Shadow Space Chronicles 1: The Fallen Race (7 page)

“
You should.  The Liberals also believe in a stronger military and increased foreign policy.  In short, we believe that Faraday cannot stay on the fringe, alone and without allies for long.”

“
And the Conservatives?”

“
They like the status quo,” the Contractor grimaced, “I would call some of their factories slavery, but at least a master cares for his slaves somewhat.  The Conservatives control much of the industry, and they view the refugee populace as a resource to be used.”

“
I see.” Lucius frowned, “So not only will I be representing something they won’t like, that being a strong foreigner, but I’ll also have to purchase things from them?”

“
Yes.”

“
Well, thank you for the warning.”

“
You still wish to tie your future to Faraday?” The Contractor looked surprised.

“
Madam, I’ve seen worse systems.  Frankly, some of Nova Roma’s frontier worlds were… worse in a way.  And if my presence causes the corrupt here discomfort, maybe even a loss of political power…” Lucius grinned, “So much the better.”

“
Well…” She cocked her head in surprise, “In that case,” She rose offering her hand, “I’m Kate Bueller, and I have to ask… are you
that
Lucius Giovanni?”

***

“
So, Captain, is this payment satisfactory?”

Lucius looked up from the paper at the monitor, “Most satisfactory.  There remains only one other thing I’d like to ask.  As you have no doubt read, both my ships are low on crew.  I wonder if you would allow me to send out recruiters.”

The Contractor’s face grew cold.  “There will be no drafting of our populace.”

Lucius shook his head.  “We’d like to sign up some of your people voluntarily.  We will sign them up only for the length of the contract and any who stay aboard longer than that will be purely voluntary as well.”

The Contractor nodded.  “Faraday was founded as an isolationist colony, you understand, so if I took any direct action in assisting young people to foreign ideas, it could mean my job.”  She frowned, “However, you would do good to buy some airtime on the radio, or on holovideo, and you can probably get a number of recruits.”  Lucius nodded.  “And Captain, do you think that different sexes as well as races would be a good idea?”

Lucius thought for a moment.  “Yes, that probably would be a good idea.”  Lucius typed a reminder to himself on his console.  The Nova Roma Fleet’s rather homogenized enlisted ranks consisted entirely of human men.  It did have some, albeit few, female officers.  Lucius had served under a female commander aboard the
War Shrike
, before he became Captain.

“
There is one other thing…” Lucius said, somewhat hesitantly.

“
Yes?” Kate Bueller said.

“
I wonder, madam Contractor, if your world has… currency speculators.”

She frowned, “Unfortunately so.  They’re a persistent pest and they’ve caused devaluation of the Faraday dollar several times.”

“I wonder if you’ve let the knowledge of the fall of Nova Roma out yet?” Lucius asked.

“
I’ve kept that pretty close, for now.  That kind of knowledge can have—oh.”  She narrowed her eyes, “You want me to point you to some currency speculators to get rid of some Drachma?”

Lucius shrugged, “I’d assume, seeing as the Conservatives are very strong in the economics of your world, they would logically have their hand in currency speculation.”

“A safe assumption,” She growled.

“
What hurts them economically…”

“
You’re talking about what’s essentially a confidence scam, you know?”

“
I prefer to think of it as turn-about.  I have just under fifty thousand Drachma of ships funds in hard currency, and my crew has around the same in personal funds.”

“
You’ll be lucky to get sixty percent of its worth,” she cautioned

“
It’s worth nothing now.  I might as well vent it out the airlock.  But if I sell it to the currency speculators, who don’t know of the fall of Nova Roma yet…”

“
What you’re proposing is illegal and immoral.” She said, her voice stern.  The edges of her mouth however, curled upwards slightly, “I’ll see what I can do to help.”

“
Thank you Contractor,
War Shrike
out.”

***

“
Strike Leader Maygar,” Lucius bowed slightly.  “I hear you wanted to see me.”

The Ghornath nodded, slightly, “I must yield command of the
Gebneyr
to Burbeg.”

“
I see.” Lucius frowned, “Have I caused you some insult?”

“
No.” The old alien’s hide rapidly shifted through colors, returning to a neutral brown.  “I cannot say why I must leave, only that it comes at the urgings of Fleet Consul Faydeb.”  The Ghornath paused, “He has allowed you the loan of the
Gebneyr
for now, pending its return and a suitable payment at a later date.”

“
Ah.” Lucius said.  “That payment would be what?”

“
It remains to be determined.” Maygar said.  “He has, provisionally, promoted Burbeg to Leader rank, your equivalent to Commander, I believe.”

“
Yes, close enough.” Lucius said, frowning.  “I must ask, do the Ghornath possess shipyards?”

“
I think, Baron, we should not discuss this, right now,” Strike Leader Maygar said.

“
Ah.”  Lucius frowned.  “Will you need money for passage?”

“
An… agent has arranged for our passage off-world.  There is a merchant vessel headed towards Anvil.  We will not need currency.”  The alien turned to depart.  He stopped.  “Thank you, Lucius, for repaying my actions with honor.  I hope, one day soon, we can work together.”

“
But first you need to get Fleet Consul Faydeb back to Ghornath high command?”

The alien’s hide briefly turned a pale tan shade that Lucius guessed meant surprise, “As humans say: no comment.”

“Thank you for your help, Strike Leader.  Best of luck with your journey.” Lucius said.

“
And yours.  I think yours will be the more difficult.”

***

August 17, 2406

Faraday System

Unclaimed Space

Lucius had several plans for the refit and repairs aboard his two vessels.  The cost for both was a minor problem, at least, until the next month's payments arrived from the planet.  Currency differed from planet to planet, which meant that the pay Lucius’s ships received wasn’t worth the plastic it was on, unless he spent it on Faraday or converted it to Republic Denari.

The first payment and the currency exchange had given him some money to work with, which allowed him to pay his men and he had to initiate the sign-up bonus for the new recruits and fund the new training program.  After that, there remained a tidy sum left over that he could address to his own plans and to initiate repairs of his ships.

Despite the hard work of his crew, both human and Ghornath, he had been unable to repair some very sensitive and extremely necessary machinery.  The Ghornath communications nodule was now structurally sound, but many of the communications systems required a large industrial base to even contemplate production.  The
War Shrike
desperately needed a new sensor computer, equipment for his port sensor tower, and machinery in the refueling gantry.  He also needed fighters.  The machine shops and fabrication units aboard the ship could produce those.  He would rather give his personnel shore leave and, far more importantly, training.  He thought it would be easier and cheaper to hire out the contract. Lucius found a contracting firm that he thought wouldn't screw him too badly on price, and moved on.

And, after all those costs, Lucius could look at the remaining money, and seriously hope that banks lent credit to foreigners.

Of course they didn’t.

So Lucius had to turn to other means.  He couldn’t afford to buy a respectable, or even a semi-respectable business firm, so he looked for a firm on the verge of bankruptcy.  He found a number of those, some owned by embezzling cretins and others by the bigger corporations who used them as tax write-offs.  Then Lucius found the perfect one. 

Matthew Nogita's father was a trained engineer from Tau Ceti.  His father had immigrated to Faraday and taken a job at one of the larger companies.  He'd been skilled enough at his job and apparently impressive enough a human being that he married into the family, which made his son a citizen, although something of a societal outcast.  Young Matthew Nogita had taken some of his father's ideas and started up a firm of his own.  The competition had disliked both his entrepreneurial enterprise and his pedigree and had done everything they could to destroy him... but he had still managed to scrape by, working niche jobs that the bigger companies couldn't compete with.

It took Lucius a few days to arrange a meeting, but they finally had begun to discuss the contract... and what Lucius wanted to do.

“It’s very simple, I supply some cash, some machinery, and some designs, and you run the business and build the craft.”  Lucius explained to him.  “I won’t own the business, but I will be an investor.  You can buy me out when you get the funds.”

Nogita looked down at the documents before him.  “I don’t mind taking the money you offer to buy the business, but, well, I don’t see how you’ll make any money building ships and selling them to yourself.”

Lucius sighed.  “Look, here, at this engine,” he pulled up the schematics on the display.  The secret stamps all across it would have made showing it to a foreign civilian treason, if the Nova Roma Empire had still existed.  “This engine can attain accelerations twice that in your military craft, right?”  Nogita nodded dubiously.  “Well look at it this way, here on Faraday there is a very large market for race craft, right?”  Again the nod, “Now what if we started putting these engines or worked down versions of these engines into some racing hulls?”

Nogita’s eyes widened, “Racers would pay anything for those engines, they can afford to anyway.  Why, we would be able to charge whatever we wanted!”

Lucius nodded.  “As long as you register these patents, the engine–and the profits—are yours… and mine.  The money we earn on the racers will easily cover the cost of the fighters.  So, do we have an agreement?”

Nogita frowned, “You know, here on Faraday, I could take your money, sign that paper, and if I blew you off, you wouldn’t be able to do anything legally, right?”

“True.  If a man dishonest enough to do that did so, it might be wise to remember who has a bunch of Marines willing to break things,” Lucius said.

Nogita smiled, “Just warning you.  I’ve seen too many people taken advantage of.”

“You’re my insurance against that.”

The man nodded.  “Yeah, boss, we have a deal.”

***

August 30, 2406

Faraday System

Unclaimed Space

Lucius shook hands with Matthew Nogita and nodded acknowledgement to James Harbach.  The older engineer hadn't even bothered to hide his bitterness with Lucius.  Even so, Harbach knew he had it about as good as he could expect, given the circumstances.

The office held a startling quantity of print-outs, hand drawn sketches, and scribbled columns of figures scrawled on scraps of paper.

Lucius looked in vain for an empty chair to sit in, then gave it up as futile, "So what's today's crisis?"  The workshop and trial runs had gone successfully, but he'd received numerous calls from both engineers about a number of matters.

"We're screwed," Mathew Nogita said.

"There's no way we can finish the ships under construction, much less all the orders we've received," James said.  He seemed almost jovial in that news.  He wiggled his hands back and forth.

Lucius looked between the two.  "Explain."

Nogita spoke, "Someone bought up all the palladium, boss.  We need the paladium for the drives."

"Palladium?" Lucius asked.

"Palladium," Jimmy Wiggles said, and his voice dropped into his toneless lecture mode, "It is a metal of the platinum group, used most commonly in industrial applications for its properties to absorb and hold hydrogen--"

Lucius scowled, "I know what palladium is
. 
Why can't we buy more?"

"That's just it, boss."  Matthew Nogita shrugged, "Someone bought it all.  Every ounce of it available in the star system."

"Every ounce?" Lucius shook his head, "There are mines, right?  I know for certain the planet has some merchant traffic and a little bit of orbital mining going on too, what about that?"

"There's not a huge trade in it," Nogita shrugged, "The little bit of mining taking place was enough for the small amount of new construction.  And most of those constructions don't need nearly as much palladium as your drive does."