BeyHop Chpt 37

==Beyond Hope- Chapter 37 - Operation: Crimson Shadow==
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===State of Prototypes===
Snark ShipyardBoojum OrbitalKowloon System, Federated Commonwealth3059
"...what do you need me to do?" Duchess Elizabeth Ngo anchored herself to the railing on Gantry 22. Below her, work crews were sliding the 42 section forward into place and tack-welding it prior to final joining.
Prototype 3 was still deeply unfinished.
"We're having a major problem with the subcontractors for the main guns, Duchess. Defiance Furillo has as much as said they're not going to make the May deadline for the A and X turrets, and 'other priorities' are keeping us from getting the specified AMS installations-most of those are already claimed by other programs."
“Note to self, main battery guns are long lead items that need to be procured in advance so we don’t hit delays. I’ll see where we might be able to find a way to get that back on track. When did Defiance tell you they weren't going to be able to fill their contract, we signed that thing in June of last year?"
"It came in the dispatches three days ago." Jameson Deen told her. "We've got the fittings, and no gun to put in it."
"Are those fittings anchored yet?" Liz asked.
"No, the 44 joint isn't until next week."
"Warehouse it." She said, "How are the structures for the 48 sections on Prototypes 4 and 5?"
"The fighter bays and VLS missiles? They're done, we could put them on tomorrow if the spines were finished."
"Get engineering on converting those to fill the 44 spaces, and recalculate life support plumbing to make sure it'll work with the expanded crew." Elizabeth decided, "We need ships going to the line yesterday, we've only sorted out this far today and the burden will be bigger tomorrow, but if there's one thing Helena's lectured me into the ground with, it's that carriers are useful for a lot of jobs, so Prototype 3 gets to be a carrier. Victor's navy needs Ships, and we need to be able to prove we can turn them out quickly and with good quality. One variable design out of the batch isn't going to break us."
“Yes, ma’am.”
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===Troubles with Prototypes===
It took Elizabeth several hours to recover from her latest bout of TDS before going to see Helena, and she still had red streaking in her eyes when she walked into Lady Drillson's offices in Hue.
"Helena, we need to talk." Liz said in a voice that carried 'too tired and sore to be patient'. "Prototype Three's going to have to be altered, it can't be the standardized form that prototypes one and two are-there's a physical reality limit we're running into."
“So you need me to work my magic to find the bits we need to get things back on track.” Helena stated
"Yep. I need you to find a decent Heavy and a decent Medium fighter design that can fit into the 48 section bays we designed for twenty-five ton Sabers." Liz stated, "Which means a Chip, being too wide, won't fit, and a Lucy, being too long doesn't fit, but it's got to be something in someone's inventory in the Commonwealth, preferably with a deep range of spares available off-the shelf, I made the call, Helena, we're turning Three into a light carrier model."
"That's really pushing your modular manufacturing scheme." Helena noted.
"Defiance Furillo's as much as tossed the contract in the shredder on the main guns, and on the AMS installations." Liz poured coffee. "They waited until last monday to tell our guys that they weren't going to be delivering the A and X turrets, OR the AMS."
“Ouch. Well as far as fighters I know the other half of the realm has Corsair production lines and I’m familiar with those a little. But I’ll shop around to get us the best deals.”
"I saw your students today too." Liz said, "the War College students. Gave the canned speech with Jane's help, so that's one you can scratch off your list of inconveniences."
“Thanks Liz. I do appreciate it. This being pregnant thing, uggh. I’m having a ‘I totally deserve the misery I’m in’ day today.”
"Well…I find a hot bath works pretty well. One with lots of mineral salts, there's a spring about six kilometers south of here that's nice and it's private-Evelynn's land."
“Mmmm. Now that does sound wonderful. Let’s see, I think I have an opening in my calendar sometime 3075.” Helena joked.
Liz laughed, "You've got openings in your calendar that soon? I am now officially envious, I've got a damned March Budget meeting this afternoon with eleven other dukes and all their hangers-on, and I don't get a break on today until A:30!" she said, referring to Kowloon's local 30 hour clock. "Arthur can't even comfort me, he's out at the Snark IV site advising the construction teams on the Lab."
“Yeah I think I have a whole five seconds that day. But more seriously if I can help I’m glad to. If one of those dukes or duchesses proves too ornery, send them my way and I’ll straighten them out.”
"That sounds like it's cheaper than bullets." Liz nodded. "I swear some of my noble peers would do with a few extra holes in them!" she rolled her eyes, "One right between their eyes, to open their damn minds!"
“That bad? No, of course it’s worse than that.” Helena shook her head.
"It's Budget meetings…and with Victor doing Star League Council stuff, Peter doesn't really have the…he's trying to be a light touch and keep things stable." Elizabeth's tone was sympathy, "but I'm only half-joking, I know of at least six Dukes, peers of the Realm, who've been shorting their Tax And Tithe and pocketing extra taxes, I just don't have the authority to have them removed."
“So I need to include Peter in my lectures and send him some books. There’s ‘light touch’ and there’s ‘hands off’ and it sounds like he’s strayed into the later category and that’s bad for someone in his position.”
"You handle Peter, and I'll…I don't know, I'll think of something nice-It's not that I don't like my in-laws, I adore them, but it's hard to get hard-nosed with Peter."
“Threaten your peers with sending them back to school.” Helena laughed.
'I'm going to be doing that anyway." Liz cracked. "Have to, we're re-vamping the Theatre Militias."
Helena reached into her desk drawer and produced a meter stick made of what looked to be wood.
“Evvie got this for me once I started guest lecturing at the University. Said it is for any misbehaving students.” Helena said flatly.
“You’ll need it to keep all those horny young studs off you.” Liz laughed. “You have a look on your face.”
“Just thinking about our earlier conversation about finding Aerospace fighters. Ultimately we’re going to have to re-design those bays so they can fit a wider range of fighters because while we want to standardize no one fighter will be able to do every job equally well. We’re going to need some variety in fighters and we’ll future proof ourselves a bit better too because then we won’t have to always be stuck looking at the same rough dimensions of ASF.”
“Now you’re sounding like the engineer guys.” Liz shook her head.
“Doesn’t make us wrong. Right now the production of fighters in the Federated Commonwealth are Seydlitz, Saber, Corsair, Lucifer, Chippewa, and Stuka. The Dagger and Eisenstrum programs look interesting and could help further reduce logistical headaches.”
Elizabeth looked pained at the mention of the Eisensturm. "I know, but it's Expensive..and I KNOW it's better. I even LIKE it, but…"
“I know and it won’t get cheaper if we don’t get economy of scale going.”
Elizabeth reached into her pocket. "Haranshire wants to buy tooling for a third and fourth line, it seems he can't deliver them fast enough to keep up with orders, which means wait times, which is bad because…" she sighed, "because you're right, and he's right, and we're going to pull fifty six billion Kroner off the contract…but he's smart, there's a non-compete clause."
“Something else to think about is maybe we should talk to some of our neighbors to establish satellite factories on their worlds. We could use the expansion of our own lines and if someone comes knocking all our eggs won’t be in one basket.”
"You're telling me things I want to do." Liz rubbed her temples, "Which is why I have to sit in that ****** budget meeting with six crooked imbeciles and five minor lords who can't afford it without loans."
“Want to borrow the meter stick?” Helena offered.
Liz gestured at her cane, currently leaning against the desk, "While your meter stick is less likely to break bones…" she sighed, "i just need to borrow some patience. Being clean has its downsides-i can't fog away the annoyance in a cloud of narcotics anymore, and sometimes feeling sucks."
“Yeah…” Helena nodded. “As much as I’m doing things now to actually confront my traumas I still have bad days and I feel them more now.”
"Do you know what my nightmare is, Helena? I'm a Mother, I have two wonderful children…I"m terrified all the time that I'll end up acting with them, like My mother did to me, I have nightmares about it, about losing control with Simon or Hannah and…"
“I won’t let you. Jane won’t let you. Evvie won’t let you. Daphne won’t let you. Friends aren’t there just to make us feel good about ourselves or to have fun with. The true ones also call us on our bullshit and let us know when we’re doing something we shouldn’t.” Helena shook her head. “So you don’t have to worry about that nightmare.”
'That doesn't stop me from being afraid, Helena." Liz said. "I KNOW I could lose it, could fall into the bottles, or the pills again. I found a half bottle of Ell-Dee, the stuff I was taking to deal with the emotional turmoil when I was dying….and I was this close.." she held her fingers a centimeter apart, "...this close, to taking a tab and washing all the feelings away in a cloud of suppressed emotional response."
“I know. I’m afraid all the time too. Especially about what if we’re already too far behind and entropy has already won and all we’re doing is delaying the inevitable or worse that what we’re doing will actually wind up accelerating the entropy. What I’d do with real power if I had it. I’m still angry too. Angrier than is probably good for a senior official. But I know you will be there for me just like I will be there for you. Doesn’t make the worries stop, just provides comfort that there is a check there. Someone that will help me pick up the pieces if I break again.”
“So we keep fighting the good fight. Showing others there is another option and even if we are just delaying the inevitable, we just might be pushing back far enough our children just might not have to worry about it in their lifetime.” Liz nodded.
“Almost makes you want to hop a Jumpship and go so deep and far into the unexplored areas of the Galaxy that no one will find us, doesn’t it?”
“But if we did that then we’d both be acting against who we really are.”
“Yeah. Yeah we would.” Helena admitted.
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===Influencing Partners to Cooperate===
"Mister Steigel, I don't believe Elizabeth Ngo has impugned your firm's goods, nor their quality…she simply has no faith whatsoever in your firm's Ethics." Theodore Kurita found himself amused by the complaint being advanced. "In a sense, her outspoken words do have some measure of observed synchronicity with many attitudes regarding companies known to work extensively, and at times, exclusively, with Comstar and Word of Blake in the past."
“Ethics? She defames us.”
"DID the Brewer Family have to bring in outside contractors to make up for extensive delays in the Hesperus and Furillo production line rebuilds? I seem to recall my mother, Archon Melissa Steiner, had to give them loans…" Victor mused aloud, "and something about cost overruns."
“I think a better question is where she has gotten all this tooling from and how she has managed to meet specifications being demanded, even before the recovery and distribution of the Helm core. Quite simply put she’s been holding out on us all.”
Victor winced. "That predates Elizabeth Ngo's existence, Ngo Enterprises has been a secret manufacturer-a secret that's been an open secret, for generations."
“Yet it is only recently that the wealth of technical knowledge that they have clearly been hoarding has begun to be shared. This fact post-dates Elizabeth taking over.”
"I think that can be chalked up to my mother's influence on her, to be honest." Victor recovered himself, "Particularly the period where she was in deep medical treatment. Cholmann's Syndrome was a death sentence and now, it's not. We've all had small advancements."
“Yet the point remains she accuses us of purposely delaying on delivery and canceling contracts on a whim.”
"Let's be specific here, the whim in question would be whichever Primus of Comstar…or Word of Blake…happens to be on Terra at the time, and that's not the nastiest thing she's said about your firm..or at least, implied." Theodore leaned forward over the table, "So, is this complaint going somewhere? I'll be explicit, that young woman sees your firm, as a front for Comstar's intelligence agencies, and the delays to the Federated Commonwealth’s RX-79's program are documented."
“Let us all be honest, who wouldn’t try and slip an agent into a team? But accusing us of being an outright front? That is a step too far! Her industrial capacities are at least two steps down from where we are to produce what we do. She has no idea of the difficulties involved in delivering the goods we produce to spec.”
"And yet, she maintains a reputation for delivery, on time, to spec." Theodore concluded aloud. "How would this NOT be suspicious? Unless your firm is constantly engaging in underestimating costs and travel times, how ought it to look from the outside, Mister Steigel?"
“Let me ask a counter question, why isn’t Star League tech universal? The knowledge is there. Factories have been re-tooled but simply put not every unit is made to the superior Star League standard.”
“There is an advantage in producing the technologies that we relied upon during the Succession Wars.” Theodore answered.
“And one of those is that it is simpler, cheaper, and easier. Even in the face of re-tooled factories. Like I said, Kowloon’s work for what they produce is exemplary but despite that it is at least two steps down on the technological pyramid.”
“So you’re saying it is an issue of quality versus quantity. And that what it takes to produce your offerings is more intensive than what she offers.” Victor nodded.
“Precisely.”
"Well…that is a factor." Victor mused, "Except… Ngo Industries isn't building weapons-at least, not directly, but they HAVE been providing tooling for Star League Weapons Technologies, and competitively to your offerings, I point again to the Brewers and at Coventry. Langenecker buys from Ngo, and produces Endo-Steel comparable to yours, as well as Ferro-Fibrous Armors, and side by side comparisons to firms in the Federated Suns member state who went with Krupp for their tooling, the prices are comparable. Nashan is a major client of Ngo's, and their avionics and target-tracking technologies are directly comparable, including per-unit pricing on Guardian and Beagle systems." he folded his hands, "I think your complaint is more the damage to reputation. Nobody here thinks Krupp is incapable and many of us think your firm's work is exemplary. Refined, even advanced. You're upset because the senior advisor to our Naval program is close to a young woman-admittedly my sister in law, who sees the world through a particular lens despite my brother's efforts to convince her otherwise."
"What lens?" 
"Gaia filios suos comedit, or 'Gaia devoured her children'-it's from pre-spaceflight myths of the greeks, or Romans, you see Gaia was the earth mother and-"
"She doesn't trust Terran organizations or businesses NOT to be under Comstar's thumb."
“Yet it was our involvement that even made the RX-79 program viable. Seems like if we were a Comstar front we could have easily just said ‘no’ and let the project wallow even more than it did.”
"Let's not get into hurling accusations." Theodore rumbled, "though it was only in the immediate run-up to Tukayyid that you weren't saying almost exactly that- 'No'...despite contracts signed saying the opposite. ISF is a very good spy agency. My father read reports of the boycott on deliveries to Galax with glee."
“You’ll note on those contracts that we very clearly stipulated that the likelihood of delays was high because we are a private corporation and thus we cannot defy our government’s laws.”
"Mister Stiegel, I can guarantee you, Krupp will have a fair standing on all present and future contracting offers, in spite of my sister-in-law's runaway mouth." Victor had finally had enough of this, "You're not under suspicion, nobody here thinks you're some kind of conspiracy, as for Lizzie? She's not yet twenty five, she'll say things that are impolitic and outright wrong, that's what young women and men do."
“Though I fear she has already planted the seed of the fruit of the poisonous tree that is all I can reasonably ask for.”
"The best way to chop that tree down, is to be on-time, within tender on all future contracts, particularly with Star League members."
“Indeed. The Impavido program seems to not have suffered such problems. In fact, that it has come as far as fast as it has would seem to indicate that it is quite in your interests to do so.”
Steigel didn't look happy. "Is that the final judgment then?"
"Badmouthing a competitor, especially a large one, in business is, so I'm told by Lyrans, normal behavior." Victor said, "Trust me, if your reputation were facing serious issues it would be apparent to everyone here…" He glanced at Sharilar Mori, the Primus, "Primus Mori advanced your case because of Krupp's importance as a Military contractor, but that prominence itself is an indicator of your company's public position among the Member States-you would NOT be a prominent military contractor if every ruler seated here didn't know you were good for it."
Stiegel still wasn't satisfied. "She's influencing…"
Oh crap. Victor knew what was coming.
"...the last Cameron Scion. We have our sources too, and the Camerons are the rightful heirs to the Terran Hegemony Throne!!" the man's lower lip quivered.
Feudal loyalties this old? Victor was silent as he contemplated what he was really seeing in front of him. the man's angry because he thinks Lizzie turned Helena against them? 
"Victor." Theodore spoke up, as First Lord Theodore-that was the tone, anyway, "Have a chat with your in-laws, and arrange something." he looked to Primus Mori, "Will that be satisfactory to the Primus?"
"Imminently." Primus Mori said with a short bow of her head.
"Fix this." Theodore added.
And how the hell am I supposed to do that? Victor thought for a moment. “I’ll tend to it right away.”
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