Return to Project Valkyrie Index
The text will reflow, so adjust the browser to a comfortable reading width and enjoy.
Project Valkyrie
Chapter 10 - VIP
Thyra followed Andre through the low-key door in the side of the lobby into an elegant hallway. He drew her further in and stopped at a large office that was outfitted in a luxurious manner. Even more so than the lobby.
He gestured toward a seat at a small table. "May I get you some refreshments? I can make tea or coffee here, or order something more if you desire. If you're hungry, I can arrange for that as well."
She sat down and considered the offer for a moment. She had a gustatory sensor, so that meant that she most likely could eat something, but she'd want to test that under more controlled circumstances. "I'm good, but thank you for asking."
"Of course," Andre said. "Might I ask what brings you to us today?"
"My husband recently passed, and though I have a membership, it's not something I've ever used, and I want to be certain what it entails and to turn over his identification. Also, if his card is acting as a repository for funds, I suspect that I will need to have that transferred to my card so that I can use it for our ship."
"Of course. I'll need to see proof of his death and take possession of his card."
She extracted both of those items from the paperwork sitting on the table and passed them over. Andre scanned the death certificate and then walked over to the desk and did something at the computer there.
She could feel the wireless signals as he authenticated himself and captured them. While she doubted she needed to break into their systems, Thyra was curious how difficult it might be. If she needed it later, it was good to have it now.
"I can see that the death certificate is registered with the Starport Authority, and that's definitely good enough for us. I'm unlocking his card now, and I'll review what's present on it and in your accounts. As the two of you have joint accounts, it should already be registered in your card as well, though there is the potential for personal funds that are not. Yes. He has two separate sets of funds attached to this card. One of them is for personal matters, and the other is linked to a ship called Bifrost. Is that correct?"
"It is."
"The ship's fund has two hundred thousand credits deposited in it. As far as personal funds, he has another fifty-seven thousand, four hundred and twenty-eight credits. If you come over to authorize the transfer with your card, I'll see that everything is transferred over."
Thyra rose to her feet and handed him her card. He waved it over the reader on the desk that he had used for the old man's card and then gestured toward a hand scanner. "As I'm not accessing the card because of the client's passing, you'll need to authorize the change via your DNA."
She pressed her hand against the reader, relatively confident that her DNA would match what the card said, but still a bit worried that it might not. The light flashed green, and she allowed herself a mental sigh of relief.
"Very good," Andre said. "I have transferred the personal funds--you had none on your card--and made certain that the balance of the ship's account is also registered. It was, but I figured that I should double-check since you were uncertain. You do realize that you can check this with the reader that was issued along with your card, correct?"
She shook her head. "My husband took care of those things, and I don't recall ever having seen a reader. That's why the card was something of a mystery to me."
"Ah. Well, I can see that you are issued another one, or you can upgrade your card to something less obtrusive. If you have no objection, a chip can be implanted in the palm of your hand that will act in the same manner. That way, you don't have to worry about a lost card because they are a pain to replace. Additionally, the implantable chip can be paired with a device of your choosing that has suitable encryption to make your account even more secure. Anything with a wireless transmitter and an encryption module will do. The chip is very high-tech and can accept encryption up to tech level 16."
Considering that there was only one planet in the Imperium with that technological level, and it was all the way across Charted Space, she suspected that it was pretty secure. The fact that it would be on her body would also mean that no one would be accessing her accounts without her permission, so she was attracted to the idea, but she would need to implant it herself. There was too great a chance that a medic would notice something unusual about her body, particularly since he or she would be penetrating Thyra's artificial skin.
"I think I'd like that, but I'd rather have my own medic do the installation. Would that be possible?"
"Certainly. I'll see about a chip before you depart. Instructions will be provided so that you can link it to whatever device you choose for extra security."
He slid her card back across to her, along with the death certificate. He dropped the other card into a portable incinerator next to his desk, then he stood and walked back over to where they would be sitting.
"Now that we've taken care of that particular issue," Andre said, "what else can I assist you with?"
"The woman at the counter said that I'm a VIP member. What exactly does that mean? Also, can you explain the different levels of membership and how they differ from one another?"
"Certainly. The Travellers' Aid Society has four levels of membership: Standard, Enhanced, Superior, and VIP. Most people aren't familiar with the various tiers because either a government or a corporation acts as their initial sponsor and pays the one-million-credit membership fee for them as a reward for service. Anything more requires a significant investment from the member themselves, and most of our members do not have those kinds of funds available."
"I see. My husband took care of this for me when he got our membership. I honestly don't even know when that happened. He wasn't exactly the best about sharing details with me if you know what I mean."
"Well, your account was initially formed a bit more than twelve years ago. He personally purchased a membership for you and himself at that time and then upgraded them a year later to the Enhanced tier with a million credit fee each. After the mandatory five-year waiting period, he paid two million credits each and moved you to a Superior membership. A little bit more than a year ago, he acquired a nomination from a current VIP member and paid the ten million credit fee to advance your membership to its current level. There are no tiers of membership higher in our organization."
"And he did the same for himself?"
"Indeed. He had to find a second VIP member to nominate him, but he did so. That means you have all the benefits of the highest level of membership in the Travellers' Aid Society for the remainder of your life, no matter how long that may be. If I might say so, the benefits of that membership are quite significant."
She nodded. "Why don't you run through what the membership benefits are for each tier for me?"
"Certainly. The Standard tier offers access to TAS hostels at a nominal fee, a high passage ticket every two months that never expires and may be transferred to others, access to the TAS News Service feeds, access to the standard library functions, including having them installed aboard a ship, and access to our educational and training facilities after paying for their use. That suits most of our membership quite well, but it is only the minimum services that we offer."
"And what about the Enhanced tier?"
"They get the same benefits as the Standard tier, with the following additions: they get enhanced access to our hostels, a high passage ticket every month, access to our job boards to seek employment or find employees, and access to our classified ads. The Superior tier of membership gets that with the following additions: premium access to our hostels, two high passage in a month, access to the expanded library and navigational databases that may also be installed aboard your ship, access to our medical centers at a reduced cost compared to equivalent services elsewhere, enhanced access to the job boards, enhanced access to our classified ads, and bank, credit, and loan services."
"And VIP membership?" she asked. "What does that get me?"
The man smiled. "Everything that we've talked about and VIP access to our hostels, high passage on demand, free access to our medical services, access to legal services, including ambassador access on worlds that have ambassadors present, and a number of discreet services that are available if you need them:"
"Such as?"
He leaned forward and spoke in a softer voice. "Some of these services are not strictly legal under Imperial law. That is why they are reserved for VIP members. One of the things that you can get on certain worlds is access to psionic testing, access to some of our exclusive archives and collections of items that are not strictly legal to review, access to a marriage and alliance database for the rich and powerful, and the ability to request background checks discreetly enough that the person being checked will never know that they've been looked at."
She was actually interested in a few of those. "What kind of collections are we talking about?"
"They consist of a few very secret sites that contain copies of forbidden texts or artifacts that are frowned upon or technically illegal. You can then read these forbidden texts while you're in the facility and physically examine the artifacts that are there. Your membership entitles you to access those sites and knowledge of where they are."
"Aren't you worried that somebody will pass that information along to the Imperium? If they are forbidden and illegal, one would expect that they would take an extremely dim view of them."
The man smiled a bit smugly. "The members that use these services are quite wealthy and influential, and that is more than enough to shield them from Imperial oversight."
"I see. That does sound very comprehensive."
She wasn't certain that it sounded like it was worth fourteen million credits per person, but once again, she hadn't paid the money and had the services available to her. Part of her thought about getting a background check run on the old man, but that would draw attention that she would prefer not come her way.
Why had the old man wanted to spend the money on something like this? How had he gotten it? Why had he gotten it for her as well? She might never know.
"What about services if a VIP member gets into trouble? Murphy is a world under a dictatorship, and they have very strict laws. If I were to leave the down port and somehow transgress one of the local laws, what could you do for me?"
"We would have our legal personnel immediately set to work on securing your release. We have a wide network of contacts here on Murphy, and across the Imperium and Confederation. If that proved ineffective, we would see about retaining the services of individuals who could secure your release through extralegal means. Then you would be smuggled off the planet."
"Seriously? You'd hire somebody to break me out of jail like in one of the entertainment vids?"
"No, ma'am. Nothing so exciting. We try to minimize gunfights around our members. Appropriate monies would be paid to someone, and they would assist in breaking you out of whatever facility you were in, but it would be done in such a way as to minimize any risk to your person."
"It sounds like laws don't apply to VIP members."
He nodded. "When you achieve a certain level of wealth and power, it becomes easier to flaunt laws and customs. I hesitate to say that all of our VIP members are so, but they are treated with that same respect by our organization, and every step that can be taken to accomplish whatever it is that you need accomplished will be done. If we need to hire a mercenary company to liberate you from somewhere, that is what we will do. Your safety is paramount to us."
She had to admit that she was a little shocked. That was significantly more than she'd been expecting to find when she came here today. Hopefully, she wouldn't ever need any of that.
Another thing that occurred to her was that the old man had to have done something to their system. There was no way that he'd acquired membership for the two of them more than a decade ago. She hadn't even existed then. He'd hacked his way into their systems and given them existing membership of some kind, probably Superior, since it didn't require a nomination. Once again, she'd never know for sure, but that made the most sense to her.
"I think that you've answered all my questions," she said after a few moments. "If you could get the chip for me, I'll take it back to my ship and see that it's implanted. Oh, and I'll want the locations of the special archives, please."
She'd check to see if the chip could handle encryption that was better than tech level 16. If she could do that, then no one would be getting access to her funds, no matter how good they were.
"Of course," Andre said as he stood. "I'll get what I need and be back. It should take less than ten minutes."
Once he'd excused himself and walked out the door, Thyra thought about it for a moment and then walked over to his desk. If she wanted a full readout about her own records and those of the old man, this might be the one time she had an opportunity to make that happen. They'd be upset with her if they figured out what she'd done, but she was willing to take that risk.
The computer was connected wirelessly to their network, and she'd captured Andre's login credentials. If this worked, getting in would be easy. Thyra transmitted the credentials to the computer, and the monitor unlocked.
Perfect.
Finding her own records was easy enough, and she sent everything to herself wirelessly. Then she did the same for the old man. For good measure, she searched for their ship and even the people who had nominated them for VIP membership.
The other thing she did was look for that list of contacts here on Murphy. She also did a search for businesses that might be good sources for cargoes if she decided she wanted to find them herself, rather than going through the brokerage services available at the down port. Additionally, she searched for information on individuals who were less than savory, including Customs Officer Sef and Linh Ae Sorensen. She didn't take the time to look at any of it, only passing it along to her internal storage for later review.
The entire process of gaining access and finding everything that she needed took about three minutes. When she was done, she erased her intrusion from the logs and locked the system down. Then she resumed her seat and waited.
It turned out that the man was faster than he'd advertised because after six minutes and thirty-two seconds had passed, he walked back into the office. She'd heard him coming, so she wouldn't have been surprised, but it was a good thing that she had acquired everything she needed expeditiously.
Andre held out a box to her. "The chip is inside here, and there is a data wafer that holds all the information necessary for both implanting it and connecting it to whatever device you choose. I'll need your card, please."
Thyra handed her black card over and watched as he incinerated it. "Will there be anything else, Madam Thorsdottir?"
"No, Andre. I think you've seen to everything that I need. Thank you for your assistance."
"If there is anything that the Travellers' Aid Society or I can do for you during your stay on Murphy, or anywhere else inside the Imperium or Confederation, you need only to contact us, and we'll do everything in our power to assist you."
"Thank you."
He escorted her back out into the lobby, and she made her way to the front, where her vehicle was waiting. In a few moments, she was on her way back to her ship.
All of that had been educational and surprising, but now she needed to focus on getting the freight cargo passed along to the people that owned it and try to come up with a plan for getting the illegal cargo out of the down port. That would be challenging, and it needed her full attention. The clock was ticking.