Chapter 15. Trade.

Before going to bed, Thaum set up a constant scan of the area. The ship would notify him when the escort arrived. He also set up a search spell that would do the same just in case, and two days later, it pinged.

Thaum went to Alice’s room. He found Ellora sat against the wall, scanning the boxes in front of her with a bored expression. Thaum asked, “how many times have you done that.”

“dunno,” she said.

Thaum rolled his eyes, “the escort will be here soon. It’s time to stick these in the airlock.” He gestured to the boxes of ore.

She stood up, “finally. I’ll do the grav plate, WOAH!” When she stood up, she suddenly flew into the ceiling. Thaum laughed; he had turned the gravity down with a signal as she was standing up.

Ellora grumbled, “very funny.”

As they moved the boxes to the airlock, Alice came out of the medbay and said, “a little warning would be nice.” While rubbing her head.

Ellora chuckled, “okay, it’s a little funny when it happens to someone else.”

Once they finished moving the boxes, Thaum called Alice to the cockpit. [visual acquired. Nexim Empire destroyer class ship. Escorted by one frigate class and two corvette class ships.]

“well shit,” said Thaum. He expected to be outgunned but not so outnumbered and outclassed. He could deal with the frigate alone, it’s only a ship size larger, and the weapons on his pirate corvette would make it blush. He might even be able to disable the destroyer if he could lure it near an asteroid and play hit and run. But fighting them all together is just asking to die.

Thaum said, “I’m taking flight controls. Just strap in and shut up.” They both glanced at him before fully activating the seat restraints. Grim expressions set on the faces.

He watched the distance reading go down. The escort group fan out. Thaum spun the ship around and maintained distance.

A communication request came in. He answered. A 20 something man in formal Empire Captian’s garb showed up on the screen. The man said, “you are Mr. James, correct. Halt where you are. We will dock with you and complete the trade.”

Thaum deadpanned, “funny, I can see your ships fanning out to surround me. This will be a dead drop. I’m not letting you get any closer than that, so stop your ships.”

Thaum saw the man’s expression morphing to rage. He cut the call off before the man could speak. For the next few minutes, the escort increased their speed. Thaum maintained the distance by doing the same.

Eventually, it became obvious that Thaum’s ship was far faster than all their ships. They could go to warp and compete in that too, but trying to capture or fire upon another ship within a warp field was suicidal.

So when the fleet slowed down, Thaum did too. He also finally answered the video call again. The image of the scowling captain immediately came up. Thaum had to fight down a chuckle. The man said, “I am Eric vos Treller, and as a representative of the Nexim Empire, I deman--”

Thaum ended the call. Ellora and Alice turned him, their expressions asking, what are you doing. Thaum smiled, “what? It’s just so convenient to not have to listen to bullshit with the touch of a button.” He answered the next call and said, “sorry, the connection is spotty. Continue with your threat.”

Eric growled, “FIRST, stop ending the call. I can see your finger over the console. Second stop moving your ship before I arrest yo--”

Thaum cut off the call. Then called Eric back immediately after, “you need to have a reason to arrest me.”

“fleeing with controlled goods.”

Thaum replied, “The only law about Appolimus is that I can only trade to the Empire. And I cannot leave the Empire with it. Maybe I don’t like the feeling of an empty hold and just don’t feel like selling today.”

Eric gestured around and said, “and who would say that you weren’t selling it to someone else or fleeing the Empire. It would be your word against mine. So just sit still, and we can complete this trade then all go home.”

Thaum was beginning to hate this man. First, he insists on surrounding him even with his overwhelming force. Even going so far as to make sure he can’t catch him before stopping.

This reminded Thaum too much of nobles testing bullshit. Where they act friendly enough while testing your capabilities. If you are strong, then they play it off as something else. However, if you are weak, they will swallow you whole.

Very little could lower Thaum’s opinion of someone like conditional decency.

Thaum replied stone-faced, “we both know you can’t alter your ship’s records, and even if you could, it would be more trouble than its worth.”

Eric smirked, “it’s Appolimus.”

Thaum laughed, “and that’s exactly why you can’t. What if one of your bosses thinks you pocketed a chunk. With altered records, then who can say.”

Eric countered, “I won’t edit anything. I’m sure the officials will overlook a false charge for arresting such a bastard, who is so disrespectful to the Empire, considering the importance of the trade.”

Thaum looked to Alice and gestured with his chin. She nodded and grabbed the galactic net console so Eric could see it. Thaum said, “Indeed. You could issue some false charge and try to arrest me. Probably to take the Appolimus for the cheap. I guess that’s why you are trying to piss me off.

However, law enforcement antagonizing people to give them a reason to do what they want is an old strategy. And it doesn’t quite work when the moment something goes wrong, all of this gets uploaded to the galactic net.

I’m sure you would love being the scapegoat for the sudden decrease Appolimus.” Thaum gestured around then continued, “and who among the higher-ups would associate with the man who caused it.” Thaum grinned then sarcastically added, “I’m sure it would be great for your career.”

…

Seeing as Eric hadn’t replied, Thaum gave Alice another nod and pointed to the screen. He saw Eric’s eyes flick to his console. Thaum said, “that is the account information to send the payment to.

Once the money is in my account, I’ll eject the cargo from the airlock. I will leave, and you will be free to do whatever.”

Eric frowned, “no. You have already shown that your ship is faster than ours. Those are is also foreign bank codes. So what is stopping you from just flying away once we transfer the credits.”

Thaum shrugged, “I can understand your problem. Would you prefer if the ore boxes were out of the airlock and floating in space?”

“yes,” Eric said simply. “you can’t reload the cargo and flee simultaneously.”

The ship shuddered, the airlock opened, and sent the two boxes adrift. Thaum said, “that is a combination of Appolimus ore and explosives. Now we are both in a predicament. I can’t get the money and run with the ore. And you can only get the ore if you pay me.”

Eric stood up, “destroying that ore would be a serious crime.”

Thaum shrugged, “I would prefer to die than get screwed, so it doesn’t matter to me.”

Ellora and Alice shot worried looks at Thaum then each other.

…

Eric muted the call. Covered his mouth and spent several minutes talking to his bridge officers.

Eric unmuted the call and spoke to the bored-looking Thaum, “After discussing it with my advisors, we agree to the deal, even if this trading method is a little strange. Credits equal to the trade price of 10.9532 kilograms of Appolimus will be sent to your account.”

Ellora shot up, or at least she tried to, before realizing she was strapped to her seat. She yelled, “BULLSHIT!! I’ve scanned it a dozen times myself. It is 11.7343 kilograms at least.”

Eric said, “that isn’t what our scanners say.”

Ellora said, “fuck your scanners. They are wrong. I’m sending over the compiled data of every scan I’ve taken.”

Thaum said, “Ellora, relax. You will get your pay assuming the full amount. Now, Eric, I’m willing to say 11.4 on the dot.”

Eric smiled, “I’m quite sure it’s 10.9532, although sensor ghosts may be messing with the reading at this distance. Perhaps it’s really 11.2 kilograms.”

Thaum laughed and hovered a hand above the keypad, “no, I insist it’s 11.4.”

Eric said, “I don’t believe you would do it. Your purple crewmate seems to think it’s 11.7343. So what happened to preferring death than being screwed.”

Thaum said thoughtfully, “10.9532 is getting bent over and fucked. 11.2 is getting screwed. 11.4 is me being kind to your friends.”

Erica chuckled, “I don’t know what you are insinuating. But now I have to wonder what 11.3 is.”

“not happening.” Thaum simply said.

Eric sighed, then said, “fine. Send it officer Merimin. Now I’m going to collect the goods. And I’ll just say that any explosions inside Imperial ships are highly frowned upon.”

Thaum raised his hand again, “not so fast. I don’t want some long-distance signal sent to who knows where to ping off something with whatever hidden inside. I have a terminal here to check if the money is there real-time.”

Eric scowled, “fuck.”

Several tense minutes passed before Alice said, “the credits are in the account.”

Thaum said, “good.” he cut the call. Rolled the ship 180 degrees and went to the max warp his ship could handle.

Ellora asked, “what the fuck was that, and why are we running.”

Thaum adjusted in his seat, “You will have to be more specific. But the running is because he thinks I’m a bandit, I mean pirate. So he was going to arrest us. And before you ask, while the call was muted, a little birdy told me that one of his bridge officers said my ship’s id was designated a pirate ship decades ago.”

“really?”

Thaum raised a brow, “just look around. This ship is a corvet class but is so jammed full of after-market shit it outperforms a frigate class. It only has two small rooms. A medbay that barely fits more than its cryopod in it. The rest of the rooms were removed to make space for oversized over-performing hardware.”

Ellora said, “I take it you stole it.”

Thaum stood up and stretched, “technically no. It was decommissioned and scrapped for parts. And the last Capitan died, giving me command.”

Alice said, “this doesn’t seem scrapped or in parts.”

Thaum laughed, “it is. The parts just happened to stay in a specific configuration. Aka in the shape of a ship, and the paperwork for when it has to be taken apart seems to be lost after a bribe. So it’s a decommissioned ship that has been scrapped for parts.”

Thaum stood up, and Alice shook her head, “right. So where are you going.”

Thaum said, “bed.”

Ellora cut in, “you can sleep after all that. My heart is still jumping.”

The door to his room closed, giving her answer.