Caleb closed the folder.
“I have conditions.”
Miriam said:
“I expected you would.”
“First.”
“Nobody who walked out yesterday gets punished.”
“Not quietly.”
“Not bad schedules.”
“Not missed promotions.”
“Not suddenly bad evaluations six months from now.”
Daniel nodded.
“That requires monitoring.”
“Then monitor it.”
Miriam said:
“Agreed.”
“Second.”
Caleb continued.
“There needs to be a safety escalation path local operations cannot close.”
Daniel answered.
“We already have the ethics hotline.”
“People don’t trust it.”
Silence.
Caleb continued.
“If Ronan trusted the normal process, thirty-seven people would not have walked outside.”
Daniel wrote something.
“Fair.”
“Third.”
“No performance bonus can depend only on dispatch rate without accounting for maintenance quality.”
Miriam leaned forward.
“That is a board-level compensation issue.”
“I know.”
“You’re asking us to rewrite management incentives.”
“Yes.”
“Before you accept?”
Caleb thought.
“No.”
“I’m asking for written commitment that it will be reviewed.”
“I know I’m not running the company.”
Miriam nodded.
“That is reasonable.”
“Fourth.”
“No technician gets pressured to explain why a manual requirement is inconvenient.”
“Ask technical questions.”
“Challenge us respectfully.”
“Bring engineering.”
“Bring another inspector.”
“But stop making people defend safety against the price of delay.”
Daniel said:
“That needs to become policy language.”
“Yes.”
“Fifth.”
Caleb took a breath.
“I want apprentices protected.”
“Meaning?”
“If a junior mechanic raises something and turns out to be wrong, nobody humiliates them for it.”
“I’ve watched younger techs stop asking questions because they don’t want to look stupid.”
“That is how you create people who hide uncertainty.”
Miriam looked at Daniel.
He nodded.
Caleb added:
“And I want two paid training slots next year for technicians pursuing advanced inspection qualifications.”
Miriam blinked.
“That one feels oddly specific.”
“Because Lena has been asking for it for three years.”
For the first time, Daniel laughed.
Miriam looked toward Caleb.
“Anything else?”
“Yes.”
He hesitated.
“Ronan hates being called part of a family.”
Miriam looked confused.
Caleb almost smiled.
“Never put ‘Northstar family’ in the announcement.”
Daniel laughed again.
Even corporate counsel smiled on the screen.
Miriam said:
“Noted.”
Caleb did not accept immediately.
He took the offer home.
That afternoon, he sat with Nora at the kitchen table.
She was coloring a reindeer purple.
“They want you back?”
“Yes.”
“Are you going?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you like fixing airplanes?”
“Yes.”
“Do you like the mean boss?”
“No.”
“Is he still the boss?”
“Not right now.”
Nora considered the problem.
“Are your friends there?”
“Yes.”
“The thirty-seven?”
Caleb smiled.
“Yes.”
“All of them?”
“Yes.”
“Then you should go back.”