13 Degrees of Separation

by Hechtl, Chris

“Because it was proprietary information,” D'red interjected with second level agreement. Sid hauled himself back to the here and now. Taylor looked over to the attorney and nodded. “As well as a conflict of interest. Which was why each of them have abstained from votes involving the Yard Dog company's interests.”

  “Correct,” Rasha replied.

  "How?"

  "Again proprietary. But, I will say this. If you bothered to look at craft, even ship components, you'd realize there are some things even the station can do. Fuselages for one. Or factories that make the fuselages."

  "Or fittings. I see what you are saying. We have been willfully blind, seeing the lack of keys as a limitation, instead of a challenge to overcome. I'm guessing Irons gave you some key codes before he left," D'red said, but both Warners remained mute.

  “Can we order a tug?” Sid asked hopefully.

  “Sure,” Taylor replied with a shrug. “I'd ask you what class, but again, I'd direct you to...”

  “Sales. Right,” Sid said, already placing the call.

  “Yard Dog inc Sales Department this is Alice, how can I help you?” Alice said over the speakers. Emily snorted at how professional Alice sounded.

  Sid glanced at the others but when no one spoke he took the lead. “Alice, this is Sid Berkheart and the station council. We were speaking with Taylor here and he referred us to you.”

  There was a long pause as Alice digested that. “Certainly,” she finally said. “How can I be of help?” she asked cautiously.

  “Well, we are interested in purchasing a tug. A new built tug, possibly more than one.”

  “I'm certain we can work out a contract. Would you like me to come over so we can discuss the details in person?” she asked.

  Sid smiled at the other avatars. Yan didn't say anything. Finally he shrugged. “Sure, please do,” he said, checking the schedule. “We're clearing a block for you in twenty minutes if that's okay?”

  “That will give me just enough time to get there. If you can clear it with security?” she asked.

  Emily sent a series of mental commands. When she received a positive reply she smiled. “Already done Alice, we're looking forward to seeing you,” she said.

  “I'll be there with the brochures,” Alice said, sounding excited. The line clicked shut.

  “Well! Since she's on her way, why don't we go over the budget a little. Can we check the discretionary fund and see if we have enough for at least one tug?” Averies asked, smiling.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  A few minutes after the meeting and the public announcement that the station had purchased two yet to be constructed tugs, Yard dog sales started getting inquiries for the construction of shuttle craft and tugs from the station. Alice was smug about it. When McDougall put in a feeler her eyes glittered. “Let em stew!” she growled to Desi. “They can go to hell! Or wait till it freezes over!”

  “Now, now Alice, that's no way to treat a client!” Clio tisked. Alice snorted. “But you are right, we are rather swamped so we'll just have to tell them to wait their turn now won't we?” she asked, smiling a feral smile. Alice chuckled.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Now that they had an operational base they closed the warehouse on the station. The tug started diverting fuel from the delivery to the station direct to the Yard Dogs. Immediately the station squawked. Alice grinned and offered to sell their surplus to the station. For a long time the station had charged them, charged them fees to process and store their own fuel. Now the tables had turned. The squawking turned louder when they were given the new price too.

  “Let em squeal,” Savo said, eyes dancing. “Just let em squeal. Their turn.”

  The station council was pissed about the change and bump in price. Clio sweetly remind them of all the crap they fed the dogs over the past year. They grumbled but signed a new contract to keep the cost down and made the initial down payment.

  “No more free rides,” Howie said rubbing his hands together. “Say, can we make another of those platforms?”

  Sparks grinned to his partner before he slapped Howie on the shoulder. “Hell of an idea kid. Glad you thought of it.”

  “I did?” Howie asked and then saw the electrician’s expression. Slowly he returned the smile and then chuffed a laugh. “Yeah, I guess so, huh?”

  ...*...*...*...*...

  At the usual Monday shareholder meeting, they were surprised to find people packing the bar. Alice was amused, Ralph refused to turn the customers away. Since they didn't have enough room to seat all the share holders they decided to meet in the berth. An awe of disappointment from the audience made Shari and a few others smirk. Ralph was a little put out when many of the potential customers left.

  “I got this,” Alice said, winking and waving the others away. “I'll let Desi fill you in on sales,” she said, nodding to the sales girl. Desi responded with a matching nod.

  Alice however dragged a presentation holo transmitter out into the middle of the bar and then set up. Interested, a few people lingered to see what she was up to. When she was ready she gave a basic presentation of some of the things the dogs had accomplished and what they were capable of doing in the future. Many patrons listened with renewed interest.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  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, al
ong 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. R
unning 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.