Mid 964 ARR (36 BBY)
We were, for the first time, starting to notice some pressure on our business. More and more of our supply shipments were being harassed, with another freighter disappearing and ever-increasing losses of cargo.
For now, we could cover the financial costs of these incidents, but Ona was beginning to worry about finding enough ships willing to take the risk. We were already paying far more than the going rate to attract independent freighters. We had become far less fussy about who were trusting, as there were only so many Naboo captains out there.
We even suspected that some of those we were hiring had been, or still were, smugglers. Even though we were not doing anything illegal, the skill set for avoiding pirates had significant crossover with sneaking past customs officials.
Sales growth had slowed down a little too. While there remained a huge market on Naboo to sell to, the early adopters, particularly in Theed, now had their devices and it was more cautious buyers we were now pushing to. We still were confident at selling 10s of millions of SuperPADs over the coming years, but it was just that little bit more difficult than it had been.
Neither of these problems would be that serious on their own but were coming at a time when we had made huge investments in our new factory and corporate headquarters. The factory was partially online at least, with Jaarl having relocated his production team there. Even only half built, the space was many times larger than the increasingly cramped industrial units we had been squeezing into.
From the outside, though not as glamourous as the buildings of central Theed, the factory had the same pleasant sandstone facades. It reminded me of the Victorian era in Britain, where many of the factories and warehouses were built as cathedrals of industry. The interior was deliberately kept light and airy, with comfortable workstations for our technicians to oversee the mostly droid-run production lines.
Still, despite the stress it put on Cota and Ona, both of whom had to be 'encouraged' to take some days of leave, I was sure this was only a temporarily difficult period. With our new headquarters on the way and my firm belief we would solve our shipping troubles, there would be good times to come.
What I found encouraging were the intermittent holo-call conversations we were having with Rebaxan Columni. Their R&D team had been hard at work on an affordable, compact droid-brain, designed with our products as their intended purpose. From what they were describing I knew not to expect miracles, but something still clearly superior to the Reba-5C we currently relied on.
This meant we would be able to release a second-generation product in the foreseeable future, which really is the key to long term sustainable growth. Being able to sell ever better products to loyal customers rather than constantly looking for new ones.
---
"Okay let's go through this again slowly." I said for what felt like the 50th time.
I was sitting in the meeting room onboard the Sanandrassa, with Ameé, Jaarl, Jestos and our new Chief Shipwright, Dal Gee, our first senior hire from off-world. Dal was a Quarren, a particularly rare sight in this part of the galaxy.
I had contacted Rana by holo-comm for advice about our ambitions to operate our own ships. She had suggested I get in touch with Dal who was a couple of years ahead of her and about to complete his studies. He was attracted to the idea of being part of an innovative company from the start rather than coming in at the bottom of a giant shipyard.
In theory, I would have preferred someone more experienced, but a graduate of the Corellia University School of Starship Engineering eclipsed anyone I might reasonably expect to find on Naboo.
Getting approval for him to settle and work on Naboo proved trickier than I had expected. The Republic granted freedom to move to other worlds if you had a job offer so it should not have been an issue, but apparently it was common for administrative irregularities to occur when it came to non-humans.
"Republic law does not allow for droid-ships larger than a starfighter, and even those require a special license. So, we cannot make the ship into one massive droid." I stated.
"Correct, ancient stories about droid fleets haunt the dreams of senate regulators." said Ameé, diligently trying to keep us all out of prison.
I continued "If we turn a weapon turret into a droid, it would be a battle droid, and therefore illegal for a private company to own."
"Yes. A weapon that functioned like a droid, would count as a battle droid, and therefore be illegal for us as a private company to own. Battle droids are also completely banned from Naboo under its own local laws." Ameé recited.
"If you can have droid starfighters, but why can't make ship weapons into droids?" Jaarl asked understandably confused.
"Because there are limits on how heavily armed a battle droid can be, and a ship's turbolasers breach that limit." Jestos replied.
"The Trade Federation has an army of battle droids controlling their weapons." Dal interjected a tad abruptly; he was still getting used to being part of a team.
"That's not technically true." Ameé responded. "The Trade Federation has a huge number of B-1 'utility droids' that are unarmed. The fact that they happen to have the capability to carry blasters or operate laser cannons is just a coincidence."
"B-1s are battle droids." Dal stated the obvious.
"Not according to the inspectors that the Trade Federation has bought off." Ameé sighed.
"That's completely absurd." Said Ona in disbelief.
"You're catching on." I replied drily.
Jaarl tried to get us back on track. "Controlling weapons with datapad related technology is fine, but it is so unintuitive and lacking in autonomy that it basically doesn't save on manpower at all."
There was a long pause at this, before I had an idea.
"Remind me, what is the legal definition of a battle droid?" I asked.
"A battle droid is any armed system that had the capability to make targeting decisions independent of external input." Ameé replied, having spent weeks going over this area of Republic law with our friends at Tuls & Duss in considerable detail.
"So, it's not defined by the technology, but the way it behaves." Jaarl surmised.
"That's our loophole. We need to programme our droid-brains to be smart enough to follow complex instructions, but not to make any of their own decisions." I explained, a little smugly.
"Yes, but John, you we both know you don't have a way to amend the operating system, so how will you inhibit them like that? Some sort of restraining bolt?" Jaarl asked.
"Even better. We'll replace the operating system."
Before anyone could unpack that, I concluded the meeting and rushed to my workshop for testing. Most of the team were by now used to my occasional anti-social tendencies when I had an idea to explore.