Thera acknowledged Jim's glass tip with a nod.
"It sounds to me like Mr Gazdik is talking about tax evasion. Adding to the Halowon Empire's coffers is not high on our list of priorities, but staying out of trouble is, so Jim's right, I'd like to know a few more details about what and where before we get down to haggling a price."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:48, Sat 19 Oct 2013.

Jim tried to put on a serious face of considered countenance, in deference to their cover - as if he was familiar with taxes, duties, tariffs, and price haggling.  Things far outside his academic and practical experience - and concern.  (He's a doctor, damn-it!)

He couldn't, however, stop his eyes from wandering in Dayani's direction, though not particularly for the purposes of observing her, er, reactions...

"Are the four of you going for middle or low passage?" Danica prompted with a business-like tone.   High passage was out of the question if they were haggling.  And besides, the question was, of course, a probing feint like Hayden's query.  A means to find out more of what Mario knew of the Moth's capabilities and crew.

And with respect to their potential destination ... "And what off-loading facilities are we to expect on the other end?" she asked rather bluntly.  "As it does affect the price." the raven-haired pilot offered as a sort of explanation; forty tonnes of supplies doesn't just move itself - especially when it is in shipping containers.

His caginess could be warranted - not necessarily directed at them, of course - but, it didn't make their jobs any easier.  Plus, now Dani was starting to get a zealot vibe from Mr. Mario Gazdik; and that definitely wasn't making their job any easier either.

In reply to Dr. Jim D. Jones (msg # 92):



Mario grumbles ruefully at Hayden's question, "Can't get out of Imperial space in a single jump.  At least I can't."*

Dayani smiles knowingly, like she may have picked up on something Mario hasn't.

In response to Doc, he mutters, "Pulling ore at under a hundred Kelvin ain't exactly margaritas on the beach."  Dani and Thera, both having grown up on the frigid colony at St. Croix, know full well the hazards of outer system life.  He continues, "Like I said, food, life support supplies, a few spare parts and replacement equipment, and the relief crew.  That's it.  Enough to keep us going a few more months." He takes another pull on his beer as he mulls Doc's question bout risks, then offers, "Finding the site isn't easy, and landing's a little tricky, not much G.  Dayani's flown it before, if you need her she can come along.  Not much chance of any patrols, haven't seen any yet, but if we see one we run.  Can't run, we deal.  Can't deal, we give up."

Edited to add as Dani posted while I was writing:

For Dani's inquiries, he shrugs, "We're not picky.  Lower the better, just as long as you don't freeze us." At her second question he nods, "Unloading's a bitch, that's true.  Now what kind of price are you thinking?"

End edit.

* OOC: Pretty clear he means J-1 from this comment and that J-2 hasn't even crossed his mind.  Since only the Free Republic government and a handful of Ozawa Lines ships - and you of course :) - have J-2, most people outside the Free Republic may default to thinking in terms of J-1 as default.

The comment also pegs Mario as a Halowon citizen.  The Halowon Empire claims the Vauclain, Zeitlin, Jung, and Nestor systems (all within one parsec of Tupolev), though the other polities in the sector don't recognize the claims.  Vauclain system is patrolled by FRN, but Halowon hasn't officially dropped it's claim there.  The others are largely uninhabited and irregularly patrolled by multiple navies.

If Halowon authorities catch you re-supplying an unlicensed mining facility in territory they claim, they'll likely arrest you and impound the ship.  Most of Gypsy Moth's crew could count on the FRE embassy to make a diplomatic issue out of it and push for your release, but Nino, Dagala, (because of where they're from) and Mario and his people (because they're Halowon citizens) would be at the mercy of the Halowon judicial system.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:30, Mon 21 Oct 2013.

The young man finally had Doc's full attention.

"Ah .. feel for your troubles, but I can see why others are commanding a steep price - what you're offering is a chance to get pinched by Imps and our ship taken.  We're a legit operation and we aim to be in business for a while - here and elsewheres. Troubles with authorities isn't much conducive to that."

Hayden's mind was already swirling with ideas on how you could do what was being asked, having skipped right over the why.  It was as if a giant game wheel in his brain were spinning, ideas and thoughts written on each slice.  Eventually the wheel slowed down and the large arrow at the top stopped on one idea in particular.  Fake a misjump!

This is really when I wish we had Dr. Hathorn on board, Hayden thought to himself.

"Doc's right.  We only deal in legitimate cargo going to legitimate ports.  That said, space travel is dangerous and you don't always end up where you want when you come out of jump space."

"Sounds to me like the destination is the real problem.  Suppose we were transporting this material and your crew to Ozawa.  Customs and taxes would not be a concern, correct?  This relief crew - do any of them have criminal records?  Do they have travel papers?" Marks asked.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:09, Tue 22 Oct 2013.

Dani leaned back in her chair, causing it to creak slightly.  "You know," she noted off-hand, nary a trace of irony there and presumably addressing Mario and Dayani, "not all 'Freeks' are agent provocateurs..."

She seemed to have taken umbrage at their implication that the Moth's crew and their nationality seemed to have doomed them to some sort of moral degeneracy.  Perhaps it was part of the 'Bad Cop' act.  Or perhaps Danica really didn't feel quite as sympathetic towards Mario and his plight.  It was hard to tell.  Then again, the couple at the table had been acting (potentially understandably - though some might say overly) cautious.

Lacing her hands over one of her knees, she glanced in Jack's direction when Hayden made the implication that a misjump might be involved in their next j-space transition.  The edges of her mouth quirking up slightly at the implication.

And then her look settled back on Hayden, when the topic of price came up again.  Given his past experience, the merchant captain would know the going rate the best out of all of them; Dani tacitly deferred to him on that type of thing.

In reply to Hayden Marks (msg # 96):

Mario nods, "All the paperwork'll be above board for going outta here.  The goods'll be called spec cargo."  He looks at Dayani, "We've always had work contracts for Perseus or  Oberon done up in the past, but Ozawa would work, right?"

Dayani nods thoughtfully, "Could, though it might get less scrutiny on the back end if it were for trailing."  She further notes, "Yeah, misjump is good, or some minor breakdown needing some time to repair."

Jim's frown deepened, and he shook his head, "Yeah, that's all well and good - less you get caught with your pants down unloading goods where you ain't supposed to be..."

"And 'running' with your ankles tangled up, er, is a good way to get hurt," he added, his face coloring a bit, before taking another drink.

Jack raised a subtle eyebrow to Danica when she glanced his way then shifted his gaze back to Mario. His face was impassive as Dayani spoke but he smiled easily as Doc expressed his concerns.

"No need to worry about getting caught with your pants down, Doc. These guys have done this before." He looked to Hayden, saying, "We could spoof a misjump fairly easily but only if we move quickly. If we have to give up transponder logs there isn't much of a way to hide what we did. But if we're in and out and off again, it may not be a problem. That's not to say I approve of the idea."*

He turned back to Mario. "So, there and back again, drop supplies and bring back the haul? Is there a gas giant near your nothing rock? Where would we drop you on the return run?"




*OOC: assumption here as I don't know how to spoof a misjump or if it's even possible ;) Ref, please let me know if this is incorrect in this TU.

Dani looked thoughtful for a moment.  Her mirrorshades passed from Mario to Dayani and back to Mario.  She pushed a drink off of one of the paper napkins and motioned for one of their potential contractors to give her a pen or stylus to write with.  The tall brunette didn't carry one herself - generally her dataglove sufficed and a writing implement was not necessary.

But, she had not desire to continue to discuss potential illicit activities in public.  Even, if the place was supposed to be safe according Dayani and Mario.  Nothing had really been said yet, beyond suppositions and possibilities.  But once destinations, details and particulars started to get bandied around, it behooved them to move to a more secure - or at least private venue.

She intended to push the pen and paper to Hayden for him to name a price.  To her mind, once the broad strokes were agreed upon, the details would follow.

Or the two prospectors cum claim-jumpers cum quasi-insurgents would have to trust them, to allow for some plausible deniability - on both sides.  But that required trust on both ends.  Trust that may or may not exist at this point.

"Presumably," Danica ventured in response to Jack's musing about the details of refueling and return destination, "it's a round trip."  They would need to get back here.  Though, perhaps they wanted to take a more circuitous route - she'd been wrong before.  So, it certainly wouldn't be the first or last time, likely.  And besides, at least publicly, agreeing to a round-trip made the most sense to her.

"Charter prices is what we'd charge because that's effectively what this is," Hayden said as the discussions moved further along.

"Two hundred and sixteen thousand, plus fuel and life support expenses.  Figure forty for two weeks of those." Marks said, looking carefully at Mario to see the reaction.

OOC: found 900 per ton cargo and 9,000 per stateroom rates in the Traveller Book.  Didn't see anything in MGT Core, but didn't look that hard (just did a find for Charter).  Of course the assumption is that the ship is charted for a two week period - there and back again.

In reply to Hayden Marks (msg # 102):



Mario stops in mid-beer lift and gives a low whistle, "Man, you are some pricey bastards."  He takes a pull of his beer.

Dayani leans over to Mario.  Cupping her hand to his ear, she whispers for several seconds.

Mario nods to her and shrugs slightly.  Looking at Hayden, he proposes, "What if you didn't come back here?  If you go to our rock, then to your next port, you could still carry some other cargo too, so we wouldn't be renting the whole ship."

Dayani adds, "It wouldn't look as odd too."

Mario agrees, "Yeah."   He licks his lips and tries experimentally, "One hundred a fifty thousand for a run like that."

Jack chuckled lightly but not dismissively. "One way trip then?" He took a drink and set his glass down carefully. "Not much in the way of 'next ports' out here. Pretty much any direction we head in leads to low-end ports with very little market opportunity. Taking a two week side trip at a reduced rate wouldn't really help that situation. And regarding the rate, it's been my experience you get what you pay for - not just travel and transport, but discrete travel and transport."

In reply to Jacques Keveloh (msg # 104):



Mario's shoulders dip slightly, "Alright.  Two fifty six thou to take four workers and forty tons to the site, then take the four workers on site now back to civilization, deal?"

Danica fingered her glass nonchalantly, while scanning the crowd idly.  "A change of personnel wouldn't happen with a misjump." the raven-haired pilot noted to no one in particular.  Cargo could be dumped for a variety of reasons, on the other hand.  They would have to fabricate a different cover story for any authorities in that case.

She didn't seem particularly interested in the conversation, though that may have been more of an affectation given the reasonably public venue.

Dani glanced at Hayden for a moment, wondering just what the experienced space dog was trying to calculate in his head.  It probably had more to do with whether Mario and Dayani were worth the trouble (and subsequently the trouble they presumably would cause the Empire), more than anything to do with the money.  But then her gaze returned to crowd, to try and make sure that there weren't any surreptitious eavesdroppers.

"Two hundred and fifty six thousand and we drop your men off on our way out of Halowon space," Hayden said, offering his hand.  He tried softened the blow by adding, "And since we hate leaving any port with an empty hold, I'll hope you'll consider letting us negotiate for ore once we offload your supplies,"  Depending on what Mario and his team had mined, the belter might end up with some or all of his 256,000 ICr back.

In reply to Hayden Marks (msg # 107):



Mario gives a small, definitive nod.  Taking Hayden's proferred hand, he says, "That'll do.  I'll contact you at the port to give the names of my people for the manifest and arrange loading."

Unless one of the PCs has something else to discuss with Mario, he tosses some credits on the table (TL-7, cash is still normal here) and he and Dayani depart.

OOC: I'll dice up spec cargo proceeds and some spec cargo and freight for possible next legs in the next day or so.  I'll also post thumbnails for Perseus and Wellesley systems so you guys can pick a route for after dropping the supplies.  I think there was some previous discussion about Wellesley-1619-Antioch, but I don't remember if that was firmly decided or not.

Please let me know if there's anything you want to do on Tupolev prior to lading cargo/miners.

After Mario and Dayani left Jack smiled at Hayden. "Well played, Captain." He ordered another round for the crew and pulled out his hand comp.

He sifted through what local map data was available, keeping the display text-based and his hands close to the screen to defeat any prying eyes. "Presumably they're headed core/trailing, which would help us in terms of time. Wellesley is week in n-space going in and coming out so I'd suggest Perseus as our second stop. Besides, I'm sure those miners would rather hit a garden world than some luddite rock a week into its jump shadow. And from there we'd be two jumps out..."

To Dani he said, "You're right regarding the misjump but it seems that would be as good a story as the next. In case we do get questioned, I could work on the astrogation logs but I might need Nino to help with the engineering data. We'd need to be sure he's okay with that. And make sure we get everyone else on the same page and that they're okay with it as well."

"Thanks, but I think you are the one that set the hook.  All I had to do was reel him in," Hayden said to Jack, raising a toast.

"Perseus sounds good to me.  If the destination leaves a bad taste in the belter’s mouths, so be it*.  Given what they have asked of us, they are not in position to leave a bad review of our services.”

”For the misjump deception, we just need to have one forged manifest for the outgoing crew.  If we get intercepted on the way to the mining site, we present the the true manifest with the incomming crew listed.  If we get checked on one the way out, we present the forged one.  As long as we don’t spend too much time at the site, it is unlikely that a patrol ship would have received a copy of the manifest through other channels, since we’ll be moving at the speed of jump.”

On a multi-jump trip, a fast courier could conceivably beat the Gypsy Moth to a system and disseminate a copy of recently filed flight plans and manifests to patrolling Naval vessels.   But since they would be jumping directly to the target system, the odds that a copy of the Moth’s manifest would be available to an intercepting vessel were very low.  With nothing to compare it to, the outbound trip manifest would have to stand on its own – meaning their success would be determined by how skilled the forgery was.  Any inspecting vessel wouldn’t have a true copy on-hand to check their version against.

*It would be a sulfuric taste I believe..
This message was last edited by the player at 14:49, Mon 11 Aug 2014.

"I suppose forging a few manifests would be infinitely easier than spoofing astrogation and engineering data... Before we load in I'm going to pick up a nice bottle of Alsacian wine, something a cutter's lieutenant or SDB captain would enjoy but can't afford. Might help things along if the opportunity presents itself."

Danica gave Mario and Dayani a simple, if distant, smile and a wave.  She leaned in towards the table and the others as they talked a little more shop as part of the debrief.  Her shades continued to watch the crowd more than her friends, as a matter of habit.

"Shell game." the raven-haired pilot indicated with respect to the manifest and the talk, "keeping to the truth for even part of the trip may not serve us that well; no one will really benefit from revealing our intermediate destination."  She gave a slight shrug though, not strong attached to either of the options.  One, two or three forged manifests for the various legs made little difference; and it never hurt to be prepared.

"Good thinking., Jacques" Dani noted to the Moth's astrogator (and resident oenophile), "Make sure we have a couple of bottles, I would say."  Some liquid goodwill could probably serve as excellent lubricant in a number of potentially sticky situations that they might find themselves in.  Once again, it never hurt to be prepared.

Thera likewise kept an eye on the locals. "And there's always an alternative to booze - as a last resort."

"Good wine sounds like a plan.  It's hard to have too much of it on hand. " Hayden said.  He forked over 1,000 credits for the expense, knowing that if one bottle was good, ten would be better.

"We should figure out if we need anything to forge the manifests also and obtain it as well.  I'll start looking through the local reference material to see what our best option is on Perseus." Hayden added as he polished off his drink.

OOC: If there is time before working on cargo and taking on the belters, Hayden will look to see which state on Perseus has the least information sharing with the Halowon Empire. 

In reply to Hayden Marks (msg # 114):

Ten bottles of Alsatian wine, red or white? (I kid, I kid).  No problem.

Qorom is either well-kown or notorious (depending on who you ask) for being an "offshore" finance center.  Most financial transactions can be hidden by routing through a shell company or two in Qorom.  Also, Qorom has virtually non-existent corporate taxes.  About a third of the starships in the sector, including Gypsy Moth, are registered on Qorom to limit corporate liability, obscure true ownership (as Qorom allows bearer share companies) and avoid taxes.

Memij is less well-known, but the restrictive economic sovereignty laws in Memij can be used to your advantage as well.  The only drawback to Memij is the requirement to have a Memij business partner.  It is not unknown for offworlders to hire a local attorney, for example, as a "business partner" for faux transactions and to use Memij's opaque banking laws (which include numbered accounts) to park funds.

Does this help?