Which meant the UPA was going to pay for it.
“Well, then,” she said. “Let us begin, then, with my rejecting the suggestion you are about to make. We will under no circumstances trade the gravity-shield technology for anything. I am prepared to pay in refined metals and willing to consider other potential agreements, but that is specifically off the table.”
From the shuffling around her, that had been exactly what blue-whorls had been about to suggest—and no one there was particularly surprised by her shutting it down.
“It would certainly be our preference to trade in technology and change your thoughts on that point,” blue-whorls admitted. “If that is not possible, for a task of this magnitude, refined metals will not be enough. They will be required as an initial payment, but future value must also be agreed upon.”
“And what did you have in mind?” Sylvia asked carefully. She still had five tons of refined palladium and ten of refined iridium to work with, but she wasn’t sure if that would be enough for even half of three Guardians.
“We require exclusive trading rights with the La-Tar Cluster for a period of no less than four thousand Kenmiri days,” the Councilor told her. “Plus either eleven tons of refined palladium or twenty-two tons of refined iridium.
“The UPA will not give up our own trading rights to the La-Tar Cluster,” she replied. “With that codicil, I am prepared to discuss shared exclusive rights with the government of the Cluster. I cannot fully commit them to that without discussions that are impossible from here.
“I can offer ten tons of refined iridium and, say, three tons of refined palladium, as well.”
The councilors exchanged looks and she could hear whispered conversations behind the masks. The Drifters didn’t have internal networks, but they definitely had radios built into their Face Masks.
“This is acceptable if the Convoy is permitted to establish a trading post in a UPA system with a population of at least four hundred million,” blue-whorls finally told her.
Only decades of practice kept Sylvia’s face calm. The United Planets Alliance didn’t have an official isolationist policy, but the general tone of her government’s actions since the war had been to keep the former Kenmiri Empire in their own stars.
She had the authority to agree to said trading post, but she wasn’t sure how well it would go down. On the other hand, it would probably be good for the UPA to have an alien presence in their own worlds.
“Done,” she said sharply. “Details will need to be established later, but I can commit the United Planets Alliance to permit a trading enclave in the Procyon System.”
Procyon had two billion people and was the closest of the major eight UPA systems to the former Empire. Sylvia wasn’t entirely sure what a Drifter trading enclave would even look like, but it would probably be valuable to both sides.
“Then we have a deal,” the Councilor told her. “We will send a trio of our Guardians to the Lon System for the agreed upon time. Is there anything else you would desire of us, Ambassador?”
“I believe our business is done,” she allowed. “It has been a pleasure to trade with you, Councilors. I will have the final installment of cargo delivered while we retrieve our crew from Trust in Fortune, and then Shaka will leave for La-Tar.”
She’d be sending a skip drone as soon as she was back aboard the destroyer, though. That way, everyone would know what was coming.
Soon enough, Shaka would be back in unquestionably friendly skies—and Sylvia Todorovich would be transferring back to Raven. Entirely to be aboard the more impressive and better-defended vessel.
Entirely.
Nothing to do with spending time with Raven’s captain.
Chapter Sixteen
“She did it.” Iyotake sounded stunned as the briefing video from Todorovich ended. Raven’s senior officers were gathered around the table in their conference room, all of them looking at the spot where the hologram had just disappeared, with various levels of surprise.
“I had faith in Em Todorovich,” Henry told his XO. “But yes. I’m more than a little surprised by the level of willingness to talk the Kozun are showing. There are only seven Voices of the Kozun, after all.”
“What does that mean for the negotiations?” Ihejirika asked, the tactical officer looking thoughtful.
“It means that Mal Dakis is sending someone who absolutely speaks for him, who can commit the Hierarchy and who likely has no limits on what they’re permitted to offer,” Henry concluded. “The Voices are theoretically equal. No one is going to pretend the other six don’t answer to Dakis, but he can’t gainsay anything they say in public, either.”
“Not without shooting another round of prophets, anyway,” Alex Thompson said grimly. Raven’s GroundDiv commander was a solidly built blue-eyed and blond-haired man who could have stepped off a recruiting poster. “If he disavows a Voice’s actions, I’m guessing he has to disavow the Voice entirely.”
“And that’s a threat to his power base he can’t risk,” Iyotake guessed. “So, if he’s sending a Voice, he trusts them?”
“Completely,” Henry said. “I’m as surprised by the escort rules as anything else,” he continued. “I was half-expecting them to try to prevent us bringing Raven, but the requirement to bring a UPSF ship…they’re practically inviting us. Specifically.”
“Trap?” O’Flannagain suggested, the fighter officer looking tense. “They could be setting us up.”
“They definitely could be,” Henry conceded. “We’re expecting some kind of trouble.”
Only Iyotake and Moon were cleared to know about Yellow Bicycle. Scorpius and her battle group were two days away from their jump-off point, one skip away from La-Tar. That, if Henry was reading the timing right, would be perfect.
If the Kozun wanted to start a fight, they were going to have an ugly surprise coming.
“We’ll probably bring Glorious with us, unless the La-Tar want to bring two ships of their own,” he continued, letting that comment sink without notice. He’d brief his people on Yellow Bicycle once they were on their way—they’d need to know then and there’d be less chance of a leak.
“Who do you think they’ll send to negotiate for them?” Iyotake asked. “I’m guessing we’re not running that negotiation?”
“No, from what Todorovich said, we only took the lead with the Drifters because we had existing structures there and the Cluster didn’t really,” Henry said. “The Cluster will lead at Lon. I’m guessing they’ll send Rising Principle. They spoke well to put together the alliance and their parent trusts them.”
“And Adamant Will, whether they like it or not, is now First Standard of the Council of Supply,” Iyotake agreed.
Adamant Will was an Enteni, the former head of the emergency council that had functioned as an underground government during the Kozun occupation. Their sole child was Rising Principle, the Enteni diplomat Raven had hauled around to every world in the Cluster to assemble an army.
“Well, I look forward to meeting the flytrap again,” O’Flannagain observed, her tone jokingly disrespectful. “They had a surprisingly good sense of humor for a walking plant.”