The Quantum Bridge (ePub)

My name is Jax Isaac Newton and it was just over a year ago today that I was let go by Allied Aerospace.
This began the trek that changed my life. I was a staff engineer at the corporate research laboratories located in Richmond Virginia for one of the top aerospace companies on the planet. The company was doing fine but management was looking for ways to increase shareholder value. We all knew this meant reducing operating costs, which translated to reductions in programs and ultimately job reductions.

I knew something was coming because in the last nine months I had seen laboratory after laboratory closed or moved to smaller locations. Each time this happened the closed laboratory was cleaned out and excess equipment was sold, scrapped or just thrown out.
First, the rest of the corporate laboratories staff would be allowed to claim excess equipment for their own labs on a first come first serve basis. Then the equipment left over was either thrown out or sold at bargain basement prices. I had over time picked up old computers, hard drives, and outdated but otherwise perfectly good equipment for my own personal use.

Earlier that week we were all waiting for a big announcement. Rumors had been circulating that something big was coming from corporate. We all updated our resumes and hoped we were one of the lucky ones to "miss the bullet."
It was on a Thursday that my boss walked into my lab and told me the company would be letting me go at of the end of the month. He said he didn't have any say in the decision and that he would write me a good recommendation letter when I needed it.
He told me that I had the better part of a month to finish up any outstanding work, clean out my lab and desk. Since I had worked for the company for over five years at that point, I was entitled to a one-month notice along with five more weeks of severance. As my boss left my office I quickly estimated I had almost three months to look for more work before I had to dip into my savings. This was not the case however, as I quickly became caught up in the adventure of a lifetime.

This is the story of that adventure opening my eyes to wonders I couldn't even have imagined before