"Listening to others, considering well what they say" (Part 3: Maingate Hotel)

[cityship]

The Maingate Hotel was pretty extravagant, and an entire section of it had been eked out for the crew's use during their stay. They had several suites, three communal areas, a conference room, their own kitchen with a chef on call if they required her.

They were all teleported from the main teleport pad of the hotel into the conference room, which was a large enough room to be able to hold a group their size and had plenty of chairs arranged in a circular pattern so they could mostly all face each other or whoever was in the middle of the room.

Everyone had to settle down so they were all able to talk, and the meeting itself would have to be carefully controlled so they wouldn't all talk over each other. But they were up for the task, right?

[ooc: Guardian Setup, General Mingling, Clone Checkup, Newbie Briefing, General Briefing, More Mingling, Back to the Meeting, and The Idea Guy sections are open. Backup characters introduced to the plot can join in the mingling subthreads if they want. The opening of new subthreads will be announced here and the ooc. Please read the linked OOC post for a plot timeline.]

Comments

1/2

[governorkang]

Kang was still obviously furious, from the set of his wings and the look in his eyes, but he kept his voice as calm as possible as he stood up to address everyone. "You already know the basics of what happened to our group, but not many of the details."

"When Councilor Kanner separated us from the others, we were told that some things required showing rather than explaining. He was careful to speak only to us, and gave us absolutely no information as to what to expect.

"We were taken by train to the Clone Processing Plant. When Officer Zouichi asked if we may know where we were going, the Councilor simply said, "You may," as if he was granting permission, dodging the question. When the rest of us pressed, we were told that we were being taken to Central Processing, one of the largest facilities in the city. It has been targeted because it handles many of the higher load customized model production, and is one of the biggest gene banks.

"He asked us to turn our omnicomms off. Ensign Kon attempted to send a message to Lt. Nightwing via his comm ring, but communications had been blocked."

Here, his voice lost just a little bit of its calm, and his tail lashed.

"There was no direct mention of clones until we had all gotten onto a moving platform of some sort, and shown the vats. We were taken to a specific room for processing, to be marked as 'Deltas'. There was a force that kept us from moving off of the platform, or even moving our limbs, unless we stepped forward into that room. Officer Zouichi asked that we be allowed to obtain the permission of the Captain before being branded; Councilor Kanner apologized for having to clear up the misunderstanding, as all off-world clones are required to be branded during their stay on the planet, and placed the blame on the GIA for not giving us this information."

2/2

[governorkang]

"Ensign Kon tried to punch the Councilor, but was immediately restrained. I tried to hit him with lightning and missed." There was a brief glance down at the muzzle still on the table in front of him. "We were told that the branding would allow us access to places we would otherwise not be allowed, and that it wasn't optional. He then said that by landing on the planet, we have consented to all Galileean laws, and that ignorance was no excuse.

"After all of us were branded, we were transported here to wait for the rest of the party, and told that we'd be allowed to choose our own Guardians. Every single time he spoke to us, he used a patronizing tone."

A short, low growl escaped the bozak.

"What else might we have consented to? What if the scans when we first landed weren't merely intended for health reasons? They knew exactly how to restrain us when we fought back. Sakura and I spoke earlier, as well, and we believe there is a possibility all of our DNA may have been added to the gene banks to produce more clones for their workforce. The Councilor did call the health testing we all had to go through a sampling procedure.

"I agree with Lt. Nightwing. I don't know whether we can believe anything the Galileeans tell us about the CLF, given the way they've been very careful about the information they've shared so far and how they've very obviously painted themselves as the 'good' guys and the CLF as the 'bad' guys. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the government staged CLF attacks on civilians to discredit them; I've seen it happen before. And Ensign Lash is right; it does seem very stupid for the CLF to target groups that will generate negative press."

[brustriese.livejournal.com]

"While I would like to second every last one of Governor Kang's concerns about our 'hosts'," Signum indicates, emphasizing the branded draconian's title, "the Entertainment District was far less enlightening."

"Other than our Councilor host being drastically uncivil and insistent, which I now recognize as being a Galileean cultural trait, and seeing a number of servants I now recognize as clones - who, by the way, seemed entirely sapient from a casual glance - about the only useful information was that the Galileeans have direct sensory input devices used in their mass entertainment - access to these seems to be considered a distinct mark of privilege and subject of material desire here. Other than that, I didn't really gather anything."

She pauses, considering. "I'd like to make a suggestion that, given how unforthcoming and hostile the government here has been so far, we simply leave as soon as possible. I see absolutely no reason to help such conniving, backstabbing people who would use a 'guided tour' to ambush and brand sapient beings as if they were goats, let alone people whom they're asking for help."

[goddamnwingman]

"Leaving as soon as possible is easier said than done." Dick grimaces, looking over the group. "After our four new members were transported to the planet, the Transmigration 9 was called away on another mission." It wasn't exactly a secret. Leon's post had been public, after all. "They haven't returned yet, though I have reason to believe that they're on their way. It does mean that, at the moment, we don't have much of a choice but to remain.

"And by remaining here, we must at least make an effort at negotiation." He holds up his hands, trying to forestall the inevitable outbursts. "We are at the mercy of their hospitality, such as it is. To that end, I would suggest we all familiarize ourselves with the laws of the planet. The last thing we need is to end up giving them reason to cause us more grief."

At least until they were ready to do what was needed.