From: Koenraad Gertodtenhaupt To: Soloviev, Nikolaos Delivered-To: Soloviev, Nikolaos Received: from qec4.helio.earthsys.gov by qec.sv14417 with ESMTPS id sf66xrm9zcgfgi for 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 gemini://cosmic.voyage/Voortrekker/8-get-your-house-in-order.txt

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