Right! Back from the dead by popular lack of demand. After some thinking about the writing style and the comments of various people I'm going for something different. Comments, etc would be nice as always
2402.3
So I'm sitting back in my brand spanking new office waiting for Ted to make an appearance, our new job did start a couple of hours ago so he's badly late. Not that I was here on time either, but I've got a hangover that would have superheroes whimpering. Frankly I deserve a medal just for getting in at all. A loud crash announces Ted's arrival and he's looking worse than I feel. If such a thing is possible of course.
"Nice to see you made it in today"
Ted winces and asks "How annoyed was the new boss that I was late?"
"No idea, he hasn't made it in either." I tell him
"Why's that?"
"Bottle fatigue I'd guess."
Ted's face contorts as he tries to dredge up some memory from the previous night. "But he only had a couple then he disappeared."
"True, but he was drinking Medford vodka."
"Medford Vodka? They don't make vodka on Medford, do they?" Ted asked in confusion
"Not technically I suppose." I reply, waiting for the inevitable
"It wasn't actually vodka was it?"
"No. But it was definitely alcoholic."
"So what is it actually?" Even throw the hangover Ted is starting to get annoyed at the slow progress. I relent, more for my sake than his. All this talking is bad for my head.
"Industrial antifreeze mixed with white spirit."
"Isn't that...." Ted starts
"Immensely dangerous? Allegedly. We'll find out in a few hours." I finish for him
"What's happening in a few hours?"
"Well if the boss hasn't made it in or called someone then, yes it probably is dangerous in his case. He would be the exception to the rule though."
"Exception to the... You've done this before then?"
Sigh. Despite my best efforts he's still got a lot to learn.
"Of course its important that any working relationship has a solid base. A few drinks down the pub speeds this up immensely."
"By getting to know the boss and establishing a rapport?"
"No. By finding out all the nasty secrets the boss would never reveal unless utterly hammered."
"How does that help the working relationship?"
"Well we'll keep on 'working' here no matter what we do, provided we keep quiet about a certain 'relationship' the boss is having."
My education of Ted is interrupted by the boss' boss walking into our office.
"Jameson and Riley right?"
"Yes sir." Best to be polite, I haven't got any dirt on him. Yet.
"I've just been called by your section head and he can't make it in today so I'll be briefing you. Your project is simple; we want the Spey engine technology you worked on at Hope applied to missiles."
That explains a lot. I had been wondering what a pair of propulsion engineers were doing in a weapons research base. Still as we'd been 'requested' to leave Hope we jumped at the chance.
"There were certain problems with that technology, there was a large fuel blowout problem and that unexplained thermal runaway" I interrupt
"I've read the reports of the two major failures. The fuel overflow problem has been corrected and the second failure cannot be repeated, so it was probably a fluke. Of course for manned vessels that's an unacceptable assumption, but for missiles we’ll take the risk."
Ted is fighting manfully to keep both a straight face and look innocent. He's not doing it very well, sadly.
"We'll get right on it sir." I hurry to end this conversation before something goes wrong, like the boss noticing Ted's started to grin. Thankfully he turns and walks out just before Ted bursts out laughing. OK using the engine exhaust as a grill for lunch was funny, but when the sauce leaked out shorting the control circuits and detonating the engine… Well that was even funnier actually. Still it was months ago and he should be over it by now. Kids these days hey?
With the boss dealt with it's time to start the day’s important work, so I open the paper and catch up on the news. New refining Colony out on Proxima, Navy launches a new ship 'Sirus'. Who picks those names really? Pretty routine. Oh what's that - 'Falcon' is in for a refit. That brings back the memories. It really should have been routine, from the engine side anyway, but the engines strangely had a few difficulties during shakedown. Tragic really, I was forced to spend hours with their compromisingly attractive chief engineer 'running down the fault'...
"Hey look at this!" Ted shouts
Fighting back the urge to strangle him with my bare hands for aggravating my head I turn to Ted
"Look. It's a company alert, they've cancelled all leave for the technical services division." He tells me, thankfully a lot quieter. Still that is very odd.
"Something's up. Something big, probably on a military contract." Years of experience come to my aid to provide that very obvious answer.
"But what?"
"No idea, last I heard it was all going well. Dino ships being blown up left, right and centre if you believe the news. We'll find out eventually something that big will make the news."
"If it doesn't?" Ted asks plaintively
"Then it will definitely make the company gossip mill. Speaking of making things, go and make some coffee."
It's important to get priorities straight in life.