RavensDagger

  Chapter Seventy-One - Patience

  Ivil wouldn't admit it so readily, but she was thankful that Aurora had taken some time to go over names and faces before the meeting began. Not that she inteo keep all of those memories. Politis and their ilk didn't rate very high in matters of importao her.

  The meeting took p a smaller room aboard the station. Smaller than the main lobby area, that was. It was still quite spacious. The ceiling wasn't all that terribly high, but it still rose up in the tre to allow a ring of lights to be perched over a rge circur table.

  Around the edge were some benches with handholds for ag the proceedings as well as a small bar manned by a meised bartender with several serving drones parked o it, each capable of grabbing a drink and silently carrying it across the room to the one who'd ordered it.

  Ivil walked in on Aurora's right fnk, with Twenty-Six on the side opposite and Pepper taking up the rear of their little diamond-formation. For the moment, all four of them were walking uhe fortable weight of half ah gravity.

  It ower py. A minor one, but still ohat would be obvious to the other partits in the meeting who had to move about with the assistance of a zero-g drone.

  Each seat around the table had a small pque before it with the name of the partit and their moon in written upon it. The seat immediately to that partit's right was empty, a space for assistants, aides, or trusted cillors.

  "Who did you wish to have sitting by your side?" Pepper asked Aurora.

  Aurora hummed to herself. "That's actually a difficult question. Yourself, Miss Mint, are the o versed in political matters. Evelyn is the most... intimidating one here, and Twenty-Six would be a lot help in downpying things and also with the Saturnian ti."

  "Ah, I'd rather not," Twenty-Six said. "I've never had to stand in front of a crowd before."

  "That's fair. This wouldn't be a good pce to cut your teeth on such social matters," Aurora said. "Evelyn?"

  "I wouldn't mind," Ivil replied. "Though... let Pepper take the seat. I'd much rather be at the back where I better observe things. Trust me, I don't o be in the same room or in the same pary system as someoo intimidate them."

  Auriggled, but o her Pepper swallowed hard.

  With that, Aurora and Pepper moved up to their seats at the table. There was no pce of pride, not at a round table, they would all be more or less equal here.

  The delegate from Styx arrived, parking himself across from Aurora and trading a nod with her. Thehys arrived, Hyperion, and Titania. The es were starting to fill a little. While most delegates chose to have one assistant by their side, most also had a few hangers-on who filed out to the outer walls.

  Umbriel stumbled into the room and then quickly flew to their pce while adjusting their suit, and finally Gatea and Callisto. Callisto, Mister Aida, brought the Slob.

  The representative was two people away from Aurora. The Slob heless positioned himself at the far end of the room from Ivil instead of at his man's back.

  Mister Aida sed the room, then gave them all a politi's smile. He cleared his throat, the sound loud and clear before he spoke. "Greetings, everyone," he said. "I'm proud to meet and speak to so many delegates from so many moons across the system. Today, I believe, will be a subtle but momentous day for many. We are gathered here to address our stances on several issues before the more official meeting of the League of Free Moons."

  Ivil tuned out some of his grand-standing drivel. The gist of it was retively simple. The League of Free Moons and its apparently very shrewd president wao turn a disparate group of small nation-states into something rger, something more potent.

  In terms of sheer numbers, they might actually have something. The various moons of the system were all far smaller thaher of the two major powerhouses--Earth and Mars--but together their GDP matched or exceeded that of either superpower.

  Of course, that was, in a word, bullshit. Those numbers included Deimos, Mars' moon, and Luh's massive moon. Removing those two from the equatiht that figure down to something closer to half or maybe two-thirds of either super-power's annual produ.

  That was still nothing to s.

  If a fourth Inter-system war broke out, then the League of Free Moons might very well be the one who chose who would win in the end.

  It all hinged on a single rge factor, however.

  The League had their own Emperor.

  Again, however, that was bullshit.

  The Emperor of Jupiter didn't care about the moon he lived on, and Ivil very much doubted he cared much about any other mooher.

  She'd met the man. He wasn't the sort of person to themselves overly much with such things. He was a self-righteous prick who thought he was better than everyone. He even thought so when she was around.

  Of course, the man wasn't... all bad. She was loath to say it, but she respected the Emperor of Jupiter as a sort of... long-distance colleague. They'd never get along, but he did some things in a way that she could approve of.

  Notably, he was happily married for... she sidered the date. About twenty years now? His successful quest in matters of romance had been one of the inal inspirations for her own early dabbles in such matters.

  If he could be happy with his loving wife, then why couldn't she, the better, hotter Empress, have the same?

  Mister Aida eventually finished yapping on, and a round of introdus began, because of course politis had to wax on and on about themselves. Aurora, at least, kept things light and quick. Her he moon she represented, and the buck assed. It made the representative hesitate.

  The discussion, ohe introdus were pleted, turowards the topic at hand. "What exactly do we know about the ielr object?" the representative of Styx asked. He was direg his attention towards the two representatives from Uranus.

  This was a bit of a delicate situation.

  From what Aurora had expio Ivil the day prior, the Ielr Object, the rge lump taining several hundred, possibly up to a thousand inactive cores, was found by a ship that ostensibly beloo several moons of Jupiter. It was crewed by a mixed group from several Jovian moons and a rge number of Saturnian stists who worked for the League of Free Moons.

  The object was captured, however, very close to Uranus, and because of its size and the delicate nature of the operation, several Uranian ships had assisted in the operation.

  In a way, those volunteered ships had yet to be repensed for the extremely dangerous work they'd uaken. The delegates from Uranus would be well within their rights to say that they were owed a favour or two, and they had been in the loop about the Ielr Object for lohan most members.

  There were rumours that the object had stayed around Uranus, being shuffled around, for several weeks.

  "We know a fair bit," the Titanian representative said. "But it's not us you should be poking at." He turned his attention to the representative from Saturn. "Isn't that right?"

  "Just because the crews poking at the thing are ours doesn't mean we know anything," the Hyperion rep said. "I mean, we definitely do, but we're not gonna share so easily."

  "We could have used those ourselves," the Uranian said. "We know there are enough cores there to take someht up to A-css. Or we could have funded half a dozen powerful B-cssers."

  "And then the League would destroy you," Styx said. "If only by letting Mars or Earth know. It's just enough cores that either of them might be tempted to try something, and alone, you wouldn't stand a ce."

  The Uranian sniffed. "We wouldn't have. I'm merely pointing out that the Uranian moons have acted honourably when we so easily could have chosen not to."

  Ivil rolled her eyes at the back of the room. That was more thinly-veiled political stupidity. She really had very little patience for it. But Aurora seemed to be in her element, and Twenty-Six... was slowly nodding off.

  Ivil stiffened slightly as Twenty-Six tipped over to the side aed her head on Ivil's arm.

  Yes, maybe she could leave the politis to their bickering for now. She was the image of patiend self-trol.

  ***

  RavensDagger

  chapter is a non- joke chapter that I wrote on a whim. Probably won't be included in the final release of Ivil, but it was fun to write! That's on Thursday~ Some of my stories are on TopWebFi!-amon Bun-Stray Cat Strut-Lever A-Dead Tired-Heart of Dorkness-SpeddonVoting makes Broccoli smile!

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