As for the proposals he had just laid out, Ryner was simply reiterating what had been agreed by the Chief of State himself. His was not to question why, his was to do and die. Although he seriously doubted he would die. All this to say that the New Republic’s policies were not ones he had made up. Yet he knew that he would take the blame should anything backfire. And as far as he was concerned, Ryner did not expect substantive concessions from the Empire. They were, after all, the Remnant…

Yet as Fiske countered the reciprocal dismantling, he couldn’t help but agree with him. The Empire, if it was truthful about the remainder of its forces, did have considerably less. And so Adoven Ryner worked away on his datapad, relaying a message to his droid. And in turn, MA-BE-3PO would be relaying the message to a communication station, which would then be transferred to Coruscant to the Chief of State with the proper encryptions, authentication and authorization codes. He, hopefully, would be replying within a few minutes. Ryner was verbose enough to stall and beat around the bush, but it still unnerved him to do so: Fiske would probably see it as a sign of weakness and use it to his advantage.

And so began Ryner’s dance.

What started as a graceful waltz was ending as a deadly tango. Despite his adroitness, Ryner was running out of time, and fast. He kept his smile on but couldn’t help to notice that Fiske was sporting a frown. He was also sporting a vein that was increasingly throbbing as time went by. Ryner was sure he’d interrupt him at any moments now... That, or he’d spontaneously combust into flames. Frankly, he’d prefer the combustion over the possible fit.

His eyes kept going back to his datapad every so often, hoping against all odds that a response would be transmitted to him within the next 10 seconds. Or within these 10 seconds. Or these... And as the timer crept towards zero, the answer came to him like a glorious salvation. Offering a silent thank you to Sharra and Ky’thri, he skimmed the response and embarked once more into a waltz, strengthened by the new information.

“Minister Fiske” he said on a comforting tone, “you can rest assured that we are not attempting to dismantle the Galactic Empire’s, or the New Republic’s, forces in their entirety. It is obvious that both of us need to maintain strategic defences. It would be quite foolish to completely dismantle them. The chief interest of this point is that neither of our forces grow.”

“The New Republic would be satisfied if the Imperial Starfleet would be willing to make concessions pertaining to their smaller capital ships? An agreement setting the number of large vessels... and by this I mean Mon Calamari Cruisers and Imperial variant Star Destroyers... at current numbers while reducing smaller ships would seem satisfactory”.

The crisis averted, the delegations continued to squabble and talk, pushing and pulling, as they all tried to agree on specific terms. The question that interested Adoven the most was the matter of opening Imperial and Republic embassies on each other’s capital worlds. Would Fiske agree or be highly opposed?

And as he listened to him drone on about Bandomeer, the Braxtant Run and the Perlemian Trade Route, and whilst he was formulating his response, he noticed the aide interrupting Fiske. The aide had remained about as responsive as a space slug throughout the entire summit, his face partly obscured due to the angle he was sitting in. His posture had made him appear downright blasé and somewhat smug, and now that he could see his face, Adoven had been entirely right. He radiated Imperial propriety and noble family composure. He had a strong jaw, straight [[Greek]] nose and his black hair was short and kept in a very militaristic style. His eyes were grey and appeared as cold as durasteel; eyes that settled on Adoven as he studied him. Obviously caught in the act, Adoven instinctively recoiled a little and couldn’t help but blush in embarrassment.

Although this exchange had only lasted a few seconds, he was quite aware that Fiske might have seen it all. And Adoven was not about to reveal himself to the Imperials, and least of all Fiske, in quite a common fashion. But alas, Fiske was indeed looking right at him. Had he seen? And try as he might, Adoven could not help thinking about this mystery aide. True, he was quite attractive despite the apparent coldness in him, but he was fairly certain he had seen that face before. A mystery for another time, it seemed. Most likely, he’d return to Coruscant and never come to learn the name of this individual and therefore never place the face to a particular event in his memory.

Somewhat shaken, Adoven suppressed the newest train of thought from his mind and focused once again on the task at hand. Although he generally liked Chief of State Gavrisom, he did disagree on certain points and some of his policies. His insistence on reciprocity being one. It was rather putting him in a corner and Fiske was clearly aware of the fact. Fiske, as Minister of State, could afford to take direct decisions for the Empire. Ryner, despite being an Ambassador, a Diplomat, and a senior member of the Diplomatic Corps, had no power in the Senate and it would be frowned upon if he took decisions that could affect the entirety of the New Republic.

“Minister Fiske. I quite agree with you that dismantling the New Republic forces at Bandomeer would be the… ‘right thing to do’… in the spirit of creating a demilitarized zone; but I quite disagree that nothing could be considered reciprocal on the Empire’s side. Surely the Empire must have stationed some garrisons on some world that I am currently not aware of due to the fact that I am a civilian and a citizen of the New Republic. In the spirit of creating this demilitarized zone and as a show of good faith in the concept, I think it would be munificent if the Empire would relent to do the same”. Something else Fiske had said had struck a nerve and Adoven was not about to let it go by without any fuss. As such, he weighed his words carefully and chose a proper tone of voice that would not lead to provocation or debate. He would merely be saying it matter-of-factly in a rather docile manner. “Might I remind you, Minister, of Moff Seerdon? A man, who despite being a Chandrilan, chose my and his home planet as his target for retaliation after the Rebel Alliance's victory on… Fest, was it? He harassed and blockaded the planet and effectively held innocent people hostage. It was also about 10 years ago that Chandrila was again occupied by the Empire despite its allegiance to the New Republic. So you will forgive me if I do not whole heartedly believe that the Empire has no hold on a planet that does not necessarily want its presence there. The New Republic is quite adamant that the creation of a demilitarized zone should be indeed conducted on a reciprocal basis. If we have indeed reached an impasse on this matter, might I suggest moving on to the next point on the agenda?”