Since Siegel Clyne had gone off topic earlier during Eileen Canaver's report on Celestial Being, he naturally apologized to her first.
"Sorry, Representative Canaver. Please continue your report."
"Yes, Chairman Clyne."
Faced with the leader of her own faction, Eileen Canaver naturally had little to say.
After collecting her thoughts, Eileen Canaver first summarized the earlier part of her report.
"In summary, although we have been unable to trace Celestial Being's origins any further back, we are confident that we have correctly grasped the course of its recent actions.
"Considering that after the recent Battle of Artemis ended, our people neither observed the wreckage of the Archangel—also known as the 'Long Legs,' as Captain Creuset reported—at Artemis Fortress;
"nor discovered a captured Archangel among Celestial Being's fleet;
"we can therefore conclude that the Archangel is still at large.
"Moreover, judging from certain signs, Celestial Being may have deliberately allowed this outcome.
"Furthermore, although Celestial Being also announced that the Creuset Team was wanted, it has taken no effective action.
"Based on the above, we have drawn two important conclusions:
"First, Celestial Being's strength is limited. Our initial estimate is that it is between 10% and 30% of our own.
"Second, given its limited strength, Celestial Being has in fact adopted a fairly pragmatic strategy—namely, it is using flexible methods to distinguish friend from foe without violating the public political commitments stated in the Celestial Being Formation Declaration."
The representatives murmured among themselves over Eileen Canaver's summary and conclusions.
Siegel Clyne naturally nodded in agreement, while Patrick Zala made no effort to hide his disdain. The other representatives were generally somewhere between the two.
Overall, although the Plant Supreme Council was broadly divided by the current war into the Moderate Faction, led by Siegel Clyne, and the Hardline Faction, led by Patrick Zala;
in reality, each representative was an independent individual, with no one beholden to another. They simply tended to support one side or the other based on their own positions.
Seeing that the representatives, despite their lively discussion, had no intention of questioning her for the time being, Eileen Canaver continued with the second half of her report.
"Regarding initial contact with Celestial Being:
"Two factions have had actual non-hostile contact with Celestial Being so far: the Junk Guild and Orb.
"We have also made inquiries to the Orb government, but have yet to receive any meaningful response.
"Through the Junk Guild, with whom we have friendly relations, we have learned the following:
"Celestial Being is an independent force led by Major General Luther Deikun, with Colonel Teresa Testarossa as its fleet commander.
"Information from various sources suggests that these ranks were not self-appointed, but instead come from some unknown, regular military system.
"Their troops and weapons likewise appear to come from an unknown, regular military system.
"As for the details of their logistics and supplies, we still know nothing.
"The Junk Guild has also said that Celestial Being's fleet places great importance on gathering resources. During its stay, it not only salvaged a large amount of usable material from the wreckage of Heliopolis, but was even willing to trade standard-issue equipment and parts with the Junk Guild for mineral resources.
"This suggests that Celestial Being may have lost a stable supply line, but still has relatively ample reserves and production capacity."
Patrick Zala clearly wanted to speak, but after noticing that Siegel Clyne was equally poised to do so, he ultimately kept silent.
Seeing that the other representatives merely nodded to indicate their understanding and had no intention of speaking, Eileen Canaver continued her report.
"Since we have not yet received authorization from the Supreme Council, we have only made initial contact under the guise of the Junk Guild, with whom we have friendly relations.
"At different times and through different channels, we made contact with Captain Monica Cadillac, Lieutenant Colonel Cima Garahau, and Major Aina Sahalin.
"Unexpectedly, the senior officers of Celestial Being's fleet appear to be mostly women. They also seem to get along well and share information with one another.
"During our later contacts, it was even reasonable to assume that our personnel had in fact been identified as representatives sent by us to make contact, yet they still engaged in pragmatic technical exchanges."
Clearly, Eileen Canaver's report further supported her earlier claim: Celestial Being was pursuing pragmatic initial contact, and evidently harbored no clear hostility toward Coordinators or Plant as a whole.
As the representatives began discussing the possibility of contact with Celestial Being, Patrick Zala's expression grew visibly displeased.
In this atmosphere, Louise Leitner, representative of June City—that is, Junius City—and chairwoman of the Judicial Committee, drew on Luther's remarks at the end of the Celestial Being Formation Declaration to make a joke about him that was quite fitting for someone of her position.
"Oh my, it seems Mr. Luther Deikun has quite a way with women.
"Though if he were in Plant, that would undoubtedly violate the Marriage Regulation Act."
"If he isn't married, shouldn't that just count as personal freedom?"
This response from Parnell Jessek, representative of November City and fellow member of the Judicial Committee, drew good-natured laughter and teasing from the representatives. The tense atmosphere that had previously gripped the Supreme Council eased considerably.
In that mood, Eileen Canaver brought her report to a close.
"That concludes the information currently available to us about Celestial Being, along with our initial analysis.
"As chairwoman of the Diplomatic Committee, I request that the Supreme Council authorize me to begin formal contact with Celestial Being."
Since the various sides had already made their positions clear during the report;
after Eileen Canaver made her request, Patrick Zala showed no intention of holding another round of debate;
so Siegel Clyne, as chairman of the Supreme Council, announced that they would proceed to a vote.
"Then I ask the representatives to vote on Representative Eileen Canaver's proposal."
At Siegel Clyne's words, he himself cast the first vote in favor. The other representatives then made their decisions according to their respective positions.
The final vote was as follows:
January City, chair of the Legislative Committee, Ali Qasim, in favor
February City, member of the Administrative Committee, Tad Elsbman (Dearka's father), opposed
March City, member of the Defense Committee, Ezarial Joule (Yzak's mother), abstained
April City, chairman, Siegel Clyne, in favor
May City, member of the Defense Committee, Yuri Amalfi (Nicol's father), abstained
June City, chairwoman of the Judicial Committee, Louise Leitner, opposed
July City, member of the Legislative Committee, Jeremy Maxwell (Rusty's father, who had died in battle), opposed
August City, chairman of the Administrative Committee, Orson White, abstained
September City, chairwoman of the Diplomatic Committee, Eileen Canaver, in favor
October City, member of the Defense Committee, Herman Gould, abstained
November City, member of the Judicial Committee, Parnell Jessek, in favor
December City, chairman of the Defense Committee, Patrick Zala, opposed
Since either passing or rejecting a proposal required at least six votes—a majority—the result of four in favor, four abstentions, and four opposed showed that the Supreme Council was deeply divided on the issue. The proposal could only be sent back for further work and reconsidered at the next meeting.
Although the proposal had not passed, Siegel Clyne breathed a sigh of relief.
After all, before Celestial Being appeared, the Earth Alliance had shown no sincerity about peace talks, and the Supreme Council had gradually shifted toward a more hardline position. Occasionally, votes had even ended in a 2-to-10 split. This result was already quite good.
Since neither of their two proposals had lost, it was time to see whether they could make any headway on the Hardline Faction's two proposals.
Before you continue