A Penance Fit For Diplomats

Posted on Sat Jul 3rd, 2021 @ 3:34pm by Lieutenant Alexis Aenera & Joquer & Lieutenant Commander William Rogers

Mission: Pathstone to History
Location: Conference Room

Alexis tapped her toe as she used the right heel as a fulcrum to move it. Yes, she'd sent comm messages only a couple minutes ago to three of the civilians on board, the bartender at the Raging Deity, Ashe Zacariah, the owner of the new bar called the Astro Lounge, and Lon Nren, the owner of the Deity as well. Of course, one of them had already responded declining the invitation, that would have been the last of them, which meant she was just waiting on the other two.

She'd already prepared most of the supplies that they had needed, since after all they were getting ready for a diplomatic dinner for the Dalacari and Ts'usugi delegations that were going to be visiting within a few hours. Decorative linen napkins, silverware, the finest china that she could replicate and a modicum of decorations as well. Those were for her, her penance as commanded by the Captain for her sins. She sighed heavily as she ceased her toe-tapping and sat heavily into one of the chair as she waited, hands reaching out to begin the long process of bundling the place settings one by one, fanning out the end of the napkin as it passed through the ring.

The doors to the conference room swooshed open, and a Ferengi man stepped through the door, dressed in a nice Ferengi suit, but not too nice: Just enough for him to give off the air of a respectable Ferengi businessman. This suit was slightly more comfortable than his more formal selections when it came to bossing his employees around, which was why he could often be seen wearing it or ones of similar styles whenever he was working. The look on the Ferengi's face was one of annoyance that his business operations had been interrupted.

"You wanted to see me, Lieutenant?" He asked, turning to Alexis; his expression unchanging.

The third one was done, placed to the side so that it wouldn't get mussed as it waited and she gave a look up towards him, "Welcome, sir Joquer." She gave a small smile, what she could muster at the moment with this boredom, "Thank you for joining me, I need a favour from you... We've got a diplomatic function coming up, and I can't cater it, I wouldn't know where to even begin with it. I need an expert."

"Ah, well then it's a good thing you came to me;" Joquer responded, his face lighting up at the business opportunities. "After all, Drumpf Intergalactic Hotels & Casinos prides ourselves in our galaxy-class room service, so this would just be room service on a larger scale."

And, if all goes well, maybe these Delta Quadrant folks would be interested in selling us a piece of their land to build a resort on! He added mentally.

"How quickly do you need the catering service?" He asked.

The Betazoid flinched at the question, especially since she was certain that this would be a very, VERY bad thing to suggest, "About six hours from now?"

Joquer clapped his hands together rather loudly. He wouldn't have been surprised if he had made the Betazoid flinch again.

"It's doable." He said.

Kitchen staff might not like being worked extra hard, but I'll make sure they receive time and a half for their efforts. He added mentally.

"Anything else you may require of me?" He asked.

"Doable?" The answer had surprised Alexis, she'd been expecting a blowup the likes of which the Astraea had never seen. "It's for the Dalacari and the Ts'usugi, so we need to be careful of what's being served... I'd go heavier on the vegetation, but definitely, one hundred percent, no hassenpfeffer. Rabbit dishes would be... Bad."

"Of course;" Joquer saidc. "I'll talk to the kitchen staff about preparing a wide variety of salads from across the Alpha Quadrant, with a few meat delicacies, but not too much... Well, aside from... Whatever that was you just said. If there's nothing else you require of me, I need to go inform the kitchen staff on what they're making for our guests."

Renee grinned as she made yet another one of the napkin fans, "Well, I'm going to let you get to that, I've got... A lot to do here." She grimaced, kindof now expecting that she was going to be on her own for the decorating, so she let her hands do the work as she planned out what she was going to do otherwise.

Joquer nodded and spun around, turning to leave.

*** Five hours later ***

Alexis let herself slump into one of the last of the undecorated chairs and looked around. The conference room now was decorated in a mix of blue and red, with the flags of the United Federation of Planets, along with the Ts'usugi Empire and the Dalacari Republic draped loosely along the wall where they would be seen by everyone in the room. It was actually tastefully done, not slapdash or over the top. The table...

Each place was just awaiting place settings, the table cloth being a navy blue with a red fringe on the edges, the fan-type napkin placed in the center of each place. She just needed to figure out centerpieces for along the danged thing. She heard a door hiss open behind her and sighed, she was probably out of time at this point. "I'm almost done..." She said to whoever it was, not really having the energy to turn around.

Buck cast his eyes over the display in front of him. "I'm sorry Lieutenant." He spoke kindly but firmly. An experiment in projecting soft authority. He wasn't sure it suited him. "But we're out of time. Where do we stand with the preparations?"

"We're just about ready here, I need about... Ten more minutes? And Joquer should be in the final stages of getting the dinner ready, I just need centerpieces for the table." She glanced back, "Besides that, how does it look?"

"No can do, Lieutenant. Our guests are already at the airlock." Buck shook his head. Jailers would be the more appropriate term to his mind. He started to circle the table. "I'm no expert, but I'd say it looks good. I doubt anyone will notice the lack of centrepieces. Let's check in with Joquer and get the show on the road."

Her eyes opened wide, "The Captain will kill me..." She murmured, then sighed, there wasn't a replicator in here, there wasn't anything she could do about it and she deflated slightly, "All right, let's go."