Chapter 38: Priorities

“How’s she doing?” I asked as Jeryl came out of Alison’s hospital room.

The procedure to excise the small lump in her breast had gone well, according to the doctor. We now had to wait for the results of the biopsy. It was the waiting that was the hardest.

“She’s asleep,” Jeryl said. “The doctor visited briefly and said things went well, but...”

I hugged my wife. “She’ll be fine.”

Jeryl shuddered a little against me.

“I know she will. It’s just the thought of her being so strong for us all these times, and now, she needs us to be strong for her.”

“And we will be. She’ll be up and around, tomorrow. We’ll let her spend some time with the kids, and just relax. Sandford and Tiffany run our detail most days, anyway. She doesn’t need to rush back to work.”

Jeryl gave me a little smile as she said, “You just have to convince her of that.”

We were both surprised the next day when we did not get any argument from Alison to take a little time to rest. Jeryl and Tiffany got her settled into the guest room at the Stanford house, while I headed back to Deer Valley to spend a little time with the kids. We had decided not to bring them out to California until we knew we would be spending some time there, for Alison’s treatment. Ali was into a regular half-day pre-school program, and Jeremy was keeping Anna’s hands full most days. Jeryl and I did not like both of us being away from them for more than a single night. We had decided it was better for Jeryl to stay with Alison.

“Daddy!” Ali said as I walked into the living room of the Deer Valley house. She had toys spread out on the couch and coffee table.

“Ali!” I said with a big smile.

We had fallen into a pattern of big greetings. Part of me worried that she was excited to see me because I was spending too much time away from her. She ran to me on her short legs, and I scooped her up for a big hug.

“Where’s Mommy?” she asked as I set her back down.

“She’s with Aunt Alison. She’ll be home tomorrow.”

“Goody. I got asked to go play with Samantha tomorrow afternoon, but I need Mommy’s permission.”

“Will Daddy’s permission do?”

She looked at me with a smile, and nodded.

“Okay, then. Does Anna have Samantha’s phone number?”

She nodded again.

“Then I guess we had better get on the phone before it gets too late.”

I got the particulars from Anna, after getting a big hug from Jer, who was ‘reading’ a picture book with Anna in the kitchen. Mrs. Eccles was working on dinner.

“Greenson’s residence,” a pleasant voice said after the third ring.

“Hello, is this Samantha’s mother?”

“It is.”

“This is Paul Taylor, Ali’s dad. I understand our two girls want to get together tomorrow after pre-school.”

“Mr. Taylor, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Rachel Greenson. Yes, Samantha and Ali have become best friends in pre-school, it seems. Samantha has been pestering me for Ali to come over, if it’s no trouble for you.”

“Absolutely. Do we need to let the school know?”

“If you or Anna could, that would be great. I’ll pick the girls up, and they can play for a couple hours.”

I got the Greenson’s address and let Anna know the plans before getting the kids ready for bed. Jeryl called briefly to wish Ali and Jer sweet dreams, and to let me know that Alison was resting well. With luck, they would be flying east to join us, tomorrow afternoon.

The next morning was quiet during my workout, and then hectic as we got the kids up and Ali off to pre-school. Anna took Jer for some outside play time once he was bundled up in his winter suit and cap. I grabbed another cup of coffee and turned on the computer in my office to get a little work done. This morning was all about checking production schedules.

An hour or so later, the phone icon flashed on the screen. I picked up the handset.

“This is Paul,” I said.

“Paul, this is Victor at Lockheed. How are you?”

“I’m good, Victor. What can I do for you?”

“It’s really what I can do for you,” Victor said smugly. “I’ve heard through the grapevine that you are interested in acquiring some dedicated communications channels for worldwide communications.”

“I am, but it’s pretty low-bandwidth requirement. I wouldn’t think Lockheed would have much to offer in that area.”

“Well, we don’t directly, but one of the guys here was talking to an engineer and they put one and one together and came up with three. What would you think about an orbital solution?”

“Sounds pricy.”

Victor laughed. “Maybe, but I think your DigiNet team would like the solution as well.”

I paused in my initial response. Hunter and I had been talking about the security protocol to have generators connect with our network for verification during the start-up process. We had the software and hardware, but we did not have a global communications network to handle the hand-shake process we had come up with. In developed regions, the communications infrastructure was more then adequate. It was in the remote locations, such as those we were contemplating for the desalination stations, where it became a problem. Satellite based communications would alleviate that bottleneck. We were actually already in discussions with Inmarsat on the problem.

“What do you have in mind, Victor?”

I could almost hear the smile in his voice. “We have some knowledge and background in building orbital solutions. We’d work in partnership with you to create the capability you need, and you’d let us piggyback either in the launches, or with bandwidth agreements.”

It sounded almost too good to be true. It would solve many of our problems.

“What’s the catch?” I asked.

“No catch, other than keeping the particulars quiet.”

A light bulb went off in my mind. He wanted off-the-books links for the DoD, most likely.

“I think it is worth further discussion, but can you meet our timeline? We’d want to start deploying the communications constellation in less than a year.”

I figured we could make do with land-based communications until then.

“If the lift capacity I hear rumors of some billionaire developing hold true, I’m sure we can meet that timeline. Launch schedules are the hardest part to get firm right now.”

“Okay. How about we set up a meeting for next week?”

“That sounds good. Do you want to meet here?”

I thought for a minute.

“No, how about you and I and anyone else you need hop in the GX-3, and we meet in Ireland? I’ve got some folks on the continent that will be involved, and we have plenty of space there.”

“Three, in geostationary orbit, would be the minimum,” Victor said as we finished hammering out the communications satellite needs we had.

I had flown Victor and three other Lockheed engineers over on the GX-3 with Alison and myself. The biopsy had come back negative, giving us all a relief of worry, but she was still not back to herself. She had overseen the security arrangements for this meeting and then taken Lila with her to her offices in London. Hunter, Donna and I were in the meeting.

“But geostationary gives us a significant time lag on voice communications,” Donna said. She was most concerned about expanding DigiNet’s coverage via satellite while Hunter and I were worried about command and control of the generators.

“Iridium is looking at a constellation of sixty-six satellites. They are looking to support 10Mbits, but are several years away from operational capability,” Victor replied.

“We know,” I said. “We’ve been talking to them.” I looked pointedly at Donna. “What demand do you have today for voice services?”

She glanced at her notes. “It’s limited, but it would allow us to expand so much faster.”

“I know, but I’m wondering if we aren’t better off putting up three geosynchronous birds first and then filling in to meet voice demand in the future.”

She nodded, though she did not look happy. “We could survive. I just hate the latency it introduces.”

“It’s only 240 milliseconds,” Hunter interjected.

“Which is very noticeable on a voice call,” Donna said.

“But not for lower bandwidth data,” I finished. “What about spectrum?” I asked.

“We’ve got a good block of L-band that is good for satellite coms. We can also use SHF for directed coms.”

“We can handle both of those,” Victor said. “We’ve got a bit of experience, there. Paul, we should be able to build the birds pretty quickly. These specs are well within our capabilities, so it’s nothing new or groundbreaking. Will you be able to meet an end-of-year launch window?”

I noticed the other Lockheed engineers lean forward a little. I shot a glance at Hunter. He noticed as well.

“We should be able to,” I said after a pause. “Our next meetings this week will help us decide how solid that estimate is.”

Victor smiled. “I’d love to sit in on that discussion,” he said.

I knew he was fishing for information on our plans with Rolls-Royce and Gulfstream. I forced a chuckle.

“I’m sure you would, Victor, but it’s going to be pretty proprietary. Let’s just say that we’re pretty confident we’ll be able to place all three Satellites in a single launch.”

His eyes got big. Placing three geostationary satellites of the size we were discussing in a single launch told him quite a bit about our projected flight capabilities. It was not just lifting the mass into orbit; it was also having the maneuvering capacity to place them all on a single trip.

“Soft abort?” he asked.

I shrugged and replied, “It’s planned for, but this could be the inaugural operational flight, so we’ll have to see.”

He nodded. “Fair enough.”

We wrapped our meeting up, and called it a day. Hunter turned down an invitation to dinner, saying Lila should be home by then. I headed back to the house outside Dublin, and made a sandwich before sitting down to read the latest research notes from Dr. Wilkerson and his new protege Thomas Culpepper, from last season’s ‘The Interns.’ I was deep into their latest attempts at new nano-fabrication techniques when I heard the door to my study open.

“Good evening, Paul,” Alison said as she came into my study and sat down next to me.

“Good evening. How was London?”

She sighed and slipped off her shoes before turning on the small couch and placing her legs across my lap. I closed my notes and then began rubbing her feet. I knew she enjoyed that.

“London was hectic, as usual. I’m making some staff changes though, and need to make sure everyone gets settled. When you head back to the states, I’ll probably spend a bit of time with them.”

“You’re not overdoing it, are you?” She had her cancer scare less than a week ago.

“That’s just it. I’m making changes at work, so I can make some changes in my life. Last week was a wake-up call, for me.”

I continued to rub her feet, waiting for her to say more.

“I had to think about my life,” she said after a short pause. “I’m proud of my business and what I do for you and your company, but I don’t want that to be all that is remembered of me, when I do finally pass.”

I nodded, but stayed quiet.

She looked at me with serious eyes. “You know I can’t have children, right?”

I nodded. “Jeryl told me.”

“I started the process to adopt while I was in London. I love Ali and Jer, but I want a child to call my own.”

“I can understand that. You know Jeryl and I will support you.”

She nodded.

“I know you will, and I love you both for it. I’ve got a favor to ask.”

“Anything.”

“I want to buy one of the lots next to you, at Deer Valley.”

I thought about it for a minute. “Is that best for you?”

“I need a residence for the paperwork. Having a home, there, will be much better than an apartment someplace else. I thought about building here, in Ireland, and I probably will to maintain an EU residence, now that the Maastricht Treaty has been signed, but I want to have a place near Jeryl and the kids.”

“Do you really want such a large place? The lots are sized for pretty big houses.”

“Don’t you want me as a neighbor?” she asked with a coy smile.

“You know that’s not it. I’m just thinking about you and a child alone in such a place. You could live with us.”

She shook her head sharply.

“I need my own place. I love you both and will most likely spend a lot of time with you, but I need my own residence and address.”

I sighed. It had been worth a shot. I was sure Jeryl would try again later. “Of course I’ll sell you a lot if that’s what you want.”

It was her turn to smile. “How about I build a duplex so you can at least stash some of the security at my place? Or I’ll let you put up some guests there if needed.”

“Ah, we’re negotiating?” I asked. “How about I build it and give you a life-time lease from the company? They own the lots anyway. That way we avoid some of the tax issues. You still get a separate address and some private space without having to expend capital.”

She looked thoughtful for a few minutes. “Let me sleep on it, but I think that could work.”

I smiled and said,”’Sounds like a plan.’”

“Have we talked to Honeywell?” I asked the assembled engineering management team for the GO-X. We were into our final design review, even though some fabrication had already begun in a new assembly complex on Gulfstream’s Savannah facilities.

Stan shook his head and asked, “Why Honeywell?”

“They did the Shuttle’s flight control systems. They’ve got expertise.”

“So do we,” said Harry from Rolls-Royce.

I wanted to yell, but controlled myself.

“Look,” I said as I paused to take a deep breath, “we’ve got some serious concerns about the automatic flight controls. We don’t have a final design or the time to build a man rated system right out of the gate, so we chose to use an automated control system. No one in this room has built such a system before, and we’ll need months of development and testing to hit a December test flight date. There are three or four expert firms in the field; Honeywell, Lockheed, Rockwell, and General Dynamics. We need to contact them and get proposals.”

“It will take too long, Paul,” Stan said.

“I’ll bet we can get a proposal from Lockheed in two weeks. Once I tell that to the others, I bet they match the timeline. This system will also be the back-up in our manned design. They will want that piece of business. If they don’t I’ll get some of my folks working on it. Hell, I’ll work on it myself. At the end of the day it is a PID control system, not too different from what I put into cars a decade ago. The parameter tuning is going to be the hardest part.”

“Which means we have to finalize the design to have stable characteristics to define those parameters,” Harry added.

Heads nodded, and we looked back at the two designs hanging on the walls. Both were similar, with dual fusion rockets projecting from the rear, a long fuselage with a slightly curved belly indicative of a lifting body. One design was much broader than the other. We had given it the “Beta” designation. The narrower airframe became “Alpha” by default.

“Beta gives us a greater range of payload options,” I said. “What are the negatives with it?”

A Gulfstream engineer raised a hand and got a nod from Stan.

“It’s much less traditional so it’s going to require quite a bit of wind tunnel testing. Because of the wider placement of the engines, single engine operation in a failure mode is going to really stress the control systems. It might not even be flyable on a single engine.”

“But it also has greater lift characteristics,” another engineer said. “It could land empty, without power. The Alpha design would need a greater wing area to match that.”

“And that would increase wing loading beyond our tolerance threshold,” the first engineer finished.

In a nut-shell, they had just re-capped the argument from the past hour that had led us to discussing control systems for them.

“Okay. If they are that evenly matched in trade-offs, let’s go with Beta,” I said. “Having an unpowered abort capability for return from orbit will be a benefit for the manned version.”

I looked around the room. Stan and Harry were nodding. The advocates of the Alpha design looked a little disappointed, but seemed happy that we had finally made a decision.

“Alpha team,” I said. “You’re now our ‘red team.’ I want you going over everything in the Beta design looking for gaps and flaws. We are moving forward with the Beta design, but must have fresh eyes on everything. Challenge the assumptions, and figure out ways to test them. We’re all in this together, now. Got it?”

Heads nodded and the meeting broke up. I asked Stan for a loaner office, and I was soon on the line to Lockheed.

“That’s a pretty tall order, Paul,” Victor said after I told him what I was looking for.

“I know it is, Victor. You have to decide if Lockheed wants a shot at a long-term flight control system contract or not. It could be a very big deal, but this is not some gold-plated government job. If the costs aren’t viable for a commercial offering, we’ll go a different route.”

“Who else are you asking for bids?”

“The usual suspects: you, Rockwell, General Dynamics, and Honeywell.”

“None of them will hit your timeline,” he said.

“We’ll see. I’m talking to you first. Do you want in or not?”

“Send me your design, and I’ll talk to the bosses.”

“I guess that’s the best I can ask for.”

It was harder getting through to the right people at the other firms. Fame helped since I used my name as leverage to finally talk to the CEO of Honeywell and then the head of General Dynamics Aviation. By the end of the day, I had four bidders starting the hard work of analyzing and defining our flight control system needs. It was the first major milestone we had not been able to work past, ourselves. It made me nervous for some reason.

Joseph and Rebecca were both present for my morning briefing, which was a change. Usually, only one of them did the briefing that Sheryl and Donna had established to keep me out of the weeds on every project. Since settling in as my new assistants, I did not think I had ever had them both in the meeting at once.

“What’s up?” I asked as Joseph closed the door.

“We need a bit more time and direction, sir,” Rebecca said, as they sat down with note pads in hand.

“On what?”

“Your schedule, sir,” Joseph said.

They were both ex-military, and British, which gave them their own air of dignity.

“You’re getting too many requests to handle, sir,” Rebecca added quickly. “Today, you have calls scheduled with Lockheed, Rockwell, Honeywell, and General Dynamics. You also need to meet with Tom and Billy to finalize the show’s production schedule, and you asked for an hour video conference with Hunter and another with Donna. Finally, Sheryl needs to speak with you on the new facilities in Kenya.”

“You have fourteen hours of requests, sir,” Joseph said, “and we don’t know what the relative priority is, or needs to be, to help juggle.”

I sighed.

“There’s a lot going on, right now. Spring always gets crazy. Okay,” I said as I thought through the list of projects. “My personal priority is the GO-X, followed by the show, but that doesn’t mean I need to sit in on every meeting. The GO-X team can handle the ones with the flight control contractors. I’ll review their conclusions and recommendations at next week’s status meeting. I need to talk to Donna, Sheryl and Hunter before the production meeting with Tom and Billy, since the data they have will impact the show.”

They both nodded and jotted quick notes.

“Now, what’s the real problem?” I asked. “That little scheduling blip hardly constitutes ‘needing direction.’”

Rebecca cast her gaze downward, as if embarrassed, while Joseph grinned.

“I thought you’d see through that, sir,” Joseph said. He licked his lips before continuing. “Sir, we have been helping out with the desalination prototypes and projects, while you’ve been focused on the GO-X lately. We’d like a bigger role in that project if we may.”

“Like what?”

“Well, Bill and Don need help with the project management aspects, mostly scheduling and dependency tracking. We’d like to take that on, more formally, for them.”

I shrugged and said, “If you have the capacity, I’m all for it. Why do you need to ask?”

“Well, sir, we thought you’d say that, so have just been doing it. Now, Bill has asked Rebecca to go to Kenya to help, as they start getting the facilities squared away before the show starts over there.”

I looked at the petite woman with her shy eyes. There seemed to be a flush on her neck at the mention of Bill’s name.

“And?” I asked.

“Well, it seemed like the proper thing to do was to talk to you about it,” Rebecca said.

I nodded. “So, if you take this role, Joseph is short handed as my PA, right?”

He nodded.

“Then find another one to fill in. If it turns into a long-term role for Rebecca, we’ll have a ready replacement. If it doesn’t work out, we’ll have a trained person that can help one of the other department heads.”

Rebecca smiled at me.

“Thank you, sir. I’ve always dreamed of working in Africa. Thank you so much.”

She stood from the chair and hurried around my desk to give me a hug. It was the most expressive I had ever seen the small woman.

I shook my head as she headed back out of the office. Joseph chuckled.

“Sir, do I need to post for the position?”

“Not if you know someone. Why?”

“One of the interns from last season sent you her resume. She graduated in January. Tamara from University of California San Diego.”

“Computer science and volleyball, right?”

He nodded. I remembered her well from the show. She had placed third overall in the season.

“She would do a good job, I think. Can you train her?”

Joseph smiled and said, “Oh, yes sir. She can’t be any worse than some new private, straight out of basic, sir. I’ll give her a call and see if she is interested.”

“Let me know if you need my or Jeryl’s help.”

“Did you work with hardware, software, or both?” I asked Tamara as she sat across from me in the small conference room in the main offices. She seemed more nervous than I expected, after all the interview time on the show.

“Both. Why do you ask?” she said, sounding defensive.

I held up a hand.

“Tamara, you seem nervous. You’ve got the job. This isn’t an interview. What’s going on?”

Her green eyes settled on me, and she took a deep breath.

“I am nervous, and I don’t really know why. Maybe it’s just how fast everything is happening. For the show, we applied in the fall and did not get selected until March. I just sent you my resume last week, and now here I am on the job. It’s a different pace.”

I laughed and said, “Get used to it. You’re here because you’ve already had a grueling interview! It has aired on national television. Jeryl and I know what you’re capable of, and how hard you’ll work, but the work is not going to be nearly as structured as it was during the show.”

“I know that. I just don’t think I really appreciated how fast things would start.”

“Okay, so remember what you learned. I don’t bite heads off babies. I don’t expect perfection. I expect you to try hard, do your best, and ask smart questions when you get stumped. Everything else is window dressing.”

She took a deep breath, and nodded.

“I can do that.”

“I know you can. So, you worked both hardware and software, right?”

“Yes.”

“And you worked on cryptography in your senior project?”

She nodded.

“Good. In addition to your daily duties of following me around and coordinating my schedule with Joseph, I’ll get you up to speed on a project Hunter and I are working on for the generators. It’s meaty, important, and right up your alley.”

I went on to explain the protocol we were developing to ensure proper usage of the generators.

“While we’ve worked through all the pieces, we don’t have the centrally controlled, distributed infrastructure we’ll need for the generator call backs.”

She nodded and said, “You’ll want both key management for the crypto, and data storage for the information coming back, so you can analyze and trend it out.”

“Exactly. Do you think you can come up with a design?”

“Yeah. You and Hunter have done the hard part: defining the protocol. I should be able to have a rough plan in a day or two.”

“Good. Remember it needs to be five-nines, or better, for availability. Make sure you take that into account on your design.”

She gulped at that. Designing a single node was simple. Designing something that was available 99.999% or more of the time was a different challenge.

“Just ask if you run into questions,” I said in what I hoped was an encouraging voice. “Now, let’s talk about the work schedule. I’m sure Joseph went over things with you yesterday, but I like to give you a bit more personal guidance. You’ll most likely be traveling with me pretty quickly. I like to be up around six every day, regardless of where I am in the world. You don’t have to be, but I’ve found it helps me to avoid jet-lag and to adjust my body to the local clock, quickly. I work out every day. You’re welcome to join me if you’re so inclined, but that is strictly optional. What won’t be optional is your self-defense training with one of the security staff, at least three times a week. Alison or Sanford will give you an initial assessment, and then figure out your training plan.”

She nodded again.

“Joseph told me the same. I’ve got pretty good hand-eye coordination, but I’ve never shot a real gun.”

“They’ll train you how to do it properly, but you won’t need to carry one. That’s their job. We’re almost always well escorted, but it can pay off to know how to handle yourself in a crisis. Since we’ll be travelling to some less civilized places in the next few months, it’s a good idea to know how to look after yourself.”

She nodded.

“Finally, my personal assistants have always been welcome around my family. This is going to feel different than on the show. It might take some getting used to.”

“What do you mean?”

I smiled as I replied, “On the show, you saw Jeryl and I only when we wanted you to. Now, you’ll be staying in our house when we go to Utah. You’ll have very open access to us. We’re people, just like you, and that means you’ll see us with our hair down. I guess I’m trying to say, it won’t be like on the show.”

She forced a laugh.

“Well, as long as you don’t parade around in your all together, I think I’ll be alright,” she said.

“Actually, at a couple of our places, that is a possibility; at least, with Jeryl,” I said seriously.

Tamara blushed and asked, “Really?”

I nodded.

“Well, I guess if it doesn’t bother her, it won’t bother me,” she said bravely.

“Good. It’s not likely to happen, most places, except Saint Lucia or Hawaii and on the deck in Nevada, but I wanted to warn you. She likes her even tan.”

Two days later, in Nevada, I was glad I had warned her.

“Tamara,” Jeryl said as she wrapped a sarong around her hips while walking inside the cabin to greet us. “It’s so good to see you, again.”

I tried not to laugh at Tamara’s expression as Jeryl gave her a good look at her breasts while giving me a kiss.

“Sorry, I didn’t expect you guys so early, today. Ali and Jer and I were just playing outside.”

I looked outside and saw Ali and Jer in the sandbox on the deck. I headed outside to say ‘hi’ to them while Jeryl guided Tamara into the kitchen and poured some drinks.

As I came back inside with a sand-covered naked boy, I picked up their conversation.

“No, Paul warned me, and I’m fine with it. I mean, I was on the volleyball team where most of my teammates were more interested in women than men. You kind of learn to take things as they come, in that environment.”

Jeryl laughed and commented, “Well, we’re of the live and let live mindset. As long as you’re not hurting anyone, we don’t really care what orientation you are.”

“You can say that again,” I said as I moved to the sink to clean up our boy. He didn’t fuss much, seeming to be more interested in the blonde-haired stranger talking to Mommy.

“Anyway, this is Jer and Ali is still building a magnificent sand castle,” I said once I had Jer cleaned up.

“I’m two!” Jer announced, holding up two fingers for Tamara.

“Hi, two. I’m Tamara,” she said back quickly.

Jer looked confused for a moment, parsing her words. After a moment, he smiled.

“No, I’m Jer, not two.”

By the time lunch was served for the kids, Tamara looked relaxed around my exhibitionist wife and kids.

“Got all your shots?” I heard Joseph say as someone walked into the outer office.

“I do,” Tamara replied. “Were they all really necessary? I was sick most of the weekend.”

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