Only managing to move a few feet from the landing bay where her ship was docked. When suddenly a large metallic monster appears in the passageway before her. He is bulky, cumbersome and encompasses the entire walkway moving down the hall. A pair of red glowing eyes illuminate the dimly lit corridor as he moves towards her. She stops in her tracks unable to move passed the mechanical monster even if she wanted to. The droid stops directly in front of her and speaks..
“You have entered the Congress flagship, please hold still for scanning.”
The eyes of the robot cascade a red grid pattern over Eloise.
Not detecting any weapon but noting the transmitter linked to her ship he continues..
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Director Eloise. My name is Marcus and anyone meeting the Arbiter must come through me.” His eyes change color to an orange tone as he talks. “I see you’ve kept to your word and as promised we will keep to ours.
Your transmitter will not be disabled, removed or harmed in anyway.
Should something go wrong and your life signs terminate we understand your ship will detonate.
Please follow me I will take you to meet with the Arbiter now.
Eloise was rather surprised by the existence of such a machine, and it did make her a bit anxious, but knowing that her options were limited at this point, due to her ship not only being deep within Sirian space as well as docked in this battleship, she had little choice but to trust the machine’s word, knowing that her other options weren’t much better. She then followed the machine to the station, looking forward to talking to an actual person, even if it was with a Sirian.
Marcus exits the ship with Eloise following close behind. They enter the docking bay of the Saltese station space port. The bay is large and capable of accommodating the Congress battleship along with several mining and transport vessels. The pair move quickly through the station’s corridors and approach the entryway to the Silver City Casino. The mining station is state of the art and high tech but up to this point the facility is a rather typical starport but not anymore. The high arched doorways of the Silver City Casino are huge and seemingly made of pure silver. It’s glass inserts are mirrored and provide crystal clear reflections to those entering the casino. As the duo approach the doors they slowly move aside and reveal the high end luxurious ambiance reminiscent from the days of old Earth’s Las Vegas casino stylings. Marcus turns and faces Eloise as he says..
“Arbiter Trenton will meet you in the VIP lounge just beyond the gaming tables straight ahead.”
He extends his arm and points the way as he steps aside so the Gallic Royal Police Director can pass.
Eloise was shocked by the dramatic change of scenery, having just come from a very industrial and barren ship to what could only be described as utmost luxury. Even in Gallia, she had only expected aesthetic detail like this from the finest establishments. Maybe there was more than what met the eye when it came to these junkers. Clearly they were more competent than the junkers of Gallia.
She made her way through the room still taking in the scenery and made her way to the back where a set of double doors were located, leading to the VIP lounge. They opened for her when she approached and made her way into the room,not only finding even more luxury, but also the Arbiter, waiting for her.
“Greetings Director Eloise my name is James Trenton, Arbiter for the Junker Congress and owner of the JunkerTown fleet.
Please call me “JT”.
I see that Marcus brought you here safely and I must apologize if he scared you.
I did order him to be on his best behavior and to be polite.
While he is more machine than man his organic human brain still rattles around in that metal head of his.
So he can be temperamental, moody and sometimes downright rude.
Seeing as how you passed his scans and your ship hasn’t detonated thus far I can only assume you're indeed here to talk.
So lets get to it shall we because I am very interested in hearing what the Director of GRP has to say.
Please have a seat ma’am and I’ll get us some drinks. What’ll ya have?”
He walks around the table and pulls the chair out for Eloise to sit in as he motions with his hand for her to take a seat.
Eloise sat down in the chair and thanked him. She then said, “A glass of wine would be appreciated.” accepting his offer of a drink. “As for why I am here, I heard that you might be able to convince me that you are worth letting into Gallia, and that if I did allow it, you wouldn’t turn against us.”
Ahh yes well perhaps it should be me questioning whether or not you would in fact turn against us.
Rather unfortunate incident that occurred with my Gallia Director you folks managed to find in your space.
Still space is dangerous and things happen let's just hope we do not have any future unfortunate accidents.
So with that being said it's good that you got my message from Lucius about wanting to have a sit down of sorts.
See we do still have ties with some Gallic Junkers kinfolks still operating in Gallia.
They of course could not openly admit to the Crown that we in fact still keep in touch with them.
It would for sure mean their head if they were ever discovered to having any Sirian Junker ties especially Congress.
They have to keep their distance but as we are all Junkers and still considered family we still look out for each other.
Word has it from them you all have been inquiring about constructing a privately owned and operated station in Gallia.
Which brings me to what I was wanting to discuss with you..
Should this in fact be true of course we wouldn't be able to assist you in constructing this facility.
Even though we have expert engineers when it comes to base building our presence in Gallia would not be tolerated.
The minute Congress vessels appeared in Gallic space the Gallic Royal Navy would mass a fleet and hunt us down.
That being the case it looks like you will need to coordinate this construction with factions legally allowed to operate there.
Perhaps we can give you a sizeable donation in order to kick start your project?
IF you would be willing to turn a blind eye should you encounter one of our vessels moving thru your space.
Also we ask you contract our kin up there in Gallia who will be getting in contact with you once your safely back home.
Several Gallic Junkers will be up for this little endeavor and I would see it as a personal favor that allow them to help.
So whataya say ma'am if I were to send the GRP 500 million credits right now would you consider that good enough to get the ball rolling?
Eloise, content with the amount offered, replied, “Five-hundred million credits will be acceptable, and in return, we will occupy ourselves with other matters when you are in Gallic space. As for this station, the contract for who builds it is still being determined, but I will offer the opportunity to the Gallic junkers as well when the time comes. Maybe they will be able to redeem themselves with this opportunity. If that is all, I would like to make my way back to Gallia before others become suspicious.”
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