There Must Be A Mistake Ch. 14

"Which baby did you say you are changing?"

"Defend yourself, you're about to be hit."

"No I'm not, because you're going to be kissed."

I was wrong, but so was she. She hit me while I was kissing her. All in all, I think it was a very fair exchange.

"Are you two finished arguing? I changed both babies, but I think Holden is hungry. I'm not allowed to warm up his bottle."

"Gordon you are an amazing son. I am happy to call you my own."

"Dad if we don't get to the hospital soon, Delicious could have the baby, and be on her way home before we get there."

"No she wouldn't do that to me. She won't have the baby until 8:27:30 AM.

"You wrong dad, she is going to have the baby at 8:26 AM."

"Young man, you are not part of this bet. This is between your Uncle William and me."

"It's okay dad, you just picked the wrong time."

Jennifer asked, "How do you know it's going to be 8:26 AM Gordon."

"According to the Guinness Book of World Records, most first births occur when the moons gravitational pull is at its strongest. Today, it happens at 8:26 AM."

"The next time I make a bet with anyone, remind me to ask you first."

"Anytime dad, just don't ask me about horseracing, because bad people do bad things to the horses."

"What do you mean Gordon?"

"How would you feel dad, if you weren't feeling very well one day, and they made you run anyway. You are out there doing your best, and someone is on your back hitting you with a whip. It's just not nice."

"You are a wonderful child Gordon, don't ever change."

*********

I don't have to tell you who won the bet, because neither of us did. If Gordon were in on it, he would have missed it by two seconds. Newton Thyme entered the world at 8:25:58 AM, screaming his lungs out.

Delicious labored for 10 ½ hours before producing her first child, and was telling everyone that would listen about her idiot husband leaving her at home, while he was going to the hospital to have the baby.

On Gray's behalf, after the birth of his son, and all the things that happen afterwards, he went to the emergency room to have his left hand x-rayed. No, Delicious did not hit him. He swore she crushed every bone in that hand, while she was going through the last 15 minutes or so of contractions.

He exaggerated. She only fractured one bone in his left hand and it was at the base of his thumb.

Delicious wondered where he had wandered off to after the delivery, but thought he must be on the phone calling everyone he knew. She laughed hysterically when he walked into the room with a cast on his left arm. We all did.

"I'm still going to hit you for leaving me at home."

"I'm going to hit you with my left arm for breaking my thumb. I have to wear the stupid cast for six weeks because of you."

"How wonderful, because the Doctor said you're out of commission for six weeks to two months anyhow."

"Two months, is he out of his mind?"

Doctor Greenly stood behind him, and said, "Would you like to get pregnant next time, have your body go through all the changes it has to go through to produce another human being, and then have to return to normal all of a sudden. It's not anything a man can ever imagine. I am amazed every time I deliver these little bundles, that any woman would want to go through it a second time. I am in awe of women who come back to me time and time again to have more children. They are the strongest people on this earth."

Gray stuck out his left arm. "You will not get an argument out of me Doctor. When can I take them home?"

"Depending on tomorrow morning's tests, you can take them home late tomorrow afternoon, or the following morning."

"Thank you Doctor, she will see you in 11 months."

Gray was hit in the back of his head by a bedpan, and he fell to the floor.

"God dammit Delicious, I was only joking."

"It wasn't me."

Gray turned around, looked at his wife, and said, "What do you mean it wasn't you?"

"Look around my bed, dummy. Do I have access to a bedpan?"

Gray looked around the room. Gordon and I were seated along one wall; Delicious was propped up comfortably in her bed, and Jennifer was standing by her side.

"Mom, it was you?"

Jennifer looked at Delicious. "How can you call that man an idiot? He picked me out of the lineup on his first try."

"It was beginners luck mom."

"Gray, how would you like to go to the stars; breathing, or in an urn?"

"Is this a trick question?"

"Only if you want it to be. This person has a lot of work to do on the Nuclear Engine. Pregnancy can get in her way. Family planning is a better way for you to go, and if you say 11 months from now, you are going to need a cast on a different part of your body."

"Baby, a short time ago she was on my side. What did you do to her to win her over to your side?"

"I made her a grandmother at the age of 28."

Jennifer smacked her. "Don't you dare tell anyone that I am Newt's grandmother."

"What am I supposed to tell them? I can't tell them you're the mother, because that's me."

"She's got you there dear."

"Shut up Even, I'll think of something."

Come with me Gordon; let's send emails out to everyone to let them know that Delicious and Grayson Thyme have a new son named Newton..."

"I forgot to ask, did you two give your little one a middle name?"

Delicious smiled. "We thought about it a lot, but couldn't come up with one we liked. So we gave him a middle name we could live with. Our son's full name is Newton Luck Thyme. It's in honor of the two people who gave me life."

Suddenly, I couldn't breathe. My children had honored my sister and me in a way I could never have imagined. In my mind I saw Delicious happily playing with her mother at her first Christmas at home. It was a site I hated all my life because I thought my sister had abandoned me for Julius. How could I ever have doubted her. I was in a haze memories of my sister playing with my daughter, until I felt something hitting me. I couldn't imagine what it was. I focused my eyes and saw Jennifer staring at me.

"Welcome back Even, did you have a nice trip? Would you like some water?"

I wasn't sure how I got there, but I was sitting in a chair. "Yes please, what happened to me?"

Delicious said, "I guess the middle name of our son came as a shock to your system, and you took a trip down memory lane. You were talking to mom again, and to me this time as if I were a baby."

"You were. It was your first Christmas at home. You weren't even walking, but you were the center of everyone's attention as you crawled around the living room. I always hated that scene. I love it now. I love it because I understand it."

Jennifer gave me the water as tears fell from my eyes.

Gordon said, "Dad, your sister is trying to release you from all the pain of your past, so you can concentrate on meeting her in the future. Let it go, be happy for her, and for yourself."

"Gordon are you sure you're not older than I am?"

"No dad, not in this lifetime."

This was not his normal answer, and as I looked at him, he smiled. I ruffled his hair and smiled back at him.

Delicious said, "How come he can do that to your hair and I can't?"

"Dad gives me an allowance, you don't."

"Money, it always comes down to money."

*************

60. Jump Forward Three Years

Celeste Castronova and William Zabo were miracle workers. They could also lie through their teeth and stab you in the back at the same time. The Army gave them a choice of four sites on which we could build our Science Project. Three of them were in the middle of nowhere, with no access to any form of transportation, except dirt roads. The fourth one was west of Camp Killian, Texas. It was west of Waco, and southwest of Austin Texas. However, the jewel of this area was Tempe. The Union Pacific Railroad served this small city, all the way from the deep water port of Galveston, and continued west across the country.

Our two negotiators fought tooth and nail for the first three sites, and against the Tempe site because it was too small for our use. That made the Army negotiators want to force it on us more. The battle raged for days.

In a fit of temper Celeste said, "I am going to have the entire Chiefs of Staff fired by the President. I put him in that office, it's time for payback."

As she started to storm out the door, William calmed her down. "Celeste if we do that, the Senate will have to approve all the new appointees, and that will take too much time. Let's take what they've offered, and we will have to make do with it."

The Army brass puffed out their chest at their victory. The papers were drawn up, a 10-year contract on the land was signed, sealed, and delivered.

At the luncheon thereafter, Celeste and William congratulated the Army negotiators for their stupidity. These men were totally pissed off and wanted to know why.

"You offered us 1 million acres of land in the middle of the desert, with no access to roads, airports, trains, water, or housing. You couldn't understand why we wanted those pieces of land so desperately, but you fought against us every step of the way. You offered us 40,000 acres of land, guarded on the east by a huge military base. You gave us access to all the amenities we would not have at the other sites. When will you people ever smarten up. I'm amazed that we haven't given up our entire nuclear deterrent, and left as Russians completely armed."

He took Celeste by the arm, led her to their limousine, and drove away. The Army negotiators would have to explain their mistakes to the generals in command. They would be lucky if they held onto their ranks.

**********

At centers of scientific excellence all over the nation, I had scientists working for me on specific areas of our spacecraft. Since the day I unveiled it to the public, everyone told me I was insane. Since the day I left MIT, with my first patented product under my belt, I had already been dubbed insane, so I knew I was right. Why would anyone build a spacecraft like a beach ball? It made no sense. There was too much surface area, it would build up too much heat as it attempted to leave the Earth's atmosphere. Only a select few people knew of the tests that Dycke Schneider performed on our new outer shell, which included our carbon fiber, and graphene. Heat was not a problem.

We were ready to move out of my home, because my four wonderful Sequoias were now to slow to handle the workload. They would come with us to help the technicians solve any problems they ran into as we were building the craft. Now we had access to IBM's Big Blue 4. They begged us for years to become part of our project and we turned them down. I bought the Sequoia's with my money, even though they offer them to me for free.

When we were able to purchase an eight story building in Tempe, and they found out we were moving our operation there, they offered us the Big Blue, including the technicians, maintenance, and the air-conditioning system it needed. All they wanted in return, was an IBM logo on the exterior of the spacecraft. I couldn't turn that down. It was a deal worth over $135 million for a plastic logo weighing less than an ounce. Even William was proud of me, and my negotiation skills.

Stephano had another name for me, because now the spending went into overdrive. My donors started putting in $200 million every few months because of the cost of the technical equipment needed to bring everything together. The cheapest product we had were the people we hired.

Scientists are not well paid. Most of them make less than $300,000 a year, even when they are well published. When you offer them $400,000 or $500,000 to come to work for you for the next four or five years they will jump at the chance. If the project is successful, the next employer will pay them the same amount of money or more to try to get them on staff. If they can pay a football coach $3 million a year, they can afford to pay a scientist $500,000 a year.

I called the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. I told the union president I wanted 100 single, journey level, men or women who could move to the Tempe area for four years to build my spacecraft's electrical systems. One year would be schoolwork, because they had never worked on anything as technically oriented in their lives. One missed, or improperly coupled connection could be disastrous in deep space. This was a guaranteed contract, at union scale. They would stay here for the entire four years, even if they finished every required connection in one day. I needed an answer within 90 days."

The equipment started flowing in, train loads of it. Static free carpeting, daylight lighting, Lucite beakers, plastic holders of every form and size, electron microscopes, lasers, testing equipment of every kind imaginable. Each carton, or box it came in had a specific scientists name on it. Whatever they had requested, it was there, at their respective positions, when they arrived. Each station was ready to begin operations the day the scientist arrived.

I held a general meeting on the first day I had a full staff, and I laid down the law in no uncertain terms.

"I hired you at the highest salaries you have ever made. Take your egos and toss them out the window. If there is any argument to be had bring it to me. If I can't solve it, you are both fired. I have a boss also, and I have investors that I have to answer to. You are here to work your asses off, and I expect you to do just that. This spacecraft will take off in less than 3 ½ years. We are about to begin building the outer shell. It will take less than one year to complete. The second compartment will take less than six months, the final shell will take less than four months. That gives you less than two years to get the bulk of your work done. You have already been working on this project for two years, and most of your work has been shoddy to say the least. You are supposed to be the best in the business, it's now time to prove it. You will work 10 hours a day six days a week. My 10-year-old son is better than most of you. Get to work."

There wasn't a sound when they left the room, and when they returned to their workstations, they were just as quiet. As the weeks went on the quality and quantity of their work skyrocketed.

*********

We still had to worry about what was going to happen when we moved the spacecraft from the hangar to the Launchpad. Although it was being built to withstand the rigors of outer space, it could not withstand a rocket attack. Rod came up with a brilliant idea. He flew up to Akron Ohio to see if they would do it for us in complete secrecy.

They agreed to do it for free, on one condition. They wanted their logo on our spacecraft. 'Gee whiz, what a surprise!'

The hangar was four times as large as the spacecraft. With its legs extended for landing it was 230 feet tall. With the gantries necessary to lift the pieces of graphite into place, and for safety reasons required by OSHA, we had a latticework of framing around the entire 200 feet wide, 5 floor interior spacecraft. This did not include the two engine compartments. You had to duck when you walked through the doorway, and the ceilings were only seven ½ foot high. Every time a six foot tall person stretched, they would hit it.

The spacecraft may seem big to most people, but there was not an inch of wasted space inside. As the clock ticked down to lift off, everything would be checked, checked again, and rechecked to see if we could fit anything else inside. Once we took off, we were not coming back for supplies.

The electricians arrived and met the most beautiful teacher they had ever had. There were catcalls and inappropriate remarks as she walked in the door.

Delicious put an end to that instantly.

"Which four of you are the best electrical workers in this room? Don't be shy, argue among yourselves. Then all four of you come up here. I will show you a schematic of a minor of part of the spacecraft, and tell me what's wrong with it."

Four senior electricians were chosen to look over the schematic. It was less than 3 feet long and 2 feet wide. Delicious told them they had 10 minutes to find the flaw.

When their time was up Delicious asked, "Did you find it?"

"No ma'am, the diagram is perfect."

"You fucking idiots just killed 80 people, and a $350 billion spacecraft. The flaw couldn't be any bigger if it hit you in the nuts. It's right here." She pointed to a space between two electrical connections that were less than a quarter inch apart, but wide enough to make the connection short out.

"You are the best in this room? Your peers picked you to look over this schematic and you missed such an obvious flaw? Should we call your union and get 100 others, or should we pick nonunion workers to come here and work on this project. You are a disgrace to your trade. Sit down."

"You can fix someone's circuit breaker in a house, you can go down a manhole, and repair a major electrical line, you can climb a high wire, and repair a major 500 kW line, and do it over and over again if you make a mistake. If you make one mistake in space, like Apollo 13, people tend to die. That accident happened because an electrician failed to check his work. There was one piece of unshielded wire that grounded out and caused an explosion. A $1 trillion project nearly caused the three men their lives, and a landing on the moon. An electrician caused that, one of your men caused that to happen. A member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers caused that to happen. How did you feel about that when you heard about it; or didn't your union reps tell you it was your fault. I am not going to die on that spaceship because you failed to do your work properly. It's not only me that's going. My husband and my child are going with me. As God is my witness, if you kill me I will haunt every one of your lives for eternity.

I have one year of your lives in front of me, and when I'm finished with you, you will be the best electricians on this planet. Divide your selves into groups of four. For the remainder of this year you will stay together and solve every problem I put before you. There will be a final exam. There is only one passing grade, everyone else will be fired. The passing grade is 100%."

************

Dick Schneider was at the site with his engineers, and tradesmen assembling the trusses for the spacecraft. Each piece was numbered. Each fastener was numbered for that particular truss. It was adhesive coated, and heat treated to 170°. It went together like a giant erector set, and within six weeks we had the beach ball shape completed. I shook his hand, and said, "Dycke, you and your people do amazing work."

"Even if you think this was good, wait until we put the three skins on. That's why we number everything. It's not possible to make a mistake. You have six people working on each piece. There are four corners, and two sides to each piece. Every number has to match, if they don't, everything stops until they get it right."

"It's a great piece of engineering and planning. I can't thank you enough for this work."

"If I waste Payne's money, she will take out the paddles and hit me with both of them. She swings a mean paddle."

"You two are still newlyweds, and I congratulate you for that."

"Thank you; if you treat Jennifer the same way, in 30 years you will still have a smile on your face."

"In 30 years, I'll be in stasis."

"Send me an email, and let me know what it feels like."

"I will, but it will take a heck of a long time to get here."

"Zoie will read it to me."

"I could stay here all day and watch them build this, but I have work to do. Thanks again Dycke."