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After visiting the Task Force Personnel department and being pointed toward the Diplomatic personnel offices, Aryanna arrived to find a well-appointed set of offices and meeting rooms with a slightly older human lieutenant manning the console located just to the right of the department’s entrance.

“Welcome to the diplomatic office of Task Force forty-seven, how may we be of service?”

<< ”Great, just the type that we didn’t want to find. Please tell me he is not the only one here” 

“I hope not, there has to be more in here right?”

“For your sake, I hope so” >>

“Yes,  I’m Lieutenant Commander Rigras of the USS Dragon. We have been assigned a diplomatic officer from this office and I wanted to come and meet with the possible candidates.” As she handed him her PADD showing the orders for an officer to be assigned.”

“Oh, I see” as he sat a little straighter and pushed up a pair of spectacles on his nose.” as he took the PADD and looked over the orders.

<< ”Not in your life, pal.” >>

“Well yes, yes Commander. You have come to the right place. Though at this time there are not many officers available for orders to a new post. Very few, in fact, maybe only a couple. To tell the truth.” he returned her PADD to her.

“Hmmmm, and are they here today?”

“Yes, they are. As you can see I’m assigned to this desk so I would be more than happy to fill the slot and then there is “ **crash, bam, bam, bam, bam** “ Lieutenant Meadow.” he winced as he said the name.

“Are you not going to go check on them, Lieutenant?”

“No, ma’am. I am not. Let’s just say that she has a very, how should we put this? Abrasive, rough around the edges, harsh, and downright undiplomatic form of diplomacy. If that’s what you want to call it.” shaking his head and clicking his tongue. “Yes, very rude and very undiplomatic. Still not sure how she passed her exams.”

<< “Ahhh, but she did.”

 “I was just thinking the same thing.”>>

“ Ok then, Lieutenant. Sell me on why I should choose you.”

“Lieutenant James, Bartholomew.”

Aryanna quickly typed into her PADD, half listening as she pulled up his records.

<< “Yeeesh, how mundane can you get? This guy was born into this field. No wonder why he has that arrogant attitude. First in his class, three first-contact missions and four secon-contacts. But it begs to be asked, why is he here behind a desk?” >>

Aryanna held up a hand to stop him from talking. “One question lieutenant. Why are you here behind a desk? Looking at your records you would be a captain’s dream diplomatic officer if not on some admirals staff.”

“Well commander, that’s a good question and one I often ask myself while I’m sitting here reading these reports all day/ I haven’t the foggiest idea why I am not on a ship or as you said yourself on an admiral’s staff. You see my records, spotless, and as you can see I’ve done quite well for myself.”

<< tongue clicks from Rigras “I bet I can tell you why he’s here and not out there. Look at who turned in those reports, it wasn’t the captains on the ships, was it? Nor was it his fellow diplomatic officers. I’m willing to bet you will see his name on all of them.”

“That’s a bet I’m not going to take you up on.” >>

As Lieutenant James continued to talk about his stellar past, Aryanna feigned listening to him as she made her way toward the room where she heard the commotion earlier. Sticking her head in the door she saw a slightly older but still youngish-looking human female with long black hair sitting at a conference table facing two view screens with a Klingon and Ferengi delegation, one on each view screen. In front of her were a broken pile of glass and several drinking glasses. She quietly entered and stood along the back wall. 

“I do not care about your rules of acquisition Mr. Brerr, the fact of the matter is that Mr.Budrahk had established his business first on the Eos station. Now we can either figure this out so that both of you can run a business on the station or the federation, as the station’s owner, will be forced to decide on who stays and who must go. I do not want to have to make that recommendation to the station’s Captain. So gentlemen, what do we do? The proverbial ball is in your court.” 

Aryaanna tilted her head as she thought she heard something weird,

<< “ Did you hear that too? She was speaking in both languages at the same time, how?” >>

Aryanna took a second to take a better look at the young lady, noticing a few small blinking lights from around her neck she let out a low chuckle. << “ Her neck, she has what I could only guess is a cybernetic attachment, has to be how she was able to speak two languages at the same time. Wonder what the story is behind that, as it does not look like a temporary piece.” >>

“I was here first, His contracts were placed to force me out of business. He must tear them up and offer me recompense for the profits I have lost.” The Klingon said in a low guttural manner.

“Uh, uh ahhhh. According to rules 17, 52, 53, 69, 219, and 292, I’m in the right. Not my fault that this Klingon didn’t make his suppliers sign contracts. No contract, no proof. We all know that a handshake can only go so far.” The Ferengi sat back and took a drink of a blue liquid from a glass.

The Klingon let out a boisterous laugh “Did you forget about rules 290, 192, 89 worm?”

“Nope, I considered those when I started my business,  that’s why I had my suppliers sign contracts. It’s not my fault that they were your suppliers before then, now they are mine.”

The lieutenant started to type something on her console bringing up a list on a third screen. “Hmmmmmmmm, so this is about logistics not about the businesses themselves being similar to one another. I may have a solution, Mr. Budrahk you should be receiving a message from me. These are a list of companies that are looking to expand their merchandise into other areas. I’m quite sure that they would be amiable in coming to a workable logistics solution if you reach out to them. 

“ But, but, but… That’s not fair.”

“Why not? You took his suppliers and I am supplying him with a list of people I have dealt with and helped in the past. Not my fault that you did not do your homework beforehand, after all everything is fair game in business is it not.”

“ But, but , but.. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh” the ferengi’s screen went black.

“ Well Lieutenant Meadow I think that answered that, I will reach out to these folks today.”

“ Mr. Budrahk, you will notice that I highlighted a few of them. Those are the ones whom  I think will have something close to what you were being supplied with before. Though I think you will find some of the other ones more than happy to work with you on their merchandise. And word to the wise have them sign some sort of contract, just so we don’t have to go through this again in the future. “

“Thank you Lieutenant. I will also talk to the station operations officer about moving my location so that my business is as far as possible from that Ferengi worms business. Had my eye on another spot originally anyways. Lieutenant, I believe you have an audience.” The klingon nodded toward Aryanna as his screen went black.

The lieutenant turned around with a bit of a shudder, realising someone had been behind her for a few minutes at least could be a bit unnerving to some including her. She pulled a piece from behind her ear and reattached it to a spot on her neck piece.

“Oh, ummm hello commander” as she noticed the pips. “ How can I help you?”

“ I’ve only been here a few minutes, nice work on how you handled the two of them though. Nice thinking on your part to offer new suppliers to the Klingon. Though I originally came in to make sure everything was alright when I heard some noise from this room.” Aryanna pointed to what she guessed used to be the drink pitcher on the table.

“Yaaa, that wasn’t one of my best moments, but sometimes those Ferengi can get under your skin with their attitude towards folks of the opposite sex. So how can I help you? Doesn’t look like you need something solved diplomatically or else you would have stayed out front with that pompous ass of a lieutenant.” 

It took a second for Aryanna to realise that what she was hearing was emitting from the neck piece and that there was a very slight delay between the mouth moving and the sound emitting from the device.

<< “hmmmm sounds like someone else I know, doesn’t she?” >>

“I’m Lieutenant Commander Rigras First Officer on the USS Dragon. I’m here because we have had a new diplomatic officer slot added to our staff. Task Force personnel pointed me in this direction so here I am. As you can probably guess I was not impressed by the lieutenant out front.”

“I would question it more if you were, commander. Lieutenant Bearsong, Meadow.” as she picked up her PADD and took a seat on the edge of the conference room table. 

“Hmmm Lieutenant Bearsong, Meadow.” she typed the name on her PADD. “hmmmm ” raising an eyebrow. “ Doctor of Psychology with a secondary degree in counselling from the academy. Admirals diplomatic staff as an ensign. Speaks 26 languages.” looked up at the lieutenant and then at the neck cybernetic piece.

“Yes, it helps, commander. However I was quickly grasping Vulcan and Klingon while at the academy before the accident. A few others came quickly after learning those two.”

“Hmmmmmm, don’t see much in your records about that. Care to elaborate?”

“Not if I don’t have to, commander. It was one of the scariest times of my life.”

Aryanna held up her arm and pulled off the glove. “ Tell me your story and I’ll tell you mine.”

“Maybe, if you offer me the slot. I see here that you do not have a counsellor on board.” As she spun her PADD around to show the Dragons current manning report. Diplomatic officers are usually second fiddle on most ships, I want to feel as part of the crew so that when the time comes and I have to put on the diplomatic officer hat. Want people to see me and know that I’m not bullshitting them when I say something.”

“I can understand that. Would you be willing to fill both slots? The counsellor slot will be a very busy one, though i’m sure we could work on giving you a small team that could help in both areas.”

Meadow looks up at the ceiling then back down at her PADD. “Hmmm, a team of four plus me. Would need a Yeoman and three diplomatic corps crew. I can handle the counsellor stuff. It’s the diplomatic stuff that will become time consuming. I can give you a few names from this office.”

Aryanna looked at her PADD. “We can do that, and yes I’ll take those names if it means you are accepting the position. Please do not make me have to go back out there and talk to that other lieutenant, I bet he hasn’t even realised I left the room and is still talking about himself.”

“Yaaaa, he does have a tendency to do that, three quarters of it is bull shit though.”

“I figured, soooo?”

“I accept the position, commander.”

“Good, good. Welcome to the team. I’ll send you a copy of your orders now so you can transition over to the Dragon, Captain wants all crew onboard in”  she looked at her PADD. “ roughly fifty-eight hours, we depart in seventy. Just to keep you on your toes, we have been tasked with a second contact along the Breen border, so that should give your new team a starting point to work towards over the next few days. The Captain and I will fill you in on the particulars when you report onboard.”

“Great, the Breen confederacy. This should be interesting.”

“Indeed, Care to walk with me to the task force personnel office so we can put in the order requisitions for your team.”

“Yes, ma’am.”