by Bob Blanton
“I think each shell for the hub will take three or four days to extrude,” Catie said. “That’s assuming you use four plasma guns.”
“What made you think of this?” Marc asked. “You didn’t just come up with it here, did you?”
“No,” Catie grinned. “I was trying to figure out if there was a better way to form the Oryx’s wings. Those things are huge. I was trying to figure if there was a way to extrude them. But the wing shape is too complex. We are going to extrude most of the fuselage, but we have to form the wings in two pieces by spraying them on a foam base. Anyway, that led me to think about what you were doing and how nice it was that you had such normal geometric shapes.”
“Really?” Liz said.
“What can I say, I was a little bored one night.”
“Yeah, why couldn’t you have come by last week before we did all the work on the hub?” Marc said.
“I was busy catching up after playing with this idea,” Catie said. “Oh, and don’t forget to attach the superconductor matrix while you’re extruding the shells. I’ll send you the details of how we’re doing that for the Oryx’s fuselage.”
“Thanks,” Marc said. “Now, get lost. I’ll see you at dinner.”
“Bye.”
“Damn, she’s smart,” Liz said.
“I know, try being her father,” Marc said. “At least you can take your frustrations out when you’re working on self-defense with her.”
“I sure can, and we’re going to have a really tough lesson tomorrow,” Liz laughed.
“Toss her on the mat once for me.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“Okay, so what are you thinking?” Liz asked.
“I’m thinking I’m in over my head,” Catie replied.
She and Liz were standing on quad one of Delphi City, looking at the expanse of polysteel that had been laid down by the construction crew. The crew was busy assembling the first manufacturing plant over in the corner of the quad.
“Why do you say that?”
“Reading a few articles about adding greenbelts to planned development and actually doing it are different things. I’ve never been much of a gardener.”
“Well, you’re not being a gardener,” Liz said. “You’re being a city planner. We’ll hire the gardeners.”
“Okay, one of the first things they say is not to create wind tunnels,” Catie said. “We’re going to have streets every one hundred meters. The streets will be fifteen meters wide, six meters for a lane and sidewalk on each side, and three meters for the meridian. That makes the blocks eighty-five meters square.”
“And you want something like thirty percent green area.”
“But I don’t want to chop it up into tiny pieces. We need something big enough that you can play soccer or baseball in. Then some area big enough for big community events.”
“So, how big?” Liz asked.
“I think if each quad had two parks that were four blocks each, plus another two one-block parks, then everybody would be close to a nice green area, and the small community would have a couple of big parks, so baseball people could go to one and soccer people could go to the other.”
“That sounds nice. What about when we have a whole section up?”
“Then I think you put a big park in the middle of it. A park that is sixteen city blocks will break up the space and give a really nice area for the community to gather.” Catie was painting the image in her HUD and giving Liz access to it.
“Are we going to get bigger than that?”
“Yeah, Dad is planning for at least four sections,” Catie said. “I think when we have four sections, we put a huge park in the middle, one that is sixty-four city blocks. Eight hundred meters on a side.”
“Wow, why so big?”
“Because it’s gotta have a big saltwater lake in the middle of it and beaches around it.”
“Beaches?”
“You can’t have a city in the middle of the ocean and not have beaches,” Catie said. “The kids are going to want to play at a beach.”
“How are you going to make a beach and a saltwater lake?”
“We’ll pump the ocean water up and circulate it,” Catie said. “Bring in fresh seawater and create waves. I’m sure we can figure something out. We can put a nice resort hotel along the beach. But I want to keep that secret until it’s done.”
“I can keep a secret. It sounds pretty nice, what does that come out to percent wise?” Liz asked, sure that Catie had exceeded her budget.
“It’s for the four-section city, it’s only two hundred fifty-six blocks of park space. That’s only twenty-five percent. The meridians along the streets should bring us up to the thirty percent target.”
“Oh, it sounded like so much more and looks like so much more on my HUD,” Liz said.
“That’s because it’s all clumped together. All those other blocks are chopped up by roads and such, so they don’t look as massive.”
Chapter 3
Board Meeting – April 29th
“This meeting of MacKenzie Discoveries’ Board of Directors is now called to order.”
“Drinks are on me,” Blake said. He pulled a bottle of scotch out and started passing out glasses.
“Really!” Marc said.
“Trust me, you’re going to need a drink,” Blake said.
Marc just blew his breath out and decided to live with it. “Why am I going to need a drink?”
“Labor shortage,” Blake said.
“What?” Marc looked at Kal. “You’re our director of labor, what’s up?”
“We’re growing too fast,” Kal said. “The islanders would rather work the jobs being created on their home island than come out to Arutanga, Manuae, or Delphi City.”
“Can’t we just pay them more?” Samantha asked.
“Really doesn’t work that way with islanders. It would draw a few, but we really need hundreds, especially if you want to start production of those Oryxes,” Kal said. “We’re ramping things up much faster than we originally planned.”
“I realize that,” Marc said. “Can we bring in labor?”
“From where?” Kal asked.
“Guatemala, Honduras, any place with refugees,” Marc said.
“Those people are going to want to bring their families,” Kal said. “They’re refugees because they’re fleeing their homes due to violence, they want jobs, but they’re really looking for a safe place to live with their families.”
“We’re building a city,” Marc said. “It needs families. Just make sure we get at least one English-speaking refugee for ten non-English speakers, same language of course.”
“What about skills?” Kal asked.
“We need cooks, gardeners, housekeepers as well as manufacturers. A lot of the manufacturing work is semiskilled. We train them. Move the Cook Islanders into the higher-skilled jobs and pay them extra to stay on and be crew bosses; they’ll like that for a while.”
“Preference of where they come from?”
“I’d focus on the UN refugee programs first,” Samantha said. “They’ll have vetted the people from the various camps, and have a structure in place that you can use to vet them again. You’ll have to set up your own infrastructure to interview and vet people from Central America if you try to recruit there.”
“Make it clear that there will be no Sharia law here or other religious restrictions. They’re welcome to bring their religion, but individual rights will trump religion every time,” Marc said.
“I’ll contact them today,” Kal said. “We need about three hundred new workers right away.”
“That will mean about twelve hundred people,” Samantha said. “Unless you were counting the support staff in your three hundred.”
“No, just manufacturing,” Kal said.
“Okay, put together a team to set up the process,” Marc said.
Samantha clicked her nails on the tabletop. “You should probably hire a refugee coordinator from the UN, someone who’s se
t up a camp before and is experienced in working with refugees.”
“That makes a lot of sense,” Marc said as he smiled at her.
“Of course,” Samantha laughed. “I’ve got it.”
“Catie, how are your greenhouses coming along?”
“I’ve got it down to a process now,” Catie said. “But we should really get a real horticulturalist if you want to ramp up production to support that many people.”
“Sam?”
“On it.”
“We’ll need more doctors and nurses,” Dr. Metra said.
“Doctors are not as easy to recruit,” Samantha said, “but money will work there?” She gave Marc a look.
“Whatever it takes, we need to make Delphi City a paradise so we can attract more talent,” Marc said.
“To do that, you need to have Lynxes running back and forth, so people don’t feel so isolated. Being able to be in Sydney or Wellington in less than an hour will do wonders for people, much less being about three hours from New York City or Paris.” Samantha gave Marc a knowing look when she mentioned Paris.
“Got it, vacation in Paris for the Lynx’s maiden flight to France,” Marc said. “Liz, how are you doing with our gaggle of scientists and engineers?”
“Gaggle is right,” Liz said. “I should have known when you foisted this off on me it was going to be difficult.”
“They’re not that difficult,” Marc said, knowing full well how much those scientists demanded. “When I was handling them, they were just asking for more lab facilities and test equipment. That wasn’t that taxing.” Marc ducked a little as Liz threatened to throw her comm unit at him.
“Not when you’ve got someone else looking after them,” Liz said. “Anyway, the design team on the trucks is doing great. They’ve modified a semi-truck with all the changes and are now running it through its paces. Because that’s a bit hard to do on Rarotonga, I’ve arranged for it to be shipped to Australia where they can run it any which way they want.
“Now I’m looking into how to start manufacturing them,” Liz continued. “We could try to start a factory ourselves, but I think licensing the design and selling the fuel cells and batteries is a better bet. Tata Motors of India is the world’s biggest supplier of big vehicles; they’re aggressive, and they’re everywhere.”
“I agree,” Marc said. “Sam?”
“Adding it to my list.”
“What about manufacturing the fuel cells?” Marc asked.
“We can make the membranes here in the city, then send them to Rarotonga for assembly. At least until we max out the labor population there. After that, we can just send them to wherever we’re manufacturing the vehicles and let them set up a plant to assemble them,” Liz said. “That way, we don’t overload the labor force here. We can just throttle it to whatever the Cook Islanders want to have local.”
“I like that,” Marc said.
“Good, so does Fred take this over now?” Liz asked.
Fred nodded, “Adding it to my list.”
“Next, we have my favorites, the nuclear physicists,” Liz continued. “Although they seem to spend most of their time arguing, they’ve now started asking for some very big and very expensive equipment.”
“Anything we can’t afford?”
“No, just sharing my pain,” Liz said. “And Dr. Zelbar has started to work on transparent polysteel.”
“How did you manage that?”
“I had Catie ask him why, if polysteel was so much like diamonds, it wasn’t clear like a diamond.”
“Clever of you,” Marc said. “See, I knew you were just the person for the job.”
Liz glared at Marc before she continued. “Our plasma physicist is excited about the potential to make a big plasma torch so Blake can use it as a weapon, and Dr. Nikola Zelbar has cracked the fuel cell nut. She did that mostly on her own, ADI only had to add a little nudge.”
“That’s a good thing since we’re getting ready to start manufacturing those things in Mexico,” Sam laughed.
“Anything else?” Marc asked as Liz sighed and gave him a look.
“No, that’s it for now.”
“Okay. Blake, how’s construction going?”
“We’ve got the first quad done,” Blake said, “dormitories are finished, and we have a couple of apartment buildings up; they need furnishings and such, but we can start putting people in them. We won’t need as much dorm space if more of the workers are going to be living in the apartments. We’ve got the second quad built up to the subdeck and are starting to add infrastructure. Quad three has the basic frame done. We’ll be adding the subdecking soon. The construction workers seem to love the three months on, one month off routine, so no issues there.”
“How’s our airport coming?”
“We’ll start producing pontoons and columns for it next week. It’ll be a while before we have capacity available for the decking or beams.”
“Okay. Catie, how are the Lynxes coming along?”
“I took the new baby up yesterday. It handles as well as the first one did. With the governor engaged, it tops out at Mach four. Without the governor, it gets up to Mach five. Not as good as a real Lynx, but we don’t have its engines.”
“When do the Kiwis start evaluating it?”
“Next week. Liz and I will fly one over to Wellington, and give it to them to evaluate. It’s going to take a while; people are really nervous about the Mach four thing.”
“Okay, how about the Oryx?”
“Design’s done, I’m still tweaking the manufacturing process with Uncle Blake, but it should be ready when we have a plant to build it in.”
“Alright. Sam?”
“We’ve inked the deal with Honda. I have a little homework to do with the parliament here to make sure we’re good to bring in refugees. We covered immigration as part of the original deal, so probably just smoothing some ruffled feathers. I also have a long list of people I’m supposed to hire. The exclusive deal with Apple ends in two months, so we’re negotiating with Samsung and the big laptop companies to add them to the deal.”
“That’s great. We can use the extra cash.”
“And best of all, our car plant in Acapulco will be ready to start production in two weeks. I think you’re going to have to do a press conference for the opening.”
“No!” Marc said, dropping his head into his hands.
“I’m afraid so. You’re going to get some hard questions about why it’s not in the US, what you’re going to pay, greenhouse gases. You’d better study up.” Samantha was obviously enjoying Marc’s discomfort at having to give a press conference. She knew he hated public speaking and he’d been avoiding any public meetings or press conferences since she’d joined MacKenzie Discoveries, forcing her to do them instead.
“Why do I feel like I’m being set up?”
“Probably because you are,” Blake said. “Now, do you want that drink?”
“Sure,” Marc said as he reached for a glass. “Okay, on a lighter note, Liz and I, with a little help from Catie, have the base design and manufacturing process for Station Delphi. We just need some Oryxes and an airport to start construction.”
“And a few asteroids,” Catie added.
“Soon, Sweetie, soon,” Marc said. “Kal, how’s the security team doing?”
“Despite the A-team kicking their ass, the new guys are excited and training well.”
Catie stood up and did a little dance, “Who’s the big dog in town?”
“We are!” Liz, Blake, Kal, and Catie shouted together.
“Children,” Samantha groaned and laid her head on the table. Dr. Metra reached over and patted her arm.
“Dr. Metra, how are we doing with the new facilities?”
“They’re coming along nicely thanks to Cer Blake’s efforts. I am looking forward to leaving the Virginia Henderson and being in a real facility,” Dr. Metra said.
“You do realize you’ll still be floating,” Blake joked.
�
��I know, but the platform will be so much more stable than a docked ship, and at least I can go outside and walk around on some grass, thanks to Catie,” Dr. Metra said.
“How are the patients doing?” Marc asked.
“Dr. Sharmila has been doing wonderful work. The surgeries are going smoothly, and the patients are getting into physical therapy quickly. Our Alzheimer’s patients are doing well; we’ve got that down to a science now. Their families will also appreciate the new facility. There will be much more room, and they’ll be able to go outside easier. We’ve started treating more patients with muscular dystrophy, but that’s much slower since you’re wanting to keep that treatment under wraps and the patients will be going home.”
“And your research?”
“We’re working on a cure for diabetes, and I actually think I can have that one ready for trials very soon. We’ve begun characterizing coronary artery disease; that looks like it will require regular treatments until we’re ready to introduce medical nanites or genetic engineering to the general public. And I’ve started work on a generic virus treatment.”
“What’s a generic virus?” Liz asked.
“Maybe that’s the wrong term. I’m working on a treatment that will just kill any virus in your system. It reads your DNA and kills all the RNA running around that doesn’t match.”
“Wow, that would be nice.”
“It relies on nanites, so it will have to wait or be done in-house,” Dr. Metra added. “Your world’s problem with antibiotics is troubling. ADI and I feel that the best thing to do would be to pick a couple of the teams that are close to a solution and push them along with some carefully placed hints. We’re focusing on the government programs and non-profits to avoid it just becoming a moneymaker for big pharma.”
“Good, anything else?” Marc asked. He looked around the table and didn’t see anyone wanting to add something. “Alright, Kal, we’re getting a lot of visibility, so we’re counting on you. Back to work, people.”
◆ ◆ ◆
It was Thursday after the board meeting when Samantha tapped on Marc’s office door. “Do you have a few minutes?” she asked.
“Sure.”