First Principles: Samair in Argos: Book 3 (31 page)

              “I’m sure we can work something out, Commander.  And yes, I’m happy to allow small teams aboard your ship.  My own engineering teams are still down on the surface, but I can see if my chief engineer can shake loose a few bodies to lend a hand.”  The other officer nodded at this, though it was clear that she wasn’t as enthusiastic about allowing outsiders on her ship as he was about his own.  “But I have to stress, Commander, that you need to be careful not to overdo it.  We’ve seen no pirate activity in the system so far.  I know they’re still out there, and I know
they
know where you went.  But it’s clear now that they’re not in hot pursuit.  Would I like for you to get your ship up and running again so you can offer some protection to my ship?  Absolutely.  But please don’t kill yourselves doing it.”

              “You don’t seem to understand, Captain,” the warship commander replied, drawing herself up stiffly.  “While I greatly appreciate your hospitality, that is
my
ship.  I love that beat up old man out there as much as I’m sure you probably love this great lady.”  She patted the bulkhead.  “But more than that, he’s a warship.  It’s our job to protect civilian shipping such as this from pirate scum like those bastards.”

              “They seem to be more than scum, Commander.  They have several proper warships.  And I’ve met their leader, their Lord Verrikoth.”  There was a degree of derision in the freighter captain’s voice, but there was an undercurrent of fear as well.  “He’s smart and he’s ruthless.  We saw that he was building his flagship
Ganges
in the Hecate system, which leads me to believe that he’s got more construction slips in other systems building more ships.”

              Brianne shook her head in confusion.  “That is actually only reinforcing my argument, Captain.  All the more reason to get my ship up and running again.”

              “Speed and efficiency, Commander.  Yes, I want that ship up and running again, but if you push your crew too hard and rush-…”

              She held up a hand.  “Enough, Captain.  You’ve made your point.  I won’t flog them to death trying to get the repairs done.”

              He chuckled, holding up his hands.  “Now, now, Commander.  I didn’t say that.  Using the whip is the only way to keep all the lousy ingrates moving sometimes.”

              “Captain, you are definitely a strange one,” she said, frowning at him slightly.  “I’m going to go collect my people.”

              “So I’ve got a Republic Adder-class destroyer tractored to the side of my ship, Quesh.  They’ve got a few of their engineering people back over to the ship, for upkeep and to start working on sealing the hull back up.  But
think
of the opportunities here.  To get a real look, a
close
look at a Republic warship; that is an opportunity that we cannot pass up.  I need you to shake loose some people.”  He paused.  “Quesh, I want a look into their toy box.  Figure it out; surely you can get five people back up here.”

              The Parkani sighed.  “Captain, do you think I’m lying to you when I say that
I
want a look at their tech toys?  A Republic ship, even an older one like that?  But the problem is we’re committed to this power plant.  We both agreed that this was what we needed to do, we’ve made agreements, and you’ve signed contracts and shaken hands.  If I pull people, anyone, it’s going to throw off all my schedules.  I know what you’re going to say; surely you can pull a few people.  The truth is, Captain, I can’t.  I have my crews spread out all over hell just trying to keep things moving along and to keep the work up to spec.  The locals have some good people, but there are more than a few that seem to think they can coast or slack off and I need everyone that’s here to keep things on track.  I’m sorry, Captain, but there’s only so much that I can do.”

              Vincent took in a deep breath and let it out slowly.  He was right, he knew that Quesh was right about this.  And while the Republic toys would certainly be interesting, there was no guarantee that they would get anything that could be reproduced or would even turn a profit.  And on top of that, as the Parkani had pointed out, Vincent had signed contracts and his people were committed to this project.  And it was certainly lucrative.  With the fuel contracts that would be coming from this, it would be an ongoing constant source of currency.

              “You’re right.  But damn would that be nice.  Just to get a look, a possible leg up on things.”

              “I know, Captain, it would.  But we just cannot swing it.  What about Stella?  Can’t she infiltrate their datanet?”

              Vincent sighed.  “I talked with her about that and she’s adamant.  She won’t do it.  Says she can’t predict if they’d catch her or not and since Republic systems are so much more advanced than ours, or at least, we presume they are, she can’t guarantee that she’d be able to get in and out without a problem.  And, she stated, correctly, that if we get caught trying to steal Republic secrets, it will destroy any and all goodwill we’ve built up.”

              The Parkani shrugged.  “Well, that was really my last idea.  With only one team aboard the ship, they’re handling all the watch sections.  I’m sure they’re pissed off about that too, having to deal with all the regular maintenance.”

              He grunted.  “There have been some grumblings,” Vincent admitted.  “How long do you think we’re going to be before you’re finished?”

              “You’ve seen the schedule, Captain,” the engineer answered.  “You can see as well as I can how long it’s going to take.”

              Vincent sighed.  “I’m getting concerned about how long we’re sitting in this system.  This ship isn’t a construction vessel.  I know we needed to be here to help with the install, but what with the news about the pirates and such, it’s making me nervous.”

              “I know, Captain.  But we’re really going as fast as we can while still being safe.  We can’t just rush the job, or the same thing that occurred with their own failed reactor is going to happen again.”

              “I know.  Just keep me informed and do your best.”

              “Always will, Captain.”

              Once the call ended, he summoned his remaining engineering officer and Ardeth Marven.  The third shift engineering officer was a mottled brown and gray furred lupusan, tall for his people, towering nearly two and a half meters of corded muscle.  “Ardeth, Sakai, good, come in.  Take a seat.”

              “What is it you need, Kapitan?” the wolf asked, sitting on the edge of one of the wardroom seats.  He was a new addition to the ship’s company, picked up and trained at Seylonique.  He’d been working with Tamara and her people for a month before transferring to
Grania Estelle,
where he worked under Ka’Xarian’s tutelage for several more months.  After the ship returned from its first trip to Heb, he’d been promoted to Third Engineering Officer, on a probationary basis.  He was a bit of a plodder, unlike his predecessor, and was definitely a by-the-book type of engineer, which wasn’t a bad thing.  Vincent had plenty of innovators, he also needed people who would buckle down and get the job done without cutting corners and inventing new ideas.

              Vincent sighed.  “I need some of your engineers, Sakai.  I need to find a way to get a team, a small one, over to the
Horus
.”

              “Why?” the wolf asked, puzzled.  “I understand that there is a lot of damage to their ship, but there is only so much that can be done for them.  Even if all of my team were available, with the damage to their life support, we can’t work in shirtsleeves.  We’d have to suit up.”

              “Yes, that’s correct, you would.  But what I need to know, is are there cargo people that we can swap for a few of your techs?”

              Ardeth frowned.  “My people are cargo pickers and cargo handlers, Captain.  They’re not trained for technical duties.”

              Vincent nodded.  “I know.  But there have to be some jobs that can be done without a whole lot of training.”

              “Kapitan, we selected the people for the engineering division based on their technical aptitude.  Now, I understand that it doesn’t mean that other cannot do the job, but I have one team.  One team already doing the job of three.  Now I could pull perhaps… three people off their current assignments and we could substitute people from cargo or deck division.  They’d basically be monitoring various systems, Environmental and Power, but the people I’d be freeing up are quarter share crew.  They don’t have a lot of experience in any case and wouldn’t be the kind of people that you can send unsupervised to perform any kind of serious repair on the destroyer.  And while they’re qualed on their suits, they’re not qualified for vacuum welding.  I’ve got them started on some tasks, but I need to have a supervisor there to keep an eye on them.”  He flicked his ears.  “Honestly, they’d really just be in the way.”

              Vincent growled in frustration.  “Ardeth?”

              The other man shrugged.  “I’d tend to agree, Captain.  Like I said, my people won’t be able to do much without serious supervision, and anyone that you can swap for those kinds of jobs isn’t going to be able to help out much.”

              “I’ll be honest.  I want to get people on that destroyer.  I want to be able to take a peek at their gear and see if we can reproduce any of it.  I want to get a look at their datanet, everything.  Is there anything we can do?”

              Both males were already shaking their heads.  “Not without compromising systems here on the
Grania Estelle
, Captain,” Ardeth replied. 

              “All right,” he said with a huge sigh.  “Thanks guys.  Sorry for wasting your time.  Let me know if there are any changes that come up.”  He waved them out and the two officers left he wardroom.

              “Captain, you need to let it go,” Stella said from the overhead.  “We might not get a chance to get a peek in the toybox.  Not unless either the Commander or the Commodore okay it.  And I don’t think it’s a good idea to try and cheat them.”  She appeared on the tabletop holo projector, lounging on her side, head propped up on one hand.

              He grimaced, leaning back in his chair, lacing his fingers behind his head.  “I know.  And we’ve gone a hell of a long way without any additional help.  It would just be nice to get another jump on the tech ladder.”

              “How much bigger of a leap do you want?  We’ve got Republic tech already in our arsenal, one that so far none of our competitors can match.”

              “I know, I know,” he sighed.  He shrugged.  “I guess I was hoping for a little more of a cheat.”  Another sigh, then he sat up and hopped out of the chair.  “All right, enough moping.  I need to contact the Governor, see how he’s doing with that payment he owes.”

              The next month seemed to fly by.  Every second that passed caused the anxiety levels in both Vincent Eamonn and Brianne Crgann to rise.  By the time the power plant was finally completed and operational, both of the two ship captains seemed about ready to fly apart from stress.  Crgann was convinced hat in just another hour, pirate cruisers were going to appear in sensor range and move in to attack.  Eamonn was convinced that the Republic captain was going to load up her crew and go dashing off out of the system, leaving
him
to the inevitable pirate invasion.  In the end, neither ship left orbit, though the Republic crew did manage to get the holes in the hull repaired and sealed and the life support back up and running properly. 

              “Well, it isn’t a permanent fix, in either case,” Crgann was saying.  “But it will get us to Seylonique, if you’re still serious about your offer to fix up my ship.”

              “If you’re still serious about compensating my company for the work,” Vincent replied.  “But after that bit of business is out of the way, absolutely, I’m serious about getting your ship fixed up.  Never worked on a Republic warship before.”

              “It is a unique experience,” the Secaaran said, surprising him.  “My ship might not be top of the line, in fact,
Horus
is pretty far down that line, but he’s still a fine ship.”  Then the commander growled.  “And assuming that the bastard pirate ‘lord’ didn’t just blast it out of space, he has access to everything that was at the trade station.”  She shook her head. 

              “Don’t you have lockouts?”

              “Well sure,” she replied.  “But if he gets his goons on the station, if he manages to grab any of the personnel there… Well, from what I’ve heard, I don’t think you need me to spell that out any further.”

              “I never was actually introduced to any of Verrikoth’s methods directly, but I got plenty from one of his Armsmen.  And no, I don’t think that either of us really needs to get into the gory details of what he’d do to anyone he caught.”

              “I don’t have anything in the way of currency or cargoes that I can pay you with,” Brianne said, looking uncomfortable.  “In fact, my ship didn’t warrant an industrial replicator either, so I can’t get you anything that way either.”  She looked at him, smiling slightly.  “Though I did notice
you
have several.”

              He made a face.  “Yes, and I wasn’t trying to hide them.”