Book 3: Chapter 15: Enclaves
Riker
April 2227
Sol
I watched with satisfaction as the latest colony ships accelerated out of the Solar System. The situation had improved a little when the first wave of ships started returning from their trips, ready to take out another load. Now, between new construction and returning transports, we were starting to get some throughput.
Still not nearly enough, though. We were coming up on one million emigrants. A hundred trips down, fourteen hundred to go.
I scanned the report from Charles again. It hadn’t magically changed since the first time. Damn.
I pinged him. “Hey, Charles. Just read your report. It’s that bad?”
“Hi, Will.” Charles popped in as he answered. “Yeah, we’re having to put more and more drones into scavenging, which is taking equipment away from the construction effort. And we’ve got printers sitting idle some of the time, waiting for supplies. Right now, productivity is down about twenty percent from where it could be, and it’s going to keep getting worse.”
I swiped through the report as he talked. “No new caches of metals?”