The crowd started dispersing after hearing Andrew's words.
No one wished to go back to the slavery they barely survived, and after some thought, they had to admit that the Emperor was right.
There were more important matters than going back to their home world, which may or may not be occupied by someone at this point.
What's more, they were impressed that the Emperor himself came to address them, since usually the people in power sent someone else to deal with these kinds of situations.
-That was interesting.
Iliana said, approaching Andrew when the crowd was almost gone.
-Yes, it was and dangerous as well.
He turned to her.
-If we allow there to be an internal conflict within the empire, our enemies might take advantage of it.
-Glad it didn't happen.
She smiled.
-But you would not sell anyone back into slavery, would you?
She asked.
-As much as I'd hate to do so, I will if it's necessary.
Like I said, if they don't like it here, then they can be sold back and replaced by people who will appreciate the chance to be free.
Andrew shrugged.
-That's cruel.
Iliana said, surprised at this answer.
-Maybe so, but the empire is not a charity.
On my planet, there were plenty of people and institutions who thought that they were entitled to getting everything while contributing nothing, or forcing others to follow their ideology, and the moment they were called out on it, they started protests, throwing accusations about their rights being violated and what not.
In a few cases, this led to revolutions and civil wars.
I won't let that happen to the Empire.
-Your planet sounds quite chaotic.
I will never understand how your people managed to survive all this chaos on top of living on a death world.
-Me neither, but somehow we managed.
Andrew smiled.
After that day, there were no more gatherings like that, not only because of the threats of punishment, but also because everyone understood that there were more important things at stake.
Of course, there were a few who didn't like this, but their only choices were to either adapt or be sold back into slavery, so they didn't even try to stir any trouble.
With this problem solved, Andrew spent two days in the medical station, to the delight of Iliana, who had him for herself for two nights straight before he returned to the shipyard to face whatever new problems popped up while he was enjoying playing doctor with the doctor.
To his surprise there was nothing of note except for the diplomatic isues tied to the recent visit of the diplomat from the Federation, but these matters were taken care of by Tarina and her team.
The borders were secured, the damage from the war was completely repaired, and the fleet was growing even faster than before.
What's more, there were even a few smaller territories interested in being annexed by the empire under certain conditions.
Unfortunately, there was no rest for the wicked.
Tanera asked him to visit her office to discuss some trade opportunities she had found.
-Congratulations, you're credibility rose to the second level.
The elf said with a charming smile.
-So the opportunities you mentioned…
-Are connected to this, now you can buy and sell higher-tier items and slaves.
She finished for him.
-To be honest, the difference is not that great, but there are many opportunities on the second level, such as this one.
She showed him what she had found.
-You have got to be kidding me.
Andrew said as his jaw hit the floor when he saw the item.
-I'm not, the price is a bit high but this is definitely a stealth system from a blue box.
The merchant confirmed.
-Buy it, this thing is worth much more than the price they are asking.
Andrew said the moment the shock wore off.
The stealth upgrade was priced at ten thousand silver credits, which was definitely not cheap, but the usefulness of this thing was priceless in his eyes.
-Why didn't you research the one that you already have?
Tanera asked.
-Most of such items are special tier, so to research them, you need a tier 5 research module, not to mention an astronomical amount of resources.
Besides, if I could research such a thing, then the first thing to be researched would be another shipyard like this one.
-Alright, I'll keep an eye out for items from the boxes in the future.
She promised.
-As for the slaves, so far, you have only had access to the lowest tiers of them, now it's not much different, but you have access to some more specialized laborers, low-tier pleasure slaves, and some low tier combat slaves.
She explained.
-The difference is not exactly great, but you might find some better people with some really useful skills.
-Let's see what's available.
Andrew said, taking a look at the new categories of slaves he now had access to.
-They spent the next three hours browsing the slave market, and it turned out that Tanrea was right.
In addition to the higher-tier slaves, there was more description attached, stating their previous occupation and the opinion of the former masters if they were sold more than once before.
During this time Andrew discovered that there was a large quantity of people with who the aliens most likely had no idea what to do.
Some hackers, nurses, combat medics, farmers, soldiers of various specialties, which were not that useful in the space combat or at least it seemed that way to the slave masters.
More than that, there were many other people whose previous occupations were overlooked as useless, and they were categorized as general laborers for the most part, while many women were assigned as low-tier pleasure slaves.
What was even more surprising was that it was not only the humans but many different races who found themselves in the same situation.
As much as Andrew would like to buy them all, he knew that it was impossible.
-You know, you don't have to just buy them in the market, you now can contact the sellers directly to negotiate.
Of course, you won't get credibility points that way, but I believe that you will be able to acquire more people that way at a lower price, and the guild should not have a problem with that, especially if you also buy some through the market.
The elf said, seeing his expression.
-Alright, buy as many as we can through the market, and prioritize the sellers whom we will contact later.
-Alright.
-By the way, how are our sales?
Andrew asked.
-More than great, the profits are through the roof, especially on the food, drinks, and the tobacco you offered.
At the moment, you already have over a hundred gold credits on your account and it's still rising.
But just as you can now contact the sellers, you can also be contacted by them as well, and from the look of things it wont be long before that happens.
-I also got an inquiry from the Moon Elf Empire, on what would you wish to purchase and what are you offering to sell to the empire?
She said, remembering the message she got earlier.
-What I need the most right now are the matter converters and the nanite technology.
As for what I can offer in return, there are a lot of things that I think your people would like to get, like the dress you wanted from Earth.
If I remember correctly, the empire was mostly interested in plants, gems, clothing,food, military technology and some of our video games to use as training simulations.
-That is correct, and I think they won't have a problem trading a matter converter or two to get these things.
The elf confirmed.
-Then ask them how much they would be willing to trade for these things, and if possible, I would like the research data on the matter converters as well.
-I think that's resealable, as for the nanite technology, I don't think it will work, mostly because there is too much research data on it, and as you already know, the raw nanites are quite scarce.
Tanera shook her head.
-I know I still have a few containers, and your brother apologized profusely when he found out that he had underpaid me for them so much that he didn't even know how to get the money to even the balance.
Andrew smiled.
-Yeah, that was hilarious, but I also was unaware that the method of production for the raw nanites was lost, and the ones that are produced right now are not the fully functional ones that you sold to my brother.
Our researchers are trying to reverse engineer them, having made little to no progress so far.
-Such things take time.
Andrew said, while thinking about something.
-I still can't believe that you managed to find so many containers of original nanites in the pirates' cargo holds.
-Yeah, that was a real stroke of luck.
Now he knew that something he thought was a common find among the pirate ships was incredibly rare and there were less the ten people who found the same nanites in this whole universe.
-What do you think will happen if the moon elf empire manages to replicate the original nanites?
Andrew asked.
-Then the empire might be capable of joining the first thousand.
You should already know that with these nanites, you can build anything incredibly fast and heal anything, or even reverse aging in most species.
-The empire used some of the nanites you provided and built a cruiser in one day, and that was only one container of the nanites and the materials they needed.
She said.
She was lucky enough to see it happen, and she still had a hard time getting over the shock.
-It's too bad that they can't replicate like Terelen told me when he first saw them.
Andrew sighed.
-Yeah, it's a feature that was added to the ones being produced now.
The originals seem to have this option blocked and no one is able to figure out how to unblock it.
The elf sighed.
-Do we acutely know who invented the original nanites?
Andrew asked.
-Yes, we do, but they are gone, they lost a war and got wiped out soon after they started using the nanites.
However before they got destroyed, they deleted the data and blew up the production sites of the nanites, leaving only some that were found in the storage which they didn't have the time to destroy.
-If the nanites are as powerful as you told me, then I can't even imagine who could defeat their creators.
Andrew said, after learning of this.
-Well, the data is classified, and even guild has only this much information about it; if you want to learn everything about it, you would need to join the first thousand.
She shrugged.
-I just might.
Andrew smiled, in a way she recently learned to recognize as a signal that he was planning something.