Chapter 53

I stay at work late so I can make one more call before going home.

“Ohayōgozaimasu, Watanabe-san no jimusho, dōshitara otetsudai dekimasu ka?”

“Good morning. This is Trent Brown. I would like to speak with Watanabe san.”

In an extremely thick accent, she replies, “Hai, pease hode.”

“Good evening, Brown san,” says Watanabe, “Always excited speak with you.”

“Thanks, I hope I’m not disturbing you.”

“No, only dealing with internal business. For you, I put on hold. You always make things interesting.”

“Thanks again. I think you are going to want to hold a shareholder’s meeting.”

“Why for?”

“I’m about to ask for another 10% of Kawasaki Heavy Industries. You will try to haggle me down to 5%, and I will counter with 6.5 to compensate for stock dilution, and you will agree. Since you don’t have that much stock in reserve, you will need a shareholder’s meeting so you can vote to issue more stock.”

“What you offer?”

“I built a nuclear-powered rocket. It works, and it is safe. Today, I sent in the paperwork for a bunch of patent applications. With them, I want to expand your aerospace division. It is too much of an advancement in technology, so I won’t let you sell any of these engines. What we will do is build and lease planes. The lease will include maintenance contracts. If the engines are tampered with, the plane is returned, and the lease will come due. We can build airliners for civilian use and command and control aircraft for military use.

“That isn’t all. I’m proposing a four-way deal between the newly formed Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency, Kawasaki and Brown’s DC. I will supply the designs for the first spaceplane, booster and rocket. After that, I will only be a consultant, but I require veto power for every project and sale.”

“We need see the rocket.”

“I destroyed it. I don’t have the facilities to keep it safe, and I don’t want it in the wrong hands.”

I can’t exactly tell him that it ceased to exist when I was sent back in time, or else it is in the year 2045. The chances are, in one way or another, it has been destroyed.

I continue, “If you do this for me, even if our space venture fails, I will give you licences for a bunch of patents for your nuclear division. You will be 30 years ahead of anybody else, having the cheapest and safest nuclear plant. Only Canada and Japan will have the capability of making nuclear-powered fighters and bombers, and you will no longer have a struggling aerospace industry. EVERY nation around the world will be coming to us. Most of the new tech for the F-5H Tiger III and the AV-8C Harrier III are from my patents.”

“I need talk with board of directors. This too big for me.”

“Just remember, you owe me for the shipyards in the UK. That will end up doubling the size of your shipbuilding division and give us a partial monopoly in Europe.”

“We very happy about deal in UK. Royal Navy is asking for destroyer now.”

“I didn’t hear about that. It’s good to know. Getting back to the space project, I doubt you realize what it is I am giving you. The US Space Shuttle program will end up costing between 1 and 1.3 billion dollars per launch once you add all the costs, including research and building the damn things. We will be a lot safer and cost no more than 400 million per launch. Our satellite launch system will be much cheaper. Everybody that needs something put into space will be coming to us. Launching a satellite costs between 90 and 700 million. We will launch the largest satellites for under 50. Space tourism will be feasible in ten years.”

“Space tourism, I no see that make money.”

“At first we only market it to billionaires. As it gets cheaper, we can market it to more people.”

“No train people to be astronaut. Too expensive.”

“That is why we don’t train them. We put them through a medical and physical test. Then all they do is sit in the spaceplane, and we take them up for a quick spin around the world and land. It is no different than if they were to take a ride on a plane. Our plane is just faster and flies higher.”

“Spaceplane no safe. Challenger blow up in 1986.”

Another space shuttle blew up in 2003, leaving only three shuttles in working order. In reality, the program had the worst safety record of any space program in the history of humanity, killing 12 people and losing 40% of the spaceplanes to catastrophic explosions. If 40% of any other vehicle production were to be blown up, nobody would be using that vehicle. Since the shuttles were America’s pride and joy, they were hailed as the best thing that was ever invented.

The only Russian spaceplane to have an accident, even during initial trials, had the accident while parked. There was no maintenance done on the ageing hanger, and one day, it collapsed on the shuttle. At the time, the USSR deemed spaceplanes to be too expensive, so the loss of their only large spaceplane was the end of the Russian program.

In the morning, After Moira wakes me up and we have our fun in the shower, I have another phone call to make.

“Oui, Jean-Paul Agon, président du conglomérat de Brown. Comment puis-je vous aider?”

“Hello, Jean-Paul. It’s Trent.”

“Oui, this must be important, phoning me so early in your morning.”

Having spent so much time in the military, travelling around the world, it is easy for me to remember the time difference when calling people. Jean-Paul elected to have his headquarters in Lille, France. He initially was going to have it in Paris, but land is cheaper in Lille, and it is close enough to Paris to have all the advantages of being there. Lille is also directly between the UK and Germany, the two European countries Jean-Paul expects to do most of his business with.

“I might have stepped on your toes again.”

“What did you do?”

“I’m setting up a cooperative between us, Kawasaki, Canadian Space Agency and the European Space Agency. We are going to start building spaceplanes and rockets. Only, we are doing it safer and cheaper than anybody else.”

“The space industry sucks up money.”

“Not with my designs. Every nation in the world will be coming to us when they want to launch anything into space.”

In the 2030s, there is so much debris surrounding our planet that most space agencies lose the ability to launch anything except into a low earth orbit. Even that was crowded. I don’t intend to limit what goes up there. I plan to make sure everything going into space de-orbits when it is no longer in use, burning up in the atmosphere. For instance, why have four complete sets of GPS satellites up there when three are obsolete and no longer in use? We will discount launches for companies that plan to de-orbit their satellites and charge for an extra spaceplane launch for those that don’t. The added spaceplane launch being for the recovery of the satellite.

I continue, “The part of the plan that you won’t like is testing the technology to expand Brown’s DC. I already talked to Watanabe, and he is talking to his board about testing our new engine design. This will expand their defence contractor business and get them in the airliner production business.”

“That leaves another problem. The stock portfolio you gave me has us heavily invested in the Mitsubishi Group, including many of its companies. If we do this, we will devalue that stock.”

“I invested in Mitsubishi, hoping to take it over eventually. How close are we to being able to do a hostile takeover of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Mitsubishi Corp? That would give us control of two-thirds of their primary companies and partial control of the entire group.”

“Heavy industries, you are close. A few days of buying stock and we could be there. The Corp we would have to buy up everything we could find, driving up the price. Even then, I’m not sure we could do it.”

“It can’t be that bad. Mitsubishi took a major hit when our UK deal was announced, and Kawasaki’s growth has come at their expense. We have been slowly whittling away at their profits, lowering their stock value. The only reason they still build ships is because of the NYK line, the shipping and cruise line company they own. Speak with Watanabe. Offer him a deal for the metal alloys we produce. As of now, only Kawasaki Brown is licensed to use them. If we let it slip that Kawasaki Heavy Industries is vying for a licence, both MHI and MC will drop in value, and we will be able to capitalize. Once we own it, we can hold a press conference admitting such, and that should bring the stock back up.”

“I’m afraid that won’t be enough.”

“I don’t want to piss off Watanabe, so let him know you are spreading rumours. Leak to the press that there will be a deal with Kawasaki and their automobile division. We are to partner up with them with our new division, called Brown’s Automotive. This will make Kawasaki a domestic company and better open the North American market. That will devalue Mitsubishi Motors, MC and MHI. Think of other schemes like that to drive the price down and encourage people to sell. Then buy up the stock in as many Mitsubishi companies as you can. As far as their smaller companies are concerned, I want control of the automotive companies, including FUSO, and I want their financial institutions.”

In my first lifetime, interest rates on a savings account went from 10% annually to .75%. Financial institutions became greedy and started charging fees for everything. When I was born, if you had your money in a savings account and left it there, it would double every seven years. By the time I left, it would take over 100 years to double your money in a savings account. The Canadian bank act of 1871 allowed banks to lend five times their capital. With each new bank act, that number increased. The same was true with most banks. This is one of the things that brought about the world recession of 2006. We didn’t fully feel the consequences of this immoral act until the recession of 2029, when 58% of all banks, worldwide, went bankrupt. People that had mortgages and were paying them on time would often lose their house when their bank went belly up. That was mostly a problem for the rich since they were the only ones that could pay their mortgages. The recession caused by the banks was the worst in history, and the poor couldn’t afford to own a home. Property values plummeted. That was how I could afford my farm. I was living in my truck and was pocketing my military pension. When the market hit rock bottom, I paid a little cash to buy the farm where I built my rocket.

All it would have taken to stop the fiasco would be for one bank to be responsible and offer a decent interest rate. Any bank that didn’t follow suit would have either gone under or sold out to another bank.

“Why automobiles and financing?”

“To start with, we are going to build a safer car with better gas mileage. A safe car that costs less to operate will sell like hotcakes. Then we will need to own a financial institution for the loans people will need to buy our cars.”

“We can take control of Mitsubishi Electric. We are close to owning a majority share.”

“I’m glad to hear it. With existing patents, we will take that company to new heights.”

Jean-Paul is pleased with my vision for our company. I end up missing cycle practice and school, he and I talk that long.

When the call ends, I jump on my bike and stop at A&W for a quick lunch before heading into work.

It is 1 pm when Beth pages me, saying, “There is a Mr. Larkin Kerwin on line 4.”

“Thanks, Beth. Hold all my calls and ensure I have my privacy until this call is over, thanks.”

I pick up the phone and say, “Good day, Trent Brown speaking.”

“Bonjour, this is Larkin Kerwin. I was ordered to call you.”

He doesn’t sound happy. I wonder what the problem is.

“I asked to be put in touch with you so I can offer you a partnership. I have people talking with ESA in hopes that they would agree to a partnership with you and Brown’s DC.”

“No, that goes against my vision of how I want CSA to go. CSA is a new organization, and we have to streamline all the projects the government has willy nilly thrown together.”

“You misunderstand, I am trying to help you make CSA financially viable. You won’t need a budget from the government. I have patents on new tech and can build fiscally responsible spaceplane and rocket programs. In five years, you will be bigger than NASA.”

“I’m sorry, Monsieur Brown, but I don’t see how that is possible. I was told to phone. Now that I have, I see that it is as much of a waste of time as I thought it was.”

“Only because you refuse to hear me out. You will regret turning me down.”

“There is no need to utter threats. I heard you out and see that you know nothing of this business. A 16-year-old kid has no place telling me how to run Canada’s space program. They chose me as the first president of CSA because I have a vision that our government agrees with. Adieu, pour toujours (Goodby forever).”

He then hangs up on me. I’m disappointed, wanting to give Canada a leg up in the space industry. Once the Mulroney government is voted out, he will be replaced. I will have to wait until that happens before dealing with CSA. At the least CSA is still a part of ESA and is currently building a spaceport in Manitoba. When Kerwin leaves office, it will almost be finished, and Canada will be ready to handle our rockets.

For now, I have another idea. With everything I have been doing with the shipbuilding industry, I have caused South Korea to lose many jobs. It is time to rectify that. With ESA, I will have launch sites in Canada and Europe. Korea will give me Asia as well. We will have most of the world covered.