The Data Traders

Travel to Banned Worlds

While Guild members are not prohibited from traveling to banned systems, it is not recommended. Because banned worlds have no business relationship with the Guild, their reaction to Guild members is unpredictable. It is also common for banned systems to harbor negative opinions about the Guild and this may be expressed as hostility or even violence against Guild members. In most cases, Guild members should avoid banned systems or disguise the fact that they are Guild members while in those systems.

Excerpted With Permission

Data Trader’s Handbook

Copyright 3250, Interstellar Data Trader Guild

In the end, Ramirez hadn’t been willing to violate his orders and give the location of their “guest” up to Leo and Ramona. He had, however, agreed to take a message for Vinogradov. After spending half an hour figuring out what to say, they passed the message along to Ramirez. Now, they had to wait.

Leo wasn’t good at just sitting around. “Should we go back to the Theo?”

Ramona has half asleep on an acceleration couch but opened an eye at Leo’s question. “Why bother? He could be right here on this hab. Wait until we know the score, then we move.”

Leo sat down and fiddled with a console. “I get bored easily.”

Ramona shrugged. “Go wander around the station, get drunk, get laid. Do whatever, just be ready to move if we get a call.”

“Get laid?”

Ramona opened both eyes. “Leo, you’re an adult. I don’t have any claim on you.”

“But, you want me to come with you to Raeburn, right?”

“Yes, Leo. I want you to come with me. I hope that we can have something together.”

Leo looked down, still confused about his feelings. “Me too. I think technically, you still work for me though.”

“That’s right.”

Leo nodded. “OK, let’s figure out all this business with the guild and the quantum comms. We’ll have time for us later.”

Ramona smiled. “That would be nice, something to look forward to.”

To Leo it seemed like ages has passed but it was only about six hours when the answer came back.

“Yes! He’s in! He’s willing to sell to us for a million guilders.” Ramona slapped her hands together with glee.

Leo just shook his head. “A million? That’s insane.”

“Leo, if this works the Guilder will be completely worthless. Give him a billion Guilders. Who cares?”

“Wait, what?”

Ramona sat down across from Leo in the small galley. “Leo, if we bust open the guild, the entire system goes. The Guild controls their own currency. Once their monopoly on IP is removed, why would anyone use Guilders again?”

“But how would they trade across systems without Guilders?”

“There are other currencies, Leo.” She took a sip of the now cold coffee on the table. “This is a problem that been solved many times over the millennia.”

“Yes, of course. I just never thought about the endgame here.”

“The endgame is that the Guild either ceases to exist or finds way to provide value to their customers without exercising monopoly power over IP trading.” She grimaced at the acidic cold coffee. “Either way, the Guilder is devalued because it won’t have the power of the Guild monopoly behind it. Paying him in the Guilders we already have is cheap in the long term.”

Ramona found it interesting that Leo didn’t raise the obvious objection. If they were going to pay with a currency they had reason to believe would become worthless, was it wrong to withhold that information to the seller? Ramona worried about this, but not enough to stop her from acquiring a technology that held an almost religious significance for her and the other seekers.

Of course, it had not seriously crossed her mind or Leo’s mind to simply steal the IP. After all, they possessed a complete set of plans and could do what they wished with them. Those plans technically belonged to the Guild, but they could have just built devices based on the plans they already had. For Ramona, owning the IP free and clear was important because any action she took using that IP would be very closely examined back home on Raeburn. Any illegal activity on her part would be public knowledge very quickly. For Leo, he simply didn’t consider the idea that he should steal IP. Buying and selling IP had been his only profession for his entire adult life and buying that IP legally was just ingrained into his worldview.

In the end, the deal to buy the IP was largely anticlimactic. There were standard contracts for such things and the deal was perfectly legal within the laws of the local polity. Of course, what they were about to do next would be frowned upon by the Guild, but they were already banned as was Raeburn, so they really didn’t have any recourse. Or at least that’s what Ramona and Leo both thought.

Undocking the BR, Leo set a course back to the Theo which was currently outside the orbit of the major planets, just passing the UI three buoy. Doing the routine tasks of piloting the BR left most of his mind free to think about other things. “How are we going to market this?”

“Market?” Ramona laughed. “You don’t have to market things like oxygen. Quantum comms are going to totally revolutionize everything.”

Leo was serious. “No, the concept of quantum comms will revolutionize everything. However, you can’t patent an idea, just the expression of an idea.”

Now Ramona had to think. She wasn’t really an expert in patent law or IP. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, once people believe us that this is possible, they’re going to do something similar. Even if they don’t infringe on our patent, we should assume there are other ways to solve the same problem in a different way. It’s only because people didn’t believe it worked that major corporations haven’t worked on the problem.”

“That’s not true on Raeburn.”

“Perhaps, but now they KNOW it works and they know why others didn’t. Do you really want to bet your future livelihood on them being dumb?”

“My future livelihood?”

“Ya, we’re going to live off this patent, right? No more guild means no more data traders. How are we going to make a living? Especially if Guilders become useless?”

Ramona laughed. “I just never thought about the endgame here.”

Leo laughed also. “Well, unlike quantum comms, I’ve been thinking about how to become rich for most of my adult life.”

“Ya, I’ve been thinking about quantum comms for most of my adult life.”

“Exactly.” Leo made a minor course adjustment. “So, that means that together we have this thing nailed.”

Ramona just laughed. “Well to start with, we could deliver the mail.”

“Deliver the mail?”

“Ya, that’s how the Guild started, right?”

Leo laughed. “Ya.” Then he looked thoughtful. “Funny thing, the Guild doesn’t proscribe data transfer, just IP transfer.”

“What?”

“You know, if you trade IP across systems, the Guild will ban you.”

“Yes, of course.”

“But not data transfer.”

“Well, yes, of course. Otherwise, anyone who carried a memory stick with them on a passenger ship would be potentially banned.”

“Yes, exactly.”

Ramona was starting to get it. “Oh, right. If we use Quantum Comms to trade, we would only be able to do it on banned systems. Systems like UI won’t touch us because they would then be banned.”

“Exactly.” Leo tapped a finger on the console. “QCom.”

“What?”

“We should call it something better than ‘Quantum Comms’ like ‘QCom’ or something catchy.”

Leo and Ramona were deep into planning how to market their new product by the time they docked with the Theo. Ollu and Craig were waiting for them on the boat dock.