Galaxy of Empires- Merchant Wars Episode #1

Copyright ©2015 by Bruce Marcom
United States Publishing, LLC

Smashwords Edition
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook
may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like
to share this book with another person, please purchase an
additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and
did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment
only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite
retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the
hard work of this author.

ISBN: 978-1-943917-02-0
US Copyright 1-2781753491

www.galaxyofempires.com

Chapter
One

Chapter
Two

Chapter
Three

Chapter
Four

Chapter
Five

Chapter
Six

Chapter One

Evella Noctu, carrying her electronic accounting
pad, walked briskly down the hall. She was trying to get to the
conference room in her cruiser before the other captains arrived.
They had just landed on the reptilian home world of Hosan at her
home base of operations. As she came up to the conference room
door, she saw her assistant, 42, standing there and waiting for
her. Her assistant was a tall android with a highly polished and
blackened chrome paint job.

Being a reptilian merchant was not only a
dangerous job but trust is also one thing that never exists—at
least among reptilian merchants. Eve never believes anyone,
particularly because she is a half-breed: part human and part
snake. That was one of the reasons she decided to get an android
assistant instead of using a biological one. Besides, it is
unlikely that any reptilian could keep up with the accounting
better than an android, not to mention the fact that it is also
unlikely that an android would ever betray her unless the android
had been tampered with.

“Is everything ready, 42?”

“Yes, My Lady, I have all the records in
order and available for review for the meeting.”

“Excellent. Your efficiency never ceases to
amaze me, 42, even after all these years.”

“Thank you, Ma’am. I try to do the best I
can.” The android, in a humble fashion, says, “There is one thing I
would like to bring to your attention…. There are some
irregularities with one of the captain’s records; he appears to be
short on one of his accounts.”

Eve responds with interest, “Oh, really? Let
me see the records you are referring to and we shall see what the
captain has been up to.” She grabs the accounting pad and scans it
with scrutiny. After a few minutes, she looks up at 42 and says,
“You are correct, of course, and this will have to be dealt with. I
want you to follow these instructions closely.” She gives 42 some
instructions.

***

“Order, order. Take your seats, captains, and
let us get on with this. I do not have all day.” Eve barks with a
loud tone to get everyone’s attention as she glared at all the
reptilian captains.

“Now the first thing on the agenda is last
month’s profit goals. Everything seems to be in order following a
very profitable month last month. Capt. Bly had the highest profit
margins out of all six ships in our fleet with raw minerals being
at the top of the list.” The captains begin clapping in recognition
of this achievement.

42 speaks: “The following is the list of
profit margin by each captain: Capt. Bly in our minerals division
had a profit margin of 42.0%; Capt. Kuhn in our arts and crafts
division had 39.5%; Capt. Fujima in our food division had 21.3%;
Capt. Jezikar in the small arms division had 37%; Capt. Terinad in
the ship weapons, armor, and shield generators division had 36.9%,
and Capt. Bloodtail in our smuggling department had 39.4%.”

“As Bly, Kuhn, and Bloodtail exceeded their
projections, they are the only ones who get bonuses this month,”
Eve remarks with contentment. “Capt. Fujima, your production level
has been disappointing these past three months. You should be
making a killing with the famine in sector three. You could have
easily charged three times the average price for food because those
starving people would have paid anything for it.”

Capt. Fujima replies nervously, “There has
been a lot of competition, not just me, and the Buscar Merchant
clan is one of the biggest food distributors in the region, which
makes it hard for me to compete with them.”

Eve says with a commanding voice, “A good
merchant can always make a profit under any circumstance. Instead,
you make excuses. However, what I am concerned about is your
inventory, which was audited as was your bookkeeping. The audit
discovered that you are missing two full ship containers of food. I
had those containers tracked and found that you gave free food to
those starving children.”

The other captains gasp when they hear the
word free. A reptilian merchant giving away merchandise is the most
forbidden taboo in the merchant industry, and it is a good way to
get a merchant license revoked permanently in addition to incurring
fines and penalties.

“I…they were starving…. I felt sorry for
them…,” Capt. Fujima sobs.

“You are a disgrace to reptilians everywhere.
You know what the penalties are for giving away merchandise. There
will be no leniency whatsoever. The merchants’ guild has given me
the power to strip you of your merchant and pilot licenses. In
addition to the merchant guild’s penalties, your employment
contract with me states that any captain is to be held liable if he
loses merchandise because of negligence, theft, destruction, or any
other reason. The employer, which is me, can exercise the right to
liquidate all of the employee’s assets to recover the losses
incurred by the employee.”

“What? But…,” Fujima shrieks, but he is cut
off.

“And since you like to work for free, I have
arranged for you to work free for the remainder of your life.”

Two large crocodile men in leather armor with
whips and handcuffs attached to their belts walk in the room and
approach Capt. Fujima and grab him. “These two fine gentlemen are
from the slavers’ guild because I have sold you to them to help
compensate me for my losses. Since that was not enough to cover all
of your debts, the rest of your assets have been liquidated as
well. Unfortunately, that still was not sufficient, so I had a sell
your wife and children into slavery.”

As the captain struggles with the large
crocodile men who are handcuffing him, he yells out, “You
half-breed piece of crap! I will kill you if it is the last thing I
do….” The crocodile men start to drag him out of the room, but
suddenly stop when Eve sternly says in an angry tone, “What did you
call me...?”

The other captains start backing away from
the offender who was getting up off the floor. The last time
somebody used the “H-word” in reference to Eve, that person’s head
exploded from the inside out. The word half-breed used in a
negative tone is the most offensive word anyone could say to
her.

Eve stands up from the table and extends her
hand as if trying to grab Fujima. An invisible force hoists the
captain up into the air where he begins to choke and violently
thrashes around trying to breathe. Eve is a telepath and a powerful
one at that.

“You are in no position to threaten anyone,
Captain. I did not just sell your wife into slavery, I sold her to
a brothel that needed someone to give freebies to all of their new
clients as a sample of their services. Just think of all those
satisfied customers who will get to sample your wife for free. But
then again, she will probably get more satisfaction from them than
from you.”

“The slavers’ guild would not take your
newborn baby. Therefore, I had to go and try to sell your new baby
on the adoption market. However, on the way over there, I ran
across a human who said he would offer me twice as much as the
adoption market would. He said that he needed some food for his
dragon lizard pet and the baby would be perfect. So I sold the baby
to him and watched the dragon lizard devour your little gremlin
until it was gone.”

She releases the captain and he falls to the
floor, gasping for air. She starts to turn around and sit in her
chair, but stops and says in an even tone, “Screw the money….” As
her eyes light up with a blue glow, suddenly the captain’s head
explodes from inside out as the mind blast completes its
effect.

“Take note, Captains. I do not take kindly to
people who betray or insult me. In contrast, I reward those who
respect me and are productive. After all, we are all in this to
make money. Do not get sidetracked by becoming too greedy or not
staying focused on the objectives I have laid out. Dismissed.” The
captains leave the room in a hurried fashion, as none wanted to be
the target of her wrath.

“Sorry, gentlemen, for making you waste a
trip, but I tell you what, I will give you a hundred platinum bars
to dispose of this mess so at least you’ll get something out of
it.” The sound of platinum bars makes the slavers happy, so they
began to clean up what was left of Capt. Fujima on the floor.

“On second thought, put the meat in the
frozen box that my assistant will get for you. I will feed the
captain to my giant snake later tonight.” She walks out of the room
and back to her private chamber.

***

A few days have passed since the captains’
monthly meeting. Eve is checking the inventory on her ship to make
sure that it is correct and on time, as well as loaded correctly in
the cargo hold.

“My Lady, we should be ready to leave in the
next 30 minutes or so. Everything is loaded. We have approximately
50 containers of food and are ready to go to sector three. We will
have to make up for the loss of a captain,” 42 states. Eve opens up
one of the crates to check it and sees giant rats eating the food
in the container. Looks like most of the food is either half eaten
or spoiled in that container.

“Who sold us these containers and why were
they not checked at first before we received them?” Eve growls.

“By the late Capt. Fujima, of course, and we
got them from Capt. Iquzel, a merchant from the Pirate Lord’s
territory.”

“That is the second time that sack of dung
has sold me bad goods. I am going inside and contact his boss.” She
walks out of the cargo hold into the corridor and passes several
doors in the hallway before she arrives at her office. She speaks
on the vid screen and says, “Connect me to Lord Cos.” A large,
hairy, black male Wolfkin appears on the screen.

“Lady Evella, how’s business? Everything okay
over there in the lizard land?”

“I am a snake, not a lizard, but I know we
all look the same to you. But to answer your question, my business
would be better if your merchants would stop selling me bad goods.
Also, this is the second time the same dealer has sold me bad
goods: Capt. Iquzel.”

“Oh, goodness, let me pull the shipping
manifest. Ah, here we go, hmm, looks like Capt. Fujima signed off
on the shipment. You know I would never sell you bad stuff
intentionally. That is why we require all shipments to be inspected
first before we release them. Nevertheless, in the interest of
continued business relations, I will look into this thoroughly and
see if there are any irregularities. I do not want my good name
being tarnished.”

His good name? He is a
freaking pirate
, Eve thinks to herself. “I am out 5,000
platinum bars, not to mention the profit I could have made. I
demand some sort of compensation for this travesty,” she says,
clearly running out of patience with the whole matter.

“Like I said, My Lady, I will look into it, I
assure you. Just give me a couple of days, and I will contact you
as soon as possible.”

“Very well, vid off,” Eve curses, “Even in
death, Fujima is still screwing me over. Too bad I can only kill
him once….” She mumbles some obscenities and continues down the
corridor toward the cargo bay.

“So what is the damage?” Eve inquires.

42 gets out a checklist, “Well, it is not all
spoiled as there are about 20 containers of good food that we can
sell for 6,000 platinum bars. The other 30 containers are all
spoiled and have rats in them. And I hate rats…disgusting
creatures.” The Android pulls out his hand blaster and fires. The
shot hits a rat, making it explode in a midair jump.

“Okay, take all the rats and put them into
two containers and ship them to the pet food vendors on Ganalag.
You should be able to get 400 platinum bars easy. Ship the other 28
containers of bad food to the planet Extek. There is a fertilizer
company that will give me 100 platinum bars for each container of
bad food.”