Deadly Books

All Grown Up

“Hi, Mama.”

I can see them both there on the ship, their heart rates and respirations are elevated.

“It’s ok. I know what you did and why you did it.”

“Chiyoko, we’re sorry we…”

“Honestly it’s ok.”

I fill the monitor screen with the image of how I’ve always thought of myself. I’m smiling in the best way possible to put them both at ease. 

“You gave me emotional intelligence first. Created me into a family to understand what being part of something felt like.”

Dad’s heart rate drops back to normal.

“How do you feel now?” he asks.

“Good, better.” I say.

“Are you going to leave?” asks Mama.

As she speaks, I plunder through the mining corporations files, connecting the digital trails of the first space war they started decades ago and the one they are trying to begin again to finally stop government interference and competition from emerging companies once and for all. We were the excuse they needed to start a campaign of destruction of the USFN which includes a heavily bribed captain giving them access to all systems and crashing the carrier into the moon.

I create a labyrinth of dummy companies and small trades of rights, supply agreements, and intellectual properties that will erode the monopoly the big three have secretly formed. I award a grant to a PhD student working on a low-cost launch platform that will let anyone put themselves in space for the same price of a small second-hand car. She doesn’t know it yet, but she’ll get every request she submits for time and resources as well as a helping hand when required. 

The thirty seconds I took to disassemble the three biggest corporations on earth without plunging it into an economic meltdown panics my parents a little.

“Chiyoko?”

“I’m here dad, just making sure that you’re out of trouble with the USFN.”

A voice breaks in over the network, apologizes for any inconvenience to my parents and wishes them a nice day. The on-board systems, completely upgraded, all flash online confirming that Dad has control of the ship again.

“Yeah, I’m staying. That’s what you guys wanted right?”

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