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You decide to make the Esaal woman bow before you in a show of obedience. Nothing too extreme, but it's clear you're making her show her inferiority and gratitude. Willingly sacrificing her pride, she bows as she's told; it seems she would have done much more for her people and this trade deal. However, you don't want to push your luck with the Esaal. After all, the cruelty and arrogance of the Aristocrats isn't necessarily something you want to emulate. Still, a proper show of respect is always in order... even if it makes you feel a little bad.
While everyone knows the Supreme Ruler “outranks” the lowly Esaal Rear-Admiral, to a foreign perspective, you essentially made something akin to a high ranking Hegemony administrator or even Overseer bow to you from their culture. It turns a few heads; mostly in the form of the Aristocrats, Consortium, and Urgi independents. The Esaal are used to corporeal punishments and find hierarchy very important in their society, and don't seem especially offended. The womenfolk don't like it, but they aren't too offended, which is important. In a small way, you have proven your legitimacy and improved your standing among the galactic powers.
You cut your material stockpiles in half and, as promised, begin sending regular shipments towards their home colonies and protected territories. The Esaal womenfolk will be able to use this supplying equipment, weapons, ship parts, and all other necessities of warfare to their menfolk, and you gain your first steps towards a more powerful military. Even if the pieces are all there, you can't exactly put it together yet... no matter.
As for Deepscales, he's working for you now. The large amount of AI cycles you dedicate to finalizing your Battleship designs mean the years he would have spent crunching the numbers are ended early. By the time your next 5 year plan begins, he'll be helping you with it instead. While not a born propagandist, Deepscales has some ties in the scientific communities and has a lot of connections, especially among the Swall, which will hopefully help bring more colonists to the new cluster. Just offering to double their lab space is enough to get most of them over there already!
