"Princess!" James stammered and offered a bow, "Apologies, I was expecting to just meet Ambassador Xilquin and his team. Certainly not such a welcome and red carpet. Thank you your highness."
"Welcome to Tranquillity Station, Special-Ambassador Wallace. Do not worry about etiquette, we have a relaxed attitude here," she smiled warmly. "A quick wave to the crowds shall we, there is have much to talk about."
"Yes ma'am," replied James turning to face the crowds and waving. The cheering of the crowd intensified with cameras flashing wildly everywhere he turned.
"Ma'am, Sir, if you will follow me please," interrupted Captain Avroin. He escorted them both to an awaiting lift.
"Thank you for the welcome, Princess. Will Ambassador Xilquin be joining us?" James asked.
"Unfortunately not, he had to be taken for urgent medical treatment on Beldor," she replied.
"Oh my!" Exclaimed James. "Can you tell me what happened, he looked to be in good health when we spoke last, just a week ago."
"Captain," the princess said.
"Ma'am. Security footage shows Ambassador Xilquin leaving his office, slightly later than normal a couple of days ago, he was smiling and looked to be in good spirits while talking on his phone. The conversation must have distracted him as he failed to see a maintenance drone performing routine work next to his office. He stumbled slightly and banged his head on an open toolbox," the Captain stated. " Medical teams ware called right away but it looked like he had an underlying issue, as he slipped into a coma shortly afterwards."
James was taken aback, this was shocking news. "Thank you, Captain." James said after a few moments. "Please pass on my best wishes to his family, I am sure they are very worried."
"Yes Sir."
* * *
As the lift came to a gentle stop, the doors opened onto a very large penthouse suite. It consisted of a sizeable central area filled with a couple of sofas and small tables. A full height picture window filled the entire far wall. Along the right hand wall were doors leading to a kitchen, a large conference room and a smaller meeting room. The large conference room also had the same full height picture window. Along the left hand wall were two doors leading to fully equipped bedrooms, each with their own shower and bathroom facilities. A third door lead to two smaller bathrooms for guests to use.
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The suite was currently filled with a dozen or so people wearing various colours and styles of business suits, they were clustered into different groups talking amongst themselves. Some sat on the sofas or at the tables, others walking round.
Two guards blocking the door immediately stepped aside and saluted. The room fell silent with everyone standing to face them. "Your attention please everyone," the Princess announced walking out of the lift. "Allow me to introduce to you the Galactic Council representative, Special-Ambassador James Wallace of Earth."
There were head nods and applause of welcome from many in the room.
"Hello everyone, thank you very much. I hope to get to know each of you in turn. There are a few faces I recognise already from our video chats, hello again." said James giving a little wave.
"Please carry on everyone," the princess said, "We'll catch up with you soon." She lowered her voice, "Ambassador would you please come with me, we need to talk first." She led him to the small office on the left, eight chairs were arranged around a table. "Please, take a seat."
"Thank you." said James sitting down.
A smartly dressed attendant placed two water glasses on the table and after a quick bow, turned and closed the door behind them.
"Ambassador Wallace, I would like to again personally welcome you to Beldor and our space station, Tranquillity. Please excuse the hectic nature of things out there. As you know from Xilquin, we are a peaceful world with only one world government and a mostly ceremonial royal family. We manage our planet and all its resources carefully and in harmony with nature. Due to our peaceful ways we have had no need for diplomats or ambassadors for quite a while."
James noticed that she suddenly looked very tired. "I suppose we changed all that with first contact."
"Indeed, but in a good way," she smiled. "With Xilquin currently incapacitated, we are all scrambling to catch up with the work that he and his team were doing," the Princess sighed. "While he did give the government updates, we didn't realise the scale of the work he had taken on. His small team were doing a wonderful job of keeping up with all the polices and procedures required, but Xilquin had taken on the bulk of it himself."
She continued, her smile failing slightly. "Myself and everyone else in that room, are trying to get up to speed on the customs and etiquette required as to not cause you any offence while you are here. Xilquin and his small team had a year to develop the relationship you have, to be able to get past the formalities and talk freely as friends. It is like we are almost starting again with the relationship."
Speaking a little more seriously, "I have been tasked with taking on the role as the new ambassador of Beldor and the person you should call upon for anything. Please forgive us if we get anything wrong, as a newly expanded team we are still learning and trying to get up to speed."
"Princess, thank you for your honesty," James started, "While I do have a good relationship with Xilquin and his team, it does not mean that we should need to start everything from scratch. We have covered quite a few topics and it got us to this point. We can use that friendship and knowledge to keep moving forward. I am here and willing to help in anyway I can."
"Thank you, Ambassador," she replied visibly relaxing, "that means a lot to me."
"Let us start this day again shall we," James smiled holding out his hand. "Hello, my name is James. I'm pleased to meet you."
After a short pause to reset, the Princess took James' hand and returned his smile. "Hello James, I'm Sara."
...