All That Glitters Ch. 49

"The new ship can make the same trip inside of three hours from Terra. We will have The Piscium early next week. We are currently arranging for a cargo for the vessel. We will be delivering to the Asocans server units suitable for a planetary population of fifteen billion and various models of comps for sale on the order of hundreds of thousands of each model.

"You may have noticed when you purchased your units that there are different levels of capabilities for the comps, the more expensive the comp, the more capable it will be though there are some models, those designed for specific trades, which will be more capable in those trades specific requirements even at the lower end of the price scale," Caye finished.

"Right, what we need to do now is determine how to establish a planetary server grid for each of the worlds of the Harradi," Liea said. "We then will need to determine the number of comps that we will provide. We would prefer an exclusive trade agreement between your company and ours but we cannot stop other companies from attempting to contact the Harradi and providing cargo for your people or making agreements with other trading companies. The difference between us and them is that we will be providing the servers and can move our products much quicker than they can, for now.

"We will have that advantage until the Ur Class goes on public sale for other trading companies in the Union. With the jump capacity that the Ur Class will have, there is really only one market to justify the price of the vessel, that of the Greater Community.

"I expect that we will have an exclusive contract with the Greater Community for up to four years. After that, Union companies will be purchasing much more capable vessels and the Greater Community will be building their own cargo ships.

"In the time that we have, we need to establish markets that we can keep after the member races begin to build their own ships," Liea finished.

"Our trading company can assist you there," Freldlam stated. "We have just finished creating such a structure in Harradi space. We can use our own companies blueprint to establish an exclusive market once we determine what that market should be and can even handle it through the Hallat Corporation's businesses."

"There will be some hard bargaining over the next week, then," Caye said with a smile. "However, we can offer you excellent terms that you will find very lucrative for the Hallat Corporation. It is easier for us to let you do the business on Harradi worlds while we move the cargo. Our two companies will find profit working hand-in-hand."

That comment brought a smile from the two Harradi.

************

The first inkling of a problem started when angry dark clouds swept in off the ocean just after lunch. Sylvie sent out a weather advisory via the comp net, advising guests to stay near protection.

Thirty minutes after she sent out the advisory, she was notified by the local weather net that a severe storm was headed her way. She immediately sent out a weather alert, telling people to head to shelter.

The Asocans were the furthest away from shelter as many were lounging in the swamps to the north of the resort. Some were reluctant to leave and held out until they realized that there were only a handful of Asocans in the swamp. They finally made their way to the showers and to the different resort lounges just as the first of the winds came in.

The winds picked up quickly, going from a mild breeze to hundred km winds within ten minutes of the onset of the storm, rain coming in sheets pushed by the fierce winds.

The lounges, normally open to the breeze, had their clear plasteel windows slid into place at the first alert. Now, excited guests watched in fascination as the fierce storm slammed into those windows. The rain was so strong that you could not see more than a meter outside.

Bright flashes of lightning lit the entire resort as the sound of thunder scared more than a few guests.

In the daycare, the staff was working to help calm the children, some of whom were experiencing their first ever very strong storm. Some of the children watched in fascination, jumping at each flash of lightning and boom of thunder. Other children buried their heads in the arms of the staff.

Ikekia and Zarrenia both picked up a plasticine ukulele and began to play the songs that they had been taught over the last few days. That seemed to cheer the children up, though some would not venture very far from the arms of the caregivers...

The storm blew itself out after a fierce hour and the staff began the cleanup and to do a damage check of the resort. Not long after, things returned to normal as the guests once again began to enjoy themselves, talking eagerly about the storm. For many of the Greater Community guests, it was unlike any storm they had ever seen before. They had images that would fascinate friends and family on their respective home worlds. Something else that would make Denders a must attend resort.

Denders Farm, Denders Resort, Terra, The Sol System

"We need to check on the farm," Hanalei said after the storm blew itself out.

She, Junelliya, Fayad, Violletiya, Liea, Kim, Caye-Ur, and Sylvie Triand all walked over to the area of the farm. Hanalei expected to see major damage to the site as they approached. Instead, it appeared as if the farm had not been in a storm at all.

"What in the God's names has happened here?" Hanalei asked of no one in particular.

"Good day, Lady Anar," a familiar figure said as they approached the farm.

"Hello again, Hern Grad Kidrass. You need not be so formal. You may call me Hanalei if you will allow me to call you by your name, Grad," Hanalei replied.

"I would be remiss if I was so informal with my employer, Lady Anar," Grad Kidrass replied in turn.

"You are the Hern, the leader of this group, Grad Kidrass, as I am the leader of my own group. Your employment is to the Resort, and not specifically to me," Hanalei stated. "Hanalei is fine with me."

"Very well then, Hanalei. I am pleased to see you once again. If not for you, we would not have had employment here for the last year. This is a good place to work with plenty of opportunities for some play as well.

"My team especially likes the new attractions at the resort's amusement park," Grad told them with a smile. "We seldom get to work at a location that provides such pleasures to us."

"I am pleased that you like this position," Hanalei told him. "What happened here? It appears as if the storm simply went around the farm."

"Effectively, it did," Grad replied. "We have a new type of weather shield that was being tested here. I think it worked very well."

"Ok, you will have to let us know a little more than that," Liea interjected.

"A scientist named Dr. Aruna contacted us and said that she had a new type of weather shield she wanted to try out. She had been in touch with one of the managers of the resort and wanted to install the shield to protect the farm," Grad explained.

"First I have heard of it," Sylvie stated.

"Yes, this was something done through Walter Grieves, the General Manager of the resort," Grad explained. "As this was a test bed for the shield, he had to give his blessing on this test. This is a modification of the Gara-Hinn ship force field."

"Wait, aren't the Gara-Hinn confined to small locations like the entrance to shuttle bays of large ships?" Junelliya asked.

"Define small," Caye said. "The entrance to one of the Man-Jays is quite large, several hundred meters in length. If the Gara-Hinn was not blocking a one-sided atmospheric push, it could cover a much larger area, like this farm."

The group looked around. It was obvious that the farm had grown since last year.

"How much area is covered by this new shield?" Liea asked.

"Over forty hectares in human terms," Grad replied.

"That is more than double what we had last year!" Hanalei exclaimed.

"We have not been idle while we have been working here," Grad explained, a pleased smile on his face for having surprised Hanalei.

"Indeed. I knew about the expansion, but I also see that you have much more water than you need for just the farm," Sylvie said, looking around.

"Yes. One of the bigger issues for Denders was the desalination process for the ocean water," Grad explained. "It is costly to desalinate before you send the results through the water purification system. We have opened up several more conversion pools in order to supply Denders resort with more purified water. Denders is drawing water from the new water ponds to send to the purification system so the resort does not have to desalinate the water anymore. The total costs of water purification have now been significantly reduced according to the GM."

"Really? Why is that not included in the cost figures of Denders?" Hanalei asked, looking specifically at Sylvie, who gave her a nod of understanding.

"Has something happened?" Grad asked. "Have we done wrong?"

"Not on your part, Grad," Sylvie reassured him. "However, the GM has some explaining to do. Please keep that to yourself until we do some checking, Grad. It may be that there is nothing going on, however, we are a little sensitive about money not being mentioned in reports since the discovery of the money diversion scheme of last year."

"Regardless, if this weather shield can protect an area of forty hectares from the storm that just blew through here, that is significant," Liea stated. "It looks like Anura Laboratories has another winner. Can you imagine this being sold to farmers all over the Greater Community to protect against adverse weather?"

"Yes, but why did she do the testing here instead of on Liramor Prime?" Caye asked the obvious question.

Junelliya barked out a laugh. "Denders has a big name now all around the Union and the Greater Community. It sounds to me like Ohi wants to be able to spend some time in a resort without having to pay big money for it. Can you imagine her and her team coming in to show off this new shield and bringing in people from all over to do it?

"We have accommodations suitable for all member races of the Greater Community. A large farm that needed protection that shows off the capabilities of her new product. It's the perfect situation for a little getaway."

That brought laughter from the group as they could indeed see Ohi doing something like that.

"Ohi owes us an explanation," Hanalei said with a smile. She opened her comp and contacted Jean Dumont, her financial adviser. She had to get some answers in order to protect the resort...

End of chapter forty-nine.

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