Family Reunion

Posted on Sun Jun 5, 2016 @ 10:34am by Lieutenant JG Rhe'la Daughter of the Forty-ninth House

810 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Interlude - Day 1
Location: Docking bay 3
Timeline: MD 1 1900 hours

ON
It had been rather sudden, receiving word that her cousin would be arriving on DS5 on the very same day she had been promoted. Rhe'la hadn't seen An'ta since she'd left the Cavalry, and in that time he too had been transferred; though it was at his own request.

Wanting to get out from under Commander Drakt's shadow, he'd requested a transfer to Strategic Command and been posted to a desk job; Assistant to the Deputy Assistant Director for the Bolian Sector. It was a level of bureaucratic word salad that both amused and bemused Rhe'la at the same time.

But the big question was why a desk jockey stationed on Earth was all the way out on the frontier? He couldn't possibly have decided to come all the way out here just to catch up on old times, could he?

"I suppose I'll find out soon enough..." Rhe'la mused, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning on a bulkhead as she waited for An'ta's ship to dock. She didn't have to wait long before she spotted him in the stream of travelers passing through the airlock.

He spotted her almost as quickly. "Rhe'la! I see all it took to get you a promotion was to transfer you out from under Drakt's thumb!"

Narrowing her eyes at her (slightly) older cousin, she pushed off from the wall and moved toward him. "And I see that even a transfer isn't enough to get you promoted. Lieutenant."

Hissing in laughter, An'ta swung his bag over his shoulder. "Give it time. I'll wear Captain Stern down and make full lieutenant before he gets sick of me and ships me off to a deep space assignment. So, I give it about six weeks; eight at the most."

"I'll hold you to that, just like you'll go right back to holding that pip over my head." Rhe'la joked, motioning to him to follow her into the docking ring. "So, I have to ask - what are you doing all the way out here? DS5 is nowhere near Bolarus, and it's certainly not near Earth. So I'm at a loss as to why you'd come all the way out here to the frontier."

"What? You don't think I just wanted to see my favorite cousin?" Judging from the look on her face, she wasn't buying it. "Officially, I'm on my way to a fact finding mission on Mendican III - just inside Romulan space. Unofficially?"

Looking around to make sure nobody could overhear, he leaned in closer to Rhe'la's tympanic membrane. "Grandfather sent me. He said you'd have more information, but it's something to do with you negotiating with the Cardassians over rights to a planet that they don't even control?"

Feeling the blood drain from her snout, the engineer felt suddenly ill. "Ambassador Turvan's aid approached me a few weeks ago. He claimed to speak with the full authority of the Detapa Council and offered to make our House partners in controlling Pangaea. But when I contacted Grandfather I figured he'd authorize me to speak on his behalf..." She felt a bit hurt, like her grandfather didn't trust her to protect their family's interests; and had sent her cousin to clean up the mess.

"No offense, but you're not exactly suited to the subtle nuances of diplomacy. You're an engineer - I'd trust you with getting a warp core up and running. But getting colonization rights for our people is a little out of your wheelhouse." An'ta explained. He wasn't trying to be mean, just pragmatic. And sugarcoating things wasn't going to help.

Now her eyes bulged in shock. "You're a strategic operations officer! You minored in tactical at the Academy! There's nothing subtle about you!" she hissed.

"I've also got several years on a standing intelligence team, and two years as deputy chief of intelligence on the Cavalry. I can do subtle." The male Zarnac made sure to double check their surroundings before speaking that first part, as it was still largely classified.

But Rhe'la could only roll her eyes. "We were on the SAME intelligence team, you twit!" she hissed, grabbing him by the sleeve and dragging him into a side corridor. "And being an intelligence officer doesn't translate into handling a sensitive diplomatic matter!"

"Look, I'm not saying you didn't show initiative, or that you don't have our best interests at heart. But Grandfather can't be here because he's on the Gorn home world, so he asked me to take point on this. You're welcome to contact him and protest."

Her cousin's gritty pragmatism was getting under her scales. "I might just do that..."
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Lt. JG Rhe'la, Daughter of the Forty-ninth House
Chief Engineering Officer
Deep Space 5

Lt. JG An'ta, Son of the Forty-ninth House (NPC)
Assistant to the Deputy Assistant Director for the Bolian Sector
Starfleet Strategic Command

 

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