Part 6

NegotiationsIn his private office on Parte Visiblis, Lord Bale sipped a particularly fine wine and reflected on the day, after all that led up to it, the in depth negotiations with Norn went fairly well, although he was if anything, more tedious in private, rambling on about trade disputes in the Cinerus Maleficum, accounts in arrears with a distant cousin, the price of nephium on Belacane, the shifting predilections of Scintillan nobility, House Krin’s investments in a new mass conveyor out of the Kormisoshi Dockyards, and a dozen other tedious things. Every time it seemed he was getting to the point, he veered off on another tangent.

Surprisingly it was Pilot Swarznedruber who put it all together, while the rest of the party, even Bale, eventually tuned Norn out, distracted by the wines and light finger food, or the gilded servitor hanging from the ceiling that periodically demanded their coats, Eric, perhaps seeking to make up for his previous blunder, realized that all the disparate points were actually related and part of an ongoing dispute with House Ayonne, a house that owed significant amounts to House Krin and had defaulted on their payments.

House Krin had largely financed their endeavor on Gargantua. Such was the magnitude of these payments that House Krin was able to leverage them for a wide variety of futures contracts on the Scintillan securities market, with many noble houses (including the Bale dynasty) trading in those derivatives. While House Ayonne defaulting is a small annoyance compared to the cataclysmic Warp storm and sector-wide disruptions of interstellar commerce that have followed in its wake, everyone agrees that deadbeats in the Koronus Expanse can’t be allowed to just pick everyone’s pockets.

Moreover, reading between the lines it is clear that House Krin intends to take the Gargantua system by force, and if Bale and his crew chose not to help, there was an implicit threat to at least stay out of the way.

This was a roundabout way of saying that House Krin wanted to hire Bale and his ship to ferry a crew of some forty thousand combat servitors to Gargantua, assist in overcoming the defenses in the system, and provide support as House Krin overthrew the Ayonne overseer in charge of the system, in return House Bale would be granted sole custody of one of the systems eight habitable moons, with an additional implication that more influence on the system might be forthcoming, as Norn claims to not care who actually controls Gargantua so long as it isn't House Ayonne.

Issaak Bale had no problem with this, and once official records were made of the deal and supporting documentation provided showing his house' agreement, they returned to the ship to begin preparations to leave Port Wander.

Chief among those preparations was finding something to do with the fifty thousand penal colonists on board currently, House Krin offered to purchase them as laborers in Port Wander, but Bale was uncomfortable leaving more people to die on the station if indeed, it was doomed as the prophecy suggested, similar objections prevented selling or trading them to the priests of the Red Repremption of any other faction on Port Wander without warp capable vessels.

Which left the Imperial fleet, if he could just get the commander to return his calls.

Well, he thought that was his chief concern anyway, but upon return to the ship the officers in charge presented Bale and his party with a litany of troubles that had arisen while they were away, the warp drive and plasma engines were malfunctioning and required placation right away, the Navigators reported instabilities in the warp that needed Rasputina's presence to decipher, the Twist-catcher reported incidents of aggression in the below-decks mutant population, the chief armsman said that he had been losing men steadily, some would just disappear while doing their rounds, even the bridge crew were concerned about something with the ship systems and needed the Chief Pilot to assist.

A knock on the door was followed by his first mate, Landis Koth.
“Sir, I have Fleet command on the vox, will patch it through to your desk unit.”

“Thank you Koth, that will be all for now.”

Bale finished his wine and took the call.