Sime~Gen Roleplaying on IRC: Snake River Dam Scenario
Episode #8: Transfer Math (6/18/00)
Osfric: ...And so, we are in danger of dropping severely behind schedule, if our work crews continue to be confiscated for tasks outside of our parameters.
Sayward agrees whole heartedly.
Osfric adjusts the pinchy glasses on his nose, and looks severely at Mr. Birch.
Mr. Birch is a tall, sandy-haired Gen with watery blue eyes who is now frowning.
Mr. Birch: That absolutely cannot be permitted.
Osfric tends to look severe under the best of circumstances, being a dried-up, balding stick of an elderly Gen.
Osfric: We have the resources to do our job, but only if they are properly managed.
Osfric: Every diversion wastes our efforts.
Sayward watches the two men and waits. For all that she is the Head of the work crews she is still just a very high level grunt.
Mr. Birch: This is a project of monumental importance. The economy of three Territories depends on our success here.
Osfric: The expanded latrine system was not scheduled to be built for another six months.
Sayward: Part of the problem is that we have Simes just showing up.
Mr. Birch: I thought right now we were supposed to have workers to prepare a base camp. No more.
Osfric: They are not part of our work force, and as such, we do not have a budget for building them latrines.
Sayward: They are not a part of the scheduled work crews and I keep having to try and keep ahead of their sanitary needs.
Mr. Birch frowns more deeply, creasing his weathered face.
Mr. Birch: Who are they, then?
Osfric: Rabble.
Starlin lurks in the doorway, eavesdropping.
Starlin can't make out too much of the rapid-fire Genlan, but he is getting the gist of it.
Sayward: True. But rabble or not, if we get a fever outbreak because there aren't enough latrines we all go down and the schedule is shot to pieces.
Osfric: We have made it plain that we are not currently hiring, and that no additional crews are needed right now. Yet they persist in staying, cluttering up the woods.
Osfric is not swearing; he's speaking English.
Sayward: So we still have to deal with them.
Starlin thinks this might be a good time to make an entrance.
Starlin: [in heavily accented English] Excuse me.
Osfric: We don't have a budget to deal with... who are you?
Osfric glares at the intruder.
Sayward recognizes the trouble maker from the camps.
Osfric has nothing in particular against Starlin; he just glares on general principles when interrupted.
Starlin: Me Starlin. Me speak for SWAT. Can help you.
Starlin is a bit uncomfortable dealing with Gens, but he can see there is no way around it.
Sayward is surprised to hear him speak English. She thinks he speaks English like she speaks Simelan -- poorly. She smiles.
Osfric notes that Sayward seems a bit less bewildered than him or the boss.
Osfric: You know this... person?
Sayward: We -- met earlier.
Starlin: Yes. You not listen to me.
Osfric: Is he that representative the Tecton was supposed to send?
Sayward decides to make an overture of peace.
Starlin: Hire stupid ones. Lazy and drunk.
Starlin: Not union.
Sayward: You are right. I would not like to repeat that mistake.
Starlin: Me can help.
Sayward: Can you help?
Starlin: Find good workers.
Starlin: Make... [he searches for the right word] ...discipline.
Starlin: Not zlin through your shirt.
Sayward smiles at Starlin. She is grateful that Cris explained the situation to her.
Sayward isn't too concerned about zlinning through her shirt as there isn't a lot to see anyway.
Sayward: Disciplined workers we need.
Starlin nods.
Starlin: I send you good workers.
Starlin: Make others go away.
Starlin: Not bother you.
Sayward: Thank you.
Sayward I think.
Starlin is perhaps over-optimistic in his people's abilities to run off that many scabs.
Osfric: That still doesn't solve the problem of official work crews being diverted for work that has not been properly authorized.
Mr. Birch: Who authorized the diversion?
Mr. Birch: Or ordered it?
Mr. Birch: I certainly didn't.
Nick thinks this seems as good an opening as he's likely to find.
Nick therefore quits eavesdropping and enters.
Sayward: I have a feeling that even when we get the barracks built it won't stop the squatters from camping near the site. We are still going to have a problem.
Nick: I did. On the authority of Hajene Wise Snake Farris, Acting Controller for the project.
Mr. Birch swivels his watery blue gaze in Nick's direction.
Sayward turns to see the Gen who had translated for her on her first meeting with Starlin.
Nick: I'm Nick Reckage, Hajene Farris's Donor. You would be Mr. Birch?
Mr. Birch is not particularly impressed by the authority of Controllers of any stripe.
Mr. Birch: Yes. I'm the President of Fluid Constructions, Inc.
Nick: I am afraid that the Tecton will have to insist on a minimal standard of sanitation for all people present in the area.
Sayward: I'm afraid I have to agree.
Nick: Hajene Snake has made a great deal of progress in improving conditions in the camps, but much remains to be done. Your cooperation is required.
Sayward: I was fairly young when I worked on the Clearwater project. We had an outbreak of Redwater Fever, and it was not pretty. We may not have a choice.
Mr. Birch: You are welcome to provide sanitation, but not with my company's money or its personnel.
Mr. Birch: I thought there were going to be Sime troops available to secure the worksite.
Nick wishes Arat were there; he's so much better at intimidating bigwigs than Nick is. Or Snake, if actual cooperation is required.
Nick: They should be arriving in a few weeks with the permanent Controller for the site, Hajene Arat Farris.
Nick: Who, I might point out, is the one who authorized the use of materials and personnel to improve conditions to a minimal standard.
Sayward decides to let them hammer out an agreement. But she fears that she is going to have to deal with another fever outbreak nightmare. She wonders if she might not have to try to find a way to deal with the situation herself.
Mr. Birch: [to Sayward] Is there some way of getting these rabble to go elsewhere?
Sayward: I haven't been able to get them out of the camps.
Starlin: Lady is right. Fever bad.
Starlin: Worse for Gens.
Starlin: Many come over lake.
Sayward nods.
Nick: And that is another problem.
Nick: Many of them have been reluctant to donate. And while that can be overcome, perhaps, the supply of selyn available is not sufficient for the amount of augmentation which we understand will be necessary as the project continues.
Sayward: We are badly outnumbered. There are more unauthorized personnel down there than we can keep up with.
Mr. Birch blinks. He thought this had all been planned for.
Mr. Birch: We agreed that any Gen working on the project would meet Nivet regulations regarding donation.
Sayward: They don't know that.
Nick: As things stand, we will have to restrict augmentation until compliance is more widespread.
Mr. Birch: Well, tell anyone on payroll they can donate or leave immediately.
Sayward: So far the Gens have been staying away from the Simes and the Simes stay away from them.
Sayward: Most of them are not on payroll. That is the problem.
Mr. Birch: We can't be responsible for tramps.
Sayward: We have people pouring in from all over the place.
Sayward: We have to be responsible or we are going to end up with major problems.
Nick: Mr. Birch, you may not feel responsible for those people not actually on your payroll, but the Tecton must still provide them with transfers every month.
Nick: And that will require either more donations, or rationing the use of augmentation.
Sayward: Can't the Tecton ship in more people to do the job?
Nick: The problem is not the number of channels--or it won't be, when the rest of our party arrives.
Nick: It is the availability of selyn in the area.
Starlin: [to Nick] You pay, we do what work you want. Build latrines. Run off Simes. Catch Gens. No problem.
Nick: For the sort of augmentation projected in the reports I've seen, we would require about two Gens to provide selyn for each Sime.
Sayward looks at Starlin. "What does he mean, 'catch Gens'?"
Nick: We do not have them, or anything close to that.
Mr. Birch: Is it that there aren't enough Gens, or that the ones here are not donating? Or both?
Nick: Without augmentation, we could supply about two thirds of the Simes present in the area, if all of the Gens were donating.
Sayward: What about the other third?
Mr. Birch: ~~angry~~
Nick: The rest of the selyn will have to be imported, which means it depends on a channel's being able to travel to someplace where there are extra Gens.
Mr. Birch: We must have the augmentation to meet the schedule.
Mr. Birch: I can ship in more Gen workers, but they can't match the pace of Simes.
Mr. Birch: And it will end up costing more than we are budgeted for.
Nick: The closest untapped source of selyn is the towns along the Gen Territory portions of the lake.
Nick: Perhaps you, or your government, could persuade these people to donate, if we sent a channel?
Sayward: Good luck trying to get them to donate.
Mr. Birch frowns so deeply his faced is etched like the Snake River canyons.
Mr. Birch: These Simes are the Tecton's responsibility. How did you provide for them before they came here?
Osfric's face looks as if he's sucking on a lemon; donating is not his favorite part of this job, since it wastes the time he should be spending at his desk.
Sayward: So we need to make this job more attractive to Gens so that we can increase the numbers.
Mr. Birch tries to imagine what kind of inducements it would take to make the Gens across the lake donate.
Nick: That no longer matters. As it is, there is a greater percentage of Gens among the workers and would-be workers than was originally envisioned.
Sayward: So what is the problem?
Nick: If you will recall, your government agreed to provide "knowledge and supplies as required" for the project.
Nick: I submit that selyn is an urgently required supply.
Sayward is a bit confused.
Mr. Birch: Is there enough selyn around to allow augmentation for the Simes who are supposed to be hired for this project, if we didn't have to deal with all these freeloaders and tramps?
Sayward: Are you saying that we actually have enough Gens, or don't we have enough already?
Nick: The vast majority of the workers who have been hired for the official crews are Simes. There are not enough Gens on the payroll to keep them alive, much less allow augmentation.
Sayward: So what about the ones that are not on the payroll would adding them in make this work out?
Mr. Birch is glad the final contracts haven't been signed yet, as there is going to be some renegotiation.
Mr. Birch: He said even they wouldn't be enough.
Mr. Birch tries to imagine what kind of PR campaign would get out-T Gens to let a Sime lay tentacles on them.
Sayward: When was the last time you checked? We had a bunch of new ones come in this week.
Nick: They were more than balanced by the Simes who have arrived.
Mr. Birch: He said the augmentation would require two Gens for every Sime on the payroll. Not counting any rabble in the woods.
Sayward: I see.
Mr. Birch: Which rabble are not my responsibility.
Mr. Birch thinks, but the augmentation is a must.
Sayward: We have to count them or run them off. Either way they are our problem too.
Nick: The extra Gens don't have to be working on site, as long as they are close enough for one or our channels to reach them when required.
Nick: That is why I suggested using the closer Gen Territory communities.
Nick: Surely they wish for the Dam project to be a success?
Mr. Birch nods.
Mr. Birch: That Dam goes, they'll lose their clean water and irrigation and beachfront property.
Mr. Birch: The case could be made.
Mr. Birch: But I doubt you could get folks to come across the lake for that.
Mr. Birch: You got a channel willing to work our side of the border?
Nick smiles, looking 75% as charming as his father, or grandfather, or, well, you get the picture.
Nick: If there is a secure area in which to work, yes, we can send a channel.
Sayward thinks convincing people to do something they don't want to is way out of her realm of expertise.
Mr. Birch knows a top-notch PR firm that could take on the project, but again, it's going to cost plenty.
Nick: The donors would be paid by the Tecton, of course.
Mr. Birch: That would help.
Starlin: ~~concerned~~
Osfric is relieved that his budget will not be stressed by bribes for donors.
Starlin: You say not enough selyn for transfer?
Starlin has been having trouble following the English but is puzzling it out as best he can.
Nick looks at Starlin, trying to strike the right balance between concern, honesty, and avoiding a panic.
Nick: There are two Simes to every Gen in the area. Even the best channels can't make selyn from nothing. [in Simelan, to minimize misunderstandings]
Nick: We anticipate that the selyn brought in by the rest of our party, when it arrives, will be sufficient for immediate purposes.
Starlin: [in Simelan also] And there are completely untrained Gens wandering around high field. I hear there have already been several Kills.
Nick: None lately.
Nick and his channel have been doing some wandering themselves, and the incidence of non-compliant Gens has been dropping steadily.
Starlin: Well, it may be just rumor. But not all the new arrivals are staying in the camps.
Starlin: ~~concerned~~
Nick is not unaware that problems could develop before a channel could reach a particular Gen.
Starlin: If you want help rounding up high-field Gens for transfer, my organization will provide that free of charge.
Sayward has been trying to follow the Simelan conversation.
Sayward: No!
Starlin: I mean, most of my folks are just sitting around right now flecking their tentacles.
Starlin turns to Sayward.
Starlin: What wrong?
Nick raises his eyebrow in Sayward's direction, a bit surprised at her objection.
Sayward: If you try there will be more kills.
Sayward: I will catch them.
Sayward: They would not understand.
Sayward curses her lack of Simelan again.
Nick: The Tecton does require that donors be consenting, if not eager.
Starlin: You not got money to pay Gens to catch other Gens.
Starlin: SWAT do this for free.
Sayward: Language! They would not understand.
Starlin nods.
Sayward: I will tell them to come to you.
Starlin: [to Nick, in Simelan] Okay, we'll finger them. You can do the persuading.
Nick: Very well.
Starlin: [to Sayward, in English] We find. Not catch. OK?
Nick switches back to English, since Sayward seems to be more comfortable in that language.
Sayward smiles, glad that he understood.
Sayward: OK.
Starlin: [to Nick] We're very glad to have such a good channel available. I can hardly believe the stories I'm hearing.
Nick smiles fondly, which really heightens his resemblance to Riyyh quite a bit.
Sayward: [to Nick in English] Can you give me a time when you can come down to the Gen camps?
Nick: Perhaps this afternoon? We are taking care of transfers this morning.
Sayward: That would be too soon. How about tomorrow afternoon?
Nick finds it unnecessary to go into details on where the selyn was procured, although he never did like boats.
Nick: Very well.
Sayward: That will give me a chance to round them all up.
Mr. Birch: You said the troops won't arrive for several weeks.
Mr. Birch: Can you keep the situation under control until then?
Sayward thinks that is a very good question.
Nick: With luck and your cooperation, yes.
Nick: Augmentation must be minimized where possible.
Nick: And perhaps it might help if you publicized the requirement that all Gen workers on the project must donate?
Nick: That might make it more easy to gain the cooperation of those who only hope to work here.
Mr. Birch: That policy will be publicized and enforced immediately.
Nick: Thank you.
Nick thinks it's kind of neat to be in a position to get immediate cooperation from a boss, instead of being a grunt.
Sayward: Without augmentation they are really a lot less effective than Gens doing the same work. We will have to use Gens more.
Starlin: Sime always better worker than Gen. No eat! No sleep!
Sayward: Just to cover the short fall.
Sayward: I mean for the heavy lifting.
Sayward: There is more than enough work to go around but I don't want your people to be hurt.
Starlin shakes his head in disgust but forgives the Gen silliness. They can't help it.
Sayward: If they can't augment they might get hurt.
Starlin: Simes not lose balance; not hurt; heal right away if they do.
Starlin: You will see.
Sayward: I believe you.
Starlin: But agree must have Gens to give selyn.
Sayward: We will.
Mr. Birch: I will look into finding some way to take donations across the lake, although that won't be easy.
Osfric tries to think of how selyn rationing will affect his schedule and frowns.
Mr. Birch winces at the prospect of another meeting with the fuddy-duddy Mayor of Salmonton.
Osfric: It appears that selyn is now our most limiting resource.
Osfric: It is therefore the highest priority for our procurement efforts.
Sayward nods.
Mr. Birch: I would agree. The wrong kind of incidents could make inter-Territorial co-operation impossible.
Sayward: I will check with the Gens in the camps. They may be able to help with that too.
Mr. Birch can still remember the days when his family bundled everyone down into a crawl-space to hide from Raiders.
Sayward: They probably have relatives in the town round about.
Osfric wishes that the shortage was in something nice and simple, like nails or copper pipes. He knows where to get copper pipe.
Starlin: Get good transfers, everyone happy. Simes work good.
Nick: I don't think that there will be problems with the quality of the transfers.
Nick has never heard a complaint from a customer of either Snake or Arat, at least.
Sayward decides that she should get better acquainted with Starlin. It can only help to be on good terms with the local union.
Nick thinks, at least on the quality of the transfer; he can recall a customer or two who objected to Snake's fee schedule.
Mr. Birch stares into space, recalculating the budgets and timelines based on a higher percentage of Gen workers and less augmentation.
Nick: I had better return to my channel now.
Nick: Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Birch.
Nick: [We will meet you at the Gen camp tomorrow afternoon. to Sayward]
Mr. Birch calculates the extra costs for food and lodging for housing Gens. He barely is aware of what Nick is saying, but gestures absent-mindedly.
Sayward: See you there.
Starlin: [in Simelan] I'll get my people moving and report to you both tomorrow.
Mr. Birch is starting to get a head-ache.