While Max and Nico were sitting in a secondary layer of space, working on a mass producible version of the Dyson Sphere, Mary Tarith was sitting in the Sector Governor's office on Rae 5, trying to talk some sense into her counterparts.
"For the last time, no, we are not going to start a trade war with the Icarians over their production of luxury yachts. The design isn't even close to ours, and the quality is far inferior." She explained for the fifth time today.
"But so is the price. We can't have someone undercutting us in the market like that." The Commander in front of her declared.
"They're a Warp 3 local system vessel that needs portals to even get between star systems in a standard vacation. How can their offering even be considered to be in the same market as ours? We produce and sell luxury vessels with Warp Ten drives and Portal Generators." She countered.
The Commander looked vindicated and brought up the Icarian vessel, which looked like a metallic swan made of children's building blocks, long-necked and blocky.
"See this? That's their vessel. Now, look at this."
The Commander overlaid the elegant lines of the smallest of the luxury yachts that was not considered a shuttle, showing that the two were almost exactly the same length.
The Reavers' offering held four times as many people, and in much more comfort, due to its larger body, but there was no denying, they were the same length.
"Yes, look at it? It looks like a dead animal. The volume is barely more than our shuttles, and the whole ship is basically one long hallway. Why do you even see this as a threat?" She asked.
"Because our sources say that they have an order for a thousand of them, and that the non-alliance species who ordered them plans to weaponize them." The Commander informed her smugly.
She already had that information, and had received it weeks ago, but Mary decided not to say anything about it at the moment. After all, the problem was solved. She had made sure that the Innu sold them some Ion Cannon technology from a century ago, which was still better than what they had, but was no threat to the updated shields on any currently commissioned Reaver ship.
They had been hard at work making sure that everyone was upgraded, since so many Companies were sentimentally attached to their antique hulls and didn't want to replace them with more modern ships.
It made sense, some of them had called the same ship home for ten generations already. But when it came to modern shipping expectations and combat capabilities, they were often found lacking.
"So, what you should be doing right now is not whining about a competitor and wanting to involve the Reavers as a whole in a trade war, you should be at the customer, selling them on the virtues of our attack shuttles, which are much more cost-effective, and better armed than what they have in mind.
The power output on that ship won't even support the main Disruptor on our shuttles, they're not fit to be weaponized if they're going to fight alongside us, much less against us." Mary reminded him.
She saw the moment that he realized that there was a better way than attacking the source, and then he politely bowed before backing up two steps.
"I will take my leave, Sector Governor Tarith. Please inform me if there are any new developments in our combat shuttles before I arrive."
That was one meeting down, and right on time to begin her next one.
Luke Tarith, one of her distant nephews, and a Ship Captain of the Terminus Trading Company, was her next meeting.
"What news do you have for me?" She asked as the young blonde man swaggered in the door, dressed in his most glamorous double-breasted red velvet trench coat.
"I have today's updates from Absolution. Though the majority of her research crew is still on the Moon Base, working with Uncle Lu and his team, we do have some news. The Black Market representative is looking for two Cargo spec Destroyers, unmarked and untraceable, to send to the next major battle between the Great Enemy and the Anomaly species.
They are of the opinion that there is a great deal of money to be made selling pilfered alien scrap and moving relief supplies to afflicted planets."
"They want to move whole Destroyers full of relief supplies to stricken planets? I'll believe that when I see it. My guess is that they are looking for a way to smuggle millions of people off stricken planets at a massive upcharge, and it's going to take at least a pair of Destroyers to get through the blockades." Mary laughed.
"That sounds about right. Though they might be planning to use them here as cargo freighters in the meantime, moving prohibited goods under the assumption that nobody will question a Destroyer Class vessel." Luke agreed.
"Alright, we will arrange for one of the Dark Stations to build them two new ships with unregistered Warp Drives, the usual fifty percent markup will be charged, payable in trade goods only." Mary agreed.
"Excellent, I will pass on the good news. Felicity, the ship's AI on Absolution is a genius with the bookkeeping, and there won't be any problems with the shipments to the World Ship, or off it to the other Reavers." Luke replied with a smile.
"Now, is there anything else? I've got a full day of meetings ahead of me." Mary sighed.
"Not much. Your daughter and the Commander are on a research trip with the main design team from the moon base, along with the alien known as Ranarth. I couldn't find out what they are working on, but Uncle Lu likes you, so he will likely spill if you get him excited about something."
"Of course. That man is actually terrible at keeping secrets, he's just hard to gain access to. I will arrange dinner with him sometime this week to find out where my daughter has gone this time. Please send in the next appointment on your way out."
Luke Tarith left the room and Mary sighed. They were still wrapped up in making new Mecha, and not a single grandchild in sight. At this rate, she was going to have to wait for the next oldest, and the twins had only just started their time at the Academy.
Even worse, they were unlikely to graduate as early as their older sister, so she would have to wait not only for them to finish, but even more years for them to get comfortable enough in their careers to feel like it was time to start a family when she suggested it.
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