Pursue the Past: Samair in Argos: Book 1 (52 page)

              “I would speak with your people on Seylonique,” the Captain told her.  “I would hope that seeing the repairs and overhauls we made to the
Kara
that they would be overcome with boundless joy and generosity and would compensate me accordingly.  Perhaps even request other such repairs and overhauls to their other ships or facilities.”

              Galina considered this for a long moment.  If his claims were true then she knew the owners and other council members would certainly be interested in his services.  In fact, they’d be falling all over themselves to get him to repair their aged and somewhat decrepit fleet.  She found herself nodding.  “I think that might work.  And if we’re working together, we might be able to keep each other out of trouble.”

              He chuckled at that.  “What you really mean is I can keep
you
out of trouble.”

              She gave a one shoulder shrug, a surprisingly human gesture.  “If you like.  I can’t guarantee anything once we get to Seylonique, Captain.  I can say that the council members will be very interested in what you have to say and to any services you might be able to offer.  I hope that means they will… how did you put it?  Compensate you appropriately.”

              He nodded.  That was probably the best offer he was going to get under the circumstances.  Still, she had a point.  Working as a pair would provide a degree of safety, though it might also turn them into more of a target.  Still, if he wanted to get paid, this was what would need to be done.  Then there was another problem.

              “What is the
Kara
’s best hyperspeed?”

              “Not great,” she admitted.  “Red level three on our best day.  With all the reactor problems we’ve been having, it’s probably more like Red two.”

              He sighed.  “Well, we’ll have to work on that as well. 
Grania Estelle
is considerably faster than that and I have no intention of bumbling about in the Red levels for months just to get to the next system.  I have an appointment in Ulla-Tran in four months.  I’m afraid you’ll be coming with us and then we can turn toward Seylonique.”

              “That is acceptable, Captain.”

              “All right then, Administrator,” he said, nodding.  “Let’s talk about what needs to be done and then I will send over my teams to get started.”

              Once the starter gun had fired, it was all Administrator Galina Korneyev could do to try and keep up with the teams from the
Grania Estelle
.  The reactor problem was far more traumatic than it had been aboard the
Grania Estelle
which meant that the steps to deal with this needed to be far more dramatic.  Tamara and Stella replicated a dozen new suits, specifically hardened against radiation.  Quesh meanwhile was working with his team to synthesize more of the decontamination compound, while Ka’Xarian coordinated over the radio with the engineering teams from the
Kara
in trying to shut down the ship’s reactor.  It took six hours of work, with the zheen on the comms trying to keep the panicking crew at their posts.  Finally, Stella reported that the power levels on the
Kara
had dropped to zero.  The emergency batteries had been brought down to the planet’s surface to keep the life support systems for the patients running.  Up on the ship, only those in hardsuits would stay alive.

              Once the reactor was down, teams from the
Grania Estelle,
led by Tamara, went over to the
Kara
and evacuated all of the remaining crew to the shuttles.  They were sprayed down with blue goop while still sealed in their hardsuits, then loaded on the shuttles and flown over to the bulk freighter.  From there, after confirming the rad levels on their suits had dropped to normal (the blue goop was truly amazing at radiation cleanup) Galina met them there in the boat bay.  From there they were stripped out of the suits and rushed to sickbay where Turan and his medics went to work.  They were all suffering from high levels of radiation; most of them had serious damage already from the prolonged exposure.  The hardsuits had limited the damage, but the sheer time spent being flooded by hot energy had compromised the suits, as well as the wearer’s constitutions.  Turan refused to give up, but two of the
Kara
’s engineers were not expected to live out the day.

              At this point, once the crew was gone, Tamara and Ka’Xarian led their teams throughout the ship, coating everything, every surface, every molecule that they could reach with the decon goop.  Three straight days of work, with six-hour breaks for everyone every two hours to get out of the ship to refresh their systems.  Only being able to work for two hours at a time meant their work speed was reduced to a crawl, but no one was willing to try and be a tough guy when it came to serious radiation.  When the ship had finally cooled down enough, the teams moved into the engineering spaces, and the whole process began again.  Rad levels were ten times as high there as they were in any other part of the ship, which meant the two teams had to go even slower and be even more thorough with their spraying. 

              Finally, when the three days were up, the Captain called a halt.  All of his engineering teams were required to take a day to rest and get checkups by Turan.  White blood cell counts were a bit low, which meant the doctor put an end to the repairs for a week.  All of them were dosed with anti-rad meds and two were dunked in the regen tanks to allow their immune systems to recover.  Tamara had all of the new hardsuits she had made collected and tossed out the airlock.  The tractoring beams flung them out into the void.  The suits had been immersed (inside and out) with goop, but Turan was taking no chances.  He ordered all of the suits and clothing that had been worn to be disposed of, insisting new suits be constructed.  Tamara balked at this, but the Guura brooked no argument.  After a half an hour of taking verbal abuse by the engineer, the doctor gave a simple response: either the suits get disposed of, or he would call off the entire affair.

              The suits went out the airlock half an hour later.

              While they were waiting for the time to be up so they could get back aboard the
Kara
, Stella and Quesh had put their heads together and came up with a more palatable solution.  Six worker bots, designed with radiation in mind, were replicated and flown over by shuttle to the
Kara’s
boat bay.  Once inside, the AI and the Parkani (as well as four of Quesh’s technicians) flew the bots throughout the ship, getting to the reactor spaces. 

              It was decided that the best and most expedient way of dealing with the radioactive components and compartments was to simply slice the parts out with cutting torches.  It made for a much more enjoyable few hours than it would have cutting and lugging the hot components off the ship by hand.  Remote controlling the bots was a much more visceral experience; the operators had all the fun of ripping out the useless parts without any of the dangers.

              Galina was less than thrilled with this way of doing things; with engineering teams simply ripping apart pieces of her ship willy-nilly and throwing them out into the void.  It took all of the Captain’s considerable negotiation skills to keep the lupusan administrator from tearing up the deck plating.  Corajen needed to be called in to try and help calm the wolfwoman down.  The two lupusans stayed in the wardroom together for some time; the Captain was dismissed to go on his way.  They had things to discuss, a common heritage to rekindle.  No one knew what was said or what happened in the wardroom during those three straight hours, not even Stella.  She had been ordered by the Captain to shut down all sensors and recording devices in the room and Corajen activated a few custom devices of her own to keep the AI from cheating.  When the two females exited the wardroom they were all professional, they spoke respectfully to one another and Corajen returned to the security office, Galina went to find the Captain, completely calm.

              After the irradiated components were gone, another round of spraying needed to be done, but this time, things moved at a faster pace.  Once a surface was decontaminated, it stayed that way.  The teams moved through the ship with a will.  Six hours later, the ship was clean and the goop had vaporized.  Of course there was no power and great deals of the engineering spaces were in shambles, but it no longer posed a radiation hazard.

              Another problem posed itself.  While the teams had been working on the interior, the ship’s orbit had begun to deteriorate.  It wouldn’t be more than a few days before the orbit fell entirely and the ship crashed into the planet.  From orbit, Kazyanenko was a world of green land and waters so dark they were almost purple.  It would have been a terrible tragedy to have all that destroyed by a falling ship.

              It was Tamara who provided the solution. 
Grania Estelle
did not have a tractoring beam strong enough to pull a vessel the size of the
Kara
up into a higher orbit, but it turned out not to be necessary.  By magnetically clamping the three shuttles from both ships to the
Kara
’s hull, their engines were able to provide sufficient thrust to bring the hospital vessel to a much higher orbit.  It would be safe until they could get the reactor installed and the systems reactivated.  Then the
Kara
could maintain its own orbit without outside assistance.

              Things moved quickly from that point.  The parts were replicated and transferred over to the hospital ship, then assembled.  Crew from the
Kara
was brought in to assist, those Turan deemed fit to return to duty.  Two were still floating in regen tanks, recovering from their earlier exposure.  It didn’t take long for the ship to be brought back online.  From there, it was a matter of days to overhaul the hyperdrive and upgrade the
Kara’s
shields.  It wasn’t much, but they would be able to hit Orange level one by the time they would leave the system. 

              It took several days to get the ship back to a state of readiness they could work with.  Doctors and nurses began flying up from the planet’s surface, using all three shuttles to ferry the professionals and their patients.  The medical people were less than happy with the back and forth from the planet, though most of them admitted they much preferred the more controllable environment of the ship than that of the planet.  And the environment
was
much better, now that the radiation was clear and the life support system was overhauled.  It was almost like a completely new ship.

              The captains of the other two ships had not left orbit, nor had they communicated in any significant way.  They were monitoring the activity going on between the
Kara
and the bulk freighter, but they made no attempt to assist or interfere.  This was extremely odd, that they would just sit there and do nothing.

              “It’s so strange, being on board the
Kara
and have so many operational systems,” Galina remarked.  “If I didn’t know better, I would swear that this was a different ship.”

              “In many ways it is, Administrator,” Ka’Xarian replied.  “We’ve replaced a lot of the ship’s systems and many of the patched and repaired ones are operating much more efficiently than before.”

              “Well, I am truly grateful for all you have done.  The transfer of personnel and our patients are moving apace.  I’m not sure how long you were intending to stay here, but we should be ready to leave in about a week.”

              The zheen’s antennae bounced up and down in the equivalent of a shrug.  “Sorry, Madam Administrator, but I have no idea about that.  The Captain will decide it, but he hasn’t posted any schedules.  We weren’t expecting to find you here, so I think he’s working on any trade deals at a more leisurely pace than normal.”

              The lupusan smiled.  “Well, he can take his time.  I need the extra time to scrounge up more local medicines.  What little was still on the ship was ruined when the reactor irradiated everything.”  She let out a puff of breath, a frustrated sigh.  “What the locals have isn’t nearly good enough.”

              Again Xar bobbed his antennae.  “I’m sure you can work something out, Madam Administrator.  From what I’ve seen over the last few days, it sounds like you have what it takes to find the solution.”

              She smiled at him, her ears perking up.  “You have a gilded tongue, Ka’Xarian.”

              He bowed, self-mockingly.  “Thank you, Madam Administrator.  But I must get back to this diagnostic.”

              “Of course.”  She bowed to him now.  “My bridge crew will be up here in another two hours.  I would appreciate it if you could bring them up to speed on the ship’s systems.”

              “Certainly, Madam Administrator,” he replied, then turned back to his computer display.

              “Yes, I think we will take those,” Taja said, walking through the warehouse on the planet.  She was being escorted by a pair of Kazyanenko trade officials and deals were being made.  She had snagged a container of copper ingots and steel ball bearings going to Yullankla, which the Captain had determined was their next stop.  It was one jump away and close enough that
Grania Estelle
could reach Ulla-tran within his original six month deadline to meet up with
Emilia Walker. 
Taja had also picked up a number of crates of packaged foodstuffs for sale in the next system and possibly beyond.