Pursue the Past: Samair in Argos: Book 1 by Michael Kotcher Page A

hull.”
                  “All right, Tamara.  I’ve been won over by your optimism.  If anyone can save this old ship, I believe it’s us.”  Tamara smiled at his words.  A truculent team she could deal with, it wouldn’t be the first time an “impossible” project had been laid out before her with instructions to “get on with it”.  But doing it with no backup, not even a single ally simply wouldn’t do.  She couldn’t fight the crew and get the overhauls completed.  But it seemed she had a good portion of the techs on her side, as well as the two most important, Quesh and Xar.  Having the captain giving her his support couldn’t hurt either.  Though back in the day, she’d had Captain Horace Bythe’s support as well.  He hated her and he used her as a patsy for his own smuggling and embezzlement schemes, but he wanted her to run the shipyards smoothly and efficiently.
                  As the other two headed off to Cargo bay three, Tamara followed along behind, thinking about the command structure in her former job.  Her former life, really.  Bythe was a bastard, but she hadn’t really known that until the fix was in.  He had backed her up all the way, making sure that the resources she needed were made available, throwing in his support with captains of various ships under construction or repair.  As she had begun to investigate the shortages and missing supplies and funds, he had still remained helpful, but upon reflection now (and during the eleven months of incarceration) she remembered times when he seemed more upset about the findings of her investigation than he should have.  Oh, certainly, a commanding officer should be angry and upset if he heard that someone was skimming funds and stealing equipment from his base.  However, the captain seemed a bit more rankled than he should be.  Obviously, the man sat back and secretly conspired with Islington while simultaneously promising Tamara all the support she would need. 
                  Tamara found her hands clenching and unclenching as they walked.  Now was not the time to deal with this.  She had a great deal of work to do and not a lot of time to do it, working with an untried crew of freighter techs.  On the plus side, she had a good supply of raw materials and a working industrial replicator.  Irritated, she stamped down on the demons threatening to bubble to the surface and returned to work.
     
                  The crew turned out to be a little greener at their jobs than Tamara would have liked, though Quesh and Xar managed to keep them all moving in the right direction.  They began with the most damaged power conduits first, the ones that had been cut out of the loop completely and routed around.  That way, once they got those working, they could reroute around the active ones and replace those.  As Quesh had said, they wanted to completely restore the Grania Estelle ’s power distribution system and repair all the leaks.  It wouldn’t actually give more power to the ship, but it would prevent her from losing any and help keep more systems on line. 
                  There were the usual bumps, scrapes and cuts, thankfully minor, until the public address system came on.  There was a noise like a strangled duck and everyone stopped what they were doing for a moment and listened.  Quesh gently tapped one of the welders on the shoulder, who shut off the welding torch and popped up her face shield.  Tamara stopped her work as well, listening intently as everyone else.
                  “All hands, this is the Captain.  We are one minute from the hyper limit.  Secure all loose items and hang on to something.  Prepare for hyperspace jump, people.”  Everyone sighed and grabbed hold of the welders’ fuel tanks.
                  “What’s happening?” Tamara asked.
                  One of the techs shrugged.  “Just a