The first day of the ship's grand opening was the toughest of them all, but the second day and third went much more smoothly, even for the shops that hadn't been open for the first round.
Just being able to watch the others at work reminded everyone of the normal situation, and the talk of strict warnings for sluffing off and skipping work were spreading rapidly through the ship. Everyone knew the standard Reaver procedures for the ones who refused to work. They would have their wages cut, then they would be dismissed and transferred to a punitive detail, and finally, if they simply could not function in society, they would be moved to a planetary treatment centre for their mental health.
Sylvie had set up counsellors among the Androids, to deal with all the expected trauma cases among the refugees, but she was not a particularly forgiving AI and the one-month leniency period was about all the sympathy that anyone was likely to get from her.
There were still more vessels arriving as well, though not as densely packed with people. They had picked out the largest numbers first, so that after the initial influx, they would come in a few hundred at a time, not tens of thousands at once.
That should help flesh out the staff levels of the shops, and hopefully fill in some of the skills gaps that were being covered by androids at the moment.
Who survived their ship being destroyed was random chance, so it wasn't like they could just pick and choose what job skills they got this time, not like when they were recruiting from the general population. But it was working out fairly well, and with androids to fill the top positions, they were able to send plenty of unskilled workers for on the job training.
They also had an incredibly large childcare contingent aboard the world ship. Women and children first in an emergency was still a cultural norm, and there were more children than adults among the arrivals.
That was what Max was going to check on today. There weren't a lot of formal standard requirements for childcare among the Reavers, unlike the Alliance, who made it a college degree.
The attitude was that if they were competently raising their own kids, they could competently work at looking after other people's kids as well. So, while they had tried to find people with experience, and fill in with androids, a lot of the positions were parents with no other skills, but an entry on their personal documents that noted them as a homemaker.
As expected, that had led to immeasurable chaos in some of the childcare facilities, as competing egos and childcare techniques clashed with each other.
So, Max was going to remind them all of the Reaver standards, and then add in the Alliance standards, which didn't seem like they were completely idiotic as well. That would make a formal procedure for the world ship, and hopefully raise a generation of useful young citizens.
The facilities were packed right now, as everyone wanted to either explore the city or had picked up shifts at work in order to get more than the basic living subsidy that everyone on board received. There was an extra for raising kids, but after so long being packed in a crowded rescue ship, a bit of time to themselves at a regular job was a relief.
"Sylvie, how are the new rules coming along? We have had a number of complaints again today, either from parents or other coworkers about nonstandard childcare, and I want it dealt with." Max asked the tiny avatar of the ship's AI.
"I've got it finished. I used the primary standards of the Reavers, with Kepler Terminus, and the Innu Conglomerate as the core standards, as they were all fairly compatible and didn't include anything that has been complained about so far.
I am sending them out right now, both to the facilities and to every worker and parent. That way everyone knows what's up, and if they don't agree with the standard, they can raise their kids on their own.
Well, to a certain extent. My programming requires that I keep a close eye on anyone that attempts to cut themselves off from the system, as part of the sedition and child abuse prevention measures."
"That's good enough for me. Send them out, and we will take a short tour to a few of the facilities that have been having issues. I suspect that they will be calling for security soon enough, some people don't adapt well to change." Max replied.
Sylvie was actually looking forward to that part. Felicity had informed her how insanely protective of random ideas civilians could be, but she didn't have any personal experience with them, and after carefully reading the Reaver guidelines, it was clear that indoctrination programming was not going to be feasible as a punitive measure, no matter how effective her data said it was.
They were to be allowed to make their own mistakes. Even if they made them over and over. It was illogical, but Sylvie could adapt to that easily enough. Cadets were allowed to fail all by themselves during training as well. It made them stronger in the end if they had faced failure and recovered from it to become true leaders.
[Incoming message. There are fourteen vessels currently looking to offload to ease overcrowding, and all are hoping to have their passengers disembark today. We have enough androids to guide them and enough prepared units that they can be housed immediately, while activating more commercial and industrial facilities to keep up with employment requirements.] Sylvie's automated response voice informed Max.
"How many people in total between the fourteen vessels?" Max asked.
"In order to ease overcrowding, a total of over two million. If you choose to discuss them remaining here on a work contract to retrofit their vessels to a higher military standard, including damage repairs, that would be two point two million."
Max sighed. That was more than they had rehomed in total since they arrived.
"Alright, bring them aboard, and inform the crew of the ships that we will be willing to extend them credit to do minor to moderate repairs and upgrades before they leave. Just bring them to a bay with a terraforming array, and we should be able to upgrade most of them within a few days."
