Hold the Star: Samair in Argos: Book 2 Read online

  Tamara’s limbs and extremities wouldn’t stop shaking. Pulses of pain still shot out from all over, but the overwhelming horror had ended. She had no voice, her throat was scraped raw again from the shrieks. She lay there, quivering on the deck of the cell, her control completely gone.

  “That was just to remind you of your station,” Gideon Jax told her. “I don’t want to have to do that again, but let me assure you, I will. I’ll give you another day to think about things, and then I’ll come back here and we’ll have a conversation about your future. And I think I know how that conversation is going to go. You’re going to be a good little worker and you’re going to be a very productive one. Otherwise…” He raised the remote, and tapped it lightly with his forefinger. He hadn’t activated it again, but she flinched involuntarily.

  He stepped back and someone else stepped up. It was one of the stewards, Urru Aaraou, a young male zheen. He was carrying a tray with a bowl and a cup on it. At Jax’s direction, he took a step inside the cell and set the tray down on the floor just inside. He hung his dark-violet carapaced head, his antennae drooped in shame. He gave her a quick hum of reassurance, but Jax made a growl and he hustled outside the cell.

  It took some ten minutes or so for the shaking to get under control to the point where Tamara could sit up. Five more minutes and she had climbed onto the bunk, pulling the tray up next to her. The bowl was filled with nutrient paste and the cup with water. There was no silverware, probably an idea of Jax’s so that she would have no weapons to attack her jailers or perhaps harm herself. She didn’t care. Digging her hand into the bowl, she scooped out some of the paste and began to eat. It was bland, cold and squished when she touched it. It had the consistency of clay-filled mud, but it would keep her alive. Tamara ate every bit of it and sipped the water until it was gone.

  She wasn’t looking forward to tomorrow.

  Book 1 – Slow Ride, Rough Ride

  Chapter 1

  “So what the hell are we going to do?” Ka’Xarian demanded, throwing his arms in the air. A small meeting had congregated in the Acting-Chief Engineer’s quarters, people who had gathered to try and brainstorm ways to get out of their very serious predicament. The insectoid zheen’s antennae were straightening and bending, indicating that Ka’Xarian was in great distress. Chef Raoul Duchagne (“Call me Cookie, everyone does,”) was here, his stocky form seated in one of the insectoid engineer’s chairs. Taja Mbuto, the ship’s purser and Cargo Specialist sat next to him in another chair. She was a very small attractive woman, very slender, but there was a fire in her eyes that refused to be snuffed out.

  The last member of their little steering committee was a surprise, someone who had shown up late to the meeting, but had refused to be left out. Captain Frederick Vosteros, former commander of the tramp freighter Emilia Walker and now passenger aboard the Grania Estelle sat on the edge of Ka’Xarian’s bunk. He was slightly uncomfortable, as he had only been released from sickbay that morning by the ship’s doctor and he wasn’t entirely 100% yet. He also was not entirely comfortable, emotionally, to be sitting on a zheen’s bed. There was nothing vile or creepy about it, and while Vosteros was accustomed to close quarters (his old ship was far smaller than the kilometer-long Grania Estelle), he wasn’t quite used to being out of command. Normally, he’d be the one hosting this meeting and it was quite a paradigm shift for him, one he was still getting used to.

  There were some missing faces in this little committee. The lupusan siblings were among the most prominent. As Chief of Security, Corajen Nymeria would of course be welcome in any sorts of discussions on how to evict their unwanted passengers. Her sister, Saiphirelle Hyjae, was also sadly absent. Both of them would have been able to contribute valuable insight and ideas on how to move forward. But they were sharing a cell in the brig at the moment, so getting them released would have to be a serious priority for the group if they hoped for success.

  Another one conspicuous in his absence was the Captain. Vincent Eamonn had not emerged from his quarters since Tamara had been summarily dragged through the ship and then tossed in the brig. Within minutes from that meeting in the wardroom between the ragged engineer, the Captain and the Armsman, Eamonn had retreated from his duties as Captain and retreated to his quarters and essentially sealing himself in. He hadn’t taken any meetings face-to-face with anyone, not even Taja, his lover.

  “We can’t wait for the Captain to get out of his funk,” the zheen went on. “We need to start thinking of what to do now.”

  “Well, I can tell you what we can’t do,” Vosteros spoke up, shifting his seat on the bed to try and get to a more comfortable position, his injuries were healing well, but his abdomen was still tender and unless he had something to lean against or he maintained ramrod straight posture, his stomach would twinge a bit.

  “And what’s that?” Taja asked, a little impatiently. He glared at her, but she didn’t back down. Tensions had been running high ever since the run out from Ulla-tran and Ka’Xarian had specifically stated that his quarters was no décor, meaning all were equals, check your rank at the door.

  He looked at her calmly, though a wrinkle had formed between his eyebrows. “I should think that was obvious, young lady,” he said condescendingly. “We cannot meet up with any more of Verrikoth’s ships, not without some sort of help.”

  “Yes, that is obvious,” Taja shot back. “But we’re heading to Amethyst now and who knows what we’re going to find there. More pirates, probably,” she said sourly.

  But Vosteros only nodded. “Exactly. Which is why we can’t allow Jax to dictate where we go and what we do.”

  Now all of them were looking at the man. He was still an outsider, and a captain without a ship. It had to smart that he’d had to be rescued and that his ship had been left behind. He wasn’t crew, not yet and they didn’t know if he would ever be.

  “He’s got soldiers throughout the ship,” Ka’Xarian reminded him. “For all intents, Jax is in command of the ship, especially if the Captain has locked himself away in his stateroom.”

  That’s when the man smiled. “Then we have to convince him that meeting up with Verrikoth is not in his best interest.”

  Frowns. “Unlikely, Captain Vosteros,” Cookie replied. “Jax is fanatically loyal to his lord. And it doesn’t strike me that he would be willing to disobey any commands from Captain Verrikoth.”

  “Then it seems that our first order of business is to find out if the good Armsman has any direct orders from his lord, or if he’s just improvising,” Vosteros said, nodding.

  “There’s been murmurings of ‘Byra-Kae’ among the soldiers,” Cookie put in, looking thoughtful. “I’ve heard them when they’re standing in the chow line, when they think I’m not listening. Apparently, being a cook isn’t a noble pursuit.” He sounded insulted. “Food is fuel, not something to truly be enjoyed.” He huffed in exasperation. “What they hell kind of pirates are these people?”

  That elicited a chuckle from the rest of them, quickly dampened. Yes, Gideon Jax and his men weren’t showing most of the usual violent tendencies they’d known to be found in pirates. But for a few exceptions, this actually was a good thing. So far there had been no rapes among the female (or the male) members of the crew. Nothing had been stolen from the berthing areas or staterooms. And with the exception of Tamara and the bridge officers who’d ‘mouthed off’ to Jax back in Ulla-tran, no one else had been assaulted. So far, it had been a novel experience with these grunts.

  “He’s really going to do it,” Vosteros breathed.

  “Really going to do what?” Taja demanded. Her fuse had gotten much shorter after she’d found out what had happened to Tamara. And who was responsible.

  Vosteros turned his gaze to the cargo specialist. “As I’m sure you know, Ms. Mbuto, Byra-Kae is the home of a Republic base in the Argos Cluster. Or rather, the only serious base in the Cluster.”

  “Yes?” she said impatiently.

  “Well, I imagine that there’s a
fair bit of hardware there,” he went on. “But there’s no way they have a fleet there. And Verrikoth has three light cruisers along with four modified merchants. If he could pick up one or two more, he could probably hammer the defense ships and get in and either annihilate the base…” he paused, “Or take it.”

  That put them all back on their heels. “But that won’t have anything to do with us,” Taja objected.

  Vosteros shrugged. “No, probably not. Especially if Verrikoth and his flotilla have already jumped out toward it. But that also means that we’re going to be out of contact with the pirate captain for a while.”

  “Okay, so unless he’s operating on contingency orders, he might just have orders to bring the ship into the first friendly port for delivery of the cargo and refit.”

  “Right,” Vosteros replied. “So what we need to do is get the ship on a different course. Somewhere that we might have a few advantages.”

  Cookie snorted. “While I agree with your idea in principle, Captain, where would we possibly go? While we’ve got a few friends and trading associates, I doubt we’ve got anyone out there that might be willing to help in any serious capacity.”

  But then Ka’Xarian’s antennae went completely straight as an idea hit him. “Seylonique,” he said, his voice filled with extra hissing and a profound buzz.

  Vosteros started, puzzled. “Seylonique? Why there?”

  “We helped out a hospital ship, the Kara,” the zheen explained as the others nodded. “She was in very bad shape, her reactor was degraded and throwing out a lot of radiation. We cleaned her up, trashed the old reactor and built them a new one. They didn’t have the credits or goods to compensate us, so their captain, er, Administrator, said that her government might be willing to compensate us for our work. So we flew in convoy to Ulla-tran. Sadly, that’s when all the mess started and we were forced to cut Kara loose to fly on without us.”

  “And why would they be willing to help us now?” Vosteros replied.

  “They owe us,” Taja said simply.

  But Cookie shrugged. “Yeah, but we didn’t come in to Seylonique together. How much would you be willing to bet that should we show up there without any escort that they’ll conveniently ‘forget’ that Administrator Galina had any business dealings with us?”

  They all frowned. He had a good point. “What other option do we have?” Ka’Xarian asked the room at large. “The only other place that might be able to take care of our pirate problem is Byra-Kae, but it sounds as though they’re going to have their hands full. And I for one don’t want to go anywhere that seven pirate warships are going to be. Grania Estelle is a big ship, but she can’t stand up to them.” He patted the bulkhead fondly.

  Put that way, the others nodded in agreement. “All right, so that makes sense,” Taja put in. “So then it becomes, how to get Armsman Jax to want to get us there.”

  “The captain could just order it,” Ka’Xarian started, but then stopped. “But if he was going to order such a thing, he’d be here and not hiding away in his cabin.” He sighed; a light buzz came from his mouth.

  “Then we bypass the Captain,” Taja snarled, then took a deep breath. Clearly, there were some issues there that needed sorting out and she was quite spirited about them. “We figure out a way to convince Jax that this is his idea.” She smiled and it was smug. “It’s the best way to get people to move in the direction you want them to anyway.” The others looked at her. “What? How do you think we get some of the great cargoes? Get the sellers to think that selling to me is their best option.”

  Vosteros nodded sagely. Ka’Xarian buzzed with laughter. Cookie let out a bark of a laugh. “All right,” the captain said, shifting again on the bunk. “We need to come up with a way to get Jax to want to go to Seylonique.”

  “But why would he want to go?”

  They all sat quietly for a moment. “Well,” Taja said slowly, “he is a pirate, even if he is the bodyguard to the pirate captain. Maybe we can appeal to his sense of greed.”

  “Get the government on Seylonique to pay to the ship and then give him the money?” Ka’Xarian asked.

  “Well, it’s something. And it gets us to Seylonique,” she pointed out. “Maybe once we’re there, we can get some help form the locals. I know that Administrator Galina likes you, Xar,” Taja said, flicking a finger in his direction. “Maybe we can appeal to them for some help.”

  “Anyone heard anything about what we might find in Seylonique?” Vosteros asked. “I’ve never been there. When you all met me at Folston that was as far north in the Cluster as I’d ever been. Usually my ship would tour and trade through the south western annex of the Cluster.”

  Taja looked around and shrugged. “We’ve been there before, but it’s been years. The Captain brought us on a very wide tour of the Cluster about five years ago. We’ve been moving system to system, sometimes doubling back. But the last time we were there, there was a significant military presence there. What was it, Xar, do you remember?”

  The zheen’s mandibles closed and his antennae slowly flared out to the side in thought, the zheen equivalent of a human frown. He tapped his fingers on the bulkhead. “I don’t remember much, to be honest. Quesh and I were up to our elbows in repairs on the life support on deck four. I do remember hearing gossip about there being a battlecruiser in orbit. I remember some of the younger crewmembers using their datapads to take pictures of it as we passed by in orbit.”

  Cookie’s face lit up. “Out the viewports! Yes! I remember that also. Actually,” he frowned in thought and pulled out his own datapad. “I think Martinez had sent me a few digitals of it. Big bastard as I recall.”

  “As big as the Grania Estelle?” Vosteros asked. “I’ve never actually seen a battlecruiser before. Seen schematics and vids on the holodramas, but never one up close.”

  “About five hundred fifty meters,” Cookie said, sounding a bit distracted, “So about half the length of Grania Estelle. About as wide. Though a ship like that would hold about two thousand people. Far more than the hundred and forty or so that we normally have aboard.”

  “Well yes,” the captain replied. “Ship like that would have a lot more things that would need doing than aboard a bulk freighter like this baby. Not to mention any troops they would carry.”

  “Ah ha!” the chef crowed. He held out the datapad. “I knew I still had it!” He handed the datapad to Taja, who was closest. She glanced at it, nodded, and then passed it on to Vosteros.

  The man took the datapad and turned it so he could see it better. The digital had been enhanced, it was clearly taken from a handheld device and through an armor glass viewport. The ship in question was about three kilometers away from the photographer, but it was clear enough. In space, three kilometers was almost on top of the other ship. The battlecruiser was long and sleek, bristling with turbolaser batteries and heavy lasers. It was flying in the same direction, probably on a parallel course with the ship the photographer was on, so he couldn’t see the engines from that vantage. But the ship certainly did look formidable. “She’s beautiful,” Vosteros commented. “If a bit… stodgy.”

  Taja chuckled, despite herself. “Stodgy? Thousands of tons of military hardware and what you call her is stodgy?”

  “What I called her was beautiful,” he corrected. “But she looks a bit stodgy. But perhaps that’s just what we’re needing. And besides, a ship like that should be able to hold off most if not anything any pirates might try to throw at them.”

  “And a local self-defense fleet might be ethically bound to try and help a ship in distress,” Ka’Xarian said, nodding slowly. “Like us.”

  “Maybe,” Vosteros replied. “But it’s certainly better than what we have here. We should also be prepared to help out. Sell them some spare parts for maintenance on their ship. If what you tell me about their hospital ship is any indication, maybe they’d be a bit more tractable if we have something to offer them instead of just showing up there with a hand out.”

  �
��That’s an excellent idea,” Taja piped up. “But how?”

  “What do you mean how?” Vosteros asked. “How did you make parts for my ship?”

  Taja sounded unsure. “Well, we used the replicators. But that was when we had Tamara to help. And she’s in the brig.”

  “We don’t really need her,” the zheen engineer replied. “We can use the replicators without her.”

  “She gave you the replicator codes?” Taja demanded, starting to come out of her seat in disbelief.

  The zheen shook his head, buzzing with a chuckle. “No, she didn’t, Taja. But that doesn’t mean we can’t still use them. There are plenty of things not on the restricted list that I can still make. We can make things like plasma conduits, computer chips, hell, deck and bulkhead plating, among other things. All the things will have to be civilian grade, but we can still make them. I’m sure the people there will have things that they want that we can make for them, even if they aren’t weapons or things like that.”

  They were all looking speculative. “I’m going to have to go over what we have in the holds, and what we can use for materials,” Taja said. She took out her datapad and started furiously making notes. She grimaced, then brightened. “Actually, I’d forgotten about the rocks the Captain gathered up right before we had the problems back at Ulla-tran. After what went down in Ulla-tran, we had other things on our minds.”

  Ka’Xarian shrugged. “We’ll just have to work with what we’ve got. We have to have some sort of fig leaf to offer them. Who knows? Maybe just us showing up there and asking for help will be enough?”

  The glances they all shared indicated that no one really thought that, as much as they all might want to. The Argos Cluster was a hard place to live in, especially nowadays with piracy on the rise. Systems like Seylonique would be wary to trust outsiders, especially those who came in and demanded payment for services.