Pursue the Past: Samair in Argos: Book 1 (94 page)

              Tyler nodded.  “Keep an eye on them, Sensors,” he ordered.  “Comms, if you can crack their communication encryption, I’d like a report on what they’re saying, even if it is just routine updates.”

              “Yes, Commander.”

              Goris Hana had thrown a full-on temper tantrum when he heard that the interlopers in his star system had “nicked” the
Grania Estelle
.  He didn’t care that his own ships had been no match for the freighter’s computer viruses, or that the proper warships had been too far away to intervene in the fighting.  And when they had gotten into range, the ships were outclassed.  Perhaps in a desperate fight to try and protect the system the defense ships might have taken on the outsiders and done well, but they wouldn’t be able to win. 

              Of course, he knew this, but he hadn’t been willing to listen.  He shouted and fired his weapon, though thankfully he hadn’t hit anyone.  The XO had barely managed to avoid getting shot by diving behind the communications console, and it took over three hours to make repairs and get the systems back up.  When he’d been showered in sparks, Hana snapped out of his rage, ordered them to “carry on” and stormed out of Operations.

              The XO, glad to have his boss leave his domain, ordered the frigate and corvettes to hang back and stay out of weapons range of the cruisers and their prizes.  They were to maintain surveillance of those ships and report everything back.  They were only to act if those ships moved to attack the fueling station or any of the rest of the real estate in the system.  The merchant conversions had arrived at the fueling station within hours of their arrival, looking to load up on fuel.  He was surprised that they offered to pay for the fuel, which was completely unexpected.  When a number of warships showed up in a system and captured a big freighter, the XO simply figured that his fueling station would be next.

              “It’s a pleasure to be doing business with you, Captain,” he said a few hours later when a zheen, presumably the leader of this expedition, called in to the fueling station.  “I have to say I’m surprised that you’re wanting to actually
do
business.”

              “And why iz that, good ssir?” Verrikoth asked.  His tone was light, but the XO was skilled enough to see the danger there.

              So he opted for the truth.  “Honestly, with your warships here in system and with the ruckus that got stirred up not too far from here, I assumed we were in for more of the same.  But as I said, it’s a pleasant surprise.  You’re getting a good product and you’re paying fair rates.”  The rates Verrikoth were paying were a bit lower than the XO would have liked, truth be told, but they were fair. 

              But the zheen nodded, the dangerous vibe vanishing.  “I do have a bit of an aggresssive way of doing buzinesss, but I do want to continue to do buzinesss with local ssysstemz.  I have disscovered that ssimply taking what you want haz the unwanted sside effect of alienating everyone around you.  I want to be able to work with the people of Ulla-tran in the future.”

              “I appreciate that, Captain.  I do appreciate that very much,” the XO replied, beaming.  “If you’re interested, we could talk about setting up some sort of long-term arrangement for fuel.”

              The zheen nodded.  “I would like that, ssir.  The next time I am back thiss way I will be in need of a good deal of fuel for my sshipss.”

              The XO rubbed his hands together as the two of them settled in for some business.  In the end, they worked out an arrangement for a good deal of fuel, something that both sides were happy with.  Verrikoth sketched a two fingered salute before signing off.  The XO slumped back in his chair, bewildered.  “A reasonable pirate?” he asked.  “What’s happening to the world?”

              Vincent Eamonn was sitting in his quarters, a beer in a glass on his small table.  It had been a long day.  He’d just come from sickbay, getting updates from the haggard-looking Turan and visiting all of his injured crewmen, even if they weren’t awake.  He’d put his people through a lot lately and they’d sacrificed a lot.  A few of them, like George, Saiphirelle and Quesh were in rough shape, but were slowly recovering.  The lupusan was doing the best, most of her wounds were of the blunt force variety from the beating she’d taken from the soldiers.  The nanite injections that Turan had given her were working their magic and she as several days away from being back on her feet.  It would be a good two weeks before she’d be 100% again, but he knew from experience that she’d be bitching and threatening the orderlies in probably four days.  Turan would probably release her from sickbay in five and let her back on light duty in ten. 

              Quesh was another story.  He’d suffered serious nerve damage from the repeated stun blasts and was under serious treatment to repair his neural pathways.  Turan was pulling out all the stops for the Chief Engineer, even going so far as to dip into a few experimental techniques.  So far they were working, but the recovery was agonizingly slow.  And also the problem was once the Parkani had woken up, he was in excruciating pain.  Another issue was that the treatment was slowed by any painkillers Turan used to try and help, but it was simply too much, even for the tough as nails Parkani.  He’d had to reduce treatments to about thirty-five percent of maximum, which increased the time by a matter of weeks.  He’d be at least a month in sickbay before he’d be back on his feet, and probably another week or two before he’d be recovered enough to get back to work.  But there was nothing to be done and Quesh was in too much pain to really argue.  Slowing the treatments and trying out some light painkillers helped to ease the pain, but it was never gone.  His whole body would occasionally tense up and he would have uncontrollable muscle spasms as neural pathways were repaired.  The big male was frustrated beyond belief but there was nothing that could be done.  He either had to take the pain at this level, or they would have to reduce the treatments further, which would drastically increase his healing time.  But the big engineer was a trooper, he hardly complained once the Guura had laid the whole situation out for him.

              And finally, George Miller.  The man was recovering, in fact, he was spending most of his time in the regen tank, though Turan believed that today would be the last day for that.  The nanite injections were doing their job and the wound was almost completely healed.  The problems of infections and sepsis had been the biggest worries but the dunks in the tank had kept them at bay and finally cleared them up.  He’d be another week and then back on the bridge, which made Eamonn very happy.

              The chime at his door sounded and he sighed, closing his eyes.  Never a break.  He opened his eyes and stood, walked over to the hatch and keyed it open.  Moxie was standing there, looking absolutely wretched.  She clearly still hadn’t slept, her ship suit was rumpled and filthy; her hands, arms and face were also covered with grease and dirt.  Her hand was against the outside doorjam, keeping herself upright.

              “Moxie, it’s late.  What could possibly be so important that it couldn’t wait until the morning?” he asked.  Then his stomach turned to ice.  “There isn’t a problem with the hyperdrive, is there?” he demanded.  That would be all they needed at this point.  They’d barely made Verrikoth’s deadline as it was.

              “No, Captain, there isn’t,” she answered, rather monosyllabically.  Her voice was much more gravelly than he was used to, probably due to her lack of sleep.

              “What do you want, Moxie?” he asked again.  “I’m tired, I know you’re tired.”

              “We need to have a discussion, Captain and I don’t think we should wait.”

              He sighed and stepped back from the hatch.  He waved her inside and closed the hatch behind her.  Tamara flopped down on the very end of his bed, and he sat down back in his chair, swiveling around in the chair to be able to see her. 

              “Ship’s systems are back up, though nowhere near what they were before this whole thing started,” she told him.

              “Moxie, you could have told this to me over the comms or you could have waited until the morning.  What the hell are you doing in here and why am I not throwing you out?”

              She sighed, sitting forward and putting her face in her hands.  “Damn I am so tired.”  She rubbed her eyes and then looked back up.  “I’m here to talk about the crew of
Emilia Walker
.”

              “What?  Damn,” Eamonn said, pounding a fist on the table.  “I’ve seen Vosteros and his zheen crewman in sickbay, but they were both out whenever I went down there.”

              Tamara nodded.  “What about the ship?”

              “What about the ship?” he retorted.  “We can’t save their ship, Moxie.  You know that.”

              “Yes, Captain, I do, but what about them?  You’re going to have another captain aboard your ship?”

              Eamonn sighed.  “For now, I guess,” he hedged.  “But he’s taken a good beating.  It’ll be a little while before he’s on his feet.”

              Tamara shook her head.  “He’ll be up and about by the time we get halfway to the next star system.”

              “Moxie, again, this is not something that couldn’t have waited.”  He was starting to get agitated now.

              She took a few breaths.  “I think Taja is royally pissed at you,” she blurted.

              He chuckled.  “And they say engineers are completely oblivious to their surroundings.”  He took a sip of his drink and then set the cup down.  “Yes, Moxie, she is very upset with me.  I’m not a complete idiot for all I am male.”

              “I’m sorry, Captain,” she said, and meant it.

              He only nodded.  “Yeah, well.  Not much can be done about it now.  She’s scared and she doesn’t like the changes I’ve made.”

              “We got attacked by pirates,” Tamara exclaimed, though it was dampened somewhat by her sudden jaw-cracking yawn. 

              The captain chuckled at her embarrassment.  “We got attacked by pirates, but I think she was more upset by the fact that we’re even in this system to begin with.  Then my gung-ho exclamation to save
Emilia Walker
and her crew, and now my collaboration with pirates.”

              “Collaboration?” Tamara spluttered, sitting up straighter.  “That’s complete horseshit, Captain.  She was happier than anyone to see you back.”

              He nodded.  “And then elation wore off and reality set in.  I don’t even know why I’m talking to you about this,” he said, looking at his cup.

              Tamara looked down at the deckplating.  “I shouldn’t have come in here.  You were right,” she muttered, getting to her feet.  “There wasn’t anything that couldn’t have waited.  Good night, Captain,” she said, heading to the hatchway.

              “Moxie,” the captain called, as she keyed it open.

              She turned back as her hand pressed the button.  “Yes, sir?”

              “I’m glad you came by.”

              She nodded, but turned away.  “It was a mistake, Captain.  Good night.”  And with that she pulled the hatch open and nearly ran over Taja, who was on the other side of the hatch, hand raised to press the comm button. 

              The smaller woman’s face completely drained of color and she turned and fled without a word.  Tamara tried to call out to her, but she didn’t answer.  The captain was on his feet and just behind her at the hatchway.  “Great,” he muttered.  “Well
that
certainly isn’t going to help things.”

Chapter 30

              A day later and the ship was ready.  Verrikoth had decided that since the “misunderstanding”, he couldn’t have a ship as big as this bulk freighter flying around with empty cargo holds.  So in addition to the fuel he’d already purchased to top up his warships he bought enough extra to fill two of
Grania Estelle’s
holds.  That of course left six empty, which would certainly make the ship faster at sublight speeds because of the reduced mass, but it certainly wouldn’t be very profitable.

              In her copious free time, Tamara had somehow found a few hours to get the class five replicator up and running and had churned out replacement parts for the device itself to make sure that it wasn’t going to fail.  The next thing in line was a new e-replicator, which the parts were coming forth even now.  It would be a day or so before the parts and the constructor matrix were done, and then probably another twelve hours to actually assemble it. 

              The Captain sent out two of the shuttles to rope some rocks for processing, and while it was clear the pirates were interested in what they were doing, Verrikoth sent no messages.  They had an agreement and to be honest, as long as the freighter captain behaved himself and did what he was told, he could use his free time, space and crew’s time however he wanted.  He was turning the image of a hard-bitten brutal pirate on its ear.  Of course, he didn’t trust this image, he kept waiting for the curtain to come down and for the standard image of the pirate to come to the forefront. 

              “So what are you doing about these pirates, Captain?” Tamara asked later that day.  She’d slept a few hours, showered and changed clothes and looked a great deal better.  “I’m really worried about them and my replicators.”

              “
My
replicators, Moxie,” he warned, raising a finger at her.  They stared at each other, but he knew that he couldn’t win this fight.  With but a thought, Tamara could send a lockdown or worse, meltdown command through her implants and then there would be
no
replicators.  He wasn’t willing to push her and besides, he needed her command level codes to be able to access the replicators to get anything more than basic parts.  He nodded and looked away, conceding her point.  “So far, Verrikoth doesn’t seem to care what we’re doing so long as we’re following his directions.  In the meantime, he is giving me free reign to do what I want.”

              She blinked in surprise.  “What the hell kind of pirate operation he is running?” she demanded.  “Granted, I don’t have a huge amount of experience with pirates, but it seems to me that they would come and take what they want, kill who resists, and fill their cargo holds with goods and slaves.  Not making deals with freighter crews and letting them make a profit.”  Her eyes narrowed.  “Is he taking a percentage of anything we make?”

              “Yes, Captain, is he?” Taja’s voice came from behind Tamara.  “
Is
he taking a percentage?”

              The man deflated.  He hadn’t told anyone that yet.  “Yes, actually, he is.  He gets forty percent of anything we make.  Off the top.”

              There was a stunned silence.  “Forty?” Taja whispered.  “That’s insane.”

              The captain’s eyes were averted, refusing to meet anyone else’s.  “What am I supposed to do, Taja?  He’s got security teams all over the ship.  And when we jump, our navigation is going to be slaved to theirs, meaning we’re going where they want us to go.  We can’t get away.  We do what he wants or we die.”

              The young woman fumed, but nodded.  “I hate this, Vincent.  I absolutely hate it.”

              He nodded.  “I know, Taja.  Believe me I know and I agree.  But for now, there’s nothing we can do.”

              Her steely eyes softened for just an instant.  “I’ll go talk with the people on the fueling station.  Maybe I can find us a few bits and bobs to trade.”  She turned and walked off the bridge.

              After she was gone, the captain smiled.  “I wonder how she’s going to do that.  We don’t have anything to trade and I don’t know how much money she thinks she’d going to work with.”

              “Oh, come on, Captain,” Serinda chided.  “You know her.  She’ll have at least one of the bays filled by the time we leave.”

              He nodded, chuckling.  “Yeah, she probably will.”

              Eleven hours later, the pirate Captain called.  Eamonn took the call in the wardroom, where he might get a little privacy.  The others were dying for a listen, to try and get a little hint as to what they were going to be doing now, but the Captain was adamant.  No one else needed to know any more than they needed to, which made them all feel a little hurt.  Up until this point, the Captain had always been very open about his plans for the future, but now, things were different.  Before things ran as though the crew was one big family.  Sure, they would argue and bicker, but they got along and managed to move forward.  Now it seemed less like that and more that the Captain was their boss and they were his employees.  This was a complete change and the crew were still trying to adjust.  They didn’t know it, but the Captain was trying to adjust to this new way of doing things as well.  Before now, things had run fairly smoothly, but with his ship littered with armed troops not answering to him, and an escort ship ready to smack them down should they try to fly off, he couldn’t act as though everything was normal. 

              Tamara came to the wardroom while he was still on the call with Verrikoth, and she leaned against the bulkhead, waiting for him to be finished.  Probably better than anyone else on the ship, she understood the way things were and the way things would have to be.  Her military training and background had helped her adjust to such an environment, though it didn’t mean that she liked it.  She kept an eye on what the Captain was doing with her implants, linking in with the communications system.  She wasn’t eavesdropping, just watching to see when the call ended. 

              She sighed.  At times like these, she would talk with Stella, who had quickly become a good conversationalist.  The two of them had spoken at length on a number of topics and at these times, when she had a minute to spare, she liked to catch up.  But that was impossible now.  Stella was still in lockdown, helping to balance the fusion reactor, and a few of the more raggedy systems, but nothing more.  She wasn’t helping with any of the diagnostics, she wasn’t even responding to calls by any of the crew, though everyone now was careful to never refer to her within earshot of any of the soldiers aboard.  Tamara was beginning to wonder of the AI would ever be able to spread her wings again.

              Finally, a light flashed on her HUD, indicated the call had ended and she opened the door and stepped inside the wardroom.  He was seated at the table, leaning back in his chair, looking haggard.  “Hard day?” she asked.

              “Please don’t come in here and give me more bad news,” he told her.  “I’m really not in the mood.”

              “Actually good news,” she said with a small smile, sitting down at a seat about three away from him.  “The e-rep is up and running, and I’ve started on some replacement parts for a few of the blown consoles in engineering.  Won’t really show a massive rise in performance, considering all the damage, but it’ll help a little.”

              He nodded.  “That is good news.  Have the guards been giving you a hard time?”

              Tamara frowned.  “Surprisingly, no.  They’ve been there, always watching, always in the background, but never getting in the way or asking any questions.  I’ve gotten with Kutok and Serinda and we’ve been monitoring all communications coming to and from this ship, except for yours,” she added with a smirk.  “We haven’t detected anything being sent by any of the guards to the warships.”

              Now they were both frowning.  “That is odd.  You’d think they’d be more interested in something like that.”

              “I don’t know.  Maybe they’re still in the gathering information stage.”  She rubbed the back of her neck.  “Anything from our lord and master about it?”

              He shook his head.  “Nothing.  And that’s something for which I am glad.  I don’t need that headache on top of anything else.”

              “Any chance we can swing by the local asteroid belt and grab a few rocks for our empty cargo bays?”

              He sighed.  “We’d have to explain why we want them.”

              She shrugged.  “Well, technically, even without the replicators, we would need the materials we could get from those rocks.  We can tell him we’re breaking them down for fabrication and then sell whatever we can’t use.”

              The captain looked at her for a long moment.  Then he nodded.  “All right.  I’m going to announce to the crew our marching orders in a little bit, but then we’re going to get moving.  I’m going to angle us toward the belt.  I need all three shuttles ready to go.  I know that fixing up shuttle two hasn’t really been a high priority considering everything, but I need them all up and running.  We’re going to have to grab everything we can before we leave and I know that Verrikoth isn’t going to want to wait.”

              Tamara nodded.  “I’ll get right on it.”  She stood up.  “Captain, I know this whole situation sucks, but you’re doing the best you can.”

              He shook his head.  “I know I am, Moxie.  But I’m getting the feeling that it will never be enough and that the crew will never understand.”

              “Or a particular crew member?” she guessed.

              The captain chuckled lightly.  “Yeah, but thems the breaks when you’re the boss and you’re seeing the help.”

              Tamara nodded.  “All right, I’m out of here.  I’ve got a shuttle to fix and a new replicator to oversee building.”

              He blinked in surprise.  “Another one?”

              She beamed at him.  “Of course.  We have to get back up to full industrial capacity again, Captain.  And while we won’t be using a good portion of the cargo bays for a while,” she gave him a knowing look, and he nodded in understanding.  At the first real opportunity they had to get away from this pirate and his “deal” they would take it and be gone.  She cleared her throat.  “Well, we’re still going to be trading with various planets and they’re going to want machined parts and maybe even have us fabricate structures and such for them.  Gotta make money, even if it is for
him
.”

              “Keep at it, Moxie,” he told her.  “And get that shuttle back up and running.”

              Four hours later, the shuttle was ready, the engineering crews were absolutely dead on their feet and the convoy of ships was loaded and ready to go. 
Grania Estelle
and
Ravage
were going to be following along after
Ganges
and her sisters, with the converted and armed merchant ships pulling up the rear.  The bulk freighter and her corvette escort were going to be going in the same direction as the rest of the ships, but they were going on to Byra-Kae, while
Grania Estelle
would be heading to Amethyst.  From what Tamara could tell from her quick peek with the shuttle sensors, the three cruisers seemed to be back up and running.  Oh, they still showed their scars from the engagement with the big freighter, but they seemed to have gotten their hull damage repaired and their weapons back up.  Who knows how well of a fix they all were, but they appeared to be fully functional again.  Though the captain seemed to think, and she agreed with him, that Verrikoth and his fleet were heading to a well-defended system, possibly Byra-Kae.  Would seven ships be able to take on the defenders there?  She didn’t know.  In this time, she had no idea what the defenders would have, and in what shape.

              They began their trip, with the local defense ships shadowing them from a ten light seconds away.  They had added four smaller gunships to their order of battle, looking to try and sweep them out of the system.  And they all got the feeling that if given the chance, the locals might try and slip a knife in Verrikoth’s exoskeleton.  The pirate seemed unconcerned, however, though he did keep his ships in a loose formation so that all the warships could provide cover for each other and the converted merchies. 

              “What are they doing?” Serinda demanded from the communications station, referring to the local ships.

              “I think they want to make sure that Captain Verrikoth doesn’t try to just take whatever he wants from this system,” the Captain mused.  “Though with the large disparity in firepower, I’m not really sure what they hope to accomplish.”

              “It could be that they’re hoping Captain Verrikoth won’t want to get his ships too damaged or possibly destroyed smashing the local defense ships,” Kutok replied from the Ops station.  She was filling in for George while he was out under medical care.  The hak’ruk was still learning the ropes, but she was a quick study.

              “Seems as good a theory as any,” Eamonn replied.  “What’s the status on our prospectors?”

              “Commander Samair is on her way back, she said she found ‘a good one’, Captain,” Kutok replied.  “Ka’Xarian and Martinez in the other two shuttles are starting their return runs as well.”