“Gentleman… and lady, we all know our corporation has an image problem right now.”

“Our equipment keeps burning down half the landmass in the district.”

“I know, but we’re working on it.”

“We’re going to shut down during intense winds.”

“… Yes, but shareholders are not responding well to service losses and neither is the public.”

“There are solutions in the works, REFCL…”

“REFCL only works stream to earth, not stream to stream.”

“But combined with impact shielding.”

“It will be mostly effective, but moving the channels underground is really the only permanent—”

“… yes yes under-grounding, but here on planet KC2008 you’d need the entire Force Battalion of Engineers and maybe whatever the Halvladrang equivalent is digging trenches and cutting roads through rocky ravines and across cliffs, antimatter blasting their way across some of the most rugged terrain in Arvingrad and through some of the most environmentally protected…”

“… Yes! I mean, there’s the easements, the land rights, the environmental review and don’t expect the local governments and agencies to scale up just to meet our short-term project deadlines…”

“Not to mention if it’s nesting season and one of the millions of trees we need to cut down has a nest on it, we’ll have to hold up the whole project till late fall.”

“What good is protecting a nest if the whole forest catches fire?”

“I know, but it’s the law. You can’t knock down an active archinvlorg nest.”

“Not to mention underground channels only lasts and average of thirty years, so we have to be prepared to start rebuilding the whole project as soon as it finishes.”

“I don’t want to hear problems. I want to hear solutions!”

“Well, we’re already coming at the engineering side from every possible direction.”

“And we’ve brought on every unemployed channeler in sector 623 through our contractor partners...”

“Now keep in mind contractors do half-assed work at twice the price.”

“Yes, but it was the only way to scale that rapidly.”

“What if the solution to our image problem isn’t an engineering solution?”

“What do you mean?”

“People don’t want to hear about the realities of technology, the realities of regulations, the dullness of contracts and budgets and permits… they just want to know we’re committed to safety. That we’re a new company.”

“I got it. We paint the hover-trucks white.”

“Yes, that would make people see us differently, but it doesn’t say safety.”

“We stick safety is our top priority on every truck.”

“I like where you’re headed.”

“Put it on the vests too.”

“An add campaign about how we pursue safety in everything we do.”

“I like it, but how do we show it in everything?”

“What if we stuck a guy out there in the field whose sole purpose is to monitor safety and send reports on it?”

“I like it. Proof we’re committed, maybe not to the public but to the bankruptcy court. But who?”

“Old, retired journeymen who are bored would be perfect.”

“Those guys are all already working as inspectors for contractors.”

“What, what if we use guys straight out of channel-school?”

“Like not even first step apprentices?”

“Yes.”

“And you want those guys telling twenty-year journeymen foremen how to do their job more safely?”

“Yes.”

“And would they help out in any other way?”

“No.”

“So, the one function of this new guy who has no idea what is going on would be to report safety violations to management?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, I’m in. Does the rest of the board agree?”

“Aye!” they shouted in unison.

“To the new, safer…”