The Palace, the Federation’s center of political authority, stands in these episodes both as the place the negotiating party deliberately leaves and as the power whose formal logic Jubal Harshaw exploits. Its absence from the negotiations matters: away from the Palace, Jubal’s party can refuse to bargain further, while the government’s public acknowledgment of Valentine Michael Smith as a sovereign equal of the Federation transforms a disputed legal claim into a diplomatic fact.

The Palace and the Negotiating Position

Jubal explains that he and his companions are waiting for the Secretary General to respond. They have left the Palace rather than remain where the Secretary General might be tempted to bargain. At home, as Jubal puts it, they can hold their ground. Their choice of location is therefore a practical negotiating tactic: the Palace is where official pressure can be applied, while their own refuge gives them the leverage to refuse a deal.

Captain Willem van Tromp points out that Jubal has already given the Secretary General what he wanted. Jubal answers that the agreement is not yet irrevocable: its terms allow the power of attorney to revert to Valentine Michael Smith if Joseph Douglas does not behave as required. Jubal also fears that other political actors may make competing offers. He mentions Kung, who resents him for upsetting his position and might try to win the party over before Douglas finalizes the arrangement. The group stays away from the Palace and relies only on food and drink brought with them, keeping their dealings and provisions beyond Kung’s reach.

A Public Act with Diplomatic Consequences

Jubal later explains that he began the day without understanding the government’s full position. He knew officials wanted Smith’s so-called Larkin rights, but assumed they were as ignorant as he was about the wider situation. That uncertainty did not stop him from acting boldly. He used the administration’s desire for the rights, and its fear that Smith’s party might negotiate with Kung or someone else, to press it into a public acknowledgment, in unmistakable diplomatic protocol, that Smith was a sovereign equal of the Federation.

The consequence is larger than the immediate agreement. By the government’s own reasoning, Smith has effectively been publicly crowned: he is now the acknowledged sovereign of Mars under the Larkin precedent. Jubal contrasts this position with that of a hidden pretender. A recognized ruler can abdicate to protect himself; a pretender who renounces his claim may still remain exposed to enemies. The Palace’s authority thus supplies the official framework that strengthens Smith, even as the negotiations themselves have moved elsewhere.

The Legal Crisis Behind the Bargain

Recognition leaves Smith with a difficult choice. As sovereign under the Larkin precedent, he could grant concessions, trading rights, or enclaves, but Jubal considers him ill-equipped to withstand the pressure such decisions would bring. Alternatively, Smith could abdicate, allowing his Larkin rights to pass to the twenty-three men then on Mars, including Douglas. Neither path resolves Jubal’s objection that the Larkin Decision should not apply to an inhabited planet.

Jubal’s aim is therefore not simply to win better terms inside the Palace’s political order. He wants the Larkin Decision and the rights claimed under it declared void with respect to Mars, before the Federation High Court can rule. The Palace represents the machinery of negotiation and recognition, but the settlement it enables also exposes the legal contradiction at the heart of the government’s position: its attempt to obtain Smith’s rights forces it to acknowledge the sovereign status that makes those rights politically consequential.