Kala came and sat on my lap and helped me transfer funds from my account into each of my crew’s accounts. When it came time to transfer into her account instead of transferring one million credits I transferred five million Kala looked at me and shrieked “No!”
“What’s’ the matter, it’s not enough?” I said teasingly.
“It’s not that,” she said, “it’s too much!! I don’t feel I deserve it.”
“Good than you know how I feel millions of times over for what I have been given,” I said.
It was just before noon when several messages came at the same time for each of my crew; the messages came in the form of an order, and for me in the form of a request. The message was regarding being witnesses in the court martial trial of Corporal Lexmal.
News, both good and bad travels quickly, by the time we sat down to eat a most exquisite meal provided by non-other that Lt. Reidecor ,he had already checked his financial account with the Federation and discovered he was suddenly a rich man. It turned out that Reidecor had gourmet tastes but heretofore he had not been able to dine to the level of his tastes, now he was celebrating with food and we were all benefitting from it. Apparently he had contacted many of best restaurants in the Capitol and had their best and most expensive dishes prepared and delivered to the compound. He even had white linen table cloths, fine china and waiters.
While we were dining Reidecor told us about all of the dishes we were eating, where they were from and their preparation. I won’t say it made the food taste any better, but it was interesting to learn and the food was delicious. During the meal Lunnie and Marranalis kept thanking me over and over again “for everything”. Kala sat by my side and seemed somewhat lost in thought but from time to time I would see her smile and her hand would reach over and she would lay it on my leg. Finally I asked her what was wrong.
“I keep thinking about Corporal Lexmal and how he turned traitor trying to gain wealth, and now here we are, all wealthy and he could have been too had he not been so greedy. Now he will probably die for what he did.”
”Probably so,” Lunnie said, “but had he gotten away with it possibly millions or even billons more would have died and wars would have broken out. I don’t feel sorry for what happens to him. He made the choice and now must pay the consequences.”
“Oh,” Kala exclaimed, “with all that’s been going on this morning I forgot to tell you, I may have a lead on an estate you might like. It’s in the mountains not too far out of the city, it has its own lake as part of the property, and belonged to an industrialist from Astamagota who wanted a place near the Capitol to entertain senators and other dignitaries. Recently his company went broke when the sun, spewed out a solar flare searing everything on the planet destroying all life and property there. Shortly thereafter he committed suicide and now the Federation is selling off his properties to cover his debts. The estate is so huge that almost no one can afford to even bid on it, it has numerous cottages on the grounds that he used for guests, as well as barracks for guards on the premises. There also is a large landing pad and huge hanger build into the mountain.
“It certainly sounds promising, when can we look at it?”
“Day after tomorrow but let me confirm it.” Kala said.
“Lunnie tomorrow you and Reidecor check out the ship and supplies, I want the ship ready to fly when we want. Reidecor, check out the flight plans for moving the TRITYTE . I would like to see how it fits in the hanger there.”
I’m not sure when they arranged it but the next day there seemed to be a steady stream of people coming and going that Kala and Marranalis were interviewing. Later in the day Lunnie and Reidecor returned saying that everything was ready for the next day and that they thought they may have found the replacement member for our crew. Lunnie had run into someone at the hanger that she had met when she first enlisted in the service and it turned out that Reidecor had known him also. Both were fond of the possible new crew mate, now it was just a matter of seeing if they could get this individual to join us. Marranalis had a number of people he interviewed but insisted upon needing to conduct more interviews. before decisions could be made.. Admiral Regeny had promised us security until we could acquire our own. I hoped to combine the martial arts training of the troopers with training our own security force at the same time.
Kala came to me, overwhelmed with the sudden need for more personnel and crew but also overwhelmed with the amount of applicants applying for positions. She realized the sudden need she was going to have for a personal assistant, finding an assistant was going to have to be a top priority. To make matters worse nearly 300 requests had arrived in two days from various Senators, dignitaries and persons of other import wanting the 5 of us to either attend some function in our honor or they wanted to sponsor, it was going to be a full time task for one person just handling these requests.
“Kala, do they have temporary employment services here, or agencies that you can hire from on a temporary basis with the potential of being hired full time?” I asked.
“Yes they do,” she said excitedly, “why didn’t I think of that?”
“You’ve been too busy with so many other things to give full attention to anyone of them.” I said, “I suggest you contact some hiring agencies and get yourself a temporary staff at least until you can find the people you want full time. I would focus my searches towards people with a military background and training. I think they will be more focused to their tasks, but that’s your decision.”
“I remember about a year ago hearing of an agency that specialized in placing ex-military people in both government and civilian jobs, I could start there.” Kala said.
“Great, I would also suggest that you look for persons that held high level security clearances and maintained them during their career. It will save us time on having to run background checks and trying to find out who we can trust.” I rationalized.
Kala shook her head, “You amaze me at times; you just seem to pick things out of the air as you go along without thinking about them too long.”
“One more thing Kala, find out when Piesew Mecarta’s tour of duty contract is up and see if he would be interested in serving as house majordomo when I get my estate, offer him whatever he wants for a salary and then double it, and let me know when he will be available?”
Kala said with a smile, “You never forget anyone who serves you well do you?”
Due to all the activity it was not until early evening that all of us had time to assemble in the gym for martial arts practice. Everyone seemed off on their movements because they were distracted by other thoughts and I was a bit rougher than usual in throwing them or catching them off guard than I usually was. All their attention needed to be on every fiber of their being and what is was doing, there was no place for wondering about who they were going to see tomorrow or whether someone that interviewed that day was right for the job. Their full focus had to be on the moment. After the workout we showered, the shower in the gym was large enough to accommodate everyone and it was quite noisy for the few minutes we were in the shower and locker room getting dressed. Each person was wanting to talk about some aspect of the people they were trying to hire, the conversation continued all the way to our dining room and then it suddenly dawned on everyone that with all that had gone on that day, no one had made arrangements for dinner that evening. Everyone broke out laughing as we all traipsed into the kitchen to the food synthesizer and punched in our favorite concoction from the thousands the synthesizer could produce. Minutes later we were all seated about the dining table, some slurping down noodles and others spooning up some stew like dishes, everyone was still talking animatedly.
There 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.”
Reidecor 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. The 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 ov
erall 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 her 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.
Solbidyum Wars Saga Book 1: Battle of the New Orleans Page 18
