"Impressions"

[Guest Laarell]

J'ai unconscious, the cell quieted at least temporarily, the Orion away team leader had a few minutes to think.

 

Resting her temple on the palm of her hand, she closed her eyes tiredly. She was the daughter and sister of ambassadors, not one herself. Frankly, she didn't know all of the tricks of the trade, nor was she familiar with all of the intricacies of artful diplomatic manipulation.

 

Artful diplomatic manipulation? Who was she kidding? 'Schmoozing' was the better word for what she was thinking of, and schmoozing was done at fine formal events, not an hour after a team of ragtag Starfleet officers fell through the rabbit hole of a event horizon into a strange place with strange aliens. Normal diplomatic occasions were slightly less crass, and involved a little more caviar.

 

Laarell muttered a few silent praises to the gods for having sent Joy along. Fortuitous, really. She was starting to think that all teams should include at least one member which had a good background in dealing with these sorts of situations. First contact studies might have been an academy requirement, but they lacked information on less elegant situations. Locked up on first contact? Yes, you were trained to recognize that it was bad. But what were you going to do about it? Good question.

 

She half wondered if anyone else was having the same doubts she was. Segami -- who could tell with a Trill? They had enough lives that they could easily have been ambassadors before they acquired a host that turned out to be a security henchman. Xenatos was another mystery, but if he'd had diplomatic training, it'd come out before the day was through. Joy, on the other hand, was going to be her lifeline. Thank gods for ambassa-bots.

 

Pulling herself up, she waited for the technologically-genius "ghosts" to reappear. Sooner or later, they'd be back, and they had to be ready. At the least, she did, and slouching about looking nervous wouldn't make a wonderful second impression.