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here and the discussion is on the table. The night is young, let’s get started.”
    “That won’t do,” Jance insisted in an oily tone. “These are just preliminary discussions. We must set the terms before we can start to talk.” Then as he had in every other meeting, Jance got up without another word and left the room, followed by his staff.
    “I hate him,” Arn growled. “He leaves a slime trail.”
    “No,” Sartenna told him, “Harat Jance is from Nardoxon, not Nojaren.”
    “Excuse me?” Arn asked.
    “The natives of Nojaran are pseudo-gastropods,” Sartena explained. “They look like giant slugs.”
    “Lovely,” Arn growled. “Are they good negotiators too?”
    “They have their diplomats, why?” Sartena asked.
    “In which case I might get along better with a slug who at least looks like one,” Arn told her. He turned toward Dannet, “I thought you said he would try to get us to come to a hasty agreement.”
    “I thought so,” Dannet admitted. “I don’t understand why he’s trying to slow this down.”
    “He is trying to anger us,” Terius told them patiently. “It is something the Mer nation has come to expect when dealing with Galactics, present company excepted, of course,” he nodded toward Dannet and Sartena. “Our records have several recorded instances of talks where they provoked us until we lost our tempers and then used such momentary lapses to exact penalties or to get us to agree to terms we might not otherwise agree to.”
    “See?” Arn told the others. “We may as well be talking to a slug.”
    “I don’t know,” Park considered. “This guy isn’t that straight forward. I’ll bet he can’t pour himself a cup of coffee without first trying to trick it into jumping out of the pot on its own.”
    A few days later, Park, Arn and Terius tried a new tactic. They came forward with a fully written treaty and presented it to Jance. “Here’s what we’re willing to agree to,” Arn told him. “The only part that is negotiable is just how much back rent you owe us for the use of Luna.”
    “You have no claim on the Moon,” Jance told him coldly.
    “Actually,” Dannet cut in as he had several times, “Luna has already been conceded to the Humans and their allies.”
    “That does not mean the Alliance owes them anything, least of all rent for a base these people,” he made the word sound dirty, “have never so much as visited.”
    “Regardless,” Dannet maintained, “Luna was surrendered by the acting governor and all monetary claims were agreed to. The only point of uncertainty concerned just how long Lagina Base has been occupied.”
    “My people have looked through the records that were provided,” Jance told them, “and even if we were to concede the Moon, and we certainly do not, these claims of the entirety of Sol System are specious to say the least since you have given us no proof of your people ever having been beyond the fourth planet.”
    “We sent numerous probes to the outer planets,” Park argued, “and to various Transneptunian objects, into the Oort Cloud and even into interstellar space.”
    “Only manned flight counts in claims of possession,” Jance told him.
    Park looked at Dannet. “I’m afraid that’s correct,” the young captain admitted.
    “But it’s obvious we must have traveled throughout the system and then gone to the stars,” Patty argued. “Otherwise where did all the Alliance humans come from?” Iris made a mental note to have Sartena explain the scientific uncertainty on that count.
    “That is circumstantial evidence at best,” Jance replied smugly.
    “It’s a pretty convincing circumstance, if you ask me,” Park told him. “And since when is circumstantial evidence not admissible as proof? Sure it helps to have a witness, but last I checked even Bristle-Cone Pines don’t live a quarter of a billion years.”
    Finally, after they had been there over three weeks, Jance agreed tentatively to discuss the