B.5 The Ox Are Moving In
This week will be my first off world assignment. I get to help the Ox move in.
If you’ve been following my Twitter feed you already know how my feelings about this have changed over the last week.
At first I was thrilled – My first off world assignment. Even though I don’t normally volunteer to help people move – ever – this was bearable because of how cool it was going to be. Then they gave me work to do.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a slacker. I love my job and have admitted and still do admit to being a workaholic, but I don’t do logistics well.
First I had to inventory everything that the Ox own (for 1/3 of the entire population, you can guess how much stuff they have). Then I had to figure out generally where it was going to go. And not once was I allowed on the Orbs to see if it would actually fit, I had to go off drawings and hope that nothing goes wrong – which it always does.
Since the lower two rings of each orb is mostly living quarters, is was relatively easy to organize that part. Easy compared to everything else. The Ox have had moths to plan where they wanted to live (by shops or parks or nothing) and who they wanted as neighbours. For a race so much more advanced, they certainly squabbled a lot when I told them that the original design blue prints – that they had based all their plans on – had changed a bit in the final station.
In the end, everyone has picked an apartment (or condo’s in the park for the upper council members). At the same time as figuring all of this out, I had to make sure that the equipment needed for the shops and restaurants were going to go to the proper areas (and make sure that they were built according to specification, which is really hard to do when all you have are blue prints that you have to assume are correct.)
Anyway, let’s just say that for the most part everything is ready. I have a big map of Orbs one and two and lots of scribbles on it. I have my fingers crossed.
The next phase will be easier. The top level of each of the Orbs is visitor quarters and office space. This is where the HRC will set up and each of the races in the alliance will have their own office district to conduct business while they are here. The Ox business district will be setup soon after they move in, but all I have to do is ensure that they have all the hardware they need (computers, desks, walls), and then submit a form to the right people.
I’ve very lucky there were no meetings this week or I would never have gotten it all done.
I really should get back to it though. Tomorrow is the big move day. Already there are shuttles loading cargo into the Orbs loading bays. My flight leaves at 8am from here in Edmonton, Alberta and I arrive in Houston, Texas at 1:35pm local time. Then I have a 3 hour stopover until the launcher is ready at 4:30pm. We’ll be in orbit in under 5 minutes and then it’ll take another 4 to 5 hours to meet up with and dock with Orb one (I can’t imagine what it would be like trying to do this without the improved thrusters the Ox gave us. It would take days).
So my total travel time will be roughly 12 hours and I’ll be arriving at Orb one around 9pm Houston time or 3:00am Orb time (they decided to go with Greenwich Mean Time).
I’m going straight to bed when I get home. I’ll need the sleep.
Over and Out.
