The Man Who Sold Mars (9 page)

“Well I am.”

In control George told him.  “Sit down!”

And in support I said, “You are done when
we say you are done.”

He glared at us and reached for a phone. 
“I can have you removed from this building.”

And I told him a simple truth.  “I can have
you removed from this job before that happens.”

George told him another truth.  “I think
I can do it faster, with or without cause.  By the way, I would be the 12th
wealthiest nation.”  Nonchalant, he pulled out his cell.  “No more games.”

I explained to the Secretary his terms. 
”Here are your options.  Accept the lunar land grant and keep the moon free of
advertising.”

And so did George, “Don’t.”

“And this night and forever, you will see
everything cross the moon’s face from Eat at Joe’s to –“

“Girls, Girls, Girls.”  George added.

Hemmingson chimed in.  “That was my
idea.”

In front of the Secretary General I stood
hammering in our point along with George.  “And when the other companies deploy
their own advertising modules above the moon—“

“Which they will.”

“Our hunter killer satellites, deployed
with our advertising module, will shoot them down.”

“In time, they’ll figure out what’s
happening and deploy their own HKS’s.”

“We’ll send more and better HKS’s.”  I
let him know.

“And so will they.”  George added.

“And in no time, we will have the first
intra stellar war.“

“All waged by corporate states.”

Everyone stood in shocked silence.

I broke it.  “You have a choice to make.”

George started to outline it for him. 
“Do you want history to hold you responsible for being able to prevent that
war—“

“And not.”  Were my words.

Again there was more silence.

“Or—“  George said.

Calm the Secretary General interrupted. 
“Congratulations, Mr. Young, Mr. Carleton and your fellow pirates.  History
will remember you too.  The first of the intra planetary robber barons.”

I grinned, “I take it that’s a yes.”

And in the central auditorium of the
United Nations, smiling and full of feigned camaraderie, I and the Secretary
General of the United Nations stood before a packed audience full of
representatives of the world’s people and its press.

Before them, the Secretary General
announced.  “And it is with great pleasure that on behalf of The United
Nations, I accept for the stewardship of all mankind this moon grant from Young
Stellar Resources. . . ”

In the penthouse boardroom of Young
Stellar Resources, George tapped a remote turning off the television and the
news broadcast of me and the Secretary General of the UN, he, Selena, Kevin,
Gardener, Tatyana, Hemmingson and I were watching.

Kevin laughed.  “That was a great bluff
about the hunter killer satellites.”

Gardner chuckled.  “Yeah.  HKS’s.  Cute.”

George and I answered with silence.

Hemmingson was shocked.  “You weren’t
bluffing?”

And he was not alone.  Selena was livid. 
“You two armed the moon?!”

Selena, Kevin, Gardner & Hemmingson
looked at Tatyana with accusatory gazes.

“Why do you keep looking at me?  I just
work here.”

Becoming increasingly angry with each
moment, Selena continued.  “I can’t believe you two.  Just tell me they weren’t
nukes.”

Quick I said.  “No, they’re not.“

George was significantly more candid than
I or than I would have liked for him to be.  “We simultaneously deployed the
robotic mining modules with the lunar advertising module and they like the
HKS’s are powered with weapons grade plutonium.”

Selena was beyond furious and
escalating.  “So you can access it later, if you need to.  Plus, you’re going
to strip mine the moon.  That’s where the Helium 3 is coming from.”

This was getting painful.  Selena and I
had been through a lot.  She was the most important thing in my life.  I could
see I was losing her and tried to soften her concerns.  “Yes, that’s where the additional
Helium 3 is coming from.”

She still was not pleased.  “Strip
mining?!  And we haven’t really been there to see what we have and you’re
ruining it.”

George stepped in.  “Selena.  It’s not as
bad as you’re thinking.  There are untold billions of tons of Helium 3 on the
moon in its regolith — the lose, heterogeneous material covering it.”

Grateful as always for his help, I
stepped in.  “It’s not as intrusive as it sounds.  The Moon is rich in Helium
3.  Largely created by the sun and blown by solar winds to land on the moon
unimpeded by an atmosphere.”

Soft George said.  “We have no desire to
ruin anything, but everything has a use.  And YSR has entered into contracts
with hundreds of nations to provide fusion reactors.  And for the rest of the
world too poor to afford them, we will pay for them.  There will be life giving
electricity brought to so many parts of the world that have never had it.  This
is a boon for all mankind.  Without the moon’s Helium 3 the cost of fuel for
those reactors will be monumental.  We would essentially be bidding against
ourselves for the scarcity.  And even then, there’s not enough Helium 3 here to
meet that obligation.”

I tried to touch Selena, but she moved
away.  “Harvesting Helium 3 will be more like scooping up sand.  It would then
be distilled from the mass and brought back to Earth as a liquefied compressed
gas.”

George poured himself a drink.  “One
hundred tons of Helium 3 is enough to power all of the Earth’s electrical needs
for a year.”

I added.  “Granted we will do a “nominal”
amount of damage to the moon’s environment.”

George finished the sip of his drink. 
“Whatever that environment might be.  And we admit that.”

I went to Selena and she took a slight
step away.  “But look at the good we’ll do here.  More and cheaper energy with
a nominal impact on our own life giving environment.”

George took another sip from his drink, “And
immediate economic windfalls for YSR to justify investor and public faith in
the company and its mission.”

I know she wasn’t interested in the
business aspect, but I knew if she connected the dots, she’d really see what we
were trying to do.  “One ton of Helium 3 will sell for billions upon billions
upon billions, more than paying for the cost to harvest it.”

George glanced at his watch.  “And will
allow us to continue what we started and expand it.”

Soft and sad, Selena said.  “I can’t
believe you armed space.”

Gardner now let his anger flow.  “With
conventional and nuclear weapons.”

And Kevin.  “We have children seeing a
new future of peace amongst the stars.”

Selena shook her head no and wiped away a
tear, “More like pieces amongst the stars.”

I caressed her hair.  “We are on very new
ground here.”

George named it.  “We are looking at the
rise of the corporate states.”

“Selena, they’ve always existed since the
birth of mercantilism, but in the back, in the shadows.”

“That will end this century.”

“And if government is not brought along
with us to the stars—“

“Even kicking and screaming.”

“The outcome will be ruthless.  Remember
that issue we had in Nigeria.”

The faces of my friends soured tremendously
with that memory, all but Tot’s, who was not with us then and she stood there
silently questioning.

George answered her.  “Diplomacy failed
and we had to hire a PMC to resolve our issues with that government and the
corporations it was illegally in bed with.  The PMC resolved our issue and
resolved it well.”

Tatyana asked, “PMC?”

George’s answer
was not well received by her, “Private Military Company”

Mercenaries?! 
You hired mercenaries.

Hemmingson nodded
yes.

I massaged Selena’s neck.  “All of us
still own shares in that company, individually and as The Group.  And as we
reach for Mars.  I’m at least trying to do all these things, still with a
conscious.”

George was frank, “PMC’s are the modern
mercenary corps.  In the wrong hands they are Armageddon.  Pure and simple.”

I massaged Selena’s neck with one hand
and her waist with the other.  Tot watched.  I don’t think she was displeased. 
But . . . “What will corporate states unchecked by human states be with PMC’s or
their own armies to inflict their will?”

George said the same thing, I felt.  “I’m
not letting it happen.”

“Selena, we do have a conscious.”

Her tears flowed.  “If you call it that. 
I wouldn’t.  You sold Mars and you stole the moon.  I’ve got to go.”  She
walked off.

“Selena, don’t go.”

Crying she stopped and turned.  “What did
you get me involved in?  I thought I would be doing something to help the
world’s problems.  We’re just magnifying and exporting them.”

Still crying, Selena snatched up her
things and left.  George, stung, pretended to be unfazed, and returned to
work.  The others, helpless, stared after her.  Not knowing what to do, they
sat for a while in silence.  Still not knowing what to say or do, I bolted
after her, sprinting through the halls to leap into the penthouse elevator just
beating the closing doors, to join Selena.

Tearing I spoke to her.  “Selena, I love
you.  I didn’t mean to hurt you or anyone.  I’m just trying to do what I need
to do to keep all of this together.  And, I don’t want you to go.  You are the
heart of all this.  The humanity.  Our conscious.”

“Then why didn’t you tell me some things
so important.”

“George wanted to.”

“You?”

“When I met you, you were wearing a white
sundress and the sun was reflecting and filtering throughout your hair.  You
looked like the angel I’ve learned you to be.  You are. . . . we live in a
world of ugliness and to fight it or to protect yourself from it, you sometimes
have to be ugly too.  Even uglier.  I’m ugly for both of us.”

Through tears, Selena smiled with deeper
understanding of many things.  The elevator door opened onto the first floor
and she left without looking back at the closing doors.

I had lost her.

Tired, I worked tirelessly late into the
night at my desk within my YSR penthouse office.  Long ago, the staff and the
building’s cleaning crew had left.  Soft taps at my door interrupted me and I
smiled with love.  “Come in.”

Exhausted, beautiful, her hair shortened
and highlighted, smiling, looking very much in love Selena entered.  “Hi.”

The love shining in my eyes I returned
her greeting.  “Hi.  Again, thanks so much for coming back to work us.  When I
didn’t here from you for ages I was scared.  I would be lost without you.  I
want you in my life forever and beyond.”

She blushed, “You’re welcome.  I’m
heading home.  You?”

“No.  Too much to do.  Sit down for a
second.”

She sat on my couch and I picked up a
remote and sat close beside her, her thigh warm against mine.

“Watch this.”  I keyed a button and
footage of the international space station played across the screen.  Beside
it, glistening among the stars was the space dock and moored at it was the
Prometheus; construction crews swarming over its skeleton, assembling it.

She grinned, “Wow.  Construction is going
quickly.”

“There’s still a long way to go.  But
look at her.”

“She’s a work of art.”

“There were a whole lot of times I
thought we’d never make it.”

Selena took my hand and kissed me on the
cheek.  “Congratulations.  Have you eaten?”

“Some of that orange space gook.”

“Yuck.”

“Actually, it’s not bad.  It tastes like—”

“Gook, but orange?”

I laughed.  “Funny.  It is good.  It
tastes like
Gerber’s
baby food.  Bananas.”

“It’s supposed to.  It’s bananas.”

“Actually, it was steak.  But we’re
working on it.”

We laughed.

“Steph, you need real food.”

“I’m fine.  You should go and I should
work.  After all you have a family.”

She stood and I rose.  She gave me a long
loving hug and I returned it and we held one another for a long time in the
silence.  She kissed me on the cheek and I kissed her back.

“Steph, get a good meal and some rest.”

“I will.”

“You won’t.”