Hold the Star: Samair in Argos: Book 2 (40 page)

              Xar made a chittering laugh.  “That’s because you don’t know her that well yet, Ms. Sterling.”

              Tamara glowered at him.  “Really, Xar?  That’s the impression that you want to give to our new Engineman?  That the officers are completely undisciplined?”

              His antennae rose to completely straight and upright.  “I’m offended, Commander, that you would even insinuate such… scurrilous charges.” 

              “I apologize, Assistant Chief Ka’Xarian,” she said, a smile quirking her lips.  “So, how can I help you this afternoon?  I’m about to take the second collector out to the gas giant.”

              “I know, that’s why I’m glad we caught you.  I want you to take Ms. Sterling with you.”

              Tamara nodded in understanding.  “Can you pilot a shuttle, Ms. Sterling?”

              Eretria looked over the spacecraft.  “I’ve had some experience flying a Palcan-42, ma’am, but that was ten years ago.”

              “Well, these birds here are pretty easy to fly and don’t take a whole lot of training for basic maneuvers.  I’ll give you a quick tutorial.”

              Eretria’s face was a carefully composed mask.  Tamara looked at her.  “Is there a problem, Ms. Sterling?”

              “Oh, no, ma’am.  Lead on.”  She couldn’t hide the rather dubious look she gave the shuttle, but she boarded without any complaint.

              Tamara and Ka’Xarian shared a look before she climbed aboard, closed and sealed the hatch.  “Head on up to the cockpit, Ms. Sterling, and take the copilot seat.  It’s the one on the right.”  They both sat and strapped in.  Powering up the shuttle took only a moment and then Tamara tapped the comm. controls.  “This is Shuttle Three to bridge.”

              “Go ahead Ess-Three,” Serinda’s voice replied.

              “Ready to depart on fuel recovery mission and to drop off the second collector.  Requesting clearance.”

              “You are clear, Ess-Three.  Safe trip.”

              “Thank you, Bridge.  Shuttle Three clear.”  She pressed the control to end the call and then piloted the shuttle out of the boat bay.  Once the small ship was clear of the
Grania Estelle,
Tamara altered vector and engaged the main drives.  “Bringing her up to one third acceleration,” she commented.  “Once we’re about a million klicks or so from the ship, I’ll push it up to eighty percent.”  She glanced over at Eretria, who seemed interested in the controls, as well as the view out the forward armor glass.

              “Been a while since you’ve been out in space?” Tamara guessed.

              “A few years, ma’am,” Eretria admitted, a bit stiff.  “For the last ten I’ve been working on the station.  The most space travel I’ve had was a ride every six months to and from the planet for a little vacation.”

              Tamara nodded.  “I see.  Well, once we’re up to speed, it’s a good jog out to the gas giant.  We’re looking at about seventy hours, one way.”

              Eretria grimaced.  “That’s a
long
way, ma’am.”

              “Yes, it is.  A rather long trip for just the two of us.  There are some bunks in the cargo area, some packets of food and there’s plenty of water.”

              “And what are we supposed to
do
on this abominably long trip, ma’am?” the other woman asked, stunned. 

              “Well,” Tamara said, bringing the ship up to higher acceleration, “I think there’s a few things we could do.  I know I am going to be going over status reports and repair schedules for the
Grania Estelle
.  I would suggest you can do a few things to pass the time.  I’d be more than happy to chat, but you might find that I’m not great company.”  She grimaced in self-mockery.  “I’ve been told that I’m not a great conversationalist.”

              Eretria snorted.  “I’ve been told the same about me, ma’am.”

              “I would suggest you get yourself up to speed on the flight controls for this shuttle,” Tamara went on.  “You got yourself a datapad?”

              Eretria shook her head.  “No, ma’am, I wasn’t given one when I reported aboard.”

              Tamara sighed.  “All right.  No problem.  Remind me once we get back to the ship.”  Pulling up her HUD, she made a note to get the other woman a datapad.  “In the meantime, you can use that monitor to pull up information about the shuttle or other topics.”

              “What other topics?”

              “Well, Ms. Sterling, as I’m sure you’ve heard by now, the
Grania Estelle
is in poor shape and is going to require a hell of a lot of work to get her back in action.  Which means that our engineering teams have to be well-versed.”

              “Which means what, ma’am?” she asked, suspiciously.

              Tamara smiled at her.  “Ms. Sterling, I’m an educated woman.  I expect that my tech teams will be as well.  And yes, you will be working hands-on for the most part, there’s a lot of technical data to absorb.  Especially because we work with a lot of fresh parts and replacements.  We deal with jury-rigging when we have to, but normally the Captain and the Chief make sure that we’re actually doing replacements on damaged or broken components.”

              Eretria frowned.  “Where do the spare parts come from?”

              “The replicators,” Tamara answered.  “There are three on board ship.  Well four, really, but nobody uses the food replicator in the mess hall, as far as I’m aware, other than me to grab a protein bar.”

              “Where in the name of the shiny stars did you get replicators?” she asked, astounded.  “No one has had those out in the Cluster for years… decades!”

              Tamara chuckled.  “
Grania Estelle
already had two when I came aboard and we got another one in Ulla-tran a few months ago.  Built the others.”

              Eretria rubbed the tips of her fingers on her forehead.  “This is incredible.  What can they make?”

              “A lot of things, though there are a number of items that can’t be made without the proper codes.  There’s a lot of restricted tech on there.  Can’t make weapons, or a lot of hyperdrive components, for example.”

              “Right, I’d read about that,” she replied.  “I’d love to see them.”

              “There is a standing order on the ship, Ms. Sterling,” Tamara cautioned.  “One that you would be very wise to heed.”

              “And what’s that, ma’am?” Eretria asked, looking over at the engineer.

              “Do not touch the replicators unless Chief Trrgoth, myself or Ka’Xarian is there to supervise.  They are very delicate and desperately important devices.  We cannot be without them.  Anyone caught messing around with them gets reported to the Chief of Security, a lupusan who takes a very dim view of people breaking that rule.”

              The other woman nodded.  “I understand, ma’am.  Still, I would love to see them in action.”  Her eyes were glowing with the possibilities.

              “I’ll take you on a proper tour when we get back.”  She unlatched her harness and stood.  “Course is locked in and the sensors will alert us to any problems.  I’m starving, I’m going to grab one of those meal packets.  You want one?  They’re actually pretty good.”

              “Um, sure ma’am.  I think I will.”  She too, unhooked her restraints and got out of the copilot’s seat.  “You mentioned studying before?”

              “Yeah,” Tamara said, opening up the locker where the food was kept.  She pulled two opaque plastic packets each the size of a large notebook from inside and then closed it up again.  “It’s not filet mignon or a king crab, but I think it’s still pretty okay.”  She tossed one to Eretria, who caught it clumsily, but managed not to drop it.  Tamara ran two fingers over one edge and the packet unsealed.  There was a slight hiss as it opened and she pulled a spoon out of a container just to the side of the locker. 

Eretria followed suit, took a spoon for herself and then opened up her own packet.  She took a hesitant spoonful.  The officer was right, it
was
pretty good.  It tasted sort of like a spiced oatmeal, a very thick paste of a brownish gray color, but it smelled good.  “The studying ma’am?”

Tamara nodded, swallowing a large spoonful.  “Yeah.  I want my people knowledgeable and skilled.  One goes with the other, so I sat down with the Chief, Ka’Xarian and Stella, she’s the ship’s AI and we worked up a training program for all of the ratings in the engineering department.  Goes over the various duties required for the various stations.  Knowledge for all the ship’s components, as well as advanced math and other engineering related courses.  Ratings exams are every ninety days, you pass the test, you’ll get the advance in rank.  But it’s ultimately up to the Captain whether you actually receive the rank and rise in pay and all that.”

Eretria nodded.  “I understand, ma’am.  It was the same sort of thing back on the station.  They played things a bit more fast and loose on the
Geldarland
, but the crew was much smaller as well.”

Tamara smiled as she took another bite.  “Do you miss it?  The
Geldarland,
I mean.”

She shrugged.  “I miss the being out in space part, ma’am.  But that particular ship?  No ma’am.  I don’t miss them.”

Tamara raised an eyebrow.  “Really?  Why’s that?”

She eyed the other woman for a moment before answering.  “It wasn’t the greatest cruise I’ve ever been on, especially the last six months.”  She cleared her throat before taking another bite of food.  “And I’ll thank you, ma’am, but I don’t want to talk about it.”

They ate in silence for several more minutes until they completed their meal.  Tamara showed Eretria where to toss the trash, how to use the portable refresher and where the emergency skinsuits were stored.  The two women chatted about the status of the ship, about duties of the engineering teams and the repair and overhaul schedule.  Eventually, though, they lapsed into silence as they each picked up their reading materials and focused on that.

It was a very long flight.  The two of them spent a great deal of their time reading and even more time sleeping, but there was still a great deal of time they spent effectively in each other’s company.

“Ma’am,” Eretria asked, after about fifty hours in flight, “Can I ask you a question?”

“You can ask,” Tamara replied, setting down her datapad and looking over at the other woman.  “I reserve the right not to answer.”

              “When we were boarding the shuttle, Chief Ka’Xarian called you Commander.  Can I ask why?”  She seemed earnest in her question.

              Tamara sighed.  “I’m sure you’d have heard all about it if we were back on the ship.  But a very long time ago, I was in the Republic Navy, specifically the engineering division.  I managed a shipyard.”

              Eretria blinked, surprised.  “You’re Republic?”

              Tamara looked at her, tipping her head forward and raising both eyebrows.  “You have a problem with that, Ms. Sterling?”

              She took a deep breath.  “Actually, ma’am, I do have a problem with that.  The Republic has been a menace out here in the Cluster.  They send in their ships, pull in conscripts, steal resources.  They’re a bunch of bloody pirates.”  The woman was actually fuming.

              “I see.”  Tamara looked out the forward viewport.  “I only came into the Argos Cluster a few months ago.  At the point when I was picked up by the
Grania Estelle
I didn’t know anything about the local politics or what was actually happening in the Cluster.  It wasn’t until I began to work with the crew and our subsequent visits to various planets that I saw what it was like out here.”

              Eretria snorted.  “And I’m sure in your previous years in the Republic Navy, you followed the letter of the law, never violated any orders, assisted with rescue and combat missions, and even helped Severite nuns carry baskets of kittens across the road?”

              Tamara activated her HUD, scanning over the other woman’s face, checking her pupil dilation temperature, perspiration.  Her implants were indicating that the woman was angry, that was obvious enough, but so far that was all.  She wasn’t showing any of the signs that she was going to attack, but it was very clear that Tamara had no friends here in the shuttle.

              “Ms. Sterling, I’m an engineer and I was when I was in the active service of the Republic,” Tamara replied, glowering at her.  “But I know you have no reason to believe anything I say about my time in the Navy, so you go ahead and you make your jokes and your snide comments.  You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

              Eretria flashed her a dark look, but didn’t reply.  She pressed a control on her panel and activated her display, bringing up some of the study materials, looking away from Tamara and focusing intently on her screen.  Tamara noticed her jaw muscles tightening, but she didn’t respond.  Tamara guessed she’d pulled up her studying again, though every so often, Tamara felt the other woman’s eyes on her every few minutes, surreptitiously scanning her until she felt the engineer look up, and then she’d go back to her own reading.  Tamara sighed.