Adam had spent a day in his room when the notification that someone had entered his room appeared on his tablet, distracting himself from his reading. "Barruni! greet our guest." Adam stated. he was going to be bedridden for a couple more days, but he sure wasn't going to skimp out on courtesy just because he couldn't move.
"Master, an officer is here to instruct you. are you presentable?" Barruni would ask through the door after she finished greeting the officer.
"Can I be unpresentable?" Adam joked back, "Come in. I'm ready for the instruction." Adam used the remote to raise the bed so it would be easier for him to interact with the officer. Though when the door opened he was surprised to see the treasurer walking in. her slow movements hiding the sharp mind and multiple tentacled limbs that made her great at being an accountant.
"Good Morning Recruit. I am here because you have received enough funds from your reparations to be able to invest it into planetary facilities. Because of this and your lack of financial knowledge before you became an officer. I have been tasked with teaching you how to spend your money as an officer of the fleet."
"Thank you. but is this about investing in the fleet?" Adam asked immediately after the woman started speaking. Adam had been thinking about how the fleet got all their money. and while a lot of it came from shareholders. he didn't believe that all the special facilities that the officers could buy came purely out of their paychecks.
"Exactly. The fleet incentivizes our officers to invest in the fleet in order to cut costs and be more independent. This is the same as every other fleet, the Vanid use their own funds so that they are not beholden by any company. unlike us that are forced to rely on companies to survive." The treasurer brought a document from her uniform and passed it to Adam to see.
In spite of most tentacled aliens Adam had seen, this one didn't have a need to be wet or slimy, meaning that the document passed to Adam was made of paper and was perfectly dry for him to handle and read without issue.
In the document held the contractual request for Adam to open a fleet protected business account. Specifying that while Adam would have full ownership of the companies he invested in or created, the businesses would be considered subsidiaries of the fleet. "This is definitely interesting, but what's so different making a business account with the fleet and a business account with a bank? Alongside that, what is a business account?"
"The second question is simple Recruit. A business account is the sum of all holdings of the account holder as mandated by empirical law." There it is, probably a way for the government to keep an eye on any unruly Vanid and ensure that they don't step out of line. "The fleet acts as its own bank in this sense, allowing the officers to invest with the capital backing as well as the financial protection of the fleet. with an appropriate fee of course."
"That makes sense now." Adam soon read through the fees to find. "you guys only impose profit fees?" He asked, surprised at the 2% net profit payment when the profits could be so high. the creature took this in stride, however, easily working through the questions like every other officer on the ship had asked the same thing.
"Precisely Recruit Blake. the fleet has decided that it's investment fees should be low and offer rewards for officers that wish to give more. allowing our officers to build up capital before we receive appropriate compensation from them." Adam was both learning and accepting the situation with a smile.
"An investiture policy then? that is a very attractive offer." Adam stated. the form implied that Adam's officer payment wasn't counted towards the profit deduction and so he signed the document; safe in the knowledge that he had no potential to lose out with taking this deal. "How much money do I have to spend on my first investment then?" Adam asked the woman, expecting enough for a good amount of shares, however.
"Thirty Five Million decidu." The woman said with a flat voice... which was about as surprising as the price. Adam's eyes boggled as he stared at her. his mind almost stopping as he tried to comprehend that amount of funds while his tablet began to beep. He was stuck like that for so long that the woman had to give him a tap on the forehead. "Are you there? Is anything wrong?" She asked, nervousness in her voice.
That caused Adam to snap out of his stupor and notice the beeping tablet. "Sorry. that's more money than I ever thought that I would be able to receive. " Adam chuckled awkwardly as he looked back down at the tablet, noticing that the funs had been sent to his account. "Is this all reparations? isn't that a bit much?" Adam could only ask. thinking about how much money that Vanid lost, she would be furious.
"Not really. that was hardly 0.001% of her annual profits." The woman said calmly, causing Adam to just stare at her again, his jaw dropped this time as he was shown the true divide between the Vanid and everyone else. they could probably buy planets with ease. yet most of what was called the upper class were fighting over companies.
"Recruit, have you been stunned by something again?" The woman asked, once again tapping Adam on the forehead, causing him to refocus. "I don't know why you are that surprised. you placed yourself into a position where you joined this world." Adam could only blush harder in embarrassment at that.
"I didn't really. I just received the ad and took the chance. I was running out of options."
This caused the equivalent of a chuckle coming from the creature. "No wonder you are so disruptive then, going from a pauper on the verge of slavery to the social elite is about as large a jump as you can make." she moved her tentacle to Adam's shoulder, patting it for reassurance.
"Heh, did you learn that from somewhere or do us humans and you... sorry I forget your species name... do we have the same form of comforting?" Adam asked, distracted from his embarrassment.
"To deal with humans I looked up some common forms of communication, reassuring someone who had been devastated was one of them." The woman stated in pride. She loved her job, and no one would convince her otherwise. Adam could only chuckle at the woman's statement. he was informed about the pride in the woman's voice from his translator.
"Thank you for taking the time to understand how we work Ma'am. Will you be helping me organize my financial situation or were you just here to get me to sign the document?" Adam motioned to the document he had placed on the table.
"I am here to ensure that you invest your funds properly Recruit Blake." the woman stated firmly. bringing out a larger tablet than Adam had, with multiple companies looking for investors. "All of the companies opening new branches on the recently conquered planet are listed here. you will look through them and decide what industry you will invest into.
Adam gingerly took the tablet from her. looking at the details and... Why was it already so mind-boggling? what was GDP again? how did it affect the profits of the jurisdiction the company was being placed on? Adam was trying to organize things into more manageable sections. completely removing all options that were entertainment based. He wanted to start with concrete product, not subjective fancy.
The alien who hadn't revealed her name yet gave an inward chuckle at the young man. entertainment industries boasted large profit rates if they succeeded, but if they failed not even a consolation product remained to sell to some other group. The young man was smart to chose the more industrial choices. "Do any of them catch your fancy Recruit Blake?"
"A few do. getting majority shares in companies will allow me to do a lot with them, but their lack of funding is a bit of a worry." Adam mused, his thoughts rolled over the choices he had seen so far, that's until he saw one option that intrigued him. A thirty five million Decidu investment to start a large scale mining operation on the planet. this contractor wasn't part of any franchise, so if Adam invested in them. he would fully own the mines. "I found an interesting one though, could you tell me about starting a business from scratch?" He asked flat out at the woman, to the shock of not only her, but Barruni who just walked in with refreshments.