Hey there, my name is Jessica Snow. - I admit, i'm rather confused in why i've been asked by Tara to send a message out to you over the Neural Net. I guess I was napping or something when you showed up.
All that i'm aware of right now, is something about artifacts. - I may know a thing or two about the subject, depending on what you want though may affect how useful I can be in the long run.
Putting things simpily.. What's up? What do you need?
|><| |><| |><| TO SIRENS.BELL: BUSINESS PROPOSAL |><| |><| |><|
Pepe "El Comisario" Ladron
Si, Senorita Snow. You are not the first one to be confused by my grande charm. *messes with comm keys and switches to private secure line - highly encrypted*
*changes to more serious tone* Actually not, but I must be sure no one knows what will we really talk about. My respect, Senorita. *bows*
I just mentioned active Artifacts to your sister yesterday and she remained cool as ice. She easily mentioned you could know few things about it. Being that cool could mean two things:
1. You and your sisters know nothing about Artifacts, or...
2. You know a lot, but don't feel like sharing. Not for free, at least.
It happens I'm just a humble chief of Cretan Carabineros - our police. It means I have my elegant fingers everywhere and I know how to use them to motivate people well. I wonder how to push you a bit about sharing, in case it's option 2. We are exporting tons of Artifacts for cheap you know, as we have no clue which ones are not active and which ones could be sold at mucho mucho better price. Recognising active Artifacts is pretty nice business opportunity for myself. I'd be generous about sharing benefits with anyone that would help me.
And to be honest... time is pressing me a bit - and even more. Fast answer would be appreciated. We have that silly tribes of bedouins deep in Cretan deserts, you know. They actually use meteoric Artifacts to make things like water filters, personal shields, desert suites... They seem to be able to recognise active ones and even use them. No problemos. But they are producing nothing for themselves any more and are just treasuring up Artifacts for 200 years now. Pffff, they want to buy a mining ship. Could you imagine THAT? Bedouins in space! So, if you are in spying business, we could arrange something as well. I'd like to know how close to buying ship are they and where they keep their treasure. I'm not sure how that competition would reflect on current Artifacts business and our economical stability. They are just ignorant bedouins. What would they know about stabile economy?
Ehm... it's all for mutual good and better life on Crete anyway, if we do understand each other? *coughs*
*Pepe nods again and reaches OFF button with his hairy macho hand*
Hello there, I wasn't expecting you to play the charm card already, eh? *Obviously teasing*.
I suppose we may have something to talk about, after hearing the rest of what you had to say, eh? So let me try to understand correctly. What you're looking for right now, is someone who is able to discern active Artifacts, from which are not active? I may or may not be able to help you on that one. You see, I operate on some rather.. Interesting standards. I don't do things, unless it's fun to do. I'm sure Tara mentioned that out in space, at least I hope so.
Quite honestly, I don't find business ventures very interesting. So what. What is worked on, will affect profits. It may help overall in terms of business, although generally it doesn't make much of a change besides lining someones pockets with additional credits. - Don't get me wrong, i'm not shooting you down entirely just yet. I don't mean any offense either dear, business isn't a bad thing. That's what the world is run on afterall, huh?
The field of active artifacts in general isn't something which pops up very often. Very often, you can tell if it's active or not by anything weird happening when you handle it. Honestly, if you merely wanted to sell any ones that you'd come upon offhand, you should be able to tell pretty quickly if you have something special or not. - Of course, if you're trying to actually 'find' more active artifacts, that subject gets quite a bit more complicated. I'm sure you obviously know where the artifacts come from. Parting them with anything legitimate is something which is pretty darn difficult to do.
A civilian who may or may not actually know what she's talking about, may not be a reliable source of information when it comes to something of an.. Ahh.. How do I say this.. 'Classified' nature to many others in Sirius.
While I do agree with the point which you didn't state directly of selling the things rather than looking into them yourselves may be more beneficial to the Corsairs in general, I feel tha-.. Actually, who am I kidding. The black market is huge. Scratch that. I think I just answered my own question. Pardon me.
Anyways, onto your other matter. This.. Spying thing? - Sorry dear, I hate to say it, although we don't spy for people. We like to keep to ourselves most of the time. Getting into a business where we spy for someone else, really isn't giving us the isolationist status that we sorta require. Life right now for those aboard the Sirens Bell is rather.. Circumstantial. While personally a few of us aboard do some odds and ends for the heck of it, working for someone else for their own gain, in terms of political advantage happens to be something on our blacklist.
Perhaps if you had a few other suggestions in what we may be able to do for you, we'd be glad to listen. For the time being though, i'm afraid I can't help you in terms of this 'Bedouin' issue.
I hope this was quick enough for you. I woke up 45 seconds earlier for this!
*Teasing once more*
|><| |><| |><| TO SIRENS.BELL: SECURITY MATTERS |><| |><| |><|
Pepe "El Comisario" Ladron
Gracias, Senorita Snow, for your fast and honest reply.
Your level of Artifacts expertise got obvious to me from the moment you mentioned "handling them" to see if they are active or not. We lost too many scientists by using that rather obsolete method. Handling Artifacts is not allowed in our Empire any more. Just to mention all the naive peasants that had found a shiny gadget in their dry crop fields, tried to turn it on and realised that their wives lost their boobs, but there they are - on their dog. Or on cow. Or on kids. Mucho loco...
We managed to develop our Del Cid guns thanks to Artifacts research, but it was long ago and with great losses unfortunately. Since then, we are just just collecting and selling that loco things to others.
That's why those Fremen tribes are concerning me so much. They can do it and keep their lives (and boobs) somehow.
However, good to know you are not in espionage business either. I didn't issue an order to confiscate your ship and her assets (Corsair Law, Section V, paragraph 26) - yet. I noticed Sirens Bell is not armed, but it could be - eventually. It wouldn't be wise to fare our space again in a gunboat without checking with me first, si?
Oh and I hope you agree our conversations recordings must disappear. It's safer for both of us, Pretty Face. *winks* Engaging recorded data autodestruction... starts in 4... 3... 2... 1...
*Pepe winks again and reaches some button with his hairy macho hand*
|><| |><| |><| SCREEN WITH MUCHO SNOW ON IT |><| |><| |><|