Deep Space Journey - 8. DSJ Chapter 8

After a few calls to Wellington, Martin had the Video link details to speak to the NZ Ambassador to the United Nations, and after making a quick telephone call to his office, requesting a video link conference, Martin and Quinn had the Ambassador on the video screen.

“Your excellency, thank-you for taking this video link conference at such short notice” Martin said once the connection was made, “That is perfectly ok, I have just heard what had happened to you in Hawaii.

If it is alright by you, I would like to speak on your behalf, to the USA Ambassador of the UN to express my disappointment on how you were treated earlier today at Honolulu Airport.

From what I understand, you had been granted by the UN Secretariat, unhindered passage to the UN from New Zealand, which was ignored by the officials at Honolulu Airport” the Ambassador said.

“That is correct sir, and yes, we would appreciate you speaking on our behalf, we have already spoken to our Chancellor, and it is his view, and mine as well as a member of the URJ High Council, that we deal with the USA and UN via Video link and Emails only from this point on,” Quinn said,

“Sir on a number of occasions, while being delayed at Honolulu, we recommended to the two officers that they contact you and also the UN Secretariat, regarding us having a meeting at the UN, and on all of those occasions they ignored our suggestions, which we have a mobile phone recording of.

It was only when our ship, the Star Voyager landed in front of their terminal, did they realise that we were, who we said we were, and handed back our passports and escorted us out to the ship” Martin added. “Ha, ha, ha, I wish could have been there to see that, leave it with me gentlemen, and I will get back to you via email, on what transpires. I will also let the Secretariat know what happened, and that a meeting will have to be arranged by Video link, instead of a personal visit” the NZ Ambassador said and a few moments later the video conference ended.

Quinn decided to remain at Earth Base to see what happens from all of this drama, before returning home to Ganymede, to report back to the High Council, and be with his family. Two days later, Quinn had a video link conference with the High Council of URJ, to discuss options on how to proceed with Diplomatic relations, and setting up diplomatic posts at each main region on Earth, and the High Council decided to proceed with the original plans to set up Diplomatic posts in Japan, Switzerland, South Africa, and Canada.

The following day, Martin and Quinn sat down with the four URJ Ambassadors to discuss the planning and decide which Ambassador was going to which posting. It was during these discussions that a few concerns were brought up, firstly with Japan having a large number of USA defence bases in the country, there was no guarantee of safety and influence of URJ staff by the USA, and the same goes with Vancouver, which is very close to the USA border.

To overcome these issues, it was suggested that Edmonton in Alberta, Canada, be the location of the Embassy in Canada, as it would be over 500 km’s away from the USA border instead of just 40 km’s as it is for Vancouver, and the Asian City to be selected for a URJ Embassy be in Singapore.

Once this was decided, and it was approved by the High Council, Martin contacted the NZ Ambassador for each of those four countries to arrange meetings with the Foreign departments, to discuss establishing an Embassy in those countries. Within a short few weeks, the meeting had been arranged with the Foreign Ministers of the four countries, to be held as secure Airforce bases, to allow for the Star Voyager to land safely at each country.

The first visit would be the closest one, that being Singapore, followed by South Africa, Switzerland, Canada and back to Earth Base. Martin decided to let his son handle this part of the process, taking with him the 4 Ambassadors who will be representing the United Republic of Jupiter. They would fly at 55,000 metres again, so as to avoid all commercial and military aircraft, which fly usually about 4 times less than that.

When it was time to arrive at the destination, they would notify the appropriate Air Traffic controller, then descend straight down and a steady pace, and land were asked to land. When the Star Voyager arrived at its first destination of Singapore, it landed at the Airforce base north of the main Commercial Airport, so as not to disturb commercial air traffic.

Quinn was informed that the Airbase had been locked down, and security was patrolling the outer fence line. Moments after landing, a call came through from the URJ capital, informing Quinn that another fourteen-space craft had arrived in the solar system from Sahndrol, with another 1512 people onboard, including the remaining original crew and their families. Quinn decided to not mention any of this new information, while on Earth, until he has more discussions with the High Council, at a later time.

Quinn was told that colonies will be established on the Uranus Moons of Oberon, and Miranda, making them the furthest colonies for the Republic. Colonies will also be established on Saturn’s Moons of Titan and Rhea, with the remaining space-craft coming to Jupiter to increase the populations at Callisto and Europa.

As a result of this, the Republic will be altering its’ name slightly to the United Republic of Planets. Quinn passed this information onto the Ambassadors, who were a little surprised at the news, but also pleased in a way, as well, and they prepared to leave to ship to start their first meeting.

The four-hour-long meeting ended with an agreement to allow the Republic to establish an Embassy in the city of Singapore, and in return, the United Republic of Planets will begin planning for future trips to space for Scientists, to allow them to explore and research other planets in the solar system, from a much closer distance. After nearly a week of meetings with Foreign Ministers from four countries, Quinn had confirmed agreements to allow for Embassies to be established in those four countries.

The ambassadors had remained at their allocated locations after the meetings, to commence work on locating a suitable and secure location for an Embassy, and getting a long-term lease agreement completed, so the Embassies, can get established as soon as possible. In the meantime, Martin was delaying any video conferences with the USA and UN, until the Embassies have been established in each of the four countries, much to the annoyance of the United Nations.

Once Quinn had returned back to Earth Base, with four Ambassadors now in place, he and his father – Martin, sent an email to the United Nations, to inform them, that they were now ready for a video conference, to discuss any concerns they may have, and later in the day, a Video call came through, and Martin and Quinn were ready for them.

“Good Afternoon, I am Ambassador Martin Lenegan, Ambassador to the United Republic of Jupiter Earth Base near New Zealand, and this is Senator Quinn Lenegan, my son, and a member of the High Council of URJ,” Martin said as he accepted the Video call.

“Hello Gentlemen, this is the United Nations Security Council, with the 5 permanent and 10 non-permanent members present, this is something new and a little unexpected, so firstly could you tell us a little more about your organisation, the United Republic of Jupiter” the chair of the council responded.

“Certainly, I was part of an organisation, known as the Deep Space Research and Exploration Project, that was working on designing and building a deep spacecraft, that would go beyond this solar system, with enough food, air and fuel for three years. The project went a lot better than expected, and I will pass you onto my son, who was a back-up crew member on that mission after three crew members were killed suddenly shortly before the mission commenced” Martin announced.

Over the next fifteen minutes, Quinn gave a description of the journey to the Sahndrol planet, about the discovery of the cargo ship, and spending time on Sahndrol, learning their way of life, learning more advanced technology, and in some cases of crew members, marrying Drol wives, and having children.

“We were given the salvaging rights of the cargo ship that we found adrift, and we made the required repairs and made the necessary upgrades to our original ship, and with so many people wanting to try a new life in a new world, we came back with an extra 7 ships following, and we have established colonies on three moons of Jupiter, and will soon be establishing colonies on two moons of Saturn, and two moons of Uranus.

As a result, we will be adjusting our name to the United Republic of Planets, with the High Council Members and the Chancellor, all elected by the members of the colonies, our capital is located on one of the moons of Jupiter, we will also establish a small colony on Mars, that will be a Space Research and Training Academy for people on Earth, who qualify to train there” Martin announced.