Spending some money
18 Dec 2020Teafox
So, as many things do in this galaxy, it comes down to money and not quite having enough for what you need.As the Shifnalport rep from the Brewer's corporation pointed out, that it's not just the initial purchase price you need to be concerned with, that just gets you a giant floating platform with basic functions and crew. Honestly, used ship salesmen are all the same when you get down to it. If you actually need a fleet carrier, that's one thing. If you want to have the staff and facilities to use it for more than a giant, mobile hangar, maybe make some money with it? Well then, step right this way, sir, and lets talk about the optional extras.
And then there's the cost of paying all of that crew too. Which, considering how many there are, seems oddly reasonable, all things considered. Not cheap, but considering how many people must crew one of these vessels? He made a joke about using imperial slaves when I asked. Having known a few indentured imperials, I found it rather less funny than he did. My attempts at negotiating a better price worked about as well as his efforts at trying to convince either of us that they're not using refurbished parts. Any fool could spot a half dozen carriers being decommissioned and dismantled in the system, and for heaven's sake, the carrier in the construction bay has two nameplates on it already, with different names on them.
But, we knew already that our, well, my finances can't quite handle this yet. I had hoped that the market for Diamonds and Opals would recover better than they did. I guess with all of the noise about the NMLA and concerns about battle lines being drawn, fewer people are interested in sparkly rocks in general. Some other ores are still reasonably valuable, even if I'm a little out of practice on recognizing core asteroids in rocky and metallic belts. But it's still going to be a lot of rock to get enough to pay for the ship, crew and, perhaps most importantly, fuel.
If we're going to be dead in the water? Well, that's pretty much going to just trim nicely down to dead. The federation is already eyeing up the Alliance, trying to undercut it's industry and ability to manufacture a fleet. With the potential of a purchase of Lakon by Core Dynamics, the alliance would have to purchase the ships it needs from the Feds, and that'd be the first big step towards being absorbed into it's neighbor. For now, however? Well, being a construction site for capita class ships, the whole Diso system is as secure as Alliance systems get. Better yet, since we're flying Mahon colors, we're rather more welcome here than the imperial courier we saw land. I imagine the locals take a rather dim view of federation ships as well.
With this in mind, we take a little time for some R&R whilst we plan our next steps. Mining is the obvious means of raising money, but perhaps not the fastest in the current climate. All of the major governments are offering subsidies on bounty payouts, but honestly, that could just be inviting more trouble than we can handle. Betancourt base is still offering good money for cartographic data, that's an option and the kid seems keen. Lots of advantages if we want to get out from under foot of the major powers too. Then there's always the most public secret money earner in the galaxy; running passengers out of Robigo for the Sirrius corporation. Why does it pay so well? Who knows? But then again, business meetings in station facilities have to be recorded for legal purposes. Can you imagine perhaps how useful it could be to have a small group of people together on, say, a tourist trip? Even if it's a short trip, I imagine more than one high powered but not entirely legal business deal has been signed in the back of a space ship. Heck, probably one or two in the back of my space ship... I've done the Robigo run on more than one occasion.
Checking in with galactic cartographics seems to suggest that the Robigo system has undergone some kind of local disaster. Do they need deliveries of food and water? Yes. High speed passenger shuttle service? Not so much.
Probably mining again, then. We're both a little worn out from just money earning. Neither of us is totally enthusiastic about immediately running back out into the black. The kid looks like he wants to ask if we can spend more time in... Well, anywhere but the ship, the docking bay, or the pilots facilities. I felt myself checking the monitor in my suit. "You know, we're going to have to clean these things out soon. They can only self clean for so long."
He looked at me, clearly seeing that I was leading up to something. "I mean, we could sluice 'em out on our way somewhere." I tried not to grin. "But you know? A big station like this does have laundry and leisure facilities."
I wasn't sure what they'd have, usually there would at least be a garden area, but who knows? Maybe there's enough spin for them to have an artificial beach, or some local tourist trap type of thing. At very least, civilian clothes for a few hours, actual skin contact with less recycled air and even a real bed with more than micro gravity. Hoarding wealth be damned for a bit, lets have some down time.