“We now have all three on the ground,” Victor said. “We’re doing an assessment of which can be flown the soonest. One is in very poor shape.  The other two should be available soon. The one in poor shape may be used as a parts car for a while. Our arrangements with the Space Guard for retraining will soon give us a significantly larger labor force, at a limited expense to us. Expense because the training will use time of the current staff.”

“And the last issue?” Rose asked.

“We’re now doing engineering,” Victor said “I propose that Elaine Bell be made Chief Executive, since she understands what is going on, and has a much better ability to prioritize what needs doing than I do, and that I be given an honorary title and an obligation to oversee what she’s doing, and that we agree I take my offer from the Senate.”

“You sent us her very extensive report,” Smith asked.  “I gather that there are complications with the rebuild and refinance plans?”

“The original plans would still work,” Victor said, “though the warnings on needing to survey the condition of our freighters turn out to be more correct than I would like.  We actually have three more-or less working freighters and one that needs a lot of work.  However, once the three are repaired we can actually haul appreciably more ore than Bulger had been hauling before the takeover.”

“Her plans seem complicated,” Margaret Evans asked.  “Are they necessary?”

“I should let her explain,” Victor answered.  “The short form is that she identified a path that gets us where we want to go, rather more rapidly than the original plans, given the constraints we have encountered.  We have three ships, not four.  We have that cartel arrangement.  However, I’d rather have her explain her solution, though neither I not our technical staff see any problems with it.”