Solbidyum Wars Saga Book 1: Battle of the New Orleans (24 page)

T
here finally came a break in the conversation as people attempted to put food in their mouths I took the opportunity, “I really want to thank all of you for working as hard as you have been.  The next months or so are going to be very hectic I know, but once we have things in place and it slows down a bit I promise you it will be easier and we will have some fun.” 

Marranalis
said, “I don’t know about everyone else, but I already am having more fun than I have in my entire life.  I never realized just how dull my life was until you came along Tibby. Since then every day has been filed with excitement, adventure and fun.” Marranalis’s statement was followed by other statements in agreements.  This warmed me to see and hear the affect I had made on this new group. 

I sighed
, “Tomorrow we are headed out to look at an estate that we may acquire. I want each one of you to be looking at it from several perspectives. First, how well does it work for your assigned tasks?  Think about where you may want to locate your staff’s quarters and your own office.  I also want you to think about it from an overall operations perspective. If you see things that are not suitable, think about if it is possible to modify or change anything at the estate to suit our needs.  We certainly can make modifications if we need to, my understanding is that the estate is one thousand square kilometers in area, so we have plenty of room.

“Lunnie and
Reidecor, you both may want to stay on the ship tonight so you can have it ready for an early departure in the morning.”

“Woo Hoo
,” chimed in Lunnie “I finally get a chance to have Reidecor for a night without interruptions. Mind if we use your cabin Tib?” Reidecor just hung and shook his head while everyone else in the room moaned.             

The flight to the estate lasted only about
twenty minutes, most of that was spent taking off with traffic control.  It actually had taken us more time to drive into the Capitol from the Federation base than it did to fly to the estate in the
TRITYTE.
  As we flew in I instructed Reidecor to fly around the property displaying it on the view screen so we could get an idea of its size.  The lake on the property was sizable and a mountain range ran along the western boarder and sloped down to the lake that was on the eastern half of the estate.  Most of the estate seemed to be covered with forests, but here were sections of fields and some large grazing animals on the south east corner where there was an agricultural set up.  The main compound itself was centered at the south end of the lake and a large landing area not too far away to the south west and right by the mountain.

Once we had landed
, a large conveyance similar to the one that had driven us to the Senate dinner came driving up to the
TRITYTE.
  As we disembarked from our ship we were greeted by a short woman with curly brown hair and cute dimples, who introduced herself as Mar’dana and stated that she was the sales representative for the property.  While she was talking I noted several troopers appeared, though I have no idea where from, and took up formation around the ship and us. 

“I see the
Federation is not taking any chances with the security of your ship,” Mar’dana said in an overly chipper tone.

“Just don’t forget to close and lock the door,” Reidecor
said.  I thought he was speaking to the troopers when he suddenly turned to me, gesturing towards the ship.

“You
’re joking, right?” I asked confused.

“No, I’m not
.”  Reidecor said, “The ship has been coded to your DNA.  Only you can lock and unlock it at the moment. As long as it’s not locked anyone can access it, but if you lock it, no one is getting in.  Didn’t anyone explain that to you?”

“No,” I responded
, “Are you sure it was done?  I don’t remember it.”

Reideco
r laughed, “It was done back before we left the
DUSTEN
, and don’t you remember having to open the door when you arrived at the ship before we left to come to Megelleon?”

“I remember
grasping a lighted up rod before everyone could enter the ship,” I trailed off thoughtfully.  Could I have really missed such an important key step to our security?

“Well that was you activating the door
for it to open.  At that point my DNA was already imprinted into the ship so I could open and close the door, but I don’t have permission to lock it, only you can do that.” Reidecor said.

“But when was all this
programmed into the ship?” I asked “I don’t remember doing anything on the ship that would give me control.”

“It was done before you came down to the ship
, when you first entered the
DUSTEN
your handprint, your voice print and your DNA had all collected.  That information was programmed into the ships computer by Captain Maxette as a safety measure to prevent its theft.  He felt that since the ship was going to be yours anyway he would do it then.” 

“I see
,” I said, “and just how do I lock it? “

“It’s simple
, just press this button here inside the hull and step out. The door closes  and then all you have to do is grasp the rod in the door recess and slide your hand to the left say your name and a red light will come on.  After you do that no one but you can unlock it and no one can get in the ship.”

“Interesting
,” I said thoughtfully as I followed the instructions and watched the red light come on.  “Can more than one person be given locking and unlocking privileges at a time?”

“Yes, if you wish you can have as many persons with authorization as you wish.”

“Remind me before we return to the compound to assign authorization to all of you for the ship.” I replied.

“
Mar’dana,” I said turning to her, “I apologize; I didn’t mean to ignore you just now, just a small security detail that required my attention.

I took a closer look at
Mar’dana, I had expected a person who would be volunteer information and try for the hard sell and not telling you what you needed to hear.   On Earth most women in real estate tended to dress fashionably yet conservatively, and Mar’dana tended to follow that same mold, but she acted more like an accountant or banker than a real estate agent and instead of trying to sell the property, let the property sell itself answering questions as they were asked but not trying the old hard sell routine.

I Must confess I was very impressed by the estate
, there were nearly four hundred bedroom suites in the main building and nearly as many independent bedrooms, twenty cottages of varying sizes near the main building and over thirty more around the estate, there also was a small lodge at the opposite end of the Estate with over eighty rooms for guests, plus other buildings on the property that provided accommodations for the lodge staff.  A short walk from the lodge was a natural hot spring that was landscaped and developed for bathing and soaking.

On the
south east corner of the estate were several large buildings that had once been used when part of the estate was a farm.  It had been more productive in the past Mar’dana said but most of the space was now unused.  Marranalis saw these as having potential for being converted into a training area and barracks for the security forces. Marranalis did not believe that the guards’ accommodations by the main house would be sufficient to accommodate all the security force we would need.  However, he did notice other possible housing units on the grounds that could be used for lodging for the future security personnel.

Reidecor
was impressed with both the landing area and the hanger recessed into the mountain, the landing area was large enough to accommodate eight to ten ships the size of the
TRITYTE. T
he external hanger could accommodate three ships of the same size.  At the northern end of the property was a smaller landing pad that could accommodate two ships of the
TRITYTE size
, there also was a maintenance building with an office on site. 

By far the most interesting structure
on the estate was the main house which sat on a portion of land approximately one square kilometer.  It was several stories tall and contained thousands of rooms, according to Mar’dana and fifteen indoor pools as well as three outdoor ones.   The exact number of rooms was not known.  There were several banquet halls, which also could be used as ballrooms, as well as several large gyms in the house and smaller gyms and workout areas too.  The house was more like a city than a house.  Outside there were gardens with streams and well-manicured foliage attractively distributed around patios and recreational areas.

Both
Reidecor and Marranalis were impressed with an underground tunnel that ran from the hanger to the main house as well as the guard’s quarters by the main house.  Kala was impressed with the overall layout of the house, especially the office and administrative areas.  I wished Piesew had been present to provide his input.  There was ample storage space in the basement along with vaults where months of food could be stored. There were several kitchens and a huge greenhouse with just about every vegetable you can think of growing there.  The estate was more like a small country than an actual estate.  I could tell that everyone was in awe of the place.  Statuary and paintings decorated the place.  The house was lavishly furnished and Mar’dana said that all the furnishing could be bought with the property if so desired.

Kala took me
aside, “Tib this is perfect, it could be years before another property of this size and with all the appurtenances.  If we bought some other place it could take us years just to furnish, this one we can practically move into immediately.”

I had to agree with he
r and the way the place was set up would require only minimal changes for us to have it fully functional in a short time.  The biggest problem I saw was getting people to staff the place quick enough. 

“
Mar’dana, what is the current status of the staffing here?  Obviously there must be staff here just to see to the upkeep of the place.”

“When the place went into foreclosure the staff was reduced to essential personnel only to keep the place maintained
, all the current staff was employed by the previous owner.”

“If I were to purchase the place do you think that the current staff would be willing to stay on with a possible raise in income?” I asked

“I believe there is a high probability of that,” she answered, “would you like me to check into that for you?”

“Yes,
“I responded “could you let me know by end of the day tomorrow? Would you also be able to include how much the Federation wants for the property,?”

A huge smile spread across Mar’dana face
and I was sure she was envisioning the huge commission or bonus she would get if she could close the sale.

On the way back to the Federation base I told Kala that when the call came in from Mar’dana with the asking price of the property to offer them
seventy five percent of what they asked and if the staff there accepted my offer to boost their current pay by fifty percent.

Kala looked at me
in shock, "Why would you only offer them seventy five percent of what they are asking?!”             

“I am infinitely wealthy they will assume they can ask
whatever they want and I will pay it. They will most likely inflate the price accordingly.   I also suspect that they have no other buyers and it could be some time before they get one.  I going to assume that the cost of maintaining that property will bite heavily into their funds eventually so they will be willing to come down quite a bit on their price.”

“
Then why are you willing to pay more money to the staff at the estate, you’re saving their jobs, they should be happy about that.” Kala responded.

“True, but by
offering them more at a time when they see we are hiring lots of new staff it will inspire them to work harder. If I pay them the same as the new hires their feeling toward us could be indifferent.”

We had barely gotten into the air when an emergency message came in from the Federation base
.  “Hey Tibby,” Reidecor called,” you need to hear this.”

The message from the base was instructing us to
delay our landing, a surprise attack had just been made on the base in an attempt to steal the Solbidyum.  The attack had been unsuccessful, but apparently our accommodations at the base had been damaged in the assault.  During the time we were on hold Reidecor helped me to get everyone security authorizations for the ship’s lock. By the time we landed everyone was officially in the computer and could lock or unlock the ship. It was nearly two hours before we were given permission to land and when we did we were directed to a new location.  It was not long before a major came aboard to tell us the situation. 

Apparently
, after the facility had been created centuries ago there had also been a storage area created for the eventual return of the Solbidyum. , At the time, a tunnel had been created that would lead to the Solbidyum’s storage area by someone hoping to steal it should the Solbidyum, they had stopped the tunnel just shy of the vault in anticipation of the eventual return of the Solbidyum.