Private Commerce and Common Ground

[Ra'a'mah]

Ra'a'mah had spent the better part of several weeks quietly testing the waters around the Mahporeem Imperial Remnant. Nothing so formal as a diplomatic overture had been sent, nor had she approached its government directly. Instead, questions had begun appearing through the commercial channels she had spent decades cultivating. What restrictions existed on foreign merchants? Which ports accepted outside traffic? Was there interest in establishing new trade relationships, and were there local businesses looking for markets beyond Mahporeem's borders? Individually, none of the inquiries meant very much. Taken together, they suggested someone was interested in opening a door.

Ra had never expected her involvement to remain anonymous for long. Her companies operated across too many systems, and enough merchants knew her personally that eventually someone would connect the questions to their source. That was partly the point. She wasn't attempting to hide her interest, merely avoiding the unnecessary spectacle of announcing diplomatic intentions before she knew whether there was anything worth discussing. Trade was often an easier way to learn about another government than politics. Governments could disagree on a number of things while their people continued to buy what they needed from one another.

Apparently, her questions had reached the right ears. The message from High Commander Victport Graras arrived not long afterward, inviting her to visit and discuss the interest she had been showing in his territory. Ra had been mildly impressed that the response came from the High Commander himself. He could easily have passed the matter to a trade minister or some unfortunate bureaucrat assigned to determine exactly what Ra'a'mah Numare wanted. Instead, he had chosen to meet her in person, and she considered that reason enough to accept.

There were practical possibilities to consider. Protectorate worlds produced goods that needed buyers, just as they required resources that couldn't always be sourced efficiently within their own borders. New markets meant greater resilience when established routes were disrupted, while commercial traffic created connections between governments that otherwise had little reason to speak. Ra knew better than to mistake commerce for friendship, but it could provide the foundation for one. A freighter crossing a border regularly could accomplish surprisingly more than a dozen speeches about cooperation.

By the time her ship approached Mahporeem, Ra had reviewed enough information to know what questions she wanted answered, but anything resembling a treaty had deliberately been left behind. She wasn't arriving to recruit another government into the Protectorate, nor did she intend to place an alliance proposal in front of Victport before they'd exchanged more than messages. This was the first conversation between two people whose interests had crossed paths.

If all they discovered was that their governments could profitably trade with one another, Ra would consider the journey worthwhile. If they discovered something more, there would be enough time to discuss it once they were sitting across from one another.

Victport Graras

 

[Victport Graras]

VICTPORT GRARAS
CORROX, MAHPOREEM
OBJECTIVE: MAKE A DEAL?

Victport Graras really wished that Ra'a'mah would just be straightforward with him.

At first, the questions were sporadic and innocuous enough: What restrictions existed on foreign merchants? Which ports accepted outside traffic? Was there interest in establishing new trade relationships, and were there local businesses looking for markets beyond Mahporeem's borders? They were fairly standard for what one might expect from those looking to do business with the Imperial Remnant, but as time went on, so to did the frequency and intensity of what was being asked of Mahporeem. Obviously, Ra'a'mah was interested in more than just making a couple of credits, even if she wouldn't come out and say it.

So Victport had taken the unusual step of inviting Ra'a'mah to Mahporeem to hold a private meeting between the pair. On its outset, it was about economics, but in reality Victport had a feeling that there was much more to what Ra'a'mah wanted for herself. That was why he had declined to take Illithor Du'thra or Prystill Oasay with him, which normally would have made quite a bit of sense for him. Before he could offer his experts, he needed to know exactly what the nature of Ra'a'mah 's feelings and ideas were.

Getting them to come visit had been easy enough, and Ra'a'mah 's shuttle had been fast tracked through Mahporeenian secuity, despite the raid from the Wild Space Rebellion a scant few weeks ago. If Ra'a'mah had hostile intent, she wouldn't have bothered with this convoluted approach to diplomacy, something that Victport easily recognized. No, she wanted something of substance that she was hesitant to say aloud, hence, her roundabout approach.

Whatever that was, Victport would be sure to find out.

As usual, the location of the meeting would be Collaboration Tower, and Victport had naturally selected the building's finest room to host Ra'a'mah in. Once they arrived, Victport could finally get down to business. Then again, there would be no telling the nature of their conversation or how the meeting might go until Ra'a'mah was honest with him, or at the very least upfront about what they wanted. If there was one thing Mahporeenians appreciated it was people who didn't play games, people who were honest and didn't dance around whatever topic they wished to bring up. Perhaps it was a side effect of Mahporeem's thousand year exile, or perhaps it was simply a quirk of the Mahporeenian people.

Whatever it may be, it would have to be something that Ra'a'mah took into account when she began her dealings with Victport...

TAGS:
Ra'a'mah

 

[Ra'a'mah]

The expedited clearance had not escaped Ra'a'mah's notice. Given the recent trouble with the Wild Space Rebellion, she had expected considerably more scrutiny before being allowed anywhere near Mahporeem, and she wouldn't have held it against them. Instead, her shuttle had been passed through with surprising efficiency, leaving her with the distinct impression that Victport Graras was every bit as interested in this meeting as she was. By the time she arrived at Collaboration Tower, she had already decided there was little reason to continue communicating through the commercial feelers that had brought them this far.

Ra entered the appointed room without an entourage of her own advisers. She had people who could discuss tariffs, shipping regulations, market projections, and a dozen other subjects in considerably greater detail if they reached that point. For a first meeting, however, she preferred simplicity. Victport was close enough in age to her own that she expected they had both accumulated sufficient experience to recognize when ceremony was useful and when it merely delayed a conversation. "High Commander," she greeted him, offering her hand along with a pleasant smile. "Thank you for the invitation. I was beginning to wonder how long it would take before someone traced all those questions back to me."

There was humor in the admission rather than embarrassment. Ra had never intended to conceal her interest, only to determine whether there was anything worth pursuing before approaching his government directly. "I imagine you've already realized I'm interested in more than selling a few shipments of goods on Mahporeem. Trade was where I wanted to begin, because there's little sense discussing closer relations between our governments if our people can't work together on something as straightforward as commerce." She settled comfortably into the conversation rather than attempting to dress the thought in diplomatic language. "What I'm actually interested in is whether the Imperial Remnant and the Protectorate might have enough in common to become useful partners. I didn't know that when I started asking questions. I still don't. But I thought it was worth finding out."

Victport Graras

 

[Victport Graras]

VICTPORT GRARAS
CORROX, MAHPOREEM
OBJECTIVE: MAKE A DEAL?

"High Commander. Thank you for the invitation. I was beginning to wonder how long it would take before someone traced all those questions back to me."

"The pleasure's all mine", Victport returned as their meeting commenced. From what Victport understood, and what information Mahporeem Intelligence had managed to get on Ra'a'mah , she was actually quite a bit older than her appearance would suggest, and much like Quinn Varanin , was not someone to be underestimated or ignored. The fact that she had engineered this whole campaign across the galaxy just to get a chance to speak with Victport spoke volumes about her cunning and ability to lead. Yet, that was all well and good, but it still did not answer the question as to why she had wanted this meeting in the first place.

Her next remark would prove to be most enlightening.

"I imagine you've already realized I'm interested in more than selling a few shipments of goods on Mahporeem. Trade was where I wanted to begin, because there's little sense discussing closer relations between our governments if our people can't work together on something as straightforward as commerce. What I'm actually interested in is whether the Imperial Remnant and the Protectorate might have enough in common to become useful partners. I didn't know that when I started asking questions. I still don't. But I thought it was worth finding out."

And there it was. Finally out in the open, the true purpose of Ra'a'mah 's visit here today. In all honestly, she should had lead with that, because Victport would have set up a meeting far sooner than he had had he known her true intentions. But at the very least, they were meeting now, and perhaps something might even come out of this after all.

Victport chuckled softly at the thought. Then, he looked straight at Ra'a'mah and uttered a single word.

"Lights".

The entire room darkened as the holotable Victport and Ra'a'mah was seated at flickered to life, displaying before the pair a rather detailed map of the whole galaxy.

"Then let's start by discussing that", Victport said as the map zoomed into where Mahporeem had staked its territory, before settling on the planet of Mahporeem itself.

"Several months ago, at the Ralltiiri Trade Summit, I recall that Mahporeem had offered to establish a trade corridor utilizing a small number of Khonshu-Class Path Stations to accelerate intergalactic trade between those present at the meeting. I also recall that you and your delegation was...hesitant to accept our offer, and progress on establishing that trade corridor has remained stalled. At least, it had been until rather recently. At the moment, Mahporeem possesses a pair of Path Stations linking it to the Unknown Regions and Braxant Center, and work remains underway to establish a third corridor into the Inner Rim, all in the name of commerce, naturally. Your government has, at the moment, elected not to become a participant in our endeavors. What I want to know is what's driven this change in opinion?"

Of course, Victport knew the answer: the Sith and the Mandalorian Empire were continuing their conquest of the galaxy unchecked, and at the rate thing were going, they would soon set their sights on Ra'a'mah 's people and Mahporeem itself. It this conversation was at all going to be productive, Victport needed to hear Ra'a'mah say she was on board of defending herself and her people against the Sith, or at the very least being open enough to partnering with others to do so.

TAGS:
Ra'a'mah

 

[Ra'a'mah]

Ra's attention followed the map as it narrowed from the galaxy to Mahporeem and the routes spreading outward from it. The mention of Ralltiiri brought the faintest shift to her expression, not quite amusement, though close enough that Victport might recognize she remembered the discussion rather well. She had spent enough years in commerce to know that hesitation and refusal were often treated as interchangeable by whoever wanted an agreement signed. They weren't, and in this case, the distinction mattered.

"I wouldn't say my opinion has changed," she replied after a moment. "At Ralltiiri, I wasn't opposed to the corridor, and I wasn't opposed to the Path Stations. I was opposed to committing the Protectorate to infrastructure before I understood how control of that infrastructure would be distributed." Her gaze returned to Victport. "My concern was never whether the technology worked. It was what happened when circumstances changed. Governments change. Companies change hands. Allies become less friendly. Wars alter priorities. If one participant could decide who retained access, then eventually someone would discover how useful that leverage could be." There was no accusation in it. Ra spoke as someone who had watched variations of the same problem play out often enough to stop believing good intentions were adequate safeguards. "I wanted an administration that could survive the people who originally negotiated it."

Her eyes returned to the two completed links on the display. "What has changed is that I no longer have to evaluate the proposal entirely as a proposal. You've built the stations. You're operating them. You've established links into two regions and you're building a third. That gives me something far more useful than assurances. It gives me precedent." She leaned forward slightly, studying the routes rather than treating their existence as an argument already won. "I can look at who has access, how disputes have been handled, whether commerce has actually benefited, how much authority Mahporeem retains over the stations, and whether the people depending upon them have become partners or simply customers who can't afford to leave. Those answers matter to me considerably more than whose flag is hanging over the control room."

Only then did Ra settle back again. "As for why I'm here now, the galaxy certainly hasn't become safer since Ralltiiri. The Sith are part of that. So are the Mandalorians, and they'll hardly be the last powers to decide expansion is easier than restraint. The Protectorate exists because its members understand that sovereignty means very little if you can't defend it when someone stronger decides they want what you have." Her tone remained matter-of-fact rather than martial. "We've never intended to do that alone. Mutual defense is rather fundamental to what we are. But I don't think a useful relationship between Mahporeem and the Protectorate should begin and end with identifying a common enemy."

A small smile finally appeared. "So perhaps the better question isn't what changed my opinion. It's whether the last several months have answered the questions that kept me from saying yes the first time." Ra gestured lightly toward the illuminated routes between them. "You have the advantage there, High Commander. Show me what you've learned from operating them, including what hasn't worked as well as you expected. If what you've built has proven as durable as you hoped, then I suspect we'll find considerably more common ground than we did at Ralltiiri."

Victport Graras

 

[Victport Graras]

VICTPORT GRARAS
CORROX, MAHPOREEM
OBJECTIVE: MAKE A DEAL?

Now they were finally getting somewhere!

Granted, Ra'a'mah 's initial response was fairly standard: a long statement dictating how she had been waiting for the Imperial Remnant to take action and actually create the stations, how they'd finally done so, and how his government had lasted long enough to actually see the endeavor through. Then, she got to the more interesting part of the conversation the two were having and why she was really here in the first place.

"As for why I'm here now, the galaxy certainly hasn't become safer since Ralltiiri. The Sith are part of that. So are the Mandalorians, and they'll hardly be the last powers to decide expansion is easier than restraint. The Protectorate exists because its members understand that sovereignty means very little if you can't defend it when someone stronger decides they want what you have." Her tone remained matter-of-fact rather than martial. "We've never intended to do that alone. Mutual defense is rather fundamental to what we are. But I don't think a useful relationship between Mahporeem and the Protectorate should begin and end with identifying a common enemy."

"I'm inclined to agree", Victport replied, "but it is a useful starting point for establishing relations."

"So perhaps the better question isn't what changed my opinion. It's whether the last several months have answered the questions that kept me from saying yes the first time. You have the advantage there, High Commander. Show me what you've learned from operating them, including what hasn't worked as well as you expected. If what you've built has proven as durable as you hoped, then I suspect we'll find considerably more common ground than we did at Ralltiiri."

"Very well then", Victport replied cryptically as the holotable zoomed in even further to the third station that was currently in the middle of being constructed.

"The Sith and Mandalorian involvement in the galaxy has proven incredibly disruptive in regards to trading and travel. Recently, the Sith conquered the High Republic world of Thyferra, which I'm sure you are aware is instrumentally important in keeping the galaxy supplied with Bacta. Prior to the world's fall, the Imperial Remnant had been engaging in talks with the High Republic to establish a corridor that would allow us to move Bacta more easily between different sides of the galaxy. While I won't lie and say that the corridor wouldn't be financially lucrative for us, the main intent was for us to establish better relations with the High Republic and help ensure that such a vital resource would be able to move to where it was most needed. But now, those plans have gone out the window, and large portions of the galaxy remain short on Bacta as we speak."

"Then, of course, there was the Sith attack on Abregado-rae, which unleashed a plague onto the planet the likes of which the galaxy has not seen for a long time. We were forced to temporarily shut down the stations to mitigate the chance that the disease might spread until it was contained, and even now we remain especially vigilant for any signs of infection. Our fears were justified when the Sith Covenant began sending infected freighters out of the core. You see, we understand that these corridors and trading endeavors are cooperative opportunities for us, and that we as there stewards have a responsibility to use them in a way that benefits everyone involved. Granted, of course we understand this is also an opportunity to make credits, but no amount of credits in the universe will say us from a shortage of bacta or galaxy ending plague, you understand?"

"In other words, we take these matters very seriously, and we understand just how important they are to the galaxy at large. That is why I can assure you we have no intention of musing them or taking any others advantage, because at this point, the stakes are far too high for us to do so. Beyond that, the stations have been quite profitable and useful, and we are eager to continue expanding operations across the galaxy...provided an appropriate response can be formulated against the Sith and Mandalorian threats."

TAGS:
Ra'a'mah