CHAPTER 224: CORPORATE RAIDERS VS. THE GOOD GUYS

Zach’s communicator was ringing when a very polite voice answered on the other end. "Could I help you? Who’s calling, please?"

"Francis, this is Zachariah Spinelli of the Z1 ranch. I’m standing right here with your husband Lester and I had some questions for him about nectar prices at your location. If you don’t mind me asking, how much are they paying the old farmer per ounce for you all to live now?"

"Mr. Spinelli, he just renegotiated a new contract after some upgrades were made to the old storage system because we were losing too much. We get 250 credits per ounce now, but we have to go through a broker and he takes 50%. Then the remaining 125 credits are split equally between the farm and the producing Genmen, so that equals out to 62½ credits per ounce, Sir, which is better than what we were doing."

Zack’s mouth fell open. "Did you say you get 62½ credits per ounce and that’s it? No more?"

"Yes, Sir. We were only getting 50 credits per ounce, but we got a 12½ credit raise," Francis replied.

"I’m going to ask you something, Francis. If you got the chance to move to a new location that promised you, in contract, a minimum rate for your nectar with no surcharges by a broker, would you consider moving if it also included a home for you and your children, education for them, health care for them, and jobs?"

"Mr. Spinelli, I can tell you right now, as soon as Lester gets back with that transport, we are packed and he can bring us to wherever you’re referring to. This place here will be a distant memory." Francis paused. "You’re not pulling my leg, are you? You’re not going to get us into someplace worse than where we live now?"

"No, Francis, I would never do that to a genman—never at all. And if you don’t like this place, I will let you choose a new location and I’ll pay for all relocating costs for you and your family. But working here, driving Lester’s routes are going to be less intense. He will be home more often; we will make sure that the boys will only have two to a room. And you don’t have to worry about any outcasting here—we pride ourselves on our families of hybrids. So, what do you think?"

"Sir, may I speak to my husband? The boys are here right now, they’re still performing their chores, and I think Lester and I need to talk real quick. Can you please let him use your phone?"

Zack handed the phone to Lester, who walked away for a private conversation. After a few minutes, Lester returned. "Sir, they are packing right now as we talk, and as soon as we get them out of there, I feel safer for them."

"That’s great, because my grandson Ty and Mr. Ed Hawthorne, the partner next door, will be taking the jumper and going up and picking up your family. While they’re there, Ty is going to negotiate a new contract for all of the remaining Genmen for their nectar because it’ll be greatly improved over what they get now. The farmer can use some of the profits to fix up the place and expand if he wants to. It gives him the option of keeping his farm rather than selling out to some corporate raider."

Zack continued, "We can bring them under the umbrella of the Z1 family so that residents can travel to and from here without any cost whatsoever. They can come to the museum and learn about their history; the children can get educations that they would never have a chance at any other time. There’s our medical care—we’re top-notch, we’re just as good as any human hospital, and in fact we’re affiliated with Hawthorne Memorial Medical Center in Central City. Ty will carry all the necessary contracts with him, and if anyone else in the area that have small ranches or farms are interested, the same proposal will be made to them. We’ll beat those corporate raiders one way or the other."

Lester was greatly impressed with Mr. Zack and his generosity. He waved goodbye to everyone as the sky jumper blasted off from the Z1, headed to the Diamond H Farm where his family was waiting.

Forty-seven minutes later, Ed circled the jumper and got into a landing pattern. As he set the unit down on the Diamond H, there were a lot of people looking at the unit and wondering who was about to get off.

The owner of the farm introduced himself to Ed and Ty and inquired what business they had on his farm.

Ty took over. "Dear Sir, I am the business accounting and representative from the Z1 ranch owned by Zachariah Spinelli. We are here to extend you a grateful offer to help you bring your farm into the future and place it under the protection and guidance of the Z1. We want to improve and replace your nectar gathering system with a state-of-the-art unit so that you can be guaranteed that no nectar will ever go to waste again. We would like to extend you the courtesy of our new solar powered systems so that every occupant of every home can have power at their disposal free of charge. We are not the big corporations—in fact, that’s who we fight against."

"We want your people to have the opportunity to view a history of the genman race before they arrived here on this planet. We have a complete museum that’s interactive, a library, and we’re getting ready to open up our own educational system to be sure that Genmen children are highly educated and given every opportunity to expand themselves in the future. We have a top-notch medical facility and one of the best breeding facilities there is—our conception rate is 99.99%. By using our breeding facilities and allowing your Genmen to travel to conceive a child, or even having our breeders come here, the child will be conceived on your farm."

Ty pulled out a document. "I understand that you have a buyer for your nectar at this time, but he is taking quite a large chunk of your profits. The current rate at the Z1 for nectar per ounce as of this morning is 1500 credits. Here’s a copy of the latest report right here, Sir—if you look at it and study the report. At the Z1, we take a processing fee of 10%, that equals out to 150 credits. The remaining 1350 credits are divided equally between the farm owner and its inhabitants. If my calculations are correct, that’s 675 credits per ounce each. We issue all Genmen an expenditure card every Monday morning; the previous week’s sales for nectar are applied to their expenditure card. At 10 ounces per day times seven days at the current value, you’re looking at 67,350 credits for the genman producing the nectar and 67,350 credits for the farm."

"We would hope that you would make improvements to the farm and lift yourself up to a better way of living. The newfound wealth can enable your residents to purchase goods for themselves so that they feel better and you’re not taxed so much by having to supply as much. We can show you new ways of hydroponic gardening, and as far as the old dilapidated housing units go, we have a building system that is considered what they call a pod. They are brought out, unfolded, put together in one day—you have a new home. Most of our units are two bedrooms, one bath, but they can be connected through a special system to enlarge that. They are cost plus 10%."

"We have a weekly program where if the genman decides to take a job outside because there is not enough work here, or we have a special building program going on at the time and we need more help on the Z1, we have dormitories that they can stay at free of charge. The nectar that they produce and pump will still be the property of the Diamond H. When they stay with the Z1, we house them, we feed them, we make sure that everyone has a medical examination to make sure that they’re in good health. So it’s not difficult to understand that we’re here to help you—you just got to accept it. Feel free to talk it over with the residents here, see what they say about it. If they have any other questions, I’ll be glad to help them out with any answers."

The old farmer scratched his head, walked off, sat down, and called a council of the residents to see what they thought of Ty’s invitation.

Lester was talking to Francis and there was a little bit of discussion going on. There was some finger-pointing going on between him and his oldest son Denton, who stood a good 9 to 10 inches above his father.

Ed walked over and asked Lester if he could help. "If you can talk to his oldest boy... he’s got something in his head that he can’t leave here right now. He said he’s got something too important here—he’s not leaving. I try to tell him nothing is more important than family, so he has to leave, but he said absolutely, positively he will not leave."

Ed looked at the young man. "Son, follow me. Let’s talk about what you got in your mind."

Ed introduced himself, as did Denton. They walked inside of the sky jumper and had a seat in the pilot area. "Okay, boy, what’s his name and how far along is he?" Ed started out.

Denton’s mouth flew open. "How did you know? Sir, we haven’t told anybody—in fact, if the farmer found out, Rudy would be in trouble. Not as much trouble as he is in now, but we’re not allowed to have cross breeds here on this farm because the old man just doesn’t believe that Genmen and humans should mix. Now he’s a good guy, don’t get me wrong there, he’s just old-fashioned thinking. We had been so careful for the last year and a half, then a little over two weeks ago we had an accident and the condom broke. Not only did he conceive and get pregnant, he is very pregnant. We’ve already named them."

"Well, I can guarantee you one thing, son—I’ll have a talk with the old man. You go get your significant other and tell him to pack. We don’t leave any family members behind; they’re always welcome at the Z1 and the Hawthorne Ranch."

Denton was out of that ship in a flash. He told his father he would be right back and took off running.

Ed was off the ship and walked over to the farm’s owner. Lester could tell there was something up because the farmer was shaking his head no. Ed’s finger was shaking at the farmer’s face, and with a few bodily moves, Lester could tell really quick that it wasn’t going to be nice if the two didn’t come to an agreement. Ed reached in his back pocket, took out his wallet, and pulled out a stack of bills. He rolled them up and crammed them into the old farmer’s hand, and then there were a few choice words exchanged. The farmer looked down at the money in his hand and just shook his head.

Denton came walking back carrying a small bag in one hand and leading a very young looking, very short Genman with the other.

When Ed looked at him, he realized that the young genman was not only young but very short—it was sort of like a Mutt and Jeff situation.

Denton walked up to his parents and introduced Lester and Francis to Rudy. "Father-Dad, I want you to meet someone who means a whole lot to me, and the only way that I’m leaving here is if you let Rudy come also. I know you may not understand it, but I’m not going to abandon him, not now."

Francis looked at his oldest son. "Boy, you are a head taller than him. How in the world do you think he’s ever going to be able to keep up with you?"

"Mr. Francis, for the last year and a half of your son’s life, I have kept him satisfied and pacified. And if you want to do this to us, that’s just fine—I’ll stay here and I will raise Dalton and Sherman by myself. Denton can come visit his sons whenever he wants to; he’s got an open invitation, but I’ll not go anywhere that I’m not welcome." Rudy spoke up for himself.

"The last year and a half we’ve been together, every chance we got we snuck around and we’ve been safe, being very careful when we have sex so that he wouldn’t get pregnant and the farmer be mad at you. But about three weeks ago we had a failure and he conceived twice. I didn’t want anyone to get into trouble, so we were keeping it quiet until we had enough money saved up and we could leave. We had been talking about going to the Z1 so that we could be together, but if he can’t come along, I’m not going." Denton looked at his parents.

Francis hugged his son and then apologized to Rudy for his rudeness. "Are you sure it’s twins and you did have two burns the very first time?"

"Yes, Sir, I’m very sure and I have already gained 5 pounds. I know the Z1 has one of the best clinics and delivery systems for Genmen in the world, and that’s where I want these babies born—someplace safe, not out on a wooden platform in the barn."

Ty was going over the contracts with all of the genmen. The old farmer had even called in some of the other local owners to see if they would like to take advantage of the fortune that had befallen them. By the time Ty was through, he had added 13 new small farms and ranches to the Z1 family. He had hoped to maybe persuade this one, but he knew definitely his grandfather would be proud of how he represented the Z1 family.

As everyone loaded into the sky jumper and they said their goodbyes, Ed reminded everyone at the Diamond H that within the week there would be a regular tram service from their little area directly to the Z1 and the outlying township. They were just waiting for the units to be delivered, and they would see Lester again when he came and picked them up.

Everyone cleared back and with a roar of the engines, the sky jumper lifted up and they were off to their new home—the Z1.