She Bleeds for Us: The Galactic Consortium 3

Chapter 37

"Another exciting day in supply," Dhanusha said by way of greeting as Devaki and the others found their seats for the morning briefing. The supply barrack was a maze of cubicles and rooms with a small office towards the front. There were five of them there this morning. "Well let's get to it," Dhanusha continued, pulling up a display. Zie started pulling up lists for the display. Most of it was pretty standard stuff, ration packs, water purifiers and other essentials for refugees. Zie stopped and sighed. "And we're going to need more puncture gel again. By the mother, it's sad how often people get shot on this planet."

There was a general murmur around the room. Puncture gel was a mixture of biomedical gel and a sealant that could be mixed up into a syringe and injected into a puncture wound. "I have a class III manufacturing certificate," Devaki said. "I can handle that."

"And you don't mind being left alone in a tiny room by yourself?" Hanoy asked.

Devaki shook hir head. "No, I'll be fine," Zie lied.

It wasn't that much worse than filling ration packs all day. Besides zie could use puncture gel as well. Dhanusha nodded and then passed out a few more assignments.

The manufacturing room was, as Hanoy had suggested, a tiny room at the back of the supply barracks. One entire wall was taken up with numerous pipes and lighted displays. Medical gel had a limited shelf life, and besides, it often had very specific uses that require different formulas. Despite this, manufacturing was not as complicated as many thought it was. Maybe in an acute medical ward, where you had to adjust the formula for each patient individually. Here though, Devaki selected the formula for puncture gel and let the computer do the rest of the work.

A greenish liquid, thicker than the pink gel that they used in medical tanks, began to collect in one of the tanks at the bottom. Zie used an access port in the side of the tank to draw up a syringe full. Zie squirted a small amount of the gel into another device to run quality tests on it.

There was a handwashing station near the door of the room and zie poured the rest of the syringe down the sink there. Zie set the syringe back down by the tank. The protocol called for a quality test at the beginning and end of each manufacturing cycle. Running the smallest tank zie would have to do three batches to fulfill the order. Six quality tests. If zie kept the same syringe for all six tests instead of using a clean one each time, zie would end hir day with five uncounted syringes of puncture gel.

How many protesters were there in Freetown now? And if the police moved on them how many would be shot or killed before the consortium military could move in? Zie shoved the thought down. Focus on the positive. Five extra syringes, five fewer deaths should something happen.

It was not the most exciting job in the world. Watch the tank fill. Test the liquid. Fill syringes. Pack syringes for shipping. Rinse and repeat.

Zie had never been so happy for a lunch break, zie thought as zie packed the last shipment away. Not that hir afternoon chores, whatever they would be, would be much more exciting.

At the front of the barracks, zie found Dhanusha talking to Devaki's least favorite intelligence officer, Jardin. He gave hir a malicious smile. "I was just talking to your CO about the auditing process. The captain is worried that if there are any extra supplies not accounted for we might see a black market emerged."

Did he know? Devaki wondered. He couldn't. Zie chosen hir accomplishes well, zie was sure of it.

"And I informed him," Dhanusha replied with a grimace. "That we do our own auditing and I run a clean ship."

After he had left then zie added, "if your counts are off too many times, I'll have no choice about an audit." Just when Devaki had decided that Dhanusha must know what zie was up to, zie added, "so if you have any bright ideas about proving yourself incompetent as a supply clerk, thinking that will get you assigned out there again, I'd think again."

"No, ma'am. I'd never do anything like that to my CO."

"See that you don't. And in that case, I'm going to lunch."

Hanoy materialized out of the back just as Dhanusha left. Zie'd obviously heard the exchange. "Zie's a good officer if a bit by the book. Diligence and accuracy are important of course, but so is morality." Before Devaki could ask what that last comment meant, Hanoy went on. "My counts get off sometimes too." Zie extended hir hand, three small metal rings in hir palm. "Had a few extra water purifiers for some reason. If they could just disappear off base, that would be awesome."

Devaki gave hir a sly smile. "I suppose I could make that happen, just as a favor."