Chapter 71

Dear Willow and family,

We have (according to the AI) Katy's last heading. So as soon as possible several drones will be dispatched along that track. They will fly essentially parallel to it but above, below and to each side of where her ship should have been headed. Of course we won't give up hope until the wreckage is found, or the ship is found damaged so badly that she couldn't have survived.

Your reminder to me of the fragility of communication equipment has sent me to research in the stack of 'obsolete' equipment we received technical data on. I've begun searches there and in the stacks of technical data from human invention as well. What I'm looking for is battle hardened radios or the equivalent. One thing that frustrated me as I began researching the tug that Katy was flying is the lack of redundant systems. I sent a note to Marcie as she is essentially the head of ship design here suggesting strongly that we install backup communication gear and other systems as she felt might be necessary in our in system fleet. Honestly with several dozen asteroids available and a factory replicator to build what we wanted, the only difficulty will be getting the replicator to build things it doesn't now have a pattern for. I also sent her the files I used to coax my machine shop replicator to make things from CAD files. I don't know if she uses CAD, but I'm sure someone in her section does.

I've culled a couple of designs from the human files for durable antennae and added a couple of tiny acceleration dampers to a radio. I looked at the file for your tank and am going to send you a design with this letter that should keep the radio from getting bumped around too badly. That seems to be the issue with all of the electronics that I'm looking at. They all seem to be fragile. So the answer seems to me to be to put them into a cage of acceleration dampers. The question will be whether or not the acceleration dampers interfere with the radio's operation. If so it will be back to the drawing board for me. Normally I wouldn't rely on a computer model to tell me if that was true or not, but I'm aboard the Aer Lingus so that will have to be someone else's problem. One thing I discovered when I got aboard the Aer Lingus was that a normal Stagecoach class ship carries one pod (which is the 'Captain's' pod) with power and nine without. This is because under normal circumstances the cargo for a Stagecoach will not require power. Marcie stretched (if you can call it that) the power to four pods so that the Stagecoach could be used to pick up people. Not a great number of people, but then if we need more powered space Marcie may look at modifying the stockyard design.

Holly insisted on going with me. Marissa didn't want to let her go, really I didn't want to let her go either, but I was persuaded after reviewing the after action reports of several successful Civil Service Officers. Hopefully I won't need more than one assistant, 'cause I certainly wouldn't want to take all the concubines left in the house to help me. I'll have to keep my eyes open for leaders and trouble makers among the concubines that I am bringing back. Hopefully I can identify the first before they become the second, and identify the trouble makers before they gather a following so that I can either isolate them or set them to tasks that will keep them from causing trouble among the others who I will be shepherding back to their new families.

Still I'd be more foolish than usual not to heed the warning that is implied by all of the reports, that is that I will need an assistant. And since Holly asked first and since I only feel comfortable about taking one of the concubines from our household she seems to be the best choice. Since everyone else is hurting with Katy being missing, I doubt that Marissa will have any challenges beyond finding one of her remaining concubines to take charge. Everyone who is left is so submissive that it may take weeks for them to even ask to be used sexually!