Chapter 46

Excerpt from Alexander Harlow's Personal Journal. Year 4, Day 202, I.S.V Lacerate, E29

Okay, so apparently the Lacerate is staying the Lacerate... I went to Mark Clayworth with a few ideas for renaming her, and he flipped his lid. Apparently it's bad luck to rename a ship... I was vaguely aware of that, but I honestly didn't think a Royal Marine would care one wit about such things... I even said that to him and he said, and I quote, "Some traditions exist for a reason".

I dropped the subject, it's not that bad of a name, and well... he looked like he was going to punch me. Even with my enhancements he's one scary bugger when he wants to be. He did admit there is some procedure for doing it in a 'safe' way, but I lost interest around the time he started talking about digging out anything with the ship's old name in it.

He didn't object to changing the prefix thankfully, so now it's the I.S.V Lacerate.

Anyway on other subjects I had dinner with Melissa, President Row, last night, she's one hell of a smart woman, tough as nails too. I guess you need to be to make it to the oval office. We were talking about the reconstruction plans and somehow the conversation moved onto how Terra Prime's economy works.

I mentioned that we have a gold-backed currency and she was very surprised. I was a bit shocked myself when she asked why I was using such a 'primitive' economic model when I had a space fleet (she doesn't know our 'fleet' consists of a single stolen warship and a homebrew freighter) that could totally destroy it with a single asteroid mined off book. I shouldn't have been surprised, like I said stupid people don't make it to the oval office, even that big eared guy back home was as cunning as a shit-house rat.

I think I said too much, but I had to explain that I chose a gold backed currency, not because of any notions of economic stability, but because the majority of Terra Prime's population is from pre-industrial societies, they don't understand a lot of the nuances of modern economic theory (not that I understand it much myself) but they do understand gold.

Getting them to accept paper and electronic money was hard enough, even with their fanatical devotion, the only reason I managed it was by telling them they could take the notes into the 'mint' at anytime and get the equivalent of gold out. More than a few did so in the early days, before they got hooked on the sheer convenience of cash.

She accepted that it was a stop gap measure, and even suggested a few ways I could transition it to something less likely to fall apart when people figured out that they were on a virgin world and knew where all the gold was. She makes a good point, because the Ballarat goldfields are only a few hundred kilometers away from Endeavour, and those were very rich if I remember my history correctly.

Sigh. Now I need to start researching economics as well... Maybe she'll lend me one of her people? Might make things a lot easier.

Year 4, Day 207, Redoubt, E29 Universe

Alexander smiled softly as he took in the progress that had been made at the Redoubt shipyards. It had been less than a month since he'd set them up, but already the first ship was under construction. Oh it was a long way from being finished, with only part of the frame in place, but the droids worked tirelessly, that was their one great advantage.

Still he was proud of the ESRO team that was overseeing the project, one of the smaller docks was finished, that's were the first ship was being laid down, and more were being dug out and reinforced every day. That was one of the disadvantages of the Star Wars robots, they were highly specialised and couldn't be repurposed without major modifications, unlike human workers who could switch jobs with training. The diggers and miners would always be diggers and miners, so why not keep them working on their little projects. He was honestly shocked at the large amounts of processed metals that were stashed away in little earthen sheds.

The entire shipyard complex was huge, covering almost three square kilometers, most of the 'docks' were little more than huge holes dug into the ground, slowly being reinforced with metal supports. The complex was laid out in a grid pattern, with a workshop next to each dock, it's size depending on it's corresponding parent dock. The workshops were mostly made of the local earth, but they weren't mud huts, rather nice inside actually Alexander thought. Most were empty, waiting for Alexander to start shipping the tools that were waiting in warehouses in the Star Wars universe. He really needed to make time to start moving the equipment, but it seemed every time he finished one job another three cropped up. There was also a large office/living complex that was mostly empty, again made out of local materials, waiting for inhabitants to bring them to life.

Alexander shook his head and turned back to the head of the ESRO team, "Sorry, got distracted, you were saying Mike?"

"I said, the first bird should be done in about three months Boss" Mike Harris, a gangly young man from the Zombieland universe, said. Harris had trained as a shipwright on the River Clyde building ships for the Royal Navy. He hadn't been very senior prior to the death of his world, but he'd proven himself during the construction of the I.S.V Foundation and been Alexander's first choice to head up the Redoubt operation.

"That quick?" Alexander asked glancing at the people scurrying all around. That was the main reason for his trip, one he'd informed the E29 world leaders of his plans to hand off the shipyard they'd wasted little time in putting together a team to take over. The first transit was a mix of people from the U.S Navy Seabees and their Russian counterparts. A little over seventy people, in the coming days he'd be moving more and more people and equipment to provide for their long term occupation of Redoubt. It was one of the main reasons he'd chosen a habitable, if such a word could apply to the planet, world. Unfortunately the more people he transited the longer it would be before he could move the Lacerate back to Terra Prime, each transit, even the small single person hops he did to move around, adding to the cooldown before he could safely perform a large jump

"Aye." Mike said in his Scottish brogue, "I was a touch surprised myself, but these droids of yours make short work of the heavy parts. The main delay will be in the internals. That will come down to good old fashioned human hands."

"Still, you've done good work here Mike" Alexander said.

"You picked out a name for her Boss?" Mike asked, ignoring the praise in his typical fashion.

Alexander shook his head, "No, I'll leave that to the locals, it's going to be their ship after all"

"We saw the pictures of what those maggots did to E29 Boss, I'm sorry we couldn't have anything ready for them." Mike said with a scowl.

"Not your fault Mike," Alexander said softly, "I should have set something like this up when we first heard about the Kromaggs interest in this place." The Australian shook his head, "I just didn't think it through"

"Well" Mike said awkwardly, before changing the subject "These new boys should make things easier, more hands for the fine detail work and all that"

Alexander nodded, "Just don't let their officers push you around Mike, until the official hand over, you're in charge"

"No fear Boss" Mike said firmly.

***

Half an hour later Alexander was watching a bunch of American sailors and their Russian counterparts assembling a communications room, though he was puzzled at what they needed it for. It wasn't like they could call home on their gear, it would take sixty years to get a reply, even if they could get a clear signal out; no, they'd have to rely on the onsite Star Wars hypercomms and the Lacerate to speak to their governments. He didn't say anything though. 'Let them have their gadgets' He thought with a mental smirk, 'It's not like we can't read their mail'.

"At least we won't have to sleep outside" The American naval Captain in charge, Eric Swanston, said. Alexander thought he looked like the embodiment of a hollywood casting call for a grizzled naval officer. Tall, lanky, weathered face, and short salt and pepper hair, the only thing he was missing was a corncob pipe.

"Aye, it's a beastly climate." Mike Harris said from his position next to Alexander.

Alexander shrugged, "It was the closest world I could find with a breathable atmosphere and the right mineral deposits in close proximity to each other on short notice"

"There are other livable worlds near our Earth?" Swanston asked incredulously, drawing the attention of the people assembling the gear, but a quick glare for the officer sent them back to work.

Alexander shrugged again, "Yeah a few, the best is about fourteen light years from Earth, and about fifty from here. But it's got some nasty local lifeforms, it's in a megafauna stage of it's development, this place isn't great, but you don't have to worry about something eating you"

"When you say megafauna...?" Swanston trailed off.

"Dinosaurs, yes" Alexander said with a grin. It was true actually, it had been the first world LVIOS had identified when he'd been scanning for a location for Redoubt, but after he'd seen an eight legged monstrous beast that could have swallowed a minivan in one gulp he'd decided it was best to keep looking.

"First killer apes from dimension X, now dinosaurs." Swanston shook his head, "Hell of a time to be alive"

Alexander grinned, "So, Captain, what do you think of our little setup?"

Swanston sobered quickly, "It's impressive, even more impressive that you've managed to do so much in only a month"

"Twenty nine days" Mike interjected.

The Captain dipped his head in acknowledgement, "When I was first told about it, I was expecting... well I don't know, but it wasn't this... It's one hell of a good start, once we get more people here..." He trailed off, looking at Alexander hopefully.

"I'll be bringing another group tomorrow, but be careful about expanding your operations too much" Alexander warned. "At least until you've got your own logistics train, you can breath the air, but you can't eat the local food, and I'm not going to be available 24/7 to play delivery boy."

Swanston winced and shook his head, "You're right, I forgot about that for a moment" He brightened up, "I don't suppose you have any freighter designs?" He asked, turning to face Mike.

Year 4, Day 209, Endeavour, Terra Prime

Alexander sipped at a glass of beer as he watched the television above the bar. As he drank he considered that maybe the historians were right, maybe beer was the reason humans had started farming. One of the first local businesses that opened up after Endeavour started growing it's own food had been a brewery, and they were getting better all the time.

The bar itself was packed with maybe thirty customers, mostly men, though Alexander had gotten a good seat, right near the taps and the TV, and he was a regular enough visitor that only the occasional person gave him a second look.

"In related news," The newscaster was saying on the television above the bar, "Lord Alexander has returned from Earth 29 bringing word from our forces stationed there. In a brief statement this afternoon, he said they were all alive and well, and that electronic mail would be entered into the datanetwork shortly..."

Alexander turned away as the television started showing scenes of destruction and death. Matt was doing a great job making sure that there was something about the devastation the Kromaggs were responsible on every nightly broadcast, and it made sense from a PR standpoint, if he wanted to keep his people in favour of the war he needed them to know what their enemies were doing. But he didn't want to watch it.

"We turn now to sport" The newscaster said, startling Alexander out of his dark thoughts, "the hotly anticipated cricket match between the East Endeavour Eagles and the South Endeavour Swans started with the Swans winning the toss..."

Alexander sipped his beer. Really there were times when a bloke just needed to kick back in a pub and watch the cricket on the telly. He had a few hours before he was due to pick up the supplies needed for the Lacerate, he could afford to relax a little.