The Business of Space

         "Why?" I asked, my curious self waking up inside me. Jack, a sleek suit-wearing business man, smiled.
         "If you invest in space, then your name will go down in history. I represent an environmentalist group, our plan is to put all the heavy industries in space. There, they won't pollute the Earth, not if we put them in orbit around Venus, or Mars."
         "But why should I invest in space? Why shouldn't I let my money sit in a bank and grow, with a steady increase and with absolute security. I am a business man, I didn't get to own six different companies through foolishness."
         "Sir, this is not foolishness. We have thirty-five different companies ready to participate if we can lift their factories off the ground. All that we need is start up capital, we have the designs ready, and waiting. If you were to invest, you could become the ruler of space in a way. You could own over half of all the space structures that will be put up, if you wanted." I sat there for a minute, and let the silence sink in. Really, I had chosen to invest before he came, but it was always fun to watch lawyers and business men get riled up. Jack began to speak again.
         "This is a completely stable venture. The designs have been approved as usable by more than eighty different engineers and. . . "
         "I'll invest, on two conditions. I want to be on the first factory launched, and I want you to be there too," I smiled inwardly as he stood there, sputtering. Poor Jack, he hadn't expected to do anything like this, The designs may have been approved by eighty different engineers, or a thousand, but there were always those who weren't willing to get on the first plane or in the first submarine. He had been promoting this for quite some time, yet he had never planned to be a true pioneer. I watched his face turn from red, to white, back to normal, and he looked at me with a steel look in his eye.
         “I’ll go.” I shook his hand and smiled at him before pulling something out of my desk. It was a legal document, entailing all of what Jack had said and my two conditions. When Jack  saw the document, his eyes widened to the size of records.
         “You were already. . . You already . . . How did you know. This is the exact same as, this is the exact same agreement as I brought with me, except with your conditions. “
         “I have sources.” I laughed, then pulled out a couple pens from within my desk. “You do have the authority to sign don’t you?” He nodded, then signed. I followed suit, and handed him the original, keeping for myself the carbon copy. His mouth opened. but I answered his question before he even said it.
         “You can put me down for 15 billion, Jack.”