Chapter 37

"That's it!" screamed Slow coming over the Flock's com. link, "no more, I'm feyed with this local ordering. Aggy, we need a 'gofor'!"

McCock found Slow in a pile of mashed and melted mache in the lounge. She was pounding a crumpled mess into a smaller mess with a glue gun. As she heard McCock enter the lounge, she had turned to him offering him a twisted offering of some material which was burnt around the edges.

She snarled,

"That's two days work. It blister'ering melted; its crap. I want to play with this stuff, not have to run all over dirtside trying to find the stuff that coherently glues. Besides," she added slyly, "you're behind on the yard reports; and we are starting to get items coming by secure transport requiring signature. I've decided! We need a 'gofer'; female; can handle small vessels; understands record keeping, red tape and such; can keep secrets and generally keep busy."

Rather helplessly, McCock asked,

"I'll regret asking, why female?"

With a huge smile, Slow looked at him answering immediately.

"Decorative, keep me company, will have a better taste in food and will be inherently neat and tidy. She can bunk in second class passenger cabin and work in purser's office. Dine with us of course."

Denny proffered,

"How about 'Mina."

"She's only decorative," snorted Slow.

"And where do I find such a paragon if she exists?" McCock asked. Slow gave him a very school mistressy look,

"Navy, of course. Writer, with coxswain as second, Silas."

Polack moaned,

"She's been around Hugh for too long."

"No," considered Cowboy, "Hugh would never have added the "of course". Still not a bad idea, Aggy. There are any number of small jobs, such as "Offspring's" davits, what range of sizes available etc. I'd rather be playing with my tubes which arrive tomorrow. I'll need modelling for sure and that is going to take longer then hull construction. The 'puter does fine once it's told what to do and in general design work but it's getting down to the dirty hands bit now."

McCock checked with Hugh who couldn't help,

"Writer's not a family trade. Galbraiths are coming on, 'Mina's better on hand tools".

Nodded and dismissed himself to work on the seamer with Tony.

McCock passed the request up the chain of command and then got to his work doing the week's revictualling wryly smiling to himself.

The Flock might have been just a touch enthusiastic about modelling but it got dulled as they realized how tedious it was and messy and toxic. The lounge was not designed as a workshop, but they shifted their enthusiasm to bring about differing environments and quickly built a makeshift workshop in A tweendeck. They didn't remember who first came up with the idea but they cheated; and having decided to cheat they did it on a grand scale. They learnt early that hot atmosphere speeded up the curing of the material. They also found that time in a warm atmosphere was as good if great care was taken with the resins. The Flock knew care; they were still nerds who just communicated and interacted better; they lived obsessive; forget anything as trivial as mere great care. They had been plastering the hull itself with the fabric in sizes which would fit through the No 5 hatch. Now at the end of working week, they plastered parts of the project, left them cure slowly over the week end, and late middle watch first day removed the cured pieces, through AB hatch and into A tween. They had also found that the gravity in the accommodation was unkind to models but they found the original sizing to be convenient. With bulkhead bracing, the model retained its shape and soon there was almost a complete forward end of the project. Nothing was made final off the model. The 'puter and eyeball Mk1 had to confirm, but it did save a bit of worry and heartache over the ensuing months of fitting out.