Recession | Chapter 19
When they were a few days out from making their first drop off, little Jimmy had an idea. He was searching the Space Market tournaments page, when he noticed that there happened to be a big tournament on the planet they were headed to. He almost scrolled right past it because it had an age limit and he wanted Quickstar to be on their team. He had been listening when dad told all of them at diner the other night that they wouldn't be able to visit Grandma and Grandpa until they could save up a bunch. He said they would need enough to stop making cargo runs for the time it would take to get back to their home planet, spend time there, and get back to a sector with profitable runs. This would take lot of money, and they couldn't save up much until they starting trading goods on the side while making their cargo deliveries. He had been researching tournaments ever since. He interrupted the others while they were in the middle of a dog fight in the game when he came across the tournament.
"Hey guys!"
"Not right now dude. Some of us are playing the game." Mark said.
"Listen, I have a great idea!"
"That's super, can't it wait till we're out of this hostile area? We've got pirates all over us right now."
"Listen Mark, this is serious man. I think it could get us the money we need to go and visit grandma and grandpa."
"What? Is that what you’ve been doing all this time?" Mark turned to look at his brother. A huge explosion sounded from his speakers.
"Oh great, now I'm dead. Thanks a lot little bro."
“Don’t worry, I’ve got him,” Quickstar said.
"I'm sorry, but I'm serious, listen.”
Quickstar ended the fight with swift precision, then logged out, turned off his tablet, and turned to listen to Jimmy.
“Okay, so I just found a tournament that's going to be the day after we drop off the cargo we're hauling. It’s on the same planet we're going to. It has an age restriction, but it’s a trading tourney so I think we could win it. We could win a ton, enough for dad to start trading with!"
Quickstar’s eyes lit up.
"Dude, Dad will never go for that. What about the entrance fees? I bet we couldn’t even afford those.
"I could talk to the Captain about it. I‘ve seen your rankings, you would do well. With what’s left over from this haul, plus the little savings I have left, we might have enough."
"Really?" Mark said.
"I hate to say this, but it will take us a very long time to save enough money for your dad to get you guys a little vacation time to go back and visit your grandparents. He's talked to me about it a little, and he knows your mom is very homesick. She really wants to go back and see your grandparents as soon as possible. This is what we'll do, I'll tell him how much fun I've been having with you boys, and how we wanted to enter a tournament together, but the only one we would have time to enter I’m too old for. I'll tell him that if we do it, we could make enough money to buy some very nice goods to trade on the side for our next run. How much would it be to enter this tournament?”
Jimmy looked down at his tablet. "It is one hundred and fifty credits each."
"Wow, that's a lot of money. It might be harder than I thought to convince the captain. Honestly how do you think you guys would do?
"Even if we take third we would win more than the entry fees. Let me look at the people who have entered.“
Jimmy tapped and swiped on his tablet a few times.
YOU ARE READING
Recession (Trunked Novel)
Science FictionSYNOPSIS: A very successful stock broker, husband, and father of two, loses his job. Due to the shattered economy of their planet, his diligent job hunting proves fruitless. To provide for his family he decides to take a chance, and pursue his lifel...
