Mindscape: Book 2 of the New Frontiers Series by Jasper T. Scott Page A

ourselves, but we could afford to lease one.” Suddenly all eyes were on Wallace, waiting for him to continue. “The second part of Sakamoto’s proposal was for us to sign lease-to-own agreements with them for new ships. They have a large stockpile of cash, and they would be willing to finance commissioning a new fleet.”
    “Won’t that work out to the same thing as borrowing the money to buy the ships?”
    “No, because Sakamoto has generously offered us a lease agreement with a zero interest payment plan over a generous hundred-year term.”
    General Hunter of the army leaned forward and folded his hands on the table to add his two cents. “What’s in it for them?” he asked in a gravelly voice.
    “New defense contracts in a world where defense budget spending has been diminishing steadily for decades. And since our birth rate is practically zero, the economy is stagnant, so they’re not selling any more bots—just repairing old ones. That means they have a stockpile of cash and nothing to do with it.”
    “Must be nice,” Anderson said.
    “They could go spend it in mindscapes and give a boost to virtual economies,” Hunter suggested.
    “And make Mindsoft richer?” Wallace replied, smiling and shaking his head. “If Mr. Sakamoto wanted to build a virtual empire, he wouldn’t have spent so much time and effort building a real one. He’s a Humanist without the aversion to AI or automation.”
    “Hmmm,” Hunter replied, scratching a light growth of dark stubble on his cheek. “We still need to get the money for those lease payments from somewhere. Zero interest doesn’t mean zero cost.”
    “I agree, and I’m looking into ways to procure that funding from the existing budget, but we don’t have a lot of leeway. Coincidentally, Mindsoft may have the answer to our budget problem. I actually have a meeting with them now, to discuss their proposal,” Wallace said, checking the time on his comm band.
    “You mean a way to reduce the dole?” General Eriksson asked.
    “They implied that, yes.”
    Silence reigned as people traded dubious looks with one another.
    Eriksson frowned. “I doubt they could have a solution for the dole when your administration and all the previous administrations combined haven’t been able to come up with one.”
    “I’m skeptical, too,” Wallace said, “but I’m going to hear them out. What do we have to lose?”
    “Nothing I suppose,” Fleet Admiral Anderson said.
    Wallace nodded. “Chairman, do we have any further business to discuss?”
    Chairman Durand looked around the table, waiting for someone else to speak. When no one else did, he said, “Meeting adjourned.”
    Wallace stood up from the table. “Gentlemen,” he said, nodding. “Let’s hope we’ve found our solution.”
    The joint chiefs of staff rose and saluted. Wallace hastily returned their salute and hurried out the door. He was eager to meet with the representative from Mindsoft. He needed a solution to present to the public, and fast, or he’d never get re-elected, and then he’d be unemployed just like everyone else.
    * * *
    President Wallace sat around a table in the presidential palace with a group of his cabinet ministers and a few trusted Utopian Party senators, listening as majority shareholder Phoenix Gray’s husband and legal representative, Dorian Gray, outlined Mindsoft’s proposal. Mr. Gray stood in front of the assembled group, his dark hair cropped short, blue eyes bright and burning with enthusiasm. He wasn’t good-looking enough to have been born a Gener, and there were plenty of rumors about his reasons for marrying the late Bryan Gray’s only daughter and heir, but none of that did anything to take away from his authority as his wife’s mouthpiece.
    “Why is it so hard to make cutbacks in the dole?” Mr. Gray asked, spreading his hands to direct the question to his audience.
    Secretary of commerce Donna Harris snorted. “I hope you’re being rhetorical.”
    Gray