WCGW Chpt 263

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==Chapter 263 - What Could Go Wrong==
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Inner End (Federated Commonwealth)
12th July, 3047
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Sergeant Major Chester Pullman shook hands with Chief Warrant Officer Harry Caldwell and everyone else he knew after their arrival. After being brought up to speed on everything happening out in the Wastes plus his own missions, Sergeant Major Pullman sent for a few of the new arrivals. The SaRI compound had enlarged quite a bit since Chief Warrant Officer Caldwell had last been here and commented on it while they waited.
"Place sure has grown a bunch." Chief Warrant Officer Caldwell said looking around.
"Had to. Every time I thought I had enough of anything you folks seemed to double the amount flowing thru here. We now own just over a square kilometer of ground. I can house 10,000 people at any one time and store roughly three hundred thousand tons of equipment if I have to. Permanent guard force is now a full Battalion of Infantry and I have another 800 staff to support the base itself. We currently have 3,422 people waiting to head out and about 60,000 tons of equipment." Sergeant Major Pullman replied
"Who exactly did you send for?" Chief Warrant Officer Caldwell asked
"Xiang Chu and Feng Wu, both used to be big shot bankers before coming to work for us. I think they would be the best to advise you on selling that much Gold all at once." Sergeant Major Pullman replied as he caught sight of them heading their way. "Here they are. Xiang Chu, Feng Wu this is Chief Warrant Officer Harry Caldwell. He just arrived from where your going to be going with roughly 420 tons of Gold. We need advice on how to handle selling it off.
"Good to meet you sir. You could just sell it on the open market. Four hundred tons sounds like a lot, and it is, but it is not much in the interstellar scheme of things. There are mining companies that place thousands of tons of Gold on the open market each year, actually most of them do. Thousands of years ago that much Gold being sold off would have destabilized a global economy and caused the price to bottom out. But today, it would barely register at all and do little to the actual price. What do you think Feng?" Xiang Chu said
"Many major manufacturing concerns purchase Gold by the thousand ton per year. It is used in so many applications, while rarely does a single application even use a gram, the quantity of goods being produced chews up the thousand ton lots quickly. The bigger problem would be answering where it came from and who was selling it." Feng Wu replied
"Solar Metals. Our mining company. They are registered here in the Federated Commonwealth, but we operate out there, not here in the Federated Commonwealth." Chief Warrant Officer Caldwell said
"Then it is a simple matter of selling the Gold off. We have been told by Mr Pullman that we are operating on a more clandestine sort of venture. That will be a difficult problem to overcome. Many questions will be asked among other mining operations, people will begin looking for answers to those questions. Possibly people we really would not like looking for answers or asking questions." Feng Wu replied
"That will be a problem then. We do not want people looking too deeply into this matter then. Any idea's on how to handle it?" Chief Warrant Officer Caldwell asked
"In small enough batches, if it is raw ore it would be virtually unnoticed. Is it unrefined?" Xiang Chu asked
"No, I am told it is pure. We have 35,000 bars of the stuff. At standard 12.4 Kilograms per bar." Chief Warrant Officer Caldwell said
"That is a problem then. I am sure that getting a mining lease inside the Federated Commonwealth on any inhabited planet will not be easy. I am sure it would be up for an open bid and unless Solar Metals has very deep pockets, they would not win the bids. This will take much thought and effort to overcome." Feng Wu replied
"Time is critical. We need the funding." Chief Warrant Officer Caldwell said
"If you have contacts in the Federated Commonwealth government, you could possibly sell it to them. They would probably demand a discount on the purchase price. The best option and explanation would be for Solar Metals to actually begin operations inside the borders of the Federated Commonwealth in some fashion, then you could easily explain the amount of Gold you have for sale. Trading in commodities is not my specialty, but I do have knowledge in the matter. You could, while not the best option, deposit the Gold with a bank and have them issue a letter of credit in the agreed upon amount. They are going to ask questions, serious questions. Which in turn is going to generate more questions from others." Feng Wu said
"I agree, the only sure way to protect the true source of this Gold is for Solar Metals to actually mine here in the Federated Commonwealth." Xiang Chu replied
"Well, that is a problem we did not see coming. Sergeant Major, we are going to need to get a message back home and tell the boss." Chief Warrant Officer Caldwell said
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Boulsi (Independent System)
Gently, the Elephant Tug nudged the section of the Shipyard into place and the small army of workers in EVA suits began locking it into place after carefully inspecting the large seals. They still had four sections to go before the station was completely reassembled. Reginald Traveline floated a fair distance from the station watching the workers scramble over the ever-growing station. He was good at EVA but all these workers from Linden put his skills to shame, he had always heard that there were small cultures and a few large ones that spent their entire lives from birth to death, living in space but he had never met any until now. Behind the station itself was the enormous gas giant Ragnarok, which was beautiful in deadly sort of way.
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