Mara Goes Letara, Ep. 5-9:… and something for the government.
25th May 1990
Main building, Mara main factory grounds, just outside the town of Mara, Archana
Rodyn Gumprov, recently un-retired former Comrade Director of Engineering for Mara, and now Lead Development Engineer for the hasty facelift of the Kanyon family, walks into the smaller of the two main engineering halls in Mara’s main factory building.
Lined-up in the hall are three final prototypes for the Kanyon, one for each wheelbase on offer. Since Rodyn had been away to Letara for the transportation show earlier in the month, the production engineers have been busy preparing the Kanyons for production, and two of them are currently going over some finer points on the engine mounts and front suspension.
A special task for Letara - and what the future may hold…
As important as this last step is for eventual production efficiency, this part has always been the least interesting for Rodyn. ‘At least’, he thinks, ‘this is the last time ever I have to go through this before I can get finally back into retirement.’
Before he can get to the stack of engineering reports on one of the work benches on the side, he is stopped by the Director of Letaran Operations, Nina Vaskova who has entered the room shortly after him.
“Do you have a moment?” she asks.
“Of course. What brings you here?”
“Just some matters in getting the shipping to Letara organised these days. With all the upheaval over the past months, it looks like the country has to relearn how to put containers with the right content on the right ships with the right paperwork.” She sighs. “Speaking of…” She hands Rodyn a folder with some paper in it.
“What is this?”
“The Letaran government has put out a tender for a bulk order of special vehicles to transport mobility impaired people. Wheelchairs and such.”
Rodyn takes the folder. “And you thought of…”
“Yes!” Nina points to the Kanyon’s ultra-large wheelbase version where the two engineers are currently busy. “Sounds like it fits the brief perfectly.”
The prototype Kanyons in the engineering hall
“Well…” Rodyn is less enthusiastic. “We only kept this one in production because of reassurance from the military that they will keep ordering it for special purposes even under the new… circumstances. It’s not certified for Letara or anything.”
Nina is undaunted. “Well, have a look, and let me know. It would be good for us to make a favourable impression every once in a while with the local government over there.”
Rodyn skims the government brief. “ABS of course will be a thing… again, and updated safety stuff most probably as well, given the special requirements for large wheelbase car.”
It had been enough of a hassle to figure out how to efficiently install a certain aftermarket ABS kit to the Zora during assembly in Letara while achieving sufficient effectiveness to pass the government’s certification tests. Rodyn certainly wasn’t looking forward to doing it all over again for the export Kanyons, especially for a limited bulk order. But then again, how hard could it be?
“As I said, let me know. I’ll be in town at least a couple of days more.” Nina exits the hall as fast as she had entered it.
Rodyn places the Letaran folder on to the side of a workbench. But before he can have a closer look at the engineering reports from the previous week, Mara’s Chief Executive Director Klavdija Hechova-Rossi enters and signals him over to a quiet corner of the engineering hall.
“You look happy?” she begins. The influence in her voice from having worked and lived in Fruinia for almost 15 years was undeniable, something that catches Rodyn still off-guard even after the past few months. He has known her since the early 1970s, but not spoken to her for the entire time she had been in Fruinia.
Rodyn nods and points at the Kanyons in the centre of the hall. “Yes, this is more like the coda to my career that I envisioned.”
“How about… this is not the coda… yet?”
“What do you mean?”
“As you know, we will start three brand new development projects for the Zorya, Irena and Kavaler successors shortly. I need someone experienced to head the latter, and we don’t have enough people for me to assign anyone away from actual engineering work.”
Rodyn frowned. “But you have Vitalii…”
“… who has to oversee three big concurrent projects for the next three to five years or so.” Klavdija interjected. “That’s more than plenty. Tymur will be in charge of the Irena successor. The two Maysters will lead the Zorya successor* project - car and engine - over at their old workshop because we are running out of space here.” She gestures around the already quite crowded engineering workshop. “All other engineers who are senior enough to lead such a development programme to are either production or engine people. But I need a car person for the new Kavaler*.” She points a finger at him. “I need you, Rodyn.”
Rodyn is silent for a few seconds, not sure whether he should be happy about the offer or not. “Can I think about it?”
*See the results of these two projects in the 1995 Letaran Auto Convention