The four of them stood in the entrance to Rubric’s shop taking in the atmosphere. There were display cases lining the walls and some octagonal glass cases on pedestals with the most prominent items arranged on the main floor. Mira gave them a few seconds to take it all in before she hooked Duke’s arm and dragged him to a door in the back of the shop next to one of the display cases filled with parts of some sort of black chiton creature. The door she took him through was clearly marked “Sellers Come in Here.”
Duke chuckled at the explicitly directive nature of the sign, “They make it pretty clear, don’t they.”
“Yes, we do. It keeps the sales staff from having to field the same stupid question over and over again.” The man speaking was completely bald and short, only coming up to Duke’s chest and was dressed in heavy boots, similarly heavy work pants, a heavily stained white shirt and a long leather apron that covered most everything up but his arms. He also wore gloves that looked like they were made out of some rubber-like substance. He continued, “You have come to sell, yes? What can Rubric buy from you?”
Mira smiled at Rubric, “It’s been a while, but my friend here has something that I know you want. Do you have any sort of privacy tech or magic you can put up?”
“That good?”
“That good.”
“Alright. Give me a minute, but if you disappoint me, I’m going to charge you for the Mana to recharge my stones.” It took Rubric a minute to set up the multiple layers of privacy screens around the shop but eventually came back to Duke and Mira. “OK, what do you have that is so special that I have to spend Mana stones in order to see it.”
“Show him.” Mira ordered.
Duke held his expression neutral as he removed one of the dragon corpses from his INVENTORY. It nearly filled the entire workspace and wound up knocking a table over.
Rubric’s reaction was immediate. He rushed forward and began to examine the corpse with all manner of devices from what looked like handheld electronic scanners to glowing gems were passed over the corpse. He muttered to himself the entire time, ignoring Duke and Mira as he examined the dragon. Finally, he started asking questions as he continued his inspection without looking back up at them.
“This is a fully-intact extra-dimensional dragon corpse. Where in the cosmos did you get it? How did it die? What could even kill a dragon of this quality? I can’t even read the Tier. Must be at least a five. Yes, at least a five. Amazing.” He finally paused and looked up, locking eyes with Duke. “Where did you come across this corpse?”
“We will not be revealing our source for this corpse,” Mira said.
“No, no, I suppose not. What do you want for it?”
Mira looked towards Duke who nodded back to her. She began her bargaining, “We all know just how rare it is to get actual dragon parts and how impossible it is to get a fully-intact corpse in such pristine, undecayed condition. I would bet that you have never even seen one, let alone had one in your shop before. I am placing the price for this at two hundred million credits.”
He spluttered, “Two hundred million credits! Are you insane!”
“You and I both know you can part it out and make three hundred out of it. That’s a 50% profit margin for you.”
“I’ll be lucky if I can get half that and it’s tying up a lot of my free capitol until I can find buyers with enough free credits to afford it.”
“OK, then let’s make it 125 and you will still make a healthy profit. The heart is intact. That alone will get you fifty.”
He paused in thought, considering what Mira had said. It seemed she had struck a note as he went back to measuring the dragon with his instruments again. After some consideration, he finally came to a conclusion, “The best I can do is 110.”
Mira looked back over at Duke who gave her a nod. “One hundred ten million credits. Done. Please credit it to my ship, the Iron Reaver.”
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He looked at Duke to make sure that he was OK with that direction. Duke responded, “Yes, that is exactly what we need to do. Send it to the ship.”
“OK.” He went over to a wall-terminal and entered several commands.”
Mira looked up from the device she was looking at. “Transfer confirmed. Pleasure doing business with you again, Rubric. And you will not reveal to anyone where you acquired this or I will make damned sure that our next exotic and rare specimen finds its way to Edelman’s.”
“Always a pleasure and I keep my hunters confidential. You know that,” he responded while transferring the dragon corpse to his own storage.
Duke looked at Mira who nodded with a slight smirk. “Same price for the second dragon?” He pulled another dragon corpse out of his INVENTORY. Duke knew he had the merchant in a tough spot now as another dragon corpse coming onto the market would devalue the first.
Rubric stared at Duke, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. Mira nudged Duke, “I think you broke him.”
Apparently, that was enough to free Rubric from his vapor-lock. “That’s impossible. One was incredible but two? Two! I…I…I can give you another ninety million for the second one but that’s it. Really. I can’t give any more than that.”
Duke nodded, “Ninety million to the ships account and it’s yours.”
Rubric numbly entered the transfer on his terminal and Mira confirmed receipt. The pair left Rubric with his conflicting emotions of joy at the dragons and despair at his current finances.
Gathering up the rest of the group, they headed for their next stop, Mira still in the lead. This time, they were headed for the inner sections of the station. As they progressed, both the inhabitants and the businesses they passed became cleaner and clearly more affluent. Finally, they came to an institution that was unmistakable. It might have been the iconic columns in front of the building, but most likely it was the gilded sign that read Intergalactic Credit Bureau.
Mira paused before the building, addressing the other three,” I have only been in this building twice before but let me make something absolutely clear here. This place is 100% business 100% of the time. Nothing out of line is tolerated and they have the people and the power to back that up. You piss them off and you will find a Tier Fifteen bounty on your head before your foot hits the outside steps. No joking, no innuendo. Nothing.”
Everyone’s expression became serious as they entered. The first thing that happened as they crossed the threshold is that each of the group felt an enormous presence wash over them with the sense that they were being invasively scrutinized. The feeling passed quickly and an impeccably dressed elven woman approached the group.
“What can the Intergalactic Credit Bureau do for you four?”
Mira quickly spoke up, “Mira Calder and companions here to resolve an outstanding credit balance and establish additional accounts.”
The woman looked off into the distance for a moment and responded, “How convenient. We were three hours from issuing a repossession order on the Iron Reaver. Are you here to pay your debt in full?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“Excellent. Follow me please.” She did not wait for a response but walked to a desk on the far side of the lobby with precisely measured steps so that she could walk behind the desk and slide into her chair with the ideal economy of motion. “Please, do sit down and make yourselves comfortable while we conduct our transactions.”
She pulled up some sort of holographic screen and projected it to the group. It listed the ship’s name, and the debt associated with it – Exactly 103,624,812 credits in debt. Mira smiled wanly as the elf continued, “You see the debt on the screen. How are you going to resolve it?”
Mira brought out her own device and projected the current account of the Iron Reaver, showing the 200,000,000 credits that they had just earned. Her face firmed with resolve, “A direct transfer from this account please.”
The elf smiled along, “Excellent. Please confirm your authorization for the transfer. Perfect. The Iron Reaver is now completely free of debt and all liens have been released. Congratulations. Few manage to resolve a debt once it exceeds the value of their collateral. Your credit score now reflects this status change. Now, you had mentioned other banking you wished to conduct.”
“Yes, ma’am. I would like to split the remaining balance up four ways into our accounts. Obviously, one share will remain in the existing account, but at least two of the group will need initial accounts established.” She pointed to Duke and Aurelia.
“I already have an account of my own established.” Lya provided the elf with her account information.
The next ten minutes were spent in a laborious process of establishing accounts for Duke and Aurelia which involved blood samples, magical aura readings, and personal Mana signatures. In the end, the elf escorted the four of them back to the door with a smile. They were happy to depart.
“You were that close to losing the ship?” Duke said.
“I didn’t know it was that close, but I knew we were critically overdrawn.”
“Good thing we took that shortcut to get here otherwise the ship would have been repo’d before we even got to the dock,” Lya said.
“Yeah. That would have sucked, and cost more to get back. Thank you, Duke for saving the ship…and me.”
“If I didn’t, who would be ferrying me all over this galaxy, right?”
“Right. I’m the best ride you’ll ever get.”
Aurelia stiffened at that and began to scowl. Mira jumped right back in, “Don’t worry, Aurelia. I’m not gonna steal your man. I’ll find one of my own.”
“Dressed like that, it won’t be hard. Shall we go hit some place to celebrate our good fortune?” Duke said.
I know just the place,” Lya said.