Chapter 10

Zeke made them stop for a late lunch.

He wasn’t surprised that they were all ravenous. Lunch was conducted like so many they had shared that any earlier animosity was gone.

“Okay, now that I’ve gotten that out of your systems, I really need that cargo shifted.”

The boys agreed. They went and got the two pallet-jack robots and the levitation platforms. While they worked, Zeke went to pull out the central part of the R&R unit in Freya’s workshop. Zeke was ready when Dallas turned up with the new one.

Dallas got to see some real magic as Zeke had the packaging transmuted into a plastic block. The 2.20m cubed unit became unstuck from the levitation pallet and drifted into position.

While it hovered, Zeke removed one of the protection plates from the back. He then attached the connector plate that was hanging outside the rear wall. It had two hundred and fifty-six very tiny tubes attached to it (16 x 16).

The tubes were protected by a meshed metal sleeve that disappeared up into the wall cavity to the floor above. The plate attached to the one in the machine that had the same number of long needles to match.

“That’s a lot of tubes,” Dallas commented.

“Not really. While we have about eighty stable elements that we use, most of them have several stable isotopes. That means that they have the same number of protons but a different number of neutrons.”

“While some of the elements can and should be stored mixed together, most have to go into their own collection chambers or bottles, as I call them. Some basic elements we collect more of than others.”

“I have twenty bottles that take up more space above us than the rest. Occasionally, we get a few radioactive elements, which also have to be stored. That’s the second plate I have to attach.”

“Those tubes must be shielded, and I have to use special bottles for them. That plate has sixty tubes. So far, I’ve never needed more than twenty of them, and they have only collected trace elements.”

“How come your unit fits the same plates as Lee’s?”

Zeke grinned, “Because I was smart enough to ensure that the main units were interchangeable. I can still use the rubbish collector unit that is already installed. I just have to remove a plate, and they will plug together when I put this part in place.”

“So, why not keep Lee’s unit?”

“Because mine does more. My machine can copy items. Any item, including edible food. Lee’s machines are deliberately blocked from doing this. She has to comply with Earth laws to sell the units.”

“This unit and the one in the workshop on Bella are for our personal use. I won’t be making them fully functional for others. Even with using magic, they are expensive and time-consuming to make.”

“So, the unit you pulled out isn’t going on, Bella?”

“Nah, you can take it home for Mum. It’ll plug into the collector unit I made for her. This unit has all the latest fashions and kitchen gizmos,” Zeke grinned.

Dallas rolled his eyes. “You suck up. You know she will ban Frank from using it.”

“Yeah,” Zeke said and snickered in delight.

Dallas just shook his head.

He knew that Zeke and his dad clashed. From an early age, he and Paul knew Frank wasn’t Zeke’s biological father. Whenever Zeke and Frank got into an argument, Frank had a bad habit of reminding Zeke of this fact.

Zeke, in turn, would tell Frank he’d only do as his mother said. Since Frank didn’t want to be his dad, he’d only get the same rights to boss him around as any other grown-up.

Zeke had pretty much moved out when he went to attend Mars University at age seventeen. When he came home for the holidays and long weekends, things between him and Frank only got worse.

It had really upset Frank when Zeke had to bail them out when the company nearly went belly-up. Dallas remembered hearing his dad going on about how much money Zeke had when they were broke.

For some reason, when Zeke turned eighteen, Frank had just expected Zeke to hand over the money from his trust fund to him. Not buy control of the family company.

It got worse when Frank learnt about Zeke’s other businesses. Zeke had refused to include them as part of his parents’ company. As far as Zeke was concerned, he built them without any help from them.

After another big fight, Zeke stopped coming home for the holidays. Dallas and Paul only got to see Zeke when Frank wasn’t home. Zeke would leave if Frank turned up.

Dallas felt sorry for his mum the most.

The boys spent the rest of the day shifting stuff.

Zeke soon had his belongings on Freya and the equipment off Bella he planned to keep. He’d made copies of the tools and the common parts he kept, like nuts, bolts, tape, tubing, etcetera.

His unit could copy and then reproduce any item as long as it wasn’t bigger than 160cm cubed (63”). That meant they could reproduce a lot of things, even if it was replicated in smaller parts.

The unit’s floor even rose 80cm if the items were small. It reproduced them in the front of the machine, and you could use the small inner door that was part of the big door to get them out.

A few people would not be happy to know Zeke had such a machine.

Zeke was installing the shield sensors in Freya’s personnel airlock when the boys found him.

“We are going to get our stuff from the barracks,” Paul told Zeke.