Admiral Douglas's office TCS Mastiff: Admiral Douglas sat behind his desk, he was remembering the party last night, and he smiled. He didn't usually go for big public celebrations, but as Captain Tate pointed out to him during the party, it was good for crew morale. He also thought of the present Terry had given him after the party. As much as he wished to dwell on these thoughts, he knew he had other tasks to work on. He pressed the intercom button, "Ensign, please schedule a senior staff meeting for 10:00 today. And have the Captains attend."

"Yes sir."

Now he walked over to the wall safe, "This is Vice Admiral Lucas S. Douglas. ID Number 27 Zeta Delta 2613630 Gamma. Verify." he waited while the computer accessed the data.

"Voice and ID Number verified. Stand by for Retinal scan."

The computer scanned his eyes and then flashed a conformation. He opened the safe and took out a sealed leather case.

..
Conference room Beta TCS Mastiff 10:00 hrs: Everyone had taken a seat, and most of the senior staff of the Mastiff was wondering why all of the Captains were there as well. Usually the section heads only attended their staff meetings. Even the Captains were curious as to why the Admiral had asked them to attend. Everyone came to attention as the Admiral entered the room.

"At ease. Please take your seats."

Once everyone was seated, the Admiral opened the leather case he had brought with him. "As all of you know, the war with the Kilrathi was not going well for Confed. So five years ago, it was decided to develop a contingency plan if the war got worse. This was called Operation Phoenix. The operation was designed so that any surviving battle group could restart the human race in a new system far from the Kilrathi. Well I don't need to tell you, that we are as far from the Kilrathi as we can get. So I have decided to implement Operation Phoenix here, but with some changes."

He waited to see if anyone had any questions.He slid a disk into the computer port on the table, and the screen behind him activated. The screen showed a list of materials and supplies.

"The original plans for the operation were designed for a new colony to be set up and operational in less than a year, we have most of these materials. We also have the luxury of not having an enemy breathing down our neck as we set up our new world. So what I want from all of you is to review the scan data that we have from the Vega system, and determine were we will set up our first city. Secondly, I want you to review the supplies we have, and determine what we will need to make a go of this colony. Finally, I also want your suggestions on what areas of our technology we can adapt for sale here. Start with our older designs first, we don't want to flood these people with to much tech all at once."

..
After several hours of reviewing the data from the Vega scans, and the lists of the supplies available throughout the battle group, the captains had made to a few discoveries. The Admiral just looked at Captain Jakoub, "You're sure about this?"

Captain Jakoub just nodded, "Yes sir. Apparently the quartermaster messed up sir. The amount of seed plants we have is nowhere near what we're going to need."

The Admiral just exhaled slowly, "Alright then, any other problems?"

"No sir. The other materials we have. We can also use the fabricating equipment on the ship tenders to process most of the raw materials we can gather from the Vega Asteroids."

"What about building plans?"

Captain Tate looked at him, "Already in the computers, under the Operation Phoenix file. By using them and the materials we have, along with those we process, we can build a star port and city in about 11 months."

The admiral looked at him, "Have you decided on a location?"

"Yes sir."

Captain Tate activated the monitor, "We believe here would be a good location sir. The ground is fairly level, and since it's in the equatorial region, the temperature changes will be minimal. And sir, it's at least 700 Km from any of the fault lines."

..
Now the Admiral looked at the section heads, "What about sellable technology."

Commander Langford stood up, "Well sir, we recommend that we start with items that we can easily manufacture for now. Then once we have the needed facilities built we can expand on what we sell."

He just nodded, "So what would we sell first?"

"Inertial dampening systems, gravity plating, and basic EM shielding technology."

"That sounds good, can we safeguard them?"

Hershell smiled, "Yes sir. All of the systems have one or two key electronic components. We'll just do what the IBM people did in the later half of the 21st century."

The Admiral just looked at her with a quizzical look on his face. "Well sir, they made their key components with a built in safety feature. A small amount of a Magnesium based compound, that when exposed to air would ignite and destroy the component. The main part of the components will be enclosed in a high impact polymer, completely airtight."

..
Now the Admiral smiled as he followed the line of thought, "So the only way anyone can look at the circuitry is to open the polymer, and then poof." he saw all of the section heads smiling, and a few were close to giggling.

"Yes Admiral, something like that."

Now Commander Sison of the Cu Chulainn spoke up, "What if they open the components in an airless environment?"

The Admiral looked at Hershell, "Well Commander?" She just looked at them, "I guess we'll have to work on something for that one sir."

The admiral just nodded, "Ok people, we're off to a good start. I'll expect detailed reports from each of you on what problems we may run into, and also possible solutions in 48 hours. Dismissed."

After most everyone had left, Captain Tate walked up to the Admiral. "So Luke, just how is it you knew about this operation? None of the Captains knew about it."

The Admiral just looked at him, then he activated the monitor and typed in a command code. He then scrolled through the Operational plans, and stopped at the new final page. Captain Tate read the impressive list of names on the page, and he recognized a few of them. Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn, General James Taggert, Admiral William Terrill, and Vice Admiral Lucas Douglas.

"So that's what you were doing at Confed headquarters two years ago."

The Admiral just looked at him, "Guilty as charged."

..
Admiral Douglas's office 08:00: Admiral Douglas was going over the stores list again, there had to be a solution. He then looked at the solution that Commander Langford had suggested for the component security issue.

He smiled to himself, "Well she and her team are resourceful." The commander suggested that two layers of a polymer coating encase the components. The first layer would trap a small amount of air around the circuitry, and on the outside of the first coating, the magnesium compound would be placed. The whole assembly would then be coated with an additional polymer coating. She was fairly certain that this would protect the circuitry designs. Now the Admiral reviewed the manpower requirements that would be needed to begin building their new home. His people could do most of the work, but as much as he didn't want to admit it, they were going to need some help. Then there was the issue of the seed plants that they would need. He also had to review the reports from his JAG people, and their ideas on how to set up their own corporation.

He sat back and just rubbed his temples now, "Why didn't I just stay a privateer?"

Then he smiled to himself, and remembered all the things he had done over the years since joining Confed. Now he pulled his chair back up to his desk and started going over the reports again.