More stories to read!

you mean more 'teasers, as we haven't gotten to the main event(s) yet ...

YES! Stop making us beg for more. *Chuckles.*

how else would a slow writer keep you entertained?

I like! You need to finish it though. No edits at this time.

heh, as me muse 'tells' me what to type

(this started as an excuse to show off some of the trickery Neal has up his shirt arms ... (and what an ass he can be and likes to make of others - as you will see if/when we get there)

Looking forward to reading it.

That's funny

we try

We??? You got a chakitten in your pocket

a chakitten would be more useful than this second (third?) hand muse I have!

The muse are a lot of fun too

For a minute i thought the Ferengi invaded. Well maybe they did for the heavy lifters.

nothing so hard, just a bribe that would cause them to default and lose all their hard work (and since someone thinks Neal is a mercenary, he's going to show them what he will do for money )

Ferengi vs Neal? I bet Neal

this is not star trek, no ferengi ...

Considering his company and his tinkering, I would not be surprised if he found a way. just saying if they did meet. I bet on neal winning. And there is likly beings in thye CU who are like them.

Ahh yes it feels like Neal is up to his old tricks... Now will he help them get their already spent funds back with a few well placed words? If you are going to help someone you may as well do a good job of it... I'm sure Neal will add the would be movers to the list of people you deal with at your own risk.

thinking this would slide in before they pick up a cook, so early chapter two, and so a 'new trick' to his crew that he will sometimes 'play the part' expected of him (if I do this right, everything Neal does to the station is for profit - just like any good little mercenary! )

Interesting!

Personally I think that the 'talky' part went too fast and too easily. If they had hit a snag or two more, it could be even more interesting, if only because of "time running out".

"Someone' won't like being tricked so easily, but now 'he' would be the contract breaker, not that damn mercenary ...

I mean, I can understand people rolling over for Neal if they know his reputation, but I think that I would get very sceptical on that station's crew place. Offers too good to be true usually are too good to be true, after all.

Also, there's a distressing lack of lawyers involved, on both sides!

slight update added.

think of the old wild wild west. lots of light years out there for a man to hide in after he's pulled the wool over the locals. and reputations are only as good as what they've 'heard' of you lately - if at all. in this case, they don't know Neal or his Folly, all they know is that the last carpet baggier that showed up burned them pretty badly.

the local Sormand rep may have even taken the contract in good faith, and it was further up the food chain that accepted a bribe to hang the station out to dry.

and Neal has only hours to get this done if he's going to do it, he's got other things to do. with the station already burned once and twice shy, he sends in the kids - and Alex gets lucky.

as for lawyers? if the contracts were well written, then they'll have to wait for the time to elapse before taking Sormand to court. (unless something comes up showing the 'bad faith' moves by one side or the other.)

Once burned, twice shy: hence lawyers! On this station's manager's place, I would definitely try to get the best lawyer I could to comb Neal's proposed contract back and forth for any hidden nasties. And then go through the Sormand contract to see if they can raise any stink over Neal cutting in. And so on.

Oh, and! I understand that Neal has little time and I would simply suggest playing up on that. Make the station's personnel - as frustrated they are with being stuck and almost certain to loose everything - *really* shy and careful about the contract, doing whatever they can to make sure not only there are no traps, but that everything is so above the board and so according to the book to be legally bulletproof.

That's the nice things about 'simple' contracts that don't have 200+ pages of doublespeak and lawyerized to redefine the meanings of every other word. No extra clauses if something 'breaks', no excuses, no hidden meanings.

Sormand no doubt had a clause in case their shuttles couldn't 'do' the job, but if they were bribed then they have no reason to find some other way to get it done - and they don't have to release the funds back until they actually default on moving the station (and if the bribe was a lot larger then the stated fine ...)

All I'm trying to say is that making these people unusually suspicious and unwilling could be an interesting (and pretty simple) way to spice the story up.