A Greater Interest: Samair in Argos: Book 4 (30 page)

              But this was the first time Torinal-Winged-Harmony had ever heard of someone, anyone building a construct in the atmosphere of a Home-like world.  Even this vessel wasn’t built, it was grown.  It was as much a living thing as the People who controlled it. 

              [What kind of construct?  What is its function?  Can you tell?]

              Golkakchuk-Golden-Entropy waved some of his cilia, sending out what information he had.  [It appears to be an essence collector, Decider.  And there is another construct that is moving to intercept the first.]

              Torinal-Winged-Harmony send a pulse of confusion.  [Another construct?]

              [This one is mobile, Decider.  It is not large, however.]  Golkakchuck-Golden-Entropy was transmitting his thoughts slowly.  [Barely a quarter of a
ganya-ukh
in length.]

              That was
tiny
, the Decider thought, not transmitting this thought to the others.  [One of my grippers is larger than that unit.]

              [Then we can be sure that it is no threat.]  Jocana-Swift-Soaring was adamant about that.  [Something so insignificant could not possibly breach the vessel’s hull or disrupt our systems.]

              Torinal-Winged-Harmony sent out a strong signal.  [I am not so concerned about damage.  I am more concerned, or interested, rather, in where it came from.  And why it seems to be following the vessel.]

              [I am not showing any power readings, Decider.  Nothing significant.  Certainly nothing like those on the vessel.]  It referred to their massive ship.  [The mobile construct is moving toward the stationary one.  Perhaps it means to link up with it?]

              [But both of those constructs are tiny.  One of the People could not possibly use that construct.  Even the most diminutive of Us could not possibly fit.]

              Golkakchuk-Golden-Entropy’s transmission was wobbly, as it was trying to wrap its neurons around the concept.  [Decider, the only other explanation that makes any sense is that this is a vessel piloted by vermin.]

              Torinal-Winged-Harmony shifted its bulk, maneuvering closer to the other creature.  [Not only piloted by, but constructed by.]

              [It boggles the neural cluster, that vermin would evolve to the point where they could even escape their poison sphere, much less gather the essence from a proper world.]  Jocana-Swift-Soaring’s cilia rippled.

              [Continue to monitor the constructs.]  Torinal-Winged-Harmony floated over to another section of the ship, linking with the vessel’s neural net.  [We have more important things to deal with than the fate of vermin.  If they do anything interesting or…] and it paused here, his cilia rippling in amusement, [threatening, then we will act accordingly.  Until then we have to look after the vessel and our crew.  Continue sampling and testing the essence from this world.]

              [Understood, Decider.]  Jocana-Swift-Soaring went back to work.

              [The vessel will be within collection range for the essence within twenty-seven
okuth-kan
.]  Golkakchuk-Golden-Entropy reported.  [Once there I will deploy collectors and bring aboard small samples of the essence.  Hopefully, there will be enough particulates for fuel and nutrient replenishment.]

              Torinal emitted a pulse of amusement.  [Indeed, we are all in need of a larger allotment of nutrient mass.]  There were amused pulses from the rest of the crew at that statement.

              “Look at that thing, it’s fucking huge!” Oberst exclaimed, gesturing to the front viewport, where far in the distance they could see the circular dot against the orange gas planet.

              “We knew that already,” Taja replied, looking over Maya’s shoulder at the other woman’s sensor displays.  “But what we don’t know is… well… everything else.  What it’s made of, how many people are aboard, but especially how they do that trick with the gravitic anomalies.”

              Vosteros turned to her.  “You’d want that?”

              She snorted derisively.  “Are you kidding?  If you could harness gravitics like that, you could accelerate so hard that
no one
could catch you.  Especially if no one else has that tech.”

              “I would
love
to fly a ship going that fast,” Oberst breathed, clearly excited by the idea.  He was running his fingers through his hair, eyes glued to the item through the armorglass port.  “Even just what we saw, you’d be across the system in a matter of minutes.”

              “Imagine how that would work with freight schedules,” Taja murmured. 

              “Now that is something to consider.  Just wonder what they fuel that thing with.”  Vosteros’s voice was musing.  “Helium 3, I wonder?  Maybe with a lot of power plants or a more refined mixture.”

              Maya shrugged.  “I’m not able to read their power signature at all, even with the gravitic anomalies gone.  There’s something about that hull, it just absorbs sensor signals and doesn’t return anything.”  She frowned, biting her lip in frustration.  “And the hull, from what I can tell, seems to be composed of some sort of ceramic polymer as well as metal, but not in pieces, like on this ship.  It’s as though the two are… fused somehow.  As if they’re one material.  I’ve never seen
anything
like that before.”

              “I wonder who they are?  And how many of them there are?”

              “All right,” Frederick said, shaking his head to clear away the euphoria of this amazing find.  “We’ve still got cargo to haul and a schedule to keep.”  There was a chorus of groans from the crew members.  “Yeah, yeah, moan.  Maya, you keep on the sensors, do your thing, vacuum up as much information about that ship as you can.  Everyone else, we have refueling ops to handle.  Then, we’re leaving here.  Now we’re already a few hours behind schedule because of that rather large evasive maneuver we had to make.  I am not going to lose a whole day because of this ship, which is essentially a plate that won’t talk to us.”

              The others seemed to recover their composures, returning to task.  Taja walked out of the cockpit, heading to the cargo area.  But every so often, the crew would steal looks over at Maya’s station, trying to get catch just a tiny glimpse at that… thing.

              Tamara watched from her office aboard
Moxie-2
, as the
Samarkand
continued work on the first of the three “heaters” as they were being called.  Work crews and bots were hollowing out small asteroids and gear was being transferred over and installed from the repair ship.  “You see, Captain, the idea is simple.  I need some large weapon platforms to melt that big ball of rock over there.  Well, metal and some composites, really.  In addition, I need some new weapons platforms to act as defenses for the mine should any of our ‘friends’ show up.”

              “So you’re building these… platforms to replace the ones that the pirates destroyed when they came through here?” Captain Greer asked, pointing.

              “Not replacing, exactly,” she corrected.  “I’m going to be replacing the weapons turrets that we lost out here, these new ones are going to supplement them.  The other ones could throw out a decent amount of fire, had some box launchers for missiles and a few turbolaser cannons.  They were meant to provide overlapping coverage.”

              “This looks to be a great deal larger than the ones I’ve seen specifications for,” the man replied. 

              Tamara gave a small smile.  “That’s because it is.  This platform here is going to be loaded with turbolaser and heavy laser batteries that would rival a battleship.  The power plant is going to have to provide energy for the weapons, as well as, eventually, energy shields for the platform.  That’s it there,” she said, gesturing to the bots that were carrying the squat fusion reactor into the cavern that had been hollowed out of the side of the rock.

              “How long until it is operational?” Greer asked. 

              She shrugged.  “Not long.  Ten days.  In six we’re going to start work on the second one.  The components, and the cannons, will be completed by then and it’ll just be installation and integration.”

              “Impressive operation, Ms. Samair,” Greer congratulated.  “I am quite impressed by the speed and efficiency of your workers.”

              “We have good people, Captain,” she replied demurely.  “And this can’t be the first time you’ve seen our people in action.  Your ship, in fact, came from our yard.”

              He nodded, considering her words.  “Yes, indeed.  But I have to admit, I didn’t spend all that much time out at the yard while the
Curroth
was under construction.  Your yard manager was rather adamant that she didn’t want what she called ‘people looking over her shoulder’ while the ships were being built.”  He sniffed.  “Was rather rude of her, actually.”

              Tamara smiled indulgently.  “It’s company policy.  Ms. Sterling was just doing her job, Captain.  I’m the one who isn’t thrilled to have unnecessary people getting underfoot on my shipyard.”

              Aloicius Greer grimaced at that comment.  “I have to say that I take some offense at that statement, Ms. Samair.  The captain of the ship that you are building wants to come and see the progress of that ship; he is hardly ‘underfoot’ as you say.”

              Tamara shrugged.  She’d dealt with his type many times before both in the old days when she worked in the Republic Navy shipyards as well as here in this system.  “Captain, that ship isn’t yours until my engineering teams release it to you.  Until then, it’s still officially the property of my yard workers.”  She held up her hands to forestall an argument.  “Let’s not quibble.  The important thing is that you’ve got possession of the
Curroth
now and that everyone’s happy.”

              He glared at her for a long moment before shrugging.  “As you say, it is of no moment.  But I am interested in these weapons platforms you are building out here.  The ‘heaters’ as you called them.”

              She looked over to him.  “What about them?”

              Greer gestured to the work going on outside the ship.  “I’m thinking that the government might be interested in getting some of these platforms for planetary defense.”  He cocked his head to the side, obviously thinking about something.  “You mentioned that the weapons on those platforms are of battleship-scale, yes?”

              Tamara smiled.  “Yes, turbo- and heavy turbolaser batteries.  They’re typically used in battleships and other large constructions.  Why do you ask?”

              “Any chance that my ship could be retrofitted with one of those turbolasers?” Greer asked, his gaze cunning.  “Judging by the size of those weapons, I don’t think any of the heavy turbolasers could work on my ship, they’re simply too big.  But perhaps
one
of the standard turbolasers could be outfitted for my chase armament?”

              She sighed.  This was a common request for warship commanders.  Most of them simply were never happy with their ship’s weaponry and were always seeking to tweak things, draw just a little more efficiency, just a little more punch.  Tamara shook her head.  “I’m afraid not.  The power distribution system on an Adder-class destroyer simply isn’t up to powering turbolasers and your standard armament.  And before you ask,” she said, holding up a hand, “Yes, I could pull the standard armament, but even still, you’d be fighting a ship with a single turbolaser with a slower rate of fire than other ships of your class.  Would that be worth the bigger gun?”

              “It is something to consider, at least,” he replied, unwilling to drop the matter.

              Tamara nodded.  “Very well, Captain.  I will get my engineering AI Nasir to look into this for you and see what he can come up with.  But I must warn you, adding a heavier weapon to your ship’s arsenal might add a shot with a single hard punch, but it will reduce your ship’s overall effectiveness.”

              “I do appreciate it, Ms. Samair.  That’s all I ask.”  He was actually rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

              “Wouldn’t a trio of heavy lasers be better for chase armament?  They’re a step down from the turbolaser, I know.  But they recharge 20 percent faster and with three of them you could hit just as hard but faster.”

              But she could tell he had his mind fixated on that turbolaser.  “If you could please entreat your engineering AI to look into it and if you could please send me his report?  I would very much like to see that and I’m sure my engineer would as well.”

              She gave him a professional smile and then extended her hand.  “But I think I’ve kept you from you command for long enough, Captain.  And I thank you for agreeing to meet with me.”

              “You’ll remember to contact the council about those weapons platforms?” he reminded her, shaking her hand.

              Her smile turned more genuine and Tamara could see that he warmed to her a bit more at her dazzling smile.  “I won’t forget.”  She sent a quick burst of information to the pilot, and a second later
Moxie-2
started to accelerate away from the construction area.