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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shadowdancer" data-source="post: 2254976" data-attributes="member: 515">Chapter IIDate: 202-993Location: Fonnein Orbital After the breakfast meeting, the crew split up to pursue various interests. Vasilii pursues cargo. He finds that there are 15 dTons of chemical catalysts available, and he negotiates a disappointing price of Cr16,000 a dTon (delivered) bulk or Cr17,000 a dTon in barrels. The Munson Cooperative salesman comments that a number of far traders have purchased their solvents recently which has driven up the cost. He does offer a Cr75 dTon discount if the Bray Keaven picks up the catalysts on planet. Vasilii thinks he can probably make a decent percentage on the catalysts, comfortably better per dTon than freight. He’s inclined to take them in barrels, since that will be easier to split on Kerin’s Tyr (which is balkanized). Also, they won’t have to worry about delivering the chemicals to one spaceport for the buyer and returning leased or rented shipping containers to another spaceport. And he may be able to sell the barrels. He agrees to buy all of that, in barrels, for collection from the spaceport, and he’ll get right back to confirm arrangements after talking to the flight crew. The Munson Cooperative also has 20 dTons of chemical solvents for sale. Again, the salesman unapologetically explains that local supplies have been recently snapped up, so the price has been driven up. After some hard negotiating, Vasilii manages a mediocre showing of Cr18,000 a dTon bulk or Cr19,000 a dTon in barrels (delivered price). Again, the Cr75 dTon discount applies if the Bray Keaven enters the gravity well to pick up the solvents. Vasilii notes these, and figures he could turn a profit, but they’re complicated and not that much better than freight. He leaves them in reserve. Rather disheartened, Vasilii checks into the so–called "Fonnein Gray Crystals," which turn out to be a rather tasty form of sea salt. The FGC, Ltd., saleswoman seems to be very excited that Vasilii is possibly interested in purchasing some of the salt, and Vasilii manages to negotiate a very good price: Cr2,200 a dTon, delivered. Her company appears to be much smaller and, as a result, the discount for picking up the salt is Cr100 dTon. The salt comes pre-packaged in boxes containing 0.5-kg bags. She also gives Vasilii three bags as samples. Vasilii had excluded the notion of shipping spices to Kerin’s Tyr, but this is a very good price. Even at the 20 percent or so discount he might face on an agricultural world, he ought to be able to double that. So it’s better than priority freight. He asks the woman how much is available for quick purchase, and whether they can pick the goods up from the spaceport planetside. He keeps two bags for sales purposes and passes one to Saro for his delectation. Buoyed by the salt negotiations, Vasilii pushes a little harder and finds a couple of far traders selling other items including six dTons of leather at Cr7,000 a dTon and one dTon of serial action and romance vid-disks at Cr45,000. Vasilii is all over the vid-disks and decides to buy them at once. After a few moments, he also decides to buy the leather. Whilst taking leather to an ag world seems counter–intuitive — one usually buys the stuff there — his professional experience is that leather sells well enough provided you’re selling foreign leather. -----Martha attempts to locate low passengers, which isn’t too hard to do. She finds 12 people waiting passage. Most are individual passengers, but there are two couples and one family — mom, dad, and two small children. The family would also like to ship one dTon of items. She checks with Vasilii to see if there’s room and profit in taking the family’s stuff. Vasilii says, "It might suit us to sell them a dTon of freight space or it might not. I need to hear back from the lady with the salt about how much she’s got, and finalize which of the bulk freight lots need special containers. I should be able to tell you pretty soon. But the odds are we will have a space left over." However, once he makes an actual load–out list, Vasilii realizes there is no spare room in the cargo hold. He tells Martha, "Miss Smythe, it transpires that we can exactly fill our holds without the cargo your frozen family want to take, and we’d lose three dTons of freight to accommodate them. So we’d best take the other lopax on offer." He pauses for a moment. "Although we could stack it in our spare cabin. That would be fine, if we definitely aren’t taking any warm passengers. I’ll leave it to you to decide on that, since passengers are your side of the equation. But the holds are booked." Martha decides to leave the family until last and start contacting individuals until the four low berths are completely booked. They won’t take any warm passengers, and will only take the family as a last resort, placing their dTon of freight in the empty cabin if necessary. -----Saro and Aidan go off to arrange luxury rations/life support supplies for the ship. The selection isn’t great, but given the size of the port, they’re pretty good. Aidan and Saro are particularly pleased by the selection of seafood, though the selection of cheese is almost nonexistent: whatever Aidan tried was certainly a cheese appearing substance, but it was certainly not cheese. "Well Saro, that was an interesting substance. But I’m not sure I could find an appropriate wine to wash the taste out of my mouth." Saro makes a face as his tastes the almost-yet-not-quite-entirely-unlike cheese substance. "Ugh. Certainly no wine would do the job. A few industrial cleansers come to mind." -----Kevon, Vargas, Swann, and Ian stay onboard the ship, take care of reloading remaining cargo (0.5 dTons of Marine rations, the nine missiles), and take the ship to its new (regular) berth, No. 113. The move of the ship proceeds entirely without incident, much to everyone’s surprise. From the inside, Berth No. 113 looks identical to the berth the Bray Keaven occupied when the far trader first arrived at Fonnein Orbital except for the interesting looking burn marks which cover two–thirds of the berth floor. The berth is fully enclosed and pressurized. Before and after the move, Vargas runs diagnostics and checks on the engineering equipment to ensure that no problems were overlooked in the maintenance and repairs. -----After the ship arrives at the new berth, Swann and Ian head off to see about getting a forged permit for Ian’s ACR. Eneri looks a little warily at Ian, but given Swann’s assurances, he appears to be willing to give Ian a chance. Eneri doesn’t admit to knowing anyone who would have the necessary equipment and materials, but he does comment that he might be able to remember who has been known to provide such permits he didn’t have to anguish over whether or not he could sell this nifty portable vid-disk player for Cr300. After Ian buys the vid-disk player, Eneri suddenly remembers that Markul, a gray Vargr who frequents the Drunken Monkey (one of the lower–end bars) has been known to be able to provide permits. Eneri gives Ian a token to give to Markul by way of an introduction. Looking at the time, Ian and Swann head back to the ship for dinner before deciding whether or not to go visit Markul, who usually doesn’t show up at the Drunken Monkey until 2200 hours, according to Eneri. -----At 1900 hours, the crew gathers for dinner in the lounge. </blockquote>

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