Lieutenant Al-Hamdi smiled. "I see. I understand our Sviatogor class bulk cruisers have similar defences, since they're dedicated armed transports designed for carrying large numbers of ex-slaves and counter-slaver marine units. Most of our ships are less concerned with boarding actions and they just hand out guns and body armour to the crew while the senior staff are laying scuttling charges. The threat to us is being blown out of the water by a Scandinvan or Parthian or Kraven attack submarine carrying a load of supercavitating torpedoes, and then, we see a lot of sailors taking their own lives if a rescue ship isn't nearby rather than end up enslaved."
Satisfied the vessel was not carrying slaves, yet unaware of any prior diplomatic contact between Kahanistan and Esalonia, she felt she had to choose her words carefully in dealing with the captain. "The Kahanistanian Defence Forces are doing the same. The drones you saw scouting your ship are also carrying supplies to Neadresgad. We saw a small unflagged ship near the waters of a slaver nation with which we have been on the brink of open war for years. Having had huge numbers of our people enslaved in the Doomani Wars... many of whom ended up getting sold throughout Doomani trade routes to the Scandinvans and the Parthians and the Ralkovians. Not sure about Kraven, I don't think even the Doomies would stoop that low, but the point is any random slaver vessel out here has a reasonably high chance of carrying some of our citizens at any moment. I'm not sure of your government's foreign policy, but it seems like at least against the slaver, we are allies. Since we have similar interests in the island, if it's acceptable to my captain and the Kahanistanian Admiralty, I'd like to propose a joint operation in Neadresgad."
