very welcome diversion for Rhyssa.
The Eastern director had not been able to make that first contact for several reasons, the foremost one being the Padrugoi priority. The other reason was that Dorotea was still the most accurate Talent diviner in the entire world, with the deftest touch to allay fear and suspicion.
Rhyssa, Peter Reidinger reeks of Talent. I can’t imagine why the resident didn’t tumble to it a long time ago, despite the fact that Peter’s been suppressing his natural feelings to be considered a brave boy. Being in a hospital situation, he’d have to blank out all peripheral static or get wound up in everyone else’s pain. Though he’s not your garden-variety kinetic or telepath. In fact, I’ve never touched anyone quite like him. One thing’s sure, he no more needed a body brace than you need a videophone.
Can you expedite his release to us?
Rhyssa asked.
In my best granny mode! I don’t anticipate any trouble with the family—they’ve been struggling under the medical costs. I gather the father has trouble visiting his “crippled” son. They should regain some perspective now that Peter’ll be able to pay his own way.
How medical is he?
Dorotea gave a mental snort.
With a little help from his friends, he won’t be medical past the gate of the Center. Whoops! We’ve just been charged by an irate electrician and a stupefied consultant, and—my God!
Dorotea broke off contact, startling Rhyssa—Dorotea usually had no trouble double-talking. Rhyssa waited for the old woman to come back and explain her abrupt disappearance. After three minutes with no further word from her, Rhyssa reluctantly resumed her immediate task.
Worried about Dorotea and the boy, it was difficult for her to keep her mind on the reassignment of kinetic Talents, but the matter had to be cleared up as soon as possible. The Eastern Center would be left with just ten to do the work of thirty, along with five trainees who could be slotted into some of the less exacting hoist work. Airshuttle clients, passengers or commercial, were just going to have to wait longer to collect their luggage; all construction firms would lose kinetics, save those on two nearly completed projects where kinesis was the only way to safely install heavy equipment on the uppermost stories.
She and Miklos Horvath, Dorotea’s grandson on the West Coast, also had to arrange “fetch and carry” teams, telepaths and kinetics who could work in tandem and at long distance. But such skills were exhausting and would have to be reserved for emergencies.
Dave Lehardt had come up with yet another valid suggestion that might not improve relations with Barchenka and Duoml but would certainly make more effective use of the four-hour shift of each kinetic.
“I looked at some of the motion studies,” he had told her, “and some videos of an actual working day. Samjan mentioned that he spent a good portion of every shift on Padrugoi doing nothing—waiting until materiel was organized from the storage yard or bins, or while the engineers sorted out minor discrepancies. So I got Samjan and Bela Rondomanski, who was Space Lab designer, together with Lance Baden, who’s a trained engineer. Bela said a lot of the delays on Space Lab were caused by a chronic disorganization in Supply. Lance said that the problems hadn’t been completely solved when he did two tours at Padrugoi, but one of Barchenka’s strengths is her organizational skills. Take them one more step forward, and, in a four-hour shift, a kinetic can get everything in a spoke section lined up so that all the grunts need to do during the next twenty hours of shift time is give a tiny shove and the elements will fall into place.
“Of course, it’ll mean a good deal of reorganization in the stores and matériel already up at Padrugoi, and maybe some shipment rearranging, lighting a fire under the tardy suppliers, but the time spent doing
that
will cut down on the man-hours
The Eastern director had not been able to make that first contact for several reasons, the foremost one being the Padrugoi priority. The other reason was that Dorotea was still the most accurate Talent diviner in the entire world, with the deftest touch to allay fear and suspicion.
Rhyssa, Peter Reidinger reeks of Talent. I can’t imagine why the resident didn’t tumble to it a long time ago, despite the fact that Peter’s been suppressing his natural feelings to be considered a brave boy. Being in a hospital situation, he’d have to blank out all peripheral static or get wound up in everyone else’s pain. Though he’s not your garden-variety kinetic or telepath. In fact, I’ve never touched anyone quite like him. One thing’s sure, he no more needed a body brace than you need a videophone.
Can you expedite his release to us?
Rhyssa asked.
In my best granny mode! I don’t anticipate any trouble with the family—they’ve been struggling under the medical costs. I gather the father has trouble visiting his “crippled” son. They should regain some perspective now that Peter’ll be able to pay his own way.
How medical is he?
Dorotea gave a mental snort.
With a little help from his friends, he won’t be medical past the gate of the Center. Whoops! We’ve just been charged by an irate electrician and a stupefied consultant, and—my God!
Dorotea broke off contact, startling Rhyssa—Dorotea usually had no trouble double-talking. Rhyssa waited for the old woman to come back and explain her abrupt disappearance. After three minutes with no further word from her, Rhyssa reluctantly resumed her immediate task.
Worried about Dorotea and the boy, it was difficult for her to keep her mind on the reassignment of kinetic Talents, but the matter had to be cleared up as soon as possible. The Eastern Center would be left with just ten to do the work of thirty, along with five trainees who could be slotted into some of the less exacting hoist work. Airshuttle clients, passengers or commercial, were just going to have to wait longer to collect their luggage; all construction firms would lose kinetics, save those on two nearly completed projects where kinesis was the only way to safely install heavy equipment on the uppermost stories.
She and Miklos Horvath, Dorotea’s grandson on the West Coast, also had to arrange “fetch and carry” teams, telepaths and kinetics who could work in tandem and at long distance. But such skills were exhausting and would have to be reserved for emergencies.
Dave Lehardt had come up with yet another valid suggestion that might not improve relations with Barchenka and Duoml but would certainly make more effective use of the four-hour shift of each kinetic.
“I looked at some of the motion studies,” he had told her, “and some videos of an actual working day. Samjan mentioned that he spent a good portion of every shift on Padrugoi doing nothing—waiting until materiel was organized from the storage yard or bins, or while the engineers sorted out minor discrepancies. So I got Samjan and Bela Rondomanski, who was Space Lab designer, together with Lance Baden, who’s a trained engineer. Bela said a lot of the delays on Space Lab were caused by a chronic disorganization in Supply. Lance said that the problems hadn’t been completely solved when he did two tours at Padrugoi, but one of Barchenka’s strengths is her organizational skills. Take them one more step forward, and, in a four-hour shift, a kinetic can get everything in a spoke section lined up so that all the grunts need to do during the next twenty hours of shift time is give a tiny shove and the elements will fall into place.
“Of course, it’ll mean a good deal of reorganization in the stores and matériel already up at Padrugoi, and maybe some shipment rearranging, lighting a fire under the tardy suppliers, but the time spent doing
that
will cut down on the man-hours
Similar Books
