“Obscene.”
The doors hissed open, admitting the pair of dark-clad figures.
“It is necessary.”
The doors shut behind them. Quietly, the man paced over and sat behind a desk. Her mouth dropped in disbelief.
“You can’t be serious.”
“On the contrary, I am quite serious. You know me better than most.”
Her mouth clenched shut in determination before slackening under his gaze.
“Take a seat Christina.”
The Kashan Commodore leaned over his desk, his elbows resting on his office desk. Corise hated offices in most cases; he generally preferred using his quarters or a conference room aboard the Seraph for most of his day-to-day work with people. But for once, he found it fitting. His consort reluctantly eased into a dark-stained chair within the marble-sided office.
“May I offer you a drink before we get started?”
She shook her head in silence before letting out an exasperated sigh.
“Look, you know me in private better than most as well.”
Corise smiled. “You’re mirroring my word choice. That shows me that your diplomatic experience has become second-nature.”
She gave a sly grin. “Can’t pull off anything on you. You know, that combined with the Genarius maneuver would make you a fine politician.”
“Why thank you; my father taught me some of the basics in case that I took over the family business.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Kashan Defence Industries as your family business?”
He nodded. “Can you say otherwise? Lucerne founded and run for nearly 35 standard years? But we digress, if that was a deflection to the current subject, it was pretty good.”
“Must you analyze my every move?”
“In this case, yes, because this could be of very beneficial use to the Coalition.”
“You’ve just demonstrated that you understand that my diplomatic experience with anyone is based on building a rapport and understanding the person before actually engaging in diplomatic talks. And most of that is based on reading the person’s tone of voice and body language. And maybe more than that, it’s small talk and common interest.”
He nodded.
“Corise,” she sighed, “droids don’t have subtle or natural body language. Droids don’t have much interest except in their specific area of interest.”
‘But they certainly do have tones of voices. I can even recall a certain 3PO belonging to a certain Kashan Proconsul flailing his arms in distress when a certain Commander Fyre nearly shot him with a blaster at the firing range.”
She chuckled. “ Don’t bring my droid into this. Don’t get me wrong, he’s useful at times, but he can be so annoying. Do you want to spend three hours in a cabin with him?”
Corise stared off into the distance before shaking his head. “Your droid is too flighty and loquacious.”
“Then how do you expect me to spend nearly a week on planet completely populated with droids?”
“Well, the Iron Knights aren’t droids…”
She breathed out another exasperated sigh. “You’re right; they’re a crystalline lifeform that inhabits a body of a droid.”
Corise nodded. “You did your homework.”
“Let’s put it this way. I don’t want to be the only carbon-based lifeform on that moon.”
“You won’t; we’ll have to give a squad of Shock Troopers for protection.”
“I meant with the actual diplomatic process, unless their diplomacy involves mimicking Commander Fyre with a blaster pistol and taking random potshots at the populace.”
“Commander Fyre doesn’t take potshots; he just points the gun in a random direction and pulls the trigger as fast as he can.”
“Corise…”
“I’ll stop.”
“Thanks.”
“Would you stop complaining if I went with?”
She smiled. “Only if you’re with me as my co-partner in securing the treaty with the populace of Uffel.”
“Done.”
“You know, you’re so logic-based that you and the droids might have a lot in common.”
The Commodore’s left hand rose and planted itself on his face.
“What have I got myself into?”
She smiled.