We Are Absolutely Not Important Enough for This

Posted on Wed Oct 21st, 2026 @ 8:06am by 2nd Lieutenant Amelia Carter & Petty Officer 1st Class Kara DeSotto [ADMIN NPC] & Petty Officer 3rd Class Sindari Toylen [ADMIN NPC] & Cadet Sophomore Grade Miran Lalor [Lalor] HRH & Cadet Sophomore Grade Raye Crosby-Triannth [Lalor] & Civilian Two of Eight & Lieutenant JG Kial Jona [Shepard] & Lieutenant JG BF 345078 (john Snow.) [Sthilg] & Lieutenant JG Matthew Kensington MD & Chief Warrant Officer Man'darr [Naxea] & Staff Warrant Officer Seona Davar & Master Sergeant Nenaa [Sthilg] & Master Sergeant Moses Henderson & Cadet Senior Grade Gérard Dirsye [Reece] & Cadet Sophomore Grade Gracelyn Shepard & Cadet Sophomore Grade Arthur Tyrell & Cadet Sophomore Grade Marmaduke Marshal & Cadet Freshman Grade Cerese Gemini (Kelea-Salik) & Cadet Freshman Grade Selenoa Ravari & Nicholas Mathias & Cadet Senior Grade Triston Montgomery [Lalor]

Mission: Season 6 - Episode 8- The Price of Home
Location: Aureate Spire Reception
Timeline: MD 1 — 1900 Hours
1677 words - 3.4 OF Standard Post Measure

There were a lot of important people in the Aureate Spire. That was immediately obvious. Some wore elaborate diplomatic robes. Others wore military uniforms covered in insignia. Some required entourages. A few had security personnel following discreetly behind them. And then there were the junior members of the USS Elysium crew. Who had received invitations too. A soft chime interrupted the growing conversations.

Commander Rhael’ta Zovrenn stepped onto the central platform. “Honoured guests.” Her melodic voice carried effortlessly across the reception. “Welcome to Zyphera Prime.” She regarded the gathering. “You have been invited here because tomorrow you will begin discussing matters of considerable importance.” A pause. “Tonight, however, the Concord has made the somewhat radical decision that you should first discover whether you can tolerate one another for the duration of a meal.” Scattered laughter followed. “Tomorrow there will be agendas. Tonight there are none.” Perhaps technically. “There will be no formal negotiations this evening. No motions. No votes. No commitments will be recognised as binding by the Zypheran Concord.” Rhael’ta paused. “For the reassurance of several delegations, I am informed this includes commitments made after consuming beverages from the Lorahn table.” The laughter was louder this time. Rhael’ta lifted her glass. “Circinus has no shortage of borders. Nor grievances. Nor histories explaining why cooperation is impossible.” Her amber eyes swept across the room. “Perhaps this evening we might begin with something considerably less ambitious.”

A beat. “Conversation.” She raised her glass. “To new conversations.” Glasses lifted throughout the Aureate Spire. Conversation resumed almost immediately. Which was approximately when some of Elysium's junior personnel discovered that conversation became considerably more intimidating when half the room appeared capable of starting a trade war if addressed incorrectly.

The observation balcony therefore had one significant advantage over the main reception. Almost nobody important seemed to be on it. Beyond the transparent barrier, Zyphera IV dominated the view while streams of ships moved through the station's traffic corridors. Music from inside was quieter here, reduced to background noise beneath the murmur of conversation. A handful of Elysium personnel gradually migrated toward the balcony.

Possibly for the view. Possibly because there were fewer ambassadors. Probably because there was considerably less chance of accidentally causing an interstellar incident while talking to someone whose name you didn't recognise. Then the doors opened. A young alien wearing the elaborate clothing of one of the smaller Circinus delegations stepped onto the balcony carrying two glasses. They stopped. Looked at the Starfleet uniforms. Then smiled. “Excellent.” They crossed toward them. “You are not admirals.” A pause. “Or ambassadors.”

Another hopeful look. “Please tell me none of you are important.” Apparently the junior members of the summit had found each other.

Man'darr let out a sigh as he looked down at the alien. "Everyone has value," he replied in a gruff voice. 'Moreso than we wish,' Man'darr thought. "You are?"

From his spot by the railing, Gérard watched the interaction between the Elysium's large Capellan warrior, and the shorter...well...the individual seemed to resemble what a goldfish might look like, if it evolved to become bipedal. "Uh oh," he said softly to Miran, who was standing next to him. "That guy better choose his words carefully, or else we might be hit with an interstellar incident."

Miran nodded slowly. She hated these sorts of things.

Cerese was keeping to herself for the moment, simply observing the delegations in the room getting a good sense of who to watch and who to avoid.

The alien blinked up at Man'darr. Once. Then twice. “That is an extremely diplomatic answer.” Their mouth — which admittedly did have something of the unfortunate appearance of a Terran goldfish — opened slightly before curling into what was unmistakably a grin. “I was hoping for something more reassuring.” They shifted one of the two glasses into their other hand and extended the now-free one toward the considerably larger Capellan. “Tarel Voss. Junior Attaché to the Kessari delegation.” A pause. “Very junior.” Tarel glanced through the transparent doors toward the reception beyond. “My Ambassador has spent the last three hours reminding me that I am here to observe, learn and under absolutely no circumstances express an opinion on anything of political significance.” Their gaze returned to Man'darr.

“So naturally I have developed opinions on almost everything.” Then Gérard's softly spoken warning reached them. Tarel's head turned.
s lowly. They looked toward Gérard. Then at Man'darr. Then back to Gérard. “Interstellar incident?” There was a moment of apparent concern.
Then Tarel brightened. “Oh, excellent.” They crossed toward Gérard, offering him the second glass they had been carrying. “I was worried I was going to be the one who caused it.” Tarel gestured toward the reception. “Do you know how exhausting it is being surrounded by people who can accidentally alter foreign policy simply by ordering the wrong drink?” Their eyes moved between the Elysium personnel gathered on the balcony, eventually including Cerese in the assessment. Then Tarel seemed to reach a decision. “Right.” They raised their own glass. “New rule.” A conspiratorial look appeared. “Out here, nobody is important.” Tarel pointed toward the doors. “Ambassadors are important in there.”
Then toward the balcony floor. “Out here, we're just people hiding from them.” A beat. “Agreed?”

Man'darr gave a curt nod. "Agreed."

Sele sat on the thick railing. Small enough enough and yet inquisitive, she observed the large gathering of people. Perched on the edge of the balcony while cross-legged, her spine sat up straight. Breathing quietly, she exhaled a breath. Opening her eyes, she noted several players in the gathering. Even the speaker who apparently resembled a fish but not. Inhaling softly, she blew another breath as her pointed ears wiggled subtly.

"It's too quiet," exhaled another presence that joined her on the railing.

The railing creaked softly as Grace attempted to get onto it. Sele quietly raised her eyebrow and stared at her young friend, whos a heavy half klingon with muscles. She sighed, rolling her eyes, "Give it up, Grace. You're too fat."

Grace stopped and glared at her. She grumbled softly, "I'm not fat. I'm just slightly bulky. Huge difference. I ate a lot."

"For a half Klingon," Sele sighed, shaking her head. She added, "What do you mean too quiet?"

After a few failed attempts to get on the balcony, Grace gave up with a huff and crossed her muscular arms. Leaning back against the balcony, it creaked as she replied, "I mean, look at them. They chat, talk, debate, and figure things out while we stand on the side lines. We're supposed to let them do all the talking. What are we doing? Just sitting. Observing. You saw the briefing for the cadets. What are we supposed to do? Sit and wait. It's too quiet. Means something's bound to happen but its not happening yet. And I don't like sitting around doing nothing."

Sele listened and sat up straighter while placing her hands on her knees in a cross legged position. She replied, "On the contrary, we're not sitting around doing nothing. While you're too busy being anxious, I've been doing a lot of thinking. And a lot of processing. If they are asking to not start trouble, then the trick is to not start one but to start planning for one. Quietly. By asking questions first. Observe. Ask questions. Learn. We don't start trouble, but we document our findings and give them to the adults. Our people."

Sele exhaled, quickly dismounting from the railing. She walked towards the large gathering as Grace followed with her first question, "Where are you going?"

Sele turned to Grace and smirked, winking, "To start asking questions."

“Are we supposed to be doing that?” Cerese asked as she walked over. “Yeah we should meet and greet, be polite but as for anything else?”

Nicholas had came around a corner when he heard Sele and Cerese talking to one another. He managed to hear the question basically about being able to ask questions or not. "You know, questions are how we start to get to know one another. Even the harder questions. How are we supposed to know until we ask the questions?" Nicholas said to the pair with a smile on his face. As an Alien Archeologist and Anthropologist, Nicholas understood that some of the most basic things we could do were to ask questions.

“That’s true I guess” Cerese nodded not wanting to be the first one to get stuck in asking questions.”

"What were you two thinking about asking anyways? Or what made you guys start talking about questions?" Nicholas asked everyone.

"Perhaps a tiny bit of boredom? Questions sometimes lighten or if we're lucky maybe even brighten up any insignificance a person might be feeling." Matt Kensington commented as he too had just arrived on the tail end of the conversation. He had a feeling that perhaps Nicholas might be someone who could maybe have some interesting questions he might want to ask? It was worth a conversation at least, and with the ladies as well? What could go wrong?

“How’s about you guys start and we’ll join in where needed.” Cerese suggested with a smile.

"Why would anyone be feeling insignificant? Everyone onboard this ship is significant in their own ways," Nicholas replied as he walked over to a nearby replicator and ordered some coffee. Then, he turned back and said, "Alright, how about this for a question? If Q showed up to your next class or randomly one afternoon, and said you had to become a member of a different species for a day, which species would you choose and why?"

“I’m afraid I have no idea who Q is, or know much about any of your species.” Cerese added. “I’m still learning.”

"Take a wild guess then. That's why I asked the question. Doesn't have to be perfect or right to be good," Nicholas offered up with a small smile.

OFF