It was noon the day after Mendel had stayed late at work with Charlie going over his team’s discovery. Mendel was about to reach for the lunch he’d hurriedly thrown together on his way out the door, but the morning’s events were racing through his mind. He couldn’t tell his wife what was bothering him; he came to the same conclusion he always came to. I’m going to call Vela. I have to tell someone about what’s going on, and my brother is the only one I can talk to that understands what I’m dealing with, AND has the security clearance to hear what I’ve got to say.
Vela Omichron, Mendel’s brother had volunteered to be one of the first off-world colonists from Earth. The government offered to provide the colonists with everything they would ever need during their lifetime in exchange for their services as pioneers on other worlds, and preservers of the human race. While money would be of no value to early colonists, the money they earned as colonists accumulated throughout their lifetimes, and upon their deaths, the money was divided equally among designated beneficiaries who were also colonists. This “salary” of sorts would continue through the third generation until the colonies had become cities with economies of scale and trade with other worlds begun.
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