ALL NOVEL Solve One With Two
Local IP Laws
While the Guild maintains exclusive rights to trading IP across solar systems, local polities control their own IP laws. Generally speaking, the Guild does not participate in local markets and is not subject to local laws. Guild members are not subject to local laws while aboard a Guild vessel and conducting Guild business. However, it should be noted that Guild members are subject to local laws when aboard Habs or on a planet. Care should be taken to clearly understand local legal structures and Guild members should conform to local laws and customs when away from their ships.
Excerpted With Permission
Data Trader’s Handbook
Copyright 3250, Interstellar Data Trader Guild
Ramona was dejectedly sitting at a table in the Café that most of the crew used. It was a strange hour ship time so there wasn’t anyone else there. There was a cup of coffee sitting in front of her but it had gotten cold.
“Uh, Journeyman Eddington, may I sit here?” Wilson was standing by her table, tray of food in hand.
“Ramona, remember?”
“Ah, uh, yes. Uh, Ramona.” He sat down and started eating.
“Do you have a first name?”
“Uh, what?”
Ramona smiled for the first time in what felt like weeks. “A name. A first name, do you have one? I think I’ve only called you Wilson for the entire time I’ve known you.”
“Oh, ah yeah. Toby. It’s Toby.”
“That’s better. What have you been up to Toby?”
Wilton had been stuffing food into his mouth like he hadn’t eaten in a year. “Subheheyn.”
“What? Don’t talk with your mouth full Toby.”
“Uh. Sorry. Sudyin.” He swallowed. “Ah, STUDYING. I’ve been studying the trader archives for designs.”
“Just looking at design docs?”
“Yeah.” He managed to get three more bites in. “Did you know that you can look at ANY design in the system? For free?”
Ramona laughed at his earnest expression. “Well, yes. How else would we buy and sell them?”
“Hah, yeah.”
“Wait, you’ve been doing that since we got the comm system working?”
“Yeah.”
“For a month?”
“Yeah, I guess. There are a lot of them. Took me forever to read them all.”
“All?”
“Yeah. I mean all the ones for sale. Not the ones that have expired.”
“Wait, aren’t there thousands of them?”
“Fifteen thousand, four hundred and thirty.”
“And you read them all?”
“Ya. I kept forgetting to eat and stuff. Man, I’m super hungry.”
“Wow.”
“Uh, doesn’t everyone?”
“No, not all of them, just the ones we are working on at the time.”
“Oh, I guess that’s easier. My da would have whupped me if I didn’t know how all our products work. He would quiz me over dinner and stuff.”
“And how many things did your da sell?”
“About five hundred.”
“Ah.” Ramona looked at her coffee again. Normally Wilson’s exuberant attitude made her happy. It was usually fun to be around him, like having a puppy. Sometimes he made a mess but he was so enthusiastic, it was hard to stay mad. Today, she just kept turning back to what she had to do. She unconsciously let out a sigh.
“Oh, ah, Ramona, are you OK?”
“Yes, I’m fine Toby.”
“Beggin yer pardon, you don’t sound fine.”
“It’s complicated.”
“My da used to say that if it’s complicated, talkin’ it through can uncomplicate things.”
“It’s not like that.”
“It’s because you like Leo and he doesn’t like you, isn’t it?”
“Toby! Where did you get an idea like that?”
“Uh, ah, I am a bit slow, but I ain’t deaf, dumb and stupid. I can see and hear stuff. This here ship ain’t that big and there are only four of you traders on it.”
“Well, yes. I need to go home to Raeburn. I asked Leo to come with me, but I don’t think he’s going to.”
“You need to go because you’re a Seeker?”
“Yes. I swore an oath.”
“Swore an oath to do what?”
“To seek out and find the secret of quantum communications.”
“Seems tah me that you done that.”
“Well, I think you did.”
“Uh, well, I’m just stubborn. You found tha thingamajoober.”
“Thingamajoober?”
“Uh, I guess it needs a name.”
“Quantum comm relay?”
“Sure, I guess.” Wilson kept eating for a few minutes. “But that isn’t really the thing, is it?”
“What isn’t?”
“Well, I’m pretty sure you didn’t swear an oath to allow the guild to kill everyone on Raeburn.”
“What, no. What are you saying?”
“I don’t mean to teach ya how to suck eggs, but it seems like the Guild would do whatever it takes to keep that there secret you told me about.”
“Yes.” Ramona did a double take. “Suck eggs?”
Wilson shrugged. “Don’t change the subject, it seems tah me that that would include glassing Raeburn.”
“What?”
“They did that before.”
“Wait, what?”
“Ya, Craig told me.”
Ramona pressed the comm on the table. “Craig, get your ass to Café one.”
The voice that came back had a bit of a chuckle in it. “Is that the proper form of address for a Master Trader, Journeyman Eddington?”
“Craig, I swear I will push you out of an airlock if you are not here in five minutes.”
He was there in three. He strolled in quite casually and sat down next to Wilson. “I just love passionate women, don’t you Wilson?”
“Oh ah, yes, I mean I don’t know Master Trader.”
“Craig, did you tell Wilson that the Guild has glassed entire planets?”
“Well, yes. They have. That was one argument in favor of banning worlds. Much more humane than glassing them.”
Leo and Ollu walked in, chatting about what they had heard on the station. Seeing Ramona’s obvious distress, they walked over to the table where Ramona, Wilson and Craig were sitting. “You OK?”
“No. No, I’m not.”
Leo looked at Craig who shook his head. “Wilson?”
“Uh, I think she’s upset because the Guild is gonna glass Raeburn.”
“What?”
Craig made a shushing motion. “OK, everyone calm down. Leo, Ollu, sit down.” They both sat with growing looks of concern. “Look, I am very concerned about the direction the Guild is taking. I have become convinced that the Guild needs to be burned down to the ground. However, most people in the guild are good people. They’re not going to resort to mass murder unless they see no other path.”
“No other path to what?”
“To keeping quantum comms a secret.”
Leo shook his head. “It’s hard for me to believe that the Guild knows about quantum comms and has been keeping it secret all this time.”
“How else do you explain it?”
“Never ascribe to malice what can be explained through stupidity.” Leo shrugged and flung his hands up. “Hell, I always assumed quantum comms didn’t work. I never actually tested it. Perhaps that’s been happening for hundreds of years?”
Ramona’s strategic planning training had been running through her head lately but she’d been too distracted to pay attention. “Let’s break this down. Talk about what we know, what we don’t know and what our possible outcomes are.” She looked at Wilson. “Perhaps talking it through will uncomplicate things.” Wilson grinned back at her.
Leo held up a finger. “One, we are currently banned. We cannot operate this vessel indefinitely without income. Two, we know that quantum comms works and we have a working model. Three, we think the guild MAY have been acting to suppress that knowledge.”
Ramona held up four fingers. “Four, we have a duty; or rather I have a duty to report that fact back to my brother and sister seekers.”
Ollu held up five fingers. “Five, we know epsilon is real but that English bastard over there won’t give it to us.”
Wilson looked around the table. “Well you can solve one with two.”
Leo just blinked. “Come again?”
Wilson looked embarrassed. “Well, it seems tah me that the, uh, ah ‘Quantum Comms Relay’ is worth quite a bit, ah, Master Trader Timur.”
“But we don’t own it.”
Ollu laughed. “But we could.”
“We could?”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s banned?”
“Ya, so are we, genius.”
“But, but, who would we sell it to?”
Ramona laughed outright. “Raeburn.”
“Holy shit.”