Fanlin was busily trying to conceal his excitement. Cony, however, was looking wary. "I see," he said, "And I presume that you want Mr. Fanlin to contract with you for this cargo, with a substantial prepayment, of course." He hadn't even tried to conceal his distaste and suspicion.
Jirik was unperturbed. "Mr Cony," He replied with a massive dignity, "I am a trader, not a thief. I do not claim the morals of a deity. I have been known to grease palms when necessary, and even to indulge in a bit of smuggling in my callow youth. But I did not come here to swindle Mr. Fanlin. Actually, I came here for advice to assist me in making a business decision, not to offer a deal. You see, we haven't even made up our minds whether such a venture would be practical or profitable. Should we decide to pursue such a deal, however, I would not require a prepayment; only a contract to purchase the cargo, enforceable in Boondock courts. I regret your assumption of bad faith. I'm sure that we can ferret out any needed information by ourselves. I apologize for wasting your time, gentlemen. We will be on our way." Jirik rose from his chair, Tor following, and started for the door.
"Wait!" Cony demanded, "I apologize for my incivility, Captain. In my work, I often encounter the seedier aspects of interstellar trade. Your proposal aroused my suspicions because of its improbability; it seems a very long run for a load of books. Please, gentlemen, resume your seats. I assure you that both Mr. Fanlin and myself will try to assist as best we can."
"Yes, Captain," Fanlin urged, "Do sit down. I find your proposal intriguing, not improbable, and would be happy to discuss it with you." Fanlin was barely able to control his excitement, and his tone was almost pleading. He was glaring at Cony. As Jirik and Tor resumed their seats, Fanlin continued, "Now, Captain, exactly what information would be of assistance to you?"
"Well, Jirik began, "First of all, we need to know if the market and customers exist at all. Do you think that we would have much of a problem disposing of such a cargo?"
"Not at all!" Fanlin's vehemence was further evidence of his excitement at the idea. "Besides our own library here, our rather violent weather makes reading and holovids our most popular forms of entertainment; and books imported from the Empire bring premium prices. I'm sure that you've noticed that there is a book-and-vid store on nearly every street corner, selling everything from dissertations to space opera. Speaking for the library itself, I can say that the opportunity to 'loot' an Empire library for technical, scientific and scholarly works would be unprecedented. You may have heard that we have the largest library in the Alliance," he continued with pride. "We have several million volumes here. But the opportunity to nearly double our size in one fell swoop could hardly be ignored, especially since our access to Empire science and technology is so limited by our distance from it. We would be pleased with an opportunity like that."
"Mr. Fanlin"' Cony interrupted, "I'm not sure that you understand the magnitude of the investment involved. Have you seen Captain Jeffson's ship?"
Fanlin threw a startled look at Cony. "Why, no, I haven't. Why do you ask?"
"Because a DIN Class transport is a big ship!" Cony replied. "I'm sure that she could carry the entire contents of this library, and still have room in her holds. Bookchips are small and light. A full cargo would probably mean some ten million chips, possibly even twice that. I wouldn't be too surprised to find that it could nearly empty that Empire library he's talking about. Given the costs of transportation, since ships like the Lass aren't cheap to run, we could be talking about an incredible number of credits to buy that cargo."
"Oh, dear," Fanlin replied, "I'm afraid that I had no idea. I doubt that the resources of the Library would stretch so far. I fear that I simply hadn't thought that far ahead. Captain, Do you have any idea how many credits we're talking about? I confess that I don't!"
"To tell you the truth, sir, I hadn't really considered it from that point of view, either. I suppose that, thinking that we were talking about a credit or so per copy, I assumed that the cost, and the price, would be reasonable. I'm afraid that I'm guilty of not doing my homework. However, to answer your question, a bookchip measures about 2 centimeters square by one thick. We can handle a mass of some twenty thousand tons, if it can fit into our holds. Offhand, I would judge that the Lass could handle some twenty to twenty-five million chips, since the limiting factor would be size, not mass. I suspect that would approximate the entire stock of the library on Alpha. I'll have to do some computations, but purely as a rough guess, I would say that the cost to you could come to some 40 to 50 million credits. Deity! I hadn't realized it would be that much!"
"Another thing," he continued, "I doubt that we would have the resources to purchase that many chips, ourselves. After all, we'd have the cost of the bulk chips, plus copying fees for each disc. Even excluding our time and effort to copy that many discs, I doubt if we would be able to afford the costs associated with that many chips. Please excuse me for wasting your time, sir. I sincerely apologize for coming to this meeting unprepared. I can only say that, thinking in terms of vague preliminaries, I failed to reduce the idea to practicalities."
Fanlin waved Jirik's apology aside. "Not at all, Captain, not at all. I quite understand. I, too, permitted myself to be swept up by the idea without considering the realities of the situation. In fact, I remain convinced of its desirability, if the practicalities can be satisfied, and I'm not certain that they cannot. As you may have heard, Captain, we here on the rim enjoy a close economic relationship with our neighbors. It may be possible for us to put together a joint deal that none of us could afford individually. Albet, do you happen to know when the next ship leaves for Wayoff?"
Cony shrugged. "Wanderer is loading now, with an expected lift-off time of 2200." He was looking at Jirik appraisingly.
Fanlin seemed to be regaining some of his earlier excitement. "Thank you. You see, Captain, Wayoff is the trade center of our rather informal economic association. With your permission, I'll place a letter on the Wanderer carrying your proposal. The governments of all of the rim worlds have representatives on Wayoff. If they become convinced of the possibility and desirability of this venture, it may be possible to make a deal after all. Will you be on Boondock long enough for us to receive a reply?"
It was Jirik's turn to shrug. "That depends on how long a reply takes, sir. At present, I anticipate that repairs and lading will be complete in about two weeks. I'm afraid that once those are accomplished, delivery date commitments will require us to lift off almost immediately. But, sir," he continued, "I feel it only fair to say that I feel very little hope that such a deal can be consummated. For one thing, it would require that 'substantial prepayment' that Mr. Cony was so concerned about earlier, and I doubt that your friends would care to trust an outsider with what could be millions of credits. I confess that I, myself, would feel reluctant to accept such a sizable amount of someone else's funds."
Cony stirred uneasily. "I'm afraid that I agree with the Captain. I seriously doubt that the Coalition will be amenable to such a deal."
"As may be," Fanlin replied in a nettled tone, "I shall still bring it to the attention of our trading partners. Should they disagree with my assessment of the offer, I'm sure that they won't hesitate to so inform me. I shall include your approximate lift-off date, Captain, and request that any reply be expedited to reach us prior to that time. You would consider such an offer were it to be made, wouldn't you, Captain?"
Jirik rose to his feet. "Of course, sir. In fact, I will run the figures so that I will have the necessary information should additional detail be required. I would hate to find myself unprepared and embarrassed again. I would have been prepared this time, had I known that our conversation would turn to actualities instead of merely general market information. Again, I thank you for your time and consideration. This meeting has proven most interesting."