First Principles: Samair in Argos: Book 3 (66 page)

Lujayne flagged a few of the cargoes to go to the shipyard, remembering the advice that she go nowhere near the fueling station.  She didn’t want to go against that advice; she’d heard the stories about Goris Hana and didn’t want to start stirring anything up.  She clicked off the sales list, and switched over to the buy displays.  There were a number of places that were interested in high level imports, and more than a few manufacturing companies that were looking for the kinds of parts
First Horizon
was carrying.  She started looking into the various companies, as she posted the load of cargo on the station-net.  Within twenty minutes, there were four buyers.  There was no listing as to how reputable any of them were; FP didn’t have any offices here or regular trade here.  One company was as good as another, as far as she was concerned.  At this point, the only thing she had to go on was the buying price, so for now, anyway, she’d go with the highest bidder.

“Any luck, Captain?” Trudy asked, coming back on the bridge, bringing two mugs of coffee with her.

“Yes, actually,” Lujayne replied, leaning back in her chair.  She rolled her head, loosening up her neck muscles.  “I accepted the offer from Tulane Enterprises, they’re sending a representative over to the dockside now to get me a contract to sign and get us paid.”

“Um, Captain…” Trudy said, wincing and raising one finger.  “I hate to bring this up, but how are they going to pay for the cargo?  Hard currency?  Trade goods?  Precious minerals or stones?”

Lujayne pounded a fist on the arm of her chair.  “Damn!” she exclaimed.  “I keep doing that.  I keep missing some minor but critical detail.”  She took in a deep, shaking breath and then let it out slowly.  “All right.  It looks like I’m going to have to go out and find a local bank here and open an account.  I wonder if Ganner and Saiorse has a branch here?”

It took about an hour to get from the docking section to find a branch of one of the bigger banks here on the station.  Lujayne took Huznall and Ykrik from engineering with her to the commercial levels of the station, making a beeline to the station’s assay office.  She brought with her a gold bar, harvested from the asteroid field in Seylonique and melted down into a proper bar.  She also had several coins of platinum and even a slip of gadolinium, which would be allow her to put a large amount of cash into the company and personal accounts she was going to open here.  The assay agent was overjoyed at her arrival as well as with the precious minerals she brought with her, and Lujayne thought that he’d lowballed her a bit on the price but the nineteen thousand credits he’d shelled out she felt was more than enough to get things going. 

“I should have gotten twenty-five,” Lujayne grumbled as they stepped out of the assay office.  Ykrik’s antennae flared in disbelief at that comment, for the amount of money received had been far more than he’d expected.  Huznall only hummed out a puff of exasperation, making a subvocal comment that sounded suspiciously like “humans”. 

From there they moved quickly to a bank office, one of the more swanky affairs on level six.  It wasn’t Ganner and Saiorse, Interplanetary, sadly, but Crown Lily Bank seemed like a good choice.  Their office on level six blended in well with the other businesses on that level; there were a pair of armed guards on either side of the door, with a well-furnished waiting room inside.  There was a blue plush carpet, overstuffed chairs and glass tables.  Everything was expensive and tasteful. 

Getting accounts set up took only a matter of minutes.  The account executives were polite and eager to set up corporate accounts for First Principles, Inc, with Lujayne Orzo, junior captain, acting as company representative, as well as personal accounts for herself and the two crewmembers with her. 

“And just remember, ma’am,” the executive reminded her, as she was submitting fingerprint, DNA, retinal and voice scans for security identification.  “When and if other members of your company come here to Ulla-tran to conduct business, you just need to come and add them to the account.  If they bring with them other members of the company staff, we can add them as well.  I know it’s inconvenient, but for the security of our clients, we do require that they physically bring new members into one of our locations, either this one here on the orbital, the one on the fueling station across the system, or the other locations down on the surface of the planet.”

“I understand,” Lujayne replied.  The executive stuck out her hand and Lujayne shook it. 

“We do appreciate your business and I look forward to helping you in any way that I can in the future,” the executive gushed.  It was all Lujayne could do not to gag.  She was projecting this air of wanting to serve, of wanting to help, but it didn’t quite cover her inner core of disdain.  Looking at a ship captain and two of her crew in unfamiliar shipsuits, little more than common dockworkers.  Of course, she
did
have money, and with the promise of more coming in, which was something that few banking professionals would ever want to turn away.

“Thank you for your time,” the freighter captain said, nodding once more.  The others thanked her as well, and then they all turned and trooped out of the bank and back out into the station proper.  “Now, we need to get back to the ship.  I have people coming to pick up our cargo and
then
we’re going to have to come back out and try and find a shipment.”

“You were saying something about finding something local, Captain,” Huznall reminded her as they walked.  Her pointed legs clicked on the metal deckplates.

“Yeah,” she replied.  “There was a load of foodstuffs and medical supplies that need to be delivered to the shipyard.”  They turned a corner, heading for one of the turbolifts.  Lujayne noted that this orbital station seemed to be a lot less pleasant to look at than the one back home.  She was no engineer, but she could tell that the one back home had received quite a bit of maintenance and repair.  Here, there were corroded panels, some of the floors seemed dirty, edges of the bulkheads had dirt and collections of assorted crud.  There was also a faint, but distinct smell inside the turbolifts.  Level six, thankfully, seemed to be free of the stink, probably due to the businesses that resided there, as well as the amount of money that was thrown around by people and businesses on this level.  However, it was still as dirty and damaged as the rest of the place.  So it seemed that anyone who had spare parts to sell was doing so.  Which would explain why the two convoys of freighters that came from this system had loaded up on as many machine parts, electronics and other tech toys as they could stuff into their holds as possible.

She and her small group hustled back to the docking level as fast as they could, making it back only minutes before Lujayne’s expected buyer arrived.  She only had time to fix her hair, freshen up a bit and throw on a clean shipsuit before the buyers arrived.  She was just stepping off the ladder into the main cargo hold just as Ernie sent her a comm message from the dock.

“Captain, I’ve got a pair of people here to see you.  One of them is in a suit, the other in coveralls.  The guy in coveralls looks like a mechanic or technician.  The guy in the suit claims that he’s with the station engineers.  That isn’t who you were expecting was it?”

“No, but I’m on my way.  Be right there.”  Thirty seconds later, she hustled through the main hold to the forward cargo lock where Ernie was waiting for her.  As he’d said, there were two men waiting there with him.  The main lock was closed, but the small forward passenger lock door was opened and Lujayne stepped out. 

Lujayne gave a winning smile and stepped toward the pair, extending her hand.  The man in coveralls moved first, giving her hand a firm shake, but not crushing.  His hand was calloused, and it was clear he wasn’t playing any strength games.  “Good afternoon, gentlemen.  I’m Captain Orzo.  It’s good to meet you.”

“Filio Non,” the man in coveralls replied, his voice surprising in that it was higher that she’d expected.  He nodded at her and they released their grip. 

She turned to the other man, who gave her a very limp and sweaty handshake, barely putting his fingers into her grip.  “Salan Takaanios,” the man said, his very nasal voice nearly causing her to wince.  “We are here on behalf of the station government.  I understand you have a cargo of machine parts for sale?”

Lujayne blinked.  “Yes, I do,” she said, nodding slightly.  “I just posted it on the station-net a few hours ago.  But you weren’t one of the ones who were showing interest on my cargo.”  No, the station government had said nothing in regards to her docking, aside from indicating how much the docking fees would be per day. 

“Not as such,” Takaanios admitted, looking slightly smug, “but depending on what you have here, we have greater need than any of the other bidders.”

She smiled at him, but caught a sour look on the face of Filio Non beside him.  Clearly this action wasn’t all that popular, at least not with Takaanios’s associate anyway.  “I understand, Mister Takaanios, but I already designated the sale to Hypatios Industries.”

“No, Captain, you haven’t,” Takaanios replied, a dangerous glint in his eyes, magnified by that smug smile.  “You’re going to sell that cargo to me.  And I’m going to pay you only sixty percent of what you’re expecting to get from Hypatios.”

Lujayne’s jaw dropped; she couldn’t help it.  She quickly recovered and she took a step back.  She could hear Ernie behind her, but she didn’t turn to look.  “I understand that you believe your need to be greater, Mister Takaanios,” she said carefully.  “But as I said, I already had this cargo spoken for.”

“And as
I
already told you,” he said, the smile getting larger, “You’re going to cancel that sale and sell to me.”

“That’s outrageous!” Ernie snapped.  “You have a station-net set up for trades.  You can’t just jump the queue and steal the cargo out from under another bidder.  Steal from
us
!”

“Captain, please calm your associate.”

Lujayne crossed her arms over her chest.  “No, I think my ‘associate’ is speaking sense.  I thank you for your interest, but I will not be selling to you, Mister Takaanios.”

The man scowled, while Filio Non continued to look as though he completely opposed the entire plan.  “You are making a mistake, Captain.”

“What the hell are
you
doing here, worm?” came a sharp voice from behind.  All eyes turned.  A hatchet-faced woman in a three thousand credit tailored dark colored suit angrily walked over to the edge of the dock.  She was accompanied by a shaggy, gray-furred lupusan in a white robe, as well as an aged zheen (whose carapace was , who was dressed in a white surcoat.

“This doesn’t concern you, Gabrielle,” the man replied.  “This is station business.”  He sounded both furious and tired now.

“No, this is you, trying to preempt one of my shipments of parts again,” the woman shot back.  She was carrying a leather attaché case, but she didn’t set it down when she put her hands angrily on her hips.  “And don’t start with any of that eminent domain bullshit.  This is piracy, plain and simple.”  Takaanios started to speak, but the woman cut him off.  “No, do not sully this poor woman’s ears with that filth spewing out of that hole in the front of your head,” she said, gesturing to Lujayne.  He looked stunned.  Filio was trying to hide a smile.

“You have no right to speak to me that way, Gabrielle,” he seethed.

But the woman, Gabrielle, shook her head.  “Don’t call my by my given name as though we were friends, worm,” she snapped.  “Now get out of here.  This young Captain and I have some business to attend to.”  She pointed one perfectly manicured finger in the direction of the main causeway.  It would be considered an imperious gesture, but the absolute venom in her gaze turned condescension to malice.  Takaanios stood there and fumed for a long moment.  But she lowered her hand and stepped past him, her two fellows moving to flank her, interposing themselves between their leader and the two men.

“Captain Orzo,” the woman said, extending that hand for her to shake.  Hesitantly, Lujayne took it and gave a firm handshake.  “I’m Gabrielle Detann, Vice President of Hypatios Industries.”  She pulled out an ID card and handed it over.  “Please, if you have a datapad, I ask that you confirm with the station-net.”  She clasped both hands on the handle of her briefcase while she waited.

Lujayne stuck the card in the reader which instantly linked up with the station-net.  Sure enough, a moment later, there she was: Detann, Gabrielle.  Age: 42 local years.  Occupation: Vice President, Hypatios Industries.  A host of other information also scrolled on the screen of the datapad, but Lujayne only skimmed it.  Lujayne felt a weight lifting from her shoulders.  This was the agent she was scheduled to meet with.  Whoever this other man was, well, he might be with the government, but the way this woman was treating him, Lujayne suspected something else. 

“Ms. Detann, it’s good to meet you,” Lujayne replied.  “I believe I have a cargo that you were interested in.”

“Hey, we were dealing here,” Takaanios said angrily.

Detann turned a withering gaze his way.  “Are you still here?”  He was angry but he couldn’t stand before that glare for long.  Eventually he snarled and turned away, stalking off.  Filio Non sighed, shrugged at Lujayne and the others, then followed along behind.

When he finally disappeared around a corner, Gabrielle turned back to the captain.  “I must apologize for that, Captain.  There are certain parties here on the orbital station and down on the planet that think they can speak for other parties, or even completely move in on other territory just because they have a certain name backing them.”