Aileen glanced at Adrian. One hundred Erasi credits was very little, not enough to even get them lodging on the planet. But they had already known that their materials wouldn’t get them anything more. The list was mostly of metals that the Veritas carried for fabricating repairs. But they had decided to start with something small and build up.
“My ship doesn’t carry big quantities of those materials,” Adrian said. “I am sure that you have had the chance to take a look at it; you should know that it is not a cargo ship,” he added pointedly.
“Yes, yes…” Reshe said. “It is an impressive vessel. One built for war, if I am correct.”
“It has weapons, if that is what you are asking about,” Adrian said deftly.
“Perhaps you can trade in some technologies?” Reshe suggested. “We are always looking for new and interesting things.”
Adrian paused and pretended to think. “We don’t generally trade our technologies to people we have only just met. I don’t have a good enough grasp of your own technology in order to offer you something, and I don’t feel comfortable with giving you the data on what we possess.”
“Understandable, of course,” Reshe said evenly. “Although, it is said that you encountered a research station before you came here. Sorvani, yes?”
“That is correct. I am surprised that you know of that,” Adrian said.
“Information is a resource to the Erasi,” Reshe said. “It is also rumored that you made an in-system jump, from within the hyperspace barrier to its edge.”
Adrian looked at the Ssarath but didn’t respond. Aileen could see him thinking. Ever since they’d arrived and started studying the Erasi net, they’d known that it was likely that the knowledge about that ability would spread to the rest of Erasi. The only thing they hadn’t been sure about was how long it would take. Them knowing about it meant that they had interstellar FTL comms, not just in-system.
Adrian had already known that them skimming in that system had been a mistake; they had been in a hurry to get here and they’d revealed more than they would have liked.
“That is an interesting rumor,” Adrian said evenly, neither denying nor confirming it.
“And we would be interested in attaining that technology,” Reshe said eagerly.
“I am sure you would,” Adrian said, and smiled, a gesture that was probably lost on the aliens. “But as I said, we don’t trade technology with people we don’t know well.”
Reshe started to speak, but Adrian continued before he could, “Although,” Adrian started, “there might be something else that you will find acceptable.”
Reshe tilted his head. “And what is that?”
“We have done a fair bit of research before we decided which guild to contact. We chose this one because you trade in large amounts of materials my people have abundance of, mainly metals and alloys,” Adrian said.
“That is true, but you sadly don’t have those amounts available now,” Reshe said.
“No, but I can offer you a onetime deal, right now, for exclusivity. Our Empire will trade these materials with your guild exclusively for the next fifty years. And yes, we have checked the numbers you are dealing in, and we can double them,” Adrian said. They had programmed Empire’s measuring units into the translators so that the Erasi heard the measures converted into their own.
Reshe remained silent, and Aileen knew that he was thinking about it. His guild was a relatively small one, dealing in materials that the more advanced races didn’t use, which meant that they needed large quantities in order to remain relevant. “That would be a good deal—if you could deliver on it.”
“The Erasi know how to use trans-space for travel, correct?” Adrian asked.
“We do.”
“If you are willing to explore the lanes to our Empire and back to here on your own expense, we will be able to get resources to you much faster than your current suppliers in the heart of the Erasi territory. With our in-system jump technology, we can move from one trans point to another far quicker. It would not take more than a couple of days for us to deliver goods here to you from our territory.”
The alien remained quiet, and Aileen couldn’t tell if he was intrigued or not, but after about a minute, he spoke again, “And in return for this deal, you would want credits now?”
“Yes. You pay us five thousand credits now, and we will sign a contract that gives you exclusivity in trading with the materials we showed you earlier with the entire Empire,” Adrian said. “I am a… ruler of a system in which we are mining these resources. I can guarantee to you that you will have them.”
“If we make an agreement, and you then don’t fulfill the bargain, Erasi fleets will get involved,” the alien threatened, which told Aileen that they had him. He was already worried about the Empire fulfilling the bargain, which meant that he was interested. From everything that they had learned of this guild, they knew that it needed this desperately if it was to survive and grow amongst its competition.
“We understand,” Adrian said.
“This is still not enough to get us to see a broker,” Gotu said once they left the guild.
“It is not, but it is enough to help us get established here. Get us lodging, and allow us to hire guides. Then we slowly start dropping hints that while we might be new, we have things to offer,” Adrian said.
“Why can’t we just go and offer the information to the brokers in return for what we want?” Aileen asked.
“It isn’t that simple,” Björn said. “They have a far greater network than we do. What could we offer them? We don’t know anything about this area, nor about what they want to know. We need to find out what they want, find out how much it is worth, and then intrigue them enough for them reach out and offer a trade.”
“And how will we do that?” Aileen asked.
“By letting it be known that we are looking for the Ra’a’zani,” Adrian answered. “We try to get the information out of the other traders, perhaps we even get lucky and someone will know something. But it will also put us on the radar of the information brokers. They will try to learn more about us. In doing that, they might get intrigued enough to reach out and offer us information about the Ra’a’zani in exchange for something about us. They will know that we don’t have credits to pay them, but their currency isn’t just credits and information. They might want to trade future favors from us in return for what they know.”
“And we know all this how?” Aileen asked.
“Their net is full of people that have had dealings with the information brokers before. Iris managed to piece together their practices,” Adrian said.
“And what do we do until they decide to reach out?” Aileen asked.
Adrian gestured around them. “We watch and learn more about our neighbors.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
July; Year 54 of the Empire – Sanctuary
Tomas read through the message from Adrian, then scrolled all the way to the beginning and read it again. After he was finished, he reached up with his hands and rubbed his palms over his eyes. They had found the third race that Axull Darr had engineered. Shara Daim, he thought. And apparently they held a territory that was at least 7000 light years in diameter, dwarfing the Empire, which had around 1000 at its two furthest points, and that was with them having colonized systems dispersed in order to take a large territory. There were gaping holes between the systems he controlled. Eventually, he wanted to make the Empire dense, with most systems populated, but for now he was in expansion mode, grabbing as much territory as he could until they ran into something that stopped them. Like the Shara Daim and the Erasi.