Chapter Four
Logistics Hell
Vivra was back in her office, her skin still tingling where Pax had touched her. She was used to repelling males like Clalls had said, but Pax didn’t seem to notice. It was oddly satisfying to feel wanted. But he was a Red Demon, and they were known for having plenty of sexual partners. They blitzed around like bees with pollen in the spring, pretty much consuming anything they touched.
Pax excited her, but she wasn’t going to have a one-off blitz with him. Even if he looked like he could handle her. She was not shy in bed, and she wondered how well he could manage a controlling female between the sheets.
Shrugging, she pushed those thoughts aside. She had more than enough work to keep her busy the next five days as they traveled to Brica without having to worry about a Demon in her bed. A Demon she wanted to obey every one of her commands. To please her exactly how she liked.
Maybe one day…
Logistics was a large room where twelve logistic and petty officers worked. After the Eldon incident, Vivra was the only one left. So, she had decided to renovate. In between the cleaners and the new captain showing up, she’d made the room into a single office. One room dedicated to her.
It was a huge space with many Minky screens so she could see all her tasks at once. Each screen was dedicated to her to-do list, but was sectioned out by each station on the ship:
Aquaponics
Ecosystems
Engineering
Flight Systems
Galley
Hydroponics
Individual requests
Maintenance
Supply
Weapons and tactical response
She kept inventory of everything the ship had and everything it needed. Since the spacecraft had been cleaned, all the food was destroyed, their hydro and aquaponics rooms were cleaned out, and they didn’t have any more organic food stored or left over. They had nothing but the nutrient bars and hydro bags of gel and juice that had been dropped off after the cleaners left.
She had more open orders than she’d ever had, and Garna had suffered some big blows with other missions. But none had gotten this bad.
Dol from hydro and aquaponics needed new tanks since the cleaners had taken the old ones. He required five ten-thousand-gallon fish tanks, filters, heaters, test strips, extra silicone sealant, gravel, rocks, and synthetic coral, and that was just to get the environments ready for the fish. It would take time before the water was stable and he could introduce the animals, which she couldn’t buy until they landed on an actual port planet.
Dol liked to see the fish up close and personal before buying. He was particular that way.
Then, of course, it would take more time to get the fish acclimated to the water and to begin seeding and growing food for the crew.
Dol was a genius, which was why he was aboard the Garna. Vivra had personally requested his transfer years ago.
His needs were priority to the ship and its crew members, but they weren’t time-sensitive. Vivra put out a request to the nearby suppliers and let that order sit until she had a few responders.
The next order was ecosystems. They needed someone to run the entire division, and Vivra still had not found anyone that she thought qualified. No one in ecosystems had survived the Eldon incident.
She reviewed the scant applications and marked two possible candidates.
Pax had not put in any weapons or tactical orders, but that might be because he hadn’t started taking inventory of his weapons and supplies yet. She quickly sent him the log of all the equipment for his department and moved to the galley orders.
Again, even with making another urgent request, the shipment would take two days.
One of her Minky screens pinged. Scanning the message, she saw that an aquaponics tank and supplies were on Brica.
How lucky is that? She scheduled the pick-up and set aside the funds for when she arrived. Then she shot off a quick message alerting the captain that while they were on one side of Brica defending the mines, she would be on the other, picking up supplies.
Using her hand, she swiped the aquaponics order to another screen and focused on the latest individual requests. Thankfully, there were only three. With such a small crew, their individual requests were handled quickly. None were time-sensitive, so she set them aside.
Moving all the orders up onto the top Minky screens so that she could use the rest of her three-hundred-and-sixty-degree wrap-around setup for the upcoming transfers, she was able to get to work. The day before, she had finally compiled the list of the four hundred positions that needed to be filled.
She pulled up a transfer request and added in the several hundred job descriptions then loaded them into the quantum communicator under Federation Job Openings. In less than ten minutes, she was getting pings from those responding to the postings.
She opened one of the applications and started reading when her Minky screen pinged with a request for video communication. From Pax.
Letting her head fall back, she allowed three long seconds to pass before clearing her throat and pressing the accept button.
“Commander,” she greeted. In those few seconds, she saw five new application updates on her list. She was going to be at work all day—and night—to finish this.
“What is this list of weapons for?”
“I sent you the list of everything we have on board for your division.”
“Yeah, I got that—”
More applications kept flooding in, and the total number was now up to one hundred and thirty-three. She really needed to finish the transfers. In fact, the Demon’s interruption was keeping her from getting him any new security transfers.
She interrupted by saying, “You are the only one in your department. Your transfers will be here shortly. I will send you the list when I finish what I’m doing.” Then, she boldly terminated the call and pulled down the applications, doing reviews of each one, weeding through them as swiftly and accurately as she could.
Mentally tallying the numbers, she figured it would be hours before she finished. Hours on her feet, doing nothing but work.