The Data Traders

Digital Rights Management (DRM)

Data is normally transported aboard Guild vessels within three classes of service. Those are Open, Restricted and Private. Open data as the name implies is data that contains no DRM and is lightly managed by the Guild. Once Open data is sold to a third party the data may be used for whatever purpose that party desires with no restrictions including re-selling this data onward. Normally, this consists of publicly available data such as census information or older intellectual property against which the copyright has expired. Restricted data is that data which has an active copyright which the Guild is obligated to enforce. Restricted data resides within the Guild DRM system and may only be used by the licensed user for the sole purpose stated in the license agreement. In most cases, Restricted data consists of plans or source code that is currently under copyright. Data in the Restricted category may only be transmitted to Guild approved and signed nodes. Private data is encrypted prior to being transferred to the Guild and normally the Guild does not retain the decrypt key for these archives. Rates for Private data transfers are necessarily higher and may vary from ship to ship depending on total system capacity.

Excerpted With Permission

Data Trader’s Handbook

Copyright 3250, Interstellar Data Trader Guild

“I don’t understand any of this.” Leo was still puzzling over the empty cabinets. Why would someone steal the cores? Yes, they were valuable, but there were many things on the ship as valuable or even more so. The ship its self had value. Why the cores?

“Leo think. What is the one thing a non-guild member cannot have?”

Leo just looked at Ramona. What was she getting at. “Is this a riddle? I’m not good at riddles.”

She just pointed at the cabinet. “What was in there?”

“Data cores.”

“And what was on the cores?”

“Data.” Ramona just looked at him like he was stupid. Perhaps he was. “Every piece of IP ever purchased by the Guild. Oh, shit.”

“Yes, exactly. Do you have any idea what the entire Guild database is actually worth?”

“Uh, no.”

Gunny’s gruff voice broke in at that point. “About thirty five trillion Guilders.” Walking by the stunned Leo, he went to inspect the nearest data cabinet. “These have been carefully removed. Not just ripped out, removed properly.”

Ramona was nodding. “So you could re-assemble them later.”

“Yeah.”

Leo was struggling to keep up. He realized that this meant that the data had been STOLEN. “Wait, you mean they STOLE the entire database?”

“Yeah kid, that’s what we mean.” Gunny looked at Leo with a less than pleased expression. “Try to keep up Timur.”

Just then a loud klaxon started to blare, startling Leo. What sounded like an automated voice started to blare from every speaker. “General Quarters, General Quarters!! Reactor levels critical! Reactor levels critical!”

Leo raced over to the emergency repeater station by the door. “Looks like we have an unstable bottle down in main engineering.”

Gunny was shouting into his communicator. “EVAC! EVAC! All personnel report to the shuttle. We lift in two minutes. MOVE YOUR ASSES!!”

As Leo and Ramona began to run up the corridor, they ran into Ollu running the other way. “Ollu! We have to evacuate now!”

She didn’t slow down. “Those bottles have an eject. We just have to get it out before it goes critical.”

Leo stopped in the hallway, looking at Ramona. “Fuck, do we help her?”

“Do you trust her?”

“Hell yeah.”

“Let’s do it.” Ramona turned and started to run after Ollu towards main engineering.

“Gunny, this is Timur, we are going to try to jettison the bottle. Don’t wait for us.”

“DAMMIT Timur. Get your ass on this shuttle! We are not waiting for you.”

“Affirmative Gunny. Get clear, just in case.”

Leo had to sprint after Ramona. She was in better shape and faster, but Ollu was slower so he was able to catch up. After a few breathless minutes of running down empty ship’s corridors, they came to a large pressure door.

“Fuck, it’s locked.”

Ramona was already working to open the door. “Thirty seconds”

“We only have another minute or two.”

“I’m working on it!”

Ramona was intently focused on the door locking mechanism. Twenty seconds later, it opened and Ollu charged into the room. Leo followed closely on her heels. “Leo! Eject number 2, I’m going to scram the rest, just in case!!”

Leo looked around, confused. “Where?”

Ollu pointed. “Over there, it says Fusion 2. The big red lever that says ‘EJECT’”

“Right.”

Leo sprinted across the large room. Everything was clearly labeled which was a good thing since Leo didn’t really know what he was doing. Main engineering wasn’t on the journeyman test and he had never been down into the engineering spaces except for the open house that the ship did every year. The massive reactor vessels were clearly numbered. He made it to the one labeled with a six foot high “2” on it. Looking at the panel, he found a red lever labeled “EJECT.”

He hesitated with his hand over the lever. “This one?”

“Yes! Pull it for fuck’s sake!!”

Leo reached out and pulled the lever. For a moment, he thought nothing was going to happen. Then a series of loud CLANG sounds rang out. Then the deck shook and there was an even louder WHOOSH sound.