ALJ Chpt 58

frameless|right|300px|link=A Long Journey
<<Next Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
==Chapter 58 - A Long Journey==
----
12 October 2786
Mackolla (Federated Suns)
Colin Blaine had finally made it back from his Taurian trip. The trip to the surface was not long enough for him as he had still not worked out how to explain his horrible deal he had agreed to. No one bothered him the day of his arrival but today, he would have to face his boss and give him the bad news. His walk to the "office" was like walking to the gallows and he took every opportunity to stop and watch something, anything, just stalling the inevitable. Once inside he heard "That you Colin, if so, come on in and tell me how it went."
He did not sit in the chair, he literally slumped into it. Gerald Mitchell stood and walked to the front of his desk, sitting lightly on the desktop facing Colin Blaine. "You look like death warmed over boy, all those jumps must have been a real killer."
"It was not the actual journey, Uncle Gerald. I totally screwed up everything. I got power played and caved in to them on everything."
"Come now, son, it could not have been that bad. Tell me about it." Gerald Mitchell said 
----
For an hour, Colin Blaine explained everything from the time he departed Mackolla to his meeting on Taurus itself. Listening to it was like listening to a ten year old confess to his wrong doings before accepting his punishment. Once he had finished he silently waited for the guillotine to chop his head off.
"So, in exchange for the four Aquilla, you got us two core forges, the production license for the Snowden Mining Stations and three Merchant cores but we cannot sell them to anyone for twenty five years. Yet we can build all we want for those twenty five years and pay a 2% royalty on each one built. For what you were up against I think you did quite alright." Gerald Mitchell said
"How can you say that, Uncle Gerald? I got raked over the coals by those two." Colin said angrily but at himself not at Gerald
"Let's break this down in how I see it. One, we get three Merchant cores, that buys us time until the core forges arrive. Those two core forges allows us to cut a decade or more off the recovery time of Site 222. The twenty five year non compete, well that just buys us time to master building the damned thing really damned good but also to setup our own mining outfit to exploit the hell out of anything we find. If you had come back with nothing but the core forges I would have been damned happy. Those alone allows us a freedom and amount of self determination few can understand or appreciate. I have been very damned careful in assembling our portfolio but with very limited actual production ability. This war that is coming fast is going to be a very nasty one, I can feel it in my bones. We cannot afford to paint a big bullseye on Mackolla and being able to actually produce everything we hold a license for would do just that. The only fully functional factory we control is the Trident Factory from the Newhart purchase and they are packing the place up as we speak to get the hell gone from Thorin and out here before this coming war destroys it. 
Everything we have been doing is for the long term, not for next year or even the next decade, it is for after I am long gone, maybe even Sammy and Patricia too. I read the news about the Amaris War, how either side would destroy a factory to deny it's use by someone else. Well, something tells me this coming war is going to be even more brutal and vindictive. By a large magnitude if I am reading the tea leaves right. The Star League kept so much hostility by the Houses in check that now that there is no SLDF to keep them in check it is going to get let loose with a vengeance. Look at the fighting over Bolan has gone, the losses have been horrible and that is just a small area but it is a meat grinder. Millions have already died and that is going to continue until the Houses beat themselves silly with million, possibly billions of dead. 
Sammy's fallback plan is the only way I see us surviving what is coming. I was not a fan of it at the start, but as things get clearer, and the Bolan fighting just confirms what I have suspected, I see a bright spot. It will require many years of hard work and possibly hard fighting to make it possible, but when the time comes, God willing, I will have assembled the pieces to secure a future for everyone. Do you see what I am seeing, Colin." Gerald Mitchell said
"So your not mad, because I expected to be fired and banished." Colin Blaine replied
"Not in the least, the core forges, curtesy of the Taurian Government to get us to the head of the line, makes me happier than a pig in shit. Everyone wants more, but you got us what I could not get, no matter how much money I threw at the problem. They will provide our future, dependent on no outside entity. I am proud of you son, real proud of you. Now, let's go get something to eat and you take some time off and depressurize." Gerald Mitchell said with a huge smile.
----
<<Next Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
58