Kellam

           “Kellum will be here shortly. I called him to come and take you in hand. Please have a seat here and you may want to familiarize yourself with the general process.”  Marandola handed Archer a short stack of papers to examine. “Welcome aboard, Jon. You and your children can meet up at the end of the day where we all first met. I don’t expect you’ll get much done today except learn the lay of our facility.”

               “Thanks again, this was easier than I expected,” he admitted to her. He sat with his papers and made busy until Marandola and Laural left the room.  He promptly got up, searched for people, and finding none he starting investigating his immediate environment. He looked at the posters on the walls which were hand drawn but with precision and detail. A computer terminal hummed quietly in one corner of the room but didn’t display its business on the view screen. Two large windows kept the weather out but let the person in the room view the cooling towers and the great plumes of steam that rose to the sky.

               Footsteps grew louder in the corridor. Archer quickly sat down with composure awaiting his supervisor, or trainer, or whatever Kellum might be to him in a very few moments. The door opened and a large fellow entered. He was not particularly muscular, but tall, young, and a smile on his fair face. For a moment he reminded Jon of Charles Tucker, his longtime friend and colleague who had died suddenly just a couple years back just before the charter of the Coalition of Planets was put together.

               “Jon!?” boomed the man’s voice, surprising him, but not startling him. “It’s great to have you on the team!” Kellum didn’t offer a handshake, but then, neither had anyone else. Archer made a mental note to avoid offering his hand in greetings.

               “Kellum, I’m glad to meet you.”

               “Well, Jon, we have a couple of places where I’d like to try you out. How much do you know about nuclear energy?”  Archer wasn’t an engineer, but he’d spent plenty of time around warp engines enough to know exactly how they functioned, but with dilithium crystals and anti-matter, not Thorium and molten salt.

               “I’ve read up about them. I probably know more than you might think.”

               “Good!” Kellum barked. “Follow me. I’m putting you on maintenance at the intake manifolds. If you do okay there, you can stay. Or if you’re bored I can maybe put you at the reactor, hmm?!” Kellum leaned to his side and knocked Jon off balance just enough to make one misstep, but he realized the big man was joking with him. He chuckled

               “So,” Jon began while they strode along an infinite corridor, this one painted blue. “I have always lived in the country side. I’m not sure I understand what the need is for a reactor, but I expect the city has a lot of different needs.”

               “Indeed, you’re right. Have you been in the city long?”

               “No. No we came, my family and I, for the work, here at the reactor.”

               “Most old men from the country aren’t interested in this new technology.”

               Archer bristled at the phrase to date him. Should he reply? Was he an old man for an Akaali? He tilted his head to one side as if it might help him think, but it was simply an unconscious quirk.

               “How old do you think I am?” he asked as plainly as possible.  Kellum stopped in his tracks, turned, and looked at Jon with a critical eye.

               “I’d say you must be at least 30 annuals, maybe 35?” A smile broke out on his face. “What, not that old?  I don’t mean it as an insult.  You look quite healthy for a man of 35. I’m 22, I don’t think I’ll be in as good of health, reactor employment aside,” he said, punching Jon on the arm as he took up the journey again.

               “I’m 51,” Jon told him, then caught his breath. Years on earth were not necessarily years on other planets.

               “You are not.”  Kellum kept walking without looking at him.

               “You’re right, I’m joking. I’m 35.”

               “You look well for a man of your years. And you have a good sense of humor. You should get on fine here at Reactor Two.”

               Archer and the jovial man who was to be his supervisor arrived at the end of the corridor, pushed the door open and stepped outside into the fading daylight. A dozen iron pipes stretched from the sea up onto the shore then ran past them half a meter above the ground and into a large block of cement.

               “That is the condenser unit for cool water intake.” Kellam said pointing at the house-sized cement block. “I want you, starting tomorrow, to inspect every pipe at every seal. Then we’ll talk about some other duties you might be good at.”

               “Fair enough,” Jon answered. He wasn’t sure if these simple tasks were really something a man of his education and experience should be assigned. It was disconcerting, but going according to plan. He knew himself well enough that it didn’t genuinely bother him.

               “Report to me in the morning at that complex situated on the knoll behind the tower. Most of us work from a remote location.”

               “I would like to learn more about this electricity you spoke of.”

               “Of course, Jon.  In fact, why don’t you gather your family and I will show you what electricity has done for the cities.”