The Man Who Sold Mars (14 page)

In the helicopter, George sat up front in
the co-pilot’s chair and I sat in the back with Sunny while we surveyed the
unfurling construction of our Young Sea Resources headquarters, as the pilot
maneuvered the craft over this domain.

Sunny joking and serious said, “It’s
about time you corrected your oversight and moved your operations to India.”

George making mental notes of things he
saw and needed to address later answered, “We moved some of them.  Sea
architecture, harvesting—“

I added, “Farming, mining, - extra
terrestrial architecture.”

George explained that the, “Capital
markets and issues of credibility dictated that the operations begin in the
US.”

Sunny proud of his nation smiled, “Now
those same issues bring you here.”

George nodded, “That and more.”

I noted a structure nearly completed that
should not have been for months.  I was very pleased we were way ahead of
schedule.  “Sunny, you turn out more engineers in a day than other countries do
in a year.”

George glanced at the time on his watch, “We’re
also tapping into the same pools in Eastern Europe, Romania, Hungary, The
Ukraine, the Philippines, Thailand, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Central and South
America in general.”

Sunny knew what our agenda was, “Well
educated populations where money buys more in intellect and investments in
infrastructure.”

I confirmed his words, “Precisely.  This
is the headquarters of our sea and lunar operations.  The Philippines our
command and control center.

George saw something he wanted to get a
better look at.  He turned to the pilot.  “May I?”  The pilot nodded yes and
George took the controls and flew us off in a new direction.  “We’ve licensed
Russian space shuttle technology to build a fleet of shuttles so we can build
our own space station and space dry docks.”

I told him, “We’ve contracted through the
US shuttle prime contractor to build our shuttles in Russia.  Granted, the US
shuttle program is antiquated, but it worked and it would unnecessarily delay
us to wait until the shuttles we designed were tested and made operational.”

George placed us in hover over an inlet
from the sea we’d incorporated into the complexes design and spoke while
studying the ground below.  “We gave them a blank check to incorporate all the
advanced shuttle technology they wanted to in the US shuttle program, but couldn’t
due to government bureaucracy.”

Sunny’s eyes widened, “Blank check? 
That’s dangerous.”

I winked, “Blank check in the corporate
sense.”

He laughed, “Oh you mean one cent on ten
thousand government dollars.”

George and I joined him in laughter,
“Exactly.”

Then George continued, “Besides, we’re
still buying controlling interest in all our vendors so essentially we’ll get
the money back.”

Proud of his nation, Sunny said, “Here in
India, you’ll make—“

Equally proud of all we’d done, George
and I finished Sunny’s words, “History.”

In our YSR’s Philippine’s Corporate
offices, Dennis Bert of
The Private Military Company
sat discussing
grave issues with us in his South African accent.  “Thank you for the
opportunity to do business with you again. “

Sincere, I spoke.  “Your work for us
during our last venture was more than appreciated.”

“Yes, we saw that from the size of the
bonus you gave us.  Thank you again.”

“You’re welcome.  As you know, the US and
other governments took something from us of extreme value.  That will not
happen again by any government, anyone or anything.”

“Not with us providing security.”

“I know.”

Dennis removed some binders from his
catalog bag and distributed them to us.  “Let’s review the plan I submitted to
you earlier.  At every one of your facilities we’ll have heavy infantry units
composed of special ops forces based on the size of the nearest credible
threats.  Of course we will monitor military movements in those areas and
provide additional troops as a preemptive measure when necessary.”

“Good.”

“For your large scale production and
launch facilities we’ll establish a large defensive barrier between the
facility and possible aggressors, so that combat operations if needed take
place safely outside of your facility.  In those areas, we’ll also provide
fighter jets, transport and assault helicopters, patrol missile boats and any
other tactical armament necessary.”

Gardner rapidly looked through his binder
searching for something.  “How much is this going to cost?”

I answered for Dennis.  “Much.  But
unfortunately, it’s as necessary as
ACCO
Fasteners and
Xerox
copiers.”

Selena disagreed.  “Do you think all this
is really necessary?  The US Government and the other governments are going to
pay us.”

Kevin shook his head no.  “Eventually,
after a ten year legal battle.”

Hemmingson laughed.  “It won't take that
long.  Believe me.  The powers that be, realize that we are a power "that
be" making them pay in more than just money.  I've been scorching earths
like crazy.  And those still standing want to settle for BIG dollars before I
get to them.”

George glanced at Hemmingson, “Thank you,
Mike.  They are running scared.  Every time I pick up my phone, someone is
calling asking what they can do to expedite the settlement process.”

I held up the binder.  “We need this. 
All of this and more.  What about the next government or rogues?  We are a
nation.”

George agreed, “Whether we want to be or
not.”

Hemmingson finished his glass of wine and
poured another.  “I want to be on our dollar.  Imagine the garters I’ll ride
vicariously.”

Printing our own money was not something
that had ever occurred to us but as we thought about it, it grew as a certainty. 
“One day.  But, unfortunately, we need to think like governments.  Speak softly
but carry a big stick.”

Dennis corrected.  “Sticks. Bigger
Sticks.  And lots of them.”

The majority of us agreed with him and
had voted in favor of all of this earlier.  “We have a deal.  Both sides have
reviewed the contract and you can expect our signed copy within two days and
the appropriate wire transfer into your account.”

Dennis and I shook hands and then he
shook everyone else’s hand and exited the room.

Selena immediately revoiced her opinion. 
“A private military company.  I don’t know if we’re making things better or
worse.”

George answered, “Better.”

Tot agreed with Selena.  “How do you know
that the thing that takes us over the next time won’t be him or them?”

George said, “Us.”

Selena said, “Pardon?”

He continued, “How do we know that the
thing that takes us over the next time won’t be “Us”.  We own “The PMC”.

Several of our band were not happy to
know that we not only hired mercenaries, we were one.

I told them the other reason why our work
was safe, relatively safe.  “No one is taking this facility.  We have a fail-safe
device.”

In silence, the group took a moment to
think about this and with the exception of George, Hemmingson, and I reacted in
horror to the news.

Kevin spoke with disbelief, “You have a
nuke here?”

George corrected him.  “Nukes.  They
might find one.”

Gardner was livid.  “We’re all supposed
to die for this.”

I shook my head no.  “Of course not,
staff would be evacuated.”

To say Selena was not pleased was an
understatement.  “And then boom?!”

Nonchalant George said, “Yes.”, which
made her madder.

“God, I am liking all this less and
less.”

I grinned to her.  “I'll show you
something you'll really like.”

Leading my Selena by the hand, I took her
to the Mars lander, large, squat and fire tuck red glistening on its pad. 
“This is the Mars lander.  At its controls, I’ll gracefully descend to the
surface of Mars, and then pop out on an All Terrain Vehicle, ATV, and joy ride
along the Martian surface.  You like it?”

Selena was noncommittal.  She was not the
least bit pleased that I was going to be away from her for so long.  And, she
was still angry over our army of modern mercenaries and the nukes and becoming
increasingly angrier about it all.

Leading her by the hand, I took her to
the bridge of the lander.

“Go ahead.  Take a seat.”

She looked at the two command chairs
sitting side by side and walked towards the one on the right, while standing
behind her, I watched her like the goddess she is.  Selena watched me from a
reflection off a polished surface and in love blushed.

“Selena, please take the one on the
left.  The pilot in command always sits on the left.”

She blushed more.  “Oh.”

Very happy, she took the seat on the
left, the commanders, and I came up behind her, and with love ran my finger up
and down her arm while we talked.

“Are you liking her more?”

She grinned.  “Yes.”

“You know she’s green.”

“Green?”

“Environmentally friendly.  At least for
the Martian environment.”

“She’s powered by a deuterium-tritium
reactor.”

I joked with her.  “So, you have been
paying attention.

She laughed and finished it with, “Ha. 
Ha.  Ha.”

“She too will be powered by Helium 3. 
But like Prometheus she can run on deuterium, which is currently the key fuel
for first and second generation fusion reactors and five times more plentiful
on Mars than Earth in the form of—“

Playing she finished my words. 
“Hydrogen-Deuterium Oxygen.  Someone has obviously forgotten what my
undergraduate studies were and one of my graduate degrees is in.  Shall I continue?”

“My Lady, please continue.”

“A milliliter of deuterium produces as
much energy as 20 tons of coal.  Hence your assertion it’s green, though I
doubt many true environmentalists would say that because of the disposal issues
with nuclear waste.”

I laughed and in play tossed back, “Ha.
Ha. Ha. Anyway . . .  Mars is rich in it.”

“Relatively speaking.”

“Well yes.  About five times more so than
Earth.  An even more promising resource is the proximity of the asteroid belt
to Mars.  Dactyl, the moon orbiting the asteroid Ida is 1.4 kilometers in
diameter, yet it contains more iron than the human race has used in its entire
existence.  These asteroids will be mined near Mars and in the not too distant future
shipped from the planet for little cost.”

“You’re deploying robotic mining
modules?”

“Yep.  But more like surveyors.  It’s not
cost effective to mine them for iron or most things now plentiful on Earth. 
But, it’ll help us to get to know our neighbors better.”

“Any advertising?”

“A big heart with your name on it.”

She kissed me on the check, “That’s
sweet.”

“And True.  Mars and these asteroids are
no doubt rich in Helium 3 due to the absence of atmospheres or greatly reduced
ones and no doubt carry an abundance of mineral wealth.  In time, as we stretch
out through the stars we’ll develop a trade route, much like the one between
Britain, the West Indies, and America.  The economic potential from all this is
colossal.  Earth’s need for more fuel, the huge growth in fusion reactors. 
Their need for deuterium or Helium 3 or—I’ll also deploy a robotic harvesting
facility for both.   I’ll be there for a year.  So—

She was not pleased.  “That’s right a
year.  Almost three years total.”

“And missing you every moment.”

We kissed.

I finished my thought.  “To the best of
my knowledge there are no service stations on Mars.  Something may happen where
it may be needed.”

Concerned and suspicious I was keeping
some of the risk of the mission from her.  She said, “Something?”

“A future mission may need it to get home
because of a problem.  They may be marooned and have to make Mars home until .
. . and need power for that survival.  We’ll also use the Martian deuterium and
Helium 3 to replenish Prometheus reserves if needed and bring a substantial
amount home for sale and experimentation.

“And have a substantial reserve awaiting
successful follow up missions.”

We kissed again and kissed.  I began to
unbutton her blouse.  With heavy sensual breathing, meaning it and not she
whispered.  “Stop.  Stop.  We’re here to work.”

“I am.”

“You’re working on unbuttoning my blouse”