Chapter Seventeen

Trading in Danger

“Downjump in five!” Tri warned just before the I.P.A. Fair Weather dropped out of Transit Space.

“Scanners active,” Prim called, “Clearing now.”

The armored covers over the bridge clunked and rolled aside. The holographic display shut down to be replaced with a standard HUD that lit up almost instantly with markers for nearby ships.

“Nothing reading active weaponry,” Prim said. “We are clear.”

“Alright,” Crush nodded to Berenice. “What’s the trader thing to do?”

“We need to get a read on how goods are flowing at the moment,” Berenice replied. “Can we get some scans on the local traffic?”

“I think we can handle that,” Cara nodded. “Prim?”

“Yes, Cara?” Prim replied.

“Well?” Berenice asked. “The local traffic?”

Prim remained looking at Cara, ignoring the Merchant’s words.

Cara gave Prim a flat look.

Prim remained staring at Cara for a long, long moment.

“I can ask, but I will be irritated,” Cara said with a thin smile.

“Fine,” Prim threw her hands up. “Scanning local traffic for cargo signatures.”

“Do I want to know what this is about?” Crush asked Cara.

“No,” Cara said simply. “You do not.”

“Fair enough, but this has to stop,” Crush replied.

“Agreed,” Cara nodded. “I’ll assign them to the same quarters.”

Crush had doubts about the wisdom of that move, but he had entrusted the crew management to Cara. It was up to her, for now. He would deal with things if they got out of hand, but only then. You had to let your people grow. If he had stepped in to do everything himself, they would never have been ready for the next phase of the Marshalls.

That had been on his mind since speaking to Nellie. The Marshalls were the official law and order personnel of the Nanite Imperium. That was fine when it was just a few hundred people, but the Imperium was growing fast. Faster than he had ever believed possible if he was honest. That meant he needed more people. More Marshalls. If that were going to happen anytime soon, he would have to see that his crew expanded and got a crew of their own.

Andy was already on the way to that with all his work down on Home, and Cara was damn near ready to lead her own people as well. As for Berenice? Well, that was a separate issue. She was something of a unique case.

The idea of the Cents with their own crews flashed through his mind, causing him to physically wince.

“Got the readings,” Prim said a couple of moments later.

“Any sign someone noticed the scans?” Cara asked.

“Please,” Prim sniffed. “I am not some rank amateur.”

Cara glowered at the Cent woman for a moment before gesturing to Berenice.

Prim made a sour face but sent the information over anyway.

“Okay, wow,” Berenice scrolled through the data. “Not what I was expecting.”

“Something interesting?” Crush prompted.

“Not interesting, but surprising,” Berenice muttered, returning to the data.

Crush tapped his fingers on the arm of his chair, but that was all he was getting, apparently.

“Care to share with the rest of us?” Cara tried.

“You have the data already,” Berenice said, then blinked. “Oh, whoops.” She spun in her chair, a hologram flickering to life between her hands. “This system seems to have a single product. Just one.”

“It isn’t that unusual,” Colby offered. “Specialization in single planets, I mean. Some of our own planets do the same.”

“Granted,” Berenice nodded. “But I’ve never seen a planet that seems to export only raw metal ores.”

“What, really?” Colby frowned. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“I know,” Berenice nodded. “Like I said, surprising.”

“Anyone care to explain for the non-merchants in the room?” Crush asked.

“Sorry,” Berenice said, “What I mean is that you never export raw ores. It’s bulky, filled with impurities, and irregularly shaped. It’s just bad cargo all round.”

“Normally, you process it on the planet or in the system,” Colby added. “Then you can export ingots. They stack well, maximizing the value per cubic foot of cargo bay.”

“Right,” Berenice nodded. “So why are they doing it like this?”

“Only one option I can think of,” Colby shrugged. “Rush order.”

“Right again,” Berenice beamed at him. “You have any trading experience?”

“Not really,” Colby said, “But I do carry the stuff around. You pick things up.”

“Oh, you should hang around with me!” Berenice grinned. “You’ll pick up lots of things.”

“Definitely,” Prim nodded. “But I’m sure we can cure most of them.”

With no station in system, they followed the flow of traffic back to a single planet. It was clearly developed, with signals lighting up their sensors all over the place.

Prim eavesdropped on the local comm traffic long enough to find the right node to contact Ground Control and arranged a landing bay for them on the outskirts of the main port.

Dropping in through the atmosphere, Crush and the crew got a clear view of their destination. It didn’t look promising.

“They know they are allowed to build upward, right?” Tri asked. “I mean, someone did tell them, I assume?”

“Must have done,” Sec replied. “Maybe they don’t like stairs.”

“They have a fondness for dust?” Prim offered.

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Crush tried not to laugh, considering they weren’t wrong. The planet itself seemed to be covered in several large, sprawling cities. None of it was above a single story in height except for large towers dotted about.

“What’s that stuff in the air?” Colby asked as it began to build up on the bridge windows.

“I’m reading silicon, carbon, organic traces, scattered minerals, and chemical signatures,” Prim said thoughtfully.

“Cast off,” Colby noted.

“What?” Prim asked.

“Cast off from mining,” Colby said. “Silicon, carbon, organic traces. That’s dust, sand, and dirt. The mineral traces are from the ores extracted, and the chemicals are from the machinery and cutting gear.”

“He’s useful,” Prim nodded. “He can stay.”

The port was a grim, if serviceable thing. Long lines of landing bays stretched along the front of a long, low building. A covered walkway extended out to each bay, and lines of heavy vehicles crawled back and forth on the far side, backing up to unload cargo.

“Is everything here beige?” Berenice huffed. “Not much an advert for their planet.”

“They are selling raw ores,” Tri noted. “No need to polish a turd.”

Crush found himself nodding along with the comment despite himself.

This place really did look grim.

“What did you bring to trade?” Cara asked the merchant.

“The best thing of all,” Berenice said, patting her pockets. “Credits.”

“Brace for landing!” Tri warned.

“Learn to fly, and we won’t have to,” Prim smirked.

“You want to fly? Have at it?” Tri took his hands off the controls, causing the ship to list immediately.

“TRI!” Prim yelped.

Chuckling, Tri grabbed the controls, correcting the list just as they touched down.

“Asshole!” Prim yelled.

“Quad, Prim’s calling you,” Sec called and then ducked as Quad threw something at him.

“Is it always like this?” Colby asked Crush as they continued to bicker.

“Almost always,” Crush nodded.

“Why?” Colby asked before blanching. “Sorry, that was rude.”

“Because of that,” Crush gestured as they started to file out of the room. Every Cent stopped and touched the large painting on the back wall. It showed a pair of gleaming metal gauntlets crossed over each other against a black shield. “Because someone bought them the right.”

Exiting the ship, Crush saw the heavy blanket of dust over everything. For a moment, it reminded him of the training grounds from his army days, but no one was screaming, so the flash passed quickly.

Above the line of buildings ahead of them, Crush saw the heavy, dust-filled air. Across the bay another ship was landed, its holds open as it was loaded with large crates piled with rocks. His nanite-improved vision showed him the veins running through them. It looked very roughly mined, with no signs of mining lasers having been used.

“What the hell,” Colby began to cough and hack the moment he left the airlock.

Looking around, Crush saw the people passing were all wearing heavy masks to protect them against the cast off in the air. Colby gasped and wheezed before Prim appeared, slapping a mask over the man’s face.

“We better wear something as well,” Crush ordered. “We’ll stand out otherwise.”

Colby was still coughing and wheezing, pulling his mask off occasionally to spit gunk out onto the floor.

“How are you not affected by this?” Colby wheezed when Crush went over to check on him.

“Nanites,” Crush said, patting the man on the back. “They tend to help with stuff like this.”

“It doesn’t get into your lungs?” Colby asked, straightening as he caught his breath.

“It does,” Crush smiled. “But only briefly.”

“I have the local information,” Berenice said, stepping off the ship with a datapad in hand. “It wasn’t even a data burst.”

“We are all getting a little spoiled in the Imperium,” Cara slapped the other woman on the back. “This little trip will be good for us.”

“It’s worse up there,” Prim was staring up at the sky above. “Much worse. How are they keeping it from being like that down here?”

“Let’s go ask them,” Berenice nodded. “Captain? Care to lead the way?”

Crush nodded, leading his people across the bay and into the covered tunnel. A wave of air blew the accumulated dust from them, and Colby lowered his mask a little, only to slam it back on.

Another blast of air passed over them as they exited the walkway and entered the building proper.

“Man,” Sec said loudly. “What a shithole!”

Several people stopped, turning to glare at the group.

“Nice,” Prim sighed theatrically, “Real subtle.”

/===<<<>>>===\

A tram carried them away from the port and toward the central area of the city. They had been told that was where the majority of business was being done by a grumpy, unfriendly attendant who had heard Sec’s comment.

The streets outside were empty, and only the occasional person dashing between buildings was visible during the long ride. Even the tram had to have a set of brushes to clear the line ahead of it.

“How can people live in this?” Colby muttered. “What kind of life is this?”

“It ain’t usually like this, son,” An old man said, shaking his head. “Just when the mines are working overtime.”

“So, this air?” Colby asked.

“Ahh, it’s normally fine,” the man said. “You see them towers?” He pointed to the distant shapes. “They suck the mess out the air and pump it down into the cleared land to refill it. They just can’t work fast enough lately.”

“That’s why you only have ground-level buildings?” Crush guessed.

“Spot on,” the man smiled. “Name’s Johnny.”

“I’m Crush, and this is Colby,” Crush shook the man’s hand.

“Where you lot from?” Johnny eyed Crush as he said it.

“I.P.A.,” Crush said. “Just out to make a few credits.”

“Freighter jockeys?” Johnny seemed to relax a little.

“Yeah,” Crush nodded. “Our Merchant’s over there.” He nodded to Berenice.

“A woman?” Johnny shook his head. “In my day, a man wouldn’t have worked under a woman, and that’s for sure.”

“She’s a damn good Merchant,” Colby growled.

“Alright, alright,” Johnny put his hands up. “No offense met, youngster. Times are changing, or so they keep telling me.”

“Got any tips for us?” Crush asked casually.

“Nothing much,” Johnny shrugged. “Grab some ore and haul it where they tell ya. Get paid, and do it all again. I reckon even a woman Merchant can manage that much.”

Crush put a hand out quickly to push Colby back into his seat as he stepped in front of the man and thanked the old timer for his help.

“Biggoted old prick,” Colby muttered. “Someone ought to kick his ass.”

“Not a great way to stay under the radar,” Crush whispered urgently. “Calm the fuck down, or we'll leave you on the ship from now on.”

“She’s your crew,” Colby insisted. “Why are you okay with that?”

“Because she could buy and sell this whole planet even if they worked together on the negotiation,” Crush smiled lazily. “And now they will have pissed her off, hey Berenice?”

She turned on the far side of the Tram and winked at them.

“She heard all that?” Colby looked shocked. “But you were whispering!”

“Nanites,” Crush said, nodding to the others spread around the car. “We can hear everything on this entire tram right now.”

The Trade Hall, as it was called, featured a wide entryway that led through to a busy lobby. A row of people stood behind a long counter on the far side, each under a large board that showed a list of commodities, prices, and destinations.

The place was packed with dust-covered and busy-looking people moving between counters before hurrying away.

Berenice pointed to one of the hallways off the sides of the room. It read ‘New Business.’

“Tri, Sec, hang back here and get the lay of the land,” Crush called before they headed into the corridor. He saw them drift off into the crowds, merging in as much as they could.

Berenice followed the corridor until it ended with a set of offices.

“New Traders,” Berenice nodded to the left-most office.

Crush knocked and opened the door at the same time, finding a small man looking over the top of a pair of small, oblong glasses. He raised his eyebrows and gestured for Crush to come in.

“Hello!” Berenice swept through the door like a smiling tornado. “How wonderful to meet you…”

A half-hour later, they left the office with a stack of new licenses and a contract to deliver a massive load of unrefined ores to the one and only destination for an entire planet’s worth of resources. None of them spoke as they waited in line for one of the contract reps, handing over the information they had been given and being assigned a slot for delivery of the materials to the Fair Weather.

They didn’t speak on the tram back to the ship, or in the port, or in the covered walkways. They didn’t even speak in the open air.

Only once they were back inside the ship, and Prim had activated the internal shielding, did anyone actually speak.

“Boss?” Sec asked.

“We are delivering a shipment of ores to the shipyards in the Falling Waters system,” Crush said levely. “They are buying up every bit of ore they can get their hands on.”

“Rebuilding the ships they lost?” Tri smirked.

“No,” Cara said gravely. “They are trying to make their own Imperium Class.

“Fuuuuck,” Sec groaned. “What are we going to do?”

“We’re going to stop them, of course,” Crush felt a lazy smile stretching across his face as he sat back down into the Captain’s chair.

They had a lot of work to do.