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Project Valkyrie
Chapter 9 - Titan of Business
About the time Thyra finished getting all the robots reactivated and verifying that none had programming that would allow them to destroy evidence or damage the ship's systems, she received a text message from Officer Sef that the paperwork about the old man's death had been filed, and she was now free to pursue whatever steps were necessary.
Attached was a copy of the death certificate, listing the cause as natural. That would help her accomplish a number of things she needed to get done without grief.
As she read the report, she watched the Skitters begin going over the lounge with interest. The small robots were not only designed to clean the floors, but could also scale the walls and even ceilings to make certain that everything was spick-and-span.
The ship had fifteen of the little things, and they would be underfoot at all times. Thankfully, they were adept at getting out of the way when needed. That would minimize any tripping hazard.
After verifying she had all the necessary paperwork with her, Thyra summoned a self-driving ground car to take her to the port administration building. The fee was nominal, and even though she wouldn't get tired walking there, she wasn't going to waste her time.
She still needed to figure out a way to smuggle fourteen displacement tons of illegal cybernetics out of the port and to deliver them by the early morning. That wouldn't be an easy task. Wasting time now would be a serious problem.
The ground car that picked her up looked like the same kind that Officer Sef had been driving, though the controls in this one were locked, and it was relying on a primitive robotic brain to get her where she needed to go. As it was limited in the locations it could travel to, that was more than sufficient.
As the vehicle was taking her to her destination, Thyra went over everything she hoped to accomplish. There were three places she needed to visit, and each had different things that needed to be accomplished.
First of all, she needed to get the port master to validate the change in ownership of her ship. She had no idea what the process would be like, but she had extensive administrative knowledge buried in the Admin skill. She'd taken the precaution of downloading every regulation revolving around the subject, and even now, she had background processes chewing through them to get every last detail that she might need ready for her at a moment's notice.
The next stop would be the Travellers' Aid Society. As she had a card of her own, as well as the one belonging to the old man, she needed to find a way to consolidate everything and to make certain that any access his identification had had to the accounts was terminated.
She was virtually certain that the black card was in fact a bank card, but she didn't know any of the details about how it worked or what she could do with it. This visit needed to get that settled.
The final stop before returning to her ship would be at the Trader's Guild. As they were a union of sorts, figuring out what benefits she could get from her membership would undoubtedly be worthwhile, but would likely be somewhat nebulous. Organizations like that represented their members in any number of different ways, and if she ran into trouble with getting the ship transferred, she suspected they would be of assistance to her.
As she considered that, she wondered if the Travellers' Aid Society might also be of assistance. They had some kind of legal assistance built into their support, but the details were vague. It seemed that the most basic members could get a bit of advice, but it required higher-level membership to get anything more, and she had no idea what level of membership she had. Odds favored it being the most basic sort, but once again, she wouldn't presume.
Once she was dropped off at the port headquarters, she walked into the building as if she owned the place and got a foretaste of exactly how much attention she would draw every time she went somewhere. People of all kinds stopped and stared at her as she walked by. She towered over them. That would likely get annoying after a while.
When she presented herself at the counter and stated her issues, the clerk was able to bring up the necessary paperwork on her terminal and had the change in ownership of her vessel registered in less than five minutes. Sef had cost a fair amount, but the woman had come through.
Before she departed, she asked where the representatives for the Trader's Guild and the Travellers' Aid Society could be found. It turned out that the Trader's Guild office was in this very building, so she changed the order in which she was doing things and headed there next.
She went up the lift to the fourth floor and found their office. When she stepped inside, she found a desk with a grizzled man behind it who was in the process of having an argument with a woman with a scar on her cheek and an attitude.
"What use is paying my membership to this stupid guild if you won't help me with my problems?" the woman demanded. "These bastards are robbing me blind, and you're just going to sit there behind that desk telling me that there's nothing you can do? What use are you?"
The man looked like he wanted to roll his eyes, but he was maintaining adequate control, Thyra thought. Barely.
"I hear you, Mariska, but you signed the contract, and now that the terms aren't in your favor, you want me to undo it? Business is business, girl. Nothing happens without risk. Neither I, you, nor your receiver can control the price of the equipment you brought here to sell. It's not his fault that it's suddenly worth four times what he agreed to pay. You can't back out just because you can get a better deal somewhere else. If you do, I'm afraid that the Trader's Guild will have to take a dim view of that sort of thing and sanction you."
She looked like she wanted to spit. "You don't understand what kind of opportunity this is for me. I need that money."
"You've got my sympathy, then," he said in a voice that was notably devoid of sympathy. "What you don't have is my permission to violate a valid contract. The guild won't back you up on that. You agreed to sell the cargo you just brought in at a certain price. If you try to do them dirty now, you won't just be in trouble with us, either. You'll be in trouble with the Imperium. Don't play that kind of game, okay? Just deliver the cargo and stop bitching about it. Maybe next time you'll be a bit more cautious about what you agree to before you sign the papers."
Without another word, Mariska turned and stalked out the door without even looking at Thyra. She was muttering under her breath about doing what she needed to do and not letting bureaucrats get in between her and her profit."
Thyra thought that wouldn't end well, but it wasn't her business. She had her own issues to deal with.
The man turned his attention to her as she stepped up to the desk. "Welcome to the Trader's Guild. I'm Cavendish. What can I do for you today?"
For once, she'd run into a person who didn't seem put off by her size. That was refreshing.
"Good afternoon," she said with a smile. "I'm Thyra Thorsdottir. My late husband was a member of the guild, and I need to find out what I need to do to report his passing. If you could help me understand my guild benefits as well, that would be helpful."
"Sure. I'm sorry to hear about your husband. You have my condolences and those of the guild. Let me see your guild card, and I'll get you sorted out."
She presented both her identification and the old man's. Cavendish picked each one up and brought up something on his computer. "Looks like your dues are paid for the next eight months, so you've got nothing to fear there. Do you have a death certificate for your husband?"
Thyra presented that, and he did some more work on the computer. Then he slid her identification and the certificate back to her, pulled out a pair of scissors, and cut up the old man's identification card.
"All right, then. Everything is transferred to your name, and word will spread from here. It will probably outrun you before the month has passed."
"Since I wasn't involved in the day-to-day operations of the ship, can you give me an idea of what the guild can do for me?"
"Absolutely. In any dispute you have with either a government bureaucracy or individual clients that you're doing business with, you can call on the guild to send backup. As you've just seen, we don't abrogate your responsibility for contracts that you sign, but if someone tries to twist things around in ways you never agreed to, we've got your back. There's strength in numbers, and that's one of the things we do. Also, if you're looking to hire crew, we maintain a list of qualified individuals who pass our rigorous screening and are safe to hire for any positions you might have. Anything revolving around the operations of your ship, we can lend a hand if you need it. That's what you're paying for."
She smiled. "I think I'm settled on crew right now, and the cargo I have is a freight delivery that I don't anticipate having any issues with, but I will certainly keep the guild in mind going forward in case I start taking on speculative cargoes. Is there a way to check to see if we have any funds set aside with the guild?"
"While we do occasionally do escrow deals, we don't hold any of your funds. All we are is a trade group that helps you in your dealings. If you want somebody to hold on to your money, you should see about opening an account at the Travellers' Aid Society. They go everywhere in this sector and beyond. Even into the Confederation."
"I've got membership already, and they're my next stop."
"It sounds like you're doing everything you need to do. If I'm gathering this right, you're new to running a ship. If you've got questions about how anything works, don't hesitate to call, and we'll see that somebody gives you a hand figuring out the steps you need to take. Have you gone by the port master's office to make sure that you have sole ownership of your vessel? Have you spoken with the mortgage holder?"
"I just left the port master's office and had the ship's title transferred to me. The ship doesn't have a mortgage."
"Lucky you. That certainly opens a lot of doors. One of the biggest impediments to becoming profitable is paying the people who own the ship. If you've already got that taken care of, you've won more than half the battle."
He handed her a card from a holder on his desk. "As I said, if you have any questions whatsoever, don't hesitate to call. The Trader's Guild is here to make sure that you have all the tools you need to be a successful merchant, whether you're just starting out or are a… titan of business, shall we say. We stand by our members and will stand by you through this hard time."
She snorted at his joke, took the card, and slid it into her pocket. "I certainly appreciate that, and I'm confident that I'll have some questions. This is all very new to me, and I'm learning as I go along. Thanks again for your help."
"Best of luck to you, Thyra. If you're looking to go see the Travellers' Aid Society right now, you can get a car at the front of the building. It's about a five-minute drive. The place looks like a big hotel, but it's more than that. Much more. If you've never taken advantage of their services, I think you'll be surprised. Their membership is worth every bit of the million-credit membership fee."
Thyra had skimmed the information about the Travellers' Aid Society, but she hadn't realized that the membership fee was so significant. How would anyone ever get back what they invested in it?
Once again, it was an extravagance that the old man had seen to, and it wasn't money that she was spending, so she would just take advantage of what it offered. Of course, to do that, she needed to actually get a move on.
She said goodbye and headed out of the port headquarters. There was a small stand of self-driving ground cars, and she quickly climbed in and instructed it to take her to the Travellers' Aid Society.
As advertised, it only took a few minutes to get to the multistory building. When the ground car pulled up in front of it, she realized that they had the entire building. Well, she supposed that wasn't exactly a surprise considering the membership fee.
When she went inside, she found herself in something very much like a hotel lobby. She'd never personally been in one that she could remember, but the similarities were obvious to any computer-driven comparison. There was a short line of people waiting to see a young woman behind the counter, and she stepped over to join them.
While she was waiting, she looked around the interior of the lobby and decided that it was what she would call upscale. It wasn't ostentatious, but it did speak of a significant investment of wealth. There were works of art hung on the walls that her eyes could see quite clearly, even from this distance, that they were of good quality. The fabric on the furniture was also excellent, and everything looked well cared for.
It took about ten minutes for her to work her way up to the head of the line, and the young woman behind the desk smiled up at her. Admittedly, her smile seemed a bit forced because Thyra was not small, and the woman was. She towered over her.
"Welcome to the Murphy Travellers' Aid Society," the woman said. "How can I assist you today?"
"My late husband and I are members, and with his passing, I need to find out what that membership means and what services might be available to me. My name is Thyra Thorsdottir."
Saying so, she took out her identification card and slid it across the desk with her black TAS card underneath it.
The woman picked up the identification and froze upon seeing the black card. Her eyes then rose back up to Thyra's as she picked it up and checked the name on the other side.
"You didn't say that you were a VIP member, Madam Thorsdottir," the woman said in a hushed voice. "You didn't need to stand in line. You could've stepped over to the executive services counter, and they would've seen you immediately. People with your tier of membership don't wait in lines here."
Before Thyra could say anything, a man materialized next to her. He didn't, of course, actually appear from nothingness, but his approach had been so fast that he might as well have.
"Welcome to the Murphy branch of the Travellers' Aid Society, Madam Thorsdottir. My name is Andre Favre. For the duration of your visit--be it long or short--I will personally see to your every need."
He held out his hand toward the woman behind the desk, and she slid Thyra's identification and the membership card into his hand. "If you'll come with me, I'll take you to a private office and see that you get what you need."
Well, this was certainly unexpected. Unexpected, but not unwelcome.
"Thank you, Andre. I appreciate that."