When the press conference finally died down, Bachchan gestured for Kira to follow her. She and Macey fell in around the two mercenaries, clearly following a preplanned maneuver that swept them down the halls of the resort.
The SDC’s commander finally led them into a small lounge area appointed in dark hardwood and a selection of chairs of assorted styles.
“Have a seat,” Macey told them. “Tapadia and Buxton will be with us momentarily.”
Kira obeyed and was surprised when one of the hardwood panels unfolded, revealing itself to be a wood-sided artificial stupid wet bar. It rolled over to her, and her headware received a request for a drink order.
She and Konrad both took coffees from the machine. Bachchan took the thick black tea the SDC favored—and Kira could not stand—where Macey laid out three beers before the door opened again.
“I collected your escorts,” Tapadia said drily as he stepped in. “They’re happily looming in the corridor outside, but I think they got lost in the reporters.”
Kira cursed.
“I was taken aback enough by the whole display that I didn’t think of them,” she admitted. If she’d thought about it, she would have expected Koch and her ground-force trooper companion to follow her—and Milani would probably have words for the two escorts if they learned that their people had even temporarily lost track of the Admiral.
“It was quite the display, wasn’t it?” Tapadia murmured. He grabbed one of the beers Macey had laid out with a nod to the older woman. “I honestly did not think we were going to take Schirmer by surprise like that, not when we needed a unanimous vote out of the Quorum in advance.”
“We got the vote,” Macey noted.
Kira had to wonder how much the First Minister’s hatchet woman had been involved in that. Her lack of formal title concealed an impressive amount of informal power.
“We did,” Tapadia confirmed. “Though if it comes to war, that goes to the general vote. Blockading the Corridor is only arguably in the authority of the Ministries, but the unanimity of the Quorum covers a multitude of sins.”
“Democracy is a wonderful thing,” Buxton told them as they stepped into the room, closing the door firmly behind them. “It may not move quickly, and it may not move with certainty, but when it moves, it moves with the force of an avalanche.
“The people of Samuels are with us in this. There will be no question, no hesitation. Brisingr came to the wrong neighborhood if they expected us to take this lying down.”
“I appreciate the support, First Minister,” Kira said as Buxton took their beer and sat down. “Many systems would be more willing to cut loose a mercenary company than challenge Brisingr.”
“I am not intimidated by Brisingr,” Buxton replied. “Now, to be honest, much of that is recognizing that we are at the far limit of the Kaiserreich’s ability to project force and they have problems closer to home.”
“But there is also the realization that we were played and far too easily,” Macey said grimly. “From your conversation with Bueller—Admiral Bueller, apologies, Commander Bueller—I am looking at the sources that made us consider Memorial Force as our first choice with suspicion.”
“Starting a war between us and Colossus wasn’t enough to guarantee you were here for them to move against,” Tapadia agreed. “They had to make sure we knew you were out there and thought of you as our first option.
“As Doretta says, we were played…and you very nearly paid for it.”
“Speaking of paid…” Kira murmured.
Buxton laughed.
“Full combat and risk pay have already been transferred to your local accounts,” they promised. “Death benefits for your people will follow shortly.”
“I don’t want to seem…rude,” Konrad said slowly, “but I was under the impression that those destroyers you were waving at Schirmer were, ah, ours?”
Kira had been going to let that simmer for a bit longer, but it had definitely been on her list.
“Per the contract, you own ships taken in actions where Memorial Force is the sole or primary combatant,” Admiral Bachchan observed. “So, the depot ships that we purchased from you, for example, had unquestioned ownership.
“The contract did not specify exactly what ownership took shape when a joint operation between Memorial Force and the SDC took place.”
“We could argue back and forth around exactly how to divvy things up, but we have an offer to make,” Tapadia told them before Kira could say anything. “Deception requires significant repairs, yes?”
“Yes,” Konrad said grimly. Kira had barely managed to tear him away from the damage surveys sufficiently in advance of the meeting for him to shower. “We lost thirty-seven people, even putting aside fighter-crew losses, and one of our heavy cannon is straight-up gone.”
“The cruisers we captured are in similar or worse shape,” the Samuels businessman told them. “The destroyers, on the other hand, are in decent condition. Some repairs and refit required—replacing all of their software as a precaution at a minimum—but we could get all four destroyers into space inside a month.
“My engineers estimate it will take us at least two months, likely three, to repair either of the BKN cruisers,” he continued. “My gut feeling is that Deception will take about the same—and we will have three cruiser-scale yards online at the new shipyards inside two weeks.”
“A logical split would be for each of us to take half of the cubage captured,” Buxton suggested, meeting their husband’s gaze. “But frankly, we need all of those destroyers if we’re going to even begin to enforce the blockade I’ve announced.”
“The cruisers are conveniently twice the size of the destroyers, aren’t they?” Kira noted.
“That was exactly my thought,” Bachchan agreed. “Mr. Tapadia?”
The industrialist nodded and leaned forward.
“As I said, the full military shipyards are almost online,” he told them all. “My suggestion—our suggestion—is that we take the four destroyers and Memorial Force takes both cruisers. We will also cover the full costs of repairs to all three ships.”
“Since we’re planning on hanging on to you for at least six months, we get the benefits of those cruisers for some time anyway,” Buxton observed. “And I feel that two modern cruisers are a sufficient augmentation to your forces to be worth some patience?”
“You could certainly say that,” Kira agreed drily. She could argue that all six ships belonged to her under the contract—there were certainly grounds to support that—but that would require a legal fight. Plus, a six-month contract for the entirety of Memorial Force was more than enough to buy four destroyers from most systems that would sell them—and while everything was going smoothly with Samuels so far, fighting them in court over the destroyers could easily ruin that.
“We can live with that agreement,” she continued. The repairs on the three damaged cruisers wouldn’t be cheap, either. “And, of course, Commander Bueller is available to contract to assist with the repairs and refits of the destroyers.”
She winked at her boyfriend, who simply smiled and nodded gently.
“I can think of a few precautions you’ll want to take above and beyond removing the software,” he warned. “How much of that I can provide for free is, of course, up to the Admiral.”
“There’ll be no need,” Tapadia said immediately. “If the SDC doesn’t want to pay for your expertise, Commander Bueller, Samuels-Tata Technologies most definitely does.”
“It is decided, then,” Buxton concluded. “We, of course, await the arrival of Fortitude and your destroyers with bated breath, Admiral, but unless the Kaiserreich has a few spare carrier groups floating here at the extreme end of their logistics ability, I think we have time to sort things out.”
“We should,” Kira agreed. “And while Deception may be out of commission, Huntress is fully functional. We retrieved enough of our pilots to operate her full flight group, though it will take us a few more weeks to fabricate replacement fighters.
“Assuming, of course, that you are prepared to sell us class two drives?”
Operating in the Outer Rim as they did, Memorial Force’s fighters were rigged to eject their class two drives as well as their crews. Priority was still given to the crew survival pods, though, so while Kira’s people had saved forty of the fifty-nine people aboard the thirty-five lost fighters, they’d only salvaged eighteen drives.
“I will require explicit permission from the Ministries to do so,” Tapadia observed wryly. “Somehow, I believe it will be forthcoming. Right, love?”
Tapadia’s partner, the planetary head of state, could only laugh at that.
Kira smiled and leaned back in her own chair. The leaders of the Samuels System had played their part in luring her into a trap, but they hadn’t known that was what they were doing—and they were trying to make it right.
She wasn’t going to fly for anyone for free, but she was comfortable that she’d chosen the right side to take money from in this particular mess.