First Principles: Samair in Argos: Book 3 (36 page)

              “Continue on course for the Lagrange point,” Vincent ordered.  “We’ll refuel at the tank farm there.  And then I think it will be time to get Tamara and the Commodore in the same room together and hammer out a deal that we can all live with to fix up that Republic ship.”

              “Well this is just great,” Tamara said from the privacy of her office.  “A Republic ship here in Seylonique.”

              “This isn’t a bad thing, Tamara,” Vincent argued from his chair on the bridge of the bulk freighter.  “That warship is currently the most powerful military asset in the system.  Yes, yes, I know there’s a battlecruiser here,” he said abruptly, before she could contradict him.  “But unless you’ve worked your magic on it, it won’t be of any help.  Verrikoth just trashed Heb about six months ago and this ship managed to escape.  But if he’s the least bit competent, and we both know he is, they’ll have tracked the ship to Heb.  If he goes there, it won’t take him a lot of effort to figure out that it came here.”

              “So you’re leading pirates to our door as well?” she asked, but she knew he was right.  “But I’m already working on bolstering our defenses here.  But that’s not it.  We need to talk, in private.”

              “Fine, I’ll go to the wardroom and we can talk.”

              “Good,” she said.  Turning her head, she addressed Nasir.  “Nasir, send the security packet.”

              “Sending now,” he replied, nodding once. 

              An instant later, Vincent reappeared on Tamara’s display, the background clearly indicating he was no longer on the bridge, but at his customary seat in the wardroom, with his back to the large monitors.  “All right, Tamara, what’s so all-fire important?”

              “Stella will be receiving a data packet,” she said.  “Nasir is sending it.  It’s an encryption packet for the comm system on the
Grania Estelle
.  It’s safe, I promise.  I’ve been working on it with Nasir, for just this sort of occasion.  I wasn’t expecting a Republic warship, but I guess this is as good a time as any to test it out.  Switch your transmitter over from broadband to a laser transmission.”

              “You’re getting awfully paranoid about all this aren’t you?” Vincent asked, a grimace on his lips.

              “I’m not taking any chances,” Tamara said.  “Once Stella sends confirmation to Nasir saying that the packet is uploaded, I’ll continue with this conversation.”  She leaned back in her chair, trying to force herself to remain calm.  This was such a bad situation they were in.  It hadn’t quite tipped over the precipice into catastrophic, but the potential was there.

              A moment later, Stella appeared on the display, gave a wink, and then disappeared.  “All right, Tamara.  The comms have been switched over.  We’re on as secure a channel as you want.  Now what the hell is such a problem?”

              She sighed.  “You brought a Republic warship into this system, Vincent.  Into our system.”

              “Yes?” he asked, his voice sounding very tired.  Clearly, he wasn’t understanding.

              “Why is it that this company has such a leg up on all of our competitors?” Tamara asked, her question clearly leading. 

              He frowned.  “Well, the replicators, of course.”

              She nodded, her expression blank.  “And why is it that we are able to get so much in the way of components and parts from them?”

              “Because you have access…”  His frown deepened.  “Wait, what are you saying/”

              “How was it that I came to be aboard your ship?  Originally, I mean.”

              “We picked up your escape pod in Hudora as we were passing through,” he said.  “You’d been in hibernation sleep for almost two and a half centuries.”

              “Yes, Vincent.  I was in a damaged escape pod, sleeping the years away as the pod hurtled away on a ballistic trajectory from what once was the Hudora orbital shipyards.”  She took a deep breath, as all those dark memories escaped their prison and washed over her, through her.  “I was on the verge of being convicted for crimes I did not commit, not that anyone at that court martial believed that.  The Federation attacked at precisely that moment, postponing my fate-…”

              “And then that officer of yours took you from the station, tossed you into the escape pod and launched you into the void.  You’ve told me this story before.”

              “Then stop spitting back the story to me and
think
,” she demanded.  “I was on trial for serious crimes.  Sumggling.  Theft of Republic military property.  It wasn’t a capital crime like Islington and Bythe wanted, but it was bad enough.  I’d have been cashiered out of the Navy and thrown into the stockade for decades, if not longer.”

              Then it hit him.  “You were never acquitted.  But you’re probably listed as killed or missing.”

              She shrugged.  “Most likely missing, presumed killed.  But my records wouldn’t have been expunged.”  She sighed, raking a hand through her hair.  “Nasir tells me that the ranking officer on board that Republic destroyer is a Commodore…” Tamara consulted her datapad, “McConnell?”

              Vincent nodded.  “That’s correct.  I haven’t really gotten much of a chance to talk with her.  Turan has though, what with all of her injuries and the time she spent in my sickbay.”

              “Vincent, if Commodore McConnell, who outranks me even after all this time, figures out who I am and decides to try and press charges, I would be back in the same boat I was back in the old days.”

              “And First Principles, Incorporated would be totally screwed,” the freighter captain finished.

              She nodded.  “Pretty much.”

              “Wait, but after two hundred and fifty years, there’s no way that those old charges would still stick,” Vincent protested.  He rubbed his jaw.  “There’s no way that smuggling and theft charges would still be valid after all this time.”

              “I think you mean that the statute of limitations would be up,” Tamara replied.

              “Exactly.  Like you said, this wasn’t a capital crime.  Why the hell would she care about a crime that happened two and a half centuries ago?”

              Tamara sighed, rubbing the back of her neck.  “There’s no reason that she would.  But what if she isn’t all that happy about the amount of replicator access we have?  What if she decides she really
does
care about crimes that old?  She wouldn’t be able to throw me in a stockade, but she
could
throw me out of the Navy.”

              “You’re not in the Navy now,” Vincent objected.  “You’ve been a civilian contractor.”

              She shrugged.  “I’ve never left the Navy,” she told him.  “My contracts have always indicated I’m still a Republic Naval officer.  Not that it really matters, as you’ve pointed out.  But for the legal niceties, Stella and I managed to slip that in there, into the fine print.”

              “So what will happen should the Commodore decide to push the matter?” he asked gruffly.   

              “At best?  Nothing.  Worst case, she throws me out of the Navy, which means my implants will either be locked, or the firmware will be wiped, removing all my access.  I’ll have no more access than any of you.”

              “I can’t keep you away from her, Tamara,” he said after a moment’s thought.  “She needs to get her ship fixed up and you’re the only one with any real experience in working with Republic vessels.  And before you say that Ms. Sterling could do it, I have no doubt in her abilities but as I said, she doesn’t have experience building those types of ships.”

              Tamara let out a long breath.  “So what do I do?  While I can’t really argue with you about that, the instant I meet with her, or any of the Republic crew, if they ping my implants, they’ll be able to determine my identity.”

              “But they can’t affect your implants wirelessly, can they?” Vincent asked.

              “Well no,” she said.  “She’d have to physically interface with me to affect them.”  She chuffed a laugh, her fingers touching the disruptor on her neck.  “Wow, the first time this damned thing has proven to be a boon rather than a burden.  And I’m not concerned that she’s going to see me and recognize me.  But spacers talk.  And all it will take is for one of my people to tell one of her people who I am – who I was and this whole mess will start up.”

              Vincent straightened.  “How about this then?  If and when the subject comes up, I tell her that you’re off limits,” he stated flatly.  “She wants her ship fixed up, she leaves you alone.”

              “I’m not sure she’d go for that,” Tamara warned.  “In fact, I’m pretty sure-…”

              “Stop being such a worry wart,” he interjected.  “Look, I know this is a serious issue.  But agonizing over every possible outcome isn’t going to do anything but give you an ulcer.”  He sighed.  “Since she isn’t going to be able to access your implants anyway, I think that we just deal with it as the situation comes up.”  Then he paused, eyeing her speculatively.  “If she orders you recalled, will you go?”

              Tamara started.  “I… I hadn’t thought about that.”  Then she scowled.  “No.  The Republic stole my career and ruined my life.  And if even half of the stories I keep hearing about the Navy’s activities in this Cluster are true, I’ll never go back.”

              He nodded, pleased at her answer.  “Then it’s settled.  You stay here with us.”

              “Yes.  I’m doing good work here.” Tamara chuckled.  “I don’t think even back in the old days with tons of equipment and personnel have I built so much.”

              “I certainly have never seen this level of industry before,” the freighter captain admitted.  “And I’m going to have Corajen assign you a security detail.”

              Tamara sighed.  “I’m not going to be able to do anything if I have a bunch of armed goons following me around.”

              “Tamara, I honestly don’t care what it is you’d like.  In this instance, I am taking no chances.  I don’t want to give the Commodore or any of her crew an opportunity to grab my Chief of Operations over issues that are centuries old.  I need you right where you are and you just told me you didn’t want to go back.”

              “No, I don’t want to go back.”

              “And if I remember one of your selling points to me several months back, you said you had a very unique and important skillset.  I can’t afford to have that stolen.  So, a security detail it is.”

              “All right.  But I want it understood that I need to be able to work.  I can’t have them interfering with my day to day.”

              “Corajen knows her job.  She’ll find suitable people.  No one is going to abduct you.”

              “No, not if Corajen picks the people.”  Tamara took a deep breath, feeling strangely better.

              “Though, I think it might be worth the headaches if they can figure out how to get that thing off your neck.”

              She nodded.  “See if they can,” she said.  “But don’t give away the company over it.  We’ve been operating quite well even considering this thing.”

              “I know.  But it would be good to have it gone, wouldn’t it?”

              “Of course,” Tamara said, with feeling.  “And I think it might be a good idea to see what they can give us as far as implant tech and replicator databases.”

              “I checked on the replicator situation already.  They don’t any industrial ones aboard the ship.  But the captain made mention of a couple of food replicators.”

              Her face lit up.  “Now there’s something we could use.”

              “We have a food replicator,” he reminded her.  “You built it a year ago.  It’s still in the mess hall.”

              “Yeah, and how many people actually use it?” Tamara asked.  “It only makes nutrient paste and ration bars that no one likes.  In fact, I think I’m the only one who’s ever ordered supplements from it more than once.”

              “And even you can’t stand it.”

              She shrugged.  “It isn’t that bad, though Noken’s or Paddington’s cooking is far better than the stuff that comes out of the replicator.  But in a pinch it would keep you alive, if the food stores get low.”

              Vincent grimaced.  “Well, let’s hope that the Commodore could give us the schematics to a proper food replicator.  I think the crews would rather starve than use that one.  Sorry.”

              Tamara shrugged again.  “I’m not offended.  I’d never actually built a food replicator from scratch before.  To be honest, I’m surprised it turns out as well as it did.”

              “I’m going to contact Corajen now,” Vincent said.  “Get that security detail set up for you.  Then you can get yourself a meeting with the Commodore and Commander Crgann about getting their destroyer repaired.”

              “Absolutely, I think it’s far past the time that she had a personal detail,” Corajen stated.  She was seated at her desk in the security office aboard the Kutok mine.  Things had been on a bit of a roller coaster in the months since the attack.  Working with Tiyaana Moreetz, the mine’s Operations Supervisor, Corajen had hired a whole new security contingent, but this time, instead of simply an open cattle call for security personnel, she started recruiting for personnel that she felt could properly repel an invasion.  “Never again” had become her mantra and luckily, the higher ups in the company (Vincent Eamonn, Tamara Samair and Tiyaana Moreetz) wholeheartedly shared that mantra.  “And I think I have just the trio for the job.”