SECOND CHANCE BOOK VI:

Duke of Averon

By

R. Richard

EXCERPT

CORIN, MY WORLD, IS a primitive world, at least according to the advanced culture civilizations that run at least this part of the galaxy.  One of the main reasons that Corin remains a primitive world is that Corin has no conventional space travel capability.  That last is about to change.

I have a manufacturing operation in Averon.  The operation takes certain military missiles that were intended to wipe out cities on Corin and converts the missiles to space delivery vehicles.  The large rocket motors and fuel tanks of the military missiles are replaced with four large capacity anti-gravity units and a small rocket motor with small fuel tanks.  The combination of the anti-gravity units and a small rocket motor, allow the former military missile to climb to a height above the atmosphere of Corin.  Once at the proper height, a payload of anti-gravity units will be ejected into low orbit for pick up by an automated advanced civilization space freighter.

The process of climbing into space accomplishes three main aims of mine.  First, the anti-gravity units help earn me money necessary to support my current Zaya operations.  Second, the anti-gravity unit trade with the advanced civilizations gets me entry into a lot of advanced civilization markets for other products I'm making here on Corin.  Third, the trade with the advanced civilizations is making me very important to any number of advanced civilization governments.  In fact, I have become so important that several of the advanced civilization governments have officially accepted the Arquellian arbitration verdict that I'm not a Kivosh and, as a result, there are now any number of planetary governments who no longer have me under sentence of death.

My current space delivery vehicles are, admittedly, a bit primitive, but they're all I can really afford at the present time.  However, my current space delivery vehicles are going to make me money.  While I'm making money, I'm also training space vehicle pilots.  With the profits and the trained space vehicle pilots, I'll soon be able to move to the next phase of my space operation, that of landing a large nickel-iron asteroid on Corin, to provide a source of metal for the anti-gravity units I'm selling to the advanced civilizations.  Better yet, I'm also establishing myself as the legal owner of all of the asteroids in the sun system that includes Corin.  The legal basis is the laws that were enacted during the period of exploration and discovery on Corin some five centuries ago.

(You have to understand that the people who made the laws way back when were politicians who wanted to carve up the riches of the new world for themselves and then run home and screw their neighbour's wife.  The long term consequences of what they were doing were never even considered at the time.  The general idea seemed to be that they would do what was in their perceived best interest at the time and then change the rules later, if that seemed useful.  The fall out is that I'll have sole ownership of the mineral riches of the asteroids at very little cost to me.  I can then use the money to acquire more Kingdoms on Corin.  I must continue to expand on Corin and also to expand my trade relationships with the advanced civilizations.  There are still many who wish to kill me because I'm a Kivosh and the Arquellians wish to kill me because I continue to rip them up both politically and financially.  If I'm to survive, I must continue to add people who depend on me financially and will support me against those who want to kill me.)

I have programmed up a simulator and my first space pilot is as ready as he can be for the very first manned space expedition from Corin.  I talk with the pilot mog and he's confident.  I talk with the engineers who converted the missile into a space craft and they're confident.  I talk with the ground crew and they're confident.  In fact, I'm probably the least confident of all the mogs involved.  Ah well, somebody has to do the worrying.