Jessica also sipped, and they sat, contemplating the garden for several minutes. It allowed Huenemann to collect his thoughts, forced him to set aside his urgency for a measured approach.
“You asked to see me, Dr. Huenemann. Please proceed.”
“Thank you, Chen Zumu. I would first ask if you would confirm the rumor that the Chen have purchased the hyperspace probe facility at the Arcadia City Shuttleport.”
“We have indeed, Dr. Huenemann.”
“I would ask if you would share with me your plans for the project, Chen Zumu.”
“The project is important to you, Dr. Huenemann?”
“Yes, Chen Zumu. Very important. While the prime minister and I may have disagreed on many things, on that we were agreed.”
“As am I, Dr. Huenemann. It was to acquire the project that we purchased the property.”
Huenemann’s head spun. He had always thought of the Chen as ruthlessly commercial and business oriented. Yet here was one of the heads of the family telling him she agreed with the longer term goal of interstellar travel, which would be unlikely to pay off for decades.
Jessica sipped her tea and waited for Huenemann.
“I am curious as to why, Chen Zumu. Why take the project into private hands, rather than let the government carry it through?”
“Because the hyperspace project is so important to the future of Arcadia, Dr. Huenemann, and we were unsatisfied with your leadership of it.”
Jessica said it with no pique, no emphasis, no rancor. The white-haired seventy-year-old, in her silk robe with silk dragons rampant, calmly stated it as fact, then sipped her tea.
Sitting there, sipping tea in contemplation of her garden, Huenemann did not react as he might in the hustle and bustle of a government office. But he did wonder to what extent this woman – here, from her tearoom, the very heart of the richest and most politically connected family on the planet – was directing everything that happened. Not just the cancellation of the project, but its inception as well.
In the light of that realization, the political maneuvering and backroom deal-making in the government buildings downtown seemed petty.
“In what manner have I disappointed, Chen Zumu?”
“This is not a political project, Dr. Huenemann, or, rather, it shouldn’t be. You are highly regarded for your engineering skills. Yet you set them aside for political maneuvering and jeopardized the project.
“I am not uninformed on these matters, Dr. Huenemann. The controversy that consumed the project in the last several months concerned the hyperspace field generator. You were concerned that it would burn out if it were kept on to protect the probe from the potentially harmful effects of the hyperspace environment. That is a valid engineering concern.
“Your solution to this controversy was not an engineering solution, however. It was a political one, and the probe was lost.”
“We still do not know how the probe failed, Chen Zumu.”
“Nor are we likely to ever find out, Dr. Huenemann. And that, too, is not amenable to a political determination.
“From an engineering point of view, there are three possible ways the probe may have failed. One is that the hyperspace environment destroyed the probe when the hyperspace field generator was turned off. Another is that the hyperspace field generator failed on transition, or on the attempt to transition back. Third is some other failure we have not considered.”
Huenemann was shocked by her depth of understanding of the project, then recalled from his research that her own background was in engineering and science.
“What should I have done, Chen Zumu?”
“Increased the cooling on the hyperspace field generator, and left it turned on while in hyperspace, avoiding both potential harms. But this middle way was forestalled when the issue became a political one and metastasized.”
“The hyperspace probe lacks room for enough additional refrigeration, Chen Zumu. The heat generated is sizable.”
“And the probe’s size is completely fixed, Dr. Huenemann? By what? I understand that the four-wide, two-high container arrangement is the standard payload for the shuttle, but an additional housing on the side of that assembly is not a problem. It was an artificial constraint.
“I would further ask how big a bottle of liquid nitrogen would be for high-capacity cooling. For that matter, the probe already carries liquid oxygen for its rocket engines.
“But all of these potential engineering solutions were foregone due to the availability of a political solution, Dr. Huenemann. That will not be a problem going forward. Chen ChaoLi will administer the project without such issues. She has worked for me for twenty years, and is my most trusted and capable business manager.”
Huenemann’s mind raced through the solutions Jessica had listed. Pretty much any of them might work. It would need further study.
The bigger question was, How had he let himself get so far astray as not to seek an engineering solution to what was an engineering problem?
“I would ask to be allowed to play some part in the project going forward, Chen Zumu.”
“That is important to you, Dr. Huenemann?”
“Yes, Chen Zumu. It is a project unfinished, largely because of my own shortsightedness, I fear.”
“Well, you are in luck then, Dr. Huenemann. Chen JieMin included you prominently on the list of essential personnel to complete the project that I asked him to prepare for me back in March. I imagine Chen ChaoLi will be in touch with you on Monday.”
Huenemann felt ashamed. Small. Chen JieMin was the one person most opposed to turning off the hyperspace field generator after the first transition, the lead theoretician. Rather than work with him on an engineering solution, Huenemann had bad-mouthed JieMin to his contacts in fighting a political battle. Yet Chen JieMin had asked for him.
Huenemann didn’t know what to say, so he kept it simple.
“Thank you, Chen Zumu.”
