The E Utopia Project by Kudakwashe Muzira Page B

George called her beautiful. He always kissed her after calling her
beautiful. Thinking of his kisses, her mouth watered.
    Tearing off the breathing
machine, she ran out of the woods and he jogged after her. The driver of the
truck pulled the brakes when he saw her but he hesitated when he saw George. He
drove past them and stopped thirty meters away when he saw their desperation in
the view mirror.
    They ran to the truck.
    The driver popped his head
out through the window and looked at them for seconds before he said, “Where
are you heading?”
    “Sprague, sir.”
    “Get in. I’m going all the
way to the West Coast.”
    He opened the door. Sara was
the first to get in. George lazily followed her in, careful not to scare the
driver.
    “Captain Donald to his
unauthorized passengers,” the driver said with a laugh. “Fasten your seat belts.
We’re taking off.”
    George and Sara politely
laughed. The driver laughed, pleased with his wit.
    “Is everything okay with you
guys?” he asked when he saw how deeply George breathed. “I can see you just
have one breathing machine.”
    “Mine malfunctioned and I
threw it away. I’ll buy one when I get to the nearest shops.”
    “That’s about ten kilometers
away. Since we now have three pairs of lungs in here, I guess I’ve to adjust
the air conditioner.”
    * * *
    One of the three launching
sites at the Columbus commercial spaceport in New Mexico’s Desert was a hive of
activity.  Unlike most privately owned spaceports in the United States, the Columbus
Spaceport had not been developed from former NASA or former military
installations. Cruz & Sons Inc bought land from the federal government in
New Mexico’s desert and immediately began construction.  After getting license
from the Federal Aviation Administration, Cruz & Sons Inc wasted no time
setting up a vertical launch system capable of launching medium class rockets.
Now this eleven square kilometer stretch of land that had been deemed useless
by the government now boasted of two vertical launch systems and two runways
for airplanes and horizontal-takeoff spacecraft. It was by far the busiest
privately owned spaceport in the country. Unlike most spaceports, whose
activities were restricted to space tourism, the Columbus Spaceport’s main
function was carrying equipment and supplies to Cruz’s space station, Eureka.
Most privately owned space companies showed no interest in non-lucrative
scientific space expeditions, preferring to concentrate solely on space
tourism. Many people wondered why Cruz & Sons wasted so much money building
Eureka Research Space Station. Critics of Cruz & Sons pointed to the fact
that the corporation hadn’t made a single important discovery since its
subsidiary, Eureka Space Company, began its space scientific expeditions a
decade ago.
    This lack of judgment on the
part of Cruz & Sons didn’t surprise many in the business world. Sam Cruz,
the president of the corporation wasn’t known for his business acumen. He was
more interested in enhancing his public image than in making money. Sam Cruz
made more donations than anyone else in the corporate world and he supported
conservationist movements which mostly consisted of people who became
environmental activists for the sole purpose of getting funding from him. It was
now known throughout the world that if you made noise about preserving the
natural environment, you stood a big chance of getting funding from Sam Cruz’s
International Green Movement.
    This penchant for playing the
philanthropist and environmentalist had seen Sam Cruz slide down the Forbes
list. His business advisors had tried their best to make him see sense but it
was to no avail. When he inherited Cruz & Sons Inc, he owned eighty percent
of the corporation but now he owned hundred percent after distraught minority
shareholders gladly sold him their shares.
    Six years after setting up
the Columbus Spaceport, Sam Cruz announced plans to build spaceports in Bolivia
and