One of the council members carefully asked about possible markets for their plants, and he explained that the federation now suffered from a severe shortage of freighters, intrasystem bulk carriers and shuttles. John had already held an interim conversation with Miss Saenz, who told him that in the near-term, Orleans could realistically only produce the shuttle’s, although bulk carriers were roughly similar to shuttles, albeit far, far larger, meaning the only possible manufacturing location was in orbit. John was looking into the potential costs for developing an orbital manufacturing infrastructure. He thought that if a large number of industrial concerns joined together, it would be possible.
John explained, “I’ve met with some of your manufacturing people, and sent an expert on manufacturing to visit their local plants. She tells me that you have the ability to begin production of shuttles with relatively little need for large investments of money. She also told me that the plans and designs they have are a good one generation behind and would therefore have to be greatly improved in order to have a shot at gaining contracts. Additionally, she expressed the belief that should enough of your industrialists agree, they should be able to begin the process of creating an orbital manufacturing ability, giving your people the opportunity to bid on intrasystem bulk carriers. Eventually, that would put you in a position to bid on freighters.”
The council member snorted, “We can barely feed our own population, I don’t think we should be that ambitious.” John said, “It’s not my call, but I strongly believe that right now you have an opportunity that might evaporate in just a few weeks or months. Frankly, it’s not your call either, yet you have the ability to push or obstruct development. If I may suggest? Begin seeking expert opinions, and hold public sessions so that the entire planet can get a feel for what Grenoble is up against, and what its options are. You men and women are presently the single elected body on the planet that can do it. I’ve decided to go ahead with publishing your new constitution, but if you request it, I’ll hold off for one week while you examine it. I promise to seriously consider any and all suggestions and recommendations, just as long as you understand that the primary changes, the ones that alter your relationship with the federal government are not up for discussion.”
The meeting began to break up, but John held up his hand and added, “One more thing: the federal army general in command of the ground forces on Grenoble probably represents earth’s sentiments toward the former rebel worlds. You might take that into consideration.” The same woman asked, with a little heat, “What does that mean?” John sighed, “You have a little time – you just don’t know how much. Don’t waste it.” She asked, “What does it matter what we do or say, you’re going to do whatever you want to do.” John answered, “If that is your opinion, then nothing I can say is going to change your attitude. Either way, I am afraid that we don’t have much time.”
She looked coldly at him, “Now you’re repeating yourself.” John said, equally coldly, “And you’re still not getting it. Why are you standing here arguing with the one single man who has the power and desire to help your planet?”
One of the other council members tugged her into motion and they filed out into the damp evening.
John posted the proposed new constitution, and announced that if anyone had suggestions to improve it, to contact the Orleans city council, which would in turn funnel all suggestions directly to him. He hoped the council choked on the volume.
He went back upstairs to see if his wife wanted a nap – he certainly did.
Chapter 41
John spent the next day getting increasingly irritated with the Orleans City Council, which was behaving like a petulant child. The members acted as if John and the federal government that had recently invaded their planet were bloodthirsty barbarians; yet, they were also behaving as if he was their father, and they were small children who required permission to go to the bathroom. He understood that they needed a little time to work out their relationship, yet they’d already squandered a great deal of time, and quite possibly virtually all of it.
The Schwartz family was already proving to be a huge help to him, especially Rachel’s mother. She seemed to know a great deal about the politics and politicians of Grenoble, and as a result he was able to fast forward many conversations and get to the damned point before he pulled a weapon and shot holes in the innocent communications gear.
Jessica was also proving to be very helpful, if only to help calm him down. He felt the weight of every single person on the planet, plus all the unborn who could possibly grow up wearing a uniform, or worse, grow up dead, all because he failed.
The City Council managed to not filter the suggested constitution requests, and seemingly just passed every single one along to him. If it was deliberate, it had the opposite effect. He spent hours poring over the messages, comments and requests. Some were thoughtful and well-reasoned, but most seemed to have emanated from those same pimply boys with too much time on their sweaty hands.
He found one suggestion that he liked, and he added it, but the rest infuriated him. He put Jessica and her sisters to reading it over, looking for typos and other errors. The two girls had little actual experience with planetary constitutions, but they were quite well educated and as Jessica had said, at least as intelligent if not more so than she was. Jessica’s Masters in history was helpful, and she produced a few good questions that, if nothing else, eased his worries about the quality of the document, which in any event was ninety-five percent unchanged.
He inserted an announcement in the national news service, and called on every national and local administrative body to download it and prominently post it.
If anything, the army had stepped up efforts to create “situations”, causing John to decide that it was time for a little head butting. He ordered the army to vacate the Orleans city hall. After performing a little research with his local experts - the Schwartz family, John also asked the army to commandeer a currently unused property one hundred kilometers outside of the city. He told the general that he required the army to begin training to upgrade its abilities in urban confrontations, riots and the like. He thought the general might like the idea, especially as riots were exactly what he was trying to provoke. In fact, what John wanted was for the army to move a large portion of its forces out of the city. Legally John was only requesting the training, he didn’t have authority to make tactical decisions for the military.
He also issued very simple and clear guidelines for any military contact with civilians, and set up a committee to handle complaints. He duplicated the committee in the other three, small cities on the planet, and ordered that his guidelines be published with the intent that every civilian knew them, or at least knew they existed. He ordered the army to train its troops in implementing and following his orders, so that every army private also knew. Actually, John wasn’t worried about the conduct of the low ranking troops as he was that of the officers, the ones who would be following the general’s very private orders to foment.
John knew that even if he caught the general red handed, he wasn’t going to be able to remove him – public opinion being what it was. He therefore had to work to limit the army’s ability to run amuck.
Jessica had a very good, well-trained mind, and he was quickly finding he could bounce ideas off her, and that she was able to reciprocate. She promptly warmed to Rachel and her parents, and the five spent a lot of time working together.
Very early one morning he received a priority comm. A small group of warships had jumped into the system and it was estimated they would make orbit around Grenoble within forty hours. One of the ships was a carrier, not only new, but the first of a new class. It held fewer fighters, but was faster and both armed and armored.
James was on board, as was a prototype assault craft built by Producciones Padilla, Ltd., called the Hawk. It seems that not only was the shooting not over, yet another planet had decided to hold out to the bitter end. Additionally, Admiral Grigorivic
h was on temporary leave, and in hospital.
James shuttled down, Marine Gunnery Sergeant Mischcovic met him and drove him to headquarters. On the way James asked, “Sergeant, are you finding time to work over, er, excuse me, work out with John?” Karl grinned, “Yes sir. Absolutely. Every day. I have orders from his boss to keep him in good condition.” James asked, “Admiral Grigorivich gave you orders to train him?” Karl smiled, “No sir, that would be his wife.” James roared. It seemed that Jessica had learned of John’s respect and affection for his Marine, as she called Karl, and was also aware of that man’s efforts to improve his relationship with Rachel. It was proving to be rocky going, but Jessica had decided to help the situation along. With Jessica on board, John privately gave the two less than three months to marry. He hoped he had three months.
In John’s office James handed over a heavy courier bag. Inside, John found ten warrants, in differing amounts from one hundred thousand up to ten million dollars. Included was a short note from the admiral, who wrote that there were not going to be any additional monies, and to, as the admiral put it, “…expect you to push the process with the utmost diligence.” In other words, time was running out. As it was, John was amazed at the amount of money the admiral had winkled out of his budget.
John had already informed the five industrialists to draw up proposals to prepare designs for two or three different civilian shuttles. He told them, “You won’t be able to attract buyers based on high technology, so go for a very reliable, durable craft that undercuts on price.” They agreed, until he told them how much time they had.
John called the five, plus another two women who had decided to come aboard, and met with them in his offices, the only place on the planet he felt he could conduct a conversation that wasn’t overheard by the Pimple Brigade.
As soon as everyone was settled with a cup of coffee – John’s treat – he got right to the point and asked for a progress report on their designs. They had been told to bring whatever they had, and for the next fifteen minutes John watched a rudimentary pitch for a rugged craft at a very good price. By the end, he knew why the two additional companies were on board – they were crucial to the project. Astonishingly, all seven businesses had formed a consortium and seemed to be working very hard to develop a proposal that started with the raw materials and ended with a finished craft. He was deeply impressed, and said so. He asked for estimates of the amount they required in new investment, and was given a figure of thirty million dollars in new funds. He asked, “How much can be raised here on Grenoble?” They looked uncomfortable, but told John, “Perhaps half.” John asked, “How long to take possession of the fifteen million?” They looked at him, and John said, “As soon as you have the funds in hand, which is to say, a banks hands, I’ll match it. Understand, this has to proceed with the utmost speed. You must have all the legal documents in order within just a few days. If it will help, I’ll light a fire under the city council, but however it happens, it has to happen very soon.”
Mrs. DuMaurier said, “Sir, the incorporation should be centered out of San Pietro. We think that city will handle the project with greater urgency.” San Pietro was over five hundred kilometers distant from Orleans, and John asked, “Will that cause any... Hell, I don’t know what to ask. This is your home, so I’ll trust you to know how to proceed. Can I help from my end?” Mrs. DuMaurier said, “We have it covered, but thank you. If we haven’t said it already, we deeply appreciate your assistance. As to the funds, how long will it take to…” John held up his hand, “The funds are available now, today. Please comm me if anything happens to impede the process, or if I can do something to speed it up. Gentlemen, ladies, this is promising. Now, assuming that everything we’ve discussed today goes as hoped for, how long to get people into your plants, raw materials out of the ground, and so on?”
For the first time John heard from a Mr. Solon, who said, “We have a tentative target date of three weeks to reopen the production facilities, two months for completion of the design, another month to let out proposals…” John wearily held up his hand, “Sir, if you believe one single thing you ever hear from me, believe this: you don’t have anywhere near that amount of time. Think crisis, national emergency. Think survival. You need to work around the clock, seven days a week, you need to finalize your design and let out bids immediately. You need to begin work on the prototype five minutes after ‘immediately’. That thing needs to be undergoing trials in three months. Don’t worry about bugs or small issues; you can fix those once you have something concrete to actually fix. Go with designs that are proven and reliable. Um, I haven’t asked, but does the construction of this craft depend on anything from off-planet?” Mrs. DuMaurier said, “If we had a couple of shuttle engines for the prototype, it would greatly speed up the process.” John asked, “Whose engines do you want, where are they made or available?” Mrs. DuMaurier looked at the other newcomer, who had yet to utter a word. She said, hesitantly, “KDI LLC, model 57A, Elyse.” John said, “Elyse is possible. How much?” She said, “It used to be one-fifty and change. I don’t know now.” John said, “I’ll courier your request. Any other company that makes an acceptable engine?” She said, “We’ve been cut off from contact for some time, but Simco, on…” She stopped talking because John had jumped up and said, “Hold that thought for one moment please.”
He went to the door and shouted at the sergeant who was never very far away when visitors were inside the building, “Sergeant, get me Lt. Commander Chamberlin, on the double. No, faster.” Karl asked, “Sir, does he need to be conscious?” John laughed, “There are so many jokes there, I’m not going to even try. Hustle sergeant, or I’ll tell a certain aide that you took remedial English in high school.” The Marine promptly went from a fast walk to a run.
John sat back down and said, “Pardon my interruption, but I may have an alternate. We’ll know in a second.”
James peeked his head around the door and John waved him in. While James was still standing, John asked, “Commander, does Padilla have the ability to export shuttle engines?” James looked thoughtful, “I don’t work for the company, but now that the war is winding down, I’d think it would have a great deal of excess capacity.” John thanked him and James turned and left. John told his listeners, “Padilla is located on Maya. I’ll send a courier to them and ask for a couple of shuttle engines. Figure…one week transit time, plus, say, another week for foot dragging, and that gives you about two weeks. Understand, Padilla probably won’t be able to provide engines in production quantity, but assuming they can come up with a couple, you can use them for mules. You might just design the engine compartment to be able to accept a variety of engines. This is actually an example of what I am looking for: Padilla is located on a frontier world with an economy roughly equal to yours, although less devastated. They’ll be eager to have someone to export to now that the war is over and the military is probably either cutting back or eliminating contracts.”
Mrs. DuMaurier asked, “Mr. Chamberlin, you say you are, or were, a history professor?” John nodded, “War changes a man. I’ve seen all the killing I want, and more.” She asked, “That man has the same…” John nodded, “Younger brother. We spent the entire war together. In fact, this assignment is the first time we’ve been separated.” She asked, slowly and carefully, “Mr. Chamberlin, have you lost…any family?” John slowly nodded his head. She said, softly, “Almost everybody here has a loved on, relative or close personal friend who didn’t come back.”
John stood, “From now on, everyone returns home. Everyone.” She also rose to her feet and reached out her hand, “I agree.” It was a start.
That evening as John and his family sat at the dinner table with James, John was commed. General Chin got to the point, “Sir, I don’t quite understand the need for a training base, especially one so distant. What is happening that I don’t know about?”
His question was astutely put. John said, “I hate being unprepared. I assume you do as well
. Other than the cyber attacks, this is a peaceful assignment, but you never know. I want your troops to train up to prevent riots, and to learn how to quell them with no loss of life, either to your troops or civilians. However, we have also acquired another job – the Navy has just arrived with a prototype for a ground assault craft, and wants to begin immediate work ups. I don’t want the locals to see the craft in operation, nor does the Navy, thus a relatively distant base makes good sense. Your troops will provide security, as well as participate in the testing.”
General Chin chose to get angry, “This is the first time I’ve heard a word. When did you learn this was to happen?” John said, “I received the information this afternoon. I’m forwarding the Navy’s requirements to you later this evening. We need to expedite this – the Navy’s preparing for the final push on Python, and this prototype is crucial to success.”
General Chin was not mollified, “What can you tell me about the craft, ship, whatever the hell it is?” He was coming dangerously to insubordination, but John had no illusions that any good would come of a confrontation. Instead, he said, “The Navy is keeping a lid on the craft, although the paperwork refers to a name. Meanwhile, do you need assistance in setting up a test range? If you do, comm my aide with your requirements, and she’ll pass them on to Lt. Commander Komanski.
Hawk Genesis: War (Flight of the Hawk) Page 42