The Data Traders

Guild Master

Because of the distributed nature of the Guild, the guild master largely has authority to operate their ship as they feel best supports the overall mission of the Guild and the operation of their vessel. Any violation of Guild policy can only be resolved by a tribunal of three other Guild Masters. It is in the best interests of the Guild that ships operate independently and thus Guild Master authority is absolute within their own vessel.

Excerpted With Permission

Data Trader’s Handbook

Copyright 3250, Interstellar Data Trader Guild

After two hours, the General declared it was safe to exit the bunker. Ramona was in a powered grav chair and not very happy about the mobility restrictions placed on her. “What if I need to move quickly?” Leo just ignored most of the complaints, he wasn’t sure how steady she was going to be on her feet and he could see she was still getting tired easily. As they walked along a path in the woods, Leo could see a large ship had landed in one of the many meadows surrounding the main house.

He could also see dozens of guard members in powered armor, he assumed there were more in the trees he couldn’t see. “General, aren’t we concerned that more of these folks are compromised just like the nurse last night?”

The General grimaced. “It’s a possibility, but these folks have been pulled from the outer rim and they’re all preppers. Nancy was a Seeker who had been on my staff for over a year. She must have been a sleeper agent for the Guild.” He looked around. “If we can’t trust the Guard, we’re all fucked.”

Leo didn’t feel comforted by that statement. So far on this planet he’d been betrayed by at least two groups of armed people and he was about to depend on those same two groups to save him and Ramona. “and what about the UniPols?”

The General didn’t look happy. “Margie vouches for all of them. It turns out that the UniPol guard unit the Seeker normally uses is almost completely Seekers.” He paused for a moment, a concerned look on his face. “I suppose that wasn’t the smartest plan, but the normal rule is that scheduling and staffing isn’t influenced by your clique. We’re all supposed to be equal in the eyes of the law. If a bunch of UniPol Seekers wanted that duty (and why wouldn’t they) then they would probably get it. Guard duty is pretty boring and that’s not a duty that people usually fight to get.”

Leo wasn’t thrilled by the plan that essentially used Ramona as bait, but he had agreed to it. As they entered the large command ship, he saw UniPol uniforms everywhere but also a scattering of Guard uniforms which was reassuring. For some reason, he still trusted the Guard to do the right thing.

A guard major came up to the general and saluted. “The transport is sitting outside. Minimal escort, sidearms only, as instructed.”

The general returned the salute. “Backup units are in place?”

“Yes sir, Guard units are ready.” He paused to look directly at one of the UniPol officers. “UniPol units also report as ready.”

The general clapped his hands once. “Then let’s get this show on the road.” He turned back to where Ramona was sitting in her grav chair. “You ready to do this, kiddo?”

“Specialist Eddington, Reporting for Duty, Sir.” The general just looked at her for a moment, then nodded.

Heading back outside, they found an air car with UniPol markings parked about 20 meters away in the meadow. It was large enough that getting the grav chair inside wasn’t a major problem. Once they got in, Ollu and Leo took seats facing Ramona. Leo had practiced with the heavy plasma pistol at his side for several hours last night but still preferred the slug thrower Ramona had purchased all those months ago on the Reggie. Ollu had the same gun strapped to her leg. She had checked it once and left it alone since. Leo couldn’t help fiddling with his, checking it again and again.

Ramona noticed his nervous checking of the gun. “Leo, relax. You can trust my father. He’s a bastard, but he’s good at this.”

Ollu had been wondering about Ramona’s relationship with her father. “You two seem to have an interesting relationship.”

“I barely knew him until my mother died. He was always off somewhere on guard business.”

“And how old were you?”

“Sixteen standard.” A haunted look came over her face. “I had to watch her die by myself. He was on the other end of the system. He showed up a week later, wanting all of a sudden to be my father and have a relationship. I joined the guard the day I turned eighteen just to get away from him.”

“You joined the guard despite the fact that they kept your father from experiencing your childhood?”

Ramona snorted. “That wasn’t the guard. They have family leave and officers with children can request garrison duty.” She sighed. “He was always The General.” Leo could hear the capitol letters in her voice. “I always knew that I came second to the guard.”

Ollu reached out and touched her knee. “But you joined?”

Ramona laughed. “I guess I was still trying to impress him. It’s honestly all I wanted when I was younger.”

Ollu nodded. “And then?”

“And then I grew up. I made my special forces selection mark, I was on active duty. I made it, I achieved the goal.”

“No, I mean what caused you to leave?”

“I felt… empty.”

Ollu just nodded but Leo had no idea what Ramona meant. “Empty?”

“Yeah, I realized that the guard held no meaning for me. So, I turned to the seekers. For meaning in my life.”

“Well, shit.”

“Ya.”

Leo was having doubts about the plan. “Do you really believe that the Seeker betrayed you all and is a puppet of the Guild?”

“We’re about to find out.”

“Ya, that’s what I’m afraid of.”

The aircar began to circle the remote airfield that the General had selected for the rendezvous. Ramona had contacted The Seeker and requested a private meeting, explaining that she was afraid that there were traitors within his organization and that it was vital that they meet. Leo hadn’t been sure that the offer would be accepted, but within minutes, an agreement to meet had come back. Ramona had in turn agreed to a UniPol escort which is why the three of them now found themselves in a UniPol marked aircar with two UniPol officers in the front compartment.

As predicted, the airfield was completely empty. As the aircar settled on the ramp, Leo was becoming more and more nervous. The two officers in the front compartment got out and walked around the aircar, finally signaling that it was safe to come out. Almost as soon as they got out, Leo could hear another aircar approaching. Suddenly, Leo realized his error. It wasn’t one, it was four.

Ramona squinted up at the approaching craft. “Well, that tears it, those are assault shuttles.”

The General’s voice whispered in all their ears. “Friendly air incoming. Get clear.”

As they sprinted the few steps back into the UniPol marked car, Leo could hear roaring from overhead, glancing back, it looked like a full scale air battle had broken out overhead, complete with missile tracks crisscrossing the sky. “Get us OUT OF HERE!!”

With a sudden burst of acceleration, they were hundreds of feet off the ground. Leo barely got his harness secured after securing Ramona’s chair to the car’s hardpoints. Only seconds after strapping in, the vehicle began a very radical set of maneuvers, corkscrewing through the air and then violently pitching down towards the ground. Looking down, Leo could see missiles racing up from the forest. “Oh, shit! INCOMING!”

With a loud explosion, the aircar started spinning, seemingly out of control. When he woke up, he was hanging upside down from his seat.

“Leo, wake up! Leo!”

“Ya, I’m awake.”

“Get me out of this goddamn chair, Ollu is hurt.”

Fumbling with the belts, he was eventually able to unbuckle himself, only to fall in a heap onto the roof of the aircar which was apparently sitting on the ground upside down. Looking around, he could only see trees out of the windows which were largely smashed. The aircar also seemed to be a bit crunched, the doorway had buckled and was jammed partway open. Leo looked up, Ramona was hanging in the automatic restraints built into the grav chair. Trying to brace himself, he hit the emergency release button on the chair, only to have Ramona land on him. Since he was ready for it, he was able to cushion her fall, but not to keep her from hitting the roof. She grunted and pushed herself up.

“You OK?”

She just nodded and started to work on Ollu’s belts. Ollu wasn’t moving and there was blood on her face. “Give me a hand.”

Together, they were able to get Ollu down a bit more gracefully than Leo had managed with Ramona. She was breathing, but obviously hurt. “Grab the medkit, it should be just behind the pilot’s seat up front.”

“Right.” Leo moved into the pilot’s compartment, only to find both UniPol officers had been killed when the aircar impacted a tree that went right through the front windscreen. Gagging at the sight of the nearly beheaded officers, he reached up behind the pilot seat and pulled out the bright white and orange striped medkit. Taking a few steps back into the main cabin, he opened it up and positioned it on top of Ollu. Within a few seconds, it was working.

Leo took stock of their situation. Ramona seemed fine, but he knew she was still super weak from the earlier injury, she was leaning heavily against the side of the aircar. Leo certainly couldn’t carry Ollu very far on his own and Ramona didn’t look up to going very far either. “We need help.”

Ramona nodded. “We can’t use the comms, they can track that back.”

“Don’t you think they already know where we are?”

“Probably not, or we’d be dead by now. It would just take one missile.” Ramona groaned and sat down heavily. “How they hell did they get all that firepower? There were anti-air missiles hidden in the forest in addition to combat aircraft.”

“I just assumed they were part of the Inner Union military.”

“No, the IU doesn’t have a military. That’s what the Guard is for, to protect Raeburn. The polities all disbanded their militaries as part of the treaty that created the guard.”

“Well, I think we’ve conclusively proven the theory.”

“Ya, great. I feel pretty dumb considering how right we were.”

“Well, if we assume that the Guild is helping them, there would be no shortage of military hardware. The Guild has access to pretty much anything they want to have access to.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Leo saw movement. He whirled, pulling his gun. Suddenly a loud voice boomed out of the forest. “PUT YOUR WEAPON DOWN! Weapon down, hands on your head!”

Slowly, Ramona reached over and pushed Leo’s gun down. “Leo, it’s OK.” She looked back into the woods and called out, “EDDINGTON, SPECIALIST FIRST, ONE NINE SIX FOUR TWO FIVE.”

Suddenly, there were armed troops all around the aircar. One raised a radio, “Ops Prime, Positive Contact with The Hammer. Request evac, immediate.” The one with the radio turned around and made a circling gesture with one hand. The rest immediately turned and aimed their weapons out, away from the aircar. “Specialist, we need to get you and your crew out of here.”

Leo pointed to Ollu. “She’s wounded.”

The leader of the team turned his head and shouted, “MEDIC!”

Within minutes, they were all aboard yet another vehicle. This one a very serious looking armed shuttle. After the three of them were strapped in by the Guard crew, the shuttle launched. And it keept going. And going. Soon, the windows only showed the blackness of space.

A Guard officer came back to where Leo and Ramona were sitting, next to the auto-doc that Ollu was in. “Specialist, comms from the General.” He handed her a slip of paper.

Ramona accepted it with a nod and read quickly. “Raeburn may be under attack. My father is having us evacuated back to the Theo.”

Leo was still partially in shock. “Does your father always communicate with you in written form?”

Ramona shook her head. “Leo, these are orders, not a note from my daddy. He’s been activated and these Guard members are following his orders.”

Much sooner than Leo expected, he could see the Theo in one of the small windows of the shuttle. In minutes, they pushed through the GTC barrier and the shuttle was sitting on the boat deck of the Theo. As soon as the door opened, he could hear Craig’s voice booming out, “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!? GET THE HELL OFF MY SHIP!”

Leo leaned out of the door and saw Craig arguing with a Guard officer. “Craig, shut the fuck up and help me!”

To his credit, Craig quickly jogged over to Leo and gestured madly to the deck crew standing on the other side of the boat deck. With the help of a Guard member, he got Ollu’s auto-doc off the shuttle. Ramona followed, but after only a few steps, she staggered and almost fell. Craig rushed over and put one of Ramona’s arms over his shoulders for support. “Jesus, what happened to you three? And where the hell have you been for two days?”

The Guard officer approached and looked at Ramona. “Specialist, we need to move, our unit is on low guard against inbounds.”

Ramona nodded. “Thanks for your help captain, we’re good here.”

Within seconds, the Guard shuttle was off the deck, through the GTC barrier and gone.

Leo kept pushing Ollu’s auto-doc until a couple of deck crew made it over to them and gave him a hand. “Take her to her quarters.” He turned to Ramona, “Can you make it to the bridge? I think we need your help.”

Ramona stood a bit straighter, “Ya, I can make it.”

Craig snorted. “Maybe if I carry you.”

“Just get me to the bridge and I can sit down.”

Leo jogged over to a comms panel. “Bridge, this is Timur.”

“Bridge.”

“Break orbit, let’s get some room between us and the planet.”

“Destination?”

“Least time to e-limit.”

“Least time, aye.”

Leo moved back to where Craig was still supporting Ramona and grabbed her other arm. Between them, they half carried Ramona out of the boat dock and up to the bridge.

By the time they made to the bridge, the ship was under her full normal acceleration, headed towards the e-limit. Raeburn’s world was already way behind them and they were headed up the ecliptic, towards the e-limit. While most people thought of a solar system as round, they were actually elliptical with most of them being relatively flat disks, not round but close enough. This means that the e-limit is actually shaped more like a flattened egg than a sphere. Moving “up” across the plane of the ecliptic means shorter time to the limit and thus a shorter time before you can engage FTL drives.

One of the spacers manning a station on the bridge looked up. “Master Trader, where is the Captain?”

Leo shook his head. “She was injured on the planet.” He looked around. “I guess that means I’m her backup. What do you need?”

The spacer looked back to his console. “We have a request for docking from an incoming ship.”

“What? Is it another Guard ship?”

“No sir, the captain already left standing orders to allow Guard ships to dock. This is an unknown vessel.”

“Unknown? Surely, it has a valid registry?”

“Yes, it has a valid registry, based on Earth. It says here, ‘United Kingdom Official’ but I have no idea what that means.”

Craig dropped Ramona into a chair with a muttered curse. She grunted with pain as she landed. Leo just stared at him. “Uh, is that the brigadier?”

Craig nodded. “You know any other British agents who might want to get involved in Guild affairs?”

“No.” Leo looked back to the spacer. “Permission to board granted. Please have the passengers escorted to conference one and have the master at arms provide an armed escort.”

Craig snorted. “Do you think one of our kids is going to impress the Brigadier?”

“No, but at least we’ll know if he wanders off.”

Leo left Ramona in charge on the bridge. No point in carrying her down the hallway again. She seemed alert but was obviously in pain and had zero stamina after the auto-doc treatments. With Ollu incapacitated, Leo was feeling the pressure of command. Not that he didn’t trust Craig, but the man carried so much baggage and so much history that he wasn’t on the same page as the others. That plus his history with the Brigadier made Leo nervous. As Leo walked down to conference one, he thought about what he might say while he wondered what the Brigadier wanted.

Leo nodded at the two Master at Arms crewmen standing outside of conference one. Craig just stepped past them and into the room. The Brigadier, dressed this time in what looked like an old fashioned tweed suit was sitting calmly at one end of the table.

Leo decided he needed to drive the conversation to prevent Craig from saying something crazy. “Brigadier, welcome to the Theo. My apologies, we were not expecting you so we don’t have any tea to offer.”

“Don’t fret, dear boy. I travel with a supply.” He reached into his coat and produced a small cloth bag. Leo couldn’t suppress a grin. At least the man was consistent.

“What brings you here, sir?”

The Brigadier glanced at Craig who shook his head minutely. “Leo, when you came out to my home, you asked about Epsilon. Are you still seeking a way to destroy the guild?”

Leo sat down and rubbed his face with one hand. “Honestly? No. I don’t really know what I want any more.”

The Brigadier smiled. “That’s good.”

“What?”

“This is a tough situation. We have a group of people who have used their economic power to enrich themselves. That’s not really wrong of them, but it’s not great for everyone else. The problem is that there aren’t enough checks on their power. This means that eventually they will abuse it.”

Leo shook his head. “That’s a pretty cynical worldview.”

The Brigadier laughed. “Not cynical laddie. Just honest. Study history. This is why autocracies never work out in the long run. Just too much temptation.”

“So, what are you saying?”

“I’m saying that the Guild needs a brake. Something to balance out their power and keep them in check.”

“And that’s Epsilon?”

“It was. For over fifty years, we’ve held the sword of Damocles over them.”

“And you think that was a good idea?”

“It worked.”

“Until now.”

The Brigadier smiled sadly. “Yes, until now. A sword is only an effective deterrent if your opponent believes you will use it.”

Leo was starting to understand where the Brigadier was headed. “And now?”

The Brigadier nodded. “Yes, now it’s you.”

Leo wasn’t happy with this thread. “Not me! Quantum comms is real, I’m not the only one who knows that.”

“And how long do you think those people will live with that knowledge?”

“Are you saying the Guild would kill to keep that secret?”

“They already have Leo. You know that.”

“Yes, but….”

“But what? You and your friends are somehow immune? They already tried to kill you at UI-6 and that was just an offhand gesture. Do you think the ships inbound to this system will leave while you are still alive? While this ship is still intact?”

Leo looked at Craig. “You are unnaturally quiet.”

Craig looked despondent. “I don’t want it to be true, but it is. They will kill you if necessary. They will destroy this entire system if they have to.”

Leo looked at the Brigadier. “Can they do that? Can they destroy Raeburn?”

The Brigadier just shrugged. “They think they can. I have no idea, it totally depends on what Raeburn has available for defense.”

Leo reached over to the comm panel. “Bridge, do we have a good reading on the inbound ships?”

After a few seconds, Ramona answered. “Leo, it looks like a full on invasion fleet. Fifty large ships of an unknown type. They look like capital combat ships, but we haven’t seen them before. We assume they are Guild, but they’re not answering comms.”

Leo turned back to the Brigadier. “Fifty ships? How could that be?”

“Surely you’re not that naive Leo. The Guild owns immense amounts of IP. They could easily set up an automated fab anywhere they want. Just have the ships sitting there and ready to go. The Guild is worth more than all the major systems put together. Why wouldn’t they have armed ships, just in case?”

Leo turned back to the comm panel. “Ramona, where are they now?”

“Just inside the e-limit. Looks like they are coming into the inner system. Current course puts them into orbit around Raeburn. Leo, my father has declared a system level emergency.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means martial law. He’s now the supreme commander for the entire system. All government functions for all the polities answer to the Guard until the emergency is over.”

“Holy shit. Is your Dad going to be able to beat them?”

Ramona laughed. “Dad always wins. It’s annoying. He always says, ‘if you’re not cheating, you’re not trying hard enough.’ He’ll do whatever he has to do.”

Leo looked back to the Brigadier. “So, what do you want us to do?”

“Me? I want nothing. I am simply here to hand the torch to you.”

“What?”

Craig gave the Brigadier a dirty look. “Jesus Christ Vishnu. It’s not the kid’s fault that all the Earth governments have been sitting on their asses for fifty years.”

The Brigadier just smiled. “Eloquent as ever Craig. Regardless of any actions or inactions taken by my government or other governments, there is currently only one brake on the actions of the guild and that young man there holds the IP rights to it.”

Craig sighed. “Fair.”

Leo looked back and forth between the two older men. “You’re saying that Q-Feed is the only thing holding the Guild in check?”

“Yes.” The Brigadier smiled. “Until, of course, they kill you.”

“And my parents?”

Now the Brigadier looked confused for the first time since Leo met him. “Sorry?”

“My parents. If I die, they inherit all my assets by default. It’s in my will.”

“Ah, of course. Yes, and your parents.”

“And their heirs?”

“Yes, I see what you mean, Leo.”

Ramona had been listening in. “No, it means they destroy UI.”

“WHAT?”

“Think about it Leo. They control any interstellar trade. Thus, your IP claim cannot be enforced if the guild doesn’t recognize it. They just declare it banned and that’s it. However, we didn’t register the transaction with the guild. It was an in-system transaction at UI.”

Leo nodded, remembering his trade law classes. “Right, so we hold the patent in UI regardless.”

Craig just shook his head. “They’ll just ban the UI system. They’ve done it before.”

“Somehow the idea that only I need to die isn’t that comforting.”

Ramona was way ahead of Leo as usual. “Leo, this is actually good news. We know their objective now. That makes it easier for us to counter them.”

“Counter them how?”

“By forcing their hands.”

Leo wasn’t following. “And how do we do that?”

“We make more UI’s.”

“More UI’s?”

The Brigadier clapped his hand in delight. “Oh, that is magnificent, my dear. Bloody marvelous.”

Craig was nodding. “Partnerships.”

Leo finally got it. “No, franchises.”

The Brigadier nodded like a wise old owl. “Quite so. Quite so.” With a nod, he stood and headed out of the room. Halfway out the door, he stopped, turned and walked back to Leo. After a moment of thought, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a red data chip. Leo looked at it incredulously. The Brigadier nodded again. Leo took the chip.