by Jeff Sims
Ponwe’s wife had searched the Solarian dictionary for possible names. She had really liked both Frogbag and Bigfoot; well, provided it was shortened to Bigfot. Ponwe recalled that conversation. He had patiently tried to explain to her that Bigfoot had a negative connotation and that Frogbag was more of a last name than a first. She hadn’t taken it well.
In fact, she had thrown up her hands, raised her ear stalks, and announced that she could care less what their son was called. Well, he laughed, her language had been rather more colorful than that. He wound up selecting three names (Lucas, Mason, and Logan) and let his wife choose her favorite. In the end, their son was named Lucas Frogribt.
One of his coworkers caught him staring out the window and casually said, “It is a beautiful day out there. Almost quitting time.”
Ponwe pulled his gaze from the window and looked over at his coworker. At this point they were the only two in the room. He said, “Yes, Jenlid’wa and I and are going to walk through the park this afternoon and then try taking Lucas to a restaurant.”
He paused for a moment, and said, “How about you Loid, what restaurant are you going to this evening?”
Loid’pe responded, “I don’t know yet. I will probably meet some of the other workers and run the obstacle course before deciding. What one are you trying?”
Ponwe remarked, “We haven’t decided yet either.”
Discussing restaurants had become the commonplace conversation between the Hiriculans working on the new office project. It was similar to discussing the weather or yesterday’s sporting event. After two months, every Hiriculan had tried just about every restaurant in town, so rehashing favorite menu items, wait staff, and clientele now passed as normal conversation.
The Hiriculans could have stayed in their apartments and cooked their own meals, but they had been strongly encouraged by the Hiriculan government to support the local economy. In fact, the government gave each worker a sizeable stipend each week and expected him/her to spend it.
Ambassador Lone, the Hiriculan ambassador to Solaria, had explained the stipend and expectation as such, “You are the first Hiriculans other than myself, to spend a considerable amount of time on this planet. Obviously, your first priority is to construct a building, but the second is to let the Solarian citizens get to know you. Think of yourselves as goodwill ambassadors.”
At first everyone had been excited about trying new restaurants and different entertainment. Lately though, the workers seemed to struggle to be enthusiastic about eating out all the time. Ponwe was privately happy that the birth of his son had given him a temporary pass from the spending policy.
Ponwe doubted that Loid’pe would actually make it to a restaurant tonight. After the obstacle course, he would probably just grab a couple of Advranki sea moss balls to-go, extravagantly over-tip, and eat them alone in his apartment.
Loid tended to be a loner, very humble and quiet. About the only activity he did was work on the building and exercise. Every morning he would lead all of the construction workers through calisthenics before work. On weekends he would organize 3 kilometer runs, and of course he spent many evenings after work at the obstacle course he had built.
Ponwe knew very little about Loid’pe; the man rarely talked about himself. The one thing he did know was that Loid’pe preferred the name Loid versus his true name of Loid’pe or his Alliance name of Lope. He said that Loid sounded like the Solarian name Lloyd and he had simply dropped the ’pe as part of being a ‘goodwill ambassador’.
Ponwe snorted. That may be technically true, but it wasn’t the real reason. Ponwe knew that Loid used to be a warrior and had the cherished moniker Loid’la. However, he had clearly done something horribly wrong because he had been thrown out of the navy and forced to design sewer systems.
They had stripped the ’la from his name and replaced it with ’pe. The letters la at the end of name mean warrior and is used by members of the military. The letters pe translate roughly as punishment or those who are no longer respected in polite society. It is reserved for those very, very few who screwed up really, really badly.
Ponwe decided to try to continue the conversation. Perhaps this was this was the day he could get Loid to talk about himself. Ponwe said, “The new design is really innovative. I didn’t think there were any advances left in sewer systems, but you have managed to find one. I am really impressed.”
“Thank you,” answered Loid somewhat hesitantly.
Ponwe could tell that Loid really didn’t like being acknowledged for his work. Ponwe didn’t blame him too much though. Designing the best sewer system in the world is still a shitty job.
Ponwe continued, “I especially like the way that you connected this building’s sewage and water system to the six buildings next to it. The Solarians will have a much more robust system with less overall evaporators to maintain. Nice.”
“Yes, the key is to gain economy of scale through combination.”
“Does the pipe have to be that big though?”
“The math is pretty easy actually. The bigger the pipe, the more water, or anything else for that matter, you can push through it. If you need to move 20 cm of water, you could use a 20 cm pipe. However, it flows better through a 40 cm pipe.”
‘Better’ was a curious word for Loid to use, Ponwe thought. The math describing water flow through a pipe is fairly complex, but basically the speed of flow is inversely proportional to the square root of the pipe’s diameter. Therefore, the same quantity of water flows faster through a small pipe and slower through a large pipe. It never flows better.
However, there was little doubt that Loid’s new sewer system was innovative. Normally, each building had a collector and an evaporator to treat water and waste. These systems are very expensive and typically operate far below capacity. Loid had designed a system to link six nearby buildings together via large, underground pipes. Then, the waste water will be treated by one evaporator unit much more efficiently and economically.
Ponwe realized that he had been thinking for a moment and had stopped talking. He responded, “Yes, but the underground pipes are so big that you could almost walk through them.”
Loid laughed and said, “Well, I suppose you could walk through the pipe. You would have to walk hunched way over and wade knee deep through fecal matter. The smells would be horrific. It’s not my idea of a Sunday stroll, but hey, to each his own right?”
Ponwe laughed too. It was the first time he had seen Loid laugh since he arrived in Solaria. Ponwe psyched himself up a little and asked the question that had been wanting to ask for the last month, “How did you wind up here designing sewer systems?”
Loid stopped laughing, but a trace of the smile remained. Loid said, “As you probably already guessed, I used to be in the military. My career was going well. I was the navigation officer on an admiral’s battleship; a rather prestigious position.”
Loid paused for a breath and continued, “We were passing through Hepitila when we came across an Alliance cruiser that had just destroyed two Hiriculan destroyers.”
Ponwe sucked in his breath, making an ‘ooooh’ sound. Ponwe, like everyone else, had seen the video of the battle. Ponwe said, “The Alliance ship was the Sunflower, and that means you must have been stationed on the Avenger.”
Loid neither confirmed nor denied the assertion. He continued, “We were a little late arriving and the cruiser was able to clear the gravity well and jump to hyperspace before we could stop it.”
Ponwe encouraged him to continue by saying, “Yes, two seconds to spare.”
Loid said, “I failed to track the ship when it jumped away. Then, we had a blockade in Netron to stop it, but again it took an unanticipated trajectory and escaped.”
Ponwe answered, “I thought it was impossible to track a ship in hyperspace.”
Loid nodded in agreement this time and said, “It is. But there are certain clues if you look closely. As I am sure you already know, a ship can only jump through hyperspace i
n a straight line. So, if you record the course the ship was traveling just before it jumped, you could then plot potential courses.”
Ponwe said, “Sounds reasonable, but there are still a bunch of unknowns.”
Loid responded, “True, but I failed to know the one known that I should have known.”
Ponwe: “Meaning?”
Loid: “Meaning that the cruiser made a last second course change and I failed to spot it and use that information in my calculation for where the ship went. I just guessed that the cruiser jumped back to Netron instead of trying to research its true course. Basically, I failed.”
Ponwe tried to be supportive. He said, “Detecting a last second course correction and making complex calculations in a moment’s notice is very difficult. It wasn’t a fair request to make of you.”
Loid: “Yes. You are correct. I argued the same thing at my discipline hearing. Basically though, the Hiriculan high command needed a scapegoat for their abject military failure and I was the convenient selection.”
Ponwe asked, “What happened?”
Loid: “In the end I was given the new name and a choice, go to a penal colony or come to Solaria and design sewer systems.”
Ponwe almost asked him which one he chose, but stopped himself just in time. Since he was sitting here talking to him, the answer was obvious.
Ponwe smiled and said, “Well, at least you have a path to redemption I suppose. Someday they may call you the best refuse management engineer in history.”
Loid pointed to the location where the waste is collected just before being fed into the evaporator and said, “Look, they are already building me a monument.”
Ponwe responded, “Well, I am certainly thankful to have you on the team. I have another question though, the battle was already over, so why did the Alliance cruiser destroy our supply of steel? That seemed rather cruel of them.”
Ponwe was referring to the two enormous steel plates that the Hiriculans had painstakingly created in Hepitila. The plates were intended for new construction projects, including this one.
Loid: “I don’t know. Maybe they just forgot about the missile. Either way, the Alliance reprioritized its schedule and got us the necessary steel.”
Ponwe was about to respond when the Solarian government made an announcement that they were going to test the world-wide EMP system in 5 minutes. Ponwe sighed and plugged his communication pad into a wall socket. He watched Loid do the same. The government tested the system at least once a month at random intervals.
The planet Solaria was unique among inhabited planets. It has a rather large magnetic core. Early settlers had used this core to create a system-wide electromagnetic pulse (EMP) bomb. At a press of a button, every electric / electronic device inside the hyperspace limit would short circuit. Enemy cruisers would immediately lose power and be unable to move or fire.
However, all Solarian electronic equipment that was plugged into the planet’s power grid was automatically shielded. As a result, only one Alliance cruiser was needed to guard the planet and armed Solarian armed forces were minimal. They simply weren’t needed because no one could invade or even attack the planet without power.
The EMP test had been a big issue when they had first arrived. When the alarm went off, the office staff had to scramble to turn off all of their computers and com pads in 5 minutes. Inevitably, a computer would be left on and would be destroyed. Also, the EMP was so strong that it began to affect even the computers that were properly turned off.
Finally, they had surrendered to the inevitable and replaced all of their communication pads, watches, computers, razors, and everything else that used electricity with similar items built on Solaria. Ponwe thought that the whole thing was a scam. He could picture the advertisement sign – Buy Solarian. If you don’t, we will electrocute it.
Ponwe took a quick look around to ensure that everything was plugged into an outlet. He didn’t see anything amiss. The EMP fired. Ponwe then checked his computer and com pad. Both were fine.
The foreman, technically forewoman, entered the room and said, “We are on schedule.”
Loid looked at her and said, “Well done.” He then adjusted his glance so that he could also see Ponwe and said, “I will see you tomorrow.”
Loid stood up, gathered his satchel, put his com pad in it, and left. The forewoman followed him out of the building. Ponwe looked out the window and saw that all of the construction workers were rapidly leaving for the day. There was still 40 minutes before the end of their planned working shift.
Ponwe used his com pad to send a message to his wife to tell her that he was on his way home. He followed Loid out the door. If the first topic of conversation was restaurants, the other was the darned schedule. The foreperson seemed more interested in the schedule than anything else.
Each morning she would review the amount of work that needed to get accomplished that day. Then she would plan the activities and ruthlessly push to ensure that all tasks were complete by the end of that day.
If they ran behind, she would force everyone to work 10, 12, 14 hours until whatever problematic task was complete. If, on the other hand, they finished their assigned tasks early, she would order them to stop. Occasionally, they would only work 4 hours before stopping. Most days were like today though where they finished 40 minutes early.
Ponwe had been in charge of several large construction projects before. This was the first project where time, well the schedule, was managed so strictly. He still hadn’t gotten used to such a strict interpretation of a day’s activities.
Ponwe was technically the forewoman’s supervisor. He supposed that he could have ordered her to have the workers continue, but the precedent had been set on day 1 and now it would be hard to change. Quite frankly though, she scared him. Besides, how can one argue with a project that is exactly on schedule?
Ponwe thought about the schedule for a moment. He had been asked by Ambassador Lone to make a full and complete day by day schedule of what tasks needed to be done in what order. That was unusual; normally he planned by the week. However, Lone had explained that since the distance was so far, the Hiriculan government needed that level of detail to ensure that the required resources were available when needed.
After he completed it, Lone sent it to the Hiriculan High Council for review. Really, he thought, the government has nothing better to do than review his work?
The answer was ‘apparently not’ because the schedule was returned a few days later with detailed notes and modifications. The timeline had actually increased by 40 days, but the changes were well thought out and would make the construction proceed more smoothly. Someone who had a detailed knowledge of construction had clearly performed the review.
By this time Ponwe had caught Loid and said, “An early day again today. If we worked full days, we could finish this project two months ahead of time.”
Ponwe was shocked when Loid gave him a really strange look and raised his ear stalks. Loid leaned close and whispered, “The timeline was reviewed and approved by the High Council. If we finish early we would essentially be calling them idiots. If we finish late, we would be personal failures. I don’t think either option is a good idea.”
Ponwe took a moment and considered this. He had never thought about it like that before today. He suddenly had a newfound respect for the forewoman and understood why she demanded that they stay on schedule every day.
He reached his apartment and saw his wife and son waiting for him outside the apartment. The Hiriculan government had decreed that when they were outside and within hearing range of another Solarian, they should speak in Alliance basic to allay any fears that they were talking about people.
Therefore, even though they were alone, he still used Alliance basic to say, “Hi Jenna, are you and Lucas ready to go?”
His wife’s name is Jenlid’wa. The Alliance basic letter combination is technically Jenwa. However, during her intensive study of Solarian names, Jenwa noticed that her
Alliance name is very similar in sound to the Solarian name Jenna. She reasoned that if she had to use a different name, she may as well use one really existed.
Jenna didn’t answer. The fact that she was standing in front of the apartment building with the baby and the hover-carriage indicated consent. Ponwe activated the carriage, briefly tested its hover capability by pushing down on it, and placed Lucas inside. He secured the safety strap to his waist and started walking toward the park.
The new office building was being constructed in the heart of the government section of Solar City. The building was nestled beside the park on one side, the courthouse on another, the military preparedness center (e.g. Pentagon), on the third, and the EMP control structure on the fourth. When completed, the new building would house the other government offices.
It was located only one hovertram stop from the spaceport. Most of the actual construction workers, including Loid and the forewoman, had decided to live near the spaceport. They favored the nightlife and the other world feel of the place.
Ponwe and most of the other older workers had decided to live in an apartment complex a block from the new building. It was much quieter and was near the park. Ponwe liked that he could walk to work in under 10 minutes.
They reached the park and began walking slowly through it, enjoying the beautiful weather and making small conversation. Lucas was resting comfortably in his stroller.
Jenna said, “I watched a new human video today.”
“Oh,” Ponwe answered, “You shouldn’t watch those. I don’t think they are real.”
Jenna: “I think it was a real human movie. I don’t know whether the movie was factual. Some of them you can tell right away are fiction. Others though, are almost impossible to tell. Do you think the humans are as violent as everyone says they are?”
They had had this conversation many times over the last month. Hiriculans have almost no exposure to humans or Earth; save for the occasional rumor that the humans are going to blow up their own planet or kill and eat any alien that steps foot on their planet.