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Following Part One
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-=Captain's Dining Room: USS Serendipity=-
Watching Trick London serve a tray laden with elaborate hors d'oeuvres to their Strasa guests, Liis lifted her coffee cup to her lips and slowly thanked whatever powers there may be for small miracles.
*Like caffeine.*
It had been a very long day for everyone, and truthfully all she wanted to do was crawl into bed and stay there for a week. She'd missed several physical therapy appointments again and was sure that the LMH would be scolding her any moment, if only he were able to get free from his current discussion with the Strasa leader's entourage.
"Remarkable, can you believe how lifelike his matrix is?" Said Dran, one of what Lank called his "most trusted advisors." Apparently, Lank trusted a lot of people because he'd brought no less than half a dozen other politicians aboard from his small space craft with him, and each had taken their turn enjoying the Sera's amenities as if they had just checked into a five star resort and spa.
Trid, another Strasa advisor, reached out and squeezed Dr. McKay's bicep. "Amazing. The way that he moves from room to room like that. . .I wish that our engineers could get a look at those relays. . ."
"Gentlemen, if you'll excuse me," McKay tried for the eleventh time to end their conversation, and finally, unable to do so, he looked over at the Captain, his eyes begging for a rescue. Zanh set down her cup and moved closer.
"Are you enjoying the food?" Zanh asked, as Trid took another handful of crackers and cheese cubes and stuffed them into his mouth.
"Very much. Thank you."
"Did I hear someone say that there was wine available?" Dran asked.
"Mr. London will see to your beverage requests, if you'll just tell him what you'd like." Zanh said, happy to wave them off. Both men hurried over toward London, and when it became apparent that the barkeep had spirits to serve, the rest of the Strasa delegation made a hasty trip across the room to imbibe as well.
McKay sighed, and tilted his lips toward Zanh's ear. "Good thing we left my emitter locked up tonight."
"Indeed. One of them would likely be trying to figure out how to project a holo-novel with it." Zanh sighed. "Have they stopped talking for a moment? It's so loud in here, my ears are ringing."
"Only when they are asked about how exactly the power failures have occurred," Ensign Tryst approached the Captain and the doctor and spoke softly. "They are very uneasy, Captain, especially with me in the room. At several points when I have stepped out and then returned, I have felt the change in their emotions. They know I'm an empath, and they're not happy about it."
"That means they've sure got somethin' to hide." McKay volunteered.
"I know. I'm going to try to press the matter when they're comfortably seated before a plate with a large piece of meat on it. . ." Zanh concluded.
Overseer Lank approached the assembled group just as Angus MacDougal and his team from the kitchen were laying out the main course on the long banquet table before them.
"A lovely gesture, Captain Zanh. I am certain that after my colleagues and I return to the planet later this evening we will feel much better equipped to handle the current crisis."
*Sure, with a full belly and clean clothes on your back you slimy little. . .* Zanh burned internally, but kept her poker face outwardly.
"It's our pleasure to serve, Resident Overseer." She forced out at last. "Would you care to be seated? Dinner is about to be served."
Lank nodded graciously, and moved toward the table, taking the head seat at the opposite end of the table from the Captain's chair. Another of Lank's associates moved toward Zanh and nodded cordially.
"I have not yet thanked you personally, Captain, or your crew for your generosity toward our people. I am Junior Overseer Blik, and wish to thank you on behalf of all of the people of Stra II for your timely response to our call for help."
"Anything we can do to help, we're happy to do." Zanh responded, nodding in return. "Have you met the rest of the crew here present? May I present to you Doctor Dalton McKay, our long term medical hologram, and Ensign Vol Tryst, Ship's counselor."
Vol felt a chill go through him as the man reached out toward him, and patted him gently on the back.
"Pleased to meet you." the Strasa smiled widely.
For just an instant, Vol thought he felt the sensation of just the slightest poke through his uniform, something penetrating his skin. But it was such a quick sensation, almost like the bite of a small insect which is easily dismissed a moment after it had occurs.
After the Strasa man removed his hand the sensation was gone, and it had all happened so quickly that Vol thought he must be imagining things.
*I must just be feeling the effects of a long day, becoming overwhelmed by all of the conflicting emotions bouncing around in the space surrounding me.* Vol reassured himself. *I just need to focus, I'll be fine.*
"Dinner is served," Trick London announced, and he moved out of the way and allowed Vedek Jariel, who had just returned from checking the status of the Away Teams for the Captain, to pull out Zanh's chair for her.
Zanh Liis allowed this, and smiled at the gesture as she sat, only because she knew that Jariel performed it as her significant other, not as a member of her crew.
She nodded to TC Blane who sat at her right, and he gave her a look that told her he'd rather be marching into battle and facing almost certain death at the hands of a cube full of Borg than sitting through yet another diplomatic dining extravaganza.
"I thought we weren't going to have to do this anymore after we left the big boat." He whispered to her under his breath.
"We must be good at it, Starfleet keeps sending us on these missions. I guess it's the price we pay for being good at our jobs." Zanh whispered back.
"Remind me to insult somebody before the night is out," Blane joked, his ice blue eyes flashing wickedly. "Then maybe next time, Starfleet won't be so anxious for me to join the party."
"I think you could say anything you want to these people including questioning their parentage if you handed them a power supply pack while you did it. . ." Liis replied, her shoulders slumping slightly. "All they seem to care about it getting rewired to their technology."
She permitted everyone a few moments to sample the cuisine before once again trying to direct the conversation toward the situation on the planet- specifically, how the Strasa had gotten into it in the first place. Before speaking, she intentionally dropped her napkin to the floor, knowing that Jariel would reach for it, and she ducked beneath the table cloth quickly as he did and whispered to him.
"Status of the Away Teams?"
He moved his hands in carefully concealed gestures below the table, meant for her eyes only.
[[We are waiting for word from Salvek and the Command Team, as well as Dengar's engineering staff. So far the only thing we've heard for sure is that Micah Samson's science team was flatly refused access to the Weather Modification Net controls in the township outside of the Tower City Complex area when they tried to land. They were asked to leave any emergency supplies they had with the locals and then return to the ship for more.]]
The two returned topside and Jariel handed Zanh her napkin with a flourish, as the Strasa looked on curiously.
"Clumsy me." Zanh remarked, but the easy smile on her face was concealing a deep, inward frown. This was exactly what she had feared might happen. She nodded her thanks to Jariel and then raised her voice to speak. "Resident Overseer,"
Lank took a long sip of his wine before slowly inclining his head and attention toward Zanh's end of the table. "Captain?"
"It's come to my attention that your people on the ground have just turned away my best weather control expert and sent him home to bring back more emergency rations." There was a definite edge now to the calm in Zanh's voice. She watched as Lank's smile evaporated, and he held his fork and knife mid-air as he formulated his response.
Zanh's eyes quickly moved toward Vol Tryst, hoping for some non-verbal cue as to the Overseer's current feelings, but she found that Tryst was staring blankly at the plate of food before him as if he had no clue what to do with it. Utensils frozen in his hands, he looked, for want of a better word, horrified.
Zanh's eyes next met the LMH's, who was sitting beside Vol at the table and had been poking at his plate to appear polite even though he did not require food. The LMH turned to Vol and noted his expression as well.
"You all right, son? You look a little peaked all of a sudden."
"I, I'm not sure. I. . ." Vol felt as if he'd been somehow, suddenly tuned out from the emotions of those around him, and he was trying to convince himself that this was not really happening. "I. . ." He began to feel beads of sweat forming on his brow, and he cleared his throat.
At first it had been like trying to tune in a weak subspace transmission, but now, no matter what he did, he found that the emotions of those around him were as much a mystery to him as they would have been if he were fully Human, instead of half Betazoid.
"Mr. Tryst?" Zanh's eyes flashed concern as she looked at the young Betazoid. He seemed somehow trapped within his own thoughts, unable to articulate what he was feeling. What the hell had just happened to him?
Across the room, there was a loud crash, and the sound of glassware breaking. Zanh looked at Trick London and found that he also looked unwell, but differently so than Tryst. He hurried to begin picking up the shards of the wine glasses and remove them from the room. He was no Counselor, and his own skills as an empath were somewhat rusty because he chose to rely more on the Human part of his heritage than the Betazoid, but something was seriously wrong here, among this group of visitors to their ship, and he would have to make the Captain aware of it, somehow, since it seemed that her early warning system in the person of Vol Tryst was suddenly out of commission.
"Captain, I think we should discuss allocation of resources and personnel more privately, don't you? Can't we discuss it after dinner?" Lank objected.
Vol was feeling worse and worse, and suddenly, felt as if he was suffocating. He had to get out of this room, had to get away from the eyes of those he could not read. . .they were staring at him, he was certain of it, even though he couldn't sense it, he was sure that they were all glaring at him and waiting to see if he was going to make a mistake. . .
"No, I think we should discuss it here. Right now." Zanh said firmly, still glaring at Tryst and hoping he would pull himself together. "Counselor, are you ill?"
"I'm. . .not well Captain, if you would please excuse me," Vol tried to rise from the table, and suddenly his eyes fluttered, and he went limp. Thankfully the fast reflexes of the LMH kept him from slumping down and hitting his head on the table.
"Doctor," Zanh jumped up out of her chair, but the LMH was already tapping his badge.
"McKay to Sickbay, medical emergency. Two to beam directly."
A moment later, the Doctor and the Counselor were gone, TC Blane, Vedek Jariel and Zanh Liis were standing at one end of the table, staring at each other and trying to fathom what had just happened, as the Strasa political entourage simply continued cutting through bite after bite of Prime Rib.
"Could we possibly get another bottle of wine?" Lank inquired, snapping his fingers and then holding up his empty glass.
Across the room, a very obviously agitated Fleur Le Marc, called in to assist in serving this elite group of visitors, pasted an overly friendly smile upon her face.
"Yes, Monsieur Overseer. Right away."
-=/\=- Captain Zanh Liis
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012