CHAPTER 10 – BOOMING BUSINESS
10:18 (Universal Time)
Wednesday, November 09, 2321
Bridge of the A.M.S. KOSTROMA
Approaching the Jovian moon Callisto
Solar System
‘’Callisto Control, this is the KOSTROMA. We are now approaching Callisto’s orbit and are planning to dock at the Callisto Orbital Cargo Terminal, over.’’
‘’From Callisto Control to KOSTROMA: you are cleared to approach and dock at the Callisto Orbital Cargo Terminal. Please switch your navigation computer to the cargo terminal’s automated docking system number three. Be advised that traffic at the cargo terminal is presently heavy.’’
‘’Switching to cargo terminal’s automated docking system number three, understood! KOSTROMA out!’’
Frida Skarsgard, manning the pilot’s station at the time, glanced at her navigation radar screen, then twisted her neck to look at Tina Forster, who was sitting behind her in her command chair.
‘’The Callisto Cargo Terminal is indeed quite busy, Tina. I have nine other cargo ships either docked there or slowly breaking away from it. Using the automated docking system won’t be a luxury.’’
‘’Maybe, but be ready to correct our course and speed immediately, in case that system suffers a glitch. I wouldn’t want to damage or destroy the cargo terminal by accidentally ramming it.’’
‘’Why?’’ replied Frida with a smile. ‘’A small bump by a three-million-ton ship shouldn’t cause more than a little scratch.’’
‘’Go tell that to the terminal’s manager, Frida. Seriously, I am more worried about other ships slamming into us than of us slamming into the cargo terminal. Keep your eyes open and be ready to react to anything in a flash.’’
‘’Will do!’’
Tina then switched on her ship’s intercom system and called the ship’s commercial office, where Winnie Zambela officiated. Winnie had replaced the highly efficient Piotr Romanski as the ship’s commercial agent, purser and financial officer when Piotr had become the Chief Administrator of New Haven a year ago. Up to now, she had proved to Tina that she was up to the task. In turn, Piotr’s financial and organizational genius had done miracles to help boost along the development of New Haven as a viable Human resettlement and agrarian world.
‘’Winnie, did you get the cargo manifest from the Jovian Shipping Lines about our next cargo load and destination? Are we going to have a decent load for our next trip?’’
‘’A decent load?’’ replied the 34-year-old woman of African descent. ‘’Hell, I got a wish list from the Jovian Shipping Lines that will keep us busy for the next couple of months, apart from nicely fattening our commercial bank account. For today, we are to load at the cargo terminal sixteen various external cargo pods totaling a mass of six million tons and destined for Providence, in the Alpha Centauri B System. While we will be taking on those cargo pods, a fleet of shuttles will bring in 1,293 passengers, also destined for Providence. After that, before leaving the Solar System, we are to go to Earth, where we have to go down and land in Korean waters in order to pick up a new floating city extra-large module destined for New Shouria, along with twelve annex modules. While down on Earth, Koorivar shuttles will bring aboard 2,856 passengers intent on augmenting the permanent population on New Shouria. There will also be some 890 tourists heading to either New Shouria or New Haven, who paid for vacation tours there.’’
‘’Wow! We will have to use our old passenger quarters in our core section in order to accommodate all these people and will also have to stock up on our food reserves. We will indeed be at near maximum capacity in terms of passengers. What about the rest of that wish list?’’
‘’Our next priority load will be over seventeen million tons of cargo pods, prefabricated modules, equipment and supplies, along with a crew of 1,600 construction workers and specialists, all destined for New Venice, in the Tau Ceti System. New Venice has now top priority in the updated colonization and space expansion plan of the Spacers League. Once in orbit around New Venice, we are to stay in orbit for two weeks, in order to support the work crews there until the arrival of other support ships. After that, we will have to zip back to the Solar System and load twenty million tons of various pods and modules, along with 1,100 workers and specialists who will start building a liquid hydrocarbon extraction and processing complex on Hybernia, in the Trappist-1 System, plus an orbital liquid hydrocarbon transfer station around Hybernia and extra living modules on nearby Borealis, in the same system. Our cargo handling crewmembers will be earning their pay in the next few months.’’
‘’I’ll say!’’ said Tina before falling silent as she mentally reflected on all that. Her KOSTROMA had lately concentrated on cargo and passenger ferrying in the last few months, leaving the job of exploring the various star systems around the Solar System to a pair of specially-converted space liners and to three Spacers League Navy ships. Their quests for new habitable or exploitable worlds for Humanity had quickly turned up a treasure throve of habitable and exploitable planets and moons which were going to enable Humanity to expand and grow among the stars, taking at the same time much pressure off from the long-suffering Earth by allowing part of its excess population to emigrate to new homes under new suns. Apart from Tina’s own New Haven and from the Koorivars’ New Shouria, six new worlds had been found to be ideal for Human colonization, having breathable atmospheres, liquid water oceans, continents and moderate to ideal climates. Of those, Providence, the third planet of Alpha Centauri B, New Venice, a large moon in the Tau Ceti System, and New Polynesia, in the HD40307 System, had been given top priority for colonization, the three of them turning around main sequence K-Class orange or G-Class yellow stars fairly similar to the Sun and thus more natural for Humans to live under than M-Class red dwarf stars like the one around which New Shouria and New Haven turned around of. Added to those three top worlds, six other habitable planets or moons had been found to date, all of which would be suitable for Human occupation but had a bit less than ideal conditions. That count also kept growing every month, as the exploration ships of the Spacers League continued visiting the various star systems situated within a hundred light-years from Earth. Humanity was truly entering a new age right now, free to expand and multiply without the fear of overpopulation or of resources exhaustion. However, the Spacers League High Council had learned from the mistakes made in Earth’s past and had decreed that all the new worlds to be colonized or exploited would respect strict environmental standards, while the various local ecosystems would be kept intact as much as possible. Within a few years, Humanity was going to be solidly established on at least half a dozen new worlds and its long-term survival and prosperity would then be assured. Tina then thought about the Drazt of Ross 128 and felt some pity for them, despite the fact that they had treacherously attacked her ship after she had attempted a diplomatic mission there. The Drazt were in the same past predicament in which Humanity had found itself in until a mere four years ago, stuck inside a single star system with diminishing resources and a growing population, but had been in that situation for centuries already. It would be only just for the Drazt to finally manage to develop a working interstellar drive and thus become able to expand beyond their home star system and relieve the pressure on it. However, Tina was not going to accept that if it meant that the Drazt would use any new interstellar capability to attack the Solar System, or any other place where Humans would be.