Critical Error: Book 3 of the Leaving Earth series

by Kaal Alexander Rosser

  'Were you?' The Major shot the question at Grum.

  Grum sneered. 'Ask your exceptional people, Major. I'll even authorise that they can view the damned schematics of the shoddy job we had down there. I will also detail just what we tried to put in place to protect against just what happened. And how some of the board — particular directors, who I will name as behaving oddly, as if coerced — voted to cut the maintenance budget, which directly caused that explosion. Is that what you want, Major. 'Coz if so, I will pick up the phone, call Hank, and get him to courier the damn stuff anywhere you want.'

  The Major shook his head, as if sadly. 'Several times, Dr Hewson, you have come close to calling me an idiot.'

  'Very close,' Grum agreed.

  'Would it therefore surprise you to know that I, too, have a doctorate?'

  'What in? Divinity?' Oho! thought Grum. That got his back up! The Major's eyes had narrowed in anger, briefly, but his expression settled once again, into calm solemnity.

  'Particle physics.'

  'Then why are you asking me such stupid questions?' Grum ranted, absolutely enraged.

  'To get you angry. To make you say openly what you think and feel about the situation. So that you would be willing to state your suspicions to me in defence of science and what you see as a great injustice. In short, Dr Hewson, to do my job as an Air Force Intelligence Officer.'

  'Played?'

  'Like a fiddle. Sorry, but we do like to know where our money is going. We were not overly keen on USSMC as it was run by Kelvin Goldstein, but your attitude here today, as well as the actions of reparation that you have initiated through your company, certainly make me feel better about things. And just so you know. I was one of those who informed the general staff that nano- or picoscale antimatter masses would make ineffective bullets. Although, I did wonder if that was how a needler might work.'

  Grum felt his eyes widen. Another Anne McCaffrey fan? 'From Sassinak?'

  'Among others, yes.'

  'Hmm, interesting idea, but how would you create the containment cell strong enough to be a containment cell, yet fragile enough to collapse on impact?'

  Major Brown shrugged. 'I don't know that I want to find out.'

  'Fair enough. And the undue influence on USSMC's former board?'

  'Not my job, I'm afraid. To use a quote with which you will probably be familiar: "Secrets… Are not my concern. Keeping them… Is".'

  'Geek.'

  'I prefer nerd.'

  Grum bobbed his head to the side in wry agreement. 'Me too.'

  'Goodbye, Dr Hewson.'

  'Call me Grum.'

  The Major's eyes widened a little at that. 'I'm… Emmett.'

  'You're kidding?!'

  'Nope. I may be a nerd, but my mother? She was a geek. Have a nice day.'

  'You too,' said Grum to the Major's departing back.

  Chapter 17

  THE aftermath of the disaster was terrible in its extent for USSMC, but nothing in comparison to the level of distress felt by the families involved.

  Grum, as the Acting-CEO held little back about the company's failures when addressing the public, going so far as to admit that a quite new, but improperly maintained generator installation in their sub-basement had exploded.

  In the end the casualty list ran to forty one dead, seventy two critically injured, ninety two seriously injured and over three hundred with cuts and bruises.

  No monetary value could be placed upon a human life, and nothing which USSMC could do would match up to the loss it had caused. A loss which Grum felt keenly responsible for, given his hand in creating the generators. He constantly berated himself for not doing more to stop the original installation, or to have taken more notice of the service reports. He felt that he could have stopped this situation if he had read the reports more closely, and noted the drop off in regularity from the personnel assigned as service engineers to the AM generators.

  Grum, through USSMC, nevertheless tried to assuage both his guilt and the suffering of the families by offering to pay for all funeral expenses, pensions, medical and counselling expenses, and anything else which Grum could think off to hurt USSMC's coffers and benefit the families.

  Grum particularly wanted to know about Fey Sikes's condition. The little girl had been so close to death that some extreme intervention had been necessary. From what he could find out, the intervention had been so extreme as to be experimental in a lot of cases. She was alive, though. Just.

  She remained in a coma, and was undergoing what looked to Grum like major surgery almost every day. He had no idea how a body could take that kind of punishment. He wanted to call and ask Frank in Medical — one of the VPs who had survived the disaster, fortunately — about what was being done, and how they were managing to keep her alive through it all, but two things stopped him. One, he probably would not understand the answers. Two, he was scared and a little ashamed that it might be seen as a morbid curiosity. In truth, he was just desperately worried that she would not pull out of it. Even though he had given the initial orders through Mr Grey, Grum would take the opportunity on returning to USSMC's headquarters to personally reinforce those orders. Any of the victims – but Fey in particular – was to be given any kind of help, at whatever expense, to keep them alive and get them well again. USSMC would pick up the tab, or he would bankrupt the company trying.

  Grum lay back in his bed. Lights-out was not really a major feature of private rooms, but he tried to go with the flow, just to keep some order to the day.

  He could not let USSMC try to walk away from this. Now he suspected that the government had been poking their noses in, and that the board had been willing participants — most of them at least — he was going to show them just how dangerous someone with a conscience could be.

  The fact that they had willingly endangered people's lives by disregarding the generator safeguards was unforgivable, and so would not be forgiven. The families would be compensated to the best of his ability, in any way he could and fuck the consequences. He would take the structure of USSMC and wring its bloody neck until it learned that morality had a place in business. That was what he would do. That was what he needed to do. As much to salve his own conscience as to impart righteous wrath on those who deserved it.

  This much I will do, he thought, grimly.

  Chapter 18

  BOARD meetings would now be a regular part of his life, Grum realised. Hank and Tabia Barron were there, but there were more new faces, here, than just himself. Fully half the board had been killed — or presumed dead — in the disaster. Kelvin, of course, but also five of the other nine directors Grum had not known personally. These places were being filled, temporarily, by people who sat on a number of boards and were versed in governance of your average business. Ideally, to Grum's mind, each place would be filled with a permanent version of the same type, but that understood research companies rather than simple wealth-extractors.

  Governance and management played a little too well together. In fact, he was going to abuse that situation, he knew it — as both CEO and Chair — until the board elected a new Chair. He suspected that this board was going to block him, but not for the same reasons as the old one. This one would do it because they were new to the company, and did not yet understand this particular business.

  The first order of business was the motion to confirm Grum as Acting Chair and CEO. This much passed unanimously. Grum suspected that everyone in the room — including those friendly towards him — were as much avoiding a poison chalice as anything else. Grum did not care about that. Nor did he really care how long the appointment lasted. He was going to make sure that this company did the right thing for as long as he could before they ousted him.

  Next up was advising on the composition of the senior management team. Several members of that had also been lost.

  That, Grum decided, was not a useful disposition of two hours.

  Several times Grum had needed to step in when some the pre-existing b
oard member wanted to nominate a specific candidate to the C-suite. He reminded the board that they were not in management positions whilst sitting on the board. The job was governance. At most in circumstances such as these, the board should advise on the likely composition of the C-suite and senior management. Once the C-suite was ready to have their choices ratified, it was the board's job to make sure that the selections were in the best interests of the company and shareholders. That was the limit and extent of their role in this.

  He had received approving nods from the newer board members who were arguably more experienced in governance than the others. Grum also knew that he had just played them for exactly that purpose.

  The board issued some fairly generic recommendations as to how the structure should be, which amounted to little more than "find the best people to fill the same positions you had before, and see how it goes". But that was all Grum had wanted from them on that score.

  They had decided to table a detailed discussion on the disaster victims' compensation package until the meeting the following week, but Grum got a motion passed that critical or emergency care would continue to be paid by USSMC until such time as the board decided otherwise. The board agreed by a majority.

  With four abstentions. Guess which four.

  That was good enough for Grum to get started on getting the senior management in line. He had a week. He wanted to get round to see all the possible candidates and make his own mind up about them rather than relying on second hand information.

  First though, he had to have a chat with Hank. And he did not know if Hank was going to like it or not.

  'Hey, there, boss!' Hank drawled the words as soon as Grum entered the office. 'What brings you to my office?'

  'They haven't finished rebuilding mine, yet,' said Grum, shutting the door.

  Hank laughed. 'Well, come in and sit down.'

  'Why is it, Hank, that whenever anyone calls me "boss" it's sarcastically?'

  'It's your management style, Grum. You're a leader and persuader. You're not the heavy handed martinet. You probably haven't noticed those times when people do call you "boss" and mean it, because it's usually when you are angry about something.'

  Grum blinked. 'I hadn't, no.' But now that he thought about it, he could distinctly remember a few times when even Stew had called him "boss" without a trace of sarcasm. 'Hmph. I guess so.'

  'Besides. It's affectionate. That's not something a lot of managers can instil in their folks. Aaand most of the time you tell everybody to call you Grum, so they don't get much chance to use it properly.'

  'OK. I give in. I accept the correction. Now. You and I need to have a chat.'

  'I figured as much. I saw you handle the board, y'know. But I also heard what you said about management and governance. I don't disagree, but Kelvin liked his friends close at each level. You would have been put on the board in some capacity at the next AGM, I'm sure.'

  'Perhaps so, but I am aiming for complete separation.'

  'You're going to give up the Chair?'

  'I may not have the choice, Hank. I am going to do a lot of things which piss people off. But right here and now, we're talking about your roles.'

  'OK. You want me to resign from the board, is that it?'

  'Actually, no, Hank. I think you're even more valuable there than you are here. Not to diminish your achievements in this Division, but you have the right mix of experience and ethics I want on the board. Especially if I'm no longer there, if you understand me. However,' Grum held his hand up to forestall the obvious next question, 'I'm giving you the choice. It's up to you which one you give up.'

  'OK. That makes it harder, but thank you.'

  'Oh, I'm going to make it harder still. I've seen you handle two hats well. They are just the wrong hats. So I'm offering you this: stay on the management team as VP of Space Division, and take on the job of setting up what I'm tentatively calling the R&D Division with Stew and Steve Branch.' Grum saw Hank's eyes widen and glitter with suppressed excitement. 'Or, stay on the board, but lose your special responsibility to Research, and instead create and chair the R&D governance committee, as well as joining any other committees who will tolerate your ethics.' Now Grum saw conflict and doubt.

  'You don't like making it easy, do you?'

  'For someone of your calibre? It'd be an insult.'

  Hank laughed, again. 'Flatterer.'

  'If you choose to remain on the board, know that I am intending to remove and special responsibilities from all individuals, and will be replacing them with committees. That includes things like removing the title of HR director and setting up a compensation committee, for example. Also, I'm not intending that this should happen in one week. You'll have time to choose your successor and get them ratified by the board.'

  'Oh, I think you know who I'd choose!,' Hank said, and winked.

  Grum composed himself into a poker face. 'I'm sure I don't, in fact.'

  'Oh, come on…'

  'Apropos of nothing in particular…' Grum interrupted loudly, over the top of Hank, before could say anything disastrous. 'Did I ever tell you exactly why Vann didn't want to work for me any longer?'

  That stopped Hank in his tracks, and he eyed Grum, curiously. 'No. I don't think you ever did. Ready to tell?'

  'She didn't want to follow me up the management chain, Hank. She wanted her role to be one where she could get her teeth into an engineering problem every day. Be careful to promote those who want the management role and can do it, Hank. We don't need any resentful veeps around.'

  'Very interesting, Grum,' Hank said, his eyes narrowing with calculation. 'And point taken, I assure you.'

  'Great. Well, I'll leave that decision with you. I'd appreciate knowing which way you're leaning when you decide, but it doesn't have to be by the next board meeting, like I said.'

  'OK, Grum. I'll think on it.'

  'Bye for now, then.'

  Grum left Hank's office and headed back for his own.

  Technically, he was Schroedinger’s veep. He both was and was not VP Core Power. In USSMC's corporate structure CEO was synonymous with President of the Company, even though no-one used the title. Grum was glad of that because he thought it sounded idiotic. So if he was CEO, he could not be a vice-president, but he was the Division Head of Core Power, which was a VP role. So, one of the things he had to do, post-haste, was find someone to take over Core Power. The obvious choice was Stew, even though it smacked of nepotism, and he was happy running SyncDep. But SyncDep was going away. Parts of it would be subsumed into the new R&D Division, and parts would disappear inside Core Business.

  Chapter 19

  JUST as he put his hand on the door handle to enter his old office, he thought a new thought.

  Should Core Power even be in existence any more?

  That was a bit of a shock to the system. It was right to think it, of course. That's the only way you get to examine new perspectives. You come up with an idea, then test it, examine the evidence, and draw a conclusion. So if the claim was that Core Power as a Division now had no validity, what were the tests?

  Well, what was a Division? This was business and not science, so that was somewhat woolly. You could have a Division like Space which technically did not have any departments within it, just a collection of programmes and projects, but they were so huge that it rated Divisional status. Leaving Core Power aside for the moment as that was the Division under evaluation, there were Divisions like Medical and Core Business which were chock full of highly specialised departments all belonging to an obvious family. That's why some of the functions of SyncDep belonged in Core Business. They were common resources for the business as a whole, regardless of specialism. In fact, the only point of definite commonality Grum could find was that a Division had a VP at its head, and to head up a Division you needed to be a VP. Not very good as a definition.

  So, how should a Division be defined? Better still, is it the wrong question? Space could easily just rename most of its perp
etual programmes as departments and it would function like any other Division, so was that the definition, then. Regardless of the subdivisions within it, a Division was a grouping of functions which "belonged" together? Grum really did not want to go into the definition of "belong", and the business would never understand why he felt it necessary if he did. But then, there was a department within Medical which dealt with space research as it related to the human body. Things like… Spores and radiation effects and stuff. Grum was not entirely certain exactly what they did. No branch of biology had ever been his strong suit. You wanted the decay rates and emission profile of the different isotopes of Radon? No problem. How they affected the human body? Er… Badly?

  But that was by the by. Why was that department in medical and not Space? Because it was medical research on space related matters, not the other way around. The primary function was medical, and so taxonomically, it fit under the Medical Division. OK. Now Grum felt he was getting somewhere. So. Examine Core Power for this feature. Does it exist? Kinda, yes. All of the departments under Core Power were related primarily to some kind of power generation technology. Now, as a matter of expediency, he and Hank had stuck the nuclear research programmes under Space to get them out of the reach of the old board, but that was not really an argument, now.

  So everything under Core Power was in the right place, at least according to the name of the thing. But, there was another aspect. All these pigs were not equal. Fission and Solar — in fact most of the renewables — were definitely all about the generation of power with existing technology, but Fusion? Gravitics? Even the fifth generation fission programmes. They were all R&D, and belonged in that Division, most assuredly. But if that was true, what about the rest? Well, the rest was pretty much the Nevada Antimatter Power Facility. Except that was not producing power directly. It was producing products which produced power. So did the Nevada Facility even belong in Core Power any more? It was more a manufacturing plant than anything else these days, and would become even more so if the R&D moved to the new Division, so… Not, then. Really "Core Power" should really only own the utility-level generation technology.