MISSION POST: Shi Maro Space Station - Day 47 - OPEN

[enterprise_npc]

The air was one of breathless anticipation as all off duty personnel - military and civilian, Aian and Marosi - lined the viewports to watch the Starfleet ship come in to dock. Murmurs raced through the watching crowd at her strange design, at the unfamiliar words emblazoned across her hull

Comments

[nyota_uhura24]

This is not good. The moment Nyota walked into the hall, she felt a sharp spike of panic. The visiting delegation was from the Enterprise. She'd expected them to be from one of the vassal planets, and thus had actually been rather relieved that she'd be safe for a few hours. No one was going to attack her at a diplomatic function. She was still trying to convince both those loyal to the Aian Alliance and those who favored a separate Marosian movement that she supported their respective causes. Playing the two parties certainly minimized suspicion that she wasn't actually part of the militia, but it was still immensely dangerous

[green_psyd]

David was also doing several surveys of the room. He was standing back relaxing from his intense conversation with the Aian high commander. He was also standing back from the Enterprise crew. He needed to observe the interactions. That's when he caught Uhura's eye.

Recognition burst through and he made his way over to her side in no time. He hadn't realized she'd come back. Last rumor had it was that she was on some sort of sabbatical. She must have been back for the mission. He aimed to be the first one to welcome her.

"Lieutenant Uhura!" he exclaimed as he sidled next to her.

[nyota_uhura24]

The moment David caught her eye, she knew that she was going to have to think very quickly in order to avoid disaster. She drew herself off the wall as he approached, adopting the straight-backed stance of the Aian militia and keeping her face as impassive as possible.

He was at her side in moments, greeting her loudly and enthusiastically. Normally it would have brought a smile to her face, but now it made her glance around quickly to see if anyone had noticed. "Please lower your voice," she said, voice soft but commanding. It would confuse him, but she had to hope that he would pick up on her cues. "And please address me as Specialist Corporal Kerin." She clasped her hands behind her back in the traditional Aian greeting, and then moved one hand to indicate the Aian insignia of rank.

[green_psyd]

David was slow to the pickup.

"Uh. Okay. I don't..." David trailed off and cocked his head. He suddenly had a boyish gleam in his eye. "Wait. Are you..." he put on a whisper, "...a spy!"

His grin got larger. "You're kidding! I didn't know they had spies in Starfleet! Sorry. I just. I used to watch James Bond and...so cool!" He whispered this excitedly. He couldn't help himself. Somewhere his common sense was burrowed underneath childhood memorabilia and Id response trying to reign the Orion in.

"I...mean. Specialist Corporal Kerin," he said with a clearing of the throat and wink. Professional! Professional! It might be too late.

[captainjimk]

Jim Kirk wasn't a praying man. He didn't really buy much into any sort of higher power, and as far as he was concerned religion had only done a lot of bad things to a lot of good people. He'd read Terran history after all, and as far as he could figure, religion was the center of most of the wars through the centuries. But right now? Right now he was sort of thinking about sending a prayer to someone that this mission was going to go better than the last one. His crew needed a successful mission. Hell, he needed a successful mission after the mess of the last one - it'd help everyone get back to working together instead of at each other's throats.

His hand tugged absently at the hem of his formal uniform, trying to straiten the lines even as he tried to look like he wasn't being stifled by the fabric. He could do parties. As much time as he spent bucking authority, he did know how to schmooze when the time was right, and he was doing it now, meeting and greeting even as half of his brain worked on analyzing the crowd and his crew,

[green_psyd]

"Well," he said casually coming up next to the captain. He took a breath, resigned from his abundant idiocy, one of which (in finding Uhura) he couldn't even talk about. "I just made an ass of myself."

He'd never worn a uniform and hadn't planned on ever taking up the habit. So his formal attire was of his own choosing, reflecting the markings of his rank and insignia, of course.

[captainjimk]

Jim raised an eyebrow as the psychiatrist came up to him, shifting a bit away from the nearest member of their hosting race so that his full attention was on his crew member. He noticed the lack of uniform, of course, but pretty much figured that ship had sailed and as long as the Enterprise wasn't being embarrassed it was one less battle for him to fight.

"Please just tell me it's not something that's going to end up with us getting killed,"

[green_psyd]

"Though she is incredibly intimidating for her size, I doubt the High Commander wants to do anything detrimental to us. Now to me...well...I expect a few good glares. Or, at the very least, fables of the simple minded green giant who tried to mediate a very important trade agreement. Y'know, that's what I try to do. Instill respect and confidence," he said, giving a quick grin. "No, I think it'll be okay. It's not exactly like Command prepared us adequately with all of the information we needed. They just didn't expect for the counselor to suffer from foot in mouth disease."

He sighed and nodded. "I know this has already been clarified, but I've never done this before. Not that you have but...felt it should be noted. How are you holding up?"

[my_god_man]

Goddamn, he hated parties. Well, that wasn't true. Your typical, informal party was usually a blast. Definitely so when there was alcohol. But what he was facing right now as he was being ushered through like a monkey on a leash was not what he'd consider a real party. Bad enough he was in a damn monkey suit. And oh look at all those faces pressed against the glass to watch them be herded out into the pen

[transwarp_beam]

Official functions like this had to qualify as some form of torture. What was the point of a party that didn't even have anything proper to drink? He wasn't even sure why he was required to attend. There was no good reason to have engineers at a diplomatic function - as a profession they weren't known for their tact. The opposite, really.

But in general it wasn't difficult to put him in a good mood, and he grinned as through the crowd he spotted one face always guaranteed to do just that. Oddly sickly-sweet punch in hand he ambled on across the room and raised his glass in greeting. "Y'look like you're enjoyin' yourself."

[my_god_man]

As that couldn't be further from the truth, Leonard didn't think it was aimed at him. He kept looking down at the funky-colored punch, thinking about how he'd had Anderson sterilizing something about that same hue from the bottom of biohazard buckets just earlier. Morons were sometimes good for Life's little chores. Wasn't until he saw a familiar, fuzzy blond head in his peripheral that he put two and two together and got Thank God.

"Jesus, Scotty, yer a sight for sore eyes. When'd you get here?" Leonard clapped a hand on the deceptively strong shoulder and squeezed gently. The last few days had been consumed with mission prep work. They hadn't had a chance to be together for a while, again. That grated on him. "An' you musta had me mistaken for someone who doesn't know a good party, if ya think that," he grumbled on. Because he had to behave, he didn't grimace. It was a close thing, though.

[transwarp_beam]

"Been here a while now," he replied, smiling broadly back. His expression took on a mischevious edge as he added innocently; "Nah? Would've thought this'd be just your sort'a thing. Right up your alley."