66. We're Here
1140 Words
I wake up alone in the morning. I watch out the window. We're at a planet. I don't know what planet. But we're here. I take a bath and get ready, then go up to command. Nobody is here. Nobody at all. I go down to the office level. Alkawn, Tobias, Victor, and Alden are in their offices.
I go to Alden's. "I guess there's nothing to do on this planet either."
"We were picking up the gold from Tobias's planet. They had some processed. We're wasting time and trying not to go back to our planet too soon. The longer we wait, the more will be done."
"Is anyone down there?"
"No. They transferred the gold already. It wasn't much so far. But we got the start. We're working on the mining planet ships now. I'm going to call for the king's table because they are working on the same thing, I think. They keep submitting changes."
I motion for the brain, "Is there any black ore we can pick up or is there anything the mining planet needs we can take there?"
"We have not got deep enough for the black ore. We are projected to have shipments in a week. However, the area is big enough, we could place up to 2 more mines on the black ore."
"Do that."
"Yes ma'am."
"Everything else going good? You need anything for that planet?"
"Nothing additional is needed."
"Great."
Someone knocks on the door.
"Enter."
Elek comes in. "Can we go down there?"
"Yes that's fine. Remember only 1 continent has humans on it."
"It's fine. We want to see how they're doing."
Alden nods and Elek leaves. Then Tobias, Victor, and Alkawn come in. We sit around the conference table.
"I called you because you're working on the same stuff."
We laugh.
Alden shakes his head. "The base for the war carriers is done. The shape is like a pinecone. Smallest level is on top, being the command area. Here are the papers."
"How many warships are on the king's ships?"
"500."
"We are also adding an airlock station to all medical area's. Alkawn designed a shuttle that will pull in an entire warship. So if something like training with Johen happened again, he would not be pulled through space. There are to many variables with that. There will be 1 on each ship."
"That sounds good. That was so stressful watching the brains open the shuttle and come up strapped to it, moving him."
Alden winks. "Another ship has been planned. It will be a full medical station."
Alkawn looks around. "What we need is a carrier carrier. When we go to evacuate planets, like Tobias's planet. There's what 500,000 people on it? None of our ships carry that. We should make a ship that can hold a massive number of people for that reason."
"Make them staff rooms. It's a double bed, little table, 2 chairs, couch, food box, shower, toilet, sink, television, side table, it's all crammed together. Very little space, but it would be perfect for transporting."
"A million of those."
"This is what you're building." A red ship appears above the table. "Potential to hold 1 million families for 7 days. Very basic pants and shirts provided for everyone."
"Clothes sound perfect. Let's do that with food too. Prepackaged. Not in the meal boxes."
"They could be froze and warmed up on the ship. Then delivered to their rooms."
I nod. "Only packaged stuff. No fresh food."
Alden looks at it. "It's 13 levels tall. I think that's alright. It needs a medical area. All those people, someone's falling down the stairs."
"Add on a level under the command area. Put 3 command apartments and 3 offices on it. That many people, we are going to have to put someone in charge."
I sit back and smile. "I like it. And it saves me from making 84 trips back and forth from Tobias's planet."
Alden smiles, "Add that to the build list. How long will it take?"
"17 years."
"That's a long time. Any way to shorten these build times?"
"Additional ore."
"Can't you mine it?"
"We are mining it on the mining planet. However, it only goes so fast. If you want it faster, you need more mines. Then transport that processed ore to the building planet. We can build as fast as you can get us processed ore."
I scratch my head. "For example..."
"We have 2 steel ore mines on the planet. We need steel for every ship you are building. We can only mine it so fast on the planet. If you were to mine additional steel ore off the planet and bring it in, we could build the ships faster."
"Give me a print out of the ore types we can search out. We'll find additional ore for you. I think we all want these done quicker."
"Yes ma'am."
"Where we at?" Alden scratches his head and gets his paper.
Someone knocks on the door.
Alden makes the lasers go away. "Enter."
Elek walks in. "Everyone's bored."
"Is anyone down there?"
"No, everyone's on ship."
"Here is your list, ma'am."
"Thank you." It's a bunch of different ores. I hand it to Elek. "I need to mine for these metals. Have the ship search for some and go there. Send mining groups down if it's safe. We'll pick up ore later."
He shuts the door behind him.
I sit back down, "Anyway, new stuff on my ship, any ideas?"
"Can we work on it in space or on the mining planet?"
"It would need to land on the mining planet. But we could work on it there. Underground would be best."
"Go ahead and dig out an area big enough to work on it. Once we get other ships out, I'm sure this will need updates. A garage will be nice for it."
"Can you build a 2nd ship like this? Put in the extra stuff with it. The extra bays and shuttles and things. Then if 1 goes down, we have another."
Alkawn sits back. "That'll work good if the 2 of you ever have to go in different directions too. You'll have 1 you can move around in."
We stop at a planet and see a few shuttles go down.
"We have added the garage area, sir. Please submit plans for the additional main ship."
"Thank you."
The shuttles come back up, and we take off again.
We talk about more updates, watching as shuttles take off for different planets and come back. Then we come up to a planet and the brain walks over. "Miners are being attacked here."
"By what?"
"Unknown."
Alden puts an eyebrow up, "How do you not know what's attacking you?"
"Unknown."
He gets up, and the boys follow him out.
- Writer
