All That Glitters Ch. 52

Pallet after pallet of medical equipment came off the shuttles coming up from the planet, bringing joy to Lannat Claren, who was the one who had negotiated this particular contract for the Harradi government. This one was a simple freight haulage as the cargo had already been paid for by the Harradi. Caye didn't mind as they were going that way and it added to their profit margin.

Alya noticed something on the manifest and stopped some cargo for inspection.

"What's up, Alya?" Caye and Mind asked, coming into the cargo shuttle bay.

"This particular company has been involved with some sketchy deals in the past. I wanted to make sure that we were bringing prime material to the Harradi and not things that are questionable," Alya replied as she looked into the boxes. Suspicious, they called the ship's corpsman, and had him take a look. He thought that the material did not look new. A little more checking verified that the products were second-hand at best.

"We need to take this back down to the shuttle port; however, we are going to get into a shouting match with the employees of Regent's Equipment. We need to be prepared," Alya explained and headed to her cabin. She emerged forty minutes later with the ammunition she needed for her encounter.

"I'll take the corpsman with me and meet a representative from the Malihan hospital at the shuttle port. They can confirm if the material is up to par or not. Between us and Customs, I can use that to force the hand of this company," Alya told them.

Alya went down with the pallets of material and waited for the doctor from Malihan Hospital, who showed up not long after.

"Good day, would you be Alya Garrant?" a more mature woman asked, approaching the shuttle.

"I would be, are you Dr. Holdar?" Alya asked in return.

"Yes. Heyya said you had a problem?" Morina asked after formal introductions.

"Yes. This company is known for providing shady goods from time to time. I have a list of such occurrences on my comp. However, we need someone with experience to confirm our suspicions," Alya explained.

They opened some of the packages in the presence of some of the customs officials and Morina shook her head. "I recognize some of this stuff. It is material that we have recently retired. It still has stickers for Malihan Hospital on some of the equipment, they didn't even take the time to properly clean this stuff. This is not second or even third rate equipment; this is material that should have been scrapped."

"That's what I was afraid of. What are my options?" Alya asked of the customs officials.

"You can make a formal complaint to the customs bureau, but that will take a few weeks to resolve," the Customs Officer replied. "We know Dr. Holdar so her report will help us out but this will take time."

"Time that we do not have as we would like to leave this afternoon," Alya explained to the Customs Officer. "Can you recommend another provider for us?" Alya asked of Customs and Dr. Holdar.

"I can," Morina replied. "We have just closed down the medical items from our latest operation, the one where our navy raided the Alliance. Much of the equipment was never used, still on its original pallets. They can replace all of this at a much better cost and probably provide you with more as well."

She gave them the contact number for the office and Alya contacted the ship with the news. She waited for half an hour before another shuttle landed with Caye and Lannat aboard. The four went off to the offices of Pallavi Equipment with one of the customs officials in tow.

"Good day, you are the party I just spoke to?" Jason Pallavi asked as the group walked into his office.

"Yes, I am Alya Garrant of The House of Ur Trading Company. This is Caye-Ur, our lead, Lannat Claren of the Hallat Corporation of the Harradi, and our ship's Corpsman, Registered Nurse Mark Eliot. We purchased some items from Regent's Equipment. It wasn't what we were expecting," Alya explained.

"Ah, I understand. They do have a rep," Jason mused. "What is it you are looking for?"

"Well, we have a cargo bay that is only partly filled with medical equipment earmarked for the Harradi. But, we would like to take them the items they requested," Caye-Ur explained. "We heard that you are taking surplus from a recent military operation, much of the material is relatively new?"

"Most never been opened actually," Jason answered. "You can get some prime equipment at a discount price simply because it was part of an operational preparedness package. These packages have to be replaced every few years.

"We haven't even had time to post this on our website. When we do, we will sell this stuff immediately, especially to colony worlds," Jason informed them.

"How much stuff are we talking about?" Caye wanted to know.

"Eight hundred metric tons of just about everything, from bandages to field hospitals to fully operational portable surgery suites," Jason explained, showing the items on his comp.

Caye went through the lists with growing excitement. "How much to purchase the lot?" Caye suddenly asked.

"One hundred and fifty-eight million credits," Jason replied. "That gives us a ten percent markup."

"Acceptable. Do you have a place to store what we cannot take today?" Caye demanded.

"We can leave it right where it is. Most of it is in temperature controlled buildings. Each building holds twenty tons of equipment. The remainder is under tarps but those are mostly medical tents and portable specialty units such as dental units and surgeries, things that can weather being outside," Jason said. "If you can remove it in the next six months, I won't even charge you for storage fees. After that, I will be bidding on more surplus items and will need my storage buildings to process it all."

"Done," Caye replied instantly. "I'll have a bank draft for you within the hour."

"What? Cash payment?" Jason sat up straighter at that.

"Yes, but you will need to help Lannat here to sort out his required load," Caye stated. "Then we will take as much material as we can to fill up our hold for this trip out. Our next time back, we will bring more of the portable hospitals and surgeries out. I have clients for those."

"Not a problem. All of our storage is accessible. We can select whatever you want to bring out if we have it," Jason replied immediately.

Lannat sent him the list and they got right on to moving material to pallets ready for transport, the customs official watching carefully and noting the transfers.

Caye was back quickly, handing the bank draft to a very pleased Jason Pallavi. "You need anything else, you let me know. I have all kinds of stuff that I take on as surplus. Some of it is older, but all of it is serviceable," he advised them. Caye took his business information so that she could go through his items. Three hours later, they were ready to ship the first pallets to the shuttle port.

That's when the smelly stuff hit the fan, as the rep for Regent's Equipment was there screaming at the customs officers.

"What do you mean it was returned?" the rep shouted.

"The material was found not to be satisfactory to the client. They shipped it back down to us. You are the originator. You need to take it away. If you do not, we will remove it to a dump and charge you for the shipping costs," the Customs Officer replied, rather testily.

"This is good quality material," the rep responded.

"Don't try to bullshit me, sir! I was there when they opened the pallets. We had a senior doctor from Malihan Hospital who recognized some of the stickers still on the equipment. That shit is more than twenty years old and was meant for scrap not resale! You will remove this material at your cost, one way or the other!" Customs insisted.

"I will take them to court!" the rep shouted.

"You do that, sir. In the meantime, get this crap out of my customs shop!"

Behind the action, the crew of The Piscium was quietly certifying the load for their shuttle. "What about the money we paid them?" Lannat asked.

"Your buyer was advised to not give payment until they received the material, same as we do. If they did that, we can place a stop payment on their items. If they didn't then we will likely not get your money back without a day in court, and they will likely drag out that date to their benefit," Alya advised.

They got the required load back to the ship then started filling the hold. By the end of the day, they had an additional eighty tons of medical material packed into the ship, most of which would be suitable to be used by at least half the members of the Greater Community.

Caye called up Heyya. "Just like you said, Heyya. Dr. Holdar knows her shit. She confirmed that the material was not supposed to have been resold.

"She even gave me the name of a reputable wholesaler who is trying to sell off material from the raid on the Alliance. There is tons of material here. If you need anything for the hospital, you let me know. I will give it to you at cost," Caye ended, sending Heyya the list of available materials. Heyya practically had an orgasm when she read through the list...

The Piscium Family Apartment L-1229, Lima Deck, Liramor-23, The Piscium System

Junelliya received a call from Professor Aghavni Akopyan, who she remembered from Denders Resort, the next afternoon.

"Hi, Junelliya. I know that you have a very capable ship of your own. Can I convince you to meet me at Malton University here on Terra?" Aghavni asked.

"I suppose that can be arranged. Is there a reason for this?" Junelliya asked.

"Yes. Xavier sent me your comparative study forms and the draft of your dissertation. From what we see on the forms, you can easily be given a by on a Baccalaureate, and possibly a Masters in Music. Having read your draft of your dissertation 'A Comparative Study of Music Between The Greater Community'...Junelliya, this is Doctorate level material. No one is doing that right now. You are not only the first to be attempting it, from what I see, you are doing some exceptional work in this field. Your Doctorates would be almost guaranteed.

"I need you to come in-person because the Dean of Faculty is a fan of yours from your sessions in Paris. She will be thrilled if we ask her in person and will be more likely to agree to our request in your presence," Aghavni replied with a wink.

"Is that fair?" Junelliya asked, getting a laugh from Aghavni.

"Oh, more than fair, Junelliya. You don't know how much I have had to listen to her over the last few weeks since she saw your performance in Paris. I haven't told her that I met you at Denders and even played with you and your children. I would suggest you bring your instrument. I am sure she will ask," Aghavni told her.

"Hanalei, do we have anything going on?" Junelliya asked.

"No, but I don't think Fayad will be able to get away this time," Hanalei told her mate.

"We will only be gone for the day. Do we bring the children?" Junelliya asked.

"Oh, please do. I love those two little darlings," Aghavni said from the monitor, getting laughter from the two mothers.

"Ok. How does the day after tomorrow sound?" Hanalei asked.

That was acceptable.

SSP The Piscium, Parking Orbit, Liramor-23, The Piscium System

The ship briefly stopped at Liramor-23 to drop off five thousand frozen turkeys and eight hundred fresh ones to The Wanderer, the fresh turkeys were a gift to the ships from Caye-Ur.

"I believe that the Asocan will love turkey," Caye-Ur told Raymond. "Cook up the fresh ones. One turkey to one Asocan for the extra hungry Asocans, who tend to be fasting more because of the ongoing stress.

"We can cook up a few turkeys and cut them up as required for the other member species," Caye finished

"Yes, that sounds interesting," Raymond admitted, smiling. "Five thousand will not last long on a one bird one Asocan basis."

"My source can provide around five thousand frozen every month, if we decide we like them," Caye explained to him.

"Tonight's supper will be interesting," Raymond said.

The supper lived up to its billing, with Riley living up to her reputation as a Master Chef. A medium-sized turkey was just the right amount of meat for fasting Asocans, while one turkey served many mouths of the other member races. Overall, the turkey dinners were a great hit. Caye-Ur got her endorsement and contacted her source on Hollander's World, they would have a regular run to Liramor-23.

Main Campus of Malton University, Capital City, Terra, The Sol System

Hanalei, Junelliya, the children, Takebayashi Urano, Clarrisiya, Sylvie Kinlo, and Violletiya, stepped out of The Trine two days after their discussion to be met by Professor Akopyan, who happily hugged the two children and all the adults.

"I am glad that you came, Junelliya. This should be an interesting meeting," Aghavni told them.

With one of the ship's general duty personnel to carry her Luttrell and the children's Ukulele, they made their way to the offices of the Dean of Faculty, entering the office as a group.

"Good morning, Samantha. I have a special request of you, if you wouldn't mind," Aghavni began. "I need dispensation for a student who has exceeded expectations for music and who wishes to go directly to a Doctorates-level degree.

"Her experience levels have been attested to by Professor Xavier Kuaté and myself. She also has a draft of her doctorate level dissertation for review," Aghavni finished, placing the documents in front of her boss.

"What is so special about this person, Professor Akopyan?" Professor Wiccans demanded. She briefly ran through the printouts before her, seeing the attestations from both professors. "I assume she is competent in music?"

"She has already trained several high level musicians, Samantha. You might recognize her," Aghavni said with a conspiratorial smile.

Professor Wiccan finally looked away from her compatriot and studied the group of women behind Aghavni for the first time. Her eyes lit on Junelliya and instant recognition bloomed in them. "Is that..." she began, only to be cut off by Aghavni.

"Professor Samantha Wiccan, I would introduce Dame Hanalei Anar of Liramor-23 fame, her children, and her much more famous mate, Dame Junelliya Atohan Harlan, of Paris fame," she told her now very shocked boss.

"Have you done an audition yet," Samantha asked, after catching her breath.

"Not yet, but she has brought her instrument," Aghavni told her boss.

"Me too!" Ikekiya exclaimed, followed by a "Me!" from Zarreniya.

"Ah, yes, the children have brought their Ukulele. They love to sing," Aghavni gave a conspiratorial wink to her boss, who smiled broadly at the thought of the little tykes singing.

She picked up the dissertation and looked at the title, instantly sitting up a little straighter. She opened it to the list of chapters, reading those titles. She flipped between them briefly looking at the work within.

"This is a draft?" Samantha asked.

"Oh, yes. But it is far from finished," Junelliya admitted. The two professors shared a look. They knew the type, the student who could never finalize a paper because she was always adding more to it.

"We will let your advisor help you decide that, Junelliya, IF, we decide to grant you dispensation," Samantha stated, but Junelliya could feel empathically that Samantha was all for providing that grant. Instead, she gave a short bow of her head and humbly thanked the Dean of Faculty for considering her application.

"We will need five members of the Music Faculty to assess a Doctorate level candidate's audition," Samantha stated. "I am sure that we will get that and much more."

"Yes and, in addition, I expect that many of the students in our summer program will wish to be present at the audition, Aghavni replied. "We can be ready in forty minutes in the main auditorium of the music faculty," she told her boss, getting a nod in return.

Aghavni called ahead. She already had everything in place and just needed to alert those involved. She took the group directly to the auditorium and placed Junelliya and her party on the stage, with Junelliya at center stage. The auditorium was already filling up.

Junelliya opened her Luttrell and began to carefully tune it. The children picked up on their mother's mood and tuned their Ukulele while trying to maintain a more serious air about themselves. The audience cooed and giggled at their antics as the children made themselves ready.

Finally, the Dean of Faculty came into the auditorium with five members of the Faculty of Music. She addressed the audience.

"Today, we have a special audition by Dame Junelliya Atohan Harlan, who is applying to Malton University for a Doctorates degree in music. Mrs. Harlan must play and sing for a minimum of thirty minutes in order to complete her assessment.

"The Faculty of Music professors, minus Professor Akopyan, who is acting as Mrs. Harlan's representative, will make the assessment. The remainder of us are just here to listen. I am sure that it will be an enjoyable audition as Mrs. Harlan's reputation precedes her." Samantha turned and nodded to Junelliya.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Dame Junelliya Atohan Harlan of Notre Dame de Paris fame," the audience politely applauded as Junelliya took a short bow. She sat and began to play.

The level of her musical ability was instantly recognizable as that of a very skilled performer. Junelliya went through several Anuuran songs and even a few more recognizable contemporary songs in Standard, her voice the perfect counterpart of her instrument.

At one point, she started singing an Anuuran festival song and the two children joined in, singing and playing their Ukulele. The children then began to sing a Byandi song while Junelliya played background music for them. The audience was surprised by the difference in music styles. While it was not unpleasant, it was certainly identifiable as non-human music. That the children could sing the song so well was a surprise to those who had not previously seen their performances.

The children then began to stomp and play the Asocan bar song they had learned at Denders. They ended their song with 'mighty' roars to the chuckles and cheers of the watching crowd.

Junelliya sang a few more songs then went into what was becoming her signature song, the Pod-Drran Song of Life, singing it in the ancient Pod-Drran dialect.

As always, Junelliya pushed her power into the song, showing with her voice, her instrument and her power, a new mother's joy of new life. The audience was mesmerized. When she finished, there was a full half-minute pause before they rose in a standing ovation for Junelliya and her two children.

The children ran to their mother and gave her hugs and kisses as she knelt to take them into her embrace. "You do good, mommy," Zarreniya said.

"We all did," Junelliya said, giving a big hug to her two children. They then stood and bowed to the audience.

After a few moments, the Dean of Faculty rose and requested silence while the professors of the Faculty of Music deliberated over Junelliya's audition but the audience knew full well that they had just witnessed a superior musical performance, one that they might never again see in their lifetimes.

The music professors too, recognized a superior performance, especially when the instrument used was not supposed to be capable of the kinds of interpretations that Junelliya had performed. They rendered their decision to the Dean who strode up onto the stage.

"Dame Harlan, we would like to thank you for your audition. We are grateful that you took time out of your schedule to be here with us today," the Dean acknowledged, getting applause from the crowd.

"Not only you, but your charming children as well," the Dean gushed, getting laughter from around the auditorium while the two children waved and blew kisses.