NationStates Jolt Archive

<tightbeam message to Secretary to Lord Royen, Eniqciri Imperial Province of Kasei, Mars
<expected delay time of transmission: 41.27 minutes
<encryption: secure

On behalf of my honored Lord President of the Federal Government, Chairman of the PrattCo Conglomerate Board of Directors, Heinrid Abadas; and Lord Vice Executive Eric Love, Director of the PrattCo Conglomerate International Developments Group, I am pleased to inform you that a delegation of VIPs involved in the Noachian Land Deal is set and ready to depart for Serik Spaceport in Lunae Planum. They are eager to meet you and your honored Lord Royen, at your convinience, and set both the Federal Government and the PrattCo Conglomerate in good accord with the Enicqiri People, and their honored Lords.

The Mars Delegation, coordinated by the International Developments Group Office of Offworld Operations, shall arrive after beginning a trans-Martian injection at your confirmation of this message. We will be travelling, for time and other constraints, aboard a modified Silent Eagle Light Transport Subcraft.

It will contain the ten VIPs and their staff/assistants (a total of 27) and an Internal Intelligence Agency squad for security. It is stripped of any weapons at all for increased comfort.

Because of growing activity involving certain aggressive powers in the area, the LTS will be escorted by the 1st Battle Squadron, consisting of the Atmos and Meteoric, Longarm, Stalwart Battlecruisers; the 1st "N" Destroyer Group, the 1st "L" Destroyer Battle Group, and the 1st Merchant Cruiser Battle Group. This force shall be under the command of SCC Cheng, ITDO-OOTG, and will be used only in an escort and defensive mode to secure our meeting.

The VIP list is as follows:

Lord Vice Executive Eric Love, Director of the PrattCo Conglomerate International Developments Group

Strategic Core Commander Jerry Cheng, Commander of the 2nd Orbital Fleet, ITDO-OOTG

Lord High Executive Enrique Alvarez, Vice Executive of the PrattCo Conglomerate Chief Executive Offices, President of Utopia Mining, Minister of Justice

Lord High Executive Edward Price Forsythe, Director of the PrattCo Conglomerate Financial Department, and CEO of Cathedral Capital, Minister of Trade and Treasury

Lord High Executive Marcos Fernando, Vice Chairman of the PrattCo Conglomerate Board of Directors, and CEO of Gladburger, Inc, Minister of Spiritual Affairs

Viscount of the Board Mark Manning, President of the Aegis Corporation

Decker St. Simon, Director of Cathedral Capital Mars Department

Bob Laurensen, Vice Preseident of Gladburger Agricultural Subsidiaries

George Spring, Vice President of Utopia Mining

and sincerely,

Susan Michaels, Director of the IDG Office of Offworld Operations
<
<

Edit: OOC: This RP is open for others who wish to interact if relevant, since by now I have a fleet of 42 ships approaching Mars. Although I suspect that, with everything going on, and even if nothing going on, few people are going to care. Blah.
Edit 2: Updated ship organisation now that I finally designed the ships.

<Message
TO: Susan Michaels, Director of the IDG Office of Offworld Operations
FROM: The Desk of the Secretary to Lord Royen
>

Arrangements will be made to accomodate you and you and your staff to the best of our ability. Your need for an escort is perfectly understandable, but landing space in the port cannot be guaranteed for all vessels. If we are unable to clear sufficient space, the excess ships will be directed to a nearby secondary strip.

It is recommended that the transport approach from the west, entering the atmosphere over Pavonis. This should minimize passage through potential warzones. The E.S. Pagag will provide additional cover from orbit if it is needed.

Lord Royen, while eager to meet with your delegation, has lately been tied up with internal matters. However, the Lady Audrey is ensured to be available.

-Secretary Igrain and Chief of Security Gansarek

The forty-two vessels of the Orbital Operations Theater Group organized themselves with clockwork efficiency.

The five vessels of the 1st Destroyer Group had been on a polar orbit run, keeping another set of eyes (well, hundreds of sets of eyes, really) on the wild world of NS Earth while running missile drills. Immediately, they maneuvered around and did a full engine burn, setting a plume of superheated plasma out in long cones behind them.

At the same time, sixteen "L" destroyers in GEO did the same, at first lagging behind the faster "N" destroyers by a few thousand kilometers.

Sixteen merchant cruisers, stationed amongs the orbital cities and OMFs, departed to rendezvous with the four battlecruisers; the pride of the ITDO, each over 100 meters from bow to stern. From just one of the battlecruisers, SCC Cheng in his VCM coordinated the whole effort-- with a little help from MetaPratt One, of course.

All over the world, ITDO-CCCTG satellites chirped electro-optically at one another, handling the massive stream of communications involved in the escort mobilization. Damocles signatory nations were informed of the maneuver at this time, seeing the departure of some of the fleet's most illustrious and powerful warships from Earth.

Together, the fleet formed a sphere, distanced with brain-crushing precision to make the most use of their defensive grids and sensors.

Suddenly, the plasma fumes turned hotter as hydrogen was injected into the fusion reactants, propelling the ships forward along an HTO during their five-hundred second burn to break orbital velocity and reach TMI velocity.

But among these ships, the Silent Eagle LTS matched every maneuver exactly-- with not a single hydrogen atom trailing behind it. Warping the force of gravity itself, the LTS glided along without inertia and seemingly without effort; just 94.5 tons of metal, ceramics, and Santa Barbaran bureacrats.


<tightbeam message to Secretary Igrain and Chief of Security Gansarek, Eniqciri Imperial Province of Kasei, Mars
<expected delay time of transmission: 40.88 minutes
<encryption: secure

While you have our most sincere thanks and gratitude for your offer to accomodate the escort forces, I should clarify that the SCC has informed me that these escorts will not require any landing space in the port and are, in fact, incapable of atmospheric flight. I am pleased to say this will no doubt be a great ease to your spaceport and staff, and make our presence less disruptive, with only the shuttle.

The fleet has left, and should be able to rendezvous with the E.S Pagag within 13 [OOC: Not that long RL] days. We are all looking forward to meeting the Lady Audrey and seeing what will, for some of us, be a new home on Mars.


Sincerely,

Susan Michaels, Director of the IDG Office of Offworld Operations
<
<

(Edit: Ship type names and stuff. Still the same ships though.)

<Message
TO: Susan Michaels, Director of the IDG Office of Offworld Operations
FROM: The Desk of the Secretary to Lord Royen
>

Thank you for the clarification. We eagerly await your arrival.

Safe journey,
-Secretary Igrain and Chief of Security Gansarek

----------------
"So, what's the situation with the Vernum line?"
"Trains should be up and running again in two days."
"Good. Any more news on Fern or Dolokion?"
"Nope."

<tag for later post, assume at the moment I am about 3/4 the way there>

The 1st Battlecruiser Squadron retrofired first, turning lazily around and kicking out millions of kN of force, halting their velocity dramatically, slowly approaching a Mars orbital speed and trajectory.

The 5 Leafstemish destroyers, with their greater acceleration, could afford to drift ahead, waiting longer to retrofire. Like giant, ugly cans, they glided rear-first along the trans-Martian insertion. Last, the upgraded frigates began to slow, with the Silent Eagle effortlessly matching.

Sensors would show a mass for the fleet of less than a combined million metric tons, but their operators would have been foolish to judge it's capabilities by size alone. The ugly beauty of the ships hid a core of power, and their captains knew it, lighting up space with their reactors for all the Martian combatants- and noncombatants- to see. (Well, if they were looking.)

Aboard the LTS, a very cross Viscount of the Board was wondering what had happened to his territory, while a Lord Vice Executive worked out, in his head, just how much platinum all of Sirenum would be worth.

<Military channel to E.S Pagag
<expected delay time of transmission: 16 seconds
<encryption: open

This is the SOV Atmos, calling the ES Pagag. We are currently 5681000 klicks from Mars-Synchronous-Orbit space, ready for rendezvous data. The LTS will be approaching the LZ from the west as specified previously, within 31 hours. We have received a request for atmospheric escort to the LZ in Serik; can you assist? Over.

(Edit: Blah blah, ship type changes. No one cares.)

<Military channel to E.S Pagag
<expected delay time of transmission: 16 seconds
<encryption: open

This is the SOV Atmos, calling the ES Pagag. We are currently 5681000 klicks from Mars-Synchronous-Orbit space, ready for rendezvous data. The LTS will be approaching the LZ from the west as specified previously, within 31 hours. We have received a request for atmospheric escort to the LZ in Serik; can you assist? Over.

"We read you, Atmos. Stand by for patch."
"Pagag CnC on the line. Transmitting RVS data. Standby."
"Pagag CnC on the line. Starfire escort prepped for launch on demand. Welcome to Mars, Atmos."

Entering Mars orbit, the 1st Battle Squadron settles into a defensive posture. The five "N" destroyers- the OMI-55D Leafstemish SOV, OMI-55D Juanita SOV, OMI-55D Nine Tails SOV, and the OMI-55D Gorgon SOV - fan out from the fleet along walking orbits, monitoring the ongoing war and any activity they can without a satellite system.

Meanwhile, the Silent Eagle fell below, on a course directly for the Serik Spaceport in Enicqiri territory, it's navigation systems chatting with the surface based ones at the landing zone. This was largely a formality; the LTS wasn't limited by things like inertia, and could find it's way almost by simple point-and-click.

Simultaneously, the merchant cruisers rotated their cargo/crew cylinders to face planetside, prepped for launch, and the battleships held a 'perimeter' fifty thousand klicks from them.
----------------
"Well, we've got to decide somehow."

"And quickly, sir. We'll be on the ground in less than fifteen minutes."

"Okay, okay, okay, I concede the honor."

"Very good, thank you, Mister Love."

"So it's you or me, Enrique?"

"Yes, Marcos Fernando. Let us toss a coin."

"Heads."

-

"Congratulations, Lord High Executive. You'll be the first Santa Barbarian on Mars."

-----
<Military channel to E.S Pagag
<expected delay time of transmission: 0.05 sec
<encryption: open

Pagag, this is Atmos, data received- with our thanks. We are go for launch in 9 minutes, ETA at Serik in 21 minutes- wait.

Correction, we read you as under attack: so we are ordered to request air escort only to the LZ - we can cover it from here, and from the looks of things you might need your space fighters, over.
---------

<Military channel to E.S Pagag
<expected delay time of transmission: 0.05 sec
<encryption: open

Pagag, this is Atmos, data received- with our thanks. We are go for launch in 9 minutes, ETA at Serik in 21 minutes- wait.

Correction, we read you as under attack: so we are ordered to request air escort only to the LZ - we can cover it from here, and from the looks of things you might need your space fighters, over.
---------

"Don't worry about it. It's a good idea to have a defensive force lower down anyway. Blue Squadron ready to escort, over."

9 minutes later, five Starfires marked with blue chevrons and wing edges fell out of one of the long launch bays running along the side of the Pagag.

"Atmos, this is Blue 1, preparing for atmospheric re-entry, ready to begin air escort on your mark, over."

On the ground-
A high-speed evacuated maglev train pulled into the spaceport, lined up its doors, inflated the airseals, and opened its doors into the port. Out of said train walked the Lady Audrey, Chief of Secuity Gansarek, and Secretary Igrain.

"Silent Eagle, you are cleared for docking at hangar 4. Please follow the green lights."

<Military channel to E.S Pagag
<expected delay time of transmission: 0.04 sec
<encryption:standard

"Pagag, this is Atmos, roger. We'll keep your datanets informed of any further changes. Have a nice day, over and out."

<Military channel to Blue 1
<expected delay time of transmission: 0.04 sec
<encryption:standard

"Roger, Blue 1, we read you, looking good. Optimal escort velocity, mark in 5... 4... 3.... 2.... mark, over and out."

The LTS sped with alarming silence over the partially terraformed Martian landscape. The long journey it had embarked on was an unusual role for it, and now it was far more at home, moving personnel to a landing zone- although these personnel were hardly troops.

After landing, and a brief wait for the official communications to go through, Silent Eagle's main entry hatch in the rear blew out, whirling out and down with a graceless clatter against the hard surface of the landing strip.

Shortly after, Marcos Fernando stepped gingerly down the rampway, flanked closely by two watchful-looking men wearing suits. He was an older man, a generation before vision-corrective implants became popular, wearing thin gold-plated glasses and with a smooth tan that spoke of many hours under an artificial light.

He seemed to be at ease with the alien architectural surroundings, and immediately noticed the Eniqciri delegation, smiled, and approached them in a no-nonsense, but relaxed gait.

Behind him, the rest of the suits also stepped down onto Mars. Most noticable was SCC Cheng in his grayish uniform, and Lord High Executive Alvarez with his more genuine complexion and pleasant, rough-hewn face. A shorter, black-haired and beady-eyed man who looked slightly nervous appeared last, while a mousy but oddly charming woman in her late 30's caught up quickly with Fernando.

Fernando half-bowed to Lady Audrey, inclining his head to the right slightly in the fashioned manner of many years of wealth and status.

[OOC: I assumed there's atmosphere here, but if not consider them wearing something more protective. :wink:]

After landing, and a brief wait for the official communications to go through, Silent Eagle's main entry hatch in the rear blew out, whirling out and down with a graceless clatter against the hard surface of the landing strip.

Shortly after, Marcos Fernando stepped gingerly down the rampway, flanked closely by two watchful-looking men wearing suits. He was an older man, a generation before vision-corrective implants became popular, wearing thin gold-plated glasses and with a smooth tan that spoke of many hours under an artificial light.

He seemed to be at ease with the alien architectural surroundings, and immediately noticed the Eniqciri delegation, smiled, and approached them in a no-nonsense, but relaxed gait.

Behind him, the rest of the suits also stepped down onto Mars. Most noticable was SCC Cheng in his grayish uniform, and Lord High Executive Alvarez with his more genuine complexion and pleasant, rough-hewn face. A shorter, black-haired and beady-eyed man who looked slightly nervous appeared last, while a mousy but oddly charming woman in her late 30's caught up quickly with Fernando.

Fernando half-bowed to Lady Audrey, inclining his head to the right slightly in the fashioned manner of many years of wealth and status.

[OOC: I assumed there's atmosphere here, but if not consider them wearing something more protective. :wink:]

(OOC: Aye, there is 700 bars atmosphere in the hangar.)

The hangar was a standard half-cylinder construction, but with large parabolas of windows all along its length on one side and extending nearly to the spine of the cieling, allowing a wide view of the outside.

The other side was just blank metal, illuminated by floodlights. In the middle of the wall was a circular doorway, near which the Eniqciris stood. Gansarek wore a Waterminer's uniform- khaki jumpsuit with built-in water recycling unit and airtank- although the mask was missing, not being necessary indoors. Igrain wore a long, loose dark blue dress with glittering silver fibers woven in complex patterns and a necklace bearing the winged-sword symbol of a diplomat and the blue and silver trefoil of House Royen. Lady Audrey wore a similar dress in white, with the addition of a golden rope-belt forming a V at her waist, and a mother-of-pearl headband with a small emerald hanging over he forehead.

Fernando's bow was returned by all three, after which Audrey said, "Welcome to Serik. I do hope your stay will be pleasant. Would you prefer to see your rooms first, or proceed directly to the conference room?"

Fernando smiled broadly without opening his mouth, and replied, "Greetings, Lady Audrey, on behalf of the Conglomerate and the Federal Government. I trust that our rooms are in good order; for now, I think we're all pretty anxious to get to work after all these days flying around in spaceships." He laughed.

"Yes," the mousy woman said, "I think work must come first, and we have a lot of it. Boy, Mars, eh?"

"Ah! My manners," said Marcos Fernando, looking only slightly annoyed at her impertinance but covering it nicely, "Allow me to introduce us. This is Susan Michaels, Director of the Office of Offworld Operations..."

He went on to introduce the ten VIPs, using their long titles, much to everyone's dismay. He did not, however, introduce any of the seventeen other members who formed a clustered group with strays on the fringes. This wasn't because he was rude, but he did not know their names, and most of them were IIA guys named "Johnson" or "Smith," whose real identities were numbers and barcodes.

He introduced himself last. Lord High Executive Marcos Fernando, Vice Chairman of the PrattCo Conglomerate Board of Directors, CEO of Gladburger, Inc, and Minister of Spiritual Affairs, the first of what the IDG - among other groups- hoped would be many visitors to the red planet.

"Pleased to meet you, all. Come."

The door slid open as Audrey turned to walk through. Immediately behind the door was a long metal ramp angled slightly upward, with another door at the end. Once past this second door, they entered the city.

The walls were of redish brown sandstone, the architecture in a neo-gothic style, with an arched cieling crisscrossed with stone struts with golden plates running down their centers. Circular stained-glass skylights were placed all along the cieling of the covered streets, alternating with the stone circles where the struts crossed, carved with the Royen Trefoil. The floors were of mostly grey tile, with red borders. Streets crossed at sharp ninety degree angles, with high domed courtyards at the intersections, every 100 meters, resulting in 10,000 square meter city blocks. Doors lined the walls of the city blocks, being themselves made of grey metal, but the arched frames being decorated in mother-of-pearl and emerald.

"This is, of course, just the port district. Elsewhere, more variety can be seen, the usual offices and shop windows of any city."

A left turn, right turn, and another left turn brought them to a large courtyard lined with indoor plants and having a large square hole in the center, and four stairways leading down to the level below. One of the streets leading off from the lower courtyard abruptly came to dead end, terminated by a large heavy dark-stained wooden door, guarded by two men in waterminer uniforms. Seeing Audrey approach, the two guards stood off to the sides and allowed them to pass. This brought them to a white hallway, with plaques over the doors printed with 4 lines of different scripts, the bottom being in Interligua. They said things like "Executive Office 1", "Office of Controlled Substances", "International Customs", and, finally, "Executive Conference Room 2".

Executive Office Room 2, into which the party was led, contained a long oval mahogany table, with a white outlined rectangle in the center.

"Please, sit."

"This is quite the city you have built," commented Fernando idly as they walked through it.

One of the IIA guys nodded curtly at the guards as they passed, a token reference to the profession of combat he evidently felt they shared.

Filing into Executive Office Room 2, the delegation gathered around and sat at the table. Alvarez, Fernando and Forsythe took up chairs near the farthest end, with the lower titled corporate nobility filling in the rest closer to the door, leaving the Eniqciri to take seats opposite.

SCC Cheng, and six suits, did not sit. Cheng stood, hand clasped behind his back, apparently resisting the urge to pace.

Noticing this, Enrique Alvarez-- the highest executive in the Conglomerate present-- motioned toward the mute suits, and said, "Gentlemen, if you would."

At this, the IIA team leader nodded, and took up a position close to the door, silently, while the other five fanned out to guard the entrance on the other side, and leave the executives to talk in peace. Although with Cheng looming.

"So," began Susan Michaels, neatly folding her hands on the table, "Let us begin."

"So we shall."

A blue cube appeared above the white square on the table.

Arg. Blue Screen of Death. Where is that button..."

The image jiggled a bit as it switched to a geopolitical globe of Mars, which rotated slowly so as to give everyone present an equal view of the parcel of land up for discussion. (http://timesurfer.linuxcowboy.net/prattmars.gif)

"The area outlined in black is as close to exactly 400,000 square kilometers as can be shown at this resolution. In practice, the territory would extend right up to the Mangalan and Qaaolchuraav borders."

"Ah, hologram displays," she replied with a smile. "Very efficient."

Everyone is silent for a moment, examining the globe. "Pardon me," said Eric Love, "But is that really four hundred thousand square kilometers?"

"About six hundred on a side, if it were a square," Michaels answered him, nodding.

"Hmmm, well that would come out to roughly seventeen tons platinum at the figures you estimated for us earlier... however," and here Eric Love smiles, the chocolate colored skin wrinkling and crinkling festively as he does so, "I was thinking something more like this, for, oh, I don't know, seventy five tons platinum?"

He makes a rough gesture with two of his fingers to indicate the area he means (http://www.freewebs.com/santa_barbara/prattmars2.jpg).

<bump>

"Seventy-five tons? Ah, I don't quite know what to say to that. Gansarek," Audrey waved Gansarek to look at Eric, and nods at his quizzical look. Gansarek slid a stylus and LCD panel down the table to Eric.

"If you could just sketch out what you have in mind more exactly, so we can put it up on the globe, and excuse me for a moment." Audrey turned toward Igrain, and the two started whispering.

"What do you think?"
"Seventy-five tons would pay for near the entire pipeline."
"True, true, but what about the Managalan Purchase and Sunset's donations?"
"We already used up the Mangalan Purchase in the econ stimulus package, and I recall Martin wanted to keep the Sunset money locked up for a while."
"Any other competing claims in the area?"
"None that we've been informed of."
"Good"
"I like it."

The IDG director begins to draw, tracing the borders of the neighboring lands to fill out the original rectangular area. Looking on, Susan Michaels prods him in the back. He looks around, annoyed.

"What about Sirenum?" she asks him, under her breath.

He ignores this and sends the LCD panel sliding back along the table to Gansarek. [OOC: I'm hoping you didn't actually want a more refined version. But if you need one I can make one, but it would be the same, just filled out to the nearest borders.]

"Well, Lady Audrey," he replies, "This was what we were looking at, and the site of original interest by the Conglomerate."

Leaning back in the chair, scratching his head once in what may or may not be an affectation, he continues smoothly, "As much as I hate to be hasty, however, it appears that certain... belligerents also have interest in new aquisitions of Martian assets, including potentially the rest of your holdings for sale. I think I speak for all of us when I suggest that we would rather see such assets safely under the PCC jurisdiction than said belligerents. But the questions I ask you are, which other territories would you be willing to part with entirely, and for what price? ...Mister Cheng here has a great many tons of platinum sitting in his vessels, and he complains endlessly about the extra mass slowing them down."

He grins.

[OOC: I'm hoping you didn't actually want a more refined version. But if you need one I can make one, but it would be the same, just filled out to the nearest borders.]
Nah, just an excuse to update the IC map.
Leaning back in the chair, scratching his head once in what may or may not be an affectation, he continues smoothly, "As much as I hate to be hasty, however, it appears that certain... belligerents also have interest in new aquisitions of Martian assets, including potentially the rest of your holdings for sale. I think I speak for all of us when I suggest that we would rather see such assets safely under the PCC jurisdiction than said belligerents. But the questions I ask you are, which other territories would you be willing to part with entirely, and for what price? ...Mister Cheng here has a great many tons of platinum sitting in his vessels, and he complains endlessly about the extra mass slowing them down."

"Well... obviously, we can't give it all up, becuase we're not done with all of it. Excluding what we already have requests for, there's most of the northern third of Noachia and the southeastern corner, the area between Kaiser, Wohlstad, and NRRB, if you don't mind being underwater, and we'll have to see how things go with Sirenum. There seems to be an encroachment dispute going on. Prices would be comparable, varying with the amount of previously existing infrastructure."

"Hmm, underwater, no," he replies, stroking his chin ever so slightly, "We can persuade, ah, colonists to live on another planet, or underwater, but probably not both. Well then, a purchase of all of your Noachian territory would be adequate for our needs."

"Speaking of infrastructure," pops in EP Forsythe; easily the oldest Santa Barbaran present, "We would have to get a concise list of all existing transportation, power, habitat, mining and anything else on these lands, I believe."

"Indeed," Eric Love picks up, "and I am correct in understanding there are no private landowners we will have to negotiate separately with? And what of residents, if any?"

"Speaking of infrastructure," pops in EP Forsythe; easily the oldest Santa Barbaran present, "We would have to get a concise list of all existing transportation, power, habitat, mining and anything else on these lands, I believe."

"Indeed," Eric Love picks up, "and I am correct in understanding there are no private landowners we will have to negotiate separately with? And what of residents, if any?"

"Very well. All of the infrastructure information is not immediately available, but I can arrange for it to be made so. Residents are limited to a few engineers and scientists at various monitoring stations, nobody who can't be moved out within a day if need be. And, as the territory is not an official province, private landowners are a non-issue. There is always the possibility of encroachers, we have to do a sweep for any new foriegn stations that pop up every once in a while, but such things will be taken care of on our end, unless you want to handle it yourselves."

"Ah. Good." Eric Love smiles, warmly. "I think, on that last matter, we can cooperate. Bilateralism is always good for the press, even if it's just a matter of ridding the land of claim jumpers."

Suddenly SCC Cheng says, "Not to interrupt, but I am needed on the Atmos...."

"Indeed. Well, friends, I do believe we've covered the important details. We'll be busying ourselves with simultaneously settling this land and delivering the payment..... oh, yes, I almost forgot. We should put this in writing before we leave here."

He pulls out a pen from his suit pocket, and a Standard Form Contract for real estate purchase from somewhere inside his vest. He pushes the paper out toward the center of the table, offering both to the general direction of the Eniqciri delegation.

<bump>

"Indeed. Well, friends, I do believe we've covered the important details. We'll be busying ourselves with simultaneously settling this land and delivering the payment..... oh, yes, I almost forgot. We should put this in writing before we leave here."

He pulls out a pen from his suit pocket, and a Standard Form Contract for real estate purchase from somewhere inside his vest. He pushes the paper out toward the center of the table, offering both to the general direction of the Eniqciri delegation.

Gansarek pulled the pair across the table and towards Audrey, who in turn picked up the pen, regarded the writings for a moment, filled in the details, and signed.

Returning the contract to Mr. Love, she said, "Very well. There are rooms available for anyone who would like to take advantage of them, and if we are done for now, allow us to escort you either there or back to your vessel."

Eric Love smiles again, and received the signed contract with a slight angled incline of his head towards Lady Audrey. "I thank you, truly." At this Cheng seems just to get more anxious, however, fiddling around with his PDA busily.

Marcos Fernando stands up, and at this the entire Santa Barbaran delegation follows suit. "Well, my good friends," he says, "As much as I dislike brief meetings, as you can imagine we have a great deal of work to do. Good day to you all, and it is my hope we will be seeing a lot more of each other in the future."

He bows his head as a token of respect before leading the delegation directly out to the light transport.