Brad Warren was one of the more unusual people on the project in that his wife Jill, an experienced helicopter pilot and an instructor was also a future sleeper. Jill was at Alpha this week too, conducting training for the students who were practicing rappelling from the helicopters. She'd spent the previous four weeks as a student at Alpha, working on her combat training and she had crossed trained several months before at training site Delta in communications. Most of her time, however, was spent working with other sleepers who wanted to make flying helicopters their second or third skill.

RJ smiled at Brad, “How are things at Bravo?”

“I'm glad my medical training is almost over, I can't take much more of this. I've been in class for ten weeks, and the six weeks before that I was teaching an engineering class. I need a break. I'd pay for a few days on the obstacle course or the firing range,” Brad announced.

“I know what you mean; I feel the same way at times. I'm flying out to the mountain for a few days, to see how things are going. Before I left, I wanted to discuss the situation you emailed me regarding.”

“This guy, Dale Carter, is a real pain in the you know what, RJ. I understand why you selected him, but he's infuriating the other two nukes. He struts around, blabbing on and on about how much he knows and how little everyone else knows. The other nuclear engineers are ready to kill him. They're both ten years older and have twenty times his experience. This kid might have been top of his class, but he's a pup with an attitude problem. We need these three to work together to keep that reactor working and to eventually start training their replacements. I think one of the others punched him out the other night. He showed up in medical class with a bloody lip, but he won't say what happened, and I quit asking. He was quiet for a day or so, but that didn't last. I think we'd be better to kick him out.”

“I'm not ready to kick him out yet. Even if we did, what then? He certainly can't just be allowed to leave, not with everything he knows.

“I'll make sure he and I cross paths soon and have a little chat. In the meantime, I'll have him dragged in for a repeat psych exam. I know it isn't something we normally repeat, but I'll set it up to make it clear to him we think he has a problem. I'll make sure the results of the exam show he needs to spend some time with a counselor. If he thinks we might cut him loose, he might get his act together. He understands that being removed from the program means he dies in less than a year from radiation sickness,” RJ explained.