CHAPTER 32
“Earth to Jason,” Elisa said, waving her hands in front of his face.
“Sorry, honey,” Jason said, wiping his brow and frowning. The wind had died a bit with the afternoon and it was hot in the hut. “I don’t think as well in the heat and I really need to think.”
“I’ll leave you alone . . . ?” Elisa said.
“No, I don’t want you to think . . . ” Jason said hastily.
“Long phone call with James,” Elisa said. “About money which you hate talking about. That’s what’s got you going. And what was the thing about Elvish?”
“I have not a clue,” Jason said distantly. He’d shared pretty much everything else with her. As well hanged for a sheep. “I got a dividend payment. After talking with my accountant and James, I offered a credit per unit for a unit-unit trade for Twelve Bravo.”
“The fuel mine,” Elisa said. “I was concentrating on Twelve Alpha but I didn’t get very far.”
“The other choice was a suggestion to let me proxy the units,” Jason said. “Apparently, the offer of a credit got people to talk. And Jewel ended up with enough proxy, and units, to call a vote.”
“Fantastic,” Elisa said, grinning. “The fuel situation isn’t dire, yet, but we need at least one of the mines up and going. Even if you are a competitor.”
“Not only that,” Jason said, not wanting to leave anything out. “Jewel got over a million people to sign up as clients of Allen, Randall. And they needed some investment money to swallow that particular pig. So, I’m now an unnamed and intending to be very silent partner in your dad’s firm. Which has got to be, now, one of the biggest financial firms in the system.”
“As the heiress, can I kiss you?” she asked, smiling.
“Here’s the problem,” Jason said, even ignoring where that might have led. “I’ve got a controlling interest in . . . a ten thousand pack, a fuel mine and a carbon converter. Not to mention one of the fastest growing companies in Pegasus, Brandywine, and a fast-growing financial firm. I’m on my way to a controlling interest, proxy or units, in a general factory and possibly a metals refinery.”
“That does not sound like a problem . . . ?” Elisa said, taking his arm. “That sounds like the decision to come down to this tropical paradise with an apparently nice guy was a very good decision on my part.”
“I have no clue what I’m doing!” Jason said, looking at her wide-eyed. “I just keep doing stuff and it works. When this gets up and going there will be thousands of people dependent on my decisions! I’ve got to choose people to run these things! I took the responsibility and now I’m stuck with it. A chairman for the unit holders! A board! I need to set up a company to run the ten grand! And I’m still not sure any of my plans to use it will work! What the heck do I know about any of that? Seriously, what the heck did I think I was doing?”
“You were trying to get rich?” Elisa said. “There’s nothing wrong with that, Jason.”
“No,” Jason said. “That’s the thing. I wasn’t. I was . . . trying to get to the planet. Trying to get people fresh food. Trying to get the fuel mine going. Trying to get this cockamamie units system to work. Oh, and ‘wouldn’t it be cool to own a really big spaceship?’ That too. Admittedly. I’m not now, never have been, somebody who thinks ‘Hey, how do I get rich?’”
“Every business ever created helps people,” Elisa said. “People complain about owners, about management. But every business creates jobs, creates opportunities, fulfills needs. If it doesn’t fulfill a need, it goes out of business. It’s what people don’t get about ‘evil business.’ There’s never been a successful business that didn’t do something for people. Something people needed or at least wanted. Even social media was successful because it fulfilled a desire. Porn, God help me. It fulfills a need.”
“I get that,” Jason said. “But I’ve bitten off more than I can chew.”
“First things first,” Elisa said, taking his hand and pulling him to his feet. “To the waterfall!”
“That’s lots of fun . . . ” Jason said distractedly.
“You’ve said before you don’t think well in heat,” Elisa said. “Can you think better under the waterfall?”
“Yes,” Jason admitted.
“Then to the waterfall with you,” Elisa said. “I will start dinner. And I won’t ask what you want. Come on . . . there’s a good boy . . . ”
* * *
After a while under the waterfall, Jason clambered into the cave dug behind it.
“Jewel, first things first,” Jason said. “Call a units vote on Twelve Bravo, Spaceship Four, Carbon Charlie . . . What else do I have enough units or proxies in?”
“Factory Alpha and Metals Refinery Charlie,” Jewel said. “But your control over Refinery Charlie is tenuous.”
“What about Factory Alpha?” Jason asked.
“Solid lock,” Jewel said. “Two percent unit ownership, twelve percent proxy for a total of fourteen percent control. Additional customers for Allen, Randall. Some of the proxy just came in on its own. Crocodile Dude is a known entity and I’ve leaned on that as well as Brandywine, which is starting to be a brand. Why people would give their proxy to Crocodile Dude, I have no idea. But the founder of Brandywine, people respond to that. ‘He’s somebody that knows what he’s doing in this situation.’”
“Hah,” Jason said. “If they only knew . . . ”
“Refinery Charlie, on the other hand, has one person with five percent control and a number with ones and twos. They’ve been talking, just like Twelve Bravo, but can’t get along very well. Before you ask, I’m concentrating everything, now, on Refinery Charlie. You’ve got eight percent total, so far, one percent unit ownership, the rest proxy. If they get their act together in the face of the interloper, you won’t have a lock. I’m continuing to seek opportunities. We need at least a nominated chairman for each.”
“Which is going to require lots of phone calls,” Jason said. “Timing should be good on the station. Evening there. Let’s start with Dr. Mark Green if he’s available . . . ”
Jason quickly learned to have Jewel send a précis of his resumé since arriving on Bellerophon to people before they talked. He’d . . . changed since arriving on Pegasus and most of the people he was calling knew him as a guy that had done a lot of things but never succeeded or even really tried.
One of the things he had to explain, repeatedly, was he wasn’t trying to get rich. He was just trying to get the system going.
Several people who knew him well said much the same thing as Elisa: When you supply goods and services to large numbers of people, you tend to get rich.
He was supplying both. He was getting rich.
Some of the chosen chairmen didn’t have units in the facilities. He did quick trades for them to have at least one unit, the only requirement.
About half turned down the offers. They had other things going, there were conflicts of interest.
But after a couple hours of phone calls, he had proposed chairmen for all the facilities where he had controlling proxy and ownership in units except Spaceship Four. That was going to be a long explanation for the unit chairman.
“Got it,” Jason said. “We’ll see who else sticks their nose in and suggests alternates. Now, try to get me in touch with Dr. Robert Barron. Tell him it’s about a paid gig as a chairman for Spaceship Four Corporation.”
About a minute later the call came in.
“Jason Graham,” Barron said. “That’s a name I haven’t heard in forever.”
“Hey, Doc,” Jason said, grinning. “Marked Safe on Bellerophon.”
Jason’s acquaintance with Dr. Barron was odd. He’d originally met the PhD in physics, and some number former wife, while fighting a fire in California. You didn’t have a lot of time to chat when trying to stop a forest fire from engulfing a neighborhood. But they had and had even kept up over the years as Jason had drifted from one job to the next and so had the good doctor. Difference being the doctor had drifted from academia to working in the IT industry to venture capital to the rocket industry to other venture capital and finally to working in administration in academia.
The oddest part of all of that resumé being that the good doctor was a pro-Second Amendment conservative and Republican. Those terrible facts had finally caught up to him and he’d retired shortly before the Transfer.
“Pegasus System at the very least,” Barron said. “Chairman for a hangar queen. Not sure that’s top of my agenda but a paid gig would be nice. However . . . I’m in consultation with some people I’ve known over the years about setting up a university . . . ”
“I’m pretty sure she won’t be a hangar queen forever,” Jason said. “I’ve got a controlling unit interest and can call a vote and more or less appoint a board given the apathy of most of the unit holders.”
“Ten million units are difficult for even me to keep up with,” Barron said. “But there may be a use. There was a recent and sudden change in Twelve Bravo . . . ”
“Which I also had something to do with,” Jason said. “But there’s more potential uses for it than that . . . ”
Jason explained his idea for dropping colonists, gathering equipment on the major peaks to be picked up and other potential uses.
“I’d rather have the chairmanship of Twelve Bravo,” Barron said, raising an eyebrow.
“I hate to say I already asked someone else,” Jason said, shrugging. “But I did. You’re not the only scientist gone to the dark side I know. And the other one has more experience in the oil industry and specifically with natural gas. Which is as close as you get to a gas mine around a planet. Also, a doctorate in physics.”
“The ways to use the ship are interesting ideas,” Barron said thoughtfully. “I can see where people would be untrusting of being dropped, though it would be the most efficient manner. And also, yes, would work. But transfers on the peaks . . . Can you get the cargoes?”
“I can find the cargo,” Jason said. “Brandywine can’t fill it in decent time but we’ve also got agreements with colonists, one of the reasons to get more on the ground and we know most of the ship owners. Are you good on a thirty-five, sixty-five split? Your company, sixty-five to the investors, notably me. You’ll be drawing a salary so you should make more out of it than I do. How much capital do you need to get started?”
That had been one drawdown in his available capital. He’d had to throw money at several problems.
“At least fifty thousand credits,” Barron said. “I’ll need to draw up a business proposal. I have one around but not for the ten grands . . . That’s a standard split so, yes. I agree to take the position.”
“One caveat,” Jason said. “Sorry I forgot. Will you use a particular bank?”
“Your ex-wife’s husband’s?” Barron said, shaking his head. “I got that contact some time back. I suppose.”
“I’ve got an existing relationship,” Jason said. “We’re going to have to take a loan on the fuel. At least at first. If we’re using Derren Bank, we can get the loan.”
“Point.”
“The ten grands are going to be much more efficient,” Jason said. “It’ll work. Jewel, contact Gil and James’s AIs, clear Dr. Barron for up to seventy-five k. And put him in touch with Richard and Mr. Manley. Lance’s job is to get the best deal for the unit holders, of which I’m the primary holder. Your job is to get the best deal for the investors, of which I’m currently the only one. But I need you two to hash it out. There are other unit owners and they have to be kept in mind. Okay?”
“Okay,” Dr. Barron said.
“Good talk?” Jason asked. “I’ve got other calls to make.”
“Good talk,” Barron said.
“See ya when I see ya,” Jason said.
* * *
As Jason waded back in the creek, the tide had come in. There was phosphorescent plankton coming in on the tide and the water flashed green and blue around his calves. It was like tiny fireworks welcoming him back from the darkness of the cave.
When he reached the beach and headed for the hut, there was a light on and he smiled.
It was nice to come home to someone. If only it would last this time.
* * *
“I like that you brought good old-fashioned paper books,” Elisa said, setting one down. “So . . . how’d it go?”
“There are now nominated chairmen for Twelve Bravo, Spaceship Four, Carbon Charlie and Factory Alpha,” Jason said, sitting down at the table and rotating his neck. It had been a tense evening. He pulled on a shirt. It was his grandmother’s strict rule: Always wear a shirt at the table.
“Refinery Charlie there’s a chance of organized opposition so until I can overwhelm it or set up negotiations, I’m waiting. It’s not going to be up and going any time soon, anyway. Metal mining is another area that’s got to be fixed somehow.”
“You don’t have to fix everything,” Elisa said, getting up and coming over to rub his shoulders.
“At the very least it’s going to have to wait till next quarter,” Jason said. “And I still haven’t figured out how to milk an aurochs. Or if you can farrow wild sows from embryos and still have them raise the piglets. It should be possible . . . ”
“Breathe,” Elisa said, rubbing harder. “Breathe. And eat. I kept it warm for you.”
She opened the stasis case on the table to reveal a steamed land crab, already cracked open, rice and vegetables.
“If you eat something, you’ll feel clearer,” she said, sitting down across from him. “Eat and talk to me.”
“You’re not eating,” Jason pointed out. But he pulled out the tail of the land crab and started cutting it. The coconut oil had already been put in a cup.
“I ate,” Elisa said. “But I might take a little claw . . . ” she added, snagging the smaller of the claws. “I looked at your list of chairmen. Good picks, but I didn’t know any of them.”
“I couldn’t really nominate your dad,” Jason said. “There are conflicts. There’s a huge conflict with Four. But that’s just going to have to exist. Nobody wants to touch the ‘hangar queens.’”
“Which you don’t think should be hangar queens,” Elisa said, delicately nibbling land crab.
“Supply and demand,” Jason said. “The price of lift is going up and up. There’s more shipping than there is space. Which means we need the thousand and ten grands going. At least some of them. I finally talked to the chairman of the company that James thinks should run Twelve Bravo. I think he’ll work but one of the issues is funding. So, I’m going to be majority investor in the company and the majority unit controller. Another conflict.”
“You’re the one with the money, Jason,” Elisa said, smiling. “And conflicts like that happen. You’ll do fine. You’ve got a good ethical approach.”
“I’m throwing around credit like I used to buy guns,” Jason said, sighing. He picked at the land crab. “Without consulting Gil, which I should have. This is good. So are the vegetables. You’re a good cook. Which I’ve noted before.”
“Wait till you get me some flour and spices,” Elisa said. “My real strength is baking.”
“I’ve got, like, fifty pounds of flour,” Jason said carefully. “It’s in five-gallon buckets in stasis. It was a prepperish thing.”
“Oh,” Elisa said, grinning. “You just made my day. When we get back to the station, I’ll cook you an angel food cake like you’ve never had!”
“Can’t wait,” Jason said, taking another bite. It was best hot and he didn’t want it to get too cool. “My brain’s still going a mile a minute. It’s like a whirligig. I hate it when it does this. I can’t keep to one thought.”
“Jason,” Elisa said. “You just took control, if not ownership, of about eight percent of the system economy, do you realize that?”
“What?” Jason said, choking on the bite. “What?”
“And as someone who was raised with this, you handled it extremely well,” Elisa said gently. “You gave me access to the information. I checked on every one of the people you chose as chairman. Those were all top picks. I didn’t even know you knew people at that level.”
“I’ve just . . . met a lot of people over the years,” Jason said, shrugging. “Some of them I met when we were both young. Years give experience and if that person is an up-and-comer, as I never was, they eventually become somebody. So, I know a few somebodies.”
“You did all that sitting under a waterfall,” Elisa said then chuckled. “Sorry, that’s one of those stories that will be handed down in business classes of the future. You realize that you’re going to be an example used in business classes someday, right?”
“I guess that’s true,” Jason said. “Eight percent?”
“About that,” Elisa said. “And while you were at it, your money and Jewel’s persuasion just boosted my dad’s company to the largest financial company in the system. Got a call from my mom while you were gone. ‘Be very nice to your boyfriend’ was the gist.”
“I don’t want this to . . . ” Jason said, trying to find the words.
Elisa came around to the front and straddled him, looking him in the eye.
“The AIs found the best boyfriend . . . hopefully more someday . . . I could imagine,” Elisa said, putting her arms on his shoulders. “Better. This? What’s going on? It’s just icing on the cake. I’ve been around rich guys my entire life. They’re mostly . . . not exactly dumb but not as smart as they think, stuck-up assholes who think they’re God’s gift to women. Harry? The guy I lost my virginity to? He thought women shouldn’t hunt. It was a guy thing. He told me it wasn’t ladylike.”
“He’d better never meet Storm,” Jason said. He shrugged. “I think it’s awesome. Also, along with some of your other choices . . . I wonder about me.”
“I’ve always had lousy taste in men,” Elisa said and sighed. “But in your case, I wasn’t the one who made the choice. And it was a great choice. Better than I could have imagined.
“I’m not into you for your money, Jason. That matters so little you can’t believe it. I’ve always been around money. It’s like a background hum you ignore.
“I’m into you for who you are. I came down here for the chance to get onto the planet, visit a tropical paradise and hopefully the guy was going to be okay. And I found the love of my life. I wonder if I’m good enough for you,” she added, frowning.
“That’s . . . nuts,” Jason said. “I’m not good enough for you. You’re from an upper-class family, gorgeous, smart, way more driven and active than I am. Teen Miss South Carolina, scholarship? I’m just a beaten up old . . . nobody that happened to stumble into a fortune I’ll probably lose.”
“That’s one of the things I love about you,” Elisa said, dimpling and interlacing her hands behind his neck. “You’re humble and you’ve got your feet on the ground. But don’t let anyone use that to steamroll you. Anybody tries, I’ll kill ’em. I’m very momma bear about you, Jason Graham.”
“Anybody tries to hurt you, I’ll do worse than kill them,” Jason said, putting his hands around her waist. “I know where the wild things are.”
“What were we talking about?” Elisa asked.
“I’ve completely forgotten.”
“Take off your shirt. I’m gonna give you one of my special massages . . . ”