Diplomatic Entanglements

Posted on 22 Nov 2023 @ 5:18pm by Captain Bane Plase & Lieutenant Commander Temerant Bast

1,966 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Outbreak

Ambassador Brandeur Lochees Kilvin poked his head out of his office and looked out into the bullpen, where his staff was supposed to be working, but found the pen to be completely deserted.

Well, not completely, there was one young girl there. Probably younger than even his son, which was saying something. Well.... Maybe not that young, considering that his son was now Chief of Operations on a Nebula-class starship. But still, the girl was young.

"Where is my staff?" he asked.

The young Bajoran girl looked flustered. Truth be told, she looked as scared as a young doe standing in the sights of a Gorn predator. "Admiral Brexx wants to talk to you," she said simply, sidestepping the question.

"Now?" asked Kilvin, raising an eyebrow.

"He said as soon as you were available." The young woman seemed very interested in staring at her toes.

Kilvin looked at her as if he was seeing her for the first time. "Your name is Rishon," he stated.

"Maratet," she corrected. "Mattie, for short."

"What's going on?" he asked, looking around at the empty desks.

"We know as little as you do," she countered. She looked absolutely terrified by the Ambassador. It was true he had a reputation for having a bit of a temper, but certainly it couldn't be that bad, he thought.

"Really?" The second eyebrow joined the first one, higher up on his forehead.

"Almost as little as you do," she conceded.

"Which part do you know that I don't?"

"You should speak to the Admiral," she prompted.

"Where's Kiran?" He needed to speak to his assistant to sort things out.

"There's no one who works here named Kiran."

"My assistant." He could feel the frustration beginning to build.

"I'm your assistant," she said.

"You're Rishon."

"Maratet. I'll let the Admiral's yeoman know you're on your way," she added quickly, eager to put an end to this conversation.

"Her name is Rishon," said Kilvin with a sudden realization.

"There's no one named Rishon," countered the young assistant. "No one," she repeated, upon seeing the look of protest materializing on his face.

The look turned to confusion as he turned and walked toward the door. "All right," he said finally.

"Maratet to Amara," said the Bajoran girl as she tapped her console to activate the comm once the doors had closed behind Kilvin. "The Ambassador is on his way."

- - - - - - - -

Rear Admiral Brexx's office was large and opulent, lavishly decorated, giving Kilvin the sense that the Admiral loved to occupy this space a lot more than he enjoyed being out of it , or, say, on a ship somewhere, out in the field. The Rear Admiral enjoyed his desk job, and had a somewhat overinflated sense of self-importance, if the décor was anything to go by.

He'd just spent the last fifteen minutes detailing the problems with the Cygnus's First Contact mission at Antioch, apparently oblivious to the fact that Kilvin already knew every detail because his son was the Chief of Operations on that ship, and they had discussed the matter the previous evening. Kilvin had tried to cut off the Admiral's tirade not once, not twice, but no less than four times, but apparently the Bolian Admiral also loved the sound of his own voice, and so Kilvin had ultimately decided to let him rant on. But as the clock now approached lunchtime, Kilvin stood from the chair opposite Brexx's massive mahogany desk and raised a hand.

"Admiral," he said. "I have already cleared the matter with the Federation Council. We are petitioning Starfleet to assign a medical frigate for immediate assistance to Antioch. And once that intervention is complete, we are also requisitioning the Starfleet Corps of Engineers to provide assistance to the people of Antioch in rebuilding their infrastructure, in an attempt to rebuild the nascent relationship between their world and the Federation."

Brexx was silent, apparently torn between anger at being interrupted, anger at having resources pulled without his knowledge, and anger at a plan being formulated and discussed without his approval. In the end, anger came out on top.

"Who the frak do you think you are," blurted out the Bolian, "deciding where and when ships from my Fleet should be assigned? I'll have you know that the medical frigate you plan on sending to that backwater planet was already committed to delivering gaulivantric vaccines to Largolia Prime, a six-week journey. And the SCE garrison is out helping to rebuild the power distribution center in Acamar III that was damaged in the seismic tremors last month!"

"The gaulivantric 'plague' is nothing more than a parasitic infection affecting people over the age of a hundred and twenty," Kilvin countered, "and merely causes urinary incontinence, which already affects over a third of the population at that age, and which can be countered by using water filtration systems, hardly more important than helping out a planet dealing with a plague that has wiped out nearly a fifth of their population. And the power distribution center on Acamar should be operational within three weeks, giving the USS Bell more than enough time to reach Antioch."

Brexx opened his mouth to protest, but Kilvin kept going.

"This matter has already been discussed between Federation President Chekov and Fleet Admiral T'Laris. All that is needed is your thumbprint confirming the mission orders for the USS Fleming."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

It had taken some more sweet-talking to bring Brexx down from his high horses, but Kilvin had agreed to some concessions to ease the Rear Admiral's wounded pride. Certainly the Cygnus crew would come under harsh scrutiny and might have to face dire consequences for the outcome of this disastrous First contact, but in the end the goal of helping the Antiocian people had emerged as the top priority. Brexx was not happy, and he'd taken it out on Kilvin's staff, which was why the bullpen had been deserted that morning.

Kilvin walked back into his office, and activated the comm system.

"Computer, open a secure channel. Captain Bane Plase, USS Cygnus."

"Working," said the computer.

**********

On Antioch III, inside the quarters that had been afforded him in the Palace of the Tashi, Bane startled awake. The comm channel was blinking at him, a message from Starfleet Command. The Cygnus must have routed it down. Strange though, they did not let him know who was on the line. Quickly looking at the clock on the wall, he had been asleep for almost three hours. Looking down briefly to make sure he was decent, he tapped the command to open the frequency. "This is Captain Bane."

"Captain, this is Ambassador Kilvin. I hope I'm not catching you at a bad time," came the Trill Ambassador's voice, oblivious to the time differential between Starbase 12 and Antioch - it was lunchtime on the base, but the middle of the night on Antioch. "Can you speak freely?"

It was unusual for an Ambassador to contact a ship captain directly. Generally speaking, an Ambassador would approach the Federation Council, who would in turn contact the Admiralty, who would then contact a ship. This being unusual, it got Bane's attention. Any sleepiness he had been feeling a moment ago was gone. "Just a moment, Mr. Ambassador." Bane then tapped a few commands on his tablet. The screen blinked. When it came back up, there was a red border around the image, denoting the connection was secure. "Yes sir, we can speak freely now. How may I be of service to you?"

"I've been informed that your Chief Medical Officer, along with the Antiocian Healers Guild, has managed to develop a vaccine against the virus that's spreading on Antioch, but you're still short of a treatment for those already affected. I managed to pull a few strings with the Federation Council regarding your situation on Antioch. Starfleet will be dispatching the USS Fleming, a medical frigate, to lend a hand. Once the Fleming has managed to inoculate the population, the Starfleet Corps of Engineers will be dispatching the USS Bell to help rebuild the Antiocian infrastructures that were damaged both by the riots, and by the lack of maintenance attributable to the pandemic. I need you to inform Tashi..." There was a pause while Kilvin searched for the Tashi's name. "Tashi Oromani."

Bane was crestfallen, and it showed. Despite his own personal misgivings about his career and freedom, he had held out a glimmer of hope that he would be able to salvage the situation here in the Antioch Star System enough to keep the brass, if not happy, then at least out of his hair. He finally knew the reason the Ambassador had called upon him instead of Admiral Brexx, or any other Admiral, even some of his friends that had been promoted out of the center seat. People like Savok came to mind. The situation was so bad here, that even Starfleet no longer wanted to deal with him. "I see. I will take care of that as soon as she awakens. It will still be several more hours. It's the middle of the night here."

"Of course," replied Kilvin, not a hint of remorse in his voice. "Our top priority is to maintain the relationship between Antioch and the Federation. I don't need to remind you of the strategic importance of Antioch and its proximity to both Cardassian and Tzenkethi space. Not to mention the fact that we owe it to these people to make things right."

Bane did feel that they had owed it to the people of Antioch to do everything they could. Dr. Elodin and the staff that remained of his on the ship, along with Lieutenant Spangler and his remaining staff, were synthesizing as much of the cure as they could crank out. Ensign Veenak, one of the Operations Officers under Lieutenant Bast worked on organizing transportation sites with the Antiocian government, transporting down batches as they came available. Just about everyone on the ship were focused on helping the Antiocians, and those that were on the planet focused on the same, just in different capacities. For example, Lieutenant Seitha had been working to try and maintain peace and order, and Bast had been working with the Antiocians to reallocate their resources, material and personnel, to critical sectors to keep their government and health sectors manned and operating. "I agree with you, Mr. Ambassador, completely. When do you expect the, um, Fleming and Bell to arrive, so I can share that information with the Tashi. We do not want to add burning plasma to a pile of deuterium. I'd like to give her a heads up."

"They should be ready to head out within the next twelve hours. From there, it's a three-day journey to Antioch."

Bane nodded, pleased with the timetable. It would allow for the Tashi and her government to absorb and digest this new information. With everything going on, and the way the Antiocian civilization was on its proverbial knees right now, it would not be a very big step for them to see additional starships arriving to be a hostile invasion of their world. Bane would need to tread carefully over the next several days to ensure the Antiocians see their good intentions and efforts be nothing more than what they were. "That's perfect. Thank you, Ambassador."

"Keep me informed of the Tashi's response, Captain. The Federation is here to help."



OFF



Bane Plase, Captain
USS Cygnus, Commanding

Ambassador Brandeur Lochees Kilvin
Trill Ambassador to the Federation
Played by Elodin Devan / Temerant Bast

 

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