AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He grinned at her disdainful side-eye glance, saluted her, and strolled out of the room. She watched him leave, relishing the sight of his low hips and the enticing vista of his firm behind.
Damn, you, Kage Sable. Damn, your fine ass too!
5
Smoked roe and forest mushrooms
Harlow
She settled in quickly to her new workspace. Using a set of secure codes that Kage had sent her, she accessed Skylab’s private net and patched her comm tab into her new holo screen and desk. Logging in, she opened several server folders and acquainted herself with Skylab’s systems, schedules and ops. Next, she navigated TSG’s internal directory with the help of the bot droid she’d chosen to call Mika after her first pet.
Once done with her set-up, she explored her office, which consisted of the desk space, a small kitchen, a head and san shower room and four glass, walled-off lab cubicles designed exclusively for experiments.
Inside the first, she spotted the latest rocket engine test benches to help measure thrust, dynamic and static pressure, and vibration. Alongside neatly displayed high-temperature acceleration and pressure sensors, cryo accelerometers and pressure transmitters.
She gurgled with delight at seeing a sophisticated 3D printer in another. This would come handy when developing small, multi-composite parts including single-stage testing rockets. It also meant she could immediately start on component orders to manufacture what she needed on demand.
The other two cubicles were mini launch testing rooms with velocity, wind and pressure gauges for a two-stage, hybrid, suborbital launch vehicle.
The Sable Group’s tech, far more advanced than her own lab’s, would allow her to safely test her concept of a bi-propellant combination of xentium and elentium. Xentium was native to Pegasi and especially to Dunia. Being denser than most radioactive elements, it took less mass of it fractionally to produce the same amount of energy as a larger piece of uranium. Her hybrid formula was a first—the resulting fuel burnt with 100% efficiency, leaving no toxic waste byproducts. Yet any mishandling would be catastrophic if mixed wrongly or misapplied.
She’d worked out the best mix and percentage of the two elements, but now she needed time to test it on real ships, starting with small test vehicles that only the Sable Heavy Industries could design and manufacture for her. Thus her research project with The Sable Group. Airships, corvettes and even dreadnoughts underwent extensive pressure, and components and engines were subjected to extensive testing and inspection to avoid accidents during operation. She needed to work with a team to closely monitor how the new fuel would affect a ship’s thrust, pressure and vibration characterisation.
She couldn’t wait to get started and soon got stuck into her research plan, the outline for how the project would unfold, diving deep into every aspect she wanted to test, from fuel range-ability and adaptability to its intrinsic safety and long-term stability. Burying herself in her work, she lost count of the hours as they slipped by.
Until Mika beeped. ‘It’s lunchtime, Harlow Meridien.’
No matter how often she’d asked the droid to stop using her full name, it had persisted, and she’d soon given up correcting it.
At the reminder, she felt a stab of hunger and rose to her feet. She meandered out of the lab, shutting the door securely behind her. The walk to the central complex didn’t take long and she soon wandered into the bustling cafe.
It had two sections. A buffet area and a sit-down, more formal space. She chose the buffet, wanting to eat fast and return to work.
There was no sign of Kage, and feeling her hunger pangs acutely, she forewent the idea of standing around waiting for him. Instead, she nabbed a tray and hit the line, eagerly peering around the staff ahead of her to see what was on the menu.
‘Harlow?’ The delighted call came from somewhere behind her.
She turned to see a blonde, handsome man approaching rapidly, waving excitedly.
‘Ruben,’ she said warily, recognising her fellow traveller from the day before.
He caught up to her. ‘Fancy seeing you here! What areyoudoing at Sable Heavy Industries?’
She gave him a wry smile. ‘Working. On a small project.’
His eyes narrowed into a slit. ‘You didn’t mention it on the shuttle.’
‘Didn’t think it was important enough to bring up,’ she said, shuffling forward in the buffet line.
‘Well, seeing you here is awesome. Twas meant to be,’ he said slickly, but she noticed his warm expression didn’t quite reach his eyes. ‘It’ll be good to catch up. Find out what you’re doing. Maybe exchange notes.’
She shot him a keen look. ‘Can’t talk about my work, unfortunately. Bosses’ orders.’
‘And who’s your boss?’ he asked a tad too quickly.
‘No one you need to know,’ she said quietly.
Just as she spoke, she looked up to meet the heated yet inscrutable gaze of the hulking man at the doorway to the cafe. He stood to the side of the wide entrance, hands folded over his massive chest, feet akimbo. He was speaking to a colleague, but she could see that his eyes, even from this far, were dead set on her and her companion.
