TransSolar

TransSolar was a Federation-based company active in the late 23rd century. They were engaged in shipping, trade of goods and long-range trade expeditions.

One company asset was the Eridani Star, a small commercial transport vessel which it used for long-range exploration for the purposes of trade. For this role they placed one of their most enterprising officers in the captain's position.

InstellCo was a rival of TransSolar. Though InstellCo was much smaller, it had no qualms about criminal activities to compete.

History
In the late 23rd century, TransSolar sent the Eridani Star to the Orion Colony world of Daros IV with the goal of breaking the Orion monopoly over the sector, opening a trade route there, and securing a long-term trade agreement with one of the ruling Five Families. The company wrote a letter of introduction for Imri Keros of the Keros Family, who was thought to be most interested in trade with Federation businesses.

To this end, the ship carried a load of computers, electronics and other high technology goods to sell, as a sample of TransSolar's products. This cargo had a base value of 2200 credits per standard cargo unit. This was expected to sell for higher in the High Market of Daros IV, since its client worlds were generally primitive and hungry for advanced technology. The captain was authorized to use the profits to purchase a cargo for a return trip; 20% of the profits from the resale of that cargo would go to the crew as a bonus. The captain was also granted a fund of 20,000 credits for expenses, and would receive 20% of what was left unspent following the expedition's conclusion.

However, in reference stardate 2/1410 (circa 2273), while it was four days away from the Daros system, the Eridani Star was stopped by the USS Patton (Larson class), which was carrying Starfleet Intelligence investigators also bound for Daros IV. The Starfleet officers commandeered the Eridani to carry them the rest of the way, with them acting undercover as part of its crew. Both the TransSolar traders and the Starfleet investigators arrived on Daros IV and commenced their separate missions, with the former in brutal competition with the crew of InstellCo's Werewolf and the latter opposed by the Klingon-Kerav alliance, and complicated by each other.