The Data Traders

Sell Side

Ultimately, the Guild serves as an essential service to the systems in human space. It is thus essential that all Guild ships at all times maintain a robust and responsive sell side system. This means that all possible assets (both physical and digital) are priced and accurately represented in the system at all times.

Excerpted With Permission

Data Trader’s Handbook

Copyright 3250, Interstellar Data Trader Guild

Leo was getting more and more nervous the longer they spent in the clinic. While Ramona clearly needed treatment, someone was going to figure out where they were. While the doctor had apparently not reported them to the police, he hadn’t helped them either. They needed to get her out of such a public place.

Finally Ollu snapped her fingers. “Next of kin.”

Leo was confused. “What?”

Ollu stood up and started walking to the nurse’s station at the front of the urgent care facility. “I bet they are required to notify next of kin.” Making a shushing motion to Leo, she walked over to the nurse on duty. “Sir, can you tell me if you’ve notified next of kin for the patient we brought in?”

The nurse took a moment to consult with the console in front of him. “No, it says here we don’t have a name for the patient.”

Ollu looked at Leo, who shrugged. “And if you do have their name, what is the normal procedure?”

“We would notify the person listed on their emergency contacts file.”

“I see. And would I be able to talk to them also?”

“I don’t see why not, you brought her in, you may be able to answer their questions.”

“OK. Her name is Ramona Eddington.”

“I see. Do you know her birthday?”

“No, why?”

“To help identify her, there may be more than one.”

Ollu looked at Leo with her first grin all day. “That’s a scary thought.”

Leo spoke up. “She served in the Guard, if that helps. She couldn’t be less than 25 or more than 30 years old based on what I know about her.”

The nurse kept interacting with the terminal. “OK doing a search.” He continued for a few minutes. “Yes, there is only one Ramona Eddington listed with those parameters. Next of kin…” He stopped, a look of horror on his face. “Wait, you brought The Hammer here?”

Ollu sighed. “Yes. We work with her now.”

“Oh my God. We have to call the General.”

“The General?”

“Her father, General Henry Eddington.” He looked closely at Ollu. “Where are you from? You don’t know who General Eddington is?”

Ollu shrugged. “We just landed on this planet a few hours ago.”

“Shit. I’m not calling him.”

“What?”

“It’s General Eddington. He’ll go ballistic.”

“Look, I’ll talk to him, OK? Just let me use your comms.”

Finally, Ollu was able to calm the nurse down enough to place the call. The face on the screen certainly looked grizzled, but not something to frighten trained nurses. “General Eddington?”

“Yes, what is this about?”

“I’m sorry to tell you sir, your daughter has been injured. We are with her here at a medical facility. The doctors tell us she will make a full recovery, but she’s unconscious at the moment.”

The calm visage clouded over like a violent storm. “What the hell is this? She was supposed to meet with the Seeker today and now the UniPols are looking for her. Who the hell are you?”

“Sir, I work with her. She came with us just today to Raeburn’s world on our ship. There was a firefight and she was wounded. We carried her here.”

“This isn’t a ruse, or a prank. Is it?”

“No sir.”

“Where are you?”

Ollu got the address from the nurse and gave it to him. “Sir, I should add that we believe she is in considerable danger.”

“From whom?”

“From the UniPols. They are the ones who shot her.”

“Those corrupt bastards? Well, fuck them. Stay where you are. I will have a Guard medical team there in ten minutes.” With that, he abruptly cut the line.

The nurse looked like someone had just slapped him. Ollu still wasn’t sure who or what General Eddington was, but she hoped he could help Ramona.

Leo looked over at the nurse. “So, what kind of General is he?”

“General Eddington was the commander of the Raeburn Guard until he retired ten years ago.”

Ollu whistled. “This is gonna be a good story.”

Apparently, retired Guard Generals still had plenty of pull with the Raeburn Guard. True to the General’s word, a full Guard medical team arrived in less than ten minutes. They were also accompanied by a two full squads of Raeburn Guard troopers in full combat gear. One walked up to Ollu with a hand scanner. “Yep, that’s her, transport this one.”

As he walked away, Leo grabbed his arm, or attempted to. Before he knew it, Leo was face down on the floor. “Hey! I helped carry her all the way here from the Temple. I need to go with you.”

“Stay down sir, this is Guard business.”

Ollu didn’t seem especially concerned. “If you break him, you’ll answer to the General.”

“What?”

She pointed to Leo. “That’s the Hammer’s fiancé. Your call, but I’d guess the General wants to see him.”

Leo was about to correct Ollu when the Guard officer released him. “Terribly sorry sir, please come with us, we will take you to the General.”

“And where is Ramona?”

“The Hammer has been taken by air ambulance to the General’s estate. If you will follow me, please?”

They were escorted outside where a full dozen armored air cars were arrayed on the lawn. Looking up, Leo could see half a dozen sleek fighter aircraft circling. As soon as they strapped into one of the armored vehicles, it lifted straight up with a force that pushed Leo back into his seat and drove the air out of his lungs. “Ooof. They need to adjust the compensators on these things.”

Ollu was looking out the window. “That was a 100G launch. They’re working fine or you would be strawberry jam.” Leo looked out. He could see the curvature of the planet already. “Shit.”

Neither Leo nor Ollu knew much about Raeburn so they weren’t really sure where they were headed. The Guard troops in the transport completely ignored any attempt to talk to them. Wherever they were going, it was pretty far away, Leo could see the terminator approaching and soon it was dark outside the transport. As they started to descend, Leo couldn’t see any lights on the surface. No cities or significant settlements could be seen. As they approached the ground, Leo could just make out a small landing pad.

As soon as the transport touched down, the Guard troops slammed the doors open and lept out, guns ready. The team leader quickly relaxed and saluted someone that Leo couldn’t see. As he got out, he could see an older man standing on the edge of the landing pad. The same man they talked to on comms. Ramona’s father. General Eddington.

With a curt gesture, he waved them over to where he was standing. As they walked towards him, he turned and headed down a path that led away from the landing pad and through the nearby woods. After a hundred meters or so, they could see a house. It was brightly lit, and Leo could see the work that had gone into it. A very nice house, but not something that Leo would describe as a palace or mansion. General Eddington kept walking until he was inside the house. Once into the entryway, he paused to close the door behind Leo and Ollu.

Ollu looked around, openly curious. Leo was more interested in Ramona. “Sir, is Ramona here? Is she OK?”

The General grunted. “Yes, she’s up in her room.” He looked uncertain for the first time. “I understand I have the two of you to thank for getting her safely away from that ambush.”

Ollu shook her head. “No thanks needed General. She’s our shipmate, she would have done the same for us.”

“Shipmate?”

“Yes, the Theodore Onasis. We came here together, to bring Q-Feed to the Seeker.”

“Q-Feed?”

“Quantum Communications.”

The General gave Ollu a cynical look. “Surely you’re joking. I never understood my daughter’s devotion to that absurd clique.”

Ollu looked thoughtful. “Sir, if I may ask, which clique do you belong to?”

“Preppers, of course.”

“Of course.”

Leo didn’t know what a Prepper was and didn’t really care. “Sir, may we see her?”

The General grunted and gestured for them to follow him up the elaborately carved wooden staircase in the grand entry hall. As they walked up the stairs behind the General, Leo looked around for the first time. The two story entry hall wasn’t massive, but it was impressive, decorated with wooden columns which had been carved with leaves and flowers, twining up towards the elaborate ceiling which was decorated with a floral fresco. The General noted his visitors gawking and smiled. “This house was my wife’s project, it was always her dream to have a place in the country like this.”

Upstairs, they walked past several closed doors to a room guarded by a soldier in combat armor, a large plasma rifle slung over one shoulder. He came to attention as the General approached. The General touched his shoulder in a familiar gesture. “At ease Claude. Just keep her safe for me.”

“My honor, sir.”

Entering the room, they could see several medical devices spread about, obviously brought in quickly. A uniformed nurse sat in a chair by the bed and quickly sprang to her feet when the General entered. “As you were, Nancy.” As Nancy settled back into her chair, the General crossed to Ramona who was propped up in a fully powered hospital bed. Her eyes were closed and she appeared to be sleeping. Placing a hand on her shoulder, he gave Ramona a gentle kiss on the forehead. “How is she?”

The nurse flipped open a display and consulted it for a moment. “She’s doing fine General. The urgent care folks know their business. She’s sleeping now but she has an excellent prognosis and should make a full recovery in a few days.”

The General nodded, obviously, this was not news to him. “Thank you Nancy, if you would give us a few moments of privacy?”

“Certainly sir, I will be in the hall if you need me.”

The General stood for several moments after the nurse left the room, contemplating Ramona. Leo was unsure of what to say but Ollu rescued him again.

“General, do you know why the UniPols attacked us?”

The General looked surprised, as if he had forgotten Ollu was there or perhaps he was just surprised that someone would dare to interrupt him contemplating his wounded daughter. “To get to me, of course.”

“You?”

“Yes, naturally.”

“You don’t think it was related to the Q-Feed?”

“What? No, quantum communications isn’t real. This must have been a move to discredit the Guard by going after my family.” He paused again for a long minute. “She is all I have left now that her mother is gone.”

Ollu wasn’t giving up. “But what if it IS real?”

“If what is real?”

“Quantum communications.”

The general turned and really looked at Ollu for the first time. “You’re an offworlder.”

“Yes, sir I am.”

“But you’re a Seeker also.”

“Yes, sir.”

“So, you’re just as delusional as the rest of them.”

Leo was getting impatient. He was pretty intimidated by Ramona’s father but he also didn’t see any point in debating things that they knew were true. “No sir, it’s real. I didn’t even know what a seeker was until Ramona told me, but I can tell you for a fact that they’re real. We have an open comms channel right now to U-I.”

“What, it’s in your pocket?”

“No, it’s in a comms sat outside the e-limit.”

“Outside the e-limit?”

“Yes, that’s why most tests failed. It won’t work under FTL or within the e-limit.”

“And you are transmitting data real time with zero latency from U-I?”

“Well, no sir.”

“Ah! Like I said, this is all bullshit!”

“Actually, sir the total latency is about 40 hours right now. The data has to sync to the guild bouy in U-I first, then to our relay sat, then across the Q-Feed to a paired sat here and then down to a relay bouy we set up and then to our ship, so there is quite a bit of system latency.” Leo looked the general right in the eye, daring him to call him a liar. He waited a full twenty seconds. It seemed like a lifetime. Finally, he added, “sir.”

The general visibly shook himself. “And you’ve got 40 hour old data from UI?”

“Yes sir.”

“And what data do you have?”

Leo laughed. “Would you like to know the g-ball scores on UI from yesterday?”

The general’s face clouded and Leo thought he would explode. Then he laughed. “You just proved half the galaxy wrong about quantum comms and you used it for g-ball scores?”

After realizing that his first premise about the attack on Ramona was wrong, the general turned Leo and Ollu over to his chief of staff so that he could investigate alternative motives for the attack. After being shown to the guest wing, Leo promptly laid down on one of the beds and fell asleep. He awoke to Ollu shaking his shoulder.

“Leo, wake up!”

Groggy from sleep, he looked around. “What’s up?”

“Power is out.”

He shook his head to clear it a bit. “Well, it’s a planet. Doesn’t that happen sometimes? I mean they have central power stations hundreds of kicks away sometimes, right?”

Ollu just shook her head and pulled Leo to his feet. “Does the general strike you as someone who would neglect to install a backup power system?”

Leo thought about it for about three seconds. “No.” Then he really woke up. “Ramona.”

Ollu nodded grimly and led the way out of the guest suite. They found their way back to the family wing only to find the guard in front of Ramona’s door lying on the ground, unconscious. Leo rushed to his side, “oh shit, he’s out cold.”

Ollu moved to Ramona’s door. “Get his gun.”

Leo pulled the sidearm out of it’s holster. Luckily, it was very similar to guns he had trained on. He checked the charge (it was full) and flipped off the safety. Leo nodded for Ollu to open the door.

Moving inside, he saw that the medical equipment was still functioning, it must have a backup power source. He also saw the nurse, Nancy with a white tube in her hands, leaning over Ramona. Uncertain of what was going on, he decided to play it safe. “Step away from Ramona!” Taking careful aim, he placed the aiming sight on the woman’s head.

She turned to look a Leo and then turned back to Ramona. “She needs this medicine, don’t interfere.”

Leo was still uncertain, but he decided he couldn’t trust anyone at this point. “Step back, hands up, or I will shoot.” The nurse continued her move toward Ramona. “STOP! I WILL SHOOT!” Moving swiftly, the nurse held the small white tube up and moved it to Ramona’s head.

Leo fired twice.

The nurse fell, most of her head decorated the wall behind her. Leo leaned over and vomited on the plush carpet.

Ollu rushed forward and took the cylinder out of the dead nurse’ hand. “It’s a sonic surgical knife. She was trying to kill Ramona.”

Leo collapsed to his knees on the carpet. “Holy shit.”

Leo and Ollu both heard running feet in the hallway. Ollu grabbed Leo’s arm and shoved him behind a couch. Leo propped his hand on the back of the couch, his weapon covering the door. A few seconds later, the general came bounding into the room, moving much faster than Leo would have thought a man of his age could move. “What the fuck is happening here!?!?”

Leo stood up and pointed his weapon at the ground. “We don’t know, the nurse tried to kill Ramona so I shot her.”

The general never stopped moving. He quickly moved to Ramona’s side and checked her pulse. Seemly satisfied, he turned back to Leo. “Son, I don’t know you. I have two of my people down and you admit you shot one of them. Give me one reason why I don’t call in an armored brigade to arrest both of you.”

Ollu placed a hand on Leo’s shoulder. “General, if you can, I suggest you do exactly that.”

“What?”

“If you are able to communicate outside of this compound, call for help. As much as you can get.”

Finally waking up to the possibility that he had been betrayed by his own staff, he reached for a comm unit. “General Eddington to ops prime.” Silence. “Ops prime, respond, immediate.” Looking at Ollu, he fiddled for a moment to change to a different channel. “Rayburn orbital command, General Eddington, respond.” Nothing. “Fuck.”

He looked at Ollu again. “Tell me exactly what you know. Right now.”

She shrugged. “Someone or a group of someone’s has been trying to stop us from using Quantum Comms for months now. It seems to me that this is just more of the same. Whoever has the juice to attack Ramona on the Seeker’s front doorstep is not going to be afraid of a retired Guard General.”

The look on the general’s face might have dissuaded them.

“Right.” He turned to Ramona’s bed and started piling equipment from around the room onto the bed. “Give me a hand with this and we will get her to the bunker.”

Leo was not keeping up. “Bunker?”

Ollu was tossing equipment onto the bed. “Leo just do it.”

They quickly gathered up the equipment the general wanted and Leo pushed the rolling hospital bed out of the room an into the hallway. The general stopped to check on the guard. “He’s just unconscious.” With a grunt, he picked up the guard in a fireman’s carry and continued down the hall. He led the way to the end of the hall where a metal door opened into what looked like a normal lift. Normal, that is for a spaceship, not what Leo expected to see in a country house. With another grunt, the general placed the guard into a sitting position in the corner and gestured Leo to roll the hospital bed with Ramona into the lift. Once they were all in, the general used a key to activate the lift. It started moving down. Quickly.

The lift kept going.

And going.

Ollu stared at the general. “Where the hell does this thing go?”

The general smiled for the first time. “The bunker.”

“Where the hell is this bunker?”

“About five klicks from the house, a klick below the surface.”

“You’re joking.”

Leo shook his head. “Ollu, does it look like he is joking?”

“No. I guess not.”

After what seemed like an hour but was probably more like five minutes, the lift slowed and eventually opened to a utilitarian looking corridor. The general led them out and gestured for Leo to put Ramona’s bed into what looked like a military medical unit. He dragged the guard into the room also and loaded him into an auto-doc.

The general grunted when the readout came up. “Synoctizine.”

Ollu looked confused. “What the hell is that?”

“Knock out gas.”

“Never heard of it.”

“You wouldn’t. It’s only used by Raeburn Guard Special Forces.”

“Wait, what? You mean Ramona’s old unit?”

“Yes.”

“How is that possible?”

The general’s grin held no mirth, only determination. “I’m going to find out, trust me.” He went back down the hallway and locked the lift controls. “There are only two ways in here and that one is the only one known to anyone but me. It’s locked now, we’re safe unless someone decides to go after us with a bunker buster nuke.”

Leo looked at Ollu, she didn’t seem reassured.

The general visibly reset himself. “If you’re going to help me, you’ll need to know something about Raeburn.”

Leo was too shocked to be upset. “We’re going to help you?”

The general grin was feral. “That’s right son.” After checking again on Ramona’s and the guard’s medical monitors, he led them down the hall into a very comfortable conference room. “What you need to understand is that Raeburn suffered from almost a hundred years of war until the Guard was formed. Do you understand what that means?”

Leo honestly didn’t. “No sir.”

The general just nodded. “No reason why you should. The guild has kept the peace for hundreds of years. Before you were born, before your parents were born, I’m guessing.”

Leo just nodded.

The general continued, “Millions of our citizens were killed. The divisions between polities just kept getting deeper. Every outrage gave the other side a reason to do worse to their enemy. It seemed like war and violence would just spiral out of control.”

Ollu leaned forward in her chair. “Until the Guard.”

The General smiled. “Until the Guard.”

“You ended all that by keeping the peace.”

The general shook his head, sadly. “We ended all that by suppressing the violence. The acrimony remained.”

Ollu shook her head also. “But that was over a hundred years ago!”

“Some people have long memories.”

Leo was actually beginning to understand. “So, there are people on Raeburn who would be happy if the Guard went away and let them settle scores.”

The General looked at him with new respect. “Exactly, son. The Guard has always had an uneasy relationship with the polities. By our charter we are separate, some would say we were ‘above’ politics. That makes us very unpopular with some.”

“But what does this have to do with Ramona?”

The General settled back in his chair. “I would have said nothing. I was upset when she decided to go off on her Seeker mission, but it took her off the board. She’s not with the Guard any longer so there is no reason to target her.”

Ollu was thinking hard. “General, just suppose for a moment that Quantum Comms WAS real. How would that affect things?”

The General answered without hesitation. “Chaos. Complete, total, utter chaos.”

Leo was shocked at his answer. “Why?”

“Son, it means that people who are powerful will become less so. They will fight to retain that power.”

“But it will end Raeburn’s isolation!”

“And the power of those who benefit from that isolation.”

Ollu smacked her hand on the table. “Collaborators.”

The General smiled. “Exactly.”

Leo was confused again. “Wait, what?”

Ollu was thinking hard, her expression was focused. “Leo, think about it. The Guild has an almost infinite amount of money. Do you really think that they would hesitate to buy off selected individuals if that suited their purpose?”

“But Raeburn is BANNED!”

Ollu just smiled. “Yes, and that makes it the perfect honey trap.”

Now the General smacked the table. “Goddammn!! That’s it! Just pay off the right people and wait!”

Leo looked at Ollu. She continued, “Leo, let’s assume that the Guild has known for some time that Quantum comms is real.” Leo nodded, that seemed clear by now. “And if they know it’s real, then the most important thing they can do is prevent it from being ‘discovered’ by anyone, right?” Again, he nodded. “So, you can’t watch everyone all the time, right.” A third time, Leo nodded. “So, why not create an organization who’s sole purpose is to look for this technology?”

“Wait, create an organization to find something that doesn’t exist?”

Ollu stood up and started pacing. “But it does exist. Think about it. The Seekers are perfect for the Guild. They are from a Banned world so they can’t be trusted or believed. They have a near religious belief that Quantum comms exist. They’re going to spend every effort to find people who can make it work.”

The general put his hand over his eys. “But they’ll fail.”

Ollu nodded. “They’ll fail.”

Leo looked from one to the other. “Why will they fail?”

Ollu smiled sadly. “Because they’re compromised. The seekers are a Guild front organization.”

The General looked like someone had slapped him. “I always thought they were dreamers, but a Guild front? That’s insane.”

“There’s one way to prove it.”

“What’s that?”

“Let us talk to our ship.”

Before they could figure out a way to do that, Leo heard a faint voice coming from down the hall. “Leo…” Hardly thinking, he sprinted down the hall back to the med bay, careening around the corner just in time to see Ramona trying to sit up. “Whoah! Lay back there, you’ve been in a coma.” Gently pressing her back into her bed, Leo was shocked to feel how weak she was. “Just take it easy, your father has us in this super bunker thing. We’re safe.”

“My father?” Leo just nodded. “We’re in the bunker?” He nodded again. “Oh, fuck.”

The general and Ullu came into the room at a much more leisurely pace. The general actually smiled. “How you doing tiger?”

“I’m pretty out of it, dad.” Taking a moment to gather herself, she continued. “I have to talk to the seeker.”

The general walked over to her bedside and place a hand on her shoulder. “Sweetie, we think the seeker is a bad guy.”

Ramona just glared at the general. “Jesus Christ dad, I hate when you talk to me like I’m six. I am on a seeker mission. I have found quantum comms. I MUST REPORT TO THE SEEKER. I MUST.” Seemingly exhausted by her outburst, she fell back into her bed and closed her eyes.

The general looked concerned. “Sweetie. Ramona. You’re sick and weak. Just rest up. You’re safe here. Take some time to recover and then we’ll talk about what to do.”

After waiting a moment to ensure Ramona was asleep, the general gathered Leo and Ollu up with his eyes and led them back to the conference room. “She’s not wrong about her duty. Any seeker who finds quantum comms or even strong evidence that it MIGHT work is required to report directly to the Seeker immediately. It’s part of their oath.”

Leo was looking down at the table. “Ya, that went so well last time.”

Ollu had been very quiet up to this time. “General, if you know you’re going to fight, how do you choose the location for the fight?”

The general just grunted. “You pick someplace you know well and the enemy doesn’t know. Ideally, you have the high ground and the enemy has to come to you.” He smiled. “Of course, all of this occurs under friendly air cover.”

She smiled. “How well do you know the leader of the inner union?”

“Margie? We get along. She’s a greenie, not a prepper, but honest enough as far as that goes.”

“Would she have ordered the attack on Ramona?”

“Oh hell no. I assumed that was a rebel group just dressed up in UniPol uniforms.”

“Perhaps we should call her?”

“What the hell for? I can get a squadron of Guard ships here in ten minutes.”

“A test general, a test.”

For a moment, Leo thought the General was going to dismiss the idea. He actually opened his mouth, paused, closed it again and then he nodded. He pointed to Ollu, and pivoted on his heel. When Leo followed the General into the comms room, he was talking to someone over what looked like a secure comms unit.