Trader's Hand

A mini story by S.E.Estes
Part 1 | 2 | 3

"Done." He knew it was Remembrance Week but he couldn't pass up a good trade, even if it meant trouble later. He was sick of Remembrance Week, the mock holiness, the boring speeches, but mostly because no one was allowed to trade the entire time. Trade went on though and, like Verl often said, he wasn't a godly man. It wan't that he was ungodly, he just had no idea who or what god was. Everyone had their own ideas of god and what happened after death, there were too many opinons, most slanted to benefit the particular believer. Remembrance Week was the worst of it as each faction paraded their piety throughout the ship and Trader's Hand Day, the last day, the day of speeches, was abysmal.

"What were you doing on level nine?" Verl wanted to deny he was there but his father had eyes everywhere, he was a fool to think he wouldn't be seen. There was no lie he could tell, the only reason to be on level nine was for trade. He didn't have to see the anger in his father's eyes to know how much trouble he was in, trading during Remembrance week was bad enough but going to level nine was the ultimate sin. Level nine was where the shunned went, breakers of trade guild rules and free traders. "Uncontrolled trade is a great evil." his father would preach, "Free traders are liars and cheats, they mock the guilds." The guilds were temples of trade, the guild leaders were the high priests and the laws of trade holy writ. The Guild Council lorded it over all the guilds and every aspect of life on the ship, a decree from the Council was as if the gods had spoken and the gods had declared level nine anathema.

The reality was, people went to level nine and pretended it never happened. The best deals could be found on level nine as well as things the Traders didn't have. It was well known that level nine traded with Explorers and it was from them they got strange, ingenious items. Most people looked the other way when it came to dealings with level nine but no one ignored contact with Explorers. If the Free Traders were sinners the Explorers were demons. The circles of hell began at level nine and level one, the Control Center, was the pit of the dark lord. To be caught above level nine was to, at the least, be shunned, some guilds had death penalties. Still, people bought Explorer inventions, things kept hidden, things gotten by people like Verl. His father wasn't one of those people, his were the old ways, he didn't buy Explorer "witchcraft" and he didn't look the other way when his son was seen trading on level nine during Remembrance Week.

He didn't answer his father, he knew why he was there. His father was furious, it didn't show but he knew his father's eyes and the fury lay there deep within. His father confined him to his room, coming out only to go to the Trader's Hand Day celebration. He didn't care, he'd made some great trades, the best being a handvid from the Explorers. He'd spend the next two days watching the vids that came with it, come out for the speeches and make some fantastic trades the next day.

The handvid carried a large vid library and he immersed himself in them. Traders didn't make vids, most thought entertainment frivolous and unworthy of a pious person but he knew many that craved something beyond the haggling and praying, he was one of them. He'd seen a few Explorer vids but nowhere had he heard of anyone having so many. He'd been trading for five years towards getting an Explorer device and now that he had it his wealth was assured. He laughed a little, two days alone with months worth of Explorer vids to watch was rough punishment. He knew it would have been much worse if it wasn't so close to Trader's Hand Day, he counted on that when he went up to level nine.

He'd been up for a day straight when he came upon a vid that woke him from his dazed watching. He hadn't been paying much attention to the story until he heard, "Trader's Hand." A woman was talking to someone behind a bar, "Are you sure? I've never heard of Trader's Hand." "It's a trade world." the bartender told her as he mixed a drink. The woman didn't know who she was or how she got there and she wandered the world trying to find out. He watched the vid carefully, seeing a vision of Trader's Hand that seemed so right to him. Everywhere the woman went was another bar where business was done. She wandered into different neighborhoods and each neighborhood specialized in some area of business, anyone wanting to do business on Trader's Hand was free to trade there. It was a large world with only once city, Trader's Hand, the spaceport was immense as people streamed in and out. He put the vid on repeat and kept watching it until it was time to leave his room.