by T J Bryan
Chapter Thirty Eight
Jamon System - OCN Iceland - Year 3246. January 19 ET: 23:56
Abel's meeting with the Chairman had been short. Bjorn as a trained surgeon was used to dealing with crises and with the reality and finality of death. Bjorn asked a few questions to ensure understanding of the entire situation and a few more about Abel's plan to race into the void in search of desperately needed foodstuffs. He agreed, however reluctantly, to Abel's plan. Bjorn knew there was no alternative.
Bjorn had asked if Abel himself would join the expedition and Abel replied that he would remain at the Habitat. The Commonwealth, Abel emphasized, was at risk, not only to famine, but to invasion by hostile forces. The Commonwealth must therefore prepare for its' defence and that defence required more crews and more crews required training and support programs. The entire economy of the Commonwealth, if it survived, needed to focus on the external risks to its' existence as well as ensuring adequate food supplies into the future. With so many out of work such a shift in the economy would not cause overall disruption. However the citizens must support the effort and more participation in the OCN would be required if the Commonwealth was to survive.
Bjorn understood. Abel offered to stand before the Assembly and explain the dire straits they faced and the difficult decisions they must make. But Bjorn said no. Abel needed to focus on the plan to find resources and build the OCN. Bjorn would explain to the Assembly, take the heat, and suffer whatever consequences resulted. Abel must be free to act and not be distracted by politicians. If Abel screwed up then the politicians could criticize his actions from Valhalla.
Abel's meeting with Dr. Dr. Freydis Auber took longer. After describing events at Girots to Freydis, Abel asked for an assessment of Meg Asgeir as a potential pilot. In her response Abel could see real concern. Freydis explained Meg's medical condition in great detail and the technical terms were often unfathomable to Abel, but he knew them to be dire. Meg required frequent transfusions and medical intervention. She lived in the hospital for a reason. And that reason was she was fragile and without aggressive medical support she would die. Freydis emphasized that death was the outcome if Meg was not attended to by the medical staff. On the other hand Freydis admitted that Meg was a remarkably talented girl. She was liked by the medical staff, and she had an amazing quick wit and grasped complex ideas and formulations in an amazingly short time. Also she had phenomenally speedy reflexes and these reflexes often caused her harm. Over the few years of her young life she had learned to slow down to avoid injury, but she was still quick and inherently aggressive. Freydis emphasized 'aggressive' not in a negative way, but in a pro-active way. Drop a spoon and she would capture it before it hit the floor. Need a med and she would have anticipated the need well before you realized it. At first the med staff did not want her to go to the gymnasium and the simulator, but they could not stop her once she discovered the excitement of flight. The staff had then modified her slider chair and her hand grips with padding and small gravity wafers to allow her to tackle flight controls without injury. Or to minimize injury when it occurred as it almost always did when the game became full of excitement and tension. However she recovered from the slight injuries with full staff attention, except that her injuries were never slight.
Abel once again emphasized to Dr. Auber the bleak outlook for the Commonwealth if the voyages did not succeed and Auber well understood the risks.
Abel then asked the most difficult question. "Freydis, we know each other well and I know you have only Meg's best interest at heart but let me ask you this. What is Meg's life expectancy here on Habitat?"
Freydis took a moment to respond, "Meg is now 22. Sometimes I wonder how she managed to last this long, but she has, and she has lived her 22 years well. Better than I would ever have expected given her condition."
"And?" asked Abel.
Freydis bit her bottom lip before replying, "A few more years. Perhaps five. No more than ten. If we could wrap her in cotton and suspend her in an antigravity chamber and have her sleep 24 hours a day she might make it to 40. But that is not living. No Meg already lives on borrowed time." Auber paused a moment. "And Meg knows it. She knows she lives on borrowed time."
Abel asked, "If we take Meg, what do we need to make her a success as a pilot and to keep her alive?" It was a brutally frank question.
Dr Auber thought for a moment before replying, "You will need a haematologist on board preferably near her at all times. You will need an ever flowing blood supply. You will need to modify her work station to minimize shock, bumps, and falls. I would definitely nix her as a pilot on a combat ship like the SARs. But perhaps on the freighter. There she might survive your voyage."
"How much blood do we need."
"How large a crew do you anticipate on the freighter."
Abel thought a moment. "I think she will pilot the Greenland. The crew there will be much larger than Iceland. 9 flight crew including herself, six marines, perhaps another five trainee pilots and their support, say 25. I would guess 45 in total."
Freydis thought a moment. "Make that 75, with the understanding that each is to give blood once a week, and it might work. Oh, and I have a haematologist intern we can assign to go with you. He is a good general doctor but his specialty is haematology. His name is Martin Orloff. He is young but very talented and even with the doc-box you should take a qualified doctor with you anyway.
Abel thanked Dr.Auber and she returned to the hospital to talk to Meg about volunteering for service with the OCN. Both Freydis and Abel knew what Meg's response would be.
Abel found himself once again exhausted and retired to the supercargo deck of the Iceland to sleep. There was one compartment near the showers, but far away from the noise and commotion of the supercargo mess that he called home. As he approached the hatch he noticed that someone had painted a label on the hatch cover reading "Admiral Abel Stoneman, OCN." Abel smiled, entered the tiny two bunk room, fell onto the bunk, and soon fell into deep sleep.
Abel had failed to set an alarm on his inter-tab so he slept far longer than he had wanted. But when he arose 10 hours later he felt refreshed. He walked to the supercargo purser station obtained a fresh ship suit and took a long hot shower. Then Abel climbed the ladder to the bridge and command con where he found Helen and Silvi discussing the loading of trade goods and freight.
Helen suggested they adjourn to the bridge mess which was empty at this time. Abel noticed that apart from Toni Hamilton, who was normally second pilot to Lennie on Ragnarök, no one else was on watch.
Helen saw Abel look around the bridge and at Toni. "We are having to mix up crews as we load our ships with trade goods and cargo. Even Silvi is warming a pilots seat these days."
As they entered the mess Abel went for coffee and donuts. Abel sat across from Helen as she spoke. "I have a tentative cargo list for you to review although we are moving so fast that if you decide you don't want something it will be too late to remove it from our packed hold."
Abel nodded as he sipped his black coffee.
"I have sent the cargo manifest to your inter-tab. We have indentified almost a thousand items we make here or that we found in the supply ship that would make suitable trade goods. As per your commerce rules there are no weapons, but we have a variety of products that reflect a wide variety of technologies suitable for trade. I guess the simplest is electrical generation and distribution systems. We have been making these for hundreds of years for Girots. Also pumps and hydraulic apparatus needed by agricultural systems once again intended for Girots. A bit higher up the tech scale are weather satellites and ground stations. We have sixteen of the satellites and two ground stations. Girots was in the process or replacing their weather satellites and had ordered us to provide them. Then we have tractor crawlers also useful in agriculture. Automated canning fabricators for food processing. Fusion engines from Greayson we have lots. Steel plate, rebar, diamond dust, rare earth metals, all the things we mine here we have in plentif
ul supply. If we find a subspace culture we may be able to trade jector engines with gimbols from our supply ship, but that might be tricky. Oh, and meds. While we can't let loose of the one spare pharma engine we have from the supply ship, but we can provide a supply of modern Greayson meds. Well ancient meds, but meds far in advance with what we will probably find in The Dark. The meds will probably bring the highest rate of exchange for foodstuffs. Then there are nuts and bolts, nails. plasma fusers, impact hammers and all kinds of other stuff. It's quite a variety"
"How much of the ships capacity will this inventory require? "
Helen laughed, "About 9% of our capacity. Iceland that is. For Greenland make it 15%. Those five SAR's you ordered take up a bit of room. Lennie and Larry have brought across three SARs and two more are to go."
"And how about our draftees?"
"Old Man Marx, Jason Mills, and Sam Olderhausr have all agreed to serve. We should probably not call them draftees now, but volunteers."
"No," Abel replied. "We shall now call them crew." Helen nodded in agreement. "But lets watch Jason and Sam. Not watch them exactly but council them. There is not much to steal on a warship and the near-beer is so weak that Sam's bladder will burst before he even gets a buzz. Still let's be careful."
Helen continued, "I understand Silvi is running into problems recruiting the Banshees. The youngest is 14 and the oldest is almost 16. But then again Nomi is only 14 and we do face extinction unless we venture into the void." Helen paused for a long moment.
Before she continued Silvi arrived. "Abel, have I got a deal for you?"
Abel wondered what Silvi meant.
"Abel, you will have all the Banshees. All five of the little aggressive snotty hormonal sprites. I have once again reviewed their scores on the simulator and I simply do not understand how they do what they do, but to watch them in action at the command con is a thing of beauty. Also of chaos and madness."
Abel thought a moment, "What's the catch?"
"Well you get their moms as well."
Abel laughed. "You mean their families will accompany us on the voyage?"
"Not all the moms, but they elected a committee of two moms, one dad and six siblings. They will join the crew and live with the Banshees in the SAR quarters on Greenland. Oh and you get two middle school teachers as well. It's going to be so much fun." Silvi laughed hard.
The cost of adult supervision Abel thought. But then again more blood donors was a good thing. "Do you know their blood type?"
Silvi gave Abel the oddest look. "Don't worry Silvi. I'm only joking." With Greayson pharma, and the blood labs in the doc-box, blood type no longer mattered, but Abel wanted to ask the question just to make Silvi pause in confusion for a moment.
Before Abel could explain Emmitt arrived, nodded toward Abel, Helen and Silvi and then went to the food station and ordered a full dinner. "I haven't had a bite since early this morning. Oh dark thirty. I had to supervise the loading of those five SARs into Greenland. Very tricky. SAR's are so heavily armoured that a slight bump against the relatively lightly armoured hull of Greenland and whoosh. Vacuum. But all is well now. They are all tied down and sleeping in their berths."
Emmitt sat at the at the mess table and began to eat like a very hungry man. Between bites he said, "I hear you got me crews for the SARs and another pilot for the bridge. Will miracles never cease. With all these ships do I get a new title? Something like 'your highness' or 'your bossiness'?"
"Actually Emmitt I found you two pilots for your bridge."
Emmitt looked pleased as he took a deep drink of near-beer.
Abel smiled and went on to tell Emmitt about his new crewmembers. With the description of each new crew member Emmitt's smile lessened and his pace of eating slowed. Finally with the mention of 'Old Man Marx' he stopped eating entirely. Emmitt just stared at Abel and then after a moment Emmitt looked closely at Helen and Silvi to make sure Abel was not joking at his expense. Neither Helen or Silvi laughed.
Abel had not yet mentioned Meg Asgeir because her joining the crew of Iceland was not simply adding her name to the roster. Nor for that matter were the Banshees.
"Before we discuss crews and staffing I would like to begin the planning process for our voyage. Helen your the historian here so you input is critical. Once we have a basic plan for our destinations I will address this topic with our astrogators. But first we need to agree on a route and a short list of destinations. Each of those destinations, and I hope they are few, must have a high probability of providing sufficient foodstuff to feed our population. Further they must be willing to trade food for our barter goods, and in that trade they must not create a famine on their home planet. Are we agreed."
They all nodded in the affirmative.
"Helen I propose we begin our search at Wu. Wu was a major transit point and one of the largest trading posts in this section of the spiral arm. Of course that was before the Great War. But her many portals remain and some of her commercial activity may have survived or perhaps recovered. That ship Ragnarök spotted at Nelots on its' way to Wu gives some indication that there may be some activity in that system. At worst we find Wu of no value, but then we have 8 exit portals to choose from. Helen what do we know about Wu and those 8 exit portals?"
Helen reached for her inter-tab and held it in her hand as she began her description of Wu and the portals. "The EG provides us with an enormous amount of data about Wu and her neighbours. Unfortunately, except for the early years of the Great War we know little of their current status except that The Dark has suppressed commerce and indeed civilization throughout human space and that includes Wu."
Helen paused a moment, "Wu has one enormous advantage in our quest. She has a 22 hour exit portal to Arn. That means if we find something in the Wu system we are only 10 days from home."
Helen looked briefly at her inter-tab. "Wu itself is, or was, a major entrepot for five neighbouring systems. Those systems were Carm a major galactic manufacturing hub complete with shipyards. Carm was a major trading knot line in itself, but it was lucky to have a direct link to Wu which made Carm very successful. Just beyond Carm, along the Carm knot line, about 50 hours out in the tunnel from Carm is Bizon a major food producer prior to the Great War. Further out from Bizon along the Bizon to Sargon knot line is Sargon itself. Sargon was a major mining colony much like the Commonwealth but far richer. The three systems formed a union and tried to remain neutral in the war. But like Wu they seem to have failed. At least Carm failed. The next system directly accessible from Wu is New Carthago which was one of the 'Big Sixteen' grain producers. Next from Wu is Hsi an ocean planet with enormous production of sea food, seaweed, and some medicinals. Next from Wu would be Happy Landing which was a major manufacturing system, but was a very early casualty to the war. The EG says Happy Landing was obliterated. It had joined Greayson and was thoroughly destroyed by Unity in the opening battles of the Great War. Fitz is another mining facility with a direct link, actually with an unusual dual entry and exit portal to Happy Landing. They were highly dependent on each other and had a two way street as it were. Manufacturing and nearby accessible mining really created a manufacturing powerhouse between the two systems. Next from Wu is Far Spec. She is very distant from Wu. Far Spec, a low population mining colony, specialized in rare earth minerals. Far Spec is 150 hours out of Wu, while most of the others can be reached in one to three days tunnel transit time. That excludes in system transit. The last two are Timmons Rock about which nothing is said in the EG other than it exists, and Elegy a colony of religious zealots who settled on a grim planetary system barely suitable for human existence."
Abel asked, "And the return from these eight systems, especially the five greatest prospects?"
"All have knot lines back to Wu. Most are two portal jumps into Wu. The greatest prospects can return to Wu in at most five days. Far Spec has a direct knot line back. Timmons Rock requires at least six jumps to return to Wu and if I recall they exceed 2000 hours, although it takes
1055 hours in the tunnel to reach Timmons. Elegy has only one exit and that is though Timmons. Getting back to Wu from Elegy would take at least 120 days. Both Elegy and Timmons are poor prospects in my opinion due to the time required to travel there and back as well as the primitive level of development as reflected in the EG. Further the description of the star systems indicates they are inhospitable to the growth of significant quantities of food."
"Assuming Wu is a wash out, which system should we try first."
"Well that's a problem in a way. The most successful systems prior to the Great War and the most probable to provide a surplus of food for our return would be Bizon at two jumps, or New Carthago or Hsi. The problem is that their commercial and systems success would have made them targets by both sides in the War. If I remember New Carthago sided with Unity as did Hsi. Not because they felt any affinity for Unity and the Nobs, but because they were too weak to resist Unity's pressures and Greayson simply lacked the resources to support them. There is no record of whom Bizon may have sided with, but if she was neutral she likely suffered from both warring factions as did Wu itself. Since our priority is foodstuffs, I think the manufacturing systems are a wash out.
"So your recommendation is?"
Helen paused a moment, " Carm to Bizon."
Silvi spoke up, "And how long to Bizon?"
"From the Habitat to Wu is twenty days. But don't forget we must transit Girots and who knows what we will meet there. But assuming the best..." Helen paused a moment. "Twenty days to Wu, six hours in system transit assuming there is nothing at Wu worth stopping for, then 22 hours to Carm, then eight hours in system transit and then to Bizon it's 50 hours. So that is.... about 4 days from Wu. Total time out from the Habitat to Bizon assuming we find nothing on Wu or Carm, and that we pass through Girots is about 24 days. Less than a month. Return from Bizon is three portals through pretty much empty systems back to Wu. That's another five days then home. Home in 25 days from Bizon. A two months, not counting any negotiations or loading time. But then again Bizon may be a bust. We don't know."
