X Squared: Birth of a merchant prince (8) UPDATED

[FourFingers]

Part 1 Part 2
Part 3 Part 4
Part 5 Part 6
Part 7


next bit added below //////////////////////////////////////

Part 8

Lan told the autopilot on the captured Bayamon to dock at the Federal Argon Warf while he pulled his Discoverer towards the Trading station and asked permission to dock, allowing the autopilot to take care of it.

He proceeded to the back to check on Pisula who was still sleeping. Looking at her more closely he decided to call in a med team as she looked a little too lethargic to be able to make it to hospital by herself.

As the ship docked in the visitors docking bay he noticed a lot of activity taking place towards the rest area where all the hotels were located. There were a lot of med teams and station security visible, and also many spectators.

Lan tried to raise the hospital medical centre on the comms but was unable to get through for some reason. ‘Strange’ he thought as he tried again but failed to get through.
He decided to see if he could grab a passing medic from outside and get them to look at his Boron passenger.

Lan stepped outside on to the docking bay and homed in on a plump looking woman wearing the insignia of the medical team.
“Excuse me, I have an injured passenger who needs to be transferred to the hospital, I can’t seem to get through to the medical centre.” He explained.

The woman slowed down and looked at him, “yes, it has been very hectic since the explosion at the hotel and the comms are all clogged up. What’s wrong with your passenger?” She asked.

“She’s been in a fight with pirates and looks a little worst for wear; she’s Boron so I’m not sure what’s wrong with her,” replied Lan.

“Ok, we’ll take her in with the injured from the hotel,” the medic replied, calling one of her colleagues over who was pulling an antigrav stretcher.

They went into the Discoverer and returned a few mizuras later with the Boron being carried on the antigrav sled. The medics were taking readings with their sensor pads and one of them administered something through the Borons space suit.

“Your friend should be fine, some internal bruising and a fractured tentacle is all we can detect. You will have to leave your details and ship registration so we know who to contact,” the medic informed him.

“I don’t really know her, I picked her up when her ship was destroyed,” Lan said.

“I still need your details sir,” said the medic holding out the data pad.

Lan gave his details and watched as the medics joined the others taking the injured away. As he watched his eyes were drawn to one such injured being attended to by three medics. From what he could see the injured was a Teladi male, unconscious bleeding from several cuts across his face and neck with some sort of object embedded in his right shoulder.

Lan felt a strange sensation rising from his stomach which had nothing to do with the Cahoona burger he had eaten earlier. He had this vague feeling that the injured person was important in some way.
Shrugging of the strange sensation as nothing more then anxiety he decided to get some rest and then find out if those double crossing Teladi were still here and ring their necks.

Some stazuras later Lan found himself sitting in the ‘Queens Tentacles’ drinking an ale and cursing the Teladi in general. He’d spend a few fruitless stazuras trying to find out the whereabouts of the two Teladi who had tried to get him killed. There were many Teladi on this station and apparently lots of them called Harold and Henry.

The explosion at the nearby hotel had made things even more impossible to follow so he had given up on the whole idea.

Lan finished his ale and decided to actually try and make some credits, things had not gone as expected so far and he fervently hoped life would be much quieter.

He had made around 110k credits from selling the Bayamon and all its equipment, even managing to sell the units of spaceweed along with the spaceship. This gave him a decent amount of credits to start his trading career with.

Lan decided to carry out some ‘taxi’ work to extend his funds even more and since he had a maxed out Discoverer it should be easy to find passengers.
He checked the bulletin board to see if people had posted any requests and found one to his liking. Not a great deal of credits but the person only wanted to go to another station with in this sector so it would be quick an easy credits.

Lan contacted the person and gave his details and landing bay number. The Argon male identified himself as Larius Guill and wanted to travel to solar power plant alpha. He was willing to pay 3000 credits for passage.
Lan accepted the offer and in half a stazura had launched from the Argon trade station with Larius sitting in the co-pilot seat.

Larius didn’t really say much except for a few polite greetings and Lan didn’t bother to make further conversation.

After dropping of Larius at the solar power plant and collecting his pay Lan bought 40 units of energy cells at 11 credits each, a good price. He then decided to go to the cattle ranch as they always need energy.

After launching from the power plant Lan checked his HUD radar and monitored the ships heading for the cattle ranch. He tried calling up the trade section of the ranch but realised he didn’t have the relevant software.
“Damn, first thing I’m buying is a ‘trade extension’ program” Lan said to himself as he realised he could not access the cattle ranch resources section.

He noticed a Mercury class transport ship half way to the ranch. He had a feeling that the ship was packed to its bulkheads with energy cells and if he did not arrive before it then the demand for the energy cells will plummet.
The Mercury was much further ahead but moving at a speed of 50m/s, Lan put his Disco to full speed and shot towards the cattle ranch.

He easily caught up with the Mercury which was now 3km from the cattle ranch and cut across its front forcing the pilot to swerve and slow down. Lan cut his speed to around 70m/s and heard the comm chatter with a few obscenities from the Mercury pilot and smiled. He’d learnt that from Ryhan.

He docked the Disco into the cattle ranch and pulled up the trading index, the station was buying the energy cells at 20 credits. Lan smiled and sold his cargo of energy cells making a profit of 360 credits, practically nothing but it would buy a few ales.
As he watched the trade prices he saw the buying price of energy cells drop from 20 credits to 9 credits. “Guess the Mercury pilot was carrying energy cells after all,” Lan said as he grinned at himself.

He accessed the bulletin board to see if there were any taxi jobs going or similar type of work.
Unfortunately there was nothing of interest advertised so Lan decided to get that Trading extension. He launched from the cattle ranch and locked in the Argon equipment docks and engaged the autopilot.
‘This was more like it’ he thought, ‘the most he had to worry about was the odd spacefly deciding to kamikaze his shields.’

Lan walked off his Discoverer onto the docking bay of the Equipment dock and was amazed at the amount of technicians running around. The place seemed to be crawling with robots and engineers, which he supposed made sense.

There were plenty of other ships docked here and even another Discoverer which looked as ‘well used’ as his own. Lan headed over to the software upgrade section and waited for a technician to come over.

“Hello sir, may I be of service?” inquired a technician; he was average height, slightly stocky and had a friendly smile.

“Hi, I was after a trading system extension,” replied Lan, “That’s my ship over there on bay 17.”

“No problem sir, we’ll have one of our people fit the necessary software to your ship, it will take about 10 mizuras as we are quite busy,” answered the technician.

“Sure, I’ll be on the docking bay when your done,” Lan headed back towards his ship. On an impulse he changed direction and headed over to the other Discoverer and was checking out its weapons, he saw that it was fitted with alpha impulse ray emitters when some one behind him spoke.

“Can I help you? That’s my ship you’re scoping.” There was a tinge of suspicion in the voice.

Lan turned to face the voice and replied, “sorry I was checking your weapons layout as I have a Discoverer myself and am looking to upgrade it.”

The person in front of him was a tall Argon male, well built with an athletic look to him. He had short brown hair and chiselled features, dressed in pilots clothing. He had a slight frown on his face as he spoke.

“You a bounty hunter?” he asked

“No, nothing like that, I’m just taking my first steps on the trading ladder and already I’ve had a bad experience with pirates. Thought I should actually put some weapons on my ship, it’s at full speed but sometimes you just cant out run a fight,” explained Lan.

The pilot relaxed and said, “I understand exactly, I’m just starting out on a trading career too. My names Julian by the way,” he said holding out his hand.

“Lan, nice to meet you Julian,” said Lan shaking his hand. Lan had that strange sensation again, like at the trading centre. He mentally shook himself and said, “So you have anything lined up? I’ve been starting with ferrying people to different stations.”

“Actually I’ve been given a transporting job with Terracorps delivering computer components or such. Just came into upgrade cargo bay and get some engine tunings,” answered Julian.
“Maybe you should try Terracorps, see if they have other delivery requirements. Any way I better get going, don’t want to be late on my first job. Nice meeting you Lan, maybe bump into again.”

“You too Julian, thanks for the advice I might just do that,” Lan said as Julian climbed back into his Discoverer.

Lan headed back to his own ship and found the technician waiting.

“Its all been done sir, just need your payment and you’re set to go,” said the technician holding out the data pad.

Lan transferred the credits and boarded his ship. He pulled up the bulletin board and checked to see if anything worth while was on offer.
“Great!” Lan said out loud as he found someone who wanted to go to the Cahoona bakery in this sector and was willing to pay 2300 credits.

After the passenger had boarded, a Boron male he thought he could never be sure with the Borons, Lan asked for docking clearance and launched. He targeted the bakery and headed off towards it.

///////////////////////////////////////////////

The Boron introduced himself as Sisulam Po, a poet by profession who was to meet his partner at the Bakery.

“Boron find endless beauty in space, a timelessness which touches Boron soul,” Sisulam said, “I’ve heard pilots say that if you politely listen to the depths of space, the song of the universe can he heard.”

“Yes well I would imagine if you hang about long enough in deep space you would hear all manner of music not to mention voices,” Lan replied.

“Boron politely inquires if you do not find space to be a stimulating and enriching place?” asked Sisulam politely.

“Certainly been stimulated the last few days… I mean tazuras, PAC fire does that to a person and as for enriching, I’m working on that bit as we speak.” Lan answered.

The Boron nodded, “Yes, conversation is good place to start enrichment, Boron think you are wise.” Sisulam seemed to completely miss Lans light hearted banter and took his words literally.

Lan smiled at Sisulam as he couldn’t really think of anything to say to that and remained silent. The Cahoona bakery filled his view screen and he guided his Discoverer in line for docking, asked permission and followed the green lights into the station.

After collecting his payment and bidding his passenger good bye Lan decided to get something to eat and catch up on some sleep. His body ached with weariness and his mind was a little cloudy.

As he ate his Cahoona burger and Bofu slices Lan wondered how Ryhan was doing and what kind of fun he was having.


Ryhan lounged against his Discoverer, his arms folded and one leg bent back pushing against the hull of his ship as he waited for his passenger to turn up.
He was docked at a BioGass factory in ‘Farnhams Legend’ a sector controlled by pirate factions and known for its hi-tech criminals.

Hackers, Crackers, Cyberpunks, Virtual warriors and all the other technology related criminals could be found here. This was also the system for information as a lot of data passed through the virtual hands of the residents.
Ryhan had spent some time here when he needed a few things ‘taken off his record’ back at Home of Light. They were all mistakes anyhow and he didn’t want to bother the authorities with such minor matters when they were obviously busy with much more weighty problems.

Ryhan checked his time piece and found he was 20 mizuras early, “Might as well get something to remove the space dust from my throat,” he said as he headed toward one of the nearby bars.

He smiled to himself as he stepped into the ‘Black Code’ bar. Some mazuras back he had picked up 20 units of spaceweed and some Majaglit jewellery in a game of Pokir from a very unhappy Split.
That had been a tidy sum which unfortunately had to be paid to a very ‘insistent’ and dangerous Teladi who went by the name of ‘Breaker’ who Ryhan had the misfortune of being in debt to.

Ryhan took a table at the back which was shrouded in darkness near the booths where private conversations took place. He ordered some Space Fuel which was basically whisky but much stronger, only legal in Teladi and Pirate space.
He thought about lighting up some Spaceweed but didn’t think the Navy would appreciate him picking up their passenger while stoned.

Taking a sip of his drink, Ryhan settled in to wait allowing the noise and conversations to wash over him.

After a while his ears registered a conversation taking place in that hushed whisper which immediately identified it as something interesting. He couldn’t yet make out what was being said so filtered out the background noise and chatter while concentrating on that single conversation.
This skill was learned by all good pilots allowing them sort out the important incoming weapon fire from the back ground noise of engines, chatter, interference etc.

The conversation seemed to be taking place in a booth behind him between a Teladi and someone else. One of them was whispering some what loudly which Ryhan could make out but the other was harder to discern.

“You have informationsss? I wantss sship,” said the Teladi voice.

There was a short reply and some exchange which Ryhan couldn’t make out then the Teladi voice was raised.

“I’ am Yagoslas Oliloas Lussundrois VI and I will not be cheated.. Am too sssmart for that. You not take advantage of my need. There isss no need, wantss location of shipsss.”

Ryhan smiled to himself, ‘obviously not the smartest egg in the clutch, as he let the other person know he had need of what ever he was looking for.’

Ryhan began to lose interest and listened half concentrating as they were not talking about anything worthwhile.

He caught the words ‘Gunner’ and ‘Broken gate’ and something about Goners. Ryhan stopped listening and finished his drink.

He stood up and checked his time piece, “3 mizuras till my passenger is to meet me, might as well head back to my ship,” he said to himself and made his way out of the bar.

Ryhan headed over to his Discoverer and noticed some one waiting just infront of it. An Argon female who from the back brought a wide smile to his face.

She turned around with an annoyed look on her face, what Ryhan saw took his breath away, he just stopped and stared his mouth slightly open as his blood rushed from his heart to a different organ.

She was absolutely stunning!

“Please, if there is any higher power or being out there let her be my passenger,” he begged breathing slowly.

The woman turned on the spot looking left and right as if searching for someone. She was average height probably around 5’7, dark luxurious black hair reached halfway down her back and flicked about as she moved her head.
Her tight fitting travel clothes revealed a figure both curvaceous and lithe, projecting a sense of gracefulness about her movement.

As she turned her face towards his direction he realised he had never seen anyone so beautiful in his life. An oval shaped face with high cheekbones framed by her black hair looked out at him through eyes the colour of sapphires.

It was a few moments before Ryhan realised that she was looking at him, she was wearing an impatient frown and had her hands on her hips.

‘What would be perfect now is if someone started to hassle her, then he could step in and make a good impression,’ Ryhan thought as he looked around hopefully but with no luck.
“Never any scum around when you need them, but get caught with a card counter and they fall out the wood works,” Ryhan muttered under his breath.

He looked back at the woman and found her still staring at him impatiently but now had one eye brow raised and her arms crossed.

Ryhan walked over towards her thinking of what to say and how to start the conversation. He was about to make a witty remark about finding the most beautiful things in the unlikeliest places when she spoke before he could open his mouth.

“Well come on Pilot, I have to be in Argon Prime in a couple of stazuras,” with that she turned around and headed for his Discoverer.

Ryhan stood there a moment still about to speak when he suddenly broke into a grin, “Yes!” he said to himself as he realised she had to be his passenger.

He followed her towards his ship already planning his strategy for conquest; it should be easier as they would be in close quarters with only each other for conversation. ‘A few funny comments to make her feel at ease, some half compliments nothing direct so as not to make her feel uncomfortable, some innocuous questions leading on to more personal ones to let her feel comfortable talking then share something about myself possibly that time me and Lan escaped from those Split smugglers,’ Ryhan thought to himself.

He began grinning with anticipation as he walked into his ship behind his passenger. “Guess being in the Navy isn’t all bad” he said to himself as he took the pilots seat.

A few stazuras later the Discoverer exited the northern jump gate into Argon Prime and made its steady way towards the Trading station with a very frustrated and some what bemused Ryhan at its controls.

‘Nothing had worked!’ Ryhan thought annoyed, the whole trip and all he had learned was that her name was Merissa Larner and she was visiting friends on Argon Prime.
Every move he made had failed, actually that wasn’t true every move he was about to make was countered before he had opened his mouth.

To make matters worse she had asked random questions which led him to reveal far too much about himself then he would normally have.

“How long till we dock Ryhan?” Merrisa asked in a soft musical voice, turning around in the co-pilots seat.

“Just a few more mizuras,” he replied a little sulkily

Merrisa laughed out loud, a tinkling sound like bells which Ryhan at first had found enchanting but now found himself looking at her suspiciously, “What’s so funny?” he asked.

“Nothing Ryhan, I just remembered something. Watch out for that trade ship,” she replied her eyes twinkling.

Ryhan jerked his eyes back to the front viewer and sighed when he saw that the Mercury ship was over 3km away. She had a habit of doing that, it annoyed him greatly.

A thought came to him that made him feel better, “Lan should be here building his trading career. I haven’t seen him it nearly two days, we got a lot of drinking to catch up on.’ Ryhan smiled and looked forward to docking at the trading station.


Part 9

[pixel]

excellent, I like the way you are tying X2 into this

[FourFingers]

excellent, I like the way you are tying X2 into this

The original plot line is so basic i get the feeling that the real 'stuff' is going on elsewhere. Some of the things in the plot are a bit far fetched as the excellent 'x2 the spoof' thread shows so i thought i would intergrate it and offer some sort of explanation to some of the more glaring questions.

thanks.

[Moss]

I too think your tying this in very nicely with the games story line, seems likely to fill in some gaps that that story left out, which is very good, it sets the time frame very well for when things are happening in your story too. I do hope your story won't be too driven by that one tho, not that that appears to be the case at the moment.

Now hows that Tchak'ta doing? and when will Lan be meeting this psychic Paranid who might just teach him how to focus his abilities better than he currently does?

[pixel]

so where is the next bit, eh?!

[FourFingers]

so where is the next bit, eh?!

I might ask you the same question.... infact i think i will..

So where is the next bit of Prime Numbers, eh?!

I've been retiling the bathroom, thought it would be a quick job (too much home improvements programs ). Damn hassel!!

[pixel]

lol prime numbers eh?

Well, I have been thinking about the overall plot, I've felt a bit hemmed in by a slightly chaotic (read 'no') plan.

I have a few ideas that should open it up again but I really don't have the time at the moment, but

never give up, never surrender!

[anyone else like Galaxy Quest? ]

[Mercenary]

never give up, never surrender!

[anyone else like Galaxy Quest? ]

Yep always a good film to watch...

Now in the words of Monty Python, "Get on with it!"

[FourFingers]

never give up, never surrender!

[anyone else like Galaxy Quest? ]

Yep always a good film to watch...

Now in the words of Monty Python, "Get on with it!"

yea get on with it!

I've added a little bit more and will add the rest of it this evening.

[pixel]

ooooooohhh!

getting a bit racy

[vader146]

still going great keep up the good work

also is Galaxy Quest that sci-fi spoof movie?
if it is it's great

[pixel]

still going great keep up the good work

also is Galaxy Quest that sci-fi spoof movie?
if it is it's great

that's the one, where you can see sigourney weavers shiny red satin bra


eerrrm, not that that is why I like it

well, maybe partly

[FourFingers]

that's the one, where you can see sigourney weavers shiny red satin bra

eerrrm, not that that is why I like it

well, maybe partly

[FourFingers]

sorry about the delay there..
ive finished this update.

[KiwiNZ]

excellent, I like the way you are tying X2 into this

dito!

Very neatly tied into the game

I also like the description of Ryhan's journey, funny to read.

On to the next chapter me goes