– by Oche Firestar

D DAY –8 10:05 Local Time New Caldari

The low murmuring of people talking died off slowly as the branch director headed to the podium at the front of the auditorium. Looking out at the crowd of employees he waited a few moments for the last of the noise to die down.

“As you all know by now CONCORD has brokered an agreement whereby capsuleers now have access to planet side resources,” he said pausing for a moment as murmuring broke out again which quickly died away. “While the specifics of the agreement have not yet been obtained by Head Office its clear that this is going to affect a lot of business,” he continued. “The stock markets are already reacting to this news and resource company stocks are all over the place. Even the stock of our company, which offers geological and planetological services, has seen more changes in the last couple of hours compared to the previous 6 months. We just do not know what the future will hold for us. So effective immediately all work on our contracts is suspended except for fieldwork, government work or any work that is due within the next forty-eight hours. Head Office has promised us as update within that time. If you have no work because its been suspended see your project manager to discuss with them what you can do. If you want a day off now might be the time to ask for it.”

The director looked up and out at his audience. He could see that many of them were in the same boat as he was. They were suddenly uncertain of what the future would mean for them and their families and friends and perhaps more specifically would they still have a job tomorrow or the next day or even next week?

“I’ll be candid with you. This caught everyone off guard. At best we can hope to keep doing what we do but for new bosses. At worst we have to find something new to earn our living. For sure there are going to be tremendous changes and upheaval as we all learn what this new agreement will do to us. If any of you have stock in resource companies or even our own company I’d advise you to sell them as soon as you can because I don’t think they’ll be worth that much for the foreseeable future.”

There were a few scattered nervous laughs from the audience at that and the director could see one person glance down and punch something into their personal com-unit.

“Well I won’t keep you any longer. While I know you have questions I don’t have answers. Perhaps in a couple of days we’ll all have them so that’s it for now.”

The director stepped away from the podium and made his way out of the auditorium. Some of the crowd of employees started talking to their neighbours while others got up and began to leave as well. Helen stayed in her seat until the rush had died down and then she slowly got up and left for her cubicle. She was working on a long-term contract so that meant she did not have any work. Sitting down at her desk she felt at a bit of a loss as to what to do. It was still mid-morning and she decided that perhaps she could answer some of the mail she had. That might occupy her for an hour or two by which time she could go to lunch and then check in with her project manager. By that time perhaps there would be more information.

As Helen worked on her backlog of mail she had a thought about an old classmate of hers from University. ‘Hadn’t he become a capsuleer?’ she thought. ‘Yes he had and pretty much at the start of the whole program,’ she recalled. Finishing the mail she had open she went back into her contact list and looked for an address. It was an old one and not in service. A few seconds of thought and she accessed the public database and started a search for him. Within moments she found the information she needed. ‘Oh that’s out of the system,’ she thought with dismay, ‘but at least I can contact him. Perhaps he’ll remember an old classmate.’ It took about five minutes to work up a letter that she was happy with. She sent it off and leaned back for a moment and then went back to her mail.

12:05 Local Time New Caldari

“We’re going to lunch. You want to join us?”

Helen looked up with surprise at one of her co-workers who had poked his head around the partition to her cubicle. She glanced at her watch and saw with some surprise it was now just after noon.

“Sure,” she said, “where we going?”

“Pop’s Place. There’s going to be about a dozen of us and Griogi is just calling them now to reserve a table for us.”

“Great. Though with only an hour it’s going to be tight to get back here on time.”

“No worries the boss is coming with us. Says it doesn’t really matter if we have an extended lunch today. Kind of a possible last good time together if the worst should happen.”

“Always rely on the boss to look on the bright side.”

Helen shut down her computer, grabbed her purse and stood up. Since the way to Pop’s Place was indoors all the way she did not pick up her coat.

“Lead on,” she said.

13:13 Local Time New Caldari

The meal was delicious as always and Helen sat in her chair savouring the gourmet coffee she had ordered to round it off. The conversations around the table had been numerous and had a touch of nostalgia about them as people recalled their time at work. There had been fun times and sad times. There had been many successes and a very few failures. Today seemed that it would be one of those days that they would recall with sadness as friendships and shared success gradually faded away as they moved on to other things for it seemed that life would never be the same again for any of them. It was hard to believe that nearly two hours had passed but it had. She looked over at her boss who had, it appeared, finished their tea and was asking for the bill. Her com-unit beeped. Glancing at it she saw that there was a reply to her mail to her old friend. She toggled the read button.

“Audio-visual display message received. Playback?” her com-unit asked.

‘That’s a surprise,’ Helen thought, ‘most people just text because its cheaper. Wonder what’s so important that he’d use visual?’

Knowing that it would be a few minutes before the bill arrived and believing that the message had to be important Helen touched the “Yes” button. All heads at the table turned towards her when a full sized holographic image materialised in front of her. There was the usual slight shimmer normal to all such images that her com-unit projected but otherwise it was as if the person being recorded was there in the room with them.

“Playback begins,” her com-unit stated.

“Helen. Nice to hear from you after all this time. I do recall you from class and what you ask is not a bother at all. I’ve been following the news on the planet resource treaty. Even had a chance to muck around with some simulations we’ve got access to concerning planet installations. Its not all good news I’m afraid. Well good news for us capsuleers I mean though it might be good news for some planetary corporations in the short term. The economics don’t justify the amount of time needed to even begin to break even on running planet stuff. Of course things keep changing as more data comes out. I doubt many capsuleers will bother with it right now as it stands. There needs to be a jump of about a magnitude in efficiency for it to become something many capsuleers will get into. Right now looks too much an ISK sink. People will just lose too much.”

The image glanced down at something in front of it, which was invisible to anyone there in the restaurant. By now it had the attention not only of Helen’s table but that of many seated nearby as the distortion less voice carried on.

“Hmmmm. Just had an update come through. There might be one or two things that will show enough profit.”

The image looked back up and seemingly divining the thought that many at the table were asking themselves.

“I know you aren’t really familiar with how quick tech changes up here. Even though its still weeks away its still possible that we’ll get something much more workable. Already see some economic studies from other pilots on it as well as suggested changes to structures to be installed. Hell in just the last twenty-four hours there are some two hundred comments on the whole thing. But then again CONCORD can be real stubborn at times and plump for the worst possible implementation for everyone involved. Takes years to get them straightened around when they do that and this may be one of those things. Look I can’t really show things to you over the link so why don’t you come up here for a couple of days. That way you can go over things and see for yourself what might be coming down the road. Oh! And don’t worry about the cost of the trip. I’ve had everything arranged so just use my name and this code and I’ll pick up the tab. Not that it be that much anyways. Just means a few ISK less profit on my next mission. Just let me know when you can get here. Looking forward to hearing from you soon.”

The image faded away into nothingness at that last word. For several seconds the other patrons in the restaurant were quiet then, as if embarrassed at themselves for shamelessly eavesdropping even though there was no way not to have heard, they turned back to what they had been doing before the message played.

“Playback ends. Additional data received. Stored in secure memory.” Helen’s com-unit said.

Helen looked up reddening as she saw that her message had been the focus of everyone’s attention.

“I didn’t expect full sized vid,” she explained, “I mean who uses that when it costs so much?”

“Well apparently someone doesn’t think it costs an arm and a leg,” her boss said. “I think you might consider taking that trip. In just that short message we’ve had more information about this than we’ve seen publicly so far. We can discuss this further back in the office.”

13:47 Local Time New Caldari

“The company can’t order you to do this since it’s a personal trip though the company business is what seems to have sparked your message,” her boss said. “However we’d all be grateful if you did go and could supply us with information. At the very least you’d helping your friends know what the future is likely to be like and they could plan ahead for it.”

The blatant ploy about her friends did not go unnoticed by Helen. On the way back to the office she’d overheard her co-workers talking about the message and what this or that bit meant. She had also noticed an undercurrent of tension as people thinking over things began to realise that capsuleers appeared to have access to information that they were having trouble getting hold of. There had even been a murmur of how that seemed typical of the government fawning over capsuleers and ignoring the rest of the people. She had decided that she had to go just to see for herself what was going on.

“Considering the impact potential it could have I don’t think I’ve much choice,” said Helen. “I’ve my own future to look out for as well. It’s just very convenient that at the same time I can help my friends and co-workers and the company all at the same time.”

“Thanks. I haven’t cleared this with the director yet but you can consider yourself on company time while on the trip. Even if he doesn’t clear it I’ll make sure you get paid for the time.”

“In that case I’d better go and set-up the time I’m going to make the trip.”

“Sure. While you are doing that I’m going to go to see the director and tell him what happened. You know this doesn’t seem quite fair. I mean through a bit of luck we might be able to get through the coming change in better shape than others. I know that the capsuleers have changed things in the past but that all seemed remote. Now it’s become personal. I’m affected and because someone I know knows a capsuleer my life might be better off because of it.”

“That does seem ironic. I’ve heard that the capsuleers have made everyone’s life worse. I suppose it’s just human nature to blame someone else for something that they can’t change.”

“You are right there. I won’t keep you any longer. Got to get to the director.”

Helen got up and left the office. A few moments later she was back at her desk and keying in a reply to her capsuleer friend. She could not go this week as she had a commitment she could not back out of on the weekend. However her calendar was free for the following week. Looking ahead she realised with some shock that the very next week after that was when the treaty went into effect. With that she put into her message that she would be starting her trip in four days time.

D-DAY –4 08:00 Local Time New Caldari

The vid news services seemed to carry nothing but news about the treaty over the next four days. If they were not talking to economists they were trying to talk to government officials. If they were not talking to officials then they were interviewing people on the street. Everyone had an opinion and it seemed that that opinion was not a good one. More details had become publicly available and it seemed that resource extraction companies were going to be hit hard by the competition from capsuleers. Since much of those resources would go off planet there would be potential shortages locally and that would drive prices on most goods up. It rather looked like there could be rationing of goods that even during the fighting going on had not even been mentioned by any of the interstellar governments. Now because of this new treaty there could be.

Not all news seemed bad. Those companies that made extraction equipment looked in good shape but Helen had noted something disturbing even there. The equipment being shown off was pollution free but that came with a cost. She had looked over the treaty and nowhere in it did there seem to be anything that said that capsuleers had to abide by local pollution laws. In fact the extraterritoriality that capsuleers had which exempted them from most local, planetary and interstellar laws applied to virtually everything they would be able to do on planets. Yet no one seemed to have caught onto that fact. When she considered that her friend Oche had mentioned costs she had no doubts that if the capsuleers bought extraction equipment it would be the cheapest they could get and to hell with consequences to the environment. After all they did not live on the planets. It was not their problem. By the time her shuttle was to leave she was sick and tired of the whole thing. At least, for a few days, she could get away from it.

The flight would only take about eighty minutes to go the five jumps from new Caldari to Osmon where Oche, her capsuleer friend, was currently based. As she had a seat next to one of the windows she spent most of the time looking out at the vista of space. While she had visited the sights on one of the local moons Helen had never truly traveled any distance in space. Indeed this would be only her second time out of New Caldari. Her first trip had been to University on Jita. She caught glimpses of various ships as they approached or departed from stargates but she could never get a real good look at them. For some reason she felt disappointed. It was as the shuttle approached the Sisters of Eve station in Osmon that she got her first look at a ship. It was a Charon, a Caldari freighter that undocked as the shuttle made its approach run. As they drew nearer it took up more and more of the sky. The size of it came home when what appeared to be another ship that had undocked raced past the lumbering Charon. It was a Raven, a familiar sight on newsvids these last few years. She knew how big that was yet it seemed a pygmy in comparison to the freighter it ran beside. The Raven ran up to warp speed and disappeared off into the far reaches and as it did she now began to understand what power the capsuleers had. The freighter could move mountains while the battleships could provide force to ensure that no one tried to stop those mountains being moved. The Caldari was proud of its Navy but as she looked out while they approached the station she saw several freighters moving about and over a dozen non-naval marked warships. And as she knew this was not exactly a bustling station in terms of such traffic. As they had come up from New Caldari she had seen a much larger gathering of ships at the local space station and even that was nothing compared to what happened in Jita.

09:20 Local Time Osmon

She claimed her luggage little though it was and then waited in the custom’s line up. The line moved quickly and she soon reached the bored custom’s agent. He held out his hand for her identity card which she handed over. He inserted it into the card slot at his desk console. His bored look dissolved when it beeped at him. He looked at the display in front of him and then looked up at Helen.

“Welcome to Sisters of Eve in Osmon Miss Zimmand,” he said smiling. “If you will just wait a moment there will be someone here to take you to Mr. Firestar’s hangar.”

The agent pulled out the ID card and handed it back to Helen. She stepped to one side and started to look around and spotted a uniformed woman making her way towards the spot she was at. As the woman came closer Helen started making out details on the uniform and noted with some surprise that it appeared to be some sort of military uniform. She was even armed with a holstered weapon yet no one seemed to be paying her any attention especially the armed station security personnel she saw scattered around the area. Helen moved forward to make herself more visible and the uniformed woman, spotting the movement, angled over towards her.

“Miss Zimmand, I am Corporal Marchand. I am your escort and charged with ensuring your safe arrival at Mr. Firestar’s hangar,” she said as she stopped in front of Helen. “If you will follow me please I have a vehicle waiting for us just outside the terminal.”

Helen picked up her luggage and followed Corporal Marchand as she turned and starting making her way out of the terminal.

“Do you mind if I ask a few questions?” said Helen.

“No I don’t mind.”

“Armed guard?”

“Oh nothing special really. Not sure what other capsuleers may do when they have guests but since Mr. Firestar is a collector he has armed personnel to make sure no one steals anything,” Marchand shrugged.

“Isn’t station security good enough?”

“Its not that it’s the fact that station security can’t go into a capsuleer’s hangar. It has the equivalence of a foreign nation.”

“I hadn’t thought that the protection capsuleers had extended that far.”

“Yes it does though once they undock they are subject to local laws their hangars are not.”

By this time they had reached the exterior of the terminal and the corporal turned to the right towards a grav vehicle that had a uniformed man standing by it. Seeing the two of them the man opened the boot and then the 2 doors on the right side. Then he moved around to the other side and took the driver seat. Helen put her luggage into the boot and Corporal Marchand closed it. They both got into the vehicle which then pulled smoothly away from the terminal.

“We’ll be at the hangar in about five minutes,” explained Corporal Marchand.

“I could get used to this kind of service,” Helen jokingly said.

“We don’t do this often. Actually I think this is the first time that Mr. Firestar has done this so far this year,” replied Marchand. “Most people come on business rather than as an invited guest.”

The vehicle swiftly made its way through the traffic and then peeled off towards a drop shaft. It descended a few hundred meters and then entered a short tunnel. This opened up and it quickly became apparent that the area was clearly dedicated to storing large quantities of goods. There were many transport vehicles moving around their identity clear from the containers they carried though the contents were hidden. After about a minute the vehicle they were riding in pulled off to one side and slowed to a stop in front of what looked like a large office building. The driver popped the boot open and Marchand exited. Helen realising that this was their destination waited to make sure Marchand was clear before opening her door and then got out herself. She went around to the boot and pulled out her one piece of luggage. Marchand closed the boot and then led the way into the building.

Helen looked around the large lobby area as they moved towards a reception desk manned by several people some of whom were uniformed. She noted two guard stations each manned by several heavily armed personnel. Around the lobby were a few groups of casually attired people some of whom were seated at some of the couches talking to each other. She also noted the prominent sign which pointed towards “THE HANGAR” and had a stylised glass with a small umbrella in it. It seemed to indicate a bar was that way. She looked at Corporal Marchand and pointed at the sign.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“That’s our nightclub. Open to the public though it will be several hours before it opens,” replied Marchand. “Mr. Firestar is not just a collector. He is, after all, a businessman. That is just one more of the businesses he runs or owns.”

By now they had reached the reception desk and the person they stood in front of looked up at them.

“How can I be of service Corporal?” he said.

“Miss Zimmand. To see Mr. Firestar,” replied Marchand indicating with a nod of her head Helen to her side.

“Miss Zimmand. It is a pleasure to meet you. We’ve assigned you suite 5021.” He took from a pile a small card which he inserted into the console, entered a few keystrokes and then pulled it back out. “This is your key,” he said handing over the card to Helen. “When you leave please turn it in back here.”

As he spoke there came a beep from another console at which a uniformed guard sat. That guard pulled out a card and handed it over to the first man who had turned towards the beeping console.

“And this is your security pass,” he added passing that over. “Please keep this on you at all times while in this area.” He glanced down at the console. “Mr. Firestar will be available in an hour. Just take the lift to floor 150. They’ll look after there.”

Helen look at the security pass and not seeing any means to attach it to her jacket slipped it into a pocket. “Thank you,” she said.

Corporal Marchand then led the way to the large bank of lift shafts. “Suite 5021 is on the 50th floor and to the right when you get there. I hope you enjoy your stay with us.”

At that she turned and went back to the lobby area. Helen entered the lift shaft and pushed the button marked 50. The doors closed and she was whisked swiftly upwards. A small chime sounded as the lift came to a stop and the doors opened. Helen stepped out and turned to the right. She walked down the corridor looking at the numbers on each door as she went. Finding the one marked 5021 she slipped the card through the reader and the door swooshed open. She stepped through into the suite and stopped in astonishment. Having stayed in hotels on some of the projects she had been on she was expecting the usual style and size of room they provided. This, however, was something altogether different. Beside the door was a closet for guests’ jackets and a few steps further brought one into a large room. In this room were several couches around a large coffee table. Separate from them were another two couches placed so that a large vidscreen could be easily viewed from them. Beyond those was a balcony area on which was a table and several chairs that looked out into space through a large window.

Helen took several more steps into the room and could see off to the left a large kitchen area with a breakfast nook. She could see a fridge and a number of cupboards with a large working surface. Looking to the right she could see a bar area which was stocked and with its own bar fridge. She began to wonder where the bedroom was and then she saw the stairs that led up. She looked up and saw an open loft area where she surmised the bedroom was. Since she had an hour she decided that she could unpack and perhaps freshen up a little and ascended the stairs. Upon reaching the top she was again shocked at what she found. There was a large king sized bed and off to one side was the bathroom. She put her luggage onto the bed and opened the door to the bathroom. Not only was there the usual toilet facilities there was a large sunken tub in which several people could easily fit without crowding each other. She closed the door and quickly unpacked the things she had brought with her. Deciding that she could change for her meeting she did so and then went back downstairs. She explored the area more fully and found another powder room, a library area with a late model computer console, and beside the bar a full entertainment system. She also discovered the vidscreen not only could access all local channels but seemed to be connected to many interstellar channels as well many of which she knew were pay-to-view. By now an hour had almost passed so she gave up on her exploring and made her way back to the lift shaft.

10:30 Local Time Osmon

Upon reaching the 150th floor she got out noting that if she had it calculated right she was higher than her initial entry into the station. She mentally shook her head not being able to fully comprehend how one person could command so much space even if they were a capsuleer. A few meters in front of her was another reception desk. She walked up to it noting once again the mix of casually attired people mixed with uniformed armed guards. The receptionist looked up as she approached and smiled.

“Welcome Miss Zimmand. Mr. Firestar will see you right away. Lieutenant Dearnst will show you the way.”

As his name was mentioned a tall, muscular man stood up and came around the reception desk. He smiled at Helen and extended his hand.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” he said shaking Helen’s hand. “If you will come this way.”

He turned once Helen started walking in the direction he had indicated. They walked a few meters and then turned to enter an area hidden by the reception area back wall. It appeared to be another lobby area though this one was packed with a lot of people. Some were seated by themselves, others were in groups and even more were walking to or from office areas, which lined either side of lobby. She glanced at the Lieutenant and raised an eyebrow questioningly.

“On the left with the Amarrian Light Marine guard in front of it is where our Amarrian Diplomat has his office. On the right side opposite with the Temko Marine guard is the Minmatar Emissary’s office.” The Lieutenant pointed to the offices as he spoke. “Over there is where our Colonel and his aides have their offices. And over there is Administration.”

“This building is one hundred and fifty floors high. What do all those floors have on them?” Helen asked.

“Most of them are residences for the people who work for Mr. Firestar,” the Lieutenant replied. “That includes the security forces, the nightclub staff, research staff and the general workforce personnel. I believe the current figure is around twenty five thousand people altogether.”

“And Oche…I mean Mr. Firestar employs them all?”

“Yes. And the thirty floors below us are the work offices or research labs where most of the people work except, of course, the nightclub, which is on the first 3 floors of this building.”

“It must cost a fortune to run this place.”

“Well as far as I know it’s all rent free. Part of the capsuleer agreement by CONCORD I believe. Of course the capsuleers pay taxes on a number of things they do and that pays for it but I am not totally sure on the specifics.”

By now they had walked through the lobby area and had approached another desk. The Lieutenant walked up to the desk.

“This is Miss Zimmand who is here to see Mr. Firestar,” he stated to the seated secretary behind the desk.

“Miss Zimmand can go right in Lieutenant.”

Lieutenant Dearnst ushered Helen over to the door that had opened up off to one side of the desk. Helen walked in. While she had thought she could not be surprised further she turned out to be wrong. The office she entered was huge. Off to the right was a lounge area with a number of couches and chairs and a bar area. There was also a dining table and chairs. Off to the left there was an even larger area that contained many display cases and stands She could not see what was in most of them but the nearer ones seemed to contain minerals with the nearest looking like a typical piece of spodumain. Further back she could make out what appeared to be an open book and in another a statue of some sort. While taking this all in she slowly moved forward to the desk that sat in front of a large picture window. From behind the desk Oche Firestar stood up and moved around in front of it waiting for Helen to reach him. He extended his hand as she finally reached the desk and they shook hands.

“It looks like you have an impressive collection of minerals in your display area,” she said, “though I didn’t see them all.”

“Yes well I collect a lot of things and you’ll find a number of the smaller items over there,” Oche replied. “The bigger stuff is in my hangar though. You can see some of them through the window.”

He indicated the window behind him with a nod of his head. Helen looked at him enquiringly and seeing him smile stepped over to look out the window. From her viewpoint she could see several spaceships though it was only after looking for a few moments that she saw the other ships that were dwarfed by the Charon freighter that filled a lot of the space she was looking into. As she looked out Oche stepped up beside her.

“What you are looking at are my ready ships. That is, the ones I use a lot but weren’t the last one I took out,” he explained. “Most of them are cargo carriers of various sizes but you can make out a Crow interceptor down there. My CNR is out in the main docking ring since that was what I flew last. A mission to take out some Guristas saboteurs.”

“You haul a lot of cargo then?’ asked Helen.

“Actually no. Most of the time I fly combat missions. I use the cargo ships for collecting salvage or for moving it to other facilities for sale or for manufacturing purposes. Since a number of them are rigged it would cost to repackage them so I don’t bother.”

“Repackage?”

“I have over seventy different types of ships. Most are not assembled. Sometimes I get called on to use something unique so I get one of those assembled. When I am done because of the modular nature of their construction they can be disassembled or repackaged so they take up less space. Those are kept in an ship assembly area which you can’t see from here.”

“I see a lot of ships but surely that’s not all you keep.”

“No but to see more of that you’ll have to move over to the window behind my display area.”

As he talked he pointed to another large window area a distance from where they were standing and moved off in that direction. Helen followed though she took time to look at the display cases and stands revealed as she walked. Reaching the new window she looked out on a large open expanse of flooring a few levels below the one she was at. Looking in the direction of the ships she had seen she could see that it ended abruptly at the beginning of that huge space. She surmised from the array of loading equipment that from here those ships could be loaded. Even as she looked she could see containers being moved around.

“That’s just the cargo preparation area. The warehousing is in the areas just behind that. There are weapon systems, engines, sensors, and scanners…. well pretty much anything you care to name down there somewhere. Well almost…minerals and ores and most of the ready to use salvage is on another station in another system.”

“It must take up a lot of space.”

“I really haven’t figured out how much space we do take up,” Oche shrugged.

“And all this is yours?”

“There isn’t much in this hangar that I don’t own. I don’t own the people for example.”

“Sorry?”

“I don’t own the people. I don’t have any slaves here working for me.”

Helen looked puzzled at the change in topic and turned to look at Oche.

“I don’t quite see how that came up.”

“Excuse me but normally when people say do you own it all they think that the people here are owned by me as well. Most of them somehow think of us pod pilots as slave owners.”

“I never thought that.”

“I can see that now but while many pilots do own slaves I don’t. Well technically I own 19 but they are injured and currently in our medical facility. Their emancipation paperwork is going through so by the time they are well they’ll be free. I did buy them but only so I could get them treatment.”

Helen looked at Oche as he said this and saw that this was a touchy subject.

“I take it you buy a lot of slaves and free them then?” she enquired.

“Yes. Can’t abide slavery. If it were in my power to destroy the institution I would. As it is I do what I can to get some their freedom.”

“You have an Amarrian diplomat out there. Isn’t that strange for someone who doesn’t like slavery?”

“I try to keep on friendly terms with the Empire. After all I do occasionally have to do business out that way but he is here mainly to smooth over anything that those within the Empire might do that could cause trouble. It’s pretty much the same with the Minmatar emissary. Just looking after their interests.”

“I see.”

Helen turned once more to the window and stood there looking at the activity going on. After a few moments she turned back to Oche.

“While this is interesting this is not why I came out here,” she said.

“Yes. You had questions about the new resource treaty,” Oche replied. “Come on over to my desk I can call up the simulations I got to give you an idea of what’s involved.”

They walked back to his desk where Oche entered a few commands into his computer console. A holographic display came up showing in miniature a ship in a docking bay.

“Its an Iteron V,” Oche commented. “The size of the command centers are such that my other cargo carriers don’t have enough space and an Orca or freighter are much too big and valuable to just hang in space while mucking around with the getting things setup.

“Of course once it is set up you don’t have to leave the station to get things moving. Just go out and move the products around to where they need to go is all.”

As he spoke Oche manipulated controls and a number of items were put into the cargo hold of the Iteron. A small indicator showed how much space was used. An error message popped up stating that the vessel could not carry everything that was being put into it. Another command and this was solved.

“Ok now I’ve just loaded up with a number of Elite Command Centers. The best you can buy. Don’t know what they’ll cost yet but we figure millions of ISK at least,” said Oche. “Now lets undock and get them set up!”

For the next few hours they kept busy working on the various aspects of planetary interaction. While it was simple to begin with the complexities increased as they tried to maximise output while balancing input to the various processors. It soon became clear that this was perhaps going to be a full time job and not something that could be set up and checked once in awhile. Helen became aware that she was out of a job unless some worlds were somehow exempted from the treaty. New Caldari was perhaps one of the very few that might be exempt because of its importance to the Caldari as its capitol. It was almost certain that Jita being such a trade hub would have a blanket exemption. Too many ships moving around for it to be safe to do much else though if trading moved elsewhere that could change. It struck Helen that she would need to find something else to do now that it was almost certain that here company would be going out of business. While thinking on that she almost missed the chime that sounded somewhere on Oche’s desk. Bringing her attention back to what was in front of her she could see Oche glance over to the side at a console display. He made a face and then stood back from the controls he had been working for the simulation.

“Well looks like there is a glitch with the whole thing,” he said. “Obviously they found some sort of fault with the command centers and so they’ve pushed back the date of activation of the treaty.”

“Does this happen often?” Helen asked.

“Not for some time. Always thought that they were rushing this a somewhat and so I’m not surprised they found bugs.”

“How long is the delay?”

“Just a couple of weeks from what they are saying right now unless they find some more problems.”

“So what happens now?”
“They’ll keep the simulations updated with new information and so on but the urgency has dropped a bit. By the way its lunchtime. You hungry?”

“Yes.”

“Well lets head on over to the cafeteria and grab something to eat. We can talk more about this afterward.”

13:35 Local Time Osmon

After lunch they had returned to Oche’s office and sat down on the couches. Almost immediately Oche had bounced back up and started for the bar.

“Did you want something to drink?” he enquired.

“Anything without alcohol in it?” replied Helen.

“There’s Quafe if you want that. Or a number of different fruit juices.”

“If you have lotus blossom I’ll have one of those please.”

“Coming right up.”

Within moments Oche was back and passed the cool glass to Helen. She took a sip while organising her thoughts.

“You’ve been looking at the planetary interaction material for some time now. What do you think it will mean for us on planets?” Helen asked.

“I think the biggest problem is that for it to show any sort of decent profit the person doing it needs to be well organized,” mused Oche. “They’ll also not want any problems with staff on the planet. I suppose that will mean they’ll look to pay as low a wage as possible and if they need to move stuff will give no thought to the people they fire. They’ll just do it.”

“I can see that will cause issues down the road. Unions won’t like the mass hiring and firing going on and will agitate against that kind of thing.”

“Exactly. The thing is that since most pilots don’t really care about what happens down on the ground so unless someone down there can lob missiles at a ship in orbit it won’t mean anything.”

“And then there is dislocation caused by many companies going out of business. That isn’t going to win you any friends either. Hell even I am most probably going to be out of a job because of this. You don’t need geologists to survey for you you got those damned scanners that can do it from orbit!”

“Yeah it will most probably get ugly. Up until now any impact was positive for the people on the ground. So much got moved around cheaply that prices were kept low. Now suddenly a lot of people are going to be out of work. A lot of people. And then there will be shortages of resources locally. That will raise prices for everything.”

“It’s going to be a nightmare.”

“I think it will lead to war. Or at the very least a lot of people sabotaging what ever they can if it has anything to do with planetary interaction. That’s not something I look forward to but the thing that makes it so aggravating is that so much is now being tied into those resources. Even if we didn’t want anything to do with it it would cut back so much else we can do. So someone will do it and to hell with the consequences.”

They both sat in silence for a few minutes as they contemplated what the future might hold. Helen reached a decision.

“I need to talk to my boss. Is there a terminal I can use?” asked Helen.

“Use the one at my desk,” replied Oche.

Helen went over to the terminal and keyed in the address. She spent about ten minutes typing bringing her boss up to date on what she had seen. She did not try to hide the truth as she saw it and told him that effectively the company was dead in the water. There could be some hope if some planets were exempted from the resource treaty but so far nothing had been released officially on that. She also added in that there was a good chance that a lot of unrest could be generated perhaps enough to lead for calls for war against the capsuleers. She then added in a last thought.

‘…I don’t know if there is much that can be done under the present government setup. It does seem that maybe it is time for the current political landscape to be changed. Perhaps some of the leading members of the company should try their hand at that and work from inside to get political change. While it may not avoid the problems in the short term perhaps the long-term prospect of bloody war might be avoided. For if that occurred there would be many lives lost and they would not necessarily be those who picked up the weapons in the first place. At the very least the Caldari State cannot ever be the same as it was as it surrended more of its sovereign power to the capsuleers.’

Helen closed the message with her resignation from the company effectively immediately. When she had sent it off she did a search on another topic. Finding what she needed she opened up the new page, filled in the required information and then sent that off. Sitting back for a moment she felt much more satisfied than she had been for the past several days. She stood up and went back to the couch where she had left her glass. She sat and took another sip of her drink.

“How long does it take to qualify as a capsuleer?” she asked Oche.

Oche, who had been busy with a small reader built into the coffee table, leant back and started laughing.