Leaving Earth Vol. 1 (Leaving Earth Omnibus) Read online

  'Ah. I realise that my next question may seem naive, but: so what?'

  A light seemed to come on in Steve's head as he watched him turn from staring at Grum, to look at the lists. 'Strengths based leadership! You practice a strengths based management style?'

  'Do I?'

  'Looks like it from your choices. You're not thinking about team leadership as the first step on a management ladder, are you?'

  Grum shook his head. 'Why would it be?'

  'Because it usually is, and that's usually how the role is defined. The TL does the personnel management for a small group of people as well as the technical leadership, which is why the best technical people are often forced into the roles. After a while, they have been doing a not-disastrous job for so long that they are given management or upper management roles for which they are totally unsuited. They are often unhappy doing the role, and everyone gets a piece of it.'

  'Sounds like a bad plan all round.'

  'It has kinda worked for decades, so it is the done thing. It is mainly perpetuated because payscales and seniority are attached to management titles. But there is a different approach. You divorce the management structure from the payscale, making it just another skill, and you grade people based on their strengths. To make best use of that, you also give people the jobs where they can excel.'

  'Sounds good.'

  'It does, doesn't it? Only trouble is that it is very difficult to implement because everyone is used to the management style of titles and the fact that increases in salary are attached to them. The rest of USSMC is based on the traditional kind of structure, as our titles show.'

  'Are you advising me to not do this?'

  'You are in charge of this facility, and responsible for it. You can make any decision you like unless countermanded by your boss. However, if your boss were to object to your management style, then as an AVP you would have a legitimate reason to complain to his line management if you couldn't come to terms.'

  'Would it come to that? You know the boss better than I.'

  Steve paused for a moment. 'I don't think so. I don't know him very well, in point of fact. I work for Core Business.'

  'Then what is the best way to go about implementing?' Grum relaxed, noting Steve's statement as a point in his favour.

  'I'll give you some books and a website to visit. In the short term, however, you could side-step the immediate issue by not calling the people you promote "team leaders", the title of Subject Matter Expert has been around for years and is well recognised. You'll have to decide what method of performance review you are going to use and the levels of proficiency to attach to the roles.'

  'OK. I agree to the SME thing. But don't we all have defined roles already? Wouldn't I have to change a whole lot of contracts to alter it?'

  'You have to do that for the promotions, anyway, but it's a minor matter. The company handles hundreds of them every year. As for the others… I'll take a look through the contracts and see if anything in there precludes you altering the performance criteria. It will only matter if someone objects. Otherwise, it'll be a "deemed contract" and they will have been said to have accepted without challenge.'

  'I'll do my homework, and you do yours. That's fine. Do we have an accord?'

  'Certainly. One other thing, though.'

  'Yes?'

  'There are four names not on the list: you, Stewart Leslie, Lavanya Patel, and Amy Mayfield.'

  'Yes, the…' Grum stopped, unsure how to phrase the next bit. 'Well… I haven't actually given the team a name, yet. It's mostly about how we substantially increase the yield and storage capacity.'

  'Isn't everyone doing that,' asked Steve.

  'Not really, no. They are using the current technology. Mostly they are running the basic production. This is a small dedicated team to evaluate what you might call the next generation.'

  'It's an expensive team for that.'

  Grum sagged a little in his chair. 'Yes, it is. It needs to be.' And this, he thought, is where the understanding gulf opens between us.

  'I'd like to attend, if I may?'

  'Um, sure, but it's going to be seriously technical.' In truth, Grum did not have an issue with Steve being there. After all, they were probably the one team working on the stated goals.

  'Oh, I could minute the meeting, if it's as high-level as that. And it would be good to, y'know, be in on the next generation talks from the off.'

  'I don't see there's a problem. I'll share the calendar directly with you when I create it. Put you as an optional attendee, OK?'

  'Yeah. Great! That's it then, I think. Good chat. See you.' With no more being said, Steve left the room.

  Chapter 12

  'SO why don't you just store it however is easiest, then decide how to use it later?' asked Steve. 'Or until you need to put some more in?'

  They had once again been arguing the relative merits of annihilation rate control mechanisms for the different types of cell, regarding the eventual applications, and Steve's question jolted the sentence Grum had been forming out of his head.

  He looked round at Steve, stifling his annoyance. 'It's like this, Steve. The simplest way to store the antimatter we produce would be to use the cells we've got, give them each one run's-worth of antimatter, no control mechanisms, just lock it up tight and store it. Thing is, Steve, the only thing it's good for after that is as a bomb. No options on that. If there's no way to control the annihilation rate, you either get nothing, or everything at once.' Grum smiled in as friendly a manner as he could because Steve was looking frustrated. Grum guessed that the boss had put pressure on Steve to ask some questions like these, not believing Grum's assurances that it could not be done that way, and not understanding the explanations.

  'And putting more in? If you have a control mechanism…'

  'Ah, see, that's what our little team is all about. Each cell can take only so much antimatter. I know it seems crazy that a quarter-tonne cell is "full" when it has five-and-a-half milligrams of antihydrogen in it, but I assure you, it is so. You see all of that stuff in the cell is more than just a lump of metal with some magnets stuck on it. There are the liquid helium tanks, the superconductive magnets themselves, heat exchangers, emergency heatsinks…' Grum interrupted himself and turned to Vann. 'Ah, yes, could you put quench scenarios on the list?'

  Vann sighed the sigh of the long-suffering, efficient subordinate and tapped the pad in front of her. She turned it round to show him the screen. 'Already on there, boss. Standard practice.'

  'Thanks. Anyway,' said Grum, turning back to face Steve, 'there's a load of other stuff. You can see the specs if you like. It's no secret or anything, the boss has already seen them. Anything else for now?'

  'Thank you, Grum,' said Steve, a little grimly. 'I think I've got what I need from that.'

  Grum hid a smile. If he read Steve correctly, the boss might get an earful from Steve's boss about putting him in awkward situations which could have been easily avoided.

  That week Steve Branch had sat in on most of the official meetings of the Next Gen Club as he had unofficially designated it, but had not raised any more awkward questions, just an occasional genuine clarification.

  By the Friday afternoon they had generated sufficient material to warrant Vann and Amy doing a literature trawl to inform the decisions they would need to take. Grum already knew that it would be quite light on anything approaching actual design, given that they were themselves right at the bleeding edge. He hoped that there would be enough supporting material on the individual aspects, though, to make it useful.

  So, he and Stew were sitting in Stew's office, brainstorming.

  Friday afternoons are not good for brainstorming, thought Grum. 'It's not going to work quickly enough. I think we are going to have to expand the scope of the generator project.'

  'The first prototype is barely out of the workshop and you want it redesigned?!'

  'No, no. I'm not sticking my nose into the generator design. But the generat
ors by themselves don't deliver enough juice to be worth much. We both know that the full-on redesign is years off. It's got the scope to take a decade if we're not careful. We need a way to take the generators we will soon have and bolt them together to get more out.'

  'Well if you plug more in, you can draw more out. That bit is simple enough. Need an engineer's perspective, really.'

  'I don't want to ask Vann over the weekend, really.'

  'The weekend?'

  'Yeah. We thought we'd go to Vegas for the weekend.'

  'Right you are, old chum. Anyway. That doesn't seem like a super-secret, and I wouldn't say it's absolutely top priority, either. Once the generator design is nailed down and we have our fait accompli, then you could task the teams with making a whole pod of them.'

  'You're right. I'll shelve it until we've a real generator, but I do think it's the way we'll have to go.'

  'Until the redesign.'

  'Yeah. By the time we have that, though, we'll probably need a new facility.'

  Stew's eyes widened. 'Empire building much?'

  'Not really. I was just thinking that if we go down the route of the current tech and the… Pod idea… This place will be established. Another facility will be needed for the new build out.'

  'You're probably right.'

  'Sod it. I'm knocking off. Send a general email to the facility, will you. Tell them the boss says it's POETS. Then we scarper.'

  'I hear and obey, O Master.'

  Grum took the phone from his ear and stared at it as the call ended, his elbow resting on the desk. Without consciously willing it, his forearm lowered slowly to the desk, his wrist still cocked and holding the phone up at an angle. His grip must have relaxed, because the phone slipped from his hand and clattered the last inch onto the desk.

  'Morning, boss,' said Stew, seemingly through several feet of pink cotton wool.

  'It must be a Thursday,' said Grum.

  'What? What are you looking like that for?'

  'I never could get the hang of Thursdays.'

  'Oh, you haven't!'

  'Yeah, we have,' said Grum, turning his head to face Stew. 'Vann's home tests said she was, but we — mainly I — twisted the doctor's arm to get a blood test. She's just called from there.'

  Stewart grinned broadly, and stuck out his hand. 'Congratulations, and the very best of luck to you, sir!'

  'Much obliged, sir!' Grum shook a bit of life back into his brain and took his friend's hand in a long, firm shake.

  'Well, well, well! I can see that you're going to be good for nothing for the rest of the day,' said Stewart, with assumed asperity. 'You might as well take your missus out to celebrate properly. Amy and I'll join you after work.'

  Grum started to protest.

  'Nonsense! Neither of us mind doing the extra for today. Go! Be gone! Hasta la vista! Sod off!' Stewart continued his diatribe. Becoming ever more abusive and obscene until Grum, ducking into his coat, ran out of the office and straight into Steve who held Grum at arms length by the shoulders with a slight frown on his face.

  'Sorry!' said Grum. 'Gotta go! Vann's pregnant!'

  Steve grinned. 'I remember what that was like the first time. Why don't you take until Monday. I'm an AVP.' He nodded at first Grum then Stew, who had followed Grum out of the office. 'So, I can sign things for a couple of days if need be.'

  'Sure?'

  'Of course.'

  Grum half turned to Stew, raising an eyebrow. Stew looked wary, but nodded. 'Cool. See you all Monday!'

  Grum reluctantly left Vann sitting on the sofa, as he got up to answer the front door.

  'Look, I didn't want to intrude, but I know you'll want to see this,' said Stew, walking through the doorway and closing the door behind him with his heel.

  'Hi, Stew. She's doing fine thanks, yes. We're both very happy.'

  'Oh, give over, Grum,' said Vann, rolling her eyes and smiling at Stew. 'Hey, Stew.'

  'Hey, Vann. Look at this, Grum.' Stew held out a printed report. 'Ben Abelson handed it to me. Generator prototype report.'

  Grum lost his irritation, and snatched the report. 'Summary? Nevermind.' Grum scanned the first page. 'Just over fifty percent efficiency.'

  'Yes.'

  Vann got up and joined them pouring over the paper. 'Only proof of concept, love. Ben and I will refine it.'

  'You…' Grum, surprised himself with his tone, and stopped.

  'Will continue to work as long as I can. Right now, the embryo is about as long as a grain of rice. You wouldn't have been so jumpy if I'd had a whole extra helping of rice, so chill the fuck out.'

  'Sorry, love. Of course. Being an idiot. Sorry,' said Grum, all contrition.

  'Good, now, the generator. Why's the report printed?' Vann tapped on the paper.

  'I had Ben send it to me, and I printed it. Steve was hanging around in the chassis design workshop when Ben called me down there,' said Stew.

  'Bit cloak and dagger, mate,' said Grum.

  'Cautious, yes. I don't think it's time to be telling the world, yet.'

  'Steve's been pretty helpful, so far,' said Grum.

  'Yeeeees, kinda…'

  Grum looked up from the report to find Stew's worried expression. 'Kinda?'

  'Well… He's been good with the admin, like you said. But instead of being all work-to-rule, he's been getting interested in everything, even though there's little chance of him really understanding anything in depth. I just think that when we talk about presenting the company with a fait accompli, that should include Steve Branch in the definition of "the company".'

  'I agree.' Vann spoke up right on the heels of Stew's words, before Grum could begin rebuttal. 'I've heard your suppositions and extrapolations regarding Steve, Grum, but that's what they are. We don't know how he's going to jump.'

  Grum regarded Vann and Stew. Perhaps he had been too eager to trust the guy. Certainly there was no hard data on how much on their side Steve was. But these two had not seen the genuine pleasure on Steve's face when Grum had inadvertently challenged the VP's management style. He wondered if they had caught the irritation when Steve had been put in the position of having to ask dumb questions. Still. They were right. The goal was too close and it was not worth the risk. 'OK,' he said. 'We'll keep this from him until we have a genuine blueprint for production.'

  He saw the other two relax and felt that was far more important than whether or not Steve knew about the generators.

  'And now,' said Vann. 'Further discussion can wait until Monday. With the greatest of respect, Stew: buggyre ye off.'

  Stew grinned and backed up to the front door, opened it, threw a bow, and left.

  Chapter 13

  OVER the next six weeks, four more iterations of the generator prototypes were made. Each one a little smaller and more efficient, and — after a meeting with Ben and Vann — designed to be connected to a larger power-plant "pod".

  The one which was about to roll out of the workshop was to be the Gold Standard. Overall efficiency was better than sixty percent, it only massed a quarter of a tonne, and it was ready to be connected to an as-yet hypothetical pod.

  Grum felt that fait accompli time had come, which was just as well. It was getting harder to obfuscate the work. A couple of times Steve Branch had come within an ace of discovering what was going on. Not that Grum thought that would actually be a problem, but just in case…

  He would, of course, have to formalise the generator manufacture as a business entity and give it its own staff. Ben Abelson had shown considerable leadership during this covert phase of the project, Grum would have to sound him out for running that group. He sent an invite to Stew and Ben to come over for a chat.

  Ben was looking pleased, and Stew wary, as they entered Grum's office. Grum waved them into seats.

  Grum looked directly at Stew. 'Fait accompli.'

  Stew's eyebrows raised. 'You sure?'

  'Well it is, isn't it?' asked Grum.

  They both looked at Ben who was looking be
tween the two, obviously confused. 'What?'

  'Sorry,' said Grum. 'I mean, we're ready? We could announce that we actually have a generator worthy of the name?'

  'Oh, sure,' said Ben. 'The last couple were nearly there, but this one is what I would call production-ready.'

  'OK, then,' said Stew. 'I guess it is.'

  'Excellent. I'll get the announcement written up. I'm going to ask Steve to join us in a few minutes… Now, don't look like that! We're going to announce it anyway, it won't hurt for him to know an hour beforehand. But before I do that, there are a couple of other things I want to discuss.'

  'Like what?' asked Stew.

  'Mostly with Ben, but I'd like your thoughts as well, Stew.'

  'OK, boss,' said Stew.

  'What sort of things?' asked Ben.

  'Well. First of all, we're going to be making more of these things, and it can't be a part-time enterprise. It's going to have to be a business unit with someone to head it up.' The light went on in Ben's eyes as Grum finished the sentence. 'Up for it?'

  'Hell yeah.'

  'Grand. The other thing is that I'll need that unit to work on this "pod" concept. Turn it into a reality. Now you have a proper working blueprint for a single generator, can you take that on as well?'

  'Certainly. Vann and I have had ideas in that direction already. Would I be able to have some of her time?'

  Grum paused. Vann was not having an easy time with the pregnancy, even though it was all apparently normal. Nevertheless, she would probably enjoy getting stuck in to a pure engineering problem more than the blue-sky stuff of the Next Gen Club. 'I'll talk to her, but I don't see why it shouldn't be possible.'

  Ben nodded, looking pleased again. Stew shrugged, but did not look unhappy.

  'If we're all good, then… I'm going to call Steve and get him in here. Grab a coffee, Stew; Ben, probably best if I let you get back to your brainchild.'

  Ben knew a dismissal when he heard it and left while Grum tapped at the phone.

  Less than a minute later Steve walked into Grum's office, holding his phone out towards Grum, showing a chat window. 'You wanted to see me?'