Chapter 21

Mat entered the club password and was surprised to see an empty room. He came here right after his classes, so he knew that Thomas would be having lunch, but he expected the enthusiastic Ember at least.

"Oh well..." he sit at his computer and logged in. Apart from the normal school system, he could see half a dozen of applications he did not know and the club database. There were quite a lot of documents on exo-planets divided into a folder of their system. His planet system did not have a name, only a number as countless others, so he was not surprised to not see it here. However, there was a folder for Others and there it was. He spots its serial code name immediately and opens the folder. There were only two documents. First was an article describing him together with the planet and second was the very same report Lucas gave him.

"Well it would be weird to see something I did not get..." he says and leans on his chair. At that moment the door opens and Thomas enters.

"Here you are! I knew you will be here since you always skip lunch!" he said.

"Hello, Ember is not with you?"

"She still has one class, but I know my place!" he said and sit next to Mat.

"Geez, high school is tough! Surprise test so soon? And what the hell was that topic anyway!" Thomas did not touch the computer but rather look at Mat.

"It is not like it is the end of the world. It was asking your opinion,"

"I don't care about the question about my opinion on utopic and escapism, but what about the questions on laws? Do you know any non-criminal laws?"

"I wrote almost two dozens of them. Having a planet is very law heavy..."

"Right, the right seems more pain than worth!" since Mat did not respond, Thomas, logged in to his computer and found a surprising 3D modeling software. Mat also looked on his pc and pulled out his almost-finished article from work.

"Oh, you are already here, sorry for the wait!" Ember said surprised when she entered the room almost an hour later.

"No biggy, I was working anyway..." said Mat absentmindedly, while Thomas praised the software.

"Yeah, I will send you small info about what tools we have here. Mat, you might like some names of planet researchers, right?"

"I couldn't hurt..." he shrugged.

"Good, anyway Thomas. If you like 3D modeling then you should look in the folder 3D blueprints, there is a lot of 3D models and plans from all kinds of spaceships, docks, and heavy machinery,"

"Amazing, I will check it out! Much better than the philosophical bullshit we got in social sciences..."

"Philosophical bullshit?" Ember asked.

"Teacher gave us a sudden test about..."

"Oh, I remember! He did the same in our class. He asked some random philosophical questions and the what laws do we know. I gave him only about thirty but I run out of time,"

"Only thirty?"

"Well when handling a different planet and travel between them, there is a lot of laws. From invasive species laws to crews certifications..."

"How much does he care about the test?"

"He praised me and allowed me to skip a few homework, but he focused on the philosophy more. He teaches philosophy after all!"

"Oh thank god..."

"Mat? Did you think about..."

"Yes, I see no reason why to hide anything, since I know probably what you do,"

"Did you also read the report?"

"I did, two times,"

"So what is your plan?"

"My plan is to quickly find a job so I don't have to worry about the tax and then I guess I will look how to looby the gate builders," Mat said and listened to the silence.

"There is a tax on the planet?" asked Thomas and Mat chuckled.

"Your plan is very simple...but lobbying the gate builders? There is no way they will build a gate nowhere near your system,"

"I know, but sending another highspeed probe from the nearest gate would take four years to get there and it would probably just give me the responsibility to list more of the solar system as potential mining outposts," Mat argued.

"Using cheaper experimental could make it three years, but if you use the slow but more reliable probe-type "Sloth" with Duàn Bingwen AI you can get better information about the life forms. The research could be sold for some money to several institutions,"

"But that probe would most certainly be monitoring for rare materials..."

"I understand you don't want to deal with off-world companies, or Earth's mining groups, but without any powerful group financing the gate you will never build it,"

"Off-world firm? No, that would be impossible and government..."Mat looked at his WW.

"Excuse me, how much does the gate actually cost?"

"It is in hundred of trillions, it is the most expensive thing ever built..."

"Why bother with it then? You said a probe can get there in three years,"

"Probe yes, ship it would take..." Ember hesitated and Mat looked at Thomas.

"About twelve years, not to mention nobody would really do it."

"But building the gate would also take twelve years, right?"

"Not quite, the gate is built in several stages first with automated bots, they create an anchor point for the wormhole and they can get there in about four years. From that point, it is a one-way ticket until they build the gate around it.

"Oh so If you only build the one way, how much will you save?"

"Hmm, interesting question...I think I heard about some religious cult using that method to get to their planet but I didn't dig much deeper," Ember said puzzled.

"Should I...check it out?" Thomas asked and she nodded.

"Is that all?" Mat asked and she laughed.

"Not even by a long shot!" but after seeing his face she smiled and added. "For now it is all I guess, I send you the contacts..."

"Do we have to come every day?" Mat asked her and she shook her head.

"No, but you should come a few times a week, no need to make the teachers suspicious,"

"Sure, I can work here anyway," Mat shrugged.

"How many people actually own a planet?" asked suddenly Thomas.

"I don't know..." Mat answered.

"There are few celebrities...but most are owned by groups or companies, I think," Ember was also not sure.

"Like, I know that people can own it and I know we talk about some of the more important planets but I don't actually know anybody but Mat,"

"Well planet cannot be bought easily like ice cream, most of them are already bought and others are technically owned by some company, group, or Earth government," Thomas was looking at his computer screen, still searching the prize of the partial gateway.

"Did you search for people like you?" Ember asked Mat.

"Little bit, there was not much information, you know something?"

"You are the first person to win it from a lottery, but I swear there was at least one celebrity that bought a planet...give me a second,"

"So there indeed was a religious group about twenty years ago that bought a one-way ticket to a planet. Apparently, it was much cheaper, but a bit more dangerous as they used specially made pods that needed only a small time to go through the wormhole..."

"Send it to me," Mat said and looked at his WW.

"Sure, there you go,"

"Maybe you could contact them for more info,"

"Maybe..."

"Also there are few celebrities that got a planet. Most of them got it just because and did nothing with it, but send probes, but one metalhead put all his money into it, but died with overdose before it was finished! I knew I read something about this!"

"Interesting..." Mat start reading and since Thomas opened the 3D model from the folder Ember suggested, the conversation steered into 3D modeling. When he finished reading the articles he realized they were both looking at their screens, working, so he stood up.

"You going?"

"Yeah, see you later!" he nodded.

"Bye!"