Leon entered the lab in a hurry as he checked the clock on his phone. A few minutes late.

  As an intern, nobody would normally care much about it but ever since he took over the development of the Vulcan System two weeks ago, his importance in the development department at Alpha Dynamics rose significantly.

  Legally, he was still ‘treated’ like an intern but his authority was raised to the level of an executive. That was to say, this all happened under the expectation he could build the Vulcan System where it included all technological products of the corporation.

  Yes. Tier 2 citizen status and three billion credits if, and only if, he acted on his promise to build it.

  When he initially called Dr. Irvine a day after his visit to The Providence to agree on his proposition, he already expected them to write up such a clause under the contract. But still, for him, it didn’t matter.

  Worrying about something like failure wasn’t a habit of his. It might be if he ever got to such a point but Leon never failed before. Not when it came to tech. After all, this was his bread and butter. The instrument he played like a virtuoso.

  Walking through the lab with quick steps, Leon made his way through a couple of corridors before entering a larger meeting room where several people in white dress shirts and ties were busy discussing something.

  When one bespectacled individual with a mustache at the very front noticed his entry, he quickly stood up, causing the other people in the room to quiet down.

  “Leon, we’ve been waiting for you. There is a problem.”

  “There always is a problem. It’s our job to solve them one by one until no more problems remain.” Leon replied as he moved over to another free chair at the front of the room next to the other man, putting his backpack next to the table leg before sitting down.

  The man with the mustache scratched the side of his neck as his face scrunched up in concern.

  “But alright, what is the cause for the prior noise in the room?” Leon asked.

  “We marked down the different products where the Vulcan AI can be implemented but the majority of them include those that are still being manufactured. The Larkin Processor and Ultra-High-Speed cables can be built into those but it’s impossible for the products already in the market.”

  “Well, yes, that’s pretty much how hardware works. We already knew at the beginning that hardware changes are impossible, which is why I told you guys to focus on the software.”

  “... Sure, of course, but frankly, it’s impossible.”

  After the man finished his last sentence, Leon took the chance to glance around the entire room, taking in the looks of his team members that seemed rather… dejected.

  Sighing to himself, Leon clapped his hands to gather the attention of the room.

  “Okay, listen. Everyone in this room belongs to the smartest fraction of developers in this department. The Vulcan Models as a smartphone series relied on its superior hardware to provide the power for the Vulcan AI to run in top condition. This is nothing new. So, our job is to make this work without it and centralize it as a system.”

  The room remained quiet for another minute or so until a delicate woman with long brown hair clicked her tongue in annoyance.

  Shit, whatever. Nobody wants to address it so I’m just gonna do it.” She started, turning to look at Leon. “The software thing is one thing but the time constraint is another. Three months, Leon. You know how that sounds? Ridiculous! Something like this can take years of development and they want us to finish it in a mere ninety days?”

  The man with the mustache spoke up after her, trying to reinforce the woman’s claim.

  “It’s a hot potato, Leon. We all know this will change everything for you but the same applies to us as well. We certainly get a huge bonus working on this project but…” The man stopped for a moment, hesitating on saying the rest of what was on his mind. Thankfully, the woman from before decided to end his thought for him.

  “But this will backfire on us if this whole thing fails. We got interviewed for this project specifically and they stated with their expectations come responsibilities if we can’t make this work.”

  “It’s the nicest way of saying they’ll fire us if this goes sideways.” Another person added.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “And you certainly don’t want to get fired by Alpha Dynamics. It’s a career execution in this industry. Nobody is gonna hire us in this field ever again.” The last person spoke with clear resignation in his voice.

  Looking around the room, Leon noticed the clear expressions on their faces. The defeatist mentality that came up upon the difficulty of what they were asked to do.

  “So what? The stakes and the difficulty are too high and now you think it’s better to not do it at all? To give up without even really trying?”

  “We have racked our brains over this, Leon. Fourteen hours daily for two weeks and we came up with nothing. No ideas that could be implemented in under a year, not to mention in under a hundred days.”

  The mustached man sighed, taking off his glasses to wipe them on his shirt.

  “Sorry, Leon. Your brilliance is undeniable. You developed the Vulcan Models in half a year, after all. A product an entire development team spends years on but this is not a game for me. I have a wife and kids to take care of. I can’t risk my career on this.”

  Finishing his words, the man picked up his tablet before slowly walking out of the room. At the same time, the woman from before smiled wryly.

  “My prior team lead needs more hands on their deck so I’m gonna resign my position on this project as well. There are others, more qualified people, to work on this project with you, Leon.”

  One after the other, the many top developers and technicians left the room, leaving behind a speechless Leon.

  “Wow.” He kept sitting in silence for a few minutes, turning to look at the empty whiteboard behind them. It allowed sketching with a digital pen, reflecting whatever it touched in black pixels. The team normally used it to sketch and brainstorm ideas but for the past two weeks, this whiteboard has remained empty.

  “Neither a plan, nor a team.” Leon almost wanted to laugh at the not-so-favorable situation. “This is not a good start.”

  ……….

  Night time.

  Sitting on the familiar bench in the beautiful park he began to frequent for some time now, Leon was busy writing up different ideas on his old, yellow paper notebook.

  However, when his ideas for the execution of the Vulcan System started to die out, he shifted his attention over to Trey’s maglev race car, trying to find different ways to improve it.

  “Lost in thought again?” A weary, familiar voice caught Leon’s attention but his focus remained on his notebook.

  “You could say so. I have two major projects to work on but not enough time to complete even one of them.” Pausing momentarily, he looked at old man Howard who was sitting peacefully next to him.

  “I haven’t seen you here last week, old man.”

  “Well, you know how it goes with old age. The mind wants to do it but the body can’t keep up.” The old man replied wistfully only to be interrupted by a sudden cough.

  “Is that so?” Leon tilted his head.

  He met old man Howard several times over the past few weeks, bringing more familiarity to their conversations. He told him about his past in the outer territories while Howard mostly talked about how he spent his days.

  Leon didn’t know if old man Howard had other family besides his deceased wife but he guessed the old man was alone because he never talked about it. Maybe they were just not that familiar with each other yet for the old man to tell him.

  Sometimes, though, old man Howard provided some advice using his life stories when Leon was stuck at something. Often it was very vague and sometimes even unrelated but still, it always seemed to help him in one way or another.

  “You know, Leon, often, when you have two problems, it might be better to not treat them separately. Use one of them in an effort to solve the other.”

  “You’re saying I should try to work on both of them at the same time?”

  “Not quite.” Old man Howard shook his head. “Try putting both your problems into the same context and try solving it that way. The rest comes automatically.”

  “Is that another life reference of yours?” Leon asked with a grin.

  “Of course, when I was still in the game industry, there was a time we had two great ideas for a game. Both of them would have been successful if released. Unfortunately, we neither had the resources nor the time to bring both of them to life. At the same time, we didn’t just want to give up on either of them.”

  His eyes glazed over for a moment, seemingly lost in nostalgia.

  “So, we decided to use ideas from both of them to create a new game. A game that performed better in the market than the original one’s would have ever done.”

  Use ideas from both of them to improve the other. Leon didn’t really know what to think of it. After all, his situation was quite complicated and the two projects he was working on were completely different.

  The Vulcan System and Trey’s maglev race car.

  One software and the other hardware. Two seemingly unrelated projects.

  Maybe there was no correlation he could find between them. Probably, the idea itself was far-fetched simply due to their completely different nature.

  But what if there was an upside to this, where he could take inspiration from one of these projects to improve the other?

  For the rest of the night, Leon’s mind couldn’t help but spin at the possibility of this simple idea.

  …………

  “The greater the risk, the greater the price—but also the greater the reward.”

  ~~Dr. Benjamin Harper’s Memoirs~~