After a while of studying each other, Adrian spoke.
“I should leave. Your guards must be getting anxious,” he said.
Anessa’s lips curved into a smile. She knew that they would be losing their minds by now, but their fear of her was too big for them to try to interrupt, especially since she had given them a direct order not to.
“You should,” she said, and then after a beat, “I don’t want this to be a one-time occurrence.”
Adrian opened his mouth to respond, but then he closed it and frowned. He looked in her eyes for a few seconds, and she saw him debating something with himself. Then his face cleared and he responded.
“We should first talk about the relations between our two empires. Then after that we can talk about ‘this,’” he said resolutely.
Anessa’s face cleared as well. She understood. Both of them had a duty. They would talk first, as he wanted, but afterwards they would have a much different discussion. “Yes, we should talk first.” She stood and grabbed her Shur At from the floor, putting it over her shoulders, and with a thought activated it. It started molding itself to her body.
Adrian put on his own garments and then stood, watching her. Anessa walked to him and grabbed him behind the head; she lowered her mouth to his neck and bit hard. She raised her head and turned to walk towards the doors. They would have their diplomatic talks first, and then, she would make him hers, to stay by her side always.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Shara Radum
Two days later, Adrian and two of his soldiers walked through the Shara Radum palace escorted by six honor guards, as he learned they were called. One of the guards was giving Adrian a strange look, but then Adrian was pretty sure that he was one of the guards who had been in front of Anessa’s quarters during their ‘discussion’ in private. Once the two had left the quarters, the guards were somewhat surprised, and if they were anything like his escorts, there were rumors a-plenty.
They were headed to a meeting with Anessa, this one a much more formal one than their last. They had already agreed to peace, with Anessa and Adrian both sending the documents for the agreement for the other party to read through and agree on. Now they would officially confirm those agreements, and start the discussion for anything more than peace. He didn’t really know what Anessa had in mind, but he could guess. He didn’t know how much success the Erasi had had in their attack on the Shara Daim, but they had certainly caught the Shara Daim off guard, and had a larger force. Aileen had reported somewhere around sixty fleets, which was more than what the Shara Daim had. The fact that the Shara Daim were the defenders was in their favor, but he knew that if the Erasi had a foothold in their territory, it would be extremely hard to push them out.
They reached their destination, and Adrian and his two escorts were led into a medium-sized room, with an ornate table and chairs in front of them. One of the chairs was a bit different, and Adrian assumed that that one was for him. The regular Shara Daim chairs were all just a bit too low for him to sit at a table comfortably. Already sitting were Anessa and a woman that Adrian recognized from being in the crowd when he had fought Farran.
He bowed to Anessa and dipped his head to the woman, who surprisingly returned his gesture.
“Lord Sentinel,” Anessa said, her melodic voice even, not giving a hint of what had happened between them.
“Kar Daim,” Adrian acknowledged.
“This is Vallar Havasse. She is my advisor, among other things. She will conduct most of these talks. I have been trained to be a warrior and a commander; she has more experience with negotiating than me.”
“Of course,” Adrian said as he took his seat, his two guards taking positions behind him while Anessa’s took positions behind her. Adrian put a small black object on the desk, and immediately a document appeared above it. It was one of the Erasi-made universal data chips with a telepathic interface. The Empire’s ones wouldn’t work for the Shara Daim, as their interfaces were implant-controlled.
“I read the document, and this is acceptable for the Empire.” The document affirmed the current borders of the Empire and the Shara Daim on the sides where they were facing each other, and an agreement for splitting the uninhabited area between the two empires equally and therefore establishing a new joint border. The rest were agreements of non-aggression between the two, but which also absolved the Empire of the deaths of the Shara Daim people in Sol, and Anessa’s kidnapping. That part had already mainly been fulfilled by Adrian killing a Dai Sha that had challenged him for that reason.
“We have read your document as well,” Vallar Havasse said. His document was basically the same thing, only reaffirming what theirs said from the Empire’s point of view, with them absolving the Shara Daim for the attacks on the Lord Sentinel and Sol. “It is acceptable.”
The holographic interface changed to show both documents, and a prompt appeared for both parties to sign it with their telepathy, making unique signatures. Adrian used his telepathy and signed his part; Anessa used hers to sign her part.
“Now, with that finished,” Vallar Havasse said, “the Shara Daim would like to open the dialogue for a possible alliance with your Empire.”
Adrian nodded. He had thought that this might be what they were after. Adrian was authorized by Tomas to make whatever deals and agreements he saw fit. Initially, he hadn’t been prepared to go further than trading deals. But then the Erasi had attacked his ships and destroyed one battleship. They had also attempted to hack into Sol’s systems, tried to manipulate them into a conflict with Shara Daim, and had stealth ships in the Empire’s systems. He didn’t really blame them for the stealth ships or the hacks—the Empire had ships and people in their territory as well. He was still not completely prepared to give the Shara Daim direct aid against the Erasi.
“What would you consider as a part of this alliance?” Adrian asked.
Vallar Havasse glanced at Anessa and then back at Adrian. “First, we would like an open trade agreement between us, meaning that any corporation in Shara Daim may openly trade with any in the Empire,” she said.
Adrian nodded again; that was something that he could do. Open trade would mean that the Shara Daim could get most of the civilian-grade tech, which included conventional and bio-fabricators. It would also mean nanotechnology, which he was pretty sure the Shara Daim didn’t have. But the Empire would get a lot in return. Most of the Shara Daim military tech had been derived from the sphere, but their regular tech had been developed by them or appropriated from other races.
“That is acceptable,” Adrian said, and waited.
After a beat, she continued, “We would want an exchange of military technology as well.”
And there it was. Adrian knew that they were after the skimming technology. It would give them a huge advantage over the Erasi.
“That would be a bit harder. The Empire doesn’t trade military technology with other races, not unless the relationship between the two was much more involved,” Adrian said.
“We would be prepared to pay you additionally for certain technologies,” Vallar Havasse said.
Adrian debated continuing the back and forth, but there was really no point. Tomas, Adrian, and the rest of the Clan Leaders had discussed what they would require of an ally for them to share the technology of the Empire long ago. The conditions were the same.
“You want an alliance; you need one because of the Erasi attack,” he stated. “The Empire isn’t prepared to go to war with the Erasi just yet. Giving you our technologies would give the Erasi cause to consider us hostile. And we can’t do that, not without other assurances.”