by Bob Blanton
“What is that, some kind of satellite?” Aaron asked.
“Let me give you a little perspective,” Liz said as she changed the slide to one showing the station with an Oryx docked. “That ship you see docked is about the size of a Boeing 767.”
“Then that thing is huge,” Aaron said.
“It has a diameter of two hundred meters and a height of one hundred thirty meters,” Liz continued. “It has an inner hub, of 180 meters, that doesn’t rotate, so we have microgravity there. That’s where we need you to set up the IC manufacturing. The outer hub rotates to provide some semblance of gravity.”
“Why microgravity?” Shelby asked.
“The chip we use in our comms can only be manufactured in microgravity,” Catie said. “It has superconductor traces on it, and they require microgravity. I’m sure we’ll want to make lots of chips that use that process.”
“Superconductors on an IC chip. How do they work when the chips heat up?” Shelby asked.
“The chips don’t heat up that much,” Catie said. “The gates also incorporate technologies that minimize resistance. But the superconductors will maintain zero resistance up to two hundred C.”
“That would revolutionize the entire industry,” Shelby said.
“That’s what MacKenzie Discoveries is all about,” Samantha said, then she nodded for Liz to continue.
“That is what it looks like now,” Liz said. “Before you guys get there it should look like this.” Liz changed the slide to one that showed the station with the first ring.
“And by the end of the year, it will look like this,” Liz said as she flipped the display to a slide showing the station with all three rings.
“How big is that thing?” Aaron asked.
“It’s big enough to support about twenty thousand people,” Liz said. “The outer ring will have one-G of gravity and the second ring will have a three-quarter-G. We’ll see how fast we can grow. It’s designed to stack four of these together.”
“Okay, you’ve got us hooked; how do we make this deal?” Ray asked as he looked at his colleagues for confirmation.
“What we want,” Samantha said, “is for you to put a facility on the station. We need to staff it with technicians and the engineers needed to run it. The design team can work in Delphi City, but we need people up on the station. We still want the existence of the space station to remain secret, although we believe the US government knows about it. They’re letting us keep it secret, probably because they don’t want to be embarrassed by how substantial our space presence is compared to the US’s.”
“How come everybody doesn’t know about it?” Aaron asked.
“Because its orbit is exactly opposite the ISS’s orbit; the material it is made of absorbs over ninety percent of light and EM radiation,” Catie said. “It’s hard to see, and the sky is really big. We’re sure the only way the US found it, is because of all the Oryxes going up there to lift the material needed to make it.”
“Back to the deal,” Samantha said. “We’ll provide the capital you need to ride out this little bump, plus what you need to set up production of the camera and chip that Catie talked about. We’ll also provide whatever it takes to set up in Delphi City and on Delphi Station.”
“How much?” Ray asked.
“We’re estimating it will take about three hundred million,” Samantha said. “We can cover more, but it seems that should get you back in place.”
“What about salaries?” Bryce asked. “We’ve been living off of savings since we started this thing.”
“We’ve been paying directors three hundred thousand a year,” Samantha said. “And of course, you would still retain forty-nine percent ownership.”
“We need to bring the lawyers in,” Ray said. “But we’re close enough that I think we’ll reach a deal. What’s the next step?”
“We’d like you to come to Delphi City, so you’ll have a perspective of what it’s all about when you talk to your people,” Samantha continued. “If you’d like, we’ll take you up to the station so you can see what that’s like.”
“For sure, we’re going to the station,” Shelby said. “What else?”
“We need you to use your contacts to attract people to the station,” Samantha said. “We have other industries in mind, but we need people to run them and to staff the jobs.”
Chapter 11
Board Meeting – Sep 30th
Liz caught Catie outside the boardroom, “Did you see Dr. Metra?”
“Yes,” Catie said. “She said everything was normal.”
“Good,” Liz said. “Did she tell you what to do about the shipsuits?”
“She gave me measurements for five sets,” Catie said. “She said that I should slowly grow into each one. When one set starts getting tight, I can just start wearing the next size up. She said the sizes were calibrated to how I would grow.”
“Hey, that’s nice,” Liz said. “Did you try on the biggest size?”
Catie blushed.
“Of course, you did,” Liz said. “I would have. What did you think?”
“I’m going to look like Mommy,” Catie said.
“Does that make you happy?” Liz asked.
“I guess so. I think Mommy looks pretty good.”
“She gorgeous,” Liz said. “You should be happy.”
“I guess,” Catie said.
“Did she say how long it would take?” Liz asked.
“She said another year for three of the sizes, then a year each for the last two.”
“Oh, you were curious,” Liz said with a laugh. “You made suits for two to three years from now.”
“Why not,” Catie said.
“I agree. I certainly would have.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“This meeting is called to order,” Marc said as Catie and Liz finally came in and got seated. “Sam, can you update us on your Vancouver trip?”
“Yes,” Samantha said. “It looks like we’re going to reach an agreement with Vancouver Integrated Technologies. The founders were here in Delphi City over the weekend, and they were very impressed with what they saw. Catie took them up to see the space station yesterday, and I think that sealed the deal. This is the second time she has done an excellent job of selling someone on our technology; we might want to add sales rep to her title.”
“No!” Catie whined.
“Oh, come on, you loved it,” Liz said.
Marc just gave Catie a smile as he nodded for Samantha to continue.
“Their lawyers are reviewing the paperwork this week. I hope to have it all signed by the end of next week,” Samantha added.
“Excellent,” Marc said. “How about our clinics?”
“The one in Mexico is booked solid for the next six months,” Samantha said. “We’re booked for three months on Rarotonga and about the same for Delphi City. The price doesn’t seem to be deterring anyone yet. Unfortunately, the manager in Tijuana had to dismiss a nurse last week.”
“Oh, what happened?” Marc asked.
“She stole some treatment cartridges,” Samantha said. “The director brought her in and showed her the records of her pulling them and the video of her taking them out of the dispensary. She said she was being blackmailed into getting them.”
“That’s terrible,” Liz said.
“Yes, but two other nurses were also being blackmailed into stealing cartridges, but they came to the director and reported it,” Samantha said. “He gave them the cartridges to take since they’re useless after twenty minutes, anyway. He told the first nurse how her other two colleagues had handled the blackmail, and then he fired her, telling her it was because he couldn’t trust her.”
“I guess that’s the correct thing to do,” Liz said. “They do talk about that in their briefings, don’t they?”
“Yes,” Samantha said. “I think we’re ready to open a clinic in Morocco now. With Ayyour Dahmani’s help, it should be an easy startup. We’re getting lots of inquiries from Europ
e.”
“Anyone have an issue with that?” Marc asked. Looking around the table, he didn’t see anyone trying to make a point. “Then, you have a go.”
“Thanks,” Samantha said. “By the way, I understand that France has tentatively approved the Lynx for landing.”
“That’s very interesting,” Marc said. “I happen to have reservations at the Grand Hotel du Palais Royal for next week; would you like to go with me?”
“My bags are already packed,” Samantha said.
“Why pack bags?” Liz said. “One small carryon is all you need. You’re going to buy new luggage and clothes in Paris, aren’t you?”
“Good point,” Samantha said.
“Liz, since you want to talk, how about an update,” Marc said.
“Our fusion team believes they’ll have a working reactor in two weeks. They’re just working out some details,” Liz said.
“Oh no!” Admiral Michaels said.
“Problem?” Marc asked.
“Are you going to announce that thing?” Admiral Michaels asked.
“Of course, we will,” Samantha said.
The admiral sat there and shook his head.
“I assume you’re anticipating problems,” Marc said.
“Of course,” the admiral said. “It might be enough to tip the scales with New Zealand on eminent domain.”
“I’m afraid he’s right,” Samantha said. “Currently, the prime minister is pushing back, but there is a lot of pressure on the other side.”
“Let’s get back to this at the end of the meeting,” Marc said. “Liz, anything else?”
“We’ve built out the space for the IC manufacturing,” Liz said. “We just need our friends from Vancouver to tell us what to put in it. We’re also ready to extrude the first ring as soon as we get the material to do so.”
“Blake, do we have news there?” Marc asked.
“We do,” Blake said. “We took the two lead miners up on Monday; they impressed the hell out of all of us. They only had a small issue, and Catie was able to point them to a fix. We took the others up on Friday; it was very entertaining. A couple of them wouldn’t believe we could go into space until they were floating in the back of the Oryx. They didn’t do as well as the first two, but they quickly got the routine down.”
“That sounds very promising,” Marc said. “So when do you start working on the asteroids?”
“We start mining this week,” Blake said. “We’ll start slow, so we need to know which material you need the most?” Blake looked at Liz, waiting for her to decide.
“Methane,” Liz said. “We need another week to get the processing in place to handle the iron-nickel alloy. Fred, can you switch all the lifts over to iron?”
“Just did,” Fred said. “We can also squeeze in an extra lift per day since the iron is so quick to load and unload.”
“Good, then if Blake can get us a few full loads of methane this week and the same next week, we can start the extrusion on the ring next Friday,” Liz said.
“Not now, Blake,” Marc said to forestall Blake from grabbing the scotch.
“Oh, eminent domain,” Blake said as he sat back down.
“Catie, what do you have?” Marc asked.
“Zane has agreed to run our credit union,” Catie said. “He’ll come in during our next meeting to present a plan. He’s picked out the space, and we’re having the construction crew build it out.”
“Good job,” Samantha said. “See, sales rep.”
Catie gave Samantha an I will get even look before she continued. “Tomi is happy with the experiments he and Natalia ran last week. Based on that, they want to go ahead and put a small treatment plant in the hub. We can take it out later if we need the space.”
“That will be nice,” Liz said. “The crews don’t like having to pump the waste around.”
“The community market last week was a success; I heard that this week was even better,” Catie said. “I think everyone liked all the variety that was available. We need to have someone start to coordinate and figure out how to run all our hydroponics systems on the station. And I think we want to grow fruit trees up there as well.”
“If you want someone to coordinate things,” Blake said, “I’d recommend JoAnn. You used her to coordinate the miners’ move-in. She seems really sharp.”
“Do we want to bring in an expert to do the technical work?” Samantha asked.
“We have a couple of people here,” Catie said. “But they’re not experts. We use consultants to decide what to grow.”
“If you want someone with a degree,” Admiral Michaels said, “my wife has a degree in Controlled Environment Agriculture from Cornell that she’s never been able to use.”
“Well, that would be just perfect,” Catie said. “She probably already knows all of our secrets, at least the ones we’ve shared with the admiral.”
The admiral looked offended, “I’ll have you know . . .”
Samantha patted his hand and whispered in his ear, “She’s only thirteen.”
“I can keep a secret,” the admiral finished. “She knows there’s something going on, but I haven’t shared anything with her.”
“Then this will be a win-win,” Marc said. “We get an expert, and you get to reduce some of the family tension.”
Samantha texted Catie, “I’ll explain later.”
“Thanks,” Catie texted back.
“Catie, will you follow up with the admiral’s wife?” Marc said.
“Should I wait until he tells me to?” Catie asked. “He probably wants to tell her about the space station himself.”
“I’ll do that tonight,” the admiral said. “I’ll let her know you want to talk to her, but I’ll leave the details to you.”
“Thanks,” Catie said.
“Now, what do we do about our fusion announcement?” Marc said.
“I think the threat of the Kiwis pressuring the Cook Islanders to declare eminent domain is real,” Samantha said. “They’ll be getting pressure from the British, who’ll be getting pressure from the US. An announcement of a fusion reactor will probably tip the scales.”
“Why?” Catie asked.
“Because they’ll want to get control of it before Russia or the Chinese do,” Admiral Michaels said.
“You’ve been preparing for this from the beginning,” Samantha said to Marc. “I think it’s time.”
“Preparing for what?” Admiral Michaels asked.
“Declaring independence,” Marc said.
“Oh s . . . ,” Admiral Michaels sighed and threw his hands up. He leaned back into his chair and stared at Marc.
“We already have a larger population in Delphi City than all of the Cook Islands. Even with their restriction on citizenship, it has to be getting untenable for them,” Samantha said. “Even without the threat of eminent domain, you have to confront the fact that they’re going to start passing laws that we won’t like.”
“Okay, so declare independence,” Blake said.
“That’s not as easy as it sounds,” Marc said. “We have to establish a government. How do we protect ourselves from having our mission taken over or redirected?”
Catie started giggling uncontrollably.
“It’s not that funny,” Marc said.
“I think it is,” Catie giggled. “Oh, poor Daddy.”
“It’s going to affect you too.” Marc shot back.
“Ohh, drat,” Catie said as she continued to giggle.
“Can you two let the rest of us in on it,” Blake huffed.
Marc sat back and crossed his arms, furiously trying to think of another alternative.
“He’s . . . ,” Catie giggled, “he’s going to have to declare himself king.”
“What!?” Blake screeched.
“It’s the only way,” Catie said as she continued to giggle. “He has to have veto power over everything. Otherwise, the new government could just nix our mission and focus on self-interest.”
�
��Oh my,” Samantha said. “She’s right.”
“I can’t think of another way,” Marc said.
“Well, you’re already the Chairman of MacKenzie Discoveries,” Samantha said. “And the company owns everything, all the real estate, utilities, buildings, and spacecraft. That kind of makes you the chief poohbah already.”
“Not helping,” Marc said.
“Well, we have to come up with something that makes sense,” Samantha said. “And something that doesn’t make you a demigod. I am not going to follow some foolish rules every time we’re together.”
“We’ve already made a good start,” Kal finally spoke up. “We have established a police force, we have codified laws, and we are operating as a pseudo-military organization with you as the captain of the ship, and the board as your cabinet or ministers.”
“We need to have this worked out before we declare,” Marc said. “We don’t want our people to panic.”
“I don’t think anyone will panic,” Blake said. “Everyone is pretty happy and declaring independence doesn’t actually change much. I don’t think anyone is currently thinking that the Cook Island government is looking out for their interests.”
Marc just continued to shake his head, Catie continued to giggle, and the admiral just glared.
“How did I get myself into this?” the admiral said.
“Curiosity killed the cat,” Samantha said. “It just trapped you.”
“How can I help?” Admiral Michaels asked.
“Sam and I will work on a constitution,” Marc said. “What we need are friends that will recognize us when we declare.”
“I think Mexico and Morocco will,” Samantha said.
“If you reach out to India with the fusion reactor before you announce, they’ll probably be willing to recognize you,” the admiral said. “I assume you’re planning on starting with them to commercialize the reactor.”
“Yes, India and Indonesia are the first two countries we want to approach,” Marc said. “Plus, Malaysia, Poland, and Morocco.”
“Those are all reasonably safe bets,” Admiral Michaels said. “I’d recommend reaching out to all of them. Then I’d suggest France, Portugal, Germany, and Spain; they’re not necessarily fans of US foreign policy, and they might be willing to recognize you after India.”
