Shadowcat slid smoothly into place, the mooring tractors locking onto the cleats with computer directed precision. Once the bay pressurized, the airlock cycled open. Chuck looked around with the practiced eye of a naval officer. Everything seemed to be in place.
"Damnit, why did this have to happen now?!", he muttered.
A youngish fellow in a coverall with the Freeport 5 patch on his chest stepped out of a lift. "Sir, this way if you will? The... representatives are waiting in one of our conference rooms."
Chuck nodded, then followed the man back into the lift. It was tense inside, and the fellow stayed as far from the Star CRO as the tight confines allowed.
When the pressure valve irised open, Chuck almost smiled in spite of himself. Two Red Hessians and two Corsairs were busy trying to keep an eye on each other and the four station security types outside an elaborate pressure door.
Chuck reached out and gently grabbed his escort by the elbow, stepping past him in the moment of surprise.
"Gentlemen, if you'll excuse me?" The voice, pleasantly polite, still carried the tone of command. All eight men straightened unconsciously, although both the Hessians and Corsairs snarled almost identically after a moment. The momentary break in tensions was sufficient for Alestone to step past them.
Just before opening the door to the conference room, he looked back to the stationman. "Get these fellows something to drink, would you?"
Then, he was through the door and gone.
The meeting had been harsh, but Chuck had finally convinced both of the hostile factions that Star was not acting as a spy for the other power. Whoever had put them in one conference room had be mad, but it had worked brilliantly. Expensively, but brilliantly. Both sides had agreed to not destroy Sleipnir in exchange for a Docking Module to be installed on a ship of their choice.
The Hessian was grinning as he left, and Chuck couldn't help but feel that he had missed something. He just had no idea what...
