The North PacificBoard

It's been a while since Amirkhan sent that application to the ICPJ. He was in no doubt that the various delegations there were raising hell about accepting a dubiously legal war-torn 'democracy'. The Sargassians had just finished repairing the Eiversyte Harbor and were well on their way to repair the Old Town by the looks of it - by god, he needed to provide them with historical blueprints to follow.

He stood up and mapped a path to the National Archives (or what was left of it - the war had wrecked almost everything in it's path) in his head, but he couldn't take one step before hearing the ding that indicated an email. I wonder who sent him one this time round?

He sat back down and booted up his computer - typing the password in, he pressed Enter and opened up Email to see a message from... the Embassy in Petrograd? The Lotion Empire had actually replied to his message? He opened the message up to see the contents before realizing that he was not fluent in Yakuvonian and that he had to open the translator to figure out what the Prime Minister actually sent.

He read through the message - aid, supplies, free trade, navies docking within Gatari p- what? The Lotionese Navy using Gatari naval bases? He hadn't even repaired them properly! His eyes widened in apparent shock - he would not like to imagine what would happen if he allowed them to use the bases, and not the opposite reaction as well. Sei godt! Zhuldyz mas-eine e'piklein! (My god! Zhuldyz was in a pickle!) He could not decide on this alone - he could not decide on this extremely important matter alone, no, not at all. He slammed his hand down on the telephone beside him before slowly picking it up with his right hand and dialing with his left. He placed the phone to his ear.

"Hello Mr. Zhuldyz. How can I he-"

"Get me Murkhov, Le Marchet, Kfelz, Pwyllfeld, Stoichovskiy, de Maaseit, Beichez in my office, now. Immediately. ASAP - we can't waste time."

"Mr. President, what's going on with y-"

"NOW!"

"Well, uhm, ok. Let me hold the line..."

"Ax prochov furweiss." (As fast as possible.)

The line was held. Oh god, they needed to get here fast.

30 minutes later.

Oh god, Jakub hoped he wasn't too late. Calling him in at this hour surely had to be something important - just how important was it for it to be at seven in the morning? He ran as fast as possible, feet traveling at the speed of light, before approaching the door handle to the President's office. He opened it up-

"YOU JOKING WITH ME, LUKAS!? THIS IS THE LOTIONESE! THIS ISN'T YOUR TERMENDOR OR VIERTIA!"

The booming voice of Xave Beichez filled the ears of de Maaseit as he stumbled back onto the hallway, hands on ears. "Bloody hell, Beichez! SHUT UP!"

"My god, we need to calm down. Marchet, pull rank on him please." Nazim Murkhov's voice could be heard as a sidenote to Xave's cacophony as Fabian Le Marchet opened his mouth. "Listen to Jakub, Beichez. You're making me regret appointing you as Army Commander-in-Chief. ^{Really should've put Serrano in that spot instead...}"

Jakub swore he could see the steam coming off Xave's head as his face turned the color of pinkish red. "Fine." He said, glaring at Fabian. "If you want to sell out our independence, go out and do it then."

"By god, Xave, we AREN'T SELLING OUT OUR INDEPENDENCE! I'M THE FLEET COMMANDER AND EVEN I'M IN FAVOR OF THIS! We need that technology of theirs anyway, god knows what Serdar was doing for forty years..." Nikochev Stoichovskiy, the Master of the Seas. Jakub didn't have the slightest idea why he didn't negotiate for a higher position - he certainly had the influence for that.

"I tend to agree with Nikochev here.", said Joshua Kfelz, Minister of the Treasury (The Treasurer?). "In all honesty, I think trading with the Lotionese is beneficial to our country's economy as well. They're much more powerful than us, much more stronger economically, and may be the only route to get us out of the recession. No insult to the Sargassians but they're a bit too far. Also, we need to stabilize our economy pretty badly."

"All I hear is opinions and no consensus." spoke up the President. "We need to find a plan and a limit on what we're going to allow the Lotionese to do and what we can't let them do."

"Well, here's one for you." Beichez said. "If you let them into our ports our application to the ICP- no, in fact, any international organization would most likely be hampered. Lukas here will have a hard time trying to find a ally..."

"That's a blatant lie. Have you ever been in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before, Beichez? Now shut up before you get into territory that you know absolutely nothing about." affirmed Pwyllfeld, who looked to be at the absolute limit of his patience. His face was creased all over trying to hold back the stress behind.

"While I think that trading with the Lotion Empire is very good for us..." Kfelz said cautiously. "A free trade agreement? They're going to have a remarkably obscene amount of influence on our economy. We shouldn't do that."

"In all honesty, I really think our bases and ports need the technology. And no, I am not biased towards the homeland of my grandparents from many years past." said Nikochev. "All our naval facilities are completely wrecked from the war and we could seriously use the Lotionese help. And the offer of protection..."

"We're strong enough to defend ourselves.", said Beichez.

"No, we aren't, as much as I appreciate your spirit." Fabian stared at the Giberanjan. "We could really use the naval help from them."

"So." Amirkhan said. "The general consensus is accept the naval help but deny the free trade?"

"Sounds fine to me." said everyone, but Xave, who said it a little bit more annoyed.

"Alright. Pwyllfeld, I'll send the letter to you soon."

And with that, the emergency meeting ended.

An hour later...

To Mr. Zhukov, the Prime Minister of the Lotionese,

We greatly appreciate your help in rebuilding our nation. We will ensure that your soldiers and volunteers are treated with the highest level of respect everywhere they go, and be fed and taken care of adequately. Your advisors would be of much help as well, as collaborating with our own set of ministers could offer new insights into how we go about rebuilding.

We've had a general consensus on your two extra requests and we can relay the results of those in this message.

The majority of our council would be in favor of establishing the defense pact, as our facilities are in desperate need of upgrading. You can never be entirely sure what the new Verdantia-Galerium could be planning so we'd like to do this as soon as possible to minimize the risk of an unwarranted invasion.

However, the free trade deal is not in our plans as of now - our economy is simply much too damaged for any deal involving free trade to be favorable towards our nation. Once we finish rebuilding the majority of our industry, we will review the free trade deal again and see whether we are in a position to accept.

Finally, we do thank you again for the rebuilding help.

With regards,
Amirkhan Voldymyr Zhuldyz
Interim President of the Federal Commune of Gatarbir