13 Degrees of Separation (43 page)

...*...*...*...*...

In the berthing compartment the organics waited for the
Warners and Clio to navigate the servers and encrypted locks. When they arrived
they formally opened the meeting. They went through the ritual of new and old
business. Desi presented the sales figures. Clio was amused, she reported that
they already had a down payment on several shuttles. The money was enough to
pay for the initial construction of one of the shuttles. Since they were
gathering their own resources they had enough for one shuttle project on hand.
To do more they would either need a serious bump in supply or they'd have to
buy it from the market.

Mairi agreed. She reported that the automated tug was doing
fine, but they would soon need a second to keep up with demand at this rate.

Harif wasn't there at the meeting for some reason. He had
just left an e-mail. When Savo asked what was going on the others shrugged the
absence off. “Technically he's an employee not a shareholder,” Taylor said
slowly.

Mairi asked how they could make the shuttles and parts.
Also what parts. Taylor and Rasha looked at each other. Taylor raised an
eyebrow in inquiry. Rasha smiled and nodded.

She took the floor and explained quietly that she had
briefly served in small craft construction before the war. Her code keys had
been restored when the admiral and the medical staff, she nodded to a present
doctor, restored her implants.

“That's how you made the superconductors for Tribecca and
the other utilities?” Savo asked. Rasha nodded.

“As far as the EPS conduits and superconductors, well, the
admiral gave us some basic civilian key codes.”

“I don't think it was him. I'm fairly certain it was
Commander Sprite. When the admiral put us on reserve status I felt her do
something. I could make conduits before, and emitters and other things, I think
she reactivated the code,” Taylor said.

“So, super conductors, small craft...”

“But no weapons, hyperdrives, full fusion reactors or AI
computer networks. There are a bunch of other stuff we can't do, but we can do
a lot more than the stationers or anyone else can.”

“And we're selling civilians civilian grade. Military grade
hardware stays with us,” Rasha interjected.

“What's the difference?” Mairi asked, wrinkling her pert
nose.

“Well,” Rasha paced. “Milspec is tighter, more efficient,
more robust, and lasts three times longer than civilian grade. Civilian grade
is cheaper though, but it breaks easier, and it can't take the loads milspec
can.”

“Oh.”

...*...*...*...*...

It took another week to get all the hardware into the first
modules, set up, and running smoothly. Once they were up and running things
changed. Now that they had a steady supply of material, an ability to stockpile
and process it, along with a place to store equipment and parts they started
skimming 10 percent off the top of the production to make new factory
equipment. Purpose designed fitting manufacturers both for pipes and
electrical. Dedicated manufacturing systems that churned out stamped parts for
decking, bulkheads, and panels. Electrical boxes, any simple system that they
could think of they did.

Harif received his first fully stocked machine shop in the
Yard core shortly after they started all the factories. He didn't say anything,
just nodded. He was told two more would come online soon and he'd have to train
the crews. That made him scowl.

“Well, don't thank us all at once,” Howie grumbled.

“He's speechless. Give the kid a break. Come on, we've got
stuff to do. We've got that press break to install too.”

“Great,” Howie sighed. “Hey isn't it like, um, profiling or
something to be using a chimp for heavy labor?” he demanded. Sparks just
laughed at him.

...*...*...*...*...

The center core of the yard was a bit harder to construct
than the slip. Unlike the slip which was a set of trusses put together like
tinker toys, the core was a kilometer wide octagonal cylinder on end to the
slip. The slip was attached to one face, with material feeder lines, transport
tubes, power lines, and data lines running from the central core to the grand
block modules. It looked like a mess of white spaghetti. The pilots were warned
not to fly around the exterior. They were kept on a strict 50 meter safety
separation.

The central core was 1.2 kilometers tall, and designed to
be expanded on vertically in either direction. For now the fusion reactor was
built in the lower section near the slip's 'face'. The center of the core was
kept empty for Major transfer tubes. Offices, barracks, the molecular furnaces,
machine shops, tug bays, and storage warehouses would fill up the vast interior
when they had time. For now a docking node was set up on a mast on the dorsal
section of the cylinder to take in the stream of material from the tugs. This
kept them out of the main slip, instituting some order to their flight plans.
The raw materials would be passed through chutes and conveyor tubes to the
molecular furnaces to be broken down.

On the lower 'keel' of the cylinder temporary material bags
were slowly filling up with various surplus materials from the molecular
furnaces, as well as fuel, water, and other gases.

Eventually they planned to build a separate fuel farm away
from the main station. That would insure safety of the yard itself in the case
of an accident.

...*...*...*...*...

They began to churn common parts for space vehicles out,
and when they were certain they would pass quality control they ran them
through the station's testers. It took time, nearly a month, but eventually
everything passed with flying colors. Word spread of the parts and Alice
started fielding inquiries from freelancers and small start ups interested in
getting cheaper parts.

As the base came online, additional bays were put into
service attached to the dorsal mast. They started staging out of the bays and
core attached to the slip. It would form the main trunk of the yard. Ezri,
Regina, Theo Force, and a couple other medics, along with a Neo Schnauzer
signed on as the permanent medical staff. The base itself had a hundred people
who lived in it full time, with another two hundred who commuted to and from
Prime and the Yard. Many of the permanent staff stayed the week and then flew
to the station on the daily shuttle for a day or two of recreation before
returning on Monday.

Harif was in charge of the mechanics, he seemed subdued and
irritable. He had three machine shops to manage. When Mairi talked to Alice
about Harif the older woman pointed out that the young man was under extreme
pressure. “So? So am I!” Mairi replied angrily. “That's no excuse!”

“Give him some time to realize that himself,” Alice
suggested. Mairi grunted in irritation and then shrugged the subject off.

A dozen pilots transferred to the growing Yard Dog Navy.
Some just manned the stations watching over the bots that would work in the
bay, others manned consoles to watch the automated tugs. It would be a few more
weeks before they could each be trained to man a tug themselves.

...*...*...*...*...

The slip formally opened for business to fan fair and
ribbon cutting all on media outlets. Governor Randall called in with a special
congratulations to the hard working team. The crew celebrated privately in
Ralph's bar.

At first there was no business, no ship in port. “A lot to
do about nothing,” Savo grumbled.  The plan was to cut their teeth on repairs.
Until then they kept busy working on expanding the slip, it's modules and
training. Already a second grand block was forming, this time inside the first
grand block module. They would build it in sections and then float it out of
the module and into its permanent home and then attach it to the truss
structure.

“It's the public image. It's half the work on sales.”

“Yeah well, whatever.”

As the project for Zark got underway, Zark Freight sent out
an additional feeler asking about a sublight freighter or shuttle craft. They
responded that yes, they could build either, or a sublight ship to spec. That
sparked some interest, and a flurry of inquiries on just what sort of craft,
thrust, power plant, amount of passengers and all sorts of other questions.
Clio had all that on hand, she sent them a link to a website with each craft
design listed with all their specs on a chart for easy understanding. The next
day they received a Zark delegation interested in signing a contract and
getting a tour of the new facilities.

Diplomatic to the end, Alice and her protégée Desi did
their dog and pony show, keeping the worker bees out of it as much as possible
though when they did the tour the blue collar group made their own show of
being busy. It wasn't much of a lie, they were busy assembling a second tug as
well as laying the ground work for a transport shuttle.

They even showed the Zark delegation a virtual reality
program Irons had created showcasing the yard and how it functioned. This drew
murmurs of appreciation from the audience.

Toni Zark herself was there for the meeting, they laid out
a preliminary plan of a single test ship with a possible follow on order if it
worked out well and was delivered on time. Zark insisted on daily updates and
even a vid feed to the assembly area to check on their progress. She also asked
for periodic inspections by his staff and the DSV staff to sign off on each
stage of the construction.

...*...*...*...*...

When Zark returned to her hotel suite Savo checked over
security and then nodded to Sparks. “You think they are eager?”

“Maybe. Probably, but I'm wondering if they want eyes on to
get a feel for the construction process,” Sparks replied.

“Maybe. Possibly. But hell, what can they learn from a
couple hours on the floor looking at the thing? It's one thing to see the
package, quite another to go through all the steps involved in each assembly
and sub-assembly. Right?” Freeze demanded.

“Yeah,” Sparks replied, nodding.

...*...*...*...*...

There was a big celebration after Zark left carrying a
signed contract. Clio put the word out for additional hiring as soon as the
initial deposit from Zark cleared her bank and went into escrow. They made a
big show of video recording the first tray of parts that came out of the
replicators for Zark's first shuttle.

Zark in turn put the video on the growing web for all to
see. Soon there was a daily following of people interested in watching the
construction of the shuttle. Students interested in engineering began to pepper
the Yard Dogs with inquiries. Clio set up a basic FAQ website and chased some
of the staff to answer outstanding questions. “Why the hell do you need our
input? It's all there on the net and in the admiral's notes!” Sparks said testily
when she nagged him too much.

“Yes but that lacks the personal touch,” Clio said.

“Still stupid if you ask me,” he growled. “If they can get
it from the web why ask us?”

“Hey, just be glad they are interested in asking us. Think
of it as publicity,” Freeze replied. Sparks sighed and then nodded.

“Don't mind him, he's a grump. Running wire for the
avionics is a serious pain in the ass. There are over a hundred kilometers of
wiring going into each board and he's got to make all the connections and then
plug the computers in and double check each connection. It's hard.”

“I thought you were making the wiring harness in the
replicator?” Clio asked. Sparks grunted.

“No, we make wire with the wire extruder. Fitting come from
the replicators and fitting extruders. I get to put it together,” he said and
rubbed the small of his back. “It's taking me days to do it. I've got that big
ass board to work off of and I'm going cross eyed looking at it.”

“So you're saying we need more help?” Clio asked.

“It's an idea. Two shifts would be nice,” Sparks said.
“Though someone mucking it up... it's a scary thought. Hope the checks hold.”

“They will. We'll figure it out buddy,” Freeze replied.
“It's too bad Kaira can't help.”

“She could but she's doing exterior rigging on the new solar
farm expansion project plus the other platforms,” Clio responded absently. “I
am sending out another ad for hiring now. We'll see what it brings in, in the
morning. I may need you to test people.”

“Joy, fixing things others screw up,” Sparks growled. Freeze
laughed, shaking his head and giving his partner a clout on the shoulder.

“You aren't ever happy are you, you big lug? Come on, the
girls are waiting. Supper's getting cold,” he said heading for the barracks.
Sparks snorted and then followed along in his wake.

Chapter
11

Zark Freight formally announced the new venture with the
Yard Dogs, the first inner system freighter as well as the first orbital
warehouses. The dogs will build orbital warehouses in planetary orbit as well
as shuttles. Zark would run freight from the ground to the warehouses, and then
tranship them to Prime and the rest of the system.

Zark also announced they were opening a aerospace line
branch of their company to transport people around Antigua in orbital hops as
well as to and from orbit, and to and from the station. Interested cities that
had the space for a space port should inquire they said ending the news
conference.