From: Koenraad Gertodtenhaupt

To: Soloviev, Nikolaos

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Date: 06 Sep 2421 07:47:22 +0000

Date-Local: 23 Mar 2419 11:11:22 +0000

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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