“All natural he said.” chuckled the CEO. “I'm sure the guy selling weed downstairs is saying the very same thing about his product, and it gives me nightmares. Strongest stuff you'll ever find and I'm not touching it again. So, no smoking around here. Besides, it would take away from the taste of the whiskey.” He added to placate Doria.
He took a sip from his whiskey. “Trust me, you don't want excitement in our trade. Excitement means that something has not gone according to plan or some other disaster. However, maybe we can arrange some 'variation' to your schedules.“ he formulated delicately.
Trade'n'Drunk - VIP floor Tony Doria, Bering Shipping CEO and Transport Captain
Tony contracted his nose at the idea of not smoking another bud. He did not liked when things did not go his way. He decided to ignore that in this case, though.
"Well, Mr. Kelly... If you are going to fill up my bank account with credits, I don't mind waiting a little to smoke." - he took a big sip of his whiskey - "So, what kind of variation to my schedules are you talking about?"
Tony drank the rest of his drink: "Ahn, where do I get another whiskey...?"
Trade'n'Drunk - Main Lounge Loki Valmir, OSI Pilot
Loki Valmir had just finished typing up yet another entry in his newly started journal as he was on his way back with more supplies from Freeport 5 for the factories on Nichols. He was recording the journal on a small portable console that had been modified to never connect with the neural net. As an added precaution, once he had powered the device off he reached down to open a small hidden latch on his feet and stashed the console. Once the latch had been closed only the most thorough of search would be able to find it. It may seem a rather ridiculous amount of effort to hide a journal but Loki had his reasons. It was not long before he was docking on Nichols yet again.
As soon as his Whale, the Loki’s Pride, was moored the station, the loading crews were fast to work unloading the machinery and moving it to the designated locations. Loki knew it wouldn’t take a long time before the ship was emptied but he decided it was time for some R&R. He decided to head down to a bar on Gran Canaria Loki had heard about from a few other members of OSI. He didn’t feel the need to dress up for the evening as he was the type to feel out of place in nice clothes so he wore his usual outfit of worn jeans, blue t-shirt, and a light tan jacket. The outfit combined with his rather average 5’9” height, short blond hair, and brown eyes he was the definition of someone who blended into a crowd. He took a shuttle down to the planet surface and had no trouble finding the “Drunk’n’Trade” bar on the fairly small settlement on Gran Canaria.
He wasn’t sure if anyone he knew would be there so he decided to hit the public section of the bar and see if anything interesting happened. He decided to start the night out slow and just ordered a bottle of beer before sitting back and enjoying his break.
Trade'n'Drunk - Main Lounge Constance "Vamp" Montcroix
"mmm Not often you get any new faces in here", Constance thought to herself "especially one trying so hard to not be noticed".
By himself and a beer drinker, "I wonder if both of those statements are accurate" she giggled to herself.
Luckily she was already in his line of sight, normally that was all that was needed. She drank virtually all of the weird green concoction in her glass and decided to wait, "wonder if he will buy me a drink, or is he really as drab as the jacket".
"10 minutes then this dress will come into play", smiling to herself but in such a way the new observer may just be wondering.
Trade'n'Drunk - Main Lounge Loki Valmir, OSI Pilot
Loki took sips from his beer as he look around the bar getting the feel for the place. He was happy with what he saw, it was places like this that made him glad he was a Zoner. Mixed in with the mostly Zoner and Freelancer crowd were members of the various factions all mingling with each other. Sure, members of factions tended to avoid and even throw an occasional insult in the direction of members of one of their opposing groups, this wasn’t a fairy tale after all but having members of so many different groups under one roof was amazing.
On one table in the corner of the bar was a group of Mollys playing a game of cards with several OSI employed dock workers. On the opposite end of the were two Corsairs and a Freelancer who appeared to be discussing a deal if their hushed voices were any indication. There was even a young Libertonians on vacations that were on the verge of being way to drunk and were starting to get angry stares from a lot of the other bar goers. Loki wondered to himself how long it was gonna take for them to get kicked out.
As he continued to look around the bar, Loki did notice the woman in red with an empty glass. However, what he failed to notice that she was quite obviously trying to get his attention. While Loki often observed those around him, he occasionally bad at picking up on subtle social cue… especially in such a large crowd. He eventually finished off his beer and continued to relax and watch the various groups of people at the bar.
Trade'n'Drunk - Main Lounge Gypsie Skripto - Erisian Liberation Front
Gypsie docked his Pelican at the Starport and took a shuttle taxi to the bar that Jason Kelly had pointed out. Dr. Mojo had once come to purchase equipment here, while they were both still in TAZ. Gyp on the other hand still didn't know the OSI establishment.
He walked through the door and trying not to call much the attention while searching around to see if Jason was already at the bar. No one seemed to care much for him, and as far as he could tell, no one recongnized him. He noticed a big bouncer guarding a door to what seemed to be a restricted area of the bar. The OSI he was looking for probably was there, Gyp thought, so he approached the big guy. Kallisti fair man! I have an appointment to see Mr. Jason Kelly. I will go wait at the bar while you announce me to him. The bouncer grunted and stepped inside, and Gypsie walked to the bar and asked for a whiskey with no ice.
Trade'n'Drunk – Stairwell to the VIP-lounge
Bob, the Bouncer
“Mr Skiptro, the boss will see you now.” He said after approaching the bar were the guy went without waiting for an answer. “Next time give me the time to confer with upstairs before walking away” he grumbled as they both walked to the stairwell. “Also no standing in line for a drink up there” he added with a wink and let pointed upstairs. “You can't miss him.”
Trade'n'Drunk – VIP-lounge Jason Kelly, CEO of Omicron Supply Industries
With loosened tie and a good Gran Canarian Whiskey in his hand Jason read the market news with a frown. Stupid Rheinlanders, the thought by himself, because of them, neither he nor his company could cash in on the Apfelstrudel-boom. Maybe the deal with Sark station, would offset some of the lost profits in that endevour.
Trade'n'Drunk - VIP Lounge Gypsie Skripto - Erisian Liberation Front
Gyp nodded to the guard and immediately headed upstairs, rubbing his hands, ready to make a good deal. He reached an archway with curtains and crossed it to enter the room, where the guy he had talked to in the past about this kind of deals was sitting reading the news in a relaxed fashion. Businessmen, he thought. Kallisti Mr. Kelly! It is a pleasure to finally make your aquaintance! He then approached the man offering a handshake. Gypsei Skripto is the name, former TAZ Ambassador and current leader of the Erisian Liberation front.
Trade'n'Drunk – VIP-lounge Jason Kelly, CEO of Omicron Supply Industries
Jason stood up to greet his guest and shook the hand he was offered. “The name's Jason.” He then pointed to the comfy couch “Please, have a seat, can I order you something?”
Las Palmas Spaceport - OSI Hangar #1 David Starr, Director of Public Relations for OSI
David carefully landed the OSI-Neutron.Starr into the snubs hangar. It was good that OSI had its own hangars in the spaceport, it saved time by not needing to wait for Las Palmas ground control to assign a parking spot for the ship, what could take several minutes sometimes. Las Palmas Spaceport was a busy harbor, with trade ships all over Sirius coming and going 24/7. His small Dromedary class freighter would be just one more trading ship, but the OSI transponder code facilitated things a lot.
He walked out of the OSI FBO in the direction of the Trade'n'Drunk, located just outside the spaceport, across the avenue. The imminent board meeting was in his thoughts. The last few weeks have been a little hard, and now the cabbage had hit the fan with Kelly's sudden retirement. What timing! Well, nothing could be done now, so Starr was trying to pick up the pieces. This meeting was the first step.
* * *
Trade'n'Drunk - VIP Lounge
Starr sat down at a table near the back wall. He didn't like to sit with his back to the entrance of places. 'Freeport Syndrome' is the joke. Not far from the truth. He picked up his datapad and started going through several OSI reports. The waiter arrived with his whiskey. The accountability reports were huge and boring, so David decided to skip to the security reports, more to his area of expertise. Nohing new, just the usual idiotic pirate or moronic bunter.
That made him remember of his first year at OSI, when he was just an escort pilot. Once he was flying one of the old retired Osprey VHFs, escorting Kelly's whale through Bretonia, when they got stopped by a 'sair gunboat. While Starr razored the guys shields down, Kelly ran in his whale, spamming CMs behind him. The fella was so pissed that he pursued them via the tradelanes for 3 systems, being shot at by everything in the way, before giving up the chase.
The memory made Starr laugh, while he continued to read the reports.
Those were fun times. Escaping the ocasional pirate was much more simple than the endless paperwork of now. He continued reading the reports, while he waited for the other members of the board to arrive.