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Raef was true to his word and spent the next day contacting billionaires and governments in an effort to find funding for a second android-crewed mission to Proxima b, with the objective of rescuing Coppélia. But his efforts were all in vain. There was only one group left that he could turn to, and he wasn’t even sure that he could bring them round to support the venture.
That was why the following day found him piloting his executive shuttle back to Mars. The planet was awash with money and, in particular, the Mars Settlement Company was doing very well indeed. He was the President of MSC and had called for an extraordinary board meeting to be convened post-haste, stating that it was an emergency. The board members all lived on Mars, in large luxury dwellings in the city of NY2, so i
