Chapter 6

I know I am stressed because, in the morning, Moira puts her hand on my door, and I wake up, ready to fight. Before I am awake, I am standing beside my bed at the ready. That hasn’t happened since before the girls started waking me. She opens the door and screams, startled by me being up and ready for a fight. As soon as I see her, I relax, and she puts her hand over her mouth, looking sheepish.

“I hope I didn’t wake anybody.”

“You might not have. We didn’t get in until after 4 this morning.”

“Why so late?”

“Let’s just say, two-thirds of the Kawasaki delegation will be guests of William Head for the next 10 to 20 years.” William Head is the local prison.

She has learnt to accept when I don’t want to talk about something.

“I guess neither of us are in the mood anymore,” says Moira. Why don’t you get back to bed, and we will just snuggle while you get a little more sleep? I’ll wake you when it is time to shower.”

I get into bed, and she follows suit. I big spoon her and whisper into her ear, “I love you.” Before she can respond, I am back asleep.

At breakfast, I am surprised to see Alva and Elsa. They respect the rule of no talking shop during meals, but as soon as I swallow my last bite, they let their excitement out.

Elsa starts, “You should see what we designed. Like you asked, we have a version to make children much safer. It’s collapsable and can hold a hundred pounds.”

“I told Alva not to get too excited over your design. There are a few things that can easily be unforeseen when it comes to trailers.”

“What do you mean,” asks Elsa

“What have you done to combat trailer instability? What are you using as a hitch, and where is it located?”

Alva asks, “What is trailer instability?”

“When you load a trailer wrong, it causes a force to oscillate left and right. It causes cars to go all over the road, especially after turning a corner. That is when the effect is amplified. The closer to the axle the load is, the less oscillation there is. This means the child seat should be over the axle.

“A bike weighs a lot less than a car. The slightest oscillation will throw the bike around. If the hitch is behind the wheel, that is two-plus feet away from the axle or fulcrum. If the oscillation is only 20 lb., then that is 40 ft-lb. What do you think would happen to a bike if you suddenly put 40 lb. of force pushing sideways on the rear axle?”

“Crash,” exclaims Alva

“You need the hitch at the axle. That puts it at the fulcrum, meaning torque is negligible, and the bike is only affected by the sideways force at the axle and not torque.”

Elsa questions, “How do you have a hitch at the axle? The wheel is in the way.”

“Give me 20 minutes when I get to the shop. I will build something and show you. You also need to talk to your dad about the effects of metal rubbing together, and how to prevent it. There are bushings you need that I’m sure aren’t on your drawing.”

“How can you tear our drawing apart like that without even seeing it,” complains Alva

Elsa says, “He does that all the time. It’s infuriating.”

“It usually means the thing you design is something I have spent a lot of time thinking about. The areas I assume you made mistakes are where I first got it wrong.”

I can’t tell them the truth. I made the same mistakes the first time I designed a trailer, which was for towing a kayak behind a bike. The only thing is that happened in my other life.

There are a few more things I could point out, but decide to be nice and look at the drawing first. Ten minutes after arriving at work, I have a hitch and a connecting arm. I show it to the girls and explain how it makes folding the trailer up easier. It is also easier to mount a front wheel and turn the trailer into a push stroller.

When I am finished with them, Dick calls me up, excited, saying, “Great news, I was able to pick up a used double wide office for cheap, and it will be here tomorrow.”

“Great, any luck with the sea cans?”

“We can get as many as we want, and they are much cheaper than I thought. Using sea cans was a great idea and simple. I’m embarrassed I didn’t come up with it myself.”

The conversation degrades into socializing from there. I eventually bring it around to specifics, making sure we can use the trailer by Monday.

When the call ends, I phone Fred, asking him, “How would you like to move into your new office on Monday?”

“I’d love an office. The wife keeps hounding me because I have papers everywhere. Our home office isn’t big enough for the jobs you gave me.”

“You will have electricity, but you will have to make do with a portable outhouse and water coolers for a few days.”

“It’s still better than what we are doing now, and I will have the room to hire a proper staff. You are getting us to do the work of an entire engineering firm.”

“Does that mean you want the whole double-wide. I was going to stick our executives in there too.”

“If you let me have it, I could use the entire thing.”

“It’s yours.”

“On another topic. Despite Elsa doing a good job, I might have burst her bubble on the bike trailer thing. She was all excited, and I was a jerk. I’m sure the girls did good work. I pointed out a few things they wouldn’t have known about. Would you take a quick look at it for her before she brings it back to me?”

“Sure thing, boss. If I’m cheering Elsa up after you lambaste her like that, whose job is it to cheer me up when you do it to me?”

“Isn’t that what a wife is for?”

“It’s one thing to have your plans torn apart by a senior engineer. When some twerp kid does it without even looking at the plans, it hits the ego harder than the wife can fix.”

“Those mistakes are as much my fault as yours. I should be telling you of the potential problems before I get you to draw up your plans. When I pick apart your work like that, I’m usually kicking myself in the ass for not giving you adequate instruction. I need to get used to having a team behind me.”

In my first life, any engineering work I did was always alone, even when I was in the military. If I were assigned a team to work on a problem, they would all fuck off and leave me to it. The exception was when some jackass was trying to prove they were smarter than me. They would work counter to everything I did, and in the end, they always proved me right. Sure I worked with mechanic teams, and I wished I was working alone most of those times. It is utterly foreign to me, working with a supportive team.

Just after 3 pm, Moira pages me in my office. I press the button on the phone and ask, “What is it?”

“Watanabe is on line one for you.”

“Thanks, dear.”

I hit the line one button on the phone then pick up the receiver, saying, “Good morning Mr. Watanabe-san. What can I do for you?”

“Good afternoon, Mr. Brown. Takashi-san say we owe you thank you and sorry.”

“Your company put me in a bad position. You are lucky that I am partners with the local media. If word of this got out, Kawasaki would suffer.”

“We so sorry. We not know Sato, Ito do that. What we do make it up you?”

“We had agreed to a deal where I get 7.5% of Kawasaki, and you build me a robotic shipyard using robots built with my technology. In exchange, I give you the schematics for my robot, after NeXT and Motorola, you would be the next eligible to buy licensing from my patents, and I consult a robotics team you set up here.”

“We agree. Have deal.”

“I don’t agree anymore. I have added trouble, keeping your rapes out of the news. I think 10% and 2% of all future robot sales is more appropriate.”

“You rob us. No deal. Bad deal.”

“You have no choice. Any of my security talks or maybe somebody else does, and Kawasaki will have a scandal that will cause your stock to plummet. I take my technology to ABB and sell it to Korean shipyards. You will lose the NeXT deal. Your shipbuilding will suffer, and so will your robotics. I then go to Honda and sell them the technology they need to build military planes. You will lose your Self Defence contracts. That is over half your company in trouble.”

“I thought you kid. How you so violent?”

“I am a kid, but you refused to believe me when I said your boy tried to break the law and wanted to have sex with my girlfriend. You made me mad and underestimated me. That is very costly.”

“We no more underestimate you. We have deal.”

“I knew you were a wise man. Prove to be a loyal friend, and I will fight like this for you.”

“I hope we friends now.”

“I have one more condition for our deal.”

“You rob us blind. What more?”

“Takashi-san needs to stay in Canada until Ito’s trial is over. I want her to stay longer. I want her to be our liaison.”

“What laisn?”

“My contact with the research team. Takashi-san works between the research team and me.”

“Deal. No more.”

“Yes, more. We are friends now. I can tell you about other things.”

“What now?”

“I have a satellite you will want to buy plans for, there are upgrades to make the T-4 (a military training fighter-jet) safer and a better trainer, and I have frictionless bearings for your conventional trains. Takashi-san and Dahlia can work out the details.”

“Hope she more friendly negotiate than you.”

I laugh, then say, “I taught her.”

“You scary.”

That ends the conversation, but now I need to make some more calls. The first is to Admiral Cub. His secretary says he isn’t in but will relay the message for him to phone me ASAP. Next, I call Miyu. As I expect, she is sitting in her Hotel room, not doing anything. She answers with a tentative, “Hello?” She has no clue who would phone her and is a bit leery with everything that is going on.

“Miyu, I’m glad I caught you.”

“I’m glad you phoned. I am bored out of my mind, sitting here.”

“I have some good news for you.”

“I don’t have to work for Watanabe.”

“Close, you don’t have to go back to Japan any time soon. If you want it, you are getting a promotion and will be the new liaison between my companies and Kawasaki. Kawasaki will pay your wages, but you will work as much for me as you do them.”

“Really? Why? How? I’m only a translator. We don’t get promotions unless we find somebody like Ito to sleep with.”

“In a way, sleeping with him got you the promotion. We have some things we need to work out. You need friends and a place to live. You can’t sit in a hotel room all alone. I know they are a bit young to be your friends, but I need to give Moira and Kim a day off. How about they pick you up tomorrow morning, and I treat you all to a day at the spa?”

“Why do you keep doing things for me?”

“Most people know that I want to make the world a better place. What is the sense of helping the world if you don’t help the people in it?”

“If you ever find a way to lose your girlfriends, I’m going to be waiting for you.”

“You are extremely attractive and smart. Any guy would be a fool not to want you. I’m sorry, but I have four girls that are just as good ... You better phone your office before it gets too late. I need to know when they will be sending over our new contract so I can give you the robotic schematics. I’m anxious to get our shipyard built.”

An hour later, Cub phones

“It is good to hear from you, Admiral.”

“Talking with you is always interesting, Trent.”

“I hope that is a good thing.”

“Sometimes, what can I do for you?”

“Something interesting. What does it take for a gag order to be put on a court case for national security reasons?”

“You do have interesting favours to ask. What are the specifics?”

“Two of the Kawasaki employees, who came to negotiate with me, committed rape. It isn’t how Kawasaki does things, and if it got out that they were here on official business, Kawasaki would be hit with a scandal that I promised to help eliminate.”

“What spin are you putting on it to make it a matter of national security?”

“Our Hercules fleet is ageing and needs to be replaced. The airforce is planing on buying newer ones. What if I go in with Kawasaki to make a bid and give you something better? You know I always deliver and can give you something Lockheed can’t. Do you know why they call it skunkworks? Because compared to me, they stink.”

“Funny. I saw your latest bid for the MCDV program. It turns out you were right. They are going to be changing the requirements and want more than just a sweeper. My question is, what are all the empty spaces for? They can’t all be storage. They are all spread out, and there is no obvious reason for them.”

“By now, you know I tend to think ahead.

“Look at what NASA said in the 70s about our orbit and how it will change our environment so that it is warmer and the poles will start to melt. They have it right. The Northwest Passage will eventually open up. Part of the MCDV acronym is Coastal Defence Vessel. How can we defend our coast with slow conventional ships? Those empty spaces you mentioned are for the equipment needed to turn the MCDV ships into Hydrofoils capable of 65 knots.”

“There has never been a hydrofoil that big before, and the record was the Bras d’Or. That was only 63 knots.”

“Have I ever failed to achieve my goals?”

“You are setting a pretty high one. I shouldn’t say anything, but questions are being asked about how reliable your proposed ships will be since it will be filled with untried technology.”

“What about the old DDE’s bear trap, the Iroquois’ all gas turbine configuration, or the frigate’s IMCS and cross con gearbox? Does the navy not want to keep with the tradition of building what nobody else has? I am going to do you one better. I’m going to build one before the bid is awarded, and the navy can see for itself how my ship is superior to anything else out there.”

“All well and good, but you know it doesn’t matter how good your boat is, if you don’t create jobs back east, they will throw it out.”