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Chapter 20[]
State of the Union[]
Zenith Jump Point, Marlette System
Crucis March, Federated Commonwealth
7 May 3063
"Dad, we need to talk." said Daniel Holstein
"That's what we have mouths for." Clovis had his head and shoulders inside the shoulder of a skeletal Mackie, working on a balky ammunition feed. "Pass me the hydrospanner."
Daniel scanned the available tools laid out. "Large or small?"
"Small." Clovis said to his son.
He provided the tool. "I've finished the diagnostic checks on the upgraded Mackies."
"That was fast, we just finished up the fifth batch yesterday." His father made an adjustment and made an approving noise. "Very industrious."
Daniel sighed. "Okay, not those twelve. Just first forty-eight of them."
"And?" asked Clovis
"Thirteen have acceptable, but undesirable faults."
"Only thirteen?" Clovis withdrew from the shoulder. "That's better than expected. Much better."
"Not really. Of the rest, thirty-two have unacceptable faults. Life support, sealing, myomers constrained by the armor plating... the list goes on. Only three of them are fully fit for service."
His father chewed on his upper lip. "You probably should have led with that." He scratched at the corner of his mouth and examined the oil that ended up on the finger. "Are there any that can't move and fight in a pinch? The definition of 'unacceptable' is a lot broader than most people assume."
Daniel checked his notes. "Nothing's below minimum functionality, but it's..."
"What?"
He sighed. "One of the techs working with me said it was like working with freshly shipped Quikscell units."
"Harsh." Clovis shook his head. "Harsh but not unfair. These aren't exactly factory conditions."
"I don't think there's much choice but to cycle the 'Mechs back through the bays and rewrite the manual on the upgrade process to try avoid this for the remaining chassis." Daniel told him. "It'll take time but otherwise we'll be putting the Mechwarriors in danger."
"I'm not sure we have that time." His father shook his head. "We have a margin of time after we finish upgrading all one hundred and eight 'Mechs, but it's not long enough to go back over the ones we've already refitted all again. Just moving them in and out of the bays would take half a week."
Daniel pressed his lips together. "How do you think the Mechwarriors will feel about this?"
"Pretty ****** pissed off, but this isn't something new to the military profession. It's normal campaign circumstances for 'Mechs to be well below factory conditions. I'm not saying we shouldn't fix everything we can, of course." his father added in a pacifying tone. "But the priority is making sure we can field the 'Mechs in the first place."
He pursed his lips. "I'd like to hear that from the prince, father. I don't want him to have unrealistic expectations."
"Okay, let's ask him." His father pulled out a rag and wiped his face. "Better to settle this now."
The two made the familiar journey back to the collar linking the Clarent to the Bifrost and then up the jumpship to the habitation decks. So far there had been no immediate response to the Intrepid's usurpation of control of space around the recharge station, other than a lot of angry messages from the surface of Marlette where a General Waxton had vociferously protested the destruction of the MacBeth and what he styled as a blockade, even though Intrepid had done nothing at all to civilian shipping and the Nadir jump point was entirely unaffected.
As they reached the cabin still used by the two Steiner-Davions, they met Catherine leaving the room. "Good..." She paused and checked her watch. "Evening."
"Good evening, Princess." Clovis greeted her warmly. "How's your training going?"
She considered. "I won't ever make a Solaris gladiator, but I think I'm getting better. Is there a problem? You're usually in the 'Mech bays at this time."
"We're having a quality control issue." Daniel told her. "I want to run a solution past your brother."
Catherine gave him a thoughtful look. "He's asleep, how bad is it?"
"We're going to have to run the finished units back through the 'Mech bays."
"It's not quite that bad, son."
The woman studied them and then gestured to a small nook that had been converted into a seating booth. "Walk me through it."
Daniel glanced at Clovis and then followed Cat when his father seemed amenable. "More than ninety percent of the Mackies finished so far are having issues." he explained.
She nodded. "Can you give me a more detailed summary, please?"
He turned his noteputer around and brought up his list of faults for the units. "See for yourself."
Catherine took the noteputer from him and read through the list. She stopped part way. "May I take notes on this?"
"Sure." answered Daniel
She nodded and opened up a spreadsheet program, copying data across at a rapid pace. Daniel sat back and watched her, wondering how long she could maintain focus before her issues arose. To his surprise she managed to read through all the data before leaning back and rubbing her forehead. "How hard can it be?" she muttered to herself.
"How hard can what be?" she asked the two.
The blonde fixed her blue-gray eyes on Daniel for a moment. "I'm not entirely sure," she admitted. "Sometimes... never mind." She studied her notes. "The fourth batch of upgrades are the worst. Do the technicians need a day off?"
"We're under time pressure." Clovis reminded her.
Cat nodded. "Haste makes waste. Take..." She leant over. "Give them a day off and a day of coaching on what causes the worst issues. Do all these fixes need the 'Mech bays?"
"We can probably handle some of them in storage," Daniel conceded. "..it'd be harder and we'd need people to do the work though."
"There are more than a hundred mecharriors," she told him. "..can you teach them the simple fixes?"
Daniel winced at the thought of people with limited technical skills trying to patch up the faults he'd catalogued. "Some of them."
Cat gave him a warm smile. "Make a list of the simplest repairs and help them." she instructed. "Giving the technical crews a break and some refresher training should mean the remaining 'Mechs are in better shape after conversion."
"It's a fair compromise." Daniel saw his father looking at him.
"Fine!" He threw his hands up and took his noteputer back. "You're going to be risking your neck in them, I guess if you're okay with it."
She nodded. "Let me know when you have 'Mech Repair for Dummies ready. I’ll work with them."
"I think you need the sims more than you need to be getting your hands dirty on the 'Mechs, princess." Clovis told her.
"Sometimes the best way to lead is from the front," she said seriously. "I have to set a good exe... example."
Daniel looked at her notes. "I should tell Prince Peter about this."
"After he has slept." Catherine held up her hand. "After you have slept. We all need our rest."
"Now you sound like my mother." Daniel told her
"Mother knows best." the blonde told him so sincerely that it took him aback.
"You have a point." Clovis acknowledged. "You've put a lot of time into checking the 'Mechs, Daniel. You need a break just as much as our crews do - and if I wasn't tired as well I would have noticed that myself. I'll go tell them to knock it off for twenty-four hours and then we can figure out how to void the problems you've identified."
"I..." Daniel looked at them both and then looked at Cat's notes on his computer. She'd identified that the conversion quality was falling off as they went on, something he'd missed. "Maybe you're right." he admitted.
"That's more case by case." Cat admitted so ruefully that he couldn't help but laugh.