Chapter Seventy-One - Patience

Ivil wouldn't admit it so readily, but she was thankful that Aurora had taken some time to go over names and faces before the meeting began. Not that she intended to keep all of those memories. Politicians and their ilk didn't rate very high in matters of importance to her.

The meeting took place in a smaller room aboard the station. Smaller than the main lobby area, that was. It was still quite spacious. The ceiling wasn't all that terribly high, but it still rose up in the centre to allow a ring of lights to be perched over a large circular table.

Around the edge were some benches with handholds for anyone watching the proceedings as well as a small bar manned by a mechanised bartender with several serving drones parked next to it, each capable of grabbing a drink and silently carrying it across the room to the one who'd ordered it.

Ivil walked in on Aurora's right flank, with Twenty-Six on the side opposite and Pepper taking up the rear of their little diamond-formation. For the moment, all four of them were walking under the comfortable weight of half an Earth gravity.

It was a power play. A minor one, but still one that would be obvious to the other participants in the meeting who had to move about with the assistance of a zero-g drone.

Each seat around the table had a small plaque before it with the name of the participant and their moon of origin written upon it. The seat immediately to that participant's right was empty, a space for assistants, aides, or trusted councillors.

"Who did you wish to have sitting by your side?" Pepper asked Aurora.

Aurora hummed to herself. "That's actually a difficult question. Yourself, Miss Mint, are the one best versed in political matters. Evelyn is the most... intimidating one here, and Twenty-Six would be a lot help in downplaying things and also with the Saturnian contingent."

"Ah, I'd rather not," Twenty-Six said. "I've never had to stand in front of a crowd before."

"That's fair. This wouldn't be a good place to cut your teeth on such social matters," Aurora said. "Evelyn?"

"I wouldn't mind," Ivil replied. "Though... let Pepper take the seat. I'd much rather be at the back where I can better observe things. Trust me, I don't need to be in the same room or in the same planetary system as someone to intimidate them."

Aurora giggled, but next to her Pepper swallowed hard.

With that, Aurora and Pepper moved up to their seats at the table. There was no place of pride, not at a round table, they would all be more or less equal here.

The delegate from Styx arrived, parking himself across from Aurora and trading a nod with her. Then Tethys arrived, Hyperion, and Titania. The outer edges were starting to fill a little. While most delegates chose to have one assistant by their side, most also had a few hangers-on who filed out to the outer walls.

Umbriel stumbled into the room and then quickly flew to their place while adjusting their suit, and finally Galatea and Callisto. Callisto, Mister Aida, brought the Slob.

The representative was two people away from Aurora. The Slob nonetheless positioned himself at the far end of the room from Ivil instead of at his man's back.

Mister Aida scanned the room, then gave them all a politician's smile. He cleared his throat, the sound loud and clear before he spoke. "Greetings, everyone," he said. "I'm proud to meet and speak to so many delegates from so many moons across the system. Today, I believe, will be a subtle but momentous day for many. We are gathered here to address our stances on several issues before the more official meeting of the League of Free Moons."

Ivil tuned out some of his grand-standing drivel. The gist of it was relatively simple. The League of Free Moons and its apparently very shrewd president wanted to turn a disparate group of small nation-states into something larger, something more potent.

In terms of sheer numbers, they might actually have something. The various moons of the system were all far smaller than either of the two major powerhouses--Earth and Mars--but together their GDP matched or exceeded that of either superpower.

Of course, that was, in a word, bullshit. Those numbers included Deimos, Mars' moon, and Luna, Earth's massive moon. Removing those two from the equation brought that figure down to something closer to half or maybe two-thirds of either super-power's annual production.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

That was still nothing to sneeze at.

If a fourth Inter-system war broke out, then the League of Free Moons might very well be the one who chose who would win in the end.

It all hinged on a single large factor, however.

The League had their own Emperor.

Again, however, that was bullshit.

The Emperor of Jupiter didn't care about the moon he lived on, and Ivil very much doubted he cared much about any other moon either.

She'd met the man. He wasn't the sort of person to concern themselves overly much with such things. He was a self-righteous prick who thought he was better than everyone. He even thought so when she was around.

Of course, the man wasn't... all bad. She was loath to say it, but she respected the Emperor of Jupiter as a sort of... long-distance colleague. They'd never get along, but he did some things in a way that she could approve of.

Notably, he was happily married for... she considered the date. About twenty years now? His successful conquest in matters of romance had been one of the original inspirations for her own early dabbles in such matters.

If he could be happy with his loving wife, then why couldn't she, the better, hotter Empress, have the same?

Mister Aida eventually finished yapping on, and a round of introductions began, because of course politicians had to wax on and on about themselves. Aurora, at least, kept things light and quick. Her name, the moon she represented, and the buck was passed. It made the next representative hesitate.

The discussion, once the introductions were completed, turned towards the topic at hand. "What exactly do we know about the interstellar object?" the representative of Styx asked. He was directing his attention towards the two representatives from Uranus.

This was a bit of a delicate situation.

From what Aurora had explained to Ivil the day prior, the Interstellar Object, the large lump containing several hundred, possibly up to a thousand inactive cores, was found by a ship that ostensibly belonged to several moons of Jupiter. It was crewed by a mixed group from several Jovian moons and a large number of Saturnian scientists who worked for the League of Free Moons.

The object was captured, however, very close to Uranus, and because of its size and the delicate nature of the operation, several Uranian ships had assisted in the operation.

In a way, those volunteered ships had yet to be recompensed for the extremely dangerous work they'd undertaken. The delegates from Uranus would be well within their rights to say that they were owed a favour or two, and they had been in the loop about the Interstellar Object for longer than most members.

There were rumours that the object had stayed around Uranus, being shuffled around, for several weeks.

"We know a fair bit," the Titanian representative said. "But it's not us you should be poking at." He turned his attention to the representative from Saturn. "Isn't that right?"

"Just because the crews poking at the thing are ours doesn't mean we know anything," the Hyperion rep said. "I mean, we definitely do, but we're not gonna share so easily."

"We could have used those ourselves," the Uranian said. "We know there are enough cores there to take someone right up to A-class. Or we could have funded half a dozen powerful B-classers."

"And then the League would destroy you," Styx said. "If only by letting Mars or Earth know. It's just enough cores that either of them might be tempted to try something, and alone, you wouldn't stand a chance."

The Uranian sniffed. "We wouldn't have. I'm merely pointing out that the Uranian moons have acted honourably when we so easily could have chosen not to."

Ivil rolled her eyes at the back of the room. That was more thinly-veiled political stupidity. She really had very little patience for it. But Aurora seemed to be in her element, and Twenty-Six... was slowly nodding off.

Ivil stiffened slightly as Twenty-Six tipped over to the side and rested her head on Ivil's arm.

Yes, maybe she could leave the politicians to their bickering for now. She was the image of patience and self-control.

***