“I need to make a trip into the structure,” Irene said to Ben. “We’ll be gone between eight and ten days. Will you be ok here? I’ll leave Alex and Sarah with you.”
“Sure, I’ll be fine. You don’t need to leave anyone to watch me,” Ben responded.
Ben was in the learning lab, making sure he remembered how to run the machines. He found out that Irene was planning on using the machines to teach the mandatory courses in reading, writing, math and history. Ben felt this was an area where he could help out, since he was taught by them himself as a child.
“Sarah is my best engineer and we still have a few minor changes to make. So it works out better if she stays. Alex is tier four. He can use the transportation system. I want to leave someone here that can just in case. Where we are going, Valin and Companion will be very useful as non-humans. I don’t think I can leave Todd behind if I tried and I want to take another woman with me, in case I pick up female students. I really need to get more women on my team. Although I’m not certain Valin is actually male or female. I mean technically, going by gametes, he is male, but he doesn’t have any of the same plumbing we do,” Irene commented.
Valin was an elf while Companion was a selkie. Elves didn’t have vocal chords. Instead they spoke by clicking and grinding their teeth together. This meant none of the humans knew what Valin’s true name was. Valin was how his translator ring translated it. Companion’s true name was So-La-Do. The selkie sang the notes at a high octave, but Companion recognized the same notes in a lower octave as his name too.
“Don’t tell me how you know that,” Ben said deadpanned.
“I put him in the medical scanner,” Irene responded. “I needed the scans to guide the autosurgeon.”
“Right,” Ben responded. He couldn’t resist teasing his sister.
“While I’m gone I’d like you to find a couple instructors from the villages. I don’t care what they want to teach. Whatever it is we can add it as an elective. Also I hope to come back with our first students, so it would be great if you could hire one or two residence supervisors, feel free to hire as many as ten. Do you think you can do that?”
“I can,” Ben answered. “Can Alex or Sarah drive me? I haven’t driven a cart in so long I am not certain I remember how.”
“They can both drive carts.” Irene responded. “I’ll tell Alex to take you anywhere you need to go. He can give you a refresher course too. Which reminds me, if you manage to hire young people, make sure you walk them through how to use the restroom. You would not believe what I caught Companion doing on his first trip out. In case you don’t know, the squat toilets in the public restrooms are for the selkie. It is a lot easier for them to use them.”
“When are you leaving?” Ben queried.
“We’ll go out first thing in the morning. I’ll take a larger cart and leave the maintenance cart for you,” Irene said “We’ll have a team meeting tonight after dinner. Feel free to say anything at the meeting. I hold them as much to get team members to talk to each other, than for me to talk to them. Sometimes people get stuck on part of the problem and can’t see around it. Someone coming in from the outside who isn’t aware of this blocker, will give an easy solution because they aren’t burdened by that prejudice. Sometimes you're reminded of that funny story the meat cutter told you five years ago, because the solution is in that story and your unconscious mind is trying to tell you.”
“Ok,” Ben replied, “but the meat cutter has no sense of humor.”
“I’m glad you’re here,” Irene said with a smile.
----------------------------------------
That evening dinner was a much more elaborate affair. Ben recognized the food items Todd or Irene purchased from different villages. The bread was still from the test batches Ben and Todd baked, but kept in the temperature and humidity controlled food storage of the Speedwell it was very close to fresh.
It was the first time Ben saw the entire group sit down together. Pairs of them were always off doing something else at meal times.
“I want to go to Chicago tomorrow,” Irene said to the team. “It remains the settlement with the longest travel time, so I want to get it out of the way first.”
“I didn’t give Chicago a preparation visit,” Valin warned.
“It doesn’t need one. I plan to offer schooling to the oldest residents of the orphanage. I also want to try to recruit instructors. I’ve noticed in the past that a lot of older or crippled crafters end up there,” Irene responded. “They can’t make enough money to survive in a square with the structure rents, but they can still get by in Chicago. Forty silver will pay the rent on a square apartment for the remainder of the year.”
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“Are we all going?” Todd asked.
“No, I’d like Sarah to stay and finish up the last of the engineering tasks. Ben is going to work on hiring a residence supervisor for the orphans. Alex, I'd like you to stay here too, just in case something happens and you need access to the transport system,” Irene explained.
“OK,” Alex responded.
“I’d also like you to work on writing a script for the school recruiters,” Irene said. “Something like what you said during the tour. Give the school’s name and how many students we will accept from the square and so forth.”
“You want me to write it down?” Alex asked, focusing on the word ‘writing’. He pulled a small paper binder and pen from one of the pockets of his uniform and started taking notes.
“Yes. Except for Seagrass, I’m thinking about having someone other than you act as the head recruiter. I can see a time in the future when we won’t be able to visit all the squares to gather students, so we should just begin that way. We can develop a method that is more consistent if it is all scripted.”
“Should we give a list of what the students should and should not bring along?” Companion asked. “If we aren’t there we can’t search the packs.”
“We can search the packs here,” Ellen commented. “We can store the extras without worrying about them disappearing.”
“That won’t help replace missing items or are we planning to provide items like on the trip?” Alex asked.
“At over a hundred students, I don’t think we can,” Ellen commented.
“I think student, minder and instructor lists would be helpful,” Irene said.
“Not everyone can read,” Ben warned.
“True,” Irene said. “We need to remember that. Alex, when you write the script for signing up a student make sure you include offering to read the student instructions to them. That should be in ‘the signing up a minder’ script too. I’m making it a requirement that instructors can read. If we get a really great candidate for an instructor who can't, we will revisit that decision.”
Alex was busy writing notes. He started asking a series of questions as a way to brainstorm ideas. He asked what each role might require and what was reasonable to request they bring with them. The questions were answered by numerous people around the table. Ben found himself answering a lot of them for people coming out of the villages.
When Alex asked how much time the students were going to have to prepare, Irene pulled out her own notebook where she scribbled down a rough schedule, starting with the trip to Chicago. This schedule was debated and refined.
“So it’s agreed we will make two passes,” Alex said. “On the first pass we tell the students they have a week to prepare and we get all employees to come with us at the end of the day. If they can’t make it, they’ll have another chance to come with the students.”
“That sounds right,” Irene responded. “When we get to the second pass we’ll need half the team here to receive the students. Actually someone with transport access will have to be here the whole time to catch the employees. I suppose we can all go until we get an employee, then one of us with transport access will have to come back here. After that we should agree upon a time period we send people in so the catcher doesn’t have to remain in the structure all the time.”
“Can you explain this transport system to me?” Ben asked. “Why do you have to have a catcher?”
“The system itself is something like an elevator,” Todd said. “Only it knocks the rider out for the trip. The control system in the structure hides it from anyone who hasn’t been approved, but the non-approved can still use it if they are guided. When a non-approved person is in the system they are blind, so an approved user has to push them in and guide them out.”
“I just had an interesting thought,” Sarah commented. “Control uses the nanobots in our eyes to blind us, but Ben doesn’t have any. I think that means he will see the transport room.”
“True,” Irene responded. “He also won’t see the interface since the nanobots draw it as an overlay on the stone. I don’t think the door will open for him either.” Irene looked thoughtful for a moment. “He may not be able to travel in it. Remember when we tried cargo alone and it just rolled back out? I’ve always suspected Control is using the nanobots in our blood to make us unconscious. If Ben can’t be knocked out he may just get rolled back out like cargo.”
“Does Ben need to travel to the squares?” Todd asked. Ben wanted to know the answer to that. He was feeling a little alarmed.
“I guess not,” Irene said. Ben could see she was thinking something else. He thought about the conversation so far.
“Did you want me to do the recruiting?” Ben asked. Irene smiled with delight.
“I was thinking that as a villager it would be appropriate for you to recruit inside the structure. You will use vocabulary and body language that is just different enough that everyone will sense that you represent an outside group,” Irene explained. “We can keep you safe in the entry area to the first transport room. From there you would be within the protection of a crystal the entire time. We just need to make sure people don’t bother you. One or two of us under camouflage should be able to handle that.” Ben fidgeted as he thought about it. He remembered deciding he would help this time after his conversation with Todd.
“I can do it,” Ben responded. “What do I have to do to get nanobots?”
“You just drink the water,” Irene said. “I’m curious about what you will see, so we will worry about that when we get back. Hopefully I can find someone in Chicago to help you with recruiting. If I can't, I'll talk Kai and Muriel into it. They haven’t been seen in many of the squares outside Home.” Irene turned to Alex. “When you write the scripts, go over them with Ben. Use his word choices when you can.”
“Will do,” Alex responded.