Radiation Hazard (The Stasis Stories #3)

by Laurence Dahners

  The man said, “I can assure you that the NRC will want specimens of Stade for our own testing. I suggest that anyone else who wants specimens obtain their own from Staze. For now, I propose that we hold off on the rest of the presentations we have scheduled this afternoon, since many of them may have just been rendered irrelevant. Instead, we’ll devote the rest of this conference to a brainstorming session in which everyone will assume that the properties described by Mr. Turpin are accurate. Our goal will be to consider how we might apply those properties to our industry. Any objections?”

  No one objected.

  From the deference shown, Art began to suspect that the man was the head of the NRC’s delegation. I should’ve learned who all those people were before the meeting, he thought.

  ~~~

  They all took a break for refreshments and private discussions, then reconvened for the brainstorming session. Art was surprised to realize that he wasn’t being treated as some kind of pariah the way he’d feared. Instead, people were speaking to him almost reverently.

  He was being treated so kindly that he even brought up Seba’s proposal that they use spent fuel casks as mass in huge flywheels that could be used to stabilize the grid’s power levels.

  Kind treatment or not, several people eyed him askance when he delivered that idea.

  ***

  Gunnar followed Arya back through Mideastern Business Bank’s hallway to the bank officer’s desk, thinking this whole thing was crazy.

  He could understand Kaem wanting treatment for his anemia as soon as possible. But trying to get a loan to get the land seemed crazy when they expected to staze some more engines in a month or so. That Tibbets kid was back at GLI’s Texas facility trying to get them to run up a test engine design. Space-Gen was very happy with its first test engine and currently designing number two. Surely one or the other would ask them to staze another four-million-dollar engine soon. When they did, a loan would no longer be needed.

  On the other hand, Gunnar was gonna be pissed if someone bought the land he’d found right out from under them.

  The man behind the desk stood up, said, “Hello, I’m Mitch Arbison.” He extended his hand to Gunnar, “What can MBB do for you?”

  Thinking, There might be something to Lee’s idea that people just instinctively discriminate against Kaem, Arya, and Lee. Youth, sex, or skin color, no matter the reason, it just doesn’t seem right. Nonetheless, he shook the man’s hand, introduced himself, then said, “I’m just along for the ride. Ms. Vaii here is Staze’s financial officer.”

  Gunnar could tell from the slight widening of the man’s eyes that he was surprised but trying not to show it.

  Arbison turned to Arya and shook her hand as well. “Well, what can I do for you folks?”

  Businesslike, Arya said, “Staze is a new company. I’m not sure you’re aware, but we’ve been doing our banking with MBB since we incorporated. At present we need a brief loan to purchase a tract of land we intend to use for extension of our facilities.” She went on to explain that they expected to have cash on hand to buy the land within one to two months but didn’t want the property to go to another buyer in the meantime.

  Arbison frowned when Arya told him they might need as much as a half-million dollars, depending on negotiations. He frowned again when she said she wanted to base it on the value of the property. “Tell me about this property?”

  Arya spoke the unvarnished truth in describing it, telling Arbison about the toxic waste dump and the contamination of the rest of the land that rendered it unusable for farming.

  Shaking his head, Arbison asked, “Why would you even want this land?”

  “Our technology will let us remediate the waste dump,” Arya said earnestly, “which will allow the other land to recover with time. In the meantime, the rest of the land’s already been approved for industrial use. It’s exactly what our company’s rapid expansion needs, a large tract of land not too far from the coast.”

  “But, if your business fails and you’re unable to use the land, MBB would end up with a tract that no one else would be interested in. The bank would be unlikely to be able to recover its loss.”

  “Can you look over our account?” Arya asked.

  “I can, but why?”

  “If you do, you’ll see that we’ve had large cash inflows over the past few months. 6.7 million from Space-Gen and one million from GLI. We expect more such receipts in the next few months.”

  Arbison’s eyebrows had ascended. He took the particulars of Staze’s account from Arya and pulled it up on his screen. “I see those. What’s GLI?”

  “Green Launch Initiative, Branzon’s space launch company.”

  “So… you guys have something to do with space… stuff?” Arbison asked, obviously not well versed in space launch technology.

  Arya nodded. “We do. We have a new material that’s very useful for building rocket engines.” She nodded at Arbison’s screen. “Rockets are what those particular payments are for. But it will also be useful for many, many other things. For instance, the new material is integral to our plan for remediation of the toxic dump. We’re only starting with rockets because engines built with our material are so much better than when they’re made with current alloys that our profit margin is greatest there.”

  “Um, I see,” Arbison said, though he plainly didn’t. He looked at Arya, briefly glanced at Gunnar as if seeking help—which Gunnar didn’t provide—then returned his gaze to the screen displaying Staze’s accounts. “Um, I see that you have almost two and a half million dollars left in your account?”

  Arya nodded affirmatively, “Correct. So, in theory, we could pay the full 2.4 million for the land. But we have pending expenditures for salaries and equipment. There’re a couple of ongoing projects which have their costs. We owe taxes. We can’t afford to spend our way down to zero because we need to have some capital available for those kinds of things.”

  “But you’re hoping to negotiate a better price for the land?”

  Arya nodded.

  “So, you might not need the loan at all?”

  “That’s possible.”

  Arbison frowned, then said, “Perhaps a line of credit would be better?” He explained that it wouldn’t have to be secured by collateral and could be spent on anything they wanted, rather than being specified for the purchase of the property. They could also have it available in the future in case they needed to go into the red again. “Think of it as if it were a high limit credit card for your company.”

  Arya smiled, “That sounds great! How do we arrange that?”

  He turned to his screens again, pursing his lips. After a moment, he said, “Unfortunately, you haven’t been in business long enough for MBB to extend you a line of credit.”

  Arya narrowed her eyes, “How long do we need to have been in business?”

  “Six months. We only show you incorporating not quite five months ago.”

  “We’ve been working together for most of a year.”

  Arbison shook his head. “You weren’t established as a business until five months ago. We might be able to extend you credit next month.”

  “We need it now.”

  “Sorry, there’s nothing I can do.”

  “We’re running millions of dollars through your bank and our business is rapidly expanding. You shouldn’t want us to go elsewhere.”

  Arbison shrugged, “I apologize. My hands are tied.”

  “May we talk to the branch manager?”

  Arbison’s face stiffened. Saying, “Certainly,” he closed his screens, stood and exited the office.

  Arya gave Gunnar a tired look. “Can you talk to this manager when he shows?”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. I don’t want to have to try to move our business elsewhere.”

  “But I don’t even know what to say.”

  “Just turn to me anytime you’re unsure. It’s just that I think they’ll take us more seriously if you’re the apparent bo
ss…”

  Arbison came in with an older man who—as kept happening—reached out to shake Gunnar’s hand, “Hi, I’m James Wills, branch manager. Mitch tells me you guys have a request that’s outside our normal parameters?”

  Though it exasperated him to do so, Gunnar responded, “Yes. We’d like to establish a half-million-dollar line of credit to cover some potential but transitory shortfalls.” He felt Arya turn to stare at him. She’s never heard me use big words before, he thought.

  Arbison had opened his screens, now Wills looked at them. “You do have quite a bit of cash flow. Let’s see… The company name is Staze?”

  “Yes, Staze Incorporated.”

  “Let’s just do a search…” A moment later Gunnar saw the website Kaem had established blink open on one of the screens. “Um,” the man glanced at Gunnar, “You’re the technical advisor?”

  Gunnar nodded.

  The man glanced at Arya. Dubiously, he said, “And, Ms. Vaii, you’re the Chief Financial Officer?”

  Arya nodded too, but the man had already moved on. Eyes wider, he asked, “And your CEO’s anonymous?”

  “Yes,” Gunnar said, “He loathes public attention.”

  “I’m sure you can understand that all this seems a little sketchy.”

  Gunnar said, “Can I suggest another search? This time for ‘Space-Gen’ and ‘Stade.’”

  “Um, sure.” Wills gestured to Arbison who started keying it in. “What are we going to find?”

  “That search should lead you to a story describing Space-Gen’s excitement over a new material called Stade coming out of Charlottesville. Though the piece doesn’t mention Staze by name, our website tells you that we’re the ones who’re producing Stade.” He paused a moment to let them study the screen, then said, “And your own accounts document the deposits to our balance made by Space-Gen. That’s a strong substantiation of the fact that we’re the company they’re talking about in that news story.”

  Wills read a little longer, then said, “How are we to know that you haven’t completed your business with Space-Gen?”

  “So far we’ve sold them a small model engine for about six hundred sixty thousand and a full-sized engine for four million. You should be able to find deposits to our account that corroborate those payments. They’re going to refine their design, but once they have, they expect to need eight engines for each working rocket. They’ve contracted to buy a minimum of ten rockets from us. I could describe the agreed-upon payments for the other components of those ten rockets, but I think you should already have the idea that our income from Space-Gen will be substantial once they’ve geared up. GLI has a similar contract that isn’t as far along.”

  Arbison swallowed and looked up at his boss. “Sir, that’d be three hundred and twenty million from Space-Gen for the engines.”

  Wills asked, “Can Space-Gen confirm those figures for us?”

  “No. We’ve already divulged more than we should have. We’re requesting a simple credit line of a few hundred thousand for a business that’s going to be bringing in billions. We may never need to use that credit line. I’m sure we can find the support we need from another bank, but we’d like not to have to go to the trouble of moving our accounts.”

  Nervously, Wills said, “Let me see if I can get it authorized.”

  Gunnar stood up. “Give us a call if you can do it. We’ll start talking to other banks in the meantime.”

  Wills made downward pressing motions with his hands. “Wait. I can authorize it on my own. I’ll be sticking my neck out, but…”

  “If you’re going to do it, get it done. We’ve got a business to run. I assume we don’t have to wait around while you process it?”

  A few minutes later he and Arya were walking out to his truck. She said, “And I thought I was a tough negotiator!”

  Gunnar grunted, “That was kinda fun.”

  “Maybe they weren’t discriminating against us, just slavishly following their rules,” Arya mused. “Maybe they just needed someone to push them.”

  Gunnar glanced over at her. “Sure. But they’re prejudiced too. They may not realize it, but they are.”

  Arya was thinking about her mother. She said, “Maybe we’re all biased… I’m gonna work on driving tougher bargains.”

  Gunnar grunted, “When the credit line comes through, the interest rate’s gonna be really high. You might think that’s okay because we’ll only owe for a short time. But it’ll be a bad precedent. Don’t let it slide.”

  “I’ll give ’em hell,” Arya said with a predatory smile.

  Chapter Six

  Norm Tibbets walked back into Staze. He’d just come back from GLI and, after the hustle and bustle of the high-tech equipment and people back at GLI’s facilities, Staze felt like a letdown. He saw Kaem Seba and headed across the room to him.

  Mr. Meade wanted Norm to get Seba’s opinion on the rocket engine design they were planning to use, as well as the molds they were planning to use for casting it. It felt weird to be asking an undergrad, one who wasn’t even studying aerospace engineering, for an opinion about the engine the engineers at GLI had designed. But I’ll do what I’m told, he thought. “Mr. Seba?”

  Seba looked up and grinned, “Hi. Can we move to a first-name basis? Or do you need me to call you Mister?”

  “Um, no. Norm’ll be fine.”

  “Great. Call me Kaem. What’s up with you and GLI?”

  “Well, we’ve been working on a new engine design intended to take advantage of Stade’s properties. Mr. Meade wanted me to get your opinion on it. Can I set up a time to do that?”

  “No time like the present,” Seba said, getting up and starting across the room. “Lee’s not using the big displays so this is a great opportunity.” Seba sat down, keyed in a long password, and rolled his chair back as the system came up. “Show me what you’re planning.”

  Norm had his laptop send GLI’s plans to the big screen, not to Staze’s system. While the CAD came up, he got out his trackball so he could take Seba through the plans and explain them.

  Seba’d already plugged his own high-end trackball into a USB4 port on Norm’s computer. He started scrolling through the design files, rotating, pivoting, and skimming through cross-sections.

  Norm worried about whether Seba’s trackball could compromise his system. Trackballs were supposed to be dumb, but some could insert data…

  Seba interrupted Norm’s thoughts. “What’re you using for propellants?”

  “LOX and liquid hydrogen,” Norm said. He kept wanting to explain what Seba was looking at. It had to be confusing for someone having their first look at a CAD. For someone without a basis in engineering, it’d be obscure. Finally, as Seba slowed his scrolling through the longitudinal section of the combustion chamber, Norm said, “That’s the throat—”

  “Of the nozzle,” Seba finished for him. “You could improve efficiency with a narrower throat. Specifically, an 11.3% decrease in the cross-sectional area. You aren’t taking full advantage of Stade’s extreme strength. Also, the nozzle bell. You seem to be using a typical nozzle length, whereas those have usually been chosen based on the tradeoff between the increased efficiency of a longer nozzle and the loss of efficiency from the extra mass of the additional nozzle material. Vacuum Stade’s massless, so you could improve your efficiency by lengthening the nozzle another seventeen percent. If you’re worried about a loss of aerodynamic efficiency, just enclose the nozzle within the rocket body.”

  Norm frowned, a little irritated, “You think the throat could be narrower based on a quick glance at the drawings?”

  Kaem turned a little, to look up and back over his shoulder at Norm. He looked puzzled. “The dimensions for the combustion chamber and throat are on the CAD. Run the numbers yourself. You can improve efficiency with a bigger combustion chamber or a narrower throat. I’m thinking the throat size you’re using is a holdover compromise from weighing the risks of combustion chamber rupture versus the mass of the extra al
loy needed to provide a stronger chamber. Stade’s strong enough even if it isn’t thick, and even if you make it thicker, you wouldn’t be adding mass.” He blinked, then turned back to the drawings, “Next, you’re building the engine so it can be mounted on gimbals for thrust vectoring. You’d do better to vector with vanes in the exhaust. That way you can construct as many chambers and nozzles as you want into a unit constructed rocket body. That’ll improve aerodynamics. Next—”

  “Wait!” Norm said turning his laptop to get better access, “Let me take some notes!” Holy shit! he thought. Seba isn’t just someone hanging on X’s coattails. If he can run those kinds of calculations in his head faster than I can even find the numbers on the drawings, he’s got to be a freaking genius in his own right! How did one company wind up with him and this Mr. X at the same time?

  By the time Seba had finished making “suggestions” about their motor, Norm realized the team at GLI was going to have to start all over. “Um, we’re supposed to design a single-engine that we can run tests on. How do we reconcile that with your proposal that we put multiple engines in a monobloc? We’d spend too much on our testing program.”

  Seba said, “Space-Gen’s already tested a small model and a full-sized model without being able to blow either engine up. Don’t worry about Stade failure, it isn’t going to happen. You can skip the small model and move right onto testing single full-sized engines that you’ve designed to be part of a monobloc engine.”