[Atrocities]

Part V ( C )

Tom Christopher, followed closely by his aid, Captain Richard Hess entered the briefing room. Agenda in hand Tom walked past the men seated on the right side of the table and took his seat at the end facing back down the length of the conference table. Rich took a seat directly behind him at a work station. The room was quiet as many of the Department Heads of the various Space Exploration Division programs studied their new boss. Tom understood the importance of taking his time, of letting the idea that he was the guy in charge sink in before beginning the meeting. After several minutes of glancing through the agenda, Tom closed it and through it into the garbage can next to him. He then stood and looked about the faces of the thirty or so people gathered around the enormous conference room desk and the thirty or so seated along the walls.

“First and foremost I would like to say that the current agenda for today is now null and void.” With that Tom sat down and Rich handed him a file. This prompted a pretty young lady to stand and begin handing out duplicate files to all of the Department Heads that were sitting at the table and those who were in seats along the walls. The conference room was a rather large area with several flat all purpose wooden tables placed together to form one large surface area for which everyone could sit around and have ample room for their documents. It was cheep looking, but given the budge, affordable. Along the walls were chairs for staff and other people to sit with work station located in key spots. All of the available seats in the room were taken, and additional chairs had been brought in for many of the Department Heads staff and aids. The room was filled beyond its maximum capacity thus cramping everyone, and that was something that Tom had intended. He wanted them off center as much as possible.

After all of the people present had been given the new agenda, Tom once again stood. At this point several SED security men entered the room, and took up what little space was available. Many of the people in the room began looking about and flashing puzzled looks to each other. They really had no idea of what was about to happen.

“Ladies and Gentlemen.” Tom said as he picked up a single white peace of paper and held it for all to see. “The names that I am about to read will be escorted out of the room. Your services will no longer be required by the SED.” Tom allowed this to sink in for a moment before he began to read the names.

One by one he slowly read the names of the people on his list, and one by one they were escorted out of the room, and off of the SED Premises. Tom had many reasons for wanting to let these people go, but the main reason was an economic one. They simply could not afford to keep people on the staff that were wasteful of what little resources the SED had. Many of the people he had chosen to terminate were in programs that had not yielded or would not yield much benefit to the overall project that the SED was charted to accomplish, that being the Exploration of Space. One name that he had really wanted on the list he could not place their. The name of Carl Wilhelm. Carl was an ex-military officer sentenced to life in the gulag for high crimes but pardoned by the previous Prime Minister, and hand picked by the Senate to lead the re-activated Space Engineering and Planetary Colonization project. A project that Tom had headed but was shut down after failing to produce any results. The truth be told, Tom would have loved nothing more than to read Carl’s name first from the top of his list, but he could not fire Carl no matter how much he wanted to because Carl’s team was producing results. And as long as that was happening, Tom could not justify removing Carl to the Senate without causing a political backlash against the Prime Minister. Once Tom had finished reading the names from the list the room was half empty. He had effectively cut thirty seven people from the staff, and terminated six projects from the overall SED program.

“Now that that unpleasant business is over, we’ll take a thirty minute break.” With that Tom and Captain Hess left the briefing room.

***

“Control this is Guardian One on approach to your position, package in tow.” Said Jellico as he made his approach toward what was not designated as Control and Command, the former Scientist discovery site.

“Guardian One, you are cleared to land.”
“Control be advised that we need a medical team upon touch down. Packages were damaged in transit.”
“That’s putting it politely.” Commented Jeffries to know one in particular.
Jellico briefly flashed him a dirty look.
“Confirmed Guardian One, medical team standing by.”
“Would you look at that!” Said Jeffries out loud as he looked forward out of the cockpit. “Where did all of those jokers come from?”
“Looks like the bulk of the recovery team has arrived.” Said Jellico as he pressed a few controls.
“More like an entire army.” Commented Jeffries.

The Prowler touched down raising a slight haze of ice particles into the air. Seconds later the forward drop hatch lowered and Paul Harris and Kord Anuran exited the craft as several medics ran up the ramp past them.
“There laying over their.” Said Kord as he pointed toward the location of where the two unconscious prisoners were.
“Shut up Anuran, they have eyes.” Commented Harris angrily. Kord gave him a displeased look then walked off. A few seconds later Jellico and Jeffries came down the ramp.
“Jell you son of *****!” Said Harris not so politely. “You me need to talk.”
Jellico smiled at his co-pilot, and nodded it was ok. Jeffries just returned a concerned look and walked away after Kord Anuran. “Kord, wait up.” He yelled as he jogged off after his buddy.
“I have to file my report, walk with me Paul.” Said Jellico as he started off for a black tent that was being set up.
“No, we talk here.” Said Harris has he grabbed Jellico’s arm.
“Alright.” Said Jellico while pulling his arm away from Harris’s hand. “What’s on your mind?”
“Cut the crap. What are you going to say?”
“About what you did to those people?”
“What the hell do you think?”
“I think you need to talk to someone, and stop being such a jerk.”
“What are you going to say in your fleering report?” Demanded Harris.
Jellico sighed a bit. He allowed himself to relax a second before answering his demanding friends question.
“They resisted arrest, and you did what you had to do. But as a friend Paul, you need help.”
Harris looked down a bit then back into Jellico’s eyes. He to had relaxed a bit.
“Thanks Jell. Is the kid on board with it?”
“He is, and he more than likely telling Kord to do the same right now.”
“Good, Kord’s going to be ok, but he has to learn to keep his mouth shut.”
“And you have to learn not to threaten my crew old friend.” Said Jellico has he patted Harris on the arm.
“Come on, after I file the report, we can get something from the mess tent. It looks like its up and running.”
“No thanks, I think I will just go catch some shut eye. I’ll be on the Guardian if you need me. With that the two me parted ways. A few moments later the medics left the Prowler with their walking but dazed patients.
“You fleering bastard!” Hissed Nina Smith as she stumbled by Harris. Harris just flashed her a smile and went on board. “I hope you fleering shoot your self!” She yelled at him as she and Ramzies were escorted away.
“Nina, save your breath, people like him enjoy it.” Said Bill Ramzies as they walked away. “I’ll settle up with him later, on that you can trust me.” The tone in Ramzies voice was one that Nina had never heard before, it was an evil sounding tone, and one that clearly visualized for those within ear shot of what he was planning to do.

***

The Conference room was virtually empty now with the exception of the thirty people sitting around the conference table. Tom had a specific agenda that he wanted to accomplish within his first day at the SED, and so far so good. Those whom he had not fired were grateful to still have a job, and would work twice as hard at their jobs to keep them.

“The purpose of to days agenda is to bring me fully up to speed on all of the current projects here at S.E.D.” Tom looked about the room at each and every face before continuing. “Then I will decide which projects are of the most importance and have the most likely chance at success.” This prompted a few hushed responses, non of which Tom could officially hear, but the one that he wanted to hear was that of Carl Wilhelm.

Carl was sitting in his chair plotting his next move. His very survival depended upon how well he could play this new game of Tom Christopher’s. He knew that Tom hated him and it was apparent to Carl that Tom wanted him out. Well my young General, that just isn’t acceptable, thought Carl as he leaned over to his aid. “Load the viewer, I will be going first today.” His aid simply nodded. Carl looked away from his aid and starred directly at Tom.

“Carl did you say something?” Tom asked as politely as he could given the fact that he truly disliked the man. Carl looked somber for a second then stood.

“Yes Sir, I do having something I would like to say.” Carl was a confident man with the demeanor of a man who knew the game, and who could play it well. To bad these qualities were lacking at Pennington thought Tom to himself as he gestured Carl to continue.

“With all do respect General, I would like to go first with out project up date. That is unless you prefer someone else precede me?”

Oh he was slick, he knew his *** was on the line, and he wanted to see just how much over that line it was. Carl had just made the first move in a game that Tom had every intention of winning. “Proceed.” He said simply as he sat down in his chair.

“Thank you General.” Replied Carl as he adjusted some papers in front of him, stood and walked over to the to vid viewer and activated it. A second later several impressive looking schematics appeared.
“As you know, the Space Engineering and Planetary Colonization team has been tasked with many projects including designing and or creating a method for generating an artificial gravity field in a zero gravity environment.” The image on the view changed to display the image of a middle aged man. “To that end we have been studying the research of Dr. Brook Mentor, the foremost expert in Gravitational Technology on the planet. Dr. Mentor has many theories on artificial gravity, and it is those theories that we are most interested in. In fact, Dr. Mentor is currently testing a new device on the Victorian Glacier called the Gravimetric Core Sampler. The device uses a gravimetric field to nullify the planetary gravity matrix thus creating a stable and unmoving section of ice that can be measured accurately up to ninety nine point nine percent.” The image changed to a digital representation of how the device functioned.

“If Dr. Mentors test is successful, he will have been the first man to create an artificial gravity field. A field that with some minor modification could be adapted to serve as the artificial gravity generator for a star ship.” Carl looked directly at Tom to measure his response. It was clear to him that Tom was impressed, but was hiding it behind a mask of disinterest. Carl was not fooled, he had just won the first round. Now for the bonus point.

“We have also made advancements in the field of deflector technology. We have a working deflector dish that is as we speak being prepared for testing.” The image on the viewer once again changed this time to a three dimensional image of a deflector dish. A blue concaved oblong oval looking object with several peaces of hardware protruding from its back. To Tom it looked like an antique viewer monitor without its casing.

“Our preliminary testing has proven that the deflector dish is working far better than we had hopped. In fact, if this trial test is successful as I believe it will be, then we will equip a long range probe with a full scale deflector dish device and launch it from the Rocket Works at Zephyrus Space Dome into space directing its course through the Thromgorn asteroid belt.” The image on the view switched to a projected course of the probe.

“The probe would enter the Thromgorn belt and traverse the Marcus corridor on a return arc to Pandora. If the deflector dish works, then we will have achieved our second mandate, and be one step closer to long range manned flights to the twenty six known worlds of our system.”

Carl shuffled some more papers and then pushed another button on the vid viewer. A new image popped up, an image of what looked a lot like a rocket engine to Tom.

“We have also made some advancements in propulsion that I would like to mention.”

Tom was regrettably impressed, how could this man have achieved so much in such a short amount of time. A prototype deflector dish, a strong possibility for creating artificial gravity, and now he was going to brag about advancements in propulsion. Tom was beginning to feel very ill.

“In conjunction with the Advanced Propulsion Research Division, we have successfully built and tested the first small scale Ion engine.” Carl was obviously proud of his teams work, and it showed. “We project that within the year we will have the ability to produce a large scale Version of this Ion Engine, and with any luck, conduct our first unmanned space flight tests by the end next year.”

That did it, Carl was going to be around for a very long time. Tom’s hopes of a quick termination sank as did his mood. An actual successful test of an Ion Engine. My God thought Tom to himself as he pondered the idea that the people of Pandora were one step closer to exploring the stars, and they owed it to this man. God indeed has a very sick sense of humor.

“I would like to see your data as soon as you can make it available to me.” Said Tom somberly. It was hard to hide his mood. This man had achieved everything he and his team had failed to do years before. It was not only an embarrassment but a personal failure as well for Tom.

“Perhaps I could bring it by your office after the meeting?” Asked Carl politely.
Tom simply smiled. “That would be fine.”

Carl smiled inwardly as he cherished his victory. And now, he thought, time for round two.

***

[ February 24, 2003, 15:49: Message edited by: Atrocities ]