Critical Error: Book 3 of the Leaving Earth series

by Kaal Alexander Rosser

  'Fair to say,' Steve grinned.

  'Are you sure it would cause too much bother if we said we were only building on the moon?'

  'Funnily enough, yes. The public can be touchy about the moon. Everyone knows it's a lifeless ball of rock, and the majority are in favour of someone returning and setting up camp. But if you mention mining to them, the percentage goes way down.'

  'But you'd need to mine for oxygen, aluminium, all sorts.'

  'I know, but your average person doesn't think about that. They hear mining and think about all the strip mining done last century, or the popular image of a quote-unquote dirty coal mine. So their minds make a link between that and the moon and see the moon getting dirtied up. Not good. Mention putting something which is reviled by more than half the populace — nuclear power — on the moon, and there would be uproar.'

  'I never realised.'

  'That's because you're a scientist, Grum. And don't forget your own reaction to using nuclear power. It's a valid gauge of non-specialist opinion, which tends to run on gut feeling, just like everyone else's.'

  'So, we build them first and when people find out they are up there, just turn round and say "how did you think we would power the place"?'

  'Pretty much. It's always easier to ask forgiveness, especially if we have managed to do something which balances it in the minds of most of the populace. Like build out the moon base, or create enough antimatter to power spaceships to visit other worlds. That kind of thing is so big and impressive that most people will accept a bit of sacrifice.'

  'No pressure, then,' said Grum.

  'Bah,' said Stew. 'You enjoy the pressure. You get off on it.'

  Grum scowled. 'I do not.'

  'If I were you, I'd sue your face for libel,' said Steve. 'In any case. If that covers this off, I have to get going and actually do what we've been talking about.'

  'OK, Steve, thank you. If you could stay for a bit, though Stew, I have other programme stuff to talk to you about.'

  'OK, boss,' said Stew, not moving from his seat.

  'See you anon, Grum.' Steve got up and left the office, closing the door behind him.

  'So, what's this about, Grum?' asked Stew.

  'I think I know the game the board are playing.'

  'Well, that's got to be a good thing, right?'

  'I don't think so. I think that they are vindictively following my lead.'

  'I don't get it.'

  'You know that I have heavily emphasised areas of profit-making, or at least positive cash-flow within the organisation in order to convince the board to authorise expenditure?'

  'Sure.'

  'Well, I have just had this heads-up from Kelvin.' Rather than put the email onto the main screen, Grum turned his desk monitor a little, so Stew could partially see it. Stew leaned closer and read.

  " CONFIDENTIAL. INTERNAL ONLY.

  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

  Subject: Good news! We're stepping up our game!

  When Kelvin Goldstein formed USSMC in 2017, it was a bold and game-changing move. Everyone knew that it would require massive investment, and a longer-than-normal period of pure research and development.

  In that time we, as a company, have achieved great things — but as a business, we never made a profit.

  We are please to say that, due in large part to the actions and leadership of Grum Hewson (VP Core Power), we now have business lines which build on those years of time, effort and investment to bring us closer to the goal of profitability, which we're sure we all support.

  The company will now refocus its efforts on those areas capable of producing profit for the business, with the aim of reaching the self-sustaining profitability which is the goal of any business.

  We congratulate Grum and his team on making this path possible, and look forward to a future filled with brighter market opportunities.

  Kind regards,

  USSMC Board of Directors"

  'Shit,' said Stew.

  'Yup. They are moving from the R&D phase — which I admit has been longer than normal — to the operational phase. But they are doing so without regard of how we got here, nor how that can be supported.

  'But that will damage the business, won't it?'

  'For sure. I suspect it is a reaction to my giving away IP… Well, not giving away, sharing… But the board just see a loss of leveragable assets from the balance sheet, even though they weren't actually usable in any meaningful sense. Ah, and there's a follow up from our CEO.' Grum opened the second email.

  "Grum,

  I see you've read the internal release. Just to be sure you're clear: refocus on profit, means cutting R&D.

  KG"

  'Yeah,' said Stew, 'I think we got that.'

  'He's making a point. And this is what I mean about vindictively following my lead. They have moved to an operational model without allowing for the fact that much of the profitability has a very short pipeline from R&D to product. They have also inextricably linked me with the coming cuts.'

  'They are better than the old VP was at this.'

  'Definitely. I may be out of my depth, here.

  'So what do we do?'

  'Our turn for some damage limitation. We need to ring-fence any research which is directly supporting the real goals.'

  'Real goals?'

  'Like I said before, the profits we can make from the current products are peanuts. The board knows this, and they know that this drive for short-term profit will damage the company, but it will also probably get rid of me. The real goals have to be Hank's top line projects and ours. Those are where the company can seriously steal a march over every other business out there.'

  'But if they know it…'

  'It'll delay results by a year, maybe. At which time, they will say something along the lines of "Grum and his team were too aggressive. We applaud, but someone more stable at the helm…", or similar.'

  'Risky,' said Stew, glaring at his coffee.

  'Yes, but they have obviously taken the view that I'm more risky to their position and influence.'

  'So, we follow their lead?'

  'Exactly. Turn about is fair play. We're going to have to move things about, and we probably will have to cut some things back. In fact, we definitely will. That is gonna hurt.'

  'You don't say. Everything SyncDep does is facilitating R&D.'

  Grum looked solemnly at Stew. 'I know, mate. And I'm going to have to lean heavily on you to find the biggest budget cuts with the least damage. I'm going to have to make the case that the most efficient streamlining tool we have is SyncDep, but we'll have to be able to back that up. Micro-moves and macro-cuts. If we can move all the research directly supporting the active nuclear power programmes into one "fourth-level support group" and then cut the R&D groups, for example, that will help. Shifting a couple of people around but cutting whole programmes or departments will also help. I suspect that the whole of the fusion department will have to go despite them being involved in a high profile international programme. But if we can negotiate with the governing body of that programme to pay for the staff and resources, in exchange for free access to our research materials, do it. Ideally, we'd save money but lose nothing. I don't think that will be achievable, however.'

  'Nor do I. Does USSMC have a programme for supporting redundant workers? Helping them re-skill or get new jobs, that kind of thing?'

  'Find out. Some of the other employee benefits are very generous — as we personally know — so maybe there is one. If so, we need to make it squeak for every worker we have to cut.'

  'Won't that be expensive? Isn't this a money drive?'

  'They don't really care about the expenditure. It's an excuse. This is a political play, and as usual in politics, they are playing with people's lives.'

  'So what does that say about you? You're in the game, too.'

  'It makes me reluctant, Stew. It also makes me angry. But the board have made the announcement and linked me to it. I can't stop that. I can try and cra
ft a Division-wide message to counteract as much of the board's message as possible, but it's damage done. The only choice now is limitation.'

  'You could go to Kelvin…'

  'If he let this pass, then he had no choice, and neither do we. Let's focus on limiting the damage. Both to the people who work for us, and our position. The two are very much linked, at this point.'

  'I'll get on it.'

  'As will I.'

  Chapter 12

  IN Grum's message to Core Power, he tried to distance himself from the board's decision, and to say that he would work to mitigate what everyone must feel was an attack on their very purpose. As a researcher, himself, he knew how they felt.

  Then he started making cuts. It was painful. SyncDep had identified projects and even individual researchers who had not significantly contributed to anything for years. Those he did not have too hard a time letting go. They probably should have gone already. There were others, though, who were active, and producing papers and/or experimental results, but in a field that he could not parley into a support role. Those were harder to deal with.

  Ironically, by making whole departments, programmes, or projects redundant, it made it easier for Grum to give compensation. By making a "without prejudice" agreement — which was legalese for "we agree not to say anything bad about each other" — in addition to, or instead of, the redundancy payment, he was also able to improve compensation. USSMC did have a limited retraining and "displaced worker" support programme, but… Like most such programmes it did not help people all that much.

  Grum did not know which one of these actions got him invited to a board meeting, again. It could have been a combination or all of them. Either way, he was brought before a very smug — with the notable exceptions of Kelvin, Hank, and Tabia Barron the medical research director — board and complimented on his willingness to embrace the board's direction. However, the board had noticed that a change in priorities seemed to have taken place at the Nevada Antimatter Power Facility in contravention to the board's previous instructions, and could he explain that.

  So, Grum did. He laid out his reasoning that this schedule maintained the priority for the number of orders confirmed by each of the sectors specified by the board, but happily allowed for an increased production in the number of orders able to be filled for USSMC's internal high-priority programmes.

  As Grum had expected. The board issued more specific instructions "for the avoidance of doubt" on precisely what they wanted prioritised. It was not logical, and it was certainly detrimental to the overall efficiency of the facility, but Grum saw what they were doing.

  Partly, they were putting him back in his box — or trying to — and they were trying to hamstring Hank's influence. Additionally, this would decrease the influence of the medical research director and Kelvin, as well.

  No pressure, then.

  Their orders were to prioritise, as per the company statement on profitability, the profitable accounts and only allow USSMC-internal orders to be filled when and if there was a break in the schedule to allow for such.

  That, Grum knew, was crazy. He tried to find a loophole he could exploit, and could not see any. So, he decided to try and make one.

  Could the board clarify what they meant by both "priority" and "orders"? Because both conditions were being met at the moment, technically, and for the further avoidance of doubt, he would appreciate guidance.

  Certainly, they said. Commercial products should be prioritised over everything else until market demand was met. Then the largest units for the governmental orders were to be prioritised. Then USSMC-internal programmes could be serviced in the spare time, if any such existed. Was that clear enough?

  Certainly it was, and he thanked the board for their consideration.

  Chapter 13

  TERRIBLE situation. They knew the full demand profile for the commercial market, and it could easily chew up half of the output for any given year. The governmental orders were mainly for the largest possible pods, which were the slowest to produce, and so would definitely eat up the rest of the time. It was utterly nonsensical. So, the only option was to take the direction literally and make it even more nonsensical.

  His email to Ben outlined the "guidance" the board had given, and his interpretation. Ben was to cease any and all production which was not filling the commercial market profile, the entire facilities capacity was to be turned towards that end, until the profile was met. At that point, the entire production capacity was to be put to filling the governmental orders, starting with the largest units. Should any spare capacity exist at any point, the normal USSMC-internal orders could be filled as best he saw fit.

  He was expecting the call and got it.

  'What the actual…'

  'I know Ben. I'm sorry.'

  'But… Look, I don't care from Actuarial Compliance, this is straight out dumb!'

  'I know this, you know this, but this is what is going to happen.'

  'But why?'

  'Ben, you've seen the memo from the board. You've seen what they are ordering the VPs to do to their Divisions, especially the research-heavy ones like ours. You've felt the effects yourself.'

  Ben growled down the phone. 'I am not happy, Grum. Neither are a lot of the staff. They don't see themselves as support technicians, and nor do I.'

  'Me either, Ben, but I cannot buck the board on this, you know the position they've put me in. I can only show them their folly. Please believe me that I am trying to get through this with as little harm as possible to all concerned.'

  'Because we've been through so much, Grum, I'll believe you. But this kind of thing makes it really difficult.'

  'I know, Ben. I wish I could see another way.'

  'I'll do it. But there will be fallout.'

  'I'm aware, Ben.'

  Ben sighed. 'Another thing. Have you seen the news, lately. We're all over it and we don't look good.'

  'Nevada?'

  'No. USSMC. It's the anti-nuke protests.'

  'I didn't know it was any worse.'

  'Oh it is. Take a look.'

  'I will. Thanks for the heads-up.'

  'Sure thing.' Ben hung up and Grum immediately went to try and find what Ben had warned him about.

  It was true. The protests had escalated. Not just a few people outside the facilities any more. There had been mass demonstrations, and demands for USSMC to only make and use renewable power.

  There was a Steve-a-like from USSMC talking about the technical differences between old nuclear power and the current designs, and inviting anyone who wanted to learn about the difference to find out at USSMC's website.

  The worst thing was that there had been a clash between protesters and the police at one of the fourth generation test sites. Protesters had thrown bottles filled with some unknown liquid — but Grum could guess — at cars going in and out of the site. Police had been deployed in riot gear. There had been injuries.

  Grum messaged Steve, immediately.

  Call me.

  Coming to you.

  Well, fine, thought Grum. That way I can glare at him.

  Steve came into the office and glanced at the screen, wincing. 'Oh, yeah. That.'

  'That.'

  'It's worse than that, I'm afraid. That is, if you like, the higher-end of normal protests.'

  'I do not like.'

  'Nevertheless, it does happen, and it is fairly normal, as we discussed. What is less normal, is for the suite of legal proceedings against each of the sites we are involved in, backed by an independent, high-profile, populist politician who is gunning for the presidential ticket. That actually poses a real threat, I'm afraid.'

  'How so? What are the suits for?'

  'They aim for injunctions to stop all activity at these sites. Specifically ours. Some of the institutional investors are getting nervy about it.'

  'So how do we fix it?'

  'We don't. It's a right and proper legal challenge. The good news is that the courts will probably
side with us. The bad news is that the protests will probably continue throughout. Especially with this candidate stirring things up.'

  'What stripe is he?' asked Grum.

  'Does it matter?'

  That was true enough. Both ends of the political spectrum had an anti-science outlook. On the left they tended towards mysticism, and the appeal to nature. On the right the tendency was to mainstream religiosity, and the appeal to authority based on historical precedent. Both sides had a distressing tendency towards conspiracy theory. 'What is the challenge based on?'

  'The challenges — plural — cover a variety of things, they are not identical in any single case, which is pretty clever manoeuvring. If any single case gets shot down, it might knock a hole or two in the other cases, but half a dozen would have to go before others would automatically fail due to prior rulings.'

  'Summarise for me. I'm not looking for the precise wording, I'm looking for the ideology.'

  'Even then, it's a broad populist appeal. Part big business trampling over our safety, part ecological monster, and part nimbyism. And yes, before you ask, the wording of each is tailored to the dominant political weal of the area.'

  'So, it's a stunt, then.'

  'Oh, for sure. He couldn't really give a stuff, and will probably drop any suits if he becomes president, but it's a good political move.'

  'Where did he get the idea?'

  'It's possible he thought it up himself, or one of his team did. Other than that? Could be anywhere. Can't spike the source if we don't know where it is.'

  'And are there any other spikes we might counter with? In the public domain?'

  'By comparison to the strength of his rhetoric? Not much. We've created quite a few jobs in the areas, but nothing like enough to give us a popular base.'

  'So if we can't fix it, and we don't have an effective counter, what do we do while we wait for the courts to decide?'

  'Pretty much nothing. We're already doing what we can in terms of messaging, and in terms of reminding everyone about job creation.'