Signora de Marco.

Of course I'll inform you about the expansion project and its eventual conclusion. I anticipate it'll be finished in time for your first great harvest. Business partnerships don't tend to last long if you keep your counterpart in the dark about major developments like that.

Contact me if there's anything else.

Signora de Marco.

Distribution efforts are already underway, I'm told it'll take six hours before associates reach their destination. No hiccups so far but we will have trouble stocking significant amounts of product at this stage. This'll remain the case until the expansion is finished.

Things will be interesting past that point.

Signora de Marco.

I want a guarantee in exchange for the fact that your original network remains intact, and for our efforts to counter the spread of artifacts in Liberty. What I want in return is simple, your people handling the deliveries may not partake in the shipment of slaves back to Malta. I will enforce a strict prohibition against this, regardless of whether it's done directly out of pride, or indirectly in an attempt to circumvent terms and conditions.

Vessels that refuse to comply with this directive will be disabled, boarded and the people they abducted will be returned to their rightful home. The perpetrators will be returned to you either on their feet or their backs. Do we have terms?

Signora de Marco.

This is a general notice, because I know your people have historically relied on your original partners for the fresh supply of bodies to put to work. I'd consider any participation in the purchase of these people who are forcibly removed from their lives as a violation of the Kepler Accords. The slave network preys on the economically and socially exiled sections of Liberty's society. Our people.

Any ship found to be participating in an attack on the rights of the LFR's people will be handled accordingly. It's no small amount of effort we're investing to build this alternative network, and I won't allow that effort to be tainted by your increased revenue stream being used to the detriment of people we're trying to free.

I believe this is more than relatable for you. Neither of us are willing to compromise on the wellbeing of our people.

Signora de Marco.

You're right, we did both sign the agreement discussed in Kepler. But clause 2.1 is more than clear so far as mutual non-aggression is concerned. The Xenos are a diverse cause, and the people your partners would be enslaving in order to sell to you are in every likelihood supporters of ours in some shape or form. To then purchase them as if they were commodities, without their consent, would be considered an act of aggression on your part. This would therefore be in breach of the Kepler Accords vide the document dated the 16th day of May during the year 829.

Even if I put the technicalities aside for just a moment, you'd do the exact same thing in my position. You can't expect me to compromise on a subject as paramount as the continued independence of my people. You wouldn't do it either, there's no price that can ever be offered to change that. You even agreed with me that slavery in the context of what typically occurs on the plantations and in our very own Liberty is not only deplorable but wasteful.

Let's also not forget that I have made no terms regarding mutual exclusivity. In the long run, this alternative network will prove far more beneficial to you and Malta than for us or your old intermediaries. If anything, it gives you an unprecedented degree of leverage and that's a substantial advantage my cooperation provides you with.

Leaving my people alone is not exorbitant compensation for the influence I provide.

Signora de Marco.

Instruct the people who handle deliveries to Ouray to not engage in the slave trade. The perception so far is that the people truly responsible for it are people like the Rogues or Junkers, so as long as your people are uninvolved I can keep dissent to a minimum as long as the lack of involvement persists.

It would be more than a little problematic and even hypocritical if our business was being used as a way to fund extra slave activity, and you understand why. Your peers seem to be less reasonable about it though, so for the sake of making sure both our interests don't crash and burn, we'll have to work out something ourselves.

I'm not incapable of being reasonable or pragmatic.