X Squared: Birth of a Merchant Prince (5) UPDATED

[FourFingers]

Part 1 Part 2
Part 3 Part 4

Updated below that ---------------------------------------------------

Part 5

Tchak'ta surveyed the area while he waited for Fugalas to make an appearance, his mind analysing the information he had gathered and reasoned conjectures he had made, trying to look at them from different angles to see if any thing had been missed.
He let his subconscious wrestle with the problems as he saw Fugalas appear at the far doorway and beckoned for him to follow.

They walked through what looked like a workshop to the back and into a small room packed with shield components and energy cells.
"The high energy field and the leaking shield generators will scramble any listening or video devices" Fugalas said as he turned around to face Tchak'ta. "How can I be of service to the PPA?"

Tchak'ta took out a hand held scanner and confirmed that no form of surveillance could take place; he then put the scanner away and said "I need information regarding two Teladi going by the name of Harold and Henry. My information reports that they were last seen in this sector."

"Let me check my contacts on the other stations, it will take a few mizuras" Fugalas said as he took out a data pad and a data encrypter and began sending his messages.
"I have been informed that the research on enhancing the intoxicating abilities of spaceweed plants has been stolen" he said while encrypting the message.

"Yes" stated Tchak'ta "They somehow managed to hack into our research facility computer banks, we still do not know how this was managed as the facility was protected with state of the art Split security systems. They destroyed the computers after taking the data so no retrieval of information is possible. The Board stands to lose a significant amount of profit if the research hits the open market."

"It has come to my attention that Karrack's Vampires have been ordering specialist biological equipment, they are also one of the largest distributors of spaceweed.
Maglixt Cazixt’nt the 4th has been providing them with spaceweed and smuggling the equipment with in the shipments. Her contact for the Vampires and the people supplying the equipment are these two Teladi" added Tchak'ta.

"Maglixt? At the Bliss place in Profit Share? It is highly unlikely she is anything more then just a pawn as she does not have the means or influence to be more then a delivery vessel." replied Fugalas.

Tchak'ta nodded.

"Have you heard that the 'Boron Caravan' enterprise has been shelved due to the Boron army declining to guard the trade ships? They are worried about the aggressive image this would give." asked Fugalas in disgust.

"Yes. The PPA Admiral Betndysis Ylyliys Bywumys the Vth was not pleased. We stand to lose a large profit potential. The Boron have no sense they lose profit." said Tchak'ta with a hint of contempt.

"There were two Teladi introducing themselves as Harold and Henry at the Trading station." informed Fugalas as he looked up from his data pad. "I have a person there, an Argon male by the name of Sevren Gronas who works in the bar 'Queens Tentacles' he will be able to give you specific details you require. I have informed him of your imminent arrival."

Tchak'ta nodded and began to walk back the way he had come.

"There has been increased activity by Argon intelligence recently, we are unable to gain specifics but I believe something of theirs was stolen. You will undoubtedly be tracked by their agents." Fugalas said as he followed Tchak'ta.

"I will keep that in mind" replied Tchak'ta

Fugalas headed back to the assembly area while Tchak'ta headed for his Harrier and the annoying technician.

"Your ship is ready to go sir. We replaced 3 power relays and readjusted the distributions to within optimum range." The technician called out seeing Tchak'ta heading for the ship.
"You have some very interesting modifications sir; I've not seen them before. If you don’t mind me asking, what do they actually do?" she asked smiling

'Why do Argons feel the need to make profitless conversation' he thought annoyed while out loud he said "Yes I do mind. If you knew, your life would be a short one."

Her smile turned a bit sickly as she decided this conversation wasn’t a healthy one to have. "If you will just authorise the credit transfer then you're all set to go." she said rather quickly.

Tchak'ta authorised the transfer of funds and climbed aboard his Harrier.

He left the shield factory and targeted the Trading station through the sector map on his screen. He activated the autopilot and headed over to the station, he was granted docking permission and taken into the visitors docking bay.

Tchak'ta walked out of his Harrier into the throng of people jostling around the docking bay. As the Trading station of the Argon home sector it was always packed with pilots, traders, business consortiums, professionals of all kinds, dignitaries and celebrities thou the last two had their own private docking bays.

He could feel the transactions going on all around him, from the smallest independent traders to the large quadrant wide enterprises to the gigantic universe spanning conglomerates.

Credits were flowing like blood through the veins, pumped through the trading stations and on to the rest of the universe. Credits from around the universe were flowing into the station while at the same time credits were flowing back out.

His home sectors were bigger trading hubs, dealing in sums that could be used to buy whole sectors and even quadrants. Out of the other species to share this universe only the Argon's showed a similar thirst for trade as the Teladi, many not restricting themselves with ridiculous notions of morality or ethics above the accumulation of credits.

Tchak'ta like many others born on the Teladi historical home world of 'Ianamus Zura' believed that once a contract was made you have to abide by it. Breaking a contract for short term gain of credits will lead to a loss of profits in the long run as others will not trade with you.

Many Teladi especially the females hatched outside the home sectors are greedy and focus on short term profits breaking contracts or duping trade partners which has lead to the dubious reputation of all Teladi.
It is perpetrated even more due to most space faring Teladi being females and most being from the once lost colonies.

It is these colonies which were cut off from the home world for hundreds of jazura's due to the jump gates being mysteriously re-routed which gave rise to the high proportion of Teladi females in space.

Due to the biology of the Teladi, male's are only hatched on the home world where as every egg hatched in the colonies is female. This may seem disastrous for breeding except for the fact that Teladi females do not require a male counterpart to lay eggs.
The only restriction being that the eggs hatched this way are always exact copies of their mothers like a clone.

It seems that these Teladi colonies became all female over the Jazura's and as time went by they became very bitter and self serving following the path of profit but with pure selfishness.

When the gates realigned again (for unknown reasons) these Teladi were able to return to the home world but found it much different to what they expected.
The Teladi of the home world are much like the other race's thou they too followed a trade oriented lifestyle, they did so with out sowing bitterness and mistrust among the other traders. This changed with the Teladi's from the colonies joining the trade lanes.

All of the other races are now suspicious of Teladi in general and will rather lose profits then deal with Teladi traders.

Tchak'ta had amassed his fortune through many shrewd trade contracts, always coming out with the greatest profit. This has caused consternation among his trade partners but they are all willing to trade because they know he has never broken a contract.

Of course if the contract wording allowed you to do something which your partners may not have realised or thought possible then that is their oversight and your right to exploit.

He would deal with any individual or consortium if the profit was high enough not restricted by what other races term moral or ethical obligations.

There's a Teladi saying which when translated into Argon goes something like, "friendship is friendship but Business… is Business!"
The closest Teladi word for friendship is 'preferred trading partner.'

Tchak’ta moved through the press of people heading towards the recreational area which housed all the entertainment. After asking a few people he located the bar ‘Queens tentacles’ and entered inside, he scanned the interior marking the points of exit and location of the staff along with the few customers.

It was early and most people were still at work thus the bar was relatively empty. Tchak’ta went to a table and sat on one of the modified chairs specifically designed for Teladi anatomy with a padded rest for his tail.

Fugalas would have informed this Sevren Gronas to make contact when it was clear to do so, he had to just wait. Ordering some rishik, a Split ale type drink for which he had acquired a taste, he waited.


Liutentent Toki Gilharno strode through the corridors heading towards the bridge on 'Argon One', the flagship of the Argon navy. An M1 carrier class ship it boasts 6 cannons, 3 of which mounts the devastating 'Gamma Photon Pulse Cannon', it is protected by 750MW of shielding and can also carry and deploy up to a 130 fighting ships.

It was as always stationed in the Argon home sector of Argon Prime providing both a show of strength and a feeling of total security.

Toki had just delivered his report to the head of Argon intelligence, stationed on this ship and was now on his way to inform the Admiral.
The Admiral had a tendency to want to meddle in everything and insisted on knowing any information the intelligence service had.

Being stationed on his ship meant that his orders no matter how annoying had to be followed. Toki guessed it was due to the Admiral knowing that there was so much going on that he was unaware of, which the Intelligence service kept to itself.

Toki stepped onto the bridge, nodding at Sendly on tactical he approached the Admiral,
"Excuse me sir"
"Yes lieutenant?" enquired the Admiral
"We have just confirmed reports that Tchak'ta is in this sector and heading from the 1MW shield factory to the Trading station, sir."
The admiral looked at Toki blankly
"He's with the PPA sir. One of their finest and very well known sir." informed Toki with a slight emphasis on well known.

The Admiral failed to notice the dig and asked “What is one of Teladi's finest doing in Argon home space? Especially at this moment in time?"

"We are not sure sir. He met a Teladi called Fugalas on the shield station whom we know to be an operative for the PPA but due to interference we were unable to monitor the conversation."

"Interference? Some sort of scrambling device?" asked the Admiral

"No sir. They were in a room with high energy output and shield generator leakage, common in shield factories."

"Well they are not common in trading stations. Put a tail on him lieutenant." the Admiral replied beginning to turn away.

"He already has a tail sir. Any more and he will not be able to sit down." replied Toki with a straight face.

The Admiral looked up at him and said "Are you trying to be funny lieutenant?"

"No sir. Don’t have a sense of humour sir. Common in the service sir." replied Toki still maintaining a straight face. He could hear a slight sniggering coming from tactical.

“I only meant that an agent has already been assigned to track him sir."

The Admiral stared at him suspiciously then finally said "Very well lieutenant, that will be all" and turned back to the monitors in front of him.

Toki departed the bridge, winking at Sendly as he left and made his way to see Ban Dana, the head of Argon intelligence and receive his orders.

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Tchak'ta had been waiting for half a stazura, sipping his drink when an Argon male, tall for his kind and slim wearing the bar's uniform came over. He looked to be young for the species and displayed facial hair around his mouth in a box shape.

"Good afternoon sir, my name is Sevren, can I get you anything to eat or drink?"

"What do you recommend?" asked Tchak'ta looking up at his contact.

"Well sir the agnu beef casserole in stott spices is quite popular, also the spicy sojahusks marinated in a mixture of stott spices and herbs seems to be doing well.

In fact just last tazura two Teladi were complementing the sojahusks."

"Well the opinion of two traders is of little consequence" replied Tchak'ta carefully.

"Oh no sir. These were business men for sure. They spent the whole tazura hiring pilots for drop off runs, giving the new inexperienced pilots a chance even those with out ships." assured Sevren.

"Businessmen you say. Maybe I know them, did they give any names?" enquired Tchak'ta making it sound like idle chatter.

"They introduced themselves as Harold and Henry. They ordered sojahusks for the pilots too sir. They visited many other places here but said that this served the best food and would eat here after carrying out purchases, even taking it back to their rooms." informed Sevren.

"Good enough, I shall have the sojahusks and another rishik." ordered Tchak'ta.

"Right away sir" said Sevren following which he returned to the kitchen.

As the waiter walked away, Tchak'ta ran over the conversation pulling out the facts.

So Harold and Henry were here less then 24 stazura's ago but are not here now, otherwise Sevren would have mentioned where to find them.

They had spent the whole tazura hiring pilots, which should leave records of departures and possibly destinations for him to check, although circumventing this stations security would be very difficult.

There must have been many items of high value for them to hire that many pilots, probably to increase chances of delivery which would suggest items not available freely or the need to keep the pieces separate so if intercepted it would be difficult to extrapolate the use.

They were hiring new pilots only, those willing to take any jobs so the distance must not have been far otherwise new pilots would not have the navigation layouts. Also new pilots usually have minimal defences and basic offensive weaponry as they are just starting to trade.

This would suggest an unfortunately early demise of their trading career, no doubt involving pirate clans.
They would expect all hired pilots to be dealt with especially if they were hiring pilots without ships, which would mean providing ships for them.

This increases the risk of being tracked; if a ship was to survive it would provide many clues and valuable data and information.

They visited other establishments and bars, possibly they have contacts there or some sort of arrangement.
Buying equipment or merchandise from the stores here will leave records of transactions and bill of sales, thou he didn’t doubt they would have covered their tracks.

They also must have had their own rooms near by if they took food back. That would leave records and maybe he could check the room.
Security usually kept a record of sensor reading from all rooms and possible some video footage. The difficult part will be in obtaining this information.

He had a lot to do now and some leads to follow. He didn’t think any of the pilots would have survived otherwise they would be back and Sevren would have mentioned it.

If he could have got his hands on one of the ships or even any of the pilots he could have gleaned much information.

Leaving the bar Tchak’ta headed for the trading area, this was the place where all the serious trading happened. Where profits are made or lost, lives built or destroyed, where opportunities to make substantial profits existed.

Tchak’ta smiled to himself, feeling the tingling of transactions as the lure of commerce called to him. The investigation can wait a little; he was after all a Teladi.



Ryhan sat and waited for his punishment to be set out. He was pretty sure that it would be another fine and possible community service.

He was sitting in the audience room of the sector police in ‘Home of Light’ awaiting the verdict of the captain and the representatives of the sector governor. They had been taking an unusual amount of time in deciding, usually it was a quick 10-20 mins wrapped up with a warning and told to behave like a model citizen.

It had been over an hour now and Ryhan was getting a bad feeling about all this. He had left Lan about 3 hours ago now and still he didn’t know what was going to happen. He had been surprised when he was told that representatives of the governor were here too, it didn’t bode well.

The far door hissed open and Captain Rasilyn walked back inside followed by the two representatives, introduced earlier as Moralin and Fargal. They took their respective seats with the Captain in the middle.

Moralin was a plump woman in her mid 40’s who seemed to be continually frowning; she had been practically frosty in her brief introduction. ‘She was probably on the Governors ship at the time of incident’ he thought ruefully.

Fargal was a large man with a girth to match; he looked to be in his late 50’s possibly early 60’s with some grey showing at the temples. He had showed more humour towards the incident which seemed to irritate Moralin.

“After much discussion and reviewing your past records we have come to a decision” Captain Rasilyns voice cut through the chamber. She was a slim woman in her late 30’s quite tall and cut a prim picture in her uniform.

“Because of your past infractions and continuous flouting of the law we have decided some regimental discipline would do you good. Towards this end we have placed you under the authority of the Argon Navy for 5 mazura’s to take effect immediately.

Maybe they can put to good use your piloting skills.”

Ryhan stared open mouthed.

“A member of the Navy will meet you outside on the docking bay and give you your orders. I hope that we will not meet under these circumstances again.” Captain Rasilyn finished and rose, signifying an end to the proceedings.

Ryhan couldn’t believe what was going on. He had just been enlisted into the Argon Navy without any choice, and for what? Just a cheeky display of protest.
“You can’t be serious? 5 months in the navy?” Ryhan said incredulously. “I’d get a fairer trial if I was Boron held in Split custody.”

The Captain stopped walking towards the exit and slowly turned around to face him, her eyes blazing as she spoke. “If it was not for Fargal you would be serving 2 years at one of the mines, you may think nothing of placing innocent peoples lives at risk carrying out your fool hardy stunts but if an accident had occurred or fatalities taken place it would have been my duty to inform the family. Do not ever question justice when you have shown a blatant disregard for the lives of others.” She practically hissed the last part, turned and left the chamber.

‘Guess that just killed my appeal chances’ Ryhan thought.

“I hope the Navy teach you some decency young man, thou I expect you will end up in the brig on some ship somewhere.” Moralin said stiffly as she walked past him.

“Don’t fret lad, the navy will do you good. I spent 12 years serving and I wouldn’t give that up for anything. Just try not to irritate your superiors too much.” Fargal said smiling.
“That was some fancy flying you did there. Made Moralin faint with your stunt.” He whispered winking as he went past.

Ryhan stood by himself letting it all sink in, then shrugged his shoulders “well there’s nothing to be done but to get on with it” he said to himself.

He headed back out to the docking bay to see if he could find that navy officer, ‘maybe they wouldn’t turn up’ he thought as he left the chamber to start his hopefully short naval career.

Ryhan walked out onto the busy docking port of the trading station in ‘home of light.’ This sector was recently re-colonised and deals with high quality electronics along with versatile fabrics. The large company known as Terracorps has its headquarters located here as well as its own power plant and cattle ranch.

Looking around for any naval types Ryhan headed over to his Discoverer. He patted her hull fondly and smiled thinking about the mischief they had both been in. His smile turned a bit wiry as he remembered the mischief had now led him to half a year in the Navy.

Over the years he had upgraded his Discoverer and even fitted some extra’s internally like the extended passenger cabin for comfortable long haul flights.

She was at nearly full speed and had her cargo bay maxed to 50units. She contained her max shielding of 3MWs and sported ‘Gamma Impulse Ray Emitters,’ the best weapons she could mount.

He had needed them many times as he more often then not managed to irritate people especially when gambling the main method through which he had gained the credits to carry out the upgrades.

“Ryhan Paase?” asked a voice behind him.

Ryhan turned around to face a young looking man, possibly in his late 20’s, broad shouldered and tall. He had dark brown hair and wore a serious expression. He wasn’t wearing any distinctive uniform or marking.

“Are you Ryhan Paase?” he asked again

“Erm… I might know where he is. Does he owe you credits?” asked Ryhan cautiously

The man looked at him quizzically, “I have been instructed to meet him here by captain Rasilyn. This is his ship.”

Ryhan considered pretending to be someone else and walk away but he’d lose his ship and be tracked down, things would just get worse.
“I’m Ryhan Paase, sorry about that, can’t be too careful. I assume you are from the navy?” he asked.

The man looked at him but made no comment. “I am Lieutenant Markus Rollem and you will be under my command.
Until your parole is up you are a navy cadet and will be expected to act accordingly, any breaches of discipline or behaviour will be dealt with in navy fashion, is that understood?”

“erm, yea sure. Will do.” Replied Ryhan wondering what he had got himself into.

“When answering a superior officer you will do so with respect cadet. Is that understood?” He said firmly with out changing expression.

“Yes sir” Ryhan answered trying to sound respectful while inwardly groaning. ‘Just my bloody luck’ he thought to himself 'an officer with a by the book attitude.'

Ryhan listened to his assignments and the role he was to play in the Navy with a growing horror. This was worse then he had thought, a lot worse then he had thought.
He was to carry out deliveries from stations to Navy installations and ships, act as a courier or ferry passengers as the need arose.

He was to be bored to death.

Ryhan was to pick up some special quantum tubes from the factory here and deliver them to the satellite production factory in 'Red Light' just one sector over. what was so special about these quantum tubes he wasn't told but they were much smaller then their normal counterparts.

His ship would not normally be able to carry quantum tubes as it could only carry small containers and the tubes used medium containers.

Ryhan waited in the docking bay of the Quantum tube factory while the tubes were being loaded into his cargo bay. It didn’t take long and soon he was out among the stars cruising towards the jump gate which led to Red Light.

There was a queue forming to use the busy jump gate but Ryhan accelerated and cut across the paths of the other traders fitting through the gaps by mere inches and gliding in front of an Argon Mercury practically brushing shields all to the accompaniment of obscenities hurled at him over the comms.

Ryhan smiled as the jump gate worm hole enfolded his ship and he entered subspace, 'guess I could have a little fun on these boring trips' he thought to himself.


part 6

[pixel]

Nice continuation, the plot thickens!

it is a bit hard to read though, could do with the paragraphs being seperated out a bit.

[KiwiNZ]

Very good read. Good background on Tchak'ta, at least now we know why he has got a Split name. Also nice to see the reference regarding male and female Teladi

Looking forward to seeing how these plot lines close in on each other.

"winking at Sendly as he left" - I could not find this name before but assume it refers to the person at tactical?

[FourFingers]

Thanks guys.

Ive spread out the paragraphs so hopefully it reads less like as essay.

Toki stepped onto the bridge, nodding at Sendly on tactical he approached the Admiral,

Thats who he winks at. When i checked to see what people were on board the argon one these names were there so i thought might as well use them. (did ya know there's some one else on argon one called Ban??)

maybe its a common name in the X-universe, i never really checked Argon names..

[FourFingers]

Updated it.

Bit about Ryhan incase ya all forgot about him.

[KiwiNZ]

Excellent update. For a moment I wondered who Ryhan was ... must be getting old Looks like he has his hands tied for a while. But considering how he starts his first mission one would expect him to spend quite some time in the brig

Looking forward to the next bit.

[FourFingers]

yea even i was forgeting about Ryhan..(too busy thinking about Pi and her program, )

at the moment im having some problems with the time frame..
so far its all happening in one tazura..er.. day i mean.

but soon things have got to take place over weeks and months.. Hmmm got to think how to work that in with out breaking the flow but stil making it obvious that times movin..

thanks for the support.

[Captain_Elson]

Go firgue 5 months doing cargo just because the moon was full.

Can this DiploArse please be hit by a speeding spacefly and killed

[Moss]

Tchak'ta gets more interesting with this section of the story.

I too had forgot all about Ryhan, looks like he'll soon be in trouble with the navy tho. Will he be getting a uniform, or does he now have some sort of civilian attachment to the navy?

You have a nice detailed explanation for the amount of female Taladi's currently in the sectors.

A good read, cheers.