John sat there for a while, brooding, and trying to mull over what exactly had gone wrong… and he realized that nothing that had gone wrong had been his fault. I was true to myself, he thought, although I don’t really think I can think of myself as a he anymore after that VR experience. I am Sarah, no matter what my Imperial ID says. This is Bear’s problem. “I’m not changing my inner self so he can be more comfortable.” She muttered. It was too important to her. Bear would just have to adjust.
Having resolved her feelings for now, Sarah got up and headed to the cargo bay. If Mr. Hsien was arriving to deal with the cargo, maybe she could get some hints and help on how to deal with it? At the very least, Sarah wanted to introduce herself.
As luck would have it, there was a man in the cargo bay examining the cargo. He was just under 160cm in height and was about 70kg – so he was rather heavyset for his size. He was wearing casual clothes – but made of a finer cut than some of the spacers in Traltha wore – and his eyes moved over the manifest with speed and skill.
“Mr. Rudy Hsien?” She asked.
“Uh… yes?” The pudgy man turned and Sarah could see he wore spectacles. Whether they were needed for his vision, or merely an affectation, she couldn’t tell. His hair was thinning at the top, and he looked in his mid thirties to late forties – so with prolong treatments maybe over 100 years of age? Sarah couldn’t tell yet. “Who are you?” Mr Hsien asked.
“My ID says I’m John Kerrigan, but call me Sarah. I’m a new crewmember, and soon to be in charge of buying and selling cargo. I’m a rank amateur at the moment, but hopefully I’ll get the hang of this soon.”
“Does Bear not want my services anymore?” Mr. Hsien looked a little surprised.
“No, no, Mr. Hsien, it’s not that at all.” Sarah replied. “He hired you because you’re a pro – but we want to try our hand at trading on other worlds too - and for that he wants me to learn how to buy and sell. I was actually hoping to learn at the feet of a master this afternoon.”
Mr. Hsien smiled. “A master, my boy? I’ll give you that – you have a flatterers tongue. I’ll tell you what.” He said. “I’ll show you what I do, and how I do it, if you tell me how you came to work for these ne’er do wells Bear calls a crew.”
Sarah smiled. “Deal!”
* * *
By the end of the afternoon, Sarah’s head was swimming. Mr. Hsien had filled her head with non-stop information on where and how to buy and sell cargo. To be honest, the information mostly went in one ear and out the other, but some advice he had for her did stick… “People always have needs and wants – the secret is to make sure you’re filling those needs and wants. The thing is, worlds have needs and wants too. Some worlds crave new tech – while others need raw materials. Study the worlds you go to – and pick your cargo accordingly, and you will probably come out ahead – maybe significantly ahead.” The other piece of advice he had for Sarah was “No matter what the cargo, or whatever the planet, you’ll usually be dealing with a person – another sentient being – and being able to read them, and figure out what their wants and needs are, can be the key to a successful trade.”
Sarah thought about it, and realized it was damn good advice. It may have been 3000 years she spent in cryo – but by what she had seen since she’d awoken showed her that for the most part, people hadn’t changed a bit. Oh – their toys and their tech had changed – but the people were the same as 3000 years ago. Most people trying to get through the day, while others did their best to survive until tomorrow. There were still the ridiculously rich, and there were still the impoverished poor. Nothing other than the toys had changed. Sarah found that oddly reassuring… It meant much of her knowledge, her ability to interact with people would still be useful. It gave her a sense of confidence.
Rudy Hsien had just finished the last trade of the day, selling the last of the Fortunes Favor’s cargo – and arranging at Sarah’s behest to buy 6 tons of liquid fuel and 4 tons of exotic spices. The net take, after buying the cargo Sarah asked for, was still rather impressive. Mr. Hsien had managed to sell the robotics from the Hyperion’s cargo for 1.6 million credits – which was an incredible amount – while the rest of the cargo sold for only 247,500 credits. After Mr. Hsien took his fee (193, 150 credits), there was still over 1.57 million credits to be split up. Sarah couldn’t believe it.
“Mr. Hsien.” She began. “If there’s this much money to be made on cargo, why the hell isn’t everyone doing it?”
“Well, for most, Sarah, the knowledge isn’t there. I doubt you could have got more than 400,000 for the robotics at best – and maybe a good deal less – but I’ve been doing this for 50 years and I know what Traltha will pay for those. Likewise, most amateur traders don’t know how to buy cargo for the world they’re going to, or how to walk away from a bad deal instead of taking a poor offer. Remember, if the offer is too bad – just walk away. All you’ve wasted is some time. Now sometimes you can’t walk away – that’s when negotiating skills come in handy – and a lot of spacers don’t bother developing those skills. In the end, they make some money – but not truly large amounts. That’s why merchant liners hire people like me, to maximize profits.”
“Okay – then, if I might ask, why aren’t you working for one of the big merchant companies?” Sarah asked.
Mr. Hsien sighed sadly. “I was injured on a mission with Hammermium lines 50 years ago. The doctors said if I went into space – if I entered Jump space, specifically – I might have complications and possibly die. I took a chance and left the company and settled here on Traltha.”
“But if the doctors have biosculpt and other genetic medicines, how come they couldn’t fix you?” Sarah asked.
“Some people are resistant to Biosculpt and genetic medicine, Sarah. It doesn’t work on everyone – about 0.1 percent of the population find that both those techniques either don’t work at all, or have less than effective outcomes. That’s why I don’t work for the lines any more. I’m not willing to risk my life to go back into space.”
“Geez, I’m sorry.” Sarah replied. “Was it a good life?”
“It was – but life here on Traltha isn’t bad either. I live a life of relative luxury and enjoy my little pleasures when traders bring them in. I have a fancy house, a nice husband, two children, and some pets. It’s a good life. I would like to get back to the stars one day, though.”
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Sarah smiled. It sounded like Mr. Hsien had done pretty well for himself after all. “Thanks for your help, Mr. Hsien.”
“Please, call me Rudy.” He replied. “And if you ever come back to Traltha, I’d love to see what you look like after biosculpt.”
Sarah blushed a bit. “Thanks, Rudy. I’m sure we’ll be back eventually.”
“Good.” Rudy replied. “Good luck, Sarah – and I hope your first trades go well on Edenelt.”
“Thanks.” Sarah replied, as she walked Rudy Hsien off the ship and onto the tarmac of the starport. The hot dry Tralthan wind blew away the perspiration they had worked up buying and selling cargo – and Sarah could see the last of the robotic stevedores loading the spices she had requested into the ships hull now. “I’ll look you up, next time I’m on Traltha.”
“Good luck Sarah!” Mr. Hsien called. “And tell Bear he needs to give you a raise. You’re going to make the entire crew rich, if you do this right.”
Sarah couldn’t help but grin. “Great! And thanks!” She waved goodbye to Mr. Hsien and went back inside to gather up the money. Sarah had learned that in the imperium, trade was accomplished by either electronic transfer – on planet – or by actual physical money for interplanetary journeys, which meant traders and trading ships were attractive targets for pirates because they had lots of cargo and lots of cash.
She also learned a lot about imperial credits. They were made of a block of molecular plastic, with dozens of anti counterfeiting measures built right into the block, complete with holograms, special markers and many other counter measures. Then the block was sliced into wafers the size of a silver dollar, and stamped with a denomination not just on the face of the credit chip, but on virtually every molecule of the credit chip. They were considered impossible to counterfeit.
Sarah couldn’t believe the haul. 1.575 million credits, when added to the value of the Hyperion was over 1.6 million. “There is no way Bear was expecting this much loot from the cargo. He’s going to freak out.” She muttered to herself. “I hope he’s gotten over his reaction to my appearance.” She collected the loot in a small rucksack and carried into the ship, closing up the cargo bay doors. “Now to give him the good news.”
Sarah strode up the closing cargo ramp and into the depths of the ship. When she got to the common room, it looked like Drago and Hortencia were still having private time – either talking or something else – so he headed to Bear’s cabin and buzzed. When there was no answer, he headed to the Bridge.
Bear was sitting at the controls, tapping the console with his fingers, beating out a rhythm only he could hear. He looked like he was brooding a bit, and didn’t seem to hear Sarah enter the bridge.
“Hey Bear.” Sarah began, quietly. “I’ve got news on the cargo.”
Bear turned, and nodded. “Good. I noticed you were dealing with him, so I let you be. How did we do?”
“We did amazing.” Sarah replied. “After paying for a full cargo hold of spices and liquid fuels bound for Edenelt, we still have over 1.6 million credits to split up.”
“Excuse me, say again?” Bear said, sitting up with interest. “Did you say 1.6 million credits?”
“Yep!” Sarah said, laughing. “Rudy killed it on the robotics – everything else combined didn’t even come close.”
Bear nodded. “That is why we call him when we are on Traltha. He has reputation for being best.” Bear paused a moment. “I would like to apologize, for my behaviour earlier, John.”
“It’s okay, Bear – it was a big shock realizing that what I thought was the real me was awfully close to the look of your girlfriend Sorcha. Will it be a problem between us, because I’m not going to change how I intend to look.”
“No.” Bear said. “I don’t think it will be a problem. It just caught me off guard. I am sorry.”
“It’s really okay.” Sarah replied. “Really.” She sat down next to him in the co-pilot’s chair. “So how are we splitting this up?”
“I was thinking six shares. Two for the ship – for maintenance and mortgage payments, and one share each for the rest of us. I also promised some money for cargo – that will come out of ship’s share.”
“Wow – that sounds like a fair bit.” Sarah did some calculations... “That’s just over 275,000 credits each!”
“275,058 to be exact.” Bear said, looking up from his calculator. “Which means ship’s mortgage is now covered for close to three months, and we all have nice chunk of change to play with.” He turned to Sarah, and shrugged. “I guess now we need hobby to spend it on?”
Sarah laughed. “What do you spend your money on, Bear?”
“I have never had this kind of money all at once, John. I will probably save most for a dry spell on trade to cover mortgage and spare parts, and spend some on some sims for when we’re in jump space.”
“What is jump space? No one’s really mentioned it to me yet, except Rudy – he said he couldn’t enter Jumpspace again because of his heart.”
Bear nodded. “He is hurt from old injury. Jumpspace is how ships go from one star system to another. The ships engines wrap the ship in a forcefield, and push us through Jump space, until we get to our destination. It takes a week to go your maximum distance, and correspondingly less for less than your maximum distance. Ships are rated by their jump number – our ship has Jump 2, which means it can go 2 parsecs with one jump. The highest military ships in the Imperium are Jump 4 to Jump 6, and some luxury liners are Jump 3. Most merchants and spacers make do with Jump 1. We have Jump 2 because Fortunes Favor is very small ship with very big engines.”
“So if we had Jump 3 and jumped only 1 parsec away, it would only take us 2.3 days to arrive at our destination.” Sarah asked.
“Da. You have it.” Bear replied.
“Huh. Good to know. So how long will it take us to get to Edenelt from here?” Sarah asked.
“About a week, plus or minus up to 12 hours.” Bear answered. “It is at our maximum distance. I buy the sims to have something to do while in Jump. The ship is on autopilot during jump, and it will not encounter any ships – so it is quiet time to do fun stuff. Danger comes just before or just after entering or leaving Jumpspace. Pirates can be waiting, or we could have other problems. Worst is when ship Misjumps. Then we could get hurled across cosmos, or just explode. Misjumping is a bad thing.”
“How do they happen?”
“If ship is poorly maintained, or if we don’t use refined fuel, the ship can hiccup and misjump. It can also happen if you are very bad at astrogation, but is rare. I saw one once, but I have never been in misjump before.”
“Gotcha. What’s our next move?”
“We leave Traltha, and head to Edenelt.” Bear replied, turning to the controls. “I will plot course – it will take some time – and when I am done, we will leave.”
“Alright. Bear?” Sarah asked.
“Da?”
“Could you please call me Sarah? In a week and a few days that’s going to be my legal name.”
“Da. Sarah it is. It is just hard to see you like this as Sarah.”
“Trust me, I know.” She replied, smiling. “I’m probably going to be spending a lot of time in the sims en route to Edenelt, whenever I’m not studying the mercantile course I bought.”
Bear nodded. “Good. If you like, we can do a sim sometime? I have several.”
“Sure, Bear. I don’t see why not. I’ll see you later.” Sarah turned to leave, and head to her cabin.
“Sarah?” Bear interrupted.
“Yeah?”
“Good job on the trade. I hope you are as good as Rudy one day.”
Sarah smiled. “Thanks Bear.” Sarah grinned from ear to ear, and left to go start studying the entrepreneur’s course. If she was lucky – and dedicated – it would only take her a month or two to become proficient. Sure, I’ll make some bad trades, she thought. But as long as the net total is positive, we’ll be making a bit of money, and we wont be losing money to other brokers. She headed to her cabin, intent on hitting the books.