A Matter of Diplomacy

Posted on 23 Mar 2020 @ 6:20pm by Captain Mallory Thorne & Lieutenant Colonel Tage Gillis & Lieutenant Madalene Sabine & Lieutenant Yam Prat & Lieutenant Alexandra Dering & Lieutenant Quinle Rahl & Lieutenant Cole Dering M.D., M.S. & Cor Ive & Commander Kristiana Petrova

2,490 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Changing Faces
Location: Banquet Hall, Deck 14
Timeline: MD 03 - 1900 hours

=/\= Begin Log =/\=

The USS Odin had not been created with an idea toward diplomacy and its attendant functions, but all Starfleet vessels were built with the possibility in mind.

On short order, the banquet hall on deck fourteen had been turned into a low-key but tasteful function hall for everyone--be they Odin crew or guest--to meet and mingle. Mallory wasn't particularly thrilled with it all, but she abided by the tenants she had been both raised and promoted with. Adorned in her dress uniform, she was among the first to arrive. She spotted the counselor in the corner and walked over. After the captain, the counselor had perhaps the most-involved position for these matters.

"You've done very well on such short notice," Mal said with a smile.

Quinle smiled in return to the Captian, “We can not disappoint our dear keepers can we? Have to keep up appearances.” Her dress uniform fit her as it should, the lines of her body perfectly accented by the tailoring. Her hair was pulled up into multiple ornate braids with metal pieces placed into it accenting the uniform but adding a personal touch that showed the regal nature of the woman.

"Quite so," Mal agreed with a rueful smile, turning to watch other officers as they arrived.

Madalene was not a fan of these big fanfare things it wasn't because she had to wear the again pompous dress uniform. Letting out a sigh she finally walked into the banquet hall it was impressive. Impressive what can be done. As Madalene stood at the interest she accidentally bumped into. "...oh sorry," a pale-skinned women said.

It wasn't a hard bump but annoying enough to force another sigh out of her. "It's okay just watch yourself." Madalene said as she walked more into the hall. Knowing that she was kinda at fault as well as she had lingered into the entryway.

"Yes of course." Cydwenn said as she also moved further into the hall.

Kristiana Alexandrovitch Petrova was the next to arrive. Wearing her dress whites, finding them a little bit tighter than she remembered and making a quiet note to herself to hit the gym a bit more. A nod in greeting to those who acknowledged her, as she made her way over towards where the drinks were. One difference between Kristiana and most other officers though was that she was wearing a sword sheathed to her belt.

Seeing her 2XO arrive, Mal politely excused herself from the counselor and went to intercept her. "Nice addition to the uniform," she said with some amusement as she came up beside her.

"Yeah, it's an aesthetic." Kris chuckled, settling on a tall glass of orange juice. For now. "Seems there's allowance for a bladed sidearm in the regulations if at least one person from the command team and the chief security authorize it. And since I'm acting chief security I figured I'd bring out this old heirloom. Plus, it's a conversation piece."

Cor slipped quietly into the room. He smiled at a couple people and nodded to another couple, but he knew very few people, if any who were here. He felt like he stood out, not just in dress but in overall appearance as well.

Tage Gillis entered, and moved smoothly along the outer perimeter of the room finding some of the hanging decoration to hover near which should obscure him decently.

Kat Walker entered as well, 'wearing' a simple outfit of a stylish shirt over simple pants and fitting shoes. She paused briefly once inside, looking around, and as she saw that a significant portion of people were holding drinks, she manifested a glass of a nondescript looking simulated liquid in her hand.

Upon entry, Yam greeted several nameless gala attendees. Most commented on the pristine condition of his white naval formal wear with some even inquiring about insignia denoting rank upon his breast; these were quickly marked as Terran Union delegates to his mind. Confirmation would need to come later.

Conversation was beloved by his people and the opportunity to don the slimming, yet elegant white Starfleet-issue dinner coat as well as the black trousers brought a swell of nostalgia. Academy training had been much simpler days; days that Yam missed for all the stereotyping he’d suffered through.

Through the sea of well-wishers Captain Hawthorne and Commander Petrova were spotted conversing in what appeared to be a restrained, but genuine conversation. Yam wanted to greet both ranking officers, but someone at the fringe of activity drew his attention instead. “Lieutenant Colonel Tage Gillis,” Yam hailed once within hearing range of the man snapping an officer’s salute shortly thereafter.

“Welcome aboard and good to see you. Are you enjoying the accommodations?”

Tage had glanced in his peripheral vision for an escape route when the unknown newcomer approached, but there didn't seem to be a socially acceptable exit. Tage guessed it was as good a time as any to attempt to infiltrate. "Oh, I....yes. Lovely accommodations. Splendid! You time travelers really have great stuff," he replied. "And how are you?"

Cycling through memories of social integration training, Yam quickly affected a smile; the feeling wasn’t as foreign to him now as it had been when first boarding the Odin. “I think the saying is ‘fine as can be,’” Yam answered calmly taking in the Terran Union officer’s appearance.

Humans in some ways could be fickler than Cardassians when it came to social propriety. “I won’t take much of your time, I simply wanted to welcome the Terran Union officers aboard.” Nodding his head indicating his leave-taking, Yam began to move away, but paused midway through his turn and glanced back at the Lieutenant Colonel.

“At some point this evening, we should each celebrate the fortuitous friendship of the Terran Union and the Odin I think.” Again, a smile flashed, but this one was all bared white teeth with none of the awkward civility from earlier, more grimace than grin.

Dismissing whether his departure may have been rude Yam Prat dissolved into the sea of alien delegates mind already wandering towards the preparations that were still incomplete.

Mal smiled at Kris and was about to say something when she noticed a flash of purple among the crowd. "Is that our new...guest?" she asked lightly, casual but curious. She was a little surprised, too.

"Looks like it." Kristiana mused, taking a sip from her drink. "Good to see him around and mingling. But if it's all the same to you, I'm going to keep an eye on him regardless."

"Perfectly reasonable," Mal agreed, "and I would expect no less from you. But...hopefully this will be good for him. Show that we're not, you know, prone to torturing visitors." The captain smirked. "Any sight of the ex-oh just yet?"

Quinle moved up near May and the other officers, listening to the conversation as she sipped on a juice drink she had ordered that was purple at the top then faded down into a clear at the bottom, just from looking at the glass it would be hard to tell if she was imbibing or not. Smiling to Madelene she listen to her and the 2XO chatting.

"Not a sign." Kris took a sip of her drink. "He's usually punctual. Maybe he's going for that fashionable late thing? You know, kind of a bad boy vibe?"

Madalene spotted the second officer taking her drink Madalene walked over to her, “commander. How are you this evening?”

"Madalene, good evening. Just Kristiana, please." she mused, offering a smile that didn't quite extend to her eyes. "Doing well, thank you. Yourself?"

“Of course Kristiana,” Madalene said noticing a slight something in the air with the commander. “I am doing well. How are our guests settling in?”

Cydwenn was a bit overwhelmed she was never a fan of these things. Too many people and noise. She liked the quietness of the labs and also just having an experiment in front of her. So she stayed near the the end of the bar slowly sipping on her drink and watching people.

Cole grabbed two drinks from the bar, flashing a charming smile at her before carefully weaving his way through the growing crowd back to Lexi.

His wife stood off to the side of the door and out of the way, right where he had left her after they slipped in behind two chatty gala attendees.

Lexi watched her husband go to the table for drinks, but didn't watch him all the while. She trusted him even though she knew he was a flirt. She also knew he would not betray her by doing anything more than harmless flirting. Therefore, she let her gaze travel over the room and take in all the people gathered before looking back to him as he handed her a drink. A bright smile graced her lips as she took it from him. "Thank you, Love." Taking a sip, she looked around them again before looking back to Cole. "I know this is dangerous to say," she teased, "but we should probably mingle a bit?"

Elynda McConnell was no more fond of these gatherings than many of the officers in the room already. These gatherings were all posturing and everyone testing everyone else. Sometimes they even erupted into a fight. On one of those occasions, she had welcomed that as it had broken up the exceedingly boring and effusively overdone polite banter that had been going around like a virus. She sincerely hoped that this one would be neither like that one or erupt into violence. In that vein, she gave a look to her retinue to mind their manners, then she waded into the crowd to learn as much about them as she could before she had to depend upon any of them.

It wasn't long before the Seelie delegates arrived, led by the still-stoic, still-annoyed-looking Secretary Rau. She entered the room and stopped, her cat-eyes looking everything over before she nodded for her aides to head out and mingle. Might as well make the most of it.

Izeli was at Rau’s side, her eyes scanning the room with an amused look, curiosity was alive in her gaze. She wore a flowing gown choosing her own style over anything that looked like a uniform, as if making fun of her mutable nature, her gown flowed round her in loose layers picking up on the air flow in the room flaring around her in the colors of orange blue and white, it draped off one shoulder and left her back bare.

"Which one?" Kris smirked. "Rau just entered. Haven't quite made my mind up about her yet. Cor seems to be doing ok, I think I saw him over there a bit, and Kat's over there, holding a - ... Drink? Why would an AI hold a drink?" she furrowed her brows. "You ok? You seem a bit protective of your left hand and I think I saw some bruising on there?"

"A punching bag," Madalene said looking down at her hand, "...apparently I don't know how to punch. Or at least that is what I was told by our doctor that fixed me up."

"You got beat up by a punching bag?" Kristiana mused incredulously, taking another sip of her drink. "That's embarrassing. You know what, come by some time later, I'll teach you some basic forms."

The second officer was an interesting one, "umm...sure yeah that sounds good," Madalene said unsure if she liked the women or not. Or if she was just struggling reading her.

Cor eyed Rau for a moment, before moving closer to her, he was intrigued by these Seelie people.

Kris gave a nod to Madalene. "If you want to learn, of course. Maybe I should start giving classes." she took a sip of her drink, looking over at Cor and Rau. "... Excuse me, Madalene." she added, wandering a bit closer to Rau and Cor to listen in.

Tage looked around at the scene and grew irritated. He had been pretty clear that precautions should be taken when dealing with these shape shifting scum, and unless they were so subtle they had fooled even him, they had ignored his warnings. Of course they had. These people were like artless lambs. If you want something done right, he thought. He would have to tag this Rau. The technology had been created during the war to deal with these beings, but it had its drawbacks. One had to get close to the shifter and basically inject them with a nanomachine. This was possible through a handshake, although this would run the risk of detection. Seeing no other options at the moment, Tage decided it would have to do and started working his way towards the Seelie.

Camilla spoke briefly with her aides before sending them off to enjoy themselves. For her part, she surveyed the crowd like she was hunting...and then caught the flash of purple moving nearer to her. In this body form, she was taller than him and well-built but otherwise human-looking. "Rokori," she said. Was she stating his people or using it as a name? It was never easy to tell with her. "I did not know your people were among this...gathering."

As ever, the soul of tact and flair, this one.

Cor snagged a drink from somewhere, and paused with it halfway up to his lips. "Madam Ambassador," he began, almost out of habit as that was the Rokori way of greeting a diplomat--ambassador or not--on official business, "my people are not." Cor was not familiar with her, but she seemed to know if his people.

"I'm not familiar with you or your people, however being that you know if us, our computer system should, but if course I can't access that right now." He raised his voice ever so slightly at the end of his sentence, as though throwing accusations at someone.

"Caution pays its own wages," Camilla replied evenly, speaking something that had become almost a motto for their people during the times of conflict with the union. "However, I represent a coalition of peoples. You cannot tell my race by looking at me." She smiled, and it was an unpleasant expression. As always. "I, however, have been of the galaxy for a very long time. I have met your people before, but it was a long time ago."

"We're a proud people. As you know, I'm sure." Cor said, "Can I ask who the king was when you were there."

Camilla smiled slightly. "I was never on your planet. I met them during my travels. A proud people, yes. I did not expect to meet one here. You are far from home."

"I am, however not by choice."

"Sounds familiar," the shapeshifter drawled, looking around this "neutral territory" with a distasteful glance...

=/\= End of Part I

 

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