Chapter 16

Zeke knew Burnie would love his final fit-out of the Z4 Runner, but he wasn’t getting the upgrades.

As it was, Burnie was salivating over getting to build the Z4s and Zeke’s light-classed freighters. He even planned a whole new plant to go onto Luna to build the domestic version of the Z4s. They were minus the spear guns, of course, unless UNSEC wanted them.

Burnie planned to sell the Z4s so that people could use them like taxis or personal vehicles to travel between planets and space stations. To this end, Jasira was designing some modifications to make a Z6A Runner.

It would be bigger to accommodate a larger living area. Inside, it would be 20cm higher for taller people. An extra metre in length, so the rear seats became two pairs of seats that faced each other. It would also be 30cm wider.

Some of the bigger utility area would be used to accommodate a flexible, single-person airlock compartment, so you didn’t have to decompress the cabin. The lockers over and behind the seats could now hold more. Those seats would fold down so you could access the space behind them.

Bernie wasn’t happy that one of Zeke’s other business partners, Wayne White, was already building a plant on Mars to mass produce the runners. Wayne hoped to be in full production in a month now that he had secured a supply of Sean’s crystal batteries.

Wayne expected to do big business with the Asteroid miners with the Z2 and Z4 designs. The Z2 Runner was a two-seater version. It was the same size as the Z4, just without the rear seats. It was amazing how much space those seats took up.

Wayne and Zeke both expected the Z2 to be popular. Zeke was thinking of doing a Z2A that included the airlock compartment. It would suit prospectors and a host of other occupations.

Wayne would also get the more expensive Z6A design because Zeke was paying Jasira, not Burnie. Burnie did accept that he would have to buy the assembled engines, ionic drives, and engineering compartments from Mars.

One of Zeke’s other business partners, Kira, operated the plant that built the drives and engines on Mars. That plant had been in production for a year, stockpiling eighty percent of what she made for Wayne.

It was Zeke’s way to help keep Mars viable and provide jobs. It also gave the miners and smelters a bigger local market for their products. This reduced exporting costs and kept the profits on Mars.

These days, only a quarter of everything mined, grown, or made on Mars is sent to Earth. Mars had plenty of other markets. There were over half a million people living on Mars, like on the Moon.

It was also closer to the outlying space stations and planets for longer at different times of an Earth year. This made Mars handy to use as a secondary distribution point.

Mars also had four 600m wide Oznglass domes growing food adapted to a lower gravity and less sunlight. It had taken several years to make usable soil due to the sulphur and chlorine content of Mars’ regolith (no natural soil on Mars).

It also helped that the Martian government charged low taxes for goods and services and imports. While they may continue to lose some people to Terra, the fact that it was forty-two days of travel for a one-way trip of twenty light years, still put most people off. It was also hideously expensive if your company or country on Earth didn’t send you.

People were still limited in getting to the Delta System. While Lee’s ships only took two weeks to go one way, with a week’s layover on each end, anyone trying to take their own ship would be subjected to a trip of five to six weeks. They might not enjoy the reception either if the wizards didn’t like them.

People with lots of family in the Sol System would most likely elect for a closer destination. All of the space stations operated at 0.9g in public areas. Of the other Sol-based planetoids, Mars was still a better option gravity-wise.

Plus, all of the populated domes operated gravitational compensators. However, some of the industry domes were set lower than others. The newer, larger domes that have been established since the first ones in 2072, all supported large green areas and gardens. They were very pleasant to visit.

Zeke was happy to do what he could for his adopted home.

Zeke informed the shipyard that he was leaving.

He’d booked a berth at the freighter side of the Station. Grumbling at the cost of fuel and water, he undocked his ship. He was extra careful as he manoeuvred out into space and drove to berth G446.

He relied mostly on his ionic drives that used generated or stored electricity. Hence the need for fuel. He was amused that he would be parking next to Bella.

From a distance, the Station looked like a corrugated Rain barrel with ten, wide sections. Each ring was flat on the bottom and spaced well apart. The sides penetrated deep into the centre before folding over to join the next ring. This was so ships could park against the side.

While they looked upside down at the top, the barrel was spinning to assist with creating a gravitational effect. Gravity and inertia compensators provided the rest of the 0.9g for each internal level of the Station. The spinning kept the costs of the compensators down.

The relatively flat outer face was, in fact, the bottom floor if you were in the Station. The north sides of the rings had odd-numbered berths, and the southern sides were even-numbered. Not all of the sides of the rings were completely flat or had docking ports along them. Things got added or altered over time.