'You have credit or cash?'
'I have a few GC with me.'
Captain Sima eyed Ayan's messenger bag and a smile grew on her face. 'We've got business then, don't we? Let's start with the supplies and then we'll see about somewhere to park.'
The tour of what Captain Sima had to offer was like walking through a bulk store. If Ayan wasn't pressed for time she would have listened to her go through the entire stock, but there were over a hundred shipping containers, and the state of things in the Dower Wastes was never far from her thoughts. She had bartered before, but this was different. This wasn't striking a deal for some keepsake during leave. It was food and essentials with the potential for finding a safer place for everyone. They needed a place to find their feet, especially since she couldn't know what condition the Triton would be in when it returned, if it returned.
If they were stuck with the materializers in their comm units and the ones in the Clever Dream they would find themselves desperate before long. The materializers would eventually need repair, and they simply didn't have the parts. If they had significant power problems they'd run out of food even faster. Minutes were passing, and though Ayan was enjoying her time exploring, there were people waiting. Too many people.
Captain Sima was a great sales person. She focused on what Ayan had asked for first, food. The Captain had raw stocks and the processors for them as well as dehydrated stock, fresh fruit, vegetables and vat grown meat. The storage containers they were in would keep them fresh for decades, but without a galley or a large clean environment for food preparation, there was no way Ayan would buy a single crate of the cultivated foods.
Ayan managed to nab four tons of raw food stock and Captain Sima was kind enough to throw in two portable processors that would change the flavour and consistency of the material into a few hundred different dishes, hot or cold. She also purchased a ton of meal bars and that settled their food problems for the time being. It was obvious that the Captain was trying to sell her wares first, since she guided them to specific sections of the makeshift warehouse. She was careful not to put down any of the goods they passed, however.
When it came to survival gear, there was a problem. It was all too expensive, even in quantity. After going through the entire list of equipment, which included everything from shovels to an entire portable bunker, and finding nothing that was within their means, Captain Sima nodded and said; 'I'll leave you lot alone to discuss things a minute while I tell my Bosun what's what with the food order and make a call.'
Ayan, Laura, Victor and Jenny watched her swagger away and down a steel stairway then turned towards each other. 'So we have the food, that's something.' Laura said.
'Eighty four thousand credits worth. The portable shelters and other survival gear are expensive though, there's got to be something we can do to get all the essentials with the cash we have,' Ayan replied. “We might not have anything left to barter for landing space with if we buy temporary shelters though.”
'Well, at the price she's offering we can afford about a hundred four-man shelters with environment units built in, but that's no where near enough if we want to perform extensive repairs on our ships.' The portable shelter fit in a half a meter by fifteen centimetres thick box. Laura carefully put it back into the case with the rest of them.
'I checked the exchange, if we had come along two months ago with the same money we'd probably be able to buy half of everything here. The cost of food and survival gear are up, big time,' Jenny said quietly.
'I know,' Ayan said pensively. 'We can't do anything about that now though. We have to work within our means.'
Laura looked down then back up to Ayan with a grin. 'I wonder what her shipping containers are worth?'
'Well, I assume we might get one with the food we ordered, so that one might be built into the price.'
'What if we bought an extra one or two? It's not like they have to have systems built in, we can rig survival machinery, and we can pick up the containers if we have to move them later with at least one of the ships we commandeered in the Ossimi Ring.'
Ayan smiled and nodded. 'I bet she has an extra or two.' She looked for the Captain but saw one of her men instead. 'Can you get on comms and fetch the Captain, please?' Ayan asked sweetly.
'Skipper!' The crewman hollered. 'They're ready to close the deal!'
Captain Sima came up the stairs a few minutes later. 'Figured a few things out?'
'We may have,' Ayan said with a winning smile. 'We're wondering what the going rate for empty shipping containers is.'
'Not much, free if you have a ship with a hauler hitch and you're fast enough to pick one up before the junk yard scavengers get to 'em.'
'I'll pay you to help us get a couple, how does that sound?'
Captain Stills looked over her shoulder to a much smaller ship with four swivelling engines and a great claw underneath that looked like the Samson's maxjack then back to the foursome. 'You have a deal, miss.'
'I was also wondering about that landing space. I need to move my people today.'
'I’ll be level with you on this, since I bet it’ll go far with you. Most Port Masters are right pricks when it comes to setting people up, charging too much and double crossing. I checked with the more trustworthy kind and one of them fancies a meet with you, Captain Patrizia Salustri-“ Ayan heard Victor inhale sharply at the mention of the name and pretend as though he looking at something in the darkened warehouse.
“Heard of her?” Captain Sima asked with a crooked smile. “Where you hail from?”
“Pandem,” he replied quietly.
“Then you would have. Well, she wants a sit down with you. Good luck there too, she owns more slips than most, and if she wants to see you then she already has a deal in mind. Just don’t tell anyone I sent you her way, or there could be trouble.”
“Why not?” asked Ayan, she had to know.
“I rent from a competitor, that’s why. He’d be fair vexed if he found out you were standing right here and I passed you off without so much as looking at his ident.”
“Then I won’t say anything.”
“Good. When you strike a deal with Salustri, remember who got you in the door.”
“I will, thank you Ruby,” Ayan said, shaking her hand.
“You settle up with my man here, I’ll make sure there’s someone to meet her shuttle when it arrives.”
Chapter 24
Five meters from the express car was the rearguard of the command deck's assault force. There weren't dozens, but hundreds of soldiers dedicated to the effort of taking the command deck and the bridge. From everything Major Cumberland could discern, they had come at it the wrong way. 'We're on deck and awaiting orders,' he double checked his reticule to find the commanding officer's name. 'Commander DeHansen,' he finished.
'This is Commander DeHansen, my Senior Sergeants are all on the casualty list. I've taken direct command of operations. I'm assigning you as the senior officer to everyone you arrived with. You are to secure the hallways leading to the primary engagement area and reinforce us.'
Major Cumberland couldn't help but glance over his shoulder at the thirty-one men and women who made it off the upper deck with him. Three had lost their rifles and were down to their service side arms. He didn't want to know how it happened. 'Understood, moving up. So you are aware, my comms and scanner people are all out of action.'
'No problem, we've got the whole place scanned out, you're just taking a quick gander before joining the fray.'
The few rooms adjacent to the hallway were cleared quickly. They were small ready quarters, offices and conference rooms. A few had consoles that looked like they had been used as some kind of control room, but it, like every other nerve centre on the ship, was dark and dormant. It took him only a couple rooms to see that each of them had been investigated by several teams beforehand, but the Commander obviously thought checking them periodically was essential to keeping the enemy off their backs while they pressed ahead.
