President Narval invited all INOR ambassadors to
meet with him in his conference suite; the subject
was not announced in advance. The ambassadors
sought guidance from their home governments. In
response, they were instructed to attend, make no
commitments, and report back immediately on the
proceedings.
As the appointed time neared, the Presidential
Security Guard, augmented by a detachment of
heavily armed police, moved into the conference
area. They took up positions at doors leading
from the President's Suite, along the connecting
corridors, and inside the Conference Room. All
rooms, corridors and exterior approaches leading to
the meeting site were physically and electronically
searched, and the identity disks of all individuals
passing through the area scrutinized and verified.
Shortly before the meeting, the President's Council
entered and took seats along the wall, leaving the
chairs around the table for the guests. A lackey
scampered about, lifted the lids of beakers, peered
in, made minute changes in the alignment of goblets,
and scuttled out.
A view tank rose from a well at the front of the
room, glowed, and cleared to show the Special
Zone. Charon and its background of stars had been
dimmed to reduce the clutter. In the foreground,
the Slingshot Logistics Depot and its maze of ships,
tugs, articulated cranes and flex-conveyers were
portrayed busily engaged in loading and unloading
the moored vessels, and the new arrivals that
waited for their turn.
A flurry rippled through the room as a door panel
slid back into its slot and the Ambassadors strode
in from an anteroom. They were men and women
of varying appearance: tall and short, slender
and rotund, and cadaverous and fleshy. More than
half wore the military uniforms and ranks of their
nation, and the rest were in the colorful robes of
their offices and governments.
Mostly in their middle years, they had the hard,
arrogant look of ruthless power, survivors of craft
and intrigue. Faces suspicious and wary, they took
places around the table. None spoke.
A brusque announcement cut the silence. "The
President of Planet Pluto."
President Narval, haughty in appearance and adorned
in red-black robes of office, entered to the sound
of sliding chairs and rustling garments as all
present rose to their feet. Narval's massive
body, pear-shaped and tapering into short legs and
diminutive feet, shuffled forward in top-heavy gait.
Drummer entered behind Narval and moved to stand
silently beside a lectern adjacent the view tank.
Sunken between ponderous shoulders, Narval's
hairless head was small and neckless, his face
smooth-pale with thin-lipped mouth and a stumpy
nose. Cold, deep-embedded eyes constantly shifted
focus and direction. His small hands, fingers laden
with rings, appeared to drip from his sleeves.
##
Lumbering to his raised chair at the head of
the table, Narval laboriously stepped up and
sat, lifted his hand to his mouth and nibbled at
a fingernail. Finally, satisfied, he held the finger
up, examined it and redirected his attention to
his audience.
President Reen Narval had earned the fear and
respect that he enjoyed. A victor of scores
of battles for control of the planet's criminal
syndicates and political machinery, Narval had left
a trail of blood and broken bones behind him as a
warning to challengers. Challengers to his rule did
not survive.
A man of many talents, Narval had migrated to
Planet Pluto from an independent colony orbiting
Callisto. He had accepted expulsion from the
place of his birth as the alternative to the court's
sentence of labor in Callisto's encapsulated
subsurface mines.
Educated and trained to practice law in the Outer
Region's inter-satellite and interplanetary courts
he had, instead, become a serious liability to his
government and to his community.
At his disbarment, the investigating officer of
the Callisto Ethical Practices Board had presented
irrefutable evidence of Narval's numerous conflicts
of interests, extortions, frauds and other crimes
in the performance of his responsibilities as an
officer-of-the-court. Removed from the judicial
arena, he was proven to have also cheated in the
Callisto gambling halls, swindled citizens of sound
repute, and twice convicted of murder.
Callisto and its orbiting colonies were wide open,
but Reen Narval was too much for them. He was
told to quickly depart Callisto's jurisdiction or
take the consequences.
He left gracelessly, found a haven on Planet Pluto,
and applied his many talents with vigor. Organizing
Coldfield's fragmented criminal elements, he ruled
with an iron fist. Solidly entrenched, he imposed
tactics of terror on the population and encountered
little resistance. He rose to the top, balanced on
a mound of cracked skulls and crushed bodies.
Soon after INOR came into being, Narval proclaimed
Planet Pluto's independence, with himself as
President. Despite the UIPS urgent need for Planet
Pluto to support Slingshot, the newly formed,
but weakened government of the Inner Region
was unable to influence a populace under the fist
of a ruthless despot.
"I will govern well, and we shall prosper,"
President Narval glibly promised the Plutonian
citizenry. "I have studied and practiced
interplanetary law for many years. I shall demand
justice for our planet and for all our people. We
will not be slaves to the imperialists of the Inner
Region."
The new President organized a brotherhood with like
morals, and bestowed on them ministries of great
personal influence and profit. A bureaucracy rose
and flourished; the spoils systems and corruption
matched those of ancient Earth.
Reen Narval, President of Planet Pluto, was caught
in a dilemma.
Slingshot construction was approaching completion.
The Terminals and Planet Pluto would come to a
parting of the ways before the end of the century.
Employment and extortionate profits from Slingshot
services and industries would plummet as Planet
Pluto continued outbound along its eccentric orbit
into interstellar space. The economy would wither,
and the inhabitants move elsewhere.
Narval had to provide for himself. For the moment,
he held a good hand, and the stakes made the game
worthwhile, providing it was himself that shuffled
the deck and dealt the cards.
Leaning back in his chair, Narval scanned the faces
at the table.
"I have dispatched a message to the President
of the United Inner Planetary System," he
announced solemnly. "It will open a new and better
relationship between INOR and the UIPS."
The Ambassadors stared at him, aghast. Several
rose partially out of their seats, looked at others
at the table, reconsidered, sat, and glared grimly
straight ahead rather than toward the head of the
table. Narval smirked. A bombshell, indeed.
"Until now we have played children's games with the
UIPS," he continued, raising his voice to the level
and tone of a despot's traditional bellow to repel
an imagined enemy. "That time is past. We must
move on to a strategy that is more aggressive
than petty raids on UIPS shipping or to merely
destroy a few of their insignificant patrols.
"The build-up of INOR's military forces has
reached the level at which, together, we have the
strength to influence the final stages of Slingshot
construction. That includes the launch schedule of
the Extractor station to Alpha Centauri. We must
use this new power to benefit all nations in the
Outer Region. In short, the warships and weapons
in Planet Pluto's military fleet, along with those of
your governments, are a force that the UIPS can
not ignore."
Narval motioned to Drummer.
"The Proclamation."
Bringing his hand close, he inspected its palm and
fingers.
Selecting a fingernail, he commenced nibbling at
it, giving the task his full attention.
Drummer rose to his feet, drew a scrolled
document from the sleeve of his robe and unrolled
it. Holding the scroll low so that his listeners
could see his face, he read from the scroll without
hesitation or inflection.
"The President of Planet Pluto sends greetings to
the President of the United Inner Planetary System
and to all citizens of the Inner Region.
"I, President Reen Narval, hereby declare and
proclaim that Planet Pluto, as an independent and
properly constituted member of the Independent
Nations of the Outer Region (INOR), has the legal
and inalienable right to use and to defend INOR
territory under my jurisdiction consistent with
time-honored custom and interplanetary law.
"The Government of Planet Pluto, now and
henceforth, assumes for itself as lawful all
dominant rights of independent nations to possess
and control all territory, properties, materials,
supplies and all other resources on and beneath
the surface of Planet Pluto. Such rights extend
off-planet to national boundaries established in
conformance with treaties in effect for delineating
planetary and satellite jurisdictions in near and
contiguous space.
"Through this Proclamation, we, the Government
of Planet Pluto, exercise our rights and impose
our legitimate authority.
"On the other hand, we are realists. It is not
possible for us, at this stage of Plutonian
national and industrial development, to assume the
operation and servicing of vital life and community
support systems, nor has the Planet Pluto Government
the technical skills and facilities at this time to
produce and deliver infrastructure and commodities
essential for a self-sustaining economy."
Drummer raised his eyes and quickly scanned the
INOR ambassadors seated along each side of the
conference table. His voice raised slightly for
emphasis.
"We, therefore," he intoned, "conditionally grant
to the Government of the United Inner Planetary
System license to install, operate, and service all
life and general infrastructure support systems
in Coldfield, and in all posts, camps and stations
on the surface of Planet Pluto, its satellite Charon
and throughout its contiguous space.
"We are, furthermore, gracious hosts. We herewith
grant conditional permission for all spaceports,
landing pads and mooring towers, and their
associated technical accoutrements and equipment,
to remain open to UIPS traffic. This conditional
permission is granted providing qualified UIPS
technicians and administrators under the oversight
of Plutonian citizens staff these facilities. The
Plutonian overseers will be afforded training by
the UIPS to qualify them to assume the primary's
operational and management responsibilities in all
functions within two Earth years from the date of
this Proclamation. The Government of Planet Pluto,
as sovereign, will provide for station security and
will exercise oversight and offer guidance through
its appointed administrators.
"The Government of Planet Pluto hereby levies
an inventory tax on all materials and products
arriving in Plutonian territories from the UIPS.
The tax base includes all raw materials, partial
and fully fabricated structures, technical
equipment, and components thereof which are or
yet to be committed to Slingshot. The Slingshot
Logistics Depot, which occupies space within
Plutonian jurisdiction, and all UIPS cargo
transports entering Plutonian space, are subject
to this inventory tax.
"Our inventory tax is merely an extension of
the passage tax on ships intruding on INOR's
jurisdictions and which is currently being
negotiated by the UIPS and INOR governments.
We anticipate the successful completion to
these negotiations.
"This Decree is in effect. Your cooperation is
welcomed."
##
Drummer released the lower end of the scroll
and watched it curl up. He finished rolling the
document, bound it with a ribbon, and tucked it
into his sleeve. He stood silent, eyes on Narval.
Narval rose as he spoke slowly, his tone
disdainful. "I suggest that you communicate with
your Governments concerning my message to
President Camari. Add my expression of trust
that they appreciate the advantages of presenting
a common front."
Waddling toward the door, he beckoned Drummer
to follow.