Chapter Fifteen
"Let me introduce you to Mr Lacroix. He's one of the architects that have helped designing the latest built colonies…he will help us with our little project, of course, Françoise, you must know our Miss Relena, after all everybody knows you…" said Mr Taylor.
"I know about Mr Lacroix…I had never met him though…" commented Relena eager to know the reason why she was there.
"It's a pleasure to meet you in person, dear…" said Mr Lacroix, completely oblivious to the fact that Relena had not greeted him properly.
"Well, know that the introductions have been…" started to say Mr Valliant when a buzz interrupted him. It was an intercom installed on his desk. He exchanged a couple of sentences with whoever was on the receiver and then said: "Ok, I'm told we better make a move…Miss Relena, I hope you don't mind too much but, I am afraid we have to go to Mars…Don't worry, we can continue this conversation on the shuttle".
With this, Mr Valliant grabbed Relena's arm and made her get up and head to the shuttle's launch platform that Mr Valliant had in his residence.
They were airborne within less than ten minutes. From the air Relena saw a three cars approaching the residence with flashing lights on their roofs. She identified them as preventer's cars, she would have bet all the money she had that they were looking for her.
As promised by Mr Valliant, they indeed continued the conversation on their way to Mars.
"Miss Relena, as you probably know I am a big defender of the Terraforming Project of Mars. I think it is a fantastic idea…I don't really know if you actually planned this but, I am sure that with the right amount of funding, not the ridiculous amount we allocate now, we will be able to finish the colonisation of Mars in much less than the 50 years you predicted…Our target is making Mars a place to live much more like the Earth. We think that the colonies have been a good way to get men living in outer space but now, the colonies are almost obsolete, they cost a fortune to maintain and they are nowhere near as pleasant to live in than Mother Earth. That is why we have decided to take over this Terraforming Project of yours and give it a little push in the right direction so we can complete it a lot faster…" Mr Valliant said getting quite excited the more he talked.
"That is all very good Mr Valliant but, as you know, our budget is quite tight, we will not be able to afford this without increasing even more the taxes the citizens pay. And we cannot ask them to pay more. The ESUN economy is still recovering from the war…" commented Relena.
"Of course, we have predicted this too, Miss Relena. That is where you get in the picture, ESUN will have to do what we say or we will threaten them with crashing the colonies into Mars with the new device that Dr J has invented for us. In any case we will eliminate the colonies, whether this happens sooner or later…they will be useless anyway, we will start with the oldest, less productive ones…till we will eliminate them completely…" added Mr Taylor.
"What?? We cannot do that! There are families living there, we should ask them whether they want to leave their colony and I fear that most of the people will say no…besides why would you threaten ESUN with eliminating the colonies if you have intentions of doing it anyway?" said Relena hoping that if they let her talk she would convince them.
"Regarding the threat, as long as they don't know, we can tell them anything we want. And regarding the population, that will not be an issue Miss Relena…" said Mr Valliant.
"Of course it will be an issue! We cannot force an entire colony to move to Mars without asking their opinion first!" said Relena increasing the volume of her voice.
"And, tell me, who said we will move the colony's population to Mars? I don't recall saying it…" Said Mr Valliant completely calm. It took a few seconds for Relena to understand the meaning of Mr Valliant's words. She completely understood when Carl Taylor added:
"We are planning to populate Mars only with genetically engineered people. I mean, the New Types. They will be the perfect population, they will be organised, polite, hard working people that will never give problems to neither Mars' government nor the ESUN's. It is truly the perfect solution. We will get rid of all the sick population from the colonies who have only given problems ever since day one…"
Relena could not believe what she was hearing. This was madness. These people were sick. And they were making her sick too.
"You cannot do that! You are talking about millions of people here!" Relena protested.
"Miss Relena…I think this is a bit too much for you to handle right now, Carl, can't you see that she needs to think it over? She will see it a lot clearer when she thinks of the benefits that this will bring to ESUN…" said Mr Valliant.
"And what if she does not change her mind?" Asked Carl Taylor talking as if Relena was not there.
"Well, in that unfortunate case, we still have the plan B and Miss Relena here will be the perfect subject to test the capacities of our Perfect Soldier" said Mr Valliant puzzling and, at the same time, terrifying Relena.