Chapter 11 Guild Monetary Policy

Because of the very large number of political entities involved, interstellar politics and regulations can produce barriers to commerce. One of these is simply the currency in which the transactions are to be conducted.

In order to facilitate the flow of interstellar data transactions, the guild has established a single common currency. This currency is the only valid form of payment for any guild-sanctioned data transfers. Sometimes referred to as a "Guilder," the actual name of the guild currency unit is "Guild Data Transfer Credit." This currency is pegged at the rate required to transfer one terabyte of data (1TB) one light-year (1LY). Because this currency is pegged to a single real transaction value, there is no possibility of inflation or deflation associated with it.

Any guild member convicted by a sanctioned Guild Security Court of accepting transactions in any currency other than Guild Transfer Credits will be banned from the guild for life. Appeals can be made to the quarterly Guild Security Council meeting.

Any world, system, or political entity that refuses Guild Transfer Credits will be banned for a period of at least one Terran year and not exceeding ten Terran years.

Excerpted With PermissionData Trader's Handbook

Copyright 3250, Interstellar Data Trader Guild

Leo was filled with trepidation. He felt stupid about it, but that didn't change the way he felt. A routine chip delivery assignment was nothing he should fear. He had done similar duty dozens, if not hundreds, of times over the years.

While most data was simply transmitted via laser or RF relays, some data was considered by the owners to be too sensitive for transmittal. Always open to extra profit, most Data Arks were happy to hand-carry data chips from point A to point B. In Leo's mind, this was a completely useless extravagance, but the customer was willing to pay, so the guild was happy to oblige.

In this case, Leo had a chip that was to be delivered to a named party on one of the space stations orbiting Titsim Prime. The delivery instructions were very clear, and there didn't seem to be any strange details. Titsim Prime was a fairly large world, and it was considered safe for the guild to operate there. Leo had never been to Orbital Eight, but he had been to the Titsim system before, and there was nothing special about the world or the system.

No, it wasn't anything to do with Titsim or the delivery that was making him anxious. He was remembering the last time he had checked out a cutter. He still had nightmares about Ramona shooting the mysterious kidnappers on U-I Buoy Six.

He told himself over and over again that this was a totally different mission and a different situation. However, he also told himself to listen to Ramona next time she was worried about something. If he had listened last time, they would have run a deep scan and probably would have found the guys waiting on the Buoy before entering.

The dead spacer would probably still be alive if Leo hadn't just barged ahead into the Buoy despite Ramona's warning.

He told himself not to worry.

He also sent Ollu a note asking her to assign them a different cutter than the one they had used in the U-I system. Her response was a simple affirmative—no question about why he wanted a different ship.

As before, Ramona was waiting for him at the ready pad on the boat deck. She still looked good in the tightly fitted suit liner. She was armed again, but this time, she had a duffel under her arm.

At his questioning look, she replied, "Civvies. Don't want people leering at me in my suit liner on the station. It gets annoying."

Leo looked down. He hoped he hadn't been leering, but he was looking this time. Apparently, Ramona was checking him out as well.

"You strapped?"

Leo wasn't really sure what that meant. "Uh, what?"

He must have had a goofy look on his face because she laughed.

"Unless you're really happy to see me, that's a gun I see on your hip, Journeyman Timur."

Leo was embarrassed before—now he was really red.

"Well, after our last adventure, I thought I'd better learn to shoot. When I told Gunny that I had been practicing to get my small arms quals, he told me that I should carry a sidearm when doing away missions."

"Yeah, I'm sure that's what he said."

"Well, I think his exact words were, 'Son, I don't give a fuck if you shoot yourself or not. But Eddington is one of mine; you better bring her back without any holes in her, or you are walking to the next fucking system. Read me?'"

Leo's imitation of Gunny's low growl must have been pretty good because Ramona started laughing and didn't stop until tears ran down her face.

Naturally, Ollu chose this moment to finish her walk-around of the cutter.

"You children going to stand around chit-chatting all day, or are you going to fly this bird off my deck?"

Ramona managed to choke down her laughter. "Ready to fly, Master Ship Handler."

"Right, off with you then."

The exit from the ship and subsequent departure were completely uneventful. That didn't really help Leo's nerves as much as it should have.

Ramona wasn't really big on letting sleeping dogs lie, either.

"So, what are you packing?"

"Um, sorry, what?"

She leaned over the command console separating the two pilot seats and growled a fairly convincing Gunny imitation.

"What kind of fucking gun is that, son?"

"Uh, it's one that we had a demo license for, so I thought I'd try it out."

"Oh, really? Did you consult with the weps pit?" Her humorous tone had a bit of an edge to it.

"Uh, yeah. They have a shit-hot trader apprentice over there. She says it kicks ass."

"Oh? And who is this hot trader over there that you are so enamored with?" Her tone was much less amused than it had been. A bit tart, even.

"She's new. Apprentice Eddington."

Leo suddenly found that he needed to re-confirm their course and busied himself with the console.

"Oh." Ramona found herself at a loss for words. Perhaps she should confirm their course with the computer.

Leo shifted slightly to ease the unfamiliar weapon and its holster within the harness of the pilot seat. He didn't know much about weapons, but he did know about trading and traders.

He could tell that Ramona would be one of the great ones. She was still raw and had a ton to learn, but she had the gift—the one you couldn't teach. And she was fearless.

This certainty made Leo feel happy in a way he couldn't really describe. He felt protective of Ramona, even though she had shown no need to be protected by him. He wanted her to succeed, to become a trader.

Aw, crap, he thought. Am I really falling for a new nugget apprentice? And what the hell is up with the Masters and her, anyway?

His internal consternation continued until they eventually contacted Titsim Approach.

Getting into and out of such heavily traveled space wasn't exactly hard, but it wasn't something you wanted to be nonchalant about, either. In theory, the automatics would guide them in and ensure that everything went where it was supposed to go. In practice, the ship guidance protocols were designed for an average amount of traffic. There were exceptional circumstances that could throw them off.

In the end, as the pilot in command, it was Leo's responsibility to bring his ship in safely.

"Titsim Approach, this is Trader Flight Reggie Two-Niner. Asking for vector to Orbital Eight."

Leo was always amused that voice control was still the preferred method for approach controllers, but in the end, the safest way to ensure you had a good lock was to talk to the person monitoring the system on the other side.