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 ma.s.sive 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...o...b..ting 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 s.p.a.ce. 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 Amba.s.sadors 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 bombsh.e.l.l, 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 doc.u.ment 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 const.i.tuted 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, a.s.sumes 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 s.p.a.ce.

"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 a.s.sume 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 amba.s.sadors 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 s.p.a.ce.

"We are, furthermore, gracious hosts. We herewith grant conditional permission for all s.p.a.ceports, landing pads and mooring towers, and their a.s.sociated 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 a.s.sume 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 s.p.a.ce within Plutonian jurisdiction, and all UIPS cargo transports entering Plutonian s.p.a.ce, are subject to this inventory tax.

"Our inventory tax is merely an extension of the pa.s.sage tax on ships intruding on INOR's jurisdictions and which is currently being negotiated by the UIPS and INOR governments.

We antic.i.p.ate 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 doc.u.ment, 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.

Chapter FIFTEEN