I was guided towards the large table we were going to sit around to negotiate. I have never been in such a situation before, so I didn't know how things worked. I simply observed the other delegates around and did the same stuff as they did.
Just before the talks began, an Alliance delegation came in and sat down with us.
After everyone got settled, a Federation delegate stood up.
"If there seems to be no problems, we would like to get started as quickly as possible."
No one said anything. After waiting for a few seconds he continued.
"We are very pleased by the Republic's decision to engage in diplomatic relations again, after an unpleasant period of... coldness between the parties. This was a most important step in restoring the peace and order in the Sol system. Atlantic-Pacific Federation countries have stated their willingness to do whatever is required to make peace as soon as possible. We hope that the Republic and the Alliance share the same enthusiasm as we do, in which case we should have no problem agreeing on the terms."
He sat back down. A brief silence followed. They were perhaps waiting for an introductory statement from me. I cleared my throat by coughing lightly, and started talking.
"The Republic is, of course, intent on stopping this meaningless war that has been consuming everything from both sides; putting an unnecessarily heavy weight on the shoulders of nations."
I was picking my words carefully. Simply saying that 'our nation' was suffering could mean that the Republic was in a dire situation against the Federation; so I said 'both sides' has been suffering instead.
"With the goodwill of people from both worlds, the Republic hopes that a peace treaty which protects the rights of all nations can be agreed on." I finished my small introduction.
"Well, there is not much to say, since all sides seem to have a good understanding of each other." an Alliance diplomat said.
"Understood." a Federation diplomat spoke. "Let's begin. First of all, without getting into the technical details of each, the Federation offers two choices to the Republic..."
This was getting interesting...
"People's Republic of Mars can either decide to give up most of it's military power, equipment, research and continue as an independent nation that does not pose a threat to the rest of the Solar System; such 'threats' including, but not limited to, military actions, economic instabilization attempts, social or demographic engineering..."
This was getting really interesting...
"...or it can alternatively decide to become a part of the Federation to keep growing as a prosper nation under the Federal guidance."
Great. The future of a multi-planetary civilization in my hands. Exactly what I wanted in life.
"We have draft treaties ready for each one of these cases." the Federation delegate said. "However, it is up to the Republic to decide."
I looked around to see another Republic citizen around. In such a situation, wouldn't it be the best option to directly contact the head of state?
"If you need time to decide, we can wait." a diplomat said.
"Yes, I would like to take some time." I replied.
"Okay, 1 hour intermit." someone said. "If the Republic requests more time, we will have to schedule another meeting for a later date."
Everyone got up from the table, except me. I... I did not know what to do. Was it a good choice to contact our former grand admiral and the current temporary head of state? Perhaps, as a democratic nation without a president or an assembly, he could just get the citizens to directly vote on the subject.
...or, as an inexperienced civilian leader, he could just mess everything up and curse the Martian nation to suffer for the coming decades.
Did I trust him or not?
After some thinking, I decided not to contact him and sort out everything later on. The most important thing was to get the Federation to stop shooting at us for now, which I could handle by myself. Even if I signed it, the peace treaty wouldn't come into effect before being accepted by the Martian National Assembly anyway. If I had a mistake, the Republic could just send someone else to do the negotiations for the second time.
But now thinking of it... There was no longer a Martian National Assembly! How was the legislations and... basically everything going to work now!? Unfortunately, this was more of an internal matter and the Federation wouldn't really care what Martian body had approved the treaty.
- - - - -
The intermission was over before I knew it.
"So, has the Republic made it's decision yet?" the Federation delegation asked. The Alliance diplomats were very curious as well.
"We will need some time to discuss it internally." I said. "We request more time."
"Very well." a Federation delegate said. "In that case, we have another meeting planned one Earth day later. We will be expecting the Republic to make it's decision. In the meantime, we have a ceasefire, and the violation of the ceasefire treaty will result in grave consequences."
"We shall continue tomorrow." the Alliance delegation confirmed the decision.
Everyone left the table and went different ways. A crew member of the ship Equinox approached me.
"Sir, if you would like to use our services during your diplomatic visit, feel free to do so. If you wish to get to your luxury cabin, you can use the cabin number 301." he said. I thanked him and went to the cabin.
I had to do the most important decisions of my life. I had been through some pretty difficult situations during my military career, but I have never taken part in such a large scale decision that would decide the future of billions.
I couldn't decide if I wanted to contact the president's office or not. I could get some help from the Grand Admiral, but, on the other hand, he could suddenly turn out to be a dictator as well, now that the law and order were in ruins...
And if I had to decide by myself, what was I going to do?
Lead the Martian nation to a miserable independence with decades of pain to come, or make it a part of the 'dishonorable', imperialist Federation so it could continue to grow and prosper?
...and what was the Alliance's position in this equation?