Free Talosian Chronicles 1: Olympus by Ben Winston Page B

and that holds the rank of Major, but they’re normally called ‘Chief’. Am I correct, Oly?” Ian asked.
    “Yes sir,” Oly replied.
    “Okay, they are both to be listed as Majors, and heads of those departments mentioned before. Also, as the results of the diagnostics come in, I would like you to share those results with the head of that department, if we have one. As well as myself and the first officer,” Ian ordered.
    “Once Janet has gotten the initial information please give her a list of the positions available on the ship, with priority going to Engineering personnel as well as pilots.” Ian looked over to Janet, “I’ll let you figure out the best way to get people recruited, however, I’d prefer no kidnappings, and no lying. I know that might make your job more difficult, and I’m sorry. I’ve always believed you can’t build a good relationship with someone based on lies. When you do get someone, hand it off to Julie, and she can get them up to the ship and get them settled.”
    “Ian, we’re going to need a base of operations on the planet as well. I mean yeah, it’s all well and good to just swoop down in a shuttle and pick people up, but a mysterious rendezvous in the middle of the night is going to either spook people, or convince them we are a bunch of flakes,” Janet said.
    “Yeah, I kinda thought that might be the case too, and I’m trying to think of a way to accomplish that. For now, all I can come up with is creating a corporation to ‘hire’ the people we recruit. But I can’t think of a reasonable and believable purpose for the corporation to have,” Ian said.
    Bill finally spoke up, “Oly, you’ve been monitoring the planet for a long time correct?”
    “Yes Chief, that was part of my job.”
    “Okay, do you know anything about repressed technology? Specifically, things like carburetors that get hundreds of miles per gallon of gasoline, or an energy cell that uses hydrogen for fuel?”
    “Yes Chief, I have that information,” Oly said.
    “Yes! I knew it! Anyway, Ian, let’s create a corporation that’s purpose is to ‘discover’ alternate sources of energy. Power systems that either don’t need fossil fuels, or uses them much more efficiently.
    “I’d also like to see it working on ways to clean up the oceans, and saving the rain forests, but hey, I’m a tree-hugger from way back,” Bill said. “We’d be just enough of an irritant in the government’s side to be ignored as doing something sneaky.”
    “That might work, but it still doesn’t... Oly, do we have any capital?” Ian asked.
    “From time to time, I have had need to influence certain events. To do that, I needed money. If I had simply created accounts in the quantity I needed it could have had detrimental effects on some of the economies of the planet. So, I created accounts and slowly siphoned off money from the larger drug cartels and criminal organizations I could locate.
    “I considered those monies obtained by criminal means to be public money, and used to help counter some of the damage caused by those drugs or criminals. Currently those accounts have over forty billion dollars in United States currency,” Oly reported.
    Ian was shocked to silence. The girls looked stunned. Bill asked, “What did you need to influence that required forty billion dollars?”
    Oly looked extremely uncomfortable. “I did not need that much; however, I left the siphons in place to build up a large cash reserve in the event it would be needed when I located my Commander.”
    “So we have virtually unlimited funds to work with, and a half formed plan,” Ian said once the shock was past him. “Let me give this some thought, and make some phone calls, I think I might know of a way to pull this off.”
    “Sir, we are on final approach to the ship. We will be landing in alpha bay in a few minutes,” Oly said.
    “Thank you, Oly. I’d like to turn the lights on, but with the energy the ship is already