by Ivan Kal
A smaller station was in orbit of the Moon, always on its dark side so that it wouldn’t be seen from Earth, alongside a shipyard, a colony, and a mining site. Olympus worked fast, and with all the advanced technology they had unlocked from the alien ship, they had gone into high gear. A year after they got the spaceport up and running, they started sending missions to the Moon and beyond. They started mining operations on the asteroid belt and the Moon, and three years later they built the station and a shipyard. That boosted their production speed significantly, and then they started building the station in Earth’s orbit. They had stalled its production on purpose. They could have built it in a year, but they didn’t want to alarm the governments of Earth or show them their true capabilities. Even the things that they did until now had some of them suspicious.
“Couldn’t we just go public, then? Tell them that we are colonizing the Moon and have plans to colonize further? What’s the worst they could do?” Elias said.
“They might not have the power to do anything to us, but it will hurt our plans a lot. They can control the press. And when they figure out what our plans are, they will paint us in a not so favorable light,” Tomas said. “And remember, they don’t know what we really have. First, they will try to take control of Olympus, and then when I refuse, they will try to have me removed as CEO. When they realize that Olympus is completely owned by me, they will resort to force. No, we need to start planning now; we need to get ahead of this before they find out. They will never allow a corporation to colonize the Moon, but we might trick them if we start looking for personnel for the station. It could safely hold thousands.”
“But when they do find out, they will stop our recruiting attempts. We need people if we are going to fulfill our plans,” Elias said. He tried to think of a way to recruit people without giving them away.
“I have a few plans, but I’m guessing that we will need to make do with a lot less people than what we originally planned. There are three million Olympus employees worldwide; with their families, about seven million. Assuming about sixty percent of them accept our plans, that is around four million people. We planned for more. We will need to adjust our plans.”
“What do you have in mind?” Elias asked.
“First, we need to tighten our security. We will be making some risky moves, and we need to ensure complete secrecy. That’s your job. We need to find everything we can about the other countries’ space projects, and we need to stall the League and Concordis as much as we can until they wise up and turn elsewhere. And I will be making a trip to see Seo-yun. I have been letting her have the choice of which technologies we develop. I will need to convince her to focus on space technology,” Tomas said.
“I’ll see what I can do on the security part. But if you believe that there might be a conflict, we will need to expand the security—or the military, I guess. No point in calling it security anymore, and we will need spaceships to protect the colony,” Elias said, already developing the strategy for the next few years.
“Yes, I already sent the instructions to the shipyard. By the calculations I got, we should have two warships in two years, but we will be stopping the production of freighters and mining ships,” Tomas said. Olympus currently had four freighter-class ships and six mining ships. The freighters were constantly moving materials that were mined at the asteroid belt. The ships had the best engines, they could currently produce, and it took them just a little over a month for the trip from the Moon to the asteroid belt.
“That will help a lot if they refuse to let us go,” Elias said.
“Yes, I know. But it will also hurt us when the world sees what we have been hiding from them… But even now, I don’t know if I would have done anything differently. Damn,” Tomas said, shaking his head.
“There is nothing you could have done differently. And in the end, we will tell our side, they will tell theirs, and the people will decide on their own. And if people condemn us, then we don’t want them in any case,” Elias said.
Tomas looked at him for a moment and then nodded, some of the worry going out of his face.
“You are right, as always, my friend. Now we prepare for the day we finally tell the world our intentions,” Tomas said, looking out at the endless sea of stars on the wall screen.
Chapter Nine
June 2094 – One year later
Adrian Farkas ran down the stairs as fast as he could. He wanted to be one of the first to meet the visitors. He had seen them from the bedroom window; they came in an all-black sleek car. He didn’t know the manufacturer. But then, he’d never much cared about cars. He had seen some kind of symbol on its side, but hadn’t recognized it. He ran past the other kids in the living room and came up to the front door; Miss Mayberry was already there opening the door. She exchanged a few hushed words with the visitors and then stepped aside for them to come in.
When they stepped in, he saw a man and a woman that were young, a lot younger than Miss Mayberry, who was an old lady with gray hair. These people looked barely older than Mathew, and he was twenty years old. Mathew was Miss Mayberry’s grandson, and he visited her here at the orphanage from time to time. Adrian’s spirits dropped a bit at their age; they looked too young to be here to adopt. And if they were, then they wouldn’t want an older child like Adrian, who had just turned ten. Most children who got adopted were a lot younger, and it was very rare for a child older than five to be adopted. Adrian had already started losing hope that he would ever get adopted.
This couple was dressed in strange clothes; he’d never seen anything like them. Their uniforms were black with dark blue outlines. The man turned to Miss Mayberry and whispered something to her. She turned towards the living room with an expression that meant she was greatly displeased about the situation but couldn’t do anything about it. She sent all the smaller children out of the house to play, while telling the two older children, Mary and Greg, to stay.
“Here they are,” Miss Mayberry said.
“We were told that there are three,” the woman said.
Miss Mayberry made a sour face and turned towards the stair where Adrian was standing and saw him. “Adrian! Get in here.”
Adrian quickly followed. Miss Mayberry was not in a good mood. And it wasn’t wise to disobey her when she used that tone. He entered the living room and sat on the couch alongside Mary. She was thirteen years old, and Greg was nine.
The man and the woman sat on the couch opposite them and looked at them closely. Adrian was aware that they had sent all the younger children away. So he felt his spirit rising again; maybe they wanted to adopt an older child.
The man turned towards Miss Mayberry. “Thank you, that will be all. We will notify you when we are done.”
Miss Mayberry opened her mouth as if to say something, but then stopped herself and left the room.
The pair looked at the children for a moment before speaking.
“Hello. My name is Andrea and this is Rodney,” the woman said, pointing to the man sitting beside her. “Let me start by saying that we are not here to adopt you. Well, not exactly,” she said, and Adrian felt all his hopes shatter; he could see that it was the same for the Mary and Greg.
“We are from a company called Olympus,” she continued, but Adrian barely heard her. All he could think about was how he would never be adopted. He would spend his next eight years in this house, and then he would be thrown out, with nothing but the clothes on his back. He knew that the children with parents got to go to school, and then they got jobs afterwards. But here, they had very little in terms of schooling, and he knew the stories that were told at night by other kids. That those who didn’t get adopted by the age of eighteen usually became homeless, living on the streets.
“We are here to offer you something. We are making this offer only to those children who are older than seven, and who were labeled as troublemakers. You must know by now that few get adopted past that age, and with your records, there really is a very little chance of
you ever getting adopted.”
Adrian looked down at his feet, he knew that she was right, but what could she offer them if they weren’t going to adopt them?
“We have been granted permission by your government to take any child that is willing to go with us. We have many programs that will give you a better chance at life than what you could get here—if you choose to accept. I know that you are young, but I assure you that you would have a better life with us than what you would have here. Your country can do very little for you. They simply don’t have enough resources to get all of you sufficient schooling and care; you need to be self-sufficient after you leave the orphanage. But if you come with us, you will never be adopted. You will live with other children your age, go to school with them. And you will have teachers, but no parents. You will be able to become whatever you want, and your family will be your friends and classmates,” she said.
Adrian looked up; they were offering them to go to school, but at a price of not having a family. He knew that there was little chance of him getting adopted, but even so, there was a chance that he would, no matter how small.
“And when we turn eighteen?” Mary asked.
“You will stay with us as long as you want to study, and when you are finished, you will be able to choose whether to stay and work for Olympus or come back here to the United States and find a job on your own. During the time you stay with us, everything you need will be provided by us,” said the man, Rodney.
“But what do you get from this? Why do you want us to go with you?” Mary pressed.
“Because we hope that you will stay with us when you finish your studies,” Andrea said.
The children remained silent. Adrian didn’t understand why he would be of value to them even if they gave him schooling, but this was a chance to get out of this house, to go to school. To make something of his life on his own. Not just to stay and wait for fate to make something for him.
Adrian didn’t know a lot about Olympus, only what he saw on TV, and that was very little. The news said that it was a big company, and that its founder was the wealthiest man on the planet. Adrian remembered that he was an orphan just like Adrian, and yet he’d managed to become the wealthiest man in the world. Adrian raised his hand.
“I want to go,” he said.
Mary raised her hand as well. “Me too.”
Greg looked at them and then at the woman. “I don’t want to go. I want to get adopted,” he said. Adrian heard in his voice the same conviction that Adrian himself had had before he’d realized that it would never happen. Adrian knew that he was smarter than the other kids, more “grown up” than those close to his age, even older. But being smarter in an orphanage was a quick way to get bullied by bigger kids, so he’d learned to hide it. Greg still believed that he would get adopted one day, just like most other kids here. But Adrian knew it would never happen; the last of his hope died minutes ago. But he was also smart enough to know that these people were offering them something that he would never have otherwise. And he thought that perhaps the way they gave them the choice was a kind of a test. Maybe they only wanted kids smart enough to see the opportunity they were offering.
Andrea nodded and smiled softly at Adrian and Mary, and then turned to Greg. “No one will force you to go, but if you change your mind, people from Olympus will come again next year. You can say yes then. And I truly hope that you get a family,” she said warmly, then told him that he was free to go. Greg stood up and went upstairs.
She turned to Mary and Adrian and said. “What are your names?”
“Adrian.”
“Mary.”
“It’s my pleasure to meet you, Adrian and Mary. You will come with us now, as soon as we inform your caretaker. You have five minutes to get anything you want from your belongings, but only something you can carry. You won’t need any clothes; everything will be provided for you. Take only something you have sentimental value for,” Andrea said, while Rodney stood up and went in the direction of the kitchen, presumably to find Miss Mayberry. Mary got up and ran up the stairs, while Adrian stayed seated.
“You should hurry up and take anything you want; you won’t be back here again,” Andrea said.
“I don’t need anything,” Adrian said, and there was not a thing he wanted to take with him. His time here would soon be left behind, he didn’t have anything sentimental. He had been left at the doors of the orphanage as a baby; he didn’t have anything from his parents. And everything else he had was provided to him by the orphanage, mostly clothes that the other kids outgrew, and any toys he had were passed on to him, and he passed them down as he grew older.
Andrea looked at him for a moment and then smiled. She motioned him to get up and come closer. He walked to her and she put her hand on his shoulder and guided him towards the front door. Miss Mayberry and Rodney came through the kitchen door at the same time Mary walked down the stairs holding a wooden box.
Rodney motioned her to him and they started towards the door.
“The other kids could use those clothes,” Miss Mayberry said as they moved away.
Andrea shot her a look that could scare any of the smaller children, but Miss Mayberry held her glare.
“We’ll send them back,” Rodney said. Miss Mayberry nodded and then turned away.
And then they were outside. That was it; the closest person Adrian had to a mother just turned her back without as much as a goodbye. They didn’t say goodbye to any of the other kids; they were done with this house, with this life. Adrian knew that Miss Mayberry wasn’t all that attached to them, but she had taken care of them for years. He’d expected at least a wave, maybe a hug. She always hugged children that got adopted. Was that because there were new parents around then? Was it just posturing? Or was it him and Mary that she didn’t like? It didn’t matter, in any case. They were on their way to a new life.
They entered the car and started on their way. Adrian had never been in a car before; he’d never even left the house. The farthest he had ever gone was a step outside of the courtyard, and that had been on a dare. He remembered how Miss Mayberry had been furious he did so; she’d tripled his cleaning duty for that week. And now with every passing second, he traveled further away from everything he knew before. Adrian knew that there was a whole other world out there.
They might not have been going to school, but they had been permitted to watch television. He’d learned a lot from the news and other programs. Adrian had even managed to convince one of the older kids who was put in the orphanage when his parents died to teach him how to read. He’d been seventeen, with no one to take him in, so he’d spent a year with them until he had been let go on the street. There were a few books at the orphanage—the real ones, like they used to make long ago, with paper. He knew from TV that most came electronically and could be read on a datapad nowadays. But they didn’t even have one datapad at the orphanage, save for the one Miss Mayberry had, and she never let them touch that one.
Adrian looked out the window at the passing scenery, and finally the scope of what he’d just done hit him like cold water in the shower. He had just agreed to go with these strangers; he didn’t know anything about them other than the fact that Miss Mayberry had no problem letting them take him and Mary. He knew nothing.
Adrian looked at Mary sitting in the back of the car with him; he saw that she was scared just like him. She held on to her wooden box strong enough her fingers started to go white. Panic threatened to take him over, but he managed to push it down. He looked at the front of the car at the two people seated there; Rodney was driving and Andrea was reading something on her datapad.
Adrian swallowed and mustered his courage. He coughed for a moment, hoping to get their attention, but it didn’t seem to work. So he managed to open his mouth and speak. “How old are you?” he asked. He didn’t know why, but that was the first thing that came to his mind. They looked barely older than Miss Mayberry’s grandson, and Adrian wanted to know.
&nbs
p; Andrea turned in her seat to look at him; she glanced at Rodney and raised her eyebrow. There was a moment where he could have sworn she was about to start laughing, but her face quickly assumed a soft expression, she looked at Adrian.
“I’m fifty-four, and Rodney is sixty-seven,” she said.
Adrian looked at Mary and saw her eyes grow wide as she turned towards Andrea.
“But you look barely older than twenty!” Mary said
“You will soon learn that things are much different outside of your country. Where I come from, most everyone looks young,” Andrea said, amused.
“B-but how?” Adrian asked.
“You will learn all this and more in time,” Andrea said, and turned back towards her datapad.
They spent the next hour in silence, until finally they came to a stop at what seemed to be an airport. He saw in the distance a transport, and as they walked towards it, it became more and more apparent to Adrian that they were going to fly on it. Adrian couldn’t believe what was happening; he had always wondered what it would be like to fly, and now he would fly on this machine. They boarded the plane and he saw that there were already kids on board, all around his age and older. There were only a few that were close to eighteen that he could see. Mary and he were seated in the empty seats beside a boy his age and a girl who was somewhere close to sixteen. Rodney fastened Adrian’s seatbelt and shoulder harness while Andrea did the same for Mary; then they wished them luck and left the transport. Adrian started to panic again, but the boy beside him offered his hand.
“Hi, I’m Sahib, what’s your name?” he asked, smiling widely. Adrian looked at his hand and hesitated only a moment before taking it.
“Adrian,” he said.
“Great to meet you,” Sahib said, shaking Adrian’s hand enthusiastically. Sahib looked to be about Adrian’s age.