Junkyard Dogs 1: The Scrapyard Incident Read Free Page A

hundred and sixty million kilometers -- behind it. Any of the rest of you who
don't know what an L-5 point is , I suggest you look up
'Lagrange point' or 'Trojan point' during your studies tonight."
    Hart nodded.
    Harris continued.
"The Scrapyard was established just over fifty-six years ago, four years
after the Great War of Succession. As you should know, the final Naval battle of that war, also the largest Naval battle in
the history of Mankind, was fought within a single astronomical unit from the
Whitney jump point of this system. When the battle -- and the War -- ended,
this system was left with an almost incomprehensible number of wrecked military
vessels and other battle debris to deal with."
    He paused again
for a moment, his brown eyes intense as they roved back and forth across the
two rows of recruits, looking for signs of comprehension. The new Ensign -- Carlisle,
he reminded himself -- was staring at him intently and her lips were moving
silently. He frowned, just barely, before continuing.
    "A large
speculative venture, spearheaded by an outfit called The Delphi Investment
Group, began gathering all of those ships and pieces of ships at this location
to provide the raw materials for building a very large L-5 orbital colony. The
spectral characteristics of Naccobus and the distance
from the star to New Ceylon's orbit made this system an ideal candidate for such
a colony. They finally wound up with over five thousand battle-damaged,
obsolete, or just plain worn out military vessels. That covers just the
material in what we call the 'Military Section.' You may have also noticed a
fair amount of ship hulls and other material out here that is definitely not of
military origin. The 'Civilian Section' came to be because, for the first
several years of the project, Delphi was buying up any kind of space junk they
could get at a low price from anywhere in the quadrant. As a result they were
transporting in material such as worn out civilian spaceships, small space
stations, and anything else that they could get their hands on. Any more
questions to this point?"
    Harris scanned
the cadets again and, seeing no response, continued. "You may have also
noticed that there is no L-5 colony here. The post-war economic boom petered
out and a disaster on the L-5 colony in the Old Earth system, wherein over
three thousand people died, killed the public's interest in large L-5 colonies
almost overnight. The entire project was abandoned when the head of Delphi --
and the driving force behind the project -- Albert Dubois Schwimmer ,
died unexpectedly. Within six months the company disintegrated into chaos as it
was split up amongst his heirs and the bills for all of these raw materials
began coming due. Now what we have, as Ensign McConnell so aptly noted, is
probably the biggest junkyard known to man!
    The military got
involved because no one else had the money or the expertise to handle what
remained of the project. Even though an L-5 or Trojan Point is a relatively
stable orbital zone, the sheer size and complexity of this huge mass of
material requires constant attention -- herding we call it -- or parts of it
will go wandering off into space with the potential to cause a lot of problems.
Again, any questions?"
    McConnell
actually raised his hand.
    "Yes, Ensign
McConnell?"
    "My father
told me that the Scrapyard makes pretty good money. Sir"
    "Yes, if you
don't count the fact that the initial investment was absorbed by the Delphi
bankruptcy, the base has been able to more than break even during the fifty- plus   years that it
has been in operation. We salvage strategic materials like cobalt, titanium,
cesium, steel, aluminum, and copper. Other valuables include carbon-based
materials like neo- kevlar and almost any kind of
plastic. You wouldn't believe some of the other things that are here in large
quantities, like sealants, lubricants and other fluids, for instance. Nearly
every ship out here still has several tons of