Copyright 2002
Please visit www.ffilmar.org
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Moonshifter


The Giloplex tower is indeed an important building. Any business worth conducting on the west coast takes place in its executive suites. Mergers, sales, and take-overs all start and end here. History and destiny are created by the giants of commerce in the upper reaches of the shiny glass tower.

There are those that follow the corporate playbook, and those who write in its pages. In any age, the smallest single part of history is the individual and either the carefully planned or impulsive acts he or she makes. Some bring countries into war or greater prosperity. Others nurture ideas and shape thinking that live beyond their time. Whatever the result, you and I without much trouble at all could come up with the half-a-dozen-or-so motivating forces behind these or any other great accomplishments.

At the end of a hallway near the very top of the Giloplex tower is a large set of double doors, done nicely in cherry and brass. Beyond these doors a deal is being brokered whose implications go far beyond the direct business of a five-year, ten-million dollar contract.

Here beyond the doors is a large and open office. Half the walls are glass looking out over the sun-baked steel and concrete of San Francisco. The other half are backdrop to display cases and shelves filled tastefully with awards and placards. The carpet is rich Persian. The few chairs look like swollen leather mitts. In the far corner sits a desk the size of a small automobile. Behind it, a high-back black leather chair.

Clevis Hollock is in the closing moments of the deal-breaker. He is lying on his back on his large desk, arms spread out, hands dancing for traction on its smooth hardwood surface. Above him is a woman in blue, her dress pushed up about her waist. She is preoccupied with something far beyond the south window of the office as she pulses back and forth in labored rhythm.

Clevis would do anything for sexual encounters with beautiful women. He also knew that sexual favors were indeed the quickest, easiest way to make things happen in his life, both good and bad. Thus, his whole life has been spent putting himself into situations to have carefully chosen, pretty young women, while leaving himself both the room and means to have more later.

Soon the ritual is over. The woman is once again on her feet, wriggling her dress into place. Clevis sits up and shakes his head, as if unsure that it is still attached to his neck. It was nearly six o'clock in the evening; time for the evening news. Six o'clock also was the end of the business day, so Beatrice, the woman in the blue dress, knew she could leave Clevis without fear of reprisal.

Clevis walks to the far side of his black rectangular desk. He touches the corner of the television screen on the wall and it hums to life. Beatrice clears her throat rather loudly, bringing a look of puzzlement to Clevis' face. That soon changes to a confident smile as he rubber-stamps a contract on his desk to the EcoWarm company as 'APPROVED'.

While Clevis strokes his auburn hair back into place with his fingers two newscasters appear on the screen. Clevis turns and sits along the edge of his desk. Beatrice leaves the grand office without a further word or sound.

"Yow, Reggie. Why should the viewers keep watching today?"

"Well, Bingo, I have THREE world-class stories this evening. One is about the demonstration of a powerful new technology, the second is about the closing of a major Central Authority Bio-research facility, and the third is the abduction of three hundred people to somewhere past the Mars Sky Wall."

"Well, select viewers, which do YOU want to be broadcast tonight to the general population? Touch your choice now."

Clevis touches one of the panels on his television screen. Stats and charts flutter by the bottom of the screen.

"Bingo, which one is it going to be?"

"Ha Ha Ha! Well, Reggie, tonight's voting broke down as follows, but that DOESN'T MATTER! All THREE headlines are from the ONE SAME STORY!"

"Oh, Bingo, this is a good one, then."

In the corner of the big wall TV is a hopelessly amateur video of what looks like some kind of big-ass rocket burning its way away from the good green earth.

"It is, Reggie. Researchers at ExxonCo have finally perfected the Large-Scale Thrusting System first proposed over twenty years ago by ExxonCo. The hope was of sending whole mining facilities, not just shuttles, to the moons of the Jupiter and Saturn systems. However, TopCo, parent company of ExxonCo, officially retired the project earlier today in response to criticism from the Solar Collected Miner's Union. They will not allow its membership to ride large-scale thrust vehicles beyond the Mars Wall. Many there had felt the thrusting system was unfeasible."