Japanese Meltdown

"Do they know what they are doing?"

"I don't think they do. They let a seawater pump run out of gasoline and they didn't catch it for two and a half hours, exposing the fuel rods to air and causing the 3rd explosion."

"My god! Millions of lives are at stake and they let a pump run out of gasoline?"

"Yes. It's child's play to cool those GE reactors and they're botching the job."

"Do we have a team we can send there?"

"Don't you think I already thought of that? Heck, I would go over there and personally oversee the reactor cooling process myself if I could. The Japanese government has asked for assistance, but we have never been more spread thin - a dozen active missions in the East and Middle East underway and worst of all we have a State Department that is making such assistance difficult - if not impossible. It's almost like this administration wants the reactors to meltdown - it's absolutely crazy. If I want to send a team in, they would be completely unauthorized."

"Tell me about it. We are seeing an agenda that is seeking total destruction of the west here. I seem to spend a day every week reassuring various national leaders that the US will be back to normal in a few short years and to pay no heed to the rhetoric and actions that are completely antagonistic to our allies. Damn it! I got another urgent call. I've got to go but I'll be calling back later tonight."

"Okay. Take care."

I put my phone down and sit back in my chair and kick my feet up on my McGuire desk, the inlaid writing surface is nearly indestructible so my Moscoloni leather shoes don't do any damage. I have taken two teams off their assigned tasks - which was designing new reduced radiation reactors - and reassigned them so that they now do nothing besides run simulations and solutions to possible outcomes with the Japanese reactor crisis.

I have a bad feeling about all this. I know this must all have been part of the future which Yal-hune must have foreseen and orchestrated for the least possible destructive outcome. The thought scares me, because if this is the least destructive, I wonder just how horrible the most destructive time stream would have unfolded. Part of me wishes she were here so I could talk to her. I miss her - I miss her so much. her absence has left me with this gaping hole in my life.

You would think Skuuinja or Yaylu would stop by - just pop in to comfort me or give me advice, but they are obviously preoccupied. I suspect Skuuinja is making amends for other past overshadowing misdeeds and I can't begin to guess where Yaylu is. Perhaps they are staying away due to my attentions to a woman who works 10 hour days in one of the sub-levels. Maybe it's all for the best.

But listen to me whine!

Others are in much more perilous predicaments and suffered far greater losses than I have recently. I have to keep my eye on the ball and focus on the game. Our teams need not just competent leadership but the upbeat and optimistic motivation and worldview that make such stressful and demanding work worthwhile and more rewarding.

I'm going to go and see what the teams have worked up as possible solutions to the Japanese crisis. It's time to put the gargantuan collective mind-power here to timely and productive use.