A Greater Interest: Samair in Argos: Book 4 (22 page)

              She crossed her arms.  “Fine.  Regale me.”

              The predator gave her a sour look.  Which she could tell brought a touch of fear to the other councilor’s eye, but far less fear than if she’d ramped up a full-on hunter aura.  The councilor shuddered, but maintained her angry expression.  “Because after this latest fiasco involving an invasion fleet, we need more defensive assets, Cresswell.”

              “Tell us something that the good Triarch hasn’t already said,” she commented.  “He’s already working to get new ships from R3 Systems and from First Principles.”  Cresswell said the last almost like a curse, but Carriger didn’t point this out again.  “So while I agree we need more ships, where exactly do you expect to get them from?”

              “What about Tegean Industries and Vulcan’s Forge?” the lupusan pressed.

              She blinked.  “What about them?”

              “They built some of the lighter units in our system defense forces.”

              Cresswell scowled.  “Yes, Carriger, I know that.  The problem isn’t the companies; the problem is getting them the funding for more ships.”

              The lupusan flicked her ears and smiled slightly.  “I have a few places that we might be able to tap for funds.”

              The woman frowned.  “Tap for funds?  Do you have any idea how much warships cost?  How much the fuel and the weapons for those ships cost?”

              “I’ve seen the budget reports, Cresswell.  I know
precisely
how much all that costs.  But if we can get more funding from private sources that can only be for the good.”

              Hyacinth narrowed her eyes.  “Why are you coming to me for this?  You seem to have all the answers and a connection to these ‘private sources’ yourself.”

              Carriger’s smile widened.  “So do you.”

              Hyacinth blinked in surprise.  “So do I?  Wait, you don’t mean-?”

              “Exactly.”

              “Wait, you want the
council
to
personally
fund the construction of a few more ships?”

              Carriger gave her a look.  “You’re not going to tell me that we all couldn’t afford it.  That you
personally
couldn’t afford one of those corvettes we just ordered from R3 Systems?”

              Hyacinth grumbled.  “Yes, well, that isn’t the point.  And anyway, why are you bringing this to me?”

              “Because you know your own reaction to my plan,” Carriger pointed out.  “And you
know
how the rest of the council is going to squeal when they hear it.  But if we can show the populace that we’re building… what, another six or eight defense ships, I think it might make them retract their claws slightly.  Give us some breathing room.”

              “This is all well and good,” she said, hesitatingly.  That was a
lot
of treasure that Carriger was suggesting.  Assuming all of the twelve council members were on board for an equal share…  They could do six ships.  Maybe eight.  “But that assumes that the battle going in our favor.  That Samair and her little fleet manage to fight off the invaders and keep the real estate out there reasonably intact.  We’re going to need a lot of fuel and refined minerals to build
any
ships and as much as I hate the woman’s guts, First Principles does have the largest supply of both.”

              “And is selling them at the best prices,” Carriger added.  “But you’re right.  Hopefully, as you say, they’ll be able to win the day and keep our industry going.”

              She threw her hands up in the air in frustration.  “I can’t believe I’m actually rooting for her.”

              Carriger huffed.  “Let it go, Cresswell.  She’s been very good for the system, for the economy.  And without her we’d be dead.  In more ways than one.”
              “Spare me.”

              “So you’ll work with me to convince the others?”

              She sighed.  “Are we starting now?  Or waiting until the
Leytonstone
, with Chakrabarti and the others get back?”

              “I’d say we should go now, get started,” Carriger replied.  “And once the others get back then we get another installment payment from them.”

              “All right.  And I’m sure those engineering firms would
love
the business.”  She ran her hands through her hair.  “All right.  I’ll help you.”  Then Hyacinth grinned.  “If only to see the look on Harmon Kly’s face when he finds out about the plan.”

              The two females approached Triarch Kozen’ck in his private office an hour later.  “You… want me… to approach the rest of the council and propose that they empty their treasuries to fund a private fleet?”

              Hyacinth and Carriger exchanged a glance.  Hyacinth shrugged and they both looked back at the zheen leader.  “Essentially, yes.  Carriger and I crunched some numbers and…” the lupusan grunted and she grimaced, “
Carriger
crunched some numbers and we think we can bring eight more of the corvette-sized ships into the defense fleet.”

              “Eight more ships,” the zheen replied, his voice low, his antennae swirling as he thought.  “That certainly would help to keep things going with the press and the citizens.  If we can show them a new flotilla of ships, it might help to keep things calm.”

              “That was our thinking,” the lupusan said.

              He blatted a sigh.  “All right, I think the three of us should bring this up in council. 
But
, how many of those ships do you think we can get if only the three of us are for this?  I’m not going to force any of our fellows to pay money out of their own pocket.  If they’re willing, fine.  If not, I won’t force them,” he repeated.

              Carriger held up a datapad.  “Spreading out the costs evenly, between the three of us we could put two ships into space.  These are the figures.”  She pressed a few keys and the information popped onto his desk computer’s monitor.

              The zheen pressed a few controls and then clacked his mouthparts in surprise.  “I don’t know what I was expecting, really, but that is a
lot
of credits.”

              Carriger chuckled, flicking her ears.  “It is a bit of a bitter pill, I’ll admit, but I think it’s one that we can swallow.  And with the rest of the council understanding that we will control those ships directly…”

              “We do anyway,” Hyacinth pointed out.  “But these ones will be the personal property of the council, answerable directly to us, not to the system defense forces.”

              “Now,
that
is something I can get behind.  Even eight of them wouldn’t be able to attack the
Leytonstone
and win.”

              Carriger shook her head.  “Who said anything about attacking the
Leytonstone
?  I’m just saying that if we need these ships for… special assignments… I don’t want to have to go through channels to get them cleared.”

              Kozen’ck hissed a laugh.  “Councilor Hroth, I believe you have just found exactly the lever we’ll need to get the rest of the council on board with this little project.”

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

              The council members, those that were still here in the system, were cautious at first about signing on with the project.  But when Hyacinth and Carriger pointed out the benefits, they agreed to lend their support (and more importantly their treasure) to this endeavor. 

              “And how long will it be until the ships are ready?” one of the council asked.

              “I have already spoken with representatives from R3 Systems, Tegean Industries and Vulcan’s Forge.  They’ll have their factories and yards running at full tilt churning out components and parts for the various ships.”  Carriger looked around the table to the other councilors as she explained.  “They’ve already started, in fact.  They just received a cash infusion and they’re waiting for the next one.”

              “The first one?”

              “Yes,” the lupusan councilor replied.  “Cresswell, the Triarch and I have already put forth our shares of the amount for the ships.  The first two are already in the pipeline.”

              “Eight ships?” the other councilor asked, considering.

              Carriger nodded.  “That’s the thought.  That’s what the three companies have agreed to at the price we agreed to.  And before you ask,” she said, holding up one hand, “we did bargain them down.  We’re not going to get a better deal than this.”

              The other lupusan nodded.  “I’ve worked with them on the last corvette deal we did a few months ago.  The price you’ve quoted
is
probably the best we’re going to get.”

              Cresswell scowled a bit at that comment, but her face immediately smoothed back into an unreadable mask.  She clearly thought Carriger, or perhaps another member of the council, could have gotten a better deal, but she was practical enough to know that they
needed
this deal.  They needed it for both the extra firepower the ships would bring, the bargaining power they’d bring with the press and the populace, and having their own task force answerable to no one but the council.  It was certainly worth keeping the straight face.

              “So you just went ahead and bought these ships, Carriger?” the other lupusan councilor demanded.  Desdemona Nemkar wasn’t one of Carriger’s biggest fans, despite them both being wolves.  “Without the consent of the council?”

              Carriger glared at her.  “I don’t need the council’s consent to buy ships.  The law is rather open ended about that, which is how the First Principles people have been building up their own fleet.”

              Desdemona grimaced, but nodded.  “But you still came to us.”

              “Eight ships are better than two,” Carriger said, shrugging.  “And my pockets certainly aren’t deep enough.  Besides, I was thinking of the good of the council here.”  The others exchanged looks, though none of them openly disputed that comment.  “I was!  We need to restore some semblance of order and confidence in our leadership,” she pointed out.  She gestured vaguely toward the table.  “This could do that.”  Seeing the lack of utter conviction on the others’ faces, she shrugged.  “In the very least, it will add to our gross firepower, and I can’t imagine that anyone in this room thinks that’s a bad thing considering what just happened in the outer system.”

              No one did, of course.  Another few minutes of bickering and they all decided to sign on.  They would put in the order for the first six ships, leaving the last two for when the
Leytonstone
and the remaining three councilors returned from Ulla-tran.  Most likely they would all sign on, either because they agreed or because they wouldn’t want to be the only ones who didn’t have direct access to any of those ships, or because the others’ had shamed them into it.  It didn’t matter really. 

              “The engineers and the coordinators assure me that the ships will be ready to roll off the line in just over a month and a half. 
And
, I’ve made doubly sure that we can drop in for an inspection at any time, to make sure that our money isn’t being wasted.  Oh,” she said, raising a finger.  “This is the design we’re using, it’s more function over form; rather utilitarian.  I am more concerned that it can do the job, not so much that it’s the sweeping model of beauty.”

              “You mean like those hak’ruk designs FP uses?” one of them asked, disgust wrinkling his features.  “Gaudy designs, with all those fins and wings and such.  Seem wasteful, truth be told.”

              “These ships are much less… gaudy,” Carriger assured the room.  “I’m sure the design will be perfectly serviceable to our needs.” 

              “So it’s settled then?” Kozen’ck asked to the room as a whole.  There were nods and indications of assent from the rest of the council members.  “Excellent.  Councilor Hroth, get with your contacts and make sure the extended order is in.  And to all of you,” he gestured to the rest of the room, “make sure that the money is transferred into the account.”

              “We’re not going to need to worry about you making off with this money, do we?” Desdemona asked, a sneer on her face.

              “If you’re so concerned,” she said placatingly, “The construction account’s books are open for all of you to peruse.”  She waved a hand.  “Feel free.”

              “Now if that’s settled,” Kozen’ck said, surveying the room with his compound eyes.  “We need to start looking into recruitment and increasing trade with other systems…”

              “Ma’am, you need to come in,” Tiyaana said, her face appearing on the cockpit display. 

              “Just a little while longer,” Tamara replied, maneuvering to grab another chunk of floating debris.  This apparently was once part of the tank farm in orbit.  So far she (on
Moxie-2
) and two other shuttles had been rounding up all the bits of metals and composites that had spread out like a cloud.  It would go a lot easier and quicker if they could use a tractoring beam, sadly, her ship wasn’t equipped with one.  For now, though, after seven hours of flying around and using the grapplers, a decent sized pile of debris was being clumped together, hovering in high orbit.  Between the three ships, they’d collected up little more than fifteen percent of the debris, but progress was being made.  They were simply lumping it all together and with a quick magnetization, the debris was holding together.  It wasn’t strong enough to suck up all the drifting metal, but the charge was strong enough to hold it together once they brought it in.  There was a floating ball of metal and composites that were hovering in high orbit above the gas giant, one that would be getting bigger, unless a tug dragged it off to the industrial furnace.  For now, Tamara wanted to clear up more of the navigation hazards first.