Leaving Earth Vol. 1 (Leaving Earth Omnibus)

by Kaal Alexander Rosser

  Even Grum's suggestion that the Richard Dean Anderson School be allowed to offer a tour of the Tech Centre as a Science Fair prize was approved, so long as that was strictly monitored and also approved by the Board of Education of New Jersey.

  The one element of the requests Grum had made which caused the most discussion, was a late addition. Some senior staff members were going to have to go up to one of the newly finished Orbitals to meet with the UMBRA engineering teams while they were changing over. It was an odd request, and one which still carried a not insignificant cost. USSMC, themselves, had the best methods for getting people to and moving about in space. Nevertheless, the cost would come in at a little over a million dollars, which caused the discussion. It was approved, on the proviso that every effort was made to find viable alternatives.

  Grum called Stew in after the meeting, to discuss who was going to go to the Orbital meeting. Between them, Grum and Hank had determined that they both had to send representatives to cover the various aspects to be discussed in the meeting. Vann wanted to go, and Grum privately felt that she could probably handle the meeting by herself. She knew all the relevant technology, and he could certainly trust her to represent Core Power as well as the Space Division. It would be a long trip, though, and Grum thought that having two people would make it easier.

  'Would Ben want to go, do you think?' asked Grum.

  'Him? He's up to his ears in the collider testing. Besides it should be someone else well-versed in both of the main technologies, at least: antimatter power and nuclear. Reason being that the two people will be able to spell each other during the longer sessions and take alternate meetings.'

  'You mean that I should go?'

  'You? With the plates you're spinning? No. At another time, sure. I could cover for you, but I wouldn't want to have to face down the board in your stead.'

  'Then who? Has to be someone with a certain amount of clout. Do any of the senior engineers at Nevada or in the fission department have enough knowledge of the other technologies to spell Vann for some of the time?'

  'To a degree, I should imagine, yes, but it'll work out as mostly Vann, because there is so much crossover in technology usage.'

  'We don't have a large pool to play with. Maybe it should be a larger team? I could go back to the board…'

  'No. I have a solution,' said Stew, leaning back and sighing. 'Me and Amy go.'

  'Why you two?' asked Grum.

  'Because I'm the only one left on our side, and I damned well want my wife with me. She would love to go just as much as Vann, and she has nearly the same background, if not quite the depth of experience.'

  'I'm not going to argue on that score. If you and Amy can get Vann to come round to your way of thinking, then I'll represent to Hank, but I'm not going to back you with Vann. In my eyes she has the right to call it.'

  'Fine.' Stew spun out of the chair and left Grum's office. Grum had a horrible feeling that he had just gone straight to have it out with Vann.

  Stew was back in Grum's office in under ten minutes, all smiles. 'Done.'

  'How the hell did you get her to agree?'

  'We had a knock-down-drag-out fight in the middle of SpaceDiv!'

  'WHAT?!'

  'Not really. I told her the same as you. I had to go, so I wanted Amy with me.'

  'What did she say to that?'

  'She said "who's going to look after Clait?", and then I remembered what you said about borrowing him. So I offered my child as a sacrifice to my ego. All very biblical.'

  'And Amy agreed to this?'

  'Oh, I get the feeling that Amy and Vann had already had a "discussion" on the matter. They can count the number of experienced people in our Division as well as we can, and know how busy you are, so…'

  'So they were already expecting your visit, and had probably arranged that extended babysitting would be provided by the other party whichever of us ended up going.'

  'Pretty much. Now it's your turn.'

  'What?'

  'You have to tell Hank that he's not sending his Chief Engineer into Space, yet.'

  'I'll go. Wait here.'

  The meeting with Hank was short and to the point. Hank did not really care who went, so long as the job would be done properly. He agreed with Stew that Grum, himself, could not go at this time, but the "next best choices" were doing the job, so it was fine by him.

  So it was settled. Immediately that Stew and Amy were back from their holidays, they would go to the Orbital for the meetings. Grum and Vann would look after Clait for the two weeks that they were away.

  Grum was glad of that, because after he had thought about it for some time, he wanted another child.

  It was not a desperate yearning, but his feelings had shifted from "I'll think about it some day" to "Yes, another child would be nice". It would not be right to speak to Vann about it, yet. After all, he did not have any more evidence than he had before, it was just that he had actually been thinking about it rather than not.

  That in itself could have been enough to reinforce a previously held, but not consciously expressed desire. In that respect it would be potentially damaging to all concerned if he expressed his opinion now and later found that evidence changed his mind. Given that further evidence was only a few weeks away, it would be dumb to act now.

  In the meantime, he would concentrate on the other things he wanted to happen, those things with sufficient evidence in their favour already. The first of which being the streamlining of the SyncDep consultancy business.

  The current model had got him — and the Division — out of hole, to be sure, but it was less than ideal. He may have argued with the previous HR Director about driving up the wage bill, and about Divisional heads balancing the books between them like individual business owners, but the truth was that SyncDep's consultancy arm was really only dealing with science and engineering matters. Of that subset, only ten percent was operational. The consultancy was behaving like an extended R&D platform, and that platform was now in constant use. In that respect SyncDep had already achieved one of its major operational goals.

  There were other aspects as well. Like the internal research library which had sprung into being, and the new usage of previously ignored software for engaging in cross-departmental discussions.

  Bolt all of those things together and you had yourself a separate R&D Division. Pull R&D out of the other Divisions, and have them concentrate on application, operation, and maintenance. That way you have yourself a more streamlined business. One which might actually start turning a profit generally within the next five years instead of twenty. That was what he wanted. But to do that he would have to extend his reach. Like Hank had once accused him of, he would have to become the COO in essence, if not in name.

  Both families went to the airport to see Stew, Amy, and Clait on to the plane.

  For both children, it was the first time they had been into a really busy airport, and it was a little daunting. For the parents it was nerve-wracking. Several times each parent was convinced that their child had disappeared, only to feel a little hand tugging at a trouser leg wanting to know what that was.

  They went to a restaurant in the airport and paid the vastly inflated prices for mediocre food. At least it was relatively safe and quiet, and they could stay there until it was time to go through security and on to the gate.

  Ju wanted to know why he was staying home, while Clait was going on holiday. He had to be satisfied with being told that it was not his turn, and they would go for a holiday next time they had a chance. He was also enticed with Clait coming to stay with them for a while when they came home from the holiday.

  Ju gave Grum the strong impression that he could not have cared less if his parents were along for the holiday, and having Clait back was not enough compensation, so Grum determined that he would make an effort to do some extra things with his son while Stew and Amy were on their travels.

  Chapter 6

  WHEN Grum got into the office on t
he following Monday morning one of his least favourite emails was waiting for him. The subject read: "Fwd: Potential Security Breach of CLASSIFIED material", and that was weird. Not because of the email itself. These things happened occasionally, and usually turned out to be someone who had unthinkingly used their home computer to log on something non-sensitive, but followed a link to a secure area. It happened.

  No, the odd thing was that he had not been alerted directly, and it was in the CLASSIFIED category. That normally meant that the security office would be breathing down his neck. This was just a forwarded message directly from one of the security managers. He read the email:

  "Don't think it's really an issue, but… On holiday? Tut tut."

  That was followed by the usual blurb showing the when, where, and who of the access violation.

  It was Stew. He was using an authorised device, but doing so from out of the country, which immediately threw a warning.

  Grum replied to the email saying that he would talk to the offender about it. He got a message back saying that the office had a dozen more if he needed evidence.

  Grum did not need more evidence of this. Grum checked the file which had been accessed. Stew was checking on the latest UMBRA design updates. Pillock. He phoned Stew, although he had sworn to himself that he would not so this.

  'Hey, Grum. Can't do without me? It's just coming up for lunchtime, so I can spare some ti-'

  'Shut up, Stew,' interrupted Grum. 'You are on a family holiday and you're checking classified work documents from a sodding beach! Pack it in!'

  'But-'

  'No! Stew, you need the break and can easily catch up when you get back. I have already had snarky emails from the security office about this. Just stop working for a bit. I'm sure Amy and Clait would appreciate it. Oh, and if that doesn't hold you back, here's the stick. If I hear about more access of classified bloody material while you're on holiday, I'll revoke your access and have security remote fry your phone and computer. I don't even care if you have the laptop with you. I'll do it anyway. Got it?'

  'Yes, boss.' Stew's voice on the other end of the phone was sullen and held the edge of menace.

  'Don't you even think about disobeying me on this one, Stew. You are meant to be enjoying a holiday with your family and I'll deal with replacing a laptop far easier than a burnt-out mate who won't bloody quit!' Grum heard the sharp intake of breath.

  'OK, Grum. You've made your point. I really do have lunch coming, though. I should go be with my family.'

  'Good. And please enjoy the rest of your holiday!'

  'I'll do my best, Grum. Cheers.'

  'Cheers.' The line went dead. Harsh but fair. Had to be done, right? Now I can get on with all the other annoying things Monday morning usually has for me.

  The first of those things was realising that Kelvin really was not going to back down on giving Grum more than one day a week of Steve Branch's time. That meant that all the people he had ever handed admin work off to were not available.

  As well as running SyncDep – which Grum was nominally now doing – Stew had also handled some of the annoying day-to-day business of Core Power, kept himself in the loop on all the latest innovations in the business, and was a readily available brain for Grum to bounce ideas off.

  SyncDep itself probably would not be much of an extra burden. Stew was even better at delegation than Grum was himself, so the likelihood was that the department would keep ticking over without Stew at the helm, even if Grum did nothing.

  It was the rest of the stuff which Grum was not looking forward to dealing with.

  So, Grum, he asked himself, how exactly was Stew always available when you need a chat?

  That was a good question. There was rarely more than ten minutes between Grum needing to see Stew, and Stew being in his office. How did he do that? It was not the most important question, though. What he really needed to do to keep things going was to have all Stew's information channels routed to him for the time being. He suspected that was probably the only way to keep on top of everything that was going on.

  Nuclear power options were probably going to be the slowest, so he should do those first. Much of that work was being dealt with at the federal and state government level, though, so he might be able to get an update on that without chewing into the loan time he had for Steve. On the other hand, perhaps he should save all the federal and state government work until "Steve day".

  Too many maybes. Figure it out!

  Until he had an up-to-date state of play on all the programmes, he was not going to be able to make sensible decisions, so: get status updates.

  Some of the department heads might be a little surprised to be asked for an update, but it was what he needed. He almost sent out a blanket email to all the department heads asking for the status of the active projects. Bad plan. He could get that from SyncDep. What he wanted were the projects that were the highest Divisional priority, which were the ones he was involved with personally.

  Fission got a request for the latest update on the best prospects for fifth generation designs, the status of fourth generation test sites and build plans, and what measures were being taken to incorporate fourth generation concepts into third generation technology. From Solar he wanted the latest on build plans and industry links for expanding arrays. Vann got an email directly, asking what the status of UMBRA was, currently, and finally he called Ben to see how things were going down in Nevada.

  A useful disposition of an hour. Or so he thought. From some of the slightly indignant responses, he gathered that daily progress and status reports went to SyncDep. And if he really wanted up to the minute information, he could always join the appropriate chatroom. The message back from Vann was even less polite, but it did contain a link to the chatroom which apparently had all the relevant information pinned in links off it.

  At least it was nice to chat to Ben, he thought a little sourly.

  So, going to see SyncDep and the information sources there, really was the best plan.

  He probably did not need to walk down to Stew's office, but in the circumstances, it would be best to find out how things actually ran by being there. So he went to SyncDep.

  SyncDep, he discovered, was a noisy place. He was fairly sure it had not been as noisy as this a few years ago, when — he belatedly realised — was the last time he had actually gone to Stew's office. Time flies.

  The department itself was arranged in the shape of half an oval with a surrounding box of walls covered with screens. Each desk had a couple of smaller screens and a headset and a good view of the wall screens on their side of the room. Bisecting the half-oval was a fairly broad walkway at the end of which was Stew's office. And it was noisy.

  People were chatting, getting up, and walking about. Though not — Grum noticed — without purpose. It was not aimless wandering. There was always a definite objective. Be that the little kitchen area off to one side, someone's desk, or Stew's office. Grum watched, shocked as someone walked up to Stew's office door, gave a single perfunctory knock and walked in. He started in that direction quickly. The same person came out a few seconds later, almost running into Grum.

  'Er. Hello, sir. Can I help?'

  'You just went in here?' asked Grum. It was a dumb question. He had just seen the man walk out of the office after walking in. No wonder the guy was looking at him blankly. 'I mean, do you normally just go into this office?'

  'Several times a day, sir, normally. If I might enquire…?'

  'No matter. Who is in there?'

  'The duty manager, sir… If-'

  'But isn't that Stew's office?'

  'Oh, Mr Leslie doesn't really keep an office, sir. He's usually out doing… Er, just out, sir.'

  Grum chuckled. 'Out wherever I've sent him, or in my office, right? OK. I'm sorry. Please forgive me, it has been a while since I was here and it has changed a bit.'

  The office door opened and a very calm woman stood there. 'Is there anything we can help you with, sir?'
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  'There certainly is.' Grum turned to the man whom he had just harassed. 'Sorry once again. I promise that I was just surprised. This used to be Stew's office, you see, and with him away…'

  'Nothing to worry about, sir. I quite understand.'

  You don't, thought Grum, but I will. He turned back to the woman in the doorway. 'I'm sorry to you, too. I'm Grum.'

  'Steff Winsor. Excuse me, sir.' She stepped aside from the door to let someone come in, and then a few seconds later, leave.

  'What happened, there?'

  'Priority update, probably.'

  Just call me Jon Snow, because I know nothing. 'Ms Winsor. I wonder if you could tell me about this department that I am technically head of for the next month?'

  That won him a smile. 'Certainly, Mr Hewson, do come in, and it's Steff.'

  'Then it's Grum, and I don't mind if I do.'

  Grum sat in a chair and then watched as Steff closed the door, but it immediately opened again. The intruder — a young woman this time — walked up to one of the screens and zapped it with her phone. The figures changed, but Grum did not know what they had been, so he could not tell what they should be, now. 'Priority update?'

  'From Sophia? Probably not.' Steff glanced at the screen, and Grum saw her blink in rapid mental calculation. 'Medical delivery status.'

  Grum was seriously impressed. Not just with Steff's display, but with the whole setup.

  'This is how Stew stays up to date?'

  'No, Grum. This is how I and the other duty managers stay up to date. Stew has the same app routed to his phone, but he tends to do personal visits, unless you send for him.'

  'He tours the whole company?'

  'At least once per week,' agreed Steff.

  'I can't do that!'

  'I don't think that anyone is expecting you to. Stew did let everyone know that he would be away for a month. To be honest, I suspect that several people will be glad not to have the weekly visit.' She pulled a piece of paper from her top pocket. 'Those are the ones which Stew has asked that we pop in on a couple of times while he is away.'