“That is not good.” Elias said, both the Concordis and the League agreed that Olympus could only put storage facilities on the Moon. What no one knew was that Olympus had not only already built those facilities, they had already expanded and started to colonize the Moon. There were already around one thousand people living there. The Concordis didn’t realize since all off the inhabitants were also Olympus employees, and their families came from the underwater cities under Olympus control. It was easy enough to make sure no one found out that the people were gone.
Tomas nodded. “They plan on sending the first test mission in two years, and to start colonizing in five years, the people that will live there will obviously come from their three countries, but since they had announced this, the League and Concordis want to start doing the same. Both the League and Concordis governments sent me a request, they want to hire us to build them the ships to go and start colonization of the Moon, they want to be there before the Russians and Americans.” He finished grimly.
“That, is definitely not good.” Elias responded.
Tomas closed his eyes and rubbed his temples with his hand. “We could stall, though if we do, at most we get two years until the first mission starts, or if the Concordis and the League grow tired and find someone else to do it, it’s not hard to get to the moon, they could do it a hundred years ago for god’s sakes! It will only make them suspicious and when they get there and find our colony they will know something is wrong, not to mention the freaking station and shipyard we built on the dark side of the Moon.” He said. 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 works fast and with all the advanced technology they unlocked from the alien ship they went into high gear, a year after they got the space port up and running they started sending missions to the moon and beyond, they started mining operations on the asteroid belt and the Moon, three years later they built the station and a shipyard, that boosted their production speed significantly, and next 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 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, freighters were constantly moving materials that were mined at the asteroid belt, they 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
Jun 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 saw them from the bedroom window, they came in an all-black sleek car, and he didn’t know the manufacturer, but then he never much cared about cars, he did saw some kind of symbol on its side but he didn’t recognize 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, he 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 get adopted are a lot younger, and it’s 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 never saw anything like them, and the 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 to stay.