It was a couple hours later when Jalldrid’s shift at the roto-engine ended. Fallin came sliding in after him along with the Roota, the other cousin. Foota quickly explained his version of the news involving the citizen and Jalldrid quickly climbed up the bridge to avoid their inevitable questions.

“Jalldrid!” Fallin called after him as he left the room, “What is the meaning of this? How much do you actually know of this Citizen? What are you planning?”

Jalldrid scowled back down at them, “I’ll let your imaginations stew down there.” He closed the hatchway. “Noisy buggers.”

“and just like that,” Jerall said loudly from the helm, “The over thrusts steady the ship while the roto haul pulls the ship diametrically during the deceleration. The trick is to be able to steady the two forces or you will never be able to move the ship according to your own will.”

Bob was frowning slightly looking over the controls Jerall was displaying. “Sounds complicated.” He commented. Jerall chuckled as he continued to look over the instruments, “Looks complicated too.” He ended.

“Well,” she said, turning back to her controls, “You’ll get to see it in action when we leave cruising speed soon. It’s a lot easier to learn these things when it’s seen in action. Real learning happens through experience anyway, not through formal education.” Jalldrid coughed behind them.

“I doubt I’ll ever be able to learn this particular skill.” Bob said dryly.

“Oh, come on! This is simple and fun. Nothing is easier to learn than that.”

Bob rolled his eyes and looked at Jalldrid. “How was the shift?”

“The roto-engine is doing fine.” Jalldird spoke, coming up and taking a position against the wall near them. “It seems we’ll finish the shipment without a single blip on the roto-engine’s side. The crew is getting suspicious though. They are worried about what the Citizen is doing here.”

“You should have just told them instead of leaving them in the dark.” Jerall said easily, turning her chair around and facing the bridge. She crossed her legs and smiled. “News of a partnership with a citizen can only be good news for everybody.”

“But it’s not final yet.” Jalldrid said.

“For now!” Jerall said confidently. She turned her chair to Bob with a grin, “But that’s gonna change soon, right? That’s why you asked for this meeting.”

Bob cleared his throat. “Right. That’s right.”

He shifted uneasily trying to think of the best way to start the conversation. “Alright,” he said, “Let’s talk about the current conflict with Asdred and the Hulians.”

“Come on, haven’t we already discussed this?” Jerall said, “This is old news.”

“Well, how about some new news,” Bob countered, “The planet Cydon and its system is now occupied by Hulian forces. This happened four days ago, right after we left actually. I say this only to show just how-“

“No it hasn’t” Jerall countered, her arms crossed and leaning back. “We would have heard it on the Wire by now if that was the case.”

Bob frowned, “Perhaps the Wire is behind on the news,”

“Four days? That’s not likely.”

“Or maybe Asdred is purposely withholding the news from the populace. They do control what comes out of the wire don’t they? They probably don’t want people to know how weak they are.”

“This is ridiculous,” Jerall said pointedly. Jalldrid stood to the side with a deep frown. “You can’t make stuff up to begin your presentation.”

“This isn’t made up!” Bob replied indignantly, “This is actual fact, Cydon has fallen to Hulian.”

“Did you get this from the netshpere?” Jalldrid asked, cutting in.

“Yes,” Bob replied nodding to him, “I’ve also got detailed analysis from top rated universities concerning the economic consequences of this little war. I have market reports from the Asdred Company itself, concerning their hauling branch. I’ve got a lot of data to work with and its all clear.”

“Clear in what way?”

“Despite your hopes otherwise, this conflict between the two houses will expand.”

Bob paused, letting his words sink into Jerall and Jalldrid. Jalldrid looked trouble but Jerall was still challenging.

“And you got this information from your magical headpiece?”

“I understand your hesitation to believe just my words from a device you don’t understand.” Bob said diplomatically, “But since our last conversation on this matter five days ago, you do know that what I had said came true, right?” Jerall didn’t answer.

“You mentioned all this to Jerall before?” Jalldrid asked quietly.

Bob nodded, “Yes, I had talked with her about my views on the industry, a little early perhaps, on the first day. It was there we both learned what my connection to the netsphere really was. I didn’t know that foundations were unaware of its existence.” He shrugged, “I’m probably breaking some unspoken code on the subject by talking about it with you, but whatever. I’ve looked and there is no law prohibiting you learning of it.”

“I have heard of the netsphere before,” Jalldrid said, drawing attention, “But it was regarded more as paranoia than as truth. There was a group of people in the university campaigning about access to the netshpere, but few believed in such a thing in the first place. I still find it hard to believe that such network exists outside of even common knowledge of us.”

Bob scowled, “Thankfully then, I’m not here to convince you two that the Netshpere is not just a product of my imagination. There is enough data from your own records to be able to draw a trend.” He stepped forward drawing out the computer key. “May I?” he asked, “I’ve put together a simple presentation.” Jerall nodded silently.

Bob imputed the key into a terminal on the bridge, and then started executing a couple commands to the computer. A few seconds later, the view screen on the bridge cut out and the view of the stars was replaced by a very plain graph.

“Jalldird, gave me access to your financial records as I asked him to and he kindly allowed me use of the Key.” He pointed out at the graph, “This graphs shows your five years of net earnings from your own financial records. I know you have seen this all before, but please bear with me. The first year shows you going out strong with moderate gains, and then the next two shows modest growth. The two years after that show a decline.” Jerall grunted but Bob ignored her.

“Looking at these figures, I asked myself what had the strongest correlation with how well your business did.”

“We know why our profits declined,” Jerall burst in angrily, “The number of shippments-“

“Please, Captain,” Bob interrupted, “let me present this.” Jerall sat back in a huff.

“You’ll be happy to know,” Bob continued easily, “That it was not due to poor management that your earnings dropped the last two years. My analysis of your statements shows that despite the decline, your efficiency on your jobs has actually gone up. Many of your ratios stay within industry standards.” Bob imputed another command into the computer and the graph disappeared, replaced by a bunch of numbers.

“Here is a brief look at your company, according to the numbers,” Bob said happily. “Each of these figures is compared to the industry average for that year and in many of the categories, you perform better.” Jerall didn’t smile at the praise to her company, but she lost her scowl at least.

“So” Bob continued, replacing the view screen again with another graph, “If management is not the issue with your decline in revenue, then what is? I believe this graph clearly illustrates the problem; it almost exactly mirrors the earlier graph showing revenue. See?” with another command, the first graph was transposed onto this one and the view screen now showed two different colored lines running closely together. “This graph shows your total shipments performed each quarter.”

Jerall snorted in derision, and even Jalldrid rolled his eyes. “I brilliant analysis, Bob. We had the hardest time figuring this out before now,”Jerall added sarcastically.

“I’m not done yet,” Bob continued, unperturbed. “This is all leading up to a point, so please stay with me. The next question asks, why has your number of shipments declined? As you know, you get your jobs from DRIAS, the largest transportation coordinator in this sector, based out of the space station. With a couple inquires to them, I was able to get some figures from them.” With another click of the button, the duel graph disappeared and a new one replaced it.

“Where did you get these figures?” Jalldrid suddenly demanded.

“Like I said, I got in contact with the accounting department at DRIAS and I asked for some of these reports from them. I have a record of my transmissions with them, if you would like. Anyway, with the information they provided, I was able to deduce these numbers.” He pointed up at the screen, “These are the total number of shipments DRIAS has booked over the last 50 years, divided by years. As you can see, there is a slight trend of growth, with a few periods of small decline. Overall though, you can see that the number of moves DRIAS has hasn’t been significantly increased or decreased over 50 years. DRIAS is clearly a very stable company not easily affected by events. Specifically,” Bob zoomed in in order to see the last five years of DRIAS closely, “In the last five years, DRIAS has had a steady growth of one or two points every year, even during the last couple of years during the conflict. In fact,” Bob zoomed out again on the graph and several chunks of years on the graph got highlighted in green. “The highlighted years here are the years similar to the current conflict. Most lasted more than three years but none more than seven. And, as you can see, the number of shipments DRIAS had during those times hadn’t decreased significantly at all, even on the conflicts that last longer than the rest there wasn’t any change in the amount of shipments.”

Jalldrid looked forward with a frown, understanding were Bob was going. Jerall sat defensively with a scowl.

“Still,” Bob continued, “These figures alone don’t mean much unless…” Another graph was transposed over this one as well and again, it closely mirrored the rates again. “I’ve just put up the public records of DRIAS’s earnings every year. This is just so we can be clear, that the total number of shipments and the total earnings of DRIAS are stable and not really affected by the occasional conflicts between the Families.”

The new graph disappeared, leaving the graph with the total shipments for the past 50 years still in view. “So I tell myself, surely the conflicts must have affected DRIAS in some manner, even if it didn’t change these figures. I mean after all, it is a transportation company. So let me alter this graph little bit in order to display my new findings.” Gracefully, the graph morphed a little bit, each of the bars for each year got split into two colors top to bottom, keeping the total for each year the same, but dividing the shipments into two categories. “The Red part on top represents the number of shipments that year that were designated as danger shipments that required the special licensing. The lower blue part represents the normal shipments.”

The graph was impressive, Jalldrid had to admit. The portion of Red moves throughout the years stayed at about a fifth of the total moves consistently. The only exceptions were the Green years that still showed the times when the conflicts were occurring and during those years the red moves doubled and tripled in their proportion and in a few areas even rose to cover the majority of the moves that year. The chart made him sweat.

“Let’s zoom into the last five years again,” Bob said. The years came up clearly, with the green covering the last two years in an ugly tint. The red moves the first few years were within 20% but the last two years showed a sharp increase. “These last two years actual shows an unprecedented growth of these danger moves,” Bob said calmly, “Already, only after two years, the amount of danger moves is above 50%. As it is now, Freeline is barred from taking over half of the moves DRIAS has to offer.”

Bob looked back at the two of them. “Of course, you two are already aware of all of this information. Even if you hadn’t seen it presented this way, I know from my talks with you two that you both said what I had just presented. It’s nothing new; my only point is to show the current trend of the industry and to perhaps point forward and say that-“

“None of this proves anything,” Jerall interjected forcefully, “If anything, it proves that what I am saying is right. We are currently at 50% volume for danger moves, but this is the low point of the crisis. Looking back on the other crisises proves this. None of them ever went above 50% and only stayed there for a short time before turning back up and reaching normalcy as the crisis dissipated. It will happen here as well.”

“It’s a valid point,” Bob conceded, “but even a 35% rate or 30% rate will kill you if it stays there for any extended period of time. You haven’t quite felt the impact of the high percentage yet because it has happened so quickly as the crisis has unfolded. But soon you will feel the squeeze as the bigger more secure agencies push you out. Even if DRIAS does favor you, they ultimately have to answer to Asdred who will force DRIAS to give them shipments. And let me tell you, no conflict that has ever gotten so bad so quickly has ever been able to end in any reasonable period of time. I feel that this conflict will not end this year or next year, but more like five years down the road.”

Jerall bit her fingers lightly as she glowered up at the current graph. Jalldrid spoke up, “All of this is speculation. And how can you say that we haven’t felt the effects of the crisis after that first graph you showed? Of course we are getting affected by it. We’re getting affected by it, and we are making it through right now. I have to disagree with that.”

“That’s fine if you do, but can you say that your current rate will keep you in business? Admit it, if it gets any harder or even if it gets a little easier you will not make it. It’s only if the industry gets better very quickly that you have the chance to ride this crisis through. Within a year, you will start looking into getting unauthorized and illegal black market shipments just to stay afloat.”

“That will never happen,” Jalldrid replied venomously. “Please watch what you say.”

“I agree that it is a bad idea. Getting caught with black market goods will kill you, I’m just trying to make clear how I feel about Freeline Transportation. I am sorry to say this, but I do not see you making it through another year with your current business model, even if I don’t make use of the information I gather from the netsphere. Information, by the way, which confirms what I have said here.”

Jalldrid sat quietly, taking in the words and looking at Bob. Bob expected Jerall to object immediately again, but was surprised to see her looking off to the left in deep thought. Bob shifted uncomfortably.

“At this point, even if I join you and we purchase this ship together with a more modest payment plan, it won’t work. Not just us but many hauling agencies will go out of business this year.”

“What are our options?” Jalldrid asked quickly.

“The safest, and probably your least likeable,” Bob said slowly, “is to close up Freeline now. You don’t have any debt and you can get out of it pretty easily with some money left over.”

“And then get jobs with Asdred Hauling again?” Jerall demanded, coming out of her stupor. “You’re out of your mind.”

“Captain,” Jaldlird growled, but she waved off his compliant carelessly.

“It would only be until the crisis ends,” Bob said defensively, “then you can start up Freeline again. Think of it as a hibernation period during winter. I think it is a very good option, personally.”

“What and then hide again when the next crisis comes?” Jerall asked bitterly, “Or whenever its gets tough? I don’t want that kind of life. How can you think about giving up what we’ve worked so hard to gain? There is no way to tell if we would even be able to start again.”

“I understand, I thought you wouldn’t like that option.” Bob said, sitting back, “But the only other option I can think of is to become danger zone qualified. If you can get that, the amount of work available to you increases significantly as there is a lot less competition. The jobs pay better too, of course.”

“It’s not possible to get the renegade danger zone qualified,” Jalldrid said flatly.

“I’ve been told so. I‘ve looked into it myself a little bit though and I have to agree with you. We can’t do it with the renegade.”

“And we can’t lease a danger zone qualified ship from Asdred,” Jalldrid added. “They simply wouldn’t let us. They would rather have their own workers use those ships where they can maximize their profit. And there is no other company we can lease ship’s from in this sector, not with our contract with DRIAS.” Bob nodded with each of his points silently. “and we can’t purchase one without you joining us and even if you did, again Asdred wouldn’t sell it to us.”

Bob looked back at him with a frown. “Are there no other places that could sell us a qualified ship?”

Jalldrid shook his head. “I don’t know, probably not. There is not much of a market for used ships in this sector. You’d have to go outside of it to find something maybe.”

“It might mean a few sacrifices,” Bob said, “but I think it is possible to be able to purchase a ship that is danger qualified. We’d have to look into it and it’s true that we don’t have the funds now, but there are certain ways of raising the money available that we could look into.”

“Certain ways?” Jalldrid asked skeptically. “Like what?”

“well,” Bob said, scratching his chin. “We could borrow the money.”

“Borrow money?” Jalldrid responded incredulously, “from who??”

“I’d have to look into it,” Bob said defensively, “But I’m sure there are some institutions who would lend us money if we had a sound financial plan. At least, it was like that where I came from and I’m sure there are similar institutions here.”

“Of course there are,” Jalldrid said with heat, “I can name four right now, the BHC, Asdred Financial, Starwide Financial, Sector Initiative; all of these are banking institutions that lend out money to businesses. But they don’t lend money to foundationers.”

Bob stared back at Jalldrid with a frown and shifted uncomfortably. “I understand that, but again, just like how Freeline could purchase a ship with me with it, couldn’t it also be qualified to get a loan?”

“We probably couldn’t even put together a profitable business model that includes paying back the any type of loan as well as the expense of the interest. Haven’t you seen our numbers?”

“There are still other options to consider,” Bob replied earnestly, “They include options like selling off portions of your equity to raise funds,” Jalldrd’s jaw dropped at that option, “Or perhaps the best option would be a partnership with another agency that is qualified for danger moves; a sort of deal where you share jobs, both regular and danger jobs. I don’t know, these are just possibilities. Or maybe we could-“

Jalldrid Interrupted, shaking his head in disbelief, “Yes, yes, you are right, it’s possible! All that you are saying is within the realm of possibility. But it’s not probable! If we can find a ship danger qualified and able to purchase and if we can secure a loan from some institution, or even if we try one of you other crazy ideas, we would still be left with the most daunting part of this. We would need to learn how to manage the completely different type of industry of danger moves, new licensing, new permits, new codes and rules and tariffs and new market, and if we can all do this within, what? A half year? A Year? We might be able to succeed. But that is a lot of ifs and it’s not an area we have any experience in and quite frankly I’d say that you don’t have any experience in this either!”

Bob looked away from Jalldrid back up at the view screen. “And most likely,” Jalldrid continued, “All of these things would turn out to be fruitless and we would have wasted a lot of time and energy on it that would have been better spent finding new moves to perform!”

“I just don’t see you surviving on your current business model though,” Bob practically pleaded, “You have got to try something else!”

“We don’t know anything else!” Jalldrid burst back angrily. He stared at Bob with a scowl but then leaned back in his chair with a sigh and rubbed his face. He looked back out at Bob and then turned to his sister, “You have been uncharacteristically quiet, Captain. What are your thoughts?”

Jerall was staring in the opposite direction and Bob wasn’t sure if she had even been listening to their conversation. In a swift motion, she cut the display off of the view screen, returning it to the cold stars of space and said loudly, “Freeline does not have the resources to pursue alternatives. We either do this with what we have, or we don’t do it at all.”

Jerall’s words seemed to have finalized the discussion and neither of the men bothered to add anything else to it, but sat quietly instead. There was an odd air of defeatism there and after a moment Bob spoke, “I understand your position, I really do. I thought you would say something like that, you have a lot of pride in your business and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. You guys have a good operation here I think and I feel you would do well if the setting we different. So please understand that I am doing this not because I think you company isn’t worth it, but because of the industry as a whole right now. I am sorry, but I don’t think I will be joining Freeline, although it was a very generous offer on your part and I will not forget that.” With those words, Bob got up withdrew the key from the control panel and handed it back to Jalldrid, who accepted it without a word. “I’ll keep all your data secret, so don’t worry. God knows I won’t be doing anything in your industry when I get back to the station anyway.”

Jalldrid stared at the key for a second, but then stood up to meet Bob with a small smile, “You said when we met that you wouldn’t serve well as a consultant, but then you put together a presentation like this? Clearly you were trying to deceive us at first.”

Bob laughed, “Who’d want to get involved with a scary looking bunch such as you two?”

Jalldrid rolled his eyes, “I want you to know too that we are not simply dismissing your conclusions about us. We’ll look into options available to us, just not the ones that you are putting forth. Still, if we do make it through the next few years, and the market improves, would you consider coming back to us?”

“Of course! Like I said, you two are good managers of this business; I have nothing against your company.”

Jalldrid nodded, “We’ll take you back to the station when we are done, just as we agreed to. We’ll also do what we can in helping you get a job, but honestly, you’ll probably find you won’t need our help.”

Bob nodded with a smile and left the bridge, latching the upper exit shut behind him.

“I feel like we just got our reactors scavenged from us” Jalldrid said to his sister once the hatch shut.

“Don’t let it bother you,” Jerall said, still facing forward, “He’s just a normal man with no experience in the industry, not a prophet. He can’t see the future any more than we can. We’ll make it through this.”

“It’s a real shame to have him go though, especially like this. He seems like a good man.” Jalldrid sighed and put the key back around his neck. “What’s our ETA, Captain?”

“We’ll be there in two hours.”

Before Jalldrid could answer, the hatchway to the bridge from above opened without warning. Jalldrid scowled at the breach in protocol. “Its gotta be our citizen,” He said marching up the hatch as it opened, “but he should know better than to just enter the bridge without knocking.” He stopped short as he saw the small female passenger enter clumsily, still covered completely by her garment.

“Miss,” He said politely, “What can we do for you? If you needed something, you should have used your communicator; we generally don’t allow passengers on this bridge like this.”

“I’d like to change my destination.” She said flatly.

Jalldrid nodded with a frown, “I’m sure we can work something out, as long as it is reasonable. You should know though that detours might cause and increase in your charges. We are about to land at our destination for our goods now, so let’s talk about it after that and we’ll set up something up. Okay?” He tried to guide her away out of the bridge.

“No,” She said stubbornly, not moving, “I want to go there now.”

Jalldrid froze at the words and stared down at her curiously. Jerall turned around abruptly in her chair and said, “We have a contract, miss. Your timetable is set for negotiation but only within our agreement. Unfortunately, we have a non-negotiable timetable for our goods and they are due at the destination shortly. It will only be a few hours delay, so it shouldn’t matter too much.”

The passenger acted as if she hadn’t heard Jerall’s words and reached into her clothes and pulled out a docu-pad. “This is my new destination. I want you to leave now.”

Jerall glared at her and snatched the outstretched docu-pad from her. After looking it over for a second her glared back and demanded, “Are you crazy?”

“What?” Jalldrid asked,” Where does she want to go?”

Jerall turned to her brother and handed the docu-pad over to him. “She wants to go to the Parius System.”

“Parius?” Jalldrid asked in disbelief, “That’s clear across the sector that will take weeks! And it is in the opposite direction of where you came from.”

The passenger didn’t respond and Jerall cut in, “No, we will take you to our contractual destination at our contractual time. You will have to try to book a ride from there to Parius because we are not taking you.”

“Sister,” Jalldrid said, forgetting her title for a moment. He was still reading the docu-pad, “Parius is currently listed as a level three transportation alert. Civilian and foundationer traffic isn’t even allowed in it!”

“You will disengage roto-engine and leave your cargo behind.” The passenger said unperturbed, “You will leave immediately.”

Jerall stood up and bore down on the passenger, “No we won’t. You do not have the right to order us around. You, however, can go back to your quarters and wait until we arrive at your destination. Understand?”

“You will do this,” The girl replied, “Or I will have your ship decommissioned, your company broken up, and you both imprisoned.”

Jalldrid paled at the words but Jerall barked back, “what?”

The passenger pulled off her facial covering, exposing her head and the shiny headpiece attached to it. “As a citizen I order you Syllicons to follow my directions,” she said confidently. “Section 17 gives me that right.”