One Man's Junk is Another Man's Treasure

Posted on Mon 31st Aug, 2020 @ 8:46pm by Renato Solis & Captain Jason Harrington

934 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Resolution
Location: Krios Minor AKA Trader's Moon
Timeline: MD 8, 1115

The freighter Antero had established orbit around Krios Minor which was also known as Trader's Moon. Traders Moon was the fifth planet in the Krios system which in Klingon Space and very close to the Federation border. Being a border town there was a lot of lawlessness. Trader's Moon was so named because it was a dwarf planet, much more in size to that of a moon. Over the last fifty years, Trader's Moon has been pretty popular for the trade market and has grown considerably. A very popular stop for the less scrupulous since it is not monitored by any type of authorities.

Captain Jason Harrington was the Commanding Officer of the Antero for quite a few years now. He loved what he did since he had washed out of Starfleet Academy at a young age. Right now the Antero was moving up the Federation/Klingon border, moving goods and supplies to outposts and planets on both sides of the border. Trader's Moon was a good stop where Jason could pick up quite a bit of supplies and hard to find items cheap.

Jason glanced over at his First Mate, a joined Trill that had quite a few hosts, six in all. Miarau Merel was her name. Jason called her Mia or Merel. She had been serving as Jason's First Mate for about five years, and he really relied on her. They were best friends.

"Mia ...." Jason said as he spun in his chair to face her. "Are you ready to go down and see what we can find?"

"I was born ready," Merel joked. It was a human response, but over her lifespans, she'd spent a lot of time with humans and she liked their humor. "Let's go prepared for bear," she added another human saying.

Jason and Mia headed for the transporter room so they could beam down and find some treasure. "We have enough creds to by a lot of junk, I just hope we can find something worthwhile."

{Trader's Moon}

The long strip of stores meant the sweet spots were near the corridor breaks, restrooms, and datalinks. Totti's Ladidoddy had another advantage. One could find what one was looking for. As such, they were out of the way, far from the restrooms and datalinks. The money made in store sales was a front to launder his actual income through.

Jaren Pyskgraf was a lifelong scoundrel who had made a life smuggling, Trader's Moon was just a franchise location for the respectable operation he ran. As he placed the most eye catching items on the shelves, the quad of mining drones made a stellar display piece. One of them had some kind of long neck with a triple stack holo-emitter, extremely well made, so the other three were set around it. One was mottled gray, ugly and boxy with features like a ship hull, so he tucked it behind the others, letting shadows hide the jagged edges. The other two were similar looking but for the overall size and weight the smooth polished one was smallest.

They had all been very useful to him, but the quad all stopped working on the job some time ago. The syntax returned only a strong of unknown terms and all four had shut down. The smooth one, a chrome finished ebony plated drone had expanded memory circuits and Quantum encryption, so for the last year he had used it to backup the records for his operations. When they staged their little rebellion Jaren got away with far less than the plan called for. He refused to charge them after that, hoping it would shake them into obedience, but half year later they sat on his shelf inert. So he opened the plate over the small drones circuitry and wrenched a memory unit out. The drones were still worthwhile to an engineer who had the time to fix them, and so worth selling at the right price.

Jaren finished the display, a scattering of tools and machines for mining sorted into an attractive display to sell them. He would sell off the stocks on his ship and head out soon enough. Once a contract came his way it was usually kill within short notice, so it paid to live in your work boots. He activated the store lights, and lifted the curtains out front, hoping he wouldn't be here all day.

Merel pulled her captain to a stop outside a window where a man was just leaving his display set up. "Hold up a minute. These look interesting, and I bet they don't last long." She looked up at the store's name. "Totti's Ladidoddy," she pronounced after a moment. "I have no idea what that means, but it looks like a second-hand shop, so maybe the prices will be reasonable. I'll bet we could make a profit on these robot fellas."

Jason looked the bot-things over as closely as he could on the outside of the store. "They don't look too messed up except for the one," he pointed out. "We don't know if they work or not." Jason turned and glanced at Mia, "So, I suppose you want to strike a deal with the owner for these bots?"

She shrugged and said, "Can't hurt to look. That's still free, right?" They headed in the door, looking around for the owner or someone working. Not immediately seeing anyone, Mia moved closer to the display. "Well, they are a little scratched up, but really, not as much as one might expect. I wonder what their main functionality is."

To be continued ....

 

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