Leaving Earth Vol. 1 (Leaving Earth Omnibus)

by Kaal Alexander Rosser

  'Excellent news,' said Grum as if he had not just overheard everything. 'So, we can move on. What is next? I have assumed that the medical facilities are included in the village?'

  'Mostly, yes. We will have first-responders stationed at each of the collection sites and the office building, as well. But, yes, those are included in the build work we have been talking about.'

  'Good. Then?'

  'There was something that came up throughout yesterday, and I was reminded when I spoke about it just now. Everyone came to visit me, here.'

  Bingo! thought Grum. 'Does that mean the team has spare capacity at the moment, between builds? Oh, don't look so damned panicky, Ben! You're organising a major rebuild of a large facility and at the very least the new staff coming on board will not yet have much to do. It's expected. But what about it?'

  'Nobody likes being bored, boss. They want to be doing something, but until the builds are mostly done, there is precious little. With the rebuild of "A", we're going to have nearly everything shut down at one point. Probably more than one between switch-overs, and with the joint switch on.'

  'I agree. So you have temporary spare capacity. Can I make a suggestion?'

  'Of course, Grum.'

  'Tell Stew. Give him the number of hours available and when. Tell him the top-level of skills and how much of each is available. Then tell him what inter-departmental, and inter-Divisional consultancy rates you would be willing to hire those resources out for, should anyone else in the company be suffering a shortage of top-notch engineers.'

  'But, if it's inside the company, shouldn't it be free?'

  'Definitely not, Ben. It's still work being done by your people. Never lose sight of that. Other people have to pay for your people to work on their projects. Oh, and Ben, don't be the nice, sweet guy from Brooklyn on this one. Do what the NRA does.'

  'What, scare the shit out of them?'

  'Exactly!'

  'I can do that.'

  'Right. Your people might not exactly want to work on the things that need doing, so you'll probably have to sweeten the deal with them. If it were me, I'd let it be known that a consultancy bonus of, say, fifty bucks an hour is available for anyone willing to take on make-work for other parts of the company. Then you make sure that you add a bit to pay for the extra-special new year's eve party you're going to have to celebrate all the successes this year, and round it up to be sure. That's the figure you give to SyncDep. What SyncDep tells everyone else is up to them, but you and your people are covered.'

  'Holy crap! I never even thought of that!'

  'Think of it as professional services, Ben. And it'll keep people from getting bored and restless.'

  'I think I see where you're coming from. That's why you were so pissed when the old veep gave the first lot of generators away. He was selling us all short.'

  'Right on the money, Ben. Now you shouldn't ever get that from me, but I'm not perfect. If you ever find me trying to sell your people short…'

  'I'll come to New York with a baseball bat.'

  'Good enough!' Grum let out a laugh and immediately smothered it, remembering the image they were trying to portray.

  Ben paused, eyeing Grum curiously. 'Y'know. I don't think this confrontational story is the best way to go from here on in.'

  'No?' Grum tried hard not to get his hopes up. If Ben was going to take the step he hoped, then that would justify — to himself at least — that he really had chosen the best person for the job.

  'No. I'm big enough to admit when I'm wrong. I think we can swing yesterday's confrontation story into reconciliation, today. But I can say that you have been giving me a… A masterclass in leadership skills. I think people will buy that better. It won't diminish my authority to say that I'm still new to the role and needed some rough edges knocking off.'

  'Good. In fact, brilliant. I agree. But, I would suggest that you keep the ideas which come out of this office as your own, though. At least until they are all seen to be working. You can have a "revelation" later that I helped lead you to the ideas if you like, that doesn't really matter. For now, though, you had best be the brainchild.'

  'OK. I see the sense in that.'

  'I think that has most of the big problems dealt with. Now we just have the relatively minor ones of the actual production assembly builds to go over.'

  'Minor?'

  'Relatively. The good news is, this is where you get to be an engineer and I get to be a scientist, and we both get to collaborate on a really technically challenging problem!'

  'I do miss those days.'

  'One more hint, then. Don't let them go completely away. No-one outside of this office needs to know if you are taking a few hours of consultancy time, and no-one outside of the facility needs to know if you decide to involve yourself in a particular internal project. So long as you keep it to a sensible amount and don't let it interfere with the running of this place… Even then… You remember that I spent a lot of my time working on problems rather than doing the admin, don't you? Add another twenty bucks an hour to the overall service charge and you can get yourself an admin assistant. If things don't slip, I'll never need to even know.'

  Ben was silent for a moment. 'I swear you were not as sneaky as this when you were here.'

  'Oh, I was, Ben. It just never really came up. Not until the old boss started making trouble, anyway.'

  Ben harrumphed. 'OK, then. New builds. Then rebuild of "A".'

  'Agreed.'

  Ben cleared the screen of everything except the one schematic for "B", and they set to work.

  It had been longer than two days, in the end, but not the full week.

  Stew had given him an earful on the evening of the second day about Ben's shenanigans in setting up a professional services group inside Nevada, and how Stew knew exactly who to blame for that idea. Grum just told him to forward the relevant legal materials Ben would need. They had plenty of boilerplates being drawn up from the service catalogue idea, anyway.

  He had made it back to the apartment by just after midnight. As quietly as possible, he checked on Ju — not for any particular reason, but because it was completely impossible not to when he had been away from several days. He slid the still-packed luggage to a wall, then washed and brushed himself as quietly as possible, before taking himself to bed.

  Gratefully, he got under the sheets with Vann, who turned and snuggled into him without properly waking. He kissed her hair, and resting his cheek on the top of her head, fell asleep.

  Chapter 8

  GRUM had his hand on his office door when he heard his name called. Hank Bowers was bearing down on him. 'Hey there, Hank.'

  'Hey yourself! Are you some kind of Djinn?'

  Grum opened the office door and waved Hank inside. 'You'll have to give me a clue, Hank.' He turned to the coffee pot while Hank seated himself. Someone had cleaned and filled the pot so there was fresh, hot coffee already waiting. Grum made a mental note to find out who and give them a raise. He could not suppress a smile as Hank continued.

  'It's like this, Djinn. I tell you my troubles over a beer — and I know you never told anyone else, 'cause I'd've heard. Two days later, your wife comes to me with her resume, if you please, saying that she would like secondment and that you're fully in favour of it.'

  'All true. How do you take your coffee?'

  'Black, two sugars, please. Then you disappear for a few days and your man Stewart Leslie comes to me saying that there's a new, in-company consultancy group based out of Nevada, who are very heavy on engineering and physics. Not cheap, mind you…'

  Nicely done, Ben, thought Grum.

  '…But I don't care from cheap, I need good! And this service looks like a thousand hours of great! What gives?' asked Hank, and Grum handed him his coffee.

  'Well, I'll tell you, Hank, but it's got to be on the QT.'

  'Oh, for sure.'

  'You know the guy you were impressed with the other day. Ben Abelson?'

  'Your departmen
t chief at Nevada, yes?'

  'Yes. I went down there to see how things were coming along, and Ben told me he was looking for a way to keep his people occupied while there was slack during the rebuilds. He had seen the service catalogue idea, of course, and put two and two together to make a consultancy.'

  'Smart man.'

  'Very. What he didn't know was your situation, so I suggested he talk to Stew.'

  'I owe you a big favour, man!'

  'Thanks. This level of extra help is only limited, though. It's just while the rebuilds are on. But I should imagine that if I poke around in the other department, I'll be able to scare up some more engineers and scientists who could work on problems… For a fee, of course.'

  'Oh, hell, man, don't talk to me about inter-Divisional budgets! I know how this works. And I'll support you. You've just got me out of a big hole.'

  'Not a problem.'

  'If we get enough done, during the rebuilds, I might even be able to actually install some of those shiny new generators. I was that strapped for bodies of the right calibre that I was afraid I'd have to come to you and cancel the order, because I wouldn't have been able to install 'em! As it stands, and if the consultancy works out, we should be OK.'

  'I didn't realise it was quite that bad,' Grum lied.

  'Oh, yes. It's worse, even. We've got the orbital life support mechanisms set up, but only half the solar panels for the continuous load are up there. That's why we need the generators pronto. To make it safe!'

  That was something Grum had not known. 'How bad is it?'

  'We've got skeleton crews working on rotation. One of the older platforms has excess capacity, but we're having to use a shuttle as a kind of long-range extension cable to transfer power from one battery bank to another, but it's very lossy.'

  'We've got people working on battery tech as well in Core Power. I'll poke them next and see what they've got.'

  'Of course you have. Djinn!'

  Grum laughed, but sobered quickly. 'Look, Hank. The Nevada Facility's future is pretty much riding on this rebuild. I've got Stew doing what he can to make sure people really know what's going on and what the real deal is with the antimatter generators, but some rumours of free energy just will not stay decently buried. It would help if you could reinforce reality.'

  'Definitely I can, and do! Space Division needs that power just as much as you need to produce it. They might not be grunty enough to run the Moon Base, but those generators can take a chunk out of the power requirements for anything else. Especially the Moon-Mars shuttle.'

  'Yes. Thank you.' Grum tipped his mug back and finished his coffee.

  Hank mirrored him, then stood to leave. 'You have some powerful fine folks working for you, Djinn. Some say you're tipped for COO, y'know that?'

  Before Grum could respond, Hank was out of the door and away down the corridor.

  'When was the last time we played pool?'

  Grum looked up to see Stew's head stuck round the door. 'I don't remember. Have we played since we joined USSMC?'

  'That's exactly what I thought. There is a pool hall which serves real ale in bottles not five blocks from here.'

  'Getaway!'

  'Straight up! I have taken the extreme liberty of asking Vann to give you an evening off.'

  'What did she say?' Grum had a fair idea what she would say to such an asinine question.

  'She said: "Don't be a bloody fool. If he wants to go for a pint, that's up to him!", is what she said, guv.' Stew's cockney accent was truly atrocious, but that did not stop him from using it. What was worse, he was trying to put on the accent of a cockney putting on a posh accent, and he really could not do either.

  'OK, look. I don't see a problem with going out for a couple of bottles and a game or two of pool. Just… Stop making those awful noises.'

  'Right you are! Meet you at the bar?'

  'Sure. I'll see you there.

  More than six months had gone by since Grum's visit to Nevada. The build out project was nearly complete on the "B" assembly and well along for "C". It was fast approaching the time when "A" would be switched off and "B" switched on. That simple sounding process, though would need about six months to execute.

  Since the had decided that "A" would get a full rebuild to match the newer "B" and "C" units, the design for "B" no longer had to match what had been there for "A".

  That had freed up the design teams, somewhat and would — in time — lead to a more stable and productive site, but it meant that "A" could not be running, or even still physically connected to the system when "B" was prepped for production and run in earnest. Getting "B" and then "A" online after would need a much shorter window.

  It was the drop to zero production for so long a time which had Grum somewhat worried, even with the vocal support from Hank Bowers.

  It was probably the conflation of it getting close to the end of the day, knowing he was going for a drink, and Hank's support that gave Grum the idea. He left his office fifteen minutes early to go down to the bar. He had not used his VP tab since that first time with Hank and had never had the opportunity to show Stew. He decided to ping Stew a message to knock off a few minutes early, while he was on his way down.

  Grum watched Stew approach the bar and noted with satisfaction the growing confusion. He waggled the bottle of light ale and grinned.

  'OK. I give in. The bar isn't open, yet you have a drink. No staff are behind the ramp, so you haven't just persuaded someone. I doubt you brought a bottle in with you just on the off chance I was going to suggest a beer after work, so… What gives?'

  'Privilege.'

  Stew's eyes described a slightly rounder shape. 'You can open the bar?'

  'For half an hour at any rate, and on a personal tab to keep generosity to a sensible level.'

  'Cool. I'll have a bottle of Oat Stout. I can see it in the fridge, of all crimes.'

  Grum got up and served Stew a bottle as requested. 'This is only the second time I've used the privilege. I don't consider it likely that I will use it often.'

  'You would if they had a supply of Kelso's.'

  'Fair to say. But that's a dangerous road.'

  'Truth accepted,' Stew intoned.

  'Right. Shall we finish these and go to find this pool table of yours? Then you can tell me what has prompted this.'

  'Oh, I can tell you while we drink these. Then we can enjoy the pool, after.'

  'If you like. So?'

  'It's working, Grum.'

  'This does not enhance my overall enlightenment much.'

  'The catalogues, running service resourcing through SyncDep, and especially Vann's secondment to Space. It's all working.'

  'That's great, but why is this news? I can see that from the balance sheets and increased progress reports.'

  'I have been approached by people outside of Core Power asking if they could do the same thing.'

  It was Grum's turn to widen his eyes. He had not heard about this. 'Really? And what do they want to do, exactly? And why are they asking you?'

  'They want to "maximise productive bench time between major projects" — my phrase — and they are asking me, because I have been telling people what I have been doing as SyncDep. One or two of them want to run their own thing, but most want SyncDep to do the work.'

  'Empire building much?'

  'Well, it's your empire I'm building.'

  'Not forever. If we're right about where SyncDep will end up.'

  'All the more reason for SyncDep to run the intra-company professional services. It's only really an extension to what we were asked to do in the first place…'

  Grum recognised one of his own phrases from when he was justifying the initial generator builds and laughed. 'You don't have to justify it to me, Stew. It will not hurt in the slightest to get that level of co-operation going between Divisions. The only thing that worries me, slightly, is that we might see an increase in transfer requests when people find out that they could be working on something more exciting
, permanently.'

  'That's a risk in any consultancy practice, so I've learned. The thing that worries me is that HR might get sniffy.'

  'Then head that off at the pass. Tell them up front that you're dealing with engineering and science resources on a temporary service basis, not overall headcount.'

  'But what if people come asking about other things? I'm pretty sure that someone is going to ask about something other than engineering and science, some time.'

  'The point them at HR. Look. We both know that the SyncDep situation is not permanent. It doesn't belong where it is. In all likelihood, the structures you set up in SyncDep will end up being broken off and subsumed into other departments inside Core Business. An internal consultancy would naturally sit alongside HR. Probably as its own department. Eventually SyncDep itself will be subsumed and most likely return to the initial remit of managing internal communications and dependency resolutions. You can set up pretty much anything inside SyncDep, just don't expect to keep it.'

  'You're right. Shall we go play pool?'

  'Sure. Just one more thing before we do. Anything you do set up will become a template for later on when others replicate it. Concentrate on making the best templates.'

  'Yes boss. OK. I'm finished with this bottle. Let's go.'

  Grum returned home that evening to an already sleeping child and a slightly antsy Vann.

  'Dinner's ready,' she said as soon as he walked in the door.

  'Great.'

  'So what did you guys have to talk about?'

  'Mostly just how things were going. In the main it seems to be pretty good. People are starting to enjoy working on new projects in their downtime.'

  'That's nice.' Vann was plating up, but Grum did not think it was just that which caused the distracted tone. 'I'm enjoying what I'm doing, too.'

  Ah. It's that conversation. Well, I'm ready for it. This time. 'I'm glad, Vann.'

  'I… Don't want to move back to your Division, Grum.'

  Grum had spent some time working over his own objections to Vann not wanting to work for him. Mostly, it came down to pride, he had decided. 'I'm going to take a complete flier and guess that Hank has put you in line for the Chief Engineer's role if you stay?'