Corporation

9

The interlocutor puffed hard, trying to take a sip of beer through the valve. You fool, land, you should have taken cider, with the moon gravitation with beer one hassle, and it's rubbish here, like everything local. However, the cider was also terrible. Novak took another small sip - the single malt was running out, we should have done more, waved the bartender to repeat, we live together - and then a familiar thought: on Matushka they understand food and drinks better than we do, that's something, but you can't take that away from them.

“It’s easy for you up here to talk. The majority cannot get away from Mother anywhere. Lives as it happened, work where they give. And if they give

- What, and imputed income does not help?

- You're weird. What will it help, you have no right not to spend it, the rest burns out every two weeks, but what will you spend it on? For the same food, clothes, and that's all.

- Not enough for you? For a sip of single malt - and thanks to the bartender for getting it and saving it - I spend so much that you can eat an oyster from the belly for a month below. Sometimes I don't see Saul for half a year. I won’t even talk about radiation belts. Microgravity breaks bones, he himself called me a “dylda”. Well, why should I complain? Or even stop.

“If only everything were so simple,” the land sighed again.

- And for my taste, everything is extremely simple. Here you live on Matushka, there are enough problems, but not too much. The air is free, there is no fonit from the window, water-food - fill up. And here, upstairs, you know how it happens, sometimes it will roll on you, even if a howl of a wolf, others pierce their head with a trihedron in the order of repair work.

- What is this?

- This is that one. I say, it happens, it rolls. It's like you're missing something, like some gas in the air mixture. No color, no smell, and you breathe past it like emptiness.

Novak fell silent, not wanting to retire to this steppe.

- And what are you doing?

- I mean, what are we doing?

- Well, when it rolls. If not a trihedron, of course.

“But we don’t do anything,” another sip to wash off that very familiar metal deposit on the teeth, “most just return if possible. For overexposure at you, downstairs. Mother heals, they say.

— But the majority still flies to the outer ones again.

- Of course. Look at me, I live for myself, I don’t grieve, I work properly, I am treated mainly with burnt alcohol, supersonic distillation. It tastes like pure enamel thinner, but it helps. And what are you doing, land?

- Yes, I am dangling here and there.

Like a delivery service.

- Sort of.

And he held out his gloved hand.

— Kurt.

And what, judging by the gray eyebrows behind the visor, is a typical Kurt.

— Leo.

“Well, Leo, are you not interested in the affairs of those below at all?”

- Well, why, I'm interested. Again, I get paid from there. And so I don’t have any relatives, my mother died of covidla back in the twenty-first, my daddy is an idiot who knows where he is rummaging around, that’s the whole story. Even if I miss Mother a lot, what should I do there, and even more so - just to “be interested”. Here you are, Kurt, when was the last time you were interested in the affairs of external tracks?

- And here's how it flew here.

Pf. Immediately see a connoisseur of the net.

And did you read a lot?

Kurt just shrugged.

- You're bored.

Boring, I agree. Have you heard about the H-128-bis ore carrier?

Of course, he didn’t hear, still he would have heard, this Kurt.

— Disappeared half a circle back on the passive curve between Red and Belt. Once, and disappeared from the radar. No one is nothing either in a dream or in spirit. Where can a whole ore carrier go. Megaton dry weight. Even if his reactors melted, if he was hit by a stone, the fragments should sparkle like a garland all over the field! And silence.

They were silent.

- Okay, don't be offended, Kurt, that I'll "land" you. You know we're nowhere without Mother. And in general, understand yourself, life is like that. You can't live without jokes.

And then he caught himself, in one gulp he finished the rest of the single malt already in half with water.

- Listen, it's time, I have to run, I have a meeting. Sitting right here with you. I'll go.

And waved to the bartender to charge the bill.

But Kurt reacted strangely in response, continuing to look at Novak as if studying, or so it seemed to him through the visor.

- Don't be in a hurry. I've been watching you since you boarded the ferry.

Nowak didn't like this statement. So on so, and this coincidence with their meeting in the "Pigsty" from the very beginning looked suspicious.

What is the meaning of "watching"?

- The magpie-thief cooked porridge, fed the children.

Novak obediently sat back in his chair. This was the place to start.

“Give it to it, give it to it.”

Kurt. Or who is he, now you will understand the hell. Okay, next to Novak all the way sat the very land with which they were supposed to meet after a couple of hours. Novak obediently turned off the cabinsuit broadcast and switched to the live channel.

And why was this whole circus?

- Which?

- This one, why was it called "dylda"?

- Let's just say that I am, of course, a courier, but not an easy one. I care what and to whom I deliver. And Romulus too.

Novak squinted suspiciously, but didn't show it.

“That’s why I had to ask you a little beforehand. And even then, the conversation, it seems to me, turned out to be quite curious.

“After all, you are a courier. Can you tell me what you, hmm, delivered to me here?

“Not to you, or rather, not quite to you. The cargo, by the way, is already in your room, in the same airtight container. Just do not open it before arrival, firstly, everything inside is very fragile, and secondly, there is quite a difficult protection there to bypass the customs bioscanners, therefore, I repeat, do not go there ahead of time.

But didn’t this Kurt Novak decide to slip a bonbu out of the simplicity of his soul.

- And what is it?

— Chlorella. Several colonies for all occasions.

Novak did not understand anything, but he tried not to show it.

- It seems to be such an algae?

- It's not just "such a seaweed." The Corporation's biotechnological laboratories have developed special, maximally productive and viable monoclonal lines, free from parasites, unpretentious in terms of conditions, especially with regard to radiation, ideally tolerate hibernation, as simple as possible to maintain and optimized for the conversion of carbon dioxide into biomass. Even at the latitudes of the Pope - is that what you call Jupiter? They have enough light for active photosynthesis.

But wait, that means...

- Yes, in the medium term - a full-fledged colonization of the Belt. Mars is useless, it is relatively good with water, but in general there is nothing for a person to do in the foreseeable future. We need to move on.

- To you?

Novak tried to give his voice as much doubt as possible.

- Not to us. To you. Dyldam. Mother needs the outer tracks more than you can imagine, but you yourself are much more interested in this. Colonization means you will be free from contracts. You yourself will be able to master the unlimited resources of the Belt.

- That's why you brought me to the question, are we able to live without Mother.

Not only, I wanted to know if you want it.

“Well, well, resources are needed below, independence is needed at the top, but when will it be, how many years will pass, and most importantly, why the Corporation needs it.

Kurt shrugged. It seemed to Novak quite sincerely.

- There are some things I don't know. Is it really that important? You hold the future of the Belt in your hands. New frontier. Are you against this development, do you like to work under the contract ... let me guess, Reliance and then Grupo Carso?

How. He "guessed". It's just that some people know too much about him, Novak.

- Do you like it or not? Okay, I won't hurt you anymore. You are probably tired after the flight, go, sleep, think. Your return flight is in 72 hours. Ceres.

- Where are you from…

However, Novak was no longer surprised by anything.

However, Ceres is so Ceres.

- You will be found there. Transfer the cultures and wait for the result, work as it worked. But remember, sooner or later we will come in handy for you too. Not to outsiders in general, but to you personally, Leo Novak. If so, we will help.

Helped, you know, helpers.

“And one more thing,” Kurt looked Novak intently, with heavy pressure. — Don't forget to follow the news from the Earth. The future of external routes also depends on them.

And here already Novak could not stand it.

- How did you get everything with your news! Well, shoot up, that’s why they turned on the “emergency” in Cabeus, right? Why do your problems always reach us, but you have never heard of ours!

- And you look, do me a favor, I'm not in a hurry.

Giving up, Novak activated the virtual panel. Outsiders do not like to use them at all, considering them to be an artificial way invented below to isolate themselves from their own kind, while on long-distance routes there is no time to be bored, and every human glance is countless. What's the matter with you...

Novak flipped through collections of video clips with minimalist comments and could not believe his eyes.

This cannot be, this is some kind of madness, are you people or who are you?

Looking up at Kurt, Novak automatically cleared his throat. Too bad the single malt is long gone.

— What are you doing there?

Kurt looked back firmly and emotionlessly.

- Sea water began to flow into the deep aquifers of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula due to rising ocean levels. The rapid salinization of territories where up to four hundred million people live. There are too few desalination plants, and there is also a lack of power generation capacity. People are fleeing from their homes to the north, across the sea, but there they are not welcomed with open arms, you know, the coastal refugee quarantine camps are overcrowded, the walls along the southern arrondissement are closed. Yesterday they tried to blow up one of the walls, and return fire was opened.

“But that means…

Kurt nodded.

So it's a new war. It is unlikely that this time it will be local. And hardly victorious. This is not the Forty Day War. But something else is worse. Most of these people are now doomed unless they get help from your trihelium, your lithium, your hydrogen isotopes. Moon resources are too scarce. That's why we need you. And that's why we want to be of service to you.

Madness, some kind of madness.

People crushing each other because of banal water and damn immune restrictions.

What happened to Mother during the time he was away from home?

Novak shook his head.

Wow, he called the Earth "home." Funny. Funny and sad.

“But you understand that if this chaos spills out here, and it will definitely spill out, none of your chlorella will help.

Kurt nodded and nodded.

“That's why I'm leaving you so quickly, Leo. Rest, gain strength, while there is time, we all have a lot of work to do.