BARD PAPER: ICIS0001a

Transstar Office of Business Development

by John Macpherson

The TIDIs are the core of what the OBD is about. Jordan firmly believes that building trade among the worlds of the AO is more important than political or military integration. To that end, the OBD looks for markets that these worlds can supply in the RC or on other worlds in the AO. OBD has begun a hand-me-down project for industrial equipment. They take machines that are becoming obsolete on RC worlds and transfer them to the more advanced worlds in the Wilds in exchange for their own industrial equipment which is transfered to more primitive worlds in the Wilds. Currently, Transstar sends its technical advisors to Lancer and Vezina, while Vezina and Lancer in turn provide advisors to the nation of Borea on Nicosia. The facilities on Vezina and Lancer are currently producing a variety of valves, seals, industrial fasteners and the like for export to Aubaine and Trybec. The Nicosia project is not yet operational, but is initially slated to produce high quality wood furniture for sale on Aubaine, where wood is scarce. Not only do planets in the Wilds benefit from these projects, but the worlds of the RC are able to shift production from labor-intensive consumer and light industrial goods to the technology-intensive capital goods that are in shortest supply.

The relic-prospector supply depot on Buhle was the first facility OBD opened. It is provisioned on an irregular basis from Fija as shipping is available. Transstar provides needed supplies to the various expeditions on the planet and also transports to Fija and brokers at auction any relics they find. Jordan knows that while prospectors of any kind rarely make money, those who supply them frequently make a good deal of it. This is not the type of venture Jordan is particularly interested in, but it is an immediate source of revenue he can use to partially off-set his investments in TIDIs. While the Board is behind the OBD, they consider it an experiment, so Jordan is on a short financial leash.

Jordan also sponsors what he calls "Warm Recoveries." These missions involve extracting large and semi-fixed relic industrial equipment that may be beyond the ability of Free Traders to recover or locals to utilize. Consistent with his philosophy and the work necessary for these operations, Jordan enlists the consent and cooperation of locals by trading surplus capital goods from the RC that the locals can use for the relic machinery that they can't use. Transstar provides skilled personnel to uninstall and prepare the relic equipment for shipment without damaging it, then trains native technicians to use the new equipment from the RC.

Jordan's plans for the future are to expand his TIDIs further into the AO, and to conduct exploratory trade missions into the nearby subsectors of Alpha Crucis.