Shindig Mk 2
Posted on Mon Mar 11th, 2019 @ 7:18pm by Captain Remas McDonald & Lieutenant Chester O'Hamlin & Lieutenant Commander Shadi Zatra & Lieutenant Dinui Locke (loch)
5,706 words; about a 29 minute read
Mission:
S1:4: A Murder Of Crows
Location: RecDeck
Timeline: MD 62 19.00PM
One of the key points when Starfleet and the Long Jump Project retrofitted the Ronin class for its exploratory role in Messier 4, was the Recreation Deck. For the most part it was the largest open space, with only the outer compartments and a few load-bearing structures and conduit shafts breaking up its openness. This space was then filled with holographic emitters and the sort of smart matter furnishings that could conform to a great many designs.
For tonight's party, the holographic system recreated a large domed room, the triangular glass panels reflecting the floating light orbs that buzzed through the air. In the sky above was the swirling mass of the Milky Way, with a few stars flickering in bright primary colours.
The blue of Andor, its cold icy wastes home to a strong people.
The red of Vulcan, a harsh and unforgiving world bound by logic.
The green of Tellar, the beating mercantile heart of civilisation.
And finally the white of Earth, home of the United Federation Of Planets.
Remas eyed spectacle above, knowing that he would have chosen to highlight a few more worlds than that. Trillius Prime, Bolus, maybe even the Rish enclaves of Tornado Station or Fiddler's Green?
"A penny for your thoughts?" Zado asked from Remas's arm as they walked through the party goers. She was dressed in the following summer silks that shifted in colour with each step but never changing to the same cyan hue of her own skin.
"Merely that for such a sea of stars, I see only islands prosperous enough to matter," Remas said with a slight smile. His own uniform of choice was more comfortable than functional, favouring the Rish style of a simple shirt and a waistcoat fashioned from a variety of patches and pockets.
"And yet among us, all the possible configurations of the Federation abound," Zado commented.
Shadi made a grand entry, wearing a ballgroom gown with tiered ruffles and gathered taulle. Her head held high, she walked beneath the overhead lights, the scales of her face shimmering like the Ragolar warrior queens of old. The blackness of her eyes were revealed as she opened them, scanning the crowd for a very specific face.
Failing to find him, she cried out with a shriek, "Where the FAMINE is Mazarian?!"
Which was exactly when Chet came into the room. "Uh, hi?" he said to all the faces turned in their direction. "Oh, hey, nice dress, mate," he added, figuring everyone must be staring at the Saurian's gown. He felt a little underdressed in his suit with a collarless shirt, but decided it didn't matter.
The awkward greeting from the mammal snapped Shadi out of search mode. Just for an instant. "The captain said 'dress uniform,' yet I seem to be the only one who follows orders."
“So you are,” agreed Chet, gazing around the room. “Problem is That ‘dress’ means something different to everybody. Maybe I’ll suggest he includes photos next time, eh?”
"To me it says 'power'! 'Femininity'! And 'Off with their heads!'. Its a delight for the senses."
The being saying all of this went by the following title: Protectorate Bar'soon'fo'da'gree'nars, Third of my Title, holder of the lightning throne, guardian of the sacred skulls of Antiok and ruler of the world of Shishimi and all its celestial companions. Not the sort of thing that fits neatly onto a business card, but when you look like he did...
Bar'soon stood in an electric pink tuxedo, with a toxic green feather boa coiled around his right arm and draped around his neck. The cut was daring, one might even go so far as to say 'trail blazing'. And the flipflops really sold the entire ensemble for a low, low price of ones peace of mind. He'd tied his long trailing ears into a braid, and the aple blue and lavender stripes of his skin seemed to glow.
"Huum, yes you look important," Bar'soon said and offered the back of one hand to Shadi. "Protectorate Bar'soon'fo'da'gree'nars, Third of my Title, holder of the lightning throne, guardian of the sacred skulls of Antiok and ruler of the world of Shishimi and all its celestial companions. You must be the leader being dressed so appropriately."
"I am a daughter-spawn of the Ragolar brood, first of my clan, and last-standing champion of my generation's Ravaging," Shadi declared proudly. "If you're looking for our leader, though, it's Captain Remas over there. I was too smart to go into Command, so I'm in charge of fixing broken things."
"And I'm the doctor," added Chet. "Nothing else, though. Haven't got any fancier title than Dr. O'Hamlin. You can call me Chet, though. Everyone does."
"And that is absolutely fascinating!" Bar'soon cried delightedly, and placed a trio of glasses into Chet's hands. "And given you are a menial worker, be a dear and fetch me more libations from the glowing hole in the wall. And whatever this ravishing creature desires as well. I too was in charge of fixing broken things, when I usurped the throne from my brothers you know. They did not know how to run a proper monarchy. Reforms for the poor, the building of roads. MORE STATUES I SAY!"
He laughed, a high glass cutting sound and then looked at Chet.
"Are you still here?"
"No!" answered Chet cheerfully. He had, in fact, taken literally two steps to the replicator and produced more drinks rather bemusedly. "I'm back," he added, holding up the three drinks, which he pushed into the man's hand. "Also, I am not a menial worker. I am a doctor. That means I fix broken people. Should you ever require my services... well, I doubt you will! After all, who wants a menial worker tending to their broken bones, am I right?" he asked with a laugh so real, it was almost convincing. "Anyway, I think I'll go find someone a little more my station. It was a pleasure meeting you, your excellency!" And with a flourishing bow and cheerful, albeit toothless grin, he turned and disappeared into the crowd.
Shadi watched Chet walk away before letting her gaze trail back to Bar'soon.
"I'm quite sssertain I've never seen that mammal before in my life."
Bar'soon made a simpering sound, and a look of utter beset joy crossed his striped face. He delicately placed a long-fingered hand on Shadi's. "Finally...someone who really understands the plight of remembering all of the little people."
"Watch it!" Shadi snapped, taking a chomp at the creature's hand. "I am betrothed to Mazarian, a... prince or something of his people."
"A Prince you say?" Bar'soon's voice took on a sly tone of voice. "Most excellent. You know one cannot have enough allies when one is attempting to take back one's throne. I mean there's only so many times you can swing an axe before the novelty just rolls away with the severed head. My grandmother always said to pace yourself, or else you'll never enjoy the simple things in life."
Shadi gave a hissing chuckle. "And my broodmother always said to eat a man's hands when their reach exceeds their grasp." She made a chomping sound at Bar'soon. "Thrones are mammalian sssymbols of exalted weakness. Your kind likely would had your bones strewn across the plains of N'Ragolar to be bleached in the sun."
"You sound like a revisionist, but it cannot be helped. You are an alien, heedless of the hygienic qualities of good governance. You can't know better," Bar'soon said and flicked the feather boa back over one shoulder. "When I am returned to my home and have decapitated all four hundred and nineteen of my brothers and sisters who deposed me, then I will have to look into setting up an embassy on your world. Clearly, I have much to teach it."
He reached out and took a glass from a passing server, and when his jaw hinged open far wider than it should have, both sparkling fizz and shattering glass vanished into his maw without incident.
"I will need to build a new wall around my palace, for all of the spikes upon which their heads will sit!" he said whilst chewing glass.
"Perhaps you do know sssomething of dominance," Shadi conceded. "But what of valor? What is the song of your people?"
"It is a tune, timeless and ethereal. A haunting melody the likes of which is heard only during the corronation of a monarch," Bar'soon said as he finished his silica snack. "It is said that every monarch who has heard it was driven mad, becoming unhinged and demented. I thought it sounded quite...enlightening."
Shadi cooed in condescension, though it still had the overtures of a hiss. "Enlightening, you say? The song of my people is the plea for mercy of our enemies. Perhaps we should open an 'embassy' on your world, if the other broods would allow it." She leaned to whisper into Bar'soon's ear hole. "Make sure the buffet is full. A hungry Ragolar brood is no good for anyone."
With that parting statement, she left the upstart little morsel to his devices and looked for Captain Remas.
"...There's a buffet?!?"
In her dress uniform, Jolani's pear shape thinned a bit. Rather than the face that most saw of her, absent of emotion. Jolani looked to be deep in concentration as she walked into the room. She found the Captain and reported informally. "I am here as you requested. Is there a time period for which I am required to be here?"
"Until the party comes to a natural conclusion," Remas said, and handed her a drink. "And you've at least relaxed a tiny bit. This is a chance for you to learn more about our guests, natives of Messier 4. I think Kella, the female with the horns, is a pilot herself. Common ground beckons."
"I fear that my health may not be suitable for this arrangement," she told Remas. "My recent experiences have left me unsettled."
"Yes, I heard tell the beast of Baglan Moor had been sighted in your presence," Remas said with a nod. "And yet, no doctor would say you were not fit enough to relax. I'm not asking you to do handstands, but have a drink and welcome in all those were lost but who are now found. Ah, there she is! Kella!"
The female Chadrian walked through the sea of guests from the ships company, followed by her brother. Tan skinned, with flat noses and ears that drooped just a little more than a human, it was almost easy to see them as skin. But then there were the horns, searing from the sides of the forehead, streaking back along the skull to fine points.
And the lack of a pinkie finger.
"Captain Remas," Kella said, drawing herself up to a stiff standing position and bringing the flat of right hand against the side of her right horn. She was dressed in a dourer replicated piece of attire that avoided behind called a uniform by the fact it lacked the pomp and pageantry.
"Have yourself at ease, you are a guest here as well as a passenger," Remas enthused.
"Trust takes time to earn Captain, Abborax left something of a lasting impression," she said tactfully.
"Indeed, he has, in fact, left his mark on a great many," Remas nodded, and then gestured to Jolani. "Might I introduce the finest flier I have had the pleasure to meet. This is Jolani Kohnar, my Chief Flight Officer. She as well is a trained fighter pilot, as are yourself as I recall?"
"Really?" Kella said, looking at Jolani with violet eyes. "What'd you fly?"
Flying was something that Jolani would readily speak about. She smiled easily and said, "It would be easier to tell you what I have not flown. Obviously, I fly this ship. I have flown Ambassadors, Vestas, Lunas, and even an old Constellation. If the ship can go from point A to point B in space, I'm more than certain I can handle it."
"They sound...fancy," Kella said, a subtle shift in her facial expression. "I was the pilot for the Suma, the Caledon Federation's first warp ship. Before that I was flying Skriv's at low altitude through the Cauldron, dodging Lishiti flak and their half-arsed fliers. 300 combat sorties, 20 confirmed aerial kills."
And so the combat aviator's measure stick was brought out.
"Killing is something that the Federation of Planets frowns upon. Most of our missions involve exploration or unexplained phenomenon," Jolani explained. "However, that does not mean that I could not dodge between photons," she replied proudly. "I would more than enjoy taking out one of your ships and comparing skill versus skill. Do you have a course for doing such things?"
"There's a place along the western slopes of The Cauldron called The Rake, three massive cracks in the crater wall leading into the wastes. The first two are wide enough to send a transport plane through, the last one is narrow. Its a mark of skill to say you've flown through the Rake and left no sign you were ever there," Kella said with a grin. "And sorry to say I didn't pack a Skriv in my personal mass allowance for the Suma, something about nothing under a few kilos. A Skriv weighs in with three ramscoop jet engines, smart poly alloy wings, and enough internal ordinance to send a Lishti off to his great journey along with a dozen square meters of the surrounding environment. But if you have something to fly here, shouldn't be a problem for me to learn. Jet's a jet, right?"
Jolani grinned at that. "We have shuttlecraft, yes. Not sure at your dimensions for your Skriv but I should like to take a look at it and compare to our shuttle. Either way, I'd love to give it a go. Care to take a look at our craft?"
"I'm sure I've got a picture of one stashed on my personal data spike," Kella said with a smile. "And a shuttle you say? Sounds...fast. I mean it gets you around I guess. And I would definitely like that, I wasn't one for these social events. Too much conversation, not enough action please."
"There is faster back home, but they will likely suffice," Jolani answered. "I agree with your statement that there's too much conversation. Would you like to take a look at the shuttle?"
"I would," Kella said, but looked at Remas for a second.
"I bid you take your leave. No flying around mind, just show and tell," Remas said to Jolani.
Dinui walked in humming softly, as she moved the dress she wore changed slightly from royal blue, to a cherry blossom red, to an emerald green; the choker at her throat was the control for the changes in design and color all linked to the tones, pitch in her voice. Since she was using various pitches while humming it kept changing. She stopped humming once she had found the Captain and the Long jump project director. She smiled up at them and did a slight bow, her dress in emerald green hue as she spoke softly, "Good evening Captain and Director Kasmir."
"Miss Loche," Remas beamed, moving their conversation away from the two pilots. "Must be nice to have a moment to your self to ponder all that we've experienced thus fa-"
"Have you attempted to make any study of the gateway we passed through?" Kasmir cut in, looking apologetically at her husband. "You cannot pretend your curiosity is not as keenly honed as my own. All of the readings from the sensors in my lab suggest the method of transport was, if not akin, then a direct application of a refined Phase Space acceleration! If so, and if some means of using the gates was to come to us, we could shave years off the Long Jump Project's time table for Messier 4! We'd not have to build an accelerator on this side of the connection, merely co-opt the existing gateway. Possibly create some sort of homing beacon for incoming transits to lock onto from the Milky Way."
"To the point of things as always," Remas smiled charitably.
Dinui smiled, "Aye still compilin' data once Ah've more concrete information, Ah can give a better report, Director Kasmir." If the Captain hadn't requested she attend the party she would actually be working on that very thing but the request had been made so here she was. Besides, she didn't get to dress up and have fun all that often so when she did get to she wanted to enjoy it for all it was worth.
"Excellent! I knew a more advance civilisation would use Phase Space as a transport medium, but over such short distances the error correction alone must stack up to the xeobyte per second range," Zado said with a grin.
Dinui nodded softly, "Ah'll keep ye posted on progress." She would look forward to learning more and sharing the knowledge gained.
Chet spotted the girl in the color changing dress and found himself so impressed, he simply had to tell her so. “Wow!” He said as he approached. “That’s some kind of dress! Wish I could make my suit do that!”
Dinui looked up at the Doctor, smiling as she touched the choker at her throat, Making the dress change from emerald green to royal blue, "Ah can, share the secret wi' ye for next party iffen ye wish? Though Doctor O'Hamlin, I donna think ye need the help to look dashing." she added in a compliment to his own implied about her dresses.
“Aw shucks,” replied Chet, feigning embarrassment. “You really think so?”
"And thus the real reason we all joined Starfleet, for the dashing man in uniform strikes a certain appeal," Remas said with a chuckle. "Its nice to see my two new department heads getting along so well How are you settling into the role Dr O'Hamlin?"
Dinui laughed softly the dress shifted between the royal blue and cherry blossom red, to the royal blue again, "No' the uniform Ah joined fo' was to better me knowledge, the uniform be just a bonus." She said with a cheeky grin.
"Just fine, thank you, sir," Chet answered the Captain's question. "If I'd known there would be so much desk work, I may have refused the promotion," he added with a grin.
"Said the same thing when I took the promotion to Captain. Thought I'd die of death, and yet here I am as constant as the speed of light," Remas grinned. "I have had no call to regret my choice."
"Regretting your current temporal happenstance is not a wise course of action given the linear nature of subjective reality."
The violet fretwork sphere of the second non-humanoid to flee Abborax's ship. At a meter wide, the alien intelligence called Riser emitted a faint ethereal glow at the tangled mass of its core. The word's it spoke seemed to arise from a chuttering chorus of wind chimes.
"I am mingling through your crew, learning what they feel free to speak to me of. You represent a great many with your collective sociopolitical block. It is a feat not many could achieve, not even my own Sentient Five Nexus," the spherical crystalline being sang. "We are five currently, but a time ago there were six."
Dinui nodded softly as she heard the violet hued sphereoid guest, she wanted to ask what happened to the sixth but didn't want to risk an upset during the gathering. She instead chose to find out what it would prefer to be addressed as for the moment, "Wha' be ye'r name iffen I may ask?" She gestured to herself, "Dinui be me own name."
"And I'm known as Chet," Chet offered. "Or Doctor O'Hamlin if you prefer formalities."
"My name is not something pronounceable with your vocal sub-organs. Though I have found the name Chaser Of Enlightened Thought Through Dawns Early Rising to be a passing translation. I am told 'Riser' is shorthand extended to friends, so please feel free to refer to me as such." As Riser spoke, branching fronds shifted to and fro within the crystal matrix of its body. A vast swarm of these fronds pushed up against the side of the crystal, leaving into a mesh.
"Would I be correct in thinking you are a doctor of medicine, and not a doctor of the sciences Dr O'Hamlin? It has been a considerable time since I have had the opportunity to speak with someone of a more theoretical background."
"Medical doctor, yes," answered Chet. "And I don't think I've ever spoken to anyone quite like you. I have so many questions that I just can't quite put into words...."
"Then I will attempt to answer your unspeakable question. I am not a crystalline being comprised of silicon as a base. I am instead metallic in base, as you are carbon. My people exist within the metallic hydrogen cores of Gas Giants. This crystal sphereiod is an outer shell designed to allow me to exist beyond the normal pressure variances of my homeworld. Were it to crack, or suffer grave damage, the risk to your ship's hull would be significant." Riser said conversationally. "I have been part of the Myriad Abborax's retinue for a short period of time, one gets used to being asked the same questions repeatedly over a century."
Dinui held off on her next question for 'Riser' since they had started a more in depth conversation with the Doctor, and it was rude to interrupt. So she decided to take a few steps away from the group and see if any of the others they had removed from Abborax's ship along with their wayward CEO.
As Dinui step aside, she over heard one of the attendants at the buffet table politely pointing out that the candles were for show and not for eating. This warning was leveled at a blue stripped humanoid in a garhish assortment of bold colours, whose mouth was currently waxed filled. He seemed to complimenting the waiter on the excellent taste in nibbles.
The doors to the room opened and Arivek slowly walked in. Clad in his usual duty uniform, the hologram stepped into the party, though he didn't feel in the mood to celebrate. Despite this, he was given an order, and the last thing he wanted to do was refuse. Especially with tension still being so high between him and the rest of the crew.
"I'd offer you a drink," a woman with a sharp chin and white grey hair pulled back in a tight bun stepped up to Ari's side. She was an engineer, working in the replicator fabrication section. The last time he had seen her, her eyes had been daggers of hatred for his callousness.
Patience Dumont, widow of Chief Engineer Daton the past CEO of the USS Traveller.
She took a sip from her own glass, pursing her lips and then smiled.
"Thought I'd have a speech or something to lay on you. Something pithy, maybe a little scathing. But ultimately memorable," Patience said, not looking at Ari, her voice calm and conversational without a hint of fire to it. "But six months of all of this...it gets heavy, carrying it around. And every step gets a little harder to take, until you have to dig into the anger you were carrying around for someone else and begin to consume it just to keep going. Do you know what I mean?"
"Oddly enough, I do," he said, not looking to the woman who stood next to him. "If it helps, I find emotions to be misleading and meddling. Sometimes it's better to pretend they don't exist at all."
Patience chuckled.
"I hated you for such a long time because you were like that. Daton wasn't even dead a ten hours, and already you'd moved on. I thought that made you heartless, a machine," she said without a trace of heat to her words. "Now, ironically, I was almost right. Except you're not a AI or a program. You just care about something a lot bigger than one person."
She tapped her foot against the deck, signifying the Traveller.
"Am I right?"
For once, Arivek looked at the woman. "Such an odd feeling, when someone understands you. For you're correct, my purpose in life, both my first life and this second life, has been to focus on something bigger than just you and me. Even bigger than just this ship. This mission, our mission, is the advancement of our people and the fulfillment of knowledge. I can't see much past that sometimes. Even when it leads to hurting people or getting myself into trouble."
"But that's why you're not out here in a one person shuttle pod. A team, a crew, backs each other up and gets the work done. And in that regard, we've not been a good crew to you," Pat said slowly, a little bit of the tooth pulling reluctance of past conversations coming to her voice.
"The reverse would also be true," he said. "I haven't been the best either." He stood there for a moment, clearly mulling something over in his head. "I want to say..." He took a deep breath. "I want to say I'm sorry about Daton's passing. Despite what it may seem, he and I worked closely together in the past and he was a fantastic engineer. And I know he loved you both very much. Sometimes I think that I'm too used to loss, and so it has made me callous to the loss of others. For that, I'm very sorry."
“I don’t think apologies for either one of us will make up for what was said or done. But...we can at least move on from here,” Pat said. “I don’t think either of us will ever be best friends, to aim for such would be a fools dream. But this ship deserves us at our best. Deserves a good Chief at the helm with a crew who has respect for him. I can work on improving that aspect at least.”
"And I can improve being a Chief worthy of your respect," Ari said.
“Art of a good compromise, is everyone get’s something they want out of the deal,” Pat said.
Shadi forced her way through the crowd, hissing and swearing in Saurian at every step, until she found Remas standing among a crowd of party-goers.
"Captain Remas!" Her temperament was borderline angst. "I was told Mazarian would be present, yet I cannot find him anywhere. Where isss he?"
"I was told he was preparing something for us, a gift or boon," Remas said with a smile. "You look tense Shadi, what baffles you?"
Shadi looked around for eavesdroppers before leaning in close to hiss into Remas' ear. "Do you remember when Abborax brought Mazarian aboard? We made love, Captain Remas, sweet, pounding love, like when the Blood Goddess fucked the ground into the epic, volcanic climax that birthed the ashen plains of my foremothers." Her hiss peaked into a whispering shriek. "And I bore him an egg! I wanted to tell him tonight, but I can't find him anywhere..."
“That...is...a lot to unpack,” Remas said after a moment. He seemed to recall a diplomatic briefing he had had to attend that spoke on this very subject. The bright red stop signs that flashed in the air as the orator used holographic aid’s to underline their stance on the subject still blinked in his mind.
So stunned into memory and out of carriage of his train of thought, he did not notice the arrival of Mazarian. Which at a sizable length of 5 meters from the tip of his tail to his angular serpentine head was a feat in and of itself. He still bore a number of medical patches along his caramel coloured scales. He was dressed in a similar arrangement to how he had wandered off of Abborax’s shuttle, the garment reminiscent of a waistcoat shouldered by his upper set of limbs.
Shadi gasped in a trembling and barely constrained awe. "Mazarian..."
“Ahh, Captain McDonald, I am sorry for my tardiness,” he said in his sibilant voice.
“No harm has been had,” Remas said with a formal stiffness to his words. “But, first before we say anything more...Shadi?”
Shadi began stammering in a glottal cluster of clicks, hisses, and snorts. "What I mean to say," she managed to get out at last, "is that it's good to see you up and around. I've missed you. And... well..." The Saurian's big, black eyes darted to the floor. "... there's sssomething I'd better tell you."
Her toe pivoted to and fro onto the floor, inviting a question or, if she were lucky, a compliment.
Before the reptilian could continue, Arivek walked up to the group. “Good evening Captain,” he said, nodding to Remas. “And Lieutenant Shadi.” He turned to the woman, “How’s your egg doing? I’m sure you and the father are quite proud.”
Shadi trembled with rage, her frothing mouth twitching in apoplexy-smothered profanity. The audacity. The betrayal. The ruthlessness!
"You..."
Her scaly hands curled into fists. Drops of blood dripped onto the floor as her fists shook with the contraction of her claws. Just when it seemed she could shake no harder, she thrust a talon in Ari's face.
"YOU!"
Ari took a step back in surprise.
Both sets of vocal chords were required, which meant unhinging the jaw for greater range. "It wasn't enough that you betrayed us! Not enough that you left us without a prayer! Not enough that you won't delete your worthless program and rid usss of your disgrace!" Shadi shrieked in fury and tore her ballroom gown to shreds, preparing to fight. "YOU HAD TO GO AND SPOIL THE GREATEST DAY OF MY LIFE!!!"
The naked Saurian lunged at Arivek, all four extremities extended in a whirlwind of razor sharp claws. She passed through Arivek without incident, though the shambles made of the refreshment table would terrify any mortal adversary.
"Starvation take you!" she cried out from a pile of upturned pâté trays.
"I don't understand," Arivek said, his confusion obvious as he turned to look at the reptile. "What's wrong? I thought this was a happy time for you." Taking a few steps forward, he reached his hand out to help her to her feet.
Meanwhile in the background, Mazarian and Remas shared a look that crossed the gulf of space, culture and species to unite them as no other sensation could: neither was paid enough for this. This attitude of solemn comradery was only exacerbated as Bar’soon, wax still dripping from his chin, pumpkin chucked a bowl of punch onto the destroyed table.
“This is what my people call a proper ‘rager’!” the striped blue alien said delightfully. He looked at Ari. “Aren’t you going to throw something? Everyone should throw something, your king demands it!”
The half-empty punch bowl flew across the room and struck Bar'soon in the head. Shadi snarled in getting up to her feet, ignoring Arivek's helping hand in the process.
"You are no starving king," she said to Bar'soon, "and he is not even a starving person." She pointed again at Arivek. "And I have never been so humiliated!" She covered her scaly face with her hands and ran out of the room in sobbing retreat. The tatters of her torn gown trailed from her garters in a train of misery.
"Well..." Remas said into the tense silence. "...that could have gone better."
Dinui was shocked into stillness, her eyes wide as the scene with Shadi and Ari played out, then as Shadi ran past her and out of the room she blinked and shook her head, "Ah'm thinkin' she would be needin' a friend Ah donna know her well but iffen none other will check on her Ah'll excuse meself an' try."
Ari walked back towards Remas and Mazarian, shrugging his shoulders, "What did I do?" he asked, in a quiet voice.
"Make a decision many before have made in your place," Mazarian said. "The Myriad are masters of the art of manipulation, be it subtle or overt. Their words are a poison very few have the ability to withstand. You are fortunate to have survived the experience to weather such scorn. Allow me to place a salve upon your wounded dignity."
Mazarian reached into a pocket of his waistcoat and pulled out a lender diamond shaped wafer.
"My gift, to you and your crew Captain Remas," Mazarian said with a smile on his lipless mouth. "Encoded into the DNA of this scale, you will find encoded a star chart of Messier 4 created by my people. It is incomplete, but when one of us is charged with accompanying a Myriad on their travels we have a chance to improve the quality of it. There are also some notes there compiled by our finest scholars on the nature of the Myriad, and of the Prior Whisper Gates by which they have control of us. It is a small price to pay for my own freedom, and potentially my peoples as well."
"It is a prize to us we could never repay," Remas said. He looked around at the others there as he took the diamond wafer. "This is our beginning now, this is how we begin anew. Abborax and the Myriad suckered punched us but good the moment we arrived. But with this, we can think larger now. We arrive in Beacon tomorrow, and from there we will chart a course out of this. We can take the initiative and plan what we need to do secure a future for the Federation in Messier 4."
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