Chapter 19

Felix Arburthson was a little apprehensive but not surprised when "Shriek" went up into cosmic space to journey to Gorgipest. He was somewhat distracted by the enthusiasm of Sir Henry Bollinger's playing with the star maps he had adjusted by 'removing' the Milky Way stars Navigation in cosmic space was going to require powerful 'puters with almost bank vault size memory. The voyage in cosmic space took about two hours as opposed to seven days by a fast freighter in the upper hyper bands

Harbour Control at Gorgipest were not surprised at the quick return of "Shriek" as they had the tribal memory of its antics over the years. McCock had used the FTL links to establish a Search And Rescue time procedure (SAR Time) notifying "The Residence" of their arrival. GmBH were surprised at their quick turnaround and carefully refrained from any comment on the circumstances when told.

Felix moved into Suite No1 which had been cleared of Cowboy's effects. Sally recommenced her duties as yeoman-writer in the Purser's outer office and moved into the Captain's Cabin which raised Angie's eyebrows.

By the time the Riders, accompanied by the missile carriers, were berthed at the Ferguson yards, McCock, the senior GmBH Avers and Angie had made arrangements for the returning two thousand or so 'Gorgis'; they were sent on leave.

A review of GmBH's contracts with the navy revealed that only one was held for continuing supply of heavily armed cutters and payment for these were six months behind schedule at that point. The Gnats had been a speculative build on McCock's request and there were no further contracts for UVAs; the U90s were covered by a contract covering experimental equipment and had been halted pending assessment. Work had been frozen on a frigate contract because of the policy change leaving GmBH with a nearly completed frigate in the fitting out yards.

Because of the damage caused by the Harbourian raid, Gorgipest had been reduced to an outpost of the Kingdom as another multinational had discovered. Its new orbital yard was underutilised and haemorrhaging money. The parent company was in financial straits because of a major loss on Old Earth and were looking for buyers of several assets. Angie had supplied the information in way of general briefing of the economic situation on Gorgipest for the GmBH management team. Sir Joshua and Angie had investigated the matter as a possible investment. GmBH was awash with funds because the great majority of the beneficiaries of the various Gorgipest salvage and 119 transactions had invested in GmBH. Being eminently pragmatic, the financial advice accepted by Sir Joshua and Angie had been to establish a merchant bank in Geneva on Old Earth where it had become a small but successful player. Sir Joshua had used family connections to establish Gorgipest Merchant Bank Holdings and his only complaint was that of problems caused by delays in information transfer but the problem was not unique to GmBH.

This discussion had come about following McCock's revelation that he was looking at transferring operations and people to somewhere out of the line of fire and to do that a passenger liner would be needed and work and accommodation thereafter. Sir Joshua accepted the task of investigating these matters but warned they would take time. The meeting broke up

McCock immersed himself in familiarising himself with the greatly expanded organisation existing under the flag of GmBH. Denny, Polack and Slow had been joined by Felix and were generally getting in the way of the Avers working in the 'shops until firmly dressed down by Paul and Theo; understanding that the Flock were bored, the Avers then firmly integrated them into the lower echelons of the workforce.

Contacts had been quickly established between "Trader" and "The Residence" using the existing FTL commercial links which had been re-established since 119's departure; information had also been passed onto "The Mansion". Things had been temporarily left on a deferred decision basis.

Five days after "Shriek" had returned, McCock held a conference with the Flock and working on the basis of one thing at a time allocated the tasks.

Slow and Denny to modify U94, now in R1's holds, to be able to interface with Old Earth's orbital communications systems keeping its ability to retransmit selected newsfaxes and vid news programmes; the base information for this was contained in information McCock had obtained from Sir Joshua previously. Denny estimated two days. U95 was to be upgraded to pick up signals in the bandwidths which were used by Harbourian Navy; the Riders still had the signal books and even though the codes would have been changed, McCock doubted the bands had.

Polack to contact Timothy and Desmond Avers and to oversee their tying everything down that wasn't already welded to the hull. Please talk with Hardman to get an explanation. Also "Shriek" to be subjected to another inspection.

Felix find Bollinger and then get together with Algy Hardman to get star maps Gorgipest — Sol.

Denny and Slow to confirm the neither U94 nor U95 had Period or Holeinspace but did have Passive in both satellites.