I-111-Oliver: Spanial, Karmen’s Cabin (N-Space to Captree Jump Point)

Karmen looks serious as she considers his question.

“Alright, so that’s a coupla things, for sure.

“First, Gateway:  Both Dominion and Separatist ships fly the trade route between Gateway and Newerth.  Dominion ships don’t go past Gateway and Separatist ships don’t go past Newerth, plenty of military both ends; Legion Navy at Newerth and the Separatist Militia at Gateway.  Ships that fly that route are called interface traders, need special permits, approved by both governments.  For our side it’s mostly the Trade Bureau, but there’s a few independent ships.     

“Now as it happens, I have one o’ those permits.  Went to some trouble to get it, but I don’t use it much anymore, because I found out that Customs for sure make your life difficult when you come off a Gateway run at Newerth an’ I decided it wasn’t worth the trouble.  But, it’s still valid so it could be done. 

“As to cost, well, I charge 30 per Light for a regular passenger ticket where Kwint’ll cook for you.  Newerth to Gateway is 20.1 Lights so that’s ʄ603 one way.  But, this is a freighter and that’s for passengers of opportunity who want to go where our cargo is taking us.

“For charters I charge ʄ14,000 per jump plus ʄ27,000 per Light.  That’s based on crew’s salaries and a full hold of freight revenue – ʄ30 per ton per Light, 900 tons o’ cargo space.  So Newerth to Gateway, 20 Lights, is about ʄ600k.  Or ʄ1.2 Mil to deadhead to Gateway in the first place.”

She pauses, “If the client doesn’t plan on using all the cargo space I have been known to drop the price if they don’t mind runnin’ with a cargo load … or there’s other factors at play.”      

She gives Oliver a significant look, indicating that he might be a factor at play.

“So, somewhere between ʄ600 and ʄ1.2 Million; guess we can negotiate on that.”

She’ll give him the barest second to mull that over before continuing.

“As to the second option, somewhere else:  First problem would be co-ordinating that and figuring out where you’d want to be picked up.  Drop-offs at Nonoop are a standard thing, and the Separatists don’t seem to mind.  Don’t know how they’d feel about a body going the other way though. 

“Likewise droppin’ in to one of the Separatists’ populated systems might be risky.  We’re not a military vessel so I don’t think it would be an act of war, but I’d need to look that up, for sure.

“We figure out those issues first, then we can talk price.  For comparison, I agreed to ʄ50,000 for that fella you’re after, though that was an unusual case, just one person an’ I was payin’ back a favour.”    

Karmen stops, realises perhaps she’s said more than she should.