A 'oh, really?' look that seemed to suggest he was a bit daft would be the first thing Nevarsh would notice as a reply from Talika. She wasn't trying to hide her annoyance at all; it was irritating to be put into negotatiations with someone who by all appearances had no idea of the costs of running a starship. If she couldn't seduce him, then maybe this was a situation where putting her opponent on the defensive would be the right tack. She'd question his power and position within the company and make him want to show her he had the juice to get her what she wanted. Of course, the risk was he'd just get mad and tell her to leave, but there was no way his 'offer' was at all feasible so she couldn't accept it even if she wanted to; she'd go broke doing more than a couple runs for free, never mind 'a few'.<br/><br/>"First of all, what kind of a junior manager are you if you don't understand that 'haggling' and 'negotation' mean essentially the same thing? Did they choose you because they think talking to me is so much of a waste of time that getting the new hire to give me the brush off was the plan all along? No, never mind, forget that." Talika waved, never pausing long enough for him to reply. "To put it simply, the price for shipping on a vessel the size of the<em>Tar'Ree</em><strong>starts</strong>at more than five thousand credits, and that's for an average ship with an average pilot. The<em>Tar'Ree</em>might not be the best starship in the galaxy, but she's not 'typical', and she's certainly a hell of a lot touger than most. As for the pilot," Talika gestured to indicate herself, "she's well above the average.<strong>Well</strong>above. Ship with me and my freighter and your goods get there."<br/><br/>"Now, because I feel sorry for you pulling this assignment, I'll cut you a sweetheart of a deal you can take to your boss for approval: I'll do one run for you guys, pickup anywhere you want and dropoff anywhere else. You just cover my projected fuel costs and I'll soak the rest. I think if you check with any of your<em>superiors</em>in shipping, I'm sure they'll be able to explain to you how this would save them thousands of credits," Talika smiled in a friendly but condescending way, waving Nevarsh off as though he should run and check, "so go on, go ask. I'll wait."<br/><br/>Talika was thinking she might have overdone it, but he had annoyed her, and it wasn't like SoroSuub was the only game in town, just the safest.