After spending some days finishing their preparations, they headed off. Of course, the roads had dried, but they were still plenty wet, and it could rain again. So they were doing their best to cover as much ground as they could before something happened.
Thankfully, nothing happened during the first few days. But the roar of distant thunder and dark clouds above the ever-present tree line told them trouble had found them." well, I guess we should find a place to wait out the storm." tugging on the rope. Inna guided their carts to the side of the road.
The group jumped to work preparing to weather the storm, shifting their supplies and tying their creatures to a tree. And nailing down the carts. "it here." Aero thought as he felt the first pellets of rain as he set down the tarp.
Stepping under it, he finished tying up the tarp and sat down, watching the rain grow heavier and louder. 'that's what I dislike the most about the rain,' it covered up so much noise. danoure place for someone who hunted.
Sighing, he tried to relax and enjoy how quiet the world seemed, but a part of him couldn't help but remain worried. He knew the danger that was out there, and something, especially, was trying to get him.
But it didn't come while the rand fell for more than 18 flowers.' zalts, the rain is really bad this time of year. Hopefully, it'll be less of a problem near by the volcano. The valley, he wasn't thinking too well, 'It will probably wash away a lot of the pollen, though.' bright side.
"The time after the rain was a muddly pain in the.."
"aero, stop cussing out the cart!"
"It's the cart, the sky, or one of you, and now you are at fault, and the cart won't throw lighting at me!" Tzilla paused, looking at the sky before looking at the cart." well, the cart could break down on us." they grumbled in agreement to that and stopped cussing out the cart for the moment and focused on pushing it."
It didn't seem to matter how much he pushed. The mud was thick, and the wheels of the carts seemed to get stuck in every single puddle they encountered. "we're still making progress. Forget that, and the situation will, in fact, get worse."
'ah, my lord, I have bad news.'
'Oh! What could it be?" Aero grumbled quietly as he helped lift the cart out of the mud." dr. xoqax has decided to take a break from the project for the next week for cultural and biological reasons." Aero blinked, 'is that supposed to be a joke?' the man was more than free to take his break; Aero wasn't exactly paying the man top dollar to work without a break.
"tell him I wish him a good break," he heaved against as they finally got the wheel free onto a patch of more stable soil. "I will do so with haste, my lord." Aero sighed and tried to shack the water off his face as they climbed back in the carts and headed down the road.
Time passed slowly to Aero. Going down the road, reading a sort as it rained and the cart was pulled down the road. But at the same time, his thought wandered to xoqax; he wouldn't complain about the man taking a break. In fact, Aero encouraged it.
'The problem is I got complacent,' he hadn't considered more than xoqax being his scientist. Who was researching because of personal interest, 'Well, I guess I should work to solve it now.'
The easiest way to solve it was to hire more people he could pay to work. But he didn't have any currency that worked on a star scale. His planet would be ready to participate in that for years.
"ah, I really need to solve my money problem." he had to halt his plans to disguise a ship as a cart because he lacked the money. "I still own my fellow lord's money; I refuse to create more debt before I clear it off."
Rolling onto his back, Aero looked at the roof and thought. 'could I write? I know stories still make money across the stars. Maybe I could..." he rolled a few ideas around in his head. But each would take the time or some start-up funds.
'Well, there's no quick way to solve it anyway.' sighing, he continued to think his financial situation was growing a bit more urgent than it was before. 'I won't have time to build up a cushion at this rate?' he needed to do so many things, grumbling Aero tried to think.
'it got to be something I can do from the ground, but with decent income and won't interfere with my hunting.' he still needed planet-level money. Tapping his foot, he continued to think about the matter for the rest of the day, even as he did other things.
"Do you have any idea?" he asked the helper, eyes closed and trying to drift off. But his mind was too loud, 'serval my lord. but I'm unsure if you wish to hear them.' Aero decided to look on the good side, "All right. Start with the least worst."
' the first possibly requires opening a small hole in the planetary shield.' The thing that keeps his planet from being invaded by hostile other races and species. The thing that hides the fact there was a sentient race on this planet. It should only be broken when they've reached the point of being able to compete in the League of Stars.
'the worst idea is to sell the planet.'
"not on the death of the stars and the queen of the zaltes and zaltess! " Aero jumped to his feet, growing deeply. "that is never an option! next idea!"
'of course, my lord,' the helper apologized,' back to my first idea, I believe you could stream your hunting.' Aero nodded before asking what stream meant, and the helper explained it slowly. 'Basically, you want me to display my hunting to people across the stars. In doing so, I'll earn money through several methods. But if I get enough people watching, I can earn enough to pay off my debts and more."
"While it doesn't sound too bad, it carries the risk of exposing my planet and attracting bad kinds of attention." the helper nodded, glad they didn't have to explain the biggest problem too easily. 'the bad attention would be poacher illegal hunters.'
Aero made a disgusted look on his face, 'Yeah, that's definitely a problem. If I go with this option, I'll have to prepare for that.' he knew the preparation would include information to the government about such matters and possibilities. Who would inform hunters. 'that would stretch everyone out.'
Aero listened to all the ideas the helper had; the biggest and common problem was they affected more than just him. which made them all less than usable in his eyes.' I'm amazed you couldn't come up with something with more limited consequences.'
'I could have, but my superior has advised me to give you something with planet-sized conquests. as it is something that you will have to deal with in the future.' aero bit his lip, sat up and walked out of the cart. Instantly moving to pace around his camp, "That is... that is a challenging lesson."
Plainly thinking it over, the point was nothing more than a dilemma. There was no easy or clear choice to make; the option of streaming seemed like a simple choice. But the attention it would bring would have great and far-reaching effects he couldn't begin to predict. The other option was to start selling local products, products that were most reliant on natural resources. Resources the people of the planet needed themselves.
Then, there was the option of heading off the planet himself along with others to make that money among the stars. However, this option would not only weaken the shield if it were not outright broken. It also left him and several other people vulnerable to the universe. Something they weren't prepared for, where there were heartless people who would take advantage of them.
each option had its good and bad, 'I'd really prefer something that would only affect me.' Aero almost laughed at the thought after a moment. " no decision truly only affects you." Whether you liked it or not, your decisions affected other people. Hurt or helped, "I'm either going to hurt or help a lot of people with my choices."
"Still, what choice am I going to make." grabbing his staff, Aero started going through some stances while circling the camp. Hoping that the physical activity would help him think, but seriously, he was only drawing blanks. At this rate, I'd grow old or have to force myself to make a decision.'
"rather take old age," Aero muttered, tossing and catching his staff in a moment that allowed for a back-then front kick. Planting his feet on the ground, he held a guard stace for a few moments. "but each one definitely has benefits. Either way, I'll have to talk to someone; he didn't have the athoutry to fulfill any choice he made.
'my authority only comes from a title I was chosen to wield. I haven't done much to put my own weight behind it." Singing Aero, I did a set of cool-down exercises before climbing into the cart and trying to get to sleep.
It didn't come easily, but he managed to make it. Afterward, though, he wasn't happy the next morning. He was in a state he could work with,' if something attacks me, I am more than capable of reacting.'
It wasn't until after his mourning stretched and worked that he remembered he had a team he could rely on." yeah, let someone else lead the cart train." he still needed to think about his choice, and he prepared a letter to send back home. He was going to get a very angry response from Baili.
'I wonder if she made a decision regarding world sales,' either way, he started mentally composing the letter and trying to think about what choice he would make himself. What choices would he present to her. 'a very angry response,' sighing he shifted his posture and tried to relax, but it didn't really seem to do anything as they set off.
" so should we ask what is bothering you or-?" Inna asked. Aero blinked before turning to face her. he stared for a long moment," We need off-planet money. There are a few options, but each brings a certain amount of risk to the entire planet."
"-that heavy definitely would bother me." Tzilla commented. "but it is something that had to be thought about." for a moment, no one said anything before Galia spoke up, "We got some time before we can think about stopping for the night. Want to talk about it. Maybe we can offer some support. At least you'll be able to speak it out."
"yeah, that doesn't sound like a bad idea." Aero took a breath before grabbing his water; he was probably going to need it during this discussion. " well, the idea I like the least is opening the planet up for tourism. Cause there are so many people who could sneak on and cause trouble. The security forces we would need."
"ugh, there aren't even enough hunters to keep things like they are; that was before we learned there are giant creatures hiding out."
"Yeah, we didn't win that fight while keeping possible thousands of thousands of people from causing trouble. Just no." idit shuddered, remembering the brief period of time she worked in a restaurant. A broken arm didn't stop a need for an income. "people can be so dumb, also zaltess damn malicious. It won't be worth it, trust me."
Something in her eyes told Aero he didn't want to know, "Okay, so another option that keeps people off the plants is the sale of resources and luxury items." idit spoke up again, picking up on the problem, "We need the resources, right?"
Aero nodded, "Yep, there is also the problem with luxury items. What would we sell, and how do we stop it from dominating our economy. " he could thank Taro for telling him about TVS-34. The 34th planet of the T.V.s. star cluster. A planet that for a period of time had been so overcome with the sale of luxury items that they couldn't procure the necessary goods for their people.
"how bad did it get to them?" Gail asked after he mentioned the plant to them. " They almost ran out of money trying to prevent a worldwide famine by buying off world supplies. Even then, it took them almost 100 of their sun rotations before they fully recovered their economy."
"so sales only if we keep everything on a tight leash." there was a round of agreement from the group, " what is the least bad option?" tzilla asked, and Aero huffed for a moment." streaming, displaying our adventures and actions for the universe to watch and judge." Aero put this thought with more force than was really necessary, but he didn't like this idea on a personal level despite the helper saying that it would go well.
"I can see this brings attention, but what is the biggest problem?"
"to watch and judge, I don't need or want people doing either. besides, attention can quickly turn bad." Aero glared at the stars. "too much action, and we might have some visitors upon our forest."
"yeah, I can see that. I'm with you. I don't need hundreds-
"trillions upon trillions if we attract enough."
"don't just drop that number so causally. Also, this isn't something we do for entertainment. This is used to try to protect people and keep things balanced. Not to entertain someone planets away." Inna nodded in agreement before looking up." trillions upon trillions." what a mind-boggling scope of things.
"yeah, but I think it's the thing with the least direct harm to the planet and its people." Aero stopped and realized she was right; while it brought attention that wasn't certain to be harmful nor direct, that had it shooting up in his opinion. ' really hope something else comes along!"