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

  '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 department 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?'r />
  '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?'

  'Not yet, but I think he is working up to it. I am good at this, you know.'

  'Never doubted it. Look, love, I have no objections to your taking a permanent role in Space Division. I know I was an arse before about it, but there really is no issue.'

  'You're sure?'

  'Yes. If you're enjoying the new role, it will actually help that you know the capabilities of the various power options available. Likewise, you can help inform Core Power what the real requirements are, via SyncDep.'

  'You're really sure you're not going to get snippy?'

  'Really, really.' Grum moved over to stand behind her and stuck his arms round her middle to gently hug her. 'It works best this way. I understand that.'

  Vann leaned back slightly and relaxed into him. 'Thank you.'

  'No need for thanks. We should eat, and you can tell me details about what you're doing. I only get headlines from Hank.'

  Chapter 9

  GRUM was dreading this day. They had kept "A" running to have enough generators to fill up one pod of twenty six. It would be a hybrid, using the new pod design but older generators. Grum did not want it hanging around too long in the company's history. He would have to find a use for it, somewhere.

  Now, though, he had to give the order to shut down the current production and not start again for six months. At no point in the coming few months was this going to be pleasant.

  It also seemed that the Nevada state authorities had woken up to the expanding site and were demanding re-certification for the storage facilities. That, at least, should not be a problem. When Grum has specified the original storage, he had assumed — as had the rest of USSMC — that they would just be storing the antimatter on site for years. The storage facilities were, therefore, well over-specified for the purpose. Even after the expansion of the site. It was just one more piece of red tape to cut through.

  Grum called Stew, but it rang through to his voicemail, so he left a message. 'Stew, Grum. Ben has a possibly valid concern about the consultancy business. Can you come over to discuss? Ta.'

  Ben's problem was that he was not exactly sure that his people would want to go back to working on production at Nevada after having other jobs to do — in some cases for nearly a year, by the end. Grum could see that. It was one thing to be working on remote problems which were interesting for a little while, but quite another to be doing the day job, no matter how much you would normally enjoy it.

  Stew was in Grum's office less than ten minutes later, and Grum outlined the problem for him.

  Stew grinned. 'Turn about is fair play.'

  'Come again? Ben hasn't done anything to deserve this, surely?'

  'Oh, no, I didn't mean as regards Ben, per se. I was thinking of the solution.'

  'Ah. Got you. Ben hires consultants from other parts of the business to create the solutions?'

  'Yep. Especially any of the really interesting stuff at Nevada. Then hands the solutions to his own people to implement. They'll soon get tired of that. To be honest, most of them are better engineers than in the rest of the company, anyway, so they'll get hacked off with trying to implement inferior solutions and end up doing it themselves.'

  'That could back-fire on Ben.'

  'Only if you don't tell him how to handle it. Play the helpless card. Got to get this done, you're busy with consultancy work… Had to farm it out, wish I didn't have to… All that sort of thing.'

  'Still. Could be tricky.'

  'Just make sure that everyone there knows about the product range they'll be producing. That'll keep them happy. There will be enough different types of product coming out of Nevada to satisfy any mix of job spec. To be perfectly frank, Nevada is going to need consultancy time, anyway. No-one there is a super-capacitor expert, for example. Product design is going to be a pretty major adjunct. Forget the staff which still have to be hired for when Nevada is up to speed again. Think of all the staff which will be needed to cope with the end products!'

  Grum had thought. And then Grum had ignored, because he really did not want to have to think about it yet.

  'For now, just getting everybody on board with the various generator sizes would be good.'

  'On that note, I have some good news.'

  'I could use some of that.'

  'Happily, then, in my discussions with the new senior engineer of the space habitat programme,' Stew paused and grinned, 'this morning, I discovered that the total power requirements, including life-support for the thirty intended habitat personnel, would require just under a one hundred and thirty kilowatt power supply, continuous over ten years.'

  'Just over half the nominal rating for a "double-strength" pod — that's a hell of a single point of failure for an orbital habitat. Pod packs up and you lose all your breathing privileges.'

  'Exact
ly. They need smaller generators.'

  'Well, we knew that.'

  'Yes, but now we have a customer asking for it, directly.'

  'Excellent. Has that requirement found its way onto Ben's desk, yet?'

  'Not yet. It was one of the things that I wanted to collate and run past you before giving Ben the news.'

  'Fair enough. I would like to see all the numbers, but don't wait to pass them on to Ben. Even in dribs-and-drabs. The sooner he gets them, the better.

  'The other thing I realised this morning, is that, for some reason Vann is being siloed away from anything to do with the generator technology.'

  'Hank probably thinks she doesn't want anything to do with that any more.'

  'Well, it was the one sour note from an otherwise completely positive discussion. Could you see what's going on?'

  'Yep. OK. Get those figures to Ben and remind him that Vann works for Hank, now, so the requirements are going to be solid. I will go and see what Hank's up to.'

  Grum did not bother to wait around. He left Stew, and went straight down to see Hank.

  He knocked at Hank's door and received the beckoning motion to enter.

  'Hey, Hank. How's it going?'

  'Really well!'

  'That's good.' Grum paused for a beat while he took a breath. 'I'll come straight to the point. Is there a reason you don't want Vann near the generator technology?'

  'I just figured she would have had enough of that, especially as she wanted to change Divisions to get away from it.'

  'That wasn't quite the situation, Hank. She has no problem with the technology. Being married to the boss was the problem — for both of us. She knows the ins and outs of those generators and the pods better than anyone, Hank. It only makes sense to let her get involved.'

  'Ah. I see. Well, that makes more sense, now. I'll fix that directly. Now, have you had a chance to look at the requirements she came up with?'

  'Stew is collating them, but I have him feeding them back directly to Nevada, so they have an express heads-up.'