Honorable Ferengi Merchant

[honorableferengimerchant]

The Stovak Ore and Beverages, transiting a gas giant in the Wolf 424 (aka Babel) system.

[honorableferengimerchant]

Day 14: Shakedown Cruise

Captain's Log, Day 14: Negotations with Q having broken down over a stem-bolt holiday tree dispute, I have returned to Earth orbit and the Stovak Ore and Beverages. The SOB is a fine ship. We're taking her out later for a shakedown cruise.

Captain's Log Addendum, Day 14. The shakedown cruise started off smoothly enough. We left the Sol system and first visited the Borg war memorial at nearby Wolf 359. Then we cruised by the Babel system. Having received reports that there were miners with cargo to be transported near Eirhess, we plotted a course and ran star surveys while we travelled. When we arrived in the Eirhess system, however, we discover that there were Reman ships pestering the local miners. Knowing that they weren't working with our valuable business partners in the fledgling Romulan Republic, we did not hesitate to negotiate in very harsh terms when they opened fire. Tergu is a fine shot with a photon torpedo, and Sikel managed the repair crews like I pay her more than I do. They're all sure to demand raises soon.

We may have taken Rule of Acquisition #62 a little too far. While the riskier the road, the greater the profit is a valuable guide to live, that risk has to be managed. After four skirmishes with the Tal-Shiar-affiliated Remans (or maybe they're just freelance bandits?), the fifth skirmish proved a little too dangerous and a torpedo broke past our beam defenses. We retreated gracefully to the other side of the planet and repaired the ship.  When we returned, we surprised them by approaching from over the north pole instead of sticking to the galactic plane. We not only salvaged the remains of their ship for profit, but earned the favor of Starfleet by doing some of their work for them. I think our ships will continue to be welcomed in Federation-only facilities for some time. As I explained to Tergu, we're not really doing it for free if we make a profit off them later.

Postscript: My readers may be wondering why I’ve stopped telling you my daily bottom lines. Corporate secrets! My business, not yours. Suffice to say, I’m still doing well. Plus, it’s not exactly difficult to earn latinum once you have a ship and fuel and a crew. The startup phase was the most interesting part, numbers-wise.

[honorableferengimerchant]

The Stovak Ore and Beverages. First of the line. Spacedock in high Earth orbit.

[honorableferengimerchant]

Day 13: Yamok Icees

The first Stovak Ore and Beverages freighter is now fully paid for. Her crew has been aboard for three days while I have been negotiating with Q to sell him yamok-flavored snow cones. Med bay checks out. My science labs have presented me with several targets for mineral exploitation. Operations has been reviewing colonist applications for transport to prime terraformed destinations. The security holograms have been confiscating contraband from the crew -- if they have contraband, it had better because I sell it to them. Tactical has been fine-tuning the transport-inhibitors and running anti-boarder scenarios to keep our cargo from being stolen. Conn has been practical evasive maneuvers.

[honorableferengimerchant]

Day 11

Day 11!!!!!!!! Today was profitable beyond my expectations. I have tripled my assets and now have enough liquid EC to pay for my Tuffli freighter. The markets went mad over my supply of holiday ornaments. My strategy is unchanged from yesterday. But yesterday's capital allowed me to invest even more heavily. My grandfather will be so jealous, to hear that I was able to pay for my own freighter after only 11 days of being in business and starting out with only 2,000 ec. Who has the lobes for business now, Grandfather?

Next on my list is my very own Jacket of the Entrepreneur, or at least the Jacket of the Merchant, so that all who gaze upon me will know that I am master of my own enterprise. But even the JotM is more expensive than my freighter. No bother.

Daily Results: 18,354 dil 37,600,321 ec 546 Romulan marks 69 Ferengi Crew 2 Reman Crew 21 Holographic Crew (1 is Pakled. I have been unable to find any organic pakled willing to server on my freighter apart from my bridge crew.)

[honorableferengimerchant]

Day 10

The unexpected strikes. A cosmic entity known as Q visited Earth Spacedock. As I was walking from the club to the Exchange terminals, he rudely swept me up in a flurry of snow and deposited me in something he called his 'Winter Wonderland.' It's unpleasantly cold, while not nearly rainy enough, but it does have all the amenities of Spacedock, including Exchange terminals. Holiday ornaments began to do a brisk business on the Exchange, and I took full advantage. Selling one at a time brings ultimate profit, but sometimes faster profit is found by buying crates of 250 and re-selling them in smaller crates of 50 at a higher piece rate. I'm significantly closer to getting my freighter off lay-away now.  Today was incredibly profitable.

'Lay-away.' What an odd financial scheme. To offer to defer one's own profit so the customer can gather up the funds at a later time!

Daily Results: 16,104 dil 11,011,244 ec. Less than 24mec to go. 60 Ferengi Crew 2 Reman Crew 20 Emergency Holograms

[honorableferengimerchant]

Day 9: Freighter on Layaway

Another seemingly uneventful day spent haunting Spacedock and the Academy campus. I remotely put my new employees through their paces with training drills and psychological examinations and software upgrades for a ship that we don't technically own yet. But, and this is very exciting, I arranged for a wealthy friend of mine to purchase our Tuffli Freighter for 35mill ec. When I get the funds, I will buy it from them.  I interviewed and hired 13 more crew from Ferenginar and 1 Reman who respected our work on Mol'Rihan. Never turn away a thankful employee when you can exploit them instead.

Daily Results: 14,624 dil 2,473,626 ec. Need 32,526,374 more to pay for our unnamed freighter. 546 romulan marks 51 Ferengi duty officers 1 Reman duty officer

[honorableferengimerchant]

Day 8: Hiring

Day 8: Apart from taking some history exams for cadets in exchange for their warp-drive lab samples of dilithium, I spent most of the day on the Exchange -- buying and selling scrap and finding people jobs and hiring new people. I return to my temporary quarters for the evening having a great deal of assets invested on gambles in the Exchange. But every day I make progress forward to a real ship of my own. Apart from Star Fleet, the Federation has the Earth Cargo Service. I could easily be assigned a ship of my own given my credentials. But if I'm going to be in business, I'd prefer to be able to make a profit -- something that's rather difficult in the Federation. It felt strange to return to the Academy after having proven myself -- again -- in the field on New Romulus. I resigned my commission on the basis of the idea that Admiral Quinn was insane to give me a command of my own. I then assumed an independent command of my own and saved a colony from the Tal'Shiar and the Tholians, proving that Quinn might not be crazy. This is awkward. Daily Results: 12,894 dil. I spent some on hiring. 1,970,134 ec 546 Romulan marks 38 Ferengi Duty Officers

[honorableferengimerchant]

Day 6: I just hired two extremely competent mercenaries. An elite Ferenginar space marine named Tergu (18k ec hiring bonus), and a brilliant Pakled engineer named Sikel who actually knew how much she's worth (400k ec hiring bonus). Hiring Sikel took a huge chunk out of my liquid assets, but I think she's worth it. I also hired a scientist named Lanot for only a 5k ec hiring bonus. We'll see about her. I'm skeptical.

The team worked well when investigating bookkeeping discrepencies in Madran's warehouse operation. We negotiated with gusto and body armor. War is good for business. Balancing the books for Mol'Rihan makes for a happy client. Daily Results: 3,200 dils 1,077,041 ec, despiting spending 423k ec on hiring bonuses. 181 romulan marks.

[honorableferengimerchant]

Day 5: Further prep for Mol'Rihan. I bought some tools for doing combat engineering work on the hunt. A total of 2k ec. They're not the tools I wanted, but they were the tools that Lessa let me have for cheap and under the table. I also purchased 20 large hypos and 20 large power cells for a total of 10,240 ec.

Mol'Rihan isn't incredibly welcoming. The local bribetaker told me there was much to be done, and that there was this fellow who would give me assignments, but he refused to say a word to me. I did, however, find a Romulan marketer who is willing to give me decent prices for anything I need to pawn. Her name is 'Vendor,' which is pretty funny. Romulans obviously take their names very literally.

Buvuok now has a suit of body armor that only costs 200 ec from Vendor. Tholians, Tal Shiar, and Dewan Arthropods are the main threats in the wilderness here. I'm gathering glowing rocks, glowing plants, and taking radiation readings. I think there'll be a real market in these someday, and I'm planning to corner it!

At last. A day of real work on the Mol'Rihan frontier has earned me an audience with D'tan and Foreman Kylor. I wonder if it was my pest control efforts in the staging area, my reports of cloaked Hunters in the peaks, or my efforts against the Tholian and Tal Shiar intruders that got their attention. Now, they are promising actual paying work that promises significant profit. Kylor also let slip some of the secrets of Mol'Rihan that we can all exploit together. It's a pleasure to get to do actual engineering work, even if it's just break-fix. Hoversleds, replicators, storage units. . .

I've also been assigned some investigatory work by a Romulan admiral -- Keverak. Everyone knows Romulans are an admirably suspicious and conniving people, and it seemed odd that they'd ask me to figure out one of their own's schemes -- but then it turned out that there’s another Ferengi involved, and it all made sense.

Daily Results: 2,480 units of dilithium. My first. 831,668 ec. Long way to go to the Tuffli. 134 romulan marks. They might be useful someday. OOC: Defeating individual ground foes without a mission is slow-going for the xp, even during a double xp event. But it did get Stovak to 4, and then that got actual missions. It’s possible that I just didn’t realize I could start the New Romulus episode at level 3. If so, oops.

[honorableferengimerchant]

Day 4: It's time to make my fortune by going hunting in the wilderness of New Romulus. Once I make some contacts there, perhaps they'll give me more civilized work. Bought 5 transwarp beaming devices to New Romulus for 74,995ec (14,999 apiece). Bought a very rare plasma sniper rifle mk ii for 15k.  Got fitted at the tailor for work suitable to an away team. Hired a pakled combat medic to make sure I don't die on the hunting trip. 2k hiring bonus. His name is Buvunok. No one wants to pay pakled enough because they think they're all idiots. Never reveal your business plan! Business plans never survive battle with the customer. Batteries: buy for less than 100. Sell to Lessa for 100. Ship components. mk xii uncommon. buy 12,200 or less. sell for 12,489. Buy minor/major regenerators/components from Lessa. sell for substantial markup. Sell 20 minor components for 16k. Sell 20 minor regenerators for 20k Sell 20 major regenerators for 30k I'm up to 721,502 liquid ec plus a variety of assets waiting to be sold on the Exchange Ships I can buy someday without being confiscated later: Ferengi shuttle: 300 lobi or 100mill ec. Tuffli freighter: 40mill ec. D'kora: 18mill ec.

[honorableferengimerchant]

Day 3

Scrounging. I have no mail. Ensign Rraak wants to give me tutorials about services on Spacedock. The Spacedock CMO gave me 3 minor regenerators as 'part of the tour.' They're worth all of 25ec if I recycle them. The tailor-in-residence let me replicate a new civilian outfit. It's literally worth nothing but what I make of it.

I met some commodities brokers. They're willing to cut me an EC discount on their products. The Federation may not have money, but energy credits to power the replicators are still money, if you ask me. At least until I can get my hands on some dilithium or gold-pressed latinum.

Selling scraps to the Club 47 bartender and the equipment requisition woman (Ensign Lessa) nets me more cash than recycling in a replicator or selling to the commodities broker does. 902 vs 1128 for something valued at 2257 to a private seller.

I may have a lead on a second-hand 'captain's yacht,’ but I’m leery of buying it -- I know Starfleet regulations on starships that  go ‘missing’ too well.

I encountered Captain Yim at Spacedock. He was there for some of the horror yesterday, but he was trying to drown it in synthahol. Maybe I can smuggle him something real to help with that.

Club 47 has some good places for me to sleep if I get desperate. DJ Zuza was in good spirits.

I'm trying to sell these minor regenerators for 699ec apiece on the Exchange. I found a suc-- customer who paid it, so now I'm buying more to sell.

After buying some batteries and hypos for a bargain, I sold them and all my scrap to Lessa. Now I have 7,343ec.

Buying scrap consoles from the exchange and selling to Lessa gets me up to 110,884ec. I've got 55 times the amount of EC I started the day with. I've got 15.1x the worth. Today is a good day to profit.

I'm also trying my hand at recruiting. Finding people who want cushy assignments, and then getting them those positions.

I visited campus again to see if I can do some tutoring for other cadets. Sadly, not today. OOC: You can’t do the lore mission at the Academy until level 4. Stovak is still level 3. There appears to be no way to get more xp or any dilithium without leaving Earth orbit if you haven’t hit level 4 coming out of the tutorial. If I’d done the tutorial during a double xp weekend (or maybe blown up more things during the tutorial?), things would be different.

[honorableferengimerchant]

2000 energy credits are all I have, along with some scraps we scavenged during our cruise. I also count among my assets: (1) access to the Starfleet Academy campus, including Exchange trading privileges, (2) access to Spacedock, and (3) friends. Elisa Flores can probably pull a few strings for me if I get desperate.

[honorableferengimerchant]

We were innocent then, sharing a toast before we boarded the transport shuttle to the U.S.S. Chattanooga.  Somehow Captain Taggart thought I should be his acting first officer. Insofar as I didn’t get the ship blown up after the Klingon raiders killed the captain, the borg tried to assimilate our ship full of cadets, and we held off an entire Borg cube with the smaller cruiser in the fleet, I wasn’t the worst choice.

By contrast, Admiral Quinn made the utterly incomprehensible decision to make my field promotion to Lieutenant permanent and to give me command of the Chattanooga, as though there aren’t hundreds of Lieutenant Commanders and Commanders who deserve their own command before I’m given one. The academy counsellors would probably tell me that I’m still dealing with the profound trauma of our training cruise going so horribly wrong -- of seeing my classmates disintegrated by Klingon boarders -- of facing the necessity of killing innocent Vegan colonists who had just been assimilated by the Borg. They would tell me that I shouldn’t make any major life decisions just yet. But I am. I’m resigning my Starfleet commission before I’m subject to even further madness. I don’t know what I’m going to do next. First, I’ll have to find enough funds to get myself off Earth. I know I’m definitely not going back to Ferenginar. Rule of Acquisition #75 says home is where the heart is, but the stars are made of latinum.

[honorableferengimerchant]

It’s the day before our first training cruise. I’ve almost graduated from Starfleet Academy.  Someday, I’m going to be the chief transporter officer of an actual starship.