Chapter 849

The introduction from the Eredar twins was finally over.

Now it was time for Elizabeth and the other financial representatives to respond.

They gathered together for a brief discussion before Elizabeth finally spoke.

"Regarding investment in the company, we’ve decided to formally participate in the new pharmaceutical research and gene-editing projects. As for the larger plan involving interplanetary colonization, however, we’ll need to return home and discuss it with our families before making a decision."

Elizabeth hesitated, then added quickly, "Please understand. The capital required for a project of this scale is enormous. None of us has the authority to make that kind of commitment on our own. We’ll have to consult with our family heads before we can give you a formal answer."

"I look forward to hearing from you," Saloralis replied with a polite smile. "And please convey our gratitude to your families."

She had expected this outcome.

Most of the people attending today were secondary representatives of their respective financial dynasties. Even if they personally wanted to agree to a project of this magnitude, they still needed approval from the people actually holding the reins.

"There’s one more thing." Ourecès rose from her seat. "Interplanetary colonization is an enormous undertaking. Once you include all the necessary supporting infrastructure, we understand that the required capital would place a considerable burden even on your families. Some of you might not even be able to shoulder it."

"So we would appreciate it if you could explain to your families that the project will be carried out in stages."

"Stages?" Elizabeth asked. "Could you elaborate? It would help us explain the plan when we return."

"To achieve our ultimate goal of interplanetary colonization, while simultaneously establishing the facilities necessary to provide services to the five major powers, we need sufficient liquidity."

Saloralis folded her hands in front of her.

"To avoid the possibility of exhausting our capital before the project becomes self-sustaining, we’ve designed a phased approach. Each stage will generate revenue while funding the next."

"The first stage is simple. Our company will independently launch a satellite to demonstrate our technological capabilities."

Launching a satellite wasn’t something just anyone could do. Government approval was required.

Of course, that wasn’t exactly a problem for people sitting around this table.

If the government refused, they could always find a president who wouldn’t.

"After years of research, we’ve reduced the launch cost of a satellite to roughly thirty percent of the current industry standard," Saloralis continued. "Its capabilities will be comparable to, and in some respects superior to, current American military satellites."

"Once the satellite has been successfully deployed, we’ll make it available to the United States government under a shared-use agreement."

She smiled.

"The rental fees aren’t the important part. The important part is the headline: a private company independently launches a military-grade satellite, and the United States government pays to use it."

"Imagine what that will do to our stock price."

Elizabeth and the others exchanged glances.

They quickly ran through the numbers in their heads.

At the absolute minimum, launching a satellite with current technology cost roughly forty million dollars. A military-grade satellite could easily cost a hundred times that—around four billion.

If the company’s claims were accurate and they had reduced launch costs to thirty percent of current levels, they were looking at a little over $1.2 billion.

That wasn’t an unreasonable figure.

Split among several major families, it was only a few hundred million apiece—well within the range of what Elizabeth herself could authorize.

And aerospace stocks were already popular.

Once the company successfully launched a military-grade satellite and the American government began paying to use it, investors would come pouring in.

It was almost absurdly profitable.

"And the second stage," Saloralis said, "will be lunar operations."

That drew everyone’s attention.

"We won’t simply send one or two astronauts to the Moon. We’ll deploy mining vessels capable of establishing an actual industrial presence there."

"Our projections indicate that the first lunar expedition should be able to return approximately thirty tons of helium-3."

She smiled.

"By then, what do you think our stock price will look like?"

What would it look like?

At that point, they could dump every kilogram of helium-3 into the ocean and still make their money back through the stock market alone.

"But the stock increase will actually be secondary by then."

Saloralis’s expression became more serious.

"The real value will be in what we bring back from the Moon. To reassure the United States government, we’ll donate one ton of helium-3 for research."

"As for the remainder, we intend to use it to restructure America’s entire energy system."

"Outdated fossil-fuel plants, wind farms, hydroelectric facilities—even the supposedly cutting-edge fission reactors currently in operation—will eventually become obsolete."

"In their place, we’ll build helium-3 fusion power plants."

The room went quiet.

Helium-3 was valuable stuff.

A hundred tons could theoretically produce enough energy to supply the entire planet for a year, and unlike conventional nuclear power, helium-3 fusion offered clean energy without the same radioactive waste problem.

Compared with that, existing power-generation technology looked almost prehistoric.

But there was an obvious problem.

Someone at this table was going to hate the idea.

Elizabeth glanced toward Zora Rockefeller.

Sure enough, the man’s expression had become rather awkward.

"You’re actually planning to do that?" he asked.

The Rockefeller family had built its fortune on oil. The Standard Oil empire had once been synonymous with American petroleum.

A new energy source on this scale would obviously hit them hard.

There was an old saying about cutting off someone’s livelihood being worse than killing their parents.

These people weren’t merely cutting off the Rockefellers’ livelihood.

They were practically dynamiting the family crypt.

"If the energy business is entrusted to the Rockefeller family," Ourecès asked innocently, "do you see any problem with that?"

Zora’s expression immediately relaxed.

"Well..."

He smiled.

"I think that sounds perfectly reasonable."

Of course he did.

The Rockefeller family wasn’t opposed to renewable energy.

They were opposed to renewable energy that they didn’t control.

Oil could make money.

Why couldn’t electricity?

If the profits went into their pockets, they wouldn’t care whether they were selling gasoline or sandals.

Yes, partnering with the Eredar twins meant sharing the profits.

But if the entire project were placed under Rockefeller management, their family’s connections, infrastructure, and experience in the global energy market would almost certainly allow them to take the lion’s share.

And if they didn’t do it, someone else would.

Then the Rockefeller family wouldn’t merely lose a business opportunity. They would be fighting against the inevitable direction of civilization.

There was no question which choice was better.

Being swept into the garbage heap of history wasn’t particularly appealing when they could instead buy a ticket and board the express train into the future.

"After that," Ourecès continued, "we’ll release our new power-plant technology to the world for free."

"Any country that wishes to use it will be permitted to construct its own facilities."

"We consider it a small contribution toward the global transition to clean energy."

A contribution?

Elizabeth nearly laughed.

She understood perfectly well what that contribution really meant.

They were giving away the technology for the power plants.

They weren’t giving away the helium-3.

Earth contained almost none of the stuff.

Once countries built the reactors, they’d need fuel.

And where would they get it?

From the Moon.

From these people.

They could charge almost anything they wanted.

And by the time those two stages were complete, an enormous portion of the world’s energy infrastructure would depend on this company.

No wonder the twins had been so confident about balancing the interests of the world’s major powers.

There was something else, too.

History had a nasty habit of turning every major technological breakthrough into a military application.

The atomic bomb had come before nuclear power plants.

If these people could build helium-3 fusion reactors, there was no reason to assume they couldn’t build helium-3 weapons.

If they could launch satellites and send mining vessels to the Moon, developing intercontinental ballistic missiles probably wouldn’t be beyond them either.

Helium-3 nuclear weapons.

According to some estimates, they could make the Tsar Bomba look modest.

Elizabeth couldn’t help shaking her head with a faint, bitter smile.

Apparently, even private corporations were getting nuclear deterrence now.

She had learned more in the last hour than she’d managed to learn in the previous decade.

"So once those two stages are complete," Ourecès concluded, "both our financial foundation and our reputation will be secure."

"Then we can officially begin the final stage of the interplanetary colonization project."

Applause filled the room.

Elizabeth and the other representatives clapped along.

Of course they could begin.

Once those two steps were completed, this company would have enough money, influence, technology, and control over critical infrastructure to practically establish a new world order.

If they issued a command, it might carry more weight than a government decree.

"We’ve taken note of everything you’ve told us," Elizabeth said once the applause died down.

She and the others rose from their seats.

"We’ll report everything to our families and ask them to consider the proposal carefully."

"Please convey our respects to your family heads as well," the Eredar twins said as they stood to see them out.

One by one, the guests departed.

Soon only Gabriel and the three representatives from the secret organizations remained.

The Eredar twins rubbed their temples.

"Evenson, you can come down now."

They cast a summoning spell.

Nothing happened.

They waited.

Still nothing.

After asking around, they finally discovered the truth.

That bastard was asleep.

He had apparently curled up on top of the monitoring console and gone completely unconscious.

The twins exchanged a look.

Then they used forced pet summoning.

A moment later, Evenson was dragged bodily out of the monitoring room.

"I’ve been down there working my ass off, and you’ve been sleeping upstairs?!"

They tossed him into a chair.

Evenson rubbed his eyes helplessly.

Monitoring security feeds for hours was exhausting. The control room was dark, the air conditioning was running, and the warm current blowing over the console had apparently combined with gravity itself to drag him into unconsciousness.

"I mean..."

He blinked several times.

"I trusted you two."

His survival instincts were working overtime.

"When you two go in there, obviously everything is going to work out. So I may have trusted you a little too much."

He stood unsteadily.

"So? How did our plan go?"

He looked toward Gabriel.

"Better than your whole ’cleanse the world’ plan, right?"

Gabriel gave him a sideways look.

"Remarkable."

For years, he had been too focused on Earth.

He had forgotten to look toward the stars.

He had devoted himself to keeping outsiders away from humanity while completely overlooking the possibility that humanity could simply leave.

Evenson nodded.

"So does that mean you’re ready to abandon your original plan?"

"Heh."

Gabriel smiled but didn’t answer.

Abandon it?

Not a chance.

Why choose one when he could have both?

He had already come this far.

He might as well grab everything.

As far as Gabriel was concerned, humanity now had two possible futures.

Either they played Stellaris—

or they played Resident Evil.

"You’re celebrating a little too early."

Scott, the representative of the Bloody Tongue, suddenly turned his sharp gaze toward Evenson.

"You’re in serious trouble."

Evenson blinked.

"Sir, please save me."

He paused.

"Actually, screw that. I was watching The Qin Empire before you probably even knew what television was. Don’t try those old-school political tricks on me."

"I’m telling you the truth."

Scott’s expression became serious again as he leaned back.

"Some of the people who attended this meeting are going to make moves once they return home."

"Of course they are."

The Eredar twins smiled.

"If they didn’t, that would be the strange part," Gabriel agreed.

Evenson looked from one to the other.

Could someone please explain what’s happening?

Is it really that hard to include me in the conversation?

Elizabeth had already said her goodbyes.

Now she sat in the back of a car beside her close friend, Pepper Potts.

Normally, Elizabeth would spend the entire drive talking with Pepper.

Today, she barely said a word.

Her brow remained furrowed as she stared out the window.

Pepper glanced at her.

"Still thinking about the meeting?"

"A meeting like that probably only happens a few times in a lifetime."

Elizabeth gave a humorless smile.

"How could I not think about it?"

"You aren’t concerned?"

Pepper smiled faintly.

Of course she was.

The projects discussed today were almost impossible to ignore.

She still had serious reservations about the gene-editing program, but the other proposals—interplanetary colonization, helium-3 energy, and the supporting infrastructure—were difficult to dismiss.

From the perspective of humanity as a whole, they were almost unquestionably beneficial.

The world fought over resources and living space because there wasn’t enough of either.

But if humanity could expand into space, the equation changed completely.

Mars alone offered an enormous amount of empty territory.

If people could simply move there, why keep fighting over every square mile of Earth?

Even if two nations hated each other enough to wage endless wars, they had an entire solar system available.

Build a colony.

Pick a planet.

Live on opposite sides of the solar system and never speak again.

Problem solved.

That was the view from humanity’s perspective.

But from the perspective of Stark Industries, the situation looked even more attractive.

Pepper could already see the potential profits.

Helium-3 energy would certainly disrupt Stark Industries’ clean-energy business, but Stark Industries wasn’t dependent on that one sector.

They could compensate elsewhere.

Tony Stark could already build remotely controlled Iron Man armor.

Turning that technology into specialized industrial robots would be straightforward.

And during the construction of extraterrestrial colonies, who would be more useful?

Human astronauts?

Or remotely operated machines that didn’t need food, oxygen, sleep, or life-support systems?

Mining helium-3.

Constructing biological domes.

Building infrastructure.

Repairing equipment.

Stark Industries could potentially take over entire categories of the construction work.

The numbers alone were staggering.

But there was more to it than money.

The arrival of the interplanetary age would represent the greatest transformation in human civilization in thousands upon thousands of years.

Anyone who helped create that age would be remembered forever.

Even if the superheroes of the present day eventually faded into history and became nothing more than stories for children, the people who opened humanity’s path to the stars would still have their names written in history.

Their achievements wouldn’t be forgotten.

Humanity was standing on the threshold of an entirely new future.

Civilization could advance farther than anyone had ever imagined.

And yet...

Pepper couldn’t shake the unease in her chest.

Was humanity actually ready for this?

And what about the company itself?

They were offering humanity a new age.

But in doing so, they were also placing humanity’s future into their own hands.

Was that really safe?

"Elizabeth..."

Pepper thought about it for a long time before finally asking:

"What do you think about this company?"

"They have enormous ambition."

Elizabeth’s eyes narrowed.

"And an equally enormous plan."

She fell silent for a moment.

Then she looked toward the aide sitting in the passenger seat.

"Send an anonymous tip to S.H.I.E.L.D."

Pepper’s expression changed.

"Tell them that a member of the Bloody Tongue has been in contact with Evangelion Company."

Pepper immediately understood.

The company’s ambition was enormous.

Its plans were even more so.

But for now, they were still only plans.

Words on paper.

Promises.

And plans had a nasty habit of colliding with reality.

Once implementation began, there would inevitably be obstacles.

Governments would take notice.

International powers would interfere.

The twins claimed they could balance all of it.

But saying you could do something and actually doing it were two entirely different matters.

It would be foolish to climb aboard a ship before knowing whether it could survive the voyage.

The Bloody Tongue’s involvement was neither too serious nor too insignificant.

It was the perfect test.

If the company couldn’t even deal with something like this—if it couldn’t survive S.H.I.E.L.D.’s attention—then how could it possibly hope to maneuver between the world’s major powers without being crushed?

In that case, they might as well patent their technology, sell their products, and settle for collecting royalties.

That would be far safer.

And far less interesting.