Chapter Nine

Relena's videocom buzzed. She pressed the button to find her future sister in law's face smiling at her.

"Hi Lu, how are things?"

"Hi, I'm calling you to let you know that Heero has left this morning. He's left us a message saying that he will contact us regularly to let us know the progress of the mission" explained Lucrezia.

"Ah, I didn't know he would get on with the mission so soon…" said Relena sounding quite worried.

"Relena, you shouldn't worry, you know that Heero is a professional. He knows what he's doing…" Lucrezia said quickly trying to comfort the blond girl.

"I know…is just that I can't help worrying about him. In any case, I will be meeting some of the representatives today and I will test the field to see if there is any opposition regarding the Terraforming Project…"

"How are you going to do that?" asked the dark haired woman.

"Well, I have been thinking that a clear way to see the representatives' true colours is by asking the committee to give more funds to Mars…this way I will see if there is anyone clearly opposing my proposal…there is a good chance that if any of the representatives is involved with the group, he or she will not be happy with giving more money to the project…" replied Relena.

"Sounds like a good idea to me…" commented Lucrezia.

"Well, I hope it is…Sally told me yesterday that they are checking on some of the representatives' that might have had a suspicious behaviour… She has promised a report within the end of this week…" said the Vice Foreign Minister.

"Well, how are you feeling?" asked Lucrezia intently.

"I'm ok…not having too many problems…The only major thing is that I am constantly hungry and I would sleep forever…" said Relena.

"Well…I hope everything turns out for the best…take care sweetie…" said Lucrezia.

"Me too…Lu…Me too…" said Relena almost with a whisper.

After greeting each other, Relena pushed the button to cut the communication and, grabbing her suitcase left her office to go to the meeting room.

There were about fifty representatives. Lady Une was already reading the meeting's agenda. She was leaving out, on purpose, Relena's request for funds. She had agreed with the younger girl that, in order to cause the surprise they needed, she would have to make an out of programme request.

The meeting went on for a couple of hours. It was coming to an end when Relena, getting up, said:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I know that this may come as a complete surprise to you but, I would like to issue a special request to the committee. I would like to allocate more funds to the Terraforming Project of Mars. I was thinking of something like increasing from the 2 we use now to 5 from the ESUN global budget, the reason being that I have been informed that there is a huge delay in the construction of the bases due to lack of funds…"

"But, Vice Foreign Minister…I am afraid but I don't think we can do that…You are already spending plenty of money in a project that we don't even know if it will succeed. We need extra funding for the colonies…There is colony X774 from the L4 sector that desperately needs repairs in their artificial atmosphere device…I'm sure that I speak on behalf of the committee when I say that I am quite certain that your request won't be accepted".

This reply was given by one of the representatives of L4, a guy called Carl Taylor. Relena knew him personally for he had asked her to go out with him at least a couple of times…

Following this comment, quite a few of the representatives approved of representative Taylor's opinion. All of the sudden though, senator Valliant asked for silence.

"I fully agree with Relena, I think more funds should be given to Mars. At the end of the day, I think we should pay more attention to a project that may eventually lead to conquering another planet and make it look like a second Earth…I'm giving you Relena, my vote for this issue…"

"Oh, why…thank you very much Mr Valliant. I really appreciate your support…" said Relena.

Thanks Mr Valliant's intercession, some of the representatives that where protesting suddenly changed their mind. Mr Valliant had been a senator in the Alliance's government and had been one of the major supporters of General Noventa. Everyone respected him because of that.

Carl Taylor, seeing this sudden, general change of opinion, said sounding quite upset:

"Well, Mr Valliant, Miss Relena, we'll see what the final decision will be, I expect a secret vote session to decide on your proposal…And, Miss Relena, let me tell you that I don't think your request is a good idea…"

Having said this, Carl Taylor left the meeting room not even bothering to make any excuses.