Not in her usual sense, or should she say her former sense. It was not parades of wealth that interested her now. Actually, upon returning home should found her palace rather gaudy in tasteless displays that only proved how much money she could spend.
No, she was a newly pregnant soon-to-be mother and was listening inside to her body making happy little sounds only she could hear. By itself that was more entertaining than any art performance she'd ever attended.
She was also seated at her desk plotting how to make life happy for her sector's denizens, thinking (correctly) that the more improved she made their lives the sooner she could get approval to snuggle back into Ranma's arms. And the more the Jedi would like and trust her to do so more often.
So the first changes had to be to her criminal syndicate. It was all very good that she had one, the Jedi themselves were criminals in the galaxy now, but what it did could either be used to hurt, via the protection rackets, prostitution and blackmail she'd been considering before as they were both easy, profitable, and ignored by this Empire - or it could still be criminal, only helpful. Things like smuggling needed supplies past Imperial blockades or quarantines, or performing illegal upgrades to ships and droids, even run a full shadowport to perform services that were not wrong, merely illegal. Information gathering was also a role she felt herself drawn to.
There were lots of ways that a criminal network could be useful, even helpful to a populace ruled by a government that cared nothing for what was right or wrong, only what served its own interests.
She'd begun the needed changes at once. Having contemplated the switch all the way home she had very detailed instructions to give her underlings.
Now there had to be an honest economy as well. Something for the Empire to look on, approve of, and (wince) tax. But there it was, they couldn't make all their money illegally without the Emperor noticing and getting her replaced. Feed enough tax income into the system and you could get away with murdering millions. Feed even more and you could do it on prime-time entertainment broadcasts for all the Empire would care.
Nabiki had enough personal wealth, along with the sale of gaudy toys she no longer cared to look at, that she could go a considerable way investing in private sector economy. She also had the ideas. Shipping companies were raking in billions of credit. She could trim off an enormous profit by servicing them, providing spaceports along her hyperlanes with legal repair and service. It would also draw in more traffic for her shadowport. She might even go further into constructing her own ships for sale, and while she was at it she may as well get a corporation together to run her own shipping line. She could very easily make a few industrial centers on some of her planets as well.
But there was one gift she didn't have, one thing she didn't know very well, and one that could easily make every credit she spent on this go father than two spent normally: Thrift. Her sister Kasumi's gift for spending money without any kind of waste, getting deals and bargains no one else knew of that made every bit go farther and last longer.
Not even able to recall why she'd distanced herself from her beloved older sister, Nabiki picked up a holocube and slid it into a recording slot on her desk computer. It was time to invite her sister to stay over and help her organize a new sector economy.
Heh, even her farms would outproduce their previous records if she followed her sister's gentle suggestions. She was sure of that. New products would fill her shelves soon after.
With a smile on her face she started to make the recording.
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(Posted Fri, 09 Apr 2004 01:32)
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