“How’s the well going?” Marc asked as he stepped off the Lynx.
“We’re still drilling through the shale,” the drilling foreman said. “We should break into the anticline trap in a couple of days. Then we have to pump concrete down to seal the well, blast through that in a few places to let the oil in, so, two more days. On my oath, we’ll be pumping oil by Monday.”
“Good. Is our excavator ready?”
“Not my department. You should go ask your dig foreman.”
Marc walked over to where they should have been starting to dig the main channel. The dig foreman was reviewing the plans and talking with one of the structural engineers.
“Why aren’t we digging? Isn’t the excavator ready?” Marc asked.
“Yes, but we’ve got a bit of a problem with the crew.”
“What kind of problem?”
“They’re arguing about doing such a big dig. They’re advocating that we do less.”
“Let’s go talk to them.”
“Yes, sir,” the dig foreman said. He was clearly not enthusiastic about confronting the crew. “I was thinking about having them do one of the side streets first, give them some time to work out their frustrations.”
“We could, but I want to know what the problem is,” Marc said as he walked up to the big excavator. “What seems to be the issue? Why haven’t we started digging the main channel?” Marc asked.
“What do you mean We?” a big Aussie asked. “We’re the ones that’ll be digging that trench.”
“I understand, but the effort is for all of us. What’s the problem?”
“We think you’re wasting our labor, digging such a big trench. We won’t be needing something that big for years. We want to get more done, then we’ll be able to get this town up and running faster, and that means we’ll be able to get our land sooner.”
“That won’t make a difference. We won’t be assigning private land for two years. I want to stick to our original plan. We want to avoid rework, and having that main trench is the basis of the entire design.”
“What you don’t seem to understand is that that pretty plan of yours needs to change. No plan lasts past the first day you actually start working. And we think you need to let those of us with experience run the show now that we’re digging.”
“I appreciate your input,” Marc said. “And if you have concerns, I’ll be happy to discuss them with you. Just make an appointment, but for now, get this machine running.”
“You don’t understand. I said you need to let us run things,” the big Aussie said as he raised himself up to his full six-foot-four height.
“No, you don’t understand. I’m in charge. If that doesn’t suit you, you can go back to the Sakira and ask them for some work you can do until you can go back to Earth.”
“And how are you going to make that happen? You can have your security guys come over here and pound on us. But that will just make you look like a Nancy-boy,” the Aussie said, puffing out his chest and clenching his fist. He moved up to within half a meter of Marc, looking very threatening. “Now, why don’t you go back to your office and work on your plans and leave us in charge?”
Marc took a half-step back with his left leg, like he was going to turn around and leave. Then he slammed his left palm into the center of the big Aussie’s chest. He hit him right in the solar plexus, and the big Aussie crumpled to the ground.
“Well, fancy that, he just dropped like a stone; I guess I’m still in charge,” Marc said loudly. “Now get that machine working! And someone, get a medic over here to take care of him.”
The rest of the crew’s resolve melted away, and they moved back to the excavator and started it up.
“He’s going to be pissed when he quits gasping for air,” Garity said. “And I don’t think a cheap shot is going to work the next time.”
“That wasn’t a cheap shot, it was an example.”
“You sound pretty confident you can take him.”
“Sure, he’s big and slow.”
“He’s got two inches and thirty pounds on you.”
“Like I said, big and slow. Where are our asteroids?”
“They’re still flying them to the planet.”
“Damn, it would be nice if we had some iron ore here by the time the oil starts flowing.”
“Things can only go so fast. You’ve got to be patient.”
“Patience is a virtue, and I’ve been told I’m irredeemable,” Marc laughed as he moved on, leaving the dig foreman scratching his head.
◆ ◆ ◆
“Paul, give me an update on our mining,” Marc said once he got to the office building in the compound.
“We’ve reached the limestone at the cement plant. We’ll be extracting it by tomorrow. Dr. Pittman has finally decided which clay he likes, so we’ll start digging at that location and hauling it to the plant. He also told us that using an iron asteroid for the polysteel is great, but it won’t work for cement. We need iron oxide for that. Dr. Qamar told us where the iron deposits are, so we’ve sent a team over there to dig some up. The one we selected is only two hundred kilometers, and we don’t need that much, it’s only three percent of the mixture.”
“What about the alumina?”
“Big bauxite field just one hundred kilometers to the south; again, we only need about five percent. Those Paraxeans sure know how to pick a good location.”
“I’ll let them know you think so,” Marc said. “So we’re set for making cement and concrete, and we can make aluminum wiring if we need to. Any word on a copper source?”
“I can’t believe they didn’t locate a deposit of copper,” Paul said. “Nattie’s out with a crew surveying for a deposit. It’s looking
