The stage had been set for a wonderful day of celebration on each of ISO's outposts throughout the Solar System, it was Founder's Day, the highlight of which was a live appearance by the ISO's demigod-like CEO, Oscar Zillion. As strange as this may seem, the trans solar system Founder's Day celebrations had been made possible by the corporation's alignment of time and working hours across the Solar System, it did not matter where you were, there were twenty-four solar hours in a day. The greatest achievement of standard solar time was its ability to facilitate regularity, creating a balanced lifestyle which helped to reduce the amount of space sickness and insanity, mental illness was the space dweller's most significant health issue. But Oscar Zillion and all the other CEOs would not have given a shit, for any other reason than it affected their bottom line, costing them a fortune in lost productivity.

It had been a full solar year since the loss of Dover Bolt, and Franklin Charles and the reported transfer of their families to a leisure facility as a form of compensation. They were not the central characters on the Pioneer Space Station, but Dover and Franklin were sadly missed. The grief of their loss had not subsided irrespective of the time which had passed, since their reported deaths on the remote meteoroid Giganteas, during a random meteor storm. This unified expression of grief was in the scheme of things a surprising turn of events, even though it was a common occurrence in the Rock Zone for workers to be lost or killed, it was among the most dangerous places to work in the solar system. It was caused by concern over the rock workers being killed by a random meteor storm when such storms were now more predictable than the weather, so it was an unexpected and unacceptable way to end one's life.

Today the worker's grief and ongoing concerns were hidden beneath a flimsy cloak of happiness, which was by design generated by all the propaganda and media focus surrounding Founder's Day. It was by tradition a day of rest for the rock workers, and everyone excluding those who supported the essential services was free to join in the fun, in any way they chose, the station was one big street party.

It was nearing 18:00hrs and the time was approaching for Oscar Zillion to make his live appearance, the main plaza was packed and there was standing room only, except for the Rock Zone's administrative dignitaries of which there were plenty. The dignitaries were seated comfortably in a semi-circle of luxurious chairs, around the platform in front of Rebekah's Arch, the arch stood two-hundred-foot-high, and in flashing lights was emblazoned with the corporate motto:

It will be wonderful to die, knowing I had a marvellous time, ruining everything my competition had to offer.

Rumours were rife among the audience that the arch would be renamed Zillion Arc, to be honest, it was doubtful that anyone cared, they were rightfully more concerned about being ended by an unpredicted meteorite shower.

Below the arch, it was in effect one huge auditorium with a huge screen, which had been displaying numerous forms of entertainment all day, most of which was an absolute delight to the audience, but now the moment of Oscar's appearance was imminent the entertainment was replaced by an orchestra playing the company anthem, with an archaic sound reminiscent of 18th-century classical music, which by comparison was extremely drab and did little to enthuse the audience. The arch screen evolved into an impressive curtain, which sparkled as if lined with diamonds, it was time for the big reveal as the drums began to roll. The audience waited anxiously as the curtains were slowly drawn, to reveal what they expected to be a screen filled with Oscar Zillion's smiling face, but suddenly the drum roll came to an abrupt end, and Oscar's face was not present on the screen, it was blank and looking into space, which was filled with familiar stars.

At first, there was an eerie silence, then came whispers of curiosity which grew louder as people in the crowd began to speculate on what could have gone wrong, but most simply thought it was a way to enhance the excitement and continued to wait in anticipation. This, however, was not true of the dignitaries who would surely have been informed in advance if such antics were planned by the media teams, and among their ranks concern was spreading rapidly and some busied themselves shouting orders to confused underlings, which left them no idea what to do, as the situation was unprecedented. And for all the good they were doing, they might as well have stayed in their seats, and there was one thing they did not know, which was that the show was only just beginning.

The area beneath the arch which had served as a screen began to shimmer and glow, and at its epicentre, it began to separate, to reveal nothing but a black void, from which even the stars had vanished. Then slowly a black sphere began to emerge from the void, its surface glimmered like a disco glitter ball as it reflected light aimed at it from hundreds of spotlights. Even though the Plaza was packed with an audience of workers and dignitaries that numbered in the thousands, you could have heard a pin drop, not even those uptown dignitaries who believed they were in charge had a clue what to do or say. The biggest surprise might well have been that the sphere's arrival had not resulted in a wholesale panic, it was fortunate that the majority assumed it was part of the show and evidence of fear among the hard-nosed rock workers was rare. The feeling of suspense continued as the sphere exited the void and floated majestically into the heart of the semi-circle created by the rows of seated dignitaries, where it stopped and hovered a matter of millimetres above the platform which everyone had been given to believe had been specially installed for the festivity's presentation ceremonies.

However, only Malinga Anglia and her cohorts knew that the arch and its platform had been jury-rigged by ZPT's Stealth Teams, installing them with a mobile Quantum Jump transponder. The same installation had been performed on dozens of key Founder's Day plazas throughout the Solar System and the pearl necklace which along with the Earth synchronously orbits around the Sun. But most importantly the same thing was happening at ISO HQ right in front of a bewildered Oscar Zillion and thanks to the amazing media coverage he had arranged for Founder's Day, the Sphere's arrival was transmitted live to the rest of the watching solar system.

This was all happening way ahead of ZPT's overall planning, which had been blown to bits by an ISO escalation, engineered by Oscar Zillion to undermine their ability to support any development activities he assumed were being secretly undertaken by his siblings, of course, he was not wrong, but his action had only succeeded in forcing their hand making them proceed ahead of schedule. If there was one thing Oscar was sure of, it was that whatever they may or may not have been up to, it would require resources and therefore the best intermediary action would be to disrupt their supply chain. His opening gambit was to target their unwitting enemy within, by applying coercion and extortion within his company's supply chain to ensure it did not supply ZPT, with anything technical or otherwise. The blockade included everyday supplies such as cleaning and sanitary products, and as crazy as it might seem to deprive ZPT of these products had a greater impact on its ability to function than freezing its supply of technical and raw materials.

After months of the embargo, it became clear from sources within ZPT that whatever it was they were developing was back on track, by using stock built up in anticipation of an embargo and other specified sources to circumnavigate his tactics. This news was quite distressing, especially to ISO Board who were beginning to sweat as quite clearly their necks were also on the line if ZPT were allowed to reveal their complicity in ISO's unlawful activities. It was not as if Oscar needed reminding of the risk involved, at times he found the boardroom whining intolerable and to get peace and quiet, he had seriously considered making those who whined the most take a lifetime vacation, buried in a deep hole on an isolated asteroid. But as delightful a prospect as this thought was he wisely decided his time and energy were better spent on some first-hand intervention, not that he would perform any personally, that of course would be down to his minions. To kick this off he summoned a group of his most trusted board members for a private meeting, and what he proposed would be as close to warfare as one could get without making an open declaration of war.

Of the four members invited to the meeting, one was from the Weapons Division, one from Military Ships, one from Special Services and one from Strategic Resources and Planning (SRP), it was clear to those in attendance, that he was planning to launch an active offensive against ZPT. The ISO board members were a wily bunch and as soon as they were gathered, they began picking each other's brains, to establish if one had been made privy to more information than another. The member from SRP with whom Oscar had already held a secret session did not breathe a word about being given specific instructions on what SRP would be expected to present at the meeting, and she alone knew that from the moment her input was tabled the others would know precisely what was expected of them. The truth was, that the essence of Oscar's strategy had not changed, he knew they had to cut off the hands that fed ZPT and where necessary cut the odd throat. Angel Groats from SRP may have been the only woman in the room, but she was second to none as a strategist. Angel had done an impressive job outlining what aspects of the ZPTs supply line and technical facilities had to be taken out to ensure they were unable to function, whilst at the same time making sure collateral damage and human loss were limited. However, none of her recommendations was made with empathy, it was pure logic, for Oscar had made it clear that whatever technology was in development and the brains behind its design had to survive so that it could be carpet bagged by ISO. The three men in the room were left in no doubt about their targets and the strategies they were to employ, their job was to gather the tools of their trade and to get things done clandestinely, as it was still too early for ISO to start open warfare.

Total Words: 1828

Rolling Total: 15383