Chapter 12: Sixteen Weeks

At the start of those sixteen weeks, I expected to be able to take it relatively easy. How wrong I was! The Skunk Works had been given the go-ahead to build the bulk carrier cum passenger space ship. Their brief was to build three. One would be equipped with passenger modules, and the other two with cargo modules. We would buy extra modules as required. The Discovery channel program, to encourage colonists, contained material that I had seen before. Indeed, I recognized a number of shots that I had taken myself. The blue skies, and the fresh green stretches of countryside made Secundus look most attractive. The voice-over commentary was skillfully written. It gave the program a tremendously positive impact. It even made me want to emigrate to Secundus. I'm sure that it would be successful in bringing in hordes of colonists. The third thread of our development, was the expansion of Lieutenant Commander Bollinger's company into Captain Bollinger's battalion. I think that the Discovery channel program probably helped here as well. Chris was overwhelmed with volunteers, giving him ample opportunity to pick, and choose. Although my involvement in these activities was slight, it all took up time. Whenever I was asked to consider or even to approve something, It took time to do so.

At first, Chris was the most insistent in seeking help, and approval. He didn't, thankfully, approach me while I was retired for the night, but on several occasions he came to me while I was having my breakfast. He had taken Roas's triangular layout, and tried to overlay it on a picture of the terrain to minimize the impact of our presence. We had assumed that the plan would have one of the major axes along a line of latitude, He found that the best possible fit had that axis at an angle of seventeen degrees to the lines of latitude, and that the best fit involved increasing the sides of the triangles from nine miles to ten, and a quarter. For the triangles that were farms, that meant an increase from twenty two thousand acres to nearly thirty thousand. We hoped that would not be too much. Chris soon found himself getting bogged down in details. I told him that the purpose of having subordinates, was for them to do the work while he just looked on, and organized them. That made him smile as he realized the truth of what I had told him. The next call on my time was with the Skunk Works. There were a large number of issues to do with the fleet of bulk carriers. For example, how did we want the passenger carrier to be fitted out. Should it have cabins or should it be arranged with open decks, or something in between. Should we, in fact, include the connections for towing cargo containers. The difference between towed cargo containers, and built in cargo sections of a space craft lay in the fact that the latter would contain air at normal atmospheric pressure while the towed containers did not. The would-be colonists were transported to the Federation Embassy in New York. There they were interviewed by Kerl's staff. Once Kerl's assistants had dealt with the initial stages of the would-be colonists applications, and interviews, they were housed until a large enough group had been assembled for transportation to our Holloman Base for training. Non-English speaking applicants were first given a course in speaking English. About half the applicants needed this treatment.

The educator units were working overtime. The emigrants were given the course in two sessions. The first module gave them Basic English, and the second gave them a good vocabulary equal to that of someone brought up speaking English. Just as I thought the pace of my life was easing, there was a call from Secundus. The Control Tower had retrieved the drone. The message, that the Seabees had sent, said that they had discovered a comparatively large amount of iridium, which, on Earth, is usually only found associated with asteroid strikes. The probable amount impressed Roas, and he was soon on the phone to inform Kerl. They decided that there was a need to increase the number off miners amongst the colonists. The would-be colonists were beginning to arrive at our Holloman Base. They were flown into the Alamogordo Regional Airport. From here the Air Force kindly bussed them to our Base for us. They were met by someone at the Colonists' Quarters block who allocated them rooms according to their family size, and then led them over to their own Mess which Chris Bollinger's men had added to our Base. There they were fed lunch, After which, they were taken up to an assembly room on the second floor. Once they had settled down; Roas, Looess, and I entered the room, and went to the stage area.

"I would like to welcome you all to the Holloman Space Service Base. I am Bill Axon. You will be spending your time here learning how things are to be done on Secundus. You will discover a number of differences, as we are attempting to bring it into line with how the worlds are run in the Federation of Worlds out there in space. At the same time, we will be assessing your suitability as colonists. Are there any questions, so far?" A hand shot up.

"Yes?"

"Didn't the interviews that we had with your representatives in New York assure us membership in the colony?"

"No. All that those interviews assured, was that you would be suitable for training, and that you would probably be suitable as colonists. The course that you are now on is to determine your actual suitability as well as to train you for life on Secundus. For example, we shall be looking to see how you might be able to engage in an additional occupation to better contribute to life on Secundus. Now, I should like to introduce to you, the two people who are running this course. On my Left is Looess, who is from the planet Filutia. On my right is Roas, who is from the planet Larse. I'll now leave you in their capable hands." From the colonists' Mess building, I walked back to my office. Kate looked up as I entered.

"George Morrison would like to speak with you. Shall I ring him?"

"Please do." I entered my office, and sat, looking at my phone. It rang.

"Hullo, George. What gives?"

"Ah, Bill. We shall have the first of your carrier craft ready in about ten days. When do you want to put it into commission?"

"Let me sort out the personnel, and I'll get back to you." We said our goodbyes, and I sat back in my chair thinking about who I could promote to command the first vessel of the carrier craft class. I also need to find a name for it. Thinking back over some notable civil sea vessels, the name 'Titanic' came to mind. No way! However that thought colored my thinking, and nothing else seemed to stand out, or fit. Then I wondered about famous people. After all, the Navy had named a lot of their ships after people. Now then, what people should I pick? With a flash of inspiration, I thought, why not name them after the Secretaries-General of the United Nations? There must have been quite a few of them. I looked it up on one of my favorite general knowledge web sites. Lo, and behold, I had a dilemma. There was someone appointed to act in the post before they elected the first Secretary-General. I tried the name on my tongue, and it sounded good. The first space carrier from Earth would be called the 'Gladwyn Jebb'. Back to the problem of command. Then It struck me, that Thomas Long would be suitable. I would go through our personnel files to confirm my feelings, but I thought that I'd found the commander of the 'Gladwyn Jebb'. Feeling a degree of satisfaction, I went to lunch, where I saw Lieutenant Long in the Mess.