First Principles: Samair in Argos: Book 3 (22 page)

              “I have to say, Governor, this house is rather impressive,” Vincent commented.  He rubbed the arm of the sofa he was sitting on.  “I really like this couch.”

              Vall nodded.  “We were very lucky that the owners were willing to allow us to use it.  Government house was destroyed in the fires, and we need a place to set up.”

              Vincent couldn’t help but smile.  “Well, luckily you wouldn’t have to rough it anymore.”

              The governor looked at him and couldn’t stop the smile on his own lips.  “No, I don’t suppose we will.”  He looked over at the other two.  “So, gentlemen, what is it going to take to get that reactor down here and set up?  We have a lot of desperate people sitting in the dark right now and I need to show them that the government, even an interim one, is working hard to get them the essential services that they need.”  He sighed.  “Also, it’s going to hit winter in two months.  We don’t have time to sit around and dicker about prices.”

              “No, I don’t suppose you do,” Vincent replied, ignoring the look Ardeth shot his way.  “When we set up the deal originally with your predecessors, we settled on foodstuffs as the primary form of payment.”

              “I’m not sure about how much of that we can accommodate, Captain,” the man replied warily.

              He held up a hand, placatingly.  “I have no desire to take all your food and cause you all to starve, Governor.  I would like to keep coming here for a regular trade route.”

              “I would like that too, Captain,” Vall replied.  “In fact, I would like that a great deal.  Not counting this mess,” he said, waving his hand in the direction of the outside, “profits from businesses were on the rise.  The influx of goods that you’d traded with us was actually making the people happy.  There were companies that are looking to buy the rights to the devices you’ve brought here so that they can build them themselves.  And this was after only one trip here from your ship, Captain.”

              Vincent nodded.  “I agree, Governor.  It’s been a very lucrative arrangement.  And I’d like to continue that, on both sides.”

              “So what specifically are you selling?”

              “Well, the He3 power plant, as I mentioned before,” Vincent replied.  “Also, two of the heavy cargo shuttles that you saw earlier.  My ship currently has five, but I’m thinking you might need at least two to make sure you’re collecting enough fuel from the gas giant to keep the reactor going.  Also, I have a dozen of these,” he said, showing the governor an image from his datapad.  “It’s called an A2 replicator.  It’s small, only about this big,” he gestured, “but it can fab parts for you for a lot of projects.  Just need to keep it powered and topped up with raw materials.”

              The governor’s eyes bulged.  “I would like those very much, Captain.”

              “Then let’s talk price.  Your regular monetary system really doesn’t work for me, because outside of your system, no one else uses it,” Vincent said, regretfully.  “But there are a number of other items, aside from the foodstuffs, that I would consider.  With the nuclear fission reactor offline, I understand you have a good deal of refined uranium and plutonium that is just taking up space in your warehousing district.”

              His eyes narrowed suspiciously, and then he nodded slowly.  “Yes, I believe that will work.  We don’t have any more use for it, not with the new He3 reactor and those generators we have.  And I have this…”  The negotiations continued. 

              The work moved forward immediately.  A new site had to be picked out to place the reactor, and it was determined that they would not use the same site as before, for obvious reasons.  In less than six hours, a huge amount of people came out of the malaise that they’d been living in for five days.  Ground was cleared in one of the run down sections, and a large abandoned building was demolished and cleared out, in under fifteen hours. 

              Quesh and two of his engineering teams, were shuttled down to the surface, as were the staggering amount of parts and equipment for the reactor.  Ten shuttle trips using all five shuttles and only half the cargo was down.  The Parkani was directing the shuttles, his people, and the cargo with every one of his hands.  The male was a whirlwind, seemingly everywhere at once.  He was at the site, then he was at the landing pad, then, he was on one of the shuttles, and back at the ship and somehow back at the site all at the same time. 

              Vincent had Ka’Xarian build a trio of communications satellites to assist with coordination, and only for a modest fee.  The acting governor was thrilled with the possibility, especially since some more of the cargo that Vincent and his people were selling was twenty crates of mid-range communicators, which the local populace snapped up in a heartbeat once the word got out.  The ability to call anyone on the planet or in low orbit, now with the help of the satellites?  Who wouldn’t want one?  Vall had tried to regulate the sales, but someone slipped up on the receiving end.  In less than two hours after the crates touched down, all of them were gone and the coffers were filled with local currency.

              “What are we going to do with this paper currency?” Vincent commented to Ardeth and Stella when the AI reported that it was now part of the ship’s account.

              “I suppose,” the cargo specialist said, “We should actually set up an account here on planet.  Use it for incidentals and such.  I mean, we have just over two million in local money, but since it’s no good outside the system…”

              Vincent laughed.  “Who knew that having too much money would actually be a problem?”

              “You could give it back,” Stella pointed out.

              The two males laughed harder.  “It isn’t that much of a problem, Stella.  And it’s certainly better than the alternative.”

              “We’re going to get the rest of the reactor components down to the planet in the next sixteen hours,” Stella said.  “I’m concerned about crew fatigue, though Captain.  With all the shuttle flights and the loading and unloading…”

              “Understood,” Vincent replied.  He checked a few things on his datapad.  “All right.  We’ll put six hours in between flights to give the crew time to rest.  The pilots will have more time between loadings to get some rack time.  And getting everything down to the planet is important, but there’s no rush.”

              “No rush, Captain?”

              “Okay, there’s a certain amount of hustle that we need, but wearing out the crews so that things get damaged or people get injured won’t help with efficiency, either.”

              “No, Captain,” Stella agreed.  “I think that six hours should work.”

              “How are the ground crews progressing?”

              “Moving along smartly, Captain,” Ardeth replied.  “I’ve been in touch with the work foreman and if they keep to their current pace, they’ll have the ground cleared out in time for our work crews to start.  I have it on good authority that they are working to connect the site with the power grid.”

              “Should they be doing that before the power plant is even up?” Vincent asked.

              “It’s all about efficiency, Captain,” the AI answered.  “We want to be able to simply turn on the juice once the plant is up and running.  And also, it will keep the people busy.”

              “The people?”

              The AI smiled.  “Apparently there has been a run on recruitment into the government.  A lot of positions were lost and they need people to pick up the slack.”

              “More power to them, I guess,” Vincent said with a half shrug.  “But if it helps us with getting things moving around here, I’m not going to complain about it.  Seriously, though, how many of them have received any kind of serious training?”

              “Less than ten percent, Captain,” Stella put in, with a slight frown.  “I think most of them are being used for a combination of fetch and carry duties as well as simple manual labor.”

              “And there are a lot of things that will need a large labor pool since they don’t have much in the way of hover technology.”  Ardeth rubbed his forehead.  “For now anyway, it’ll be good if all they’re doing is moving things around.  We don’t need some well-meaning new kid thinking they’re doing good trying to wire something up, or pushing buttons that they have no business pushing.”

              Vincent chuffed a laugh.  “Why is it that when new kids see a button, they have this overwhelming urge to press it?”

              “It’s an organic thing,” Stella declared, looking smug.  “AI’s don’t do that sort of thing.”

              “Oh, no, of course they don’t,” Vincent replied, biting back a smile.

              Stella gave him a look, but didn’t make any further comment.

              “I can’t tell you how excited I am about this,” Acheron Vall was saying two weeks later.  The groundbreaking ceremony had been a success and the work on the power plant had begun.  Power conduits had been laid and connected with the old power grid, but it hadn’t taken long for Quesh to notice problems in the way things had been done.  One of the companies that the government had contracted to make EPS conduits had skimped on materials, creating dangerous weak spots in most of the conduits that had already been laid down.  An investigation had been opened up, but it was clear what the company had done.  Now it was just a matter of rounding up the people who were truly guilty and the ones who were following orders.  “But I can’t believe that this happened.  It’s slowing everything down.”

              “That’s a problem for the lawyers to figure out,” Vincent agreed.  “Quesh had to send three crews out to tear out all the work that that had been previously done.  He’s really not happy about it.”

              “I’m sure he isn’t.  But I’m just so amazed at how well your people are working,” Vall replied.  “We’ve gotten more done in less than a month than we would have gotten done in a year!”

              Vincent chuckled.  “My people are on the clock,” he said simply.  “They know that I don’t put up with slackers on my crew.  Besides, they’re motivated to help out the people here in Vanoria.  You have a good city and good people here, Governor.  And certainly seem motivated.”

              The man managed to look proud, abashed and smug all at once.  “Well, we have a lot to do, and a lot of work to make up.”

              Vincent cleared his throat.  “Well.  It’ll be another day or so and then we can really get moving on the plant proper.  We can keep moving on the replacement of the EPS conduits throughout the city, but I think we need to slow that process a bit so we can free up workers for assembly on the plant.”

              “It would certainly allow us to increase production a bit.”

              “Don’t get your hopes set too high, Governor,” Vincent warned.  He sighed.  “Your people are very enthusiastic.  The problem is they are not very experienced, yet.  It will take time for them to be able to work things on their own.”

              “No, you’re right,” the governor said.  “I want to be offended, but then I look out the window and I can see the rubble.  We thought we could do it on our own.”

              “I think you could,” Vincent admitted.  Then he chuckled.  “I shouldn’t be saying things like that, not if I want you to keep paying me.”

              The governor gave him a look.  “What are you talking about?”

              Vincent sighed.  “A small joke.  But yes, things are moving along at a decent place, perhaps a bit slower than we’d like.  Moving some assets around might increase construction efficiency but I can’t believe it’s going to be a huge amount.  We want to make sure there are no foul ups, which means that we have to move at a steady pace.”

              “And in the meantime, the rolling blackouts continue.”

              Vincent shrugged.  “We only have so many generators, Governor.”

              “You could build us more,” Vall pointed out.

              He chuckled.  “No, actually, I can’t.  My replicators are running full blast producing new plasma conduits.  And I’ve never actually build the plasma conduits to run an entire city before.”

              “We do appreciate it, Captain,” Vall said, his facial expression quickly turning official again.

              “Just make sure that your people keep up their end of the bargain.  We need to make sure that the schedules are maintained, or else this reactor won’t get finished and as you say, the blackouts will continue.”

              Vall nodded.  “Well I need to go and make the rounds.  Call me if there’s anything I can help with.”

              “I will, Governor.”

              They were discussing the progress of Phase 1 of the reactor build when Vincent’s communicator beeped.  “Excuse me,” he said to the others, stepping away and flipping open his communicator.  “Eamonn here.”

              “Captain, it’s Serinda.  We have something up here that you need to see.”

              He sighed.  “I’m an hour’s shuttle ride away, Serinda.  This isn’t like I need to run over from the wardroom to the bridge.”

              “Sorry, Captain.  But George has detected a ship incoming.  It’s moving slowly and with the neutrino emissions that he’s detecting, it seems as though the ship is damaged.”