Rise of the Empire 1: Olympus (3 page)

Nathan’s face had turned white and he nervously looked around to the other faces in the elevator with them, the
Professor had her superior mask on while Elias had his usual uninterested face on, seeing how he wouldn’t get any help from them Nathan turned back to Tomas “Ah, we – when I informed you about the situation, y-you ordered that no one goes inside u-until you got here, I-I just followed your orders sir- ah director.” Nathan said dropping the familiar tone he used earlier. By the end of his speech Nathans eyes were fixed on the floor, while he nervously rubbed his palms against his uniform.

“Yes, I gave you orders, orders I made without all the information I was supposed to have, if you
had told me the circumstances I would have reacted much differently. A part of the blame lies with me, for not asking for an elaboration, but a much greater part lies with you for withholding it from me. I have placed you in the position of leadership, because I trusted your judgment and capability, trust that you have now lost. I don’t need sheep who are too cowardly to tell me to my face when I’m in the wrong. You are dismissed from your position effective immediately; your second will replace you until such a time when I can choose a suitable replacement.”

”B-but sir, please I was ju-” Elias’s hand on his shoulder silenced his attempt at an argument and coaxed out a soft “Yes sir.”

Chapter Three

The rest of the ride was spent in silence that was even more awkward than the one before. There was one thing that Tomas hated more than anything else, and that was incompetence from competent people. He could understand when the people who didn’t have the drive to do thei
r best, to rise above all others, who didn’t have the means nor abilities to succeed acted incompetent, but when someone who had decades to rise and better themselves, made the same mistake, that was another matter entirely. He could forgive someone even if they made such an mistake, even he made mistakes from time to time, but when one tried to place the blame on others or to justify his mistake when that mistake put people in their charge in danger then it was much harder to forgive. Tomas was running an empire and he needed competent trustworthy people who would tell him things he needed to hear, not things they thought he wanted to hear, because at the end of the day he made his decisions based on information provided to him by those who worked for him.

Finally the elevator stopped and the door opened
. There were two security officers standing in front of it along with two other members of the project. They stepped forward to great them but before they got the chance Tomas turned to Nathan.

“Take the elevator up to your former office and inform your second of the change in the position, afterward remain in the city until you are informed of your next position.”

Nathans eyes widened a bit at his words, most likely he believed that he would be fired. Tomas had other things in plan for him, even though he would not have as high position as he had until now, Nathan will have a chance to prove his worth again, even though he made a mistake, he was still a very capable employee and Tomas didn’t want to lose someone who might still prove useful. Hopefully he would learn from this mistake.

“Yes sir, thank you sir.” Nathan nodded his in thanks, gratitude clear in his demeanor. Good, that meant that he at least realized his mistake.

Tomas nodded back and then turned to the people waiting for them. They were obviously interested in what had just happened, but not enough to ask anything about it. Professor Hyeon left the elevator alongside Tomas closely followed by Elias.

“Director Klein, it’s a pleasure to finally
meet you, my name is Marcus Bearn I’m in charge of the team that will be working on deciphering the objects technology, this is my second Maria Nunez.”

Tomas shook their hands and tipped his head towards the security officers who tipped theirs back. Olympus security was a vast enterprise by itself, in fact it was a private military, though Tomas had gone to great lengths to ensure that stayed a secret only known to him and his few trusted fellows. As far as the rest of the world was concerned it was a security subdivision of Olympus, providing security to their clients and Olympus assets. Tomas wasn’t set on
a rigid command relationship between himself and his subordinates, he did expect that they follow orders but also that they think for themselves and voice their concerns to him when it was appropriate, though judging from the incident a few minutes ago he didn’t completely succeed. The security division was completely loyal to him; the problems arose with his “nonmilitary” departments. Frankly they were too scared to tell him anything they perceived would make him angry. A big part of that came from their image of him, image he worked hard to create, he had to in order to accomplish what he did, but that was only his mask towards the outside world, his security understood that but then they had the advantage of always being near him, Elias or someone from his team were always beside him, watching, protecting from the shadows. Elias also acted as his second and no doubt passed all his impressions about him down to his subordinates. The practice of second was implemented by Tomas more than thirty years ago, as a way to maximize productivity of his enterprise. The seconds were regarded as assistants by the general public, but what they didn’t realize was that seconds were in fact advisors, confidants, partners who in fact had the same power as their “firsts”.

“
Pleasure, lead the way, I believe you have already waited long enough for me to get here.” Tomas said.

“True that, if you would follow me director.” Marcus said as he started walking down the hallway.

“I must thank you in the name of everyone here for trusting us enough to bring us in on this project, director.” Maria said as they walked.

“There is no need Miss Nunez, every person involved in this project is here because they are the best.” Tomas replied.

“Well, I believe that gratitude is appropriate anyways, the chance to work on something so monumental, that could change the world is really once in life time opportunity.” She replied.

“You are welcome then. I hope that you will give this project your best.”

“Certainly sir, never doubt.”

They went pass two security checkpoints before finally arriving at the big hangar that held the spaceship
, it was on a level below them and they approached the railing to take a better look. The ship looked unlike anything he had seen before, it was yellowish in color which glistened as if it was just applied, and there was no damage on its hull which would indicate the reason for its location on the bottom of the ocean. The ship wasn’t as big as Tomas thought it would be, perhaps a hundred meters in length, and forty wide at its widest point, with about fifteen in height. Basically not much bigger than the Eagle class transport. It was sleek with its back being the widest and the highest where the engines where situated, the hull then dropped at low angle towards the bow that ended in a sharp point, it looked vaguely like a talon.

“
It’s impressive.” Tomas said after a moment.

“Yes it is, we still can’t figure out what type of alloy the hull is made of. We know that it is stronger than anything we have, though not as much as we expected
, but it does have some other qualities like being highly resistant to heat, and no sensory equipment we have can penetrate inside, even with the door opened it seems like it’s giving of a kind of a dampening field, though we don’t know if it is being generated from a device inside, or if it is coming from the hull itself. And when the door were opened the inside of the ship was filled with new air, while the old one was released outside, the composition of which was the same as ours.” Marcus said.

Tomas looked at the ship for another moment and then turned to Elias.

“Go to security, form a five man team, take someone who understands computers and someone who is well versed in languages, we’ll go inside when you are ready.” Being a part of Olympus security wasn’t only about knowing how to use a weapon and fight, every one of them was required to be knowledgeable in at least two other areas, ranging from history to advanced physics. And with people now living at least a hundred and fifty years, and having their work age extended to very near its end, it meant that very few of security officers were younger than forty. Elias walked off with a short nod, Tomas then turned to Marcus

“
Professor Hyeon and I will be coming inside with the security team, I want you to remain here and monitor the situation, on any sign that the ship is powering up or anything else that seems dangerous you are to seal of this facility, and call in the security forces to deal with the situation, contact Theo Nuros at Nephthys headquarters, he is familiar with the situation and has forces ready to deploy to this location.”

Professor
Hyeon looked at him with surprise, Tomas gathered that she thought he wouldn’t include her because of her earlier remarks, but Tomas knew that she was the best chance they had of understanding anything inside of the ship, and that she would be the one to lead the efforts of uncovering this new technology, and he would never put his own grievance before progress, though there weren’t any in this case. Tomas appreciated her honesty.

“
Of course director. But, could you tell us, if everything goes well when will the rest of team be allowed inside?” Marcus said, his eagerness was obvious, and some might even say that he had more right to go in first than Tomas, but Tomas was the head of the organization that found the ship and he felt entitled to do what he wanted once in a while, and he had no intention of keeping the ship only for himself, at least not in the long run.

“As soon as the security team inside verifies that everything is safe you and the rest of the team will have full access. You will work under
Professor Hyeon’s supervision and guidance, and she will later report to me, I won’t involve myself overmuch on your territory, this is your show, just want to be here for the opening credits.” Tomas said with a smile, he saw Professor Hyeon’s eyes widen again as he said that she would have the run of the place.

“Very well sir, I will inform my staff immediately” Marcus said and then left back through the hallway they came through.

Tomas glanced at Professor Hyeon and noticed her suspicious glare

“So, would you like a job?”

She stared at him for a moment before answering

“I’m guessing that you wanted me to lead this project from the start, and the consulting part was just to get me hooked.”

“I have wanted you as a part of Olympus for a long time.” Tomas said. She thought about his words for a few moments before finally responding

“You know that I can’t refuse this offer, not just because I want to work on this project. But because there isn’t anyone else on the planet that I could trust
it with.”

“Just like there isn’t anyone else on the planet I would trust it with
, other than you.” Tomas said seriously.

She looked hard into his eyes trying to see whether he was truthful or if he was just flattering her. Realizing that he was truthful her hard stare softened a bit before she responded.

“I love my job, I love teaching, I used to believe that there was nothing that would make me abandon the responsibility I fell toward those kids, and I see now that I was wrong.”

Her dedication to her students was one of the reasons why Tomas wanted her in the first
place; he had planned to play on that dedication in his new offer to her prior to the discovery.

“You don’t need to abandon teaching for
ever, Olympus has plans to open new schools, you could teach there when you are free from the project, and if you accept my offer you will be given a very high position in Olympus, one that will give you access to many things that haven’t yet been released to the public, that I believe will convince you that you’ve made the right decision.”

“What position would I be given?” She asked in a business like tone
.

“Are you familiar with Olympus operational structure?”

“You use a five tier based system I believe.”

“Yes, our personnel are divided into tiers, these tiers are universal across all divisions, basically meaning that all personnel of the same tier are the same rank, no matter what area they are employed in. There are separate rankings within a single tier so that in emergencies it would be known who is in charge
. Our organizations is divided into five pyramid structures, at the bottom of each are staff members, then there are many department chiefs, above them are division chiefs, next are sector chiefs with each previous level being a part of the next, then come section heads. There are five sections, Research and development, Engineering, Application, Economics and Security. New employees are not given a tier 1 until they have been working with us for at least a four year period, sometimes more, there are of course exceptions to the rule when we hire someone more qualified, though that happens rarely and not without extensive background checks, tests and evaluations, heads of the departments are usually at least tier 2 employees, heads of divisions tier 4, and sectors chiefs tier 6 there are usually five sector chiefs per sector, each sharing in the leadership and responsibilities. Security is currently the only section that has a section head, with Elias being tier 7 and in charge. Other sections are being run by sector chiefs until such a time when a suitable person is appointed as a head, and that is my decision.”

“Tier 7? I thought that there were only five
, and how is Elias the same tier when you are his superior?”

“I mentioned that each tier has several level
s within itself, I am tier 7 level 10, Elias is tier 7 level 9, which means that he has access to the same things I have. Tiers besides being a way to structure our employees are also a way to discern an employee’s clearance level. There are many staff members with the tier 5 or 6, such as Elias’s and my assistants, tier levels also indicate the level of trust a person is given. No one on this project is of a lower tier than 5. Tier 7 is reserved for those on top and there are currently only two persons with a tier 7 ranking.”

“So what tier would I be given if I accept the job?” She asked.

“Elias is the head of security, he has many sector chiefs, beneath him that take care of day to day stuff, but he is in charge of it all, there are four other sectors that have no heads, I was hoping that you would accept the job of being the head of Research and development. So you would be given the same, tier 7 level 9.”

Hyeon looked at him with mouth agape for a few moments, visibly shocked before she responded

“You would have put me in the leadership position of Olympus? I haven’t even worked for Olympus before?”