Full Circle Snippet 5

Sitrep: So, expect Full Circle to be published September 14. That is this Friday.

   Second, I'm starting to decompress and work on my projects. One of them, my flying ID-10 I started just hit a major wall. While putting the legs together I ran into serious brittle, warp, and cracking issues. I know shrinkage caused some of the fitting issues, and I know printing at 5% infill or hollow didn't help. I thought printing with ABS and then hardening it with hot acetone would help.
Nuh uh.
Okay, so, static model it is. I'm so dispirited with it I'm just going to make it as a standing model. I'm not going to try to figure out how to vacuum form the body or anything. I'll print a base for it later in the week.
As my sister said when she heard the news, bummer.
  But, at least I'm not buying a ton of stuff to try to get the little droid to fly. It would have really sucked if I'd gotten it up only to see it crash into something and blow apart in a million pieces.
Pass.
  I do need to buy a lot of bondo filler to finish it. (seriously) Getting the warps out is going to be tough too. Ugh. I'm not even going to add lights to it. Just finish it, paint it, pose, touch up, and then move on to the next project. Which is currently printing. :)

On to the snippet!

Chapter 4 

Childress Shipwrights went down with the matriarch when she and other supporters were found guilty. Mrs. Childress remained silent as she was escorted to prison. Her family's company was taken apart by the courts and sold off to pay creditors. The media reported that she and others had filed appeals but had been denied bail and an opportunity to sit those appeals out when their personal fortunes had been drained. They had tried to drum up sympathy over the massive court fees, but no one was interested.

Several retired supporters of Admiral Childress were tried in civilian court and found guilty. One committed suicide. Two others had died under mysterious circumstances. The others were sentenced, though a few like Admiral Open Eyes turned on his fellows and for a reduced sentence had testified against them, sealing their fate.

Each of the contractors who had supported Childress was blackballed from government or naval contracts. That hit their bottom line, and investors left in droves. Fabian CNC makers went under. Snipclick Enterprises did a day later.

Baker, the Neocat who had come from Pyrax, took a position in a newly-reformed industrial board in order to make sense of the chaos. He had sternly taken charge, settling some of the market jitters in the process.

It wasn't without its trials though. He found that even though the political animals were down, they were by no means beaten. Some back-scratching was still going on behind the scenes.

When he heard the lobbyists were scrambling and the subcontractors were ticked, he knew something was up. It didn't take him long to use his taps into the scuttlebutt to get to the bottom of it. When he did he just groaned and shook his head.

~~(O)~~

Horatio wasn't surprised that the various review boards were scrambling to justify their jobs while screaming to their friends to do something to cover for them. Some of those same friends had gotten their contracts through suspicious means. He'd been tempted to sic the IG office or JAG on them but had held off. Suspicious activity wasn't proof without evidence to back it up.

Lieutenant Olson and the others he had recruited had at first been cautious, but then had gleefully pointed out the most boisterous obstructionists in the byzantine review process. They had spent the first day going over a flow chart and seeing what dead weight could be lost to straighten the process out and streamline it.

He'd been a little irritated but not surprised that Commander Dreamer of Ships had let the cat out of the bag to some of the contractors. Beau had pointed to a yeoman who had also done the same. So be it.

He sent his pitch to Zek with a copy to Antigua. Zek approved of the changes. Antigua took a little longer but also approved the changes.

That was when he was called into Vice Admiral Maok's office.

Vice Admiral Richard Maok had been a dinosaur who had resigned in protest when Childress had first taken over. When he'd taken up Admiral Irons' offer and returned to duty, he'd taken over the Weapons Development Board. According to their research, he was the primary culprit for some of the recent delays in the ship approval process.

The funny thing was he hadn't run across the admiral or many of the review boards when he had designed and built Ilmarinen. Apparently, Childress or someone else had browbeat them into getting them to accept the design in order to see it blow up in Horatio's face or to get rid of Horatio all together.

Either way, he had to deal with the man now.

It was a little amusing when he was called in to the vice admiral's office like an errant child sent to the principal's office for being too rambunctious.

“Look Logan, I don't know how they do it out there, and I really don't care. But here, we take our jobs seriously. And I don't like threats,” the admiral stated once Horatio had reported to his office.

“I wasn't aware you were threatened, Admiral,” Horatio stated carefully, checking for implants. The admiral had the basic ID implants but nothing more. He regretted not letting Beau access the admiral's BUPERS file. He'd denied the simple request because he had thought someone in BUPERS would have noticed.

“Are you after my job? Just what do you want?”

“Admiral, each of those ship designs was approved by the Antigua design review process. They are in full production there and in Pyrax. Yet for some reason the boards here have refused to allow them to be put into production. There have been all manner of excuses. I noted this wasn't a problem when Admiral Irons was here. Yet, now that he isn't, there is a problem.”

“Are you insinuating something, Logan?”

“No, sir. Just reflecting about the timing,” Horatio replied with an indifferent shrug.

“I take my job very seriously as do the others on the board. We exist for a reason.”

“Currently the job you are doing is redundant. That is why we are streamlining the process.”

The vice admiral glared at him. “I don't have to justify my job to you.”

“Admiral, I am the deputy commander of BUSHIPS. It's my job to make sure these designs are put into production as quickly and as painlessly as possible. It's my job to also eliminate waste and redundancy. It isn't personal.”

“The hell you say!”

“Well, you have several options here. You can try to fight it, but I've already gotten permission from Admiral Zekowitz as well as the Antigua Admiralty to move the dismantling process along. Or, you can do something. Something constructive would be to transfer to Antigua and take up your old job there.”

He didn't state that he highly doubted the admiral would be allowed to take the job in the first place— not the way he acted.

“Excuse me?”

“Antigua. The capital. The Federation Weapons Development Board is there. It is redundant to have one here as well as I mentioned. The one in Pyrax was shut down and shifted to the capital some time ago. I suppose we've been lax in that we didn't do that here now. I'll have to contact Admiral Irons and see about arranging the transfer.”

The vice admiral stared at him for a long moment. “That's not necessary.”

“Oh, I think it is. He hates waste. And, since the Federation Senate has been on him about wasteful spending practices, then this is important.”

“I mean, we don't really need to bother him. We can work this out.”

“Oh?”

“Well …”