AATiPDC Chpt 43

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==Chapter 43 - An American Tanker in Prince Davion's Court==
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===Safe and sound at Home again===
September 7th, 3052 - Cardiff, Bristol
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Safe and sound at home again, let the waters roar, Jack.
Safe and sound at home again, let the waters roar, Jack.
Long we've tossed on the rolling main, now we're safe ashore, Jack.
Don't forget yer old shipmate, faldee raldee raldee raldee rye-eye-doe!
We have worked the self-same gun, quarterdeck division.
Sponger I and loader you, through the whole commission.
Long we've tossed on the rolling main, now we're safe ashore, Jack.
Don't forget yer old shipmate, faldee raldee raldee raldee rye-eye-doe!
After returning home to Bristol, Field Marshal Hodges joyously reunites with the rest of his family. He's first greeted by his wife Kym, and then by his son Richard (who has his wife Ranna by his side) who snaps off a perfect parade-ground salute and says "hello, dad. I'm glad to see you made it through the pirate campaign unharmed. I also see that you've got some more fruit salad on your chest."
"Hello, Richard. Indeed I do; there was never any question that the pirates were going to lose; the only questions were how long the campaign was going to take and how many casualties were going to be taken. As it stands, I lost one of my Essex-class destroyers with all hands, while the other members of the AEF took heavy damage to one of their Congress-class frigates and one of their Potemkin-class troop cruisers; one of their Black Lion-class battlecruisers was also moderately damaged."
"Good copy on that. I presume that you're making the customary arrangements for the next of kin?"
"I certainly am. If the survivors have a mortgage, it's being paid off; the children (if any) will have their college educations paid for, and the families will receive free medical care for the rest of their lives. After all, it's only right and proper to look after the families of those who followed me into battle and didn't come home."
After Richard and his wife depart, Kym Hodges looks her husband in the eye and says "That expression on your face says that you've got something to tell me..."
"Yes I do, oh heart of my heart. When I was on Terra, I had a private meeting with the First Prince. During that meeting, he asked me to run for the office of Senator from the Crucis March; under the terms of the constitution of the Second Star League, each member state is entitle to three seats in the Senate."
"Well, that's certainly quite a surprise. What did you say?"
"My dear, I told the First Prince that I'd be delighted to run for office; provided you gave me the go-ahead. I also said that, if I won election, I'd play no favorites."
"Jim, I never met anyone who'd be better-suited for such a role than you. Now that you're officially-retired from active service, you'll be home much more than you were previously, even if you do win."
"Thank you, my dear. Your vote of confidence is greatly appreciated. And now, to the matters at hand. How are things going with business and industry here on Bristol and on the other planets in the territory?"
"You'll be pleased to know that your factories and shipyards have all the business they can handle, and then some. The weapons factories are running three shifts a day, seven days a week and are barely able to keep up with the pace of orders. As for your tanks, the order books are full for the next three years; of course, all the tanks produced for sale outside the Federated Commonwealth are the export model."
"That's good to know. How's the Treasury doing?"
"I'm pleased to report that I consulted with the Secretary of the Treasury, and he tell me that tax receipts are at an all-time high; inflation is under control and everything else is running smoothly."
"Excellent; keeping the bean-counters happy is always a good thing. What's the status of the mining fleet?"
 
"At present, the fleet consists of a pair of Vulcan-II factory ships, four Potemkin-II mining ships and 24 Snowden-class mining stations; all of these have their customarty complement of miningmechs and small craft. Fleet Commodore Dana says that his people have compiled a list the most-promising bodies in Bristol's asteroid belt, and that the fleet is harvesting from them in order of size from the smallest to the largest; these asteroids are named for similarly-sized bodies in the Sol system's asteroid belt. When I first staryed reading reports on what the fleet had found, I almost couldn't believe my eyes; the amount of material out there is simply mind-boggling. For example, a report from the Astrogeological Survey shows that the asteroid known as '8-Ball' masses 1.1 trillion tons, with a volume of just over 98 cubic miles. Elemental analysis of 8-Ball's composition shows that it's makeup is composed of 92% iron, 6.5% nickel, 0.75% cobalt, 1,190 ppm germanium, 1,020 ppm chromium, 500 ppm titanium, 200 ppm copper, 115 ppm manganese, 20.5 ppm tungsten, 5 ppm rhenium, 25 ppm ruthenium, 6 ppm rhodium, 10 ppm palladium, 25 ppm osmium, 22 ppm iridium, 28.8 ppm platinum and 75 ppm gallium; the shipyards in the Draconis Combine, the Free Worlds League, the Capellan Confederation, the Periphery and those in the Terran Hegemony are clamoring to buy all of the germanium and titanium that can be spared."
"What kind of numbers are we talking about?"
"Jim, based on 8-Ball's size and composition, there's 550,000,000 tons of titanium and just over 1,300,000,000 tons of germanium available in this one rock alone. For this reason, 8-Ball has a Vulcan-II factory ship, two Potemkin-IIs and 8 of the Snowden-IIs in attendance. The remainder of the fleet is harvesting other targets in the asteroid belt, namely EB86-II (at 1.763 trillion tons), DA86-II (at 100 billion tons) and ED85-II (at 37 billion tons); EB86-II has the other Vulcan-II in attendance; it, DA-86-II and ED85-II each have eight Snowden-IIs. As for the other pair of Potemkin-IIs, they rotate between these three asteroids on a regular basis." 
"I assume that there's no trouble wirth extracting the metals from any of those asteroids."
"Not at all, Jim. Using those Potemkin-class troop cruisers to move large numbers of miningmechs and small craft (plus transporting raw materials up from the surfaces of the asteroids) was a brilliant idea; so was adapting the Naval Laser-55s carried by the Potemkins towards the task of cutting up the surface of asteroids into manageable chunks."
"How are the production rates?"
"Well, that portion of the mining fleet stationed around 8-ball is processing 2.5 billion tons of raw material per year; this translates to 2,300,000,000 tons of iron, 162,500,000 tons of nickel, 18,750,000 tons of cobalt, 2,975,000 tons of germanium, 2,550,000 tons of chromium, 1,250,000 tons of titanium, 500,000 tons of copper, 287,500 tons of manganese, 51,250 tons of tungsten, 62,500 tons of ruthenium, 15,000 tons of rhodium, 12,500 tons of rhenium, 25,000 tons of palladium, 62,500 tons of osmium, 55,000 tons of iridium, 72,000 tons of platinum and 187,500 tons of gallium." 
Hodges tents his fingers at his desk and replies "as a crusty old gentleman named Montgomery Burns once said...'Excellent'."
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