Skips and Misjumps Pt. 1

 Pity the poor banks. they give loans out of the goodness of their hearts (and 220% interest) to devious traders who then proceed to skip -run for the frontier and never make a payment again! That's why There are no longer any banks around, just traders living off their profits in their ill gotten ships.

Hold it.

Banks are still there, large and in charge.Traders for the most part are making payments and plying their trading. People skipping are far and few between. It must not pay. Why is that? Read on.

The Loan

Getting a loan is more than just signing on the dotted line. You need to come up with a business plan. For RP purposes this could be as simple as trading food and machinery between an agro world and a high population or industrial world, or running metals and resources from an non-industrial world to anyone really in exchange for anything manufactured or grown. Have a couple of such runs in mind in a single cluster and you'll have it relatively easy (aside from pirates, tariffs and pesky locals). thus the first method banks use -they only give loans to people with a plan to pay them back. This benefits everyone (even the pirates). If you're already making money, you have less inclination to skip. Simple.

As for the rest of the interview, they will skirt around and tease and flirt with asking you will you ever skip, and then ask you directly. They will do this in different ways, several times. Have no doubt, the comfy chair you sit in, is recording your responses. They will look down you throat and look up your birth certificate, monitor your vitals, possibly run a high tech EEG to determine, can we trust this guy? 

There many be several interviews, varying in unpleasantness from awkward to less enjoyable than nude sunbathing in a class C atmosphere. After all, they need a sampling of results. You might also notice odd things happen. Strangers will drop valuables in your path. You will receive illegal and indecent proposals. Yes, you are too smart not to realize it is another test. It doesn't matter. What does, are the scanners on you running your physiological reactions.

You got a Meritorious Conduct Under Fire Medal? What not a Medal for Conspicuous Gallantry? You got a MCG? Why not a Starburst for Extreme Heroism? Oh, you got a SEH -what are you compensating for?!

What abut friends, associates, enemies? They will get questioned as well. The Psi Institute might be questioned. They need loans at times too, and bureaucrats are immune to hypnotic command ('What We Do in the Shadows' proved that!)

After all the you get the loan. Of course you do. The group needs a ship to get around. Gets, your personal records, history, description, EEGs, finger and retina prints, and probably DNA (don't ask.) You now face the final approval...


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