Leaving Earth Vol. 1 (Leaving Earth Omnibus)

by Kaal Alexander Rosser

  'When was that?'

  'About four-ish.'

  'No. But then, I think he was in meetings with the senior staff for most of the early afternoon, so he would not have had a chance before I left for the day.'

  'OK. I'm hoping that we can allay some of his fears and give him something to look forward to.' He outlined what he and Stew had spoken about. 'Just hoping it helps.'

  'It'll help somewhat,' said Vann, putting the pasta-bake into the oven. 'I think that there is still going to be a lot of consternation from the staff, though.'

  'I'm going to go down and meet with everyone to try and address things as best I can. It really does need to happen though. From a business point of view, there's precious little point in the Nevada Facility without the changes.'

  Vann looked surprised. 'It's that far off track?'

  'Not off track, precisely, but the practical applications of the generators they are capable of producing are few and far between. The original design of the place was just to produce a stockpile of antimatter, not to put it to any real use. Unfortunately, the term for something without a use is "useless". It would be an expensive vanity piece to just keep running as it is.'

  'I see. Have you explained that to Ben?'

  'Not in exactly those terms, no.'

  'Probably best.' Vann had washed her hands while they talked and was now drying them on a dishcloth. 'Do you want to put him down while the dinner is cooking? There's something else we need to talk about.'

  Warning bells rang in Grum's head. There was definitely warning phrasing going on here.

  'Uh, sure.' Grum put Ju back in the bouncy chair. There was a token protest, but he soon settled.

  Vann sat on the sofa and patted the seat next to her for Grum to sit down, too.

  Good grief, he thought, this gets worse!

  'Don't worry, Grum, it's nothing bad.'

  Yikes! 'OK. Just so's you know, everything you have said and done since "we need to talk" indicates bad.'

  Vann frowned. 'Guys are weird. It's about work.'

  Grum relaxed a bit. 'About your starting back full time, you mean?'

  'Well, partly that. There's no easy way to say this, so I'm just going to say it…'

  FUCK! Grum tensed, fear mode fully re-engaged.

  'Oh, for crying our loud, Grum!' Vann was clearly exasperated. 'I don't want to work for you any more. That's all!'

  Grum relaxed. The Grum wondered why he had relaxed. This actually was a bad thing. 'But, why not? We've always worked well together! I was looking forward to getting the inner circle back together properly.'

  'That's just it, love. You and Stew have taken to the more managerial roles really well, but I'm hands-on engineering. I don't want to follow you up the management chain. I want to stay in a job where I can still muck in on engineering problems as the major part of my daily job. Hell, I enjoyed my work better when I was in Nevada and you were here!'

  That was harsh. Grum was cut to the quick by that. Then he pulled himself together. She's an engineer. She's precise. Listen to the words she's saying not the ones you think you're hearing. He paused and took a breath. 'You want to move back to Nevada?'

  'No, you idiot! I missed you horribly, but I enjoyed the work more. I realised that we might have worked well in the past, but not in the future. Going back to work, here, on the lower hours has confirmed it. I need a new job. I can't have you as my boss any more.'

  'Well, I can't stop you, of course.'

  'Don't get huffy, Grum. Just grow up a bit. This isn't about you, me, or our relationship. This is about work. It's about the job. And it's about me not being comfortable with you as my boss any more.'

  'So you want to get a new job. Somewhere else?'

  'At least in a different Division of USSMC. That might be enough.'

  'I need to process.'

  'I know you do. But don't go making conclusions without checking with me first. You know how you are.'

  'Yes, love.' Grum blew out a breath and deliberately relaxed. 'Sorry. Too many surprises, today.'

  Vann smiled at him. 'Do you want extra cheese on your slice?'

  'There is nothing which cannot be fixed be the addition of more cheese,' said Grum, definitively.

  'Right you are, then.' Vann got up and went back to the kitchen.

  Grum stayed on the sofa for a moment. A peaceful life. Couldn't I just have one of those, please? For a while?

  Chapter 6

  GRUM stared at the figures on the screen, but could not make any sense of them. Not that he was really trying. His thoughts were elsewhere.

  I should have just left it alone when she went into the kitchen. That would have worked. That would have been fine. But he had not done that. He had put Ju to bed after dinner, sat down to watch some random nonsense with Vann, and… Said he wanted to clarify a few things.

  By the time the next set of adverts rolled onto the TV they had both lost their tempers, Ju was crying, and Grum was walking him round the apartment trying to soothe him.

  The bed in the spare room had not been comfortable. He had a crick in his neck which was not entirely to do with staring at a wall screen. Said screen was full of notes and figures about the Nevada rebuild. This was doing nothing to improve his mood.

  Stew walked into the office and stopped in his tracks.

  Grum glared at him. 'What?'

  Stew's gaze shifted to the wall screen. 'That.'

  'What the bloody hell is Ben playing at? I thought you were going to calm him down! But this? This reads like a strike settlement!'

  'It's not quite that bad.'

  'Oh it isn't?'

  'No. No-one is actually threatening to walk out.'

  'What the hell? Why did this blow up to this degree?'

  'Ben knows his staff and he's assessed their needs against future requirements of the facility. He's included the likely increase in staffing required for the wider complex, and what would be necessary to replicate the current quality of living arrangements. And he's done so pretty calmly. Now if we're talking about calming down, are you going to chill out and discuss this or do I have to call the boss?' asked Stew.

  'No, don't do that. She's in a mood, too.'

  'So what's made you two such happy souls?'

  'You know how one argument suddenly becomes a proxy for all the other arguments and crap going on, and even if you actually agree, or would under normal circumstances find common ground, you just don't? You keep arguing about it until neither of you can back down.'

  'Normally, I give in after about five minutes token bargaining.' Stew shrugged. 'Unless it's something that is an actual relationship breaker it's not worth the agro.'

  'Same here. That's what I was going to do. In fact, I did. But, then, I didn't again — and now it's taken on a life of its own.'

  'I take it that this is about Vann not wanting to work for you in this Division?'

  Grum glared at Stew again.

  'Vann told Amy, Amy told me, and I…' Stew reached into his pocket for a pen-drive, '…went and had a chat to one of our new friends in the Space Division. Amy reckons that the space habitats are what Vann's most interested in after the AM gennies, right?'

  Grum nodded, not sure where Stew was going with this but sensing a possible light at the end of the tunnel.

  'Well, the AVP I spoke to says that Hank needs engineering resources and Vann has the experience. The fact that she knows the AM technology inside out would probably make the guy positively greedy to have her seconded to his projects.' Stew handed over the pen-drive. 'Now, take this…' Grum humbly did as instructed. 'Go and say you're sorry, take some flowers, chocolates and make sure it's all sorted out by this evening when you come for dinner. I'll finish up here today. Go.'

  Grum went.

  The reconciliation went well. The flowers and chocolate meant little in and of themselves, but the care and attention in the selection of them made a difference. It was the relationship shorthand of choice for admitting guilt and expres
sing sorrow at the situation. In this case it provided enough of an opening for Grum to speak the words, and to present the idea of Vann being seconded to the Space Division for her consideration.

  It was a decent gambit. It worked. Vann asked for more information about the Space situation, and Grum supplied that it went beyond Hank just needing to find a new Chief Engineer.

  By the time the were ready to leave for dinner at Stew and Amy's place, things were back to normal.

  The next morning Grum sat down at his desk ready to have another go at the knotty problem of Nevada. If he was going to convince Ben Abelson that the full rebuild was the right way to go, he would need to be able to show the reasons.

  He could most certainly simply order Ben to complete the builds, but Ben was worth more than that. Giving him an order like that would undermine him with his staff, and that would make the whole thing a shambles. He had seen senior management do that sort of thing before. Whatever the were in charge of always collapsed in a heap, and usually caused more damage to those under them than to themselves. The old VP had been of that ilk. Grum strenuously wanted to avoid becoming one of those, as well.

  So, the first step was to show what they were trying to achieve. To that end, Grum was sifting through Stew's reports from the various Divisions to find concrete examples of where the new generator sizes — all the way down to the tiny ones — would fit.

  It was not all that hard. Fiddly, yes. Time-consuming, assuredly. Difficult? No.

  He had the big, exciting use-cases, like the Moon-Mars Shuttle. That was always good for an opener. But like he had said to Stew, any profit would be in making products for industrial or commercial consumption. In that, the smaller generators were more important, and they needed to be able to produce those even when they were tying up two thirds of the output for seven months at a time for Space.

  That thought sidetracked him. As things stood, Nevada could produce all the generators anyone could wish, but Hank did not have the resources to design the installations or plan the missions to fit them. The had plenty of money, but getting the quality of engineering staff they needed was difficult at best.

  Strictly, that was not Grum's problem, but he knew that if he wanted to make the most of the output from Nevada, when it was up and running, he would have to help unblock Hank's Division.

  To do that, though, he needed to sort out the problems in Nevada, first. He would have to take that trip down to talk to Ben and the others.

  Otherwise, the builds seemed to be getting under way. It felt like it was being grudgingly done, though. The new assemblies had been given the letters "B" and "C", with the original now referred to as "A".

  One thing of note, to Grum, was that the new apartment complex and supporting "village" was behind schedule. That was not like Ben.

  There were too many little things. Too many inconsistencies. Each individual question could probably be sorted out by phone or email, but it would be far more effective to go there and sort everything out at once face-to-face.

  He could fly down on Sunday and come back on Tuesday. Unless things were really in a mess, then he would stay the week.

  He ran the idea past Vann, and she did not have any problems with him taking the trip to Nevada. She agreed it was the best way to find out what was happening, and he needed to go.

  Chapter 7

  THE first thing Grum noticed when he arrived on site, was a lack of busyness. There was a lot of places which were fenced of for construction or clearance, but little else going on.

  That worried him more than a little.

  He got out of the taxi at the office building and his phone buzzed to acknowledge that the fare had been debited. He strode through the front door and straight past the security desk, waving at the guard there who had jumped up with a half-strangled cry.

  'It's OK, Joe, I know the way.' Not pausing to see if that had been sufficient, he moved as swiftly as possible, without appearing hurried, to his old office. He walked in without knocking.

  Ben bore the appearance of a man on the verge of either rage or despair, but undecided as to which.

  'We'll get this clear from the start,' said Grum, shutting the door behind him. 'Whatever it is, it's my fault.'

  Ben stared for a second, then barked a slightly hysterical laugh. 'Yer damned straight it is!'

  'Now. Can you tell me what it is I've screwed up?'

  'I can't do it, boss. It's too…' Ben pointed a hateful finger at the wall screen, which showed the exact same set of plans and figures that Grum had last seen on his own screen in New York, and snarled, '…complex. No-one gets it. And everyone is just asking questions all the time.'

  And you keep trying to give them full and complete answers, thought Grum. Oh crap. It really is my fault. I made the classic management mistake. I mistook superior competence for leadership ability. 'What's the first thing that needs to be done. Critical path analysis, Ben.'

  'New housing complex, and village.' Ben responded, instantly.

  'Right. Why isn't it being worked on? It look like a ghost town was being deliberately constructed when I came by.'

  'Some of the people say they like their digs and don't want to move. Others are complaining that they've spent money on their current places and don't want to start again.'

  'Know any decorators?'

  'It's not funny, Grum.'

  'I wasn't joking. The place hasn't been built, yet. And certainly not decorated. Get the people involved. Tell them they can have input on the style and finish of their chosen apartment. They can't all want corners.'

  'No, it's not that. I got them involved, but when I set the budget they would get, they baulked. Some of them have already spent more of their own money on their current places.'

  'You mean it's a money issue?'

  'Well, there is a budget…'

  'Ben! You know how often I went over budget!' Well, you know some of it, anyway. 'Getting money out of the boss… Well. Let me tell you something bluntly that we've only skirted around. If this place doesn't get the rebuild completed on time, its usefulness is over.'

  Ben rocked back. 'You can't mean that.'

  'I bloody can! Now. Given that statement — which I admit, I should have made clear to you from the get go — and the size of the budget already committed… Do you think that if you present me a bill which is a couple of million dollars in the red, that I will baulk in the slightest?'

  'Well, no. I guess not. If you were to tell everyone that you authorise it…'

  'No, Ben!' Grum paused. This was a problem of his making. He needed Ben to be a leader, but it looked like he was going to have to teach him how. 'You do it anyway. You tell your inner circle of people how much you're going into the red. For them. And screw the boss. Then you let them know that they can tell only their most trusted people. Human nature being what it is, pretty soon everyone will know, but it'll be on the QT.'

  'You mean… All those times you told us…'

  'Well, no. The old VP really was a tight arse, and you remember that he tried to have me fired for financial misconduct among other things. This is different, though, Ben.' Grum realised that he was still standing — looming over Ben like some domineering tyrant. Well. He had needed that stance to get this far, but he did not need it any more. He pulled a chair out from in front of Ben's desk and sat down. Fully relaxed, but in the advisory position. Ben had the ball. 'This situation is one where we need you to begin leading your people. I apologise for putting you in this position, Ben. If you want to step down after the rebuild…'

  'No fear!' said Ben, with vigour. 'This is my site.'

  'Right answer.' Grum grinned at the man. 'Look. Let's start with that position. Everyone saw me stride in here looking pretty fierce. Anyone in the outer office has heard mildly raised voices. If I leave, get in a cab, and sod off back to Las Vegas, but you do as we've outlined together. Well, it'll look like you've bested me and your story of the fait accompli, two-million-in-the-red-and-the-boss-can-do-one
will hold water.'

  'You don't mind that?'

  'I mind that a hell of a lot less than the alternative.'

  'OK. You're on. Get out of here!'

  Grum grinned, winked, then scowled and stomped out of the office. He pinged the local taxi service to pick him up in an hour and headed for Mack's. He just hoped it was still open. Playing the boss, the sly leader giving hints to the favoured junior, was simple enough — just very, very wearing.

  'How did it go?' asked Grum as he entered Ben's office. He had knocked on the door before opening it, this time, just to keep the tone of an altered power-balance going.

  'I didn't even have time to go and speak to people. I had a constant stream in here for the rest of the day.. There are still one or two sticking points, but I'll get those ironed out today, so the build can start.'

  Everyone came through? thought Grum, but he said: 'I would start the workers on site again even before the details are finalised, unless anything is likely to change the overall structure of the buildings?'

  'Oh, yes. No, the structure won't change, it's just the interiors. OK. Yes. I'll do that.'

  'Cool. You do that and I'll grab a coffee. Then we have some other things to get ironed out, ourselves.' No point in relinquishing all my authority.

  Grum listened in on Ben's side of the conversation with the building contractors while he poured himself a coffee. He approved of the tone. Not overly demanding, but firm. Just right. They had obviously become used to just hanging around, probably bored. It's funny how many people assume that if you pay people for doing nothing, then that's exactly what they will do. It was almost never true. There were a few hardened lazy gits, but they were few and far between. Most people would do something even if you gave them all the money they needed to live on unconditionally. That brought Grum to the next point he wanted to talk about with Ben, just as the latter's phone call finished.

  'They will be getting on with the work, immediately,' said Ben.