I see. I could probably manage it if I had to, but I am going to memorize the location.

Anything else before I overfly some national parks?

"I don't think so."

-I should get your email address. Asonde be-Lorkea de-Nivo, correct? We met when I was first here almost two seasons ago.

"That's right." He gives his email.

And then he goes and composes an email to Moav Labs asking about their progress. Maybe a deal could be worked out for the Seeker to come consult if it looks like he could help.

They have so much progress. It is documented so shinily. They'd love to have him if he sees a gap.

He wants to make a lot of money, but facilitating future fuel supplies would be nice too. Where is their facility? Maybe he will show up to talk about it.

Here it is!

He visits a national park for a while first, but shows up at the lab the next morning, carrying a Draak-sized necklace with big metal cylinders hanging from it.

Purples and a green meet him! "Good morning!"

Good morning. I won't be giving out any substantial advice on technical things today - perhaps a few general comments - unless we work out a deal, but I would be glad to discuss the business side of things.

They can do that! The green runs in to get a yellow.

He has numbers for how much fuel the existing Draak ships consume to go from place to place! Presumably the yellow can make projections for demand based on this. If Amentans can industrialize this like they've done with computers that will be a boon to both species. Draak don't do industry, generally speaking.

They can do a back of the envelope estimate. They think it's amenable to industry.

The fusion powerplants are also good for electrical power but he can't guess whether they will beat geothermal. Maybe the moons can benefit from it.

They will see about spinning off a division to look into that.

I would be willing to work directly with your researchers to improve what you have already done for the right consideration. As one of the inventors of fusion power, I hope my credentials don't need to be established. I would want either very steep consulting fees or a stake in the profits your technology will eventually make.

"How much stake? We don't leave a lot of capital lying around..."

He can definitely negotiate a business deal. He's aiming for somewhere between a twentieth and a fifth, depending on some of the details.

That's kind of a lot and he's leaked enough that they can probably get off the ground on their own.

Sure, but not as quickly. Well, he has lots of other things to do with his time if they can manage it on their own.

They'd cut him in at two percent, or five percent of their extant division with the option to spin off other divisions later that he's not cut into.

At those percentages he can give them lots of data and spend a solid week or two working with greens and hand over some machinery from his ship, but whether he wants to take the deal depends how much of his time they want him to devote to helping them out in the long run.

Just enough for a good head start.

He was imagining much more of an ongoing commitment, that's where the high initial offer came from... Yeah, he'll take the two percent deal. He doesn't have any instincts about how corporations work and what spinning off new divisions would look like, so he mistrusts the five percent deal. Maybe it's a bit irrational, but there it is.

He'll just go get some more things from his ship while a contract is written up, and they should summon whoever is in charge of actual development so he can get to work with them.