Anomalous Cargo - Chapter 6

[Fhg#1893]

Anomalous Cargo - Chapter 6

Teladi space stations, especially shipyards, seemed to epitomize chaos, and the one in Ianamus Zura was no exception. Most of the shipyard was accessible to all races, but Tred actually had to crawl to get through the hatch and into the shipyard's repair shop. Though it wasn't really a repair shop, more of a enormous conglomeration of spare parts, several partially completed ships, random diagnostic equipment from all the major races, and various repair machines, many of which looked like they hadn't been used in well over ten jazuras. Tred briefly toyed with the idea that some sort of crazed trader had gathering up all of the cast off junk that came from the Boron, the Paranid, the Split and the Argon, that he could possibly find. Then he crashed his ship into a small asteroid, hopelessly mixing and combining the various detritus into an even more unrecognizable mass of twisted metal, when the asteroid collided with this shipyard, somehow having managed to aquire all the necessary parts to assemble a fully functional Xenon J with full fighter compliment along the way, if only one could figure out how to put it together, and what Tred was seeing caused him to think that the Teladi had tried to do so.

A diminutive Teladi was examining Pride of Decker, and occasionally making notes on a datapad. She loudly clicked her tongue several times, a mannerism that Tred could only conclude meant that the creature was going to make a substantial profit. She was small even by Teladi standards, and only came up to Tred's mid-thigh. But she somehow managed to run the shipyard repair facility in Ianamus Zura, which meant that she was at least very competent, or very shrewd, probably both.

At the moment the small lizard-alien was considering what Tred could only guess was some sort of diagnostic tool which was plugged into his ship's external port. Tred could only guess at the meaning of the queer alien symbols displayed on the datapad, but whatever they meant, the creature examining them seemed to be able to understand them, and they painted a grim picture.

"You ssshould sssell ssship. Sssplit technology expensssive... Difficult to repair." All Teladi repair contract negotiations seemed to start in this fashion. It didn't even matter if you brought in a Teladi ship, the Teladi would start by trying to buy whatever a pilot happened to be flying, so that they could gut the ship's useful components and assemble them into something more profitable. Since this was almost always easier and more profitable for the Teladi than simply repairing the ship, it had become their preferred tactic. Indeed, the various machines in the shop existed more to convince customers to trust the word of the mechanic and sell a damaged ship, rather than repair one. Though, if a pilot fought long and hard enough the Teladi could be convinced to repair the ship if one had sufficient capitol, which put Tred into a very difficult position, since he had little to spare.

Normally Tred would have preffered to go to an Argon shipyard for repairs, and there was even one relatively close by in Light of Heart, but Pride of Decker had taken serious damage, and then been forced to travel through another six sector. After making delivery, there was no way he could justify risking the trip to Light of Heart, not when Ianamus Zura was so much closer.

"You sssell ssship. I pay you one hundred fifty thousssand creditsss."

At least she was direct.

"How much to repair?"

"Ssship not worth repair. Ssship cost too much to repair, and take too long. You sssell ssship."

"I said, how much to repair?"

There was a long uncomfortable silence as two yellow-orange eyes looked up at him very carefully.

"Ssseventy-five thousssand."

This was why Tred hated Teladi repairs. An Argon or Boron station probably would have charged him only fifty or sixty thousand, but Tred was in a bind.

"That's crazy!" He retorted. "You can fix it for sixty thousand!"

"Not crazy! Reactor damaged! Needsss new ssspacefliesss! Very expensssive! Need new guidance sssyssstem! Cossst you ssseventy-five thousssand. You sssell ssship. Give you one hundred and fifty-five thousssand."

"I can't sell her. You can fix it for sixty five thousand."

"No. Ssspacefliesss cossst much. You maybe take to Sssplit? Get better price? I underssstand, but nearessst Sssplit repair ssstation isss in Chosss defeat, eight sssectors away plusss fly through Xenon territory. You not sssurvive trip through Xenon territory in such small ship! Enginesss ssstop after maybe three, four sssectorsss, and ssship is worthlesssss. I can
fix for ssseventy-three thousssand, no lessss."

"How long?"

"It will take time... Maybe five, sssix tazurasss."

Tred sighed. There could be no saving his ship now. "Fine, I'll sell. Two hundred thousand."

The Teladi feigned outrage, but this was the sort of negotiation she preferred. They eventually settled on a price of one hundred and eighty one thousand credits. With his pay that left Tred with about two hundred
and fifty thousand credits in his account, but he was also out of business.

He could have easily acquired an M5 ship, but had he been flying an M5 when he encountered the Khaak, he'd presently be little more than an interesting cloud of dust and particles. It was this liability that made clients weary of couriers using M5s. If Tred bought one, he would only be able to secure contracts for relatively safe cargo, and that meant less money. A lot less money.

There was no escaping it. While he did have a lot of money for the time being, Tred Decker was out of business and stranded in alien territory.

[SOTS]

Besta luck to him!

I'm really getting into this, now. Looking forward to the next chapter!

[collins50]

A good one, Keep em comming.
Thank you for the entertainment.

[Syndrome]

Good stuff

[Argon-419]

Love it! Keep up the good work!

[blue fox]

Very enteresting story.

I assume the anomulus cargo was drop off between Hatikula's Faith and Iuamas Zura at Ceo's Doubt. You went from one sector to the other sector with no mention of his contracted delivery or how that fared. though there is some illusion to it at end of chapter 6.

[Fhg#1893]

Go here: http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=182696
for the Chapter where Tred makes his pickup.