Unsure What To Expect

Posted on Fri Jan 18th, 2019 @ 1:54am by Lieutenant JG Casshan Kincaid & Telhas thu'S'Terion Sa-Shasol'kor t'Cheleb-Khor

4,201 words; about a 21 minute read

Mission: Mission 2: Into The Breach
Location: Romulan Embassy
Timeline: MD04 - 2000 hours

It wasn't easy accepting all the deaths at the bombing he had tried to help, he wasn't a Doctor but he had some medical training. He took comfort in the fact he tried as there wasn't that many doctors and nurses able to get to everyone and triage protocols called for priorities. Casshan took a deep breath and calmed himself for the hundredth time as it was time to get back to his primary job and tend to the Ambassadors.

Casshan wore a fresh dress uniform, he kinda liked the dress part. Starfleet had combined the regular dress uniform and the white senior officers uniform variants to come up with an interesting Diplomatic Corps standard uniform coloured in Purple as that was department assigned colour.

He entered the embassy's reception area and approached the front desk. "Hello, Lieutenant Casshan Kincaid to see the Ambassador." He said with a smile.

Timarik intercepted him before the front desk officer could reply. "Lieutenant, you are expected. Just one moment, please." She signalled a guard to scan Casshan. The guard took a tricorder and scanned him. He just looked at Timarik for a moment when he sent the though He's clean. Timarik nodded. "Thank you. I am Lieutenant Timarik Saeihr cha'Havrannen," the pale young woman introduced herself. "Please follow me." She walked to the turbolift and fixed her hair back into a ponytail while walking. "Hvi sei" she ordered the turbolift. She looked at him curiously while the lift was travelling. He was taller than her, which was rather common, and he seemed to be in good physical condition. She sensed no threat although there seemed to be something hidden under his mental surface. She trusted the intuition from her Reman half. "How's your day?" she finally asked.

A Reman female, Casshan hadn't met one before and so couldn't help but stare every so often during the turbolift ride. "Apologies Lieutenant, I've not met a Reman woman." He smiled. "I'm so glad that the Remans are no longer treated as slaves." He was a little hesitant on the last word.

"Half Reman," Timarik corrected him. "Without my Romulan half I would not have my hair." She smiled shyly. "Wherever House S'Terion is involved we are not treated as slaves for centuries. Unfortunately, this is not the case everywhere. Only the House Guards of S'Terion accept Remans. Other Houses are not willing to grant us such an amount of prestige. My mother is Romulan, my father is Reman. But culturally, I consider myself fully Reman. And the Remans accept my much more than most Romulans do. But the Duke is different, he always accepted us as equals." She grinned. "Equal to other Romulans, not equal to Patricians like him. We share that with all who are not Patrician." The turbolift doors opened as they reached the third floor. "He doesn't hate us, although Shinzon and his Reman supporters were responsible of the death of the Duke's parents. I don't understand how he can't hate us, but he's... how do you say? Different? Special?"

Casshan smiled. "The sins of the parents are not to be held by the children, they are not their parents or as I like to say some have the capacity to be different from their parents while sadly others cannot escape their parents traps." He said being betazoid were houses are also the norm of culture and society, he could relate and having had friends forced to live in that world made him feel so much anger towards a society that didn't allow freedom.

"I hope House S'Terion will become a symbol of Romulan/Reman future and I hope your house will allow me to help in any way they will let me." Casshan said as the two walked the hallway. "What about other roles in the house?"

"There are many. And as we are already at the conference room, you can ask this Lord Telhas. He doesn't like to wait." Timarik opened the doors of the conference room. She bowed her head to Telhas and let Casshan enter the room.

"Good evening, Mister Kincaid. Timarik, you are dismissed." Telhas went to Casshan and extended his hand. "Welcome to my Embassy. As long as we are in a working meeting as now, you may call me Telhas. No titles necessary."

"Thank you Lieutenant," Casshan said as he watched the half Reman woman leave then accepted Telhas' hand as they walked further into the room. "Thank you Ambassador, you'll have to forgive me I will need a little time to let protocol turn off." He smiled and couldn't help but gaze at Telhas' ears for a few moments.

"You are okay?" Telhas asked, noticing that Casshan was distracted.

Casshan blinked then eyes went wide before a slight blush cross over his face, he turned slightly away from Telhas and took a few calming breaths. "Yes," he said. Get a hold of yourself Cash, you need to focus! Casshan thought then took a few steps away from Telhas. "So what did you want to discuss?" He asked still not facing Telhas now he looked at the Ambassador's various on display belongings.

"Let us start with the plan for tomorrow's meeting," Telhas said, still wondering why Casshan seemed distracted. "This is the room for the meeting. I think it has enough space for everyone, but I am not sure about the seating. As I am the host I would take the seat at one end of the table, but not necessarily heading it. Maybe me at one side of this end, you at the opposite, then the Klingon Ambassador next to you and the Cardassian Ambassador next to me, followed by those who accompany everyone. Or maybe I should allow everyone to freely select his or her place? I have to admit that I am not the best diplomat. What do you suggest?"

"In my studies," Casshan began as he turned to face Telhas and smiled. "I've noticed that circular tables are the best for diplomatic discussions as it gives people the feeling of equality," he said, Casshan suddenly realised that he was about to reveal some diplomatic secrets that Starfleet had learned. "How would you do a meeting with other senators?" He asked with a grin.

"A long table with the Praetor at the front end," Telhas replied, "But I like your idea with a circular one. It will be replaced by tomorrow. But there is still the problem with the seating. Maybe I should be bold and place the Klingon next to me? I can get along with her, and I do not fear her. And the Cardassian also next to me, on the other side. Is there any preferred side in Klingon and/or Cardassian culture? I have heard that in Human culture there is some difference in authority if you are sitting at the right side or at the left side of someone. Anything similar here?"

"That's why I suggested a circular table, there are no sides." Casshan pointed out. "Though considering who is attending there will be little or more room depending on the size of the table you set up, just have the same space between each and we'd all feel equal." He grinned. "But you are the host, it's up to you."

He suddenly got stuck staring at Telhas' ears again but managed to blink out of it after a few moments and glanced down before another thought struck him. "Oh and don't forget about the refreshments, we need either room on the table or another table to have the refreshments on it. Or waitstaff, I'm sure the Cafe owner could loan some staff to the meeting, 1 or 2."

"I prefer waiters," Telhas said, still not sure what distracted Casshan, "They should arrive two hours early so that we can check them."

"What time is the others meant to turn up?" Casshan asked glancing away and brought his right hand up to his chin and rubbed his chin with his fingers like when he does when thinking. After several moments he made eye contact with Telhas. "I don't recall you saying what time," he added.

"Currently I think of 1400," Telhas replied. "Then everyone had lunch and we can focus on the reports."

Casshan grinned. "Yes never do anything on an empty stomach." He said, "yes 1400 sounds good. I'll arrange all the catering in the morning. Anything in particular you wish to eat?"

"The gagh for the Klingon Ambassador shall be fresh, otherwise no gagh. But in general today's selection looked fine. The only change I would like is to have Vulcan food instead of Romulan food." Telhas shrugged. "Bread, vegetables and roasted serpent. Tell the cafe owner that he shall surprise me. If the surprise is good, I may book him again. If it is superb, I may grant him exclusive catering."

"I knew I sensed some disappointment when the food was presented to you. I apologise for not seeking, well any of the ambassadors' desired meal and beverage for the meeting. I thought a range of a few typical selection from the homeworlds would be good, I should have asked even if the meeting was slightly rushed." Casshan said then smiled. "I was eager to meet you all."

"I'm sure the owner would enjoy such an opportunity, I'll ask him." Casshan grinned, more time with the spotted handsome man. Quickly shaking himself from such thoughts Casshan relaxed into a comfortable stance and placed his hands behind him. "Roasted serpent, is it good?"

"At least if you are Vulcanoid." Telhas grinned.

Casshan tilted his head slightly, confused. "Why is that?" He asked.

"I doubt that species who do not derive from Vulcans share the same receptors for taste. Vulcan's climate enforces a specific evolution of taste to survive in the desert. At least this is what I believe, but then again I am no biologist, so I may be wrong," Telhas said with a polite smile. "We can do the experiment and you try it tomorrow."

"I'm willing to try new foods, though have a medic on standby okay?" Casshan asked with a semi serious expression.

Telhas laughed. "I will have an emergency bottle of ale available for medical treatment." Then, his expression became dead serious. "Lieutenant, there is another matter I need to discuss. My Head of Security and I checked our current security measures and what we think is necessary to keep an Embassy operational in a hostile environment which could soon turn into a war zone, as which we assessed this planet after the Klingon's are also attacked. The result of our analysis is that our current security is insufficient and that we are also lacking the space to implement proper defensive systems. Shortly said, we need more land. A radius of two miles around the Embassy should be sufficient. I know this sounds like a lot, but we are surrounded by wastelands, so it does not matter. Faltan Station is far away, so we are on our own. This leaves us to install force fields, shields, and mine fields to ensure our safety. The alternatives are a squadron of warbirds in orbit or a complete withdrawal from Faltan. Would you be so kind and ask Captain Refelian which option he prefers?"

"Ale is medicinal?" Casshan asked with a smiled before it faded. "Ambassador, I would want you here. I doubt your empire could spare any warbirds for an unknown time frame for guard duty, though I could be wrong. I'm actually surprised you didn't install shields and force fields when you moved in." He leaned closer to talk conspirituality after approaching Telhas. "You didn't do all that? Though I'd use trapper mines, to catch who wants to infiltrate or attack, so you can interrogate them."

"The Romulan Star Empire? No, they cannot spare warbirds. But I can." Telhas smiled proudly. "A privilege of senators. We can have our own troops. Of course, most lack the resources, but I am one of the wealthiest persons in the Empire. Besides, I understand your surprise, but first of all the Embassy was still in construction when we were attacked, and second the building itself is well-shielded. But this is not enough. I want to be prepared for hostile military action. This is a completely new assessment of the situation. Honestly, I am very disappointed as the Federation told us nothing about threats when we were invited. And now we find ourselves in a hot zone. It also seems that the Federation knew this before we moved here. At least Lieutenant Commander M'Mira told me before the official opening ceremony of Faltan Station that we arrived too early and Faltan Station was neither ready nor safe to host us." He shrugged. "Well, it seems that even after the opening ceremony Faltan Station is not safe, at least not for Klingons. Nonetheless, I think of asking for compensation of my additional costs. It is my private money that I spent to construct this Embassy so fast, and my personal troops are guarding it. To be honest, I do not take it lightly when my personal resources are consumed more than necessary."

"First off you haven't answered my question about the Ale. Second, I'm sure you can understand when I say that the Federation cannot be held responsible for your choice to use your personal finances in constructing the embassy. Despite the fact that Commander M'Mira advised that you were too early and that the station was not ready nor safe for any diplomatic staff from the other powers, you went ahead and began the construction. That again was your choice. Third, I doubt Federation credits are of any value to the Star Empire and I do not know if the Federation has any latinum." Casshan had to glance away and stroked his chin. "Do we have latinum? I'd have to ask my superiors about that later." He muttered. "Why didn't the Star Empire support you or the embassy? They did send you here right?"

Casshan gestured to the chairs hoping Telhas would sit and then Casshan would sit opposite. "In any case, what has happened has happened, all we can do now is work together to get all embassies protected and then turn our combined attention on those responsible and make them pay. I'm sure you have Tal Shiar spies that could assist with intel on Faltean intentions, I will ask the same of Starfleet Intelligence, at the meeting tomorrow we can get the Klingons and Cardassians onboard and united we can get some answers."

Telhas felt his anger rise, and he did not suppress it. "We have been told that this place was safe when I made the decision to move in," Telhas hissed, "And that your Commander M'Mira told me this was not the case after we have been attacked, does not make it my fault. Or is this Federation politics?" His voice became louder. "Get here, and if something happens," now he shouted, "just say 'Oh, your own fault, you arrived too early! It is your own fault!' Is it that? Tell them after something happened that it was not safe? Really?" His anger became fury. "Is this your diplomacy? Let me walk into a trap and afterwards tell me that there was a trap?" His mind intuitively reached out to Casshan's, but he could restrain himself from going any further.

Casshan simply sat there and took it, the yelling and anger. It would not serve either of them when anger and pure emotion was in play. He then felt the touch against his mind, surprised by it's vehemence, was about to mentally defend himself but decided to not do anything. The Betazoid softened his expression and hoped that Telhas would see that he was not here to do anything but help. He wasn't there at the time of the attack nor knew what the station's command team told the Romulans when they arrived.

Afterwards he'd find out and deal with it then but now Casshan had to prove he was not Telhas' enemy. He waited for the Romulan to calm down, while in anger people usually don't listen to reason, he'd learned that while he was a full counselor. So he waited calmly and if Telhas choose to probe his mind he'd let him look around on the surface, if he went deeper, well a Betazoid was unmatched in mental warfare.

It took a while before Telhas got his self-control back. "Not your fault," he finally said. "I wanted to ask Captain Refelian why he did not warn me. After all, an invitation of the Secretary of the Exterior of the Federation which states 'as soon as your resources allow' looks like a safe place. Back to our talk. I need the space I requested to increase defenses. Furthermore, I will keep my warbird and my cruiser in orbit, just in case the Falteans try something stupid. Next, unfortunately I have no agents on Faltan. I have gathered the recent intelligence myself. Including a surprise visit to Governor Taga. She thinks I have used technology to keep her calm." He smirked. "Nobody expects a Romulan telepath, right? If knowledge is power, being unknown renders your enemies powerless. But to be honest, I have something in common with the Falteans. They want to be left alone, and I do not want to deal with them either. My priorities are the Free Romulan Movement and the Sovereignty of Kahless. The importance of this planet is purely because I can access both theaters easily from here. And maybe one note about my expenses. I decided to donate the resources because the Star Empire needs its resources elsewhere. Yet, we are in need to show a presence here. After planetfall on Romulus, it were the Patricians who donated to the Empire whenever it was necessary. We had the wealth, the power and the obligation to serve the Empire. My ancestor Tellus was a co-founder of the Senate. This is my Star Empire, or more precise, my republic. My seat in the Senate is inherited, not appointed. Yet, there is no power without obligation. If I would lean back and count my money, what mnhei'sahe would I gain?"

Casshan couldn't help but feel for the Romulan, it was his nature to share people's burdens. Well his first career was to talk them out with those people but it will be a while before he could be trusted enough to go back to that fully so he'd attend to his second love of Diplomacy.

"No I didn't expect a Romulan telepath," Casshan said eyes widened for a moment before they went back to normal. "Ambassador," he smiled. "Telhas," he corrected himself softly. "I can only imagine the pain of losing a home, and even that wouldn't be enough." He said, his expressions changing as he took a moment to think what it would be like if Betazed had been destroyed. A few tears escaped his eyes before he focused back on Telhas.

"Consider for a moment our situation was reversed. The Star Empire controlled the corridor and you invited us to set up an embassy here. We'd expect the same assurances of safety and yet got attacked without any warning. The Falteans are unpredictable since we appear to be invaders. It's also possible they sabotaged our long range sensors or have technology we do not know about that 'cloaks' them, personally and or their vehicles." Casshan explained. "What I am trying to say is that we cannot plan or be prepared for everything. Since the Falteans are unhappy with any of us, I'm surprised this base is not under constant attack."

He smiled. "I will investigate what happened when the other powers were invited to establish embassies and confer with Captain Refelian about it. I must warn you that anything I find you may not be happy about but I will get to the bottom of it, I give you my word."

"I'm sure you, being a senator, know that not everything one says is or should be taken at face value. Politics and diplomacy are very different to the straight forwardness of the military." Casshan said then stood. "I will see to getting you that extra layer of land, I hope I can convince my Captain to have our engineers assist as a way of recompense for someone's misjudgement of the situation. However, if you feel the need to withdraw Captain Refelian will understand but as I see it, remaining will show the Falteans that we are not afraid of them and will fight back until our superiors deem this world too much trouble than it's worth." He chuckled before holding out a hand and started to count off his fingers.

"So to sum up," he grinned. "1. I will investigate the communications regarding all embassies. 2. Encourage Captain Refelian to give land and assist with defenses of all embassies. 3. Look into compensation but I fear Federation credits will not be worth anything to anyone else but the Federation. And 4. Organise the Lightwoods Cafe to cater for tomorrow's meeting, crap I hope there's still time for me to do that tonight," he said glancing around not realising he spoke his thoughts aloud then blinked before returning his gaze back to Telhas. "Uh, did I just say that outloud?" He asked blushing brightly.

"What exactly?" Telhas asked with a polite smile. Of course, he had heard it, but he considered it more polite to ignore what has been said that was not intended to be said.

Casshan straightened and suddenly yawned but covered his mouth just for the yawn as he decided to move on. "Nothing, Ambassador I better go and get things in motion before tomorrow. Please be prepared for answers you don't want to hear but I'm sure if we work together we will make the station and all embassies safe for the immediate future, in the meantime any actions you deem necessary to protect your people and embassy I am sure Captain Refelian will understand. Contact me if you need any Starfleet assistance, mainly manpower or expertise. I'd have to get the Captain's permission for anything else." He said as he gestured to the exit for Telhas to accompany him and slowly turned to leave. "Could you help me, I can't recall the way out?" He blushed again.

"No complaints about the architect, please. She is my wife." Telhas said sternly, but soon a grin crossed his face. "Do not worry, I am just joking. Please follow me." He led the way to the turbolift. "If I may ask, did you deal with Romulans before? Diplomatically, I mean?"

A memory of his former Romulan lover flashed across his mind and it made him stumble a bit. He hadn't thought about him in a while as his new life was keeping him busy. A tear from both eyes fell down his face one after the other at the emotional turmoil of the whole affair.

Telhas was not sure what he could have said wrong to cause such a reaction. His reaction was completely Romulan when he said "Lieutenant, would you mind keeping your emotions under control?"

Casshan pushed the memories away with greater force this time as he heard Telhas. "Sorry it's not you, just old memories haunting me." He performed a quick sequence of gestures that involved touches to his chest, abdomen, both lower arms with the opposite, then made a Betazoid calming pose that had all his fingertips touching in what formed an infinity symbol from his view of his hands just in front of him. This allowed Casshan spiritually to center his emotions and give them rest. It lasted a minute, he also walled up his senses so he wouldn't pick up on Telhas or anyone in the embassy.

"The past defines the presence, but it should not rule it," Telhas said before he added with a smile, "Tellus, after planetfall, when he was asked if we should stick to our traditional life." He pressed the button to call the turbolift. "I concur to this only to a certain degree, as I am strongly convinced that we should never forget who we were and who we are, and that those traditions which made us strong should be kept and honoured."

"Can you write that down for me?" Casshan said entering the turbolift with a smile. "I fear I will forget it, well that particular wording which I agree with." He decided then to go see a doctor about a certain idea he had been toying with ever since falling in love with a Romulan. They travelled in silence as Casshan was content to simply recall all the loving moments of that relationship until the doors opened and he walked out towards the exit. Turning back to Telhas. "I'll see you just before the meeting just in case but hopefully Mister Bane will come to you way before to set up his catering."

"I am sure he will," Telhas said with a brief smile. "Jolan'tru, Lieutenant."

"Jolan'tru Ambassador," Casshan replied and left the Embassy.

 

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