IMP25

==Chapter 25 - Important People==
LCS Frederick Steiner
Tharkad Shipyard - Slip 16
Tharkad System
Lyran Commonwealth
November 30, 3097
"...there are two problems here." Amanda noted.  She and Irena and a few others were in the palace's hospital, under quarantine and undergoing anti-radiation treatments while the Archon and half the security services in the Realm were tearing their way through everyone tied to the Lockheed contract.
It was a particularly stylish form of house arrest.
"We're not allowed to leave?" Irena suggested.
"Okay, three problems." Amanda allowed.
"What are your two?" Irena asked.
"Problem the first: Our ship's grounded with no sensor array and half the avionics it's supposed to have aren't working, and a big part of that hasn't even been designed yet, because Lockheed CBM's contracts department thought they could save some money."
"Agreed.  Second?"
"Lockheed needed to cut costs, because the Estates General didn't want to pay Ioto what it would cost to do the job. They used the reduced cost projections to get the contract from Ioto...but, their offshore subcontractors screwed them.  So they've been covering up while scrambling to find someone who can do the work for the price they promised the Estates General."
"You rally think that Locheed was deceived??"  Irena asked skeptically, "What about Mr. Polonium?"
"Corporate problem burying but, yeah I think that's what they'll claim and there's evidence honestly? It's not the worst things I've heard about government contracts on the national level." Amanda said, "Mom used to bitch about the places she thought were good companies, and history shows a lot of times that people who should know better took big risks hoping they could cover it, only to have their cover turn into vapor out the lock.  Max Haranshire's grandparents cleaned up Lockheed-CBM after a string of corruption scandal. Business people aren't usually nice, except when it's in public."
"a'right then...what do we do about it?" asks Irena
"Well, we need to fix the ship, and let the people in charge figure out what to do about the contracting mess." Amanda said, "It's not our job to fix procurement, it's our job to make our ship ready to go." answers Amanda.
"We're stuck down here."
"Down here has what we need?" Amanda suggested, "Starting with complete tech specs on the new sensor arrays and complete tech spec on the Frederick Steiner class, we break out the maintenance manuals."
Irena made a show of searching the lunch room.  "Excuse me, Amanda. Did you sneak an engineering team in here in your pocket or something?"
Amanda slowly smiled.  "I have a brother and a Sister-in-Law who do engineering as a hobby.  I just need to call home."
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