“Technocracy, you say? That's very interesting. I used to work for them for a bit, delivering various goods for their construction needs in Inverness system. They... are interesting to say the least, not like most Sirians. I don't recall them being aggressive towards civilians. And they paid generously, not only with credits.”
Tommy shrugged
“But yes, if they changed their stance, then we should steer clear of them.”
"Yeah, it looks like it's a mess there, and I doubt they would go after every random civilian either, seems they took an issue with what Quantum does specificialy. Which in turn is the reason for my concern, because Quantum used the same materials we want to gather and sell."
He took another puff from the cigar, mostly to keep it alive, before he continued.
"Long story short, the plan is to mount expeditions into the so-called Earhart system, the source of these materials. The issue is the only way to access that system - at least to our knowledge - is through the use of a Jump Drive. The plan is to purchase or comission a Bustad, a carrier ship available on the civilian market, which is capable of using said Jump Drive. That alone is not an issue, even though it will be a significant investment, but what worries me is the fact that Bustard is rather large design, way larger than anything we usually use. Simply put, we currently don't have people to crew it, which is the main reason I made Lachlan to organise this little meeting."
"And because you know more about this particular situation than me," Finn noted, turning towars his brother, "I'll let you to explain this."
"How very thoughtfull of you, brother," Lachlan said dryly, while putting down his whisky glass, "but yes, I do know a little bit. I have read the specs of the ship and while it doesn't need nearly as much crew as a proper capital ship of a similar size, it still needs more crew, expecialy with the Jump Drive and the expanded medical facility we want to put in it, than any other ship any of you have used before."
He pulled up his terminal and quckly tapped on the screen, opening a file with notes. He clearly expected to be the one presenting this.
"I have asked around a bit and it looks like there are enough volunteers among our ranks down on New London who would be happy to leave the planet behind, for one reason or another, but the issue is none of them are spacers. They are eager, but inexperienced. We have hoped to secure training for them from some outside group, but those effors were a dead end, so we'll need to train them ourselves. The crux of our problem is in the amount of crew we'll need to train and in the fact we don't have any real experience with training people. My brother and I have some ideas, but we wanted to hear your opinions and ideas on this, before we decide how to approach thé situation."
He put down his tablet and picked up his whisky, a clear sign he said all he wanted and was now waiting to see if anyone else present wishes to speak.
Mel sat for a long moment as the Irregulars looked around at each other, unsure of who should venture a reply first. After putting her foot in her mouth so many times before, Mel was absolutely not eager to start the conversation.
There was also the fact that they were being presented with a strange and potentially lucrative opportunity, but to get there they needed to train more crew...
...more crew that would probably be getting their sea legs for the first time on their own ships.
Mel nibbled nervously on the lip of her whiskey glass a few times before finally responding to Lachlan's question.
"So we...um..." she paused, not wanting to offer up the Cadillac Ranch as a proving ground, but feeling there was no other choice. "We train them on our transports?"
She paused again, sighed, and then sat up more confidently.
"We train them on our transports. I mean, if we're out of options, then we ourselves as the Irregulars are our own best resource, right? I'm sure we won't want the training eating too much into company funds or distract from more.....high profile gigs. But I guess if there are more low-risk transport runs and such, we could being them along and show them the ropes?"
While Mel tries to explain to him the topic of brainworms, it is still not clear to him, but he also understands that this is not the right place to talk about it now. Then the other brother arrives, and very soon everything related to the previous topic is long gone in the back of his mind as he tries to focus on what Finn tells them.
The topic of Cape is not a secret among the people who are currently here; probably all of them shipped cargo there. But Vaako always thought about this base as a secret base, where they could store the less lawful shipments, and never thought that these brothers had something far more interesting and also more dangerous in their minds.
“Yes, I’ve heard about this drama on the holonet too. It is something that we have to try to avoid. These technocracy people look like the type who best to avoid if possible.”He agrees with the others that avoiding “The Technocracy” is a good way to avoid future problems.
He listens silently as the two brothers explain both parts of Earthart and how they want to get them there. Vaako sees that it's an opportunity that can bring them a fortune or cause them to suffer a very horrible death. But their business type is already about taking risks to gain money; now all they do is risk a little more than they usually do.
“Training them on our ship is a good idea. We can test them in a relatively safe environment where we can control the outcome. We can go with them on routes where they can be tested, and we can see if they are viable for this kind of work. After all, not everyone can accept to live long times on a ship between the stars, where only a little hull segment is what keeps you away from certain death.”
He talked a lot more than he wanted, but even this was not his full explanation. If they really do this, then later they can talk about it in a more detailed way. For now, he just sits silently, waiting for the others to respond, and in the meantime, he is drinking his sake.
MacRory brothers listen to the suggestions. When it's clear nobody else wants to speak they look at each and nod sligthly.
"That's pretty much what we came up," said Finn, "when it became clear nobody else will be willing to do so, though our idea was a bit more expansive. We have the yacht, Ben Nevis, mostly catching dust, except for the occasional crew rotation on Cape, so we figured we might use it for a kind of onboarding. It's already equipped to handle a lot more people then just the crew, so we figured we let Ash pick up volutneers, add a few of our more experienced spacers and put them through the basic motions. That way we can first filter out unsuitable people and teach everyone the basic routines. We could then distribute them among our crews and Ben Nevis could start all over with a fresh group. We can then take the new guys on progressively more riskier routes to more remote systems to see how they'll react. That could potentialy filter out those with weak nerves."
He puffed the cigar for a moment, sorting his though in the meantime.
"The tricky part will be transitioning from transports to the carrier, but I'm afraid we won't be able to come up with any tricks for that unfortunately. We'll simply need to fly the ship around in relatively safe space as long as necessary for people to get familliar with the ship's specifics."
Finn look at the others. "So, what do you think, people? The newbies will be on your ships too, so if you have reservations or ideas, I want to hear them."
“Good idea. My Pitbull train has a lot of free space for more crew, as it's understaffed by design, so to speak. Although some systems are vastly different on Pitbull and Bustard, namely weapons control and steering, I believe reactor, engines and other maintenance stuff is similar, so basic training can be conducted alongside to just getting used to space”
He made a few huffs from his electronic cigarette
“Although due to the nature of Zero Space, those who'll get appointed there will need to have strong spirit and not afraid of being out of the tradelane network.”
"Well, that's kind off the point of the whole idea. The Bustard - and we with it - will go to literal uncharted teritories. We want to filter out people too squeamish for such endeavour.
Mel listened attentively as Tommy and Vaako gave their own responses to the MacRory brothers. Relieved that she was not the only one offering ideas, and that her Texas mannerisms were no longer getting her in trouble, she chimed in again:
"It's not the same thing as uncharted space, but I've been workin' with our friends in Dublin a good bit lately," she pointed with a thumb in the direction that she thought the Dublin jump hole was in."Not quite as high risk as other things we do, but could give the new recruits a taste of blockade runnin', and see if they have the stomach for it."
Finn gave the others time to come up with suggestions and when it looked like noone else wanted to speak he put down his cigar once more.
"Well, I'm glad we're all in agreement here. We'll start rounding up the first volunteers and I'll tell Ash to put them through the initial paces on Ben Nevis. We'll let you know when they are ready for the training directly on your transports. I'd recommend starting them out on some boring legal routes, then slowly transition to the riskier ones. We don't want to scare them off, but we need to make sure they can handle the stress."
He took a swig of his whisky and nodded to himself.
"Anyone else has any business related thing to discuss? If not then I think we can call this consider this meeting closed and we can start properly enjoing the feast my brother arranged for us.
"Well, if that's it for now, I better shove off. Still got the kid keepin' the engines warm on the Cadillac. It was great meetin' y'all in person though!"
Mel stood to leave, tipped her whisky glass back one last time, and then set the glass on the table. All in all, not bad overall, she thought.
Only made an ass out of myself once.
As she was about to turn and leave, she noticed a steaming plate filled with round pieces of fried bread that smelled vaguely of seafood.
"Wait...did you actually get the new Synth-Paste takoyaki from Kyushu?" she asked eagerly.
Lachlan smiled his casual wry grin, and nodded. That was all the encouragement that Mel needed, and quickly grabbed two tooth picks, skewered two of the takoyaki, and popped one in her mouth before heading towards the entrance of the secluded meeting room.
"Catch y'all later!" she said, still munching on the takoyaki.
And with that she walked back towards the Cadillac Ranch, making sure to keep at least one eye on the cautious Galian, who she was sure was still watching her departure out of the corner of his eye.