Early 963 ARR (37 BBY)
It took me a long time to shake off my shock and get my head back into the moment. I wasn't remotely equipped for this kind of situation. I'm a glorified inventor. I should be in my workshop fixing things, not leading people into battle!
Maybe I should just let Jestos deal with it all. He's the grown adult here. He knows what he's doing. I'm just a 22-year-old who got a guy killed.
I took a breath.
Cota had made it clear to me after the pirate attack, that this is part of leading a company in a dangerous galaxy. If I want Theed Tech to play with the big boys, then I need to be ready to handle this.
"ENOUGH!" I shouted. Then at a more normal volume I panted "Who attacked us?"
The leader of the Chadra-Fan group spoke up in somewhat broken basic "We don't know, but it happened before."
"What do you mean? I don't understand, why is our friend dead?"
"People come to help Rebaxan. They get hurt. Many dead. We try to help, but it happen again and again. This sixth time this year."
Well now that is interesting. I supposed it made sense, why would anyone attack us? We're a small business from the other side of the galaxy, no one here should have any idea who we are and even if they did why should they care? Maybe, it could have been an attempt to rob us, but whoever it was opened fire intending to kill in the middle of a busy street, which seemed excessive.
"John, we need to get you and Ameé back to the ship and get off this planet." Jestos said to me urgently, his eyes darting around for further signs of danger.
I pause, breathing slowly, and trying keep the nervousness out of my voice, "No, we're not leaving. Whoever did this wanted to stop us meeting with Rebaxan. We've come too damn far and now lost too much to give in to whoever it was."
"It's too dangerous! My job is to get you back to Naboo safely."
I turn to the Chadra-Fan. "Can you keep us safe? I want to help Rebaxan."
The security officer straightened up in an attempt too look serious, though on the short fury creature it didn't have quite the effect he might have hoped. "We will escort you. Keep you safe on Chad."
I turn to the crew of the Creedok, spotting Captain Joom. "Thank you for coming to help us, that's above and beyond what we hired you for."
"Ah we don't mind a good scrap! All part of the service. But I am sorry about your friend."
"Could you take his body back to the ship? He deserves to be returned home." The duros nodded, and started giving instructions to his crew.
I turn to Ameé and before I can say a word she says, "I'm coming with you."
I nod and turn to Jestos, who sighed resignedly "This is a bad idea, but you are the boss."
---
Kua Tek had offered us tea, and it was actually pretty good.
Not quite the Karlini I would drink back on Naboo, but still pretty good. I had tried many varieties of tea since appearing on Naboo, attempting to find an appropriate substitute for an English breakfast tea. Karlini was the closest that I had found so far.
I wasn't sure why I was thinking so much about tea given the life-or-death situation my team had found ourselves in, but I suppose it was an excusably British reaction.
This time the meeting was just with Kua and Rebaxan's security chief, the rest of her chittering cohort having made themselves scarce.
"Why do you think this happened?" I asked, my head full of possibilities.
She pauses, looking at me carefully, before speaking. "I am Tek clan leader, and I am chief of Rebaxan Columni." That catches me by surprise, why would the head of the entire company be meeting with us?
"We made a mistake. We thought everyone would want our mouse droids. Everyone on Chadra-Fan loves them, but people in the galaxy are different. We were greedy. Rushed to make as many as we could, thinking it would make us rich. We thought it would make Chad into a great planet in the galaxy."
She took another breath, looking down at her tea, before continuing.
"When it became clear that we had over committed, that our company was in trouble, people came offering us help. They said they would solve all our problems, but only if we signed a special trade agreement with them. They wanted us to agree that only they could buy and sell from us.
"We refused, we might have been struggling, but we would not give others so much power over us. Rebaxan Columni is not a company just to make credits, it exists to help all Chadra-Fan.
"Since we refused, our ships have been attacked more and more. Others who try to do business with us have faced attacks like the one you experienced."
I looked at her carefully. "This is the Trade Federation's doing, isn't it?"
She nods slowly. "I suspect one or more of my people, one my own clan members, are working for them. How else would they know exactly when and where to attack you so easily." She said, with evident distress at the apparent betrayal.
I thought for a long-time glancing at Jestos and Ameé, they each gave me a small nod, as if they knew what I was about to do.
I wasn't too surprised by this quiet show of support. The Trade Federation's name was dirt on Naboo. Since King Veruna had signed a trade agreement with them, they had come to dominate all trade on our planet. They underpaid for the plasma they exported and constantly raised the prices on the food and goods they supplied.
I committed us to taking a huge risk. "I want to help you, and I want to do business with you. No matter the danger."
She looked up and smiled at me "I thought you might. When we met before I could tell how much you want to succeed, an ambition to change the galaxy. I also think you will, and if you do succeed, I want Rebaxan to share in that success."
---
We made a deal, and we made a plan.
We talked for hours working through the specifics, building on the original proposal we had made in light of our situation and shared desire to make this work.
Rebaxan would sell us 1 million droid-brains this year, for just 100 credits each, to be delivered and paid in instalments. These would be the Reba-5C model that had been costing us 200 each up to now. Republic import tariffs would push the price up to 130, but this was still a significant saving. They did have the 100,000 we hoped for in stock already, which we would be taking back to Naboo with us from this trip.
We agreed from there onward to split the risk on the shipping, half would be done by our shipping firm, half by Chadra-Fan ships. If any shipments were lost, we would each bare half the cost in credits. Rebaxan would produce enough to ensure that even if there were lost shipments, we would still get the full 1 million this year one way or another.
We also agreed in principle, to use Rebaxan droid-brains in the majority of our products for at least next five years. In return, Rebaxan would work on developing a next-gen droid-brain that would better suit our needs. They believed they could make something noticeably smaller and lighter, without adding significant cost or losing performance. There were probably a lot of easy improvements they could make; it just hadn't been necessary for the mouse droids, whereas it would make a big difference for our future handheld devices.
There was an agreement not to make certain competing products in that time, which for us meant, no low-end droids that would threaten the mouse droid sales, and for Rebaxan, no attempt to make their own handheld devices. Given we had already agreed with Arakyd not to make surveillance droids, it was in all keeping with our current strategy.
As for the plan, that would be something of a classic that Jestos had suggested. We would tell all the potential leakers about the initial droid-brain shipment we would be loading onto the Creedok. We just told them all different times, and planned for extra security personnel to be hidden on standby. Jestos holo-called Captain Joom, who was positively giddy at being part of a scheme.
---
It went down pretty much as we planned.
It turned out to be a fairly young member of Kua's clan, who had been promised riches beyond their imagination in return for their cooperation with the Trade Federation. The bandits they had hired were local thugs rather than elite mercenaries, and when faced with a prepared security force they were promptly captured.
As I sat in my cabin, galaxy out at the stars streaking past the window as the Creedok raced back along the Perlemian Trade Route, I wondered what else Threed Tech's success would cost us in the years to come.