A Greater Interest: Samair in Argos: Book 4 (51 page)

              “That sounds ominous,” Viktoriya said.  The others nodded, except for Calvin, who didn’t seem all that interested or concerned with the conversation.  He did a visual and then scanner sweep of the compartment with his hand scanner.

              “I guess that means we’re not going to be getting our implants, are we ma’am?” Kayla asked, sounding disappointed.

              “No, I guess not,” Tamara said with a sigh.  “We’ll have to make another trip.  But I swear, if she tries this shit again, making me race across the system again just because she calls, she’s going to make me cross.”  She groaned and ran her hands through her hair.  Then she twirled a finger in the air, indicating they should turn around.  “Let’s go.”

              “Wait, I’m sorry.  Explain that again,” Tamara ground out.  She was on the Kutok mine, in a private conference with the lupusan councilor.  By private, of course, what that meant was Hroth didn’t want any of Tamara’s people present, even her guards, but two of her own aides were seated on either side of their boss.  Tamara wasn’t sure what was meant by this, was it possibly to bolster the councilor’s confidence?  She shouldn’t need to fear that the woman would attack her; a human going after a lupusan without heavy weapons was just asking for trouble, not to mention the legal ramifications.  Right now, the councilor looked calm and almost serene and the aides looked smug.  Tamara had her holdout pistol up her sleeve and the temptation to draw it was so strong.

              “It’s quite simple, Tamara,” Carriger said, trying to diffuse tension by using the woman’s given name.  Tamara felt as though this was meant more as a backhanded insult, really, but let it go, wanting to know what it was that the council were up to now.  “The council has discussed this at length and we have decided that the defense of this star system will be better handled by the professionals, instead of private navies and defense forces.  So, to that end, First Principles, Inc, as well as any other civilian operation in Seylonique, will not be legally permitted to produce warships of size or flavor, unless it is under government or Naval contract and
then
only for government or Navy use.”

              “Where is this coming from?” Tamara demanded, straining to keep her voice level. 
The bastards are going to strip away my ships after all the work we’ve done and after all the fighting my people have gone through!

              “The pirate attack,” the councilor answered.  “Your forces did the best they could, but they were far overmatched by the enemy fleet.  It was only through sheer, dumb luck that the pirates didn’t completely destroy or capture all of the real estate in that part of the system.  And that doesn’t even account for the loss of life.”

              “The Navy took absolutely no part in that fight,” Tamara pointed out, her voice full of vitriol.  “If even one Navy ship had been stationed near the gas mine, things might have turned out different.  But the admin council and the Navy chose to put all their ships in patrol around the planet, those that didn’t go on the trade mission.”

              Carriger nodded gravely.  “Yes, that’s certainly true.  The government and by extension the Navy failed you and we failed the citizens.  But we want to correct that failure in the future and we believe that the best start for that is to completely take up the responsibility and the burden of defending the system.”  She stated all that so simply.  The aides no longer looked smug, now they positively beamed.

              “Well, I’m glad to hear that you are going to step up, but I don’t believe taking my defense ships away is the best way to do that, simultaneously pissing off the biggest defense builder and defense contractor as well as all the only combat veteran sailors and officers in the system.”

              But Carriger waved a hand as if shooing a fly.  “No, no, Tamara.  The defense ships you’ve already built as well as any that First Principles currently has under construction are fine.  First Principles may maintain its defense flotilla at current levels, but no higher.”

             
So that’s why she wanted to know the breakdown of company ships,
Tamara thought.  “I understand.  So by this ruling, I can then assume that the Navy is going to be putting forth more contracts for warships?”

             
Carriger shrugged.  “We’re looking into that.  It’s certainly something we’re considering but it’s all a matter of budget.  But it is certainly a topic of discussion in all our conferences.”

              “I see,” Tamara replied and she did.  The government had to pay for the materials as well as labor at a much higher cost than First Principles did and by any stretch of the definition, warships were not cheap, especially for vessels that could not be expected to haul cargoes or make money for the company.  Then there was upkeep, fuel, munitions, pay for the crew and officers, and the costs just kept going up.  The overhead costs just kept going up.  The overhead costs of maintaining a merchant fleet on top a defensive force could break a company.  Luckily, FP had numerous sources of revenue coming in.

              In fact, the budget was getting stretched tight, what with the
Samarkand
building weapons platforms left and right and with the moon base and now the shield station projects.  Thankfully,
Ma Mystere
and
Yellow Dolly
were already out moving cargoes.  Perhaps it was time to focus on current project for a bit.  But, with the pirate forces still out there…

              “Very well,” Tamara declared.  “I look forward to hearing about any new contracts for ships.  If there is nothing else, I have an appointment back at the shipyards.”  She stood from her seat at the table, turned and exited the room.  It seemed as though the others were going to say more, but she just couldn’t sit there and listen to it.  It was going to bite her in the ass at some point in the near future, but right now, she’d had enough.

              The guards, who were just outside the conference room, straightened as she came out.  “Let’s go,” she said after a moment, when the hatch closed.  “I need to talk with Corajen quickly, then we’re out of here.  I’m getting you all those implants; no more side trips.”  They didn’t answer, but the siblings broke off from the group and headed back to the ship while the others formed up on the principle.  Calvin and Viktoriya were in front and the enormous Beau brought up the rear.

              They arrived in the Security Office a short while later to find the Chief reading over a report, while she and a deputy were glancing at security monitors.  “Samair,” the she-wolf stated as they group entered, not really looking up from her work.  “How can I help?”

              She sighed.  “More attempts by the admin council to try and assert their dominance,” Tamara said heavily.

              “Should I be concerned?”

              “Not so far,” she admitted.  “But if more starts happening, I’ll let you know.”

              The wolf looked up from her work and focused on the woman’s face.  “You’re making me concerned, Samair.”

              “I don’t mean to.  And all things considered, this isn’t the end of the world.  Business-wise, it’s actually a good thing, at least in the short term.”  Tamara explained the councilor’s summons and the council’s decision.

              “Sounds like she’s throwing her weight around because the Navy’s embarrassed that corporate defense ships got to fight in the biggest battle this system’s ever seen.  And all the armchair admirals are running their mouths about they could have done better.”  Corajen considered her statement, tapping one claw on the console.  “Maybe they could have, I don’t know.  Hindsight and all that.  So the Navy’s stepping up, huh?”

              “Officially, they are anyway.  Just thought I’d give you the heads up.”

              “No, I appreciate it.  I’ll keep Magnus in the loop as well.”

              Tamara grinned.  She could see the boarborn AI’s tusked visage on her HUD.  “He’s already aware.  But I’ll be sure to update you both when I hear more.”

              Corajen nodded.  “Thanks.  I’ll keep up my end here.  Let you know.”

              Tamara nodded back, feeling better knowing Chief Nymeria and Magnus were keeping a lid on things.  “All right, I’ll get out of your fur.  I have to take my guards to see Kassix to get implants over at the shipyards.  I’ll be there for a week or so.”

              The chief flicked her ears in amusement and laughed.  “Congratulations and condolences,” the lupusan told the guards.  “It’s only the first few minutes of skull-searing red-hot agony that’s the worst.”  Then she looked considering.  “Of course, then there’s the week of nosebleeds and headaches, not as intense, but it lasts so much longer.” 

              “Stop it,” Tamara said, chuckling.  “Leave the poor dears alone.”

              She yipped.  “I’ll tell the kids here to hold off on the keg party until you’re out of easy transit range since you’re heading out.”

              Tamara smiled.  “I appreciate that, Chief.  If I’m not going to get invited, I want to at least delude myself into thinking it was because I couldn’t get back in time.”  She waved to the chief as she walked out of the Security Office.  Calvin looked back at the Security Chief who had already gone back to her work and he hissed quietly to himself.

              Eretria Sterling sat in her office, going over the initial damage control report from the
Leytonstone
’s chief engineer.  The faulty coolant pipe had caused the havoc in Reactor One, luckily, the Chief had been able to cut the feeds to the reactor before it overheated too much.  The burst plasma conduit was actually just as, if not more problematic, injuring several of the crew.

              She was going to have teams as well as a number of bots go over the entire cooling and power distribution system looking for cracks, weak points or pinhole breaches.  After the survey and replacement work was done, FP would be working to replace the damaged reactor.  Initial reports showed heat damage, which was fixable, but most likely it would be best if the whole reactor was simply junked and replaced.  It would be something to discuss with Colonel Gants, but the man had been surprisingly accommodating as far as repairs to his ship were concerned.

              Eretria had met with the man twice, discussing the repairs, as well as a few non-proprietary processes from First Principles.  It was clear the man was devoted to his ship and the Navy in general (a clear second place), but he was more than the brutish thug she’d expected.  When he wasn’t barking orders at the crew, he was actually quite gallant.  Outside of any opinions Eretria might have had for the man, the opportunity to tear into the battlecruiser was worth having to deal with anyone.  Thankfully, her meetings with the Colonel were actually almost pleasant.  Eretria found herself looking forward to those meetings but of course that had to be because of the work on such a magnificent, if slightly analog ship.

              Even Apogee seemed to like him and the somewhat brusque AI didn’t warm to very many organics.  The colonel had reacted to meeting the AI like an excited child, filled with wonderment.  AIs were not a secret in this star system; FP had five and this was actually a source of bitter resentment among the other companies.  But the most bitter were those in the Navy and the government.  Everyone wanted an AI, but so far no one had to programming chops (or the shortcuts) to actually build one.  Then as far as buying one from First Principles, few could actually grasp the concept that FP (or at least the upper management) did not view these digital constructs as just computer software: they were people.  FP’s officer had no desire to create digital slaves or worse, digital terror weapons to be unleashed on the net or the populace. 

              Then, as far as the
Leytonstone
was concerned anyway, there were compatibility problems.  The more modern ships, at least the ones built by First Principles, had highly advanced computer cores that were either copied from or based off of Republic designs. 
Leytonstone
, though, was a completely locally built vessel.  It had had some upgrades, most notably its fusion reactors using modern equipment, but the rest of it was just modified original equipment.  And when the ship had originally been designed and built, its creators must have held some fear of cyber attacks, for the battlecruiser did not possess a singular powerful computer core.  It had a distributed processing network, spread out among
six
computer cores in various places throughout the ship.  This gave a large amount of redundancy, allowing for up to four of the cores to be disabled or destroyed before the big ship would lose significant combat capability.  This meant there was a great degree of manual operation, systems in local control instead of computer-controlled.  It also meant there was a much larger crew needed to operate her.  But because of that distributed network, it didn’t have the combined processing power necessary to support an artificial intelligence.  The whole was not greater than the sum of the parts, to the detriment of the
Leytonstone
.

              This was a particular sore point for Gants, who more than anyone Eretria had worked with in this star system craved one of the magnificient creations.  “I want to bring my ship to life, Ms. Sterling,” he had said after having met Apogee.  “I want to actually talk to her, work with her.  A true partnership, not just a rider and a terrible beast of burden.”  The fire in his eyes had made them incandescent.