Chapter 16

Explorer Leader Thelt begins by saying, “All right, people, find a place to sit, and no chit-chat. We have a lot to go over.”

As the Patrol Group members take their seats, Relpt asked, “What’s this about, Vert?”

“I don’t know, but we are about to find out.”

Thelt begins his briefing with, “Ship Commander Shimlt, the First Offspring, Soldar Tomrd, and Adviser Xlau have been notified of several problems with our current plan. They decided it needs to be revised. These changes will impact our preparations and the schedule for making planet fall.

“So far, there have been only a few significant changes to our plans. When the First Offspring’s Bearer was notified that he and his companion were to be the Facilitators and they were to host the negotiations, he pointed out several problems with our plan.

“He thinks we need to simplify our plan for making contact with the local government. He feels he should take a less active role in that process. The plan has been revised to eliminate the low, high-speed shuttle pass and his contacting his government’s officials. The First Offspring agrees with him. He plans to take an: I don’t know why they picked me position regarding him being a Facilitator. From the Zldats’ point of view, this will probably place him in a more neutral position, which will enable him to perform his Facilitator duties.

“The second change to our plans is due to him informing the First Offspring that if the Altair military is anything like the Earth military, the representatives’ military bearing will be evident if they try to impersonate civilians and that we would not be able to treat him as a civilian. He thinks it would be a bad idea for our representatives to misrepresent themselves as civilians. The First Offspring agreed and she now thinks we need to emphasize that we are military. So, our representatives will be wearing Imperial Dress Uniform.

“Ship Commander Third Simon Tanat and Ship Commander Fourth Mark Heist will be our representatives and the titular heads of this Diplomatic Mission. The Soldar and Adviser are currently working at establishing a communication link with them. Once that link is in place, the Zldats will brief our two Ship Commanders on the nature of the Mission, and on how they are to conduct the negotiations. I don’t know what they may be told, as that is not part of the information currently available to us. However, we need to be ready to respond to unexpected changes in what we plan to do.

“As previously commanded by Ship Commander Shimlt, this Patrol Group will be the Diplomatic Mission’s escort. Uniform of the Day for us while on escort duty is our standard Dress Uniform. When not on escort duty, we are to wear our normal utility uniform for our respective job duties. We are to wear standard issue Defensive Undergarments under our uniforms, and we will not carry any form of weapon. To forestall your obvious question, that includes offensive and defensive weapons of all types. One of the changes to our preparations for making planet fall will be to rehearse the protocol we will use to exit the shuttle.

“Early this morning, Ship Commander Shimlt explained what is going to happen during the next several weeks to the ship’s officers. She wants everyone to know that the plans for the first contact and the manner in which the negotiations will be conducted are currently being reviewed. We can expect further changes to what we have been planning. For now, we need to just wait until they have finished revising the current plans, and the First Offspring informs us it is time to make contact. Later today, Ship Commander Shimlt will be making a ship wide announcement to all of our shipmates to provide that information to them.

“The First Offspring has shared the events that have taken place planet side during the past several months. The First Offspring has designated her local to be her Bearer. She knew her plans would require several things on his part for the negotiations to be successful. The first thing she did was to aid him in accumulating a large amount of money. The First Offspring suggested that he purchase a residence outside the city in which he was living. Over the past several weeks, her local and his wife-to-be have been remodeling their new home. The First Offspring made her Bearer aware of our presence in orbit. She is in the process of informing him that he and his future wife will be hosting a diplomatic meeting between us and his government on his new property to include what that means. When she explained our plans to him and his wife-to-be, they started pointing out the problems the plan would cause us and them. That is why we are reviewing the plan.

“For reasons that we are not aware of, the First Offspring is using verbal persuasion rather than her abilities to control her Bearer. I suspect she thinks her Bearer has input that will be beneficial to our efforts that he would not provide if he were directly controlled. So far, she seems to be right. Evidently, she has a degree of respect for the locals, and does not want to just use them.

“According to the First Offspring, the people of this planet do not have a central government. That will complicate our negotiating an agreement with them. The primary elements of the First Offspring’s revised plan are as follows:

Ship Commander Shimlt will move our ship into low orbit over the central part of this region and disable our Mask Field. She will have the Ship’s AI make a broadcast on all of the planet’s communications channels to inform them of our presence, and that we wish to enter into negotiations with them. She will then establish a private communication link with the local region’s political leader, a President Betty Kelt, and inform her of where we wish to conduct the negotiation and who we have chosen to host the meeting.

The First Offspring expects the local authorities to contact her Bearer and attempt to take him into custody. She will prevent that and have him give the locals a message. The message they are to relay back to their bosses is that the meeting’s host is being monitored by us, and it would not be wise of them to interfere with his duties as our host and Facilitator. He will also inform the locals that when they are ready to meet with us, they are to let the Bearer know. As the Facilitator, he will be the go-between in setting the time and place of the meeting. She will reinforce that message by persuading them to leave without taking her Bearer into custody.

Ship Commander Shimlt will take up geosynchronous orbit over the First Offspring’s location, but she will not reengage the Mask Field. She plans to remain over the Bearer’s location until the Mission is complete. She wants the locals to see us, and she hopes that by not hiding they will be encouraged to believe we are here on a peaceful Mission.

There will be three stages to the negotiation. An initial meeting to establish a working relationship and come to an agreement as to what we want to negotiate. Next there will be a series of meetings to discuss and negotiate the Alliance Agreement. The final set of meetings will be to establish a permanent Diplomatic Presence on the planet.

When the meetings have concluded, we will leave an Interim Ambassador and staff on the planet, while we return to the Empire.

Prior to finalizing the Agreement, we will return to Altair. Our first stop will be to return the Soldar and Advisor to Minnus, so they can provide the Supreme Royal Zldat with the First Offspring’s predictions. Our second stop will be at Exploration Force Headquarters. Ship Commander Shimlt will report to Supreme Planetary Leader Hardt and brief him on the results of our Mission.

“Does anyone have any questions? Yes, Vert.”

“Sir, have the Interim Ambassador and staff been identified?”