Flash Fic: Tea & Diplomacy

Rogni passed a hand over the admittance sensor, passing through the door into his superior's office. "You wished to see me, Consul?"

"Indeed I did," Suirja replied amiably. "You're not in trouble. But I did want to have a professional improvement discussion with you."

Lowering himself into the chair, Rogni shifted a little nervously. "Something wrong, Consul?"

Suirja gave the young staffer a lopsided smile. "As a general rule, members of the Diplomatic Service do not use the phrases, 'completely inexplicable' or 'patently false allegations' in foreign power analysis papers when the Watchers went to such efforts to obtain useful intelligence. They tend to be...snippy in inter-departmental memos."

"I understand it seems unprofessional, Consul, but it's the truth! I understand why the Terran Systems Alliance trades with the Corenhai Federation easily enough. We share a number of similar policy positions, we each have robust merchant marine fleets which regularly interact with each other, and there are a number of raw materials and manufactured goods we both find worth trading."

"Straight out of the analysis," Suirja said with a nod.

"But there is no possible way they are also trading with the Tu-Guai Empire! The Tu-Guai have standing orders to detain and destroy any non-Imperial flagged vessel, and to execute all sophonts found aboard!" A stubborn look came over Rogni's face. "The Watchers have to be getting fed bad intelligence!"

Smiling a little wider, Suirja pressed a button, summoning the steward with the afternoon tea. He waited until the steward left before gesturing to the steaming cups. Rogni looked at the cup nearest him with suspicion, then slowly lifted it to his mouth and sipped. His eyes widened in shock.

"This is Tu-Guai bezoar tea! This is impossible to find outside of the Empire or their embassies!"

"Not impossible, clearly, if you're enjoying a cup right at this moment," Suirja countered with another one of those lopsided smiles. "I knew you were familiar with it. And I know you've been trying to get a trade concession from the Empire for a couple years now. You may thank Assistant Deputy Undersecretary Aldo McCrae of the Systems Alliance for this unexpected delicacy."

"But how?!"

"I finally asked him a few weeks ago. He'd been showing us hints for years that things were not quite as they seemed. This morning, he 'read in' myself and Tekfroa, and now, I'm doing the same for you."

Rogni blinked in confusion. Officially the trade attaché to the Federation consulate, Tekfroa was the head of intelligence operations for the Almerik Sector, the one point where the Federation shared a border with both the Systems Alliance and the Empire. And the consulate was in Terran space.

Suirja sipped his own tea. "The Terrans have been playing a very long game. Once they were aware of the Tu-Guai border and the standing orders about outsiders, the Terrans spent two decades just listening to Tu-Guai media broadcasts. They analyzed Imperial social trends from what they could pick up in the ether. They then spent the next three decades floating what they called 'bottles' across the border. Unmanned, unpowered, little more than airtight cargo pods. Filled with 'little things' which their ongoing analysis suggested the Tu-Guai population was interested in obtaining. Along with a few other 'little things' like hyperband comm kits."

"The Empire would never allow it!" protested Rogni.

"Ahhh, but they did. Not without a lot of grumbling and some strong growling. But it's a trickle which has worn a breach in the Tu-Guai wall. Officially, the borders are still closed and outside ships are still forbidden from entering. Unpowered cargo pods on ballistic courses which 'just happen' to cross over, however, are perfectly fine."

"That long?!" Rogni asked in disbelief. Suirja simply took another sip of tea. 

(This piece originally appeared in r/humansarespaceorcs)