Chapter 36

Admiral Douglas's quarters TCS Mastiff: The admiral had been reviewing the plans that everyone had submitted, and he smiled to himself.

"Well Confed did always try to have the best people."

He had been surprised by the proposal submitted by Fleet Captain Tate, that they develop a line of smaller fighters and transports based on old Confed designs. After all, the designs were in the database of the ships, and they would be fairly easy to produce. And this way they could introduce new tech to the EA without giving away their best secrets. He had had two more proposals that had peaked his interest; the first was from Lt Commander Hershell. She suggested that they get the designs of the EA jump engines, and see if we could improve on them. The second one was from Dr. Lloyd, she wanted to start a program to help advance the medical techniques in the EA, using natural pharmaceuticals and techniques used by Confed.

..
He knew that all of these proposals would have to wait until after the colony was up and running. Now he had a few problems that he had to solve, the problem of the seed plants would take some finagling, but he had an idea of who to talk to and he hit his intercom.

"Tony, how much longer before my guest arrives?"

"He should be here in about an hour sir."

"Thank you Tony. Would you please put a call into General Hague, and then ask Dr. Lloyd to be here for my meeting with my guest."

"Yes sir."

His monitor came on a minute later, and he saw the General. "What can I do for you Admiral?"

"Well General, I've been going over the requirements for our colony on Vega, and I find that we have a slight shortage of qualified manpower."

"And you need our help. Admiral, the Vice President and the President have already said that any help you need, you get. So what kind of manpower do you need?"

"Builders and Engineers General. Ones that won't mind learning a few new tricks."

The General smiled, "I think the EA Corp of Engineers will be more than happy to help out Admiral. But I should warn you, they might remember what you show them."

Both men laughed a little, "I don't think that will be a problem General."

"So how soon will you need them?"

"Well we're still in the planning stage, but our best estimates on a real start time is one month."

"I'll contact General Leftcourt, and we'll get things moving on our end then."

"Thank you General."

The signal ended and the Admiral smiled to himself, "Well that's one problem solved."

..
Just under an hour later, Ensign Femia told the Admiral that his guest had arrived. "Have him come in Tony."

"Yes sir."

The door opened and Nick Charles entered the Admiral's office. He still looked a little in shock, but the Admiral took that in stride. They shook hands and the Admiral pointed to a chair in front of his desk.

"Mr. Charles, do you remember what you told me back on the station?"

"Yes Admiral, I said if you ever needed anything, you just had to ask."

The admiral smiled, "Well Mr. Charles, I'm going to take you up on that offer. And I might be able to help your career as well."

Now Nick Charles was paying full attention, "How so admiral?"

The Admiral leaned forward, "It seems that in the near future, my people are going to need a rather large amount of a variety of seed plants."

Ensign Femia buzzed the Admiral, "Sir, Dr. Lloyd is here."

"Send her in."

Both men stood as the Dr. entered. "Dr. Lloyd, this is Nick Charles, Terry's father. Mr. Charles, this is Dr. Lloyd."

Heidi smiled at him, "It's a pleasure to meet you sir."

Nick Charles took her extended hand, "The honor is mine Dr. Lloyd."

..
The three of them sat down around the Admiral's desk again.

"So admiral, call me Nick, you were saying how we could help each other?"

"Well Nick, as I said, we're going to be needing a large amount of seed plants to provide our new home with a solid base stock. But the problem we're facing is that we don't have any currency. EA or otherwise."

Nick was just nodding, "So what are you proposing to trade?"

The Admiral smiled, Nick was sounding more like a wheeling and dealing Sr. Chief than a corporate sales rep. He looked at Heidi, "Doctor."

"Yes sir. Nick, have you ever had a cold?"

He looked at her, "Of course, everybody gets one now and then."

She smiled, "What if I told you, that you could get rid of all of your symptoms in less than two hours, with no adverse effects. No dry mouth, no racing heartbeat, and no drowsiness. And the cure is completely natural."

"Right, a new miracle drug."

She just looked at him, "Not really Nick. In fact, people have been using this cure for the last several hundred years."

Nick just looked at her, "Really?"

..
Heidi looked at him and she could see the doubt in his eyes. "The cure is made from ordinary wild flowers, and Native American healers have been using it for at least a millennium."

Nick just smiled at her, "OK Doc, I'll bite. Would you happen to have any of this new drug on you that my people can run test's on?"

Heidi opened her med kit, "Would you like the tablet or inject able forms?"

Nick smiled now, "I'll take both. I can have my people run some tests on these samples. If they pan out like you say Doc, then you guys can just about write your own ticket."

The Admiral was smiling now, "Actually Nick, Doctor Lloyd has another idea in mind. She wants us to have a partnership on this. Your people can supply the raw materials, i.e. the flowers and herbs, and we process them. Then we split the profits down the middle."

Nick looked at the Admiral, "Admiral, when I was in Earthforce, I didn't like to many officers. But you I like, you think more like a hustler than a soldier."

"I'll take that as a compliment Nick. So when will you know if your people will go with the deal?"

"Well it'll be at least a week, what with the testing and all. Besides, this gives me and the missus an excuse to stay and visit with Terry a little longer."

Heidi was smiling now, "I don't think Terry will mind that at all Nick."

Now the Admiral thought to himself, "Well that's two problems solved." and he wondered about the next several problems that would probably pop up.