Mingyu sighed as he exited the conference room. It had been four long hours of back-and-forth discussions. While he despised Omni and everything they stood for, he would give the Omni representative his due, the man had done his homework.
It was annoyingly frustrating. The only real opportunity they had to keep Mr. Kane’s discoveries out of the hands of the greedy giant was to hope the man screwed up the case. With everything they had thrown at Mr. Pembrooke today, the chance of that happening was quickly vanishing. The man was competent and savvy. Every argument the council brought forth, the man had a counter-argument, or a case law to reference.
Having discussed their options after Pembrooke left, most of the Captains recognized they were going to lose this case. That didn’t mean they would make it easy on the Omni legal representative. Most of what they could do now was just sheer pettiness. Such as extending the arbitration a few more days so the Omni ships would incur more docking fees. Mingyu thought it was a pointless waste of time. He did not agree with the majority of the Captains on this course of action. And he had been vocal about where he stood. But he was outvoted, so he would go along with the majority.
It irked him that the biggest sticking point in the arbitration was going to be the actual compensation amount they were going to try and squeeze out of Omni. The fact that the station would take a significant cut meant the captains were going to push for every last credit they could. It was disgusting. Since when had the families fallen so low as to try and make money this way?
From the brief exchange Mingyu had with Alexander, he knew the man was livid about not being able to represent himself in this arbitration case. Even though station law didn’t even allow for personal arbitration, it did allow for the defendant to attend to state their case. Unfortunately, the Council ruled against allowing that to happen. Another vote he had been on the losing side of.
They had deemed this case too important to risk having an outside entity affect it. They claimed they voted on this to ensure the station's safety. If the man said the wrong thing to the Omni rep, who knew what could happen? Those gunships were still at the station, even though they were currently docked. Mingyu doubted the Omni rep would go that far after agreeing to sit around for four months.
The captains had also agreed not to let the Omni representative or any of the Omni personnel off the ring. Part of that was because they wanted to prevent the mega-corporation from trying to poach the unarguably talented individual. The other reason was to prevent Alexander or Mr. Pembrooke from coming to an outside agreement or for Omni to threaten Mr. Kane in some way, shape, or form. All of these votes against him made him feel like an outsider in the council, but he would not have voted any other way.
Mingyu wished he could have given Kane what he wanted. It would have made their future dealings much more amicable. But he simply couldn’t. Until Kane had brought it up, he honestly had never heard of any station allowing for a random individual to represent themselves. Most people barely knew enough about the law to not get in trouble, which is why stations usually had some sort of legal representation for people.
Alexander’s insistence on representing himself was probably some planetside tradition or law that he thought was universal. It was another sign pointing to the fact Kane was not born a spacer.
That did throw off Mingyu’s previous assumption that the man was an escapee from some criminal organization. He supposed Kane may have been abducted from some planet beyond STO’s control and then escaped. There were always rumors of humans that had gone far beyond the rim to live in peace away from the STO and their laws. But those were always just rumors. That also seemed unlikely for Mr. Kane considering the ailment he insisted he had. At least for the escaping part. He could certainly see some unsavory group snatching up a man who couldn’t defend himself.
He just hoped their choices didn’t strain their relationship with Kane. The man was an asset that the station could ill afford to lose. He just wished his fellow Captains could see beyond the looming Omni payday.
***
Alexander was not in the mood to work on anything today. Considering he didn’t suffer from mood swings, that was surprising. He chalked it up to the fact the arbitration hearing had started. And he was stuck here, waiting to hear how others would decide his life. How was anyone supposed to find that comforting?
Having Council Captain Na deny his request to speak for himself during this case was a punch to the gut. He felt like he was back in Yuri’s salvage yard, stripped of all his own agency and independence.
The Captain’s assurance that they would get him adequate compensation for his work was not the balm they seemed to think it was. He only cared about having enough money to survive. Everything past that was simply superfluous until he figured out how to get rid of the control box. Something deep inside him also detested the thought of his hard work being usurped all because of some arbitrary law that was being twisted to benefit some greedy mega-corporation. He couldn’t figure out why he felt this way. He tried to explore this feeling, but it was elusive as smoke and vanished like his memories when he poked around it too long.
Did this feeling stem from something he had experienced in the past? If it did, there weren’t any lingering memories to point the way. Alexander would have loved to explore this newfound emotion, but there was nothing to explore. He had yet to uncover anything about his circumstances since freeing himself. But if he was being honest, he hadn’t tried all that hard.
A part of this might have been fear, he couldn’t tell. He felt emotions, the fact that he could detest something told him that was true. But even that one flickered like a tiny flame before guttering out. He wondered if whatever had caused him to be injured and dropped off at this station had damaged him mentally. It certainly wasn’t the strangest explanation.
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What if he was better off without his emotions? He had gotten along fine so far without them. His mind went into a spiral of what-ifs as he lost track of time.
“Alex?”
He jerked out of his stupor and turned toward the voice. “When did you arrive, Yulia?”
“Um… a little bit ago. You looked like you were concentrating so I didn’t want to bother you.” The little girl looked worried.
He made his avatar smile. “Oh. It’s fine, I was just lost in thought.” He glanced at his internal clock in shock. FOR THREE HOURS! He had completely spaced out for three whole hours without realizing it. Alexander made a mental note not to explore his emotions while he was working if something like this could happen again.
Yulia seemed to relax and Alexander handed her her daily puzzle before going back to his work. At least he hadn’t accidentally crafted another gun while he was out this time. That would have not gone well.
***
“You can’t be serious,” Theodore stated. “Alexander Kane’s improvements are minor at best. They certainly don’t constitute the ridiculous sum you are asking for. A fairer offer would be five thousand credits. And that’s being generous.”
The room exploded into outrage at his counteroffer, which is what he had been aiming for. This trial had dragged on for a full week. Even he was growing tired of the nonsense they kept bringing up to try and extend the proceedings.
It had been clear on day one that OMNI was going to win this case. He just wasn’t prepared for just how stubborn these people were. Now he was getting his own petty revenge. OMNI would likely have to pay quite the sum to this Mr. Kane, but he was going to make these people work for every credit. That would teach them to waste his time.
Eventually, the outrage subsided and Captain Kovalenko spoke up. “As you may have guessed, Mr. Pembrooke, your offer is unacceptable.”
“As is yours. Where do you ever get off on requesting ten-billion credits? I have looked at Mr. Kane’s sales numbers. To date, he has a grand total of ten sales. Even if we projected that out to the life of the patent, that wouldn’t even reach ten million credits.”
“A patent that legally belongs to Mr. Kane,” Sergei Zhang commented.
“We have already established that his patent does not cover any existing O.M.N.I. components. Because those components are all covered under the S.T.O.’s charter for possible military application.” The charter was a bullshit piece of legislation that OMNI had pushed through thanks to huge donations to very specific parties. It was a legal loophole that essentially allowed them to commandeer any improvements to their designs even if they were patented by others. It did not allow them to simply steal them though. Even that was a little too far for their benefactors. But that was fine, OMNI had more than enough capital to pay off people, or make them vanish.
Captain Hoffman held his hand up to forestall Sergei’s follow-up outburst. That was a shame, Theodore quite liked the short-tempered man. At least he made this boring meeting a bit more lively.
“We are well aware of this law,” Hoffman said the last word with such derision, that Theo almost laughed. “But you are not just asking for those patents. You are also asking for the process he used to create them.”
He mentally applauded the man’s effort to turn OMNI’s demand into an ask. “Yes, we are. And that’s why I think my offer is more than generous.”
Before the room could explode into angry muttering again, Kovalenko spoke up. “Mr. Pembrooke, would O.M.N.I. be happy if someone claimed one of their patents and the processes to manufacture it, and then told them that it was only worth five thousand credits?”
“I don’t see how that’s relevant to this case,” he responded, laughing internally.
“Imagine the scenario for me, if you’d please.”
“I’m afraid I lack the imagination for something that could never happen, Captain.”
Captain Kovalenko’s mouth turned into a thin line. “Let me paint a picture for you then. If Mr. Kane and O.M.N.I’s positions were reversed, I can assure you, that they would not settle for a measly five thousand credits. The fact that you expect us to is insulting.”
“Us?” Theodore asked, his grin widening ever so slightly. “Last I checked, Mr. Kane was not affiliated with any other entity nor the station.”
His statement made the captains squirm uncomfortably. It wasn’t a surprise. He knew months ago that whatever price OMNI paid, the station would get a cut.
“You know what I mean, Mr. Pembrooke,” the man quickly tried to correct himself. But the damage was done. He high-fived himself mentally at the victory. The captains would now have to settle for a lesser amount to not seem greedy. Honestly, he could have just agreed to the original amount, it was less than OMNI had given him to work with. But he would be damned if he spent the majority of their mission budget on this.
He had done his math and he would happily bet that the Captains had as well. This patent of Mr. Kane’s was worth a fortune. Even if these improvements could only be applied to the smaller Class 4 engine design, just selling the upgrade alone would net OMNI half a billion a year. If their legion of engineers and AIs could expand the design improvement to the rest of their line, and he had no reason to doubt they could, this single patent could be worth a trillion credits in ten years. That was still a small drop in OMNI’s massive bucket of capital, but it would set them up as the premier engine and thruster manufacturer for quite some time.
Although, OMNI wouldn’t do that. They would delist the patent. Why delist something that could make them so much money? Simple. They could make ten times the amount by simply incorporating these improvements into a new generation of engines. Why improve old tech, when they can simply force people to swap to the new stuff? With that approach, they could also work with their partners who design the power plants and fuel delivery systems so the newer engines would only work if ship captains upgraded everything.
Of course, how OMNI would handle this was all just speculation on his part. He wasn’t exactly privy to that information.
Discussions went back and forth for a few more hours. Each side gave a little until finally a happy median was reached.
“Three hundred million credits, you agree to this amount?” Kovalenko asked in annoyance.
Theodore pretended to hem and haw about the exorbitant amount. And it was a ridiculous amount of money for any normal person. You could purchase a few used medium-sized ships for that amount of credit or live out the rest of your life in opulent luxury on some rim world. For him and OMNI, it was the deal of the century or should he say steal. “While I don’t agree that it is worth that amount, O.M.N.I. finds it acceptable.”
There was a collective sigh of relief from the Captains at his statement. Maybe he should have pushed for a lower amount. Oh well. “Now that we have come to an agreement, where can I send my crew to retrieve O.M.N.I’s property?”
“You won’t,” Captain Denis Kovalenko stated flatly. “Your people are to return to your ship and wait. We will send a porter down to retrieve your property along with armed station escorts to ensure nothing untoward happens to it. I think that brings an end to our proceedings. You are dismissed, Mr. Pembrooke.”
Theodore made a show of looking annoyed at the ruling, although, he had expected them to deny his request. It was a long shot to try and get to meet this elusive Alexander in person finally. That was fine though. OMNI would be watching, and eventually, an opportunity would present itself to make the man an offer. Very few people ever said no when OMNI wanted them to work for them. The few that did usually got a personal visit from him. They didn’t care for competition.