"I think you missunderstand me Sunny. You said you want to jump from Keplar to the Sigma sand then to the Omicrons, so what is better and more shady than Unioner Transports that can easily appear at a location and disappear into rheinland after they delivered the Fuel for the Jump Ship?" She gets out her datapad and types something. She continues without looking up. "You want to bring 3 Transports with you or even more, so if you want to make maximum profit you need to find something that the Transports cann also sell there. I mean only a idiot flyes empty. So we can provide 4 Transports, with around 3000 Thorium Mox that we could park somewhere in the Sigmas and they can be everywhere you need them." She looks at Sunny. "You want that nobody ever knows about that, but you want to jump everytime to the same location ? And our Pilots will not be seen on any Radar. But it is your decission."
The Bartender brings her another bottle of Rum and she takes a sip.
Sunny leans back forward, determined to get the point across. "Listen. First of all, we wont be traveling empty. Non of us will. Secondly, we will be trading at least 50,000 units of cargo each time. For 3 transports that is 5 cycles. 1 cycle is 4 jumps. Total number of jumps is 20. Do you really want to have your transports running around getting fuel each time, or would you rather do my proposal of dumping what is needed in one spot to use as a fueling station until operations are finished, hmm?"
"And if that isn't clear, no, no ship will be jumping with extra fuel in their hold."
"Thank you Sunny." She lights on a Cigarette and leans back. "Why didn't you said that from the beginning , hm ? And where will this point be, exactly ? And for sake wich idiot would jump with a Ship full of fuel?!" She blows the smoke out. "Why only 3 Transports? And maybe i would order my Arbeiter to "running around getting fuel each time", why cause I freaking can."
"Listen..." Sunny was getting a tad bit impatient. All these pitches and explaining over and over was getting tiering. He also knew that it was a simple and normal strategy for a transport to jump with fuel if the Jump Ship wanted to go long distances without stopping and purchasing fuel at the next location since it would already be ready for the next jump, but Sunny didn't feel like arguing that it wouldn't be something an idiot would do... "I only said 3 becasue I said the minimum WAS 3. I used it as an Example. I wont tell you where the actual point is as well too, since we will decide later on that AND it will be random and always changing since we will be abandoning it and starting a new one somewhere else in the same system when we do the whole process all over again. Also, I don't care if you "Freaking Can" carry small amounts of fuel with your Arbeiter. We need 2800 for one jump and I bet the Arbeiter cannot carry that much. Please, I'd rather do this correctly and efficently than have to force everyone to wait in their transports for the next jump as fuel wont be present."
Xalo takes a sip from his whiskey and begins to talk. "Sunny, calm down, you don't need to get so upset.The rheinlander doesn't look all that bright, no point shouting at her. I think your idea might work and it looks very profitable. Since there seems to be some doubts on if and how we should do it, why don't we use my cruiser as a test? If the jump with it goes fast and smoothly, we can then make another test with a convoy of transports.
Sunny sighed slightly. "You know, that is actually not a bad idea. Let us do that and we can work out the details as we progress in the tests. I'll be sending everyone a schematic of how will it run down as well just to get things going. Lets get to work then, eh?" He sits up and takes a wine bottle that was standing on the table and pours it into several wine glasses...
Xalo raises his glass, cheering. "I can toast to that... or anything that'll give me an excuse to drink this, really."He drinks from the glass of wine Sunny gave him and starts talking, looking a little dizzy. "Do... do any of you think you can take me back to Coronado after this? I... I think I might crash my ship after this if I'm not careful..."
The drink on the table was a particularly vile shade of green and looked like it might have been spit out of a malfunctioning engine's exhaust. IN spite of that, the glass was half empty and Christo was grimly working his way through a plate of traditional Cambridge breakfast including blood pudding.
There was a holo projector on the table with a physics text displaying information on fusion theory. Christo muttered to himself, "H-fuel woul' be easier on tha casing, but Mox woul' get a hotter product..."
A couple of new members swaggered in and stopped, giving the stranger a hostile once over, but decided it was better to leave well enough alone when the barkeep shook her head. It had been almost a year, but she remembered the last bit of personal violence Christo had been involved in before he disappeared. A small nod was enough for her to know that he was aware of the exchange and appreciated it.
The shared moment reminded Christo of the last year, mending in Freeport 5, then working as a mechanic until he could get a ride over to Omega-7 and pick up a Surveyor to get home. The Red Hessians had caught him joy riding in Omega -11 and he had thought to fool them by running for Omega-55 instead the more obvious escape routes. It had worked well enough to get him to Omega-41, but not enough to get to the Freeport.
Fortunately, the Zoners had been able to get him back to the base and staved off the radiation sickness. They wouldn't let him com out, though, since that would have alerted the Hessians to his presence.
Sighing, Christo gulped a mouthful of his hangover cure, winced at the taste and went back to reading.
Hyun strolled into the bar. "Christo!!" He exclaimed. "It has been forever. Where have you been? So much has happened in the last year." Hyun blurted out all at once. How has life been have you been to speed wing yet? Have you checked the shops? Does Sunny know your back? Have you talked to Racetrack? Has Kurtis reinstated your security access?" His mouth drew on while he took a seat next to Christo and tapped the table to summon a drink.