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A white silhouette of a Gallic liner could have been seen very well even between the rocks of frozen water, mixed with dust. Would it be better to say these grey-blue asteroids made the ship even brighter in the sun of the orange, almost golden, star of the Baffin system? Yes, they did. Glowing like a dawn star, the personal ship of the new Baron was much impressive than any kind of Sirian analogue. Even expensive liners from Renzu corporation were no matching in comparison to the masterpiece of Gallic shipbuilders.

Today, on the 1st of July, 743 AGS, aboard the Madame de Pompadour, the meeting between Enclave representative, Viviane Dior, and the Daumann General Director von Kelsen shall happen.

Their conversation is going to take a place in one of the small but comfortable and rich decorated conference rooms aboard the ship, where a huge armoured window with additional shield protection opens a magnificent view on the spacescape of the system of Baffin. Its interior was designed to repeat renaissance style but with some futuristic elements and straight geometric lines, which add this place additional elegance. Or simply to say, it was obvious that the ship is expensive and was made more to impress its guests less than to serve the purpose of a research vessel or being a regular liner.

The doors to the room have opened and a young-look man entered and take a seat in a chair. Baron Quentin Montluc was fresh in his affair but unlike his father was not so cautious in his actions and decisions, following the thirst of profit and prosper for the corporation Baron Fabian founded a year ago. However, the decision to reveal their powerful allies from the Hebrides was the father's decision, not his. He sighed and turned his chair, to keep watching the spacescape on the other side of thick glass.

Donning a subtle yet chic brown suit, Kelsen walked pensively through the corridors of Madame de Pompadour. In his footsteps followed the captain of his private flagship - the Rainer Maria Rilke - Herbert Krom and next to him Kelsen's protégé Leonie Meyer, member of the Daumann's Convoy Security Division. Both were loyal and trustworthy enough to undergo this mission with him and smart enough to only ask questions that needed to be asked. Kelsen for a moment thought about how much Leonie has achieved in the past months, a year ago a mere transport captain. He enjoyed the slight sense of pride but his thoughts have swiftly returned to the meeting at hand and the surrounding ship. Kelsen, a native Rheinlander used to the frugal, utilitarian and militaristic style of ships, had to admit that Madame de Pompadour was splendid, radiating luxury and the fabled Gallic aesthetic sense and elegance. He did not have time to truly appreciate the ship until now as he has spent most of his time in the quarters provided to him by the Baron's people upon his boarding at Freeport 6. There he had been preparing for the upcoming meeting and reacting to the never-ending torrent of events coming from Rheinland related to Daumann and Imperial business - both of which took nearly all of his waking time.

He was not exactly sure which of these two today's meeting was. His multifaceted position as a Generaldirektor of Daumann Heavy Construction, a politician and since recently high ranking member of the Empire's nobility put him in a unique position. One he intended to use to the furthest possible extent. To what goals, only Kelsen knew.

The trio arrived in front of the designated conference room. Kelsen nodded to the couple and calmly said: "Find yourselves one the exquisite lounges aboard this ship and wait for me there, please. This meeting could take a long time." he did not wait for their response as he smoothed his suit and entered the conference room.

The first thing he noticed was the breathtaking view of the Baffin system. Kelsen was not easily impressed but the combination of the ship's decor with the surrounding Space was indeed spectacular. The second thing he took note of was a young gentleman seated in the room. Recognizing the man from their joint Neural-Net interactions, he walked towards him and shook his hand in an almost friendly yet respectful manner.

"Baron Montluc, it's an immense pleasure to finally meet you in person."

With the light escorts, Prevot Dior have arrived on meeting location just now. Fixing her uniform before entering the room, she would look cold and stoic. Viviane drops a short look at the Rheinlander, obviously not trusting Sirians of any kind. When she switched her look at Montluc, it would turn more friendly. She would not take a seat, standing with the firm military posture, not demonstrate any visible weakness.

— Messieurs.

She would squeeze this word out of herself, barely attempting to bow her head to greet them. Dior then proceeds with a really short and laconic introduction of herself.

— Viviane Dior, Prévôt des Maréchaux.

Quentin answered Kelsen's handshake and smiled shortly. He feeds some kind of respect to this man and would like MAE to reach at least a measure of power the Daumann holds in the hands.

"A pleasure is mine, General Director," answered the new Baron and with a gesture offered the old man and his escort to take a sit around. A few moments after they took their places, another party of this meeting entered the room.

It was a young-looking woman in a strict uniform. She was looking elegant as an expensive blade can look. She looked cold at rheinlanders but when her eyes caught Quentin it like turned a bit friendlier.

"Prévôt Dior, welcome. Please, take a seat," told Quentin, and offered her to take one of the free chairs nearby him. The man decided to take a word first, seeing how Dior prefers to speak in a militaristic manner: laconic, without wordy sentences.

"Welcome you all to this meeting. I believe you understand that the public outside this room, except for members of the Enclave command or corporal boards of directors should know nothing or at least very minimal about this meeting."

Kelsen studied the woman with interest. She radiated hard composure, military upbringing and perhaps a slight disdain towards him? None of that however surprised him. He did not expect the negotiations with Enclave to be easy or overly courteous. They were a notoriously distrusting group. Being besieged by multiple enemies does that to people, he waged.

"I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Prévôt Dior." he nodded slightly.

He appreciated Montluc taking charge of the meeting, being the only party that could tie them all together in this negotiation.
"Let me assure you that only I personally posses the full details and overall picture of this meeting. I will inform other likely-minded members of the board on the need-to-know basis about any possible accord we might strike. This negotiation and any possible future deals that might arise will be handled in an utmost secrecy. As you will surely understand, any dealings with the Enclave would have a rather damning effect on Daumann's reputation throughout the Sirius."

He turned his attention to the lady in the room. "I will be honest with you Prévôt, while we are interested to engage in a possibly close and mutually beneficial relationship with the Enclave, we are equally interested to maintain our business connections to other Houses of the Sirius, to a various degree. Unless circumstances and the political map of the Sirius radically change in the future, this will be a relationship of secrecy. I find it only fair to state that right away." Kelsen chose to be straightforward with Dior, as he doubted she would revel in a slew of nice yet empty platitudes, and he saw no need to beat around the bush with her. As a Rheinlander, he had a rather deep appreciation for direct negotiations.

Dior listened politely, oh though it was obvious that she is not the fan of this business talks. Viviane, however, understood the importance of these negotiations. She still refused to take a seat, ignoring the offer.

— We would not prevent civil or commercial activities in space that we currently hold. However, we reserve the right to uphold the tight security and counter-intelligence measures. In some cases, your vessels will have to pass additional security checks and scans. We guarantee to keep your trade secrets, at the same time, I will need guarantees from Daumann to not gather or spread information about the deployment of our forces or status of our facilities. This will mean that within our space, your ship will operate with bare minimum of usage of tracking or scanning devices to only navigate to agreed destinations. Does that sound reasonable?

"Moreover, should you be willing to make huge shipments but remain discreet we can provide you with storages that belong to us. We have one in Tau-23, hired on a modular station of the IDF Shipping's side branch and one in Coronado, at Barrier Gate, where our secondary office is." Quentin was talking calm but for it was obvious he is excited. This deal means a lot for him and MAE in general and would make them closer to their primary purpose.

"We are also can make meets at battleship Hood in Dublin, but as I heard you are not really friendly with the Guild." he smiled softly and then proceeded. "We also point the newly constructed Halifax freeport in Leeds as a possible place for meetings. What do you think, monsieur?"

Groshyr

Großherzog Albert von Kelsen

Dior

Groshyr

Großherzog Albert von Kelsen

Dior

Groshyr