Dark Fate, Chapter 93 (Patreon)

Chapter 93 – Colony Design

Coming out and revealing our presence to the world was causing a lot of changes. The biggest change was that we were going to start trying to recruit new people to join the growing colony on Ceres. New recruits would need jobs, and housing. That meant I needed to have a meeting with my design team, to see how things were going.

“So, how is construction going?”

Guse Shumis, my manufacturing overseer, bowed her head as I walked into the room. “Ah, Master. Construction is proceeding apace, thanks to the automated colony manufacturer. Estimates say that, once the final construction is finished, we will have room for a projected population of four million people. Life support systems will be made to handle twelve million, with multiple redundancies, but food production and energy concerns means that four is the maximum we can reliably be self-sufficient for. We could stretch that to eight million, maybe, if we switched solid food production to nutripaste manufacturing, but that, combined with the tight quarters, would likely lead to a dramatic drop in morale, which would lead to increased crime and other unpleasantness.”

I nodded. “Four million is fine. Send me a workup for what it would take to shift from normal food to nutripaste, just in case we need to invoke emergency measures of some kind. If we’re dealing with a refugee crisis, then I’d like to be out ahead of the game.”

“Of course, Master. I’ll have the relevant data sent to you as soon as we’re done here.”

“Good, now, I know military have already been moved to Ceres, but how soon do you think we can start bringing in new people? With our new status, people will be asking about immigration, and it would be great to have some kind of timeline for that.”

The Fimaazro looked down at her notes. “The Military District is already complete, including docking bays for fighters and shuttles, training facilities, and more, all according to galactic norms by the System, adjusted to human proportions. Population of the military sector is able to scale to thirty thousand people, plus support staff living in the Civilian sector.

“Primary power, life support, and food production have already been completed, and we will be able to start producing our own food in one month, with full self-sufficiency in three months. This was prioritized over civilian residential and commercial areas, for obvious reasons. Additionally, our industrial capability is fully constructed, and is just waiting on civilian workers to be brought in to run things, so we can begin expanding our production. Once workers are brought in, the Industrial Sector will be up and running within days. Docks in the Industrial Sector will be complete in ten days.

“Civilian residential and commercial districts are fifty-seven percent complete. However, even the completed areas are just structures, unfurnished, and there are no shops or other conveniences on the station, yet, except for the System Shop, which is in the Civilian Sector. Estimates say that the automated systems will take another six months to complete the Civilian Sector and the civilian spacedocks, which will cover commercial travel and shipping.”

“So, six months to start full immigration? That’s going to make things difficult, from a PR perspective. The longer we wait, the more we risk passing out of the public eye.”

Shumis, fortunately, was prepared for this kind of question, and quickly pulled up the alternate scenario figures that her team had prepared. “Well, we can switch priorities to finish the docks, first, and then complete the residential and commercial areas. That would allow immigration as early as two months with current facilities in place, but that would push back total completion time to seven months, due to having to re-task the constructors.”

I nodded once. “Go ahead and do that. Our first few batches of immigrants are certain to have spies in them, so keeping them out of the military and industrial centers until they’ve been cleared is going to be important.”

“Understood, Master. I’ll make the adjustments.”

“What is next on the agenda?”

“Industrial output, Master. There’s the question of what kind of manufacturing to prioritize.”

I nodded, understanding at once what she meant. While it was possible to just buy finished ships and other things from the System Shop, those things still needed to be produced. The reason they could be delivered, through the System, almost immediately (at least compared to normal production and delivery times) was not because they were created out of nothing, but because the things were already made, and in ‘limbo’ with the System until they got purchased.

There was a whole lot of math to explain it, but understanding the process took several advanced skills. Suffice to say, somehow the quibbles about conservation of mass and energy in the universe were smoothed over by the System, and so doing that didn’t make anything explode. Because magic.

At any rate, that was why manufacturing and industry hadn’t died out, across the galaxy. People still needed to actually make the stuff. And shipping didn’t die off, because the System took a substantial cut of earnings as fees, meaning that it was cheaper for both producers and buyers to ship products than putting them up on the System to be sent out automatically. Buying from the System meant that you were paying for speed and convenience. If you wanted something done cheaply, or customized in some way, you went to actual companies to do the work, instead of using the System.

“First priority will be military, I think. Weapons and armor for troops, as well as some of the systems that go into ships.”

I paused for a moment, thinking, and then said, “Once we have a line for arming our people, I want power supplies, both main and backups, to be the first priority. All sizes, from personal vehicles to starships. We’ll sell them to governments at first, so that they can upgrade their planes, wet navies, tanks, and the like. Have some kind of a System Lock on them, to allow repair, but not allowing reverse-engineering.”

“That would be a Denxic Restriction, Master. It prevents anyone of Tier 2 or lower from replicating an item, in part or in whole, with System-recognized skills. It does not affect repairs, even field repairs, but anyone below Tier 3 would have to train and understand the mechanics of the power systems, without purchasing the related Skills through the System.”

“How common are these restrictions?”

“Quite common in civilized space. Less so in uncivilized or fringe areas, because those are typically inhabited by pirates and slavers, using older technology. The Denxic Restriction will last twenty galactic standard years, which is roughly forty rotations of your homeworld around its star.”

I nodded once. Basically, it was a System version of a patent, but you didn’t have to worry about Chinese knockoffs unless someone was able to independently learn the skills to replicate it. And, really, the kind of people who could do that would likely not bother with replicating power supplies. Not on Earth, anyways, where the knowledge was too new.

“All right. Have them include these restrictions on everything we put out, from here on in. We’ll probably have competitors eventually, since the pirates left ships behind on the ground, but that will at least give us a solid head start before anyone can catch up to us.”

I paused, and said, “Also, have Kakuz come up with some plans for water conjuration. I know there are already templates in the System Shop for that, when upgrading a property, but I want something that we can build and sell to isolated areas.”

Shumis nodded. “Yes, Master. I know the things you’re talking about. There are already designs like that incorporated into Ceres, since Kakuz uploaded them to the constructors as they were digging.” She looked through her notes quickly, and said, “He has two designs. One is an industrial device, capable of producing one hundred liters of water per minute. The other is a portable version, capable of producing a liter of water every hour.”

I did a quick google search, followed by some calculations. Average water use in the US was 680 liters of water per capita per day. 100 liters per minute became 144,000 liters per day, which was enough for roughly 212 people. But that number included commercial and industrial uses. If you reduced it to just domestic and public needs, then the average was 380 liters per capita per day. The industrial system could take care of 379 people a day!

That wasn’t much, when you considered someplace like Tokyo, which boasted over thirty-seven million people in its metropolitan area, but it was another story entirely when you thought about poor communities dealing with deserts and drought. That could be a game changer, if the price was right, or I could find some way to spin this to my advantage.

I tabled that thought for a moment, and said, “What about this portable model? How portable is it? Are we talking about put it in the back of a truck portable, or magic canteen portable?”

“According to Kakuz’s notes, the portable version would be a little larger than a vessel to hold the water would be. The enchantment is on the inner lining of the vessel, so the only concern is not damaging the vessel. It is made extra rugged for that reason.”

“What kind of environments can it take?”

“You would need special models for areas below negative ten degrees or above forty degrees Centigrade. Within those conditions, however, the water will be stored and poured at twenty degrees Centigrade. That is part of the enchantment on the device.”

My eyes widened at that. A magic canteen that would keep water at a cool, drinkable temperature, even on a hot day, or when it was freezing outside? That was MAJOR!

“Right, new priority. Have the magic canteens moved to the front of the line. Include them in soldier kits, and also have them ready to sell on commercial markets. We are going to bring power and water to the world, starting in the poorest areas.”

I paused, and then said, “Leave the restriction off the portable water system. We’ll still sell them, but allow people to reverse engineer them. We’ll even come out saying that we aren’t going to be patenting or restricting the ‘magic waterjugs’ because we want it to get into the hands of as many people as possible.”

“Is that really so important, Master? How will you profit from that venture?”

I smiled at her. “Oh, that’s not about profit. It is about goodwill. People are scared of the warship sitting in orbit and what we can do. They’ll be even more scared when I start adding more ships to my fleet. But, if I start doing humanitarian efforts in the poorest areas, then we’ll get a lot of good press and public opinion. Even better, we’ll get recruits. There are a lot of people in those poor regions doing all sorts of things, just to try and survive. I will give them hope, and then I will give them a chance to do something bigger and better. I’ll offer them a future.”

“Oh, Master! That’s inspiring!”

“I hope so. That’s going to be the core of our public messaging from here on out.” I smiled, but I was already thinking of the next problem. Damn, I’m going to need to go on a hiring spree. There’s too much going on to simply rely on automation. And I didn’t want the forward-facing members of my team to be slaves. The PR people and the like needed to be employees, just in case someone used an Analysis skill on them.

I would be able to solve some of this through my new immigration push, that I was about to unleash on the world, but I wouldn’t be able to count on the right types of people, with the right skills, coming to me on their own. I needed to go out and find them, and get them on board, so that I could have things running mostly on their own, with only minor direction from me. I needed people who could do their jobs without my breathing down their necks and micromanaging, but who could be trusted, or contractually obligated, not to stab me in the back.

Fuck, this was getting more and more complicated. Back when I was the Black Knight, I just led the army, and my subordinates handled most things. I wasn’t cut out for micromanaging companies and countries. I needed an administrative staff to help me.