CHAPTER 11 TRADE AND INDUSTRY

The trade ship Plymouth’s Pride had come in system. Captain Jericho told me to intercept the ship scan for contraband and make sure they did not need assistance. The ship was transmitting its IF so I could use it to get a course and heading, I really needed a navigator! I took off at best possible speed but it was going to take me four hours to reach the outer edge of the system where the ship had appeared from hyper.

When I arrived the ship was small trader and the captain was shocked the Capsulite sytem had obtained a new cruiser in the last year. I new the shock factor is why captain Jericho had sent me. I was very professional in my communications. They said they would submit to scans. They didn't know I had super powerful scanners and I had MD go through their ship with a fine tooth comb. He found twenty kilos of illegal drugs in a hidden and shielded compartment. I turned my comm to captain Jericho in system. “Captain Jericho this is captain Knight. We have scanned some illegal cargo on the trade ship. How do you want me to proceed?”

Captain Jericho came on screen and I could see him reviewing the data I had sent him. “Captain Knight you will need to seize the cargo and fine the ship 20,000 credits.” I thought about this. It did not seem like a good idea to me.

“Captain Jericho I would think this would not be a good idea. There are only two trade ships that come to this system regularly. If we fine this one it may stop coming. How about I let them go and you intercept them in orbit over Barstow and let them know if they unload that cargo anywhere in system you will be very unhappy.” I watched his brows furrow and then become thoughtful.

“That sounds like a good plan. I will talk with the president and confirm that is what he wants. Captain Jericho out.” I only got a text message three minutes later from Jericho to let them proceed without taking further action. I thanked the Plymouth’s Pride for cooperating and zipped back to Bruin IV.

That was the only excitement I had over the next month while we constructed our next mining ship. I also hired another 20 miners for the ships. I began a crew rotation. Four weeks working, two weeks recreation time on Bruin IV. The launch of the new mining ship named the Redrose was met with great glee. All new twenty miners were excited about the new ship. It could harvest faster and was vastly more comfortable than the older design. There was a bit of a fight to be the ships first crew. But it was eventually settled. They headed out to join the other two ships, Iron Spike and Granite Strike. Those were the ships original names and I never bothered to change them. When we registered the Redrose with Barstow I suddenly had a flood of requests to build mining ships! Well the secret was out.

I was reviewing Rose’s new shuttle design. It was simple and had a lot of advanced systems on it. It was almost twice as fast as the shuttles currently in the Capsulite system. It only took one full load from a mining ship to build. So I could spend roughly 5000 credits in raw materials and a week’s construction time to build a 14 meter long passenger shuttle I could turn around and sell for about 300,000 credits! This was ridiculous. I could also pull the seating and use them to transport 10 tons of cargo instead. I set up the queue to build for four shuttles, putting my next mining ship on hold.

Rose asked me for a new project. I thought a little and purchased plans for a 60 meter small trader. I wanted the ship to have a class X drive and top of the line systems. Based on the size of the ship it would take about two weeks to build if Rose could make it modular. She looked thrilled for the challenge. With the systems I had wanted the ship would sell for about 5,000,000 credits! It would take about 50,000 credits in materials to build due to the rarer metals needed but still I would make 100 times profit! I put two of the shuttles up for auction in system and knew the Bryant family would outbid everyone else. I kept the other two for my personal business and mining operations. I sent the Bryant family a note saying I would not be using my shuttles outside of my own business concerns. This was because I remembered Athena saying it was Bryant’s monopoly on spacecraft that kept them in power. They purchased both shuttles for 330,000 credits each. This the perfect amount and I ordered a 200 meter station to be built in orbit above Bruin IV and attached to my depot. It would take three months but that was fine. I promised them a 10% bonus on the 500,000 credits if it was done it 10 weeks.

When the other two shuttles were completed I put them into service immediately. I had to hire three shuttle crews and based them out of Mycell whose population was slowly growing. When I had arrived there were only a few hundred people now it was close to 2,000 and people were migrating there for the opportunities.

My starship piloting skill had also leveled to 2 and I selected my next skill to train, navigation! Only four months with my education tablet to complete! I had turned off alerts to mission notification and completions. Opening up the messages I had gained a few thousand experience, +1 intelligence for building a new spaceship design, +1 social standing for being added as the primary system defense ship and a skill book for broker skill due to turning a large profit on a sale. Everything else was just normal experience.

I opened up my sheriff management menu. I had kept up with most of my duties from afar. I paged through the missions, most of the ones that were left were requests for help. I sighed, being on Prometheus was fun and exciting every day but it was time to go planet side. I had one of my new shuttles take me down and toured my facilities. I was proud of my work even though the massive replicator on the Prometheus was able to turn massive profits but churning out high technology for little cost.

In my office I was pondered how to effective manage all the assistant requests. A quick thought and I opened up the schematics menu. I restricted my search to battle suits. The top of the line schematic cost about as much as a single suit, 250,000 credits. I paged down to a moderate priced but highly effective suit, 120,000 credits for the schematic. I purchased the lesser suit and planned to have MD run 50 suits for my sheriffs. I hired the only six men in the system that knew how to use the damn suits to train my sheriffs and sat back satisfied. Those suits once they were delivered would be assistance! Figuring I was done with my head duties as sheriff I took off to tour my estates. My first stop was the distillery. Things were booming. Flavored alcohol was a huge hit. The production of lime and lemons had mad the rum and vodka business boom. The high quality production was paying off. My fame and the brand had infiltrated the main society circles on Barstow. I spent some time sampling the wares and was very pleased. I then talked to the overseer and told him I wanted a winery built. We would be producing grapes in a few months. The cost for the winery would be 50,000 credits as everything would have to be built from scratch. It seemed the richer I got the more things cost. This was not entirely true. It seems some idiot was utilizing a lot of the harvested raw materials to build things like space stations raising prices! I set the quality to 10 instead of 9 like the rest of the facility. If I was going to make wine it would be the best!

My next stop was the Kommish family. Things were buzzing when I arrived. The boys looked older when I saw them and then I ran into Adeline and had some small talk. She directed me to a field where I found Able doing some soil sampling. He had a helper with him who I later found out was a student from a university on Barstow. Able stood up and we greeted each other happily. After the small talk I let Able know I was going to purchase 34 acres of green houses to produce grapes for wine and four more mechs. This blew his mind, he was excited to no end and wanted to know how many varieties I had. When I said 17 he nearly jumped for joy. The student with him also seemed excited. Able was also pleased to inform me my estate was now more valuable than the Haven estate. Also the hunting drones were keeping the farms safe and had hunted down 201 lupins, 65 local ‘wolves’ and 11 bruins. A bruin was a massive local large bearlike creature, basically a grizzly bear with a nasty attitude. They were the top of the food chain on the planet. I spent the rest of the day listening to Able and eventually had dinner with the family and the student. The student was doing his thesis on how to produce crops effectively on Bruin IV and he went to work with the best, Able Kommish. I also let the family know that I was planning to leave the system in a few months and this might be my last visit for a while. I set up management so that Able could reinvest future profits back into the estate. The family seemed sad but I said I had faith in them to grow this farm into an integral part of the entire systems economy. Also I let him know that we would soon be shipping products from Chevalier Sapphire to other systems once I could produce some small trader vessels. Quality would be the key and quality starts on this farm. Their efforts were the foundation of everything. This was obviously the right message to send as it got everyone excited, even the student.

I spent the night with the Kommish family in their guest room. Apparently the room was permanently held in case I showed up unannounced. The student was staying out in an attached building that had a few bunks for staff.

The next day I headed back up to orbit. I called in the crew to let them know my plans. “We are going to be leaving in 4 months time. Our build schedule will be one mining ship and four small traders. One small trader would be put under control of our distillery to trade our alcohol products with other systems. The other three vessels would be auctioned in this system. I hoped the trade ships would spark economic growth here. A also wanted to expand the station to 500 meters and set up a small construction yard so the station could build small traders without our presence. Rose wanted something to do so I had to come up with something. The 500 meter station could build corvette or smaller ships. A corvette was basically a military vessel the same size as the small trader. Unfortunately the corvette schematics were 200,000 credits and I did not have the funds right now. I told Rose I wanted a system corvette with good firepower and good engines that we could build with our 500 meter station and also she could choose all the modules we would need to install on the station to build small traders and corvettes. Her eyes lit up – plans for an entire station and production facilities for ships and a new corvette design. She was in heaven and the next few months she was engrossed in her oversized tablet.

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The next two months passed and the teams managed to complete the station to earn their bonus. We launched our next mining ship, the Glorious Rose. We also hired 10 more miners into the rotation. There was always a fight to crew the newer and more ‘luxurious’ ships. I moved five miners to the new station out of the rotation and had them manage cargo transfers and had them hire staffing for the station. We were going to need 60 crew for the station. The crew would be working building modules that would eventually support our 500 meter station. The first trade ship was also competed and went up for auction. The auction site was universal and other player characters started a huge bidding war. The class X star drive and general excellent equipment on a new ship where hard to get. I didn't realize this. Eventually the ship sold for 7,250,000 credits to the PC corporation DOA. They had two members who were taking an immediate transport out to the Capsulite system. They would get here in two months! At least they had already paid and I sent a note to my distillery manager to keep the warehouse full and ready for them in case they wanted a profitable cargo to take with them in two months.

Also during this time the battlesuits were being used down on Bruin IV. My sheriff’s were a terror on the villainy. My progress to sheriff V was 75% full and at this rate I should reach this milestone in another month. After the two months though things finally got interesting, the cats had arrived.

Captain Jericho sent me an emergency comm about a destroyer entering the system whose IF identified them as the Golden Buffalo of the Kilrathi syndicate Openroad. I called for battle stations and accelerated out toward the new contact. As we approached the destroyer was actually a large trader but it also had two escorts that had been hiding in its shadow. Both escorts were definitely warships and frigate size. As I approached at my top speed the lead ship commed me and the frigates moved themselves forward between the trader and my approach. “This is captain Yashmia of the Golden Buffalo. We are on a peaceful mission to access this system for a potential trading station. I repeat this is a trading mission. We are not hostile.” I guess my approach could have been considered aggressive. I slowed the Prometheus to half speed.

I switched to open comm, “This is captain Knight. You are to communicate with caption Jericho in system about your approach vector and procedures. My ship will shadow you in system. Knight out.” I checked the ships IFs. None of the ships belonged to PCs that I could tell. The frigates, Mama’s Claw and Silver Hammer, were moderately armed. Neither ship could penetrate my shields. I held off a thousand kilometers so as not to appear threatening. I was not privy to the conversation happening. I received a brief text after 20 minutes from Jericho. I was to continue with my escort until the large trader entered orbit of Barstow. Athena chimed in, If the Kilrathi decide to establish a trade station here it could mean an explosive growth and bring in many products. Unfortunately the Capsulite system does not have products which would interest the cats.

I knew trade was the key to growing this system. I had recently acquired 7.5 million credits. I looked up my 500 meter station cost, 10 million. It would also take a year to build. I reached out to my contact and asked if I paid 7 million now and an additional 3 million in the next six months would they begin construction on my 500 meter station immediately. It was a no brainer from my end that they would accept. I was just jumping the gun to try to demonstrate high economic activity. It took about an hour before I got the contract, which I signed and sent, back with the 7 million credits. I let Rose know construction was going to be started soon and she should communicate what she wanted. She sent me the plans, which I just filed away without looking at them, and sent her a message, “great job.” The station was christened Black Phoenix Station. It would keep that name as it expanded to 500 meters. Over the next two weeks the negotiations went on between the cats and the Barstow government. I sent some samples of my best alcohol to the Golden Buffalo with my compliments. A cat broker got back to me a few days later and asked for prices and quantities available. I marked it up 15% and gave them my existing stores after looking it up. She immediately got back and purchased it all. She would send out a four shuttles to pick up the goods in the next day. I informed my manager and he was not happy with my interference. Apparently I had just sucked up the next three weeks of planned shipments. Oops, well I had just sold 50,000 credits of alcohol for 57,500 credits so I felt good anyway.

The cat I had talked to was on one of the shuttles. Her name was Myra Gentlepaw. She asked me to meet her on planet and show me my facility. I went down to the planet and did my best with my manager at my shoulder answering most questions. When we got to the winery the manger had six samples ready. It would be another month of aging to have the stock ready though. Myra was extremely pleased with all six. She immediately asked me for a price. I could see the stock was originally slated to be sold at 40,000 credits and figured I should start high, 70,000 credits. The manager’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. Myra did not hesitate and agreed to the price! This only made the manager eyes pop further. Apparently Kilrathi liked their booze. Myra asked for samples to take back with her for the captain. The manger grumbled the wine needed to age but since she had just purchased the entire lot filled up a bottle of each vintage. The cat left with her nose in the air and licking her face. She obviously was a little intoxicated.

I sent a message to Able to purchase 68 more green houses for the grape vines. I also purchased another 10 mechs and two more warehouses for him to manage everything. He had questions but I ignored him for now, just saying we need to greatly increase production. Alone with my manager I ordered another winery for 50,000 credits and had him double the guards to 24. I even had MD put 24 medium battle suits into the queue for this staff. I signed off waivers for civilians to utilize them, after all I was the head sheriff! I just wanted to make sure this asset was secure because I strongly felt this was going to be the most valuable production in the system if the cats decided to establish a trade station. I ran the projections and the if the cats continued to purchase at the prices I would be making about 70,000 credits a month between the farming and alcohol production. And that was with my massive overhead I was creating in maintenance and staff. Maybe it was wasteful to have each of the 24 guards wearing 120,000 credit battlesuits but those suits only cost me about 5,000 credits in raw rare metals and MD could make 12 suits in about 12 hours. It would take time for the guards to be trained. Then I thought and doubled their salary and added 12 more guards to utilize the light armor I already had purchased. These guards would be paid at the regular rate. I had Athena select one guard to be the sergeant and manage overall security.

The next two weeks had me watching the next small trader being finished. It took an extra four days due to raw material supply lines getting strained. I put the trader up for sale again on the auction site and limited bids to the Capsulite system only to be shocked when the cats purchased it for 6,000,000 credits. Myra came over with a crew in a shuttle and took possession of the ship. This was not part of the plan and I didn't know NPCs could utilize the auction site unless…yes, you had to trace it back. This Openroad syndicate was registered ten years ago and most likely PCs had established it but did not put their names visible as I had done. My best guess is this ‘fleet’ was probably being controlled by a companion to a PC, probably Yashmia or Myra. Well I could live with it. I know had the 3 million credits to finish the station and opened up the tab to pay and my jaw dropped. I had a bill not for 3 million credits I expected but for 12,500,000 credits! It took me 30 minutes to solve the mystery. Apparently I had approved module construction as well through Rose. I looked up the module listing and sighed. I pulled up the plans she had sent me and noticed everything was there. I transferred the six million credits to reduce my liability. I studied the plans now. The design called for two specialized construction slips, one for the corvette and one for the small trader. The construction support modules would be a good small trader with a class VII star drive and above average systems. I had yet to see the corvette design but assumed it would also include the class VII star drive since the only factory on the station was geared toward that drive. I also noticed the station had two long range heavy weapons and a class XI shield. I didn't think the system could produce either of these items then I found the note hidden in the plans. Rose had assumed I would be willing to stay in system an extra three months to utilize the Prometheus’ replicator to build a lengthy list of parts for the modules. Wait even though I was building about 60% of the modules I still was building a 17.5 million credit station! If I had to pay the cost…it would have come to 34 million, so I was only paying about half. Ok I could live with it. Rose had also forecasts production times as two months for the small trader and three months for the corvette which I still had not seen plans for. She even went as far to project build costs. 2.9 million for the small trader and 3.7 million for the corvette. Expected sale price was listed as well, 3.9 million and 4.9 million respectively. That was 10.8 million profit per year! I reviewed the plans in depth now. 80% of the station was dedicated to building the ships, 10% was dedicated to trade and the remaining 10% was dedicated to defense. It was a good balance in my mind.

I uploaded the general plans to the central government to get approval. It was a formality and the plans were approved in a few hours. The station was going to have 5,100 personal. That was a lot of hiring. I automated Athena to do it when the time came. My biggest concern was the bottleneck of materials. I changed production to another mining ship rather than another small elite trader. To generate funds I sent out a dozen systems for sale. All were junk with no habitable planets and moderate mineable asteroids. They sold for 28,000 credits each. The systems I sold led back in the direction of Earth. I only had 36 systems in that direction, everything else was heading away. I put up a system 134 light years away that had the new race of celepods. Lets see how much this goes for. It started to tick up from 20,000 base cost and then jumped. After the 24 hour period it had sold for 1.2 million credits to a corporation. They quickly posted they were starting a military campaign against the bugs and other corps could join in for a fee. That made sense, the admins had said a bug war would erupt, guess I started it.