Zilan Wine, Part One

Where the Travellers return to Zila and a seemingly simple business deal turns into a very educational encounter with bureaucracy.

This note is from our November 9, 2014 session and was mostly written by Carl with edits and additional material provided by Kay and myself. The artwork is by Liz Danforth from Aramis, the Traveller Adventure.

Continued from: The Wolf at the Door, Conclusion.

Date: 215-1104 Imperial.

Location: Port Aramamx over the planet Aramamx in the Aramis Subsector.

Since we had not formally passed on our suspicions about the Meson guns to anyone except Baron Feri (Oberlindes), we sought out the local Navy. It turned out to be just a recruiting office, but you take what you can get.

We gave them a written document detailing our suspicions and what Kfouzr had told us while we were on the run while planetside. We asked them to transmit it, encrypted, to the Navy base at Natoko.

We also gave a copy to Arlanroughl (the Baron's aide de camp) for further transmittal to the Navy another way.

While we were preparing to leave, Arlanroughl asked that we contact Lisa Fireau with Fireau et Fille when we got to Zila. He said that she could use "our kind of help".

With all the bases we could think of covered, and a good cargo for Zila, we took off to see who Fireau et Fille really were.

Trake: Small berry common to many worlds of the Imperium. The trake has a meaty, sweet body enclosing a single large seed and grows on a low, thorny bush. Trakes have been grown in the Imperial core since the time of the First Imperium. Introduced late to the Spinward Marches. They have flourished on only a few worlds, notably Pysadi and Alell, although they are cultivated on many others.

224-1104 In port on Zila

Lesson learned last time. We contracted for legal aid and Sam estimated the usual week to sell and buy cargo. We found out that Fireau is a winery, one of the best ones on planet. They had an office near the spaceport, so we headed over that way.

We learned a little about the wine industry and some of the politics that go into it. We also got to sample some very fine tasting vintages before we met Lisa, the Fille of the company. (Fille, pronounced somewhere between feel and fee, a little closer to fee, means daughter - foreigners... bah...oops, I guess we were the foreigners there.)

After identifying ourselves and our coming here at Baron Feri's request, she told us the story. Fireau Wineries is one of three relatively small wineries (compared to Tukera) on planet, and is the de facto leader of the group. Currently Tukera has an exclusive contract for shipping all wine from the major houses off-world.

Fireau has a contract with Tukera, but it was set to expire in two weeks. Tukera was pushing, and anticipating that Fireau will renew, but...

Occasionally, an early freeze hits Zila’s wine country, which can ruin the trake crop. However, if the trakes – are picked quickly and processed while still frozen, the resulting wine, called eiswein, is of uncommon excellence.

Zilan eiswein is highly prized on Zila as the best of all wines; although it has never been exported in quantity, Tukera has purchased and released a few bottles offworld to enhance the Zilan mystique.

Very recently, a large and particularly fine vintage of eiswein has come of age in the Fireau winery. No one outside of Fireau et Fille knows of this vintage and, most importantly, Tukera has no stockpiles.

If a shipment of this wine could be taken offworld and sold on the open market,the Fireau's should be able to take advantage of Tukera’s own advertising to bring a fantastically high price.

The plan is to fly the Skylark 2 to the winery, load the 30 ton cargo of wine there and depart. But this, on Zila, is not as simple as it sounds; Zila’s bureaucracy makes it difficult for deviation from the usual routine to be accomplished. Several different permits, forms, authorizations and dispensations are required to gain permission for the ship to land away from the starport, load a cargo not passed through normal customs channels and soon. It will be necessary for the crew to begin obtaining these permits immediately, while Lisa and her father travel to the winery to prepare the cargo.

Sadly, they wanted it done legally. Oh well... we have done worse things in our past.

They want us to take the wine to Aramanx (only the high port, they assured us - after receiving aggrieved looks from the Skylark crew), to be sold or auctioned off to pay their taxes so that the winery can stay in business long enough to break Tukera’s hold. The major reason the wine houses are trying to get out of their contracts is (short version) Tukera wants political power on Zila and the only way to get it on this planet is to own over 1000 hectares which gives a landowner’s vote. Tukera has been using the money from the winery contracts to buy up land, turn the land into another winery, buy up stockpiles of the wines on planet, and use all of that to put pressure on the wineries.

Lisa Fireau and Boris Dree, an employee would be going with us too.

There were five forms that needed to be filled out correctly, some with one signature and some with more. Navigating the bureaucracy was not something we were looking forward to, but all things considered we were up for it. Put a stick in Tukera's eye... count me in!

As for Tukera, it was pretty important that they NOT learn about any of this, or at least not for as long as possible. As well as pressure and possible violence (remember the bar fight?) Tukera could also flood the market with lower priced wines that they could claim were as good or better.

Our goal was to get all the forms properly filled out and signed, and take off a couple hours at most after the exclusive contract for shipping expired on 239-1104. Fireau senior would put Tukera off til the last minute, and we would ship the wines to their destination.

Of course, the first thing we thought of was... FORGERY!! Sadly, without knowing who should sign the forms, and getting copies of those signatures, it would be difficult. So forgery, though not off the table, was put onto the waaaaay back burner.

The forms we needed were:

• Form 17, Special Landing Permit: This gives the ship the right to land at some point away from the starport (designated on the form) on a specific date. It requires signatures from three appropriate officials.
• Form 828, Customs Declaration/Export Authorization: This describes the cargo (‘wine’), the amount carried, the value, destination and so forth. It requires two signatures.
• Form 29, Waiver for Pre-launch Inspection: This form is obtained from the starport and allows the ship to pick up a cargo after leaving the landing field. It requires one signature.
• Form 106, Local Landing Permit: This form must be obtained from the authorities of the province where the landing is to take place (Polykarp Province). It requires two signatures.
• Form 11/2, Application for Visa: This form is required for Zilan natives to leave Zila and return. Two are needed: one for Lisa and one for Boris Dree, her employee. Each visa requires two signatures.
  

Sam and Medicus made a really smart start that afternoon, going to the library for research on legalities, agencies and form requirements. They found no specific information, but were promised help from a friendly librarian if they came back on 225-1104.

That afternoon, Kipenzi and Fig went back to the Dead Spacer Bar, scene of our bar fight. Pam the Bartender was on duty, and Stewart McKinanurrir remembered us. Talking with some of the spacers, we learned that the 106 probably came from the Special Permits office of the PGAO (Provincial Government Administrative Office) but we would have to go to the local province for that. The 106 deals with permission to take off from other than the spaceport. The winery housing the eiswine was located in Polycarp Province, some 2000 kilometers away. Jet service to and from was available at least once per day.

Stewart couldn't shed any light on any of the other forms, so with one more round for the house we headed back to the ship.

225-1104
Sam and Medicus returned to the library, where they found (librarians are wonderful) that the Form 17 comes from the Zila Trade Authority.

Kipenzi and Fig talked to people at the starport about permits, and got referred to the Special Permits Bureau.

Rather than bore all and sundry with a lot lot lot of bureaucratic talking, being sent to wrong offices or just flat being rebuffed... summarizing the next couple days:

• Some people don't know their heads from something else.
• Some people are genuinely helpful.
• Some people are bribable (wow, who would have thought).
• Some people are genuinely helpful but also don't know squat.
  

Sam and Medicus flew out to Polycarp Province to try that end. Fortunately (by luck much more than by planning) Fig and Kipenzi had blundered onto a referral for the Skylark crew to meet one of the right people out that way. Sometimes the blind squirrel does actually find a nut.

Leon and Gvouzdon passed through Merchant Guild offices and dining areas, learning some good (and some not so good) information.

Sam and Medicus met the people at the Fireau winery in Polycarp, and got a good look at the prospective cargo. They also checked out places we might land the Skylark2. They found that there was a courtyard/parking area in front of the winery large enough that should support the weight of the Skylark 2.

We met a lot of bureaucrats, and some worker bees, along the way. By 226-1104 we had actually made some headway toward our form status. Hopefully we didn't talk to any Tukera sympathizers or informants. The real issue there will come when we have to declare what our cargo to go off planet is, and the names on the visas (Zila requires exit visas for its citizens).

We had a lot more talking, wheedling, bribing, sneaking and so forth to go, but were beginning to see the outlines of the maze of Zillan bureaucracy that we had to navigate.

Kipenzi is creating a database with all of the departments., forms, people to go through, what their motivations (read: bribes) are. In case we EVER have to come back here again. Some of these people are Zila patriots, some are fond of Tukera, and at the end, we will have to try to give the depts. back their filled out forms without the Tukera-lovers getting wind of it. - Kipenzi.

Continued in Zillan Wine, Part 2.

See Also: Dramatis Personæ, Skylark 2, Campaign Starts, The 2nd Adventure, The Chamax Plague, Horde, Shadows, Research Station Gamma, Twilight's Peak, Prison Planet, Leedor on Aramis.