Fire Density. Макс Глебов
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“Colonel General Knyazev, Admiral Nelson, Admiral Fulton,“ without hesitation I listed,”I really don’t know Admiral Nelson personally, but he commanded the operation to free Luyten-5, and I think the Colonel General can persuade him to sign this document.
“You didn’t waste any time,” grinned the General, “Fulton and Knyazev can’t stand each other. To the extent that this is known well beyond the Fifth Strike Fleet. If you manage to collect both these signatures on the same document… Okay, enough of this stuff. Let’s start, perhaps, with Knyazev.”
We fought off the quarg attack at the cost of losing the Gliese-338 system and almost complete destruction of the infrastructure in Groombridge 1618, but the enemy’s advance was stopped. The early graduates were even sent back to the Academy to finish their studies. A little over a quarter of those who left the Planetary Commando Academy 40 days ago have returned.
For the next four months, I worked like wood-carver Geppetto on the Pinocchios’ assembly line. The director of the Academy had drawn up a plan for me to crash into my wretched head and the motor centers of the spinal cord the knowledge of all specialized subjects for which the cadets were normally given two and a half years of learning. I was handling it, but I sank into bed in the evening like a sack of potatoes and fell into a dead sleep until the morning. And then I was called to the capital, to Earth, to be awarded the Gold Star.
I didn’t like the situation on the front lines. When I came here, the balance of opposing forces seemed steady, and I thought I had at least five years left to get promoted and to make useful connections and improve my abilities. Now I realized clearly that if I wouldn’t act now, The Earth Federation risked losing the war before I can complete my mission. It was time to put a team together. I wouldn’t manage to do this alone.
Once again, as the first day of my life in this world, I decided to analyze my assets and liabilities. The task of constructing the portal gates so far was as unattainable as when I arrived at the hospital on Titan. I saw no direct and quick way to solve it. Well, let’s take advantage of the way that’s as old as the world, and divide a big problem into a lot of little pieces. I need the knowledge, resources, people and permission of the authorities to build and test the gate. I have the knowledge. But it’s not exactly the kind of knowledge I need. I won’t build the gate myself, which means the information in my head needs to be legitimized. How to do that? The cadet and even the second lieutenant, if the response to the submission is positive, don’t have that kind of knowledge. So what we need is an official organization that can present this information as its own development. That’s number one. Now regarding the resourses. At the moment it’s primarily money. Right now, my personal account contains just over 32,000,000 federal rubles. These are patent royalties, instructor’s wages, trophy prizes and gratuities attached to the Iron Cross and Gold Star. That seems to be quite a lot. With this money, one can comfortably live in the capital of the Federation for almost ten years. But it concerns a common man. I’m a person who’s very restless and unprepared to just sit on his ass, so this money will be enough only for a start. So, the question of resources is soon to be resolved, but not right now. That’s number two. Next on my list are people. I’m supposed to pursue a career in the army where I’m not even an officer yet. So, all the current affairs of providing resources and the activities of the company yet to be created will have to be handled by someone else. I mean, sure, I’m gonna go for it, but I might not have the time or the opportunity. I started thinking and almost immediately remembered Lieutenant Jeff, my senior technician. He should be interviewed one of the first. Professor Stein of The Colonial Technological Institute may also be of use. His name and connections will certainly prove useful. And I need to talk to Inga. I could really use a trusted person at the company. To be honest, I really wanted her to give up her military career, but knowing her, I was kind of afraid to even talk about it.
So, basically, the plan has been ready. First, a weapons development firm. It’ll help me solve two problems at once. I will slowly feed my knowledge from the past life into it and embed it into new weapons samples, thereby legalizing the information I need. And money, of course. The development of the gate will require just an enormous amount of money, which the Federation treasury would never give me, and that way I’ll spend the company’s profits. The second, no less important than the first, is the military career. By the time the gate is built, I must have sufficient influence in the authorities to provide the contact of civilizations according to my scenario. And third, it’s time to help the Federation with new technologies, otherwise we may not live to fulfill that contact.
The capital of the Earth Federation, the huge city of Amundsen, is located at the south pole of the planet, in the heart of Antarctica, covered with forests. In the middle of the twenty-first century, the human race here finally succeeded in contaminating the home planet, with irreversible environmental consequences. Waste islands in the oceans, man-made disasters on oil platforms and chemical plants, oxidation of ocean waters with carbon dioxide, filling the atmosphere with dust and its poisoning combined with the increasing overpopulation of the planet, all of this has led to people barely surviving to develop terraforming technologies. And the first planet to which terraforming had to be applied was the Earth itself.
An artificial thermonuclear sun hung above the south pole, melting the ice and giving to the suffocating and thirsty mankind source of fresh water and oxygen extracted from it. This seemed to be a temporary solution, but it allowed people to survive to the point where the deep purification plants built along the air and sea currents would bring the concentration of harmful substances in the atmosphere and oceans to an acceptable level. Humanity no longer made such mistakes, and the environmental protection began to be treated on the Earth with blatant fanaticism. Not surprisingly, the ice-free southern continent has become a forest-and lake-covered paradise, in the middle of which humanity, grateful for its salvation, has jointly built an ecologically exemplary mega-city which became the capital of the Federation.
There was a spring in the southern hemisphere of the Earth, and the Antarctic sun also imitated this pleasant season. The awards ceremony was two days away, and since I was in the capital, I decided to take care of my future corporation. I didn’t know much about local law, so I went to a small consulting firm I found online, whose pages seemed adequate to me.
“Good afternoon, I am the leading lawyer of „JurTex” Leo Rabinovich,” the man who answered my call was a vibrant man in his 30s, “What can our company do for you?”
“Igor Lavroff,” I said in return, “I need to register a company that will be able to take part in the State procurement competition.”
“Sphere of activity?”
“Development and supply of weapons and military equipment.”
Rabinovich had a glimpse of surprise, but he kept on talking calmly:
“This activity requires State licensing. The list of requirements for obtaining a licence is extensive. There is a need for a production base, qualified staff, minimum registered capital requirements.”
“That’s why I asked for your advice.”
“Tell me, Igor, do you plan to become the founder and owner of the company?”
“No. I’m a minor. My mother will own the company.”
“How much are you planning to invest in the capital of the new organization?”
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