First Principles: Samair in Argos: Book 3 (54 page)

              “Your own new flagship,” he said, his voice still sounding smug.

              Tamara shook her head.  “Males and their toys.  You really want to compare sizes?” she asked, looking amused. 

              “I would win,” he replied and the three lackeys chuckled.  “
Leytonstone
outguns your entire fleet.”

              She nodded.  “Yes, of course,” she said sardonically.  “So, four ships.”

              “Are your facilities up to the task?”

              She glowered at him.  “Of course they are, Triarch.  But ships of that size and complexity, they aren’t going to be done in a week, even with all the builder bots we’ve built and with the increased computer and AI support.  But I believe that with all that, I could have the ships ready to fly in four months.”

              Kozen’ck’s antennae went completely straight.  “Four months?  That’s… that feels fast.”

              “It is,” she replied, shrugging.  “There might be some delays, but four months is the best time frame I can get for you at this juncture.  Give or take a week.”

              “I’m blown away,” the council member stated.  “And very pleased.  I’ll have the contracts drawn up and delivered to your ship by tomorrow morning, Ms. Samair.  Please have your attorneys go over them and once you have them back to me, I’ll green light the funding.”

              Tamara smirked.  “Don’t you need to run this by the others on the council?”

              “No,” he stated simply.  “I’ve been given full authority to act.”

              She shrugged.  “Okay, so long as the payment vouchers that come in clear, it isn’t my concern.  I’ll get the contracts reviewed as soon they’re sent over.  This should be a busy time.”  Tamara leaned in and looked straight at Kozen’ck.  “One last thing before I go.”

              “And what’s that, Ms. Samair?” the zheen sounded distracted, as though he was already mentally moved on to other arenas, other items of more pressing concern.

              “Once the work begins, you can send someone to check on things, but I will not be subject to constant nagging and oversight,” Tamara told him. 

              “You are going to be working under contract for the government,” one of the men said, perhaps a bit too loudly.  “You’ll be subject to… government regulations!”  His voice was slurred.

              “I didn’t say that I would be shutting you out,” Tamara replied, glaring at the man, before shifting his gaze back over to Kozen’ck.  “Send an inspector, but I’m not going to put up with someone hanging over my shoulder or nagging my construction teams.”

              “You know who you’re talking to?” the woman screeched, slapping the table.  The others looked at her and the other man, who hadn’t yet spoken, put a hand on her arm to try and calm her down, but she shook him off.  “This is the Triarch of the administratory council aboard the orbital.”  Tamara smirked.  Considering how much alcohol she had imbibed, Tamara was impressed she could even
say
a word like ‘administratory’ without slurring.  “He’s in command of this star system.  Just because you’re some jumped up freighter trash who happened to make a lot of money, it doesn’t mean you get to dictate terms.”

              Tamara heard a yip of a chuckle from behind her.  None of the others seemed to have heard.  “I’m the one who has a shipyard that you and the Triarch want to use.  So if he wants me to build warships for him, I absolutely will be dictating terms, ma’am,” she said, doing her best to maintain a strong grip on her temper.  “Triarch?”

              The zheen’s antennae waggled, betraying his calm, but he nodded.  “I will agree to that, up to a point, but I will expect to see steady progress, Ms. Samair.  If, in my estimation, I find that you are dragging your feet…”

              “Triarch, I know that you’ve gotten updates on the construction in my yard for quite a while now.  In fact, ever since I started it up.  At any point have I ‘dragged my feet,’ to use your term?”

              He shook his head, antennae curling a bit.  “No, I have not.  But up until this point, you haven’t been working on a government contract for what will be a government ship.  And based on past history…”

              “If you’re that concerned I will screw you over, Triarch, why are we here?  Why come to me?”

              He hissed out a sigh.  “Because you’re the one with the shipyard and the design schematics for a Republic warship,” Kozen’ck said flatly.  “I understand relations between FP, Inc and the admin council have been… strained… in the past year-…”  The woman on his side of the table snorted loudly.  “But that doesn’t mean that I don’t recognize you and your company’s expertise.”

              Tamara hesitated, looking at the council member skeptically.  Everything he was saying was true, of course, but the fact that his flunkies were being belligerent made her believe that something else was going on here.  But then she looked at the strategic situation here in Seylonique. 
Leytonstone
was a powerful asset, the most powerful Tamara had encountered in her time since waking up from hibernation sleep and now that the overhaul on the ship was completed, it was a threat to anything that opposed it.  But Verrikoth had several ships under his command, most likely more than
Grania Estelle
had seen before.  So this system needed stronger defenses and that meant building more warships.  FP, Inc had a great deal of resources and once the cargo ship was off the line, crewed and loaded, she could send it off to Ulla-tran to work on increasing revenue streams.  But the company’s resources were not endless.  Yes, she had enough in the way of credits to buy a great many things, she couldn’t afford to build an entire fleet herself.  As trade continued and increased, that might change, but for now, the one destroyer she was building for FP would be the last for a while.  But if she built
four
for the government and got paid a hefty commission for doing so?  There might be more ships on the horizon.

              “All right, Triarch.  Draw up the paperwork and send it ASAP.  I have a lot of work to do and I’d like to be started immediately.”

              Kozen’ck clacked his mouthparts in excitement.  “Excellent.  Thank you, Ms. Samair.  It will be good to work with you.  Perhaps we can mend some fences while we do so.”

             
You mean I should fall into line and behave like a good little girl.  Mend fences.  The only reason you mend a fence is because you want to keep something contained, or you want to keep it out.  And I’m pretty sure he isn’t talking about Verrikoth.
  “Yes, of course, Triarch,” Tamara said instead, flashing another dazzling smile.  “I would like that very much.  And I hope that this is just a continuation of a long, profitable and happy business relationship.”  She reached out her hand and the zheen leaned forward, shaking her hand warmly.

              “Well, that went better than I could have hoped,” Kozen’ck stated after the hatch sealed behind Samair and her pet lupusan.  The very drunk henchmen miraculously lost their stupor and instantly became razor sharp. 

              “Yes, sir, it did,” one of the men replied.  “I was sure that she was going to hold out for more; like over a billion per ship.  I can’t believe you got her down to seven eighty.”

              “I was surprised, myself,” the zheen admitted.  “I was thinking at
least
eight fifty.  She’d been such a hard negotiator in the past, I can’t imagine it’s because she suddenly decided to cut us a break.”

              “No,” the woman said, rubbing the tip of her nose with one finger.  “You’re right.  And despite the price we got, she’s still coming off well.  If she only takes twenty percent for profit?”

              One of the men whistled.  “I wish
I
could do that.  But I can’t imagine she’s taking the huge amount of profit and using it for a new… wardrobe or something.”

              The woman glared at him.  “You are so irritating.  I cannot believe that such nonsense just came out of your mouth.  So because she’s a powerful woman, she would spend her money on frivolous things?”  She looked to be working herself into a full-blown tirade.  “Look at all of the things she’s built in the last year!  Does that look like someone who cares about clothes and shoes?”

              “She looked pretty good tonight,” the other man commented, looking thoughtful.  But then he shrugged.  “But maybe she has a steward or a maid or something that looks after things like that for her.  Can’t let the grubby engineer embarrass the company by looking less than her best.  I mean, she’s attractive enough as a front-woman that they would want to keep her looking good.”

              “All right,” the zheen said, getting to his feet.  “Atrus, get the contracts drawn up and sent over to the lawyer.  And don’t get cute, writing in codicils and other ways to cheat her.  We’re already getting a fabulous deal out of this, don’t blow it.”

              “Of course, Triarch.  I’ll have it there within the hour.  I already have a rough draft written up,” the man said.

              “Excellent.  Now I’m getting out of here, as are you Atrus.  But if you want to stay…?” he said to the others.              The other two nodded.  “Go, have fun.  But remember that you have to be back in the office at 0900.  We have that meeting.”

              “Of course, Triarch,” the woman said.  “Come on, I want to dance!”

              The man nodded, ushering her out the door.  Kozen’ck was the last one in the room, Atrus hustling out the hatch before him to get that contract set up. 
This might actually work out.  And with two more companies opening up cargo hauling businesses, perhaps the time of isolation is truly over.  We can get goods and credits flowing into the businesses, into the economy and the coffers through the taxes, we can thrive.  We can
rule
this part of the Cluster.
  He hissed a chuckle. 
I’m getting ahead of myself.  But I think it is a challenge I am looking forward to meeting head on.

              Tamara nodded to herself as Marat followed her back to the airlock on the docking ring, going back to the ship. 
Well, that turned out about as well as could be expected.  They low-balled me a bit, I probably should have held out for at least eight hundred; I probably undersold myself there a bit.  Oh well. 
She snickered. 
When did I change enough that I can shrug off fifty million credits?  What happened to me?  Even back in the old days when I was running Hudora I wasn’t like this.  Of course, budgets were Captain Bythe’s problem.  I wonder if that’s how it started?  He started skimming funds from the budgets here and there, a few million credits every so often and pretty soon he had enough to buy a battleship.  And by that point, he needed a patsy to dump it on.

              But, now I’m getting my yard back, except this time it’s just as I want it.  All of the successes and failures are on me.  And I like it that way.  Now.  About those destroyers…

              “Wait, wait, wait.  They want
four
of the Republic-class destroyers?” Eretria Sterling demanded, flabbergasted.  “That is
so
much hardware.  I mean, their battlecruiser still outguns them, but having four destroyers added to their order of battle?”

              “It would certainly be a good thing as far as keeping the system safe, Ms. Sterling,” Tamara pointed out.  “And while I’m certainly a little uncomfortable with the admin council having so much firepower under their direct control, I’m a businesswoman and a resident to this fine star system.”  Eretria snorted.  “I know, it sounds fake even to my ears.  But, they’re willing to pay.  I could have pushed them for a whole lot more money, but by going a bit low, we still make a
nice
profit margin, and we get the possibility of repeat business.  Besides, we’re not dropping construction of
Persistence of Vision
,” she went on, referring to the new FP destroyer that was in initial stages, “and in getting these contracts, we can build her as well as the other ships without draining the accounts.”

              Eretria shrugged.  “You’re the boss.”  It seemed that she agreed with Tamara’s reasoning.

              She sighed heavily.  “Now, there’s a
lot
of work to be done and a tight schedule to get it done in.  How are we doing on the
First Horizon
?”

              The yard manager nodded.  “She’s looking good, ma’am.  I have to say, after working as an engineering machinist on the
Geldarland,
being a manager at a construction yard feels like such a huge jump.  Now I’m
building
a ship.  Many ships.  My own fleet.”

              Tamara raised an eyebrow.  “
Your
own fleet, Ms. Sterling?” she asked, her voice questioning.

              Eretria colored.  “Oh, of course I meant the
company
’s fleet.”

              Tamara snorted, nodding.  “Of course you did.  And if it’s anyone’s, it’s Vincent Eamonn’s.  I know that we engineers feel possessive about the ships and such that come through our yard, but try to keep things in perspective, Ms. Sterling.”