Critical Error: Book 3 of the Leaving Earth series Read online

  'Yes there are. It wouldn't be exactly the same, but we could see if we could borrow Clait for an extended period, to test what it's like.'

  'How would that work?'

  'I think that Amy is going to strong-arm Stew into taking a holiday. We could babysit and give them a proper break.'

  'That would be… Extraordinary.'

  'Maybe. It depends. I have heard of newish parents going away for a while every so often.'

  'I suppose. Let me just check that I have read the situation right, please, love. You are undecided yourself, right?'

  Vann chuckled a bit. 'Yes, love. I would benefit from testing the water as much as you. I am also balancing risk and reward on an emotional level. The idea of going through what I went through before does scare me a bit, but if I came to feel that I really wanted another child, then that fear would not stop me.'

  'OK, then. So we find ways for us to test the waters and provide evidence on one side or the other.'

  'Agreed.'

  'I still think that it's unlikely Stew and Amy will agree to a loan, though.'

  'We'll see.'

  Vann sent him a message just before the end of work the next day, confessing her failure to talk to Amy about the idea of borrowing Clait. Grum replied that he had failed as well, but that he and Stew were due to go out for a beer, so he could bring it up at the pub. That got him a high-five and kisses in response.

  Grum and Stew went straight to the pub after work. Although they were working collaboratively on the viability report for the board, they were doing so from their own offices, so they had not spoken much all day. As it was a nice day, they had elected to walk to the pub rather than get a taxi, but the busyness of New York's streets around five thirty was not conducive to conversation.

  Neither had made a move toward the pool table, and neither had spoken much above a monosyllable until the were sitting at a table with beers in hand.

  Grum took a sip of his bitter and wondered how to start such an odd conversation as borrowing Clait.

  Stew spoke first, setting his glass down. There was rather more than a sip taken from the top. 'We want to go on holiday, Grum. I know it's not a great time, but when is it ever?'

  'You and Amy? How long for?' Yeah, sure, great! Can we borrow Clait? No, not exactly the best opener.

  'The family, for a proper break. At least a couple of weeks.'

  'I don't see a problem. Neither of us is completely indispensable. We're not that stupid. You're taking Clait with you?'

  Stew blinked, noticeably. 'Er, yeah, sure. Why not?'

  'Oh… To be honest, Vann twigged that a holiday was probably on the cards, and we were wondering about being able to borrow Clait for a trial run to see if we're ready for more than one child.'

  Stew laughed. 'I'm sorry, mate. I love you and everything, but this is to be a family holiday. You two haven't decided on more kids or not?'

  'Not yet. You have?'

  'Oh, absolutely. We've spoken about it several times. Before we had Clait, and after. We wanted one while we were young, but neither of us feel the urge for more.'

  'Well done, you.'

  'Sorry, mate. You two are welcome to babysit any time, you know that, but not for this holiday. Maybe another time. I'll talk to Amy about it.'

  'Thanks. That would be appreciated.'

  'Still OK with he holiday request?'

  'Oh, don't be daft! It was in no way contingent. We just thought there might be an opportunity.'

  'Fair enough. More beer, then pool?'

  'Sounds like a plan.'

  The report for the board was nearly complete.

  Grum had taken Stew's advice and reviewed the latest information on the augmented third generation nuclear reactors. They were good. Not quite as good as the "true" fourth generation reactors would be, but better than the original third generation, and far in advance of the ancient second generation.

  It was looking likely, now, that UMBRA would use a mixture of fourth generation and upwards types of reactor to provide even greater energy security. It would take time, but being able to kick start a bunch more fourth and fifth generation programmes would help.

  Some of the information available was entirely speculative, but exciting nonetheless. It was also possible that the fifth generation reactors would be small enough, flexible enough, and clean enough to genuinely be used as power generation units in manned space-flight. The AM generators were still better for things like the Mars Shuttle, but any serious long term exploration would need a supply with more grunt.

  He had feelers out to every company already involved in renewable energy in the state of Nevada, and preliminary talks had happened with a few of them. Investment and any new technology that USSMC could provide would be welcome, of course, for the existing projects. Several of both the largest and smallest players were open to the idea of expanding existing solar arrays or opening new ones. The rest of the renewable energy power sources were following in a similar vein.

  It should be enough to convince the board, if Grum could get Hank on board for the last bit. He took a trip to the outer edge of the building where the Space Division was mostly located.

  Hank had someone in his office and was looking very serious, so Grum went for a wander. He had rarely had the opportunity to wander around the offices. Normally he went to see Hank, and that was it. He spotted Vann and Amy huddled over a standing-desk which was strewn with blueprints. Obviously, Space Division followed their leader in not having everything on a screen.

  'Hello, you two,' said Grum as he walked up to them.

  'Hey, Grum,' said Amy, while Vann wiggled her fingers over her shoulder at him. 'Here to see Hank?'

  'Yup. Seems a bit busy right now, though. What are you two working on?'

  'He's had one or two of the older engineers ignoring Vann's designs and trying to incorporate the old chief's design flaws. Only they don't see them as flaws, just "sensible solutions".' Vann stood up, then, as Amy finished speaking.

  'He's having a word before we take it to disciplinary,' said Vann.

  'That's bad. Especially if they've been around a while.'

  'Yes,' said Amy. 'Worse still is that they have been mentoring some of the younger engineers, which makes it all the harder.'

  'But that isn't what you came here for, is it, Grum?' said Vann, clearly not comfortable, and understandably so. As the new Chief Engineer, it was her authority which was being undermined. 'You want to see if there's anything we can do to strengthen your pitch for the Nevada power plans, yes?'

  Grum was happy enough to move away from the previous topic, as this was exactly what he was here for. 'Yes, absolutely. Have you two had any idea, before I talk to Hank?'

  Amy looked about to speak again, but subsided when Vann straightened and took a half-step forward. 'It's tricky, Grum. You pretty much know everything which has been on the drawing board. There is not much new on those fronts, and nothing which can bolster the need for more pods.'

  Grum nodded. He had expected as much. He was still hoping to persuade Hank about taking on the UMBRA research, under his cost centres, but he had not expected that there would be anything miraculously new which demanded a massive amount of antimatter in any form. 'Not much? Anything might tip the scale.'

  'Well,' said Vann, hesitantly, 'We were looking at the long-range exploration ships…'

  'I didn't know you guys were actually planning those. I thought they were in the pie-in-the-sky, wait-until-UMBRA-is-running pipeline.' That would be a massive boost for Grum if they had moved up the schedule.

  'Not planning, exactly, and not exactly further up the schedule, but… There are several steps before building those ships. You know they are to be designed to never land? Never even enter atmosphere?' Grum did and said so. 'Good,' continued Vann. 'The plan for those is to capture suitable asteroids, mine them until they're hollowed out, and use the metal obtained to build out the rest of the ship. Or, at least as much as possible. The shell of the asteroid fo
rms much of the outer body of the ship. It acts as both an ablative shield against space-borne particulates and other dangerous bodies, and as a partial low-energy radiation shield.'

  'OK. I knew most of that already. I don't see…'

  Vann cut in, grinning at her husband, but with a wink towards Amy. 'How many asteroids do USSMC have?'

  'Well… None… Ah,' said Grum, getting an inkling of where she was going.

  'Right. None. Critical Path Analysis. Before we can do this we need asteroids. Before we can use the most suitable asteroids, we need to test every element of the process. That includes capture, processing, even just the initial search — which would be better done by fully-automated ships. Everything that is less than a full on exploration or colony-generation vessel would — or could — need AM power.'

  'You utter…!' Grum began, but remembered where he was. '…human being. You said nothing new!'

  'It's not new, just following through on the prerequisites for the ship designs. As ordered by our boss, who is… Now free, I think.'

  Grum turned and saw Hank's door standing open. A thunder-faced individual pointed a sour look in their direction and stalked off. Grum felt a hand on his elbow and looked over his shoulder.

  'He would probably appreciate a visit. He hates having to do that,' said Vann, giving his elbow a squeeze.

  Grum walked into Hank's office and shut the door.

  Hank's expression, matching that of the errant employee, changed instantly. 'Grum! I have good news for you!'

  'Vann's just been filling me in.'

  'Has she indeed! Well then. I intend to make it known, to anyone who has not yet worked it out, just what these prerequisites entail and how they should be powered. That should work very much in your favour. Plus, the move cannot be gainsaid as the programme directly requires skills from elsewhere in USSMC — Mining, Exploration, and Medical, for starters — and will feed technologies and resource back into those departments. Of course we'll funnel all the scientific and engineering resourcing through SyncDep for a suitable fee.'

  'That's brilliant, Hank. I do appreciate that help. Would you mind if I ask for a double portion of your life's flesh, though?'

  'Sorry, Grum. All my portions belong to my boyfriend,' said Hank, with a lusty gleam in his eye.

  Grum bit back a laugh, and ended up snorting. 'Thankfully! But, about the power stations for UMBRA…'

  'Anything UMBRA belongs entirely in my bailiwick, I completely agree. As does a fair portion of the earth-bound R&D costs for fourth and fifth generation nuclear work. Will that do you?'

  'Perfect, Hank. I'll get on with finalising the board submission.'

  'Good luck,' said Hank, waving him towards the door. 'I'll see before the board on Monday.'

  Chapter 5

  THE short version was that the board approved everything asked of them. The longer version was that they added provisos to every request which was approved.

  Grum's expenditure on the Nevada Antimatter Power Facility: approved. Provided that commercial and governmental confirmed orders be prioritised over USSMC internal ones. Grum suspected that this was a deliberate dig at Hank by the rest of the board over the announcements he had made of beginning implementation of the preliminary phases to support the deep space exploration programme.

  Grum's Renewable Energy Programme for the state of Nevada: approved. Provided that the required technology sharing was kept to the minimum necessary to achieve the goals. The Fourth and Fifth Generation Nuclear R&D plan was approved, so long as Space Division was sincere in picking up its share of the tab and delivering on UMBRA in a timely fashion.

  Kelvin's request to the board — wearing his CEO hat — for discretionary monies to support lobbying activities, was tentatively approved, so long as the board had yearly reports on those activities.

  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 t
o 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.