Finally, after a good few minutes of calming them down, they were at least able to converse with without freaking out.
Incidentally, I noted that the smuggler captain looked pretty young, probably in his early twenties or even late teens with sandy brown hair and piercing blue eyes without a shred of gene or cybernetic mod on him.
"So, once again... I’m going to ask this... What do you want to do with the turtle?"
The smuggler captain shuddered, "I... Don’t think we can deal with having that creature on the ship anymore..."
Guess they really got traumatised by the turtle... I have a feeling the turtle might have killed a few of them in retaliation for attacking it and seeing a huge lumbering creature that you can’t do anything to stop moving towards you must have done sothing to their ntality.
I raised an eyebrow at him, "So... You want us to shoot it out of the airlock?"
He opened his mouth as though to agree to my suggestion but then quickly snapped his mouth shut.
The smuggler then brought out his personal terminal and started scrolling through it for a mont.
His face then went a little pale before he turned to , "Umm... You said that you are a rc, correct?"
I narrowed my eyes, "Yes? Why?"
"You have your own ship, right? A ship with a cargo bay that can fit that creature?"
I crossed my arms, "Are you telling to take that turtle with ? Why would I want it?"
He shook his head, "No, no... I... Umm... As you might know... I’m supposed to be transporting that creature sowhere, right?"
"More specifically, you were smuggling it sowhere."
He grimaced at my words, "Well... I suppose that is a way to describe it... But basically I need to transport it to a certain place for a certain person... And that person would very much prefer if this monster remains alive..."
"Not those other creatures that we wiped out?"
"Umm... No... That goes to soone else but... That’s not important. The more important thing is that unkillable monster needs to reach its destination and if it doesn’t... A lot of problems are going to happen..."
"Ok? Good luck then?" I told him, wondering why he even needed to tell all that information.
Couldn’t he just tell that he doesn’t want to kill it and call it a day already? I never asked him to give the whole background story...
He clasped his hands together, "Please... This creature needs to get there!"
I gave him a confused look, "Yeah, I heard you the first ti. So good luck I guess? I won’t kill it so you can go ahead to deliver it. What else do you want to say?"
Yumiko then whispered from the side, "Mistress... I believe he’s trying to ask us to take over the delivery for him..."
I turned back to him and he was giving a rather pathetic, pleading look, indicating that what Yumiko said was true.
I frowned, "Really? I think the fact that I’m not turning you in for being a smuggler and also saving both your crew and your ship is already pretty good for you, don’t you think? Now you want to take part in your smuggling operation as well?"
He raised his hands, "It won’t be for free! The paynt for this delivery! You can have it all!"
"Weren’t you already going to pay to save you from the turtle to begin with? Why don’t we settle that first?" I reminded him.
His face fell as he probably realised that if he were to pay the reward for saving him as well as the paynt for the delivery, he might be financially ruined.
At least... That’s what I assu was the reason why he looked so devastated.
He looked back at the rest of his crew and they were also giving him the sa worried look, probably wondering if their captain was going to ruin them as well.
He turned back to before pulling out a Credit Chip, "As promised... Three hundred thousand Credits, everything is in there."
I would feel bad for taking this from soone else if it wasn’t for the fact that these people were smugglers.
This guy doesn’t know it yet but the other containers in his cargo bay are still intact and I don’t doubt that he’s smuggling other contraband items in them as well, so he could still make so Credits from this smuggling run of his despite the setback.
I stuck the Credit Chip into my Codex and watched as the number representing my wealth go up by three hundred thousand Credits.
I looked back at the smugglers who were just looking at awkwardly.
Hmm... Actually...
"How’s your smuggling record?" I asked.
The captain seed surprised at the question but he answered it nevertheless, "Umm... I’m an independent so... I would say it’s still ok? If you don’t count this event’s of course..."
"Hmm... What kind of markets can you access?"
"Eh? Umm... I an... I guess the normal markets and... And the surface tier black markets I suppose..."
Surface tier? I’m assuming there’s also different levels to the black markets where so are more exclusive to specific rchants or sothing.
Which ans this guy’s a scrub smuggler...
Whatever, I guess this could be considered my entry point for this market.
I tapped on my Codex to transfer back the three hundred thousand Credits back into the Credit Chip before pulling it out to hand over to him.
He took it, looking confused, obviously wondering what I was trying to do.
"I’m willing to invest in you to continue whatever you’re doing as long as you agree to help do so jobs from ti to ti."
He blinked, "What?"
Ok, look... I still have a whole bunch of stuff in my cargo bay that were taken from pirates and all the other places that I’ve looted but I have yet to sell off because we aren’t exactly that free to go bargaining for the best prices around to sell them off.
And I don’t have access to every black market out there as well and trying to sell them off myself to a black market directly would not do well for my crew’s reputation.
But hey... If I can get this guy to do the work for and let him take a cut of the profits... I think that would help a lot with our inco.
Additionally, we would also gain access to a bigger market that would normally be inaccessible or too risky to access for us.
After all... It might be overlooked in the Outer Colonies but the Inner Colonies definitely have harsher rules and the rules are enforced more strictly than the Outer Colonies, right?
I nodded at him, "You heard . I’m willing to establish a working partnership with you where I get you to help acquire and sell stuff for a cut of the profits. What do you say?"
The captain seed to be having trouble comprehending what I was saying as he turned to look at his crew who looked to be just as confused.
I guess they were not expecting to et a potential investor out here and the prospect of such a thing made them lose their minds a little.
I decided to assure them, "Hey, I’m a rc from the Outer Colonies and I’m only here for a job. I don’t want to have a trail that leads back to with the black market stuff but doing business with them is really profitable you see... So having soone who can act as an interdiary between the market and us would help us a lot. So are you interested? I’m even willing to throw in more Credits to help you recover from this little... Mishap... To get your crew up and running again."
His mind finally clicked and he jumped a little, "We... We would love to!! Of course we would!!"
I stretched out my hand, "Perfect. You can just refer to as ’T’."
Yumiko butted in, "’Mistress T’. Nothing less."
The smuggler didn’t even question it and clasped my hand in a firm handshake, "Yes! It’s a pleasure, Mistress T! I’m Clent and this is my crew! We’ll be happy to work with you! Thank you!!"
He seems really, really happy now... And even his crew was in a celebratory mood as they bumped elbows and shook hands with one another.
"Alright then... First thing’s first... I can help you transport that turtle to wherever it’s supposed to go after I get the details for the transport and we also obtain all the compensation tied to this job. Next... I have a couple of things on my ship that I want you to help sell off at the best price you can get. You in?
He nodded imdiately, "No problem, Mistress T!"
Nice... Renata, get my ship docked with theirs. Ti to do so business.
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