Chapter 4

I am not sure why I didn't notice it before. It was an information chip, which could be read by any standard reader. Jamal had left me something, and it was a lot more than what our old friendship called for. So the question was, why?

I was six days in hyper (just three light years from the station), when I found the chip. The only person who had been in the ship besides Nevil and I, had been Jamal, and the spot where I had found the chip, was a place I had already cleaned after Nevil had left.

It had been interesting reading. It also had several video captures of meetings between very recognizable people. They were making deals that if the public knew... well, let's just say that more than a couple of careers would be over. From the look of the video, it had been done on the sly.

What really shook me was the section where the Terran Federation's Secretary of Energy gave a speech on the stock piled reserves of power metals in the Federation, as opposed to stock piles on other worlds.

I had been shocked to learn that the Federation was getting short of power metals. I made a note to stock up on fuel cores for my ship, when I got back. As it was, I only had one in reserve, thinking there was plenty to go around.

The long and short of it was that the Terran Federation and these member nations would take over the disputed planet from the PU, before the PU knew what was happening. Then everyone at that conference would share in the distribution of the power metals.

Since Jamal gave me this 'evidence', I am assuming that the PU already knew about this possible take over. The PU was very powerful. They had several good sources of power metals, other than the disputed world. But they would fight to keep their investment safe.

The first two systems I explored were a bust. While I found some minerals, there was nothing to draw anyone's interest in coming out here to mine. I made very thorough and detailed scan of the system, as I did for each system I explored.

It was the beginning of my third month into the trip, that I had my first bit of excitement. An asteroid belt yielded some very interesting readings for power metals! That was high on my list of priorities.

I took samples from several sources. Preliminary results looked very good! My first trip out, and if I was right, I had made a find that a mining company might be interested in developing!

One large asteroid tested very high in content for power metals. I also had found traces of silver, gold, copper, zinc, titanium, uranium, iron, and nickel in other asteroids. Yes, this asteroid belt was definitely worth developing!

I spent several days cautiously approaching several different asteroids. I took many core samples. I documented the site, time, and location, and stored my samples. Not bad at all for a first trip out. Unfortunately, that was the only excitement I had until I was getting ready to head back.

I had a decision to make: where to head back to. The station I had left was a good place to re-supply, but to get this system developed? No. I had to go to a world, or an organization, that could make something of my find if I decided to sell it.

I had the AI bring up all worlds within my cruising range that had mining and developmental interests. I found one that was almost at the end of my cruising range, with the on board supplies I carried.

Raintree had been settled a couple hundred years ago, and was part of the League of Planets. Listed at Raintree also, was a class 'A' spacedock, with accompanying facilities. Several mining firms (which I was very interested in) had people there, too.

I had the ship set a course for Raintree, and considered my luck. How many people went out, and never discovered anything close to what I had just come across? Most exploration was done by large companies that made their money charting and mapping the galaxy, or by governments.

I settled into a routine for the trip back. I also went over and over the chip, trying to wring out any further information I could get. I called up all the news reports that my ship had copied, at my last port.

I made a copy of the chip. I had decided I would keep the original one, but I would keep it off-ship. While I still had faith in my government, I was also privy to some of the past special ops that they had ordered; having, myself, been involved in several covert operations when I was in the Marines.

I was going to give the copy to a representative to my government. I was a loyal member, after all. I wondered if that was why Jamal had given me this copy to begin with. It was hard to know, since I had not had contact with him since my last active duty in the Marines, over 10 years ago.

There is nothing so boring as space flight when you're by yourself. I made myself as busy as possible, but it was still boring. I considered placing myself into cold sleep, but while it was safe to do, there was still that statistical 2 percent that never awakened.

There was also a large blank spot on the star charts, between where I went into hyper and Raintree. So I worked my way back into civilized space. I was very happy to finally break out into Raintree space. It took only 3 hours to get docked at Prime One Station, and to have customs do their once over.

I put both copies of the chip in my belt pouch, and went into the station proper to do business. The first thing I did was stop at the Interstellar Banking Consortium. I deposited one of my 10,000 credit chips. That established credit for me. I also got a 'safe deposit box', and placed the chip that Jamal gave to me into it. The Interstellar Banking Consortium was very good with customer's privacy. They did not bow to political pressures by any government, including the Terran Federation.

Raintree was not in Terran Federated space, nor in any other large political entities space, save for The League of Planets, so I knew my chip was safe in this bank. My next stop would be planet-side: a visit to the Terran Embassy.

But that would happen only after I found a laboratory to run my samples, and list them with developers. I was about to enter the world of speculation, on a scale and of a type I had never known before. As always, it was an exciting and exhilarating thing.

It didn't take long to transfer my core samples to one of the three labs here on the station. I also made arrangements for a firm to start refurbishing my ship. This included moving it from its current location to a section of the shipyards. I paid a price so high, that I wanted to scream! I knew that there were expenses involved in my new profession, but shit!

I sighed as I made my way to the ticket agency, to get a seat on the next shuttle to the planet. While I waited, I paid for a news feed, and went through the listed headlines.

Tensions were running high between the Terran Federation, and the Peoples Union. Well, imagine that. There was posturing all around, with accusations of treachery from both sides.