Disclaimer: You've heard it already.
7:00 was when the building opened, the first to come in normally being the cooks, then at 7:30 came the relief team for the building's Nuclear Fusion power plant. The full security team came before anyone else the morning 'Discharger' was stolen.
Gromph made his way around the security officers flooding the weapons department to where Jaradir stood growling orders. The stocky Dwarf had been called one and a half hours before his shift, and standing there, shirt half tucked in, cap on sideways, one boot unlaced, Gromph could feel the intense heat emanating from him.
Jaradir hurriedly cleaned up his look and tamed down his enormous beard as Gromph approached. Standing straight, he tipped his cap and muttered, "Mornin' Master Baenre."
Gromph walked up and stood beside the dwarf, clasping his hands together behind his back. "Anything yet Jaradir?"
Jaradir let out a sigh. "The only thing we have is the recordings from the security cameras. We didn't get any faces though. Infrared sensors picked up body shapes moving around the floor, but they apparently used a cloaking spell of some sorts. Visual cameras didn't get a thing."
"How did they get in?" Gromph asked, keeping his gaze straight ahead.
Jaradir could tell that Gromph was fuming inside, so he chose his words carefully. "Our magic sensors detected an aura which we confirmed to be a portal when we compared it to our records. We believe they came in through this portal."
"Tell me," Gromph replied, his face glowing red to heat seeing eyes, "Why should we even need magic sensors when the closing security officer is supposed to activate the Anti-magic shield before he leaves each night?"
"Er... uh," Jaradir stuttered. He suddenly found the floor very interesting.
"Look at me," Gromph ordered, keeping his voice even.
Jaradir looked up, suddenly feeling very small under the intense gaze of Archmage Baenre.
"Who closed last night?" Seeing that Jaradir couldn't think of it right away, Gromph added, "Find them and question them thoroughly. Report any findings to me, nobody else. Understood?"
Jaradir breathed a sigh of relief and nodded. Gromph turned and walked away without another word.
Normally spending his mornings authorizing project plans, Gromph had to set a different schedule for the day. First on his new agenda was the order of transportation. He couldn't trust another agency to find the 'Discharger', everything stayed in the company.
Gromph's personal airship had been under construction since last year and was nearing completion, but would still be docked for another month at the rate of construction. By adding another work force, that time could be cut down two thirds at least. Gromph would just put projects in the Technology and Engineering departments on hold, and assign both employee staffs to the task.
As Gromph walked down to the Loading Dock, he ran his new schedule through his head. After taking care of transportation, the building's Nuclear Fusion Reactor was scheduled for a refuel, which required Gromph's presence every two months. The power plant ran on a very expensive Tritium/Deuterium pellet, which was shipped to the building in a ½ ton steel safe which only Gromph and the distributor knew the code to.
After the re-fueling, Gromph's presence was also required in the maintenance department. A data transmitter in the Astral Plane had been malfunctioning for some time now, and a repair team was being sent in. Insurance required that Gromph be there to instruct the team on how to proceed in an uncontrolled environment.
Gromph stepped into an elevator that would take him to the air bay, a mile long tunnel that led to the airship docks. The tunnel was a massive hole in the side of the Chinsilia Canyon, and was mainly the entrance for freight airships. The elevator doors opened and a light wind rushed in. Gromph stepped out and the wind became more intense.
¼ of a mile down, Gromph could see out of the tunnel and into the open expanse of air, where the occasional hawk would fly by on the thermals rising from the bottom of the canyon. The sounds of machinery echoed inside the air bay, some coming from the loading dock, other noises echoed in from the power plant fans, which continuously blew in hot air from the Fusion Reactor coolers. Gromph climbed into a golf cart sitting near the elevator and drove down the longer part of the tunnel.
He arrived at the loading dock in less than five minutes, and immediately drove to the monstrous structure that was his airship. Monstrous was almost an understatement. The ship was approximately 1020 feet long, 110 wide, 55 tall, and took up half the available docking space. It was a unique design Gromph had worked on for months, and the result was a vaguely whale shaped upper hull that was bisected by an enormous fan/turbine. A narrower section was attached to the underside, and was surrounded by an outside deck.
The engine was a Uranium 238/Plutonium 239 Breeder Reactor. Plutonium 239 is the primary fuel in a Breeder reactor, and is located in the center of the reactor vessel. A layer of Uranium 238 surrounds the Plutonium 239 fuel rods. When bombarded with free neutrons from Plutonium fission, Uranium 238 breeds the Plutonium 239 isotope, which can then fission normally.
The reactor was used to generate steam, which was then used to drive sets of fans spaced around the ship, as well as a power generator. Three Diesel generators backed up the Reactor in the case of a problem with the steam generator.
Gromph drove up to the construction site and was approached by the Engineering manager, a curly-haired halfling in a wheelchair. "Master Baenre!" he shouted over the noise. "I was not aware that you would be visiting today!"
Gromph nodded his head. "Frank, you no doubt felt the tightened security when you came in this morning?"
The halfling shrugged, his enormous belly shifting. "I... noticed, but I am not one to interfere in other people's business."
"Good," Gromph replied, "because I'm not going to tell you the details. I need to know where we're at on construction."
Frank shifted a joystick on his wheelchair and turned to face the ship. "I would say another month or so. We still need a full scale diagnostic, the reactor hasn't been run yet, and my guys are still wiring the Bridge."
"That's what I thought." Gromph sighed and pulled out a pocket computer. "If I assign the rest of the Engineering department, how long?"
Frank rubbed his chin and looked off into the distance. "Thirty-six more guys, that would cut it down to a couple weeks to a week and a half."
"Make it a week and a half," Gromph said as he pulled out a pen and tapped the screen on his computer.
"Yes Master Bae-,"
"And show me where we're at while I'm down here."
"Yes sir!" Frank turned a key on his wheelchair, and the small 3-cylider diesel underneath turned over and started. He sped back to the airship as Gromph climbed into the golf cart and followed.
A loading ramp extended down from the airship's storage bay, which was filled with pallets of components. Gromph and Frank waited for a forklift to back down the ramp before they proceeded.
The storage bay was an entire level by itself, with two cylindrical towers in the center. One tower was for the freight elevator, which ran to the top of the ship. The elevator ran to the reactor level only for authorized personnel with a key. The second tower held the passenger elevators, and was ringed with windows halfway up. Above the windows was an enormous steel crane used to load freight into the read of the storage bay. The freight controller's office was below the crane and had a 360-degree view of the bay.
Gromph and Frank rode up to the freight elevator doors, two 7-ton slabs of steel and lead that blocked the only entrance to the reactor levels. "You have a key Frank?" Gromph asked as he stepped out of the golf cart.
"Yes sir!" Frank replied as he pulled out a card and slid it into a slot next to the doors.
"Good," Gromph replied. "Make me a copy." The doors slid open with a hiss, and Frank drove his wheelchair inside, Gromph walking beside him.
That's it for this chapter, please review and let me know what you think!