Affari Esteri

[Fiorella de Marco]

She nodded slightly to her Xenos Alliance counterpart and had the robotic waiter place her glass of iced green tea in front of her. She carefully took the spoon from the stand on the table, checked with a glance that it was clean enough, and began to slowly stir her tea.

"The first few points I assume we can agree on without too much difficulty since this is something we have considered before, only in theory at the time."

Her blue-gray gaze dropped briefly to their glasses of ordered drinks, and she continued again, slowly and melodiously.

"As for a courtesy toast, I do not have a suitable drink for that right now. We can toast with something special when we have successfully completed our agreement."

She finished her tea and tapped the spoon against the rim of the glass before setting it down on the folded napkin next to her green tea.

"One of the first points of our agreement will, quite naturally, be an agreement not to attack each other. I assume our ships will only open fire on each other if they themselves are attacked. I think this point is quite logical and necessary for both our sides to keep this venture alive and functioning. I suppose there will be some friction between our sides at first since, after so long and irreconcilable an enmity, it is logical-but I expect that mutually hostile emotions will cease as soon as this agreement begins to bear fruit for both sides."

"The second point will be the expected presence of my people on your stations - whether it be cargo pilots delivering or picking up goods, mediators checking that all is in perfect order or other ships and their crews or pilots who find themselves in need of a safe anchorage in an otherwise hostile sector. My people will not expect charity from you and it is our good practice to settle all debts, including those for incidentals. It is difficult to predict how many ships will find themselves in distress in any given situation, and I would not want any allowable numbers set out in our contract to endanger or cost any of my people their lives."

"And the last key point of our agreement is the exclusivity of our product and your efforts to disrupt the artifact trade in Liberty and the overall suppression of the Corsair influence and presence in Liberty. While this will be mostly quite disadvantageous to you at first, or at least until our alternative trade Network gains its due volume, consider it an investment in the future. At the moment there is mistrust or outright scepticism towards you in Malta, this will help you and me to gain support for this venture quicker than if it were a simple deal like the Junkers. And as our deal goes ahead, and there will be no serious incidents or complications, surely it will then be no problem for us to give you more favourable shares of our deal than, for example, the Junkers or the Liberty Rogues have."

She finished her long monologue and slowly sipped the iced tea from her glass before placing it back on the center of the coaster. She looked up from her drink and looked him straight in the eye.

"Do you have any problems with these main points, Signor Morreti?"

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Fiorella Arianna de Marco | As Dawn Mayflower
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