((Colony 874, Vessel #12, Orbiting Formica))

“Looks like the intermix chamber is undersized, and the coolant flow regulators don’t have any redundancy. These won’t make it past about warp 2.5.” Saxxo, one of the Blythe engineers said to a colleague.

“Oh great, we ask you for help and you show up with insults. It’s a good thing you aren’t charging us for those pearls of wisdom, Starfleet.” One of the Ferengi minders interjected.

“Hey, we just wanna be sure that the Formicans’ engines are safe, and up to snuff for what they need them for,” retorted Vozak, another engineer from the Blythe.

“The design specs of these engines say they’re rated for operation up to warp 6. We’ve tested our shuttles that use these exact engines up to that speed just a few days ago.” Said the Sub-Daimon in charge of the Ferengi work crew that was helping them do the final install on the warp cores themselves.

“Not safely that’s for sure. Beef up the intermix chambers to be able to hande another 8 or 10 kilocochranes of pressure,” Saxxo walked over to the engine assembly itself and motioned to a mostly open section to the right of core well itself.

“Maybe a secondary coolant trunk here…” he then walked back to the group and took a look at his padd.

“Add an insulated foreplate on your induction coils, then sure, I could see this engine pushing warp 6. Until then, she’ll probably breach at warp 3. Some of the materials themselves seem to be of low quality too. No offense.” Saxxo said to group of Formicans who were standing nearby.

“No offense is taken Chief Saxxo. Please, come, share the specifics on these modifications that you suggest.” A-3682 said, as the current construction foreman he was slated to take command of the vessel when it was finished. He walked into a vacant alcove in the side of the engineering compartment. But the other ants had already been offended, they were the ones who had chosen the cheaper material in an attemot to cut costs and produce more ships then their rival colonies, not the Ferengi. They resented being called out for it.

((Derganix, Ferengi Exchange))

For all intents and purposes, it was a bank and a stock exchange. The Dergans up until about 40 years prior, had used titanium coins in denominations that aligned with their base 8 numbers system as their sole form of currency. But since shortly after the Formican War the society had steadily moved towards a digitized banking system. Hard cash though, was still the most common form of payment in Deegan society.

“The new promotion offers are having an effect I see. This is the busiest we’ve been in weeks.’ Sub Daimon Berkk, the Manager, said.

“Lots of foot traffic to be sure.” His head of security replied.

“I’ve gotta hand it to my assistant, offering a 5 percent yearly compounding interest bonus on all accounts with a balance over 5000 Dergma’s is just fucking genus. And tying in it with a warning about the moneyless newcomers, you know what, I’m gonna promote him on monday.” Berkk said, not realizing that the Dergans were actually gaming his bank offer and withdrawing all other superfluous funds, in hard currency.

As he saw the daily tally sheet a few hours later, he was filled with a sense of panic. The bank was nearly empty of its on hand reserves of Dergma coins. If there was another rush on withdrawals tomorrow, his bank would be outed as the Ponzi scheme it was for all the Dergans and Starfleeters to plainly see.

He quickly put in a call up to the orbit station, asking for an urgent shipments of to replenish his cash reserves.  The word that came back, to Berkk’s chagrin, was not the answer he’d hoped to hear; the station could send some Dergmas, but they couldn’t spare enough to cover the bank’s exposure if another run did happen.  Instead, he had been instructed to try and prevent the run, by any reasonable means.