First Principles: Samair in Argos: Book 3 (35 page)

              “Well that’s something,” Brianne said.  “Tactical, what’s our status?”

              “We could hold our own, Captain,” the young female lieutenant replied.  “Our shields are still damaged, holding at thirty-four percent.  Forward turbolasers are online, but port side weapons are down, destroyed actually.  Starboard missile tubes are damaged, but we only have three missiles left anyway.  Hull integrity is actually back where it needs to be, Captain.  The FP techs do good work.”

“Very well, thank you Lieutenant.”  She turned her gaze to the communications watch.  “Open a channel to the
Grania Estelle
.”  The Secaaran glanced over at the commodore, who gestured for her to go ahead.

A moment later, the petty officer seated at comms gave her a thumbs up.  “You’re on, Captain.”

“
Grania Estelle
, this is Commander Crgann on
Horus.
  Our sensors have detected a pair of what we assume are corvettes or frigates heading in our direction on an intercept course.”

Vincent Eamonn’s face appeared on the display.  “Acknowledged, Commander.  We’re detecting them as well.  You can stand down.  They’re company ships, probably only sent out because your ship is flying with mine. I’ve been in contact with them; they’re going to escort us in.”

They want to keep an eye on us.  Can’t say as I really blame them, especially if they’ve got some real estate here they want to protect.
  “Understood.  We’ll be on our best behavior.  Just tell your ships not to get trigger happy.”

“Of course, Commander.  We’ve had a good relationship so far, I have no intention of jeopardizing that.  Eamonn, out.”  And the display cleared.

“So, the freighter captain has his own warships?” Brianne mused. 

“Can’t say that I blame him,” Theodosia said.  “What with the pirate activity in the nearby area.”

“But where did he get them?”

The commodore shrugged.  “Could be that he and his people salvaged the ships, either here or in another system.  Of course, it is also possible they built the ships.”

“I’m not sure I like the sound of that,” Brianne admitted.

“This place is not really under our jurisdiction, Brianne,” Theodosia reminded her.  “All the local systems are allowed to have their own space defense forces.  Just because they’re a short jump away from Byra-Kae doesn’t mean that there’s a problem.”

“Doesn’t meant there’s a problem?  A civvie population has functional warships and you don’t see an issue?”

Theodosia sighed.  “No, I don’t think there’s a problem.  If there are sufficient defenses here it will give the pirates pause, if nothing else.”

“Ma’am, that’s silly.  They just crashed over our flotilla in Byra-Kae and we had quite a lot more in the way of defenses than they do.”

“With respect,
Commander
, we don’t actually know what they have here.  All we’ve seen so far is a bulk freighter in good repair and a pair of small, fast warships.  They could have much more.”

“I think we need to assume that they do,” Brianne said forcefully.

“Agreed.  But if that is the case then we need to maintain our composure.  Especially since our own defenses and weapons are compromised.  Once we’ve got our feet back under us again, we can think about working from a stronger position.”

The Secaaran took a deep breath.  “Yes, Commodore.  You’re right, of course.  We have to get ourselves up and running again.”

“And once we do that, actually,
while
we’re doing that, I want you, our sensors and every one of the crew that goes off the ship to absorb as much information about this system, that company and its people.”  Her voice was very firm.  “We’re going to be heading back to the Republic once we get the ship repaired and victualed,” Theodosia reminded her flag captain.  “This one ship can’t deal with all the problems in this Cluster and we have to get back and report to the Admiralty.  I don’t know exactly what they would do about all of the pirate activity-…”

“Hopefully, Admiral Tandred would bring his task force into the Cluster and squash the bug under his heel!” Brianne said forcefully. 

Theodosia smiled.  “I would hope so too, but I doubt it.  More likely, the Senate will order the Admiral to stand down.  And then we get absorbed into Second Fleet.”

“And it’s off to endless patrols in the Cassius Quadrant,” Brianne put in darkly.

Theodosia snorted.  “Probably.  But, maybe if we get a load of intel about this system, and if their tech base is high enough, we might be able to set up a trade partner of some kind.  Maybe we could get basing rights here.”

“Do you think they would after our own flotilla got hammered in the next system over?”

“Well,” the commodore said, considering, “It probably wouldn’t be the easiest sell.  It would be better for our sakes, if we participated in the defense of the system.”  She smiled.  “Striking a critical blow that either ended the battle or drove the dread pirates away.”

The Secaaran’s rocky eyebrows rose. “And the grateful populace would fall all over themselves to make sure their brave protectors stayed here?”

“Well, that would be a desired outcome,” Theodosia admitted, still smiling.  “But that’s a plan for the future.  We’ll have to work something out.  For now, everyone keep all their senses open and report back.  And make sure that none of their people are around when the reports come in.”

              “Captain, I think there are some things in the system that you’re going to want to see,” Stella said.  The small convoy was approaching visual range of the FP real estate near to the gas giant.  The Kutok mine was right where it was supposed to be, but it appeared that another two sectors for collection and refinement had been completed, bringing the total to twelve.  That was now more than half of the scheduled sectors were on line, which meant a huge amount of He3 fuel was being processed.  A tank farm was hovering in geosynchronous orbit above the station, and it looked like shuttles were bringing more fuel up to them.  Sensors were showing a large signature at the edge of the asteroid belt, a station of some kind, but one that hadn’t been there when the bulk freighter had been here last. 

              Also, at the nearly Lagrange point, less than a light minute from both the gas mine and the other station, was a cluster of artificial structures.  “What are these, Stella?” Vincent asked, though it was clear everyone on the bridge was hanging on that question.

              “Three different things, Captain,” she replied with a smile.  “I’m showing a tank farm for He3, enough to refuel an entire fleet of ships, it looks like.  Right nearby are three construction slips, all of which are in use.”  She snapped her holographic fingers and the image on Vincent’s display, mirrored on the main one, increased in size and resolution.

              The construction slips were rectangular boxes, but strange protrusions on the lateral edges.  Further inspection showed that the upper and lower walls of the boxes were not squared off, but were actually circular.  Rectangular plates connected the two circular plates on the sides, which meant that what would have been a single construction slip now became three.  Two small ships, possibly shuttles or tugs were being constructed on the sides of one of the slips. 

              “They’ve been busy,” Vincent mused.  “All three of the slips are in use.  They’re building a ship in each one.”

              “The slips are huge,” Serinda noted.  “But the ships inside barely take up any of the space.  I don’t understand why Tamara would build slips so large.”

              Stella’s image disappeared from the holo projector, her face transferring to all the monitors on the bridge.  The image of a golden-furred lupusan took Stella’s place at the projector.  “The answer is quite simple, Serinda,” he replied.  “To accommodate this ship, of course.”

              The bridge crew, Vincent included, look confused and alarmed.  “And who are you?” Vincent asked.

              The lupusan flicked his ears in amusement, grinning.  “I am Nasir, Captain Eamonn.  I am the AI for the
Samarkand.
  I apologize for simply appearing, but I figured it was a perfect opportunity to interject and introduce myself.”

              Vincent turned his gaze suspiciously to Stella’s image on his display.  “And I’m sure you knew about this?”

              “About Nasir?  Of course.  Tamara and I collaborated to bring him to life.  He was still in his build phase when we left for Heb.  He and I have been in contact ever since we got in communications range of the
Samarkand
,” she said smugly.  “And I wouldn’t have allowed him to invade the comm system if he wasn’t authorized.”

              “That’s good to hear,” Serinda muttered.

              “But going back to your original question, Serinda, the reason the slips are so big was to accommodate the
Grania Estelle
.  We wanted to be sure that we built construction and repair slips that could handle this ship and we decided it would be simpler if they were all this big, so that we didn’t have a queue forming if you showed up in need of maintenance and another ship was in the largest slip.”

              “Makes sense,” Vincent mused.  “I applaud the ingenuity.”

              The AI gave a small bow.  “Thank you, Captain.  It was my idea actually.”

              “How did you build the slips?” George Miller asked.  “And why are the upper and lower sections of the slip round?”

              The lupusan AI gave another grin.  “That was actually another spot of ingenuity, Mister Miller.  Tamara thought of that.  We took several asteroids that had high concentrations of nickel iron and superheated them using the
Cavalier
and the
Maitland
’s energy weapons.  It took a while, but eventually we got them hot enough and then we used tugs to spin them.”

              “Spin them, of course!” George said, tapping the console gently with his fist. 

              The comms officer looked completely lost.  “Spin them?  I don’t understand.”

              “If you heat the metal up to a high enough temperature, and then use the tugs to spin the superheated chunk on a perfectly flat vector,” Nasir said, taking pity on the poor woman.  “The metal rapidly starts to flatten out.  It was actually a bit of a pain, because the heated metal wanted to wobble.  We had to have the corvettes retarget and use their energy weapons three times on the first plate because the tug pilots couldn’t keep the spin steady.”  He huffed in frustration.  “Took nearly a week longer than it should.  Once we got that one done, we had the process down, so we did the rest all at once.  The side plates we just sliced off parts of other spun plates and bolted and welded them together.”  He shrugged.  “Time consuming and fiddly work, but not too hard.  Then there was a set of compartments added for power, life support, habitation.  The slips are now all connected, as you can see, forming a small dockyard of sorts.  There are habitation areas, reactor spaces and construction floors that connect directly with the slips.”

              “Damn.”  Isis’s sentiment was shared by all of them.  In the few months they’d been gone, a huge amount of work had been done.  “Three ships.”

              “Yes, what about those ships?” Vincent asked Nasir.  “What the hell is she building?”

              “Well, the two ships in the slips facing your current vectors are small cargo vessels commissioned by clients.  The third, which you can’t see from this direction, is the third company warship, an escort frigate.”

              “She’s building another warship?” Serinda asked.  “We need more?”

              Nasir barked a laugh.  “I’m afraid even when this ship is completed, we will still be woefully under defended.  More warships than most of the systems out in the Argos Cluster, but until the
Leytonstone
is fully operational and perhaps even after that, Seylonique is vulnerable.”  He gestured.  “You know what forces Verrikoth has in space.  Two corvettes and a pair of fighter squadrons will not be enough to face down even what you all saw at Ulla-tran.” 

              “And he’s very likely to have more,” Stella put in.  She shrugged.  “We did see the
Ganges
under construction at Hecate; I can’t believe he doesn’t have any more stashed away somewhere.  Sadly, we don’t have access to any of the pirate databases so we can’t confirm.”

              “We can worry about the buildup of military forces later,” Vincent put in.  “It is important, and we will get to it.  But for the moment, I’m a bit more interested in where the hell these ships came from.  What I mean is, who commissioned them and how much is the company being paid?”

              “Why Captain, how miserly of you,” Stella said, pretending to be disappointed.  Her smirk betrayed her.

              Vincent chuckled.  “I am wondering if the bank balances are still into the green.”  As he was speaking, Stella and Nasir each put a macro up on his command seat display, showing the financial reports for the company.  He nodded.  “I’ll take your word for that.  But thank you both for checking.”

              “Of course.”

              “You’re welcome.”