Ramblings of an Argon Nephew (Page 21 of 35)

Written by TTD

Ramblings of an Argon Nephew, written by TTD

"We cannot buy your goods without credits my friend," replied Mahi Ma, when Norman asked why there were ships loaded with Teladianium at the Hub. "We need more credits at the Hub and a continuous supply. You have done well, but we still need MORE (142,000) Teladianium, my friend"

"Well that teks care ov the virst problem.Oi'll git zome more traders workin vor de Hub too. All we kin do abut the other problem, Terry, is to enjoy your produkshun bonus while you kin and close trading when we need those products vor ourselves. Oi'm looking into another project at the moment which may assist with resources here,but more about that later. One ov our scouts 'as bin two zectors south ov 'ere an found an old casket foatin' in space. You will be pleased to know 'ee alzo vound a couple ov Nividium 'roids down there.um three actually. I know you like studyin, any Kha'ak artifacts an all.'ave you worked out 'ow they kin jus' pop out in front ov you instead ov bein'vorst te use the gates loik de rest ov us?"

Terry's face lit up. "Nividium ! Thankyou.I am sure there is a link there somewhere, sir, but I have not found it yet. They love that stuff.I am sure they use it somehow for their jump-drives to achieved that."

At this stage,to deal with the Teladianium transport problem,Norman took advantage of the now empty Mammoths. He sent all three to Ministry of Finance,bought 15 Falcon Haulers(5 per TL). He had all the equipment he could get from there and Terracorp HQ fitted and returned to Hollow Infinity.

The main thing was the trade software and transporter device. What we do now,is something I normally do not do with station and complex traders. However it is a neat trick which works well in this type of situation.

Select the Falcon Hauler on board your TL.
Press C for Command console and Home Base it to your TL.
Press 3 for Trade.
Press 8 for Buy ware... .
Select Sector and Station/or Complex you wish to move wares from.
Select ware,in this case it's Teladianium.
You are then asked to select number of repeats. In this case you wish to fill the TL to maximum,so input "-1", without the brackets. This should give you multiple runs.

and from jimlpearce, in another thread...

I use 1 mammoth buying from my Teladianium complex via falcon haulers and then use a transporter device to transfer it to another mammoth and then send it on to the hub. Works a charm!

The next stage is the ore.

450,000 units of Ore.

Put some in the hub and continued as with Teladianium. Put price at the Hub to maximum. All other ore producing complexes set to minimum. This gives you a chance for your UTs and the npc ships to trade Ore at the Hub, Thus decreasing the time needed.

I have Norman setting up ore mines inthe UK sector below Manelaus' Oasis. And then towing them to one side, ready to connect. As soon as a mine is on the 'roid,I rename it to indicate the yield. Then I put credits in the account and set transfer at 1,000,000 cr. After which I set it as homebase for one of my traders. Setting the price of e-cells to max encourages delivery which is happening before Norman can build all the mines.

Yesterday and today,Still working in UK sector 18:16. Some asteroids are too close to put mines on side by side.

Norman has ordered the Complex Station-building Captain to be careful.

" Oi want you te just place one stashun at a toim an' git de Ryu captain te tow it out te way beevor you place the next un'" Norman told him. "Don't git carried away, or we'll loose those minerals!"

"ok Sir. We'll dock at our new local base and confer each time before moving or placing any more stations."

Norman relaxed and sat at his desk, leaned back in swivel rocker and held his mug of coffee in both hands. It had been a long day.The experimental station in Hollow Infinity had been completed.He was sending ore to his new found friend Mahi Ma. And waited for news from the UK sector to the south of his R/D stations.

The Comms panel eventually lit up to show the face of his construction manager. "All mines relocated, sir.They are all linked with SPPs,BioGas and Bofu units. All we need now are the Crystal Fabs and she'll be independant. I suggest we increase the crystal production as much as the silicon will allow, sir.There seems to be a short supply around here and some of our transports have been destroyed by the new Xenon Qs."

"oh 'av dey noo? Zend te report to me asap an' tell all frieghter pilots te avoid dose areas of attack iv possible. Else dey should jump out of sector asap after releasin' a vew fighter drones.But that'd be risky.We only 'av a rag-tag ov fighters at de moment,and dey would get jood up by de Qs in no toim.An' we don't have much else other than de Hoshi, Dragon an' Hydra....Well dun down there wid de new 'plex.Oi agree wid you. max out te crystals an' zend a zurvey party out te vind another zector as near as pozzible dat can give us crystals,either by trade or build. Meanwhile I wan' dose reports . I 'av sum thinkin' to do."

"aye sir"....the Comms screen went blank again.

It was nearly time for his weekly report back home. Everything seemed to be going well...too well. Now loosing ships to the Xenon...not good. Crystal supplies getting low...not good. Ore production going well, but transporting it was another matter...just too slow.

And as much as he liked Mahi Ma, there always seemed to be something else needed when he thought he could go to the Argon Senate as requested.

"Ideas...Oi need fresh ideas on 'ow te git thin's rollin' smoother..." he was muttering to himself when the door opened. He was so deep in thought he had not heard the tap at the door.

Anna looked round the door and Norman put his now cold coffee on his desk and looked up enquiringly .

"like a fresh one?" she asked.

"No. Not roight noo.What can Oi do fer you?"

"Just that you were missed at evening meal, so I thought I'd see you were ok and say thankyou."

" Oh Oim ok. Just at a loss roight noo.Got to roight moi report back home an' things are not as good as they look on the surface. Oi need a little advice from the Trader's Guild, but I ain't toim to go there.....Did Dermot listen?"

"oh he listened alright.He said his life is his work is his life. But I made it clear that if he wants me to stay in the same capacity in work, he had had better come to his senses or I shall look for another posting."

"zo 'ow did 'ee respond?"

"He said that he will have time to consider all that after the meeting with the Senate. So I'll give him until then.As for your problem, the answer is in front of you Norman."

"you? How can you help? You're a scientist, not a trader."

"No I said in front of you, not stood before you. Put out a general enquirey to all traders. You never know.You might recruit some good hands."

"I'll do that as soon as you leave. I'll join the team for supper. Just to let them know I am still around."

Anna left after making a fresh coffee for Norman as he typed his general request into his terminal.

Some time later,as he was about to go for supper,the Comms screen lit up.It was his construction manager again.

"Good news sir."

"Oi 'ope so. Your reports are somewhat disturbing so far as I've read."

"There's a place not many sectors from here that the Split Strong Arms HQ is located in. My recon scout reports there are a number of silicon 'roids there with at least three over 35y, one of which is over 50 yeald sir. It seems well protected too.we could do an open loop, buying in or just relocating supplies of energy,Thus concentrating on crystal production."

"Well it's always noice te end a day on good noos.See to it as soon as you 'av vinished de current 'plex."

The next morning Norman awoke bright and cheerful. Maybe he can make his report seem better than it appears, he thought. All he has to do is forget to mention a few things...like the Q, for example. The problem is...would his uncle see through it all? And how to explain his diminished funds? ...but of course, you can't build state-of-the-art factories without spending much more than normal. Then there's all the excess spent on getting them running from nothing to full production.

Yes ... maybe today will be better.

It had been getting better. The complex in the UK sector south of him now had the Crystal Fabs introduced, using the new experimental technology. ...It had been getting better... But when the construction manager tried to order some more Bofu and Bio Gas stations to complete the complex he was shocked when told there were not enough credits!

Some of his freighter captains were spending too much time in the bars on "standby" instead of going to another sector.

A quick reminder of how cold the ship gets with the airlock open and suddenly they seemed to find some work to do. Funny that!

Next: Continued
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