“So, Lieutenant Payne isn’t living up to his name?”
“Not so far. He’s been real solid. You trained him well.”
“I think he trained me more than I trained him.”
“That’s not the way he tells it.”
“I think he’s just being nice.”
“Or he really likes you,” Liz said.
Catie laughed. “Yeah right.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“Chief, is our Lynx ready?” Liz asked. They had just finished their last jump and were entering the Mangkatar system.
“Yes, Ma’am. Four fusion reactors, twelve grav-drives, and assorted cables, just like you ordered.”
“It all fit?”
“Of course, Ma’am. They’ll need to go into the lower hold to get the last set, and we had to use up part of the passenger space, but they’ll manage.”
“Good. Lieutenant Girard, your carriage awaits, good luck.”
“Thank you, Ma’am,” the lieutenant said. He immediately got up from his station on the bridge and headed to the lift. He was excited to be given an independent command, even if it was just to grab a few asteroids.
◆ ◆ ◆
“What did I ever do to you?” Kasper complained as he waited for the EVA team to connect the cargo pod to his Fox.
“Quit complaining, or I’ll transfer you to the Roebuck, and you can stay here for a year,” Liz threatened. “It’s tricky flying with that ostrich egg, and you’re the only one with experience.”
“That’s because you never assign anyone else to ferry it down.”
“Next time, you can take a co-pilot with you to train.”
“Thanks!”
The Paraxeans were eager to get started; they’d already used the four Lynxes to ferry crews down to the compound. They were waiting on the cargo pod so they could assemble the excavator and start pulling up the material necessary to start building the new housing they would need. The plan called for all six thousand colonists to be living on the planet by the end of the week.
◆ ◆ ◆
“Marc, the Paraxeans are demanding to have us remove the cabins in the Sakira’s flight bay and ship them down. They want to use the material for their planetside housing,” Liz said.
“Oh, that’s clever of them, but I wasn’t planning on replacing all the cabins,” Marc said.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Just a sec,” Marc said before he put Liz on hold. “ADI, get me Chief O’Donnell.”
“Yes, sir?” Chief O’Donnell said as he answered his Comm.
“How long would it take to build and install new cabins in the Sakira’s flight bay?”
“Those buggers want to keep the cabins?”
“Yes they do. I wish I’d have thought of it.”
“We can build the cabins while we wait for the Sakira to get back here. It’ll slow down the work on the Victory, but we can make that up. Then we can install them in about four days. I think we should be able to work around all the other loading.”
“Okay, then start making the cabins,” Marc said. “Liz, I assume you heard?”
“Yes,” Liz said. “I’ll let them know they can take them. Thanks, it’ll make my life easier; they can be very persistent.”
“You don’t have to tell me about it.”
Chapter 16Board Meeting – September 6th
“Good morning, everyone,” Marc said as he entered the boardroom. “Catie, are you good?”
“Yes, I’m in a study room in the library,” Catie said.
“Okay, I’d like to start the meeting by making an announcement. As of today, Fred is now President of MacKenzie Discoveries.”
Everyone started applauding. Blake immediately brought out the scotch and poured drinks so they could toast.
“To our favorite President, Fred Litton!”
“To Fred!”
“Thank you for that,” Fred said. “I’m glad to hear I’m starting out as your favorite because, when I put your lazy asses to work, you’ll probably start to resent me.”
“We’ll just offload that work on our favorite guy,” Liz said. “Oh, wait, that’s you. I guess that won’t work anymore.” Liz laughed while giving Fred a questioning look. She was one of the worst offenders at moving her work to Fred.
“Don’t worry, I’ll have plenty of staff that you can try that on. But just be careful; I only hire the smartest people, and they’ll probably figure out all your tricks in no time.”
Fred sat down and motioned to Marc that he was ready to get out of the spotlight and that Marc should continue.
“One of the things Fred is going to do is break MacKenzies into several subsidiary companies. He’s essentially already done that by the way he has organized his staff, but it will be formalized over time. There will be a real-estate concern, a trading company, the electronics, solar power. We’ll see how many he comes up with. They’ll all be wholly-owned subsidiaries, but it should make things easier. And it might make Herr Hausmann and Herr Pfeifer happier.”
“Won’t that make some of our projects more complex?” Catie asked.
“I don’t think so,” Fred said. “You always have ignored the organizational structure on your projects, so I don’t think this will be much different. Everyone will know we ultimately work for MacKenzie Discoveries.”
“Another thing it does is simplify this meeting. Fred will only bring things here that require us to act. Otherwise, we’ll assume that all is well. I’m sure Herr Pfeifer will let us know if our numbers start to sag.”
Jonas gave a stern nod to that.
“So our top-of-mind agenda item is the status of the Paraxean colony mission. Liz?”
“We just got here, but things are moving fast,” Liz said. “We’ve unloaded the Roebuck so we could put it in position above the ecliptic. That allows it to keep track of anything that might be approaching the system without the planets getting in the way. We have a probe below the ecliptic to cover any blind spots.”
“Isn’t the Roebuck an expensive probe?” Blake asked.
Liz gave a little laugh. “Yes it is, but the astronomers and communication guys on it are tuning the sensors. When they’re happy, they’ll modify two probes and launch them. Then the Roebuck will be free to return to orbit around the
