May the Best Cadet Win

Posted on Tue May 30th, 2023 @ 8:34pm by St. John Talbot & Cadet Freshman Grade Stella Golightly & Cadet Freshman Grade Poppy Koppelman

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Mission 3: The Peace Ship
Location: Deck 5: Talbot's Quarters

The small guest cabin aboard the Midway was filled with the stale cigarette smoke and an aroma of old brandy. The Federation Delegate, St. John Talbot sat studiously at the small desk reading a rather old book, The Politics Among Nations by Hans Morgenthau. Even after these centuries the concept of Realpolitik was very much alive. He was waiting for the two young cadets, Miss Golightly and Miss Koppelman to arrive. There was some mix up regarding which of them would work with him on the voyage but he decided the best way to settle the matter was to have them both work with him. The best would receive a stellar recommendation letter from him.

For a couple of days after Dr Slattery's somewhat invasive 'beauty treatment', and his other attentions, on her malformed body, Poppy had been on top of the world. She had even, she blushed to think of it, allowed her new body to be seen by her trusted roomies. Her body wasn't exactly attractive still, but at least it wasn't stomach churningly repulsive. Michael... ooops, Doctor Slattery had certainly been pleased with his work, and pictures of her, before and after, would before long be beamed up onto huge viewscreens at the Interplanetary Conference of Medical Advancement.

However, traipsing in to Representative Talbot's spacious guest quarters in the wake of the oh-so-perfect Stella Golightly, Poppy felt all of her own insecurities returning and as they stood to attention, side by side before him, clad in exactly the same short red uniform, the differences between them were only too apparent: Stella's beautiful legs were shown off wonderfully by the scant tunic, whereas Poppy skinny matchsticks seemed barely capable of supporting her frame with it's ill fitting uniform. As they both stuck out their chests in the regulation stance: Stella's assets again shone only in order, it seemed, to diminish Poppy's lack thereof. Golightly was smarter, prettier, more talented, fitter, and moreover had an easy gracious charm that, again, only highlighted the Koppelman girl's clumsy, gauche manner.

Then again, there was one thing Golightly didn't have... she didn't have Plutonian Pride! Yes, ha ha!, Poppy scored 10/10 on that one. As long as she hadn't just done something to be ashamed of, of course.

She stuck out her laughable excuse for a chest.

"Freshman Cadets Golightly and Koppelman reporting for duty, Representative Talbot, Sir!" she announced stridently, staring straight ahead in textbook style.

"Hello cadets," Talbot responded. He stood up from the desk, "So lieutenant Thraxina informs me she initiated a roster change, assigning Cadet Golightly as my aid rather than Cadet Koppelman." He walked over to the counter at the edge of his quarters and poured himself another drink. "But that position is mine to fill, not hers," he continued, "So, I came up with a fair and even solution... I want both of you to work with me on this mission. The Cadet with the best performance will receive a stellar recommendation along with any sort of career help I can offer. How does that sound?"

“Yes Sir, understood Sir!” the scrawny Koppelman barked. She might not have Stella’s looks or brains, but in a fair fight, she could definitely out-creep her! She was assuming, of course, that this was a fair fight.
Still, her obnoxious toadying around the Ambassador had been heavy handed enough to earn her an humiliating dressing down by Commander Heartfilia, no one could say she hadn’t earned some battle honours for well directed ‘brown nosing’ as the Commander was pleased to call it.

“I agree with you, Sir, a Starfleet Lieutenant has no right to interfere with an essentially civilian mission and one that trumps mere Fleet operations. However, I feel that I am the best person for the job, so have no fear of the contest.” Poppy said, acting more confident than she actually felt.

Stella shot her a glare.

“Please Sir, what task would you like us to complete first?” Poppy asked. Might as well get stuck in!

"First, I need some opposition research conducted," Talbot responded, "We finally know the names of the delegates from the other powers... A T'Cael Kilyle from the Romulan Star Empire and Commander Chang from the Klingon Empire... I want dossiers on each based upon our available information. You've been granted temporary sigma nine clearance for this assignment." He looked at the two girls. "Miss Golightly, take the Romulan, Miss Koppelman, the Klingon," he said, "I would very much like a preliminary report as soon as possible from each of you. You are both officially on detached service to me."

Urgh! She got the smelly Klingon and Stella got the cool Romulan?! The cards were stacked against her already. But she was a Proud Plutonian, that New York Ninny Golightly could go and take a running jump!

"Yes Sir, Thank you Sir!!" Poppy bellowed like she was in some kind of Star fleet Marines boot camp.

"Of course sir," Stella responded in a calm and collected manner.

"Alright cadets, let me know when you have completed your tasks or have any questions," Talbot responded before returning to his death old book, "You may go."

Stella nodded and headed towards the exit. Thankfully she already knew there was plenty of source materials on both ambassadors, but a ton of it was highly classified.

Poppy hurried to the door to get through it before Stella, and then ran off down the corridor. Ha! Golightly, more like go-slowly she quipped to herself, before a passing Thraxina spotted her and shouted at her for running in the corridors. "Sorry, Ma'am" squeaked Poppy, but at least continued walking really, really fast and was tapping away on her computer panel by the time Stella arrived back in records.

She ignored her rival when the doors swished open and she walked in, but was very pointedly 'talking to herself' "Ooooh, there's so much information on Commander Shang! ... Oooh, that's interesting.... Ooooh, this report is going to be sooo detailed and informative!" she drooled.

She was finding a lot of information, the problem was that she had misheard the Representative's verbal instructions and was looking up a Commander Shang, a rather elderly and undistinguished Klingon officer with two eyes, no particular fondness for the the Klingon playwright Wil'yam Sheq'spir, a feeble grasp of high strategy, and a penchant for handsome young Klingon officers.

She downloaded what she could find onto a data disk and jumped up.

"I'm finished, are you still struggling?!" she asked Stella in mock concern.

Stella looked up from the computer console at her tiny desk, "A little bit... The Romulans are still mostly a mystery to us," Stella responded, "Commander Kilyle commanded one of the Birds of Prey involved in the Enterprise Incident earlier this year... The mission where Captain Kirk captured the Romulan Cloaking device prototype... Other than that there isn't much. Anything interesting on Commander Chang?"

"It's Commander SHang, actually" (in)corrected Poppy with a supercilious smirk "You need to listen properly, cloth ears!" she laughed. "I'm going to take my report to Representative Talbot now: shall I tell him you'll be along in a couple of hours because you're struggling a little?" she asked smugly, gently stroking her data disk of wrong information.

"I'm sure he said Chang, but if you want to go make your report, go ahead," Stella responded before looking back down at her desktop, "I'm going to double check my work before I hand it in."

"Pfft! Just get it right the first time, like I do!" Poppy laughed and went skipping out of the swishing doors, leaving the pathetic Stella to flounder.

Stella rolled her eyes. She knew being meticulous especially on an assignment like this was of the most importance. A mistake or misinformation could derail the entirety of negotiations. Still, she needed to finish up.

 

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