Rashi loved being confused. It wasn't that she didn't want to know things. She also absolutely loved information and understanding how things worked. But the confusion was like a delicious appetizer - a precursor to understanding.
"You spend way too much time thinking about thinking, " her brother always said. And he had a point. She loved poking at the things going on in her head when she learned things, tried to reason, tried to remember. How a smell would shortcut everything else and reveal a memory she had forgotten. How her brain would use cheap heuristics to shortcut proper reasoning - sometimes getting to the answer way ahead of her conscious calculations, sometimes missing the mark by a mile. How her intuition took in vast amounts of information in the blink of an eye, processed it, and gave her a conclusion without explaining its logic.
Confusion was delicious. Like the sensation of taking a big bite of great cake, different tastes firing off in all directions simultaneously. Right now, however, her brain was desperately trying to find handholds in the conversation happening around the table, without success. Eventually, she decided to give her brain some help.
"Hold on, guys." Rashi raised her hand to interrupt. "What do you mean, the Fermi paradox?"
She loved the look Nick got on his face when he realised he could explain something new to her, and she gave him every opportunity she could to do just that.
"Well, you see, " he began. "Fermi was an scientist who lived early in the 20th century in a place called Italy. From when he was only 16 or 17 years old, Fermi would continue to impress the scientific world. For example, he was the first scientist to discover the massive energy potential hidden in the innocuous and now famous E=MC2 equation, which would lead to atomic bombs and nuclear power."
Nick paused to check he still had her attention and took a swig of water. "Not only did he win a Nobel prize himself, but he had a large influence on another eight scientists who went on to win the big prize."
Again, Rashi held up her hand. "Do I really need to know about some ancient Earth dude to learn what this paradox thing is?"
It was one thing to give Nick a chance to show off his brilliance. It was something else to let him completely loose to follow every digression he found on the way there. They just had a few minutes left on their break.
"I guess not, " he replied, pretending to be insulted at her interruption, but Rashi could see the smile behind his eyes.
"Basically, it's about the lack of evidence of aliens".
"But Nick!" Rashi said in a low voice. "We have evidence of..."
"Never mind that," he answered in a quiet voice. More loudly, he continued. "Don't you think it's strange that we've been watching the Universe for signs of intelligent life for hundreds of years, and still haven't found any?
There is a vast number of stars in the Universe. Even if only very few of them had developed life, and even if only a small fraction of that life evolved intelligence... we should have seen them by now."
Rashi nodded at this. Nick was putting into words something she had been vaguely wondering about herself.
"Fermi was doing research into cosmic radiation at the time when he was chatting with some colleagues. Suddenly he blurted out 'Where is everybody?' and explained how strange he thought it was that they hadn't seen signs of any aliens, considering the age of the Universe and the likelihood of life among the stars."
Lunch break was over, and people were picking up their trays and moving toward the exits as Nick finished. "So, the Fermi paradox is really about the conflict between the scale of the Universe and the probability that it contains other intelligent life on one hand, and the complete absence of that life on the other. There are many of attempts to explain the paradox, but nobody really knows!"
Rashi gave Nick a quick hug before heading for the exit door and sent a smile to Sae. Sae, strangely, simply looked back at her with an empty expression that brought Rashi up short.
-
Heading back to the engineering lab, Rashi thought about the look from Sae. She had always been somewhat quiet and kept to herself, but lately, Sae had withdrawn, even from Nick and Rashi. When asked about it, Sae had simply blamed stress and the pressure they were under, but Rashi sensed there was something more underneath. Rashi could normally read people like a book, even without an alien inside her mind.
When thinking about it, she wasn't really sure when it had begun. Something had happened to Sae's mood slowly over the past four weeks since they arrived at Deimos, sure, but even before they arrived, she would go quiet for longer periods of time than normal. On the journey out here, Rashi clearly remembered Sae staring out into space for long periods of time. If asked, she would just wave the question away and change the topic.
"Careful there!" someone exclaimed suddenly, bringing Rashi abruptly back to reality. She looked around, somewhat surprised to find she was already in the engineering lab. Rashi noticed she had nearly bumped into Edgar and quickly apologised. She could see Chief Greta over by her desk, watching them without comment, and blushed in embarrassment. How did the Chief do that? Just by looking at her, she made Rashi feel inadequate.
Since joining the engineering department after really acing her job interview four weeks ago, Rashi had quickly learned to not mess with the Chief and to do exactly what she was asked. The way Chief Greta kept looking at her now reminded her of how she had looked at her the first time she had bounced through the door to engineering, bright and cheery on her first day.
Rashi could clearly remember the voice calling out, "Miss!". Not so much steel, as vacuum-cooled ice, behind the words. A long moment later, as Rashi had identified the source of the voice, it had continued. "In Engineering, we walk. We don't run. We don't skip. And we definitely don't jump". After pausing again for too long, the woman kept going in the same flat voice. "Look around, miss. What do you see?"
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Rashi gulped and looked at the short and wiry woman who had spoken to her. Wearing a scowl and a grey jumpsuit with a heavy tool belt on her hip, the woman looked like a grandmother in wolf's clothing. The scowl reminded her to look around the room. Larger than her first impression, the room was split into several smaller sections. Each section had at least one machine or tool bench, and various contraptions were in stages of assembly or disassembly. People in jumpsuits were bent over their work, concentrating hard. Rashi heard focused conversations and the buzzing of tools. A couple of people had stopped what they were doing to watch the encounter, and at least one sent her a pitying smile of support.
"Er...," Rashi began, but the ice voice interrupted her.
"Precision, miss. Precision in work, precision in thought, and precision in language. 'Er' is not a word we use here."
Rashi opened her mouth to respond but realising she was about to repeat herself, shut it again. The next suggestion her brain made was Ummm, and she was pretty sure that was no better. Closing her eyes briefly and drawing a big breath, she looked straight at the scary woman and answered.
"I see a busy room where people are hard at work, concentrating. I see a room full of delicate and dangerous equipment." And hastily added. "Ma'am".
The woman looked at Rashi for a long time, and eventually gave a sharp nod. "That is right, miss. Make sure you remember that. Now, welcome, I understand you are my new team addition. I am Chief Greta Matthews."
Rashi looked at the outstretched hand, almost scared to grab it. Overcoming her hesitation, she gave the Chief a firm handshake. "Nice to meet you, Chief Matthews. I am... Rachel Patel".
"Chief Greta. Chief Matthews is my father," the Chief responded. "I've looked over your qualifications. You have noted down an interest in working on the plasma drive, but you have no experience and we have our best people on that project. However! Your people skill score is off the chart compared to everyone else here."
Giving Rashi a smile which seemed almost predatory, the Chief continued. "Congratulations Miss Patel. You are the Engineering section's new Head of Communications."
"Umm..." Rashi began but caught herself before the Chief could interrupt. "I am what? I have no experience in communications, and... and no leadership experience!".
"No better place to learn than in the thick of it. And it's not like you can break anything too badly. Your job will be to summarise the status of our projects and report to Project Management. You will need to liaise with my team leads to learn how they are progressing, and describe the status succinctly, accurately and with the best positive spin you can give it."
Rashi's head was spinning. Having been in the room for no more than five minutes, she was already thrown into the deep end. She was beginning to wonder what type of boss the Chief really was when Rashi realized she was still talking.
"... And you can start right now. We have a team lead meeting in about ten minutes. After the meeting, talk to the leads and get their summaries. Please share your draft report before the end of your shift."
As she was listening and trying to wrap her head around her new job, she noticed a man still watching them. Everyone else had returned to their various tasks once they realised the Chief wasn't about to explode on the poor newcomer, but this man... was watching her intently. Early thirties, neat hair and a very clean jumpsuit. Something about the man was... off.
He must have noticed Rashi watching him, because he suddenly found something very important to do, and turned around.
Interrupting her thoughts, the Chief asked Rashi, "Got that, miss?"
"Yes, ma'am." And after a quick rewind of the last few things the Chief had said, said; "Orange arrows on the floor to the emergency exits, red arrows to the nearest fire extinguisher, and blue arrows to the nearest first aid kit."
The Chief gave a quick nod. "Good. Now, let's gather in my office for the team lead meeting. We have wasted enough time for one morning already".
-
"....General life support reports ready for live testing, hydroponics have fixed their problems with excess humidity in the air filtration systems and the EVA team completed their field testing on Phobos earlier today. The only project reporting critical problems is the plasma drive team. They had a theory that the engine resonance harmonics might result from supercharged particles in the propellant mix, but have also discarded that theory after some extensive testing."
Chief Greta was bouncing a pen on her knee as she listened carefully.
After Rashi had finished her report, Chief Greta began; "Miss Patel...." the Chief looked in thought. "Imagine I am Mr Edwards, the project chief finance officer. I know numbers. And I want to send a ship to space. But I don't know the science, I don't know the technical details and I have absolutely no idea about jargon or abbreviations. Please go over what you just reported with that in mind and tell me what you see."
Rachel froze for a moment. She was so sure her summary was perfect, and she had been proud of it, looking forward to sharing it with the Chief. She wanted to protest, but she also knew better. Carefully, she read over the last few lines again and almost wanted to slap herself. Doh. How stupid am I?
"I see, ma'am. Too detailed. Too technical. The status on life support is probably ok as it is. But after that... The hydroponic teams have fixed all remaining problems. The team working on exploration outside The Pegasus has completed tests and report ready to go. Regretfully, the plasma drive team is still working to determine what keeps going wrong."
"Better, miss Patel, " the Chief began but noticed that Rashi wasn't finished and indicated for her to continue.
"But Chief... What do I say if someone on the team wants details? Even if Mr Edwards only cares about the big picture... surely some of the managers will want details?"
"Generally, no." The Chief said. "Some of them might want to learn about details, but they have a thousand agenda items to get through today and they simply don't have the time. Remember: Succinct. Accurate. And as upbeat as possible.
If someone asks for more information, simply say that you are happy to share any technical details to any depth they wish outside the management meeting. All they need to do is ask. They will nod and say yes, and never take you up on the offer."
The Chief nodded a dismissal to Rashi, who left the small office and went over to her assigned desk. In one corner of the large engineering lab, she had her own little space. Sitting down in her chair and bringing up the latest project summary report to make the adjustments, she reflected that this was not what she had pictured when she was assigned to the engineering department.
After completing their tests and interviews, they had all spent a nervous afternoon in one of the Deimos Shipyards visitor restaurants, speculating and discussing. Would the project hire them? Where would they end up working?
In the end, it had been no surprise when Sae had ended up with the Computing department, and even less a surprise that Nick ended up in Astrogation. Rashi had tried to keep an open mind but was still somewhat surprised when the message popped up in her mindpal.
Rachel Patel; Department of Engineering. Report to Chief Greta Matthews.
Goose had become very enthusiastic and had begun sharing designs for plasma drives, sure that Rashi could simply walk in on her first day and tell them how to fix the problems they had struggled with for a decade. She knew very well that is not how it would play out: Nobody would take the new girl seriously enough to listen to her explain how they should change the plasma drive. But even so, she had expected to at least be getting her hands dirty, working on some part or other of The Pegasus. Not making presentations.....
She sent a quick message to Nick.
Guess what, nerdboy.
You miss me and can't wait to see me? Came the quick response.
Rashi sighed and smiled.
Later I will introduce you to the new Head of Communications for Engineering, Miss Patel!
Whaaaaaaaat???? Was Nick's only reply.
-
Shaking her head to clear it of her memories of the last weeks and her worries about Sae, Rashi mumbled an apology to Edgar. Four weeks ago he had crept her out staring at her from across the room, and that had not changed in the intervening time. After that first day, she had tried to keep her distance from him, but he kept popping up when she least expected or wanted it. "What's gotten your brain so tied up you walk into people?" he asked her now.
"Oh, nothing. I was just thinking," she responded.
Giving her a long look, Edgar simply nodded and walked away. Rashi was heading over to her desk when Birk called out to her. "Rachel, do you have a second?"
Birk was the team lead for the plasma drive, and Rashi thought he looked older now than when she joined the team only four weeks ago. "Sure, Birk. What's up?"
"You remember last night when we were discussing the plasma flow through the primary magnet? You mentioned that a double sequenced magnet with reversed polarities might straighten out some of the propellant oscillations. That got me thinking... Do you think you can explain the concept again?"
Rashi smiled. Finally! She had spent the last two weeks trying to get the plasma drive team to take her ideas seriously. Well, Goose's ideas really. Here we go....!
"Sure, Birk. Let's walk over to that whiteboard."