Entertaining Jann and Seni pushed my call to & Kin's back a day. However, by mid third watch the following day, I was feeling fit enough to call down to Kelapa & Kin Spaceship Sales, Service and Salvage to see what they could do for us.
The “& Kin” is a thousand-year-old joke. The last Kelapa who'd actually owned the firm died twelve hundred years ago but to this day it's still a family firm – every employee is still related to the founder, Drigh Kelapa by blood or marriage. A thousand years ago, one of the cousins employed by the firm thought it clever to skip the obsolete Kelapa and shortening the firm's name to simply & Kin to better reflect the nature of the firm. The joke stuck.
I reached the moon-faced, always rumpled, always harried Cousin Natsepe in sales.
'Hi Nat. Litang of the Lost Star. Looking to make some easy credits?' I said as Nat's grumpy face came up on the com screen. I'd dealt with him before.
'Hey Wil. And no, we've plenty of credits. Too many. Don't have time to make any more. Lift off. I'm busy.'
'You're a born salesperson, Nat.'
'Neb-straight. Keep my services so exclusive, ship-owners brag in bars when I decide to sell 'em something. You got'a have a mega-ton of lift for me to sell you anything at all.'
'Have I the lift?'
'Neb no. Sorry, Wil, you're a wet behind the ears ship captain. Don't rate.'
'You guys that busy?'
'It seems that every Neb-blasted ship owner in the system has decided to fix one thing or another as long as the ships are idle,' he replied. 'We're up to our eyebrows in work.'
'Well, I'm joining the club.'
He heaved out a heavy sigh. 'I'd tell you to go to the blasted Tenth Star or Pyleen Yards, but for Fen Miccall's sake, I'll see what I can do for you. No promises.'
'Nothing too demanding. We're looking to upgrade our detection and missile tracking systems to A level. And some scout drones. We're heading out of system and gearing up for drift work.'
'It'll be deep drift work at that,' he said, shaking his head sadly. 'Better you than me. I'd imagine we've a few A-level systems in the warehouse. Not a lot of demand. Azminn ship-owners don't need A level stuff. Any brand in mind?' he added, pulling up his inventory screen.
'I've a list right here, but I'm warning you, I'm on a tight budget. I'm thinking of good quality refurbished. Best price for an old customer.'
'Wil, everyone gets best price. Goes without saying. Now what are you looking at?'
I read off the options Tenry had prepared. He shook his head glumly as he entered the data. 'We've got some of those models, in our warehouse. These are the prices.'
I looked at them and asked, 'Anything more affordable?'
'I'll run your list through our flats' inventory to see what's still in the wrecks. If you go out to the flats and pulling the Neb-blasted gear yourself and settle for an as-is system, it'll save you half off warehouse prices. You'd have to refurbish it yourself. No guarantees.'
'That sounds promising. Do you have what we're looking for in the wrecks?'
'Well, the survey report shows more than a dozen possibilities on the flats, but what shape they're in is anyone's guess. All I can say for certain is that they're listed in the survey. I'll send you a chart and you can go out and find them yourself,' he replied. 'Still, no reason to think you couldn't find a near mint unit out there. We've little demand for them so there's no pressing reason to pull them ourselves.'
'That sounds encouraging. I'm sure we could refurbish it, and the gang always likes a ticket to your salvage yard. I think we'll go that route.'
'Then I'll set you up with yard office to schedule a date.'
'Do that, Nat, and include where to find the drones as well. As to upgrading missiles, what sort of credits can we get by trading in more missiles than we replace?'
'I doubt we'd even want'em. Nobody needs them in this system, as you well know. My records show you last swapped yours out some thirty-seven years ago even though they should be rotated regularly every twenty. Few ship-owners bother. You'd be better off selling them in the drifts. Always a demand there, even for your basic versions.'
I sighed. 'Still, we'll need some. Get me some prices and I'll see how many we can afford.'
'Right. And I'll schedule you with the armory crew to swap out the missiles now as well. We'd need at least two weeks to get some A-level missiles refurbished. Might as well get you scheduled. Get back to me on how many you want once you see the prices. Still, you might be able to get by without them. The updated detection and control system alone will give you a B level rating. You could get by with that. I wouldn't, but you could...'