Galaxy of Empires
Merchant Wars Episode #1
Bruce Marcom
Copyright ©2015 by Bruce Marcom
United States Publishing, LLC
Smashwords Edition
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ISBN: 978-1-943917-02-0
US Copyright 1-2781753491
www.galaxyofempires.com
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter One
Evella Noctu, carrying her electronic accounting pad, walked briskly down the hall. She was trying to get to the conference room in her cruiser before the other captains arrived. They had just landed on the reptilian home world of Hosan at her home base of operations. As she came up to the conference room door, she saw her assistant, 42, standing there and waiting for her. Her assistant was a tall android with a highly polished and blackened chrome paint job.
Being a reptilian merchant was not only a dangerous job but trust is also one thing that never exists—at least among reptilian merchants. Eve never believes anyone, particularly because she is a half-breed: part human and part snake. That was one of the reasons she decided to get an android assistant instead of using a biological one. Besides, it is unlikely that any reptilian could keep up with the accounting better than an android, not to mention the fact that it is also unlikely that an android would ever betray her unless the android had been tampered with.
“Is everything ready, 42?”
“Yes, My Lady, I have all the records in order and available for review for the meeting.”
“Excellent. Your efficiency never ceases to amaze me, 42, even after all these years.”
“Thank you, Ma’am. I try to do the best I can.” The android, in a humble fashion, says, “There is one thing I would like to bring to your attention…. There are some irregularities with one of the captain’s records; he appears to be short on one of his accounts.”
Eve responds with interest, “Oh, really? Let me see the records you are referring to and we shall see what the captain has been up to.” She grabs the accounting pad and scans it with scrutiny. After a few minutes, she looks up at 42 and says, “You are correct, of course, and this will have to be dealt with. I want you to follow these instructions closely.” She gives 42 some instructions.
***
“Order, order. Take your seats, captains, and let us get on with this. I do not have all day.” Eve barks with a loud tone to get everyone’s attention as she glared at all the reptilian captains.
“Now the first thing on the agenda is last month’s profit goals. Everything seems to be in order following a very profitable month last month. Capt. Bly had the highest profit margins out of all six ships in our fleet with raw minerals being at the top of the list.” The captains begin clapping in recognition of this achievement.
42 speaks: “The following is the list of profit margin by each captain: Capt. Bly in our minerals division had a profit margin of 42.0%; Capt. Kuhn in our arts and crafts division had 39.5%; Capt. Fujima in our food division had 21.3%; Capt. Jezikar in the small arms division had 37%; Capt. Terinad in the ship weapons, armor, and shield generators division had 36.9%, and Capt. Bloodtail in our smuggling department had 39.4%.”
“As Bly, Kuhn, and Bloodtail exceeded their projections, they are the only ones who get bonuses this month,” Eve remarks with contentment. “Capt. Fujima, your production level has been disappointing these past three months. You should be making a killing with the famine in sector three. You could have easily charged three times the average price for food because those starving people would have paid anything for it.”
Capt. Fujima replies nervously, “There has been a lot of competition, not just me, and the Buscar Merchant clan is one of the biggest food distributors in the region, which makes it hard for me to compete with them.”
Eve says with a commanding voice, “A good merchant can always make a profit under any circumstance. Instead, you make excuses. However, what I am concerned about is your inventory, which was audited as was your bookkeeping. The audit discovered that you are missing two full ship containers of food. I had those containers tracked and found that you gave free food to those starving children.”
The other captains gasp when they hear the word free. A reptilian merchant giving away merchandise is the most forbidden taboo in the merchant industry, and it is a good way to get a merchant license revoked permanently in addition to incurring fines and penalties.
“I…they were starving…. I felt sorry for them…,” Capt. Fujima sobs.
“You are a disgrace to reptilians everywhere. You know what the penalties are for giving away merchandise. There will be no leniency whatsoever. The merchants’ guild has given me the power to strip you of your merchant and pilot licenses. In addition to the merchant guild’s penalties, your employment contract with me states that any captain is to be held liable if he loses merchandise because of negligence, theft, destruction, or any other reason. The employer, which is me, can exercise the right to liquidate all of the employee’s assets to recover the losses incurred by the employee.”
“What? But…,” Fujima shrieks, but he is cut off.
“And since you like to work for free, I have arranged for you to work free for the remainder of your life.”
Two large crocodile men in leather armor with whips and handcuffs attached to their belts walk in the room and approach Capt. Fujima and grab him. “These two fine gentlemen are from the slavers’ guild because I have sold you to them to help compensate me for my losses. Since that was not enough to cover all of your debts, the rest of your assets have been liquidated as well. Unfortunately, that still was not sufficient, so I had a sell your wife and children into slavery.”
As the captain struggles with the large crocodile men who are handcuffing him, he yells out, “You half-breed piece of crap! I will kill you if it is the last thing I do….” The crocodile men start to drag him out of the room, but suddenly stop when Eve sternly says in an angry tone, “What did you call me...?”
The other captains start backing away from the offender who was getting up off the floor. The last time somebody used the “H-word” in reference to Eve, that person’s head exploded from the inside out. The word half-breed used in a negative tone is the most offensive word anyone could say to her.
Eve stands up from the table and extends her hand as if trying to grab Fujima. An invisible force hoists the captain up into the air where he begins to choke and violently thrashes around trying to breathe. Eve is a telepath and a powerful one at that.
“You are in no position to threaten anyone, Captain. I did not just sell your wife into slavery, I sold her to a brothel that needed someone to give freebies to all of their new clients as a sample of their services. Just think of all those satisfied customers who will get to sample your wife for free. But then again, she will probably get more satisfaction from them than from you.”
“The slavers’ guild would not take your newborn baby. Therefore, I had to go and try to sell your new baby on the adoption market. However, on the way over there
, I ran across a human who said he would offer me twice as much as the adoption market would. He said that he needed some food for his dragon lizard pet and the baby would be perfect. So I sold the baby to him and watched the dragon lizard devour your little gremlin until it was gone.”
She releases the captain and he falls to the floor, gasping for air. She starts to turn around and sit in her chair, but stops and says in an even tone, “Screw the money….” As her eyes light up with a blue glow, suddenly the captain’s head explodes from inside out as the mind blast completes its effect.
“Take note, Captains. I do not take kindly to people who betray or insult me. In contrast, I reward those who respect me and are productive. After all, we are all in this to make money. Do not get sidetracked by becoming too greedy or not staying focused on the objectives I have laid out. Dismissed.” The captains leave the room in a hurried fashion, as none wanted to be the target of her wrath.
“Sorry, gentlemen, for making you waste a trip, but I tell you what, I will give you a hundred platinum bars to dispose of this mess so at least you’ll get something out of it.” The sound of platinum bars makes the slavers happy, so they began to clean up what was left of Capt. Fujima on the floor.
“On second thought, put the meat in the frozen box that my assistant will get for you. I will feed the captain to my giant snake later tonight.” She walks out of the room and back to her private chamber.
***
A few days have passed since the captains’ monthly meeting. Eve is checking the inventory on her ship to make sure that it is correct and on time, as well as loaded correctly in the cargo hold.
“My Lady, we should be ready to leave in the next 30 minutes or so. Everything is loaded. We have approximately 50 containers of food and are ready to go to sector three. We will have to make up for the loss of a captain,” 42 states. Eve opens up one of the crates to check it and sees giant rats eating the food in the container. Looks like most of the food is either half eaten or spoiled in that container.
“Who sold us these containers and why were they not checked at first before we received them?” Eve growls.
“By the late Capt. Fujima, of course, and we got them from Capt. Iquzel, a merchant from the Pirate Lord’s territory.”
“That is the second time that sack of dung has sold me bad goods. I am going inside and contact his boss.” She walks out of the cargo hold into the corridor and passes several doors in the hallway before she arrives at her office. She speaks on the vid screen and says, “Connect me to Lord Cos.” A large, hairy, black male Wolfkin appears on the screen.
“Lady Evella, how’s business? Everything okay over there in the lizard land?”
“I am a snake, not a lizard, but I know we all look the same to you. But to answer your question, my business would be better if your merchants would stop selling me bad goods. Also, this is the second time the same dealer has sold me bad goods: Capt. Iquzel.”
“Oh, goodness, let me pull the shipping manifest. Ah, here we go, hmm, looks like Capt. Fujima signed off on the shipment. You know I would never sell you bad stuff intentionally. That is why we require all shipments to be inspected first before we release them. Nevertheless, in the interest of continued business relations, I will look into this thoroughly and see if there are any irregularities. I do not want my good name being tarnished.”
His good name? He is a freaking pirate, Eve thinks to herself. “I am out 5,000 platinum bars, not to mention the profit I could have made. I demand some sort of compensation for this travesty,” she says, clearly running out of patience with the whole matter.
“Like I said, My Lady, I will look into it, I assure you. Just give me a couple of days, and I will contact you as soon as possible.”
“Very well, vid off,” Eve curses, “Even in death, Fujima is still screwing me over. Too bad I can only kill him once….” She mumbles some obscenities and continues down the corridor toward the cargo bay.
“So what is the damage?” Eve inquires.
42 gets out a checklist, “Well, it is not all spoiled as there are about 20 containers of good food that we can sell for 6,000 platinum bars. The other 30 containers are all spoiled and have rats in them. And I hate rats…disgusting creatures.” The Android pulls out his hand blaster and fires. The shot hits a rat, making it explode in a midair jump.
“Okay, take all the rats and put them into two containers and ship them to the pet food vendors on Ganalag. You should be able to get 400 platinum bars easy. Ship the other 28 containers of bad food to the planet Extek. There is a fertilizer company that will give me 100 platinum bars for each container of bad food.”
“Wow, those are good ideas, Boss. I would never think of that, but then again, that is why you are the boss. I will ‘volunteer’ someone else to gather up the rats,” 42 says with some awe.
“Yep, heh, check the shipping schedules of our captains and see which ones can take which containers, depending on what direction they are going, and that way we can cut our shipping cost down as much as possible. And then….” Eve suddenly pauses without reason and just stands there with a blank expression on her face, not moving. An eerie voice begins speaking to Eve telepathically.
“I am Dracabardillious; you must travel to three-way border of the 8, 3, 1 junction now before it is too late.”
“Boss…Boss…are you there?” The cargo hold supervisor says frantically.
Eve snaps out of the mild trance and says, “Yes, just follow the instructions I gave.” She looks at 42 and says, “Tell me when all this stuff is offloaded. Make flight plans for the neutral zone, and we will take off in an hour.”
42 is confused at this remark and says, “Uh…huh? What about our shipping schedule? Neutral Zone? We’re taking off with no merchandise loaded?” But Eve has already left and gone into the ship.
Chapter Two
“Is the pre-flight check done yet?” Eve inquires.
“Yes, and I also loaded 20 type-E mines, a status web net, and the cloaking device you requested. I am not sure the cloaking device will work on our ship because of its size. The device was created for smaller ships like fighters or shuttles and our ship is the size of a Class 3 destroyer. We do have three shuttles in the cargo bay,” 42 informs.
“That is fine. I want to do a weapons check when we are in orbit and before we take off to the destination. I want all the weapons tested, including the large projectile cannons, medium pulse lasers, and the small rotating guns. Make sure we have missiles at maximum capacity for all of our missile racks,” Eve says insistently.
“We’re going to war or something? Geez that is a lot of firepower,” 42 ponders.
“I just like to be ready for anything that might come up, especially in an area that is unpredictable and unstable as a neutral zone. Also make sure all 197 crew members are ready to go.”
“Why are we going out in the middle of nowhere, might I ask?”
“You may not. Just trust me, 42. I would never do anything that would jeopardize any of our lives or my ship—you should know that by now. I just want to go and check something out.”
“Okay, Boss. You know, I always have faith in you. You are probably one of the smartest persons I have ever met. I enjoy working for you, not just for the money, or all the upgrades that I have gotten for my body, but you have an active mind and are sagacious for your years.”
“Okay, stop kissing the boss’s butt, 42, and come up to the bridge. I am having an issue with the tactical display at the weapons station,” Gartooth Hammertail says in an unimpressed fashion while standing in the cargo bay door halfway in the main corridor. 42 turns around and sees the huge crocodile man with the protruding jawline and crooked teeth leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed. “Well, chop, chop, let’s go. I ain’t got all day, got things to do, people to kill and such….”
“You know you are the most annoying person I have ever met,” 42 grumbles and heads up to the bridge with Gartooth. Eve giggles a little; watching
those to work together is somewhat of a comedy relief sometimes. Gartooth has been the tactical officer on the ship for three years and sometimes he can be annoying but knows his job very well. He comes from a crocodile family that mostly had security job careers over the last century or so.
The rest of the crew is a motley bunch of interesting characters. At the helm is Helma Seni, a snake female with her twin sister, Nelma Seni, at navigation. Then, of course, there is 42, who is an android, in charge of communications and accounting. Rulu Barbtail, a female crocodile, is the chief engineer. Meto Shawn, a human male, is the first officer and controls the science station and sensor ops. Dr. Farshe Mezeenabark, a female Wolfkin, is the ship’s chief medical officer. Pura Shitztar, cargo supervisor and ship’s cook, is a female Katlin (cat people).
Eve goes back to her office to attend to some last-minute details before they launch. As she sits in her chair, the vid screen starts beeping, indicating an incoming call. She presses a button, and a snake man appears on the screen.
“Hello, Lady Eve. I heard you were back in Hoshan. How does it feel to be back home?” Fartan Balltail asks politely to his favorite client. Fartan is the attorney for Eve’s merchant group and has been for about three years. His specialty is corporate law. In this case, the lawyer is literally a snake and not just figuratively.
“What’s up, Fartan? I am just getting ready to take off in a few minutes.”
“I just called to inform you that the merchant group Digtailan has just declared war on your merchant group. I got the notice from the merchant guild today. Digtailan paid all the appropriate filing fees with the merchant guild, so it is an official war.”
“I thought they were a Class Eight merchant like me. How can they challenge the same rank? I thought the challenger had to challenge one rank above their own rank.”
“You can challenge the same rank as long as the combined total of both groups’ assets equal enough to qualify the winner for the next rank’s license. For example, both contestants are rank eight and their combined total assets equal enough value to apply for a Class Seven license.”
Galaxy of Empires- Merchant Wars Episode #1 Page 1
