(no subject)

[thefirststark]

Factory Building #3 doesn't stand out much from the dozens of manufacturing sites in southern California.  The two things that distinguish it most?  That it was build after the war ended, when so many other factories were being shut down.  And that it's in Whittier, more than a little off the beaten path.  It had been a bit of pork brought home by Congressman Voorhis, something that Howard was glad to take advantage of.  And the fact that Voorhis was gone and replaced by a newcomer named Richard Nixon wasn't important.  Everyone in the district wanted the jobs, after all.


The location wasn't perfect.  The nearest full scale airfield was a good drive, meaning that planes would have to be towed on substandard roads for testing.  And those same roads didn't make the drive there an easy one.  But Howard was still pleased with the factory, with the labor pool, with the cost of the construction, and the government contracts that went with it.  Specifically, the B-35.  The next generation in long range bomber. 

The staff was all abuzz today.  Howard's visits to the factory were rare.  He generally trusted his managers, and usually had somewhere else to be.  That he was making an inspection left everyone eager.  Or nervous.  Was there something wrong?  Was there someone even more important coming?  Or was he just being a boss and pulling the sort of surprise inspection that other bosses love?  All anyone knew was that he arrived through the private garage and went to his office unseen.

They didn't know that he had left the office and gone into another dimension for a while.  Or that he was bringing back a guest.

Comments

[thefirststark]

"On December 8, 1941, I picked up a phone and offered my services and those of my company to the War Department. Within six weeks, I was sent to work for the SSR. I wasn't looking to avoid the battlefield - and I did fly into some dangerous situations more than once - but my knowledge as a scientist was needed more than one more pilot." Which isn't to say that he doesn't feel just a little guilty about not being on the frontlines.

[electro_kinetic]

"Oddly specific date, there," Noriko says, unashamed of her birth country and fully aware of the actions taken. In her opinion, they lost that war fairly and fully, and it's decades gone by now for her.

"It wasn't meant as an accusation--I just honestly don't get to hear you talk about your flying skills much."

[thefirststark]

"I think I am not the only American to know what we did right after Pearl Harbor. I can't tell you the date of my first flight, or even the Super Soldier test, though.

"And I find that talking about flying isn't entirely the same as doing it." Even though he is a big talker otherwise.

[electro_kinetic]

"I wasn't asking about those things, either," she says.

"I've never actually been the one to fly a plane? I've been in them, but never really recreationally. I mean, I know vaguely how, but that's in the jet at the school. Not one of these."

[thefirststark]

"I suspect this would be very different than your jet, though. I can't imagine my successors haven't made flying a lot easier. A crate like this requires a lot of skill." Even he'd be tested by it.

[electro_kinetic]

"There's a whole lot more buttons, I'll give you that."

And displays in the way.

[thefirststark]

"Buttons are how we do things. And I have no idea how else it can work." Actually, he has ideas, but they all seem so outlandish that they might as well be fantasy.

[electro_kinetic]

"Click-switches are a good idea," she chuckles. "Really, though, you have no ideas?"

[thefirststark]

"Well, a few. But I tend to give that a lower priority. We live a while longer with what we have. While I address everything else." He seems to be just a little hesitant to talk in front of the workers.

[electro_kinetic]

"Is this one of those things you don't talk about with girls?" she asks with a tiny, wry smile.

[thefirststark]

"Hardly. Miss Welles in particular has a keen understanding of such things. Never mind the great aviatrixes of the last twenty years." He may have used the wrong plural, and definitely used a word that is far out of date for Nori.

[electro_kinetic]

"Aviatrices," she says, laughing before she can stop it. "Speaking of--really? Pilot didn't work?"

[thefirststark]

"Feminine form of aviator. But if you insist on something as prosaic as pilot..." He really see the problem here, but he knows the future will be strange.

[electro_kinetic]

"Oh, aviator works fine, but it's generally thought of as unisex," she says.

"I mean, I can see why you'd like it, but I've honestly never heard the word used in a sentence."

[thefirststark]

"It was big in Amelia Earhart's time. Which I suppose is behind us." Her disappearance still saddens him. She was a pretty brave woman. Deserved better.

"In any case, I know better than to assume women can't fly, or understand planes."

[electro_kinetic]

"Oh, a bit. But it's a good word, all told," she says. "Just a little old-fashioned, and you know how that generally goes."

[thefirststark]

"Language changes. Much as technology does. Even if I can't offer much insight into the former." He now leads Nori to see the other two planes, with less explanation since it's more or less the same as the first.

[electro_kinetic]

"You ought to teach your kids when they're little. Makes it easier to pick up new languages when you grow up with two," she says, hands tucked back into her pockets as she follows Howard around.

"Remind me to give you the rundown on JP-8, it powers pretty much anything that can run on diesel. Been modified, though, it's formulated with less benzene and icing and corrosion inhibitors, fancy stuff."

[thefirststark]

Seems that airplanes still run on oil derivatives in the future. No surprise there. An atomic reactor wouldn't work too well on a plane. For a number of reasons.

"Fuel is one of the few things we don't make ourselves. But there are enough oil companies competing for my business that we can rely on them for advances every so often. I'm meeting with someone from Esso Thursday, in fact."

[electro_kinetic]

"Stay away from Dutch Royal Shell if you can," she says. "They take a pretty shitty turn with their profits."

[thefirststark]

"We try to buy American if we can. And Esso has a reasonably good track record for us." The fact that Esso isn't supposed to sell its products in Chevron territory doesn't matter much to Howard.

[electro_kinetic]

"Reasonably?" she asks. "I'm assuming there have been some disappointments, the way you say that."

[thefirststark]

"Occasional moments of price gouging. The family history of manipulating the markets in their favor continues at any of the Rockefellers' firms." He has nothing against the Rockefellers as people. Or even as businessmen. But he's not fond of certain behaviors from anyone.

[electro_kinetic]

"You say that now--by my time almost the whole monopoly is back together. I think it's like eighty percent, all owned by the same people. Petroleum is ridiculously priced."

[thefirststark]

"They put it back together?" He thinks for a moment. "I think I just felt both Presidents Roosevelt turn over in their graves." He isn't sure what to make of it. He likes competition. He also likes winning.