Ram Xindral, representing the UIPS, met withINOR's advance team on Guardian Station 16to plan protocols and logistics for the upcomingconvocation. Planet Pluto had not sent an emissary.
Agreements were quickly concluded and thediplomatic cadre took over to prepare an agendafor the meeting's substance.
Spunnel channels flashed coded messages to homegovernments in the Outer Region, reported onproblems encountered and the options available.Instructions flashed back, rarely agreeing withoffered solutions, more often insisting on newapproaches that in turn became the subjects oflengthy discourse. When an issue was consideredsufficiently clarified for the convocation andreported to the seats of UIPS and INOR Governments,it was almost invariably reopened as an extensionof still another issue. This went on and on.
Eventually, an agenda of sorts was fashionedto guide the discussions. It limited itself toan agreement, in principle, which identified theparamount issues of urgent and general concern.The preliminaries over, the advance teams departedfor home.
A fleet of UIPS transports escorted by Space Guardentered the Great Space that separated the Guardianand Jovian orbits. Hauled along by a network ofmag-beams converging from a score of space tugscame the Conference Disk, two hectometers indiameter and a decameter thick at its hub.
At the agreed upon coordinates the Disk slowedand stabilized. The escorts drew back, clusteredand waited.
Docking slips scalloped the Disk's rim, each withits own hoists, articulated and flex-umbilicals,power junctions, and docking, launch andmaintenance support facilities. Emergency,fire-fighting, rescue, and med-evac craft dottedthe upper and lower surfaces. Anchored, they wereready to service spacecraft or launch instantlyto where they might be needed.
Ram and his UIPS technicians, administratorsand security specialists boarded the Disk froma utility transport. A INOR team entered throughanother portal. Members of each team serving aChief of State inspected the suites assigned totheir nation's conferees, made changes to meetpersonal or cultural needs and, when satisfied,installed the scheduled occupant's accoutermentsand trappings of Office.
Engineers and technicians swarmed throughout theberths and mooring docks, inspecting and testingequipment and procedures to accommodatetheir Leader's vessel, and for routine support andemergencies should such arise. They conductedor observed ship handling tests and space rescuecapabilities. Finally, the administrators andtechnicians agreed the facility was ready. TheJoint UIPS-INOR Security Team sealed the Disk'sportals and posted their guards in armed capsulesaround the rim and on the Disk's gently curvedsurfaces.