Chapter 26

As time went by, it seemed that we weren’t making any headway. Morale started to become a problem. That’s when I started the status board. Anybody could access the display, and some of the public monitors displayed it all time. It was very simple, each division, section, and area of the ship was displayed. To the side of them was a color code. Green, yellow, and red. Red obviously meant that serious work needed to be done. Yellow meant that work was progressing but not yet finished. Green meant that they were ready for launch.

There was a celebration when the first major division changed to a green status. That’s when people really started getting motivated. The race for green status got so frenzied that I had to put the brakes on. I had to remind the division and section leaders that their status could slip back if their safety procedures weren’t followed. Injuries would be vigorously investigated. Penalties and punishments would follow. In a conference with the division chiefs, I solemnly informed them that any deaths from haste or ignoring safety rules could, and probably would, result in serious repercussions to them personally. Excuses wouldn’t be accepted.

I knew that my speech was effective when a lot of the green lights turned back to yellow. From then on, I knew that I was getting a better feel of our launch readiness.

A good reaction to the board was the early morning volunteers. It started with a few folks that had time on their hands. They would look at the board and find which areas were still in the yellow or red zones. Then they would show up at those divisions and volunteer their help. Usually, they were unable to do any technical work. But they were willing to do the menial, unskilled jobs. They were freeing skilled staff for more technical tasks.

It started small, just a few people, but as word circulated, it seemed to become a source of pride. Entire housing districts started competing to get their pet divisions from yellow to green. I again had to put the brakes on things. Reminding people that it was great what they were doing, but safety should be their first, last, and most important goals.

Some areas were always in the green. Of these, Security was the major area. I asked David about it one evening. “Sir, to tell you the truth, I won’t feel ready until we are well out to space and away from everything. But I keep our status at green so that people looking at it will feel safer. If they think Security is on the job, it takes one more worry off their minds.” I thought about it for a minute and agreed. From then on, I didn’t worry about David and Security.

That is until one morning, as I was getting ready for the day, the status board went nuts. Security and Human Resources switched to red. I had my personal status board set to sound an alarm when certain divisions went red. If Security went red, there was serious trouble.

As I was reaching for the phone to call David, it rang. David Barth was on the other side. “Sir, I’m assuming that you have seen the status board?”

“I sure have David, who’s attacking and where?”

“It’s not that immediate, Sir, but it is serious. If you could come to your ready room. I’m assembling the staff right now.”

My ready room had been converted to a command post for the preparations for departure. As that date approached, the need for a central command had become needed. April and I were spending an increasing amount of our days there.

When April and I came into the room, most of the command staff had already arrived. There were a few new faces also. David was on the phone and talking to someone. I noticed Gertrude Newsome to one side. She was waving me over.

“Captain, we’ve got a stowaway issue. David is coordinating his response and search teams right now.”

“Thanks, Gertrude.” I could see that David was finishing his call. “Ok Provost, what is the situation. I understand we might have some stowaways?”

“As usual, Sir, it’s a bit more involved than that. We have dealt with several stowaways over the months. This is something worse. As you know, we are in a recruiting phase right now. We are trying to fill understaffed areas with contracted civilians. Usually, we do security and background checks before they come aboard. The exceptions are if the area is a critical need area or the people contracting have been recommended and sponsored by a crewmember.”

“In those cases, we put the security and background checks on hold. Usually, until we have some free time for them this morning, our specialist that handles the checks came in early to clear some of his backlogs. He had three critical hires from the agricultural section that needed to be checked.”

I looked over to Arabella. She shrugged her shoulders. “Sorry Captain I haven’t requested anybody. Particularly on a critical basis. I usually have to turn people away.”

I looked over to Gertrude. “That isn’t all, Sir. The manpower request we got was on the computer. We normally don’t question these requests. Also, these three people had a high-level sponsor recommend them.”

“Who would that be, Gertie?”

“Susan Hanson, sir. She’s one of Emily Johnson’s aides.”

In unison, David Barth and one of his people repeated, “Susan Hanson?”

The entire room turned and looked at them. “I gather you two know her?” I asked.

Barth and his partner were looking at each other. “Yes, Sir, we know about her. This is Wayne Turner. He runs the background and security checks I was talking about. Just after you came aboard, Sir, his son had a run-in with her. For some reason, she had followed him home from work. But bolted and ran when Wayne approached her.”

“Lucky guy, why would a girl following a guy rate a security check?”

“Sir, my son Floyd was 14 at the time. He’s also developmentally challenged. At the time, I wasn’t aware of Aunty Johnson’s involvement. When I confirmed Ms. Hanson’s identity, I decided that because Floyd wasn’t hurt, I would just file a report. Then I forgot about it until now when Ms. Newsome mentioned her name.”

David spoke up, “We’re trying to locate Ms. Hanson. But we can’t find her. We checked her quarters, but they look like they’ve been abandoned for several months if not longer. We have checked the logs and haven’t found anything about her leaving the ship. But that isn’t the worst part.” he turned to Turner, “Wayne?”