“Good morning, Chief Scientist Chu, here.â€
Putting the rest of the mail aside for the moment, he pulled a pen and hand-made notepad from the office’s paper recycling from the desk drawer, and dated it, adding ‘Conference Call’ to the top. He knew it irritated Mrs. Moseby to have to transcribe – or more accurately, have Lunette transcribe it – his notes from ‘scraps of paper’, but another of Professor Andersons’ little quirks seemed to have followed him to the Cluster.
It hadn’t been really appropriate for the Professor, either, but somehow it fit. He could still remember being handed a half-dozen on the pads, rather than formal office stationary, and being told brusquely to supply his own pens. He found himself smirking as he took a sip of his coffee, remembering how he had become adept at hiding a half-dozen of them on his person, only to surrender them one at a time to the Professor for one reason or another. It had been the Professor’s introduction to office management, waiting for him to run out and ask him why he wasn’t keeping better track of expenditures and letting his superiors waste his supplies willy-nilly.
“Merchant Factor van der Waal speaking.â€
As the functionaries down the line began to announce themselves, he began reconsider. Coffee and THREE donuts wouldn’t be enough. May as well do something useful in the down time and read the minutes later.
Sorting the proposal and applications into separate piles he began the process of dividing the smaller of the two piles further into disciplines. Being a Theoretical Physicist, there wasn’t a lot of biology, chemistry, and other disciplines that he knew much about, but somebody had to be grown up enough to make the bunch of squabbling, egotistical children act like adults. All he had to do was consult with other professionals to make a reasonable assessment of the likelihood of success, and determine the most potentially rewarding, the most likely to succeed and the least likely to be expensive failures.
Humming as Cynthia’s second began the agenda, he relaxed a bit; for the next little while, there wasn’t much chance of being involved, so he dared to open the first of the grant applications and start making notes. That opportunity vanished in an instant, as Cynthia’s proxies began complaining about inter-Caste cooperation and the need for unity.
Unity? Unity?!
He could feel himself building up a good head of steam, listening to the juniors in both Castes accusing each other. The donut bag was empty, the coffee was gone, three sheets of notes detailing names, dates and times was about to become four, and he was sure this would go on until somebody – Probably me – lost their temper and made a scene. Enough, already.
“Excuse me – Excuse me, Chu here – Factor, would you be so kind as to gather these complaints and forward them to me, please.â€
Taking a calming breath, he continued. “Clearly, there have been some unexpected frictions here. Please forward those complaints, and I’ll consider how best to resolve them… Now, can we return to…excuse me, can we begin the agenda, please.â€
“Factor van der Waal here – of course, Dr. Chu.â€
That Bitch. As the head of a Caste, addressed by the head of another Caste, ‘Doctor’ was not his title, and the long-term members of the Castes on both sides knew it.
“The title you seem to seem to have forgotten is, ‘Scientist’, or if we want to be more formal, ‘Chief Scientist’, Factor. And judging from the complaints so far, the Scientists accused of not cooperating with your bean-counters are simply following the orders of their superiors - Me, in other words,†he said coldly.
“Among other things, we don’t pay delivery or fuel taxes, we don’t expense meals, lodging or other internal expenses, and,†he paused to restrain his temper – “We don’t pay ‘insurance’, ‘finder’s fees’ or to put it bluntly – bribes.â€
“Nor do we supply your bean-counters with requisitioned supplies and equipment belonging to the Caste. At least,†he added thoughtfully, “Not any more. Your requests for ‘Unity’ are not going to be met with understanding when the saKhan has to assign the KPA to locate and return my assets to Scientist facilities if their reasonable requests for their equipment are ignored.â€
