Second Chances (64 page)

Part of being an apprentice, handling the shitty jobs was to prove you could. To prove you could handle the hard work, stick it out and are worthy of training. But if you didn't keep someone's interest, they got bored and left. Or if you just dropped shit on them constantly and got bitchy or made them do dangerous or hard work you yourself were unwilling to do, then they walked too. She shook her head.

She could assign at least two, maybe three engineering students to Bob. Wait, an engineer too, that rocket guy Jim! Yes, he could drop by a few times with Brian. Bob wouldn't be able to lord it over them. Jim should know some basic chemistry, at least stuff related to his field of interest. He could also take a shift, maybe the evening shift? She thought, tapping her chin. It was possible, she thought. He liked to stay up with Piotr to use the astronomy gear. He could check on the chemical works remotely...yes, she thought with a nod. That would work.

She grinned as she tapped herself a note outlining her plan. When she was finished she shot a short e-mail off to Jim, Brian, and Mitch. Hopefully she'd catch Jim before dinner so they could have a chat.

She also sicked a class of preteens on Bob, a little field trip to see how things worked. She arranged the trip for the next day, and then shot Bob and e-mail. It was up to him to read it, she thought maliciously. That sort of attention should shut him up, either helping him out or smothering him.

------*------

Mitch spent a couple days in Iron Village doing what he could to help them. Mitch worked like an automaton digging in grimly. They used Sam's vehicles to get more iron and to cut a better road to the mine. They also knocked down plenty of trees for Mike's people to trim up in their free time. Sam even used the small dozer's ripper blade to hoe the ground for Hadji's farm. The Indian kid was skinny as a bean pole but a hard worker, out in the field planting bright and early, working until the sun came down.

They worked from sunup to sundown. Mike shook his head as he watched Mitch. “And they call me Iron Mike. So much for sitting on his ass at home getting lazy and fat.”

The gunny snorted, also looking at Mitch cutting a tree down with a chain saw. “He's intense right now, working off the grief,” he said. That got Mike to shut up and brood.

They loaded up the broken solar panels. Luke was a bit put out that they didn't have spares. Mitch testily explained that they needed material to make them. “Oh.”

Mike finally chased them out three days later. “Look, I appreciate the effort on my behalf but enough is enough. You've got your own place to worry about. Leave me be,” he said firmly. Mitch nodded.

Gunny snorted as they left. “He just didn't like it that you were making him look bad.”

“I was?”

“Come off it. Was that an act?” The gunny demanded. “I mean, I'm green to the core but even I didn't push myself that hard,” he said shaking his head. “You must be sore.”

“A bit,” Mitch admitted. “But like you I keep in shape, even during the winter. I'm used to running around doing something; it's hard to get me to slow down. You should have seen me setting the base up on my own the first couple of months,” he said.

“I can imagine,” the gunny replied, turning to look out the window.

They took their time going back even though Mitch was a little anxious about Sandra. He forced himself to stop to fill in potholes and use some of the materials they had on hand to make the road a bit better.

A day after leaving Iron Village they came back to meet the girls in the courtyard just after dinner. “You're late. You missed dinner,” Janet said gruffly, then waved them inside. “Wipe your feet.”

“There is always the microwave,” Akira said with a snort. “We've got to put the gear away,” he said, rolling his shoulders.

Mitch just looked at the two girls. Sandra finally came over to him. He sighed softly. She wrapped her arms around him. He hugged her, then felt Cassie come over to hug them both. He hugged them back, then walked quietly back into the base with each of them under an arm.

Chapter 33

With the spring storms being relatively mild, Angie and Jacklynn took every advantage they could to get some air time in. Angie preferred the drones. She flew them daily sometimes monitoring the feed from two or more aircraft at the same time. She confirmed the mapping of the area and identified areas where there were landslides. She also identified several areas to look into further. One grove of possible fruit trees near Iron Village as well as an outcrop of granite near them.

Mitch realized they were evolving into an Australian bush plane/Yukon trade, running planes into remote areas to move people and goods. Goods that could wait were being trucked in, flying was still not only a risky venture, but a resource expensive one too. They could get a hundred times the material in by truck rather than plane.

His plan to create a railroad had been nixed. He still liked the idea locally, say between Iron Village and Capital Base, but he couldn't see trying to build it anytime in the foreseeable future. There were just too many priorities that were more pressing.

Jack took advantage of the flights whenever possible. He sent in students in pairs to base for training. Anne retaliated when she realized they had more mouths to feed. She sent back a couple students to study biology with the Fuentes and two students to study under John the blacksmith. Jack was a bit put out over having a couple extra mouths to feed but Anne didn't give him the option. Helen took him in hand with Mary Anne's support.

Anne's changes to the chemical works manning helped bring production back up to normal. Bob complained a bit about the workload in a morning meeting. “You don't understand, I'm trying to cover mixing chemicals for the pest control, spraying and manning all these chemical works. I'm telling you it's too much! Throw in running maintenance and it's an accident waiting to happen!” he said in disgust.

“You've got some help now,” Anne said.

“Them,” Bob said in disgust. “Noobs to make sure they don't burn themselves or blow themselves up. Gee thanks,” he grumbled.

“Some help is better than no help,” Anne said.

“No it's not. Not when I have to watch them every minute,” Bob snarled. “And I can't run the plants at night or watch what that guy Jim is doing! I need to eat and sleep too!”

Mitch absently checked the systems with a tablet right in front of everyone. He even put it up on the display. “What's the matter? Everything looks fine,” Mitch said. He turned to Bob. “I've been running the plants for years. I don't see a problem. If you do can you point it out?”

“I'm trying to prevent a problem,” Bob said, feeling nettled and put upon.

“Bob doesn't trust the remote access. He does his checks on hand,” Anne explained. “Mark one eyeball,” she explained.

Mitch blinked in confusion. “You do? Even workers back on Earth used a computer. All you need to do is control the mix with the diagram. You get everything, flow ratios, mix ratios, it's all there,” he said, turning the tablet to show the pest control guy.

“I...whatever. Never mind. Forget I brought it up,” Bob grumbled, turning away. He felt humiliated and angry over being shown up.

“Okay, well, we've got people out and about. Selma, you said something about textiles?” Anne said, smoothly covering Bob's gaff before he had a full-on temper tantrum.

Selma nodded. “Yes. We're getting plastics for the rayon and nylon production now. We don't need winter clothes, so I'm focusing on other products. I know Jacklynn wants that thermoset fabric for aircraft wings...”

------*------

The base's 3D printers worked overtime printing 28/7. Mitch, Brian and Jim oversaw the printing. They churned out parts for everything they could think of. Bob and Miguel had them print plastic parts for various plumbing projects until Mitch dug out an extruder machine and set them up with that.

Jim printed a mock-up of the components for the weather balloon project, as well as a mock-up of their first rocket engine. He had a cut away he used to explain to his students.

Equipment, however, was the main priority, especially gear for the spring planting. Hand tools were also popular; though the gardening tools didn't hold up under the vigorous use. Even simple things like the grommets on shoes were made. But Mitch kept getting interrupted with requests for farming tools.

“Sometimes the best thing is back to basics,” Mitch said. “Get that blacksmith guy involved. The big guy in Copper Town. We've got wood; we can use the lathe to cut handles for them, then ship them to Copper Town with processed iron. He can work on finishing them.”

“True. His name is John by the way, John Irons,” Brian said, making a note. “He teaches a class on smithing, I want to attend.”

“Okay...” Mitch said thoughtfully then shrugged. “Clear your schedule with Anne,” he said. Brian nodded.

“I wasn't planning on going for a while; he's got his hands full with his latest class. I'm not sure how much he'll be able to teach me. I'm more...well, mechanically inclined,” Brian admitted. “His way is old old oooold school,” he said.

Mitch nodded.

“He put in a request for more coal.”

Mitch frowned. He didn't like the idea of going back to coal. “I don't know of any deposits around.”

Brian waved a dismissive hand. “Oh, he knows how to make it from timber. He got with Mike on the radio; Mike's making it. It's one of the trade items Paul trans-ships to Copper.”

Mitch blinked in surprise then shrugged. “Oh. I didn't know.”

“And now you do boss,” Brain said, giving him a grin. “Lisa's after me for plastic parts for the vehicles, Angie and Akira have their own things...” he shook his head. “Is it just me or did we go into overdrive when spring came?”

“It's not officially here for another couple days,” Mitch said. “And yeah, we're going into overdrive. All that pent up energy...and the urgency to get things done. We've got a longer year, but everyone is eager to get more done this year.”

“True,” Brian said. “Lisa's after me to make a stockpile of parts for her vehicles. The Lings want me to do that too, but for the new vehicles they want to make,” he said.

Mitch frowned. “A three D printer isn't suited for production,” he admitted. “It's good for prototyping or for part replacement on a one-by-one basis. Production is different. Did Miguel finish with the extruder?”

Brian frowned. “I think he and Bob argued over the latest PVC run. I know they've got a lot of pipes and fittings.”

“See if it is idle. If it is, look into if they are making more than they need to stockpile or just enough. They should be making a bit extra each time or double what they need to cut down on swapping out the molds. If it's idle, see if they wouldn't mind swapping in the molds for some of the plastic parts for the vehicles or aircraft.”

“Um...”

Mitch snapped his fingers. “You know, I know there are some common parts that go across the board, you know, for aircraft and vehicles, even bots. Look into that. Simple stuff, fittings or plugs. See if you can make a run of them.”

“Gotcha,” Brian said. “While I'm at it I'll see if I can make some plastic totes and some stuff Anne and Janet have been after me about making. If we can make a run of each, it should help the supply issue and give Paul more stuff to trade,” he said.

“That's the spirit,” Mitch said as Brian took off at a trot.

“It's a start,” Mitch said to himself softly. Never enough though, he thought.

------*------

Mitch borrowed Sam's people after they came in for routine maintenance. Sam was amused, but he understood the urgency. Since the rains had swelled up the rivers where he wanted to build bridges, he allowed the diversion. He and Gary took a flight back to Copper Town to spend some time with their families while Mitch and the crews went to work close to base.

They rumbled up to the graphite mine and came back with a couple truckloads of graphite. Mitch left the heavy equipment there overnight taking a chance with the equipment. To alleviate some concerns he left an armed GP bot there to act as a security guard.

They made four more runs a day before Sam and Gary returned from Copper Town two days later. Sam put an end to the work and demanded his trucks and people back. They brushed off the black dust and complained about the mess in the cabs of the trucks. Mitch let them go; he had enough graphite piled near the processors for the chemical works to chew on for at least a couple weeks he judged.

Processing the graphite pile took a bit of time, longer than Mitch thought it should. Bob dragged his feet saying he had other priorities so Mitch stepped in and did it himself. Bob was a bit put out over that.

------*------

With aircraft coming and going daily, Axel got on Jack's case to improve things. Copper Town set up a better airstrip for trade, grading it while also setting up some fencing, a taxi way, a hangar area with a crude wooden shelter, and even a water tower. Paul's last visit had dropped off plastic bladders of fuel for the aircraft as well as a wind sock and other simple equipment. Paul had also spent the day in Copper Town at the time, and his delay had allowed them to “borrow” his trucks to run to the gravel pit. They'd gotten back loads of gravel that they used to not only grade the aircraft strip and facilities, but also some of the roads in the area. They marked up the runway with cans of spray paint making a bit of a hash of it, but Angie said she could figure it out when she radioed that she was coming in, like it or not.