Genie and Engineer 1: The Engineer Wizard by Glenn Michaels Read Free Book Online Page A

Andromeda Strain .
“‘It’s just registering double-zero, double-zero.’”
    “Huh? What’s that mean?” Ken asked.
    “What’s the problem here?” asked their boss, Adrian
Cantrell, who was standing behind them.
    Paul looked up with a start. He had not heard Cantrell’s
approach. With a supreme effort, Paul kept himself from groaning out loud or
otherwise reacting in a bad way. Cantrell was the worst micromanager that Paul
had ever worked for, bar none. The last thing that they needed was to have
Cantrell looking over their shoulders while they worked to resolve the problem
with the data system.
    And it was urgent that they solve it. If they didn’t do so
in the next few minutes, then it would seriously impact the performance goals
of the test, perhaps even cause the test to be cancelled. That would be bad,
Paul knew. It would reflect poorly on the company and cost the Air Force a hefty
chunk of money. It might even delay the program past the end of the year.
    Ken screwed a hesitant smile onto his face. “It’s just a
glitch in the data system, boss.” He turned to Paul. “I think we should reboot
the telemetry computer. That will probably take care of the problem.”
    To Paul’s mind, it seemed like a reasonable suggestion, so
he started to nod in agreement.
    And then, in a flash, he understood what the true cause of the
problem was.
    “No,” he said slowly. “It’s the telemetry demultiplexer. It’s
lost module lock mode.”
    Ken stared at him. “That’s never happened before.”
    Paul nodded. “The sales rep told me about it once, right
after they sold us the system. I almost forgot about it. He said if it happened,
it would have these symptoms.”
    Cantrell coughed. “How long does it take to fix the
demultiplexer?”
    Ken blinked. “We would have to reload a calibration and
setup file. It would take ten, maybe fifteen minutes to run and get back into
acquisition mode.”
    Cantrell’s eyes narrowed dangerously, and he gave Paul a
measured look. “And to reboot the telemetry computer?”
    “Two, maybe three minutes, tops,” Paul replied with a
sinking feeling in his heart. Knowing Cantrell, he knew what was coming next.
    “Do the PC reboot instead. Now,” he ordered Ken.
    For a brief moment, Paul considered voicing his objections.
His boss’s decision had been based solely on the time element involved and not
with any technical considerations. Paul knew that the reboot would not solve
the problem and that they would eventually be forced to take the demultiplexer
off-line and reset it anyway.
    It was a perfect case of being caught between the devil and
the deep blue sea. If he tried to explain to Cantrell that it was the wrong
decision, then his boss would yell at him. If he let Ken waste time rebooting
the PC, his boss would later be furious at him for not saying anything. Either
choice was bad.
    So he folded his arms and said nothing.
    • • • •
    The workday was finally over, and they were free to go home.
It was like receiving an executive pardon from the governor. Everyone was
locking up their desks, grabbing their coats, and heading toward the door. Paul
managed to make it outside the building and halfway to the parking lot without
collapsing from exhaustion.
    “Hey, Paul! Wait up for a moment, will ya?” shouted Ken,
trotting up the sidewalk behind him.
    Paul stopped and turned, trying to screw on a “happy face.”
He failed.
    “Listen, man! It was my bad! I’m sorry,” Ken apologized
profusely.
    Paul shook his head sadly. “That we’ve got a jerk for a
boss? Not your fault. And to tell you the truth, I first thought it was the
computer too.”
    “But you were right. You saved the test. It would have taken
me an hour before I tried resetting the demultiplexer. And even though you were
right, you still got yelled at. If I had just kept my big mouth shut....”
    Paul managed to shrug indifferently. “We got the data with
only a small impact to the test goals. Cantrell