Lave Station, Lave, 02-Mar-3200

Praise Hermes, I found him! Edwards is still alive. Apparently, the Directorate were cracking down on internal "influences", as they call them, and Edwards was told that his name was on the list. Customs gave me no hassle, so I finally got rid of all the goods I'd been keeping for him. He seemed genuinely pleased that I'd not sold them to anyone else. Poor chap doesn't get out of the system much, doesn't realise that most other places in the area don't have prohibitions against stims and slaves. He's the only guy who'll give me a decent price for them.

He gives me ¢25678.0 for 20t of narcotics, ¢22074.8 for 11t of slaves (produce of more than one star system) and ¢6133.5 for 5t of battle weapons. I make a very tidy profit indeed, although I'd sooner we didn't have the worry of the Lave Directorate.

At the market, I decide to try a new tack and a new route. The new tack is to see what the market's like for animal skins and live animals in Leesti. The new route is Lave, Leesti, Riedquat. Riedquat's in the middle of some sort of civil war, so is probably fairly dangerous. On the plus side, it means they'll pay handsomely for any goods I manage to get through the war zone. Looking at the books, I think I shall sell animal products in Leesti, robots and weaponry in Riedquat and then narcotics and slaves in Lave. Off to the market, then, for the first instalment of goods.

I fuel up and buy 40t of animal meat (¢104.8/t), but also take a ton each of animal skins and live animals, costing ¢624.6 and ¢847.2 respectively. We'll see how the market responds to Lave's other goods.