Jay,

Jillian was going through your day 1 reports, and brought some things to my attention. There are some major concerns that will have to be brought to the board at this week's meeting, but I wanted to give you a heads up first. It's pretty clear that there is the potential for realistic combat training inside the simulation, so there is a good chance we'll run afoul of anti-insurgency regulations. Also, one of your senior testers, the forensic qualified one, is on a suspiciously non-standard contract. Strictly non-renewable. The whole thing stinks, I'd keep him away from anything sensitive if I were you, despite his qualifications. Last thing was medical. I didn't see anything on the schedule, but I know the board will want to attack the alien tech from every angle. Plus it would be a shame if any of your people had some adverse reaction to whatever unknown hardware they're running now.

Vincent Grant

Department Head, R&D

Vincent,

I appreciate the notice. I don't think we'll run into regulatory issues. We aren't the owners or operators of the game, so any liability would only apply once we begin to distribute subscriptions commercially, and at that point we will have proper policing in place. I've already asked Legal to prepare a brief presentation for the next meeting. We do need to keep an eye on DA personnel for violations in the meantime - right now we're taking 100% of their footage under the auspices of testing, so that is a perfectly serviceable stopgap.

Bekker is not a problem. Legal apparently gave him a sweetheart deal to get him to drop a big claim against us. Enough and big enough infractions to get a tribunal to hear the case, and potentially even invoke sanctions. We aren't saving any money employing him on these terms, but Legal has assured me that it's a much smaller headache this way. He probably just wanted the non-renewal clause as a safeguard. At the end of his contract he either walks away clean and in good standing, or if Dreamshards ends up being important to the company, he is in a relatively unique position to ask for even better terms. It's a bit sloppy, but still impressive once you consider that it’s coming from a worker with no legal training or representation.

Medical is something I am planning on pushing off as long as possible. Ideally until we can figure out how to generate additional subscriptions. Until then, I have to treat each one as an irreplaceable resource and use them accordingly. I would hesitate to even waste their time on less invasive procedures, but since they can now work in their sleep I've gone ahead and scheduled some checkups. I can empathize that you are eager for any additional data on the alien tech, but I would appreciate it if you would restrain your enthusiasm. If anything should happen to one of my people, it would place a great burden on my time. I'm not sure, under those circumstances, that I could find the time to pass on any data we do manage to gather. I hope we understand one another.

Jay Roberts

Dreamshards Division Head

Jillian,

You know some of the nurses down in medical, don’t you? See if you can get someone to send along any results for Dreamshards personnel. We have project clearance anyway, so it shouldn’t matter if we get the reports early.

Thanks,

Vince