Carthago (Syriaticus-3)
Carcosa
Emerald Forum
Court of the Scarab
The Court of the Scarab was, as usual to a native Sorhaean, insufferably hot. The Carcosians were used to heat, having grown up in it, and always seemed to use weaker climate control fields that completely failed to cool one off properly. Eun-mi Hernandez had worked in the Yellow City for thirty years, but she still disliked the baking heat that always rose off its golden bricks and stone and plaster. In Pakchul, when you stepped outside, it was usually bitingly cold, a bracing, refreshing breeze always whipping across the plains. But here, it was a warm sirocco or a sea breeze so laden with humidity she was like to choke on it, and the heat was always just high enough that whatever you were doing, you were sweating just enough to slowly send yourself into a torpor. Eun-mi had always been struck by the notion that people in Carcosa were made lazier by the heat- she'd seen it with herself, trying to avoid going to meetings in the afternoon or taking a longer lunch than she ought to. It does explain why the Supreme Executive and the Assembly of Notables are so fucking inefficient.
Regardless, now, as l'heure bleue fell across the city, lights were glittering on throughout the Court of the Scarab, illuminating her path back to her office. She was walking through one of the complex's many little garden courtyards, admiring a fountain with tiny fluorescent fish in it, when her earpiece buzzed.
"Eun-mi?"
It was her supervisor, Arnaud.
"Yessir? What is it?"
"Do you have any major schedule conflicts for the next four days or so? Anything that absolutely cannot be postponed?"
She stopped walking and pulled out her data slate. What an odd question. "I don't think so, sir, but let me check my calendar. What exactly is going on?"
"A somewhat irregular situation. The Tourelle System, it's one of the outlying systems of Sorhae's electorate. It's been settled, based on our reports."
"Settled?"
"Some humans have appeared to have set up a long-term settlement and structures for habitation on the surface of one of its worlds. They're in League space, and Sorhae has conceded that they're willing to give it its own Electorate as long as the settlers agree to work out resource rights agreements within their League compact."
"So what do you need me to do?"
"Well, I'd actually like you to head the compact team. You'll depart tomorrow morning, refuel over Pakchul, and then head to Tourelle. Obviously there'll be additional briefings, but you'll present the settlers with a standard entry compact and collect their entry fee, and explain to them that they are now a sovereign Electorate of the Golden League under the protection of the League and the World School. And I could also budget in a few extra days if you'd like to see family or friends on Sorhae afterwards."
Tourelle System
Tourelle-4 Cislunar Space
RCSS Bird of Paradise
The Bird of Paradise had once been a warship, a squadron leader designed to operate with the old Matsushita Heavy Industries Kamikaze-class tenders, but her fighting days were long past her. She still mounted a few high-energy attack lasers, but combat acceleration pods and bank after bank of computer storage for combat aeais had been removed in favor of a more comfortable, civilized interior that almost resembled a yacht. This was a diplomatic vessel, now, though she had been commandeered more than once in her long career by agents of the Supreme Executive Political Oversight Committee and by the more sinister, frightening uulchi Security Directorate.
The Bird of Paradise began transmitting a message to anyone listening on the ground, aiming her broadcasts towards what the probe that had detected and monitored the settlers from around one of the planet's moons had identified as the main settlement. As the ship did so, Eun-mi let the anesthetic wash over her, and her shuttle fired itself out of its special bay, engines flaring for a moment as it plummeted towards the planet below.
To the citizens of Tourelle-4,
Greetings and welcome from the Golden League! This is the diplomatic vessel Bird of Paradise, representing the Free City of Carcosa and the League Supreme Executive and Assembly of Notables. As a new settlement established within the envelope of space under the dominion of the Golden League (specifically, the Sorhae Electorate, which has consented to redistrict this system for your convenience), you are now eligible to form a compact with the League and join as your own Electorate, receiving seats in the Assembly of Notables and protection from the League and the World School of the uulchi. League representatives are on board the shuttle currently approaching your city, and we look forward to meeting you and beginning a prosperous relationship. Please provide us with directions as to where would be the best location to meet with representatives of your community to go over the agreement.
The spherical shuttle, meanwhile, drew a long streak of plasma across the sky, firing retro-rockets as it slowed and then deploying a parachute and short, spider-like landing legs. It set down about a kilometer and a half from the edge of the settlement that had been identified, and doors immediately swung open on the bottom, lowering a skimmer to the ground.
Eun-mi was woken by a powerful surge of stimulants, and she and a few aides quickly piled into the skimmer, which pulled out from under the shuttle and waited for the Bird of Paradise to tell them where to go.
