“Let’s say our soldiers are out in the cold, advancing on the enemy. It’s bitterly cold. The rifle, of course, is out in the cold. But the magazines are in combat vest pockets, and the combat vest is under the soldier’s cold-weather gear. He doesn’t want the mags getting all wet and dirty. So when he reloads, the rifle is at minus twenty degrees, and the magazine, which has been up against his body, inside his cold weather outer garment, is at, say, seventy degrees. That’s not an unusual situation with the heated outer gear he’s probably wearing.
“So he needs to reload. And the warm magazine has to load into the cold rifle.
“Or the other scenario. Everybody is inside somewhere, where it’s warm. And they get re-supply. And the magazines and cartridges have been on a truck overnight to their location, and they’re all at minus twenty degrees. And those cold cartridges have to load into the cold magazines, and the cold magazines have to load into the warm rifles.
“So, really, everything has to be tested where any of the parts can be at any of the temperatures in the operating range, and they all still have to work.”
“And that testing got dropped?”
“That testing got dropped from the test plan. The rifles are tested across the temperature range, but the magazines and cartridges are always at the same temperature as the rifle.”
“So will it work in the field if they’re not?”
“Don’t know. You can’t know, because it’s outside the test envelope. But I suspect they won’t.”
“Why?”
“At some point I learned that the test plans as originally drawn up were provided to the manufacturers, and the manufacturers commented back on the test plans. Basically, they requested leaving out any test conditions where they knew their design wouldn’t pass. So the fact that testing under those conditions was dropped virtually guarantees they won’t work under those conditions. Not reliably. And the manufacturers know it.”
“Why would your bosses accept those changes?”
“Because they were getting paid by the manufacturers to change them.”
“Damn. We assumed that the testing was being corrupted.”
“No, it’s more insidious than that. The designs all pass testing with flying colors. It’s the test plans themselves that have been compromised.”
“OK, back to you, Vash. So at some point, you got a bad appraisal and got passed over for promotion.”
“Yeah. The managers can’t sign off on test plans. Only a senior QA process engineer can do that. Once I made senior QA process engineer, I was in the sign-off group. My supervisor asked me to sign-off on a test plan that had been buggered at the request of and, I assume, payment by the manufacturer. It left a huge hole in the test envelope. And I said no.
“So I got a bad performance appraisal. It said I wasn’t a team player. And I got passed over for promotion at my next anniversary. They promoted other people who were more willing to go along with the nonsense. So I went into my boss’s boss’s office and told him to go fuck himself and I left.”
Medved reddened.
“Sorry, but Fiona said to be honest, and that’s what I said.”
Cavanah chuckled.
“That’s OK, Vash. I’ve heard the word before.”
He grinned at her and she grinned back.
“Wow. That’s a heck of a story. But when you left, you didn’t go to work for one of the weapons manufacturers. You went into kitchen appliances instead. Why?”
“Gary, who was paying the QA bosses to bugger the test plans?”
“Ah. Got it.”
Cavanah got a distracted look for a moment as he consulted his VR.
“Well, that’s all I have, Vash. Unless there’s something else you want to tell me.”
“Just that I hope you get this fixed. We’re sending our people out there with compromised weapons, and, having signed up to put their lives on the line, they deserve better.”
“We’ll do what we can, Vash.”
“So what happened at the Imperial Palace today?” Deepak Gupta asked when Medved got home that evening.
“They wanted to know why I quit, so I told them.”
“You told them everything?”
“Yes. I even told them about going in to Fairfield’s office and telling him to go fuck himself.”
“Wow. I hope nothing bad comes of this.”
“What can they do? Fire me?”
New Building, New Hires
Swimming laps and then lazing around the pool with Sean, Bobby, and Cindy was one of the high points of Dee’s day. It was one of the best ways to release the tension of the day.
“How are the interviews going?” Dee asked.
“Good. Lots of interesting things we’re learning, actually,” Cindy said.
“Like what?”
“Lots of things, but there’s one interview in particular I think you should watch.”
Cindy looked around at Sean and Bobby.
“All of you, actually,” Cindy said.
“Well, send it to us. We’re all here now to talk about it,” Dee said.
“All right.”
Cindy pushed the recording of the interview with Vasilisa Medved to all three of the others in VR, then waited while they watched it.
“I like her eloquence,” Bobby said with a chuckle when it was over.
“She certainly calls a spade a spade,” Sean said.
“She probably calls it a fuckin’ shovel. Gotta love those redheads,” Bobby said.
“Maybe we should search all personnel records for complaints that someone isn’t a team player, and fire the supervisor who wrote it and promote the employee,” Sean said. “It’s just another way to say, ‘Didn’t follow stupid orders.’”
“If the team is up to no good, you may have a point,” Dee said.
“What I think is most interesting is it looks like the thing that may be most corrupted in weapons acquisition isn’t the testing, but the test plans,” Cindy said. “That wasn’t even on our radar. And it’ll be difficult to find and correct. The intermediate paperwork probably doesn’t exist anymore.”
“Sure it does,” Dee said. “The manufacturers have to keep all the communications in both directions on weapons programs. We learned that during the M132 litigation.”
“Well, then, we should probably go after those communications on all the test plans,” Cindy said. “Then we could reconstitute what the test plans should have been.”
“I’ll talk to Bob Finn and George Pullman about it,” Dee said. “They’ll know how to go about it. In the meantime, are we going to try to hire Ms. Medved?”
“Oh, yes. She’s been in the belly of the beast, right in the middle of weapons acquisition. She knows what’s really going on.”
“Good,” Dee said. “I’ll want to talk with her at some point.”
“Before we hire her, or after?”
“After, I think. Unless you have trouble closing the deal on the hire.”
“OK. I’ll let you know.”
“What’s with you? You look like you saw a ghost,” Deepak Gupta said when Vasilisa Medved got home several nights later.
“I got a request from the Imperial Palace to interview for a position on Her Majesty’s staff,” Medved said.
“I thought they said it wasn’t a job interview.”
“It wasn’t. This is.”
“Wow. Apparently they don’t mind people being plain-spoken.”
“Apparently not. The question is, should I take the interview or not. I don’t know that I want to get sucked into all that again. They appreciate me where I am now.”
“Sure, take the interview. Why not? An interview is not a decision. Besides, this is unfinished business for you. You still brood about it.”
“I suppose. I can always say no, after all.”
“There you go. See what happens.”
Medved had interviewed with three different people about the project they were working on, to try and figure out how to fix
the broken weapons acquisition process. There was one last person to talk to, and she was led into an unoccupied office and asked to wait there.
It was only a few minutes later that a pretty woman in her early thirties breezed into the office, flopped in the chair behind the desk, and said, “Hi. I’m Cindy.”
“Vasilisa Medved. Call me Vash.”
“So, Vash, what do you think?”
“About what?”
“About the job, about what we’re doing, or trying to do.”
“I’m not sure. It’s going to be tough. There is a – what do you call it? – a hardness to the thing. That people would knowingly tamper with test plans for money, knowing people’s lives are at stake. They have no feeling of shame or burden of guilt about it at all. That’s what makes it so difficult. It’s not like you can shame them into behaving. Or into caring about other people other than themselves. I just don’t know if I’m willing to go fight in that trench again.”
Cindy nodded.
“OK. I understand that. There’s one more person you need to talk to, then we’ll let you go. And thanks for coming in today. While you have me, do you have any questions for me?”
“Well, one thing I noticed is that it’s awfully crowded. The workspaces and all. I don’t know how some of your people get anything done.”
“That’s temporary. We’ve been hiring like crazy, and the building next door has taken a year to build. We won’t be crowded long, though. We’re moving a lot of this effort into the new building over the next two weeks. By the time you would start, you would have an office next door.”
“Oh, well. That solves that problem.”
“Any other questions, Vash?”
“Not right now, Cindy.”
“OK, so. One more person to go.”
Cindy jumped up out of the chair and went to the door in the back of the office. She motioned Medved along with her, but stopped with her hand on the doorknob.
“Just call her ‘Your Majesty’ the first time you talk to her. After that, Ma’am is fine.”
And with that Cindy opened the door.
“Ms. Medved is here, Your Majesty.”
And Medved found herself in the Empress’s office.
Dee looked up to see Cindy holding the door for a startled young woman with blazing red hair who had that deer in the headlights look. She really would have to ask Cindy to stop springing her on people like that. She waved to a chair in front of her desk.
“Please be seated, Ms. Medved.”
“Uh, yes. Um. Yes, Your Majesty.”
Medved walked tentatively to the chair and sat down. She looked like she would jump up and flee the room if startled.
“Ms. Medved, I am aware that meeting me can be somewhat unnerving for people, especially since Ms. Dunham appears to have popped you in here without warning. But I sat in that very chair myself many times, up until only a year ago, before the Empress Ilithyia I. So I would ask you to please just relax. Everything’s fine. We’re just going to have a little chat.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
Medved took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She settled down, seemed less nervous, less ready to bolt.
“Much better, Ms. Medved. We OK now?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“Good. I wanted to talk with you today because I wanted to impress upon you how important this effort is, and how much we need you. Weapons acquisition is a huge problem, made worse by the fact that we have so little visibility into it. The bureaucracy has actively tried to keep us from finding out about how it works, or, perhaps better, doesn’t work.
“At the same time, our spacers and Imperial Marines swear loyalty to the Throne. We owe it to them to make sure they have weapons that work properly. That they do not, and that it is because we have people testing those weapons who are willing to compromise their lives for Imperial credits, angers me more than a little. My husband and my brother were both almost killed in the catastrophic failure of M132 Osmium Drivers in the field.”
“I didn’t know that, Ma’am.”
“It was almost five years ago now, on Wollaston. The explosions killed twenty-four of my Imperial Marines and wounded eighteen more.”
“I heard about that, Ma’am. I didn’t know your husband and brother were involved.”
“My husband was the platoon leader of the platoon that got chewed up in the explosions, and my brother was the company XO, who was on an inspection visit to the gun emplacement when the battle started.
“Ms. Medved, I don’t want that sort of thing happening any more. But I can’t fix it myself. I have lots of smart, dedicated people here, but you’ve been on the inside of the process. We need you so we can get to the bottom of this and fix it once and for all. While I know you must have some hesitation about getting involved in it again, I would take it as a personal favor if you would help me do that.”
“I – I’ll think about it, Ma’am.”
“I can’t ask for more than that. Know that you will have my support. And you won’t be over there, in the Defense Department. You’ll be here, in the Imperial Palace, on my personal staff. But do please think about it, Ms. Medved. I need you.”
“Yes, Ma’am. Thank you, Ma’am.”
Dee pushed an icon on a plate set into her desk. Cindy appeared at the door.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Ms. Dunham, please show Ms. Medved to the next stop on her itinerary today.”
“Yes, Ma’am. Come with me, Vash.”
“Goodbye, Ma’am.”
“Good day, Ms. Medved.”
“Mr. Iverson is here, Your Majesty.”
“Show him in, Mr. Perrin.”
Harold Iverson, Dee’s business manager, came in to the office.
“Good morning, Mr. Iverson.”
“Good morning, Your Majesty. Are you ready for the tour?”
“Yes. Mr. Perrin, is everyone else ready? Has Ms. Dunham returned from seeing Ms. Medved out?”
“Yes, Ma’am. Everyone’s ready.”
“All right then. Let’s go, Mr. Iverson.”
“Yes Ma’am.”
The whole entourage met up in the elevator lobby. It was Dee, Iverson, Perrin, Cindy, Bobby, Sean, and four Imperial Guardsmen that headed down to the sub-basement transfer level in the elevator. Another even dozen Imperial Guardsmen met them in the sub-basement elevator lobby.
“This way, Ma’am,” Iverson said, gesturing to a slidewalk.
“This is all new, isn’t it, Mr. Iverson?”
“The slidewalks? Yes, Ma’am. We installed them in both directions, into the Imperial Council building as well as into the new Imperial Research building.”
“Very nice.”
Dee looked around as they transferred between the buildings.
“Are those blast doors, Mr. Iverson?”
“Yes, Ma’am. All three buildings are now separated by double blast doors, one at each foundation wall. If there is a fire or issue with one building, it can be sealed off from the others.”
“But blast doors, Mr. Iverson?”
“If a burning building collapses, Ma’am, it can create a powerful pressure wave down the connecting tunnel.”
“Ah. I see. Thank you, Mr. Iverson.”
They rode through the basement of the Imperial Palace, through the foundation wall of the Palace into the connecting tunnel, then through the foundation wall of the Imperial Research building and through its basement to the central elevator lobby.
“Through these doors, Ma’am, is the people-mover station.”
They all walked out onto the platform for the people mover. There was a car waiting there.
“This station now connects to the rest of the buildings in Imperial Park, Mr. Iverson?”
“Yes, Ma’am. It’s just another stop.”
“And another set of blast doors?”
“Yes, Ma’am. It’s the same issue. We’ve retrofitted them to the Imperial Palace and Imperial Council building people mover
stations as well.
“Very good.”
They went on up to the public lobby and the first-floor central courtyard, then the upstairs offices, the meeting rooms, the apartments, the cafeterias. All brand new and sparkling. Workmen were finishing up installing cafeteria equipment in the cafeterias, even as others were bringing tables and chairs up from the loading dock on wheeled carts.
“So this is the last bit before people can move in, Mr. Iverson?”
“Yes, Ma’am. The food handling equipment has to go in at the very last. You don’t want it to be contaminated with construction debris.”
“Understood. Very good, Mr. Iverson. It looks like we can move in on schedule. Very well done.”
“Thank you, Ma’am.”
“Does anyone else have any questions?”
No one else had any questions, and they reversed their path and headed back to the basement and the slidewalk to the Imperial Palace.
Once Dee was safely back in the upper floors of the Imperial Palace, the Imperial Guard stood down to their normal operational tempo.
“So what happened?” Deepak Gupta asked when Vasilisa Medved got home that evening after a half-day at her normal job.
“Well, they’re going to make me an offer, but I don’t know if I’m going to take it. I’m really torn. It’s good to be done with all that, but she was very persuasive,” Medved said.
“She? She who?”
“The Empress.”
“The Empress? You met personally with the Empress?”
“Yes. She told me they really need me to clean up the weapons acquisition process, and she would take it as a personal favor if I took the job.”
“Wow. Oh, my gosh, wow. That is something.”
“Yeah, I know. And she’s so nice, and she needs the help so badly. I just don’t know. It’s such a tawdry business, and they’re such bastards over there.”
“But you would not be working over there. You would be working in the palace, yes?” Gupta asked.
“In the new building next door, actually. But yes, I would not be working over there.”
“There you go then. How is it, by the way. Is it nice?”
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