Rainbow Factory Quality Control

Chapter 1: Under New Management

The security guard in the guard shack stood from his chair as a small car entered the executive parking lot. It was a sensible four-door over ten years old and still in good working order and with good gas mileage. He pushed the door of the shack open and stepped out as the car stopped next to the shack and the drivers side window rolled down. The driver held up a badge for inspection and the guard grinned politely. "Good evening QC, did you enjoy your vacation?"

The woman inside grinned sadly back and tucked her badge back in her pocket. "I did, very much. Wished it didn't end."

The both shared a chuckle, an inside joke long since gone stale. "Well you didn't miss much, oh except tonight is the first night our new facility manager is working with us. I assume you will want to meet with him?"

The woman nodded slowly, her eyes still half lidded as if she had just woken up or were about to go to sleep. Then again so many employees of the Rainbow Factory wore the same expression. They were here to perform their tasks and nothing else. Even the short time off some managed to get was not enough to put the light back into their eyes. First, second and third shifts, weekends, overtime, holidays, birthdays, the Factory demanded them all. Before the guard could lift the gate a Live Haul truck rumbled off the intake scale toward the guard shack. "Just a moment QC, it's the last haul of the night."

The woman, QC, nodded and waited patiently as a large tractor trailer stopped on the opposite side of the shack. The tractor was what had become common in the yards of the Factory. Some nondescript owner operator with a generic name and employing nondescript drivers for their loads. By habit QC studied the trailer and its contents. It was the typical kind of trailer that was used for cattle, except instead of ponies, it now held a different cargo. Arms of many colors and textures extended out through the holes and gaps. Blue furred ones, yellow rubbery ones, others like green velvet ending in too many fingers or not enough fingers, along with the occasional hoof or fuzzy noodle like tentacle. She heard them call out, begging for help or demanding a phone call, screaming for relatives to come and save them. QC made a mental note to speak with the yard marshal over covering the holes with steel mesh or some other substance to stop the material from injury during transport to the facility.

The guard spoke with the driver and papers were exchanged, then the truck started up again and rumbled on its way to the holding shed. The guard returned and gave a slight half nod with a "what can you do?" grin. "I'm sorry QC, not like you were in much of a rush to get back to work anyway right?" he tapped a button and the gate began to raise.

"We all have bills to pay, and I couldn't stop thinking about work during my whole vacation," she took her car out of park and then gave a half wave to the guard. "Hope you have a good night."

"And you do the same QC," the guard lowered the gate after her car had gone through.

QC circled to the side of the lot where her parking spot sat empty. It wasn't labeled as her spot, but everyone knew it was anyway. She parked her car and looked around the mostly empty lot. The last management team had left quite a mess in their wake, and if she was honest with herself she wasn't sad to see them go. Maybe the new guy would be able to get the Rainbow Factory back on the right footing. QC turned her car off and took her work bag from the passenger seat, a backpack she kept her essentials in. She stepped out and slug the bag over her shoulder and locked her car. She didn't have to worry much about that in the past, but this was a new round of material, which meant the factory had been retooled in her absence, which meant that she would have to inspect and generate a whole new range of procedures and corrective actions for when things went wrong. As they frequently did in her line of work.

The halls were mostly empty as she stepped into the building. The cafeteria was silent save for a few souls huddled over simple meals in dark corners. HR's block of offices had been locked up for the day although QC doubted they would ever operate at the full capacity of the Factory's heyday. Automation and new technologies had eliminated the need for Man, Pony, or in this case, Puppet, power. Thus HR was more of a vestigial leftover of the good old days. Many of the offices were closed and darkened never to have another occupant. QC continued up the main hall past the locker room, bathrooms, housekeeping offices and others until she reached her own office. She plunked her bag down on the chair behind her desk, then went into the next room to turn lights on and grab her safety vest and clipboard. Her vest contained the equipment she needed to do her job and the clipboard had a storage compartment that held the rest. She pulled on a white labcoat over her safety vest and as the final touch, donned a yellow hard hat with the letters "QC" stamped on the front in black. Thus armored, she was now ready to start her shift.