One Item Off The List: Part I

Posted on Sat Mar 4th, 2023 @ 9:32am by Captain Tristan Faust & Lieutenant Commander John Stryker II & Commander Lucy Heartfilia & Lieutenant Commander Marc Kitchner M.D. & Lieutenant Thraxina & Lieutenant Shinobu Miyake & Lieutenant Azrel Vox & St. John Talbot
Edited on on Sat Mar 4th, 2023 @ 9:37am

1,688 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Mission 3: The Peace Ship
Location: Deck 5: Captain's Mess
Timeline: M3 MD01 1730

One requirement of being a Starship Captain was to... Entertain... Important guests and a diplomat of Talbot's rank required no less than a state dinner. Something Captain Faust wasn't particularly in the mood for. He hoped this one would be quick and painless, but with Talbot nothing ever was.

"So tell me Captain, how did you manage to get your officers out of captivity?" the young dashing diplomat asked, looking directly at Captain Faust.

"An acquaintance of mine offered some assistance," Tristan responded, "Although I think he now regrets it." He smirked as he took a sip from his martini. He wore his full dress uniform, medals and all rather than just ribbons. One rather pecular decoration was the Gold and Silver Star of the The Order of the Rising Sun, Japan's military order. A gesture of goodwill from the Japanese Emperor for theMidway's launch. Though he wondered if the Katana would be more handy in this mission...

Azrel entered the captain's mess in her full dress uniform. After the last social engagement, she opted for a fresh orange juice instead of anything remotely alcoholic. She took note that the captain was already talking with Ambassador Talbot. She decided to hang back for a moment unless spoken to directly. She wouldn't want to interrupt.

The Captain looked up, saved by the bell... "Ah, Mr. Talbot, may I introduce Lieutenant Azrel Vox, my Chief of Communications," he said, introducing the young woman.

"Ah, welcome," Talbot responded with a grin as he stood up, "A Trill?" he asked in surprise, "I was not aware of any Trills in Starfleet... I was a part of the delegation to negotiate Trill's entry into the Federation."

"Good afternoon Ambassador. Yes, I don't think there are many Trill's in Starfleet, so we are, for the moment, something of a rare sight." Aze replied. "Also, I believe I am part of the group that are rarer still, joined Trills." She added.

So, I take it you have visited my homeworld then, Ambassador?"

"Yes, I have, although it has been several years," Talbot responded, "The capital city was quite marvelous. I didn't get a chance to visit the countryside however."

"That is a shame. The countryside is quite beautiful. Especially in the Tra'nah Province where I grew up. I wanted to join Starfleet once I knew of it and what it represented." Aze commented.

"Most commendable, wouldn't you say Captain?" Talbot asked.

The Captain grunted in response.

As the two of them conversed, Lieutenant Miyake was next to arrive- fashionably sporting a skirted variation of the operations dress uniform. Noticing it was just the three of them, she made her way over to an empty seat, figuring it best to remain out of the way unless so called.

Cadet Koppelman, who had fast become a byword in personnel for 'creep most likely to volunteer for minion duties in any event that promises close proximity to the Captain', was serving aperitifs and would later wait on table with a couple of other redskirt lowlies. She immediately gravitated to the woman who looked like Poppy herself usually did at parties: the sallow, lonely Miyake, sitting friendless on her own.

"Hello, are you all right?" Poppy bent over the seated Security Chief, like she was communicating with a lost five year old at the park "Would you like an aperitif? That's a special drink you have before a fancy meal." she explained, like the Japanese woman was an idiot.

It was meant kindly.

"Thank you, Cadet," Lieutenant Miyake replied, shooting Poppy a weird look. "Martini Rossi, please."

"Certainly, Lieutenant." Poppy said primly "And how would you like that, Ma'am?" She had done her homework now and wouldn't make the same mistake as she had done, giving Lt. Vox as full tumbler of pure Midori without asking how (or even if!) she would like it mixed.

"Shaken, please," Lieutenant Miyake requested. "And you wouldn't happen to be serving that with sweet vermouth, would you?"

"Whatever you so desire, Ma'am." Wow, she didn't know what it was: freshman cadet talking to a big, bad Security Lieutenant, she should have been scared out of her wits, like she was when she was talking to some of the other senior officers, but she just had this irresistible urge to... comfort this woman.

She bent down further and whispered "You're special and you deserve whatever you want."

Lieutenant Miyake blushed. "T-that may be crossing some boundaries, Cadet..."

Poppy just gave her a reassuring, if patronising, smile. "I'll be right back with your drink, Ma'am."

The door swished open and Lieutenant Thraxina walked in with her Conn-buddy Lt. Commander Stryker. "Oh God, Vox is talking to that Ambassador fellow, I hope she hasn't been on the midoris again!" she said to the Chief Navigator in rather a loud voice.

Everybody remembered the spectacle the pretty Trill communications officer had made of herself, lurching out of the awards ceremony with Dr 'Cold Hands' Slattery. Thraxina's own exit that night, with Commodore Brian 'Come to my quarters and I'll show you my model space ship collection' Anderson, on the other hand, had been an expertly covert operation, noticed by no-one. Probably.

Stryker had that look one gets at the level of Trax's voice. "You'll have to introduce me, she sounds like a barrel of laughs." He had noticed her at the Party. Butt he had noticed a lot of crewmen both male and female, hell of a lot of people to meet and remember.

"So tell me, who's this St. John person of immense importance? Don't believe I've heard of him or crossed paths with the man." But he might have in some innocent way, it was the non-innocent people he remembered.

"He's an Earth diplomat, quite the rising star at one point, apparently. But he made a bit of a stuff up during the Andor crisis and then set all the fire alarms off at Federation Headquarters taking some sort of earth drug called a 'ciggy' You have to set fire to it and put it in your mouth, apparently. Anyway, since then he's been under something of a cloud... and not of smoke, either." she explained happily.

"He's probably hoping for some great success on Nimbus III to relaunch his career." she added, with an unconvinced tone.

"Yeah and isn't everyone else in the Federation? There's a whole lot of ladder climbers out there looking to make some kind of mark to set themselves apart from the herd. Guess that's why I'm still a Lieutenant Commander. But hey, a guy does his job, that's why I make the big credits."

Thraxina's cheeks suddenly glowed red: she hoped that Stryker hadn't heard about her one night stand with Commodore Anderson after the award ceremony! She gave him that little, tight, controlled smile she reserved just for him. "It's a disgrace that you haven't been promoted to Commander by now, a man of your experience." she said with a vehemence that seemed to indicate that she was maybe a little more bothered about it than he was.

"When you transfer as often as I have you get to go to the back of the line for promotions, sometimes it seems easier to win the Starfleet Medal of Honor." Then he laughed. "It's all part and parcel of the service."

The conversation was interrupted by the 'waitress' asking if they would like an aperitif. it was the Koppelman girl. "Can I get you a drink, Ma'am?" she asked Thraxina with all due deference, but to Stryker she pitched a broad grin and a "Howdy Pardner, two fingers of red-eye for you, I guess."

After the little brat had gone to fetch their drinks, Thraxina cast Stryker a quizzical look. "Howdy Pardner? Do you and Cadet Pimple-popper have some bizarre secret together I should know about?" she asked.

"Ah, Yeah. She roped me into the bizarre western program on the holodeck." Was his response, "And, get this, the hero was the Captain. I was the bad guy, I guess she has a major crush on the Captain."

"Oh yes, Toby... er... Ensign Dienstag told me about that; she got in pretty big trouble about it, apparently. It's 'morally unethical' to recreate someone you know on one of those holodecks for, well, that sort of purpose. Although I don't imagine it was exactly adult-rated stuff." she humphed.

"Hardly." John replied with a half smile that faded quickly, " I was the bad guy and one of them shot me, I believe it was him, but I am sorry to hear she got into trouble over it. It was harmless really, well, at least that program was."

He could imagine what could possibly be done by working up holograms of people one knew for, as Thrax put it 'adult-rated stuff.' Though seriously he doubted her imagination was locked in the 'G' rated world.

"So what now Thrax?" He asked, seriously unsure of what was expected.

"We wait for Annie Oakley to get us our drinks!" she replied dryly.

"Oh, and you're confident we won't die of thirst in the meantime?'" Stryker asked, a grin on his face.

"Nice crowd, but then Free food usually brings out everyone that's invited, even if it means dress uniforms, Speaking of, you'd think Starfleet could come up with something a bit better looking, wouldn't you? Somebody got big credits for these."

Thraxina looked at Stryker strangely. "I think it was more of an order than an invitation, and it's strictly 'A List' only. We should be honoured to be here. Honoured and thirsty. Oh no, here's Annie"

Poppy brought their drinks. The girl seemed to be everywhere tonight, fetching and carrying.

"Thanks, Popgun! Great service." He suddenly turned to Thraxina, "Oh hey, yeah, Honored doesn't even come close. Hey, let's grab this table before someone else does, and there's these two open chairs, so who knows? anything is possible."

"So Poppy, are you it for getting people drinks, or are there others to help out with this 'brass convention?"

 

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