All That Glitters Ch. 46

"The break down on the sales is as follows," here Caye showed a slide with the cost per item, the sale price based on set standards for the units, the numbers of units sold per set standard, and the profits that resulted. "Surprisingly, we have sold over forty thousand high-end, personalized Jewelry Units, at the highest prices, for a total sales price of thirty-four million credits, with a cost price of four hundred and ten credits per unit on the high-end model. That provided us with a profit of seventeen million six hundred thousand credits for these units alone, even though they made up less than one percent of sales.

"Only fourteen percent of sales are on the base model, and many of those have already been upgraded by those who purchased them, meaning multiple purchases by the same person," Caye indicated. She gave the cost price for the base model at sixty credits the unit, and a sales price of one hundred and fifty credits for a profit of two hundred and twenty-six million eight hundred thousand on the base model alone.

"Twenty-five percent have been the more affordable but higher end Standard Model at a sales price of three hundred and fifty credits with a cost price to us at one hundred eighty credits per unit with a profit of seven hundred and sixty-five million credits.

"Then comes forty percent of what we know here on Liramor-23 as the Business Model at four hundred fifty credits sales price, with a cost price of two hundred and fifteen credits and a profit of one billion six hundred and ninety-two million credits.

"Next at twenty percent of sales is the Executive Model at six hundred credits sales price, price and four hundred twenty-five credits cost per unit for a profit of six hundred and thirty million credits.

"Total profit in sales of comps alone, is three billion four hundred and sixty-five million credits in only two months. There are just over one billion Pod-Drran and we have only sold eighteen million units.

"That does not include the sales of other items such as silk cloth and other sundries, which provided us another sixty-eight million in profit. Our best seller, obviously, is the comps.

"Now for the more exciting news. The recent summit meant that the senior members of all of the Interspecies Community were here. They all bought comps and experienced the convenience of having them. When they discovered that we had installed a conversion unit on Pod-Saar, they asked the price of the servers.

"On the return to Asocar, we installed one conversion unit, an antenna, and a server at the Imperial Palace at the Asoc Shall. It took us just over an hour to do this. This gives coverage to most of Asoc Shall, the capital city. The Asoc and her staff now have the personal use of the comps they purchased here on Liramor-23, unfortunately not from us.

"However, the Asoc purchased five hundred units of Executive Class Comps for her staff at the palace, from us. The cost of installing the unit was one million eight hundred thousand. The profit from the sale of Executive Comps is only eighty-seven thousand five hundred credits. However, we now have a foot hold on Asocar and the Asoc likes the units, which means most of her people will want one. The one antenna will cover most of the city, a city of thirty million.

"We only make one hundred and seventy credits profit on Executive Units but over four hundred and twenty-five credits on the Jewellery Units. Our biggest profit comes from the Business Units at one hundred and seventy credits the unit but the numbers of business units we sell has been around forty percent of the markets. That is consistent with the numbers we see on most Union planets.

"There are eighty-one full member worlds in the Asocan sphere of influence. Their worlds are densely populated with approximately fifteen billion Asocans on each world. They also have six colony worlds with slightly less than one billion on each world, roughly the same as Pod-Saar. That means over one trillion two hundred and twenty-one billion Asocans in their area of space and we now have exclusive rights to sell comps to all of them.

"We have two problems: the first is that we do not have the resources to move that amount of comps. The second is convincing the Asoc to purchase the full system from us and install it on Asocar as an example to her people. It cost us twenty million credits to install the unit on Pod-Saar, however, that was for a planet with just over one billion inhabitants.

"With fifteen billion inhabitants on each of the Asocan planets, it will cost substantially more to install the units per planet, however, we can expect major returns on those investments.

"Our biggest problem still is the cost of shipment. We need to have our own fleet of ships. It costs big bucks to buy a ship instead of renting one. But the profit we could see would be amazing.

"So, I would like to make a proposal: the purchase of a large supply ship which would cost us just over one and a half billion credits. We still have our operating costs intact from our recent work on Pod-Saar and, even with the dividends that we have pushed out today, we have the funds to purchase such a vessel.

"But because we are a publicly traded company, and we do not have a budget for the purchase of ships, we need your assent to make such a major purchase. So I am asking you for your support making this capital purchase.

"It takes most companies ten years to pay off the purchase of a large ship. In less than two months, we already have the funds to make such a purchase.

"Pallanders has just repossessed a large supply vessel from a company that went under and still owes them a substantial portion of the cost. We can purchase it for eight hundred and fifty million credits, a little over half of the one point five billion initial build const. We just need your agreement," Caye ended, opening the floor for comments.

"Is there a guarantee that we can continue with such profits?" Silliya asked.

"Only if we have an exclusive trading deal with the respective clients, which we would ask for if we set up our system on their planets. Then, yes, we could make amazing profits. It will be at least two years before the respective clients can build their own supply ships. Which gives us a good start on our business venture," Caye replied.

"The price of the new ship is already in the profits that we made?" Junelliya stated more than asked. "Then I say, yes, it is a good opportunity, if we can build or purchase a ship in short order."

"That is the problem, isn't it, purchasing a ship immediately. If we have to wait for a ship, we could still have an issue," one of the miners who had bought in to the House of Ur Trading Company said.

"Yes, we have first dibs on the ship that Pallanders has, if I can get your permission to make the purchase. They will not hold it for more than two days, but we could have the ship in our possession, crew included, by next week."

"I say we do it," Raymond said. "We can have a ship running in less than two weeks. We won't do better than that. However, just how large is a large ship?"

"Large civilian supply ships are on the order of the Navy Cormorant Class. That is a substantial size, suitable for our needs," Caye replied.

"Any objections?" Liea asked. No one objected.

"All in favour?" asked a now obviously excited Caye. She got a chorus of ayes and no nays, the motion carried.

"OK, I will call Pallanders at the end of the meeting, however, it is time to show you what you might be in for. Our initial shares were set at one hundred credits per share. Everyone here purchased a minimum of one thousand credits worth of shares. Our profit from the sale of comps means that we can pay off the share price to our investors, so all of you will get back your initial investment.

"Our first profit means we can increase our initial dividend to a max of twenty percent of the profits, or eleven million five hundred and fifty thousand credits, divided between the five hundred thousand shares we sold, that means a dividend of twenty and thirty-one hundredths credits per share from the first two months of business alone. That translates as two hundred and thirty-one credits per thousand credits that you bought.

"You may now open your envelopes." Caye smiled at the group as she heard the gasps from the investors as they read the returns they had received. Excitement grew in the conference room as people realized what they had received. Their initial investment returned, and profit on top of it!

When all the excitement had died down, Caye opened a link to Pallanders.

"Pallanders Shipyards, said a female voice.

"It is Caye-Ur, I spoke with your VP, Martin Pallanders, yesterday about a ship that Pallanders repossessed." Caye stated.

"One moment please."

"Hello, Caye, it is Martin Pallanders, it is good to hear back from you so quickly," Martin said as his face appeared on her comp. She flicked it to the large 3D monitor in the room.

"Hello, Mr. Pallanders. I am excited to be returning our call. We have just held our first Investors Meeting and the company has been given permission to purchase the ship in question," Caye replied, getting a wave from all in the room to Martin, who smiled and waved back.

"Excellent, and please call me Martin. What of the crew?" Martin asked.

"We will hire them, if you can confirm their certifications?" Caye asked.

"Yes, they were all certified here in our school, so we can confirm their certification. This ship is less than a year old but still has the FTL vanes, her max jump capacity is forty-five light years. We can rebuild it with Jump-grid technology, but that would mean an additional expense."

"How much for the upgrade," Raymond asked.

"One hundred and fifteen million and it will take two weeks, however, you will have a ship that can jump one hundred and ninety light years. If you are going where you have said, you will need that kind of jump capacity," Martin advised.

"How long to recertify the ship and crew?" Raymond asked.

"We can certify the crew on a similar vessel, which we have a couple of. It would take a week to recertify the vessel after its rebuild," Martin said.

"So basically three weeks from now the ship would be ready?" Liea asked.

"If there are no issues, yes," Martine answered.

"That is a little different from receiving it next week," Caye complained.

"Yes, however, if we can get the ship into the dock today, we could have it out in nine days, then a week to recertify the ship. In the meantime, we could train the crew on one of our recently built ships. They would be ready for the space worthiness trials of the rebuilt ship when she comes out of the dock."

"I say we do it," Liea stated. "We won't get a better deal than that on a relatively new ship."

"Agreed," Raymond added his two hundredth credit pieces.

"Any objections?" Caye asked. There were none.

"Very well, Martin, you have our permission to rebuild the ship. We will send you the down payment immediately to ensure our priority on that ship," Caye informed him.

"What will you call it, and do you have a livery?" Martin asked.

"The livery is the crest of the House of Ur Trading Company, as for the name..."

"The Piscium, after the name of this system." Junelliya suggested immediately.

That got a hearty agreement from the group, all smiles after receiving their dividends.

"Martin, what about something larger?" Liea asked.

"What do you mean Miss Samson?" Martin replied.

"The size of these ships seems somewhat small to me, after having lived on the Wanderer for so long, now. Do we have a supply ship of that size?"

"No, Miss Samson, we do not," Martin answered immediately, "nor does anyone else."

"I think that, for the distances we travel, the larger the capacity of the ship, the better it would be for the company," Liea explained.

"I could not fault that, Ms. Samson, however, most people would not purchase such a ship because of the cost. We could not build such a ship for less than three billion and it would probably cost more," Martin explained.

"What if we included a passenger deck on the ship?" Liea wanted to know. "One of the key issues we have for this area of space is the lack of transport between planets. Knowing that our ship is moving from one planet to another could result in a lucrative market for us at little additional cost. It will take the various races years to produce enough ships to fill that void. And please call me Liea."

"Interesting idea, Liea. Let me work on that for a bit and I will send you some schematics and cost estimates. That will allow you to make your decision on the matter," Martin ended.

"Thank-you Martin, I look forward to what you will figure out." Liea had Caye sign off.

"Well, the company's first ship!" Caye said, somewhat surprised her request had gone so well.

"What are you planning, Liea?" Raymond wanted to know.

"It's simple really, I suspect that it would not cost much more to increase the size of the ship. Most large supply ships are slightly smaller than a Fairling Class Frigate. Yet they are stuffed to the rafters with material on any trip.

"If we made the ship larger, The Wanderer's size for instance, we could carry more and wouldn't have to stuff so full. Also, with space available for passengers, when we move between planets of a given race, there would always be a ready source of income. The Wanderer's crew deck can hold over five hundred crew. If we build to say, Asocan standards for size, we could get around three hundred fifty to four hundred cabins. What would people pay to move between planets without having to wait on the Djinaëte?" Liea mused.

"It would work until such time as the races got the Sprawl II Class ships and set up their own network," Raymond agreed. We could get two to three years of business from passengers before then."

Raymond noted that people were nodding their heads all around the room. He had to laugh, Liea always thought of different things...

Piscium Family Quarters, Lima Deck, Liramor-23, The Piscium System

In the early afternoon, two days later, Hanalei and Junelliya were prepping for supper when they were interrupted by a signal from the Asoc.

"Asoc, what a delightful surprise. What has you calling us directly?" Hanalei asked.

"Hurl ana Asoc," Ikekia said from in front of the couch, while giving the hand sign from one younger to one older.

"Hul, Asoc," Zarrenia tried to repeat and make the sign. Unfortunately, she had to let go of the couch to do so and almost fell over. She swiftly clambered up onto the couch, sat down facing the monitor and made the sign.

The Asoc clacked her claws in glee. "Well done little ones, you are improving so much, both of you," she told the children, who giggled happily in reply.

"As to why I am calling, Hanalei, my cook wanted to make some of the dishes you have provided instruction for. However, we have no idea what a 'pinch' or a 'dash' is?" the Asoc said, another large female standing behind her. It was obvious that the pair were in a palace kitchen.

Junelliya saw the box of spices that they had given the Asoc on one of the tables and smiled. "Eager to try your hand are you?"

"I am. I truly loved your cooking and decided I wanted to enjoy it, now that we have the spices, but your instructions are a little odd for us," the Asoc replied.

"Well, we are making Marcretle, a dish made with lamb but it can be made with any meat product, the different meats giving it a slightly different taste," Hanalei chimed in. "I believe the instructions for Marcretle are in the list of recipes?"

"Yes!" the cook replied as she searched through the pages of recipes until she found it. She quickly looked up the spices needed and separated them out from the others on another table.

"Very good, now take the meat you will use and put it in about one litre of water per two kilos of meat," Hanalei told the cook, showing her what she meant. She told her to combine two of the spices in the water and let the meat soak in the product for thirty minutes while they moved on to other things.

"Can we record this?" the cook asked.

"Yes, of course," Hanalei said, while the Asoc played with her comp. The two women gleefully instructed the cook and the Asoc on how to mix the meat and the spice water, using their hands, which got interesting looks from both Asocans.

They showed them what the differences between a pinch and a dash was and even measured them out so that the Asocans could use weight for the unusual measurements. The cook and the Asoc were having a ball, talking back and forth with the ladies while learning the human way to cook.

Eventually, they added more water and different spices to the mixture and began to boil it down into a stew, adding a mix of vegetables as they went. The Asocans added their own vegetables, hoping that it would not alter the taste too much.

As the stew cooked down, they did taste tests of their product, both the cook and the Asoc smiling happily as they tried out their blend.

"This is absolutely wonderful, and you used vegetable mass for it as well!" the cook said with glee, getting a laugh from the Asoc.

The ladies were making a large pot, of course, anticipating the arrival of guests, who started wandering in when Fayad came home from his work, Fiona in tow with him.

"Oh, it smells wonderful, ladies!" Fiona declared.

"As it does here," the Asoc exclaimed from the monitor, surprising Fiona.

"Cooking classes?" she asked, getting smiles from the ladies.

A few more guests arrived and claimed a seat at the table, bringing meat and vegetables. It had been decided a long time ago that those who came to the Piscium Family table had to bring something to contribute to it, a tradition that allowed the Fayad family to continue to cook for so many.

All too soon, the stew was ready, and everyone sat down to eat, the Asoc, the Asost, their personal guards, the cook, and the kitchen staff on one side of the universe, the Piscium family and guests on the other, eating together as the kept up a friendly banter. It made for a surreal experience for all...

Morgan High School, Capital City, Terra

Aurelia had arranged to be dropped off in Capital City by Ambassador Flynet's ship as they returned to Adenomere. She had made arrangements for transportation back to Adenomere two days later, enough time for her to finish what she needed to.

At the end of the school day, Aurelia was sitting in a side office of Professor Amy Halen, Senior Teacher at Morgan High School. She waited impatiently for Michael to arrive, however, before he did, Grace Holloway stepped into the office.

"Good day, Dame Adenomere, I hope we find you in good spirits?" she asked of Aurelia.

"Hello, Grace. It is a pleasure to see you again. Are you sure you are ready for this?" Aurelia asked the younger women.

"I believe that the TGA needs to reach out to this young man to ensure that he remains in the Union and doesn't try to reclaim his 'lost' inheritance," Grace stated.

"Hmm, we'll see how that works out. We will follow your advice and threaten him with his life. I do not intend to see that threat out, however, the Landstradt does," Aurelia advised.

They chatted quietly until Prof. Halen arrived with Michael in tow, who reacted suddenly when he saw Aurelia in the office.

"You!" he snarled.

"Yes, me," Aurelia agreed. "I suspect you are aware of why I am here, Michael, so let's get this done.

"To recap; your father adopted me and named me Lady Adenomere in the Landstradt, before my marriage to your brother. He, your brother, most of your uncles, and your cousins, then suddenly found themselves on the wrong side of the law for High Treason against the Landstradt and the Alliance, for conspiracy to displace the House of Yunki, for the enslavement of lawfully free members of the Yunki Clan, for the multiple murders of members of the Yunki Clan illegally enslaved, for conspiracy to defraud the Landstradt by making it appear that the Yunki Clan had defaulted on loans when they had not, for the theft of billions in property and funds from the Yunki Clan, for the multiple murder of slaves, and for the attempted murder of myself. Their trials have been completed and they have all been sentenced to death.