Dharma Chakra : Kalinga's Battles with Destiny

Chapter 3: Negotiations

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Central Calendar 7th Day of the 1st month of the Year 1635,

Port Town Bahar, Quila Kingdom

The port of Bahar has been relatively silent for the past few years. Other than the food-carrying Qua-Toynian ships and the occasional fleet that wished to rest and repair their vessels, the port had virtually no traffic.

That changed today when INS Kuthar dropped anchor about half a mile away from the port. Smaller boats emerged from the gigantic ship and made their way to the port. Curious onlookers were surprised to see that none of those boats had sails or oars. A few minutes later, the boats were moored to the docks and Krishnan Roy readied himself for the first diplomatic contact in the New World.

Escorted by Gamas and a few soldiers, Krishnan and his team made their way to the office of Metsal, the Quillan prime minister. In the office, Metsal dismissed most of the soldiers guarding him. Krishnan returned the courtesy to indicate that he trusted Metsal's, and by extension Quilla's hospitality.

"Thank you for heeding our request, Mr. Prime Minister. I would like to clarify from the very beginning that the Republic of Kalinga seeks peace and harmony with her neighbors and hopes that we can all work together for mutual benefits." Krishnan said.

"Aye, that's true. But I must confess, I have not heard of Kalinga my entire life. Has your nation formed recently?"

"I am afraid not. We have been around for centuries but in another world. We woke up one day and found ourselves in a strange new world. We lost access to important resources and trade routes, not to mention our loved ones."

Metsal looked skeptical "I have heard stories about Mu being a transferred country but I thought that they were just fairy tales! I am sure you would excuse me if I don't find this believable."

"I would be worried if you believed me so easily. Allow me to demonstrate."

Krishnan took his smartphone out of his pocket and showed videos of Kalinga's people and culture. He also showed him high-rise buildings and horse-less chariots. Metsal was quite impressed.

"Your nation is indeed advanced. Which begs the question, why would you want to associate with our country?" Metsal asked. "Let's be real here, we don't have many valuable things that you would need. If you wanted food, Qua-Toyne should have been your target. If you wanted security, it would have been more viable to be a Parpaldian Empire's vassal."

"Mr. Prime minister, you do have resources that we are very interested in, namely the burning water and burning rocks."

"Hmm, I get why you would be interested in burning rocks. They are a good fuel source and leave little ash. But why would you need burning water? All they do is just muck up the landscape and render the land useless for farming!"

"We have our reasons." Krishnan smiled. "How about we work out a deal?"

Both men spent the next few hours going over minute details of their deal. In the end, it was decided that for open access to the Burning Water and high-grade anthracite coal, Kalinga would provide steel to arm the Quillan forces. That was not going to be a problem since Kalinga mined more than 111 million tonnes of iron ore, which translates to roughly 32 million tonnes of steel every year. Even without churning out iron at full capacity for the international market anymore, they could easily produce enough steel to arm and armor the thirty thousand strong Quillan army without making a dent in their reserves.