Alternate Conclusions
By H.W.
Chapter 11
"Since Mars is relatively close to our route to Qo'noS, adding two days to the total time of the journey, I think we should visit our new Capital Planet first," Seven noted at a meeting two days later.
She looked around the table before adding, "I would like for you all to be present when we reach Mars. I feel that since Mars is going to be our new Capital Planet, it should be you, the Phoenix Alliance Government, who should be the first Phoenix Alliance people to visit the planet."
"Well, if we are going to Mars anyway, would you mind if I took a few hours to tour the Torres star-base and shipyards?" B'Elanna wondered. "That way I can point out to Carey what I like and what I would like to have changed."
"You are not staying on the base for some time?" Seven asked, mildly surprised.
B'Elanna sighed. "No. I would want to, but no. Carey is a good guy and one I can trust to do as I say. Not only that, our time together on Voyager has made sure that I he doesn't just understand what I'm saying, but also what I mean. I got to trust my people if I really want to function as an overseeing Minister instead of someone that goes insane because I want to do everything myself. I'll still do some things myself, mind you, but big projects like this aren't the place. All my time would be taken up by just one project. I myself will be doing the very important things that are nevertheless short based."
"Like finding a way to ensure the security of the Borg information I will be handing to your department," Seven said in understanding.
"Right," B'Elanna readily agreed. "That's the kind of thing I can do myself. That, or overseeing some of the testing of those Borg designs... maybe even do some of the testing myself. I had a talk with Carey and, now in the beginning, he'll be the guy that I sent to important projects to start them up and get them going while I do the overall thing. At the moment I plan to have him at the base for three months and then I'll move him on to setting up the testing department of the Ministry of Technology."
"That's not long," Sisko noted. "Just by the time the people there are used to their boss you take him away again."
"I know," B'Elanna agreed. "That's why Carey won't be the day-to-day boss. We'll set up a chain of command and Carey will supervise how they work. He will train them in those three months in the things we find important. You could see him as an adviser, just with the difference that his advice better be followed or else I'll come by and kick some ass."
She waved a hand in the direction of the huge windows that was to one side of the conference room, and thereby indicated the great 'out there'. "Take the starbase. That base is well worked in and they have an existing chain of command. Carey's job will be to point them to the things we do differently, things we cannot accept, and things that they just have to accept for now. And most importantly, to act as a bridge between this existing chain of command that is used to doing things in a Klingon way, and the Starfleet engineers that will work under this existing chain of command, but that will bring knowledge and technology that is beyond what the chain of command is used to."
"We can take the time to tour the base," Seven assured. "In fact, I myself would not mind touring the base, if you do not mind the company."
B'Elanna smirked. "Considering that you are the Intendant, is this the time where I graciously tell you that I would love to have you along?"
Seven lifted an eyebrow. She knew that B'Elanna was only joking, but it still was a good opportunity to make something clear to all, especially the ones that were not used to seeing Seven as anything but the Intendant. "Not at all. One thing I want from you, all of you, is to speak your mind. I am fully aware that having people in powerful positions along can be a hindrance as much as a blessing. It can be a blessing because they can hear of a problem and directly make a decision on how to deal with the problem, and then also directly have their voice be final and the law to live by."
"In your case literally the law," B'Elanna said amused.
"Indeed," Seven could only agree. "But as much as me being around can be convenient, it can also be a hindrance if you want to interact freely with the people and those people do not dare to speak up because an Intendant is around. In our case even two Intendants, one of whom is well known for ordering people killed. This very point is in fact one of the reasons I gave Tom the position he has. The title of Rover is general and not much saying. As such, simply by the way he acts he can seem like he has almost as much power as me, or he can seem like he is also just one of the little people far down in my chain of command. As such people that would not dare to voice their concerns to me will be more inclined to do that to the person that portrays himself as someone that has been sent to find a solution to a problem."
Seven took a moment to look at them all before adding, "Please, everyone, I am only going to say this once, but this will never change as long as you work for me. If you feel that you would much rather not have me dealing with a situation directly, or visiting a place, please, do by all means feel free to tell me so. The very worst thing that can happen is that I do not agree with you and will decide to do as I was planning despite your objection."
"Well, in this case I think I would like to have you along, you and especially Torres," B'Elanna assured while she nodded her head in Torres' direction. "I mean, can you imagine a better incentive for those Klingons to work with us? Here you not only have Torres visiting as Intendant, but also as the owner of the base they are on. If she is along and agrees with the things that need to change to make it possible for us to build Federation style ships than this will take away all the tough Klingon 'who are you to tell us how to do things' bravura."
"Seven, if we are visiting Mars anyway, are you planning on stopping at Earth as well?" Tom asked.
Seven shook her head a little. "No, I am not. Until Mars is firmly established as our new Capital Planet, and this fact is widely known, visiting any of the former slave planets would sent a wrong signal of that planet receiving a favored treatment. Especially if I, as a Human, would visit Earth first. Having said that, waiting too long would also sent a wrong signal on disinterest. That is why I am planning on starting a trip in six months to visit all major planets in the Phoenix Alliance, regardless from whether they were former slaves or not. A trip that will already be announced a short time from now so that people know that it is coming."
"So for now it's off to Mars and then on to Qo'noS?" Annika asked.
"It is," Seven agreed. "And just to warn you, and you B'Elanna, when my Mistress contacted the Chancellor to let him know that we would be visiting, he expressed an interest in seeing you two as well. He is rather interested in how we are the same people, yet so different."
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't he way more powerful than either of you?" B'Elanna asked.
"He is more powerful than me, and way more powerful than Seven," Torres corrected with a smirk.
"So in other words, don't do anything that could piss him off?" B'Elanna asked.
"That would be extremely... unwise," Seven agreed slightly amused.
~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~
They all looked at the decrepit building in silence. Finally Kastra was the one to speak up. "It looks a little, um, in use of repair."
"It looks like crap," Torres corrected.
"Somehow I had expected a little more," Tom noted.
Seven turned around and faced the group. "It is a testimony of how the Sol Empire treated Mars in general. Earth had great plans for Mars for centuries, and once it was possible for them to come here they did so and started to put those plans into effect. However, history moved faster than the changes on Mars. They did the much needed terraforming still in the old way; the one that takes about two hundred years to make a planet livable. As they were in the process of changing Mars, the Sol Empire was formed and focus was moved to different places."
Looking at Keiko, Seven said, "You can see that in the terraforming as well. They did enough of it to have a livable atmosphere and to have enough water to have some lakes to locate their houses at, but then they stopped. Mars will be your practice ground in regards of terraforming, and fine-terraforming."
Keiko nodded before asking, "Any specifics, or should I just wing it?"
"I have specifics," Seven informed. "At the moment two percent of the surface of Mars is covered by flowing water; I want this to be brought up to thirty percent of the surface being covered by flowing water. Obviously the amount of water will reduce the percentage of dry land, but I believe that thirty percent is a good balance. With thirty percent water the remaining seventy percent of dry land compares to seventy percent of the dry land on Earth."
Keiko thought for a moment. "Mars is really dry. A lot of the first water will evaporate. Not a bad thing on itself since the atmosphere still needs more clouds and to get thicker to hold in more hear and to change the air to something that isn't as thin as what we are breathing now. But still, to get the amount of flowing water you want, the amount of water brought in in total needs to be even more."
She bent and picked up a handful of the red soil. "This is incredibly dry. This will suck up any drop of water. I guess that about fifty percent of the total amount of the new water will be locked in the ground and in ground water. Pretty much all of the planet will first have to be saturated before so much water can flow. I wonder how they managed to get even two percent of flowing water while the dirt is still so dry?"
"That I cannot tell you," Seven admitted. "As for the water needed, we have more than enough. Mars has the benefit of being relatively close to the Asteroid belt. And while most objects in the asteroid belt exist out of rock and metals, more than enough are made up out of ice. On the other hand, the Kuiper belt is also not that far away and there it is the reverse of the asteroid belt; most objects are made of ice while only a few are made of rock and metals. A Vor'cha class ship will be put at your disposal during the project. It will fulfill two rolls. First of all it is there for security since it will be able to take care of any ship except a Negh'Var class ship, so certainly any ship pirates might use. But it will also be the workhorse of the project. The Vor'cha has five separate tractor beam emitters so it will be able to ship five meteors per trip."
"Um, do you want me to be there... here... for the entire job, or do you want me to oversee it long distance?"
"What I want is for you to do it in a way that will also work when you have several projects going on at once."
Keiko nodded. "Long distance it is. With the occasional inspection to see if things are going as we want them. I guess that I will have to look for several people that I can promote to general supervisor, or something like that. So that I can hand specific projects to them and that they are the person that see a project through from start to finish."
"That would be a good idea," Seven approved. "Especially considering that if my hope comes true and the terraforming becomes an industrial branch of the Phoenix Alliance, to a point where we might have up to a hundred projects going on ever year. You might be able to find suitable candidates for supervisor positions amongst the Starfleet members that will come to help us. Though Terraforming did not have a high priority in the discussions I had with Starfleet, my Mistress and I had talked about it already by that point and we did put Terraforming on the list of professions we would like to have some experts on. I believe there were almost twenty people listed that would be able to work in Terraforming, even if it was not their main field of expertize."
"I'll have a look at any files you sent me," Keiko assured. "I think at this point it will be more a case of any help I can get."
Seven nodded her head in agreement. "Very well. And to come back to this project... The lack of water on Mars now means that there is almost as much dry land on Mars now as there is on Earth even though Mars is only half as big in diameter as Earth. Since the Mars surface is almost three times as 'rough' as Earth's, these thirty percent will be enough water to have rivers flow through most of the canyons, create Nineteen large lakes, numerous small ones, and one large body of water on the flat plains in the north that will be large enough to be called an ocean, even though strictly speaking this will be an incorrect term. I believe it is a reasonable mix of water bodies. As they say; something for everybody. There are a couple of more things, like the first places to start introducing the flora and the preferred average temperature, but we will discuss this at a later point."
"Since you already might have people for the supervising positions, maybe it would be a good idea to start looking for the regular employees on Risa," Arandis suggested. "After all, it's common knowledge that we regulate the entire weather system on Risa. If we didn't have that technology in place my planet would be one big swamp where it rains every day. I'm sure some of those experts there would love the challenge of a new planet over maintaining a well maintained and already well balanced system."
"A good idea," Seven approved before looking back at Keiko. "But that is your choice of course."
"I like that idea as well," Keiko agreed. "It will also be a good start for me to learn how to deal with representatives of other planets. And All in all Risan are friendly people, so a good place to start."
Seven let her eyes drift over the rest of the group before saying, "As I said before, Mars will be the home of the Phoenix Alliance, and the reason why I wanted you all here today is because I wanted you all, my government, to be the first Phoenix Alliance members to set foot on the new center of the Phoenix Alliance."
"Let me guess, you will rename it Phoenix Prime," Tom said amused.
"You would be guessing wrong," Seven disagreed with as much amusement. "The name 'Mars' was given to the planet millennia before Humans ever set foot on the planet; when people still thought it was a star. The history of the name is from a time where Human history was only created on Earth. Besides that, I also like the name, so the planet will continue to be called Mars. However, you are also correct; there will be a Phoenix Prime."
Seven turned a little and pointed to the building. "Phoenix Prime will be located right here. Phoenix Prime will only be a single building in what will be the Capital City on Mars. The Capital City will be called Kainos Aion, which are two words from an old Earth language known as ancient Greek. Kainos means 'new,' or 'new beginnings'. Aion means 'beginning of time'. So together Kainos Aion can be translated to 'new beginning of time'. Considering all we are doing I find it a very fitting name. Of course, I know that most people have the tendency to shorten statements, especially ones they find hard to pronounce. Therefore the working name for the city will simply be Aion. However in any and all official use the name will be Kainos Aion."
"I like the name, Aion," B'Elanna admitted. "Tell me, are we as Officials allowed to simply call it Aion as well?"
"You are," Seven assured. "As I said, I do not object to the shortened name, since it still caries the essence of the whole name. I just want that when you, or your departments, use the name in official documents that you at those times use the full name."
"Glad to hear it," B'Elanna said with a grin. "Then please answer me this question; only one building will be Phoenix Prime? You want to house the entire governmental structure of an entire Faction in one single building?"
"Not at all," Seven disagreed. "There will be as many buildings as needed for that task throughout the city. The building that will stand here will only have two tasks. First, to be the official main archive for the Phoenix Alliance; the place where copies of all official documents and reports are stored. The second task will be that it will function as the 'home' of the Alliance. The place people will visit, the place where dinners are given; the home."
"The place I would visit if I were to visit in my function of Intendant Torres; Klingon Intendant," Torres added.
"Indeed," Seven agreed before speaking to the group in general again. "You all know that there is something of an unofficial contest between the Factions; the bigger the faction. The bigger the seat of that faction. The Klingons are obvious the clear leaders in this. Just the 'Hall of the Great' alone is already one and a half kilometers long, and that is the building that is considered the access building to the Chancellor's Palace. The Palace is so big that it has over four thousand rooms. Besides that you also have the rather impressive High Council building, the Administrative building, the Qo'noS Military academy, and the First Court."
Seven shook her head. "Clearly we cannot compete with something like that. I do not want to, and I do not see the need either. Luckily we, as the smallest faction, also will not be expected to create such large 'home' for the Alliance. Therefore there will be a clear 'home' where people can be invited to and where state functions can be held; Phoenix Prime. The rest of the government work will be done in normal government building of which the design effort will be more on making them part of the surroundings than on having them stand out as lavish buildings which are extremely impractical in actual use."
"And this Phoenix Prime building will be located here?" Sisko asked. "Is there something special about that building there that you picked this exact place?"
"About the building?" Seven repeated. "Not at all, but as for the place... As I said before, Mars is a place where everything was only done half way by the Sol Empire. During the time that Earth was still terraforming Mars, the Earth government decided that they needed a secret facility that was not located on Earth and they decided to put that facility on Mars. This building here is not important, but what you are standing on is. I am sure that the people that come from the Federation universe will know the importance of me telling you that right now you are all standing on the Airy crater."
Seven could see that most of them were shocked by this. Only the people that didn't come from Voyager's Universe didn't know what that meant. For them she explained. "The Airy crater is a crater that is 37 kilometers in diameter and 5 kilometers deep. What the most special part about it is that there is a second, much smaller crater in it. Inside Airy lies a crater called Airy-0 which is only five hundred meters in diameter. As craters go, not that impressive. However, it was picked as Mars' Prime Meridian; the line of zero degrees longitude. Unlike Earth where the date line lies at 180 degrees off the Prime Meridian, on Mars the Prime Meridian is also the date line. So besides being zero degrees longitude, Airy-0 is also the place on Mars where the day starts and where it ends."
Anticipating the obvious question, Seven added, "Granted, since we are starting to use Mars anew I could put the Prime Meridian wherever I wanted on Mars, and put the dateline on whatever place I wanted. However, since these two things were also decided long before the Sol Empire came into existence I would like to keep them as they are."
"Well, since this is also the place where the Capital City will be build, I like the added bonus of having the date line here," Trinka said. "It will mean that on this planet every new day will truly start at the Capital City. Of course, the date line will have to be shifted a little to lie at the side of the city so that you don't have a timeline going straight through it. But all over the Coalition timelines are shifted to go around big cities or to follow geographic or political lines, so that won't be a problem." She grinned. "In fact, can you imagine the propaganda slogan: Kainos Aion; the city where time begins."
"Sounds like a line that needs some work, but it got potential," Chakotay said honestly. "But since we are going to put such a big shipyard on the surface of Mars, I do think that Kainos Aion will be a city that needs a public slogan. A lot of people will travel to Mars to either check out already build ships because they want t see the real thing instead of only buying off a PADD. Or if not that, they might travel here to get their ship instead of having it brought to them. If they are close enough that makes sense. Quickly go and get the fast ship on their journey instead of waiting until it is delivered to them."
"I don't think that so many people will come to get their ship," Maras disagreed. "I still think that they will preferred to have it delivered so that they have that extra shakedown test. But I think that you are correct on the first part. A PADD is fine, but a lot of people will want to see the ships for themselves. They want to walk through a ship, get a feel for the size. So yeah, I think that a lot of people will come and check out our merchandise."
Suddenly Arandis snapped her fingers. "Oh, Seven, I just got a huge idea. I think we can all agree that people that buy ships are people that have credits. Even the ones that buy the smaller and cheaper ships will still have something left. You don't go and spent you very last credit on a ship."
"True," Seven agreed. "So?"
"So, I think that it would be a great idea to build a huge resort on Mars. But not just any resort. We can build it together with the Trill, actually have them pay for the construction costs."
Seven merely listed an eyebrow, so Arandis reminded, "The Trill do have the monopoly on gambling. Or more to the point, they have the monopoly on casinos. They will be more than happy to pay for the full resort if in tern we allow them to keep all the earnings made by gambling. And to make it more interesting, we provide other services, and because of that we keep the credits made from food, drinks, and the hotel rooms."
"And with other services you mean?" Seven asked.
Arandis smiled. "The kind of services we Risan are known for. Risan work in other places than just on Risa, but normally it's only a few people per resort, ten percent at best. Can you imagine the temptation for the rich? To have a resort with great gambling, that is run by Trill and therefore with a set percent of winnings being paid out overall. And on top of that, all services are run by Risan; all. From the waiters to the housekeepers."
Seven nodded in understanding. "In other words, by people that actually do enter your room if you say that someone is in, but the housekeeping can come in to keep them some company."
Arandis smiled. "Right. That kind of thing. Just think, good service... of any kind you could wish. Good gambling... if you want. The highest quality of rooms. The best of food. And people can combine it with legitimate trip to check out what kind of ships we have for sale here. Maybe we can build some other things too, like an amusement park. So that families can take kids along. After all, we Risan aren’t only good in sex; we are good in taking care of people. Anyway, my point is, we really should build something here that has a lot of different things. That way people come for one thing, and then also spent credits on something else."
"You might have a good idea there," Seven approved. "Since it is your idea, why do you not think about some more and had me a general concept in a week or so. We can discuss it then in a meeting before we might hand it to the design department."
"I will," Arandis assured with a huge smile.
As the discussion had been going on, Chakotay had been listening, but he had kept looking at the surrounding area. Once he was sure that Seven and Arandis were finished he looked back at Seven and ask, "What I'm wondering is why they would fill up Airy. Did they put a base or something on the floor of the crater and then filled it to get a base five kilometers deep? If so, they would have been better off mining under a mountain. Even three hundred years ago they already had the tools to mine that deep, and if mined under a mountain you would have that extra protection as well."
"True, if they had filled up the crater," Seven agreed. "However, they did not fill it up; they covered it. Please follow me."
As she walked in to the building Seven added, "Do not worry. I was correct when I said that we are the first people of the Phoenix Alliance to set foot on Mars. However, Klingon engineers already secured this building and what you are going to see next. It may be old, but I assure you it is safe."
They walked through a couple of rooms until they entered what looked like a ballroom. Seven ordered Toby to sit before picking a small remote from a low table; clearly left there by the Klingon Engineers that had secured the place. She pushed a button and suddenly the floor of the ballroom started to decent. For a moment a border stayed stuck to the wall, but soon it too went down with the floor, forming a railing in the process.
As the room descended, Seven explained, "At the time Earth covered this crater sensors were not what they are now. However, weapons had already vastly advanced. Earth knew that a base, any base, could be destroyed if you just shot at the place often enough to make a hole deep enough to reach the base. Unless you couldn't find the base to begin with. So they covered up this crater. They mined metal from the Mars surface and created a huge and thick metal dome."
She placed her hand against the moving metal wall for a moment. "As you can see from the fact that we are still passing through that lair of metal; a vastly inefficient way of creating a dome. My plan is to remove the dome, which is only covered by a relatively thin lair of dirt, and recycle the metal for use in the spaceship industry. After that the dome will be recreated with Borg technology. This technology exists mostly out of pressure activated force-fields that protect a thin transparent aluminum dome structure, which mainly only functions as a base to attach the force-field generators to. So it will be the force-fields that are the real dome, just that the transparent aluminum dome will give it its form."
"Why would you cover it back up again?" B'Elanna asked as finally at their feet the walls started to give way to open space that was only protected by the railing around the edge and the four metal beams that held the lift in place.
"Because we can," Seven said amused, before explaining, "I want to proof that we have the capability to do something none other in the Coalition can do. You could say as a showcase of sorts. As you know, we plan to make terraforming one of our target markets. However, a lot of people that have just bought their new moon do not want to wait until the terraforming is complete, even if we are able to bring it back to a timeframe that is measured in a few years. So what we will also offer is a dome to cover a certain area. The Airy crater is 40 kilometers across. I know that the Borg technology will be able to secure a dome that covers such an area, so a dome that is 40 kilometers wide will be the biggest we will offer. Inside that we will build whatever the customer wants, including flora and fauna, as long as it is legal of course. That way they can already live on their moon or planet while the terraforming or fine-terraforming is still going on."
"That will also make it tempting for people to buy the moons where there is no atmosphere and it's also physically impossible to change the moon to the point where an atmosphere doesn't evaporate into space," Maras said, clearly liking the idea. "After all, buy the moon for a cheap price... cheap as far as buying moons is concerned... and then put one, or a couple, of those domes on it. Who cares that there is no air outside, they can have a whole different environment in ever dome. Sounds like a pretty decent vacation or retirement place."
"Indeed," Seven agreed. "And you already touched a subject I was going to bring up. Just an option to be sold in combination with the terraforming will not be the extent of using this technology. I want it to be something that can be sold separate from the terraforming. Even at this time there are certain parts on planets that are uninhabitable to sentient beings because they cannot survive there. They might make their houses suitable to live in, but at one point they need to leave those houses to go to work, to visit friends, to socialize."
Seven looked at Ezri before suggesting, "The Desert lands on the Trill equator for instance." Letting her eyes drift to others in the group she suggested, "Or the poles of planets, or under water. Because we will be using transparent aluminum, which is also known in this Universe, in combination with the unknown Borg pressure activated force-fields, the domes will be transparent. We will offer the chance to build cities on places where it was not feasible until now, and even offer to build those cities."
"If you are creating a transparent aluminum dome as a structure to hold up the Borg force-field emitters on top of it, I would suggest offering the option of having holographic emitters connected to the dome from the bottom," Jennifer suggested. "I mean, the transparent dome will be absolutely great under water. There you can look up, or out to the side, to see something as stunning as sea creatures swimming by. But here all you would see looking up would be dirt. It would look like you are living in a big cave. And while cave cities can be very beautiful and inviting to live in if done right, it will give a lot of people a feeling of being trapped."
She frowned for a moment. "Or even under water like I just said... Seeing the see creatures might be great, but if you are too deep all you see while looking up is black because the light doesn't reach that deep. But if you place holographic projectors at the underside of the dome, you could also place some sensors above ground or above the water that will send information to the projectors. If it's a sunny day on top, you will see a sunny day on the underside of the dome; just like you were on top and are looking at the sky. Or at night, even if you are in the dome, you look up and can see the stars above you."
"Good idea," Sisko said. "And another benefit of having holographic emitters is that it would take care of the lighting problem. If the holographic emitters show a clear and sunny sky, the city will be bathed in light because real sunlight or holographic created, it both gives just as much light."
"Indeed," Seven could only agree.
"Hey, I have an even better one," Harry spoke up. "You want to make this new city truly one of a kind? You may not be 'showing off' by having the biggest building, but we could show off by having a two level city. You are talking of shields that have the same strength as Borg shields on those Borg cubes and such, right?"
"Correct," Seven agreed. "The only difference is that the pressure activated shields work more, or less, depending on how much actual pressure is pushing onto that part of the field. This will greatly reduce the power needed to maintain the shields. But still, it will take the power of a warp engine to produce the power needed to keep this dome active."
Actually," B'Elanna said hesitantly, more to get focus on herself while she thought so that the conversation wouldn't move on before she was finished thinking. "I would suggest three warp engines. The size of which would depend on the size of the dome. The bigger the dome, the more power needed. From what I know from power use of those Borg shields, I would guess that we would need engines that are about the same size as the size of Voyager's engine... well, obviously not real warp engines, but still matter/anti-matter reaction assemblies that produce that much power."
"Why three?" Seven wondered, knowing that only one engine of that size would be enough to power the force-field, and on top of that, the city.
B'Elanna grinned. "Because I have no intention to invite Murphy to come and prove us wrong. Before you ask, Murphy's law is something used amongst Engineers. It's basically saying that you have to prepare for 'whatever can go wrong, will go wrong'. If you are a good engineer you keep Murphy's law in mind. Yes, one warp engine like that would be more than enough, but you need a second one as backup for those times that you have to take the first offline for maintenance and whatnot. It's not like you can temporarily shut off the dome here or if it is placed under water."
Seven nodded her head a little. "I believe that I understand what you mean. Normally two warp engines are enough and officials would say, 'it's perfectly safe living under ground in a dome like this because even if one of the warp engines stops working, we have the second one as backup'. But what if that second one stops working at exactly that time that the first one is offline for maintenance and cannot be started because parts have been taken out?"
"Right," B'Elanna agreed. "So I would say, three warp core power plants. Also have all of them active at the same time with each one only producing one third of the power needed."
She started to tick off points using her fingers. "First, that way you can take one out for maintenance if needed, which means that the others will still only have to produce fifty percent of the needed power each, and if then one of those engines fails you still have the third one, which is already running anyway and is more than capable of producing all power needed."
The next finger was tapped. "Second, that way Murphy is taken care of."
Another finger was tapped. "Third, by having all three in use all the time you know for a fact that the engines work and you don't get any nasty surprises if you have to start an engine up for support, only to find that it's not working."
She tapped her forth finger and then let her hands drop. "And on top of that, with all three engines working most of the time at one third of their max output the engines don't get stressed and the power usage is as low as it can be. This means that once you created such a dome those engines, with periodical maintenance, can continue to work for centuries; literally."
"You are correct," Seven agreed. "Three power plants it is. This will also be the case with any dome we sell. Three power plants will be part of the product. If people do not like that extra cost, they cannot buy such a dome from us."
"The extra costs you can talk right over in a sales talk," Maras noted. "First you mention all the safety reason, like the ones you just mentioned, and then you point out that because all three power plants are running so low they use hardly any dilithium crystals whereas one power plant running at three times the power the power plants are running at now would use more dilithium than a starship at warp six. So the three power plants combined cost less to run than a single power plant, which means that in the long run they are saving credits. Of course, it would take about a hundred years before the engines are 'paid back' like this, but still, this will soften the impact of three engines being a must."
"Right, well, to get back to my idea," Harry said to bring the focus back where he wanted it. "Since we are using those shields that are more than strong enough to stop phaser fire from starships, we could build a second city on top of this one. First we build the dome, then we fill up the place at the sides until the whole crater is full again and on top we have a flat surface once more, and we can build a second city there."
"It is an interesting prospect, but I do not see why we would need to do this," Seven said. Then she looked over the railing to see how far down they were and added, "As you can see, one thing we need to do is find a different way of traveling; we are only half way down."
"We could use turbolifts for connections to certain points in the city, and have a generally available transporter system for other places. But both being operated from service stations so that people don't start staying in their houses and just beam to their work or something," Harry suggested before pointing to one side. "Hey, look, there is Airy-0 right there."
All of them looked over, their level of interest clearly being decided by just which universe they were born in. After a moment Harry finally continued, "Anyway, as for why we should have a two story by city, so to speak... how did you say it? Because we can? By having a two story city we would first of all show everyone that we ourselves trust our product fully. It will also show more than words can say that they can trust the strength of the dome. 'Don't worry, the dome can take that pressure' is easy to say but hard to proof to a hesitant buyer. But if we have this two story city we can simply say, 'look at our Capital City. We have a whole city, and countless ton's of dirt on the dome and it works just fine, so the dome can take the pressure it faces at what you planned at your place without trouble; it's only half that of what the dome from our Capital City deals with'."
"Reassurance is one third of the sale," Maras agreed. "No matter how good a product is, if you don't trust that it will keep working in the long run you don't go for it."
"Right," Harry agreed. "But more important than that, just like those people that buy moons and then have nothing of interest on that moon, we too will now start living on Mars, but the first years there will be nothing of interest here. The green fields in the south don't count. That's nothing more than ugly plants that we normally consider weeds but that the Sol Empire planted because they actually thrived here on Mars and do produce a lot of oxygen on top of that. But it sure is nothing to look at. If we do a two story city we can begin with having the official stuff above ground and the normal living city below it. We could then also keep nature and recreation in mind from the first moment. We would start building both cities with a lot of nature. Every street having so much greenery at the sides that it looks like it's a park where a street runs through.
He pointed at the famous crater. "We could turn the whole Airy-0 crater into a park and have other parks throughout the city so that there is always a park to be found in the neighborhood, with Airy-0 being the city's main park of course. And that's why two cities. So much nature takes room; so much room that you would practically need both cities just to have as much buildings in it than a normal city of that size. Normally cities aren't planned from the beginning. They start as a few houses, and then start to grow. Only when the core of the city already exists are city planners brought in. We could do it different there. Even 'green' cities are normally cities with nature between the buildings, roads, and, paths. We could make this city, both parts, a place that is the other way around; buildings, roads, and paths between nature."
"It would certainly be another 'have to see' thing," Arandis pointed out. "Tourism has always been a great source of income. We could make Mars a great vacation place, even if you aren’t here for the business like the shipyards."
"Risa is also a place known as a great tourism place," Torres reminded. "Wouldn't Mars be taking vacationers away from Risa?"
Arandis smiled as she shook her head. "That's the beauty of it. Let's be honest, Risa is known to people because they go there to have sex, and maybe some other entertainment on the side. Here you could make that other entertainment the main focus, and have enough Risan workers to fulfill the sex demand that some people will have. Both places will appeal to a totally different target group. More so because here a big part of the attraction would be the real business. People come to buy that ship... and then check out some other places. And I agree with Harry, such a two story city will draw a lot of people. It will draw people that would never go to Risa because they are happily married and don't want to risk their partner asking why they suggest going to Risa. 'Am I not good enough for you, want something else?' No, they come here, maybe even take their kids along."
"Harry, Arandis, both of you might have a very good idea there," Seven agreed. "Does anyone know of a city that already exists that could be compared to this?" She then asked, looking around the group.
"Well, I know some places that put nature higher than the houses there," Torres said. "But that's more like vacation resorts or smaller cities. As for Capital Cities with so much nature in it as Harry is suggesting, only Medara, the Capital City of Betazed comes to mind. But it most definitely is only a one-story city. I never heard of a two story city that has so much nature. In fact, I never heard of a two-story city at all."
"There is Osantro on Orion," Maras said. "But it's not really the same. It's more that the city exists out of two parts."
"I'm not familiar with the city," Seven said as the lift finally reached the bottom of the crater and the railing once more disappeared slowly into the side of the lift floor.
"It's, well, it mostly exists out of very tall buildings; not much nature at all," Maras explained. "As you know, back before the Sol occupation, crime of any kind was a very big part or Orion's income, and Osantro was basically the home of the biggest crime syndicates. But since not everyone wanted to have anything to do with crime, or didn't want to live in a place where robberies, killings, and other things were common, slowly a second lair started to form. Buildings were build where the lower parts could be lived in by, well, the lower people, while those lower parts of the building were really only the foundation to carry a second, much more elaborate part of the building on top. Then the hover-car was introduced and the division was complete. The have-nots lived at the bottom while the haves lived on top. Then the different crime syndicates merged slowly into the Orion Syndicate, and some time later they decided that they wanted to move their base of operations somewhere else."
"Lucky for Osantro," Torres only said.
"Right," Maras agreed, knowing only too well what was left of the Orion syndicate's home base once Martok had finished with carrying out Torres' orders of getting rid of the Orion Syndicate. "Well, with the biggest part of crime suddenly moving out of the city, city planners finally dared to make some real decisions and the city started to change. The bottom part was cleaned up while the top part was opening more and more for the smaller people that didn't have as many credits or good family names. But still, the idea has been firmly planted into peoples minds that the good living was found in the top part of the city."
She held two hands above each other to indicate two levels. "So now Osantro is more divided into a living and working part."
She moved the upper hand a little. "The living spaces for people are in the top part of the city, here you also find small one or two people businesses as well."
Then she moved the lower hand a little. "But the companies and big stores are all located in the bottom part of the city where you now find the industry and big stores. People now travel back and forth between the two parts if they go to work or shopping, or back home. So, it is a city with clearly two levels, but it's not literally one city build on top of the other."
"Thank you for the explanation. Does anyone have an objection to trying Harry's suggestion?" When nobody spoke up, Seven continued. "Harry, Jennifer, please set up a basic plan in a little bit more detail; enough to let Engineers know what we are trying to establish, maybe a basic layout as well. Once that is done, those engineers and their work crews can start to build our Capital City."
~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~
"I have to admit that I'm impressed," B'Elanna said thoughtfully. "Maybe we can really pull this off. Those people know what they are doing, and even more importantly, they aren't set in a 'but we always did it this way' mentality."
She looked out of the window that gave a clear view on the work space below where small parts of the ship were constructed into bigger blocks before being drifted out into space to fabricate the actual ship.
At the moment they were in the overseer's office of the Torres Holding's starbase, which had very politely been put to their disposal, after Martok had stated 'get out'. Seeing who was entering the office, the people that were having a meeting there had understood immediately who was meant and had beaten a hasty exit.
Looking back at Maras, Martok, Torres and Seven, B'Elanna added. "They listened when we suggested changes, agreed on most, and pointed out some things they thought that wouldn't work. I'll have Carey look into that. As long as they are so willing to implement changes we suggest, we also have to listen to comments they make. After all, they have run this base for years, they know the limitations."
Then she looked at Seven and added with a smirk, "Of course, I'll instruct Carey to see if their objections are founded, or if they are simply 'we don't dare to push' objections."
Seven agreed with a nod and after that Torres spoke up. "I think that you will find that they are very happy to use new technology. I like it if people that work for me have pride in the job they do, I make it a point to make this very clear to anyone I put in charge of a company of mine. That then flows down the lines. People which do a good job and are proud of what they do get promoted. They get into positions where they can inject this 'be proud of what you do' feeling in the people that now work under them. While on the other hand the slackers and people that just don't seem to care eventually get fired. These people here are worked-in with each other and the dirt has long since been cleaned out."
"From what I saw, I agree," B'Elanna noted. "These people have pride in what they do. I have a feeling that when they see a way to make a better ship, they will use it. They do have this 'don't push' mentality just like most in the Coalition, but for this it doesn't matter since they will be working with blueprints that have been tested. They may not understand some of it, but they do know that they can trust me when I say that they will be working with tested designs and can do the things those blueprints say need doing."
"Pride in what they are doing is one thing," Martok noted. "But temptation can still be a very dangerous thing. Those people aren’t stupid and will know that they will be working with technologies and blueprints that are nowhere else to be found in the Coalition. Some will also understand that because of this, those blueprints and even simply the knowledge of the people that have worked on the ships will be worth a lot of credits to the right person. We have to make very sure that they understand that trying to sell, or give, that information to anyone would be... very unwise, as Seven likes to call it. I'll have some of my operatives point out the benefits of secrecy to them."
"A good idea," Seven agreed. Then she looked at Maras. "Did you find the tour of the starbase and the shipyard interesting? You have hardly spoken up during the entire visit. You only asked questions about the building capacities."
"Well, that's the very thing why I came along," Maras pointed out. "Ever since you explained to us your vision of how we will build starship as a main course of income for the Phoenix Alliance there was something nagging in the back of my mind. Now I know what it was. You said that as more Phoenix class ships started to be constructed more ship bays would be constructed as well so that the Phoenix class ship could be constructed in the numbers needed at the timeframe planned. We walked about that in the meeting where we talked about the different ship classes we will be creating."
"That is correct," Seven merely agreed, knowing that the statement was only made to remind of the information that was needed for the next statement.
"Well," Maras continued, "The problem with that is that, yes, in two years time one Phoenix class ship will leave the shipyards every month and the construction of a new one will begin. But that also means that all twenty shipbuilding bays will be taken up by the Phoenix class. If we want to become this entity that can fulfill that monopoly position we have to build a lot more than that."
"Which we also covered," Torres reminded. "By the time the first Phoenix class ship is finished, dry-docks have been in the part of the shipyards that belongs to the Phoenix alliance and the building of the Phoenix class will shift to those dry-docks while my company will start focusing on the Enterprise class."
"But do you think you have the abilities here to build a lot?" Maras asked. "That's what was bugging me. No question, you have a great starbase here, and I'm sure that they can build the Phoenix, and after that the Enterprise class. But that's still just building once ship and then building another ship. That only gives you one ship every two years. If you really want to build enough ships that we can sell more than just one every year or two, your part of the shipyards need to grow just as fast as our part."
Then she reminded, "That was not the deal; you would have a part in it, and that part would grow as the shipyards as a whole grew. But fifty percent of the growth? Have your part be fifty percent of the total? With all due respect, but can you even pay for that? The Coalition Funds will pay for our part of the shipyards being build, but somehow I don't think they will pay for the part that will belong to one of the biggest companies around."
Torres let out a long breath at that reminder. "Good point. Can the Torres Holdings pay for the expansion? Yeah, I think so. Seven, you know the Holding's finances better than I."
"I do not know the exact cost of the expansion," Seven reminded. "But I believe that financially it would be doable for your company but it would take almost all the profits."
Torres grinned. "Ah, but that's the beauty of my company. I don't have shareholders that demand that earnings are paid out to them. That's in fact the main reason why my company got so damn big in such a relatively short time. Only ten percent of the yearly early profit is put on my accounts. The other ninety percent of profit that my Holdings makes is pumped right back into the business the next year by buying another business of buying out a competitor. Not many people can have a business like I have and have gotten there without needing to resort to having shareholders."
"I don't have shareholders either," Maras reminded. "And I love the freedom. I can do what I want. Hell, if I had shareholders they would never have allowed me to buy that distribution center on Risa because that did not just take all the earnings, but all the revenue I could scrape together, including almost all of my own personal credits. But, it was worth it. It's already making me more credits than I expected."
"Of course, you do need a few more years to earn back the credits you put in," Torres said amused. "But it was a good investment. And I honestly think that being part of the shipyards will be a great investment for the Torres Holdings. I think that it's a sound idea to put all the earnings into that for a few years instead of buying other businesses. You could say that this is the business I'm buying."
She thought about it a little more before admitting," But you have a point, the growth on my part of the shipyard will need to be a lot more then we first agreed on, at least in the beginning. I guess it would make good business sense if I build it now, and then sell it to the Phoenix Alliance later on. It would make me a lot of credits in the long run. But since I don't really care that much about the credits since I have enough, and I do care about making the Phoenix Alliance work, I don't really want to do that. What to do, what to do?"
Maras hummed while thinking about that. Then an idea came to her. "How about you keeping that shipyard, but splitting it up in smaller parts and moving those to a different location when they are no longer needed here? You know, once the Phoenix Alliance shipyards have grown to the point that more business can be shifted to them. Then your shipyards can stop growing until you reach the point where your shipyard is the size percentage wise agreed upon in the contract."
"And I then move the parts of my shipyard that are no longer needed here to somewhere else?" Torres asked confused.
Maras nodded. "Yeah. Because Seven said that eventually another service will be to have a smaller shipyard in the territory of each Faction. Your big shipyard parts that are then no longer needed can be moved to those locations. That way the Phoenix alliance can start that service relatively quick, instead of having to first build the shipyards then. And on top of that, you can then negotiate a whole different kind of deal. For instance that the Torres Holdings get ninety percent of the earnings made at those places until they have made a certain amount of profit that would have paid for the building of those shipyards and then you can switch to you getting the same ten percent of the earnings that you also get from the Phoenix Alliance shipyard here."
"There is potential in that," Torres agreed. "Why don't you throw together some base idea for a deal and we can have the directors of the Torres Holdings start negotiating when we reach the point where this becomes an issue. Seven, you agree?"
"I do," Seven assured.
"Good," Maras said happily, her business person heart swelling with the mere prospect of putting the deal together. Then she reminded, "But there is more. At the time we grow the spatial shipyard we also have to pump out numbers on the planet located shipyards. We have to build so many Delta class ships that we can sell hundreds a month. You said that the Delta and Alpha class would be build on Mars itself and not in orbit. A good idea, but this means that we need to have facilities for it. We need to build factories that can house an assembly line system of building ships so that at the exit station of the line one Delta class ship is rolled out every hour or so. The same with the Alpha class."
Then she reminded, "You have to keep in mind that it's a balance. The big ships, the Phoenix class, the Defiant class, and eventually the Galaxy class, those will give us a name everyone in the Coalition knows, but nobody can buy those ships unless they are dealing in name of a Factions, or in case of the Defiant class, for a Planetary Government. The same pretty much goes for the Enterprise class and the Voyager class. Both are ships that the average person will never be able to buy. But both, especially the Voyager class will be ships that people look at and think 'if I ever get rich I'll get me one of those'. Those ships will make our name, those ships will make people say that they want a ship build by the Phoenix Alliance, and then they go buy one they can actually afford."
"Which will be a Delta or Alpha class ship," Seven said in understanding. "The better the name is we create with our expensive ships, the more smaller ships we will sell."
Maras nodded her agreement. "Right. Though outrageously cheaper, eventually we will make more credits from the Alpha and Delta class than from the other classes. I mean, since I don't know the real prices yet, let me use theoretical numbers. Let's say that we sell one Voyager class ship a week and it sells for the theoretical amount of a hundred credits profit. But in the mean time we also have the Delta class that costs only one credit for people to buy, but we sell two hundred of those per week. So, the Voyager class made us one hundred credits that week, but the cheaper Delta class actually made us two hundred credits that week."
"Again, I agree," Seven noted, feeling that Maras was still not finished, but that the moment of silence had been to see of the others were still following.
Maras nodded again. "Alright, then let me talk for a moment to you as a business person. If I use my business as a security for loans I can afford to buy an Enterprise class ship, a few actually. But let's say I have just enough to buy one because this example needs an either/or moment. Again, let's say that it will cost a theoretical hundred credits to buy an Enterprise class ship. But here I am with those hundred credits burning a hole in my pocket. Will I spend it on one Enterprise class ship?"
She answered her own question. "No. Why? Because instead you also sell the Alpha class. Cargo room wise the two ships simply don't compare. But, the Alpha class only costs a theoretical one credit. So I can either buy one Enterprise class, or a hundred Alpha class. I can tell you that I would go for the hundred ships. Why? Because with those hundred ships I can create a chain where a small amount of good are shipped, and arrive, every day instead of once a week. And on top of that I can ship to a hundred different places if need be at once."
She shrugged. "Well, of course I'm just using the Alpha class as an example to show the extreme. In reality she would be just a little too small because some of the cargo wouldn't even fit in the cargo room bulk wise. So maybe instead we could talk Voyager class. Say either one Enterprise class or five very damn fast Voyager class ships for the same price. No, trust me on this; we will make our credits from the small ships, and the name from the big ships."
"As interesting as that is, didn't we already cover that by the fact that the ships will be build on Mars?" Torres asked. "Alright, you have a point; we have to step away from the 'build-one-ship-at-a-time-from-the-ground-up' approach, and move to an assembly line where every station adds that one component which results in one finished ship rolling of the assembly line every certain amount of time. Preferably have the main assembly work done by droids eventually so that we can shift our relatively limited amount of people around the more the shipyard grows. But still it's already known that those ships will be built on Mars itself."
"Just to quickly jump in here before you continue on," B'Elanna spoke up, "Torres is correct that we will need droids when we build our ships. Droids is technology. I would suggest that we start a business that makes droids. Not for a monopoly mind you. But in the beginning it can make the droids we need, and once we have enough and the name of us having 'the best' is out there, we can make a nice profit of selling our droids to others for whatever business they have that needs droids."
Seven nodded. "A good idea. I will remember the suggestion and we can discuss it later in a meeting with all the right people. Thank you."
B'Elanna grinned. "No problem. Please, continue your discussion."
Alright," Maras said before continuing, "The reason why I mentioned those ships is because I think we need to look at a few points. First of all, I think that we, me included, have been underestimating just how many of the smaller ships we need to be able to build. Second, that assembly line approach of building ships may produce a lot more ships, but also needs a lot more space. If you build one ship at the time from the ground up, you need only the room for one ship."
She lifted a finger and wagged it a bit. "But if you use the assembly line system and you have, say, thirty stops along the way, you need the room to basically build thirty ships besides each other, so you need a building that is thirty times bigger. Double that to sixty times if it turns out that we build so many ships that we need two production lines. And I sincerely doubt it will only be thirty stations that are needed. More like a hundred. So that's room for two hundred ships for two production lines. And not to forget, all the room that will be taken up by machinery. The room is not much of a point since we have more than enough room on Mars, but we do have to keep it in mind."
"A very valid point," Seven agreed. "And let us not forget that even if the room is not really the problem, we still need to build the buildings and then acquire or build the machinery for in them. That too will take time. But for now, let us talk about room only. Basically, we have to already keep that room in mind. Start off right away with building a production line from the start, and leave room for a second production line. Both for the Alpha and Delta class ships."
She hesitated for a moment before adding, "In fact, I think that we can also add the Nova class to that. It may be quite some bigger than the Alpha class, but it is still small enough that it is very suited for a production line system for building. And I have a feeling that it too can sell in very big numbers."
"But," Maras said," Space is definitely something to think about. Or more to the point, the protection of space. As Torres has said not long ago, the spatial shipyards will have so many weapons and shields that it will have better protection than the average starship or starbase. We need protection for the shipyards on the planet as well. And as we just agreed, the shipyards will be huge; that's a lot of area to protect."
"And you have a solution for this?" Seven asked.
"I might have," Maras assured. "Your suggestions of creating a dome from those Borg force fields got me thinking. Since those force fields were originally designed to hold back hostile fire, I assume that as a dome they can still do this?"
"Of course," Seven assured. "The shape actually enhances the strength since by nature a dome is one of the strongest forms to be found."
"Great. You see, one of the dangers of building even more ship building capacity on Mars is that then those buildings on Mars itself would become just as much a target as the spatial shipyards. More so if the spatial shipyards are heavily guarded and the planetary ones are not. But if those buildings were protected by a dome that can be activated at a moments notice if need be, or are simply activated all the time, then you can build more ships safely on Mars. We could then also create buildings that can handle assembly lines that are capable of building the bigger classes we talked about. What were the other classes you wanted to build on the planet as well?"
"The plan is that eventually the Delta, Alpha, Nova, Saber, Steamrunner, Voyager, and Defiant class are build on the surface of the planet," Seven reminded. "Though the Defiant will be the last class we will start building there."
Maras nodded. "Right. I think that the Delta and Alpha class are small enough that the building pretty much compares to an assembly line for hover cars. The Defiant, Nova, Saber, and steamrunner classes are quite some bigger, between 150 and 250 meters in length, if I remember correctly. That still works for an assembly line, kinda. But there it's more the kind of work where a the ship stays in that spot while the workers install a component and then the ship is rolled to the next station. So that's already two different kind of production lines."
She shook her head before continuing. "But the Voyager and Enterprise class simply can't be built in such a production line because of size. At best they can be built in the block system where blocks on the ship are build first, and then the blocks are placed together like a big puzzle. Like they do here in the starbase as well. Those blocks might be built in production lines though. Still the actual ship building will have to be from start to finish in the same spot. So that's a different way of building again."
"True," Seven agreed. "I think it is safe to say that the shipyards on the surface on Mars will become the biggest shipyards in Coalition space, if our plans come true of course."
"Yeah," Maras agreed before putting the two points she made together. "And as I just said, that means that they will become a great target in case of attacks. But I think that those domes can be our friend there. As I said, there will have to be different ways of building ships on Mars because ships of different sizes have to be build different. I say, let us make good use of that. Don't just put all the buildings beside each other. Instead put the different ways of building quite some place apart and have each location guarded by one of those domes."
She grinned. "And not just small domes, mind you. I'm talking about the biggest size we will sell to others, the size that we are going to use in the Capital City. That way there is still a lot of room left for potential expansion and also some room to place build ships. Because I really do think that at least with the smaller ships we need to build before demand. Meaning, we have to have a small buffer of build ships so that as soon as there is a buyer for a ship, we can sell one right away instead of only building when ordered. Every day someone has to wait is a day more in which things might happen and they have to cancel the order."
"Having this buffer of build ships will also have the nice benefit that we can adapt a ship to wishes of buyers right away," B'Elanna agreed, thinking that Maras had some very valid points. "Tastes change over time, so we give a customer what he wants today, and when his taste has changed in two years he comes back and we retrofit the ship for him to his new tastes, for the right price of course. But if there is a two year waiting line, they will only grumble that we make then buy a ship that they don't like simply because they had different tastes a few years ago. But if we give them now what they want, and then are very eager to retrofit the ship for them again in a few years they will be happy with us twice, and on top of that boast to everyone about the great customization services we have."
Maras nodded in agreement. "People that order a ship can have it within days, weeks, or months depending on which class they want. Who knows, if they go for an Alpha or Delta class and they don't want a customized ship they can simply have one to go directly out of stock. And even have it today."
"I like that part," B'Elanna said. "Long waiting times are normal for starships, but it might work against us. Seven, you said that you wanted to introduce new technologies; something revolutionary every two years, not even counting the small things along the way. But if we have waiting lists that are years long we will have to deal with people saying, 'but I don't want that ship anymore, I want the new version.' But if they already have their ship when the next revolution comes out, they can either buy a new ship, or ask for an upgrade."
"A good point," Seven agreed. Looking at Maras she added, "And I do see a potential for your suggestion of moving more of the shipbuilding to the Mars surface."
She thought about it for a moment and another angle came to her. "More so since we also have to keep another thing in mind, as B'Elanna just said; upgrade. As I said in our first Governmental meeting, in two years we will start to offer a new service; upgrades and refits. While we will offer this service to small ships that can land on a planet, there will be a lot of ships that cannot. For instance, when we start the upgrading of my Mistress' ship. We will need a shipyard bay for that."
Having made her initial decisions, Seven added, "B'Elanna, Maras, please set up a meeting with Miles, Kasidy, T'Pel, Harry, and Jenifer and set up a plan that covers the creation of needed facilities on Mars, and also find a suitable location where there is more than enough room for potential expansion without it interfering with the terraforming and housing plans for the planet."
Maras nodded her agreement and B'Elanna agreed as well before pointing out, "I think that it would be a good idea that once we found suitable locations, we start with those domes Maras suggested, even before starting the production lines. They won't take too much time to build; a week or so per dome. That way we can pressurize the domes and create a better working environment for as long as most of the work has to be done by people. As we found out on Mars, you can breathe there now, but the air is still very thin. Imagine working in it. You would have to take a half hour break every two hours at least just to prevent keeling over."
Seven merely nodded her agreement, so B'Elanna asked, "Now, since we are here could we go check out the..."
~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~
"Yes?" Maras asked as someone walked into her office. She looked up from her work a second later only to see Arandis standing there. "Don't you know how to knock?"
"The door was open," Arandis said, pointing behind her where the door was still open.
"You could still knock."
"You said 'yes' before I could do that. If you have already shown that you know that someone is there, why should I knock?" Arandis asked confused.
"What do you want?" Maras asked, knowing that the Risan was right, but not about to admit that any time soon.
"I'm here to see what the holdup is with those requests. I have people taking people home to take care of them. I can't have them taking people home. Business and private life have to be separated. I need those clubs remodeled and reopened, for starters. And I need the Zanikrean and Friokis resorts opened within two months. The vacation seasons start then on those planets. But to do so I,"
Maras lifted her hand to stop Arandis from talking and frowned before she started to look through some of the PADDs that were lying on her desk.
"Ah, here it is. I finished it this morning," She admitted honestly after taking a look at the PADD just to see if it was indeed marked as done.
"This morning? But I handed that in five days ago!"
Maras merely shrugged. "So did others. I have handled over two hundred requests in the last four days alone. Like it or not, you are not the only one that needs stuff and all requests are handled in order of me getting them."
"But it was marked urgent," Arandis pointed out annoyed.
"Just like all the other requests." Maras countered. "I haven't seen a single one yet that wasn't marked urgent. Come to think of it, it would probably have drawn my attention more if it would not have been marked urgent since it would have stood out from the rest."
Arandis put her hands on her hips, clearly getting even more annoyed. "But Seven clearly said that the physical service market should have a prioritized position so that we continue to deliver the best quality without there being any slack in services that other players can profit from."
"Look, what do you want me to do?" Maras asked, her irritation finally showing through. "Turn back time and handle the request earlier? There is only so much I can do at once. Hell, I'm having people of my own company help me out as it is. Something I myself am flooding the bill for I might add because Seven turned me into a believer of her vision. So I can't really say that I'm sorry that your whores have to go to their own home to screw their clients."
"We are not whores," Arandis said furious as she came closer, placed her hands on Maras' desk, and leaned slightly over it and closer to the Orion yet. "Whores fuck or be fucked and then get paid for it. We don't. We care for our job. We do all that we can to make someone feel good, alive. We take pride in the fact that we can help others."
"Yeah, right," Maras snorted. "You don't get paid you say? Then what about those people in those clubs and in those resorts? Aren't they getting a monthly wages?"
"Paid by the employer," Arandis countered.
"Who got the credits to pay the whores they employ from the people that came there to fuck," Maras reminded crudely. "Sure your whores don't get paid to fuck. Just like that club doesn't get paid to let people fuck, and just like those people don't go to one of those clubs to fuck. They go there to have a drink and pay the huge entrance fee for that alone. And the club pays the servers in that club only for delivering those drinks, nothing more. No, they get paid to fuck, period. The only difference is that their client doesn't leave the credits on the dresser when they leave but transfer the credits to the account of the club which then pays the whore. Big deal. Whore is whore."
Without thinking Arandis slapped Maras across the cheek as hard as she could. "Bitch. I'm going to,"
"Do what?" Maras interrupted as she grinned at the Risan. "Go tell? Tell what? That I handled your request just like all the other urgent requests I got? Or maybe the fact that we had a friendly discussion about economics? Your request has been processed and orders have already been given. What more do you want? Get out of here."
Arandis looked at the Orion for a moment, knowing that Maras was right. There was nothing really that she could do. Besides, was she really going to cry to Seven about the fact that Maras basically called her a whore as well? It wasn't the first time, and also more than likely not the last, that someone had called her that. Arandis had completely embraced her Risan heritage, proudly wearing the Risan mark on her forehead to prove just that. With that came a lot of respect from most people, and sometimes crude or angry remarks from people that believed that the Risan's lived in sin.
Normally she let the comments roll off her back like water, but she had not been expecting those comments from a person she had to work with, which on top of that was an Orion. Orions were well known for their sexual appetites, especially their women. So they and the Risan, who were almost always ready to have sex, normally got along extremely well. This even extended into politics. As soon as the Sol Empire had fallen, Orion and Risa has sighed a mutual protection pact, even before the Coalition was formed.
"You are a rude asshole," She finally said.
"Yeah, and you are taking up my time. I have more requests to handle, so if you excuse me... I don't want them to wait unnecessarily long for approval or denial of their request. Get out."
Not saying another word, Arandis turned around and left the office.
Only then did Maras bring a hand to her cheek and tried to rub away the painful sting that was still firmly placed there. "Ouch, the girl has a mean slap to her," She said out loud with a grin. Who would have thought? The Risan woman was normally always so composed, and disarmingly charming. It seemed that there was some temperament to be found under the surface though. Maras liked it, and wondered what she could do next to see that temperament again.
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