496 496 Big Dreams
“It seems you have indeed come up with something new and exciting for the universe to enjoy. Our employers would greatly like to purchase this patent from you, as well as all related devices and their patents. At an above-market valuation, of course.” The Giant lawyer informed Nico with a very professional smile.
“While I appreciate their good intentions, this is only the Alpha version. The Terminus Trading Company and its employees still intend to upgrade and improve the capabilities of the device, as well as develop an industrial-scale version for the mass production of space stations and World Ships in the future. Please do continue to enjoy our hospitality if your employers do choose to maintain constant observation.” Nico replied.
That was news to Max. Were they going to make a version that could make a moon-sized vessel? That was flat-out insane.
As Max watched the show and the live stream came to a close, his watch began to go crazy with requests to open a portal to Terminus for an extended, indefinite vacation. That could only be the other Materials Printer, Replicator, and Terraforming device manufacturers sending their observers to the ship.
There was only one problem. They all wanted to send hundreds of people with requests for office and meeting room space, and there were thousands of requests. Terminus herself might have been intended to house hundreds of thousands, but they hadn’t made the Cruise Ship area nearly that large.
The best he could do was agree to a meeting with a representative of each group tomorrow and advise them to arrange smaller groups due to limited space aboard the ship.
With the stream ended and the cameras put away, Max approached one of the Innu Technicians to see how it was going.
“What do the sales numbers look like for this schematic?” Max asked.
“Since it is a high-end Terraforming Device, and proprietary software, the Alliance IP category was pretty exorbitant. Buying the plans with permission for one manufacturing unit is five billion Alliance Credits. The expected wholesale price of the device is currently near five hundred billion credits, giving us the industry standard one percent of wholesale price design commission, and we have just received a contract for a thousand-unit license for the full-scale planetary terraforming device from Nurba Gruber’s competitor, the Innu-Vation Terraforming Company, once that version is ready sometime later this month.
Since the license is individual, the terraforming devices in the Alliance are usually embedded into the planets that they modify, allowing ongoing regulation for the lifetime of the device. It’s a small price to pay when you’re working with the scale of a planetary population. Only a few hundred credits per first-generation resident. That doesn’t even cover the taxes on their flight. It will revolutionize the entire segment.” She told Max happily.
“Did we undercut the market that badly?” Max asked.
“Nurba Gruber does not directly sell their devices, but they charge fifty trillion for an M Class planetary terraforming.” She replied with a smirk.
“Why do I feel like we are the bad guys here?” Max asked.
“Because you’re not greedy expansionists looking to create intergenerational debt bondage within the colonies that you establish?” One of the observers asked.
“Yeah, that might be it. I am just glad that everything went smoothly. Even if nobody wants an obsolete relic of a world ship, the device that made it seems quite popular.
[Nico, we need to talk about market prices and the dangers of disrupting the market balance.] Max mentally informed her.
[Nah, I understand, and we will limit access if it becomes an issue. This way is just much more fun. Think of all the Terminus-branded planets and ships that will be floating around the universe for centuries to come.]
[You want our name on entire planets?]
[We offer credit terms to colonization groups looking to prepurchase a planetary scale development device, with the stipulation that the colony is identified as a Terminus Colony until the debt is paid in full.] She informed him.
[Since when?]
[Since about four minutes ago. Romantic, isn’t it? Gifting people their dream planet with no down payment and no interest charged? Limited time offer only.]
pA(nD)A no ve1
“Well, if the show is over, we have a lot of work to do getting a full planetary scale design developed,” Nico informed the guests, who finished up their questions for the Technicians and exchanged many hugs and handshakes before leaving.
“That was one hundred percent a lie.” One of the Technicians pointed out.
“Of course it was, and once they think about it for a moment, they will realize that this design is intended to be modular, so the planetary scale version is actually just thousands of licenses for the module sold as a bundle. The lawyers are going to blow a blood vessel in rage when they realize it.” Nico agreed.
“How long will it take to get a distribution-ready version ready?” Max asked the group.
“The Alpha version is functional and already on sale on for small-scale construction, but give us a few weeks to work out the small bugs and interface issues to get the linked versions ready. We will have to commandeer another cargo bay as well. I feel bad to be taking up so much of a Colony Ship for experiments, but on the bright side, just the presales from the last fifteen minutes could buy you a nice country somewhere.”
“Our new generation ship engines are almost ready as well. The renovation stream is going incredibly well since funds are basically unlimited, and we have stockpiled a bunch of them to do weekly releases to keep stream traffic up.”
“There is nothing worse in the world of technology than to be forgotten or overlooked.” Max agreed.
“Now that everyone is gone and the bay is secured, with the monitoring devices that the lawyers left behind disabled, let me show you something cool,” Nico informed Max.
“They left behind a tracking device in a room full of Innu? Did they think nobody would notice?” He asked.
“With all of the technology in the room, it would be practically impossible to notice one bit of nanotechnology, much less locate it, if Nico hadn’t been tracking their every movement and signal. The device is currently broadcasting a prepared video of us explaining the technical details to you like a toddler.” One of the technicians laughed.
“Alright, what do you have for me to see?” Max asked.