Ephialtes (Ephialtes Trilogy Book 1) (7 page)

“My name is
Colleen Acevedo.  I’m an analyst in intelligence.”  Acevedo had
always been modest.  She was, in fact, a senior intelligence analyst,
reporting directly to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“I know who
you are, Ms Acevedo,” said Andrews.  She was vaguely aware of Acevedo and
her work, but nothing more.

“I thought
you might just want to look at the transcripts of the conversations coming out
of Venkdt.”

“Leave them
on my desk; I’ll have someone take a look.”  Andrews went back to her next
piece of paper.  Acevedo stepped forward.

“I really do
think it’s worthy of your time, Ms Andrews.  We’ve done some further
analysis on the conversations and we’re pretty sure they’re between Charles
Venkdt and Michael Summers, the CEO of Venkdt Corp here on Earth.  There
are some other conversations within Venkdt Mars that suggest that Charles
Venkdt is very serious about what he’s discussing.  He’s had senior
members of Venkdt making feasibility studies, costings, etcetera, and he’s gone
out of his way to keep it all under the radar.”

Audrey
Andrews sat back in her chair and bit gently on the arm of her glasses. 
She observed Acevedo, and squinted almost imperceptibly.  “Feasibility of
what?” she asked.

Acevedo took
a second to process the question.  To her, the answer was so obvious she
thought she might have misunderstood the question.  “Martian
independence,” she said.

Andrews
thought.  “Do you have the feasibility studies?” she asked.

“I do,”
Acevedo replied, holding up the folder.

“And what do
they say?”

Acevedo took
a breath.  “Essentially, they say that independence is feasible, desirable
and even necessary.”

“Necessary?”

“Yes, Ms
Andrews.  Necessary for Mars to grow, economically.  The arguments
are essentially the same as in the Kasugai study, of which I’m sure you are
aware.”

“Yes, yes, of
course,” said Andrews.  She had never heard of the Kasugai study. 
“So this is something they’re discussing seriously at Venkdt?”

“At Venkdt
Mars, Ms Andrews, yes.  Michael Summers is bitterly opposed.  He gets
quite angry in the transcripts.”  Acevedo once again held up the manila
folder.

“Show me,”
said Andrews.

Acevedo made
her way around the unnecessarily large desk and opened the folder, searching
through it and pulling out sheets that were variously stapled or paper clipped
together.  She laid them out in front of Andrews, explaining as she went.

“These are
the feasibility plans, called Feasibility B and Feasibility F - don’t
ask what happened to A and C through E, we don’t know - and
these are four message conversations between
Summers
and Venkdt over a period of two weeks.  They get interesting here.” 
Acevedo pointed at one of pages.  Andrews read it, turning over to the
next page with deepening lines of concentration appearing on her
forehead.  Acevedo pointed to another sheet.  “This is where
Summers
starts to lose his rag,” she said.

Andrews read
aloud:

“Summers:
 The shareholders own Venkdt, and we both work for them.  I’ll be
bringing this up at the AGM and we’ll have your ass out of there before you
even know it.

Venkdt:
 I feel my position here is secure.

Summers:
 You cannot break up Venkdt without a two-thirds majority of the
board.

Venkdt:
 Well, that might be true, strictly, but these are exceptional
circumstances.  We might have to bend the rules, just this one time.

Summers:
 We do things legally here at Venkdt.

Venkdt:
 I respect the law.  But sometimes what’s right and what’s legal
stray from each other, just a little.

Summers:
 Don’t do it Charles.  I’ve got an army of lawyers here, just waiting
to go.

Venkdt:
 And where is ‘here’ exactly?  You’re a long way from where I am, and
you can’t see what I can.  This has to happen.  It’s our destiny.

Summers: 
It might be your destiny but it’s sure as shit not your goddamned
company.  You have no right to go through with this.  I’ll see you
rot in jail for this if you try it, you son of a bitch.”

Andrews
looked at Acevedo.  “He’s going to break up Venkdt?”

“He proposes
Venkdt Mars breaks away from the rest of Venkdt Corp.  Given that Mars
virtually is Venkdt Mars -”

Andrews cut
in, “And
Hjälp
Teknik
.”

“The
Hjälp
Teknik
operation on Mars is
less than a tenth of the size of
Venkdt’s
.  Mars
belongs to Venkdt, and Charles Venkdt wants out from the rest of the
company.  He has the means to do it, too.”

“What about
the garrison?”

“Less than
two hundred of them.  And they’re more of a police force than an army.”

Andrews
thought.  “So what are the security implications for us?”

“Practically
none, as you pointed out before.  They’re a hundred and forty million
miles away and they don’t have a military.  But they do supply the bulk of
our deuterium, and they’re a reasonably big player economically.  The
biggest threat to us is political.  To lose our first - the
world’s first - off-world colony would make us look weak,
particularly in light of some of the compromises we had to make to get the
peace accords to work.  We’re already widely perceived as having caved
into our enemies’ demands at the negotiation table.  If we then sit by and
let our colonists secede from the union against our wishes we will look
weak.  And that can only be destabilising.”

Andrews stood
up and held out a hand to Acevedo.  “Thank you for bringing this to my
attention.  This is good work, exactly the sort of thing we need to be
looking at.”

“Thank you, Ms
Andrews,” said Acevedo.

“Can you type
all this up into a full report and get it to me by the end of the day?”

“Yes, Ms
Andrews.”

“Good. 
That’s all”

“Thank you,
Ms Andrews.”

Acevedo made
toward the door as Andrews returned to her seat.  Just as she got there
Andrews called out, “Ms Acevedo?”

Acevedo
stopped and turned back toward her.  “Yes, Ms Andrews?”

“Your
report - let’s just keep it between us at the moment.”

“Yes, Ms
Andrews.”

Sat plumb in
the middle of its own private hundred and twenty metre dome, Charles
Venkdt’s
house looked like something from the home
planet.  Surrounded by lawns and even trees, here was a little bit of
Earth on Mars.  The house itself was large but functional.  Venkdt
didn’t have time for ostentation.  He was about doing things, achieving
goals and finding solutions.  It showed in the design of his house and it
showed in his work.

Venkdt was of
the fifth generation of his family working at the top of the company which bore
his name.  His great-great-grandfather, Alexander Venkdt, had
founded the company in 2094 and marshalled it into one of the great global
players.  His grandfather’s stewardship of the family business had been
awarded to him for his involvement in the company’s biggest and boldest gamble;
the commercial exploitation of Mars.  In 2143 Venkdt Corp was the first
company to send a human expedition to Mars, and within five years of that
Venkdt had a permanent base on the planet which had been growing ever
since.  In the first few years growth was slow and interdependent with the
USAN Research
Center
, which had been established
twenty-two years before and had a permanent but rotating staff of around
thirty people.

Around twenty
years after the base was established expansion really started to take
off.  Deuterium and other precious minerals were being extracted in ever-larger
amounts and sent back to the home planet.  The early camps were expanding
into something much more comfortable than the original squat cylinders
connected by tubes.  The new buildings by that time were totally
fabricated on Mars, made with Martian bricks and built largely below surface
level as protection against the low atmospheric pressure and cold.  All
buildings had to be sealed against the exterior low pressure of seven or so
millibars, not much more than an absolute vacuum for practical purposes. 
Being mostly underground helped with this and the extreme cold of a Martian
nigh-time or winter.  Once bricks and Plexiglas could be manufactured
locally there was something of a building boom.  Within twenty-five
years the original Venkdt prefabs were abandoned and given the status of
‘historic sight’.  They had gone from being cutting edge, wave of the
future habitation to museum pieces in less than a quarter of a century.

By 2180
Venkdt’s
Martian operation dwarfed the USAN Research
Center
and expansion was continuing apace.  In the
first few decades of operation all Venkdt personnel eventually returned to
Earth after serving terms of two, four, six or eight years.  Their pay was
very good and there was little opportunity to spend it on a frontier
planet.  Business was booming and Venkdt Mars was one of Venkdt Corp’s
most profitable divisions.  As the operation expanded in terms of people
and buildings some personnel chose to stay beyond even eight years.

The first
humans born on Mars had come in the early days, but they had quickly returned
to Earth with their parents soon after.  Mars, it seemed, was no place to
raise a kid.  Over time this returning to the home planet became less of
an obvious choice.  Starting in the 2170s, when the total population was
around fifteen thousand, some families opted to stay on Mars.  There were
building projects for homes that, unlike the previous Venkdt billets, could be
bought by their occupants.  Soon the ratio of natural born Martians to
transients started to shift, ever so slightly at first but accelerating over
time.  By the end of the century more than half of the population was
Martian born, with some of them being second or third generation.

Charles
Venkdt himself had shipped out to Mars at the age of eighteen in 2185, and had
never been back to Earth since.  He had always been fascinated with the
planet and his family’s interest in it.  And, in truth, he had wanted to
get out from the shadow of his father.  This didn’t, of course, extend to
striking out completely on his own.  Given his good fortune to have been
born into one of the richest families in the
USAN, that
would have just been foolish.  Charles knew that he could make a name for
himself working from within.  If he worked hard and demonstrated
competency he would soon rise up in the furthest outpost of the family
firm.  That he did.

Venkdt had
been the managing operational director of Venkdt Mars for over thirty-five
years.  When he had first reached that lofty position the Martian
population had been around thirty thousand; now it was close to one hundred
thousand.  He had overseen expansion from the exportation of raw minerals
to the production of high quality finished goods.  He had expanded the
fledgling R&D Department to something of a fiefdom for its director. 
He understood that in their hostile environment Martians had to innovate,
meeting every challenge with creative solutions.

Within the
last thirty years or so he had seen the arrival of
Hjälp
Teknik
, a comparatively upstart company who had
arrived on Mars as a direct competitor to Venkdt.  Charles viewed them
with a mild contempt, but conceded that competition was good as it would drive
efficiency and innovation.  Despite that he couldn’t help thinking, deep
down, that
Hjälp
Teknik
had
it easy.  The knowhow, the knowledge, the risk had all been borne by the
pioneers of Venkdt, who had also supplied, latterly, much of the transport and
coms infrastructure.  These Johnny-come-latelies were sailing
in on
Venkdt’s
coat tails when all the hard work had
been done, and taking the easy pickings.

Things were
changing now, and rapidly.  It wasn’t just
Hjälp
Teknik
who were the rivals any more.  Mars had
expanded at such a rate that, even with the exception of
Hjälp
Teknik
, it was no longer a company town.  Two
Venkdt employees might get together and start a family, buying a house with
their wages and becoming true stakeholders in the Martian adventure.  What
about their kids?  Venkdt didn’t necessarily owe them a living, and they
didn’t necessarily want to work for Venkdt.  With some capital from their
parents’ savings, or even a loan, some of these natural born Martians could set
up their own businesses. 
Venkdt’s
Martians
craved entertainment and other fripperies to spend their hard-earned
money on, and small businesses sprang up to provide it to them.  In time,
other services were provided too, leading to growth in the Martian banking
sector.  Initially most goods were imported - there was
money to be made undercutting the official Venkdt Stores in this area - but
in time demand drove local production.  The Martian economy was fizzing,
and the population was expanding.  All of this made Charles Venkdt
immensely proud.  Though in truth it was his forefathers and their
associates who had put in the
really
hard graft in the early days,
Charles felt, with not a total absence of justification, that Mars was an
ongoing project that he had built.

From his
position on the veranda Charles watched the cab arrive, slowly winding its way
up his short drive before coming to a halt in front of the house.  His
daughter stepped from the vehicle and reached back in, collecting her
bag.  She closed the door and looked up.  “Hi, Dad,” she said.

“Hey,
gorgeous,” Venkdt replied, a warm and genuine smile on his face.  He
walked to the top of the steps and greeted her with a hug and a kiss. 
They walked inside.

“I hope you
haven’t eaten,” said Venkdt.

“I thought we
were eating here?” replied Christina.

“Yes, yes, we
are,” said Venkdt.  “Go through.”  He gestured to the dining room.

They entered
the room and sat at places laid out for them.  “How’ve you been, Dad?”
said Christina.  “Everything okay?”

“Everything’s
just fine,” said Venkdt.  “Drink?”

“You know, I
think I will.  Do you have any wine?”

Venkdt spoke
to no one, “Can we have some wine in here please?  And we’re ready to
eat.”  He turned to Christina.  “How’re things with you?”

“They’re
good, Dad.  Work’s good, the apartment’s going well,”

“Have they
finished yet?”

“There’s a
little left to do on the bathroom, but it’s looking great.  Thank you for
all your help.”

Venkdt waved
a hand, “Don’t worry about it, it’s nothing.”

A small drone
entered the room and rolled up to Venkdt.  “To my daughter, please,” said
Venkdt and the drone moved to Christina.  The top opened and a plinth rose
up with a bottle of wine on it and two glasses.  Christina took the bottle
and a glass.  She lifted the second glass, gesturing to her father, but he
shook his head and she returned it to the drone, which whirred away.  It
stopped by the doorway to allow in a second, slightly larger drone.  This
one approached Venkdt and opened to reveal two plated meals, steaming and smelling
good.  Venkdt took a plate and the drone moved on to Christina, who had
just poured her wine.

“This looks
good,” she said.

Venkdt had
already started eating.  “It is,” he said.  “Tuck in.”

They ate and
intermittently chatted about mundane day-to-day family things, and
the odd little stories from their lives.  Picking his time Venkdt brought
the conversation round to what he really wanted to discuss.  “You like the
salmon?” he said.

“Is that what
it is?  It’s delicious,” Christina said through mouthfuls.

“It’s local,
you know.”

“
Fabbed
around here?”

“Not
fabbed
.  Grown.”

Christina
looked at him, impressed.

“A couple of
guys that used to work for us.  They’ve got a place up in Dog Sur. 
Imported some eggs, built a pool and now they farm salmon.”

“Amazing,”
said Christina.

“The wine
too.  Local, I mean.  There’s a dome in Eastside that’s just filled
with vines, and they press their own wines there.  It’s very expensive
now, but as they expand costs will come down.”

“I’ve heard
about them,” said Christina.  “A guy at work is a wine nut.  I can’t
tell the difference between this and the
fabbed
stuff, to be honest, but he was raving about them.”

“Did you know
around two new businesses are starting each month at the moment?”

Christina
raised her eyebrows in acknowledgement.  “I didn’t know that,” she said.

“The Martian
economy is growing at a rate of four percent.”

“That’s
great,” said Christina.  “Isn’t it?”

“It is
great,” said Venkdt.  “I think we should be a bigger part of it.”

Christina looked
at him, feeling a speech coming on.

“Venkdt is
the biggest player in the Martian economy by far.  For now.  We dwarf
our closest rival,
Hjälp
Teknik
,
and all the rest are just minnows.  But to compete in the long term we
need to be independent.  And I’m not just talking about the Martian arm of
Venkdt, I’m talking about Mars itself.”

Christina did
not quite follow, and Venkdt read it in her face.  “At the moment Venkdt
Mars generates huge profits.  Most of those profits go back to Venkdt Corp
on Earth.  Our endeavours benefit the parent company and its shareholders,
and not us.  I propose that Venkdt Mars breaks away from the parent
company and goes its own way.  We should be trading with them, not working
for them.  As an independent corporation we can be at the heart of the new
Martian economy.”

Christina
looked at him.  “You’ll never get that past the board.  They’re not
going to sell off their biggest cash cow.”

“Well, no,”
Venkdt allowed, “not if we give them the choice.”  Christina raised her
eyebrows again, higher this time.  “But what if we don’t?”

Christina put
her fork down, chewing and swallowing her remaining food.  Venkdt had gone
back to eating.  Christina spoke cautiously.  “If you don’t
what
?”

Venkdt looked
up, startled.  “Give them the choice.  We can buy out their shares at
the market rate, and that’s that.  What are they going to do?  Send
an army?”

Christina
frowned.  “It would be illegal.  Giving them the money for what you
take from them doesn’t make it right, if they don’t want you to take it.”

“We’ve made
huge profits for them over the years.  We’ve earned them trillions, and
we’ve been out here taking the risks and building this thing and sending all
the money back to them.  I say we’ve paid our dues, and we should take
what’s rightfully ours.  This can be a new nation here, hell,
a
new planet.  It belongs to us.”

Venkdt was
smiling.  ‘Sheesh’, thought Christina, ‘he’s really going to do it.’

“So you’re
going to go ahead with this?” said Christina.

“I think
so.  In a month or two the hundred thousandth Martian will be born.
 We’ll make an announcement then.”