Going Once, Twice, Sold! The audience erupted into applause! The auctioneer paused briefly as an assistant rushed to his side and whispered in his ear. The auctioneer nodded, and a few moments later, over the still talkative crowd, he announced with hands outstretched in welcome. “We’d like to welcome the winner of today’s ship auction, Mr. Clark Tenison!” A small party approached the podium, led by a middle-aged man with silver-blond hair, in a trim suit, and a broad smile. He was flanked by a few bodyguards and the suave Spaniard Carmen. The auctioneer at the podium gave way, gracious at the absurd amount of money that had just been spent.
“I am happy to announce that this Xanza Scout is part of a series of expansions we are making into Cosmos. In the coming months and years, Eris Industries intends to make ships like this one part of our growing line of products.” He gave a broad smile to wide applause; he only briefly enjoyed the adulation before placing his hand and ring on the ship, absorbing it completely.
Mr. Tenson then departed as swiftly as he came. At the same time, a pair of officious-looking men in black suits followed his party. As they passed through the exit doors and into the quiet hallway, Mr. Tenison's smile fell away into disgust. “Carmen, I want you to find out who drove up the price of my ship!”
“Yes, sir, I’ve already a few names in mind from the pre-auction social.”
“Good, I want you to make sure they pay for every single credit they cost me!”
Carmen didn’t need to ask his employer for details. “I’ll do my best, sir, though I suspect it may have been Callisto Corp, at the direction of Shelley Cordata, daughter of... ”
“I know who her father is, Carmen,” He replied tersely, “And that doesn’t matter; you’ll just need to be more conscientious of your timing, that’s all.” He straightened, subtly dropping the subject and looking at Carmen with the corner of his eye. “You mentioned you might have a lead on a VE generator?” As if having answered his question, he continued, “Do what you need to acquire it. We’re going to need a more reliable source of vervetic energy besides our friends.” He entered an open elevator and turned around to face Carmen, stopping him from following. “And tell those busy bodies from Obelisk to stop pestering me.” Moments later, the doors shuttered closed, leaving Carmen alone to address the two men in dark suits making their way toward the elevator.
***
In their private auction box, Alan couldn’t help but notice his companions seemed somewhat shaken at the results. Mr. Jakes' hands tremble as Clark Tenson took the podium. He seemed to grow sick as Mr. Tenson claimed the prestigious ‘win’ at the auction while also advertising the power of Eris. Ms. Cordata, Alan observed, had gone deathly pale. She wouldn’t be bringing home a Xanza Scout Ship back to Callisto Corporation today.
Not wanting to pry but seeing his new business partners in distress, Alan said, “I can’t help but notice that you seem especially disappointed at the final item.”
There was silence for a few moments before the more seasoned Mr. Jakes spoke up. “You might have noticed we’d prepared considerable resources today to purchase the ship. Unfortunately, no one was prepared for the embargo, and didn’t anticipate that we’d lose out on the chance to get the only Earth Enabled one available.”
Ms. Cordata spoke meekly, “As part of our research and development for spaceships, we were hoping to reverse engineer the components here on Earth so we could make some of our own designs. It seems we weren’t the only ones with that in mind.”
Trying to be helpful, Mr. Jakes’s assistant said, “Perhaps you could purchase a ship in Cosmos and do your research there?”
Mr. Jakes responded patiently. “We’d like to, but it would require being able to buy a ship, which, as a new species, has some significant restrictions in Cosmos. Shipbuilders are very protective of their designs and production. Often, it's a matter of intense security. If I were to buy a ship on a planet, and someone discovered I was taking it apart for research, which they likely would. At best, I would be thrown into a deep dark dungeon; at worst, I would likely be frozen in suspended animation or permanently banned from Cosmos.”
Ms. Cordata then chimed in. “Every ship has complex security systems to protect them from this type of thing. If I had the resources of an entire planet, I might be able to bypass it and avoid retribution in Cosmos successfully. Still, unfortunately, we’d only be lucky enough to rent a moderate research facility there.”
The assistant spoke again, “So what was so special about the Xanza Scout? Doesn’t it have the same restrictions? Won’t Eris face similar problems?”
This time, Alan decided to speak up; he felt it was time to join the conversation. “The way I see it, Xanza doesn’t have a presence here on Earth. So they can’t put us in prison for stealing their tech; the fact that it was for auction here probably means that the technology isn’t all that impressive in Cosmos.”
“Precisely,” Ms. Cordata jumped in, “The Xanza tech is only a few steps from our own. Not only does that mean we can likely bypass their security measures, but we more than likely can understand its production!” She smiled at Alan, seeing that he understood their situation. “One of the reasons we so desperately wanted the Xanza Scout was because of its basic design. Even if I could dismantle an entire ship, it wouldn’t give me insight into how every part was produced.” Turning to the now thoughtful assistant, she explained. “You might be able to hold a microchip in your hand but have no idea how it was made.”
The assistant nodded at this point and seemed to grasp the weight of the situation. She retreated a few steps, no longer pressing her point.
“Bryan,” Ms. Cordata, seemingly over her melancholy, said to Mr. Jakes. “The way I see it, we’ll have to see if anyone has purchased any ship parts from Cosmos, dismantle those, and see if we can incorporate them into some of our existing designs.”
He nodded, “I’ll start advertising right away; even secondhand parts, as long as they are here on Earth, could give us a lot of insights.”
“Not only that, but we’ll need to see if they are willing to buy using credits. We’ve spent a large chunk of our discretionary funds at this point, ” She started talking a little, the frustration of the situation beginning to show itself.
“It may be a problem, especially if Eris has the same idea. Though, to be honest, I doubt it. Rumor has it that space flight is only one of the areas they are trying to invest in. My guess is they’ve spent a lot of money in all sorts of areas....”
Mr. Jakes’s assistant coughed, interrupting their discussion, and gestured to Alan. Both of them paused, slightly embarrassed.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“Perhaps Alan,” Mr. Jakes, or Bryan, as Ms. Cordata mentioned, “We could meet again at another time to discuss VE in the future.” He offered graciously.
Alan, however, after listening to both their current problem and their proposed solution, had finally concluded his idea about the issue being discussed. He’d been working on how to draw the right kind of people to Kragga. Initially, he planned to recruit mostly family and friends and expand from there. However, that process would likely be a lot slower than he wanted. If he was going to succeed, he needed to be more ambitious. The risks were greater, but so were the rewards.
“I’m wondering, Mr. Jakes, if I might be able to offer a different solution to your predicament.” Alan hesitated, choosing his words carefully. “I recognize that you might be able to find a few key parts among all the players who’ve gone to Cosmos, but that might be a tad risky with your current plans, as there are likely very few available, and those that are, are unlikely to be of great use.” Alan, having heard of Callisto Corp in the past, knew that though they built ships, it wasn’t until after the embargo ended that they started to produce any ships for purchase on Earth. Effectively, it was a non-entity in the market when other ships could be purchased from Cosmos directly.
Ms. Cordata snapped, irritated that she'd shared so much in front of him, “So what do you think we ought to do? I know it’s a long shot, but it's our only shot. We are literally decades behind what the Xanza Scout can do technology-wise, if not a century.”
“I get it, and I want you to succeed for humanity's sake as much as anyone. But as I see it, you need three things.” He paused for emphasis. “You need access to Ships, preferably those which may be close in technology to our own. It would be best to have a safe place to research to avoid formal organizations and planetary governments. And you need Vervetic Energy to test and run your ships.”
She nodded skeptically, impatiently waiting for his point.
“What if I were to tell you that I can give you access to all three of those.”
“I would say, ‘Where are my ice skates because it looks like hell has frozen over.’”
“Shelly.” A stern Mr. Jakes interjected. “Please excuse Ms. Cordata. It’s been a long day. Please continue.”
Alan only grinned at her remark. “I’ve come into ownership of a large collection of ships. Though not fully functional, many have well-maintained systems that are still working. Perfect for the kind of research you would like to do. Some, with a little help, might be able to fly with little to no repairs.”
Shelly seemed to see through Alan’s pleasant description and cut right to the heart of it. “Are you talking about some scrapyard? Pretty much a dump?” Her tone was dangerous.
“More like a potential salvage operation. Ships in good condition needed to be abandoned for one reason or another.” His answer didn’t seem to lessen the sharpness in her eyes.
“So, how are we to study those ships? I mean, won’t the local government have a problem with us studying them? I would hate to get between them and a treaty?” Bryan Jakes continued the conversation, putting down any other argument.
“That's the beauty of it. The planet has been unclaimed and abandoned by any formal organization for a long time. The way I see it, we can do our research with none the wiser. My guess is, many of those ships are so long forgotten, and they aren’t even protected by anyone anymore.”
“Hmm...I hadn’t thought of using an abandoned location. Even if we were to buy a new ship and travel to an abandoned planet, most ship models have ways of ‘letting’ their manufacturers know they are being researched, or worse, they may even try to self-destruct. What you're proposing will simplify the process greatly.”
“If you can get past the fact that they're literally an alien's garbage.” Ms. Cordata said half-heartedly, begrudgingly admitting that what Alan offered wasn’t as bad as she had initially thought. Mr. Jakes attempted to hide a brief eye roll as she continued. “It still doesn’t explain how you will help us with our third problem. I know you have a fairly large supply of VE, but on an abandoned planet, it’s unlikely we are going to find a surplus of energy. We’ve been trying to buy whatever surplus we can since the embargo. I’m not sure we’ll be able to run experiments for a few months without adequate parts and energy, not to mention the resources it will take to relocate and set up a research facility. Unless, of course, you happen to have a state-of-the-art research facility on hand, too?”
Alan shook his head, at which point she humphed contentedly. Alan, as a joke, had to keep from making a statement about the bug-infested research facility he'd had to burn down.
“However,” Alan offered, ready to share a few of his cards, “I may have a reliable source of Earth-enabled VE, which could go a long way to support your research...It’s only if you’re interested, of course.”
In reaction to his claims, Ms. Shelley Cordata dropped all her reservations and exclaimed, “You can produce VE!? Are you serious? And it’s Earth-enabled? Is that how you have such a large supply?”
Instead of answering her questions, Alan purposely turned to Mr. Jakes instead. “I know it seems like a long shot, but if you're willing, you can easily send someone in a day or two to check out my current salvage area while the planetary transfer is still active to see what I have to offer. If you don’t like what you see, we don’t deal. If, on the other hand, you like my offer, we can negotiate so everyone gets what they want.”
Instead of responding, Mr. Jakes looked toward Ms. Cordata, surprising Alan, as if looking for approval. Slightly confused, Alan looked in her direction. Her arms were folded, clearly agitated.
“Perhaps I didn’t fully introduce myself; I’m Shelly Cordata,” emphasizing her name, “President of Callisto Corporation.”
Alan let that sink in. In his timeline, an older gentleman had been the president of Callisto. Never a beauty who seemed to be fresh out of high school. The pieces began to fit together. His confusion must have been evident as she continued.
“My father owns the parent company and left me in charge of Callisto. We’ve already been exploring spaceflight engineering for the last few years. However, since Cosmos opened, we’ve shifted much of our assets into exploring the technology present there.” She beamed with pride.
“Ah...well, excuse me, Ms. Cordata, I uh didn’t…” Alan half stuttered.
She cut him off. “Alan, the way I see it, your plan has potential. But I’m not willing to risk everything Callisto has worked for on a backwater garbage heap. That being said, if what you advertise is true, then I will happily do business to have access to your...salvage.”
Alan nodded in agreement.
“What I am interested in, though, is how much VE you have right now. Regardless of whether your planet is as good as you say it is, you will have to wait. I need VE to help Callisto maximize the assets it's already purchased. I need 200 VE a day for the next 30 days.”
Alan nearly choked. His mutation was able to produce about 200 units a day, all on his own, but he wasn’t ready to make that kind of commitment. And didn’t she say they had used all their discretionary assets?
“All right, Shelley. I can appreciate your need for energy; I’m willing to provide Callisto with up to 100 VE units a day at your current offer of $200 for 1 VEU for the next month.” Alan knew that the prices of VE would shift dramatically over the next month, growing in demand. In his past life, the scarcity grew near the end of the embargo, and before energy could be reliably produced, energy costs were close to $500 per 1 VEU.
She immediately counteroffered. “Alan, how about this? If you could raise it to 150 VEU. I’ll pay in advance $200 for each unit for the first 30 days and throw in 30,000 in credits.”
Alan needed the cash, and the extra credits would be required if he was going to pull off the bold proposition he’d just made so quickly.
“It’s a deal.”
Bryan and his assistant provided the contract. In the contract, there was strong language emphasizing the confidentiality of Alan’s VE production and his potential salvage planet. He’d sell the 1300 VEU, storage devices, and 150 Units of VE a day, over 30 days, for $1,200,000 and 30,000 credits. Seeing an opportunity and offering to adjust the deal, Alan proposed taking credits for $200,000 at a rate of 1 credit for 4$ instead of the 1 for $5, as Callisto likely needed more cash than credits.
Ultimately, he walked away with 1 Million Dollars and 80,000 Credits. He was beyond pleased. He’d done it—a million dollars by day 7.