Chapter 2

Manny Walters sighed as he watched Zeke enter his office.

He was well aware of the fact that the Transport Union had been trying to bully the independent freighters to the colonies in the Sol System. Since Simba arrived at the space station four years ago, he started forcing the captains into signing consignment contracts.

Manny had sent numerous complaints to UNSEC - United Nations Space Exploration Cooperation, who also operated the SSPF – Sol Space Police Force and the SSG – Sol System Government. The SSG were still pissed that UNSEC refused to let them control the new SSPF. They tended to forget they were part of UNSEC, not vice versa.

In response to Manny’s pleas, three months before, UNSEC had sent most of the experienced guards to Terra to guard their new space station. They were having a lot of problems with the people who were trying to take control of the new planet.

This only made it easier for the Union to bribe enough of the new guards to look the other way when the Union boys got rough with the freighter crews. They were even trying to undermine and corrupt him.

Manny knew that Zeke had struck it lucky four years before. He was under the impression that Zeke was hauling the MC sheets for his mother, Patricia, and her husband, Frank Stone, who ran Mars Mineral Corp.

Manny would have been interested to learn that Zeke was actually the company’s principal owner. His stepfather was only the mine manager and a shareholder.

Zeke’s parents had been deep in debt when he took over the company shortly after he turned eighteen. Zeke, by then, had purchased forty-five percent of the company. This gave him the controlling share as he already owned ten percent.

Zeke then found some rich titanium and copper deposits to get the business back on a firm footing and out of debt. It had tripled in size in the last five years and now also mined iron ore and other precious metals.

His parents weren’t thrilled that he didn’t include the MC sheets under the company’s umbrella when, a year later, he told them that he had found them. The deposits of other minerals he has directed them to did mollify them some.

Zeke wasn’t silly.

Zeke had created a company called Z.Mars Inc.

This became his principal company. It owned the control of Mars Minerals and Z.Crystal Corp, as well as several other companies he owned.

Zeke had been prospecting on Mars since he was eight years old and had been allowed to explore with one of the prospectors, Blake Brown. Mars Mineral Corp. started in 2084, after Zeke had turned nine, and he gave samples to his mother to analyse. Patricia was a mineralogist and geologist.

Zeke was sure that his stepfather was still kicking himself for letting his wife talk him into letting Zeke have ten percent of the company and Blake Brown five percent since they did the prospecting.

His parents had to put Zeke’s profits into a trust until he turned eighteen. Frank had wanted control of the fund, but Zeke had refused, and his mother, for once, sided with him. So, they had assigned one of the company lawyers as a trustee along with Zeke’s choice, Blake.

Zeke told his parents that Blake would make sure the lawyer stayed honest. Zeke knew that was when his relationship with Frank changed for the worse. Frank was pissed that Zeke didn’t trust him, nor did he mind him.

For the first eight years, his parents’ company had run at a profit until Frank got the company into trouble by accepting sub-standard equipment. It failed that often; the mine started to cost more to run than it made in cold hard cash.

Frank had floated the company two years before and started listening to the wrong people. He devalued the shares so badly that Blake, acting for Zeke as his trustee, had picked them up for a song.

At age eighteen, Zeke laid down the law and hired one of his other prospecting buddies to run the machine shop and parts purchasing. Old Vic Taggart knew more about how machines operated on Mars than anyone Zeke could find to name other than himself.

With Vic making sure the parts they got were good, and the machines were serviced correctly, business picked back up. The company was soon meeting orders again. Frank was good at managing the mines, which he kept doing.

Zeke also promoted Mildred Anders, an accounts and contracts expert. She took over that side of the business. Frank hated that she had been promoted and now controlled the money and could tell him, no. Plus, Patricia always sided with Zeke, as far as he was concerned. Between Zeke’s three managers, Mars Mineral Corp. was soon back in the black.

At eighteen, Zeke was old enough to purchase the land that he knew the minerals they could mine were on and all rights. Hence his company didn’t have issues with others trying to prospect on his land. Zeke knew just about every inch of the 154km wide Grace Crater, Mt Sparks that was in its centre and a good two hundred kicks out from the crater’s rim.

Mars was still seriously underpopulated because a lot of people didn’t like living in environmental domes on dusty planets without an atmosphere and with low light and gravity. More than half of the people that lived in the domed cities rarely left them unless they were going off planet.