Kara ladled out an assortment of allegedly nutritious vegetables and a lump of something off-white (rice or grits, hard to tell). She stood at the end of the line for a moment, wondering if she should voice her concerns. Finally, she strode over to Erica’s table.
“Mind if I join you, Dr. Thompson?”
Erica looked up, surprised. “Oh, not at all. Please do, Kara.” She paused for a moment as Kara sat down. “And, Kara, do you mind if I ask why you don’t call me ‘Erica’?”
Kara cocked her head slightly. “Institutional habit, I guess. The unwritten law at the Supercollider. Sign of respect.”
“Humph.” Erica rearranged her peas some more, staring at her plate. “Homage to people with advanced degrees? Kara, do you realize you are smarter than me?”
Kara was startled by the remark. “That’s not true, and you know it.”
Erica looked up from her plate. “Oh, but it is. I just saw your test scores. Your IQ is five points above mine.”
Kara choked on a spoonful of carrots. “You’re kidding,” she managed after swallowing.
“You, and a nearly a third of the crew,” Erica replied, returning her gaze to the potatoes. “This place is a damned Mensa convention. Who do I think I am, anyway, trying to tell a crew as smart and resourceful as this how to do their jobs, anyway?”
“Somebody has to run things,” Kara replied. “They picked you because you had credentials that brought respect.”
Erica poked a tunnel in the cold potato paste and herded the peas into it. “That may all be behind me,” she lamented, bringing down the roof of the cave on the peas. “Just did something we all may regret. Filed a lawsuit against our sponsors. Probably get us all fired.”
Kara blinked, at a loss for words.
“Well?” Erica looked up. “Come on, say something positive, like you usually do.”
“It’s about bloody time,” Kara stated. “How’s that?”
“That’ll do.”
“Welcome back, Dr. Thompson. We’ve missed you for a long time.”
“Erica.” Erica grinned.
“OK, Erica.” Kara took a bite of beans and chewed them thoughtfully. “Um, Dr. Santi was asking about you the other day. Sort of got me wondering about some things.”
Erica picked up a forkful of the trapped peas and shoveled them into her mouth. “Buzz playing mother hen again?”
“Yeah. He was worried that you might be taking this kinda hard, especially after that incident at the Supercollider. Wondered if two failures—I mean problems—in a row were getting you down.
Erica looked up suddenly. “Two failures?” She hesitated for a second, then guffawed suddenly, sending little bits of peas and potatoes flying. “Mmmmph. Sorry, here, have an extra napkin. Kara, I won’t say I’ve been a bang-up success here, but what happened at the Supercollider was anything but a failure. Maybe I’ll tell you about it someday.”
Kara studied Erica, whose eyes had suddenly developed a twinkle.
The following message was broadcast to all computer mailboxes on the station:
Dear Colleagues:
A lot of you will read that opening and groan. The last time you got a memo from me with that opening, you followed me up here.
You have my apologies for how badly things have turned out lately. I think my first line then was something to the effect of, “I quit.” But I wasn’t management then, nor was I responsible for screwing up the program. Now, I am. Therefore, I hereby fire myself from the position of program manager, effective one week from today.
I am appointing Raul Oroya as my replacement. That’ll teach him not to bitch. You should all give him your condolences when you see him.
Since we haven’t built our transportation home, I guess I’ll have to stay here. That means I’ll need a job, preferably one that will keep me out of your way and make enough use of my abilities that I rate my breathing air and ration of mush. I think the perfect position is something along the lines of “Researcher Emeritus and Wizened Advisor” so that’s what I propose to be.
In my last week, I hope to set in motion some changes which, with Raul’s skillful management, will hopefully get us back on track. The first step in this is to order a general shutdown of all construction on the ship.
The only job-related work to be done for the next two days will be whatever is necessary to keep the station life support running safely. Everyone is to take two days off to catch up on sleeping, laundry, reading, pursuing the opposite sex, and any other essential personal activities that you have been putting off for several years.
The remainder of the week will be spent fixing and building stuff to make our lives more pleasant, and getting ready for a picnic which will be held seven days from today, at Zulu noon, to celebrate my firing. Either bring an amusement or contrive some sort of interesting food dish in sufficient quantity to assure that we are all suitably overfed. Raul, you can work out the details.
The succeeding six months shall be spent repairing, building, and improving the production capacity of this facility, with such efforts to continue as needed to assure the most timely completion of the first transport.
My final official act will be to leave you with the following set of general operating rules for the project.
THE RULES
1. Our mission is the construction of transport category spacecraft. All useful work to this end is done by the technologists. Team leaders and administrative officers exist solely to support the technologists in the accomplishment of the mission.
2. It shall be the duty of all employees to remind team leaders and administrators of Rule 1 as frequently and firmly as it takes to assure that it is followed.
3. No person is to work more than forty hours per week directly on the construction of spacecraft. Those wishing to work additional time toward the mission may work on improving production equipment, methods, and capabilities. Extra work is also permitted on improving the general standard of living, research and development of new technologies, and other worthwhile efforts.
4. All employees shall be required to use accrued vacation time in excess of one week for each year of service. Employees found violating this provision shall be forcibly ejected from their work-place by their fellow employees, with the following express orders: “Enjoy yourself.” This order shall be phased in over the next twelve months, on a rotating basis to be worked out among yourselves with a minimum of bloodshed.
5. All employees are encouraged to develop sideline businesses providing food, luxury, convenience, amusement, housing, and similar items for barter credits, to be pursued in spare time, provided these activities do not interfere with normal duties. Technical items for trade with other Belt production facilities may also be produced. Goods and services for transport production normally a part of employment duties shall not be permitted as barter items. To facilitate this activity, the station shall provide, at nominal charge against salaries, such surplus materials and production capacity as are available and appropriate.
6. Every time you do a task, try to find a way to do it better than before.