“Captain Jessup, Captain Farrow, and Alaris, thanks for meeting with me. I assume Rich sent you a memo?”
“We are apprised of the situation, Admiral.” Alaris responds via intercom.
“Great, so let us assume that we have a land-based Gateway on Astoria, all naval assets are available, and money is relatively free. What are our best options to transfer these camps to Astoria?” I query Alaris to display the camp information on the Navigation projector.
“Well, if we don’t keep them onboard for more than two days or so, Galilei can hold around ten thousand. Alaris maybe half that without shuttles, but Alaris’ true utility is the second Gateway. With the Shuttles able to pack in close to twenty and one cargo pod up to sixty for the short trip from land to Alaris, that’s 140 people per trip with negligible slowing, or 200 to still escape atmosphere in a reasonable time.” Jessup starts poking at the display, zooming out to show a planet view with Alaris stationed in low orbit. Then he does some calculations of a slower moving orbit relative to the surface and gets lost in some calculations.
“That puts our limit on shuttles and whether the gate can handle two inputs at the same time. For the shuttles, we can jam 40 shuttles into the two cargo bays if we stack them, but we need to leave enough around Alaris to unload Galilei as she will still be a useful way to ferry large quantities of people.
“So with thirty Navy shuttles, That’s roughly ten thousand an hour if we run people ragged, or six thousand if we plan for it being hard like herding cats. Moving around 60 thousand people a day . . . Astoria’s crooked nipples, that’s most of a month to transfer what’s already there.”
Ugh, my nipples aren’t crooked anymore, Farrow. I’m not going to say that out loud, especially since we’re in a humanitarian relief situation and my boobs are not germane to this conversation.
“We’ll get more at first with the flux from Bikini station, and if we can get the old Navy to help ferry folks to Bikini station, we could get a little more mileage from that gate.” I add.
“By my calculations, we will need their assistance in all cases. We simply do not have the personnel to manage organizing that many people let alone issuing medical assistance.” Alaris says, bringing a perspective I hadn’t even entertained.
“That also brings up the question of money. I’ll set up an account with ten million credits that you two will have access to for this response. Whatever you need, blankets to bandages. You know what? That’s only like three credits per person, make it 100 million.” Jessup whistles.
“I didn’t know the Empire was holding enough cash to be able to just toss away 100 million.”
“It isn’t. The Empire barely has enough to keep itself running. But I imagine after building enough housing and infrastructure for a million immigrants, I won’t be rich anymore either. At least it shouldn’t be as pricy per unit as Aelea or the Sector host were. A million tokens a piece they were.” I shake my head at the cost of those things, making me wonder why a city of ten thousand cost so damned much.
Katie put in infrastructure for sewage, water, and power to support 10 million people. Also, I am headed up to the bridge with schematics made from your meeting with the city planning enthusiasts.
Damn, Katie really was something else. Thanks Tessa, you’re the best.
I look up to some surprised-looking Captains. “Uh, do I have something on my face?”
“Sorry, you said a million tokens. That’s CE’s for the Exchange?” Jessup asks.
“Yep. I spent the GDP of the old US in a week. What I got for it was worth the money though. Imagine living without the Sector Host? It was also the most robust way to enable the transfer of goods and services to Earth.” I shrug. “Tessa is coming up to discuss infrastructure and city expansion, if you want to get started with mobilization, you don’t have to stick around for it.”
“Then I will take my leave, Admiral. Galilei is under minimal manning at the moment, and a recall of personnel and a storage of un-necessary furniture needs to be addressed.”
“I have a subterranean warehouse if you just want to pile it in the shuttle and maintenance bays and I can transfer it there. Cheaper than reclaiming and rebuilding.”
“I will do so, thank you Admiral.” He walks to the lift and teleports away.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Captain Farrow sits down in her chair on the bridge and starts whipping off messages and sorting through screens. I should do the same honestly. I pull up Aelea’s infrastructure map and see that there are multiple water and sewage plants spread around the plain that Aelea sits on and two more power stations that run parallel to the foothills to the Northeast. The plains and lowlands of the Southeast seem the best bet as the land begins to get thickly wooded and hilly to the Northwest. I put a tentative mark 10km or so to the Southeast, about 100 km from a broad cone of marshland that leads out to the Cotton Sea, Cottonport being on the southern end of that marshland about 100km further.
I’m looking at various prices for building styles when Tessa arrives on the bridge. It’s been a while since I’ve seen her so I’m mid hug when I realized I greeted her with a kiss too. Huh.
“Good to see you, Tessa. I trust it’s been a productive few days?”
“It has, it has been. I picked up those orders I flagged. And now, we’ll both be busy working infrastructure. I sent a message to the planners, and they’ll be happy to work with us once we pick a layout.”
“Hmm, if they can give me a rate of building . . . no, we’ll still have to build a quarter to half a million units just to give people time to breath.”
“Three days worth would be sufficient, but I understand that working our helpers half to death is frowned upon.” She smirks at me with that synth smile.
“That’s a roundabout way to say that us flesh bags are weak. In any case, I was thinking a spoke and wheel around a gateway commons? Maybe make every third wheel a parkway or something?”
“Hold that idea, Alaris, can you display what I’m sending you on the Nav table.”
“Yes Commander.” Alaris responds. I had forgotten I’d lumped Tessa in with Katie and Mel when I assigned permissions on this ship.
The display shows a mockup of a city for a quarter million people, mostly stacked on top of each other. The central gateway is surrounded by a pavilion and a wide road that splits off into various spokes. The road into town from Aelea is double-wide and unimpeded to the pavilion. The way through goes around a short row of administrative buildings before widening again and heading out of town. I have questions about that part.
The rest is spoke and wheel as discussed, but with a community feature on each wheel, but on different sections on each ring. That’s kind of fun. After five rings there’s a whole ring gap for “future development” and possible single family housing. Interesting idea, especially surrounded by high rise condos and apartments. After ten rings, the shape starts breaking down and the road to Aelea begins to be lined with tract housing developments smattered with lower-rise apartment complexes.
Aelea also sees some expanded ring features plussing the city up over 100 thousand capacity, with more buildings surrounding the Capitol district as well. To my surprise, this plan also expands to the foothills and to the wooded hills opposite of the Gateway town, each area supporting a pavilion or community park at the center and a spoke and wheel arrangement. The round at the foothills immediately seems like an area for bougie folk as the far side of the ring is stepped up into the hillside, likely sporting the best views of Aelea. If those two areas were as densely filled as the gateway area, this layout would house close to three million people. The current expansion plan on this readout is for 1.2 million people.
“Looks serviceable and expandable. Though I would like to add a temporary warehouse-like shelter behind the obstacle buildings on the far side of the gateway for triage and sorting.”
“Those ‘obstacle’ buildings are walk-through administration buildings and are intended to be removed or moved once the majority of this effort is completed.”
“Alright, I want to print it and ship it. Tell the planning hobbyists that I plan to build Penbroke in its entirety the way it is laid out and the first hub of each Aelean Heights, and the third borough which you can name. I will not be building the single family homes between Penbroke and Aelea.”
“Sounds reasonable. Should I add shielding arrays similar to what Katie installed?”
“Yes please.” She adds waypoint pilons along the roads and fixtures to buildings and city centers into the plan.
I take the plan, break it down into materials and estimated labor into the Exchange to get an estimate.
Service Cost Parts and Materials for Penbroke, Aelean Heights, and Vooselton: 1.5 Million CE Fabrication and Assembly for Penbroke, Aelean Heights, and Vooselton: 450 thousand CE Exchange Delivery Fee: 20 thousand CE (Waived) Furnishings, Landscaping, and Minor Structures 310 million AE Rush fabrication: 10 million AE Exchange Delivery Fee: 50 Million AE (Waived) Project Total: 1.95 Million CE, 370 Million AE
As soon as the total hits my brain, my eyes cross and my vision fades and somewhere in the back of my senses I realize I’m falling over right before I pass out completely.