Diplomatic Snafu

[Capt Ayers 0]

Nick reads the diplomatic transmission from Cardassia twice over. The first time merely made him mad. The second time caused him to fume. He mutters "Of all the...how can someone not understand what shaking one's head means. And what part of diplomatic protocol did he fail to understand?" The last thing the station needed right now was a diplomatic fracas with Cardassia Prime, especially with the upcoming elections. The so called Free Cardassia movement was sure to jump on it if they found out about it and Nick isn't about to underestimate their ability to find out information.

 

Nick stabs a control button on his desk computer and says sharply "Lieutenant Demore report to my office immediately. As he deactivates the intercom his empathic senses cause him to snap his chair around towards the windows. He frowns darkly as the reaction of his senses fades away. He shakes his head and mutters something about being jumpy.

 

Hewitt was working through the pile of reports on his desk. He quickly tapped his commbadge. "Aye, Captain," he said, "on my way." Now what does he want? he wondered to himself as he stepped out of his office, and walked into the turbolift. "Ensign Zhu, you have Engineering."

 

Demore didn't bother to think about what Ayers had to say to him. He was actually thinking about the entire Renc Wing, and was afraid it wasn't secure enough. Perhaps he was just becoming paranoid about recent scares on both the station and Cardassia Prime. He made a mental note to ask Muon about how secure the Engineering Boom actually was.

 

The turbolift door opened on the Control Tower, and the Lieutenant walked out. He nodded to Hawke, and continued over to Captain Ayers' office. He tapped the doorbell.

 

Nick glances up at the door and says "Enter." He watches Lieutenant Demore walk in. After a few moments of silence, Nick says coldly "I have a couple questions for you. Do you know what my shaking my head means? Do you know protocol regarding diplomatic personnel and their transports? And finally...do you know how much hell what you did is quite likely going to cause..especially when the Cardassians that don't like our presence in their star system find out?" As he speaks he pushes the Padd containing the transmission from the Cardassian government across the desk towards Demore.

 

Hewitt picked up the data PADD, and begin reading it. The sudden anger Ayers presented in the room was actually frightening the Lieutenant, for he couldn't figure out what Ayers was referring to. The PADD explained all of that.

 

Demore thought over the words he was going to say in his mind several times, to make sure he didn't say anything wrong.

 

"Captain, I scanned that ship for the safety of this station. There have been several terrorist attacks on the planet that ship came from, and I wanted to be sure about that ship's security." Demore thought for a moment.

 

"With a dead man on the ship, our security personnel were busy. I figured that the ship that diplomat came in was released from Cardassia especially for us, and was probably released through unsecured channels. A bomb, or something even worse, could have been placed on that ship without anyone knowing it." He stopped, and thought for a moment. "I did not scan their ship for metals or to learn how it was created, or any weaknesses - I scanned that ship for residue of common engineering devices and liquids used for exploding matter. It is all in the transport report that I inserted into the computer before I came up here. It is yours to send to reassure the Cardassians, sir."

 

"Captain, I'll be honest. I am to the point of not trusting anyone that is going to or coming from Cardassia Prime. I was simply trying to be careful with this. I had no idea this would cause political problems. To be entirely honest, I still believe I was doing my job with no error, and included a certain safety factor."

 

"I don't trust anything that arrives from Cardassia Prime either but at least I would have used the internal sensors, Lieutenant. Walking around their shuttle with a tricorder in hand is only begging for a diplomatic incident. I'm not upset with you for the reason for what you did what you did or that you even did it...I'm upset because of how you did it. Now the Admiral and me have to deal with another diplomatic snafu with the Cardassians and it's only going to serve the interests of the members of the Free Cardassia group. To borrow the line, we're all alone in the dark out here, Lieutenant and the last thing we need is for the Cardassians that don't like our presence to gain power. Because if that happens if you think we're hanging on by the razor's edge now I assure you that that blade is going to get a whole lot sharper if that comes to pass."

 

Nick closes his eyes for a few moments and forces the anger away. He opens his eyes and says in a far calmer tone "Lieutenant, next time use the internal sensors please. And if I ever shake my head at you again it means to stop whatever you're doing. I made the gesture because if I told you orally it would have given away what you were doing for sure. I assume that most Cardassians don't know the various nonverbal means of communication that have developed among humans. And I would point out one last thing...the shuttle was scanned before it docked, before we even dropped our shields to let it in."

 

Demore nodded. "I'm sorry, sir. I understand that all ships are scanned before we allow them to enter the shuttlebay. But, at this point, I just don't trust anyone. That was a diplomatic shuttle, and probably left Cardassia secretly. If someone on the "inside" of the real Cardassian government found out about this meeting aboard Aegis, they may have taken the chance and tried to disable the station. For all we know, there could be someone from the Free Cardassia group here aboard Aegis who is capable of deceiving each one of us," he thought about what he said, and added to it, "But, I have faith in our Security department that we indeed are secure." Demore paused. "Again, I'm sorry, sir. I just don't trust anyone right now."

 

Then he added, "And I also could not figure out what you were intending to do when you shook your head. I suppose I just did not see the entire move - I thought you were just curious as to what I was doing." Demore thought about adding what he had said to Ethan in his plead, but decided against it. "It won't happen again."

 

Nick nods and replies "Very well. We'll chalk it up to a miscommunication then. Just please next time don't be so obvious about it. Dismissed."

 

Nick turns his attention back to some paperwork as Demore exits the office.