First Principles: Samair in Argos: Book 3 (56 page)

              The engineer was a thin and wiry man, but his hands and shipsuit showed signs that he’d been working with something dirty in the last little while.  He shook hands with Lujayne as well.  “Good to meet you, Captain,” he said simply.

              “And you as well, Mister Velasquez, was it?” she replied.

              “Yes, ma’am.  But everyone calls me Ernie.  Only my mama calls me Ernesto and only my primary school teachers ever called me Mister Velasquez.”

              She couldn’t help but smile.  “I see.  Well, if I am the Captain on board this ship, it’s good to see I have someone confident in the engine room.”

              “Oh, yes, ma’am.  I’ll get us where we’re going, don’t you worry none.”  He gestured behind him.  “So, I’m sure you’d like the nickel tour?  Meet the rest of the crew?”

              “Yes, I would,” Lujayne said, trying to maintain her composure, but it was clear to all of them that she was fit to burst. 

              “Carry on, you two,” Tamara said, then stopped.  “Actually, before you do, there are some administrative housekeeping things we need to do first.”

              Ernie slapped himself on the forehead.  “Oh, the changeover of command.  Sorry, Ms. Samair.  Got all excited.”

              Tamara grinned.  “It’s fine, Ernie. Let’s head up to the bridge and get that taken care of and then you can give the full tour.”

              They trouped up the ladders the three levels to the bridge, which was a small, cramped space with four stations: helm, navigation, engineering and operations.  There was one person already there when they arrived; a young woman was seated at the navigation console.  Turning to look, she bolted out of her chair when she saw Tamara and her lupusan guard in the hatch.  “Ma’am!” she exclaimed, startled.

              Tamara waved her hands in a ‘calm down’ motion.  “It’s all right, Miss Slattery.  Relax.  I’m here with your new captain.”

              The young woman, pale as a sheet, suddenly flushed red, at seeing the middle-aged woman coming in behind Tamara.  “Oh, Captain!  I’m sorry, I-I got so nervous, I was just checking navigation updates for our departure and I saw the boss coming in and-…”

              Lujayne held up her hands.  “Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down, Miss Slattery.  Relax.  We’re going to have plenty of time to get to know one another.”

              The young woman gulped and then nodded.  “Yes, ma’am.  Sorry, ma’am.”

              “Now.  What is your name?  Or should I just call you Miss all the time?”

              “Gertrude, ma’am,” the young woman said.  “But everyone calls me Trudy.”

              “Trudy then,” Lujayne replied.  “I’m Lujayne Orzo.  What is your position aboard the ship?”

              “Oh, navigator, ma’am,” the young woman answered, clearly restraining herself from hopping from foot to foot.  “I’m excited to make my first hyperspace jump.”

              Lujayne smiled.  “So am I, Miss Slattery.  So am I.”  She turned to where Tamara was patiently waiting behind her.  “I’m sorry, ma’am.  You said there was something we needed to do?”

              Tamara nodded.  “Yes, the change of command ceremony.”  She stepped over to the operations console and pressed a few keys, then laid her right hand on the input jack.  A few moments later, a holo display activated, showing the list of officers and crew for the FP, Inc cargo ship
First Horizon
, with the Captain slot empty.  Tamara cleared her throat and activated the shipwide comm.  “Crew, this is Tamara Samair, Chief Operations Officer for First Principles, Incorporated.  On this date and at this time, I do hereby transfer command of this ship to Lujayne Orzo, Captain under FP, Incorporated.  Captain,” she said, turning to Lujayne, “you have command.”  The display updated, showing Lujayne’s name and image now showing next to the captain’s slot.  Pressing another command, the display vanished.  She held out a hand.  “Congratulations, Captain.”

              Lujayne, flustered but still in control of herself, reached over and shook Tamara’s hand.  “Thank you, ma’am.”

              “Now, here is your Captain’s Key,” she said, handing over the device.  It was little more than a data stick the size of her thumb, which would give her access to all systems on the ship, and allow her to set everyone else’s access save her own.  “Do not lose this,” Tamara warned sternly.  “In fact, I recommend never letting it off the ship.  But other than that, I will get out of your hair.  Meet your crew, tour the ship, then get out of here and make me some money.”

              Lujayne nodded, accepting the Key.  “Thank you, ma’am.  And we will.”

              Tamara nodded to her, Slattery and Velasquez once more, then turned away and left the ship, her lupusan guard in tow.  She took one glance back, just as she was crossing the airlock, seeing the newly painted bulkheads and breathing in that new starship smell.  Then she stepped over the threshold and back onto
Moxie-2.

              Tamara checked her displays and saw the Ulla-tran convoy was heading back to the hyper limit.  They had departed the orbital and were now on a vector that would take them past the yard and on.  They must have done well; the freighters had been at the orbital for no longer than four days before powering up and leaving.  She silently wished them luck.  The more they liked what they got here, the more often they’d come back for another round.

              Nasir appeared above her office holo projector.  “Tamara, we have a problem.”

              “Oh?”

              “One of the Ulla-tran vessels is carrying a pair of A2 replicators.  They were originally sold to Dyson Solutions about a month ago and I’ve received no messages from Dyson saying that they are going to cancel their contract.”

              Tamara grimaced, pulling up the contracts for Dyson Solutions on her display.  Sure enough, she saw Nasir was correct.  Two A2 replicators, thirty-one days ago.  The people at the company had been ecstatic over the delivery of that equipment, she remembered.  They were a small company that built marine vessels, specifically twenty to thirty meter fishing vessels.  The seas off of the western coast were teeming with fish of numerous varieties and up until now, only a few families with fishing boats had been able to exploit that resource, and only a few kilometers off shore.  Dyson had been determined to get boats out farther to fish in deeper waters.  Tamara had approved of their ingenuity, as well as their work ethic.  It seemed as though they were ready to put their first boat in the water within the next week, if they kept to their schedule.  And now this.

              “Open a channel to that ship, please, Nasir,” she ordered, straightening in her chair.  At his nod, Tamara took a deep breath and then began to speak.  “This is Tamara Samair, on the FP Construction ship
Samarkand
to Ulla-tran convoy.  I have some information for you about some transactions that occurred on the planet’s surface.  Please respond.”

              A moment later, a zheen’s face appeared on the display.  “This is Kogak, commander of the freighter
Hypnos Latent
, responding.  What information is it that you have for us, Samair?”  He wasn’t speaking Standard, instead his own regular voice which consisted of hisses and clacks of his mandibles, and the translator unit around his neck was sending his words in a monotone.

              She checked her sensor display.  “I received information that your convoy picked up a pair of the A2 replicators my company leased to Dyson Solutions.”

              The zheen’s antennae straightened.  “I know of no such transaction.  Why would you believe such lies as told by local business?”

              Tamara smiled.  “I just thought I’d inform you that theft of FP property carries a penalty.  I will not allow my tech to be taken out of the system without my express permission.  And you don’t have it.”  She pressed a command sequence on the control board, sending the destruct command to the convoy.  “I’m sorry you decided you couldn’t just approach me directly.  We might have been able to work something out.  That’s too bad.”  She glanced over to Nasir, who flicked his ears, then nodded.  “Next time, my response will be more severe.  Samair out.”  She looked to the AI, after she cut the connection.  “Did the destruct sequence go through?”

              Nasir nodded.  “Yes, Tamara.  The two devices are destroyed.”

              “Get in touch with the people from Dyson.  I want to know what happened.”

              “Sir, we have an incoming call from the
Hypnos Latent
,” the comms officer spoke up suddenly.  “Their captain is demanding to speak with you.”

              Marklan Peredes Turco sighed.  It was always something with these freighter captains.  They weren’t moving the convoy fast enough and we’re losing money.  We’re pushing the engines of the ships too hard and burning up fuel and we’re losing money.  The locals don’t have a complimentary shuttle service down to the surface.  Why aren’t there more warships to escort this convoy?  On and on. 
Kogak is probably going to whine to me about how the sun is reflecting off the ports on his ship and it’s bothering those eyes of his.
  “Put him through to my chair here.”

              “Yes, sir.”

              The small monitor on the arm of Turco’s chair activated and the maroon-carapaced face of Kogak appeared.  His antennae were flaring, clearly displaying his distress.  “Marklan!  The thugs in this system have destroyed my cargo!”

              Turco raised an eyebrow.  “What are you talking about, Reigan?” he asked, referring to Kogak by his civilian title, owner/commander of a cargo vessel.  “What thugs?  No one has come near your ship in the entire time that we’ve been in this system, other than your own crew and cargo loaders.”  He paused.  “What exactly was it that they destroyed?”

              Kogak hissed, but the translator provided no words; the noise was nothing more than an exclamation of severe frustration.  “I had a pair of fabricators I acquired from one of the businesses on the surface.  That… woman sent out a signal and they melted down!”

              “Fabricators…” Turco said slowly, dragging the syllables out. 
Why was this sounding so familiar?
  “These wouldn’t happen to be the replicators that the FP people have leased to various companies on the planet and the orbital station would they?”

              Another hiss.  “I don’t see what that has to do with anything-…”

              “Because I heard,” Turco interrupted, “through various inquiries I’ve made to FP about those devices, that they are
still
FP property.  They are not owned by those various companies I mentioned, only rented.”

              “That is preposterous!” Kogak retorted, all of his mouthparts wiggling frantically.  “I bought and paid for those devices.  They had no right to destroy them!”  His voice was still coming through in a monotone, but Kogak was clearly furious.  “No right.”

              “Those devices were not meant for you to buy, Reigan,” Turco told him.  “The FP execs set it up so that they would always be in control of their own property.  If you bought that from the business down on the planet, I don’t believe that
they
had the right to sell it to you.”  He smiled.  “And what is it you expect me to do?”

              Kogak hissed in extreme frustration.  “I expect you to protect our interests, Marklan.  I expect you to
do
something about this!”

              Turco nodded, feeling any trace of humor slide off his face.  “I’ll tell you Reigan exactly what I’m going to do.  I’m going to do exactly nothing.  You got yourself into some dodgy business transaction and you tried to run off with someone else’s property.  And they caught you.  They didn’t attack Ulla-tran sovereign assets or civilians; they were protecting their own property.  So I’m not going to do anything.”

              “You…”  The zheen broke off, apparently so shocked, he couldn’t continue his rant.  But he rallied.  “I will be speaking to the governors about this when we get back home, Marklan!  I promise you will regret this!”  And he closed the connection.

             
Ah, the joys of being a warship commander.  I’ll be getting an earful from the governors when I go home, but I think I can handle it. 
Turco sat up a little straighter in his chair and pulled up an image of the FP constructor ship.  He gave a sardonic salute to its commander. 
Thanks a lot, Tamara Samair.  I’m going to take a few lumps because of you. 
He mentally shrugged, his lips twisting in a grin. 
But it was worth it to see Kogak flailing around like that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~

              Tamara watched the Ulla-tran convoy continue on its vector toward the hyper limit.  She was surprised that none of the ships had any response to her melting down the two replicators.  Once she had Nasir send the destruct signal and confirm that it worked, there hadn’t been so much as a peep out of those ships. 
No way.  Some freighter captain does his best to get my tech and they just meekly accept it?
  She sat back in her chair, elbow on the arm and one finger tapping her temple in thought.  Then she shrugged. 

              “Any word on what happened at Dyson?” Tamara asked.

              Galina’s canine visage appeared on the display.  “I just received a transmission from them.”

              “Did the people in the convoy steal them?”

              The lupusan shook her head.  “No, not according to what the message said.  The sales manager of the company indicated that the captain of
Hypnos Latent
made a very large offer for the replicators, fifty thousand credits.”

              Tamara nodded in appreciation.  “That’s about what Dyson was going to be paying in total for the use of my replicators.  So they just deliberately violated the terms of our contract?  Hoped I wouldn’t notice?”

              She huffed.  “Seems that way.  Terms of the contract indicate that we blackball them for it.”

              Tamara let out a deep sigh.  Then she nodded, throwing her hands up in the air.  “Make sure they understand why.  If we need to, get the lawyers involved.”  She scowled.  “Damn it.  I hate this.  Why the hell didn’t the Dyson people just contact us?  Or tell
them
to contact us?”

              Galina nodded.  “I’ll take care of it, Tamara.”

              But Tamara shook her head.  “That’s not your job, Galina.  It’s mine.  I’ll let them know.”

              “If that’s what you want, Tamara,” the lupusan replied, looking concerned.  Ever since she had been getting more responsibilities, the lupusan captain had stepped up, working on trying to expand the company’s client base.  She had been contacting businesses on the surface, large and small, looking to see if there was anything that FP could do to work with them. 

              Tamara tapped her fist on the desk.  “It
isn’t
what I want.  What I
want
is for those bastards never to have put me in this position at all.”  Another heavy sigh.  “No, I’ll call them.  And I get the feeling that I’m going to get to be the asshole here.  We’re probably going to need to get the lawyers involved and then we get to be the big juggernaut stomping on the little homegrown business.”

              “I understand.”  Galina nodded.  And she did.  “Are you sure you can do this?”

              “Yes,” Tamara replied.  “And I think it’s time to start reviewing our policy on leasing those devices.  I don’t want this happening again.”

              Galina nodded.  “I agree.  Though I think once the word of this gets around, anyone who’s still got them won’t want to lose them, and anyone who wants one is going to think twice before they try and sell them off.”

              “I sure hope so.  I don’t want to lose business over this, but I don’t want to start throwing our weight around, either.  I’m trying to build up this company’s reputation and if I have to keep stomping on people that misbehave, no matter how right I am, people are just going to see me and by extension FP, as the evil corporation that wants to control everything and just line my pockets.”

              Galina considered her for a long moment.  “Well, if you need me, don’t you hesitate to call.”

              Tamara chuckled lightly.  “I will.”  She ended the call.  Taking a few moments to calm herself, she pressed a control, readying a message to record.  “Yuri Beckett, this is Tamara Samair with FP.  Earlier today, I received confirmation that two of my A2 replicators, A2’s that I leased to you, I might add, were now in the hands of one of the freighters on its way out of the system…”

              “We have breakout!” the pilot said excitedly.

              Leicasitaj turned to his sensor officer.  “Report.”  This was the first hyperspace trip
Mondragon
had ever made, in fact the first any of this
crew
had ever made, and he was determined that it would go smoothly.  The frigate had barely been out of drydock when they had gone on a short patrol of the FP real estate in Seylonique, and then Samair and Eamonn had decided that
Mondragon
would be escorting the small convoy to Heb.

              “No contacts, Captain,” the sensor watch specialist replied calmly.  Then she frowned.  “No sign of
Grania Estelle
or
Silver Dawn
.”

              The Romigani showed no sign of emotion.  He wasn’t concerned about the bulk freighter or the smaller cargo hauler, yet.  He’d purposefully had the pilot increase the speed of his ship so that they would arrive ten minutes before his charges, in case there was some problem that needed to be dealt with.  Properly tuned,
Mondragon
could reach well into the Green level of the hyperspace rainbow, which was a full level higher than either of the two cargo ships.  Left alone, Leicasitaj’s ship could make the same trip in twenty-one days, as opposed to the
Grania Estelle
’s thirty-three.  He was intensely proud of this ship and its crew.  He was the captain of the company’s flagship, the most powerful vessel owned by First Principles.  For now anyway, he knew.  It wouldn’t take long for Tamara Samair to start cranking out more, bigger and better ships.  But for now, for this brief, shiny time, Leicasitaj controlled FP’s strongest military asset.

              “Maintain passive sensor scan.  We should be seeing the two freighters in the next few minutes.”  The Romigani spoke with confidence, as if there was no doubt in his mind about the outcome.  There was a very small degree of worry, but not much.  He had confidence that
Grania Estelle
would arrive, with her fellow freighter in tow because he knew Captain Tamara Samair’s work.  Hell, it was Samair and Sterling that had built
this
ship, and they’d made it here to Heb without any problems.

              “Hyper footprint!” the sensor watch called, sounding excited.  “Two ships… it’s them, sir.”

              “Confirm that!” the ship’s executive officer snapped. 

              The sensor watch specialist nodded.  “It’s confirmed, sir.  Markings on the hull match our records from back in Seylonique, and they’re both broadcasting their IDs.”

              Leicasitaj nodded.  “Very well.  Confirm with Captain Eamonn.  We will be heading in system.  Match speed with them, but bring us out ahead of them one light second.”

              “Aye, Captain,” the XO replied. 

              The captain of
Mondragon
settled himself for a quiet journey in system.  It would be several days in, but then he would be able to see his first new planet.  He most likely would be forced to remain aboard the ship, which was slightly disappointing, but he’d come here to defend the two cargo vessels, not go sightseeing.  But in the meantime, it didn’t mean that they couldn’t use the time to look at absolutely everything this star system had to offer.  Sure,
Grania Estelle
had been here several times already, but the good freighter captain hadn’t taken the time to properly appreciate the real estate; he’d just gone straight to the business meeting.  Not that Leicasitaj could blame him.  The man was a cargo hauler, a businessman, not an explorer.  He’d done an amazing job in getting around the Argos Cluster for as long as he had, but now he didn’t need to.  He didn’t need to jump blindly into each star system.  He had Leicasitaj and the other company warship captains to do the hard work for him.  All Eamonn needed to do now was concentrate on his primary job: signing the pay vouchers for Leicasitaj and for the members of his ship’s company.  He gave a watery chuckle.  The XO glanced over at him, but said nothing.

              “XO,” he said after a few minutes.  “As we get closer in system, I want to launch a series of sensor drones in system.  I think it might be prudent to do as much of a survey of the system as we can.”

              The young officer, a man named Mason Dietrich, looked over to his captain.  “A survey, sir?”

              “Yes, Lieutenant,” Leicasitaj said, “A survey.  I want to have the sensors pull up as much information as we can possibly get about this system.  We’re probably going to be confined to a fairly close in patrol near to the habitable world, to keep our charges safe, but I want to try and get as much information about the whole system as we can.”

              Dietrich looked over to his captain.  “Any particular reason, Captain?”

              “Well,” he drawled, “it just makes sense from a security perspective.  Get an idea what might be here as far as moons, asteroids, and any ships that might think they can hide out in the area.”  He shrugged one tentacle hand.  “I’m not really expecting to find any ships in the system except for us, but you never know.  And it helps to be vigilant.”