by James Edward
With that, he settled in again at his desk. He made a call to his security group to have the offices swept for bugs. You never knew with the IM. He started reading the seceding application. He would send this over to Kobimarsu for their perusal and rewrite. The presentation would be in a week. He would have dinner with Sinclair tonight. He would pass on the information to her and through her to Weatherfew. She was a pleasant woman, very easy to look at, but she was sad that her husband was on the opposite side of the fence. She did seem to be interested in Ray, and he wondered if that was going to go anywhere.
Three hours later, Charles sat down across from Sinclair. Neither noticed the man that sat at an empty table and seemed to be studying the menu a little too carefully. She looked tired, though to most men she looked desirable and a little vulnerable. Her work was very difficult, as she needed to keep a deep cover, but she did enjoy these little outings. She knew that Charles was harmless and enjoyed the attention of a pretty girl, so she decided to be a little flirtatious and enjoy her evening.
Charles also knew that she was out of his reach but did enjoy the attention. It helped his reputation as a player to have a bevy of beautiful girls willing to be with him. Secretly he knew that Sinclair was using him as a safety net where she could relax and enjoy herself without worrying about complications further along in the evening. “I had a visit from the IM today,” Charles stated. “Seems that we have aroused some interest in the ministry, and they sent a ferret to ask some preliminary questions.”
“What sort of questions?” she asked. She was a little alarmed; her forecasting program hadn’t predicted an early interest by the ministry until after they ceded from the AGW. She figured that Charles would get a call in two weeks, not so soon. Something in her programming was skewed, and that meant that she would be back at work after this meal.
“Oh, general questions. The usual who, what, and where. He did ask as to our time line and how Ray became CEO before he was out of Fleet,” Charles said as he read the menu. “I told the ferret that Ray was involved in an incident. It would be in his file anyway. From that incident, there were charges filed, and he knew that it wasn’t going to end well. So he opted to activate his retirement and start the company up early. He also wanted to know what our ultimate goal was and if we were going to move into areas that would force a trade war and lower prices, thus lowering the taxation benefits that the government enjoyed.”
“What did you tell him?” she asked. “This can go south fast if they are at all alarmed about unfair trading or loss of taxation. You know that the majority of the Intelligence Ministry are also PRC operatives. Therefore, they would inform Great Ursa about the moves.”
“Oh I suppose so,” Charles said after he ordered for both of them. “I did warm him that if there was any untoward movement to block us I would file a protest with the senior government officials about the ministry getting involved in matters of business and that they were actually working for Great Ursa or other powerful combines.”
“We must be very careful now. I think that this will be the last time that we can be seen together,” Sinclair said. “We must not draw any suspicion or connection to either of us. Especially since you will file by week’s end. That will bring more scrutiny to you, Conrad, and Ray, especially Ray. I don’t want anything to happen to him.”
Charles watched her face color a little as she realized that she let it slip that she had feelings for Ray. He diplomatically ignored that slip and smiled at her. The waitress delivered their food, and they both tucked in. “I will ensure that we are all covered, but I agree that this will be our final time. From now on, we will have to go through the system that we set up when we need to communicate. You remain who you are, and I will adopt the moniker of Badger. You can pass on to Lyn what has gone down so that they will be ready if things go south.”
“Yeah, that’s a good plan,” Sinclair said. “I will start tightening up my shop and running IT scans as soon as Kobimarsu presents the writ to the parliamentary secretary. Gable should be brought up to speed as well. Well, the snowball has just picked up speed, and there is no stopping it now. We are committed.”
“Yes,” Charles said as he sipped his after-dinner coffee. I talked to Gable earlier, and he was okay for the presentation. Everything is in order, and we will be ready for the adverse if it goes wrong. Thank you for an enjoyable meal. I wish there could be more.” With that, he rose as she did and gave her a hug. As he paid the bill, she quietly left the restaurant.
Again they didn’t notice the man slowly make his way out of the restaurant. He followed Sinclair from a distance as she made her way to the transportation kiosk. He waited as she called in a cab and watched her as the cab sped away. Well, he thought, time to file my report.
Two weeks later in the government committee, Gable Houseman read the writ as it was presented to him by Kobimarsu. The committee sat to consider the writ.
“Mister Houseman, you as the bearer of the writ are knowledgeable of the circumstances of said writ and the implications. We as a committee have had time to look into the writ, but we ask you as the presenter to enlighten us. Please explain to us as to the gist of this writ to cede.”
“Mister Chairperson, I am but the presenter and am not affiliated with the writ or the principals involved in the writ,” Houseman started. “The writ to cede is a standard writ. The system is Zn2091, a nondescript system with a weak star, three gas giants, and debris throughout the system, including the Goldilocks zone. It was first scouted over 150 years ago, and as you can see in that scouting report, it is valueless. I must also point out that there have been no AGW ships in that system for the last hundred years, as it was considered valueless and not cost effective. It is out of the space lanes connecting to the core worlds, with the closest habitual system being the system Garthwood.
“Conrad Corporation has purchased the entire system from the AGW and is building a refining and gas recovery system to exploit the gas giants. Zn2091 contributes nothing to the AGW in monetary form but would require an occasional fleet presence that will cost ships, fuel, and manpower. Our taxation and monetary benefit would be derived by the trade generated with the aligned worlds, rentals of ships, and tank farms that are right now being constructed at Omicron 2 and Sempter. Conrad Group is a consortium of investors that are mostly ex-Fleet officers that left the Fleet under a cloud. This could also be a basis to cede from the government that more or less fired them. We are better off with this system off the books.”
“Thank you, Mr. Houseman,” the chairman responded. “I believe that you are right in the effect that this system is not much of a concern to the AGW, especially in these trying and troubling times. I believe that we can poll the committee to see if there are any objections.”
The chairman looked around the table and saw that most of them weren’t even listening to the presentation. Houseman had done his best to sandwich this between more interesting and urgent business. The chairman, seeing that there were no questions, tapped his gavel.
“Being that there was no further questions to this writ and considering that it has been through the required three readings, it is up to this committee to vote on granting or denying the writ to cede.” The chairman once again looked around at the bored faces. “Those in favor of granting the writ may indicate it by placing their right hand over their heart and saying, ‘Aye.’ Those against will vote nay by placing their left hand on the table and saying, ‘Nay.’ … Seeing no nays brought forward, the ayes have it. The writ has passed unanimously and will be entered in the scrolls as such. Thank you, Mr. Houseman.”
Gable Houseman left the chambers with the endorsed writ in his hand. He would send the original to Ray as soon as possible.
CHAPTER 8
Developing the system-starting R&D
LYDIA GOODFELLOW ENTERED RAY’S OFFICE with an official envelope in her hand. She handed it to Ray. “Well, boss, you are officia
lly the king of Zn2091.”
“King.” Ray snorted. “More like the most underpaid civil servant in the system. I take it this is the official document. We are on our own now. It is now time to have Bruce move a couple of corvettes and the destroyer to the gate. When will the weapons platform be completed? Sergie and Fred promised it by week’s end, but there were problems with the housing.”
“The destroyer Mercy and corvettes Larch and Birch are underway as we speak. The weapons platform Guard One is almost ready; they should be underway by tomorrow. The housing quirks will be worked out en route. The engineers will catch the maintenance shuttle back when they have the bugs out. Do you realize that that platform has as much firepower as a heavy cruiser? And with the advanced nano shielding, it is as tough as a dreadnought. Also we have to assign someone to be the station chief on Guard One.
“Oh, by the way, both cruisers are underway to the planet Panhandle to get the ceramic coating, then a close fly by around the sun to bake it on. That was brilliant to have the sun bake the coating. Between Fred’s engineers and Sergie’s science guys, we have made massive strides in the techno field. It was brilliant to incorporate crushed crystals on the ceramic. They help to diffuse the beam weapons by another 60 percent. Both cruisers will be strong enough to withstand repeated hits from lasers, missiles, and particle beams. Even X-rays will be massively weakened. We have to assign captains and crews to the ships and have them out on a shakedown cruise.
“Boxer One and Two have just finished building the framework for the shipyard. We should be building our own designed ships soon. Right now we need shuttles and small cargo haulers for our use. I assigned Boxer One to start on a rebuild of Matilda to fit our missile and weapon specs.
“Lastly we need more room and more areas opened up for agriculture, both crops and livestock. All my administrators are reporting that people are getting tired of soy protein foods. A chicken and an egg would sell for a hundred thousand credits.”
“Did you know that Hammer has found that the moon orbiting the second giant, Darnet, is ideal for a marine training ground? He has requested that we mine out various internal caverns so that they can train. He has named the moon Hardship. Sort of thought that that was appropriate considering what the recruits will go through,” Ray said. “Any idea how our recruiting is going? How about R&D? Have they managed to design a scanner and signal jammer? With the new recruiting, we are bound to get spies, and we don’t want them reporting to either sides at the moment.”
“They are still working on a jamming system. So far we can jam at the jump gate, but if they get past that, they will see all,” she said. “We really don’t have a cracker communication wizard, so some of the guys are on a sharp learning curve.”
“Okay, we need a meeting with Bev, Les Findlay and Bruce Duely, Jeff Brakeman and Hammer to appoint captains and crews to ships and weapons platforms. Maybe have that ready for this afternoon so we can get that out of the way. We have more ships than crew or officers.”
That afternoon, the group was sitting around the board table. Everyone was voicing his or her opinions and ideas, so the meeting was robust and noisy. Finally Ray rapped on the table to establish order.
“Good brainstorming session, but we need to get to the end of this so we can move forward,” Ray said. “Hammer, you want a new planet and troops. You also think that the guard platforms should be manned by your marines and officers. Do you right now have enough manpower to fill those posts?”
“No,” Hammer rumbled. “But neither do you have enough fleet to fill the slots. These will be stationary platforms, so they fall within the jurisdiction of the marine mandate as per the old fleet regs. Moving metal requires a fleet captain, and stationary metal requires marine captains. As we only have two built at this time, we are able to supply a small crew to each.
“I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes, but marines need a training ground and more recruitment. The mining crew at Panhandle is almost finished with this leg of its excavation, so I would like to have them start on Hardship so we can get training. We also need a small platform for training purposes. With Conrad ceding from the AGW, you can bet that some consider us ripe pickings.”
“Exactly my point,” Les Findlay chimed in. “We need ships to repel interested parties before they get to the core of our system. Our ships need to be manned and gotten up to speed as soon as possible.
“I will grant the platforms to you, Hammer, as we are really short of manpower for the ships we have, and you have the regs right. My concern is, how good is your handful of marines? If they are on the platforms, we have no one to prevent a pirate invasion into our populated areas.
“As far as the crews and officers go, we will have to scab crews together for now. But we can go active in recruiting AGW people now that we are independent. I would think that there are a lot of retirees still out there that can fill the ranks. Procurement has managed to buy some old simulators that will help in training, and we have no shortage in fuel. Senior officers should take the bigger ships, provided they can pass the simulator tests, and the rest should trickle down. We can hire more freighter captains so we can free up those captains and officers. We will still be short crews and engineers, but we can at least field a small fleet of academy-trained crews. With our beefed-up shields and weapons, we should make short work of the invaders before they realize they are in trouble.”
“I agree with that proposal,” Ray said. “Hammer, you will have to wait for Hardship. It will take at least three weeks to blast a cavern to your satisfaction and another two weeks for the nanobots to sculpt it to your requirements. You will need a full maintenance crew to man and operate life support, etc. In the meantime, your training is to start on the weapons platform. Fifty percent marine with a 50 percent fleet crew to fill the stations like reactor power, coms, sensors, and environment. You will be responsible for weapons, boarding, and learning from the fleet personnel. Once the marines are competent, we will turn over all the platform to you and move to the next.”
“Agreed,” Hammer said grudgingly. “I would like some shuttles though. Eventually they should be armed. If something does get through, at least we can have a strike force ready to hit a hotspot.”
“Agreed,” Ray granted. “As soon as the shipyard is functioning, we will bring the shuttle manufacturing up to speed. Submit a want and weapons list to Fred for design.
“Okay, I also will agree with Les’s plan as to manning the ships as long as Les and Jeff get together on a simulator outline for qualifying us. As I plan on being at the helm of the Cul Dar, I will also go through the training on the Sims. I have been out of it too long to think that I can do the job right. Everyone who wants to captain a ship must complete simulator training, including XO’s. Engineers will be tested by Fred in whatever training hell he will design. The rest will have their time on a simulator and time on the bridge. Crews will be selected by department heads. When Hammer has enough marines to spare, they will also man the larger ships.”
“That leaves us with recruiting and security,” Lydia said. “I have spoken to recruiting, and it is becoming harder to get people out quietly now. Most of the select best are already picked up or have declined. Reg is looking for an electronics wizard. He thinks it will be a young guy, as they seem to be the ones interested in cracking every piece of electronics ever built or designed. He has a few candidates. Crews and in-house personnel are starting to pick up as we have started on a campaign of legitimacy. We will have to switch gears and start advertising for careers in the new Conrad Group. I have a few spin-doctors working on that. I also think that we should hire a couple of recruiting firms so that they can screen out the rejects before we get them; saves on wear and tear of equipment.
“Security is going to be the sieve in this game. There is no way that we can prevent an operative from getting close or even starting an operating cell here or on one of the planets. We can only sc
reen and be vigilant. I would suggest from now on that daily sweeps of all secure areas and all records be put into an encryption file. The marines should be doing the sweeps to ensure that our meetings and critical areas are free of bugs.”
“Let’s get busy then. Hammer, I want a detailed report on Hardship and your training structure as soon as possible. You should also have a command hierarchy submitted so we can deal with any eventuality,” Ray said. “Les and Jeff, the same with you. I want the simulators running 24/7 until we get as many captains qualified as we have room for, then XOs, nav, and sensors. We will all have to train on the new weapons as we have a limited idea of how they will work yet. Hammer, as you will be manning the weapons on the guard platforms, you will have to bring your guys up here to train as well. Sometime we will be able to hand over some simulators for marine use only.
“Bev, we need to go over the logistics of food and accommodations. We will be getting extra crews through our recruiting and need to be ready. Mining might have to go back to Darcy and open up some more space.”
“We have made progress in opening up space in Darcy already. Our nanobots have been working to convert the crushed rock into dirt for grains and meat production. We have over two kilometers of hydroponics working already. Lighting is ongoing, but we have found lots of water.
“One of our problems is that all the mining, hollowing, and bringing the caverns up to livable temperature has caused minor quakes. We have our geologists working on it, but she has said to expect more. Residences are still tight, but we are making progress in building up instead of out. Again the nanobots are doing amazing work on that. We have a few building that are hitting ten stories. The park is beginning to respond to all the work we have put in, and now we have a pond and trees. It’s kind of nice, especially after all this steel and corrugated iron up here.”