The Crayter delegation had been the first to arrive, and naturally had the time to wait for the rest of the participants, though it didn't seem to bother them much over the past week. Among them were the Foreign Minister herself, her secretary, and a member of the President's advisory committee, who only really seemed to be there to take notes, not unlike Lady Mountbatten's Whig representative, though with a considerably weaker aura of doubt. After all, Ms. Ward had negotiated terms with the Technocrats, which earned her a significant level of respect, even among the other Ministries.
As Mountbatten finished, motioning to Ward to speak Crayter's viewpoint, the Foreign Minister took a deep breath. "Crayter has looked over the terms discussed through the neural net communiques and have continuously found them acceptable, with a noted exception to the Helios. We've brought this up before, and remain adamant about the wreck fully. However, the Quorum of Ministers has agreed on a compromise that should benefit both Kusari and the Republic." She seemed stoic, her tone unrelenting. Crayter had exercised this viewpoint before during the informal discussions over the neural net, and didn't seem to be backing down, though the prospect of a compromise from Crayter's side was relatively new. "Once the Kusari and Natio delegations have had their say, I would be happy to go over Crayter's proposition."
Ms. Ward sat back a little in her seat, the presidential advisor jotting down what seemed already like a small script of notes. There was a certain look about much of the Crayter representation that seemed intrigued by Kusari's response to her start, and even the advisor drew a line to mark the change in speaker.
