Over the course of the next two weeks, the new Pilots got to really work on their skills without a serious threat of being overrun. Not once did the Arisen send more than one ship after the station's zone, making every battle a skirmish as the enemy tested the extent of their new developments, and the Koleska hurried to spread them all over the Empire.
It was a race for survival on their part, as the new developments had cut casualties by such a large margin that they could actually produce soldiers faster than they were losing them for the first time, and the new Pilots were gaining valuable experience to become more effective combatants.
"This place is starting to look more like home. No more fresh-faced kids everywhere. There are actual combat veterans now. I know they don't show much on their faces, but you can see in their eyes that they have experience now. Even the way they carry themselves has changed, more pride and confidence, even though their rank hasn't changed." Nico commented as the pair walked through the station toward a post-deployment debriefing.
The last battle had been the best one yet for the station defence force, and the Koleska Commanders were looking to get more of the training devices made so that they could send them to every station in the region.
The new weapons spread quickly, but their systems were incompatible with the creation of the Learning Devices. The computer software didn't work with anything that they had, so they had to either get a full ship's computer setup from the humans to program and synchronize the sets or keep buying the sets with their programming intact.
Max didn't have an issue with that. The experiment had been a resounding success here at the station closest to the Anomaly, so it should be the same elsewhere, and that would make the Arisen spread out their forces even more.
The two walked arm in arm into the meeting room where the Koleska Commanders and senior bureaucrats were waiting for them, still blissfully unaware that Max could read their minds and already knew exactly what they were after.
They thought that the Koleska and the humans were simply similar in thought, so they got along well. They had never met a mind-reading species, so the thought never occurred to them.
"Welcome to the meeting, Commanders. As I'm sure you are aware by now, the experiment with your teaching methods has been a great success for our troops here at the station. But in the interest of not drawing massed forces of Arisen to our location, we have a proposal that we would like to put to you for consideration." The lead bureaucrat of the Koleska delegation informed them politely.
"I suspected that it might be something like that. Our agreement has also been to the benefit of my species, and we have no objection to expanding it to include other training locations so that a larger segment of the Koleska military can be fully trained to our standards, as well as their own." Max readily agreed.
Max resisted the urge to smile when the bureaucrat bemoaned the fact that Max hadn't mentioned payment terms in his initial statement. They believed that they had gotten a heavy discount the first time because it was in his best interest that the other defenders were fully trained. As such, the bureaucrats were very concerned that the next batch might cost them much more dearly.
"We have prepared an agreement to distribute another sixteen hundred learning devices to various academies around the nation. Please, look it over." The bureaucrat informed them with his best professional smile.
[Wagers on it being exactly the same as the last deal but with the number of units increased?] Nico asked Max in a text message.
[Almost guaranteed. They think that we gave them a heavy discount the first time, so they're going to try to keep the discount.]
Nico paused for a moment, and Max heard her mental sigh.
[I forgot that you already knew the answer.]
Max opened the document and compared it to the last one. It really was identical. The number of units had changed, and the wording of the distribution, as they were going to send them all over their territory, but ninety percent of the document was word for word the same as the last one, right down to the price per unit.
He pretended that it was taking him much longer to go over the document and even brought up the old one on his holographic display to put on a show of making sure he wasn't getting scammed with a tricky clause, then closed everything up after a few minutes and smiled at the bureaucrats.
"I believe that with the bulk order discount, these terms are satisfactory to us. I can provide the units by the end of the day after the raw materials requested in the agreement are provided." Max agreed.
He put his thumbprint and signature on the official document and passed it back to the head negotiator, who happily added his own and then passed it to an assistant to fulfill the terms.
Commander Yuri made a happy humming sound with the chitin plates on the side of his neck that Max knew was their equivalent of laughter, and the bureaucrat returned a more annoyed noise.
"I take it there was some wagering on how the negotiations would go?" Nico asked after watching their exchange.
"Indeed there was. They believed that you would be more unreasonable this time after giving us such a good deal the first time." The Station Commander laughed.
"Last time was our first deal. The terms were good but not unreasonably good. So it was no hardship for us to keep them this time. There is a bit of wisdom in the Reaver's trade doctrine. Never offer a price that you're not prepared to offer again.
Once you have made a very good deal, your buyer will view that as the fair trade price moving forward. So if you have more to trade, they will expect that price or better every time, and if you undercut yourself, you will quickly end up in a very bad situation." Nico explained.
"Hmm, your people are wise in the way of trade. Many merchants among our people have lost everything after a string of bad deals." The bureaucrat replied as if Nico had given them some great secret to trade.
It wasn't, and their merchants already knew it, but the Koleska classes didn't really mingle, so the bureaucrats, who had worked to stay at the top their whole lives, had little personal interaction with the common shopkeepers who sold them their daily necessities.
"Now that the trade deal is out of the way, how is the situation in the other regions of Koleska space?" Max asked, eager to get the details so that he could send some useful information back to the Reavers this week.
"It's not great news, but not as bad as we had feared. The Arisen haven't increased their rate of attack against the rest of our territory, despite the reduced number of combatants in this region. We are holding, for now, and looking forward to having more trained Pilots on the lines." The military strategist in the room informed him in a carefully neutral tone.
He was concerned about the casualties, but it wouldn't do to look weak in front of his allies.
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