A Proper Shindig
Posted on Tue Oct 24th, 2017 @ 10:38pm by Captain Remas McDonald & Lieutenant Commander Shadi Zatra
3,346 words; about a 17 minute read
Mission:
S1: These Are The Voyages...
Location: RecDeck, USS Traveller
Timeline: MD 1 18.00
“I swear this thing was made in committee by sadists,” Remas muttered as he tugged on the collar of his dress uniform. The material itched, the fitting was tight, and it was just one degree or so past overly warm. Given it was the 25th Century, something like this could never have been made by accident with so much computer oversight.
Somewhere, out there, a tailor was having his revenge.
“Oh I don’t know, I think it makes you look dashing. The sword is a nice touch by the way.”
Remas smiled, subconsciously putting a hand on the pommel of the sword belted around his waist. It was a cultural affectation he’d fought long and hard on retaining, even if only on a ceremonial level, but his father’s sword was a welcome weight on his hip. Archaic to most, to a member of the Wandering Rish it was the ideal tool to repel boarders. After all, a phaser could be dampened and a shield broke through, but folded titanium kept an edge forever and cut most things the wrong way.
“Well, I need something to weigh down my arm if I couldn’t drag you away from subspace calculus and all those fine young lads and lassies you have manning the ‘I Forgot To Tell You Something’,” Remas joked, looking across the turbolift to Kasmir. Elegant, graceful, delicate: these were but words when placed at the feet of the Bolian physicist. Though they could be attributed to her mind as well, she was in Remas’s estimation the perfect soul. She was dressed, it appeared, in solidarity to his own enforced entombment in a dress uniform. Save that her colours were a white jacket with a brilliant sapphire coloured undershirt.
Her face wrinkled in distaste.
“That is a truly awful name for a vessel Remas,” she chided as her eye glanced at the turbolift display.
“It's a name of pride and endurance among the Rish. One of the first homesteader ships to take a different path from the original colony vessel. Still flying around I think, out past Vulcan as I recall. I intend to return home with the name Traveller as equally storied,” he grinned.
“You know, all those years ago when I said we should elope I never thought you’d live up to your word ‘to any star that can be seen’,” she smiled at him.
“First we get through the party, and then we can get to the matter of making our lives as storied as any ballad would have it told,” Remas assured her, and taking her arm in his stepped out of the now stilled turbolift and onto the Traveller’s open RecDeck.
With a clever use of spacing, geometry and holograms the Traveller’s RecDeck felt like the plaza levels of a Stardock. There was even the gentlest hint of a breeze, and the scent of foliage playing through the air. The party was being held in the large communal space, a cross between a village green and town square. Starfleet officers clustered around each other in dress uniform cordons, and civilian scientists and colonists did the same in more colourful fashions. Remas took a moment to look at them all, his crew and people.
He must have done something very good to have earned this, but he couldn’t imagine what it had been. Kasmir gripped his hand tightly, and the pair entered the fray.
Victor exited the lift with a smile on his face. His dress uniform was as comfortable to him as almost wearing nothing at all, he loved dressing up. He inhaled deeply taking in the scene and scents that surrounded him. A waiter passed him offering a drink which he gladly took. Sipping it he saw the buffet table, he knew where his true calling was at that moment as he slowly began to make his way to it.
Tolkath and Lesai arrived. He in his dress Teal uniform, with Vulcan Science Academy sash accoutrement. Her in a shimmering blue gown of Vulcan silk.
"Do not fiddle with your collar," Leasi told her husband softly from the corner of her mouth in Vulcan.
"I was not doing so" He replied, "I was adjusting the fit, it appears to have shrunk since I last wore it"
"Perhaps it is the wearer who has grown. I cautioned you about consuming an additional portion of Gespar this morning" Lesai said as she gently nudged him with her elbow.
"I do not recall that" Tolkath replied
"Perhaps you should pay more attention to your wife, my husband"
"Perhaps" Tolkath acknowledged "Your gown is not unpleasing."
"I know" She replied, giving him the quickest flash of her eyes, "Let us mingle"
Shadi burst through the entrance in a huff. How did anybody expect to move around dressed like this? The door hissed closed behind her. When she tried to take another step, she found herself held fast. The frills on her ballroom gown swayed to and fro as she fought against the train which got stuck in the door behind her. A harsh rip tore the fabric, sending her off balance.
"Famine," she hissed. She snikt her talons through her long silk gloves to tear herself free. Hopefully, nobody would notice, but Shadi knew all too well the vanity of the warm-bloods and their clothing standards. She did her best to disappear into the crowd.
"If you'll excuse me," Remas said, parting ways from Kasmir as a pair of Bynar observers stepped closer to discuss a subject matter far in excess of Remas's own engineering talents. He stepped through the crowd, patting shoulders and shaking hands and offering small congratulations where needed. His crew, he hoped, knew of their pride their captain had in them. Even the oddly dressed Saurian.
Remas found his way to one of the serving tables were platters of replicated finger food and nibbles suitable for all the species and dietary requirements present. There a rather rotund man in a dress uniform doing its best to hold back the final frontier stood, wiggling fingers from one plate to another as he loaded a small sampling plate if a lot of everything.
"Mister Jenkins?" Remas enquired, shocking the man out of his dilemma over the Bolian devilled eggs or the pigs in blankets. "Where's Chief Daton? I expected him to be attending here tonight as the Chief Engineer of the Traveller? I think my words were 'all command staff'."
Leroy Jenkins, assistant chief engineer and career gourmet quickly chewed and swallowed his mouthful of canapes.
"I, er...I think he had to check up on something. A diagnostic report indicated a power relay was malfunctioning, and you know how Chief Daton likes going over the small details," Jenkins said quickly, the plate of nibbles wobbling in his hands. "I don't think it'll take him all that much time to sort out. It's only a relay after all. Probably misaligned by the Op's team sent to fix it."
"Aye, well we'll see won't we?" Remas said, eyes already tracking away from Jenkins and glancing around the party. "Have you seeing Arivek? I asked him to be here as well, but it appears I'm suffering a mutiny if Engineers at the moment."
"Well I'm here for you Sir," Jenkins said, waggling his plate. "Care for a Bajoran cream puff?"
Remas smiled, looking over Jenkin's thinning dome of hair for something to distract him from the conversation.
Across the room at another table Victor crept up to the buffet table like a predator stalking it's prey. He nonchalantly grabbed a plate intended for small portions and proceeded to stack it high with anything he could grab. Be it Vulcan, Andorian, Tellaraite, or Bajoran he intended to eat it all. He decided he would start though with a simple oyster.
He brought it up to his lips as they quivered with anticipation of the deliciousness that was nigh. Looking around as if he were a child grabbing a cookie before dinner, he proceeded to slurp the oyster, attracting the attention of several people nearby. They looked on in disgust as he took entirely too long to eat the Earth delicacy and he was sure to display his enjoyment of every moment of it. Once finished, a time that seemed to take forever to arrive for the nearby guests, he smacked his lips and exhaled sharply.
"Hmm, damn good if I do say so myself." he said seemingly to no one. A Vulcan who stared at him throughout his oyster ordeal finally reacted and, while making eye contact, pointed to his lower face as to indicate he had some oyster on his chin. Despite they're not showing emotion, Victor could tell this man was particularly revolted. He smiled a toothy grin full of oyster remnants and he wiped his chin and proceeded to grab another oyster forgetting entirely of his tower plate of cuisine.
"Those smell orgasmic!" Shadi blurted out as she sidled up to Victor. "I must devour them!" Her shredded silk gloves dripped with oyster juices as she held two fistfuls up to her nose slits. "So... very... devilish," she said between three deep sniffs. Her forked tongue flicked out like a rapid-fire grappling hook.
"I'm Shadi," she said to Victor between swallowing oysters in single bites. "Nice to meet you."
Victor smiled at the fact he wasn't the only lewd eater here."Victor Reynolds, pleasure." he said as he loudly chewed on a Tellerite sandwich. Despite the eating, his uniform remained spotless, a testament to many formal gatherings and gorging.
"You both are absolutely revolting," a third voice chimed in from behind the large man. Arivek Zhuri stepped around, almost having appeared out of thin air. He looked at the two individuals with disgust. "Did they not teach either of you manners at the Academy?"
Shadi sniffed the air in front of Ari. "You don't smell right." Her slit eyes danced with reflections from the party's lighting. "Bolians usually smell like soup. You smell like an electrical fire. Did the Academy not teach you hygiene?"
"Judging by your biological makeup, I highly doubt the scent you smell from me has anything to do with my hygiene and more to do with my own biological makeup," Arivek said, crossing his hands behind his back.
Shadi spread her lipless mouth in a wide-fanged smile. "How tasty of you to notice my makeup," she said with a swish of her gown. "Very well, you're forgiven."
"Ari!" Remas said, bopping up on his feet a little as the crowd momentarily swelled like a wave. The commanding officer of the Traveller popped out of the wall of people and into the dubious protection of a flotilla of officers and...a Saurian in a dress. Today was full of surprises.
"Thought you'd left me high and dry friend," Remas said to Ari with a beaming smile. "Seems' you're the only Engineer of note who managed to make it to the party without finding a power relay to plead for an excuse."
"You asked me to attend, why woulnd't I?" he asked, looking actually confused by the break in logic. "And please tell me Daton isn't touching the power relays. I specifically told him that any maintenance or repairs to the Traveller have to be approved and handled by me and my team."
"I imagine the man is under the impression on the eve of departure it's more his ship than yours. But Jenkin's was just telling me it was a minor problem with a power relay, shouldn't delay him by more than a few minutes," Remas said by way of explanation. "Now, about the rest of the evening, I don't want you to worry you won't have to say a thing. Just stand and accept the well-earned applause."
Perhaps I should have brought the Fendi, Lieutenant Colette Bache-Gabrielsen thought to herself, as she stepped off the lift. Colette considered the purse in her hand and mentally shrugged. The Fendi might have gone better with the red, above the knee cocktail dress she was wearing (with her left shoulder stylishly exposed), but she had left it in her quarters. Still, it didn't matter. As her grandmother was wont to say, if you have the right attitude, whatever you're wearing when you walk out onto the floor, is always in style.
With that thought firmly in her mind, Colette gave her hair a quick toss before striding out onto the floor of the Recreational Deck.
"Help yourself Cap'n. You should to uhhhh..." Victor said as he chomped down another food item before continuing,"I didn't catch your name." he finished as he offered the man, who called him and his new friend Shadi revolting, a sandwich covered in various food juices and fragments.
Arivek recoiled slightly from the gruesome food being offered to him. "Starvation wouldn't even bring me to eat. that or anything else from your plate," he said.
As if summoned by an unseen hand, Jenkins made his appearance besides Victor. He leaned over, straining the dress uniform further still, and inspected the collection of foodstuffs there.
"Have you tried the Andorian crab cakes? Just a hint of dill?" he asked conversationally, before noticing Ari and Sahdi. "OH! I know you two, Operations? Right? I have a thing for faces, my last CO said as much. I'm the Assistant Chief Engineer of the Traveller."
Jenkin's held out a hand to shake, still holding the aforementioned Andorian crab cake on a little skewer.
"Victor." he swallowed hard "Reynolds, Chief of Security." Victor said between bites extending his hand still covered in fragments of food and shaking Jenkins' hand.
"I would introduce myself but I wouldn't want to strain your minds with information that will prove to be irrelevant once the Traveller launches," Arivek said in response.
TAG Ari/Shadi
The turbolift behind Colette opened again, but instead of a guest in fine attire or an officer in dress whites, a tall broad-shouldered engineer in overalls stepped out. Thick black hair, dark skin, the classic bruiser's physique that made people assume security even though he carried an engineer's toolkit.
But the eyes...they belonged to a predator and a proud one at that.
He looked across the large expanse of the RecDeck and its holographic comforts and booths, scanning the faces of the assembled for the one he sought. There was the human captain with one of his targets, to well protected. His eyes scanned back for...ah ha, the Bolian female. The architect of this heinous project to see Federation assimilation stretch out like a cloying cloud of smoke to blacken the stars of other galaxies.
The Warrior in Engineers coveralls strode purposefully towards his target, pushing past Colette so single-minded was his focus.
Collette stumbled, righted herself, then nonchalantly pulled out a phaser and fired at the warrior, point blank. He fell to the deck, unconscious
Victor heard the commotion and whipped around in time to see the engineer hit the deck hard, the woman behind him holding a phaser. He slapped his comm badge and started to move while handing off the plate to Jenkins, "Reynolds to security, intruder alert!" he shouted while getting between the assailant's line of fire and the Captain. From seemingly out of nowhere Victor pulled a phaser and aimed it at the woman not recognizing her."Drop it!" he ordered.
Remas pushed his way through the milling crowd of now very excited and alarmed souls. Victor had tried his best to keep him covered but the Rish was no wilting violet. He eyed the phaser in Victor's hands, and then looked over to the form of Doctor Bache-Gabrielsen. He rapped a knuckle against the hilt of his sword.
"Well don't I feel underdressed?" he muttered, stepping beside the Security chief and kicking the toolkit out of the man's hand. As he did so it opened, spilling out the jagged blade of a ceremonial Klingon dagger.
"Chief Reynolds I want Director Kasmir in a safe place now, under guard. And at the same time I want our friend to be our first guest in the brig," he growled. He then looked at Colette. "It would seem I owe you a debt and a question about where you kept a phaser in that dress."
"Yes sir." Vic replied as his security team arrived,"Take the Director to their quarters, site to site transport and no one gets in or out without my express permission."
"Yes sir!" they replied in unison as they enacted his orders.
"As for you." Vic said as he bent down to take a look at their wannabe assassin. "Reynolds to transporter room, lock onto the perp and beam them to the brig please."
"Right away sir." replied the transporter chief as the man de-materialized. "Rest of my security team, safe guard the guests. I want sentries posted up at all entrances and exits to this deck as well as all vital areas now." as his teams began to move he turned to the Captain."Sir, is there anything I missed?"
Shadi rent her ballroom gown clean from her body, rendering herself naked as the day is long. "Foul beasts, I shall feast on your bone marrow this night!" Her talons extended from either hand as she held them at the ready while her head turned back and forth in search of additional assailants.
Arivek sighed, placing his head in his hand. "This is an absolute circus," he said under his breath as he made his way over to the commotion.
Tolkath and Lesai broke off a discussion with a group of Vulcan Science Academy observers as soon as the incident occurred. Following her husband, Lesai moved quickly across the room. A crewman was being restrained by security. She stayed back and observed, her keen intellect disking up the scene. There was something not quite right about the assailant.
He looked human but something was wrong, at first, she was puzzled as to what was strange about him. She drew in a deep breath as she wondered the conundrum, then it came to her.
She leaned into to Tolkath and said something quietly in Vulcan to him. He turned and raised an eyebrow quizzically, she nodded to him emphatically and he accepted her supposition. " I will inform the Captain" He replied.
As the assailant was transported away he approached McDonald and Reynolds. "I am thankfully nobody was injured," He said "Captain, this may sound strange but Lesai is sure the man is not whom he appears To be precise, he looks human, but he does not smell human."
He looked at McDonald and Reynolds "Vulcans have... more developed ... nasal senses than many species. Humans have a certain...odour... to us. This "man" does not smell right"
"I'm gonna take your word as more than folksy Vulcan wisdom," Remas began but before he could say anything else his combadge began to chirp at him. He reached up to swat at it, a little of the irritation of the evening getting to him. "McDonald here."
"Daton here, and I think i'm looking at a-"
The combadge went dead as the deck rocked under foot and lights flickered, the holographic finery of the RecDeck suddenly winking out to be replaced by flashing red alert signage.
"Crew alert, crew alert. An explosion on deck 10, secondary power relay room. All damage control teams to ready stations, this is not a drill," the computer's neutral tone informed the guests.
Remas looked at the assembled officers near him.
"Tolkath, Reynolds: get to the brig and get me answers," he said, pointing at his science officer and security chief.
"Ari, Shadi you and I are going to deck 10. There's work to do," he said to the other two, as he slipped out of his dress uniform jacket and handed it to Shadi. "No point burning scales if this flippant finery can take the heat."
"Let's work the problem people, let's be about it."
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