Episode 9. Part 1
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Thursday, 20 Oct 2518
Kuiper II Class, Summer’s Gift
Parth Spaceport, Parth
White Sun (Bai Hu) System
09:27hrs, local time
Knowing we will be approaching landfall, Christian conducts an inventory to see what we need stocking up on and finds out that of the five bottles of vodka we left Deadwood with, four are now missing from the Weapons Locker. Our ten bottles of wine were left untouched. Whoever pilfered the booze goes for the hard stuff. And that makes it likely it’s Sean Donovan doing the pilfering.
Christian calls a meeting—sans our passenger and Mike—about the loss. There are only two keys to the Weapons Locker. Christian has one and the other is stashed on the bridge. Since Donovan ponied up all that cashy money to get us repaired and we know he’s not staying on with us, we agree to let it slide. If he decides to stay, we will have a conversation on it then.
We dock at Parth’s spaceport, pay our docking fees and begin refueling and provisioning our ship. The nearby Grand Bazaar is a huge marketplace catering to the rich of Bellerophon and rumor has it anything you want can be found here. Anything: food, goods, services… even people, since a brisk trade in servants and slaves also runs through the Bazaar. As for the people we run into at the Bazaar, it’s mostly servants shopping for their rich employers, or support staff that shuttle the servants to and from the surface of Bellerophon, or the suppliers who provide the luxury goods for the rich. And spacers such as ourselves.
An unexpected benefit of catering to the rich is the chance that a shipment may be rejected upon arrival and the jilted supplier will be eager to sell it to spacers as cargo. Or there is sufficient cargo left over for resale after the rich have taken the freshest and the best for themselves. All it takes is a good eye and a sharp ear, and a certain willingness to not examine the cargo too closely, for sometimes the tastes of the rich go a touch beyond the law. It is with this in mind we look for cargo to fill our hold and our pockets.
We snare 100 tons of coffee (from Valdez Corp.) and run up another 100 tons in exotic canned goods from Meadow (or Novaya Rodina, to the faithful) bound for Osiris. Christian arranges to take some of the canned goods in trade in exchange for a reduction in our usual full shipping charges, in order to liven up our meals. The trader of the canned goods agrees, allowing us a case of caviar, specialty smoked fish, smoked oysters and other such piscine specialties. The cargo will be ready for pick-up from both merchants in two days. The quality of the cargo is top-notch, so we can look forward to a decent payday when we kiss dirt on Osiris. Our coffers are running low and we’re all feeling the pinch.
Something else we’ll be looking forward to is the chance for Rina to go over the ship for some routine maintenance. Because of the repairs so recently made to the Gift, the usual chores toward her care took the backseat to more pressing matters and Rina well knows she avoids the backseat at her peril. Since we haven’t scheduled a long layover at Parth, she will have to wait til we make Osiris before doing the extensive go-over…but that’s as far as she dares to go.
Rina also tests the noise-canceling earpieces she’s made for Mike, thinking to give him a little bit of portable peace. The rig consists of two microtransmitters, one for each ear, and a tunable hub small enough to wear on his belt. The equipment seems to work out fine, but Rina will want to finick with it further, to allow Mike to fine-tune the frequencies he wants to filter out. But for now, the rig seems to work
Sean Donovan goes off-ship to explore the watering holes of Parth. Parth doesn’t allow weapons, but since they also do not have the standard ubiquitous metal detectors and enforcement is lax, you can pretty much walk off-ship with your gun, provided you carry concealed. Donovan elects to take his weapon with him. We can only hope he doesn’t get in trouble with it.
Christian decides to take in the sights as well, once his Steward duties are done. It’s been a long time since he’s been in the Core and he’s missed the familiar things of home. Nika has already given him leave to spend some of the ship’s funds on spices and so he looks for a good deal in those. Nothing too fancy, choosing the useful over the exotic. A filled spice rack would fit the bill.
He’s browsing one of the spice vendors' wares and considering a purchase of saffron, when a voice from behind him says:
Voice: No amount of fancy spice can add taste to some dishes.
Christian turns and sees the butler, Talbert, of the family that he had offended in his past. Specifically, the Camden family. The family of the client he’d been forced to kill in self defense.
Shit.
There’s nothing for it. The man has seen Christian and addressed him. Christian puts on his most blandly polite face and answers him.
Christian: I suppose that’s…true.
Talbot: I thought you are banned from doing business in this part of the ‘Verse.
Christian: I’m not banned from buying cooking spices.
Talbot: Not yet.
Christian: True. Well. If you’ll excuse me. Good day.
Christian nods farewell and beats a graceful exit. There will be no buying spices today. Christian’s woefully exposed in the Bazaar and knows it. He returns to the ship, to stay for the rest of the trip.
Arden is content to stay aboard and take advantage of the Cortex connections, to catch up on a year’s worth of medical journals and lectures and reading, so he’s not hopelessly behind for the upcoming trip to Osiris…and his visit with his old friend, the neuroscientist.
Mike and Rina wander off-ship to take in the Bazaar, and Rina keeps a close eye on everything as they go, mindful of Mike’s reduced ability to hear noise. Nika takes off to sightsee, too.
In the berth next to ours, Rina and Mike see someone asking the Captain if the ship there has room for passage to Osiris. On the platform in front of them is a very swank-looking hovercar, streamlined and smooth and Rina stops to run an appreciative eye over it. No one protests as she comes closer and she keeps an ear on the conversation on the far side of the car.
Querant: You said you were going to Osiris. Do you have room for one more?
Captain: Well, I dunno…. How much?
Querant: It could probably fit into a 20-, 25-ton container but we need to get it up pretty quick. The Tolsons are going on another vacation, apparently a spur of the moment thing, and they need their car shipped over there.
Captain: I suppose I could, but I’m going to have to charge you a hundred to get the car over there.
Querant: (sighing) A hundred. That’s considerably more than most people would—
Captain: Yes, last minute sort of thing. If you want it there in the next two weeks, I’m gonna have’ta shift some cargo.
Given the standard cost is a credit per ton per week, the querant is getting ripped off for roughly four times the amount. Nika comes right up behind Rina and Mike and starts looking on. And listening in. She throws a look at Rina.
Rina: (whispers) Getting a car over to Osiris.
Nika: (whispers right back) Who’s negotiating?
Rina: (still low, shrugging: I don’t know) I eavesdropped.
Nika: You easvesdropped on it, you go get it.
Rina: Are you kidding? I’d suck at it.
Nika reconsiders, knowing Rina would use her fantastic interpersonal skills and insult the captain of the ship…. Nika motions Rina to stay put and walks around the car, and addresses the captain.
Nika: Are you out of your mind?
Captain: (annoyed) Move along. I’m doing business, here.
Nika: (looking at the querant) Yeah, and he’s gouging you every-which way. The standard cost of cargo—
Querant: I know what the standard cost is, but this a special cargo. It’s a very delicate piece of machinery. I’m told that they move around a lot in those containers and it needs securing.
Nika: (looking at Captain) And your crew is going to secure it, yes?
Captain: Oh, yeah. We got some special equipment for that.
Nika: Well, we’re headed for Osiris, we’ll take it for the standard cost. Twenty-five. We leave in three days.
Querant: Twenty-five, you said?
Captain: Hey, wait a minute. You don’t even know who this person is. (points at Nika) Or even if they have a ship.
Nika: (points at Summer’s Gift) That one’s mine.
Captain: Do you really wish to ship your precious car in such a piece of junk?
Rina: Hey, watch it, buddy.
Nika: Look, if it makes you feel better, you can pay us fifty to do it. I mean, he’s charging you a hundred. If you feel like the standard cost of shipping it is not going to get you the care and attention you deserve, by all means…(spreads her hands and looks at him.)
Captain: I welcome you to go ahead and look at what they’re planning on shipping it in. They probably used it to ship garbage last time. Imagine what that car will smell like. But if the Tolsons don’t care what their car smells like, I’m sure that it’ll be fine.
Nika: (rolls her eyes) Pay a hundred if you like. Let me know if you change your mind.
She starts to walk away and looks over her shoulder.
Nika: You’re welcome to go aboard and inspect them. I’ll show you the cargo container you’ll use. Let me know if you change your mind.
Nika walks off and gathers up Rina and Mike from the other side of the fancy car.
Nika: You ready to go hit the Bazaar?
Rina: Yeah.
As they leave, Rina flips the Captain of the other ship the bird for calling the Gift a garbage scow, the bastard.
The querant wants to see the container. So, we stop and do just that, showing him the shiny brand new containers we got from the Feds on Aphrodite. He seems impressed.
Querant: And you have tools to strap this down safely for the journey?
Nika: We have the strapping. As long as you’re happy.
Querant: Do you not want this job? You don’t seem particularly interested.
Nika: I just don’t think it was particularly right of him to cheat you.
Querant: (sighs) Unfortunately, we are frequently cheated by most everyone. But I don’t want your disdain for your customers or whatever to be brought on the vehicle, for I will suffer for that, too.
Nika: That will not happen. My disdain is for him, not for you. Please don’t take it that way. I am still quite angry that he wanted to charge you quadruple the amount. We are already headed for Osiris, it’s not out of our way. As long as your people pack the vehicle to that it is not going to in any way be …(gestures: exposed)…we’ll strap it down with the appropriate care. If you pack it so that shifting normal travel isn’t going to damage it, it will be fine.
Querant: Well, it is heavily armored, so I doubt it will be severely damaged but it might get scratched.
Nika: I won’t guarantee it’s not going to shift during movement, okay? But I’m going to take all due care with it.
Querant: As long as you have someone look after it.
Nika: My steward is very cautious with the cargo.
Querant: I will have someone write up something so if it is damaged in transit, you will be compensating us for its repairs. Fair enough?
Nika: Bring us the contract. My Steward will look over it.
Querant: Very well. I accept your terms.
Nika shakes on the deal with our new customer, and she sees him off.
Deprived of off-board liberty, Christian decides to do some redecorating of the old Captain’s quarters. He starts ripping up the bloodstained carpeting off the deck plates, tearing it free and getting it out of there. The bloodstains are from his Reaver injuries and he’d just as soon not have to look at the reminders. Besides, the stains don’t do a thing for the room. Rina sticks her head in and suggests mounting the stained carpet in a fancy frame and selling it to the locals as modern art, or as performance art, since the blood changes color as it ages and it would never be the same piece twice. They could title it: Companion’s Blood a la Reaver.
Christian just throws the damned stuff out.
Nika finds him after showing our customer the containers.
Nika: Christian, we’ve picked up some additional cargo. I want you to look over the contract when it comes in.
Christian: Sure.
Nika: Apparently a high-end hover vehicle for a family who is going on vacation, the Tolsons.
Christian is familiar with the name. The one thing he recalls is they claim an hereditary title, as pseudo-real nobility. Another thing: he’s heard rumors that the Count likes to make, um, full use of his staff.
Querant: Oh, the Tolsons. More than enough money to spare and I don’t think we’ll have a problem, but just..um. You probably don’t want to deal with the Count himself. Which you probably won’t.
Nika: No, I think we’re dealing with a steward or a butler or something. The craft next door was planning on charging him 100 credits to take it to Osiris. And I told him we would take it for 25.
Christian: I would have gone with 50, but sure.
Nika: It just kinda made me angry that they were trying to charge him four times the amount. That’s annoying. Yes, we can charge people four times the amount, but that’s just….(gobsmacked).
Christian: We’ll just have to make sure that everything is nice and secure and covered in packing foam.
Nika: They’re going to pack the vehicle itself in the foam. We’re just going to be responsible for strapping it down, from what I understand. But that’s why I want you to look over the contract.
Christian: Sure. I’ll look over the contract.
Nika: And make sure it’s written up in such a way as to normal wear and tear during transit, we are not going to be required to pay for.
Christian: If we’re actually that concerned about the pricing, I want Rina to look at it and give me an idea what the repair costs for something like that would be. We’re gonna want to take pictures of every inch of the car so that we can say ‘this scratch was here’. And we’ll want to get him to sign off on it when we get the car.
Nika: I’ll leave that with you to negotiate with him.
Christian: Sure.
Nika: And if you can’t come to an agreement, that’s fine, too.
Christian: Sure. That’s fine.
When the car arrives that’s what we do. We decide against buying a camera in order to take pictures of the car, reckoning that the Tolsons are powerful enough to dispute the validity of any pictures we care to take. Our customer seems genuinely concerned that he does not know who we are and as a precaution he gets our registry number in case the cargo disappears. After all, the cargo is worth a fair amount of money. Certainly more money than they’re paying us to ship it. Probably not exactly worth more than our entire ship, but getting up there.
The car arrives covered in an all-enveloping car covers. We throw down padding on top of it before we strap the entire assembly down. Along with the car come several travel chests. We secure the chests to the bulkhead.
The next couple of days while we’re waiting for the rest of our cargo to come in, we keep ourselves busy doing various tasks about the ship. Christian continues ripping out the old carpet, judging we’ll have to refloor the Captain’s quarters eventually. Christian also goes out to the vendors of our cargo, to finalize the cargo deals.
He visits the caviar merchant first.
Merchant: Yes, we’ve hit something of a snag.
Christian: Okay…
Mechant: Ahh…We’re thinking that maybe we need to go with another carrier. We have some issues with… background checks. The owners of these want to make sure that these goods get to their site and well… I hope you don’t take it wrong, but I’m afraid we’re going to have to cancel our order.
Christian: You could. I’m sorry you don’t believe your goods will get to the site. we’ve never failed in a delivery before. But as you wish. Good luck getting someone. I understand all the other cargo carriers are charging at least four times the standard rate right now. Good luck.
Merchant: Very good, sir.
Christian: Though you should be aware that we are carrying cargo for the Tolsons, and I’m pretty sure you understand that no one crosses them.
Merchant: No, and…just as no one crosses the Camdens.
Christian: Yes. I understand.
Merchant: I hope you are received well on Osiris. Apparently word has spread of your travels.
Christian: Of course. I appreciate your candor. I do wish you luck.
Merchant: Why, yes. I hope you… have it, as well.
It’s obvious what’s happened. Christian pieces it together on his way back to the ship. The snooty man he’d encountered on his first foray out was from the Camden household and in the intervening time has set up roadblocks to our doing legitimate business here. Christian breaks the news to us that we won’t be getting the caviar.
Nika: What happened?
Christian: Um. Let’s just say that people who don’t like me talked to them and the people who don’t like me have just a teensy bit more power than I do in the local circuit. And by teensy bit, I mean really lots.
Nika: (dismayed) …Okay…Wondrous.
Christian: We’re gonna have some problems when we get to Osiris. I’m not sure how much. Yet.
Nika: Any chance we’re going to be able to pick up any other cargo from here?
Christian: At this point, it’s possible, but not very likely.
Nika: Great.
Christian: If you want I can go through the motions of trying to find some… But the plus side is we can leave now, since we’re not waiting for any cargo.
Nika: Let’s go.
Christian: Sure. Has our passenger returned yet?
We hail him on our crew comms and he answers. He’s not on the ship but elsewhere, likely at one of the many bars the place has on offer.
Donovan: All right, I’ll be in. Why are we leavin’ sooner? I thought we weren’t leaving for a couple days.
Christian: (brightly) Change of plans.
Nika: (cutting in on the channel) We’re taking off today. People who don’t like our Steward have decided that they’re going to pull their cargo, so no caviar.
Christian: No caviar, I’m sorry.
A person with a clipboard and a data book comes calling. Christian runs interference.
Christian: Yes, what can I do for you?
Inspector: We’re just doing a routine pulse drive field check, to make sure you’re not leaking any hazardous ions.
Bullshit.
Christian: Certainly. Your papers?
Inspector: I got ’em.
The inspector hands them over.
Christian: Okay. If you’ll wait a moment, I’m going to call it in with the Port Authority to make sure that you people are legitimate.
Inspector: Okay.
It appears to be legit. These sorts of inspections do occur on occasion, and are more frequent in the Core. Christian informs Nika what’s happened and tells her that we’re going to want to leave as soon as possible. Usually this sort of inspection falls to the wayside, with only a small percentage of all ships in port getting tapped for it at any one time. Rather like random customs inspections, actually. But this….this inspection wasn’t random, it was ordered. It has that smell. Christian asks for the inspector’s patience while he goes to find our engineer. Which Christian does, fast.
Christian: We’ve had the inspector sicced on us. We definitely want to leave as soon as possible before they can do anything else.
Rina: (pissed) Oh, God.
Christian: And we’re going to want to be on Osiris as little as possible since they’ll probably go through it all over there.
Nika steps in.
Nika: Rina.
Rina: Ma’am.
Nika: How bad are we going to fail?
Christian: Something about pulse drive emissions?
Rina: We’re good. But does it matter if we are?
Good question, since this is harassment-by-proxy we’ve been blessed with. Rina takes a look around the engine room and sees that despite all the new shiny that’s been grafted on the whole, there are places where she’s been into the bulkheads and the conduits and pipe-works in preparation for installing that turbo booster package she’d seen three months ago on the Jian Seng, once she’d gotten around to building it from scratch. To the uninitiated, it might not look like much and it certainly isn’t off-code per se, but to aninspector tasked to fail our inspection by any means possible, it’s more than enough to hang us.
Rina: I guess we’ll find out.
Nika: All right. Let him on board.
Rina: (sighing) I’ll try not to bite him.
