This piqued Mozok’s interest before she even began to speak. He had experimented, tentatively, with physical relationships with several Humans, but he had found the experiences wanting and unsatisfactory. That had been decades ago, and he had not felt even remote interest in Humans since. It was strange to entertain the sentiment now.
But as the negotiations began, Mozok focused upon his true goal—and the priority above all things—the business at hand. The city of Old Celox was a pristine and an aesthetic jewel. No city like it existed anywhere in the charted universe, and Mozok, an artistic, creative soul at heart, possessed an artist’s affinity for it, but also a sentimental, protective love for it.
That the Draquun parliament would rush such an important negotiation was offensive to him, though he understood that the Humans, based in a Temporal Region several gravitational factors removed from Astrogoda-9, perceived the negotiations from their own temporal perspective and wished to move them along faster. Their time was moving at nearly twice the pace, a point he intended to call attention to in negotiations. Humans were particularly obsessed with time, and the idea of losing it. If they vacationed in Old Celox, a week would pass here, while two weeks passed in their solar system.
This also admitted a danger that Mozok alone seemed to foresee. A “slowed” time zone provided potential benefits to those, like the Humans, who possessed sufficient resources to engage in inter-system travel. The aging and the diseased—anyone living on what the Humans called “borrowed time”—might flock to the city as a means of facilitating a kind of life extension, a way of surviving to a later date on Earth while enjoying a lengthy vacation.
And once Humans got an idea like that, they developed it, and it consumed them, and the idea and the Humans infected the place like a cancer. They had barely managed to save their own planet from total annihilation—not from war, but rather from reckless consumption and accrual of wealth above all other values.
Mozok himself was astronomically wealthy—the wealthiest Draquun on any planet. But unlike the Humans, the Draquun placed greater value on other things, like honor and service and loyalty and custom. Capital could only purchase material goods in Draquun societies: care, support, medical treatment, help, security… These things could not be purchased with money, but instead only with honorable conduct. The Humans invariably failed to understand this crucial cultural difference, even when they tried their hardest to accommodate it in order to strike deals such as the one before them now.
The Human apologized profusely for her inability to master the Draquun language, through the untrustworthy Marmeth. This buoyed Mozok’s mood somewhat. He himself was adept enough at Human English to understand it fully and make few errors while speaking, but he was the sort of Draquun who cautiously guarded all information, particularly his own talents. One could never know when one’s perceived ignorance could be a tremendous asset. And today was just such a day.
As Mina made her case for the BKG arrangement, which involved the lease of coastal land from a single Draquun male, a known recluse and anti-Herstrakaa who had little interest in the symbolic importance of Old Celox or the fate of the city itself. He lived underwater like many Draquun, and so the fate of the shores and land likely did not concern him.
Mozok listened intently to both the Human and Marmeth. Mina Groza had done her research well, which was surprising given her outrageous breach of protocol at the beginning of the session. She understood Astrogoda-9’s Neutral Space Agreement, but most importantly understood the ins and outs of its most important clause: that Earth corporations and even individuals could establish developments on Astrogoda-9, so long as the local and worldwide governments approved via their own legal and customary frameworks, the land was not purchased outright but leased (though there was no time limit on the lease), and that no Astrogodan treaties were called into conflict by the agreement.
Her understanding of custom and tradition was her weakest area, he realized, though it was not as weak as it may have seemed. Mozok could not be sure, but he felt confident that Marmeth’s translations were a little off. This could not be blamed on Marmeth’s abilities. He had been raised with a Human caregiver and had lived for a great deal of time on Earth during the Great War.
No. If Marmeth’s translations were poor, and they seemed to be, it could not be blamed on his ability to translate correctly.
Interesting, thought Mozok.
It was the sort of thing Mozok excelled at: identifying how to get his own way, even if it was not the method he preferred.
He would have much rather been able to make the rational case to the sitting parliament that the deal would wreak havoc on the city of Old Celox. Mina, however, seemed to have preempted this move, and was rapidly disemboweling most of the arguments Mozok had planned to make. The current parliament was not a rational one, so he was already despairing of his first plan.
His second plan was to offer the man in question a much greater sum of money than BKG. He felt certain the secondary plan would work, so he was relaxed, if curious, as he listened to Marmeth’s very strange mistranslations of Mina’s speeches.
It was his turn to speak. He moved quickly through his arguments against development and noted with both admiration and frustration that the Human seemed to be confused—she had clearly expected a bigger fight about those issues and was now regarding him suspiciously.
Clever. She was more clever than most.
“…these considerations, however, I realize, my most esteemed and revered representatives, do not constitute a sufficient reason for the private entity leasing his land to refrain from doing so, as my concerns, and the concerns of those who live in Old Celox, are not his. I therefore propose to purchase the land outright from Naphthalene Huragka. My initial bid, transmitting now to Sag Huragka, is double the amount offered by BKG.”
Mozok thought he detected a smile on Marmeth’s lips, but the man translated Mozok’s words faithfully. Mozok watched Mina Groza’s reaction.
She was formidable, he thought, and the thought gave him another flutter of pleasure, which he tried to dismiss.
Marmeth tipped his head toward Mina and smiled as she spoke.
“BKG will meet any offer made by Sag Osolin, or any other investor,” Marmeth stated, faithfully translating what Mina had said to them.
But then he added, “Ms. Groza encourages Sag Huragka to consider that BKG will paying this amount for a lease with a legally binding termination date, while Sag Osolin will be purchasing the land outright.”
Mozok smiled and spoke up. “I am willing to lease the land as well.” The lease length, as determined by law, was for a set amount of time, 100 Astrogodan solar years. It would be experienced as half that time on Earth, but in 100 Astrogodan years, much could—and likely would—change. He doubted that BKG would want to continually do financial battle with him again at the end of the lease.
“What… what? What did he say?” Mina said to Marmeth, who held up a hand to indicate that she should wait. Mozok appreciated that she was becoming suspicious of Marmeth, and at least knew enough to see that something was going on below the surface.
Marmeth leaned in to speak to Mina quietly in her ear.
Mozok tended to have bursts of creative energy, the rapid development of big ideas in his mind. It was a talent that had made him wealthy. He had such a moment as he watched Marmeth speaking to Mina.
He could not know Marmeth’s intentions, so he had no way of knowing what the man was trying to do with his incomplete translations and additions to Mina’s words. Battling against Marmeth was like stumbling around in the dark.
However, it occurred to him that he could propose something that was in accordance with local customs and regulations, and which was so big, so wild, and would require such documentation that Marmeth would be unable to scramble it, whatever his intentions.
And it was certain to cause BKG’s bid to fail, either because Mina Groza would refuse the terms and conditions, or because she would fail in trying to comply with them.
