Free Carinae Sector: 01 - Traders' Scourge - Part 3 - New Shores by David Buck Page B

need to be constructed, and found he was really looking forward to the work meeting.
     
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    Vic Mitchell looked around the large timber yard after speaking with both his youngest son and his daughter in turn on the phone. He walked through the yard with no real concern, as he was not expecting a lot of business in Armadale this early morning or any other morning. The family timber business had struggled over the last ten years due to the epidemic, and he had also struggled both to find and keep good staff anyway. His hire business was also quiet, and he gave a couple of his men a nod as he walked over to his largest shed and stopped at the door to look inside.
    Vic’s two oldest sons, Paul and Rick, were working on carefully applying another coat of paint on the large hull they had built from timber with him over the last twelve months. Vic had paid for the hull plans of the eighteen metre cruising yacht and then together they had laid out the hull jigs on standard ply. Before cutting the jigs out and setting up the massive but accurate jig frame used to build the hull upside down. The men had increased their already superb building skills as they had formed the keel, fitted the stout transom and then fitted the sheer clamp. They had then used dozens of clamps, temporary screws and several large buckets of epoxy resin to scribe and fit the three layers of thick high grade marine play that made up the outside hull of the yacht.
    Afterwards the three men had spent a fortnight painstaking fairing the hull by hand before priming it and flipping it over. The hull had then sat upright on stands as they fitted the engine, mast supports and decking. The outfitting work had paused long enough to agree on their next course of action after learning of the colony efforts. The men had yesterday used their largest crane to carefully place and brace the hull on one of their low loader trailers, before applying paint.
    Vic looked with pride at the workmanship of his sons as he complimented them on their work.
    ‘Boys, you have done a great job and the second coat of paint looks fantastic. As soon as it is dry enough we leave for Perth Airport with what ever else we take with us. We can do the final outfitting in our new home and we just have to take all the pieces with us today.’
    Paul looked sideways at Rick and gave a hearty laugh.
    ‘You owe me a carton of beer, as it looks like Dad wants us to go into the planet colonising business early.’
    Vic ran a practiced eye over the sleek hull as he jovially replied.
    ‘Well boys, we need both a real challenge and future security, and it is not happening here. The reports said plenty of land, timber and water. All we need is the food and the fish and we are set.’
    Rick now looked at his older brother and his father thoughtfully as he ventured his own views.
    ‘It looks like tens of thousands of people are readying to go through and I wonder what thought has gone into the process. I talked with Cathy last night and we are keen to go through.’
    Paul looked at his father again, and he paused from gently shaking the paint pot of the spray gun he was using to paint the hull. Noting by habit the amount of paint left, he asked a question.
    ‘Well there is just me of course and I want to go across. Now what would Raelene and Jon like to do?’
    Vic ran his right hand over the mast they had also fabricated as he informed them of the recent telephone calls he had made.
    ‘Well they are definitely interested as Raelene reckons they will need teachers and Jon knows they will need good structural engineers. We will meet both of them at the airport tonight. We will just take what we need with us and leave a note. Also your mum would have liked to have gone I reckon.’
    The younger men felt sombre and awkward for several moments as they remembered their mother who had died