Gunnar interrupted, “Then it’d have to have a laser and microwave cable going to it. If the cable was long it’d get tangled. If it was short, you wouldn’t be able to set the lid out of your way. Remember, if a patient’s crashing, they’ll be in a hurry.”
Kaem tilted his head curiously, “The area that’s boxed in at the foot. Is that all just for the mechanism that holds the lid up?”
“That and the stazer electronics,” Gunnar said. “I sized it to fit the electronics for the small stazer.”
“What about people who’re too tall for the box?”
“It’s long enough for people up to six feet, four inches tall. That’s the 99th percentile. If they’re taller than that they’d have to have their knees bent up,” Gunnar said. He shrugged, “Another reason to have the extra deep box.”
Kaem said, “I think it looks like a pretty good prototype. I think we should show it to Dr. Jonas, then to some of the folks at the hospital he offered to introduce us to. There’ll be some redesign once we get their feedback, and more once it’s been used a time or two. Then we can decide whether we want to try to set it up to staze thin people differently.” He looked around the table, gathering some nods.
Kaem looked back at Gunnar, “If we got a basketball player, seven feet, five inches tall, that needed to go in stasis, would he go in with his knees bent up? Better yet, what’s the tallest person we could put in with their knees bent?”
Gunnar gave Kaem a wide-eyed look. “Hell, I don’t know!”
“We should figure it out. If you can’t, I’ve got some ideas on how we could calculate it.”
Gunnar shook his head, “I’ll guarantee there are people way too obese to go in it too. Maybe we should have an extra-large version. One that’s seven feet long, three feet wide, and three feet deep.”
“Ah, good point,” Kaem said. He shrugged, “Besides, if in a pandemic or something they wind up with so many Stades they’re having trouble finding places to stack them, they could just start putting them outside. Nothing’s going to hurt a Stade after all.” He looked at the lid. “Is this groove on the top supposed to fit a ridge on the bottom of the Stade above it?”
Gunnar nodded. “Otherwise the upper ones would slide right off the stack.”
“Seems like, especially if we’re thinking they might get stacked outside, the groove should be on the bottom. If it’s on the top, dust and dirt’ll settle into it and look bad.”
“If there’s a ridge on the top, to fit the groove on the bottom of the next one, the ridge could hold crud all over the entire top.”
“Put feet on the corners of the bottom Stade, sized so they’ll lock into little notches, not holes, in the corners of the tops.”
Gunnar gave a nod, “That’ll work. I’ll start—”
Kaem held up a hand, “Don’t make any changes to this one until we’ve shown it to the people at the hospital.” He stepped around to the foot of the stazer, “How do you open this box?” he asked musingly. “Are you sure it’s gonna fit the electronics for a stazer?”
***
Emmanuel and Gunnar were with Norm at the GLI facility in Texas. They’d been there several days now, setting up GLI’s vacuum chamber. It was close to being done when Gunnar approached Emmanuel. “Lee just called. Space Gen’s getting ready to staze their first rocket and she’d like me to come and help her.”
“You want me to finish up here?” Emmanuel asked, wondering if he was ready to boss the crew through such a responsibility. He thought he knew what still had to be done… but worried he’d forget something.
Gunnar looked surprised. He said, “No. No, Norm should be able to close up here. If he has issues, he can call me. I’ve already sent him a list of the stuff that still needs to be done. Rolling up our Mylar and getting it on the truck back to Virginia’s the only big one.”
Disappointed, Emmanuel put on a brave front, “Okay. You want me to come with you?”
“Nope.” Gunnar gave him a little grin. “Vinargy’s ready for us to staze their first nuclear waste cask down at the Surbury nuclear plant. I was hoping you could manage that.”
“Really?” Emmanuel asked, surprised. “So, I’ll… what? I’ll have to hire a crew. Take the Mylar we ordered down there from Staze East. Have them lift the cask with their transport crane. Staze the disk that goes under it in situ. Screw in a foundation. Have them lower the cask back onto the Stade. Then have the team drop the shroud over it and staze the whole thing.” He blinked, “Did I leave anything out?”
“Nope. That’s the job. You up for it?”
“Sure. Wait. Where am I going to get a laptop and those passcodes you have to put in it to be able to staze anything?”
Gunnar smiled, “From your son.”
“How do I hire a crew?”
“I’ll send you the name of the crew boss that helped me build our first vacuum chamber down at Staze East. He hires crew.”
“How do I get him paid?” Emmanuel asked, thinking that these little details could trip everything up.
“Arya handles that. She’s already got the guy’s info, so all you’ll have to do is keep track of the hours you have the crew work.”
Emmanuel narrowed his eyes. “Does she know about this? I don’t want her laying into me about spending money we don’t have.”
Gunnar laughed. “I don’t blame you on that one. She’s pretty fierce. But Vinargy advanced us fifty percent, just like GLI did, so she’s got the money and she
