Season 3 chapter 90
The Management Critique
Kniya watched Salesh slam the heavy brass receiver back onto the wall hook. He chewed his mint gum slowly, his arrogant smirk fading into a look of genuine corporate critique.
"Still, Salesh," Kniya pointed out, crossing his arms. "You are acting like you absolutely do not give a single fuck about my factories. You are the President of my company bro ! You should take it slightly more seriously. You can't just yell 'start the factories' and hang up and what the fuck he would mean by that. This is a massive industrial complex, not a cheap steam-car that you can just kick-start in an alleyway."
Salesh narrowed his eyes, thoroughly annoyed by the sudden micro-management.
"I know my work, And when I am stating start the factories, he would mean that he has to start the fucking factories which were closed off from the fucking previous year," Salesh fired back defensively. "Don't teach me how to manage, Kniya. They know exactly what I mean. Fear is a great motivator."
"Yeah, whatever you say," Kniya waved his hand dismissively. "But they don't have to literally start the heavy machinery today. You can give them until the end of this week to get the supply lines running. It is totally possible by then."
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," Salesh muttered, aggressively adjusting his collar.
Suddenly, the heavy glass doors leading out to the terrace pushed open.
Shuntesh Hawada stepped out into the biting wind. He was wearing a stained lab coat over his usual rough factory clothes, and he looked entirely out of breath, as if he had just run up several flights of stairs.
"Sir, here you are," Shuntesh panted, resting his hands on his knees for a second. "I was searching for you across the entire executive floor."
Kniya frowned, dropping his arms. "What happened? Why are you here? You are supposed to be out at the new building setting up the R&D base."
"Sir, there is one massive problem," Shuntesh said, standing up straight. His chill, relaxed persona was completely gone, replaced by the heavy stress of a lead scientist hitting a brick wall. "We cannot use the Fisluation for fuel."
The Science of Instability
The wind on the terrace seemed to instantly stop.
"Why?" Kniya demanded, his voice dropping into a dangerous, highly impatient tone. "Why the fuck can we not use that?"
Malesh stepped forward, his dark eyes locking onto the scientist. "Does the Fisluation possess an inherent flaw? Explain the variable."
"It is unrefined," Shuntesh explained rapidly, gesturing with his hands. "The problem is that it absolutely cannot be used for electricity generation at this current stage. In its natural form, the Fisluation sand is perfectly, completely stable. If we just dump it into a reactor, it won't do anything. It is just ordinary, slippery sand."
Shuntesh took a step closer, his scientific brain working in overdrive.
"To extract raw power, we have to violently alter its molecular structure," Shuntesh detailed. "We have to refine it to make it highly unstable. If the material is not unstable, it cannot undergo the sub-thermal reactions required to produce electricity. We need to build a specialized refinery solely for destabilizing this sand. And to build that, we have to invent and forge heavy steel alloys that have literally never been used in human history before."
Kniya stared at him, entirely unbothered by the heavy physics lesson.
"Okay, yeah, so make the refineries," Kniya ordered bluntly. "Invent the alloys and refine the Fisluation. What is the actual problem in this?"
Shuntesh swallowed hard, bracing himself.
"Sir, the problem is that we cannot just build this refinery," Shuntesh admitted nervously. "It requires a humongous amount of funding."
Malesh's eyes narrowed. "How much is required?"
"One hundred billion credits," Shuntesh stated.
The Billion-Credit Handshake
Filoska choked on her own spit.
Salesh's eyes practically bulged out of his skull. "One hundred billion?!" Salesh shrieked, gripping the glass railing to keep himself from collapsing. "Are you out of your fucking mind?!"
Even Malesh's deadpan mask cracked slightly at the sheer absurdity of the number.
"What the fuck?" Malesh asked coldly. "That much liquid money? Why? Why is so much capital required just to refine sand?"
"Because we need thousands of highly trained men!" Shuntesh defended, pulling out a crumpled piece of blueprint paper from his pocket. "We need incredibly rare raw materials to forge the alloys, and the development of entirely new technological frameworks! I have to build an industry that does not exist yet! That is why it is required!"
Filoska aggressively rubbed her temples, feeling a massive migraine coming on. "Kniya, we cannot just drop a hundred billion credits on unproven—"
"Okay," Kniya interrupted smoothly. "Whatever you want, I will give it to you."
Filoska stared at Kniya in absolute horror. "Excuse me?!"
"Don't worry about the funds, Shuntesh, we will be giving you that," Kniya declared casually, popping his mint gum. "But listen to me very carefully. I want the internal auditing team to have a microscope on your department. I want every single penny spent to be tracked. I want detailed data present on my desk showing exactly how and where my money is being spent. Understood?"
"Yes, sir," Shuntesh nodded in massive relief. "Don't worry, we will provide you with full ledgers for everything."
Kniya turned his head, looking at his business partner. "Malesh. Do you have some liquid money sitting around?"
Malesh thought for exactly one second.
"Yeah," Malesh replied smoothly, completely ignoring the sheer panic radiating from Salesh and Filoska. "I have seventy billion credits sitting in my corporate reserve funds right now. I can contribute that to the R&D account."
"Good," Kniya nodded. "I have approximately thirty billion credits in my personal executive funds. I will transfer that money to the company account by tonight to cover the rest."
Salesh looked like he was about to pass out. Two men had just casually agreed to pool together one hundred billion credits while standing on a breezy terrace, treating the GDP of a small country like they were splitting the bill for a cup of coffee and even not caring about the thing that they had a huge amount of loan to pay for actually.
Kniya sighed heavily, leaning against the glass railing and looking out over the city.
"Whatever the fuck it is," Kniya grumbled, sounding deeply annoyed by the inconvenience. "We already provided this guy with five hundred billion credits just to buy the island and set up the base, and now he needs a hundred billion more. This Fisluation project is getting incredibly costly."
"Innovation requires capital," Malesh stated flatly, adjusting his tie. "If he successfully destabilizes the sand, we will own the global energy grid. The hundred billion is an acceptable loss."
The Outcast Forge
The research and development department of Kavilson Steel was not a quiet, sterile laboratory. Located deep within the smog-choked industrial sector of Seistain, it was a massive, deafening forge of pure creation.
The air inside the towering brick warehouse was thick with heat and the smell of burning carbon. Massive steam-powered hydraulic hammers slammed down on anvils, shaping glowing red sheets of heavy iron. Dozens of workers covered in soot and sweat were frantically molding alloys, operating heavy brass pressure-valves, and feeding coal into the roaring, multi-story furnaces.
The heavy iron doors at the front of the warehouse violently pushed open.
Shuntesh Hawada sprinted inside, completely out of breath. He skidded to a halt on the metal grating overlooking the factory floor, gripping the railing.
"Cut the steam pressure! Shut off the main hammers!" Shuntesh yelled at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing over the industrial roar.
A foreman quickly pulled a heavy chain, and the deafening crash of the steam hammers slowly ground to a halt. The hissing valves quieted down, and dozens of soot-covered researchers and heavy-machinery engineers looked up at the catwalk.
Shuntesh looked down at his team. A massive, triumphant grin broke across his face.
"We got the funds!" Shuntesh shouted, his voice ringing through the massive warehouse.
A ripple of shocked whispers spread across the factory floor.
"I just spoke to the executives!" Shuntesh announced, his chill persona entirely replaced by a burning, passionate fire. "They have authorized a direct transfer of one hundred billion credits to our division! We have the capital to build the Fisluation refinery!"
Shuntesh gripped the iron railing, leaning over his crew of scientists. Every single person in this warehouse was a reject. They were rogue engineers ignored by the federal government, thermodynamic scientists laughed out of the royal academies, and mechanics fired by the aristocratic energy lords for daring to think differently.
"The government called our research slippery sand! The aristocratic energy lords called us useless!" Shuntesh preached powerfully, his eyes gleaming with raw ambition. "They threw all of us away because we wanted to evolve, and they just wanted to keep burning dirt! But today, we prove that the investment placed upon us is not a failure! Today, we prove that we are the absolute future of this Republic! It is time for us to forge the reactor! We are going to change the world!"
For a second, there was pure silence.
Then, the entire warehouse erupted. The outcast engineers and scientists screamed in absolute victory, throwing their protective leather gloves into the air. They cheered, banging heavy iron wrenches against the steel pipes, the deafening sound of their triumph echoing through the smog.
"Yes! Finally!" a lead metallurgist shouted, tears in his eyes. "We actually did it!"
Shuntesh laughed, turning around to head back down the stairs—and immediately stopped.
Sitting on a stack of empty wooden crates in the corner of the catwalk were his two original roommates from the treehouse. One was holding a clipboard upside down. The other was leaning against a brass pipe. They looked like they had literally just woken up from a twelve-hour nap.
"Yeah," the guy with the clipboard mumbled lazily, not even opening his eyes all the way. "Woo."
"Yeah," the other guy agreed in a perfectly flat, lethargic groan. "We did it."
Shuntesh stared at them, the passionate fire in his soul instantly dying out in pure frustration.
"Are you guys serious?!" Shuntesh barked, throwing his hands in the air. "Can you have some kind of actual reaction?! We just secured one hundred billion credits to build a world-altering machine! You are literally acting like emotionless husks! Can you show some energy?!"
The two roommates blinked slowly. They looked at the cheering crowd, then back at Shuntesh.
"Nah," the first guy sighed.
Without another word, the guy picked up a rag and went back to incredibly slowly polishing a random pipe. Shuntesh aggressively rubbed his temples, completely giving up on them, and walked down the stairs to join the real celebration.