GblaRCS Chpt 33

==Guided by the light of a (Red) Cameron Star - Chapter 33 -==
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"Unless you want NHCOMNET to build its first HPG outside of the Hegemony on Thraxa then kindly make sure to properly maintain your Hyperpulse Generator there. We're not going back to the days when we had to route all our damn communications through the Free Worlds League."HPG sent to Raymond Karpov, Primus of ComStar, by the Director of NHCOMNET - 2840 CE
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===One door closes, another opens===
ComStar HPG Station – Thraxa – 2837
There were times when Thérèse Cervoni was glad she captained a transport Jumpship, albeit one able to defend itself from typical periphery threats, and not an actual warship, and this was definitely one of those occasions. If NAS Tremolino had mounted heavy naval weaponry she would have been tempted to threaten to pull a Charles Marik and blast the hyperpulse generator facility to rubble from orbit.
Not that it would likely require anywhere near that level of firepower to bring the place down. An old SLCOMNET station that ComStar had simply changed the sign on out front, having seemingly done little in anything else to renovate the building judging by the state of the place, it dated from the time before Amaris, when the Star League Ministry of Communications had used their vast funding and resources to place HPG's practically everywhere. The idea being to tie humanity together with universal communication, linked by Hyperpulse Generators that could send a message from the Magistracy of Canopus over a thousand light-years to the Outworlds Alliance in mere hours.
The Amaris War and then the First Succession War had wreaked havoc on the network, not merely because of stations destroyed in the fighting but in terms of the availability of replacement parts for when HPG's broke down. The Magistracy of Canopus had been spared the orbital bombardments and wholesale deployment of WMD which had riven the Inner Sphere, but their HPG's stations had still gradually fallen into disrepair with fewer and fewer of them still operational and ComStar concentrating its efforts closer to Terra where the vast bulk of humanity still resided despite the tens of billions of dead.
With a population still yet to reach the double-digit millions, though it should reach that mark well before the end of the century thanks to low but steady growth, Thraxa was not important enough for ComStar to prioritize keeping its HPG running if anything expensive to fix ever went wrong with it. If the Magestrix sitting on the throne of Canopus was willing to pay herself then ComStar would be only too happy to install a brand new HPG on Thraxa of course, but that just wasn't going to happen because the world wasn't rich or populous enough to warrant that kind of spending by central government.
Naturally Thraxa not being rich was also the reason why the locals couldn't just pay themselves either, Hyperpulse Generators being expensive as hell (though not as cripplingly expensive as ComStar claimed they were). All everyone on Thraxa could do was hope that their old HPG kept running, knowing that one day it would pack up for the last time and they would join all the other worlds that used to be linked to the rest of the galaxy by more than the occasional Jumpship visit but no longer was.
Knowing that there was no point spending money on fresh paint or new furniture the ComStar station on Thraxa was therefore drab and run down, as was the office of the local Precentor when Thérèse Cervoni requested to talk to him personally. At least it was warm in there, unlike the lobby to the building where the electric heater seemed to have failed. Being cold in a building which actually housed its own fusion reactor to power the HPG was ludicrous.
After exchanging pleasantries, including a diplomatic offer of condolence for the death of Primus Conrad Toyama who had apparently passed away shortly after Niops was cut off from the ComStar network, things soon became much less pleasant and civil because what the local Precentor had to say was not what Cervoni wanted to hear.
Standing up and leaning forward over the desk so as to glare down at the ComStar functionary sitting there, Cervoni trusted her body language and demeanor left him in no doubts as to her feelings on the matter. "What do you mean you insist on payment up front for any HPG messages we send?" she asked through gritted teeth. "The Niops Association is literally hundreds of millions of C-Bills in credit in the account we hold with ComStar."
The very young man holding the title 'Precentor Thraxa' smiled up at her, ignoring her anger. "No, the Niops Association is hundreds of millions of C-Bills in credit with the account they opened with our Hednesford HPG station." he replied placidly. "That was a special arrangement with the Precentor there, not with ComStar as a whole. Frankly you were lucky the First Circuit agreed to honor the agreement because it was a highly unorthodox one, especially given that your government owns and operates its own, legally dubious, independent HPG network."
"Legally dubious?" Cervoni queried, narrowing her eyes.
"Well yes, clearly." the ComStar bureaucrat contended. "As a non-signatory to the Communications Protocol of 2787 the legality of your network is greatly in doubt."
"Or, less subjectively, as a non-signatory to the Communications Protocol of 2787 it does not apply to us whatsoever since we are entirely outside any jurisdiction or legal authority it has over the dumbasses that did sign it" Cervoni countered. "With the Free Worlds League in particular likely regretting ever doing so right now." she added coldly.
The Precentor smiled again. "I feel confident that the Interdiction will end soon once the Captain-General admits his full culpability for the current unpleasantness, and makes suitable restitution" he said with certainty. "Once that happens you can resume accessing the ComStar network via Hednesford as before" he continued. "Naturally, once that temporary arrangement ceases and we absorb your 'NHCOMNET' your account with the Hednesford station will be transferred to ComStar as a whole and you will be able to access the funds from any ComStar PHG facility."
"Are you actually trying to say that ComStar Hednesford is separate from the rest of ComStar?" Cervoni growled.
"Oh, dear me no." the precentor denied that was the case, shaking his head. "It's rather that your account with ComStar Hednesford is entirely separate from the rest of ComStar" he explained. "As a special arrangement, a courtesy really, funds are transferred from your account to ComStar as and when this is appropriate, ComStar does not actually hold the money for you as such, only ComStar Hednesford."
Cervoni took a deep breath to steady herself. "Well, can we transfer some of the money from our account at Hednesford to a new account on Thraxa then please?" she requested. "Given that there is already precedent for ComStar facilities doing so?"
"Possibly, with the agreement of the First Circuit, oh and not until our Hednesford facility is operational again and reconnected to the ComStar network of course, so that an electronic transfer can be made" Precentor Thraxa told her.
"If Hednesford is back on the freaking network we won't need an account here!" Cervoni exclaimed.
"Yes, I do see your problem but I'm afraid I'm entirely unable to help" the precentor responded, sounding genuinely apologetic about it which only made it worse. "It's conceivable that a direct appeal from Niops to our new Primus could speed up the process, or at least help it go more smoothly" he suggested. "I must caution however that given our ongoing dispute with the Free Worlds League all his attention is likely fixed on resolving that particular issue as a matter of priority, with what remains of his time devoted towards a smooth transfer of power and what immediate personnel changes and new appointments he may make to wish within the organization."
Cervoni sighed. At least this wasn't the first time ComStar had seen a change at the top she considered, looking on the bright side, so hopefully it wouldn't take them too long to sort themselves out internally. The death of Toyama had come much earlier than might be expected though, he was only eighty-five when he passed which was very young for someone both born in the Terran Hegemony and with access to the finest healthcare available. Considering that his predecessor Jerome Blake, also Hegemony born, had only made it to a mere eighty had to make you wonder if the top job at ComStar was bad for your health.
At least the new guy Karpov might be an improvement on Toyama, Cervoni considered. Toyama had been an extreme hard-liner to the point that he had purged ComStar of anyone that disagreed with him, and very much looked to be trying to turn them into some kind of weird cult. If Karpov was more measured and moderate the change of leadership should at least give ComStar an opportunity to offer Charles Marik an olive branch, pinning the blame for the espionage directed at the Free Worlds League on Toyama giving Marik a diplomatic way out of this mess without looking weak.
Of course, if Karpov was just as crazy as Toyama that wasn't going to happen. Conceivably he might even be more of a loon of a predecessor, though that was hard to imagine.
"You do realize that ComStar is effectively preventing us accessing our own money, right?" Cervoni checked, trying a different tack.
"We would argue that the intransigence of the Free Worlds League is preventing you accessing that money, perhaps the Niops Association could take it up with Charles Marik?" the ComStar official suggested. "Apply some diplomatic pressure for him to back down and apologize for the good of all concerned."
"Yeah, maybe we should send him an HPG." Cervoni responded sarcastically. "Fine, I'm under orders to send out some urgent messages and then wait here on Thraxa for the replies so I'll go back to my dropship, pick up some money and return here."
"We don't accept whatever it is you use for money on Niops, it's not on my approved currency list, so you might need to exchange it for MC Dollars first, assuming the local banks are willing to accept your bills" the precentor advised.
"We use the Niops Dollar." Cervoni told him, straightening up.
"Ah, how many of those are there to a C-Bill out of curiosity?" the precentor asked.
Captain Thérèse Cervoni was unable to stop herself from smirking. "Zero point nine-eight. We keep trying to peg it to the C-Bill to simplify external trade, but ComStar money is flakier than ours and doesn't hold its value as well." she replied. "That's what happens when your paper money isn't backed by germanium like ours is I guess."
To say that the value of a C-Bill was somewhat arbitrary was putting it mildly. ComStar valued the C-Bill as being one millisecond of HPG transmission time, that being equivalent to about a page of text, but because they determined their own profit margin for sending HPG's the whole thing was just a little suspect. Effectively they just decided that their C-Bill was worth the same in purchasing power as a Star League dollar before Amaris and then declared that was worth one millisecond of HPG time.
People old enough to remember sending HPGs back then tended to point out that SLCOMNET charged rather less than a dollar for sending a page of text but they were ignored.
Turning on her heels to leave the man's office, thinking that the place had seen better days to be honest as it was well overdue some redecorating, Cervoni hoped that last jibe had hurt. "It's all about the Newtons" she said, knowing full well the reference would be lost on the man but enjoying saying it anyway.
Hopefully a local bank would accept a stack of hundred-dollar bills printed in the Association, even if Niops currency had the head of a physicist from the previous millennium on them rather than a dead Magestrix like their own currency, but if not the strongbox on the dropship also contained a bag of fifty-dollar gold coins that they were unlikely to turn down. Technically the money had been handed over to Cervoni to pay for anything she found for sale on Thraxa that she thought Niops would benefit from, old mining equipment for example given that it was known they mined coal here, but hopes of making the trip back to Comstock with a lucky find like a broken but repairable mining robot were being dashed by the need to hand over even more money to the phone company.
Uncertain if the issue was simply a matter of officious bureaucracy, or a more nefarious attempt to push Niops into the ComStar fold for the sake of expediency, Cervoni chose to assume the latter applying Hanlon's law to the situation. Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity, as the dictum went. While it was true that ComStar was prone towards the nefarious, just ask Charles Marik, they were also the inheritors of the traditions of the old Star League civil service which was legendarily bureaucratic to the point of being downright obstructionist if you didn't correctly fill out the paperwork.
Her marine bodyguard had waited outside after the Taxi from the spaceport dropped them off, being unwilling to relinquish his sidearm as a requirement to enter the ComStar facility. It had proven to be surprisingly easy to get permission from the authorities at the port for him to leave there armed, with the locals not seeming too fussed about it at all. As it turned out there was a native ursine-like predator known as the 'Snow Bear' which was known on occasion to wander into town, and while it was illegal to go out and hunt them as they were a protected species, the locals didn't expect anyone encountering one of the things by accident to just let it eat them. As such going around armed just in case was considered perfectly acceptable here, even if you weren't a local or even a Magistracy citizen.
Not that a few rounds from the marine's gyrojet pistol would do much more than make a Snow Bear very annoyed, they were the size of a grizzly and more badly tempered, but the sound might scare one off… hopefully.
Ceroni found the marine where she had left him, although no longer alone as he seemed to be talking to a local. The woman in question wearing what looked like a well-tailored business suit in the current Magistracy style with an expensive jacket worn over it.
"Captain Cervoni" the marine greeted her. "The young lady here wishes to speak with you." he told her. "She's been waiting a while." he added.
"I guess that Thraxans are just as used to the cold as we are." Cervoni replied, taking turns standing guard outside fleet headquarters on Niops toughened up SLDF marines very effectively. "Captain Thérèse Cervoni of the Niops Association jumpship Tremolino," she introduced herself. "And you are?"
"Gillian Maynard, the Lady Gillian Maynard in the service of Sarah Trussel, Duchess of Thraxa." the woman introduced herself formally, handing over a business card which Cervoni took and glanced at. "Your physically imposing manservant was just remarking how similar our world is to yours."
"A little too cold for comfort and orbiting a red dwarf star, yes." Cervoni confirmed. "Although Corporal Kent is a marine attached to my command, not my manservant." she corrected the woman. She was right about him being physically imposing however, which was why Cervoni chose him to play bodyguard in the first place nearly two metres in height and he lifted weights as a hobby. "May I ask why you wished to see me?"
"The duchess bade me to invite you to dinner at her home this evening, we assumed that you would be staying on Thraxa overnight given it will take longer for your jump vessel to recharge its drive than it will for your dropship to return to it at the jump point if you left today, or even tomorrow" Maynard replied.
Cervoni raised her eyebrows. "I hope it's not rude to ask why the ruler of this planet is extending such an offer to a mere Jumpship captain?"
Maynard smiled. "Ah, but you are not just a mere jumpship captain, we are given to understand that you are a serving officer in the Niops Navy, correct?"
"Technically, I'm a serving officer in the SLDF Navy, which is considered seconded to the military of the Niops Association, that being the lawful inheritor of the authority of both the Star League and the Terran Hegemony."
"A grand position for Niops to claim for itself." Maynard replied, seemingly amused by the claim.
"Not really, it's more the case of us being all that's left of the Star League and the Terran Hegemony, so it landed with us by default." Cervoni responded with a smile.
Maynard smiled herself. "The Terran Hegemony in Exile, as it were." she said.
"Not really. You can't be in exile if you never actually left where you started at." Cervoni contended. "Niops was always a Terran Hegemony colony and never ceased to be one, either legally or through force majeure. The Cameron Star was never lowered over Niops."
"But you did change its color" Maynard pointed out.
"Sometimes a rebranding exercise is good for business" Cervoni joked. "The Cameron Star still makes some people out here in the periphery a little nervous."
"Indeed, being forced to join the Star League at bayonet-point will have that effect." Maynard responded wryly. "Should I assume that you will be accepting the invitation?"
"Under the circumstances how could I not?" Cervoni asked rhetorically. "Niops values good relations with its neighbors and a rejection would be extremely rude if nothing else, given that we are guests on your world."
"Excellent. If you wish I will have a car collect you at the spaceport this evening to transport you to the Ducal Estate. Feel free to bring your corporal along as bodyguard if you wish."
"I'll make my own way thank you, but I do appreciate the offer. "What time should I get there?"
"Honestly, I'm not quite sure, it's all being arranged in something of a hurry, I'll send a message to you via the starport security staff to let you know when that's been decided." Maynard replied. "As government employees, much like myself, they're all at the beck and call of the Duchess" she said. "I do know that it will be a formal, or at least semi-formal affair." Maynard noted. "I hope you have something other than your duty uniform with you?" she checked.
"I never travel without my full dress uniform." Cervoni replied, it was going to need to be dragged out of the bottom of her trunk and pressed though, and her boots probably needed a polish, not to mention the sword and scabbard that was always supposed to be worn with her dress whites.
"Excellent" Maynard responded, smiling. "I'll see you at the estate later" she said. "I'd offer you both a lift back to the port to save you having to hail a taxi, but I'm afraid I need to be on the other side of town within the hour for a meeting with the board of one of our mining companies."
"We're fine with a taxi." Cervoni replied.
"All good then." Maynard replied. "Toodeloo" she said, heading off towards where a pricy looking ground car was parked nearby, either her personal conveyance or perhaps a government issued vehicle if she worked for the planetary ruler.
"Ciao" Cervoni called after her, assuming that 'Toodeloo' was local slang for goodbye.
"When she first came up to me and told me she was a member of the local nobility I thought she was going to order me to marry her or something." Corporal Kent said quietly. "They do that here right?"
"They do, and men aren't allowed to reject the proposal." Cervoni told him. "I'm pretty sure that only applies to Magistracy citizens though," she added. "Were you disappointed she didn't?"
"Nah, but she wouldn't have liked my girlfriend coming down here all the way from Niops, demanding a Trial of Refusal based on prior ownership and kicking her ass if it had gone that way." Kent replied. "I'm not even kidding. My girl's a combat engineer and she stresses the combat in the title when she's mad."
Cervoni laughed, imagining how a member of the local nobility might react to a challenge by an angry Wolverine girl. "Yeah, we all have our weird cultural quirks don't we?" she remarked, hoping that a taxi would come by soon she could flag down. Fortunately the ComStar facility was situated in the planetary capital of Thraxa, which with a population almost as large as the whole of Niops VII was actually a fair-sized and bustling city, despite its being surrounded by a frozen wasteland.
"Have you noticed we're getting a lot more looks from people in the street, and in passing cars now, Ma'am?" Kent asked.
"Word must have spread about the Mule that set down at the spaceport in SLDF olive livery and with Red Cameron Stars painted on the side of it." Cervoni reasoned. "The people at port probably got straight on the phone to the press, or maybe just their friends, after letting the government know we'd landed."
"Are we really that interesting?"
"The Star League remnant with warships and its own HPG network? We probably are, particularly in a backwater like this." Cervoni surmised. "Assuming they aren't idiots they probably figured out when we jumped in that we only came here to use their HPG because of the Interdiction cutting us off, and they would have to be serious idiots not to have put two-and-two together after we came straight here to the ComStar building after landing."
Corporal Kent nodded. "I'll bet that the Duchess is thinking that if ComStar and Charkes Marik don't settle their differences anytime soon then this won't be the only time they see us, she might be after a trade deal maybe?"
"We've probably got more to offer them than the reverse, but hauling our asses back and forth to Comstock just to deliver the mail would be a hell of a waste of a jumpship so if we can arrange something with the locals that would be good." Cervoni replied. "I do like the look of some of those fur hats I've seen people wear, those would definitely sell back home."
"I was hoping to try out the local hooch and could have offered an opinion of whether or not that was worth importing too but I guess I'm playing bodyguard again tonight, Ma'am." Kent said glumly.
"We'll still be here for a couple more days at least, so I'll make sure that you're off duty and on shore leave tomorrow night." Cervoni told him. "Just the hooch you want to try out? I'd bet a lot of the crew want to check out the brothels. All fully legal here in the Magistracy, catering to all tastes." she noted. As long as everyone involved was of legal age, consented, and there was no exploitation going on, then in Canopus space the motto was anything goes.
Corporal Kent grimaced. "My girlfriend would hack my balls off with a blunt entrenching tool." he said, expression indicating that it wasn't just hyperbole on his part.
Cervoni nodded. "Best just stick to alcohol then." she advised.
"Yes, Ma'am." Kent concurred, wondering how much trouble he would be in if he just went to a strip club instead of a brothel. The rumors of girls dressed up as cats pole dancing, with body modifications including functional tails and mobile ears, was just something he needed to see for himself.
The stories about fake mermaids dancing half-naked in glass tanks too only made him wonder how much a chick from Frobisher could make in a month in the Magistracy, though not having hair or a tail like a fish probably damaged their earning potential, he considered idly.
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===Cutting Deals===
After an afternoon spent travelling back to the starport, collecting a briefcase full of cash, plus a bag of gold coins just in case, finding a bank where she could exchange Niops currency for C-Bills, returning to the ComStar HPG station to send the messages she was on Thraxa to dispatch and then making her dress uniform look half-way presentable Cervoni only hoped that her unexpected dinner with the Duchess Of Thraxa was going to go smoothly.
At least she was in a position to make small-talk about the similarities, and differences, between Niops and Thraxa over dinner, Cervoni considered, as she also brushed up on her Magistracy-related history and political knowledge. The local star was an M1V Red Dwarf, hotter and larger than the M5V Niops, but not so much hotter and larger that most people hailing from more typical inhabited worlds would necessarily notice the difference. Thraxa was also a far less crowded system than Niops, which packed seven planets around it, with most people living on the seventh while the inhabited world here was only the second out from the star.
Given that it was also orbiting a hotter and larger star, you might expect that Thraxa II would be considerably warmer than Niops VII but it actually orbited slightly further out from its sun resulting in them both having very similar surface temperatures. Always planned to be as self-sufficient as possible going forward, the people who first settled Thraxa had reserved what land there was near the equator for farming, clearing areas of the forests there both for crops and livestock grazing while building most of their suitably well-insulated cities out on the otherwise useless tundra.
Thraxa having a surface that was 80% ocean, frozen or otherwise, and much of the land covered by glaciers, mountains and permafrost, it was easy to understand why what soil there was which was available for the plough or sheep farming was not wasted by covering in in concrete. If not for all the geothermal activity underground Niops would likely look much the same, but volcanoes and hot springs are a useful antidote to permafrost.
Despite both being cold worlds under a red sun the indigenous fauna and flora of Niops VII and Thraxa II were also rather different. While the cold seas of both worlds harboured plenty of life, although Niops had nothing to match the terrifying sea-serpent known as the 'Thraxa Devourer', the fauna on Niops had never emerged onto the land while on Thraxa it had, including large megafauna like the aforementioned Snow Bear and the caribou-like Tazqan.
It was also believed that Thraxa II had been rather warmer in the past, with much of what was now merely frozen tundra once covered by far more extensive forests than those which could now only be found at the equator. This theory was backed fairly conclusively by the discovery of large coal deposits deep underground all over the place, which the locals exploited both to keep warm and to power their small industrial base.
Niops of course had no coal, or large fossil fuel deposits of any kind for that matter, but being more geologically active and technologically advanced it found that geothermal power and nuclear fusion reactors did the job of stopping the population from freezing to death pretty effectively without them.
Considering the wider political scene Cervoni knew that the Magistracy was actually about as good a star-nation as any to have on your border, being neither militarily expansionist and aggressive nor tyrannical and authoritarian. They were certainly a bit weird, and not just because of their female dominated society and their strangely meritocratic non-hereditary aristocracy, but their libertarian and frankly libertine ways too. At least you could always safely assume that if the Magistracy Armed Forces were shooting at someone that their enemy probably started it and likely deserved being shot at.
That was not to say that the Magistracy was quick to forgive, or wont to let past transgressions go, however. Despite strong trade links they still refused to permit the Free Worlds League to open an embassy on Canopus, holding onto a grievance that dated back to the Reunification War when the Marik's had invaded them on behalf of the Star League, and they were certainly no fan of the Terran Hegemony either for much the same reason.
Several systems which had once belonged to the Magistracy had been annexed by the Free Worlds League at the end of the Reunification War, the spoils of siding with House Cameron, and the Magistracy still regarded them as under foreign occupation nearly two-and-a-half centuries later. That did not mean however that Canopus planned to try reconquer them, that wasn't really their way, instead they were counting on the Free Worlds League to collapse one day so they could just walk back in.
Sitting back and waiting for the Free Worlds League to implode was not quite as optimistic a plan as some might assume it was, the League might be the oldest of the Great Powers but despite that it was legendarily chaotic, fractious and unstable. Each Magestrix in turn was playing the long game, betting that the Magistracy would win in the end by just outlasting the Marik bastards, and the smart money agreed that they just might, especially now that the ComStar interdiction was wreaking havoc on the fortunes of Atreus.
While technically the Magistracy had sat out the Amaris War, having in fact joined the Periphery Uprising against Star League rule at first, when Kerensky and Amaris went head-to-head the ruling Magestrix at the time, Janina Centrella, had supplied what intelligence she had on Amaris's plans to the SLDF. Additionally, she hadn't blocked Majesty Metals and Manufacturing from supplying Kerensky's forces with arms they needed to fight the Rim Worlds Republic as, while she was no friend to the Camerons and their supporters, the Star League with Stefan Amaris on the throne was objectively worse.
Naturally the other major Periphery power, the Taurian Concordat, had just sat back through the whole thing, gleefully munching on popcorn as the Star League tore itself apart.
Fortunately for Thérèse Cervoni once properly arranged the dinner was scheduled for fairly late, giving her plenty of time to get ready, although the whole time she hoped that her lack of a grasp of high-class social etiquette as it existed in the Magistracy of Canopus was not going to bite her on the ass. The government back home was keen to maintain good relations with the Magistracy since they were both more populous and economically developed than the Illyrian Palatinate, and hadn't rendered several Terran Hegemony worlds lifeless with WMD like the Free Worlds League, so a diplomatic faux pas could really hurt her career. With so many of the senior officers in the navy getting on in years Cervoni, herself born on Strana Mechty in the early years of the clans, had her sights set on captaining a warship before she turned fifty and with so many of the things in mothballs that was by no means an easy goal to achieve.
The taxi that transported Captain Cervoni and her marine bodyguard to the large estate belonging to the Duchess of Thraxa was allowed to enter the gates, ferrying them down a long colonnaded driveway to the large mansion belonging to the Trussel family where they got out and paid the driver in local script, tipping generously of course.
Whilst in theory the title of Duke of Thraxa was not hereditary. Every Duke and Duchess in the planet's history had come from the Trussel family, largely because of tradition and the fact they had the money to make sure that the tradition was continued. In that they were much like the Centrella family that ruled the Magistracy as a whole, technically you didn't have to be a daughter of the Centralla dynasty to be appointed the Magestrix but it wasn't a coincidence that they all had been.
The latest scion of House Trussel, Duchess Sarah Trussel, personally greeted Captain Cervoni at the door to the mansion and ushered her inside while a servant smoothly led Corporal Kent away, the duchess assuring Cervoni the marine would be properly fed and kept entertained while they dined.
Over a less formal and ornate dinner than Cervoni had feared, one which included plenty of local dishes, it became quickly apparent that the duchess was indeed hoping to establish a friendly trading relationship with Niops, grasping the ComStar interdiction as an opportunity to get her foot in the door. Until now Jumpships from the Association had been mostly trading with more populous and industrialised worlds in the Magistracy like Ballad, a regional capital a few jumps from Frobisher, or even Canopus itself, but the closest place to Niops with an HPG that still connected to the ComStar network was Thraxa and the duchess was well aware of that fact.
Would it not be more convenient to everyone if all the trade between the Niops Association and the Magistracy of Canopus was carried out via Thraxa, the duchess suggested? Niops could order equipment from Majesty Metals and Manufacturing on Dunianshire, for example, have them delivered to Thraxa by local shipping and then collected by the next jumpship coming from Niops to access the HPH network. With Thraxa as a trade hub for goods going in both directions it would be convenient for all concerned, and although Thraxa would naturally expect to profit from this, handling charges, storage fees, 'limited' tariffs etc. surely such a system would be beneficial for everyone?
Cervoni was in no position to actually make any such agreement of course, but she did promise to pass the suggestion on to her superiors and said if nothing else Thraxa would surely find a market for her fur exports and Tazqan meat in Niops. The smoky flavor of the meat from the caribou-like native herbivore was extremely palatable, quite unlike anything Cervoni had eaten before, and although far more expensive than beef or venison from Francas it would still find many fans she decided.
All in all it was a good evening, and Captain Cervoni was pretty sure that if any such trade agreement was made it would look good on her record.
It wasn't all good news to report when she returned to Hegemony space however. When the replies to the HPGs she sent out arrived back at Thraxa it turned out that the money transfer to Federated-Boeing Interstellar for the license to build the CargoKing and CargoMaster had not gone through before the Interdiction was put in place.
Federated-Boeing wouldn't hand over the license without the money, and ComStar insisted that the money sat with their Hednesford station where it could not be accessed by anyone.
Several months later with the Interdiction still in place, and ComStar still refusing to budge, Captain Cervoni jumped into the Thraxa system with a billion C-Bills worth of germanium bars. Driving from the starport to the ComStar facility in a wheeled SLDF APC acting as a security van, thanks to the kind permission of the duchess, Cervoni swore to herself that if the local Precentor refused to take the germanium because it wasn't on his list of approved currency then she was going to make him ****** eat it.
==Chapter Notes==
*;Notes from the Author : Thraxa II in the Magistracy of Canopus is a cold world orbiting a Red Dwarf star like Niops VII, but the systems are actually quite different (Niops is crowded, Thraxa is not). Ruled by a duchess from the Trussel family the world was always intended to be as self suffiicient as possible despite its climate and the locals are known for being stubborn and independently minded. Thraxa has coal deposits, sheep farming and exports furs and Tazqan meat.A matriarchial society under House Centrella family the Magistracy was brought into the Star League by force during the Reunification War of 2577-2597 and is no fan of the Terran Hegemony. However they don't like the Free Words League either, and are happy to trade with them, so Niops regarding itself as Star League/Terran Hegemony is no bar to making a business deal.Back in the Star League days the Ministry of Communication had SLCOMNET build HPG Stations all over the place but during the Amaris War (and the Succession Wars) many of these fell into disrepair, especially in the Periphery. In canon, Thraxa had no HPG by 3025 but with a population barely into the double digit millions and a small economy ComStar wasn't going to put much effort into keeping the old SLCOMNET station running so that's hardly a surprise.
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Chapter 33