla-tran and Bellosha, not to mention all of our in-system runs. You sent the new constructor ship Bakhmut to Heb for that repair slip we’re building. You’ve got resources getting stockpiled for the moon base and the shield station project. Our own defense ships are rolling off the line, with barely skeleton crews for Xie Fang and Verdun and now you want another bulk freighter?”
Tamara sighed. “I know manpower is a bit of an issue-“
“A bit of an issue?” Vincent demanded, throwing his hands in the air. “With all the various companies, the government and the Navy all fighting for personnel, there just aren’t enough people. We’ve fished this pond dry!”
“I’m aware of the difficulties there,” Tamara replied coolly, “Which is why its imperative we try and recruit elsewhere. We’re already going to be doing that at Heb for engineers on the Bakhmut.”
“Yes, and hopefully that will bear fruit,” Galina said smoothly, trying to restore some order. “For Bakhmut and the crews on the repair slip once we get it built.”
“The people on Ulla-tran are interested but we’ve only received a small handful of applications,” Vincent put in, his voice moderating to a lower level. “I know we want to continue expanding, but we need to cool it on new hulls and new projects. Especially with that shield station and the moonbase projects coming up in a few months.”
She sighed, not wanting to back down, but knowing there was nothing to be done. They would need to step up recruitment but there were a lot of pies in the oven at the moment. Possibly too many, if she was honest with herself. Eretria and Apogee were holding things together well at the shipyard complex, Tiyaana and Corajen were doing well at the Kutok mine. The mining station out at the asteroid belt was running full blast. Nakil Radha and Nasir were keeping the Samarkand running smoothly on the prep work for the shield station. But Vincent was right, the shield and moonbase projects would be labor intensive and even considering all the work that was already being done, she did not want to fall behind on schedule once the real work began.
“All right,” she said, cl
osing her eyes for a moment. “I’m not giving up on this and once we start getting more people in the rosters, I’m going to bring this topic back up again. But for now, we’ll table the bulk freighter discussion.”
The she-wolf and the man both slumped a bit in their chairs. “Thank you, Tamara,” Galina said, her breath coming out in a huff.
The woman shrugged. “Nothing to thank me for. You’re right, we don’t have enough people and for the moment, we’re at a bit of an impasse at getting more. I have hope that will change, but for now, we keep on moving as best we can.”
Vincent eyed her suspiciously. “Samair, you do realize this is a civilian company, right? We build things and we move freight. This isn’t a war we’re fighting.”
She gave him a sour look. “Yes, Vincent, I’m aware. But I think you’re underestimating the war part. Especially since we just survived an attack in this very system only a few months ago by a pirate fleet.”
Both of them were staring at her shrewdly. “You’ve got something planned,” Vincent accused, narrowing his eyes a small amount.
She smiled impishly. “Of course I do. That’s what you hired me for. Unfortunately the personnel shortage puts a crimp in a lot of those plans.”
“What kind of plans?” the freighter captain pressed, not willing to be put off so easily.
“Two things in particular,” she said, pursing her lips. “One, I want to sent Bakhmut, Yellow Dolly and at least one warship, possibly Verdun to Instow or Folston. It’s a long trip, I know, but if we can get a satellite office out away from this area, which we know is festooned with pirates, we might be able to get more profits and a fair bit of infrastructure up in a place of relative safety.”
Both of the others looked astonished but recovered quickly. “Makes sense. But Bakhmut is otherwise employed.”
“I know,” Tamara said. “But it won’t take long to actually build the repair slip once they get there. From what Hogan was saying, the good governor will certainly get people to help with the work. A warehousing platform at the very least, or maybe even making a small station of it.” She nodded. “Once that’s done, I’m going to redeploy the constructor.”
“And the other thing?” Vincent asked, leaning forward a bit.
“I want to build another shipyard complex; a small one,” she said defensively. “Out away from this system, but near enough that we can supply it from here.”
Vincent’s eyes narrowed and he shifted in his chair. “We’re already building that one at Heb.”
“So?” she asked, shrugging. “That one is for use there and it’s really only meant for maintenance and minor repairs. With the small squadron of Navy corvettes there, they need some sort of facility to keep them in operation and it would only help to increase trade with local freighters once their parent companies realize that Heb is a place where their ships can get minor things fixed. No, I want to have a facility away from here, off the beaten path, as it were.”
“Why?” Galina asked, curious. “You don’t think we’re building enough here at the Seylonique Yards?”
“Frankly, no, I don’t,” Tamara said, shaking her head. “I know manpower is a serious problem, but I want more than a few surprises for the pirates when they come back.”
“Just what would you be building at this hypothetical yard of yours?” Galina asked, as she watched Vincent Eamonn give a long-suffering sigh.
“Warships,” she said without hesitation. “I want to get a few of those Republic-style corvettes and I really want to build one of Xar’s modified pirate cruisers.” The zheen’s engineering team had finished their modifications to the designs of Verrikoth’s light cruiser design, unifying the construction concept, which fixed a lot of the vessel’s shortcomings. It was already a fearsome beast in the battlespace, but if things went as Tamara and Ka’Xarian expected, these new designs would produce a true terror.
“Harkening back to your Navy days, Samair?” the freighter captain asked sardonically.
“No, but I want to have a decent fighting force available when the time comes.” She rubbed the back of her neck in irritation, grimacing. “It is coming, don’t doubt that. But again, the personnel problem is putting a crimp in that plan.”
“Then stop building,” Vincent said simply. “You’re throwing away resources and time on projects we can’t capitalize on at this time. Once things change, we can address this again.”
She nodded. “What’s the story with the Ulla-tran government and the A2s?” Tamara asked, deciding to change the subject.
“Yes, Vincent, please tell us,” Galina said. “You weren’t happy when you got back here a week ago.”
The dark-skinned man glowered. “They’re getting pushy,” he admitted. “But the government refuses to budge on their demands. They absolutely hate the control satellite notion. Everyone wants the fabrication ability, no one wants to pay for it.”
“They get hostile?”
He shrugged. “No, but I’ve been getting less subtle hints that I should just sell the replicators outright to them. And more hints that they might stop being suggestions if I don’t play ball.”
“Oh, that’s just fantastic!” Tamara exploded. “Are they going to start kidnapping our people?” She slapped a palm on the desk. “We do not need this now. Did you happen to find out what their fuel situation looks like now? Do they still need us to supply them?”
He flashed a grin. “It seems that they’re having trouble getting the go ahead from the government. They can’t get funding approved through their Senate to build any new collectors and apparently there isn’t a private company that wants to attempt to build any. So for now, they’d rather spend money on us than on rebuilding their infrastructure. Oh, and they’re requesting a load of refined minerals and six twelve meter cans of hydraulic fluid for their shipyard, in addition to their order of fuel.”
Both females, lupusan and human, perked up at that news. “Really?” Galina asked. “That’s interesting.”
“Can you swing it?” Tamara asked.
He nodded slowly. He’d obviously given this some careful thought already. “Well, it’s more of a case of what they need versus what they can live with. Even Grania Estelle’s huge carrying capacity isn’t enough to satisfy both orders at once. So I imagine fuel is the greater need, so we split the load of other stuff. Greater percentage of fuel on the first run. We’ll still be able to carry about forty percent of the refined minerals that they’re asking for on that first run anyway.”
“It might not be a bad idea to hold off on the A2 subject while you’re on these two runs,” Tamara mused. “I know I’m tired of fighting with them on it and they don’t seem willing to budge on the issue.”
Vincent grimaced. “That’s a lot of potential revenue you’re throwing away.”
“Are we though?” she riposted. “They won’t accept the restrictions we want and none of us is willing to just sell the tech to them outright, are we?” Galina and Vincent both shook their heads. “Then we’re agreed. If they ask, just tell them that there’s a hold up in the home office, you’re working on trying to get company regs loosened, whatever. Make me the bad guy. I know I’m an easy target.” She smiled wryly.
“We love you anyway, Samair,” Vincent replied sanctimoniously.
She stuck her tongue out at him. He laughed and Galina shook her head. “I’m working with cubs,” she despaired, but there was laughter in her tone.
“And yes, I will continue hiring. If we only get ten or fifteen people, that’s something. Might help round out some of the freighter or station crews.”
“Every little bit helps, I suppose,” Tamara said. “But we’ve got to do better than that if we’re going to get those ships crewed.” She held up a hand to forestall the argument. “I know. I’m not going through all that again.”
“About Heb,” Galina said after a moment of silence.
They turned to look at her. “What about Heb?” Vincent asked. “You think that it’s a bad venture?
”
The lupusan shook her head demurely, folding her long fingers in her lap. “No, not at all. But if we’re going to be setting up shop there, is a green engineer turned captain of the Bakhmut really the personal representative we want to have running things there?”
“I trust him,” Tamara said. But then she frowned. “But you’re right, Loksat is a bit inexperienced.” She pursed her lips. “Who would we send up there to take over?”
“Nakil Radha’s been doing well on the Samarkand, but she’s been making noises in recent weeks about restlessness,” Galina offered. “She could stand some more responsibility. Georgio, her XO, I think is ready to step up.”
“She’s only been in command on the Samarkand for a few months,” Tamara pointed out.
“I think she can handle it,” Galina insisted.
“What do you think?” Tamara asked, turning to look at Vincent.
He shrugged. “I barely know the woman. But I’ll side with you both on this. If you think she’ll do a good job, promote her.”
Tamara blinked, exchanging a glance with Galina. “A very laissez-faire attitude.”
The Grania Estelle’s captain shrugged again. “I want a say in what happens with my company, Tamara, but I hired you two to take care of the bulk of the management and day-to-day decisions.” He made a face. “It should be a concept you’re both quite good at, seeing as how ninety-five percent of the decisions get my by you two anyway.”
“If you’re sure,” Tamara said.
“I’m sure.”
“Would you like to meet with her, Vincent?” Galina asked. “Might not be a bad idea if she’s going to be running the Heb Satellite office of First Principles.”
“Very well. I’ll head over there once we’re done here. You’ll lend me the Moxie-2, won’t you Samair?”
She blinked, hesitating for just a moment. “Sure, I’ll tell Mike to give you a lift over to the factory ship.”
Vincent Eamonn looked confused. “Who’s Mike?”
“He’s my pilot,” Tamara answered coolly. “He’s a company employee.”
A Greater Interest: Samair in Argos: Book 4 Page 57