116 lines
5.6 KiB
Plaintext
116 lines
5.6 KiB
Plaintext
From: Koenraad Gertodtenhaupt <kgertodtenhaupt@ross128-ventures.com>
|
|
To: Soloviev, Nikolaos <nikolaos.soloviev@voortrekker.com>
|
|
Delivered-To: Soloviev, Nikolaos <nikolaos.soloviev@voortrekker.com>
|
|
Received: from qec4.helio.earthsys.gov
|
|
by qec.sv14417
|
|
with ESMTPS id sf66xrm9zcgfgi
|
|
for <nikolaos.soloviev@voortrekker.com>
|
|
Received: from relay1.qec5.ganymede.earthsys.gov
|
|
by qec4.helio.earthsys.gov
|
|
Received: from relay2.qec1.rs001.l4.earthsys.gov
|
|
by relay1.qec5.ganymede.earthsys.gov
|
|
Received: from outbound.exclusiveservices.net
|
|
by relay9.local.rs001.l4.earthsys.gov
|
|
Date: 06 Sep 2421 07:47:22 +0000
|
|
Date-Local: 23 Mar 2419 11:11:22 +0000
|
|
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf8"
|
|
Subject: Get your house in order
|
|
|
|
Kolya. What is going on out there?
|
|
|
|
To your earlier question: I have your reports. I don't see anything
|
|
in them that excuses such a shocking lack of concern for your
|
|
fiduciary responsibility to your shareholders and ours.
|
|
|
|
Yes, the circumstances of your landing on Ross 128 b were
|
|
suboptimal. The ship wasn't meant to crash like that. Allowances
|
|
have been made...but, speaking in all frankness here, the
|
|
information we have about the circumstances of that crash itself
|
|
gives us to question your priorities. And worse.
|
|
|
|
Look, Kolya, I'm sorry to have to say this so plainly. I wouldn't
|
|
say it at all if you didn't need to know. But our analysts, and
|
|
those over at the Expedition Support Program, have been over the
|
|
SCARS data from Voortrekker with a fine-tooth comb, and they are
|
|
unanimous that it can only be the result of extensive failures in
|
|
maintenance procedures during the trip.
|
|
|
|
Put simply, the board has begun to question your competence in your
|
|
role. Put bluntly, they think you went space-happy and got
|
|
careless, and let your people get careless, and ultimately let
|
|
seven hundred of them get killed and let the survivors get sick, go
|
|
nuts, and imperil every last cent of the billions that went into
|
|
sending you all out there in the first place.
|
|
|
|
They want to replace you. They'd have issued the orders already,
|
|
except that we haven't heard from your deputy and we don't know
|
|
who's still alive out there. They're going to hold off until they
|
|
can be reasonably sure they won't be making things out there still
|
|
worse by acting. But as soon as they can, Kolya, they'll pull the
|
|
plug on you.
|
|
|
|
Unless, that is, you get your house in order before then. You've
|
|
got a little time - but only a little. If you're going to stay on
|
|
top, you need to use that time wisely. If, when all this shakes
|
|
out, you can show the board that you've acted in their interests
|
|
and produced a result that's conducive to their investments
|
|
successfully maturing, then they'll be as positively disposed to
|
|
you as they are negatively so now.
|
|
|
|
They don't care who's in charge out there - only that whoever it is
|
|
looks after their interests. If you can show them you're doing
|
|
that, then they'll be fine letting you keep your job. But I'm
|
|
telling you right now, you'd better do a goddamned stellar job of
|
|
it. Because right now, I can tell you, there is very little worse
|
|
they could be thinking and saying about you than they already are.
|
|
|
|
Damn it, Kolya, we've worked well together in the past, and I'm
|
|
telling you this in the hopes that maybe you'll straighten up and
|
|
fly right before it's too late. This latest message from what's
|
|
left of your ship, from whoever it was who wrote all that nonsense
|
|
about love and friendship and so forth...And your private key
|
|
getting compromised! How the hell did that happen? Have you lost
|
|
all sight of security? Have you had a snowden on board for 25 years
|
|
and never realized? What is going on?
|
|
|
|
At this point we can only assume that nothing that's been entrusted
|
|
to you is safe. And I don't have to explain to you in detail why my
|
|
board finds that a frightening prospect. These are powerful men and
|
|
women, Kolya. They don't like being frightened, and they're apt to
|
|
behave rashly when they become so. Right now, they've got plenty to
|
|
be concerned about already. These treaty rumors that keep going
|
|
around - if something like that happens, it'll destabilize the
|
|
entire system. Idiot colonists thinking they can go their own way
|
|
without consequence, and the government's response is likely to be
|
|
intemperate. And on top of all that, you're scaring the hell out of
|
|
them, and that could be a problem for all of us.
|
|
|
|
Get your house in order. Do it quickly and completely. Don't let
|
|
any more weird nonsense, or any more leaks, come out of your
|
|
people. Take them in hand and keep them that way. Make sure they
|
|
understand what consequences it could have for their contracts if
|
|
they keep acting out in ways that we hear about back home. No one
|
|
cares what they get up to among themselves as long as they remember
|
|
to do their jobs and don't scare people back here. They can have
|
|
all the love-ins they want, and their families can keep getting
|
|
paid every week, as long as we don't hear about it, and they do the
|
|
work they contracted to do. Otherwise...well, it won't be a good
|
|
situation for anyone. Tell them. Make them understand.
|
|
|
|
And you get yourself in order, too. I don't know what you think
|
|
you've been doing out there up to now, but you need to remember
|
|
that discipline, as well as its converse, flows down from the
|
|
top. You've been in charge of these people for 25 years. If you
|
|
show them that playtime is over, they'll follow you.
|
|
|
|
You don't have much time. But it's enough, if you get to work right
|
|
now. I hope you will, Kolya. But you need to understand that I'll
|
|
act in the interests of Ross 128 Ventures. Don't put me in the
|
|
position of having to do something we'll both regret.
|
|
|
|
Koenraad Gertodtenhaupt
|
|
Senior Vice President, Business Development
|
|
Ross 128 Ventures, LLC
|
|
"Developing new worlds"
|
|
kgertodtenhaupt@ross128-ventures.com
|