Hold the Star: Samair in Argos: Book 2 (74 page)

              “Two former shuttle pilots, an air taxi driver, a shuttle school dropout,” she said to herself.  “Not exactly the cream of the crop, but certainly something to work with.” 

              There were thirty zheen standing around in the small conference room that Tamara had rented for the day.  She had waited an extra hour for the last one to arrive, who finally did fifteen minutes later than the time she’d scheduled.  “All right,” she said to the room at large.  “My name is Tamara Samair and I’m chief of operations for the space-based mining and construction in this system.  Please be seated.”  She gestured to the numerous chairs in the room.  It could hold one hundred people in here, and most of the zheen had clustered to the front, though there were a few who sat higher up in ones and twos.

              “Are you sanctioned by the local government?” one of the zheen in the front of the room.

              “I’m licensed by the government to be doing the things I’m doing,” she answered.  “But if you’re asking are we working directly with the government, then the answer is no.”  This seemed to get a reaction from the gathered zheen, based on the amount of antennae waving that suddenly went on, but she wasn’t sure if it was a good or bad sign.  “However, none of you are being hired to do any of the mining or construction.  You are being hired as defense forces for my ships and the gas mining station constructed above the Jovian planet.”  There was another buzz and round of antennae waving.  “I know all of you knew this already, but I wanted to state it plainly.  You will not be expected nor required to work alongside my technicians as they are mining or building.  You
will
however, be expected to fly the
Sepulcre-
class starfighter safely as well as defend all of my assets in this system.”  More hissing.  One of the zheen raised a hand.  Tamara nodded to him.  “I see we have a question.”

              “Yez,” the zheen buzzed.  “What iz a
Szepulcre
-classs sstarfighter?”

              She smiled slightly.  “I’m glad you asked.”  She pulled a small holo projector the size of her palm and her datapad from her knapsack.  Pressing a control on the datapad, the holo projector activated, beaming a huge representation of the fighter over her head, almost life-sized.  The blocky fighter still didn’t look all that visually appealing, but Tamara didn’t much care how it looked.  She only cared how it would perform under combat conditions.  “This is the
Sepulcre
.  It’s a single pilot craft, designed for space superiority.  It’s not designed for atmospheric maneuvering, so you’ll need to remember than when flying maneuvers.”  The room had gone nearly silent as she spoke.  “It’s armed with a pair of missile launchers and a pair of laser cannons.  It’s an ungainly little craft, I’ll grant you that, but it’s fast and can get the job done.”

              “How many are there?” another of the prospective pilots asked.

              “I currently have six ships in my possession, and I’m looking to have a few more constructed.  But, out of all of you here, I’m looking to bring in ten of you on a permanent basis.  That will leave enough backup pilots to fly in case anything should happen.”  Hissing chuckles.  “I’m going to be running all of you through some training exercises using the simulator pods on my shuttle.  There are only six simulators, so we’re going to have to work in small groups.  I know that a fair number of you don’t have much flight experience.  That’s fine.”  She looked around at the zheen here in the room, the varying colors of their carapaces, though they all were some shade of purple.  “I’m paying for your training, but if you’re hired, you sign on for five years with me.  That will be a lot of flight time, a lot of hours in the cockpit.  As time and resources permit, upgrades to the ships will be doled out, as will more fighters.  But that’s a plan for the future.  For now, I’m posting a schedule on the station net for the training sims, they will go on for the next two days.  In that time, we’re going to go over basic flight, to give you a feel for flying.”  She pressed a few controls on her datapad.  “I suggest you all check out the schedule, the first group will meet in hangar bay twenty in one hour.  The names were chosen at random, skill levels will be determined as I see you in the sims.”

              “What’s the pay?” one of them asked.

              “Training will be held here on the station, and quarters have been designated in the transient housing.”  There were some groans at this, but she grimaced and they quieted.  “If you already have lodgings on the station, you are of course, free to use them.  Otherwise, your room and board will be paid for.  Pay is two hundred a week during training and the whole training program is expected to last ten weeks.  By the end of that time, I will have the ten pilots I want and from there the pay will jump to fifteen hundred per week.”  Now there were hisses of happiness and more antennae waving.  She smiled.  “Don’t think that you’ll be sitting around eating ku-resh and watching vids.  I will have you flying combat aerospace patrols, you’ll be running twice a day sims.  You will work harder than I think most of you might have ever worked before.  This is not a show to impress the ladies, my good zheen,” Tamara told them, sweeping her gaze over all of them.  “My captain is determined that his assets will be protected and that, by the stars, is what I’m going to do.  Despite what the admins of this station might tell you, there are hostile forces out there, pirates and other star nations.  And they might decide to drop by in this system to try and take what isn’t theirs.  I intend to have a strong and professional defense force on hand to keep them at bay.”

              Tamara paused for a moment, then nodded.  “Now then.  Once the training is completed, the final selectees will be moving out to my ship, the
Samarkand
, which is working at the gas giant.  For now, that’s where the
Sepulcres
are being housed, but once we get proper facilities up, you will be transferring there.  Any other questions?”  There were none.  “When you arrive for your initial sims, you will be vetted by my chief of security.  And when I say vetted, good sirs, I mean you will be examined under the most powerful scanner you can imagine.  Don’t hold illusions that you will be able to hide things from us.”  Pressing another control, the holo projector shut off and she stowed the two items back in her knapsack.  “Well then, I look forward to working with all of you and I will see the first six in one hour, hangar bay twenty.  You’re all dismissed until then.”

              Vincent Eamonn sat in the command seat on the bridge of the
Grania Estelle
as the ship approached the hyper limit for Seylonique.  It had been a long run to and from Heb, but the profits had been excellent.  His crew, mostly new additions from Seylonique, had done well for themselves.  The profits hadn’t been as high as they’d been in other systems, but it sure beat sitting around in Seylonique for months waiting for repairs to be completed.  The locals had been appreciative of the goods and services the bulk freighter had brought in.  They had built a collector for helium 3 and hung it in orbit of the system’s Jovian.  It wasn’t as rich as the ones in Seylonique or Ulla-tran, but it was perfectly acceptable for the small usage the planet would need and the passing ships might use. 

              The locals had just reached an atomic level of development, but their containment vessels were clearly below par judging by the radiation levels in the cities surrounding the power plants.  Eamonn sold them the use of one of his engineering teams to try and properly contain the radiation of one of the nastier nuclear plants.  Quesh’s blue goop was used in heavy amounts as they and the local teams affected cleanup.  The reactor was leaking toxic waste, the cooling system had corroded and was failing, best case scenario was that the whole system would shut down and just seep radiation.  Worst case was a full on meltdown.  He’d stayed for far longer than he’d intended to, assisting one of the Heb governments in shutting the reactor down and directing the cleanup and disposal operations.  He’d even sold them one of his shuttles so that they would be able to get the contaminated parts and equipment off planet and thrown into an orbit that would head toward the system’s sun.  He sold them the collector he’d dropped and a huge supply of the blue goop, with the formula to make more.  They would need it.  In addition, Turan had flown his entire medical team down to the planet to help out where they could, various cancers and other radiation related illnesses had been high.  By the time
Grania Estelle
broke orbit, treatment centers had been established and it looked as though many who would have died from all the exposure would live and the cancer rate was down, if not completely eradicated.

              With the removal of the nuclear reactor, they were in a serious power crunch.  The reactor they’d disassembled hadn’t been providing more than a pittance for the local area’s energy needs, but now without it, the city and surrounding area was experiencing serious brownouts as the remainder of the power grid tried to compensate.  The locals weren’t happy about it, but they were aware of how serious the problem had been with the failing reactor.  They were in discussions to build a helium 3 fuelled power reactor, but Vincent had decided that they needed to get back to Seylonique and check on things there.  He had remained here in Heb for a month longer than he’d intended, nearly seventy days in total.  He sold one of the local governments the plans, but he was unable to stay to provide technical expertise.  He promised he’d be back this way in a few months to see how they’d progressed.  In the meantime, they’d have the shuttle and the collector to get fuel should they get far enough along.

              But they’d left Heb, stopping at the fuel collector to top off the bulk freighter’s tanks before heading out to hyper limit and jumping away.  The crew morale had been high, though Turan and his medical team didn’t like leaving with the job unfinished.  But Turan had gotten the locals started and the Captain promised that they would be heading back that way in a few months.  The Guura fully intended on stocking up on the appropriate medications and even seeing if he could bring a few doctors and nurses along the would be willing to stay behind and help out those that needed care.

              But the trip back to Seylonique had been nerve wracking, especially in the last few days before breakout in the system.  They had no idea what they were jumping into.  It could be overrun by pirates.  The whole system could be a bombed out ruin.  The battlecruiser could be up and running, patrolling the system, evicting those that the admins didn’t much like, though there wouldn’t be any reason to throw
Grania Estelle
out, not with the profit she’d brought to the system.  Though, Vincent remembered with a sharp pang, the admins hadn’t been exactly thrilled with the changes those profits brought with them.  Perhaps there might be something to worry about.  Hopefully, Samair had managed to work a few more of those miracles she was known for.

              “Thirty seconds to hyper limit,” Isis announced from the helm, her low, almost sultry tones snapping Vincent back from his reverie.

              He straightened in his command seat.  “Yes, thank you, Isis.  At ten seconds, drop us out, standard procedure.”

              “Yes, Captain,” she replied, hovering her hand over the proper control.  At the appropriate time, she pressed the control and there was a surge from the engines.  With hardly a hiccup, the kilometer long bulk freighter dropped from hyper back into normal space, shedding the wash of tachyons which from an outside observer would look almost like a multicolored splash in the surrounding blackness.

              “Report,” Vincent ordered, checking his own displays.

              “Nothing within one hundred thousand kilometers,” George Miller replied almost immediately.  “In fact, going to extreme range on the sensors, I’m not picking up any energy or drive systems.  I think we’re clear.”

              “All right.  Helm, take us in.  Set course for the gas giant so we can top off our tanks.”  The deck plates hummed under Vincent’s feet as the ship accelerated in system.

              “What the hell?” George exclaimed from his station, three days later as the ship approached the target gas giant. 

              “What’s the matter?” the captain immediately snapped, his head whipping around from the display where he had been reading one of the daily engineering reports.  He quickly looked back to his own display, which had Stella’s face on the left hand side and the sensor feed behind her.  The AI didn’t look particularly worried, and Vincent felt his racing heart slow a bit.

              “Sorry, Captain,” George said, slightly embarrassed.  “I didn’t mean to scare you.  There’s a large structure in very low geostationary orbit of the gas giant and we’re showing a number of people in EVA suits apparently working on the station.  I’m showing lots of shuttle and tug activity moving to and from the station.”

              “Where’s the
Samarkand
?” Vincent asked.  “I know she’s around here somewhere.”

              “The freighter is holding position about six light minutes from the gas mine, Captain,” Stella answered before George could.  “They appear to be engaged in mining operations; they’re sending out a host of what look like mining bots to swarm over one of the large rocks that’s been towed clear of the rest of the asteroid belt.”

              Vincent looked upon the sensor feed with smile slowly spreading over his face.  “I’ll be damned, she actually did it.”