Chapter 14. Carnival meeting.

Gorgon Von sevt Entered the cockpit. Thaum spun around in the captain's seat, "You can leave your help in the airlock."

Gorgon said, "I'm afraid I can't do that. Regulation and all."

Thaum smiled, "sure. Regulation." He stood up and walked past the new group, "girls, stay there. You with me." He grabbed Gorgon's overstuffed coat and half dragged him outside Alice's room. Ignoring the guard's protests. Only glancing at them when they raised their weapons.

He opened her room, and Gorgon gasped, "is that." Gorgon turned around and waved his men off. They lowered their guns. When the guards made to move towards the room, Gorgon closed the door himself, "you two get into the airlock. Noone but me enters this ship but me."

Thaum said, "glad you see it my way."

Gorgon smiled, "yes, of course. Now I will be right back. Have to make a call."

Gorgon came back five minutes later by himself this time. Thaum was leaning against the wall opposite Alice's room. Gorgon opened the door after glancing at Thaum and pulled out a scanner.

Thaum asked, "doesn't the station have better scanners than that little thing."

Gorgon replied, "yes, but I don't want that in the logs quite yet. Operational security and all. Can't have some group cobbling together a temporary pirate fleet if they catch wind of this. I've already made a call to the escorts. When they arrive, we can make the trade."

Thaum said, "you aren't going to buy it now."

"no. Regulation states that the purchase of such material must be done with propper escort. The rule was made after the Empire bought the same material several times. You can imagine how that happened. So we ask that you stay here for two days until we can make the trade. Is there anyt--"

Thaum interrupted, "so you will only trade with me when you have me surrounded and outgunned."

…

Gorgon shrugged, "well, that is one way to think about it, but it's the Empire. That is just how they do things."

Thaum sighed, "then if that is all you can do, get off my ship."

Gorgon put his hands up in a placating gesture, "Mr. James. I have yet to weigh the ore. Or take any more advanced scans. We could also bring a secure cargo container to safely store it on the station."

Thaum stopped leaning and stood well within Gorgon's personal space, "the trade will happen in two days like you said. When and only when the credits are in my account will the ore leave this room. Or have a playdate with anyone. Now get the fuck off my ship because I won't ask a third time."

Gorgon looked ready to argue. Thaums' hand hovering over his laser pistol convinced him otherwise. However, he did remind Thaum that Appolimus is a controlled material and could only be sold to the Empire.

Thaum stomped back into the cockpit. He dropped the galactic net terminal in Alice's lap, "Ellora, you are flying. Alice, I want you to look up everyone who has sold Appolimus."

Ellora jumped into a seat. Hitting several buttons starting the engines. She shot back, "what is the problem."

Alice asked, "shouldn't we be selling the ore by now?"

Thaum glared at her, "Take Ellora as an example; she does what she is told first then asks the questions not before. Get on with it."

"ready," said Ellora, "so what is the problem."

Thaum sat down in the captain's seat, "something feels wrong. Somethings off. I know a shady bureaucrat when I see one. And I definitely know when I'm being boxed in.--"

Alice said, "I've finished making a list of all the Appolimus sales. What details do you want to kno--"

Thaum said, "already? How many are there."

"in the last 20 years, 42."

Thaum wondered aloud, "and its main use is warp drives right."

Alice answered, "yes, a small amount is used in each drive. However, it is used in specialty manufacturing machinery almost just as much. Although it doesn't say what specialty means in this case."

Thaums gut feeling of wrongness just went up several degrees. He said, "hold on for a moment. Let me think." He closed his eyes and threw out a short-range Appolimus search spell. It picked up a large chunk in Alices room, the ore, and a tiny sliver in the ship's core.

It was a truly tiny amount. The ore was thousands of times more by mass, if not tens of thousands; the spell didn't include any of the impurities in the ore, so the math didn't add up.

The feeling of wrongness jumped straight past suspicion to certainty. An old saying came to Thaums mind, "either you proclaim and show everyone you killed the Dragon. Or you and the Dragon killed each other." Thaum cursed, "fuck. The numbers don't add up. Each warp drive only uses a tiny amount of Appolimus per ship. But the supply obviously doesn't match the output. Where did you get that information.?"

Alice tapped a few keys, "well first I just searched it up. The Empire keeps open records of where it's found in case someone figures out a method of calculating where new deposits would likely be. However, After all the studying of Appolimus you had me do, I think you are right. The records don't match up to production.

I've cross-checked it with the Empire's shipyards. That isn't public record, but you can figure out when an Appolimus vein is found because all the hibernating wartime ship factories come online. Again, cross-checked by open tax records of the Averim company. They are a small, mostly Empire-funded repair and maintenance company for high-end machinery. So whenever those factories come out of hibernation, this company's workmen hours triples for seemingly no reason. Which is always perfectly in line with a massive influx of warp drives being built.

I've also started checking complaints on the regular shipyards websites. When you order a warp drive for your new ship; you get put on a waiting list. There are lots of results for keywords like late and such. But after the Averim company starts working those extra hours, results for those complaints after those dates are practically gone. For a while at least."

… Thaum said, "wow, you're quite good with that thing."

Alice smiled, "of course, I practically bet my life to even use this thing. I practiced on the Osirus 3 only systems for years before I even dared to touch this thing. So I AM good at it."

Thaum went to touch his nonexistent beard and thoughtfully said, "well. If that is what you want to specialize in. Then you can have that terminal. Remind me to get you some hacking abilities because my host is decades out of date and wasn't really good at it either. Nor do I think it's a good use of my time."

Ellora cut in, "that fine and all, but what does that mean for us. If the Empire uses more Appolimus than it's buying, doesn't that just mean they are finding it themselves? There are Empire-run mining companies after all. I doubt the Empire sells to itself."

Alice said, "The number of times those hibernating ship factories came online in those same 20 years was 86. Not 42, so unless the Empire mining companies are twice as effective at finding the stuff…"

Thaum chuckled, "so we have a fifty-fifty chance of disappearing instead of being paid."

Alice jumped up, "dissapearing!"

Thaum raised a brow, "it's not that surprising. I'd be more surprised if nothing shady was going on. Ellora said it herself that you could buy a small world with this amount of money." Thaum paused, "Although I must admit, fifty fifty is a little surprising even to me."

Alice asked, "so is there any way to tell what they're gonna do. Because we can always dump the cargo and leave."

"Dump the cargo. Are you nuts!" Ellora screeched.

Thaum said, "We aren't doing that, but there is a good way to find out their intentions. Liftoff and move to the blast doors."

Ellora sat back down and grabbed the controls. The ship lifted off and flew the short distance to the station's airlock.

She sent the exit request, but the blast doors remained still. She sent it again. Thaum said, "well, there is our answer."

A video call came in. Thaum waited half a minute and had Ellora send a dozen more exit requests before he answered. "Station head, your doors are taking captives now."

Gorgon put his hands up, "no, no. Of course not. I just want us to complete the transaction before you leave. It is dangerous to fly around with such valuable cargo after all."

Thaum sneered, "so I'm captive for days until your escort arrives. I'll pass. Ellora, power up weapons, and you Gorgon Von sevt; open the doors." Thaum disconnected the call and waited.

Video call requests kept coming in.

Thaum gave a thin smile and said, "fire secondary weapons at the blast doors."

Ellora sent Thaum a wide-eyed look, "seriously?"

Thaum said, "they are station blast doors. Our secondary weapons won't do much damage. But if they keep them closed, our primary ones will."

Thaum took control of the weapons from his console and fired. The ship vibrated faintly. A stream of explosive rounds sputtered against the blast doors. Only fist-sized craters and black scorch marks were left on the door.

The ship shuddered slightly. The cockpit flashed red. [ship under fire minor damage detected]

Thaum glanced at the docking bay's interior turrets. They had already stopped firing. Which Thaum appreciated. However, the doors remained closed. There was a constant ping of communication requests in the corner of the cockpit screen. Thaum ignored it.

'Fine' he thought. He went through several menus and had the main gun overloading slightly. The bastard wouldn't even need sensors to tell him the main gun was ready. You could see the plasma glow.

Everyone who came out to see the commotion made a mad rush back into the station. Trying to put as many walls between them and a possible hull breach. The ship captain might not fire on spectators, but the vacuum of space won't discriminate.

The blast doors finally began opening. Thaum cracked a smile and had Ellora pilot the ship into the airlock.

The doors closed behind them. Thaum briefly wondered if Gorgon would delay opening the other side, but sensor readings showed the outside pressure lowering and the outside doors opened shortly after.

Thaum had Ellora pilot the ship a few dozen kilometers away before taking the call. The image of Gorgon came on screen. Thaum said, "I'll wait here for 2 days to make the trade." then cut the call off.

He stretched and started flicking through menus, finding the show he was currently binging. Ellora asked, "so what now. And what am I going to tell my crew."

Alice added, "we would be lucky if the Empire escort ships don't fire on us immediately."

Thaum shrugged, "first, I don't care what you tell your crew. And no, they won't fire on us while we have the cargo onboard. So just relax."

Thaum looked to Alice, "Actually if you really want to help, you can figure out a bank account setup the Empire can't touch. Don't trust the king's bank, so to speak."

Alice sighed then tapped away on the galactic net console. Ellora came up behind his seat, "so what am I supposed to do."

He raised a brow, "you want me to give you something to do."

She ran her fingers through her hair, then grabbed a handful, "for fucks sake, yes. I'm so damn close to changing everything. With that much money, my crew can pay off our debts from buying out the mining ships.

There would even be enough left over to retire to a low tier world and live just short of nobility.

We could retire on a mid-tier world if we don't sell our ships and mined for a decade. I could even return home early. Retire. Travel, whatever."

Thaum smiled, "ahh, so you want me to quietly hand over the ore to the station and wait for the escort to pay us."

Alice looked up from her console. Ellora slumped down, using his chair as a support, "ye-- I mean no… I'll admit I there is a part of me that doesn't want to take any risks with this, hopes that they play nice." She caressed her mechanical arm, "but I know how fucked up things can get… You know what you're doing, right?"

Thaum paused his show. He looked her straight into the eyes with an all to happy grin, "yes. They play nice or else."

Ellora threw up her hands, "great. We're dead."

Thaum chuckled then said, "go take readings on how much we have exactly."

Ellora replied, "I already have twice. 17.7343 kilograms."

Thaum said, "have you double-checked it. With multiple devices. With multiple methods.

Do that, then use the replicator to box it up in something we can eject from the airlock without problems."

She raised a brow. He asked before she could question it, "have you ever seen a hostage exchange."

…

Thaum shrugged and went back to watching his show. Ellora went to package and triple-check her readings. Alice continued her research about which banks the Empire had the least influence on.