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Description

Six months ago, Lavra Lymirelko was offered a position at ULAF when it began operation. A fair number of the Clerks who had done the paperwork for it during construction were given similar job offers and like most of them she accepted. It was steady work and the pay was better, though it did mean leaving Dalatyr behind; that was a bit sad, but she could deal with it.

Much of the work was familiar enough in any case. She was put in Procurement, dealing with the inflow of supplies needed to keep the monster factory running from steel and machine components to toilet paper. She processed requisition forms, relayed information to suppliers, inspected received shipments, compiled logs, that sort of thing. Even with twenty four other Clerks in her department there was always a lot to do. The hammering and ringing of typewriters was a constant buzz in the background as she worked. With such a volume of paperwork to deal with, most of what she dealt with was soon lost to memory. Even so there were occasionally things which stuck out.

On a warm day late in spring she received an unusual memo. It started out fairly with something fairly routine: 'Special Requisition for Cafeteria Provisions'. ULAF employed 7,000 people and while brown bagging it was reasonably common on average a majority of the workers got at least one meal a day from it, so it's pantries needed regular provisioning. But as she read on she noticed an oddity in the list '20 m3 Hygienic Lager (barrels preferred)'. That was odd, the Cafeteria usually served nothing stronger than Kvass and drinking on the job was strictly banned. The rest of the list was more prosaic, but includes a fair deal of meat and a few other items. Then there was the deadline 'Deliver for 28/6/47 IA. Priority-B. Bureaucrat L-7 Alexi Vavilov, ULAF Director of Supply.'

She knew the handwriting, though the signature and stamp made it official. Priority-B was remarkably high for food, a fair deal of the actual manufacturing inputs were typically listed as Priority-C and occasionally D. Some of this would be requisitioned from Ministry of Distribution and the rest would come from independent suppliers. There was a month to sort it out at least, though it would a lot of paperwork, requests and in many cases face-to-face meetings and some of the items would have to be delivered fresh.

She fed a fresh sheet of paper into the typewrite and began to type out the first request form. If she was to hazard a guess, it looked like they were aiming to provision a feast for the workforce on the summer solstice. This was hardly unprecedented, it was a holiday and not a unwanted development even if it did mean a lot of work for herself. An assessment which was not wrong, but only part of the story of that day.

From the Beginning...

Previous: Infrastructure: Part Three Hundred and Seventy Seven
Next: Infrastructure: Part Three Hundred and Seventy Nine

Description

Six months ago, Lavra Lymirelko was offered a position at ULAF when it began operation. A fair number of the Clerks who had done the paperwork for it during construction were given similar job offers and like most of them she accepted. It was steady work and the pay was better, though it did mean leaving Dalatyr behind; that was a bit sad, but she could deal with it.

Much of the work was familiar enough in any case. She was put in Procurement, dealing with the inflow of supplies needed to keep the monster factory running from steel and machine components to toilet paper. She processed requisition forms, relayed information to suppliers, inspected received shipments, compiled logs, that sort of thing. Even with twenty four other Clerks in her department there was always a lot to do. The hammering and ringing of typewriters was a constant buzz in the background as she worked. With such a volume of paperwork to deal with, most of what she dealt with was soon lost to memory. Even so there were occasionally things which stuck out.

On a warm day late in spring she received an unusual memo. It started out fairly with something fairly routine: 'Special Requisition for Cafeteria Provisions'. ULAF employed 7,000 people and while brown bagging it was reasonably common on average a majority of the workers got at least one meal a day from it, so it's pantries needed regular provisioning. But as she read on she noticed an oddity in the list '20 m3 Hygienic Lager (barrels preferred)'. That was odd, the Cafeteria usually served nothing stronger than Kvass and drinking on the job was strictly banned. The rest of the list was more prosaic, but includes a fair deal of meat and a few other items. Then there was the deadline 'Deliver for 28/6/47 IA. Priority-B. Bureaucrat L-7 Alexi Vavilov, ULAF Director of Supply.'

She knew the handwriting, though the signature and stamp made it official. Priority-B was remarkably high for food, a fair deal of the actual manufacturing inputs were typically listed as Priority-C and occasionally D. Some of this would be requisitioned from Ministry of Distribution and the rest would come from independent suppliers. There was a month to sort it out at least, though it would a lot of paperwork, requests and in many cases face-to-face meetings and some of the items would have to be delivered fresh.

She fed a fresh sheet of paper into the typewrite and began to type out the first request form. If she was to hazard a guess, it looked like they were aiming to provision a feast for the workforce on the summer solstice. This was hardly unprecedented, it was a holiday and not a unwanted development even if it did mean a lot of work for herself. An assessment which was not wrong, but only part of the story of that day.

From the Beginning...

Previous: Infrastructure: Part Three Hundred and Seventy Seven
Next: Infrastructure: Part Three Hundred and Seventy Nine