The spaceport of Houston bustled with activity, freighters and snub craft heading to or from the docking rings, as well as atmospheric vehicles shuttling people and supplies between those larger craft attached to the orbital mooring fixtures. One of those shuttles carried Simon Aldwyn, Executive Officer of the Bretonian Merchant Navy and his party from the Hampshire to his meeting with Mr Tukker of the Tinker and Transport Board of Trustees.
Checking his reflection in one of the shuttle’s windows and noting not a hair out of place, Simon stepped out onto the landing pad. Following him down, the considerably scruffier-looking Anthony Baines suppressed a chuckle. A native of Leeds, and one of Simon’s closest friends, Simon had deemed it prudent to bring someone who would not only honestly assess the conditions into which they would be re-planting the evacuees, but who also would not try to tell him only what he wanted to hear.
Anthony leaned closer to Simon and smirked, “’Ee’s workin’ class, Sy. I’m sure ‘ee don’t care if yer ‘air ain’t regulation length.”
Simon turned his head slightly and responded in a low voice, “Firstly, one should take pride in one’s appearance, whoever one is to meet, and secondly, would you please try and keep it formal while we’re here? You do, supposedly, work for me, remember?”
Anthony snorted, straightened up and gave a mock salute “aye, aye, lieutenant Commander, sah!”
Following the two friends out of the shuttle was Simon’s personal assistant, Julia Compton. She chuckled to herself, overhearing the men in front arguing over appearance and protocol, then busied herself with the more important matters at hand, motioning Simon’s guards forward and checking that their porters had stowed all their luggage in the taxi waiting nearby.
Satisfied that all was in order, she handed a credit chip to the final member of Simon’s entourage, his butler, and one of the many servants employed by his father, James. Getting into the vehicle, the butler and the luggage sped off towards the most upscale hotel Julia had been able to find within reasonable distance of the spaceport.
Walking over to the edge of the landing area, Simon took a deep breath of the hot, arid air. “Bit different from yer usual ‘aunts, eh?” Anthony observed. Simon, more used to the temperate Cambridge atmosphere, licked his lips and mopped his brow with his handkerchief, “I’ll say. Though I’d imagine it’s not anything you’re not used to, Anthony?”
“Aye, we got far worse ‘n this back ‘ome. Let’s jus’ ‘ope their ‘ousin’ is as nice,” he squinted up at the sun, then nudged Simon’s elbow and pointed, “’Ey, ain’t that our ‘ost’s ride comin’ in?” Looking to where his friend was pointing, Simon could just make out a Pelican approaching the spaceport. Making some final adjustments to his attire, he checked that everyone in his party was assembled and prepared to meet Mr Tukker in person.
A Master Porter from the Space Port staff had prooven to be a valuable and easily bought asset, and Tukker was happy that he had thought about bribing him repeatedly, so the whole arrangement for transportation and clearance took no more toll that the bureaucracy at Houstons biggest landing space - and only civilian one so far - usually did.
So it was not long after the guests had assembled at the landing pad that the Haven´s Pinnace landed and opend it´s boarding entry, the large engine exhausts still cooling down with the characteristic crackling sound.
Even if the armoured personal transport did not look special on the outside the staircase of the entry ramp showd first signs of luxury and high quality materials, and the stewart who appeared at the airlock was decently clothed in a slightly bretonian, but also cosmopolitic style. And behind him a lean, elegantly clothed man appeared at the top of the staircase and continued to descend towards the waiting Merchant Navy members without any hesitation, followed by a somewhat stocky , thickset man with an earnest face and alert eyes.
Soon Phileas Tukker was shaking hands and exchanging friendly greetings with the group of officers,
while the companion he had interduced as McKannon cept a little to the back and tried not to look like a bodyguard.
A small group ot crewmen had exited the Pelican and was ceeping close to the group,
screening them from the rest of the space port.
Welcome to Houston, Gentlemen.
I am Phileas Ottobert Tukker, Prime Secretary for the shareholdership and trust holding that is the financial background of our operations.
And please do not be concerned because of the precautions.
Mr. McKannon here is an old and trusted friend of mine, and as we have registered more than the usual Xeno activity in Texas in the last week he has insisted on some funtamental security during this meeting.
I hope it will not ne needed, but we like to be prepared and I am sure you agree.
Gesturing towards the Pelikan and a large groundcar that stood ready near a sideway entrance at the landing area Tukker continued to explain the planned tour and options for the day
I have prepared some refreshments and some interesting plans and figures,
and we have time for a roundtrip tour or some stops in between, as you wish.
One stop will be our current planetside offices here at Houston.
Not far from here, actually, and I have arranged for a comfortable transportation.
Or if you wish do get all flying done with, I suggest we might take my Pinnace and fly over to the Galena Fields, about 60 miles from here... libertonian miles, that is. You can take a look at the area we plan to purchase soon , and use the trip to look at Jacinto City and our compound there from the air. We would return here in about two to three hours, get some rest and perhaps a chance to refresh yourself at your lodging before we would continue at the offices at Jacinto City afterwards. Ground car transportation is arranged.
Smiling he looked around, judging the reactions of his guests.
Gentlemen, I do hope you will stay long enough to meet some of our investors and shareholders at the "five houses" , a very fine restaurant belonging to one of our Board members. We have the entire upper floor reserved for us tonight, and the cooking is excellent. And if you wish to take a look at the crew lodgings, planetside storage and training areas and our main community house there is enough time to do so tomorrow.
Currently there are about 30 families and some single crewmembers on free shift at houston, and we do tend to plan accordingly.
White teeth flashed in a broad grin as he pointed at the crewmen guarding the landing area.
We have made the experience that our crews react with laudable loyality and motivation if we care properly for them and their families, and as we do not ceep our policies a secret we get enough applications from Houston personell and Junker communities alike. If you want to look around and see how they live, or even if you want to join in for a small jaunt over to Puerto Rico, the Haven or one of the near bases it can be arranged without much fuzz.
But I might want to describe our internal command structure first, as I suppose it might be confusing to you.
You see... we have three major departments :
The trade fleet including some members from the SRO, the scrapping crews including the mechanics,
and the medical staff from the Memorial Clinic. All three departments have their own overhead and rankings, and if you see no uniform but only a wide variety of personel clothing style you will nevertheless notice that all carry at least one small logo button : The borderwork embroidery is set in copper, silver or gold. Copper is a junior member... normal crew if you so like.
Silver is either a specialist or a mate with responsibility, like a docking officer at the Haven, or the Pilot of one of the Ambulances. And Gold embroidery signals a senior member with responsibility, like an officer, a surgeon at the Haven, or a Skipper with his own crew. There is no further rank , only internal organisation structure that is not immediately shown by the badge.
And a lot of our Skippers are the owners of their crafts, not simple employees.
Again he gestured at the crewmembers around them, while some of them grinned and showed their buttons. Some worn openly, some carried more decently.
One or two coppers, the rest silver but for one middle aged Junker proudly showing three buttons : A bronze medical badge, a silver Trade fleet button and a golden Scrapper badge.
That is all you need to know to see who you can ask or who is carrying the responsibility at any given moment. It might seem very different from military rank and authority, but it works well. And all who carry the Tinker´s signs know that you are our guests.
So all you need to do is ask.
Well, gentlemen, I hope I have covered the most questions popping up, and so I greet you again.
Welcome to Planetside, as we call it.
Simon accepted Tukker’s greeting somewhat coldly, and curtly introduced his travelling companions, “Pleased to meet you, Mr Tukker. This is my assistant, Miss Compton, and my associate Mr Baines, formerly of Leeds.” Anthony warmly, and rather firmly, grasped the Libertonian’s outstretched hand and shook it vigorously up and down, “Pleased ta meetcha, mistah. If ya’ll excuse the Lieutenant Commander, ‘ere, ‘ee can be a bit…” he trailed off as he caught Simon’s withering glare, then pulled himself together, “Well, I look forward to seein’ ya facilities.” Julia nodded in response to Tukker’s greeting and silently and swiftly shook his hand, before returning to doing something on her datapad.
Simon nodded as Tukker explained the security arrangements, and gestured towards the two Bretonian Marines, both in full combat gear, “I had similar concerns, so brought my own security. I hope you have no objections to them accompanying us?”
Simon listened carefully as Tukker outlined his proposed itinerary and explained the hierarchy of his organisation, nodding or muttering some non-committal response at the appropriate moments. When he had finished, Simon said, “Well, we are your guests, so you should show us around in the manner you believe most appropriate. I would, however, prefer it if we could take our time inspecting the facilities you have set up to receive refugees. I am sure Mr Baines would like to thoroughly inspect the accommodations.”
As the party moved off towards the Pelican, Simon positioned himself next to the Libertonian and began delving for information, “So, what precisely do you have in mind for the good people of Leeds that we intend to evacuate? Do you plan to run some kind of integration programme, or are you merely setting up a way station from whence they can be transferred to more suitable long term accommodation?”
Tukker stepped a little to the side to allow the rest of the group to pass him and the Lieutenant Commander while he paused for a short moment. Then he answered sincelery while looking Simon straight into the eyes .
I understand your question and your concerns, Lieutenant Commander. And you and your men will have full acess to our records including our files about every bretonian civilian who has passed through our rehab programs if you wish.
We ceep these files exactly for such research, as we want to avoid any slaver image. Also it is not unisual for families to get torn apart in the struggle for survival, and we help to enable reunions whereever possible.
He seemed to gather his words for a short moment, and then continued.
I will explain our future plans in detail while we circle the area we have picked for our construction site and Mr. McScrap can aid you with detailed information on the current problems at the Haven itself. And believe me, if you get about 2500 to 5000 civilians to disembark at a space station while they are still in shock from the evacuation sites at leeds you need much more space than we can currently offer at the Haven. Doc Nagger can show you detailed figures on the medical triage we have had to implement for these situations, and we would have brought then directly to Houston if our work here were already fully licenced by Houston Authorities. To be frank with you : we do not have enough space at the moment to already offer the long term care needed to as much refugees as we could transport, and we know how many civilians are waiting at the evacuation sites at Leeds for a shuttle to take them. I have heared they call it the Haven lottery.
Tukker pointed around them to the faraway landscape of Houston.
Some fear we want to deportate them to the work camps here at Houston and sell them to GMG as slaves afterwards; but most see our offer as what it is. We currently have to be careful to warn our Ambulance Skippers not to accept any bribes whatsoever, and not to take more passangers per flight as is safe.
But we offer no free service , even if the refugee himself must not pay anything to board.
We are funded by a philanthropic help trust, and so we can operate on a strictly efficient and cost-neutral bias, but we have a security bond set calculated for the costs it takes to transport, rehabilitate and relocate our patients.
And the patient has full control of his own future.
Pointing at the towers and houses of Jacinto city near the spaceport he continued to talk :
Not surprisingly most refugees at the moment feel no desire to return to Bretonia, as the patriotic or at least not too war - weary of them never leaves the planet Leeds but opt to join the brave resistance troops there. And I salute these men. Quite a few of them however offer us funds to ensure the safe future of their families while taking care to evacuate these entirely. And so we offer training like language lessons or cultural integration courses as well as trauma therapy or mere physical and physiological rehabilitation.
And we welcome that the Authorities of her souvereign Majesty Queen Carina have now sent you here, as we would bid you set up your own office her, for repatriation efforts, relocation control, legal and financial support for those who wish to be repatriated to bretonian space and perhaps even recrutation efforts.
Now a shine entered Tukkers eyes, he was clearly now describing a dream that he was pursuing with zeal.
Let me get this straight to a point, Sir, as I will show you the figures, the plans and scetches and all the riffraff of long term project management later : Of course we earn money with this, but we have managed to set up an operation that can support us, our ideals and our econiomic principles without compromising our morals. And the rehabilitation and refugee relief project is worth more than it´s earned credits to us. It is a broad scale economical boost to Hudson and Texas, and it is very good PR for us here at Tinker and Transport.
And we can afford to let you relocate and repatriate the refugees back to bretonian space for a stricktly self sufficient cost cap, if you choose to repatriate them yourselves. If not, transportation can be arranged for a fair price.
All other costs are either met through the carefully invested and used trust funds, or are met by offering those patients who do not wish to return to their old home the training, support and transportation they will need to be able to freely choose a new place to settle. And we do not only recieve patients from Leeds.
Tukker looked back at the BAF Officer, his eyes and face as earnest and cool as those of his guest.
I suggest you look at everything and check and countercheck our figures as thoroughly as you want. You will be able to question any patient freely in an open setting if you want, too. But please realise : I know exactly what I am talking about as I share the experiences of our patients. I might have had the luck to be an adult and an experienced skipper of a Borderworld Transport at the time the gallic wave swept in through the Taus, but I know very well how disruptive such an experience can be.
We will support any official effort by Bretonia to recruit or repatriate as much of our patients as possible, but we will also continue to offer them other opportunities and allow them to freely choose their port of destination.
Now Tukker smiled again, even though his demaneor still showed some reserve.
I think you will find that although nearly all our patients wish to return to Bretonia they also quickly realise that in the aftermath of the current wars trained and well supported settlers or workers are sought after, and the job offers that come from libertonian, rheinland or even kusarian corporations tend to be interesting at least.
I suggest you take a look at btheir offers too, and thoroughly. Because it is not the cooperation with the Haven Memorial Clinic and our rehabilitation programs that will decide where your fellow bretonian civilians will chose to live in the future, but the competition with the offers sent by the other major hiouses or corporate structures.
Tukker gestured to the two Marines standing behind Lieutenant Commander Simon and himself, as all others had entered the Pelican already.
And on a last word and advice : Even though I also greet the presence of your combat specialists, as we have our own enemies and problems arrising from the well known fact that we fully cooperate with several Junker families and groups,
I do want to point out that the presence of a combat armour tends to intimidate civilian personel that has just seen their whole world dissapear beneath fire and ashes. I advise caution, as some of these refugees shy away from violence more than from the unknown difficulties of foreign cultures. We are working to offer them a oportunity to shed these fears and ancieties before we are forced to let them leave so they may choose wisely, but we do not choose for them.
Simon climbed up into the Pelican and took the seat which Anthony had saved for him. Sitting back, he collected his thoughts and mentally went over the points Tukker had laid out for him. Leaning across his friend, he took Julia’s datapad and hastily typed in some notes of his own. As he returned to his seat and the ship lifted off, Anthony leaned in closer and whispered in his friend’s ear “’Ee’s quite fond o’ ‘is own voice, that one, eh?” Simon sighed inaudibly and elbowed the large man back to an upright position. He hoped that his friend’s crudeness would not impact on the negotiations.
The lieutenant Commander leaned forward and addressed Tukker, “Perhaps we can visit the location you intend to house our people in first? I am sure Mr Baines would love to start his inspection as soon as possible. In fact, I think we can leave him to it whilst you show me the rest of your operation.”
Well then Gentlemen, we shall start your tour by a flyby swing over the area we wish to purchase permanently from the LPI Authorities at Houston. It´s not much to see there jet, as we have not started any construction there. But as it is only about 5 flight minutes from here we will let you see the area in it´s raw state first. Please do tell the Stewart if you wish anything while I just inform the Skipper and Mr. McScrap at the Haven.
Phileas Tukker left for the front cabin of the Pelican while the excellently trained staff of the Pinnace started to serve the guests wishes.
The Junker wearing the three Tinkers buttons settled down near Miss Compton and smiled at her before curiously inspecting the heavy combat armour of the Marine in the next seat and turning to ask a question about the life support cycle of the suit while the rest of the crewmen from Tinkers seemed happy to seek a seat at the back of the cabin and settle down patiently.
Not long afterwards the transport´s engines started shuddering in start preperations and Mr. Tukker returned to the cabin carrying a small terminal.
We will start in a moment and reach the airspace above the Galena district in no time before we leave the planet to return to the Haven for your Inspection. I have had our Engineer prepare some scetches on how we imagine the area to look like after our construction and light terraforming and will show them while we circle over the area. If you wish to land at the district that will be no problem at all, but currently there is not much to see down there except our surveyour camp. A crew of 5 hired surveyours under our Chief Engineer Mr. Legionnes working at the completion of the paperwork we will send the planetary authorities soon for final transaction.
Before the ship set off, the young, red headed Dr. Nagger arrived. She wanted to be part of the inspection. After all, she was chief medical officer and had been elected to an official position within Tinker & Transport.
She had heard a lot about Jacinto City and wanted a better look at it.
"Excuse me," she smiled, "but the chief medical officer wishes to see things for herself."
She took a seat, smiled and jokingly said, "Carry on."
Anthony slumped back in his seat, apparently dozing off as the ship rose into the sky. Simon and Julia lent over his semi-conscious form, conferring in low voices.
Simon looked up as the doctor arrived, and nodded once in greeting, before settling back and folding his arms, eager to get on with the tour.
And so the Pelican started away from the Houston landing area, and while swinging eastwards towards their destination the drinks where served by the crew.
Soon the area designated as the most probable building site could be seen outside the windows while the ship circled in first high and then low altitude.
Tukker was still for a change, only responding to the occasional question as the barren land outside was scrutinized from above, contrasting sharply to the pictures displayed on each seperate notepad display before the guests:
Housing modules and communal center
Schooling, technical support, communications and market facilities
overall plan for layout
Also some other plans affixed by the personal ident code of Basti Legionnes started popping up on the screen, just being transferred to the databank :
Doreen sipped her wine that she accepted with a sweet smile. She was reviewing the plans for everything and looking out at what she could see. The proposed clinic made her smile grow. It was hard to believe in her mind that she would be heading the whole thing. She knew she had her work cut out for her.
Of course, from the outside it looked spectacular but she was interested in the internal layout....or was that something she would be consulted on?
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