kengr

Bureaucrete.

That's what destroyed _Columbia_ and her crew. The engineers told the managers there was strong potential for heat shield damage and they could lose the orbiter. The managers looked at their spreadsheets, saw "tile damage" listed as a turnaround time problem and not a safety one and ignored the engineers.

One of my stories involves a young man who has never felt comfortable with his body. He discovers that he's a chimera - nonidentical twins who fused in the womb - and actually mostly female. The title is "Unwanted Child" and it will hopefully be coming out through Doppler Press. Eventually.