There is a small town next to the spaceport, still on Rodriguez land. About two thousand people live there, all connected to the spaceport in some fashion. There are a couple of shops, a school, a community hall and a pub, complete with mini brewery and bowling alley. These kind of communities, once common on Earth, are now exceedingly rare, having been replaced by bland, utilitarian high rise settlements policed and controlled by the Federation.
I had been there before on a few occasions and loved the friendly, laid back atmosphere of the place. Seeing that there was little to do while the Pygmalion was being loaded I decided to take Talla and Al to the local pub for a beer. I could tell Al was out of his depth. To see men, women and children mixing so freely must have jarred his consciousness some.
Talla took it in her stride. She got curious, but not unfriendly looks from the adults. It was the children, however, who crowded around her. They were utterly fascinated with her wings. The kids wanted to know if she was an angel. Talla didn't know what an angel was and I had to explain.
I told them that Talla was not an angel, but a native of a far off planet and that there were many like her. They wanted to touch her wings.
I said the wings were very sensitive and that Talla could be hurt if someone treated them roughly. The kids promised to be good.
I was about to tell them no, but Talla said it was alright. She spread her wings and motioned the children to come closer. They took turns stroking her feathers lovingly with their fingertips until one of the adults said that was enough and to leave the lady alone for a while. The kids stayed close by and looked at their hero adoringly as Talla sat down and had a beer with us.
It turned into a good evening. Al relaxed after a few beers and actually talked to the other patrons, even to some of the women, which must have cost him some. We saw little of Talla. She was mixing with the locals who were totally smitten with her and bought her one beer after another. Talla loves her beer, though alcohol does not seem to affect her.
It was late when we returned to the Pygmalion.
***
After breakfast I went to see Pedro and transferred five million credits into his account.
"You are going to need it,"I said. "This stuff of Jack's wouldn't have been cheap."
"Thanks for the money," he said. "It'll come in handy, but as far as Jack's stuff is concerned it's all paid for. When I placed the order I placed it with the Chang Corporation. It was the logical thing to do. They handled everything and picked up the tab. There is nothing further to pay. By the way, their representative will arrive here by executive jet in half an hour. He says he has not much time and asked if you could meet him on his aircraft after he arrives."
I was a bit surprised at that. Well, if he wanted it this way I would accommodate him. I said so. I called Feng and asked him to go with me.
The plane arrived on time and taxied to a stop some thirty yards away from the Pygmalion. The stairs descended and Feng and I went towards it to be met by a big titted lady in a skimpy dress. She had tart written all over her. She led us into the main cabin and asked us to wait there for a moment before she disappeared through a door towards the back of the craft.
The cabin contained a bar, leather armchairs, wide leather couches and some coffee tables. It smelled of cunt. We were evidently in a flying executive brothel.
The door opened and a small, bald headed Chinese came in. He seemed ill at ease, as though he could not wait to get the fuck out of here. He did not introduce himself. By now I had an idea what this was all about. These types get very nervy when they think they are being asked to do something shonky.
"Mister Walters I take it," he said in lieu of a greeting.
"Correct," I said, determined not to make it easy for the jerk.
"I am instructed to hand you this," he said as he handed me a memory module. "It contains a communication from the Tai-pan."
"Thank you," I said and put the thing in my pocket.
"There is something else," he stammered, "something better discussed in private."
He shot a disapproving glance towards Feng.
"This is Feng," I said. "He is the Tai-pan's nephew. Anything you need to say to me you can say in front of him."
"Very well," he grunted. "The Tai-pan asked me to tell you that the Chang Corporation has added four containers to the consignment. He said you would be familiar with what they contained."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper which he gave to me. It was a handwritten note with some numbers on it.
"These are the numbers of the containers in question. And now I must hurry, I have to be elsewhere shortly."
"Shove a couple of strokes in for us when you are fucking your tart," I said.
He blushed like a schoolgirl.
Feng and I were still laughing when we left the plane.
Minutes later they were gone.
***
"Are you going to tell Pedro and Juan about those containers?" asked Feng when we were clear of the plane.
"I don't see why we should. All the containers we loaded have been cleared and sealed by the Federation before they arrived here. There won't be any further checks. Pedro and Juan and the two of us are in the clear should something blow up against expectations. We are entitled to rely on the certified manifests. The fewer people who know the supercomputer is on board the better it is."
"Alright, as long as I know."
"What now?"
"We go to Pedro's conference room and have a look what the Tai-pan has to say. I think we should invite the Rodriguez brothers to watch the communication with us. I doubt the Tai-pan will talk about that other stuff."
Half an hour later we were in the conference room. I decrypted the message and rolled the footage.
The Tai-pan was seated behind his desk, smiling broadly.
"Greetings to you and your crew, Mister Walters," he said. "Progress on the project has exceeded my most optimistic projections. I have released Jack's demonstration to the Oktonian authorities. To say that they are excited about the possibilities would be an understatement. As a result our relations with them have warmed considerably. Your little unexpected performance on Earth has not gone unnoticed either. Chang Corporation shares are at a all time high and are still climbing. Altogether things couldn't be better. You will need to build infrastructure now. As an interim measure I have authorised a further one hundred million credits for the project, for you to use as you see fit. As before, you are in total charge of the project, answerable only to me personally. Keep up the good work and thank you."
"Well, that wasn't entirely unexpected," said Feng.
"That hundred mil is nice," said Pedro. "Can I have some of that?"
"Sure, how much do you need?"
"About half of it."
At first I thought he was joking, but he was deadly serious about it.
"Alright, tell me what you want if for. What are you offering in exchange?"
"Give me ten square miles of land next to Jack's farm and fifty million and I will put a spaceport like the one we are on and a town that can accommodate ten thousand people on Olympus. In addition I will give you all the power and water you need to develop that entire crater. I'll have the whole thing standing and operating within six months."
"Sounds like a bargain. How on Earth are you going to do this? Fifty million is nowhere near enough to put all this together."
"Let me tell you a little story. About fifteen years ago the Federation decided to colonise a planet. Some bright spark suggested they use some of their obsolete heavy cruisers to transport all the gear and some two thousand colonist to the destination.
"Those old cruisers are worth nothing. It costs more to cut the bastards up than you would get for the scrap. The normal procedure is to strip them of the weaponry, take them into space and point them at the nearest sun just inside the gravitational field. Nature takes over and the craft eventually plunges into the sun to be burned up. Problem solved.
"Anyway they decided to use four of these for the project. They filled them up with everything you could possibly need to establish the infrastructure needed for around ten thousand colonists. Two thousand people would go in the cruisers to assemble everything, the rest were to be sent by transporter some time later.
"Then something went wrong. The project got cancelled and those four cruisers have been sitting in mothballs for the last ten years. No one has any plans for them. When I decided to move from here I put some feelers out. The Federation wants this place as is. What we've been talking about is a straight swap. The spaceport for the cruisers plus cargo.
"Let me put this straight. These ships are outdated, heavy and obsolete. They cost a fortune to run. By the same token they are fully functional and space worthy. They'll make the journey to Olympus without problems. I can get the ships. What I don't have are the resources to get them there. Fifty million will buy me all the fuel I need plus a few things I want to take with me. I would have to sell the Pygmalion to do the deal on my own, something I don't want to do."
"What will happen to all the people here?"
"They'll come with us to a man. None of them wants to live under Federation control. Their whole lifestyle would be a thing of the past. We'll need them over there to set things up and operate the spaceport anyway. It'll be a bit of a squeeze for them on the journey, but they know that and don't mind a bit of discomfort on the way. It's only for about ten days anyway."
"I'm inclined to go along with you. Ten square miles is perhaps a bit slim, let's make it twenty. It'll give you a bit of room to move. I know the Tai-pan has said I was in control and I could spend the money as I see fit. I'd feel much better though if I took the proposal to the Tai-pan first."
"You do that. Tell him, before the deal I want the Chang Corporation to recognise the land grant and acknowledge us as the Autonomous Principality of Juanpedro."
"Principality of Juanpedro?" I queried.
"Yes. Principality of Pedrojuan sounded awkward. I have the charter and constitution already drawn up. You can show it to him. If he agrees we'll have a deal."
***
I drafted a letter to the Tai-pan telling him about Pedro's proposal and that I thought it was too good a deal to miss. I asked if he thought I should proceed. Pedro gave me a copy of his charter and his constitution. He also gave me the details of the cruisers and the manifests listing the cargo. I appended the documents to my report and sent it off.
Six hours later I had an answer.
"You keep surprising me, Frank," he wrote. "This is as good a deal as I've ever seen. Grab it! You already have full authority over all matters in relation to the colonisation of Olympus. Your signature on the land grant and the charter of autonomy is sufficient to guarantee the rights conferred, under interstellar law.
I am familiar with the four cruisers and their cargo. Much of what is on board was at the time supplied by the Chang Corporation. You will find everything to be of excellent quality. This was supposed to be a show project, the Federation bought nothing but the best.
Incidentally, you are not, nor have you ever been an employee of the Chang Corporation. This is strictly a Chang family initiative.
Cordial greetings,
Uncle.
PS. Show this letter to Feng. He will explain what it means."
"I'll be fucked, Cousin," said Feng when he saw it.
"Cousin?"
