Frozen Soul, and other works: Chapter 202

(Grathdan Sector Administrator’s Office, Cadra Primaris, Capitol Planet of Grathdan Sector, Gauz Consortium)

Sector Administrator Yutreda Woldmane sighed as she slumped against the back of her extremely comfortable (one might even say luxurious) chair. The chair was the only thing that made her job worth the hassle, some days. Made of the finest materials, including memory materials, it molded itself to her form perfectly, always providing just the right support. That was important, especially when dealing particularly stressful days. And she had been getting a LOT of stressful days lately.

Ironically, it wasn’t nearly as bad when Coldana went dark, or when it was confirmed that the X’thari were present, with a Harvester. That was a threat of such apocalyptic proportions that she could easily throw anyone who caused trouble into the deepest, darkest hole she could find, and then throw away the keys. Unlike what her detractors said, she wasn’t actually corrupt, which is why those detractors were still free, despite the crisis giving her the perfect opportunity to weed them out in the name of security. ‘Promoting unrest’ during a X’thari invasion with a Harvester present was a capitol crime, after all. Any lawyer would agree that they would have been lucky to just get away with judicial enslavement at a penal colony. But she was better than that, as much as she wished otherwise at times.

One source of her frustrations was with the merchant companies that hauled goods through the system. There were quite a few captains and companies that were incensed that the pirates which had been working the sector had been given blanket pardons for their past crimes, and were being allowed to transition into legitimate trades. The fact that these pirates had been guaranteed the consideration by the Admiralty if they aided in ensuring critical supplies got where they were needed despite the X’thari presence only made them madder. Her signing off on it as well, giving the proclamation the weight of both the civil and military authorities of the Consortium sent them into a frothing rage.

It wasn’t like she didn’t understand their concerns, of course. Most of them had lost cargoes, or friends, to the pirates over the years. It was an expected part of doing business, but that didn’t mean everyone had to like it. Indeed, few people were as passionate about the idea that pirates deserved death than the freighter captains they preyed upon, save only the military. Fortunately, the military angle wasn’t her concern.

Her desk computer chirped, letting her know that her next appointment was here. This was the price of the chair, she reminded herself. With another sigh, she straightened up, and pressed the button to admit them. In walked a pair of Gauz, both dressed in normal (if high-end) business wear. She could tell instantly that they were not typical merchant lords, however. Visible tattoos and augmentations? None of the high-level merchants would have such things. No, this had to be the representatives from the former pirates.

The first one, a stocky male with what looked to be a military targeting aid replacing his right eye, bowed respectfully, and said, “Lady Administrator, we’re honored to be havin’ this opportunity to speak with ye. I’m Kramear Shattershield, and this is ZeroSumGame. We’re from the Shattershield Company.”

Woldmane kept herself from snorting at that, but only just. ‘Company’. It was rather brazen of the former Shattershield Clan of pirates to do the bare minimum of rebranding once they’d been granted pardons. Still, they wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of getting on her schedule (or have been approved up through the chain of command) unless they had something they thought was worth her time. Plus, their existence allowed her to tweak the more arrogant shipping companies a little, which was a pleasant change of pace.

“I see. And what can the Sector Administration do for you gentlemen?”

Shattershield said, “Well, we’ve got a set of proposals that you might be interested in, as part of the Sector Rebuilding Plan that just came down from the Assembly.”

Woldmane leaned forward at that. The Consortium General Assembly had not only approved and reimbursed the massive outlay of funds she’d authorized in the initial stages of the crisis, including the hiring of the Black Stars and other things she’d done to keep the sector from falling into chaos, but it had put together the Sector Rebuilding Plan, to try and revitalize the Grathdan Sector in general, and Coldana in particular. Since this involved quite a large sum of credits, her office had been swamped with plans by companies wanting a piece of the pie. Most were obviously profiteering scoundrels who were looking to cheat the Consortium out of as many credits as they could. The most egregious ones were arrested and awaiting trial.

“Is that so? Well then, let us hear these proposals. I’ll warn you, though, that your pardon only covers past transgressions, not any future ‘incidents’. Your Company did help with the crisis, which is why I am going to listen to your proposals instead of throwing you out immediately. Do not try my patience on this matter.”

Shattershield nodded. “Fair enough. The Company discussed things at length, and we decided to make good on this chance to go legit. Not going to endanger that by pissing off the people who helped us get the chance.” He paused, and then continued, “Now, first up we have a proposal for the Shattershield company to provide interim security for shipping in the Grathdan sector.”

Woldmane kept her jaw from dropping. Barely. “What?”

“We understand that the loss of Tenth and Fifteenth fleets, as well as the damages to Fifth and Seventh Fleets suffered at the Second Battle of Coldana have left a massive hole in the defensive forces of several sectors. Until the lost ships can be replaced, civilian shipping in four sectors is at risk. We believe that, of the mercenary groups in the Grathdan Sector, the Shattershield Company has unique knowledge and capabilities to deal with threats from pirates and others who may try to take advantage of the Navy’s absence during this period. As you know, the Shattershield Clan was one of the largest groups which engaged in such practices locally before our recent change of status, but we were not the only ones.”

“You want me to hire former pirates on as pirate hunters?”

“Yes, we know from other areas that certain other clans have chosen to change their work habits, and have either gone legit, as we are trying to do, or have taken their business in a different direction from their predecessors. Our captains know the local space better than most, and they know where captains engaging in illicit ventures often congregate. That gives them an edge on taking on pirates.”

“Assuming I agreed to this, what makes you think you could do the job?”

“Our ships are better than the ones run by the other clans, and, since we’ve gone legit, we’ve been able to get time in a proper spacedock for them, so they’re in peak condition, rather than being held together by duct tape and prayers, only kept going by an engineer’s ‘percussive maintenance’. Add to that the fact that we’ve got more ships, and our crews are some of the better gunners out there. We could strike at the major havens before anyone realized what was going on, and take the majority of the pirates out, leaving them disorganized.”

“I’ll have to consider that. I won’t agree to anything without going through a review, and there will be proper contracts signed so that everything is above board. I won’t engage in the trickery that some other Administrators get involved in.”

“Fair enough. The second proposal we’ve got is for the revitalization of the Coldana System. As I’m sure you know, with the orbital infrastructure destroyed and the planet’s population suffering extreme losses, left to conventional methods the system is effectively a failed colony that hasn’t accepted that designation yet. We would like to propose that Coldana be made into a Haven Port.”

Woldmane frowned. “I’m sorry, I’m not familiar with that designation.”

Shattershield motioned to the Gauz next to him. She was a female, who had both eyes replaced with obvious augmentations, as well as having a metal hand clearly shining from under her suit, most likely a full cybernetic arm. She stepped forward, and said, “A Haven Port is a concept that many of us in the Nomad community have been talking about. Essentially, they are ports that have significantly reduced level of customs and regulation. They become places where smugglers, rogue traders, black market dealers, and other such individuals congregate.”

“Now, such places are common, to varying degrees. If you know where to look, you’d find small ones on any long-standing colony, and certainly larger ones in every sector. The thing is that they are typically underground ventures, linked in with the local organized crime syndicates. There are some, however, that operate openly. Star’s Reach is merely the newest one, but there are others.”

Woldmane looked at the two critically. “And what is the advantage to allowing criminals to run free in my sector?”

Shattershield took over for the Nomad, and said, “Ma’am, you may take it on good authority that criminals already had the run of your sector, but you simply didn’t know it. The benefit to having a Haven Port would be that they would now be where you can keep an eye on them. Not everyone is cut out for living a life in polite society. Places like this give them an outlet, someplace they can go. And the local authorities ensure that taxes are taken on the trade, instead of going under the radar. More importantly, if people get carried away, the local authorities usually step in to correct the situation, because otherwise the Navy gets called in, and starts shining lights under every rock, and that ruins everyone’s day, so there’s some ‘accountability’.”

ZeroSumGame nodded, and added in, “And if things do get to that point, then the overwhelming majority of the quasilegal merchants and operators are in one spot, instead of being spread across the sector. There will still be local agents, but it is the same as having a central clearing house for a shipping company.”

Shattershield grinned. “And it would also be a convenient place to have any outliers to Consortium society, like humans or knelfi living in the area. Please, don’t insult my intelligence by acting shocked. We all know that the Consortium’s Powers That Be are quite happy with keeping non-Gauz down wherever they can, quite legally, of course. A Haven Port offers options to those people that would otherwise be… overlooked. They could form enclaves on Coldana, instead of being forced into slavery or crime by the ‘traditionalist’ forces in the Consortium. And that means, instead of draining resources, they could contribute to the sector’s profits.”

The Administrator leaned back in her chair. The pair made a compelling argument. And it was true that, without something drastic, Coldana was doomed to become a failed colony. There had simply been too much damage for a traditional Consortium colony to survive that. And if it somehow didn’t die out completely, it would eventually devolve into something worse than the Haven these two were talking about creating.

“Very well. I shall give thought to this policy, as well. Was there anything else?”

Shattershield grinned, and said, “Well, we did have one last policy we wanted to discuss with you. You see, even without the Shadowgate Gateway, the Grathdan Sector is pretty close, relatively speaking, to Ihm space. Now, traditional Consortium-based transport companies tend to have trouble when exporting to other nations, in no small part because their attitudes are… incompatible with the people they’re doing business with. So, the only real exports the Consortium has are usually carried on foreign-flagged haulers, and, even then, they are mostly either art or creative type goods, or items where there is a clear technological advantage over local items. Even when, say, consumer goods are superior, the attitude of the people involved prevents them from catching on outside the Consortium.”

He paused for a bit of dramatic tension, and motioned to the Nomad, who continued, “Now, the Shattershield Company has contacts outside the sector, including some over in Ihm space. If a new source of quality manufactured items could be created, in, say, a system that is already going to be undergoing significant rebuilding, then a company like ours would have an edge on the ‘traditional’ haulers. The only thing we don’t have is a valid armed import/export permit, allowing our armed merchantmen to move goods across the border to Ihm space. And the Ziunov dungeon is only two weeks in warp from the border. Since there haven’t been any dungeons discovered in Consortium space yet…”

“Hmm.” Woldmane smiled. “Now, that has potential…”

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