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Carmela’s phone pinged. Shifting the basketful of chocolate bars to her other arm, she pulled her phone out of her pocket to find a message from Ronan. Are you sure this was a good idea?
Rolling her eyes, she tapped back her response. It’s an excellent idea, thank you very much.
Have you looked over the paperwork for the permits for Crossings?
Yes? It’s NOT that bad.
Page 6, section 7.5.q.b - why is this asking about grenfelzing?
OH that.
Yes, that.
Yeah, that’s not for us to fill out. That’s for if we were setting up a physical store, since we’re acting more as suppliers we can skip 7.5.p-7.5.r.
The little dots indicating that Ronan was typing appeared, then vanished, then appeared again. Rather than stare at her phone while Ronan formulated his response, Carmela stuffed it back into her pocket and went to purchase the latest inventory for their business.
There was a new message waiting by the time she’d left the store with the bags. Anything else in here we can skip, then?
I think that was the main one - check and see if you need to complete a 3099-ppdi-796123b though.
Did you fumble your phone or is that a real form?
Personal/personnel defense form.
Real form. Got it.
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“This seems like an unusually big request,” Ronan said, looking at the screen. “Especially for a new buyer.”
“Agreed.” Carmela folded her arms and frowned. In the soft glow of the screen the request for 20 bars each of Côte d’Or, Läderach, and Raaka chocolate blinked up at them. “Even for someone looking to purchase for resale, this is a lot - we’ve got established clients who don’t place orders this big.”
“Established clients?” Ronan asked, giving Carmela a sideways glance. “You say that like we’ve been doing this for years, instead of…” he took a dramatic look at his watch, “three months.”
Carmela waved a hand in the air. “Give it ten years and they’ll be really established,” she said. “This could be an error - but it could also be someone trying to get cute.”
“There’s an easy way to find out,” Ronan pointed out. “We message them back and ask them to confirm the numbers.”
“Already on it. I’m also going to include prices - that way they can decide how serious they are about sixty bars of chocolate.”
“Awesome. What’s the next order on the list?”
Carmela smirked at Ronan. “Someone sounds eager.”
“Time zones remain a thing and I do have my own commitments in the morning.”
“Yeah, yeah. Okay, here we go - two bars of Ghirardelli extra dark for Kar’nest, one of Valrhona single-origin for the Shharka syndicate. I have those here, we can head up to Crossings for the handoff whenever.” Carmela pointed to a small bag at the corner of the table.
“Ready when you are.” Ronan pushed upright and patted down his pockets, making sure everything was where it was supposed to be.
“Let me send this message and I’m ready.”
Ten minutes later saw the pair walking through the Crossings, heading for one of the new meeting rooms added after the Tawalf attack. “So what are you up to in the morning anyway?” Carmela asked.
“Hurling practice,” Ronan said dryly.
“Wait, when’d you join a team?”
“Last month - it’s a casual thing, not league, but we’ve got a game next week.”
“Absolutely wild. You’ll have to tell us when, maybe we’ll be able to come.”
“It’s a morning game - you’d have to get up in the wee hours.”
“Ugh. On second thought, I’ll just be there in spirit.”
Ronan laughed, opening the door to the meeting room. The handoff to the Shharka syndicate went fairly smoothly, if brusquely - their species preferred a higher gravity and while they’d tolerate lower-Gs on the short term for chocolate, they weren’t inclined to take any longer about it than they had to. Less than ten minutes after entering the room, Carmela was one bar of chocolate lighter and a fat pile of credits had been added to her Crossings shopping account.
Kar’nest could be heard long before her entrance, the Rirhait’s many legs clicking on the hard floors of the Crossings. Pouring through the doorway, she immediately reared up for a hug. “My friends! Greetings!”
“Hey, Kar’nest!” Carmela laughed, pulling her in. “How’s it going?”
“Quite well!” Kar’nest trilled smugly. “There has been much interest in purchasing chocolate - two new prospective buyers have contacted me since our last discussion.” Given the Crossings’ status as a major transportation locus, Kar’nest operated as their local representative, coordinating client inquiries and making deliveries that Carmela and Ronan couldn’t fit into their schedules.
“That’s excellent,” Ronan said, accepting his own hug from Kar’nest. “Have you had any trouble?”
Kar’nest’s mandibles twitched smugly. “Not that we could not handle.”
“I sense a story,” Carmela raised her eyebrows.
“A buyer tried to claim we were passing off counterfeits,” Kar’nest rolled her eyes, a somewhat dizzying thing to watch given they were on stalks. “Easily handled.”
“Glad to hear it.”
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Carmela and Nita were finishing up lunch when her phone rang, Ronan’s name flashing across the display. “Mind if I get this?” Carmela asked.
“Go for it,” Nita waved at the phone.
“Helloooo,” Carmela sing-songed her greeting as she picked up. “What’s cooking?”
“Hello to you, too,” Ronan snarked. “Have you checked the messages lately?”
“Not since yesterday, why?”
“We got a response from that buyer who wanted sixty bars of chocolate last week. They confirmed the numbers.”
“...Now that’s interesting.” Carmela leaned on her elbow. “What are you thinking? Scam or someone trying to pull a fast one?”
“Could be either, but I suspect they’re planning to help themselves to our inventory and skip payment.”
“Hm. On the one hand I”m hesitant to walk away from a deal this early into our business. On the other hand, this smells fishy and not in a good way.”
“I’d agree.”
“On the third hand…”
“... have you started adding limbs now?”
“Oh, ha ha ha. No, if this is a trap, I’m debating the merits of springing it.”
“Hm.” Ronan went silent for a moment. “Why would we want to be bothered, though? We’ve got plenty of business.”
“Ugh, fair enough.”
“You’re such an adrenaline junkie,” Ronan laughed. “Still, we should probably be prepared for them to get cute - they may not want to take ‘no’ for an answer.”
“On that note…” Carmela pulled the phone away from her ear, setting it on speaker. “Oh Juanita Louise~”
“Not the L-word!”
“Would you and Kit be interested in coming along the next time Ronan and I head up to the Crossings on business? We could go shopping after!”
Nita didn’t look convinced. “How much trouble are we talking about?”
“How much trouble - do you hear this, Ronan? This from the woman who’s faced off against a Martian princess and sharks and giant bugs!”
“Probably not much trouble,” Ronan mused, “but I wouldn’t say no to backup just in case. And I’ve been meaning to pick Kit’s brain about plans for the next alien invasion scenario we’re running.”
“Yeah, alright,” Nita shook her head a little. “We can figure a time out.”
A week later, it was a party of four that made their way through Crossings to Carmela’s usual meeting room. “This shouldn’t take long,” Carmela told Kit and Nita. “We’ve got two deliveries to make, and a quick meeting with Sker’ret to extend our agreement for use of the room, but that’s it.”
By now Carmela and Ronan were very familiar with the route, winding through the benches, racks, counters, and stalls as easily as they might have walked through their hometowns on Earth. Nita and Kit kept pace, Kit making mental notes of the route (and of any restaurants in the vicinity that might have blue food).
Turning down a narrower hallway, the quartet found themselves facing down a gelatinous-appearing being in an olive-green color, nearly so large that it blocked off the hallway. “Can we help you?” Carmela asked, raising an eyebrow.
“You can give me all the chocolate in your possession,” the being burbled. “And we will let you leave.”
“We?” Ronan asked, but the question was almost immediately answered by the sound of clicking footsteps behind the group and the almost subsonic whine of weapons powering up.
Shields up! Kit said, turning back to face an approaching group of Tawalf carrying large and threatening-looking energy weapons. Two more edged around the gelatinous being, their own weapons up.
Really? REALLY? Nita grumbled, fingers going to her charm bracelet.
“Are you sure you want to try this?” Carmela asked, shifting her curling iron loose from its holster. “‘Cause I’ve got a business to run, I can’t just let you walk off - or ooze off, I guess - with my inventory.”
“Completely.” The being gestured for the Tawalf to attack… and the weapons failed to fire.
A flowing clattering sound echoed off the corridor. “As the constituted authority of the Crossings, I inform you that the use of energy weapons in the Crossings, assault, and attempted robbery are both local and planetary infractions. You will be placed in custody for these infractions. You have the right to send to your homeworld for whatever legal assistance you require.” A Rirhait appeared behind the group, accompanied by members of the Crossings’ security.
“Sker’ret!” Carmela cheered. “Keeping an eye out?”
“Several,” Sker’ret said dryly, watching the Tawalf attempt to figure out why their weapons were no longer functional. “There is a localized damping field over this area - energy weapons will not work while it is up. Please go with the security staff for transfer to a secure holding facility.”
The Tawalf, not interested in getting into a physical fight now that their weapons were disabled, cooperated. The gelatinous being blustered and protested, but apparently disarmed, it was chivvied along by security with little trouble.
Kit blinked a little as security escorted their would-be attackers to a pad for transport to holding. “Does anyone else feel like that was a little anticlimactic?”
Nita hissed and poked him in the side. “Don’t jinx it!”
“Yeah, I don’t have a problem with letting security do their jobs,” Ronan drawled. “Less paperwork for us to fill out later.”
Carmela snorted a laugh. “We’ll probably have to file something for this.”
“There will be some paperwork,” Sker’ret agreed.
“Excellent timing on that damping field,” Kit told him.
“Given the kind of business Carmela and Ronan are engaged in, it seemed prudent to keep a more personal eye on things on the days they’re conducting business in the Crossings,” Sker’ret said, rearing up to bring his head closer to human-height. “It would reflect poorly on us if those engaged in legitimate business were harassed while here.”
“This is why you are my favorite.” Carmela told him.
Sker’ret gave a pleased ripple. “I do have to get back to my office, but stop by before you leave? It’s always good to see you.”
“Of course!” Carmela agreed. “But first!” She spun back towards the meeting room. “We have business to finish!”