Destiny's Road (Destiny Saga #1)

Chapter 13

I was up early the next day to get my run in, and get to work. So far, work had been really fun. Today would be my first long day at work. I had spent the last several days I worked with Mr. Farber and his team, watching them work on a bearing assembly. They had let me watch them take it apart, had showed me how to read the design blueprints, and assigned me a ton of reading. For most people, reading about bearings may not sound interesting, but that's because most people haven't looked into the history of that small mechanical piece. Turns out a form of bearings were used by the ancient Egyptians, and Leonardo daVinci drew a diagram of a bearing assembly that looks remarkably like some of the roller bearings currently in use today. It was really fascinating stuff.

They even let me take some of the blueprints and test printouts home to read. Tina had caught me looking at them and had called me a nerd, but she was kidding. I am pretty sure she was amazed that I was sitting at the kitchen table with these blueprints and test diagrams. Of course, some of the math on the test diagrams was way beyond me; but I was doing a lot of cross-referencing, to try and figure out what it all meant.

When I got into the shop, Mr. Farber and his team were gathered around one of the R&D workbenches arguing about something.

"Albrecht, I know you want to think the best of people, but it has to be the supply house. We have checked out all of the mechanics and everything runs smoothly. The only thing that could explain the loss of strength over time is substandard metal. We checked everything else."

"I know, I know. I talked to COO and he swears they checked the last batch completely and it should hold up. Besides, we are using some of the same steel in other parts and we are not having degradation issues there."

They clearly had been at it a while already, and everyone was looking frazzled. I refilled all their drinks and cleaned up their area, since it was about the only way I could contribute. After that I left them alone to start doing some of the data entry the sales team had left for me. I kept one eye on Mr. Farber however, because I had a question for him once they started to break up. When I saw the team start to pack up their papers, I rushed over hoping to get a moment.

"Umm, Mr. Farber."

"What, Cas?"

My, he was annoyed. He was usually so polite that his tone was even more noticeable. I think even some of his team noticed it.

"I am sorry to bug you, but I was doing some of the reading you assigned me last Wednesday, and there is something I don't understand."

"Sure, but make it quick. My head hurts, and I have had just about enough of this place today."

"Sure. Sorry to keep you. So I was looking at the first test, the one where everything went smoothly. Then I was look at one of the tests on the returned piece that was showing stress, but I couldn't find out why the two diagrams were so off. See, on this first one there is just the steel flushing, on the front. On this other one, there is this other stuff that I don't know what it is. I only noticed it because it is slightly off center in the tests, from what you can see in the original design diagram."

I pointed to the diagram. He grabbed it from me, looked at it off handily, and then froze. He really looked at the two documents, and then yelled for his team to get their asses back over to him. Everyone was really excited. I knew whatever it was I showed him was setting them off, but since I didn't understand the new diagram completely I was lost.

One of his team was standing open mouthed in disbelief, "How the hell did we not see this," while another exclaimed, "Son ... of ... a ... bitch."

Mr. Farber was just shaking his head, "Because, we were only looking at the rebuild diagram and the results of the returned piece. We had shelved the original diagrams after the update to add the pieces marketing suggested. No one thought to go back and look at them."