Strategy

"You know, I wasn't asking for a demonstration. But if you have to show off at least put some cushions down there." Maria grumbled the next day as she walked in, she'd been stuck under the bed until after your third round. You'd reconvened to one of the palace's conference rooms. One that had protection from outside listeners. "But good on you for that promotion idea. Steph couldn't fly a brick through a window but her name has the weight to get those sims up and running quickly."

"She's got more than just her name." You pointed out. Her self awareness about her flying and combat skills could use some work but she wasn't stupid. A primarily logistical matter like this would be child's play for her. "Will the Admiral be joining us?"

"We were up a bit late talking strategy." Maria said, raising her hands at your disbelieving look. "We do sometimes just talk you know! Anyway after she untied me she said she'd follow along soon. She just needed to check a few things."

The fleet wasn't particularly large but your grandfather had given the title to Stephanie's grandmother so it had stuck for the ranking officer of your navy. It also wasn't a hereditary position. Admiral Selina Nakano had more than earned her position, serving as a pilot under your father she'd taken serious injuries in the line of duty against the Kha'ak. You didn't actually know the full story or what battle it had been but the scars and your father's trust in her were enough. The lack of pilots was more about her not having been given enough resources for recruiting and training more than any failure on her part and despite the fact she slept with her regularly you trusted Maria when she said the Admiral could be relied on.

"That means we're waiting on her, Lexi and Yala." Yala was of course the economics minister and had been ever since the shutdown after your grandfather had recognized her talents. Her full name was Yalamanis Lotunis Ganatos IX and she'd been your mentor for as long as you could remember, teaching you about the economics of the realm and how to know when to save and when to spend to generate more. There had been a lot of rumors about her and your father early in his reign but that was true for almost any woman he spent time with. Both of them had confirmed there was no substance to it and Yala had been especially offended by the idea that she'd 'tried to pluck a hatchling'.

"Alex not coming?" Maria asked

"I let him know what we'd be discussing and he wanted to get an early start on some things to help with the recruitment campaign." You said with a shrug, you weren't entirely sure what those things were but you trusted your brother to make the best use of his time. This meeting would mostly be setting the stage for later when you actually went about issuing orders to get the wheels turning to execute them.

There was a small chime at the door.

Spoiler: Selina

"My Prince." Selina said, bowing at the waist after being allowed to enter, then turning to Maria she repeated it, not as low as it had been for you but still respectful. Other than the small wink at the end. "Princess."

"Please have a seat. We're just waiting for the others." You offered, waving to an open chair that she took.

"Thank you. I hear one of my pilots will be taking on a new role?" She asked after she got settled in. Obviously Maria had told her, you'd not asked her to keep it a secret for exactly that reason. To that end you gave a nod. "Good. I'll speak with her after we finish here about the requisition orders and where we'll be setting up. Do we need to wait for the lizard before discussing deployments?" From many other people that would be a slur. Selina and Yala had always had a somewhat contentious relationship but you knew there was a firm layer of respect laying under it.

"We're waiting on Alexis as well. She has a proposal that I'd like to get your input on. We can start with the miners though and bring them up to speed." You decided, tapping the table and brining up a virtual map of the sector on its surface. Your ships that were in reporting range were all displayed. If they were further out there would be a small question mark. That was one of the main things the sattelite network was going to help fix, ensuring you had an accurate read on your ships within the system.

"Thank you." Selina said, standing up to better reach the controls she wanted. "I'm planning a heavy protection run. Maria and Lucia will be running Katanas while Bill and Phillipia escort in Sabres."

"Poor Bill." Maria sighed shaking her head dramatically. She saw your look of confusion. "He hates combat ships, he likes to fly miners and the freighter but he's too reliable of a wingman." Maria pointed at the circle at the edge. "What about the gate?"

"That will be Ethan. I believe he's got the right temperament for it. Of course if you'd prefer someone else..." Selina said, he was one you knew. He'd been to the palace a few times at your sister's invitation and the tabloids went crazy every time they were seen in public together. As far as you knew they were just very good friends. The same with Lucia. She'd been an option for your harem as well but the offer had been amicably rejected as the two of you didn't seem like you would be a good fit for one another. Fortunately it hadn't been for nothing as it had led to a lasting friendship between her and Maria. You still didn't know for sure which of them had first had the idea to become pilots but you knew that it had brought them even closer.

"No he'll be fine." You assured. She was the expert in her pilots. "What about the satellite network? I know we still need to talk with Yada about the production order but we're going to need to get them deployed afterward."

"Well I can't let you kids have all the fun. I'll be handling that one personally assuming you can get the mats from that lizard's greedy little hands." Selina said. Just as she finished the door chimed.

"I hope we didn't keep you waiting too long my princcce." Yala said as she walked in, trailed by a figure you knew well. Yalamanis Lotunis Ganatos X was of course her daughter. It would have made things complicated to address them by the same name though so she went by a version of her middle name.

"Lotus always a pleasure to see you, Yala... well thanks for coming." Selina greeted.

"Can you truly not wait until I've paid my regardsss." The woman said, repeating the gesture that Selina had made upon first entry. Just without the implication of doing something with the princess last night.

Spoiler: Yala

Spoiler: Lotus

"I hope you do not mind that I brought Lotusss she has much to learn if she isss to be my ssucceessor." You were genuinely impressed at how easily she was able to say the word. Teladi had some trouble with their s'sss. Lotus of course had been a constant presence during your education. "She will not sspeak for this meeting. I want to teach her the art of sssilence in major negotiationsss"

"She's fine." You said, "Did you have a chance to look over the proposals?"

"Yesss and I am glad that you are not ssspending all of our ressourcesss in one go. I am wondering about thisss item here." She said, pulling it up on the same screen you'd been using to plot troops movements. It was the single most expensive item so it was clear why it had caught her eye.

"I'm waiting for Lexi to go over that one. What do you think about the ways to reduce the cost for the audit?" You asked, the original plan had been to set up a set of tests using a set of refined materials. In the interest of fairness everyone had been going to get a fresh set which would have greatly increased the cost. You'd realized that with the task they were doing there was no need as even using them second hand would be fine for the purpose.

"I think it isss a good idea. Usssing freshh materials for each tessst would have been wassteful. You did well to identify that sssolution of using sscrap material. It cutsss down on the expenditure." Yala said approvingly. "That goess for the tessting for the new oness as well."

"We can't use it in ships afterward of course. All the failures are going to warp the lattice too much for anyone to want to trust it but for trials it should certainly do the job." Selina agreed, the door chiming once more to welcome in the final expected member for the meeting.

Spoiler: Alexis

"Sorry!" Alexis said as she walked in, "Can you please say you forgive me?"

"Of course." You said readily.

"You promise? You really really forgive me no takebacks?"

"Yes. I promise I forgive you." You said, rolling your eyes at your youngest sister's antics. It was just a late arrival for a meeting-

"Great! Now I don't feel so bad about stealing the Sabre. Uhm. I had Stephanie fly it so it's a little banged up but the Boron were happy to get it!" Lexi said, curtseying to you but not Maria before taking her own seat. Pretending not to see the shocked looks from Yala and the admiral.

"Your highness." Selina said, her white knuckled grip on the table the only sign of her anger. Well that and a slight tightness to her voice. "What are you talking about? What have you done with one of m- our kingdom's Sabres?"

"Well with the gate open we don't really have a mid-range fighter option which is really important according to history books so I thought that it would be a good idea to try and reverse engineer one of the Sabres and when I mentioned it to Bala Gi she got really excited and wanted to get started immediately so I told my brother and he said it sounded like a good idea for me to present it at this meeting and then I ran into Stephanie and since he already said it was a good idea I figured we should get started so I had Stephanie bring it to the research lab!" You were impressed by the fact that she managed to get that entire statement out in one breath. You were less impressed by what she'd actually said.

Unfortunately you'd pledged to no takebacks.

"Lexi, we can't replace those." Maria said patiently. "Especially not their guns." While in the fighters and their mounting bays they were very stable the electromagnetic plasma cannons were even more complicated than the fighters in some ways and the Terrans had taken great pains to build in overcomplications and traps to prevent reverse engineering. Essentially they were mini-bombs just waiting to explode if prodded in the wrong way in order to render their technology useless.

"Exactly! We can't and until we can we'll just keep running out of them."

You pressed a finger to middle of your forehead.

"That was why I wanted you to present the idea first so that we could have the best chance of it being successful. You're lucky you didn't have it crashed beyond all repair." You said

"Yup! The crash is totally repairable and Bala Gi says it gave some great data though she does think it would be prudent not to ever return it to service." Lexi agreed.

"Is Stephanie in the hospital?"

"Only as a precaution! She is totally fine! The doctors were all just-" You took a deep breath, you would have been notified immediately if it had been anything serious. Still. Your patience had to have a limit.

"Lexi. Never do anything like this again."

Given that the fighter was already a lost cause you were half tempted to pull back the resources but after a few minutes of serious discussion and the fact that you were in fact in need of the project Yala finally agreed to release the requested material. Only to be informed that the Boron had already gotten it because your sister had managed to convince the quartermaster that she'd already acquired your approval. After drafting and instituting several new security protocols designed specifically to prevent such a thing from happening again and somehow Lexi managing to convince you that it still counted as part of the first one you moved on to the next subject.

Credits.

Yala looked fifty years younger as you mentioned them. The elderly Teladi launching into an explanation of how they had worked before the gate shutdown.

"Creditsss are the ultimate expression of profitsss a medium of exchange that ssurpasssed all boundaries. You could usse them to purchasse everything from materials to shipss themsselvess. If the gate network is reconnected they will become ssso again." The only reason you were able to understand half of what she was saying as she launched into a full explanation was because you'd been her student for so many years. The others in the room were completely lost as she described in detail the ways that credits were given their inherent value. In essence they were essentially the Auroran Dollar at an international scale and the only thing that was required for them to become viable again was two countries using them, which the Argon Federation, United Space Command and certainly the Teladi Company no doubt were. The credit value of goods was based on stockpiles and scarcity as well as their manufacting costs. Your materials would be particularly valuable to anyone using the new Terran methods but practically worthless to anyone who wasn't. Where you had an edge and a chance to make sizeable profit in credits was the fact that you had a functioning wharf.

You didn't quite know just how valuable that was but you were willing to take Yala's word that if played right it could make you a regional power in your own right if given enough time and as long as you were willing to leverage it to build ships and supplies for others.

You honestly weren't sure just how useful credits would be just yet but it was good to have an understanding of them and a framework to introduce them to your own economy. If you found anyone else to be using them they could be a potent source of power.

As things wrapped up you looked over at Lotus. As stated she'd been quiet for the whole meeting. You knew why Yala had wanted that but considering that she was your very good friend who was well on the way to becoming more.