Trading with the Ferengi

The crew of the Firefly were now on Ferengar, docked at the main space port just outside the planet’s second city. The rain lashed on the hull of the vessel, annoying everyone. Only the Captain and Harper were not currently onboard, having headed out into the weather to see if they could scramble up some spare parts.

For the past twelve days they had been moving from place to place, dropping off several of the people they had ‘rescued’ from the Starbase in the Gamma quadrant. Now only Klass, their current employer and the leader of those rescued remained onboard. They too were currently not onboard the ship, leaving to make contact with a Ferengi trader they knew.

In the main cargo hold was all the cargo containers they had brought back with them from the Starbase. Beka suspected that they container held weapons and advanced technology, which Quinn and Klaas could trade. Whilst Ferengar had progressed in leaps and bounds over the past hundred years, most of their technology was acquired from other races and reverse engineered, salvaged or stolen. Compared with Federation technology, the Ferengi were about thirty years behind technologically.

It had been a few years since the crew of the Firefly had been on Ferengar, but even then the changes were noticeable. Last time, many of the females were still house-bound and naked even though Grand-Nagus ROM had decreed that all Ferengi were equal some years earlier. That had allowed the females to wear clothes for the first time, possess property in their own names and trade.

Now Ferengar was awash with females walking around the space port full clothed. Behind the scenes there had been other changes, the most important the move away from the Ferengi being governed by the Grand-Nagus, to a sort of democracy. Ferengi was now governed by a council of a elected leaders, but the main power was still with the Ferengi Commerce authority headed now by the grand-nagus.

Beka paced the command deck, anxious because she had not heard from the Captain for a while.

Captain Stryker and Harper, the Firefly’s engineer were making their way through the shadier part of the city. Their destination; a Ferengi trader going by the name of k’Pax. One thing the Ferengi were good at was trading with other races and word on the street was that k’Pax had a contact in the Klingon Empire who from time to time gave out the details of lost vessels ripe for salvage.

Whilst many of the major systems onboard the Firefly had been modified or replaced during it’s two hundred years of service, there were still many systems onboard which could only be replaced with Klingon technology.

One of those parts was an EPS interchange junction assembly, which had been all but destroyed when the Firefly had first used the cloaking device they had ‘acquired’ at the starbase in the Gamma quadrant. The ship could function without it, but that meant running the secondary systems off emergency power and unless they could purchase a replacement, the cloaking device was useless anyway.

Finally they reached the location they had been informed was k’Pax’s place of business. From the outside it looked like many of the other buildings around, maybe a little bit worst for wear than those around it, most likely due to a lack of maintenance. Stryker pressed the controls beside the door and they both waited for an answer, it didn’t take long.

[What do you want ?] Came an annoyed female voice through the intercom system, which surprised both Harper and Stryker.

“My name is Jack Stryker.” Jack announced into the intercom. “I was told that I could find a trader by the name of k’Pax here, we are looking for some replacement parts for our vessel.”

There was a short pause before they got an answer once more. The door opened and a short Ferengi appeared at the door, their head covered by a hood so no one could see their face.

“You’d better come in and we’ll talk.” The Ferengi figure said softly, in a female voice. “Quickly, quickly.”

As they stepped through the door, things on the inside looked as bad as the outside. Passing through a narrow room, they walked out into a large courtyard, filled with equipment, some just lying on the ground, some on racks of shelving.

“Quite a junkyard you’ve got here.” Harper remarked.

“Junkyard.” The Ferengi replied, much louder than before. “JUNKYARD. I’ll have you know that k’Pax only deals in the finest equipment, this is not junk young man, this is profit and a honest profit no less.”

“Honest.” Harper said in a low voice. “Who ever heard of an honest F….”

Harper was stopped in mid-sentence by Jack’s elbow in his ribcage. The Captain didn’t want Harper offending their host, it wasn’t wise to annoy a Ferengi trying to do business, it usually upped the price.

“So k’Pax is an honest trader !” Stryker exclaimed. “That’s good to hear, because I did hear that there was a salvage merchant three blocks over, who could do me a better deal on anything k’Pax could supply.”

“Pah….” The Ferengi female hissed. “You’re talking about that low-down double-dealing Rak’al, he’s a thief and a liar. Oh he’ll get you what you want you require and he’ll get it to you for less, but it won’t be to the highest standard and in six months time, you’ll be back to get another replacement. There maybe profit in ensuring repeat custom, but k’Pax does not deal that way. A satisfied customer will always return for more, whilst a dissatisfied customer looks elsewhere.”

“Then I’m glad we came to see k’Pax first.” Jack remarked. “So when do we get to meet k’Pax ?”

The Ferengi pulled the hood away from her head and let it drop onto her shoulders. She then reached out a hand in greeting.

“Pleasure to meet you Captain Stryker.” She stated, shaking Jack’s hand as he held it out. “I’m sorry for all the cloak-and-dagger theatrics, but there are still many amongst our people who don’t like females earning profit.”

Both of the visitors were shocked to discover that k’Pax was a female. They had, like most assumed that she was a he. Stryker quickly regained his composure.

“k’Pax, we’re looking for some parts for our vessel.” Jack stated again.

“Ah yes, so you said.” k’Pax replied. “A Klingon vessel if I’m not mistaken, a Raptor class scout.”

“How….” Jack stuttered. “How did you know ?”

“News travels fast around these parts, especially when a Klingon vessel that should have been scrapped decades ago appears in the spaceport. I’m assuming that you’re here now because you’ve heard that I trade with the Klingons for salvage rights. I just put two and two together.”

“Amazing.” Jack remarked. “We’re looking for an EPS interchange junction assembly, mark five I believe.”

“Mark five EPS IJ assembly……” k’Pax mused. “….I don’t think we’ve got one of those…..wait a minute, I do have an old mark six somewhere, came off a Klingon shuttle…..with a few tweaks, it could be made compatible.”

k’Pax pulled a small Padd from one of the pockets of her clothes and started to search the list.

“Ah yes, here we are.” K’pax announced looking up from the list and heading off to one of the many racks.

She prodded and poked around several of the items on one of the racks, before turning suddenly and looking through a second rack, eventually pulling out a large piece of equipment.

“Here we are…..” k’Pax announced, walking over to a work bench and placing the item down, a mark six EPS interchange junction assembly, in working order.”

“Harper…check it out, whilst I discuss a price.” Jack suggested.

Harper pulled out his trusty, one of a kind, hand-built tricorder and started to scan the device. He then placed the tricorder back in his belt and started to examine the assembly more closely with his eyes and hands. After five minutes of examining the assembly, he was satisfied that it could do the job. Walking over to where the Captain and k’Pax were talking, he listened for a moment. They were still haggling the price down, from five to three and a half bars of gold-pressed latinum.

“Well boss, the assembly looks good.” Harper announced. “It’s got a few thousand light-years on it, but the mechanics are sound and I think I can cannibalised the old, damaged assembly to alter the fittings so they’ll work.”

“Is it worth three and a half bars ?” Stryker asked.

Harper’s first instinct was to say no, so the captain could bring the price down some more, but instead he agreed that the price was fair. k'Pax had been honest with them, so why shouldn’t they be honest with her.

“I told you I only deal in the best merchandise. That Rak’al would have sold you a worn-out assembly for at least the same price, but you’d be back within a month when it failed.” K’Pak added. “Would there be anything else that might be of interest to you in purchasing, I have many Klingon components in stock.”

“I’d like to see an inventory ?” Harper stated. “There are a few things we could do with replacing in the near future, if we can get them now at a fair price, it would save us coming back some other day.”

“Would that be possible ?” Jack enquired.

“Of course, be my guest.” k’Pak replied, handing Harper the inventory Padd.

Harper quickly scrolled through the list, making a mental note of each item that interested him. After only a few minutes, Harper had identified several items that they could use and ten minutes later, they had spent another five bars of latinum on more spare parts.

“I’ll have everything transported over to your vessel by nightfall.” K’Pax announced. “I’ll also collect payment upon delivery.”

“I’ll contact my first officer and authorise the payment, we’ve got one more stop to make on our way back.” Jack replied.

“Is there something that you want, maybe I could get it for you cheaper.” k'pax asked, sensing that there was still profit to be made.

“Not this time k’Pax.” Jack answered. “This is a personnel contact of an associate and we’ve already agreed a price for the equipment we need.”

“Then I’ll bid you a safe voyage home and hope you grace my house with your good fortune in the future.” k’Pax said, leading them back to the door.

With the door now closed behind them, they set off once more to make contact with a Ferengi trader that Quinn and Klaas had asked them to meet and exchange with. As they weaved their way through the city, they moved into the underbelly of Ferengi life. Whoever this contact was, he was most likely veering onto the wrong side of the tracks and neither Jack nor Harper liked it.

As they continued to walk, they started to get a feeling that they were being watched or followed. At one point they split up and headed off in opposite directions, meeting up again later. Although there had been no sign of them being watched, the uneasiness remained until they reached their destination.

Their destination was a drinking establishment, if you could call it that. To Jack and Harper it looked like it had once been a pair of dwellings, which had then been converted into a business. They entered and were surprised to discover that most of the drinkers were non-Ferengi. They saw an empty table and headed for it, taking a seat and ordering two drinks from the Delvian that came to serve them.

As they sat and drank, they looked around the room. Harper counted at least seven different races in the room, not including the staff. Five minutes passed before a Ferengi came over to their table and sat down.

“So you must be the one’s sent by Quinn to pick up his merchandise.” The Ferengi asked in a low voice. “Do you have the access codes for the drop-off account ?”

Stryker pulled out a small iso-linear chip and handed it over to the Ferengi, who inserted it into a Padd, examined the data continued on it and smiled.

“Then our deal is done.” The Ferengi announced again in a soft voice so he could not be overheard. “Wait five minutes and then leave, the merchandise will be delivered to your vessel within the hour.”

With that the Ferengi rose from the table and disappeared out of the door. They finished their drinks and followed some five minutes later, heading back to the ship. As they walked back, there was a noise and the sound of phaser fire.

“Halt.” A large Ferengi in a uniform announced.

At first Jack and Harper though he was speaking to them, but suddenly they saw another Ferengi running away and from the brief glace they got of the runner, it looked like the same one they had spoke to minutes earlier in the bar.

By no the uniformed Ferengi was also giving chase and it was only then that Jack noticed that there were also two humans accompanying the Ferengi. All three raised their weapons and fired at the escaping Ferengi, who dropped like a stone to the floor.

"Harper, head back to the ship and get everyone onboard ASAP.” Jack ordered. “I’m going to see if I can get a little closer and see why they were chasing that Ferengi.”