Challenge #01803-D342: Emergency HaulsteemCreated with Sketch.

in #fiction7 years ago

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The humans seem to enjoy the challenge of limited capacity. For everything. Safety is much less of a priority than maximisation, and any suggestion otherwise is considered downright offensive to the humans.
It’s been a long time since humans have been allowed in charge of logistics. -- Anon Guest

"You know, if we push it, load up every cubic milli-du[1], we can get two thou' out of the disaster area. You know. Minimum essentials. Stack up the folks like cordwood. I could save loads."

"Isn't that in violation of minimum comfort requirements?"

"Well, yeah, but I'm pretty certain these folks would rather be alive than uncomfortable. It's only half an hour to the evac barge. No harm to anyone."

"What about the air supply?"

"I can push the recyc fans. It'll be a bit stuffy on the last five, but... it's in tolerances."

"In Mak'avi tolerances?"

"Er..." extended twiddling with their data reader. "Yeah. Can do it."

Vrisoth glared at the human. "You are carrying cargo only. All the essential gear and equipment. No more than five Standard Tons."

"But I can lift twenty if I--"

"Five," insisted Vrisoth. "We will evacuate the living. You evacuate the inanimate. And keep to the safety limits."

"They're more like safety suggestions insisted the Human. "We can definitely get more out than that. How 'bout fifteen?"

"Five."

"Ten?"

"Five."

The human grumbled and grizzled about it, and started loading up their vessel. It was true that you got all types during an impending disaster, but the humans were the most incorrigible about pushing safety limits for short-term benefits. Hells, one of them even suggested shooting life-pods off of the mag-launcher and fielding the pods in orbit.

Blatant violations of every safety manual ever written. Well. Written by anyone other than a human.

It took half an hour, but Vrisoth found out that the human had loaded eight Standard Tons of essential equipment anyway. If they weren't so Powers-damned good at this, she'd just outright ban them from participating.

[1] One thousandth of a Standard Distance Unit, roughly equivalent to a millimeter.

[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / blamb]

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