The Nathan Daniels Saga: Part 1 (2 page)

Nathan liked Kurufet.  Usually when he was here, he would ride into the city from the spaceport and then wander the streets.  The buildings were magnificent crystal structures thousands of feet high.  The people were colorful, and the streets were always filled with them, day or night. 

Daniels had eaten his pear down to the core, but he could see no place to dispose of the remainder.  Shrugging he set it down the table where it vanished with a slight electrical sound.  'Very nice' he thought, 'I could use one of those aboard the
Nola
.'

Taking in the scene around him, he could tell they were heading down Oppenheim Boulevard.  That made sense, it being the most direct route to the palace.  It would also take them through the market which was unmatched within one hundred parsecs.

As the crystal palaces of the financial district melted away to the open spaces of the market, Daniels reflected over the numerous times he had traded here.  He would sell what was scarce on this world for a tidy profit, and then use some of the money to buy cargo that was plentiful here but scarce somewhere else.  The key to trading successfully was knowing what to buy and sell and where to do both.  Nothing killed a trader faster than a miscalculation that found him planet side with a worthless cargo.

In fact, it was just a week ago that he was wandering through the hubbub of this market, just one of the hundreds of people scurrying around like ants…

*   *   *

Daniels had a cargo hold full of memory crystals.  They were manufactured on Valhalla Prime, and were the best.  Each crystal was capable of holding two hundred terabytes of data, all perfectly encoded with no errors and no degradation over time.  Given the size of his cargo hold, he liked to deal in expensive items, and he had the certificates to prove these crystals were top of the line.  Those certs had cost him a pretty penny, along with a trip to the seedier side of his last port, but should pay for themselves here on Kurufet.

He wondered through the stalls of the market, using his instincts to find both a buyer for his crystals and what he wanted in his hold when he left.  There were three primary products that Kurufet offered that usually brought top dollar off planet, two legal, one not.  Daniels would never turn away an illegal cargo if it was the only way he was going to guarantee a profit, but he preferred an honest buck when he could get one.

He passed a stall of fine tapestries, and he suddenly remembered that Kurufet tapestries were worth a fortune on Calypso.  He stopped to look at the tapestries and was immediately approached by the vendor.

“Finest tapestries in Kurufet,” the vendor said.  That was the standard opening line, whether it was true or not.

You won’t mind if I check on that myself, I hope.  Daniels continued to examine them.  They were definitely of high quality, so it was possible the little man was telling the truth.  The trouble with tapestries was the space they took up.  If the
Nola
was a bigger ship, he would definitely be able to turn a profit on the run to Calypso, but given the size of his hold and the distance involved it would all come down to the price.

“
Can you provide three hundred of these?” That was about what Daniels thought he could get aboard the
Nola
, and even then, that would mean stacking some in the passenger suite.

“
If you were to buy three hundred you would make me a happy man indeed!  I would be able to close my stall for several weeks”.

“
And lose your prime location in the process,” Daniels said.  “I would assume that means you could do it?”

“
Yes, kind sir, and the price would be a mere 120,000 credits.” The man smiled, flashing a gold tooth.  It always amazed Nathan that in this day and age, where teeth could be re-grown at a minimum of cost, a gold tooth was a sign of prestige among the merchants.

Daniels never accepted the first price he was offered, but it was always useful to do some quick calculations to see how much he needed to move that price.  Based on his last trip to Calypso, he was reasonably sure he could get 180,000 for the load, but the trip itself was going to cost 60k.  So, there would be no money for cargo at the other end.  Worse, he could lose his shirt if the price on Calypso had come down.  He figured he had to get the man down to sixty to make this work and he wasn’t sure he could get a fifty percent reduction.

“I’ll give you thirty.”

“
I am insulted good sir!  The labor alone in making these is more than thirty!” The man rung his hands and appeared lost in thought.  “One hundred,” he said.  “And that will mean I don’t get my little vacation.

Daniels made a move as if to leave, and the one hundred became ninety.  He thought for a minute, he should be able to clear thirty, but that would make getting cargo on the other end difficult. 

Daniels and the man continued to play the game, but the lowest he got the price down to was 85,000 credits, too dangerous, if he couldn’t carry passengers.  As he left the stall, he was seriously contemplating looking into buying a bigger ship.

He actually apologized to the man for not being able to close the deal.  It only took a few minutes to unload his memory crystals, and the vendor agreed to bring payment when he came to pick up the crystals at the spaceport that evening.  As he was walking away calculating his tidy profit, even after the cost of the certificates, he noticed a fresh fruit stall.  That gave him an idea.  Small mining colonies like the one on Droshai were always needing fresh fruit and with the moon being only three days away, the cost of the trip would be minimal.  He could pick up a load of Halifren gems and carry those to Rhadasia and turn quite a tidy profit! 

After a bit of haggling with the fruit merchant, she agreed to deliver the fruit about an hour after the crystals were to be picked up.  That would leave Daniels time to spend some of his profit at the tavern, find a pretty girl to spend the night with, and leave before noon.

He caught the tube back out to the spaceport to begin making preparations, never noticing that he was being followed…

*   *   *

The transport stopping brought Daniels out of his reverie.  They were at the palace.  Maybe now he would find out what this was all about.

As captain Daniels stepped off the transport, he was once again struck by the beauty of the surroundings.  The transport had come to rest at the edge of the Imperial Gardens.  It was a truly impressive collection of exotic and beautiful plants.  There were majestic trees and flowers in every color imaginable.  He even saw ganga lilies, a flower that looks black to humans but to those species that could see the ultraviolet spectrum it was supposedly brilliant.  The beauty seemed to go on forever.

They walked a few meters to a security checkpoint, where Daniels was immediately relieved of his laser pistol.  He then walked through three different scanners, which caused him to relinquish his needle gun as well.

When the guards were convinced he was clean, and Daniels knew for a fact that he was, they proceeded to the palace.  The splendor of even the hallways was amazing.  Everything that could be was trimmed in gold.  Exquisite art from throughout the Kurufet Empire was displayed every few feet, as if he were in a museum not a home.  The ceiling was seven meters overhead and the hall was at least that wide.

They twisted through the corridors until they came to two massive gilded doors.  Two guards stood at attention on either side.  With a nod from General Marag, those guards opened the doors.

The doorway led to a massive room that was unlike anything Nathan had ever seen before.  The ceiling was clear crystal, and was so far up that it was nearly impossible to tell if it was there at all.  The room was at least fifty meters wide and twice that long.  At the far end Daniels could just make out a raised dais holding a single large gilded chair.  Obviously this was a throne room.

Daniels was walked up to within five meters of the dais, and there the procession stopped.  A liveried servant came out on the dais and bellowed, “All hail Her Eminence, Kalitemia Irisole Nimjufet, exalted ruler of the Empire of Kalifet.”

Daniels escorts dropped to their knees, so Daniels did as well.  He was unprepared for the radiance of the person who stepped out onto the dais.  The Empress stood a statuesque five feet, ten inches tall.  Her ebony skin showed not a wrinkle, even though she was in her late fifties, if Nathan remembered correctly.  Her long raven hair was interwoven in her ceremonial crown.  Set in her compelling face were the most compelling eyes.  They were blacker than coal and drew you into their depths.  She sat on her throne and motioned for the party to rise.

“
You are Nathan Daniels,” the Empress began, her voice like the lilt of an angel, “Captain of the spacecraft
Nola
, lawful merchant trader and sometimes smuggler.” The tone of her voice making it clear it was a statement, not a question.

“
Excellency, I am Nathan Daniels, lawful trader.  As for the smuggling I can assure …” The Empress raised her hand cutting him off.

“
You are not on trial here, Captain Daniels.  There is no need to be cagey with your answers.”

“
Excellency, if I may ask, what
am
I here for?”

“
All in due time, captain,” the Empress answered, taking a drink offered by another liveried servant that had appeared on the dais.  After a sip of the beverage, she continued.  “My intelligence agents have had their eyes on you for over a year.  They tell me your skill and reputation allows you to travel virtually unhindered to nearly all the kingdoms, empires and planets in known space.  Is this the case?”

“
Well, all except Ziadan, I had a little problem there once with a local prefect, his daughter and her fiancé.”

“
Even so captain, do you understand how unique this makes you?” She gazed directly into his eyes.

“
Well, Excellency, I would imagine any good trader would have similar freedom of movement.”

“
On the contrary captain.  When my intelligence service started preparing for this mission, over two million potential candidates were identified.  Upon investigation we found only two with your level of access.” She took another sip of her drink.

“
I am curious as to the other.”

“
Captain Jeremy James.” Nathan knew James.  He was a good guy.  They had played cards numerous times, sometimes exchanging cargo as a result.  “Truthfully, we approached Captain James first.  We sent a team to him on Somata IX.  However, when they arrived they found he had met with an unfortunate accident.

“
What kind of accident?”

“
He had been hanged for having an affair with the governor’s wife.” That certainly sounds like James, Daniels thought.

“
I’m sorry to hear that, Excellency.  I believe Captain James was a good man.”

“
That no longer matters.” The Empress put down her drink and dismissed the servant.  “I want you to undertake a mission, covertly.”

“
Excellency, this has the sound of espionage, and traders who engage in it suffer a loss of reputation if they are lucky and a loss of life if they aren’t.  Personally I’m rather attached to both my reputation and my skin.”

“
It is not a spy mission, but a transport mission.”

“
I’m listening.”

“
I have a very valuable cargo that must be on Rathshelliam exactly one year from today and must visit as many destinations as possible in the known worlds before arriving.”

“
Sounds expensive,” Daniels was already doing the calculation in his head.

“
Upon the cargo’s safe and timely arrival on Rathshelliam, you will receive one million credits for each unique planet-fall you have made with the cargo.  The planet-fall must be at least three days in length and you must engage in your usual trading activities.”

The amount floored Daniels.  He could be an incredibly wealthy man at the end of the coming year.  “What about upfront money?” he asked.

“Given that you must continue your trading activities, there will be no upfront money so that you will not be tempted to be lazy.”

“
Okay, say that I agree,” Daniels said, heart racing.  “What’s the cargo?”

The Empress motioned off to her right.  Onto the dais strode the most beautiful woman Nathan had ever seen.  “Allow me to present my daughter, Remini.”  Remini was a few inches shorter than her mother, with unblemished caramel colored skin, where her mother's was ebony.  She had long flowing raven hair, which she wore loosely about her shoulders.  She had a small nose, and full lips, with the same penetrating coal eyes as her mother.  Her body was that delectable mid-point between lean and curvaceous, although the floor length gown she wore masked some of that appeal.  Daniels was barely able to stifle a whistle that would have been wholly inappropriate for a royal introduction.

“Remini is twenty-two years old and is betrothed to the crown prince of Rathshelliam.  In her twenty-two years of life she has visited all of our Empire, and many of our friendly neighbors, but always as part of a royal delegation.  We have decided that before she embarks on a path that could have her ruling two empires; she must have a better understanding of the galaxy and the everyday people in it.  It will be your job to see to it that she gets that understanding.