A Greater Interest: Samair in Argos: Book 4 (46 page)

Tamara’s left eyebrow rose, but she quickly suppressed the gesture.  After a second longer of holding Tiyaana’s hands, Carriger released her and turned to Tamara.  “Ms. Samair.”

“Captain Samair,” Corajen corrected in an undertone, but everyone in the entryway heard her. 

The councilor flicked her ears in annoyance.  “Captain Samair, yes.  My apologies.”

Tamara waved it away, but couldn’t help but notice that the councilor wasn’t so effusive in her greetings to her as she had been to Tiyaana.  Hroth didn’t stretch out her hands to Tamara; she folded them together in front of her.  She mentally brushed it aside, not really bothered by it, but filing away the information for later.

“Think nothing of it, Councilor.  Welcome to the Kutok mine.”  Tamara flashed a smile.  “I must say, Councilor, I’m actually surprised you didn’t bring any press with you.  Your aide, Undersecretary Wyatt, was quite concerned about arrangements and making sure there were sufficient… sundries… for reporters, well-wishers and the like.”

Carriger gave a slight shrug.  “I’ll be out here for a while, and I didn’t want to disrupt operations here on my first day.”

Tamara smirked.  “So your second day, then?”

Carriger yipped.  “Perhaps.  I’d prefer to keep the disruptions to a bare minimum, if I’m honest.”  She spread her hands to encompass the station around her.  “The fuel that this station brings up and refines is the lifeblood of the space operations in the system.  I want to do as little as possible to disturb that.”

“I certainly appreciate that, Councilor.  But perhaps we can get out of the entryway here and adjourn to the conference rooms?”

“Or your suites, if you’re tired from your trip,” Tiyaana put in.

Carriger glanced at one of her aides, then turned back to the station manager with a smile.  “Thank you, Ms. Moreetz, but I didn’t come all the way out here to sleep.  We’ll get to that in due time, but if it’s all the same to you, could we adjourn to those conference rooms?  We’ve a few things to discuss.  And if you could have some of my aides brought to the suite to get things settled?”

Tiyaana nodded.  “Of course.”  She gestured.  “This way please?  Chief, please dismiss this lot.”

Corajen didn’t even speak, she just grunted, glanced at one of her lieutenants and all but two of the deputies left the area.  Tiyaana turned and led the group, the main group with the councilor right at her elbow, a pair of aides just behind them with Tamara and her own guards trailing along at the rear.  Tamara wasn’t sure what this was all about, or what it was that the councilor’s agenda for being out here meant, but for now she just had to go along with it.

Arriving at the conference room, Calvin and Kayla peeled off from the group of bodyguards and took up position on the opposite side of the corridor from the door.  None of the aides followed suit, trotting along after their councilor and the station manager into the room, with Tamara continuing along in the rear.  Once inside, Tiyaana went to the far side of the heavy, long table (sturdy plastic that was textured and colored to look like hardwood) across from the door and sat down, her favored spot.  It allowed her to see the entire table, while keeping her in the midst of anyone involved in the discussions.  Tamara took one of the seats further down, on the opposite side of the table, away from but with her back toward the door.  Viktoriya, Kiki and Beau took up positions around the room, with the young female only a few meters from her principle, with Beau on the far side of the room, and Viktoriya standing not too far from the station manager, but out of the immediate line of sight of the door. 

The councilor, meanwhile, took a look at the dynamic in the room and then turned and sat down at the head of the table, her aides spreading out to seats on the right and the left.  She sat herself down with extreme dignity and Tamara had to suppress a snort. 
Next thing is she’s going to say, ‘Thank you all for coming.’

“Now, I would appreciate a briefing on your activities here in the outer system.”  The councilor looked up to the two women seated at the middle of the table, several meters away, looking at them as though they were the lowest level interns on her staff.

“Please,” Tamara replied, unable to stop herself.  The scowls that turned her way would have simultaneously broiled her alive and blasted her to bits.  Tiyaana only looked uncomfortable and the bodyguards were stone faced, blending into the bulkheads.

“Excuse me, Ms. Samair?” Carriger asked, her expression calm, but the feed coming from Tamara’s optic sensors told the truth.  She wasn’t angry, not yet, but there was a slight irritation.  Perhaps Hroth had needed to deal with unruly conferences with the rest of the admin council in the past.  The more she thought about it, the more that seemed likely.

Tamara sighed, trying to figure out how to maneuver through this morass that she’d somehow walked into.  Willingly, she admitted to herself, and with a full amount of bitterness. 
I’ve been spoiled
. 
I’ve gotten so used to doing things my own way and on the company’s timetable that I’ve forgotten what it’s like to have any serious oversight.  I knew that those days were over and now I’m lashing out.
  “Apologies,” Tamara said.  “But I know that you’re a member of the administratory council, ma’am, but you’re not in a government building.  This is a civilian facility.  Please don’t bark orders at me or my people.”

Carriger looked to the human woman down the table from her for a long moment.  “You’ve got some serious guts speaking to me like that, Samair.  I can see now why it is that Councilors Cresswell and Kly hate your guts.”

“Don’t bring those two on my station, Councilor,” Tamara said, feeling her mouth starting to gear up even as a small part of her brain attempted to slam the brakes on. 

“This is not a productive discussion, Ms. Samair,” the she-wolf replied, the fur on her neck starting to rise.  “I didn’t come here to dictate terms or to piss anyone off.”

“No, I suppose you didn’t,” Tamara said, feeling a tap on her shin from the toe of Tiyaana’s boot.  She flashed a glance to the station manager, whose pleading face was laser focused on Tamara’s.  Tamara gave a slow blink and then turned back to the councilor.  “But let’s keep things civil.  I am not one of your staffers here.”  She gestured.

“But you
are
one of the people who are subject to Seylonique law,” Carriger pointed out.  “In fact,” she went on, “you and your company have made an incredible fortune on those laws and by the strength of our citizens.  You have gained more power and influence in a shorter period of time than anyone in the history of our star system, Samair.  I know that would give one a certain sense of entitlement and arrogance.”  She smiled, but then the smile turned frigid.  “But I don’t truck with that kind of nonsense.  You, Samair, and your company, are subject to the rule of law and the rule of the admin council.  So if my lack of manners offends you…” Carriger leaned forward.  “So what?” she growled.

The bodyguards shifted, uncomfortably.  Nothing had happened, nothing overt, but tensions were ramping up in here, and quickly.

Tamara digested that for a moment.  Then she shrugged.  “Are you here to try and nationalize the Kutok mine?  First Principles as an entire entity?”  There was just the
slightest
emphasis on the word ‘try’.

Hroth ignored the furtive and rapid glances of her staffers and focused on the woman.  She sat back more comfortably in the chair.  Then she shook her head.  “There are no plans for that at this time, or as far as I am aware at any point in the future.  Unless it becomes clear that First Principles poses a threat to the safety and good order of the star system or her citizens.”

The COO nodded.  “I see.”  Then she gestured to Tiyaana.  “Ms. Moreetz, if you would please provide a quick synopsis of operations here on the mine?  I’ll get into the more esoteric details of other projects once you’ve finished.”

Moreetz looked like a field mouse caught in the open between a wolf and an owl.  There was the potential for disaster in all directions.  But she put on a professional smile and soldiered on.  “Of course, ma’am.  In the last quarter, well, ever since the invasion by pirate forces…”

As the woman spoke, Carriger sat back and listened attentively, while her aides took notes on their tablets.  The report went on for some time, as First Principles and by that their Chief of Operations Tamara Samair, had a
lot
of projects underway at this time.  The gas mine had been brought up to full capacity and Tiyaana was in the process of having a great deal of the collection and processing sectors automated, which would considerably cut down on the staff needed for the station itself.  Most of the functions
were
automated, and apparently the Station Manager was in talks with her COO about getting an upgrade to the computer systems, which would allow for a fifteen to twenty percent reduction of the workforce.  Now, those workers were not going to be released into the ether, no, some were being transferred to the shipyards, a few were going to be made crew on the slew of new defense ships that would be rolling off the production lines in a day or so, and still more were to be transferred to a second constructor ship she was building. 

On top of that, FP was building weapons platforms, carpeting local space with guns and missile launchers, blanketing the space around the three FP stations with fields of overlapping fire.  The
Samarkand
was finishing an automated factory, which was scheduled to be brought out to the asteroid mining station by the end of the week, for the sole purpose of building missiles.  Those missiles, currently being built by hand aboard the constructor vessel and in one of the cargo bays on the Kutok mine, would be built much faster by the automated factory, which would then free up
those
workers for other projects.

“Two more cargo ships are coming off the line in a month,” Tamara said, wrapping up her report.  “One for FP, the
Yellow Dolly
, and one for a private company down on the planet. 
Ma Mystere
, FP’s new tanker ship, finished up trials and is ready to go.  She’s going to be making the run to Heb once she fills up her bunkers.”

“How many ships do you actually have?” the councilor asked, glancing to her aides, one of whom was frantically paging through notes on his datapad.

Tamara started counting on her fingers.  “Two in system fuel tenders,
Horton Gravis
and
Dolcinea
, a bulk freighter,
Grania Estelle
of course.  Then there’s
First Horizon
and
Yellow Dolly
, medium cargo haulers.  And now
Ma Mystere
, our hyperspace-capable tanker ship.  The constructor ship
Samarkand,
of course.  I’m also looking into building another factory ship, but that’s early days yet.  And that’s just on the civilian side.”

Carriger grunted.  “Since this is, as you pointed out, a civilian operation,
all
of your ships are on the civilian side, Samair.”

Tamara felt a small flash of irritation at the interruption.  “Of course,” she said.  “A slip of the tongue.  I meant more in the fashion of ships that were built to haul cargoes and that would be making money for the company and helping to generate tax revenues.  As far as defense ships, we have two in the escort-frigate class:
Mondragon
and
Tsesuko
, with
Verdun
on the way. 
Verdun
is scheduled to be out of the builder’s hands in ten weeks, I’m just working on finding and hiring crew.”

She went on, ignoring the glances that were not so surreptitiously exchanged.  “For the corvettes
Maitland
is the only one currently in active service.  But tomorrow afternoon, we have five that are coming off the line:
Cavalier II, Darvano, Badajoz, Coronado
and
Tristram
.  We have crews for
Cavalier
,
Darvano
and
Badajoz
, and I’ve got my recruiters scouring for people within the company as well as on the planet for the others.”

“You built ships without crews for them?” the councilor asked, clearly curious.  She wasn’t being derogatory, just asking a question.

Tamara shrugged.  “If you build it, you can find people,” she said casually.  “I’m not concerned.  If I can’t find the crews here in Seylonique, I’m hoping we can find them in Heb, or perhaps even Ulla-tran.” 
That
caused a stir among the councilor and her aides. 

“You will hire people from outside the system?” one of the aides blurted.  None of the others tried to shut the woman up, clearly, they all wanted to know the answer to that.

Tamara frowned in confusion.  “Why is that such a surprise?  Yes, for now, First Principles is headquartered here in Seylonique, but we’ve got markets in those two systems and small ones in Bimawae and Bellosha.  Why would I
not
hire from those areas?”

“You would take jobs away from Seylonique!” the woman declared, outraged. 

Carriger touched her forearm as the aide started to get out of her chair.  The bodyguards shifted slightly, but didn’t speak.  “Calmly, Mel.”