Raeburn''s World: "Banned" system. No trader activity allowed with this system. System was "banned" for trading with another banned world. The circumstances of this action are disputed. The official appeal to the Ban was rejected in 3249. System is relatively advanced and has capacity to build FTL ships. Of the two primary Polities in the system, the Raeburn Federation, is the largest with the majority of artificial habitats and asteroid based colonies. The Inner Union controls the majority of the system''s habitable planet. While not at war, the two entities are mutually aggressive. The Raeburn militia is in theory neutral and is a joint service but in practice heavily favors the Federation. Care should be taken when traveling in this system.
Excerpted With Permission
Data Trader’s Handbook
Copyright 3250, Interstellar Data Trader Guild
“Trader Apprentice Eddington, you understand that the evidence you are about to give will be recorded and that any perjury on your part will result in your expulsion from the guild?”
“Yes, master trader.”
“Very well.” Guild Master Thorsten was looking very stern today. Seated on a hastily erected podium in one of the larger meeting rooms aboard the Reggie, he was the president of the tribunal. Two other master traders (as required by guild law) were also sitting in judgement. In this case, Master Trader Tiernen sat on his right side and Master Trader Tomlin sat on his left. All three wore the official dress uniform of the guild which was rarely seen. A black jacket, pants and beret with silver piping along the pant legs and at the epaulettes. The berets were neatly lined up on the desk before the three masters. “The tribunal has reviewed all the video and data evidence in this case. Unless you object, we will enter the logs into evidence.” At the slight question in his voice, Ramona shook her head, no objection. “Very well. While the facts of this case are very clear, the circumstances are not. I don’t think anyone is going to deny that the apprentice here shot a man dead and gravely wounded another.” He paused and looked around the large room. Nearly every master trader was present. None objected to this observation. “Therefore, this panel will restrict its investigation to the motivation behind this homicide. Apprentice Eddington, is it correct that you are a trained military officer and have a policing background?”
There was a slight gasp at this. Standards for homicide were much higher for military officers, serving or not. Since they were highly trained, the expectation is that they would use this training to improve their judgement and thus be held to a higher standard of conduct. “No sir. That is to say sir, I was a member of the Raeburn Militia as a senior specialist. I graduated from the academy but did not sign my commission at the conclusion of my tour. I was not a commissioned officer. I do not have a policing background except as in accordance with my duties in the militia.” Ramona stood ramrod straight before the tribunal. Her eyes fixed at the wall behind the panel members.
Thorsten looked down at a pad. “However, you seemed to expect armed conflict. How is it that you knew there was an ambush waiting inside the buoy?”
Ramona’s tone remained flat as before. “Sir, I did not know there was anyone inside the buoy. However, the system registered excess heat. This may mean the presence of unaccounted for personnel. It is standard practice in the Militia to scan unmanned buoys and stations for heat and to assume any unaccounted for personnel are potentially hostile. I was about to conduct a more thorough scan when Journeyman Timur opened the hatch. I was concerned about unaccounted for personnel so I acted on the assumption that they might be hostile. However, I did not initiate hostile action at that time. I was following my training and I was not aware that Trader practices are different in that regard. Sir.”
Thorsten did not look impressed despite the fact that he must have watched her manhandle Leo half a dozen times on the sensor log. Leo certainly had. A couple of times in slow motion. “However, you did enter the station armed and you did aim your weapon at the persons you found inside, correct?”
“Sir, that is correct. There were two armed men inside. They were clearly not guild members based on their gear and as I said, they were armed. I felt that my life and the life of Journeyman Timur may be in danger which justified drawing my weapon. Sir.”
Gunny sat up straighter and asked: “Based on what evidence did you feel your life was in danger?”
“Sir, they were both armed with model JMP-R 92 rail guns. Each weapon was fully charged and safeties removed. I knew this because of the three red icons on the side facing me. Sir.”
This earned a nod from Gunny. However, Thorsten wasn’t done with this line of questioning. “Apprentice, given your notable experience in this area, wasn’t it possible to simply wound them instead of killing them? If you could precisely aim for their head, doesn’t that mean you could have disarmed them?”
“Sir, no sir. I was trained to aim for center mass. In a firefight you don’t aim to wound. You aim to kill. I offered them the opportunity to surrender and they chose to escalate. I took the only reasonable option available and fired. My intent was to shoot to kill. I do not regret my actions.” There was a noticeable pause while she looked directly at Gunny. “Sir.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Gunny’s muttered “goddamn right” probably wasn’t the most professional thing a panel member ever said but it echoed Leo’s thought exactly.
“Thank you Apprentice Eddington. Do the members of the panel have any further questions?” Looking at the two others and receiving head shakes, he continued. “Very well. We will withdraw to render judgement. The session is adjourned.” The three members of the tribunal rose and left the room together.
It took less than ten minutes for the tribunal to return a verdict of not guilty due to self-defense. While Leo didn’t expect any other verdict, it was still a relief to have the formalities over with. The entire episode had thrown the Reggie into a turmoil. The port of call schedule had been thrown into chaos when Reggie had to divert and drop her in-system speed down to basically zero which had not pleased anyone. If everything went well, ships like the Reggie rarely slowed down when traveling through remote systems like U-I. The goal was to slice across the elliptic at relatively high speed (relative to the local star) and exit to the e-limit as quickly as possible. Total in-system time was usually only a few days. The actual course was a shallow ellipse that cut across the latency envelope established as one light hour (approximately 20 GigM) from one of the guild buoys in the system. In this case, the Reggie had slowed to a stop relative to the buoy to conduct the inquiry and this meant dumping immense amounts of velocity which then had to be built back up again to exit the system. In addition, the delay meant that the local planets and other objects had moved which also changed the shape of the gravity well. Not a huge difference, but enough to change the “optimal” course out system.
With something as big as the Reggie, changing her course through the system was a non-trivial task. Her huge mass was not designed for high-G maneuvers like a warship. Although she was capable of high burn rates in an emergency such as this one, they placed stress on the engines and the framing of the ship. Inspections were required after every emergency burn. Thus, the ripple effects of her course change would affect all the departments onboard. For the trading floor, this meant much more time in-system than originally planned. What was originally a quick fly-by and thus mostly focused on sell side now became an extended loiter within the gravity well and all that entailed. As Leo made his way to the trading floor, he could hear the commotion. Chaos might have been too strong of a word, but it was certainly much busier than you would expect.
As usual, Gunny was holding court in the weps pit. Although Gunny was not considered to be the ideal role model of a master trader, the weps pit on Reggie had the highest overall score of any pit. Gunny was extremely proud of this and wasn’t afraid to bring it up in casual conversation in case you forgot. Fresh from the tribunal, Ramona was at one of the junior trader consoles with her head together with Christine. Gunny walked over to watch over their shoulders. They were discussing buy-side activity and simulating trades on the system. The large status board above the console was glowing orange and repeated the message “Simulation” over and over again.
Christine was talking Ramona through an IP buy. “Let’s finish the analysis of the gun you liked last time. So, you can see that the seller’s bid is about 200 Guilders above the buyer’s final offer. You can set it up with a min/max range here but most traders prefer a spot price. Automated pricing is easy to detect on the seller side and can be countered with smart seller algorithms. That last offer was more than six months ago so you can assume that there is some panic settling in. Here is a link that lets you research the seller and find out their current financial status. So, you can see here that they haven’t sold a design in the last year so they may have a higher willingness to sell than six months ago.”
Ramona nodded, taking it all in. She understood how to make a deal and she understood how to strong-arm someone. The guild was all about negotiating from a position of strength. “Yes, I see that. However, this is a family firm. See how the seller agent has the same name as the patent holder? Oh, look at the registered CFO, that must be his mom. They only have two employees and their place of business looks like a residence. Their expenses are super low. Check this out, they already have two handgun patents filed and a third around miniaturized compensators. Their income from those three trades is more than ten times the median income here. The last two have ten more years to run on their patent expiration. They don’t need the money; this is about pride in workmanship.”
Gunny interrupted the lesson. “So, Eddington; what is your call? What would you offer?”
Despite the hum of activity, the weps pit was suddenly silent. This was a major test for the new trader, not simply an idle question from Gunny. If Ramona was aware of the silent attention from the rest of the pit, she didn’t show it. “I would meet their ask Gunny. This handgun will sell like wildfire. Their ask is fair and we will make a strong profit.” One of the mid-level traders down the row let out a loud guffaw. How would she know the value of this patent? She’d only been onboard a few weeks. She had failed the test. More than one trader was gleefully waiting for the rookie to get her comeuppance. Breaking records brought both good and bad attention to yourself.
Gunny silenced the incipient laughter with a glare. “Apprentice Eddington, please explain to me your reasoning. On what basis did you come to this conclusion?”
Finally feeling the weight of the conversation, Ramona slipped back into her military training. Leo wasn’t sure if her speech patterns were unconscious when talking to Gunny or she was intentionally playing up their mutual background in the military. “Sir, as part of my training exercise, I was able to procure a limited license. I used this license to print a copy of the weapon. I then test-fired this weapon over 100 times. Based on my experience in the militia, I found this weapon to be vastly superior to other, similar designs. Sir.”
If possible, the pit got even quieter. Even the adjoining pits were silent. “Apprentice Eddington, is this the weapon you used to air out those dusters yesterday?”
“Sir, yes sir.”
With a feral look in his eye, Gunny reached over Ramona’s shoulder and toggled the console from “Simulation” to “Live.” “You may execute the trade, Apprentice Eddington.”
With a few keystrokes, Ramona Eddington was on the board.