Winding his way through the corridors, Silvan surveyed the station as he went. The typical hustle and bustle of trade continued to buzz all around as Silvan approached the newly renovated Council Hall. Pushing open the double doors, Silvan found an empty room, with very few furnishings in it.
Well, it was a cheap renovation anyway... he thought
The room held only three desks, arranged in a semi circular pattern at one end of the room, and half a dozen chairs. Walking up to one of the Desks, He Picked up the Blank nameplate upon it and wrote his name on it. Placing the nameplate back down, he then reached for a small commpad that was sitting next to the terminal screen and checked the schedule for the day. Sebastien Coen, an Omicroner, had requested a meeting and would be arriving shortly. Having given instructions to the dock overseer to escort Mr. Coen to the council chambers, Silvan slid behind his desk and turned to the terminal screen, deciding to read up on the NNN for recent events.
Sebastien Coen's primary and personal battlegroup hovered above Freeport XV. It was there for the usual reasons. Coen would on Freeport 9, and if anything happened, their job was to penetrate the lines and extract him. He told them that he did not need them. The XO of Coen's Juggernaut told him that their orders came from The Faceless. Coen did not argue it.
The jump was uneventful, and so was the flight. It was fast, with no contacts on radar. Four escorts encircled Coen's ship and it landed safely in the hangars of Freeport 9. The escorts would patrol Freeport 9 in two groups; one group docked, one group in space. The two ships that were docked would re-fill fuel and their pilots would escort Coen on the station. That was the theory behind the plan.
Coen had not visited the Nine in a while. Things were pretty similar. He was escorted from the hangar bay to the council meeting, both by his two guards and the dock overseer.
He opened the door to the council room himself and went in. He saw only Silvan Argus sitting there, engrossed in his screen. Coen bowed slightly to get his attention.
Noticing a slight movement from the corner of his eye, Silvan looked up to find Sebastien standing in the room. Standing from his desk, he approached Sebastien and held out his hand.
"Mr. Coen, How nice to see you again. I trust everything is well over in 74?"
"Well, we're alive." Coen said shaking Argus' hand. "I suppose that means something, in the new Sirius that the sector has become."
"So, I take it no other councillors will be joining us? Since all I really have is a short message, which I am persuading you to both adopt and propagate. Coen asked, hoping he did not have to wait for the others.
"Well, busy is better than quiet for most Freeport Controllers. Some seem to be suffering from silence, and boredom." Coen echoed a thought for the Freeport Administrators that had yet to see conflict arrive at their door. He secretly wished it could be quiet all the time.
"Well, it will not be necessary in either case that they do." Coen waved to the desk. "We should have a seat and talk, even though it will not take long."
"I am here to discuss your laws regarding your NFZ, and suggest an alternative or amendments to it, which I would like to see you adopt and propagate." Coen cleared his throat. "Unfortunately, I am unfamiliar with your current laws, so I will probably need to see them to, before speaking."
"Our current NFZ laws? Well, thats an easy one. Since the fiasco with the Corsairs, Freeport 9 has had no NFZ laws to speak of. I believe it was actually an Omicroner that suggested what had been dubbed the 'do what you want' policy. I must say, that since the start of this policy we have had no incidents whatsoever. But with no law to break, there can be no punishment. The council has been deliberating on a new version of our NFZ policies, a version that is drastically scaled back from earlier attempts. I think its safe to say and fairly obvious that the political climate of the sector has changed, and that the policies that worked fairly well in the days of the ZA are defunct."
Silvan leaned back in his chair
"But before I get carried away, what sort of changes did you have in mind? Perhaps we should start there?"
"I had no idea my previous policy was kept." Coen chuckled. He knew some Zoners wanted to throttle him over the Corsairs.
"Either way, what I want is a similar policy to continue." Coen sat down, and sipped from a glass which magically appeared out of nowhere. "I want a 5k NFZ, or whatever distance you feel is adequate, and it only applies to Zoners. Shooting Zoners or the Freeport in a NFZ brings consequences. And that's it."
"What were your policies Administrator Argus?" Coen leaned back in his chair, curious of what the Freeport 9 Council had decided upon.
"It is really quite amazing, Mr. Coen, the policy we are currently refining is in essence what you have just said. It had become obvious that we Freeport Administrators lack the ability to enforce the old NFZ policies. And after some thought, we came to the conclusion that we should cease trying to mediate where we are not wanted. I don't know about the other Freeports, but I know that Freeport Nine lacks the means to interdict the numerous disputes between the local factions effectively. Best to just protect what ours, rather than try to dictate to those that hold little to no respect for our ways."
Silvan leaned forward
"So in essence, Mr. Coen, you wish me to convince other Zoner station admins to adopt a similar approach? Look after our own and to hell with the rest?"
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