“Trade in itself has its own difficulties. We use a digital currency, which is exchange rated for each Imperium member. We’d need to establish some sort of exchange currency with you before any trade could commence.”
“I believe that has already been discussed with some of your people, and is being considered on both sides. And it also provides me with a reason for this meeting. As head controller for the station, it falls to me to ensure ships docking here have the right connections, and pay the appropriate fees. So for now, our meetings today have been about these issues, and the possibility of one of your trading ships making a visit here to ensure trading is actually possible. Can you set that up?”
“Me? No. But I will pass on the request. It should be possible in a day or two, depending on the outcome of today.”
“Good. I will start the process of allowing Imperium ships to dock, and see what objections arise. Before anything else, I need permission to allow you to dock, and since your military vessels are no longer docked here, any further dockings must have appropriate approval.”
“Of course.”
Bureaucracy was everywhere.
“Thank you for your assistance. I will see myself out.”
“You’re welcome. I’ll send word when I have any.”
The flower bobbed, and it turned and walked away, although Tamsin had to open the door for it. It was still more than a little unsteady.
“Was that plant drunk?” I asked Serena.
She laughed, nodding.
Thirteen
Serena had already eaten down on the main deck.
She led me to where I could get a late lunch, after I’d sent a message to Tollin about organizing a trader visit. On the way to where she told me some really good food was located, we went past kiosks from many different worlds. One of the kiosks was Ralnor, and it was packed. There was even a couple of Ralnor working it, and they were getting as much attention as their food was. The big cats had sent several kiosks, and while not as popular, were still attracting a lot of attention.
The Ralnor bar was also packed, as was the Wyvern bar. Not all the bars were however. The America bar was only lightly patronized, and the Australian one wasn’t much better off. I paused near both of them, wondering why.
“The American beer is very lightweight,” said Leanne. “And while the Australian beers have double the alcohol content, something they call Fosters isn’t being received all that well. Which is not all that surprising, since I’ve heard some of the pilots call it ‘panther’s piss’ in comparison with wyvern beer.”
“What do the panthers think about it?” asked Serena, clearly enjoying herself.
“As far as I know, they’ve not heard the comparison yet.”
“Might be an idea to make sure they don’t,” I added. “Do they have their own beers?”
“Not beer. Something different I understand. Metunga might know the differences.”
He’d never commented about alcohol as far as I knew. And come to think of it, the last thing we needed was a drunk big cat.
“The same bars downstairs are doing the opposite,” said Tamsin.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“The plants prefer Fosters over all the beers, the American beers next, and the Wyvern beers last.”
“Why is that?” asked Serena, before I could.
“Probably the same reason. Alcohol content and taste. American bourbon is really popular with everyone though, but more than a few drops really seems to affect the plants.”
“Maybe we should be bombing them with bourbon instead of shooting them?” laughed Serena.
I couldn’t stop myself joining in, and with the four of us chuckling, we moved on to find me some food. The place Serena took me too turned out to be something called Chinese. I vaguely recalled there was an Imperium member called China, but not realized their food was available outside their area of space. When I mentioned that, Leanne informed me the Imperator was very partial to it, and had standing invitations to quite a few of the restaurants now scattered through the Imperium stations.
By the time I’d finished sampling the dishes, I understood why Serena had brought me here, and also why the Imperator ate it regularly. I enquired about how to get a bulk order suitable for ships, and was simply told to have my ship AI put in an order. I enquired about payment, and was told it could be arranged to be part of the normal ship allocation which the Imperium paid for, or if just for personal consumption, it could be billed individually. I left Leanne there to organize an order just for the two of us, billed to me. It wasn’t as if I was short of money or anything, and needed to be fed only by the Imperium military setup.
Which reminded me to actually check on what the Wyvern were providing now. It turned out they did barbeque really well. Although I suspected it was the dragons which did the barbequing more often than not. All the same, the meat was different, and very tasty, so I told Leanne to go there next, and do another order with them. Technically they were not yet an Imperium member, but they had a full trading agreement in place.
Oddly enough, the coffee kiosk was almost empty. Every single instance of human like life had its own version of coffee. But apparently no-one else in the galaxy shared the taste for it.
But the chocolate kiosk next door was full, and had lines well out into the passageway.
On the way back, we stopped at the wyvern bar, and tasted just about everything they had on display. Even taking sips, by the time we finished, both of us had to put the alcohol suppressor in primary mode, and needed meds to dull the pain of burnt mouths and throats. But the tastes were worth it. I had Leanne order us in a selection, not so much for general use, although a pallet of beer was on the order, but for dinner parties.
I hadn't realized Serena was thinking about dinner parties, but technically the captain could invite anyone for dinner in the special dining room, and such times should be accompanied by appropriate lubrication. And as flagship, Judge needed to be able to entertain properly.
We also stopped at the American bar, and tried their bourbon, but I didn’t find it to my taste. Not far along was a British bar, and they had a whole range of what they called whiskey, which also did nothing for me. But they also had a number of fine liqueurs, which I did like. I listened to a sales person with what sounded like a broken translator, which Leanne told me was in fact the Scot dialect, trying to convince a rat to buy a series of liqueurs to go with a list of cocktail recipes.
Downstairs we found plants with so many variations and flower colours, I began wondering if Trixone was just the name for an intelligent plant, and in fact they had so many species variations they didn’t bother telling anyone about them due to the extreme complication of differentiating them. Leanne thought that was a good insight, and sent it to Jane for consideration. She then proceeded to talk about the thousands of rose species from spine systems, some going all the way back to homeworld Earth, until I told her to shut up about it.
All in all, I think I enjoyed the afternoon on Diplomat more than I would have on the planet the rest of team had remained on. Mentioning that proved to be a bad idea as well, as Leanne mentioned it was now being called Sanctuary, and I had to shut her up again before she went on and on about what was being found there.