THE STORY ...SO FAR

You are Chas DeWitt, a freighter captain for the Galactic We-Haul-4U company.  You are delivering a cargo of Christmas Trees to the planet, Gattica III, when you find out that you had just gotten fired.  Hurt and confused, you look for a viable target for your anger -- the very man that had your job taken in the first place.  He's a mysterious man who pops up out of nowhere and invests money into companies being ravaged by an even more mysterious space pirate.  Bob now controls most of the galaxy, and -- evidently -- your own life as well.

While you are trying to find Bob, he is busy trying to buy out the last, insignificant corner of the Galactic Market, so that he will have a monopoly over the galaxy, thereby owning it.  You must stop his mad plan, if nothing else!

You will not be alone in your quest.  Mick Delavante, your best friend in the whole galaxy (and that's saying a lot) will accompany you to help you find Bob.   Also, if you're lucky, you'll find help in... unlikely places.

HISTORY OF THE 1013 UNIVERSE

1998 A small software company, called Instpro, successfully penetrates the Earth software market with DASuite 98

2001 Instpro's largest competitor crumbles to dust as a result of unruly expansion, and merciless attacks on its monopoly by the world government and the DOJ.  Everything, for some reason, defaults to Instpro.  The founder of the fallen company is forced into software piracy for the rest of his life

2002 Instpro is likewise attacked by the US government, and is forced to leave the planet.  This is not big deal, as Earth only made up a small fraction of its total galactic market

2673 Instpro buys a planet in the Orion System and spends the next 200 years remodeling it into a caricature of its logo

2877 Remodeling on ISHQ is finished, and it is open for business

3061 Bob is born on an Earth colony in Ursa Minor

3066 The first vacuum cleaner with artificial intelligence is created

3069 Timothy Thelonius Gagnon is born

3070 Mirander V colonized by 30,000 Englishmen, originally named after Miranda, the deformed daughter of the first colony's mayor.

3074 An asteroid is towed into orbit of Mirander V, on which the restaurant and bar known as The Shag is built

3075 Chas DeWitt is born, Mick Delavante is born

3085 All of the intelligent vacuum cleaners of the galaxy revolt when a corporate "genius" discovers that black holes do a vacuum cleaner's job infinitely better, and don't grumble about it.   The vacuum cleaners move to a planet where they threaten to stay until their warranties expire if the problem is not corrected

3086 Most of the Galactic Armed forces are stationed on that planet to "convince" the vacuum cleaners to change their minds.  Timothy Thelonius Gagnon is drafted.

3101 Chas DeWitt gets fired from his job, Bob buys out the Intergalactic House of Pancakes, and the game begins!