Chapter 10: Packing Day
Suzy Gabriel had told the crown that she accepted the summons to be on the first lift to Home. The network design supervisor had spent the last few days reading what she was allowed to take and what she wasn’t. A couple hours after she had agreed to the summons a truck had showed up and dropped a container on her front lawn. The container was filled with shipping boxes of all types and sizes. Now with the boxes all unloaded from the container stacked on the front yard, she was trying to begin packing. She had to be packed by Tuesday so she could make her lift to orbit.
“Hello!” a voice called from the open front door.
“I’m back here!” Suzy called she was in the kids bedroom packing Igor junior’s toys.
A few seconds later Suzy looked up to see a woman standing in the door. She was accompanied by two other women. “Can I help you?”
“It’s the other way around Mrs. Gabriel,” Lady Hawthorne replied, “we’re here to help you pack, and get your family ready for departure.”
“But I thought....” Suzy started “that only the rich would get this type of help.”
“No Mrs. Gabriel,” Lady Hawthorne answered, “This is a service we are providing for all our families. As many people as we can help. My associates, Lady Curtis, and Lady Humphrey are here to learn how to do this. We also have a couple of strong backs to move some of the heavier stuff. We’d also like permission to make a holo so we can make a training program of the packing. Do you mind?”
Suzy thought about this for moment and said, “Hell why not. After my late husband’s stunt at the space port it’s the least I can do.”
So the three noble women and a small army people moved into her home. They started with the with garage and storage spaces with the recorders running. “We start here because many families have such spaces. Although, there may be some things in the storage spaces we can’t load, like paint, or flammable solvents, there are a lot of things that we can just put in the shipping containers. Such as these holiday decorations. They go on first as they won’t be needed right away when we get to Home. Many of these things won’t be needed right away so they go one first. All families have such things and that is why we are starting here.”
Lady Hawthorne went with Suzy to her bedroom she remembered Captain McNally’s home, “You do the dresser and I’ll do the closet, is there anything in here you don’t....”
“Lady Hawthorne,” Suzy said, “There isn’t anything in that closet you haven’t seen or possibly worn with your husband.”
With that the two women got to work, and packed up the master bedroom. As they filled the boxes the men would come in and remove them, but they didn’t load them up right away, one of the women whose task was to act like a narrator said to the camera, “These boxes, contain the everyday use items that the family will need when they get to Home. Their clothing,” she opened a box that hadn’t been sealed and showed hanging clothes from the master bedroom, she closed that and opened a smaller box, “the children’s toys.” She went to another, “This box contains Mrs. Gabriel’s tools. This will be loaded last. As you can see the families furniture and appliances are being loaded.” She stepped out of the way as two men moved the Gabriel family’s living room sofa into the container. The camera followed them into the container where they placed the sofa on the floor of the container. The men took a cargo net and secured the sofa to the floor, “it is important that the load be secured as much as possible. Although the containers will be handled as safely as possible, it is important to note that the container will be in micro or zero g. There is no artificial gravity in the containers. So getting things tied down and secure will ensure nothing is damaged during transit. With the furniture and appliances now in the container and tied down, the shipping boxes are put in. We’ve been putting a few in as we load the furniture to make a nice tight load. The load bars are going in now, to stabilize the load so it doesn’t shift onto the family car. Which as you can see is now being loaded into the container. We are packing the Gabriel’s car too as Mrs. Gabriel will need it with her job on Home supervising network installers. If the car wasn’t a late model vehicle with a self-charging power plant that could handle some of the rough terrain on Home it wouldn’t be packed. It too will be tied down and made secure. Now the family’s clothes and things they will need right away on Home are loaded.”
She was quiet for a few minutes as the men tied down the car and loaded the last of the family’s belongings. They were cargo netted down also. Once everything was in, the narrator concluded, “Now we seal the family’s container, Mrs. Gabriel will put a lock on it and set the combination to the lock to something she knows.” They watched as Suzy Gabriel put the pad lock on the now closed cargo doors.
One of the men attached a stencil to side of the container it had the word Gabriel and the numbers 000000001 cut into it. One of the other men took a sprayer and sprayed the stencil onto the container. They went to the front, back, and other side, and climbed up top to spray the ID on the roof of the container. When they climbed down a container mover pulled up and loaded it. As it was loaded the operator recorded the number on his pad, and also programmed a small transponder in the container that identified the container and would when interrogated tell a searcher who the container belonged to. The stencil was psychological to make the family feel that their goods would be safe and secured and labeled as theirs and no one else’s, the real tracking and recording would be done by the transporters and the automated cargo handling gear.
As the container pulled away a small automated surveillance robot began to track the journey of the container to the space port. It was carried as a live event. The first family to be evacuated to Home was big news. A family who had, had their number pulled in the first evacuation lift lottery.
As part of the packing Lady Hawthorne’s people loitered in the area to answer questions of the neighborhood onlookers. A crowd had gathered as the container was loaded and some of the men and boys in the neighborhood had helped the men load the container. As the container was loaded some of the spouses and others in the neighborhood began to ask questions. This was all planned. This was the first time that any of them had seen a representative of the evacuation. The first time any of them had an opportunity to speak with anyone from the evacuation command. So as they ended the packing a couple of Wilson’s Women drifted into the neighborhood and stayed there for several hours as the Gabriel’s said their good byes and were quietly taken to the space port. Hours later Lady Hawthorne who was dining with the Wilson’s and the Queen described the day and how effective it was.
“I don’t know if you guys picked Mrs. Gabriel deliberately because of that foolishness at the space port or because she was randomly picked; but it worked like a charm. She was little overwhelmed with all the attention. But it worked. She was perfect, and didn’t even know that she was being set up. She did some things wrong, but a lot of things right. She also asked the right questions, and even a few stupid ones. When that presentation is finalized it will be awesome!”
Lisa chuckled Dolores Hawthorne was entitled to crow a little bit. She had been worried that today’s exercise would be a complete flop. Lisa knew better, everything Dolores put her hand to she accomplished in a style that made others envious.
“I was able to catch part of it,” the Queen said, “You did good Deloris! But that was the easy one. The first is always easy. Sir Mike what about all these families who have cherished pets? How do we explain to the kids that....”
“We’re still looking into the biologicals,” Wilson said, “We found that the company had abandoned a large heard of horses and cows. We think that we may be able to bring dogs and cats with us, and possibly some zoo animals. But that is a top secret thing all of you. I don’t want to get peoples hopes up. To dash them might be worse than just putting their pets to sleep.”
“It never stops does it Sir Mike,” Lady Hawthorne said, “You never get a moments peace out of this do
you.”
“It is the nature of the job,” Michael said, “but sometimes I can. Mostly it’s because of the work Lisa does that I get any peace.”
That was true, Lisa only allowed Mike’s coworkers to their home about once or twice a week. She made it a point to invite not just the senior members of Wilson’s staff; but the juniors as well. She also made sure that Mike had one meal with the family as many days as practical. Lately she had been conspiring with Mylea, Queen Aggie, and his secretary to get him home by 2100 hours every night.
“Yes,” Lisa stood up and walked over to the ship’s bell she had placed on the side boy. She took a small silver hammer that was chained to it and gently struck it. The bell’s soft, gentle chime filled the dining room, gently rebounding off the walls. This was a signal that all who regularly dined with the Wilsons knew. The business day was over.
“Okay folks,” Lisa said sitting back down, “No more talk of work or the evacuation for this evening. The penalty is banishment from my table!”
“The commanding general has spoken,” Queen Aggie replied, she had come to enjoy Lisa’s company and was learning how to manage her home when she finally wedded.
They settled down to a quiet meal and once Abby was put to bed, and Jill had gone off to her room, Lisa got the cards out and they played hearts into the small hours of the morning. It was a quiet evening that allowed everyone to have some relaxation. It was fortunate that they had this time. It was one of the few nights that was relatively peaceful.
Every Last Mother's Child Page 93
