13 Eamis 1117: Mupikaa – Tlianke/Hinterworlds – (1337 A426588-A NI 903 Na M2 V)
I got up early and headed downstairs to the hotel bar this morning. They weren’t serving alcohol yet, for some reason, but I got a coffee bulb and some tuber cakes, then started some research.
I filled a good chunk of our cargo space yesterday with tubers and tuber sprouts. No, we wouldn’t be making a lot of credits from those, but it would be a good long-term investment. But I had several dozen tons of space yet to fill, so I started looking.
Most of the exports here were raw minerals and foodstuffs, which I already had. I was looking for that odd cargo that someone had to abandon here that I could flip at Drosyodryu. I wasn’t desperate, so I wasn’t about to grab onto a cargo from someone who was. But, a few cargo lots had been left here in the past, so I went through them.
I found a lot of entertainment systems that had been here for a long time. OK, about six weeks. But that is a long time in trade terms. I wound up speaking with the broker holding them. I convinced her that selling them to me at a discount would more than offset what she was paying in storage fees. Yes, she wasn’t pleased; I got the impression that she was losing credits on the deal. But I convinced her that keeping them cost her more than letting them go at a loss, and she finally agreed.
So we were mostly full. I opened up our last seven displacement tons of Freight space, then started researching Drosyodryu.
It quickly became apparent why it was an Amber Zone/Puzzle world. It had a thin, tainted atmosphere, almost no water, and a population of 400 million. And no real exports. Their local economy was based on mining, but their production was well below other systems in the subsector.
And, of the 400 million sophonts in-system, 12 million of them were Droyne. Who… were apparently in charge?
Of course, the Droyne are all over known space. Many people think they are what is left of the Ancients because of that, but scholars are dubious. Yes, they were in a surprising number of systems when the Imperium first encountered them. Again they literally everywhere in known space. But, everywhere they were discovered, they were only at the hunter/gather level of civilization.
Certain aspects of their society do match what is known of Ancient civilization. Specifically their use of “Conys” to determine the future of their youth. But, we also know that the Ancients spread Humaniti all across known space and beyond. As well as canines from Terra, who became the Vargr. So… they picked up the Droyne from somewhere and did the same with them. And they just absorbed more of Ancient culture than we did.
The Ancients may have trusted them more than they did us. And, when they destroyed themselves, the Droyne kept more of their culture than we did.
But still… A system with a majority of Humaniti ruled by Droyne? No wonder it was an Amber Zone.
And a Puzzle World. How did that happen?
I didn’t care. They needed goods, and I could bring goods to them. Dorsyodryu needed food, and I would deliver it to them. And they had raw materials for sale. Which would be useful at any industrial world. I just had to find one.
Plus, they had a surprisingly high-quality starport. So I wasn’t worried.
I was looking at various options beyond Drosyodryu when Saahna arrived.
“How are we doing?”
“Not bad. Yeah, most of our cargo won’t make us that much, but I got a few dozen tons that someone abandoned here that should push us well into profit. We’ll be fine.”
She took a bite of her tuber cake, then a pull from her coffee bulb. “And passengers?”
“I’m not taking any. After that encounter with our Solomani ‘friends’ yesterday, I don’t trust anyone wanting to Jump with us. They were trying to misdirect us yesterday. Pretend they aren’t interested in us to get us to drop our guard and then go after us again.”
“I did think that you just accepted what he was saying a bit too quickly.”
“Standard negotiation tactic. Say that you understand the situation, pretend to sympathize with your target, then go for a concession since you’re ‘friends’ now. They may think that we’ll ignore them, but we won’t. I will be cautious of what cargo or passengers I take. And I don’t want passengers from here.”
“And the cargo?”
“It got left here several weeks ago. Well, before anyone here knew about us. And the broker was so desperate to get rid of it that she barely negotiated. We don’t have to worry about it.”
“So… what now?”
“Not much. I’ll need to coordinate a few deliveries, but we can relax for the next few days.”
She smiled. “I told you that you work too much.”
“Whatever.”
She stood up and waved her ident toward the waitbot, which bleeped in return. “Come on then. We need to spend some time together.”
I smiled. “Back to the room?”
She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Is that all you ever think about?”
“No! Well, not all the time, but…”
She grabbed my hand. “Let’s go.”