When we returned to the spaceship, Ura and I locked ourselves into the bridge, and she looked at me seriously. “What are you thinking?” she asked.
“I think that it is an opportunity and a major risk at the same time,” I replied bluntly, “Is the other cargo on the way?” I asked.
“The legit cargo will be here in the next hour. The question is more about whether we should change our plans. We have no trusted associates. We have not trusted Bounty hunters other than me. We have nothing that we can use to expand off of.”
“What we do have, though, is an ability to start the legit side of the business,” Ura said, “A cover for us, and we can build that side while we train a core of slaves for our darker side of the business. We can train the bounty hunters and have them going around with legitimate business matters. We can even use those bounty hunters to train the ones we will use for the smuggling operations.”
“Hmmm, do you have a source to make more ships like this?” I asked, “There is a manufacturing time correct?”
Ura smiled in reply, “Yes, I do. I have a friend who likes to ‘Lose’ military assets like this ship,” She said, her smile growing. It is expensive, but I can get a couple more ships in the short term, although it would take months for those to come in.”
“How long?” I asked.
“Months, for one. Probably six months for more than two. It takes a lot for him to lose one of these ships. However, they also need to have the right crew modify them. But he can do it within two years,” Ura said, “Well, five of them, we can get in total probably no more. I would have to discuss it with my contact, though.”
“So, first, this ship is obviously a military asset that was ‘lost’ and also modified probably in a military shipyard.” I said, frowning, “That means.”
Ura cut in as I was about to continue, “Don't worry about the lost property. A huge part of my homeworld's military makes money from these things. It is the corrupt side of our military, and it lines the bonuses and some research technologies that could not be seen on the books of our homeworld so that they could be hidden from the federation.” Ura said, and she chuckled.
“There is much about this universe that I do not understand.” I told Ura, “So you're saying that your old Military sells to people like us? Smugglers and Pirates?”
“Yup,” Ura said, “Funds a bunch of black projects, and it lines the pockets of a bunch of Admirals. It is useful, though. More useful for us.”
“Okay, how long to get in contact with him?” I asked.
“Oh, I can do it now,” Ura said.
“So, if we are going to do this, we are going to need a combination of smuggling ships and normal ships.”
“Look, let's see if I can even get the ships,” Ura said, starting to input something into the panel. Then she leaned back, “I just gave him a call. Give it a minute.”
I suddenly thought about how these calls go through and how the universal communication network works. Was there an explanation? I was about to ask when suddenly I heard someone picking up.
“Ura, I did not expect to hear from you so soon. How are you enjoying Civie life?” A heavy male voice said.
“Interesting, I have been enjoying the ship,” Ura replied happily.
“Good. How are the modifications I made for you?”
“Perfect,” Ura said, and I could see the smile on her face, “Now, I have a question for you, and I would love to hear your reply.”
“Well, I am sure you would if you asked a question. What is the question that the best pilot in our small military needs to know?”
Ura blushed and chuckled, “I wasn't the best, but you can compliment me anytime you want. I wanted to ask if you are looking to offload more ships, some with a special modification and some without.”
“Making that many Credits?!” The man exclaimed in his gruff voice. “Um, actually, yes. The current Admiral In charge of the Reserve is a new initiate. The last one just retired a few months back in his expensive Villa. That means that fresh palms moved around and into certain positions that needed those new luxury Villas of their own. This means there is a premium for those who grease the right palms. The issue is that not many have been buying recently. The Federation has swept this region of space not long ago. People are still shy.”
Ura was smiling even larger, “Well, how long would it take to get the right modifications like the one you got for me? And how many of them can you get me?”
“Well, that is a fun question. It depends. Do you want the full extent? Or just something that will get you by for the next couple of years.”
“I want top-of-the-line like this baby,” Ura told him.
“Hmmm, I have more dock space,” the man said, “Again, right palms greased and the right boys. Do you want to lessen the bribes needed? You're looking at thirteen months for five modified ships. If you pay more for bribes, I can lower it a bit. But,” The man chuckled, “Five at the lowest possible if you're looking for numbers. Unlimited Cash flow, no more than ten,” The man said. “But you're looking at a lot of greased palms to do that.”
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“What about unmodified ships of the same type, and you know everything appropriately deleted from ever existing.”
“Oh, that comes with everything. You know they don't want the Federation to learn. Um,” the man started to type. Ura, my fine, fine girl, how many do you want?” He asked. “With a thirty percent increase on all of them, you can have as many top-of-the-line small cargo ships as you want. You know these things are for jumping into warzones and out with emergency supplies, right?”
“They are also excellent smugglers and drastically reduce insurance rates. I have been finding a nice profit margin. Even after loan payments.”
“You know there will not be a loan payment for this, right? We need the money upfront.”
“Do I sound like an Idiot,” Ura replied.
“So you have interest?”
“I am interested, but I would love it if you could send me a list price, and I only want new ships.”
“Only the best for the best,” the man replied. I think the graft here is going to get worse.” The man chuckled, “Come join before everything kicks into high gear and the pirates learn that even close to top-of-the-line stuff is on sale even to them.”
“THAT BAD?” Ura exclaimed, surprised.
“The new Admiral is much greedier than the last one, if you can believe it. I am just a humble person who has to pay his superiors.”
“I will call you soon, no more than a couple of weeks, okay? Save me a spot, or wait to advertise for me, okay? I will let you know as soon as I can.”
“I can wait on the modification ships. But for the others, I have a Deep Graft sale going on. As many as I can sell and the boys can make.”
“It's insane hearing that.” Ura replied, “Talk to you soon.”
With that, Ura hung up and looked at me, “That is insane to hear. The new Reserve admiral can be even greedier than the last. If that is true, the federation is going to pick up on it soon. We need to get our stuff quickly before the opportunity closes. Too much greed gets dipshits like my friend caught,” Ura said.
“So what are you saying?” I asked.
“I mean, this is a contact I am going to have to burn soon.” She said, “We don't need to worry about information leaking. The Admirals and people above my friend will take care of him for us. That guy is incredibly good at his job and incredibly corrupt, but I know people above him. They have him dead the moment that the federation starts sniffing around.”
“So we need to place our order soon,” I said.
“I mean, we might need to burn extra Credits for stuff we might not get,” Ura said, her voice hard, “This is what happens when people get too greedy. I was hoping for a lower number when he was talking. Sure, what he said sounded nice, but” She frowned. Ura shook her head, “What it sounds like is happening is that this Admiral who was supposed to be funding the black projects in exchange for taking a little off the top is taking more than he needs. They picked incorrectly for their Admiral of the Reserve Navy. What that Asura said is even more true. I think this part of the galaxy is about to blow up in conflict. There will be more starships out and about, and if we have the ships to be the smugglers for the dipshits on the ground, we could make enough money by the end of the conflict to not only pay off all our debts. But to start looking at bigger cargo carriers.”
Surprised, I looked at her, thought about it, and sighed.
“We don't have the people,” I said.
“This is a small window of no more than two years, I believe,” Ura replied.
“Where are we going to find the people?”
“We have a few months to find smugglers.”
“You want to do this?” I asked.
“This is the only time we will be able to get smuggling ships with top-of-the-line Smuggling technology from one of the Federation's top military giants. There will be no second chance any time soon after this, as my contacts will all be gone,” Ura told me bluntly.
“Do you think we can reserve some of our ships if we are slow?”
“The storage fees will be high,” Ura replied.
“I think we need to talk to that Asura bitch,” I said bluntly with a sigh pinching my nose, “If we move forward with this, she needs to know that we are risking a lot of the cash, and we will need to be able to write that off. If she wants our transport services, that she can burn, we need more leeway. The risk is too high,” I replied bluntly, “We will be expanding quickly to fill in a gap that, frankly, will be almost impossible to find trusted people to do. We will be playing a higher risk. Too high,” I said, “I would rather grow slower and find a new contract with less good sources or move into moving legit cargoes than expand too quickly like this. We need more favorable terms of a loan than what she offered.”
“Those were good terms,” Ura said with a shrug.
“She would not offer those terms if she did not benefit way more than we do,” I told her, “She is getting the better side of the deal, that is that. I want at least half the loan either forgiven or zero interest if we get burned by your contacts.”
“You think we can negotiate for better?” Ura asked.
“Yes, and I think if we are going to be stupid enough to do all of this, we need to act on it NOW,” I said.
“But we said-”
“We talk with her now, even if it looks a little suspicious. In fact, tell her to bring along some samples of guns that we can give to bounty hunters. We can ‘purchase them.’ I mean, I am a bounty hunter, after all, and she is a weapons dealer.”
Ura rocked back and forth, looking lost in thought about what I said. “You are right. If we are going to act, we need to act now. I am solid in my belief that the Federation will be looking at my home military soon.”
“Then call up the Asura bitch,” I said with a sigh closing my eyes, “Get her to bring some free samples and find us a good location for us to talk without worrying about people overhearing.”
Ura quickly typed in a new code, and not even ten seconds later, I heard the familiar voice.
“I did not expect to hear from you so soon.” The Asura woman said.
“We need to talk; we would love to see and try out some sample weapons for us to try out within thought for future larger orders,” Ura said.
“Oh, Interesting. I do not mind; I have a perfect place for us to talk and show some samples. I will send you a local address. I will be there in thirty minutes. I expect you to be there. Don't waste my time.” She hung up a moment later, and I looked at Ura.
“Let's go,” I said, getting up. It's a Good thing I never got out of my armor.” I commented, and Ura chuckled as she made sure the communications were closed.
Now was the time to act.
Either we moved forward with this deal, turning Ura and me into a smuggling ring, or we could continue our small-time smuggling operation.
This would be the meeting to decide.