Confirming Carter Bk. 02 Daedalus Ch. 10

She looked over at Tammy, and a moment later, a flowchart appeared on the screen next to the table.

"You all have, or in John's case, had deputies, as well as department heads." Carter said, looking down at her laptop. "I'm making the navy a separate department under Steven. He'll report to us, but still coordinate with John, who maintains overall command of all armed forces."

"We had Daniel and Vala go through the org charts, department outlines, and have also been funneling daily reports to them for the last few days." Tammy said. "They discovered several instances of direct duplication of efforts, and almost a dozen points of overlapping influence. We mailed you all a copy of this new department design, along with a brief Daniel prepared suggesting what personnel should be doing what functions, based on skills and experience."

"There are going to be areas where you have to do the same, or similar work, but we want to keep that to a minimum." Carter said, picking up where Tammy left off. "I would have liked to have them do this part of this meeting, but they're in Anchorage right now with Pharris." She looked over at Samuels. "We're taking Anchorage out from under you Andi, and putting Pharris in charge. She has the management skills to run an operation like that, and we trust her to do right by us."

"I was actually going to suggest that." Samuels said. "We've talked about a few of the ideas you threw out when we were over there with them, and she's eager to get started on some of them." She paused, checking a note on her tablet. "The biggest change she suggested was getting resource production started before we start working on the city itself. She pointed out that there's no reason to get the production areas geared up when we don't have materials to make anything with."

"We had the same conversation with her, which is why we asked her to go ahead and assume command." Tammy said. "We're going to make some changes in the production here in Atlantis as well. We can feed fifty thousand people for over a year with what we currently have on hand, so we're going to back off food production by half, and change over to making jumpers, mining equipment, and farm implements. I mailed you and your deputy an outline and a production schedule, along with a list of required training. Feel free to add to it, and let us know what you think."

"If we're going to start making jumpers, does that mean we can keep some of the three-oh-two's you were going to send back to Earth?" Caldwell asked.

Tammy grinned at Carter, then looked down the table at him. "Yes Steven, you get to keep fifteen of your little space planes. We're going to send fifteen of those instead of the thirty Sam originally proposed, along with the first ten jumpers we produce. We'll be sending them thirty percent of the jumpers and drones we produce for the next few months, once we have Anchorage stocked up, that is."

"I'm going to need medical supplies and equipment in the not too distant future." Keller said. "We already need to do a blood drive, and if we keep bringing in refugees at the rate we have been, we're going to start running low on consumables in the next sixty days or so."

"Make up a list of what can be produced locally, and another with the stuff you think will have to come from Earth." Tammy said. "Get with me and Andi later, and we can work out what we can make here."

"Steven, you only have four days to get your department split off and setup as an independent unit, so you need to get your people up to speed as fast as possible." Carter said, looking at him, then glancing around the table. "We're in a lull right now, so this would be a good time to get everyone resituated. We'll be moving the military to the north pier, and Andi's team over to the east, those two buildings are already being used for city business anyway. We want the central tower to be a research center, since most of the ancient labs are there. Our management stuff can be done from anywhere."

"That makes sense, Sam, except most of the science people work for at least one of us." Samuels said. "I have fifteen that I know of, and I think John has at least ten, if not more."

"I don't see where that's a problem, Andi." Carter said lightly. "We're not doing any major research, or at least we're not supposed to be doing any. If there's something going on that I don't know about, now would be the time to bring it up."

"Zelenka has half a dozen projects going, but most of those are directly related to the Daedalus and the Apollo." Sheppard said. "Stephen and I talk to him daily."

"Chuck, your people are going to be busy, and I don't know where we're going to get you more right now." Carter said. "I doubt if any of the others will want to give anyone up."

"I've been pulling from the refugee pool, if that's okay." Chuck told her. "I already have three of them in the Ops rotation, and another thirty doing city maintenance. I meant to say something, but haven't really had a chance."

"How did you pick them, and how are you training them?" Samuels asked not looking up at him. Her fingers flew over her tablet, and she frowned as she looked at the screen. "And has your department personnel list been updated?"

"It's a couple days behind." Chuck said. "I brought in ten yesterday, and I have sixty more that I'm going to phase in over the next few weeks."

Samuels looked over at him, her eyes wide. "How many people do you think you're going to need? Running Ops can't take that many people."

"No, but running the city does." Chuck told her. He glanced over at Carter. "Realistically, once we get production going full blast, I'm going to need...call it two thousand maintenance workers to keep it going. Some of the machines on the north pier are already showing the strain."

"Do what you have to do, but keep your paperwork up to date." Carter said. "And get with Pharris, I guess we're going to need a city manager over there too."

Chuck shook his head. "No, ma'am. I have Anchorage slaved to Atlantis, and can monitor it's systems from here. Some of the people I'll be bringing in will be slated for there, but we'll only need three hundred or so for that. That's based on just supporting the production and living areas, and not doing major repairs. I'd need over thirty thousand if you want that city to fly again in less than ten years."

"Two questions." Tammy said. "First, how are you picking these people?"

"The teaching machines do an IQ and an aptitude scan when you put the headset on, that's why you get a suggested training list on it." He said "It automatically updates the cities database with that information, and any training the person gets."

He looked around the table. "The database also locates any other information on the person from its systems and merges it into a central file. So when we key someone in for a dwelling, or they get a medical scan, that information is included. I just went through, and got their addresses, and went to talk to them."

"You know who and where everyone is in the city?" Andi said, staring at him.

"Yes ma'am. Dr. Keller's people have been doing a great job. They get a name, age, and a complete medical history on everyone that goes through the ingress process. Our people were already in the system." He said. He typed on his tablet, then slid it over to her. "This is what the city has on you."

"This is amazing." Andi said. "But how does the system know who is who, we don't input names when we assign a dwelling."

"That's easy. Every ancient machine or device you touch does a DNA scan whether you have the ATA gene or not. That information is stored with any other matching records." He said. "I can tell you how many times Col. Sheppard has flown which jumpers if you want, or who has been in what room, and when."

"I think this is something that we all need to get training on, Chuck. How long would it take you to work up a presentation and put all of us through it?" Carter asked.

"I'll get you the required training list from the teacher, and you can just have everyone do that. It would be alot faster." He said. "There's only three or four files related to this system, so it only takes a few minutes."

"Send that list out, and we'll get everyone trained." She said. She looked over at Tammy. "You said you had two questions."

Tammy nodded and looked at Chuck for a moment. "If you had the people, how soon could you get that city to fly?"

"No more than eighteen months, depending on if we had all the materials we needed." He told her. "But from what I'm seeing on some of the sensors, we'd have to dig it out first. It looks like two thirds of it is buried. most of the towers are above ground, you just can't see them because of the forests. That's why you can only see the central tower."

"How long do you think it would take to dig it out?" Samuels asked.

"That depends on how you want to do it." Chuck said. "I'd suggest clearing the forests for two kilometers around it first, there's no point in wasting all that wood. Then we start from the outside of the ring, blasting the dirt out with the Asgard beams from one of the ships. When we get within ten feet of the structures, we switch to C-4 and earth movers, either that, or we fire up the stardrive and try to vibrate some of it loose.."

He looked down the table at Caldwell. "Is your guy Marks as good with those beams as he is with the transport system?"

"Better. Why?" Caldwell asked.

"If he can give me a narrow, directed beam, we could get as close as five feet, maybe even three." Chuck said. "Then we could cut the window for excavating down to one week."

"Work me up a plan, and send it out to the senior staff." Carter said.

"I sent a draft out three days ago. I didn't include that last part, I just thought of that this morning."

"What else have you sent out?" Sheppard asked. "I may not have been reading all your mails."

"I think I missed a few too." Caldwell said. "But can we go back to what you were saying about the teaching machines? You said that they do an aptitude scan? What kind of information does that include?"

"It looks like a graph, broken down by skill sets." Chuck said. He opened a file on his tablet again, and slid it across to Caldwell. "The obvious ones are on it, like math, language and science, but you can break it down pretty fine. That shows the full spread on me."

"There's over a hundred categories here." Caldwell said. "You're off the scale on associational reasoning and management skills. It looks like we got the right man for the job you're in."

"Can that be sorted by skill sets?" Tammy asked, holding her hand out for the tablet.

Caldwell slid the tablet down to her, and she leaned closer to Sam so she could see it.

"Yes ma'am. That's how I'm picking my people." Chuck said.

"So we just learned that we need to step back and rethink what we're going to do with Anchorage, and where we're putting people." Carter said. "And I hope we all learned that we need to pay alot more attention when Chuck sends out an email. I know I did."

"Let's let Pharris proceed with her resource project, we need to get those forests cleared before we can do anything anyway." Andi said. "We're probably going to need metals too, so mining is going to be important as well."

"Andi, get with Chuck and make sure everyone gets that training, today. Get Pharris back here and include her." Tammy said, she thought for a second, then went on. "You might as well do Bra'tac and O'Neill too. When you're done. Sit down as a group and go over your staffing lists. I want you to move people around based on what they're best at."

She paused again. "The first thing I want you to do is find the top twenty management types we have. The top five go to me and Sam, you can fight over the rest. There's almost fifty thousand people in the city now so it shouldn't be too hard."

"You want us to go into the refugee pool, like Chuck did?" Sheppard asked. "Are you sure that's a good idea? You're talking about putting these people into high level positions, at least if I heard you right."

"You heard me right." Tammy said. "And make it the top fifty. You all know we need the help, and we just don't have what we need with the people we started with. We're going to trust these people to make our food, and equipment, and to keep the city running, so how much different is it trusting them to help us run the government?"

"It's alot different. But I agree, if we're not going to trust them, why are we bringing them here?" Caldwell said

"We're not going to force you to take anyone you don't want." Carter said, "But the people that go to us are going to end up running other departments, or working directly for us. We both still need personal assistants, so keep that skill set in mind during your search."

She looked around the table, smiling as she watched them talking to each other, or making notes on laptops and tablets.

"I'd like an update on progress by thirteen hundred, and an outline for a plan by no later than eighteen hundred." She said as she stood up. She smiled again as they all looked at her. "And we wouldn't mind company for dinner, so let us know who's interested. I was thinking Italian would be nice." She said, giving Andi a significant look.

"I wouldn't mind Italian myself." Andi grinned back. "I'll get with the staff, they have all my recipes, so it shouldn't be a problem."

"Can I bring a date?" Chuck asked as he gathered up his things.

"Fine with me." Carter laughed. "I just want to have a nice family dinner, so it might be nice to meet your friends, Chuck."

"He's just trying to score points with someone, or trying to get into her pants." Tammy laughed, joining Sam at the door. "But that's okay, I'm all for helping people get laid!"

Interior-Robotics Lab, Central Tower

1115 Hours

"This is one of half a dozen labs the ancients used when they were developing the replicators." Tammy said as she showed Sam around. "I still have to go through the others, but there's already some parts here I can use for Boris. From what I saw in the inventory, it looks like most of the skeleton is built, and just needs to be assembled."

"What about the skin? You said it would be more like Data from Star Trek, so does that mean he's going to have rubber skin?" Sam asked. She went over to a work bench and lifted a sheet of plastic from it. "I don't think I'd like that. It would feel creepy."

"Got it covered." Tammy laughed as she came over and joined her. "The ancients had something that they used to replace real skin for burn patients. It looks and feels like the real thing. I need to tell Jennifer about it. There's some other stuff in the research that she might be able to use too, like artificial limbs and organs."

"So there's going to be a real, direct benefit from your little project besides getting you laid?" Sam laughed.

"Definitely." Tammy grinned, turning on a terminal and bringing up the schematics she had been working on. She brought up images of different faces, and looked at Sam over her shoulder. "You got a preference? I can't decide between a twenty something boy-toy, or an early thirties man about town."

"I like that one." Sam told her, pointing at an image. "Mature, but not too old, give him short, sandy blond hair, and lose the mustache. Smooth out the cheeks a little too, he looks like he'd be fat with those puffy cheeks."

"I like that one too." Tammy said as she made a few adjustments, then looked at Sam again. "Better?"

"A little more off the cheeks, and make the hair a little longer." Sam said as she leaned closer. "What do you have in mind for the body? You said something about five-eight? That's a little short. I prefer my men taller than I am."

"I like my men lean and wiry, but taller isn't a bad idea." Tammy laughed, then changed screens and brought up a series of images of headless bodies.

"Any of those would be fine." Sam said as she looked over the pictures. "But I'm serious, make him at least five-ten, don't go over six feet. There's something about looking up at a man, I don't know, it just..."

"I know what you mean." Tammy said as she turned around. "I already made the adjustment. All those images are scaled between five-ten and five-eleven. That's going to put them in the one seventy-five pound range. You okay with that?"

"You weigh almost that much, so it shouldn't be a problem." Sam said as she looked at the images. She glanced over at Tammy, then back at the screen. "You said you wanted a big, um...thing..."

"Step this way." Tammy laughed, taking Sam by the arm and leading her across the room. She opened a cabinet and pulled out a tray, making Sam laugh when she saw what was in it.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Sam laughed as she stared at the rows of disembodied penises. "There's no way any of those is going in me! They won't fit!"

"I know." Tammy laughed as she closed the tray and pulled open another one. "I just wanted you to see them. These are more of what I had in mind."

The second tray had three rows of artificial penises ranging from seven to nine inches long with various girths. The ones on the bottom row were all uncircumcised.

"That's more like it, even though all of these are still bigger than any of the guys I've been with." Sam said. She picked one up, turning it in her hand as she looked at it.

"This doesn't feel like what I what expecting." She said as she ran her hand up and down over the shaft.

"These are prosthetics, replacement parts for humans." Tammy said. "We can use them for Boris, and the good part is, we don't have to pick just one, we can interchange them. But check this out."

She took the prosthetic from Sam and mounted it on a base attached to the table. Bringing up another terminal, she typed for moment, then grinned at Sam.

"Watch, this thing does all kinds of tricks." She pressed a series of keys, and the penis began getting longer and thicker as it became erect.

"Put your hand around it." She told Sam.

Sam wrapped her fingers around the shaft, surprised at how warm, and life like it felt. She ran her hand up and down over the length of it, stopping suddenly when she felt a protrusion just above the base.

"There's something wrong with this one." She said, leaning closer to see what was causing the bump. "There's something sticking out of it."

"It's supposed to, and it does it on both sides." Tammy said as she made another series of keystrokes. "It's a G-spot nodule. It extends to stimulate as the penis strokes, or..." She made another adjustment, laughing when Sam jerked her hand away. "It vibrates to add different sensations."

"Do they all do that?" Sam asked as she put her hand back on the prosthetic, her palm resting on the protrusion.

"They do different tricks, but they all have that feature. Apparently, it was popular with ancient women." Tammy said. "But check this out."

Sam jumped back as the penis throbbed and twitched in her hand, and a small spurt of a creamy white liquid erupted from the tip. The penis jerked as it stood on its base, and another burst sprayed from the tip, rising almost six inches in the air.

"Isn't that kewl?" Tammy laughed. "I always liked the sensation of a guy shooting off inside me, and with Boris, I can have it anytime I want it!"

"So what kind of time table do you have on this, and what's involved?" Sam asked. "Are you going to be spending alot of time on this? I mean we're supposed to be looking for information on the Wraith in the database."

"I'm still doing that." Tammy said as she shut down the terminal and walked over to the table. She removed the prosthetic from its base and wiped it off with a towel, then put it back in the drawer. "And now that I have an idea what you like, I can finalize the plans and start the process. That'll take a couple hours tops, then I can start him cooking, and he should be done in thirty-six hours."