Daughters of Demeter

"That's incredible," Tamsin commented with a thoughtful frown on her face. "So you and Ellery both survived, but you both thought the other'd been killed. Then being reunited after all those years, only to discover how much you'd both changed..."

Rebecca grimaced, "It was a shock. A lot of shocks. For both of us. I'm glad she's ok, and I know she hasn't had it easy there on Deveron-8. I think she's happy though? She's got a family, husband and son, and the people like her well enough to make her their mayor. Or at least they respect her anyways."

"The folks there respect strength," Cam said quietly. "And Mrs. Wheeler's a strong woman. And a fair number of them like her too. She's not always as bad as she was when y'all were there? The last couple years have been really hard on everyone, but especially the mayor."

Tamsin sighed and shook her head, "I can't even imagine how difficult that must be for those poor people. Years of drought without any help from the government? It's a travesty. If things are that bad then why haven't they asked other worlds for help?"

"I know we're all supposed to be independent," she added, "But people still care for each other. We're all in the same sector, and we all need each other."

Cam frowned as they responded, "Mr. Wheeler says the government's corrupt and incompetent. He says they won't ask any other worlds for help on account of not wanting to look weak, or being scared they'll get toppled if outside help comes in and stirs things up."

Our guest scowled, "Sounds like the worst kind of politicians. All they care about is power and looking after themselves."

Rebecca sighed, "It's an awful situation, but there really isn't anything we can do about it."

"I know," Tamsin said as her shoulders slumped. "It's so frustrating though. If they'd just ask for help I'm sure the situation would be resolved soon enough. Ecclestone's World and Tragentis-3 could provide enough food to keep the population going, and Rolandan-2 could send a team of technicians to fix whatever's gone wrong with the Deveron climate."

That left some surprised looks on a few faces around the table. I was about to ask, when Sarah beat me to it.

"How do you fix the climate?" my cute engineer girlfriend asked.

Tamsin shrugged, "This sector wasn't settled all that long ago, and all these worlds were terraformed. That's not a one-time process, it takes ages, and Deveron-8 was one of the last worlds to be settled. My guess is the terraforming equipment has broken down or malfunctioned somehow, and the process is either starting to unravel or it's gone awry one way or another."

"Like any machinery the terraforming stations need to be maintained," she added. "It's highly specialized work, but Rolandan-2 probably has a few hundred technicians and engineers trained to look after our own terraforming installations."

I scowled, "From what Mr. Wheeler said, it's not hard to imagine the Deveron government skimping on maintenance. Or cutting it entirely, to save money."

Rebecca looked surprised by at least some of that information. And from the look on Cam's face it was news to them too.

Our boss commented, "I knew all these worlds were terraformed, but I had no idea that was an ongoing process. I don't think I've ever seen a terraforming station. Or if I have, I didn't recognize what it was for. What do they look like?"

"They're big," Tamsin replied, "But they tend to end up underwater. My understanding of the process is the stations are decommissioned and dismantled as they become redundant, but the last two would be at or near the poles. They'll remain running as long as required, to keep the climate stable and make sure the process takes hold permanently."

Jenny asked our guest, "You seem very knowledgable on the subject. Was that something you studied before deciding to follow in your father's footsteps here at the shipyard?"

Tamsin shook her head, "Pretty much everyone on Rolandan-2 should know this stuff. It's part of the basic curriculum at school. Every child learns how our planet was settled and about the big terraforming project that made our world habitable, and why the climate stays so pleasant all the time."

"Ah," the AI nodded. "That is certainly one of the many benefits of a comprehensive and competent educational system."

Cammie cringed, "There wasn't much call for ancient history lessons, growing up in a farming community."

"I'm sorry Cam I didn't mean any disrespect," Jenny apologized to them immediately. "I wasn't trying to compare your world to this one."

The cat-kin blushed slightly, "I know that. I was just saying why I didn't know about all that stuff myself, even though it sounds like it's awfully important."

It looked like the android was about to respond to that when she paused. Then she addressed the boss, "Helen Ortega is approaching. I can go down to the lower deck and meet her if you like captain?"

"Thanks Jenny but I'll go see her myself," Rebecca replied as she got to her feet. "I'm sure we'll end up here with the rest of you, but she might want to have a look at the goods on our way up."

"I doubt it," Tamsin responded. "It's really not her area of expertise."

The boss just nodded as she headed towards the starboard ladderway.

Then Cam asked, "So um, how does this work? Selling the salvage I mean? And are we going to be staying here for a while?"

"Shipyard staff will offload the salvaged equipment," Tamsin explained to our newest shipmate. "A few of our people will inspect the goods, maybe run diagnostics on it, and come up with a value that they think we could sell it at. That gets reported to Helen, and she'll apply a discount to come up with the amount the shipyard would pay for it, so we can make a profit. That can take a few hours or up to a day or so, then she'll meet with Rebecca again and give her our offer."

There was a teasing tone in Sarah's voice as she asked, "Is that one of your jobs now? Will you be inspecting the goods and deciding what it's worth?"

The ravenette engineer smiled but shook her head, "I certainly could, but on paper I don't have the experience. I'm far too young and much too new at the job. Which is kind of funny considering I trained the guys who'll actually be evaluating your salvage."

"It's fine though," she added with a shrug. "Easier to pretend I'm as new as I look rather than try and explain to the whole shipyard who I really am and how I came to look like this."

Tamsin smiled at Cam as she added, "Incase you haven't guessed yet, I'm another one of Jenny's satisfied customers. I'm assuming you are as well, based on your apparent age and the feline enhancements?"

The cat-kin blushed but nodded quietly. They didn't have a chance to respond though, as Rebecca returned with Helen. She motioned for the shipyard boss to have a seat at the table, while she moved to prepare a cup of coffee for the older woman.

As usual Helen was smartly dressed in a professional suit skirt outfit, and she had her leather-bound datapad with her again as well. She paused for a moment when seeing our newest shipmate, before our other guest distracted her.

"Hi Helen," Tamsin greeted her boss with a happy smile. "Things must be busy in the office, we've been waiting for you to show up."

Ms. Ortega gave the teen a look as she replied, "Things are always busy in the offices Miss Lancaster. That's one of the signs of a successful shipyard."

Tamsin rolled her eyes, "You don't have to 'Miss Lancaster' me here Helen, we're among friends."

Rebecca set a fresh coffee mug down in front of Helen before taking her own seat as she pointed out, "We may all be friends but we do need to discuss some business."

"Indeed," the older woman agreed. After thanking the boss for her coffee she looked at Tamsin and asked, "Were you planning on taking the rest of the day off? Or are you going to finish the engine overhaul on that Sparrow-class scout on schedule?"

Our younger guest pouted, "Fine, I'll get back to work."

"Maybe we can meet up later though?" she added as she gave Rebecca a hopeful smile. "My shift's over in about four hours."

The boss nodded, "We'll be around, I'm sure we'll be in touch. See you later."

Tamsin flashed us all another smile as she got to her feet, "It's great to see you all again. And nice to meet you Cammie."

The rest of us bid her a good afternoon as she headed for the starboard ladderway, and needless to say she didn't need anyone to see her out.

Meanwhile Helen had a sip of her coffee then addressed Rebecca, "I'll have some people offload the salvage, then I'll have a price for you after we've inspected it. Probably first thing in the morning, unless you're in a hurry?"

"Tomorrow morning's fine Helen," the boss replied. "There's not as much this time, only enough to fill the secondary hold."

She continued, "There's a triple pulse laser turret, that's the biggest single piece we recovered. There's also a point defence laser turret and twelve triple poppers, er, high-density ablative cloud projectors I mean. Finally there's a full sensor array, and an older but intact computer core."

Helen activated her datapad and made a few notes on it regarding the salvage, then transmitted that back to her office. After that she responded, "I'll have some people here in a few minutes with grav-assist loaders to get the cargo out of your hold. Was there anything else we can do for you while you're here?"

Rebecca hesitated, then glanced at me. She finally responded, "My crew have been trying to convince me to get a safe or locker installed somewhere on the ship. Rather than just leaving our valuables out in the open on shelves in the hold?"

"To be honest I was going to talk to Tamsin about that." the boss admitted. "I figured she might have some suggestions or ideas. I don't want to give up a corner of my own cabin for a big safe, but I don't like the idea of a safe or locker out in the open. To me that feels like advertising that there's something worth stealing."

Ms. Ortega grimaced slightly, "Obviously we do have staff to help with those sorts of design decisions, but Tamsin lacks the experience to be one of them. On paper anyways. But if you want to talk it over with her when she's not on the clock that's fine with me. If you make a decision just let me know and I'm sure we'll be able to take care of it for you."

"I get it," Rebecca smiled. "Thanks Helen."

The shipyard boss nodded once, then commented "By the way I have to thank you for some recent referrals. I met with some friends of yours just a couple days ago, in fact? The MV Persephone paid us a visit. Captain Nieves and Miss Magniveen spoke rather highly of you and your crew."

"As did a Lieutenant Ferguson of the Imperium Starship Kennington," she added. "Having a navy frigate show up in orbit looking to talk to us specifically caused a bit of a stir in certain circles, but the profit on that job was well worth the hassle."

The boss cringed slightly when she heard Gwen's name, and it wasn't hard to guess she was worried the diplomat said something about Rebecca's royal title. Then after the Imperium ship was mentioned she asked, "I hope things went ok with the Imperium folks? We haven't seen them around lately, I don't suppose they said they were going home after you helped them out?"

"They were very tight-lipped about their plans," Helen responded. "And while Lieutenant Ferguson seemed pleased with the parts and equipment we supplied his ship, Captain McClure did not sound terribly happy when I spoke with her via comm."

Sarah commented, "Not surprising. I'm sure she hated having to rely on 'untrusted civilian parts'. Andy's a good man though, he'd have put in a good word for you after he verified the parts himself."

"How did things go with the Persephone?" Rebecca asked. "You said they were here a few days ago, I take it we just missed them?"

Ms. Ortega responded, "You missed them by two days. I believe they were on their way to Port Ecclestone, after picking up a cargo from one of the local manufactories. And normally I wouldn't discuss one client's business with another, but since they're your referral I will say things went fine. We didn't do any work for them, it was more of a preliminary meeting to establish a relationship. Captain Nieves plans to rely on us for the Persephone's maintenance and repairs going forward."

"Good," Sarah stated. "The Persephone deserves a top-notch maintenance team like you have here."

At that point Jenny spoke up again, "Captain? There is a large flat-bed grav-sled outside, and three of Ms. Ortega's employees are here to unload the salvage."

Rebecca smiled, "In that case, Helen why don't you and I head down to the lower deck and let them in? I'll show them what to offload, and we'll go from there."

"The rest of you can take it easy for now," she added as she and Helen got up and started heading aft towards the lift in engineering. "As soon as the unloading's done we can figure out our plans for the rest of our stay on this world."