Retribution (The Federation Reborn Book 3) (15 page)

The admiral nodded. He'd read the thumbnail brief like the rest of the cabinet. Airea 3 had two continents that were tropical climates right on the equator. They were hot houses, and therefore, rubber plantations were spread all over the place. They fed latex to mills in the north and south who processed the material into finished goods, everything from tires to seals, hoses and gaskets.

Apparently they made a good profit exporting those goods to neighboring star systems like Epsilon Triangula that had a thriving automotive industry that needed the products. They paid for the shipping by supplying the freighters with food and rubber products to keep their ships functional, plus a tithe of the trade.

Recently the Airea 3 government had started to level docking fees to visiting ships in order to rebuild their spaceport. Since most of that money was actually coming from government grants, that was blatant fraud. When Liobat had pointed that out the delegates from Airea 3 had expressed their displeasure, they'd also released a statement saying the money was being reallocated to the infrastructure
around
the spaceport to keep up with increased demand for their project and more potential visits from freighters.

They'd also levered import tariffs on mining and machinery equipment that was imported from Nightingale and Epsilon Triangula. Apparently they wanted to “grow their local industry” and “not get undercut by foreign interests.” The problem was that the tariffs were solely against interests on those two planets. There was evidence that Airea 3 was being selective on who they used the tariffs against.

That was a factor his cabinet had to consider. They had to decide if they were going to intervene at all. Then there was the request to help the planet export its products to other markets since they'd ramped up production and saturated the local markets to the point where the prices were falling due to a lack of demand and the supply was stacking up in the warehouses.

What it really meant was that ET hadn't quite fully recovered enough to need the products even though they were modernized. And consumers were more interested in air cars than ground cars at the moment, which meant the tire market was about to take a hit, and manufacturers in Airea 3 were anticipating it.

“I think we can safely table this for a little while longer. Let them mull over the implied threat. Maybe a bit of back door mentions of their own tariffs? Heavens knows the ET delegates have been pissy about it for a while now,” T'rel'n said.

“True,” the admiral said, sipping his coffee. “What's this about salvage and new ships?”

With more ships plying space between the star systems, there was far more interest in ships and shipyards. The small civilian yards were already saturated with work. They didn't have enough skilled workers to expand either. Civilians in Pyrax worked with investors to build a civilian yard. They contracted naval engineers to work on their own time as consultants on the project. The consultants were hampered by ONI and Commander Teague however. Irene wanted to make certain they didn't reveal any secrets.

It was inevitable that people were looking for a quick payday. Most were picked up however. But now that things were starting to come together, a few were out there looking for more.

“According to our reports salvage claims have been declared for four ships found in several star systems in the sector. Two of them in star systems Fourth Fleet recently visited so the ships may be recently taken,” Admiral Sienkov supplied. “We, we meaning Naval Intelligence,” he paused in an aside to the audience. “Apparently we've known the location of those ships for a few months.”

“That is correct, from captured personnel and databases,” Admiral Irons replied with a nod as he took a sip of coffee. He grimaced; the mug was cool. He sent a mental command to his implants to morph his hand to emit microwave radiation to warm the cup up once more.

“The problem is, one of those salvage claims as you know is mired. I believe your chief of staff filed an injunction blocking the claim and request for assistance,” D'red stated, indicating Sprite.

“That is correct,” Sprite stated. “It isn't salvage or abandoned; it is in an empty star system.” She sent the file to Admiral Irons as a reminder. Protector caught it, scanned it into memory, and then put it up on the admiral's HUD.

Admiral Irons scowled as his eyes scanned left and right to read the entry. “Commander Sprite is correct; it isn't salvage.
Io 11
left it for their future use. I was in on that; I helped them build a few of the facilities there.”

He glanced over to D'red's holographic avatar. “I don't know who briefed you, but none of what is there has been abandoned, just mothballed.”

“But there are no caretakers in place,” T'rel'n stated.

“You place a satellite or platform somewhere you don't expect someone to come around and take it. They marked the facilities as their property.”

“She shouldn't have left it,” Moira interjected.

The admiral glanced at the woman. “She, being the ship or in this case ships plural, couldn't take the massive space station with them. They are using it as a staging ground—an orbital warehouse and other facilities.”

Moira wrinkled her nose. “For …”

“The orbital warehouse is self-explanatory.” Moira nodded. “The other facilities were built to build more starships. It's a slip,” the admiral explained reluctantly. “What surprises me is that Fourth Fleet hadn't found it when they passed through the star system a short time ago.”

“They didn't look hard enough?” Mister Custard asked.

The admiral glanced at the agricultural secretary and then nodded. “Yeah, there is that I suppose. We may never know. I guess we can count our blessings that they were in a hurry.” He looked over to the attorney general. “But stomp on that.”

“Squashing it … I'll have to check the legal status.”

“Here,” the admiral said. He tapped at the tablet in his hand. It was functioning as a virtual keyboard to his own implants and files. He opened the appropriate files and then attached them and then sent them to the Veraxin Cyber. “Here you go.”

“What is …? I see. It has an active beacon. The salvage crew did admit that, and I see from your file that you advised them to follow all legal steps to establish the claim. Interesting, though the beacon only activated when they attempted to board. I'm noting that the salvage team tried to cut their way aboard and were warned off by an automated booby-trap. They were asking for government assistance,” the Veraxin clacked.

“Booby trapped?” Admiral Sienkov asked. He looked at the president.

“It's against space-time maritime law as you know,” the Veraxin stated.

Admiral Irons smiled slightly. “I know. I'm wondering if it was a bluff or not.”

“Again, unknown.”

“Warn them off for now. Remind them it has an active beacon and was left by an active ship. Don't jump the claim.”

“Hmm, mining rights, claim jumping … I suppose I can find enough references there to tie them up for a while, at least until one of the ships shows up.”

“Yes.
Molly
is around this sector. I believe she's headed in that direction. Sprite, put a call out to her,” the admiral said, making a note.

Sprite's avatar nodded. “I'll let Faith know something is up, sir.”

Moira nodded. “Good. They can then file the necessary claim papers, and we can wash our hands of the problem or at least fall back and let the courts handle it.”

“Agreed.”

“I'd recommend that the claim jumpers try a carrot instead. I wonder if this
Molly
would work with them?” T'rel'n asked.

“It is a possibility if they approach the problem properly and don't burn bridges by pissing Faith and her crew off,” Sprite stated. “I'll make the suggestion since our current civilian shipyards are saturated with work. Perhaps they can work a deal. Manning it full time would prevent claim jumping in the future.”

“And give us another star system to defend,” Admiral Sienkov growled.

“And one to potentially tax for revenue,” T'rel'n stated smoothly. The human admiral gave the Veraxin an amused “you would say that” look.

“This situation and similar ones are going to make things dicey when it comes time to arbitrate any dispute that arises however,” the Veraxin added as an afterthought. “Especially if there is a conflict of interest.”

“We will deal with it as it comes I suppose. We can't have everything,” the admiral said with a shrug.

“Yes, sir, moving on,” D'red said with a nod. He knew his boss was at the end of his patience level, and it was time to stop pushing and let the matter rest.

“Yes, please do.”

:::{)(}:::

After a short recess for brunch, the cabinet met once more. “Okay, we need to wrap this up, but we've still got a few details to finish. I understand there were questions about consolidation forces with Bek and Nuevo as well as new construction?”

“Budget concerns from my end,” T'rel'n stated, clacking his mandibles. “We still haven't figured out the mechanics of the tax system with them as well,” he stated. “I should have sent a delegation to both star systems.”

“Next run,” Moira stated. She glanced at the admiral. “And we need to work out the upgrades, tech advances, and this plan to build space stations in the empty star systems. I'm still confused about that one,” she said.

“One thing at a time,” Admiral Irons stated. “But I admit, some of them are intertwined,” he said ruefully.

“Yes, like how we get so many people out. And ships,” Doctor Kraft stated.

“Trade as well. We need regular established trade,” Captain Broken Antenna stated.

“Okay, let's get to that then. We've got various proposals being kicked around in the Admiralty right now,” Admiral Irons stated with a nod to Admiral Sienkov. “The bottleneck is the rapids of course.”

“What he means is we need special navigators to helm that stretch of space. It is rough,” Sprite said. “I was dubious about trying to run it myself,” she said.

“I'm glad you didn't try myself,” Admiral Sienkov stated. He shook his head. “It was rough on
Caroline
the one time we went,” he said, glancing at Moira. The woman nodded.

“You said you were working on a plan, Mister President?” the T'clock asked, waving her good antenna at the admiral.

“We are indeed. What we're discussing now is permanently securing B101a1 and building it up as a node.”

“That is … ambitious. There is little there to use, Admiral. It would have to be all shipped in,” Broken Antenna stated.

“At great cost I'd imagine,” T'rel'n added.

“We'll get to that part. First, we build a station there. Instead of building it near the entrance to the rapids, we build it in the inner system for material,” he looked at the industrial secretary. “Sandra'kall, I'm afraid we'll need a factory ship. One of the ones the navy is leasing out would work I suppose. We will have to break up a moon or dwarf planet for raw material.”

“Okay, I see that part and ship in components as well,” the Centaurian stated. Her avatar bowed slightly. “A wise two-prong plan.”

“It's just part of it. The other problem is defenses, which falls on the navy,” the admiral said, waving a hand to indicate himself and Admiral Sienkov. “We'll need to build defenses there and have a stronger picket.”

“Agreed,” Admiral Sienkov stated.

“The other part of the plan is to do the same thing in B102c. There are dozens of derelict ships there I understand.”

“Which can be rebuilt or used as raw material,” Moira interjected.

“Heh, wait until the salvage people hear about that! They'll be all over it!”

“They've got to get there first. And right now they'd have to run through navy shipping,” the admiral stated. “We hold the route, and we'll continue to do so to protect it and the star systems on the other side,” the admiral said.

“Thank you,” Moira murmured quietly.

The admiral nodded. “The other part of the plan is to have shipping run to B102c and stage through the station there while expert helm crews act as harbor pilots. They'll board a ship and get them through the rapids. Once on the other side, they'll get off on the station and then on to the next ship back.”

“A sound proposal. But you only have so many pilots to spare currently,” Captain Broken Antenna stated.

“Enough for two crews. One is currently on
Caroline
; the other is on the
Sally Ride
,
which is hauling the ansible cores to the nexus. That is why we didn't pack the other ships that went to B101a1 with
Caroline
and send them with her if you remember.”

That got a few people to sit up in sudden intent speculation. The admiral smiled briefly. “Ah, I thought that would wake people up. Yes, we'll be able to establish regular contact with Bek and through couriers, Nuevo soon.”

“Okay, so we have a plan to get goods and material through the rapids. I'm assuming the ships on the other side will eventually have hyperdrives? So they can form a microeconomy there?” T'rel'n asked, turning his eye stalks to Moira and then to Admiral Sienkov.