F R E E on the S E A
ARKON CH-14 Babylon, Joint Venture
Babylon, WK-5, Friday, 0945
Debarking from the seaplane, Stakka and Renka crossed the Quay to the information kiosk by the entrance to Babylon. "Can you recommend an inexpensive hotel for a weeks stay?" asked Stakka. "The Three Palms has vacancies and a good reputation," said the agent, "But no dining room. Can I make reservations for you?" "Yes," said Renka, "For one week." "Very good," said the agent, "Here's an x on this ground floor map showing the check-in desk."
After a breakfast snack they headed for the Three Palms check-in desk. "We'd like to pay for our whole week now," said Stakka, "And can we get a receipt? We're on an expense account." "No problem," replied the clerk, "Here's your key card." "We represent Delta Ventures," said Renka, "And we'd like to make a 10-minute presentation to Boss Chako tomorrow. Can you help us with that?" "Certainly," replied the clerk, "I'll just connect you with his appointment secretary."
Renka booked a 15-minute slot at 1045 and they went up to their cabin.
As they approached the receptionist desk she pointed to the door behind her and said, "Go ahead, he's expecting you."
They entered and Boss Chako, standing behind his desk said, "Please take a seat. I'm Chako." "I'm Stakka, and this is my partner Renka."
"Before we begin our presentation," said Stakka, "We have some personal private information for you. Is this conference room secure?" Chako pressed a button under his desk and there was a click as a red light came on over the door. "It is now," he said, "What do you have?" "We were informed by Arkon One two days ago," said Stakka, "That there is a contract on your life and El Lobo in the next 3 months. It was put out by the Yakuza who own Shangri-La." "I guess they're getting greedy again," said Chako, "They made an attempt 18 months ago and failed. That's when I put an agent in their workforce but have not heard from him recently. Thank you for your alert."
"You're welcome," said Renka, "Now for our presentation ... We represent Delta Ventures and are putting together a Consortium loan to build Arkon Delta, a small floating island, to be located halfway between Babylon and Arkon One. Their business plan will be medical tourism offering genetic enhancements, like tune-ups to boost strength, or boost reflexes, or cognitive skills, to young adults over 20 years old who have stopped growing. This will not be competing with Arkon One for geriatric enhancement.
"The shipyards that built Babylon continued building another Island on speculation. So far we are the only potential customer and they have offered a big discount, as the launch date is 5 months away. For the island and three AgroSembly modules they are asking 4 billion creds. At this time we are prepared to offer Babylon a 16% equity share. Arkon One has already taken a 26% share."
"We plan to offer Shangri-La a 16% share also," said Stakka, "Maybe this will stifle their greed for a few years, and having the same percentage should not cause envy." "We're booked at the Three Palms until this Friday," said Renka, "If you come to a decision before then." "Thank you for this opportunity," said Chako, "I'll discuss it with my associates and we will meet you here at 1700 on Monday." "Great," said Stakka, as they left, "See you on Monday."
Back in their Three Palms cabin Renka said, "This is going well and I sense Boss Chako will influence his associates to a positive outcome." "I agree," said Stakka, "Do you feel like this room is smaller than the one we had before?" "It is," said Renka, "And that gives me an idea. Let's make a little summary and stick it under Dingo and Tengo's door tonight. What we can do is put on our dress worker uniforms and just before midnight when there is a shift change, we go out and walk around in a circle and go past their door and then go for a midnight snack and come back here." "Amazing," said Stakka, "I like it. Were you a secret agent in a past life?" "Yes," she said, "And I was a Kundalini yoga instructor as well. Come closer and I'll show you."
Babylon, WK-6, Sunday, 1015
As they were walking around the C-deck balcony, the third one above the main deck and open in the middle with a good view above and below, Stakka said, "This reminds me of Stack City where I grew up outside Seattle. Kids at school used to call us stackers. That's where my nickname came from. They were remodeled shipping containers stacked 3 high and housing 10,000 almost homeless people."
As they walked around they noticed a pulsing red sign ahead in the distance. it was a little hole in the wall smoke shop so they went in and bought three 5-packs of Red Bangers.
Dingo and Tengo arrived 0945 for their second 4 week tour. They went to their cabin and read the optimistic note from Stakka and Renka.
At 1945 they headed out to Rusty Rooster with the tour jackets in a little flight bag, to meet with Karl and Robin.
Babylon, WK-6, Sunday, 2010
Inside the Rusty Rooster they headed for the back corner. As they got closer they saw two familiar faces which turned out to be Karl and Robin instead of Zak and Sophie. Taking a seat Dingo said, "I'm Dingo and this is my partner Tengo. You must be Karl and Robin, right?" "That's correct," said Karl, "How is the plan going?"
After the waiter took their drink order Dingo said, "Its going very well. In fact I have brought the tour guide jackets with us tonight. In the next 2 days you could pass them out to the other members. Then Tuesday night we'll meet here again for more details.
Babylon, WK-6, Monday, 1700
As the meeting got underway, Boss Chako made the introductions. "This is Stakka and Renka from Delta Ventures, on my left is El Lobo, my partner, and on my right is Django, my accountant. Renka, could you expand a little bit on your proposal?"
"Certainly," she replied, "We came up with this business idea while discussing genetic tweaking with some clones we met recently. They figured out they were clones because they have extra D-R / d4 allele repeats, causing more curiosity. Their intelligence is also quite a bit above normal. We are offering shares in this venture to the existing floating islands because they already understand the benefits of isolation allowing sharp focus on a business endeavor. A 16% equity share is 640 Mn creds. That could be payable over the next five months before launch, and we require 7 million of the price be 10 of your clones who are above-normal. They are only 1% of the total and will help us locate the lab where they were created; then we will make them an offer also. We do not object to Babylon owning clones, as they are taken care of better than corporate wage slaves were 50 years ago. What brought your clones to our attention was a snuff film on the internet from 5 years ago. There can be no more snuff films from Babylon."
"So you are secret agents as well as business agents," said El Lobo, smiling." "Not at all," said Stakka, "We just take our due diligence seriously."
"I was not aware of any snuff films from Babylon said Chako, frowning, "I will look into that." "It is possible they came from Shangri-La," said Renka, "They have a contingent of clones also. We came here first because it was closer."
"I think this would be a good investment said Chako, "What do you think Lobo?" "I'm in favor of it also," said Lobo, "Where do we sign?" "Here is a contract," said Stakka, "Your lawyers may want to review it first." "Of course," said Lobo, "We will meet here Wednesday at 1500 for the signing."
"Now that we are partners," said Stakka, "I wonder if you could satisfy my curiosity about the business considerations for using clones?"
"No problem," said Chako, "I'll let our accountant answer that."
"Say for clones," said Django, "15 to 55 is 40 years service, one million creds divided by 40 is 25,000 creds per year, a cheap salary. They have an excellent immune system and stay healthy and they don't overeat. They learn fast and the turnover is very low so we don't have to train new hires. As a product they are consistently good. Plus the company delivers to our doorstep.
"For off the street civilian hires, we have to maintain a recruiting organization and human resources and training. Then they will often leave after one to three years service. And they may be unknowing carriers of some serious disease or disruptive ideas.
"If we used slaves, which are available today for 5 to 20,000 creds, there are of course training cost, language and cultural obstacles and health maintenance cost and they often resent their condition. There are also travel costs and risks associated with going to a North African slave market. We would need overseers to maintain order and discipline. Plus I am not in favor of forcing someone to do something. It often results in sabotage."
"Thank you Django, that was very interesting," said Renka, "We'll see you Wednesday then."
Back in their cabin they put on their dress employee uniforms and prepared a note for Dingo and Tengo. It read as follows, "Everything going okay. Go ahead and pass out tour jackets before Wednesday night. We'll sign contract Wednesday 1500. Suggest we book seaplane to Monterey and leave Thursday morning 0730."
After they delivered the note and back in their cabin, Renka said, "We need to have some cover story for the crew on Joy Luck 8. Like 'These are refugees from a village in Canada destroyed by a resource War', or 'Refugees from the Chicago collapse'."
"That reminds me of another problem," said Stakka, "When we get on Joy Luck 8 we should try and contact Arkon One and see if they can make a secure area with 7 medium sized cabins and a conference room holding 15 to 20 people, maybe two cabins with a wall cut out. The trip may take 10 to 15 days so they might put something together. I wonder if we should consider light plastic surgery or theater makeup. The rain hoodies on the tour jackets will help conceal their face. When we see them all together we can decide if they look too much alike or just close relatives. We don't want people speculating about the existence of clones."
Babylon, WK-6, Tuesday, 2010
Dingo and Tango met Karl and Robin in the Rusty Rooster and gave them additional details for the exit plan. They would meet in the Rusty Rooster Thursday morning at 0600 for breakfast and proceed to seaplane at 0700.
Babylon, WK-6, Wednesday, 1500
"We have no changes to the contract," said Boss Chako, "So when we have all signed it my receptionist will witness and notarize it." After they had finished signing and notarizing, Chako asked, "What about progress reports?" "We'll fly out every three to five weeks," said Stakka, "We have business interests in Monterey also."
Babylon, WK-6, Thursday, 0730
Karl and Robin, dressed in their tour guide jackets, stood outside the Rusty Rooster at 0600 and directed their friends to a table in the back corner. The table was already set with egg sandwiches and coffee. By 0700 everyone had finished and they headed out to board their seaplane.
Stakka and Renka boarded last and they took off at 0730. As the Monterey Peninsula came into view about 0930, Stakka said to the pilot, "We have a little detour in mind. For an extra 1000 creds we'd like you to drop down to just above sealevel, make a right turn, and go at higher speed parallel to the coast, less than 20 km. We're looking to offload most of the passengers to a large Clipper cargo ship. Then you will go back to the original course at high speed and make the usual landing with Dingo and Tengo still aboard." "This is a welcome change from routine," said the pilot, "And I will enjoy the extra creds."
The Joy Luck 8 came into view at 0945 and they made a smooth landing just off the starboard bow. A large speed boat was quickly launched and came to pick them up. Dingo and Tengo said goodbye and wished them luck while giving them their tour jackets.
Joy Luck 8, WK-6, Thursday, 1015
Alexis met them at the forward loading bay, saying, "Its good to see you again. You remember Tanya?" "Yes, of course," said Renka, "These are our friends who recently lived in a small village in Canada. There was a resource conflict that drove them down to Monterey where we intervened to help them. This is Karl and his friend Robin, and over here is Zak and his friend Sophie. They are leaders of this group." "We are happy to meet you," said Tanya, "You will be safe with us." "Are there cabins separate from the crew?" asked Stakka, "We don't want to disturb them." "No problem," said Alexis, "Come I will show you." "Captain Kuznet will meet Stakka, Renka, and Karl and Robin after lunch for a debriefing," said Tanya.
Joy Luck 8, WK-6, Thursday, 1430
In the conference room Alexis said, "Karl, Robin, this is Captain Kuznet. Captain, you remember Stakka and Renka?" "Yes, of course," said the Captain, "Please be at ease, this will be informal. Stakka, could you summarize your adventures for me?"
"Sure thing, Captain," said Stakka, "But first an opinion from Alexis and Tanya. Do these villagers look like identical twins, or close relatives?" " I would say close relatives," said Tanya. "I agree fully," said Alexis. "Thank you," said Stakka, "Now for the summary."
"The first week on Babylon we and the other team both detected clones. The things that stood out were: 1) in the bar they were very calm and drank very slowly. The other thing we detected was: 2) there were micro hesitations when we questioned them about childhood or early youth. I would say someone who has not spent time in several different noisy bar situations might not detect a difference so quick.
"To confirm our suspicions we had another meeting with them, which was very surprising. Because no one had continued a conversation past 20 minutes in the bar for a whole year, they concluded that we had detected them because we were looking for them. So they confessed they were clones and asked for our help to make a safe place and conduct a business. And here we are.
"The meeting with Boss Chako and El Lobo to make a business presentation went very well. He appreciated the notice of an impending hit from Yakuza.
"To avoid speculation about clones while we're on Arkon One, we would like to contact them and see if they can make a secure area accessed by key cards with 7 medium sized cabins and a conference room holding 15 to 20 people, maybe two cabins with a wall cut out. Even though we look at them and think 'Must be close relatives', another person looking at a group of four or six very similar individuals might think 'Holy Cow! are these clones'?"
"This is very interesting," said the Captain, "Thanks for the update. We'll send a message to Arkon One at sundown. My Navigator tells me the trip could take two weeks. That should be enough time to make the alterations. Also, Vostok Shipping Company would like to take a 16% equity stake in Delta Ventures."
Joy Luck 8, WK-8, Friday, 1515
After 14 days of smooth sailing, they spotted Arkon One on the horizon just after 1500. At 1700 they received a message from the Harbor Master on the Harbor Common hailing frequency, "We've cleared the protected anchorage between modules 3-4 so you have a private berth. Look for a flashing blue light on each side of the entrance." "Thanks for that," replied the XO from the bridge.
(expect posts Sat 8 am EST)
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