ch identified the
paramount issues of urgent and general concern.
The preliminaries over, the advance teams departed
for home.

A fleet of UIPS transports escorted by Space Guard
entered the Great Space that separated the Guardian
and Jovian orbits. Hauled along by a network of
mag-beams converging from a score of space tugs
came the Conference Disk, two hectometers in
diameter and a decameter thick at its hub.

At the agreed upon coordinates the Disk slowed
and stabilized. The escorts drew back, clustered
and waited.

Docking slips scalloped the Disk's rim, each with
its own hoists, articulated and flex-umbilicals,
power junctions, and docking, launch and
maintenance support facilities. Emergency,
fire-fighting, rescue, and med-evac craft dotted
the upper and lower surfaces. Anchored, they were
ready to service spacecraft or launch instantly
to where they might be needed.

Ram and his UIPS technicians, administrators
and security specialists boarded the Disk from
a utility transport. A INOR team entered through
another portal. Members of each team serving a
Chief of State inspected the suites assigned to
their nation's conferees, made changes to meet
personal or cultural needs and, when satisfied,
installed the scheduled occupant's accouterments
and trappings of Office.

Engineers and technicians swarmed throughout the
berths and mooring docks, inspecting and testing
equipment and procedures to accommodate
their Leader's vessel, and for routine support and
emergencies should such arise. They conducted
or observed ship handling tests and space rescue
capabilities. Finally, the administrators and
technicians agreed the facility was ready. The
Joint UIPS-INOR Security Team sealed the Disk's
portals and posted their guards in armed capsules
around the rim and on the Disk's gently curved
surfaces.

They waited.

Chapter THIRTY-SEVEN

Drummer and Brad walked the corridor leading to
the Dragon's bridge. The battle cruiser, aligned with
its sisters in countdown on catapults in galleries
and tunnels across Planet Pluto, was minutes from
launch to Point Icarus.

Accompanied by a party of officers, Brad had
completed the final formal inspection and sign-off
of the Plutonian warships committed to the
operation. Myra, Hodak, Adari and Kumiko
had trailed along as specialists, respectfully
responding to technical questions tossed at them
by the official inspection party.

The Sentinels took Zol