I'll echo Bob (in both the greeting and the state of the art of shipping), and add a few other thoughts...
Hermes Universal Deliveries is the oldest company in Fenspace, but it's pretty much a background entity - if a plotline needs a delivery to happen, then a HUD ship shows up with the package. There's a few companies that do their own shipping, but they're specialized concerns (such as the mining operations on Mercury).
There's nobody telling stories about a general shipping company yet, so you'd have a wide-open field if that's the sort of story you want to tell.
I know you haven't asked yet, but as for what gets shipped where... There's always the opportunity for a "one off" shipment, so these are just guidelines.
* Most "finished goods" and luxury foods come from Earth and go to the other planets and stations.
* Venus exports carbon and hydrocarbon products (including industrial-diamond building materials), and imports food and anything useful for a terraforming project.
* Mars has some of the largest shipyards in the system (the Trekkies like building ships), and imports biomass.
* Both the Island and Stellvia have extensive shopping and hotel facilities, and need the sort of supplies that keep stores and hotels running. They rarely export anything (except possibly "pre-enjoyed biomass", which goes to Mars).
* And somebody willing to hitch a ride on a "tramp steamer" could be going from anywhere to anywhere...
-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Hermes Universal Deliveries is the oldest company in Fenspace, but it's pretty much a background entity - if a plotline needs a delivery to happen, then a HUD ship shows up with the package. There's a few companies that do their own shipping, but they're specialized concerns (such as the mining operations on Mercury).
There's nobody telling stories about a general shipping company yet, so you'd have a wide-open field if that's the sort of story you want to tell.
I know you haven't asked yet, but as for what gets shipped where... There's always the opportunity for a "one off" shipment, so these are just guidelines.
* Most "finished goods" and luxury foods come from Earth and go to the other planets and stations.
* Venus exports carbon and hydrocarbon products (including industrial-diamond building materials), and imports food and anything useful for a terraforming project.
* Mars has some of the largest shipyards in the system (the Trekkies like building ships), and imports biomass.
* Both the Island and Stellvia have extensive shopping and hotel facilities, and need the sort of supplies that keep stores and hotels running. They rarely export anything (except possibly "pre-enjoyed biomass", which goes to Mars).
* And somebody willing to hitch a ride on a "tramp steamer" could be going from anywhere to anywhere...
-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012