---Peace---
---Tcakqaal’s perspective---
I stand on Victor’s shoulder, at the far side of the Starboard Gallery from the entrance to the gymnasium aboard my ship.
Around us are all the Triple Ms, Twila and all but four of the ODR contractors.
Standing facing towards us, in the entrance, is Emiko, one of the missing four.
Watching from the walkways above us are most of the rest of my crew (some looking a little nervous of those coming aboard!)
To avoid either side feeling as if the other had an unfair advantage (or greater prestige), the arrival of the Swift Claw from the Vrakhand capital and the ambassadorial craft from the compound had to be timed to be perfectly simultaneous.
Right now, Ambassador Yeshe is landing the craft with the Twigg delegation in the rear Loading Bay, beside her husband’s starfighter.
Ambassador Ong is aboard the Swift Claw with the Vrakhand delegation, docking at the ship’s bow.
In almost the same instant the doors, a few [hundred metres] to our left and right, both slide open.
The Vrakhand, having such an enormous footprint created by their many, sprawling legs (currently all tipped in corky wooden shoes to prevent them from tearing up the floor of my ship(!)), are only able to pass through the door in twos and threes, meaning it takes a comparatively long time for them to all make it through.
The Twigg, being one of the smallest sentient species (not of the six emergent intelligent, colonial kinds) are able to all make it through the door at once.
They are a rainbow of greens, blues and yellows in their skin and hair tones!
Heading the Vrakhand column, flanked by her father and her new lifemate and lead by Ambassador Ong, is Representative Khr’kowan of the Vrakhand, dressed in rich silk clothes and looking like a formidable warrior, even ‘unarmed’(!)
Heading the Twigg, flanked by her halfbrother and her tribe elder and lead by Ambassador Yeshe, is Representative Viig of the Twigg, her face set and serious and her yellow eyes burning with intensity!
She does not have the dagger made from the foot of one of the Emperor’s daughters at her hip but, it bears remembering, she’s the one who gave Khr’kowan that nearly fatal throat injury!
She is no less a formidable woman than her counterpart!
The ambassadors set the pace, walking toward eachother at an identical speed (even if Ong’s much longer stride makes him appear to be moving quite a lot slower than his wife).
The knot of Twigg reaches the centre of the Starboard Gallery at the same time as the head of the Vrakhand column.
The representatives stare eachother down for what feels like a long time…
Then, all eight of her eyes closing, Khr’kowan bends forward, lowering her head and thorax to the Twigg girl in a bow.
There’s a moment of hesitation… then Viig returns the gesture, bending at the waist.
The two women straighten back up and begin leading their respective delegations into the gymnasium behind the ambassadors.
The single file line of fifty Twigg makes its way inside relatively quickly.
The fifty Vrakhand take a while longer to pass through the bottleneck.
Once the last of them are inside, Victor and the others follow.
As I ride his shoulder inside and we pass through the regular section (in which no one has been able to exercise for 2 days while it was sanitised and deodoured), we head for the Terran section.
All the heavy equipment has been cleared away by the Terrans, into Victor’s gun range, and the area has likewise been sterilised and cleansed of the (much more pungent) smell of Terran perspiration!
Up against the wall to the right as we enter is a small table, at which are sat Emiko and the ambassadors and behind which is stood Thran, in full armour (minus her destroyed helmet), the final contractor who was missing, all facing out into the room.
To their right, at the far side from us, is a long line of low tables with a row of white lights on top, corresponding to a line of small seats behind, onto which the Twigg are in the process of seating themselves.
Across from them are a series of mats, laid out in rows on the floor, each with a nanoforged nameplate in front of it, written in the vertical, webbed, Vrakhandic script and illuminated with white lights.
Not having a script, the Twigg could not be given assigned seats but… something tells me they prefer it that way(!)
The one exception is Viig, sitting on the far side of the line, closest to the arbitrators’ table and opposite Khr’kowan, at the far side of the front row in the Vrakhand seating… the closest on that side.
Some of the Vrakhand women, not being literate, are having to ask around their compatriots to find their seats.
I am carried to the stands on the left side of the room by Victor, along with the other spectators.
He seats himself on one of the benches near the front and I hop off his shoulder to nestle onto the bench beside him, giving a view of the peace talks across the arena from us.
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A few of my crew who were watching from the walkways take the opportunity to sneak in to observe this historic moment, before it begins.
There follow several minutes of everyone organising themselves.
Once everyone has found their seats, Emiko stands from the middle of the table between the husband and wife ambassadors.
“Greetings all, and thank you sincerely for your agreement to participate in these peace talks! I’m sure everyone recognises myself as Dr Emiko ‘Smiles’ Miyazaki, this woman as Ambassador Lhamo ‘Crane’ Yeshe and her husband as Ambassodor Ngngomg Ong. We will be acting as the arbitrators of this negotiation.” comes the woman’s magnified voice “First) a few notes on procedure; I need to take this opportunity to remind you that these talks are being filmed for posterity, so, if you aren’t comfortable with your image being recorded, we offer you the opportunity to leave now…”
No one makes to leave, all having been appraised of the recording beforehand.
A few moments of silence before “Good…!” continues Emiko “…I just needed to check! So, in front of you, you will see either a lit white bulb (if you are Twigg) or a lit white nameplate (if you are Vrakhand). If you press that down with your hand, the light should turn from white to red. Pressing it again should turn it back to white… Could everyone take a moment to make sure that their light is working and that they are able to operate it as intended?”
A few moments follow as all the summit attendees turn their lights from white to red and back, some multiple times, some needing to double check the instructions with their neighbours.
“Any issues?” asks Emiko, looking around.
No one raises any.
“Perfect. The purpose of the changeable lights is to give you the ability to indicate whether you wish to speak; white to indicate that you do not wish to speak, red to indicate that you have something you wish to ask or something you wish to say. To avoid these talks devolving into a shouting match, we ask that, if someone is in the middle of speaking and they make a statement you disagree with or want to add to, you use your lights as opposed to interrupting them. Once you have been recognised, or if someone gets to what you wished to say before you, simply turn your light back to white. We arbitrators will be sure to give everyone who wishes to a chance to speak on every issue but we ask you to keep your contributions both as relevant and as concise as possible… Representative Viig will take precedence over the rest of her delegation. Representative Khr’kowan has ceded her precedence to her father, Emperor Aghogh, though she will still take precedence over the rest of her delegation. Any questions about any of that?”
None come.
“Excellent. Myself, Ambassador Yeshe and Ambassador Ong are acting as neutral, third party arbitrators of these talks. We have collected points of contention to be negotiated from both parties and, as each is settled, we will open the floor to the next and recognise delegates to speak, in turn, starting with the side that raised the issue then passing to the other then back, until all have had their say… We will not, I repeat, we will not settle disputes for you!…” here, Emiko pauses and looks around, sternly, to impress the point on all “…We aren’t here to impose a peace from without but to facilitate a peace from within. We may make suggestions… but the resolutions of your grievances are yours to agree… with eachother!… Do not look to us to decide who is right or who is reasonable for you because we will not!”
Her schoolmistresslike, preemptive admonishment over, Emiko looks around, as if daring any to challenge her(!)
No one does.
She relaxes and continues “When each point has been settled, our AI, Twila, will add the agreed resolution to a digital copy of a peace treaty. When all points appear to be settled, the completed treaty will be read back to you to allow you the opportunity for revisions to it. Once both sides indicate that they are satisfied without further revision, three physical copies of that treaty will be made for the representatives to leave their marks on; one for the Twigg to keep, one for the Vrakhand and one to go to the ODR on Citadel.” she winces slightly as she says “Unfortunately… as the Twigg have no written language, this document is required to be written in a language readable by neither Twigg nor Vrakhand, so as not to put the Vrakhand at an unfair advantage in interpreting it. Galactic Standard is a language which lacks the necessary level of nuance for an application such as this, therefore, the language agreed is the Terran lingua franca, English… This does mean that any disagreements regarding the application of the treaty will need to be arbitrated by Ambassadors Yeshe and Ong… who will endeavour to do so impartially!… If this is acceptable, I ask that all of you switch your lights to red, now…”
Slowly, the white lights turn to red until only a few remain… which, after investigation, turn out not to be delegates who wish to raise objection but ones who failed to understand the instruction.
All lights finally turn red in unanimous agreement.
“Wonderful…” says Miyazaki, not sounding as pleased as I would have thought by that “…now, there are exactly 53 items on the docket, 16 raised only by the Twigg, 23 raised only by the Vrakhand and 14 raised by both Twigg and Vrakhand… We will start with the issues raised by both and, on each such issue, we will use a randomiser to determine whether the Twigg or Vrakhand should be allowed to speak first. The first item for discussion is… Land Use and Access… and the randomiser has picked… the Vrakhand to be the first to speak. Representative Khr’kowan, do you wish to take the floor?”
---Victor’s perspective---
“Victor, wake up!” comes a low, urgent voice, followed by a light slap to the left side of my face, making me jerk awake.
“OW!…Ring!” I chide my fiancée, rubbing the point where the engagement ring I gave her struck me in the temple.
“Sorry…” Tuun apologises, briefly fiddling with the jewellery on her finger, like she’d forgotten it was there “…they’re just about to sign the treaty… didn’t think you’d want to miss it!”
“Oh, really?! Thought they’d spend a week on that trade provision, at least!”
“Hmmm!… Somehow, I definitely thought that negotiating the end of a millennia old bloodfeud would be a little more glamourous(!)” she presents her lower two palms and waves her top two over them, rubbing her fingers together like she’s sprinkling them with faerie dust(!)
I chuckle, realising for the millionth time just how much I love this woman, and say “Yeah… done now though!” as three very fat documents are brought forward.
Viig is offered a little moveable staircase to bring her up to halfway between her height and Khr’kowan’s where the first of the three copies of the treaty are placed on a 45° angle, facing out.
Yeshe offers Viig a palm size ink pad which she presses her clawed hand into.
Khr’kowan’s offered a cylinder of compressed charcoal by Ong to use as a writing instrument.
The women bring their inked up palm and pencil analogue to their sides of the document, in unison… then a shockwave rocks the ship!
Viig is thrown from her stepstool and a lot of the Twigg are knocked to the ground.
Khr’kowan’s kept her feet but’s looking around, alarmed…
Rightly alarmed!
I’m on my feet, adrenaline buzzing through my blood!
There’s only one thing that could have overcome the inertial dampening to rock the ship like that!
Someone’s just come out of warp and they’ve done it practically on top of us!
The astronomically low odds of anyone arriving in this system so close by chance, coupled with the extremely low odds of anyone even wanting to come to this system in the first place, mean that that was not an accident!
“Twila!… Status repor-”
I’m cut off by a harsh, roboticised, Stateser accented man’s voice, hijacking the speakers and sounding crazed as he announces “Heeeeeeeeeey, fuckers!… I'm baaack!… D’ya miss me(!?)”
“Oh…” I groan “…shiiiiit!”