Lana turned and smiled at her friends. “Let’s go do some business.”

17 - Second Contact

The beefy Engineer had to squeeze through the narrow gap between the Hummer and the containers as they walked toward the cargo hold’s exit.

The large door lowered, revealing the corridor behind it. As usual, the station’s tall owner was already waiting for them.

“Greetings, valued customers,” he said.

“Hey, Al.” Lana smiled at him.

He crooked his neck and did a masterful job of pouting with two sets of jaws. “My name is Alzigo, Miss, not Al.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I meant no offense. We humans often tend to shorten our friends’ names.”

His expression eased. “I understand. Local customs often vary from species to species, however, for mine, it is considered an affront to distort one’s name.”

“Alzigo.” Nori came to her friend’s rescue. “We did it. We got the resources we need.”

“So there was Trinium down there?”

“Oh, yeah,” Lana said, happy at a change of subject. “We got tons of the stuff, Balatium too, even some Mithril.”

“Mithril?” Alzigo’s multiple jaws dropped. “It is rare and quite expensive.”

“We figured as much,” the woman nodded. “We don’t have much of it though.”

“I understand. Well, you’ll need the Trinium for your ammunition but if you’d like, I’m willing to accept the other resources as payments to cover your loan.”

“How much will you give us for it?” Bulco asked bluntly.

The merchant looked at him. “The standard price for a ton of Trinium is six-hundred piTec, Balatium goes for eight-hundred per ton, and Mithril for five-hundred.”

“Five hundred?” Bulco crossed his arms. “I thought you said that stuff’s expensive.”

“It is. It’s five hundred per one kilogram.”

The Engineer gave a low whistle. “That means our Mithril alone is worth a hundred grand.”

Alzigo nodded. “You may cover the loan right now if you wish.”

“We don’t,” Nori said. She looked at Bulco. “You saw the upgrade options. We need the Mithril for the cannon and the other materials are important too. Besides, once we take out the Broodmother, we should have enough piTec to pay for everything.”

“Upgrade options?” The alien looked at her. “What do you mean? Does it have something to do with the ship’s new configuration?”

“Oh, yeah,” Lana said. “Apparently, Nathan’s Path turned it into an evolving ship, so it’s upgradeable now. I guess it’s pretty common, right?”

“No!” The alien took a step back and hastily looked to his side as if expecting to find a hidden spy. “Evolving ships are extremely rare, even beyond the means of large organizations. They are highly valued as their growth potential is virtually limitless. As far as I know, only system lords or higher beings are powerful enough to acquire one.”