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by Rajput » Tue Jun 17, 2003 10:14 pm
CHAPTER III - REBUILDING FROM THE ASHES
The day the court gave it's ruling in favor of the Salvene Government was a black day for Battle Cruiser Corp. In about a week, two million of the company's five million employees were laid off.
Ogidnew, CEO at that time, tried to make the parting as painless as possible.
"I'm sure the company will bounce back," he said in his Planetwide broadcast. "It will merely be a matter of a few hundred years."
For some reason, this seemed to be little consolation for the Company's predominantly WQ Human employees.
However, the company slipped further into the red as the Federation Court further stipulated that all Battle Cruisers with Ship Vendors across the Universe had to be recalled within a month.
Driven to bankruptcy, and pursed by lenders, Battle Cruiser Corp. was facing the toughest time in it's short history. Luckily, Sears Inc. stepped in to bail them out. It bought out the Salvene Government’s stake in the company for a nominal one credit, also assuming the company’s liabilities in the process.
Questioned on the move, Sears Inc. CEO, Mark Lindenberg Ford commented sanguinely, “We have full faith in the inherent strengths of the company and in it’s ability to bounce back.â€
This did not convince lenders who refused to have anything to do with the company.
The company’s only product, it was known, was the Battle Cruiser. And we all knew the only plus point of the ship – it’s Illusion Generator. Without the device, the ship was worthless. Who would want to buy a ship which could be blown away by a single shot of an Experienced WQ Human pilot?
And if it hit mines? Well people can talk all they want about ‘retracing you path’ but we know the true story, don’t we?
Around this time, Ogidnew stepped down as CEO to make way for young blood. In a surprise decision, the young Dr. Kcuhcmar, a former veteran of the Ik’Thorne – Thevian war and an able Scientist was appointed as the new CEO.
The new head of the company was brash and energetic. But he was ably guided by Ogidnew who was retained as a Director for his service to the company.
Kcuhcmar was a visionary. He foresaw the improvements in Escape Pod technology.
“I just saw a demonstration of the latest version on the Human planet,†he had said after his first trip to the Planet Earth. “The new Escape Pods will revolutionize trading. It would be nearly impossible to die in a ship.â€
The new technology had been developed by a Human company named SONY. It had miniaturized Jump Drives to allow it to be fitted in a single hold of a ship and run on nothing more than cheap Helium Fusion Batteries. The amount of mass these Jump Drives could transport was limited but the range was nearly unlimited for small masses (based of course on Syehsreh’s modification to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity). These were quickly applied to Escape Pods and were beginning to spread all over the Universe.
Kcuhcmar hypothesized that these new Escape Pods would revolutionize space travel.
“You could program the Pod to immediately Warp you to your own Racial Headquarters. The program would trigger seconds before a disaster. No matter how much damage the ship suffered. You would be whisked away to safety.â€
While many laughed at the youngster’s enthusiasm (a Pod that whisked you away to Headquarters indeed!!! When your ship blew up, you died. If you were lucky enough to get into your pod, and navigate your Pod out of the wreckage of your ship – chances are, the person who shot at you would shoot at the Pod as well. Space was not a place where you got a second chance.)
No, the old timers felt. The youngster was spending too much time with the Humans.
But Kcuhcmar was convinced he was right.
He also knew the implications of the new developments. The new Escape Pod would make the Battle Cruiser – that slow, weak death trap – now without even an IG – a lot safer to fly.
The Battle Cruiser was still a cheap ship. The innovations in Production Technology were their own, not Salvene.
The secret, Kcuhcmar realized, was in positioning. He would sell the Battle Cruiser as a cheap alternative to the Racial Hunters.
Sure it would never be as the same as a Carapace or a Border Cruiser. But if he could get a prospective buyer to look at the cost of those ships, compare it to the Battle Cruiser. If they considered it, at least once, based on the cost. Would his company not have a chance?