When the phone on Chief Engineer Brett Yang's desk rang, as usual, he made a point of smiling before he answered the phone in order to sound happy and friendly;
"Yang Industries, Brett Yang speaking, how may I help you?"
"Hello, Mr Yang, I'm calling to inquire about the laboratory tour of your engineering department."
Yang Industries received regular inquires about their popular laboratory tour advertised on their company website and on social media.
"Thank you for your interest. Who would this be for?"
"My daughter. She is 12 years old."
"Okay, so is she in high school?"
"No, Year 6, primary."
"That's great, we love having young students visiting us. Is she interested in anything in particular?"
"She said she was interested in... hang on, I've written this down..."
Brett heard some rustling of papers.
"Okay... she said she was interested in particular in your artificial hearts, both ..TAHs and ...VADs.. um, she told me what they meant... she said they stand for Total Artificial Heart and ...Ventricular Assist Device?"
Brett raised an eyebrow.
"Yes sir, yes they do."
"Oh good. And.. she also wanted to see the prototypes of your artificial ..mitral and ...tricuspid valves to observe how their functional differences are reflected in its engineering design..."
Brett's other eyebrow went up.
"Um.. excuse me, how did your daughter know about our valve prototypes ?"
"Oh.. um, I think she said she saw the photo on your webpage.. the one that's connected to a peristaltic pump."
Brett slammed the table. He surprised himself with the noise he made.
"Um.. excuse me sir... may I please have your name?"
"Oh. It's Eddy. Eddy Chen."
"Okay, Mr Chen, may I please put you on hold for a second? I just want to grab our tour booking logbook. I'll be right back."
"Yes, certainly."
Brett put the call on hold and yelled out;
"Dad !!!"
President Yang looked up from his desk.
"What's going on, son?"
His son had sprung out of his chair and rushed towards him.
"Dad.. I think you should listen in on this phone call. A 12 year old primary school kid interested in our workshop tour for our TAHs, VADs and our valve prototypes."
President Yang raised his eyebrow in a remarkably similar fashion to his son.
"...just how did this child know about our prototypes?"
"I asked the exact same question. The father claims she worked it out from looking at our website photo."
"...What? Which one?"
"Excuse me, Dad"
Brett grabbed his father's computer mouse and clicked a bookmark button on his PC browser. The company website popped up onto the screen. Brett circled around a section of a photo on the website with the mouse cursor.
"...See here Dad, the father mentioned it was the pic in which the device was connected to a peristaltic pump, so it has to be... this photo.. this bit here... even though you and I could barely make it out..."
"...So the father has called and claimed his 12 year old daughter worked all this out and wants to come and have a look at it?"
"Yes."
President Yang furrowed his brows.
"I dunno son.. what's your opinion?"
"I don't know Dad... the father, he's doesn't sound like he knows much about medical devices, but.. I think he actually talks like... an engineer..? But of course I'm just going by a hunch..."
"Okay, ask him who the daughter will attend the tour with. If the father says he's accompanying her, then ask him if he has any interest in our stuff as well."
"Okay, Dad."
"I mean it's no big deal, we will inspect bags for recording devices and not show them our latest prototypes if we have any suspicion that this man is some kind of industrial spy."
"Sure Dad."
"...Thank you for holding Mr Chen, it's Brett Yang again. Are you still there?"
"Yes."
"Okay, our engineers would be delighted to meet your daughter, will you be accompanying her?"
"Yes."
"Great ! So, do you also have interests in our TAHs?"
"...I beg your pardon?"
"Are you also interested in our Total Artificial Hearts or any of the other things we make here?"
"Oh I'm definitely fascinated with the stuff you make. I'm an engineer myself. But my daughter's the one that is into medical devices."
"Oh I see. What kind of engineer are you?"
"...Commercial vehicle design"
Brett dropped his shoulders with relief.
"How fascinating. So, um Mr Chen, do you need directions to get here? Where will you be visiting us from?"
"We'll be flying up from Melbourne."
Brett straightened up again.
"...I beg your pardon!?"
Yang Industries was located in Brisbane.
"Just state the time and date and we'll be there, Mr Yang."
"But you mean during school holidays, right? When do schools in Victoria go on holidays? I think they're a bit different from Queensland..?"
"Mr Yang, it's okay. My daughter and I are very keen. We could even fly up there tomorrow."
Wow.. they're keen. Very keen....
"O..kay..... Um, how about we make it next week?"
"Perfect. She'd be delighted. Thank you so much, Mr Yang."
YOU ARE READING
Love, create & innovate - not necessarily in that order
Fanfiction[COMPLETED] Brett, an engineer, who prides himself on being creative and innovative, received a phone call inquiry that will lead him to events that will move him to an extent he never thought possible.
