However, circumstances seemed to be working against her. First, the Babylon II project was derailed when the 'Sovietskis' started complaining about the arrangements, and tried to hijack things, so that others would build what they would benefit from. Not wanting that, the 'NATOids' decided to rearrange things to give their cranky, and apparently overly paranoid, counterparts more of a 'prominent' position. However, the resulting 'Babylon III' project was troubled beyond repair, when the ones she'd originally called the 'Chinlii' were angered by their lower position in things, and the discovery that the Soviets had wanted to shove them out to a whole other station. That had led to another round of hard and fast negotiations, in which things were redesigned for the next attempt. And then that one led to the 'Babylon IV' incident, if one could call it that.
One moment, the station was there, floating at its L4 point, almost ready for its final inspections and dedication.
The next, the entire structure was just.... gone. There was no explosion, no impact, and no other sign of what had happened. It was like the whole thing had just vanished from the fabric of space without even leaving a single piece of debris.
As a result, things were not going well.
"This is some sort of trick!" the Chinese representative barked. "We finally have a proper place, and someone sabotages the station!"
"Why would anyone do that? It hurts us as much as it does you, perhaps even more. We have put a lot of money and effort into all this," the American official told him.
"Typical capitalist roader garbage. It is not the monetary concerns that drive us, but proper principles!"
The Soviet diplomat leaned back in his chair and folded his hands over his stomach as he gave them a bland smile. "My dear comrade is correct. Using money as an excuse only shows how desperate you are. We, on the other hand, are quite capable of doing our jobs with less funding, and getting the results that we want."
"I am not putting down your efforts," the American replied, stifling the urge to comment on the quality of what got those 'results'. "What I am telling you is that we have no reason to be sabotaging our own work."
"And next you will tell us that you do not have plans to make a station of your own?"
"Even if we did, we can't make one that simply."
"Bah," the Soviet scoffed.
"Gentlemen?" Ditae said through her transmission. "May I remind you that there is no need to be bickering amongst each other. We all want to have at least some way of interacting."
"We know that my dear, but these others are simply not as enlightened as us."
"It does not matter who has what. A station would still solve all our needs."
"Of course, if we did build it, we'd make certain that nothing would happen to it," the American suggested.
"My people are quite good at proper security," the Soviet offered. "We'd have no problem at making certain that only the right people get in."
"Thus allowing you to jump in and interfere at a moment's notice, even if it is not proper for you to interfere," the Chinese official sneered.
Ditae fought the urge to sigh, as she saw just how troubled these natives were making things, while:
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(Posted Sat, 22 Oct 2005 05:23)
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