Late 963 ARR (37 BBY)
"You want me for this?"
"Asherré, you won Naboo's Rising Star award for designing that hospital extension, everyone says you're on your way to one day becoming the Chief Architect. Even I know just how big a deal that is on Naboo."
I really did know. If the Naboo are 'art people', then even more than that they are architecture fanatics. The Chief Architect of Naboo was among the most prestigious positions on the planet. Asherré was someone who under normal circumstances I doubt I would ever have become friends with, but our shared, if different, love for Kyla had brought us close over time.
Much like my decision to involve Kyla with the Trust, many would call it nepotistic to be giving such a massive project to a friend. Asherré was only 30 years old, and I could have sought out a more senior architect, perhaps even the current Chief Architect himself.
However, by any standard Asherré is a prodigy. Her artistry combined with a surprising practicality absent from other areas of her life, made her the one to watch in Naboo's architectural circles. I sincerely believed with Asherré designing our corporate HQ, it would not only be something special for our company, but worthy of Theed's magnificent skyline.
Her architecture firm would also get the contract for the factory too. This wouldn't need to be anything elaborate, the main consideration being speed of construction. However, given we still wanted it to at least be on the outskirts of Theed, there were countless standards they would have to be met. On Naboo there was no such thing as an ugly industrial building, not just by preference but by law. Even the plasma facilities, which were largely built underground, were awe inspiring in their design.
We would need our factory to be up and running by the middle of next year if we were to reach the 5 million target for production and sales. Building a 100 million credit factory in just over half a year would be an impossible undertaking on Earth. On Naboo, with droid assisted construction, the hardest part would be getting the required permissions.
---
I really didn't want to resort to bribing politicians to get what I wanted.
I had previously paid very little interest to Naboo's politics. It really wasn't a topic I was interested in on Earth and that had carried over to my new life. It was clear that was no longer an option. Theed Tech was on course to be one of the most important companies on the planet and the Trust would no doubt become its biggest charitable organisation. There becomes a point where wealth and business are innately political, because of the impact they have on the economy and people's lives.
It was widely understood that for all Naboo's cultural and social enlightenment, at the highest levels there was a vein of corruption. If there hadn't been, then Trade Federation would never have been able to negotiate the deeply unpopular trade agreement that gave it the monopoly on Naboo's plasma exports. It was even rumoured that the King himself was in the Trade Federation's pocket.
The unpopular agreement also gave them monopolies on the imports of droids, mining equipment and ironically personal holo-comms. If we had been making the SuperPAD on any other world, we would not have been able to sell it directly to Naboo.
Every favour we could call in was used to apply pressure to the planning authority. Some of our more influential customers were encouraged to whisper to their political contacts about how good our expansion was for Naboo.
For example. Minister Strar, with whom we had negotiated the SecuriPAD contract, told them it was in the best interests of planetary security as we were a supplier of the security forces. This was rather a tenuous argument but the sort of thing people don't tend to question.
We got the Naboo Holonet Authority on side by promising, at what would be great expense to Theed Tech, to include a major holonet relay and transmitter in the huge dome roof of the future HQ building. We would rent the capacity on this back to the authority at a minimal rate.
I would be adding another data processor to Aria, designed for holonet processing, so that she could manage this system. My hope was that it would also give her the bandwidth to run the factory and our other shops and facilities across the planet, while her keeping her physical 'body' of droid-brains and computers safe in a vault beneath the HQ.
As for Prince Yan Veruna, we agreed to become a major sponsor of the Theed Coliseum, which was undergoing a major redevelopment. The prince had been promising the improvements for years but getting the funding had been proving tricky. He was hoping that with Theed Tech's donation he would be credited with finally completing the project.
The corruption really did appal me, and even our tame 'influencing' campaign in this instance was uncomfortable. It was easy to justify to ourselves, as we firmly believed that the success of Theed Tech would be a good thing for Naboo, rather than just ourselves, so we felt we were using the system for the right reasons. Maybe I could use my wealth and influence to support anti-corruption candidates someday, but then would those candidates hinder the growth of Theed Tech in the future?
---
Given that we were going to be importing 5 million droid-brains this year, and potentially more in the future, I was deeply concerned about the safety of our shipments. When accounting for holoprojectors, transmitters and so on, we would be importing well over a billion credits worth of components from off-world this year.
Our current approach of chartered light freighters making lots of small trips meant we could afford to lose the odd shipment, but I didn't like the level of risk those spacers were taking. We were largely using Naboo and Chadra-Fan ships and I felt a real responsibility for their safety. Chartering was also far less efficient than operating our own ships once you got to the number of journeys we required.
The trade was all imports currently, but in the not-too-distant future, we were going to end up saturating the Naboo market and be looking to export our products. Despite being heavier than portable tech on Earth, a SuperPAD is worth a lot of credits for its weight. If we were to export to another world similar to Naboo, considering 200 million people, with demand for potentially 100 million units…that would be 100 billion credits of product!
Then consider that Naboo is a tiny planet in population terms. There were ecumenopolis worlds that had populations in the trillions! Shipments of SuperPADs would be irresistible for pirates, easy to move and worth their weight in silver.
I would also need the means to safely travel the galaxy myself to do business with increasing regularity. I was becoming something of a target myself, and so couldn't afford to be as exposed as I had been. Chartering was expensive and we had been lucky with the excellent crews of the Pride and Creedok.
The problem with owning ships in this galaxy is not that they are expensive to purchase, they are in fact almost hilariously cheap. In the distant past, there were great inter-stellar wars necessitating vast numbers of ships, leading to the incredible shipyards of worlds like Kuat, Fondor and Corellia.
Those shipyards are highly automated to meet that historic demand, so can produce many ships at little cost beyond the raw materials. The modern civilian market is spoiled by this, with all the shipyard worlds producing at a fraction of their capacity to ensure there is any demand at all.
The problem, and limitation, is the crew. A mixture of ancient Republic laws and tradition mean ships have relatively little automation. It is illegal to produce a sentient ship, or a ship that can be controlled remotely.
The crew requirements can therefore be insane, the largest ship used by the Republic Judicial Forces, the confusingly named 'Dreadnaught' class Heavy Cruiser, required a crew of 9,000, and regularly carried even more! A ship like that cost more to crew for a month than it did to build! An experiment to 'slave-rig' a fleet of these together was blamed for the Katana Fleet disaster and the loss of hundreds of ships.
The Trade Federation got around this by crewing their vast ships with thousands of very cheap droids. These "Lucrehulks" crawl across the galaxy on well-rehearsed trade routes. They are too well shielded for anything but the most powerful pirate groups to threaten, so they could get away with the terrible response times and performance of these droids.
One of these monster ships would arrive at Naboo every few weeks, sending down a swarm of small transports to ferry all the plasma up, while dropping off millions of tonnes of food. They would then depart to sell the plasma for 20 times the price someplace else.
I was sure I could find a loophole to exploit to get around these issues. I leased a permanent hanger bay at Theed spaceport and placed an order for a brand new CR70 corvette from Corellia. It was quite an easy choice really, given it was the largest and most modern design that could be serviced by Theed spaceport.
I had chosen the combat variant, armed as heavily as a corvette can be under the Ruusan laws, which required a crew of at least 90 to operate at full capability. This left it with barely any passenger or cargo space, compared to other more lightly armed variants.
Technically, Naboo's pacifist laws forbade bringing dedicated warships to the planet. However, I would be modifying the ship into my personal transport and not using it as a warship, so it was therefore technically legal, or at least my lawyers were confident enough to win that case.
---
I decided to organise a big Festival of Light party this year, it was the 830th after all, and every 10 years had to be special, or is that just an Earth thing? Regardless, we had a lot to celebrate, so a party for my friends and colleagues seemed appropriate.
I booked out a fancy bar for the occasion, one so fancy it didn't even call itself a cantina. It had a fantastic view out over one of the many waterfalls in the palace district. Alongside considerable quantities of Tarul wine and the typical Naboo fare, I had arranged for some favourites that Rana had introduced me to on Corellia, including whiskey flavoured Ryshcate and fried Endwa. It was a little extravagant, but not a vulgar display of wealth, at least compared to what the aristocrats involved in the plasma or wine industry might put on.
Asherré was gushing to anyone who would listen about her plans for the corporate headquarters, with Kyla gazing at her fondly as she held court. It would of course be a grand building, the largest in the city save for the Royal Palace. It would share the traditional rounded lines and great domed roof that defined the city's architecture. By careful placement of large windows and mirrors in the upper levels, a large well lit, atrium would be at the centre of the building, with its ceiling painted by local artists.
The offices on the higher floors would circle the atrium with windows or balconies overlooking the space below. The considerable volume of the building would not only provide space for our current operations but also considerable future expansion, including a planned R&D department. The Theed Tech Trust would also be housed in the building, within a dedicated corner tower. Asherré, with Kyla in mind, had ensured the Trust offices would have some of the best views of the city.
The building would even have a couple of dedicated landing pads for small shuttles and air-speeders, something almost unheard of in Theed. We would be purchasing a number of XJ-2 luxury air speeders for business travel around the planet.
I had been specifically forbidden by essentially everyone I knew from trying to fly them myself, my lack of spatial awareness when piloting being something of legend by this point. Besides, Jestos would kill me if I died in a speeder crash, given all the trouble he goes to keeping me alive…if that makes any sense.
Cota and I clinked glasses together, celebrating our successful year. We had asked Tuls & Duss to organise a valuation of Theed Tech. While it was almost impossible to place a value on the company's potential, just based on the revenue that had come in already they had come up with a bare minimum figure of 2 billion credits.
On hearing the valuation, Zomir had asked to cash-out his 1%, which I bought back from him for 20 million credits. This gave him the means to retire immediately, and he planned to return to Duro to live out his remaining years in luxury on one of its orbital leisure-platforms. The party was doubling as his leaving event, with him indulging in the Duros tradition of telling long stories about his travels to anyone who would listen.
"This is all just the beginning, isn't it?" Cota asked me quietly.
"From the moment I programmed that loader droid-brain to tell the temperature I knew this would be bigger than just Naboo. The question is whether we will survive the next stage." I replied, looking across the room at my friends and colleagues, my fellow Naboo who I had come to care about a great deal.
"The Trade Federation will work out the link between us and Rebaxan soon, if they haven't already. When they do, and they see how much money we are making, it will get ugly." She replied, a mix of worry and resolve in her voice.
"You can always go back to selling them plasma."
Her withering glare ensured I behaved for the rest of the evening.