Power Base: Book 2 of the Leaving Earth series Read online

  Power Base

  (Book 2 of the Leaving Earth series)

  by Kaal Alexander Rosser

  Praise for:

  Directed Energy (Book 1 of the Leaving Earth series)

  "The characters are believable and like-able, it has made me laugh out loud a few times on the train... Here's looking forward to the TV adaptation..." - Amazon Review

  "Characters seem so real that you feel like you are sharing in their experiences. Reading this I felt I was sat at the bar hearing their pub conversations, being part of their jokes... Bring on book two, which I shall enjoy, even on a Thursday." - Amazon Review

  Dedication

  To Jane Lowe, for unwavering support through these many years.

  Copyright © 2017 Kaal Alexander Rosser. All rights reserved.

  Contents

  Chapter 1 1

  Chapter 2 6

  Chapter 3 11

  Chapter 4 16

  Chapter 5 20

  Chapter 6 27

  Chapter 7 31

  Chapter 8 38

  Chapter 9 45

  Chapter 10 49

  Chapter 11 55

  Chapter 12 59

  Chapter 13 63

  Chapter 14 67

  Chapter 15 72

  Chapter 16 75

  Chapter 17 82

  Chapter 18 84

  Chapter 19 91

  Chapter 20 96

  Books by Kaal Alexander Rosser 97

  Author's Note 98

  Chapter 1

  GRUM was slumped over his desk, head in his hands, growling and muttering imprecations at no-one in particular. Everyone was getting a bit of sub-vocal grief.

  The Division had been in a state of disarray when he took over, and he had to spend a significant amount of time — as well as budget — trying to get things sorted out.

  That had meant that he was spending all his time in New York, while Vann and Ju were back in Nevada. Stew did not have it any easier with Amy being pregnant, Grum knew. They were both getting used to New York office, and yet another set of cultural norms. Then there would be the moving in to deal with.

  The only thing that had been relatively painless, so far was finding the new apartments. None of them were particularly precious about where they were living, so long as it did the job. Of course the new position and salary helped, but it was still preying on his mind while he should be concentrating on the mess the New Energy Division was in.

  One of the things which was bugging him was the word "new".

  There were programmes for solar, standard nuclear fission, hydro, tidal, wind, highly theoretical gravitic turbines – which to Grum's mind stood more chance of becoming space elevators than power generation – various kinds of biomass research and the ever-hopeful nuclear fusion team, but none them brought in any significant profit. Most of them were not "new", and yet they fell within his remit.

  It was a small thing, but it gave him a feeling of cognitive dissonance every time.

  From his point of view, each of those programmes should be running as research-heavy business units. Each of them could potentially play its part in a successful energy supply mix, but the various department heads had been trained to "not confuse the boss with science". This, for Grum, was a major problem.

  The Tech Centre had effectively got its twelve-generator plant for free because the previous VP had not been running the Division like a business.

  The Division's budget had mysteriously grown overnight on the day he had inherited it. Now, however, he was eighty percent through that budget. The financial year started on the sixth of April, and it was only the twenty-seventh.

  Less surprising to him, now that he saw the state of things, was that his Nevada expenditure had not initially been questioned. Only when he had run afoul of the old VP had it started to get sticky, and he understood that the treatment he had been given at the old VP's hands was definitely not the norm.

  So, if he came in heavy-handed, he was probably going to get a revolt.

  Unless he could get the rest of the company to buy the generators and the raw antimatter that his Division was turning out, he would have to try and run the whole thing on twenty percent over the year. Granted there were other energy based programmes, not just AM. The best he could hope for with them was that they would pay for themselves, even that was doubtful in one or two cases.

  Nevertheless, he had just gone and asked to spend heavily into the budget for next year with little more – he was prepared to admit – than vague projections, hopes and wishful thinking. And the Board had agreed.

  He considered that either they really were as keyed into the energy and space programmes as they appeared, or he was being given a hell of a lot of rope for a nice, long drop.

  With both Grum and Stew moving on to their new jobs – and with Amy and Vann soon to follow suit – there was something of a leadership vacuum in Nevada. Grum had deliberately not appointed anyone to head the facility for two main reasons. The most important one being that he was intending to separate the antimatter production and the generator manufacture into their own business units. This he had told the senior staff at Nevada before he left. The second reason was that he wanted to see if there were people who would take up the responsibility and authority, naturally. Grum suspected there would be and he had private bets with himself as to whom.

  Also, without Stew at the site, the primary inter-facility communication channel was missing. He was hoping to see that new channels had opened of their own accord, on which he could build an administration framework.

  To his satisfaction, most of his private bets paid off. In his discussions with Stew, he decided on the structure and roles for people in the new USSMC Nevada AM Production Unit and the new USSMC Nevada AM Generator Manufacturing Unit. He still had a private bet with himself as to the overall head of the facility.

  The AM Production Unit worked similarly to how it always had, except in terms of paperwork. Instead of just continuously turning out antimatter regardless, now they had orders for certain amounts from the Generator Manufacturing Unit and, potentially, other areas of USSMC. Likewise, with the GMU to wider business and possibly beyond. Each Unit now had its own administration staff and work had started to make the physical facilities reflect the business structure.

  Grum felt that he now had two internal business units that he could work separately as they best fit into his overall view.

  The other challenge was that he could not allow any more installations like the one here at the tech centre. That was not a viable method ongoing. He needed the real "pod" design as soon as possible. Vann and Ben were working on it down in Nevada, and had promised him a proper prototype Real Soon Now. Could not be soon enough from Grum's point of view.

  He was not absolutely certain whether he wanted to roll the pod production into the generator business line — where it would naturally fit — or to spin it off as its own unit, given that they were looking at the possibility of having different sizes of pod per installation.

  There was a single knock, followed by Stew walking into the office.

  It's never going to matter what title I hold, thought Grum, irritably, he's never going to change that habit.

  'Wotcha, boss.' Stew walked over to the coffee pot and started to pour himself a mug.

  'What now?' Grum growled, without moving.

  'I've got a raft of suddenly urgent requests from every department vaguely related to space, and a few earth-bound ones, who all "need" Nevada generators.'

  'Fine. I'll pull some out of my arse tomorrow.'

  'That'll be curious sight. But you'll face a challenge whilst
you've already got your head stuck up there.' Stew was still smiling, but the edges were crazing a little and his tone had sharpened significantly.

  Grum raised his head slowly and glared at Stew. Stew returned his gaze unflinchingly.

  'Okay, fine!' Grum threw up his hands and slammed his palms back down on the table, wincing at the sting. 'How many of them is it actually possible to fill?'

  'None of them. Well, almost none.'

  'Then, why the hell…'

  'Because you need to know that.' Stew cut in. 'You need to know both those things. We're getting orders, and that we can't fill them.'

  'We do have a little stock.'

  'Yes, but the numbers don't stack up. The other Divisions are all thinking in terms of having a compact nuclear power plant for their offices, not even in the same order of magnitude as we can produce. Not even with a full-sized pod.' Stew took a sip of his coffee.

  'Have you tried to educate them?'

  'Tried, and so far failed.'

  'Then try again. If there are any which are close to the ballpark, see if Vann or Ben are available to explain the facts of life to them, or do it yourself.'

  'Don't you want to…'

  'Stew! I've got the entire Division to put back to the business of being a business, and to work out how the Nevada business units mesh with the rest of the programmes. I've got as much as I can carry. You do it.'

  'OK. I will.' Stew took another sip of coffee, and leaned forward to put the mug down on Grum's desk. He did not complete the motion, nor lean back again. 'You mean right now, don't you?'

  Grum knew he was being hard on Stew, but he did not let up on his glare. 'Yes, Stew. I mean now. Neither of us have time to chat.'

  Stew put the coffee mug down with a slight click, stood up, and walked out of the office without another word.

  Grum knocked on Stew's office door the following morning. He had gone home the previous night and ranted about the meeting, and the rest of the day, to Vann over the phone. Vann very carefully, and with attention to detail, tore him a new one.

  She reminded him about granular delegation. He did not have to regard tasks as monolithic problems. They could be sub-divided and each bit dealt with by the right person.

  Intellectually, he knew that. He also realised that he had a tendency, when he felt snowed under, to silo big tasks and either deal with them himself or dump them — in their entirety — on someone else. Vann was right. Several aspects of what he was dealing with could be better done by other people, and some aspects of the problems that Stew had come to him with should be on his plate. The most effective way of getting Divisions to understand the reality of AM power generation and its place in the organisation, was for Grum, himself, to discuss things with the other VPs rather than foist it off on Stew.

  So, Grum was visiting Stew.

  Stew waved at him through the window in the office door and Grum went in.

  'I figured that after yesterday, I'd come and visit your office. I've got my office diverting everything to wherever I am, so we can stay here or move about as you need,' said Grum. It was a gesture of conciliation as well as probably more efficient for this particular meeting.

  'Cool. I think I'd got as far as telling you about the raft of Nevada generator requests I've had in.'

  Grum nodded acknowledgement of the reminder. 'Break it down for me. Give me the details. Then, we need to talk about splitting up the running of the Division.'

  Stew's grin told Grum that he was on board. 'I also have an update on the new build designs for the second and third production assemblies to feed into the current decelerator assembly. It's going to take some work on scheduling.'

  Grum nodded. 'OK. Gimme.'

  Chapter 2

  THE weddings were never going to be small family affairs and given their new positions — and attendant wage increases — there was no need to keep things quiet. It was to be a civil ceremony, but that did not mean it had to lack ostentation.

  All four families had to be flown in and put up in hotels. None of the families had ever been wealthy, so the two couples willingly bore the brunt of the costs.

  When Kelvin Goldstein got wind of the weddings he sent Grum a pointed reminder that his invitation had got lost in the post. At the same time he offered the services of his Golf Club and Hotel for the event. Grum had been somewhat wary of accepting the offer, not knowing what to expect of the place. So he and Stew had spent the journey to visit the club working out methods of demurral that would not cost them their jobs.

  They need not have worried, however, the club, hotel and grounds were lavishly appointed and beautifully kept. Vann and Amy, agreed to the offer once they saw the pictures.

  The day itself went without a hitch. The only thing that they were less than perfectly happy with was the presence of the press. Kelvin Goldstein's attendance had brought queries from him about other notables they might wish to invite. This inevitably had expanded — to the confused irritation of all four — to include a few of the bright and beautiful. Where they went, so went the press.

  The main players suffered in silence, however. Mostly managing to enjoy the day, by avoiding anyone they did not recognise.

  The following day, the parents had formed a gang and gone on a mission to find every possible newspaper and magazine to hunt for stories and pictures. Grum only found relief from his dad's continuous text updates when they boarded the plane destined for Tanzania and the secluded resort that Amy had arranged for them all.

  None of the four were the adventurous type. Amy was perhaps more so than the other three, but being in the third trimester had made her more than willing to relax rather than thrill-seek. So the majority of the days were spent in combinations of beach-combing, pool-dipping, eating at as many restaurants as they could find, and generally chilling out.

  They were all back in the US after a little under a month of honeymooning. In Amy's case it was only a few weeks before her due date, so she chose to immediately start her maternity leave rather than go back to work for only a couple of weeks. The move to New York for both families had been completed while they were away. Although they had paid for an unpacking service, nothing was quite in the right place. Making the new apartments into homes would take a while.

  No sooner was Grum back in the office than he had a meeting invite pop up in his calendar from Kelvin Goldstein.

  Grum had been a little nervous about taking so long a holiday so soon after the new appointment and with so much up in the air, even though Kelvin had assured him that he considered it perfectly appropriate. Perhaps now he would find out what Kelvin really thought about it.

  Grum went along to the CEO's office and was waved through immediately by an assistant from the outer office to the inner.

  'Good morning, Kelvin,' said Grum with a affability he did not truly feel so early in the day.

  'I certainly hope so! Well rested?'

  'Mostly, yes, thank you.'

  'Good. I'll get straight to the point. I know that you have a lot on your plate right now, but it is said that if you want something done, give it to someone who is already busy.'

  Grum had heard the phrase before and it smacked of the sort of poor delegation technique he had been guilty of before the wedding. He decided that it would be counter-productive to point this out, though. 'What can I do for you, Kelvin?'

  'As with everything, this is for the benefit of the company. In addition to the Vice-Presidency of the New Energy Division, I would like you to devise and head up a new department which will watch for possible inter-dependency of projects and/or departments with a view to enabling all the Divisions to their maximum potential. This new position will enable you to carry on with your re-design plan for the antimatter programme and more importantly, expand that horizon to encompass the entire company!' Kelvin Goldstein was standing, gesticulating and all but frothing at the mouth. Bright-eyed, he turned to Grum with his hand out expectantly, echoing their first meeting.

  He certain
ly doesn't lack for enthusiasm, thought Grum, but he grasped Kelvin's hand anyway. 'Sounds like a challenge, I accept. While I remember, Kelvin, I was thinking of dropping "new" from the Division name.'

  Kelvin release Grum's hand and waved his own with a modicum of impatience. 'Completely your affair, in my eyes. Do as you will. But once again, go gather your inner circle!'

  'I will. Immediately!' Exchanging a gesture somewhere between a salute and a wave with Kelvin, Grum left the office and headed back to his own. Oh, that's just bloody brilliant, that is.

  Grum spent the remainder of the morning sorting through his inbox. He wanted to call Stew in to discuss this new department idea, but he knew that Stew would be doing the same inbox duty and would not welcome distraction, even though the job was onerous.

  One particular email stood out from the rest. It was from Ben Abelson at Nevada. He was asking whether Grum had given thought to expanding the medical facilities at the site. His reasoning was that with more staff on site as well as the increase in purely industrial engineering going on — although much of that was fully automated — there was an increased risk of injury.

  Grum agreed. A proper emergency facility would be in order in addition to the general practice. He responded to Ben's email saying as much, and marked any others from Ben to assess both tone and content. It seemed to Grum that Ben might be gravitating to the leadership role. No bad thing, given the focus of the site, now, was engineering and Ben was certainly experienced in that arena.

  Grum's next job was to follow up on the start he and Stew had made in educating the various Divisions about the availability and specifications of the antimatter generators.

  Stew had been right in his assessment of the idea that the Division VPs had of the potential for AM power generation. They were all thinking about miniature nuclear power plant levels of energy output from an office sized installation. Conversely they were all also thinking about tiny generators which could last a thousand years. And they thought it was cheap.