Dealing with Ferengi

Posted on Fri Jul 15, 2016 @ 6:38pm by Commander Caleb Ryan & Qinee & Lieutenant Liam Reynolds

1,893 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Pangaea (Wrap up)
Location: Starfleet Embassy/Ferengi Embassy
Timeline: MD 19 1000

"Computer, can you patch me through to Chief Ryan?" Liam asked.

There was a chime as the connection was made and Caleb’s visage appeared on the screen.

"Chief," Liam greeted the Texan’s face. He almost said Caleb, but didn't feel he knew the man well enough yet. "The Second Officer has ordered me to extradite Nazl, get him off foreign soil so he can be brought in and questioned. Has he had allegations brought against him?"

Caleb frowned. “Ah thought we’d dealt with this,” he said. “No, no charges were filed against him by my daughter,” he reminded Liam. “And Ah’m not sure the Ferengi would appreciate this bein’ brought up again. Can’t mah daughter just move on?” He tapped his fingers agitatedly on his desk. “He has diplomatic immunity. Extradition is out of the question. The best we can do is request the Ferengi send him home. Whether they will honor that, Ah don’t know.”

"I think the Second Officer is being rash and not thinking things through properly," Liam stated firmly. "I intend to take it up higher And I agree with you extradition is not the solution. The fallout with the Ferengi, especially after the previous incident, would be very detrimental to the station. Plus I really don't want any further stress on your daughter or you. I'll make the request to Qinee, as per your suggestion. She won't like it. Or maybe she will. She believes he's plotting her death most days. Commander Soran won’t like it though." He shrugged.

Caleb frowned. “Should she have taken more leave?” he wondered. “She was out for several weeks compassionate leave.” But then he hadn’t worked too closely with Maritza Soran to really know her well.

“Let me know if ya need anything, Lieutenant,” Caleb said. “Though extra security showin’ up might not be helpful. There are always some officers stationed in the embassy district, so feel free ta commandeer whoever ya might need from there,” he said. “Ah’ll alert the substation ta expect ya."

"Appreciate it, Chief." Liam nodded then signed off. He got up and walked the distance to the Ferengi Embassy. "Lieutenant Reynolds, may I see Ambassador Qinee?" he asked.

The Ferengi managing the front desk looked up at the Hew-man with some bit of annoyance for interrupting him. “The Ambassador is currently in session with her masseuse,” he said. He turned to a device on the desk and hit a button. A yellow light went on. After a moment it turned green. “You may go in,” the clerk said, nodding to a set of ornately carved expensive and rare wooden doors.

"Thank you," Liam replied and went and opened them.

As the doors swung open and Liam entered, Qinee was just sitting up from the massage table. The ambassador was completely naked and unashamed, having been raised in an environment where females didn’t wear clothes until the reforms of Grand Nagus Rom. While short, she was quite well proproptioned for a Ferengi.

“To what do I owe this pleasure, Lieutenant?” Qinee said with a smile at the attractive half-Betazoid, not bothering to reach for the gaudy Tholian silk robe nearby. A large, expensive ruby glittered in the light where it hung between her full breasts.

Having been brought up half of his life on Betazed and attended many weddings there, Liam had no issue with nudity. Granted, he had never seen a naked female Ferengi before. "Nice necklace," he said gamely with a wink.

"I apologise for disturbing you, Ambassador, but we have a little issue with your aide." He figured it was best to get straight to the point. "The station’s second officer wishes me to bring him into Federation custody for what happened between him and the Chief’s daughter." He looked at her seriously. "What are your thoughts?"

Qinee had brightened at the playful comment and favored Liam with a snaggle-toothed smile, but now her expression fell.

“Shoo,” she said, slapping the rather attractive male Bajoran masseuse on the butt to get him out. She went and poured some slime tea from a side table, one for each of them, and then pulled on the blindingly colorful Tholian silk robe.

“I thought this issue was done with, Lieutenant,” Qinee said coolly. “Has the chief or his daughter decided to press charges? Even so, Nazl has diplomatic immunity. What your second officer wants is beside the point. She sipped her tea and her beady eyes stared at Liam. “Do you really want to press this issue when we so graciously put the matter of Starfleet’s illegal assault on my diplomatic vessel behind us? Does she really wish for the Grand Nagus to respond to such an act of war?”

"Oh, I thought the issue was done with too, Ambassador." Liam sighed. He took the offered slime tea. He really wasn't a fan, but he gamely took a sip. "The problem is, in the Second Officer’s eyes, and technically, he only has diplomatic immunity if he's in this building. If she orders me to bring him in for, in her words, further questioning, if he's not standing in this building, I can do that. He can't hide behind the diplomatic immunity. I don't like it, Qinee." He used her first name for the first time.

"Believe me, I have stressed just how deprimental this would be for the relationship between our two races. Especially after what happened. But I don't get diplomatic immunity. Orders are orders, which is why I wanted to come see if we could work out a better solution first. As either I have to follow that order or I have to challenge it. If I have to challenge it I need to know I am doing it for the right reasons." He took another sip of the thick beverage and waited to see her thoughts on that. Of all the ambassadors, to date, he had the most respect and admiration for Qinee. He hoped she could hold a discussion and work with him, rather than pull a Turvak and hold a hissy fit and try twist the situation. He hoped his faith was not misplaced.

Qinee nodded and set her tea aside. “I understand your predicament, Liam,” she said, indicating her allowance of familiar terms. “I rather despise Nazl, as well,” she admitted with a low chuckle. “I suspect he had a hand in the unfortunate passing of my predecessor.” She shrugged her slender shoulders. “But accusations need proof, do they not? It is no secret he feels he should be sitting behind that desk.” She indicated the large, expensive wooden desk.

“But that is just the problem, is it not? Despite what you say, Nazl has immunity not just in the embassy, but anywhere in the Federation. That is to guarantee that just the sorts of things that occured when your security forces took my ship do not occur to foreign ambassadors.” Her disapproval was seething in the air between them.

“The facts of the matter are that by all accounts Nazls relations with the girl were consensual. The acts occured on my diplomatic vessel, which by law is Ferengi soil, and therefore operate under Ferengi law. The act was consensual, if a bit coerced,” she allowed, “and she is of age by Ferengi law. In fact, Nazl’s counsel would likely argue that it was a verbal contract and she had no right to refuse by Ferengi law,” Qinee pointed out. “And they could call multiple witnesses, including myself, as to the veracity of that verbal contract. As much as we may wish it otherwise, Liam, as progressive as Grand Nagus Rom’s reforms have been, we are not the Federation. You may wish it otherwise. I may wish further reforms could be advanced in regard to the role of females in Ferengi society, but some things take longer to change and cannot be done simply by passing a law.”

Qinee settled back in her seat and picked up her tea again, gazing at Liam. “You and your Second Officer could press this issue, Liam, but your only legal option is to present me with a formal request for Nazl to be returned to Ferenginar. And I will comply. But Nazl has powerful friends, friends not so enlightened as you or I. The Federation has little solid ground to stand on after the act of war they committed. I have managed to spin it in my reports as a misunderstanding, but that explanation hangs on a very thin thread of truth. Your people should have known better,” she scolded angrily. “You were the ones who put those children in danger after we risked our own safety to rescue them from this station. You stuck phasers in the faces of frightened children and a registered ambassador.”

The Ferengi settled back, taking a breath and a sip of tea to calm herself. “I did not call for the heads of your commander or your security chief. I could very well have ended their careers. Instead, I supported you against the Cardassians and the Romulans in the Pangea issue. And now you want the head of one of my own. Tell your Second Officer that and see if I don’t add hers to my platter when this is through if she persists.”

Liam chuckled. “She’s ridiculously stubborn. I don’t think being on your platter would scare her, and between you and me, secretly I wouldn’t mind her being in that situation. Just,” he smiled wickedly at her, “don’t put me on your platter. I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place, which is why I have come to speak to you before I decide any course of action.”

He leaned back into his chair also, mirroring her stance. “I take your points, Qinee, believe me. And also know that I told her straight that the handling of the situation had been completely wrong. She didn’t take well to that either. They should have brought Mortimer in to negotiate the costs at the time. But they didn’t think about different viewpoints and cultures at all. They bulldozed the entire thing.

“I think,” he said slowly, “I am going to go speak with the second officer again. Attempt to convey once more the gravity of what the fallout would be, and if I cannot get her to rethink the situation I will have to take it higher up. See if I can get someone else to listen. It’s either that or I will end up courtmartialed. I guess we will see.” He stood up and placed the remains of the slime tea down on her desk. “Thank you for seeing me and your counsel.”

Qinee nodded and stood as well. “I like you, Liam,” she said, holding out her hand. “You’re a handsome one, for a Hew-man,” she said with a typical Ferengi leer as she shook his hand. “You ever get tired of that Bajoran, you let me know.” She gave him a wink, letting him know there were no hard feelings. For now.

FIN

Lieutenant Liam Reynolds
Chief Diplomatic Officer

Lientenant Commander Caleb Ryan
Chief of Security/Tactical

Qinee
Ferengi Ambassador
NPC Caleb Ryan

 

RSS Feed