Hippocrates persuades Hornberg to persuade Donella to meet with
Shaddam separately from her ministers. Prepped by the Forces of
Consensus, various agreements are made, and various points of Moral
High Ground-Ness are scored.
Agreements (6 points):
- Terrans are Bad. Future intelligence will be shared between Red
and Blue regarding Terrans, except for things which are utterly
crucial to state security.
- Donnella gets to go to and from Gateway without impedance. She may
bring at most two ships (whatever size) and they have to stay
basically together. She can bring as many people as fit on the
ships, but only a limited number get to get off. The ships are
allowed to be armed, but also get to be escorted by Red ships
while in Red space.
- Both Red and Blue will stand down from a war footing for one year.
This will be communicated in the strongest terms to both
militaries. There will be no storming over the border when Flames
casualties start showing up.
- Some of the trade barriers between Blue and Red will start to be
relaxed. Trade in ship armaments is not included in this
relaxation.
- It is not completely out of the question that there will be
another conversation like this in the future. Some time. This is
not a formal agreement, but there is an understanding.
- Donella really doesn't like Shaddam. Shaddam really doesn't like
Donella. This is not a formal agreement, but there is an
understanding.
(NOTE: Points of Moral High Ground-Ness are exaggerated for clarity; nobody
is so gauche as to say anything nearly this rude.)
Red Moral High Ground (6 points):
- Red didn't blow up Doraine. Are we all settled on that? Yes.
- Donella is really underconfident without her ministers to consult
and back her up.
- The Red government is way less infiltrated by Terrans. Because
Shaddam is a good judge of character, as opposed to Donella, who
gets brainwashed by Terrans.
- The Hippocrates crew went and convinced Donella to come here at
Shaddam's behest. And they brought Shaddam here through their
Secret Back Ways. They're more helpful to him than they are to
her.
- Shaddam is generally more charismatic and persuasive than Donella.
She doesn't flat-out agree to anything she shouldn't, but there
were definitely things she goes along with that would be easy to
use in an anti-Donella smear campaign in Blue.
- Shaddam gets most of the credit for setting up this meeting to
arrange an amicable transport of Donella to Gateway. Donella was
just going to try and invade Gateway, like *that* would have worked
in time.
Blue Moral High Ground (2 points):
- Donella conceded and had the talk Shaddam's way, without
ministers. She's more willing to change her way of doing things to
try and get something done.
- Donella is actually doing the ritual to save the world, while
Shaddam is just standing around helping with logistics. That's
because he isn't a *real* Hegemon.
