Wilson Port, Tewanta - 3306-12-20 17:45 GST
Irene Butler finished reading the newly arrived requisition order and walked from her desk to the door of her office. See scanned the factory floor outside, saw the floor supervisor, Mick Kelly, and beckoned him over. She was back in her seat before the man arrived. He was in his late forties, like her, with bushy red hair and beard, and a ready smile. He was tall and lean, and wore stained overalls with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows. There were small scars on his arms and knuckles, the marks of many brawls in his younger days.
"Hey Mick. We just had a big order come in. Pull up a seat and tell me what you think."
Mick grabbed a chair with one hand, swung it round behind Irene's desk and sat on it. He scanned the requisition order and whistled his surprise.
"Frakking hells! One hundred and twenty ship launched fighter assembly packages to be delivered, this week, to BPFC: The Buur's Cave. What are they doing with those?", asked Mick.
"According to the license clearance attached to the requisition, they are to replace stock destroyed in a live fire training exerise that The Buur Pit CMDRs carried out yesterday, lead by CMDR Buur, CMDR Yaga Shura, and CMDR Atlas Farron. They are assisting the Buurian Protectorate with a war in Ao Qin, and this was their way of preparing for the last push. Apparently, fighting has been fierce.", Irene replied.
"I guess that's fair. The Protectorate needs to extend its influence, otherwise some dictatorial assholes will roll in and occupy Tewanta again."
"So, who can we put on this? Are Alan or Hafez free?"
"No. They have started working on an order of skimmer components. They be busy for all of next week. In addition, they are using production line five."
"Ah frak! That makes things tricky. We need both heavy lifter robotics for the engine parts, power plants, & weapons assemblies, and electronics assemblers for the control electronics & the package's own parts dispensing system. Could we cobble a makeshift line together by using production line two for the heavy stuff and line three for the electronics?"
"Possibly, but it would be inefficient. It would impede the flow of material around the factory floor and put our other orders at risk. Besides we wouldn't have t he integrated quality assurance equipment to ensure the package dispensing system worked properly. Any chance we could deliver in two weeks time?"
"Maybe. CMDR Buur is genial enough. However, it is my experience that millionaires and billionaires aren't the most patient of people."
There was an awkward pause as the two of them considered their options.
"We could finish setting up production line six. That could handle the order easily.", Mick suggested.
"How, Mick? All our qualified engineers are busy."
"We could get Tarik to do it."
"The apprentice?"
"Yeah."
"It's a bit too complex a task for an apprentice, don't you think? Some custom electronics for the assembly robots, networking, programming of the assembly patterns, and all the error handling code that'll be needed. And then there's the QA system: these packages have very high specifications: everything has to work flawlessly with them even when the ship containing them is taking damage."
"Tarik can do that."
"He's an apprentice."
"But he's really good."
Irene leaned back in her chair and folded her arms. "So why is he an apprentice?", she asked.
Mick took a deep breath before answering. "Okay. Promise me you'll hear me out before you get mad."
Irene pursed her lips and replied, "I'm listening."
"Tarik wanted to stay off the official payroll. He needs to lie low for a few weeks, and ..."
"What?", screamed Irene. "Lie low?"
"Don't worry. He's not in trouble with the Sissies. I got some of my old contacts to check that out for me."
Irene winced internally at the nickname for System Security Forces, but said nothing: an old resistance fighter could only be reformed so far. "So who is he hiding from?"
"He's a good kid. He just fell in with a gang of station rats out at Armstrong Square. He was doing some custom and grey market electronics mods for the rich brats there and his skills came to the attention of some more serious criminals. The kid said he got scared and wanted out. He just needed a place to stay and some work to pay for food for a few weeks. He is staying with Fergal."
"How does Fergal know him?"
"Apparently, Tarik used to act as a messenger for the resistance, from time to time. He was good at it too. He had a knack for dodging past security cameras: in particular finding malfunctioning ones. Something to do with heat, Fergal said. He learned to hack some of them, too. There's probably nobody that knows more about the station security cameras than Tarik."
"Okay. So he's a friend of Fergal and helped the resistance against the Official Tewanta Order. But he has criminal ties: why should he be our problem?"
Mick smiled at her and said, "Everyone deserves someone who will give them a second chance, don't you think? Sometimes they turn out to be just who you need."
Irene relaxed, uncrossed her arms, and smiled back. "Yeah, you're right. I do hope this won't bite us, though."
"We'll be fine. Armstrong Square is the other side of the docking bays and the heavies from there won't have a hope of tracking him here. The kid has been clever and is keeping a very low profile. Aside from the apprentices' database he hasn't left a trace, and that is pretty secure. The Protectorate take the privacy of teenagers pretty seriously."
"Okay. Are you sure he can get the line set up?"
"Absolutely!"
"Then get him to work straight away. We have an order to fulfill."