Onboard HMS Dauntless: Currently docked to Weltraumflotte HQ
+2 Standard Days (+1 Abwehran Day)
Kommodore Leah Adler stood in her quarters, staring out her window into the expansive depths of the Military Orbital Space Station that had been given the name 'Weltraumflotte HQ'. It had been a quarter revolution since she had dared show herself at headquarters, but the first contact with the CSEIA had allowed her to return. The crew of her ship had been glad about this...even cheering the good Doctor Cephei Rasalgethi when they thought she wasn't looking. Honestly, Leah was grateful for the doctor's arrival as well. Her squadron as a whole was probably happier than it had been for a long time.
She had given Rasalgethi a tour of the Dauntless, allowing him to see one of her proud vessels. Well, she was proud of them anyway. She never got a comment from him, but she suspected that the Abwehran technology was primitive to him. She had even invited the doctor to dine with her officers, which was quite a surprise for them all. Especially when Dr. Rasalgethi had been informed of the general life expectancy of the Abwehran people as well as how long an Abwehran Revolution truly was. Even Kommodore Adler had trouble believing that there were people who lived somewhat shorter lives than her own kind.
After the dinner, the doctor had left for his ship, which was still in orbit around the military facility. His ship wasn't authorized to enter a military station considering his position was civilian based anyway. But with the arrival of the delegate from Abwehr, he would probably be allowed to dock. Which came to the current situation that Leah was uncomfortable with. The delegate from Abwehr wasn't just any random politician or businessman...she was the First Crown Princess of the Empire itself! Why the Imperial Family had allowed the young woman to be delegate in first contact, the Kommodore didn't know. But with one of the most loved individuals in the Abwehran public traveling off-world to visit their guest from outside the solar system, Adler knew full well HQ would see the tightest measures of security since the end of the Pirate Wars.
Princess Johanna Rosenthal had arrived in secret, with only the brass and the Kommodore knowing about it. Her Highness had wanted to avoid the ceremony of her arrival and had come in the dead of night, much to the station commanders dismay of course. Now she was preparing for her meeting with the CSEIA delegation, under guard of the most elite Marines on station. Kommodore Adler could only wonder how this meeting would turn out.
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ON: Weltraumflotte HQ, Conference Room 23
The conference room, Cephei was directed to was a rather large room with a large round table surrounded by plush, reclining chairs. The walls were decorated with a variety of Abwehran art depicting soft meadows and lush forests, probably one of the more pleasant environment upon Abwehr's surface. Lighting in the room was rather dim compared to the rest of the ship, but at least the gravity had been placed at a more suitable level for the Doctor's comfort. Along the round table, small computer screens and keypads were built-in and wired directly to the stations network so that information could be accessed when necessary.
The only two guards were seen outside the door, the two huge Abwehran Males wearing the typical green and black uniforms of Weltraumflotte Marines. But those guards had been carrying large rifles, as well as specialized patches upon there uniforms, probably symbolizing a special or elite unit. They were silent and didn't bother even looking at the doctor as he entered the conference room.
Dr. Rasalgethi nosily sighed as he entered the room, a degree of irritation notable in his demeanor. If there was one thing he hated above all else, it had to be politics. Power brokering made them waste precious funds on defenses, politicians fear mongered and turned the masses against them, and idealists shunned them for their practices. No, when it comes to politics, the Center rarely comes out better for it, he sighed as he took a seat at the table. I'm nearly tempted to give up this entire endeavor if it means I can avoid mucking about in ethics and bureaucracy for who knows how much longer.
It would only be five minutes before the door opened again. The first person to enter the room would be a familiar face, Kommodore Leah Adler. She set off to the side of the door and stood at attention, wearing a jacket over her turtleneck shirt and having replaced the cargo pants with a pair of black khakis. <"Thanks for not announcing me, Kommodore,"> a feminine voice echoed in Abwehran from outside the door thankfully as the source entered the room. The source being a very diminutive woman compared to the Commodore standing beside the door. With a formal attire of brown khakis and a black tunic with a brown vest covering it, this woman looked as if she were barely out of her teens and only reached 5'3" in height.
Turning to face Cephei as the door closed behind her, she smiled gently. "Greetings, Doctor Rasalgethi," she said in English, a bit more easily than the Kommodore had been during the tour. "I'm sorry you had to wait on me," she spoke in a friendly and rather honest manner for a politician. "Bureaucracy can be such a hassle can it. Allow me to introduce myself," she began as she walked over and held out her hand towards the Doctor. "I am Johanna Rosenthal, First Crown Princess of the Abwehran Star Empire."
Having witnessed some numerous forms of humanoid experimentation in the bowels of the Center, there were very few things left that could take him aback like her self-introduction did. However, he knew it was neither polite nor good negotiation practice to tip one's hand so easily to another, so he quickly composed himself. Rasalgethi stood up from his seat, eyeing her curiously for several moments. After a long pause he finally took the hand of the smaller woman, a hint of a smile upon his lips. "Well, you do not seem aloft enough to be a bureaucrat, nor old enough to be a power broker, nor dressed extravagantly enough to be spoiled heiress. I think, perhaps, I will enjoy doing business with you. I am -- Well, you already seem to know who I am, so please do not be offended if I choose to avoid such superfluous ceremony."
"So, another who dislikes ceremony as much as I do," the Princess replied as she shook his hand firmly. "It really will be a privilege to speak of relations between the Center and the Empire," she said as she broke the hand shake. "Kommdore Adler is here to represent the military side and I assume you don't need an introduction for her," she said as she motioned for both of them to sit down, waiting until they were before sitting down herself. "I've read the Kommodore's report and I must admit, I'm a bit puzzled on a few things. But I'd like to get straight to business before I go about satisfying my own curiosity, just as much as you probably want to get this done too. So I want to hear what you exactly want from this little solar system, if you please."
"Well, standard fare mostly. Eh, let's see... Right-of-Passage Agreements, Construction Rights Permits supply depots and Hotlabs, long-term purchase contracts for..." He hesitated for a moment, then leaned back in the chair and placed his hands behind his head. "The short and sweet is we'll we want resources; Bulk metals, isotopes, and so on. We're also interested in the people themselves: recruiting Abwehran military staff, technicians, and other specialists for station support and defense. There's also the standard political squabbling of travel, construction, and experimentation restrictions..." Rasalgethi inaudibly muttered to himself for a moment then piped up, "Oh, and of course we're looking for expendable elements of society as well. Slave and prisoner purchase contracts, preferably in bulk. Just about anyone you'd deem expendable and we'd deem fit enough for experimentation on. Oh yes." He nodded to himself thoughtfully for a moment. "Yes, I think that's about the bulk of it."
At the first word of slave, the Kommodore's jaw seemed to tighten as she began to take her goggles off for the first time since meeting Cephei, revealing glowing blue eyes. "I hope you remember what I said about slavers being a type of scum we Abwehrans' hated the most, Doctor," the military officer growled in anger.
"That's enough, Kommodore Adler," Johanna admonished as she turned back to Cephei. "Doctor Rasalgethi...I believe I can get you almost everything CSEIA needs," the princess responded with a smile. "The Abwehran Armed Forces has a sizable reserves that we can pull from for your security needs, though you'd probably have to give them a crash course in your technology. Resources are another we can give you; I believe about 10% of our resources will do." she listed. "I can easily push Passage and Construction Permits through the Civilian Space Administration Agency and probably discuss with the 'Manufacturing Triad' we have to give you support on your construction efforts. However, we have no slaves for you to purchase." she responded honestly. "And we have a constitutional amendment that deems cruel and unusual punishment as wrong, so I can't give you test subjects for experimentation out of our own living prisoner populations. I can try and make an agreement to give you the corpses of criminals who have been executed for their crimes, and even allow you to openly advertise the necessity of hiring experimental subjects for testing," she explained calmly.
"If I am be so bold as to interject," Rasalgethi cut in quietly, as he sat up in his seat. "You seem to have no problem spending absolutely gross amounts of materials on warships and stations of such magnitude. If you were to divert even half of such resources to stellar farms or orbital housing you could easily support an additional, say, 50 million more citizens." The Doctor continued to meet her stare without hesitation. "That is a 50 million children condemned to death before they were born, or just perhaps, up to a third of that number that have been born and are living in your streets in poverty at this very moment. It's little more that ethical calculus; statistics, if you will." He shrugged nonchalantly, "You sacrifice the unborn future generations, perhaps or the now-improvised, in order to reinforce your strength and secure the lives of the majority. We work along parallel principals. By sacrificing the few, we can conserve the time, energy, and resources to spend them on other constructive pursuits. Or, perhaps even produce a cure for an alignment a half-century before it would have been produced by other means." The Doctor motioned towards the Kommodore. "You are an avatar of war; of the ideology of force, might, unity, and destruction. Do not think yourself in a position to lecture me on ethical calculus, my dear."
"There are no orphans in our society, Dr. Rasalgethi," Johanna replied, intercepting the Kommodore before she could say anything. "But you are correct about our current infastructure and we are in fact decreasing our amount of warships to build up our reserve of resources to do just as you say," the Princess said. "Though, I must say...you would make a brilliant politician with those words," she commented with a more grim smile. "Children our precious to the Abwehran people. After centuries of warfare, you could say we spoil our children no matter our class. But back to business, the 10% I was referring to was from our mining operations in the system. From our current supply of resources we have stored, we could definitely give you 40%," she explained. "This means you will get quite a large quantity of resources in our first transfer, with 10% of each mining cycle. I don't know how much other nations among the stars generate, but I believe we are being fair in this. Besides, you have yet to talk about what you will give us in exchange," she said as she leaned forward in her seat. "After all, the Abwehran Star Empire is a capitalist society, we won't just give you valuable resources without something in exchange."
PAUSE
