WCGW Chpt 180

<<Previous Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
==Chapter 180 - What Could Go Wrong==
----
Inner End (Federated Commonwealth)
26th October, 3044
----
The prisoners had made their selections and the totals were surprising to most. Of the 343 prisoners, all of them had chosen Option Three. They were willing to earn their place among SaRI itself. Former Chu-i Michi Nogami delivered the totals to Major General David Mitchell. "That makes things fairly easy Cadet Nogami. I just created that rank, if and when you earn your spot, you will be given the rank of Lieutenant. Until that time, you will help create the work details and supervisors for your people." He waved someone over. "This is Chief Warrant Officer Harry Caldwell, he runs our maintenance and logistical side of the house. You will be reporting to him and help create the work details. Harry, this is Cadet Nagomi, show him what needs to be done and let's start putting them to work."
"Thank you, sir. We will not let you down." Cadet Michi Nagomi replied
-----
27th October, 3044
-----
"How are the probby's doing?" Major General Mitchell asked the following morning.
"Not bad. No problems so far, but I have also been keeping them to simple labor stuff. But they have been getting the jobs done fairly quickly. That Cadet Nagomi has chewed a few butts on a few of his people that were not working fast enough to suit him. Any word on how Adolfo's people voted?" Chief Warrant Officer Caldwell replied
"They are still talking it over. I gather most are okay with the idea, but there are a few holdouts against the idea. Either way, nothing changes until we get back to Thazi. Keep an eye out for any diamonds in the rough that we could polish up quicker." Major General Mitchell said
"I have my eye on a few, but mainly because they pay attention to details. It will be a while before I trust them with tools in their hands without a senior tech watching every move they make." Chief Warrant Officer Caldwell replied
"It has only been one day, I am not expecting miracles. How much more loading do we have to accomplish?" Major General Mitchell said
"Not much, most will be completed today on the salvage. Then I can start loading our equipment back up once you tell me who is going and who is staying for the first lift back to Thazi. Your talking just over a 2 month turn around. Closer to three months. A ton of trips at 10,000 people per trip." Chief Warrant Officer Caldwell replied
"I thought about packing as many as we could into the cargo bays but even 10,000 people would chew up 2,000 tons of supply per day. We cannot haul enough supplies for them. Not a 30 day trip." Major General Mitchell said
"What about a limited command circuit. Cut the actual transit time to a single day back to Thazi?" Chief Warrant Officer Caldwell replied
"But how many could we actually move that way?" Major General Mitchell asked
"On the Mammoth and Jumbo? Loaded to the gills? Figure 30 maybe 40,000 people. It would not leave any room for a problem though, it would have to go off without a hitch or people are going to die." Chief Warrant Officer Caldwell said
"That is what I came up with also. That is a risk I am not willing to take. The supply consumption is just too great for that many people. I know during the 4th SW invasion of the Capellan Confederation, the AFFS and even the Lyrans had converted quite a few cargo haulers with infantry bays to haul the thousands of garrison troops, and I am no expert by any means, but pretty sure that would take several months in a shipyard to accomplish that sort of refit." Major General Mitchell replied
"If this becomes a routine, might want to think about it sir. Sounds like a Zuniga problem." Chief Warrant Officer Caldwell said
----
<<Previous Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
180