As far as you know, nothing much is known about the worlds out here by the people of Mark/Sequi or the CSA. Yes, places like Serbia, Newton, Leurt and Montrose are known, but off the beaten path, and beyond these main worlds, there is virtually no data. When the megacorps go exploring, and they haven't done a lot lately due to the recent war, they tend to keep whatever they find out to themselves. The Scouts do their work for their governments, and don't release their data to the public. If independents and small trading houses back home want to learn about the worlds out here they have to gather that information on their own. And as you probably already know, information is valuable, very valuable! If you work at it, you can figure out a world's current UWP data, scope out the current political, social, and economic conditions, and get an idea of what it has for trade and what it needs in trade. To the right people, back on Mark/Sequi and in the CSA, that information has a high value. You already know a couple of people back there that would pay for this sort of information. Rosco Ollis, for example, would seriously consider hiring a ship, to gather data on these worlds. He would dearly *love* to put Merchantile Agents, or Factors, on various planets out here who would act as agents for him in the buying, selling, and shipping of trade goods. He's not going to come out here personally, so he needs someone to scope these worlds out, transport his agents and/or to find locals that would act on the behalf of his trading company. And that's just Rosco, multiply him by dozens across the CSA! Too bad you didn't make a deal with Rosco before you left Mark. :) OTOH, it certainly wouldn't hurt to keep your eyes open and start collecting data. It also wouldn't hurt to start looking for and cultivating local brokers who might turn into Factors for either you, or for someone to whom you "refer" them...for a fee, of course. Working like this would be especially profitable if you had a smaller ship to do the advance work of checking out worlds ahead of your larger ship, setting up trade deals with locals, and leaving word about where they are heading next and what sort of goods you should bring when you follow. Just some ideas to think about... Eris AKUS
