It was Kris, the Freeport administrator who spoke first.
If everyone agrees on inviting Doc Holliday over long-range comms we can certainly do that. The MFE Hospital station on our doorstep has been using our communications array from day one so we know we can reach out to MFE and certainly get in touch with Doc Holliday. Now please excuse me for a moment as I ask our communications chief whether we are in comms while you continue. I will be back shortly
Kris stood up and gave a polite nod to those attending. He then went to a smaller table at the back of the conference room and actively typed away on his datapad.
Bob waited a moment when Kris left and addressed the group...
Hearing your points I believe we are two-thirds into reaching an agreement my friends. Allow me to address the points being raised.
He put on his glasses and grabbed the paper notebook he was scribbling on throughout the meeting.
Now as I'm not the youngest I kinda like to make notes with pen and paper. Yet I do this with the data-pad on 'meeting-mode' so allow me to read back with the notes I made...
Ah yes, here we are...
Now Brad, I like your idea of realeasing a press statement yet I must say one can only be issued after an internal communique to fellow Zoners. Just in case they may think we are realeasing the message under duress or, worse, that it is fake news. We need to coordinate any and all public messages if any.
While Bob flipped some pages on his paper notebook he looked over his reading glasses for a moment before continuing...
Sailas, I agree with you that people should be able to defend their homes. That for one, goes without saying and is one of the reasons why we are here. I would like to stress the following.
Us Zoners are fractured as a whole. And knowing governments, they hate things which are not a whole or who don't operate as a whole.
Now here's the caveat, they still see us as a single group. This means that the sighthing of even one capital vessel will be reported as an incident and, we know governments, incidents are dealt with. No matter what press release we send out. Suffice to say, one of us doing something which contradicts Liberty laws will affect us all.
He reached out for his drink and decided to go for the glass of water next to the non-alcoholic funny drink...
That saying I do think it is wise to keep some capital ships nearby and not on a single station. In the meantime we have to reach out to the captains of those very vessels to help us out supplying the Pinnacle Station. I'm sure we can work out the logistics of supplying some transport vessels they can use.
He looked over at Christian and continued...
Christian, I understand the worries and forseeing of Phoenix where it comes down to Liberty patrols on your very doorstep. If ever a group was non-confrontational and non-provocative then Phoenix would be on top and I respect you for that. I hope to take some of the worries away by telling you that OSI has your back where it come down to not only supplies but also a safe haven at Nichols. Yet...
And he paused for a moment while he took another sip of water...
Yet this is something which we can go over in detail after this meeting is concluded.
He looked around at the table once more...
And this meeting should be concluded with a unified decision before we leave or I'll have Kris depressurise the docking bays and release docking clamps to ships moored...
With the last sentence he smiled and made sure everyone could see he was both serious about coming to and agreement yet he tried to lighthen up the tense talk. At that moment Kris walked over and whispered something in Bob's ear before returning to his seat at the table.
My friends, Kris just informed me that the long-range link with MFE is active yet with a delay of 30 minutes due to Ion-storms.
Bob smiled and said:
Hearing this I won't order to depressurize docking bays or the release of mooring clamps but...
He looked at the group over his reading glasses...
