Buckle Up, Buttercup

Posted on Dec 24, 2016 @ 7:22am by Ambassador Xana Bonviva
Edited on on Dec 24, 2016 @ 7:23am

Mission: Aftermath

“Buckle up, Buttercup”



=/\=

Location: VULCAN

Scene: Vulcan Science Academy - Auditorium*Classroom

STARDATE: [2.16] 1224.0120

The auditorium of the vaunted Vulcan Science Academy was empty today which was good because it gave FedComm the opportunity to measure and setup for the Assembly debate in 48 hours. On the center stage were four figures: Kiki Kostana (host of Coffee with Kiki); the director of FedComm News, Timo Nurme; Brooklyn Malys’ campaign manager, Xaverius Telehala; and finally, Hussein Karimi’s campaign manager, Xana Bonviva. They were standing on the stage, in the middle of negotiations of the popular, if quite hastily arranged, debate.

“We want clear podiums,” Xana announced. “The people have the right to see the candidates fully.”

Xaverius Telehala glared at Xana. “No way. My candidate is vertically challenged. She needs a box to stand on.”

Kiki, from FedComm’s morning show “Coffee with Kiki”, sipped from a mug the contents of which was debatable if it had coffee or something stronger. “Get a box to stand on.”

Xaverius glared. “If she had a box that’s all people would talk about.”

Kiki smirked, “She’d get the shorty vote.”

Timo, as the director of the FedComm News, was the final word. He held out a hand. “Solid podium, Ms. Malys will have a box to stand on.” Sighing he looked at his list. “Next topic, whoever is declared the lead in FedComm’s poll 24 hours in advance will get the first question.”

“No,” Xana replied. “Your poll?”

“You have a problem with our poll?” Timo asked.

“Your questions are vague, your polling samples are too small. Quite frankly your polls suck,” Xaverius replied.

Xana nodded, “I agree.”

Timo barely contained his eye roll. “This is non-negotiable; it’s our poll.”

Xana inhaled and went forward with her main pointed that she really wanted. “We want a red light and buzzer when to keep time.”

“That’s archaic. No,” Timo replied.

“You think a toy light and buzzer is going to keep the truth from coming out? Good luck,” Xaverius laughed.

Xana ignored Xaverius and focused on Timo. “Did I stutter? If there’s no light, no buzzer, then I’m pulling Hussein.”

Kiki gave a sharp glance. “Your candidate wanted this debate.”

“If there’s no light, no buzzer, then Brooklyn Malys will suck all the air out of this debate, it will be biased before it begins, so we will be out,” Xana replied as she turned around and walked away.

“She’s posturing,” Kiki declared as she narrowed her delicate tawny eyes.

Xana stopped her walk and turned around. “I’m pulling my candidate and I’ll be auctioning off an exclusive, in-depth never before seen interview to Hussein Karimi to be aired during the debate.”

“FNN won’t go for that,” the FedComm News Director said, more as a hope than a definite.

“If it’s FNN fine. Better yet if it’s not. I *want* it to be the Fiji News Network or Bahamas Network or the 4th grade class of St. Jude’s for all I care. Because then the story is not only how Brooklyn Malys is debating an empty podium and losing but how FedComm and FNN are colluding to deny the people of EARTH a real debate and talk about the blatant bias that’s going on here,” Xana stated.

Then the campaign manager for Hussein Karimi spun around on her high heels and walked out of the negotiations.

Hussein Karimi was holed up in a classroom with Marie-Claire Martine and Leitas who were going through internal polling and strategies for the debate. Looking at Xana Bonviva, the candidate asked, “Aren't you supposed to be in negotiations?”

Xana held up a hand as she looked around the room. “I need terminal, a comm, something,” she said as went around the room.

“The negotiations,” Karimi repeated.

“A comm,” Xana repeated, ignoring her own candidate.

Marie-Claire watched, almost amused, as the Bolian/Human moved frantically around the room. Her face lit up when she saw a briefcase. “I need that!” she declared.

“That’s my polling and--” Leitas protested.

Xana stared down the aide. “Look it could have your porn, drugs, and/or a dead body but right now it’s in service to a greater good.”

The Andorian woman sat back, her jaw going slack as she passed over the briefcase. Karimi and Martine looked over in perfect timing at Leitas. “Does it have any of those things?” he asked quietly.

“No,” the aide replied back scandalized.

Karimi made a little moue but settled back with the notes that Marie-Claire had given him.

Bonviva ignored all that and sat at a desk, opened the briefcase, turned it turned towards the door, and pretended to be typing, keeping one eye towards the door.

“What are you doing?” Karimi asked as Xana held up a hand as she still pretended to type.

Marie-Claire held up a hand as she heard the same thing that had caused Xana to sit down.

Coming down the hallway, there was the steady marching of feet. The rumpled news director of FedComm stood in the doorway. “Ms. Bonviva, stop calling FNN.”

The azure woman stood up, closed the briefcase, and walked over to the director. “Red lights and buzzers. Of-my-choosing.”

Timo Nurme sighed. “Fine.”

Xana smiled brightly as she began to walk out of the classroom expecting Timo to follow, which he did. “Now we can go back and discuss podiums. Plus, I have ideas on the questions.”

Karimi watched as his campaign manager marched out. “She’s going to do this all day, isn’t she?”

Marie-Claire gave an elegant shrug, but she knew, and she secretly suspected that they all knew, that yes, the negotiations would be like this. “I’d get comfortable. And we don’t have much time for debate prep.”

Leitas leaned in, “You need to counter her words, but not her.”

Karimi sat back in his chair, staring down the young woman with a steely dark glare. “I was educated at Cambridge, where I was the captain of the debate team, served many years Diplomatic Corp, was an aide Ambassadors-at-large before coming to this point, so I am as you know exceedingly stupid.”

Leitas looked down, Marie-Claire looked up trying not to look exasperated and Xana Bonviva swept back in. “More negotiations?”

“I don’t like the questions,” she nodded as she went back to the desk. Sitting down as she opened the briefcase she asked the team, “Have we started to--”

“Yes,” all three of the other occupants replied.

Xana Bonviva nodded. “This is going well,” she said in a tone that indicated anything but.

=/\=

TI: 48 hours later

“Good Evening and welcome to the first and only debate between the candidates for Assembly,” Kiki Kostana announced as the candidates walked out onto stage. “The rules for tonight’s debates are as follows: a candidate will be asked a question by myself and will have 90 seconds to respond. The opponent will have 60 to ask a question and get an answer but it must be on the same topic. By virtue of leading in today’s poll, former Starfleet Captain Brooklyn Malys will receive the first question. Perhaps the biggest difference between you and your opponent is the philosophical difference between the role of EARTH in the Federation. Can you explain your view?”

Brooklyn Malys smiled as she stood behind a solid silver podium. “Good Evening and it’s an honor to be here. My view of this is simple. While the Federation is a good idea for some things, it is overreaching in other areas. We don’t need a Federation to be teaching our children Orion poetry, or telling our communities what kind of businesses they need. Now my opponent is going throw a big word at you: unsupported mandate. Let EARTH, and the other planets decide if they want. What he doesn’t like is the Federation losing power, but what I call it is the ingenuity of Terrans.”

“Mr. Karimi, your turn,” Kiki said.

“Well let’s clear up some things. “Unsupported mandate” are two words, not one big word,” Karimi replied. “Now your belief is that planets should do the governing wall to wall. There are times we are one Federation and there are times we are separate planets, with separate needs. It’s complicated but we’ve managed to make it work. I know this because EARTH didn’t fight in the Second Dominion War on its own, during which you were the Executive Officer of the USS REFUSE and received resources from Orion with its poetry along with Betazed, Bajor as well as other Federation members. EARTH’s own businesses, which you champion, estimates that it would lose anywhere from ⅓ to ⅔ of its trade and resources if we left the Federation. I’m supposed to be using this time for a question so here it is: how do you propose to assist Starfleet and Earth’s businesses if not for the Federation?”

Xana Bonviva, who was standing in the Press Room watching the debate, grinned. Turning around to the media who were taking notes she said, “Who needs spin?”

=/\=

TI: Later on

“Diplomacy is the cornerstone of any and all relationships, it’s the language we use to communicate on such topics as human rights, trade conditions, or war and peace. Being formally recognized is important for peaceful relationships and for participation within the galaxy. In informal diplomacy, planets communicate with each other through non-official means like through educational academies. Just as we rely on Starfleet for exploration, first contact and keeping up the Federations’ ideals so too we cannot shy away from our other diplomatic ideals,” Karimi outlined. “Earth has always lead the way for diplomacy and I want it to continue to do so. Our relationship with our Federation partners and being a member of the Federation is key to that.”

“Captain Malys, your turn.”

“Thank you,” she nodded. “EARTH should be a force for good in the galaxy and a beacon for good and tolerance. And we should be that leadership and light. I mean I know, first hand, from my time in Starfleet and even since then coming home to EARTH we have a very close proximity to other powers. I mean I can see ARGELIUS II from my house. So my question to you, Mr. Karimi, is how can diplomacy alone can save us?”

Standing in the press room Xana spared a glance for her fellow campaign manager across the room who was taking many shouting questions from the reporters. “No, no, no what Captain Malys meant was that ARGELIUS II was that a serious threat.”

Alesky Nitkin from FNN walked over to Xana Bonviva who was half watching the debate and watching the spin her fellow campaign manager. “Comment,” he asked amiably.

“No,” she smiled back.

As Alesky Nitkin gave a look before going to find another quote Marie-Claire came over. “I agree for what it’s worth,” she said. When Xana looked over. “We’re at the point it’s becoming inelegant to say anything.”

The women continued to watch the monitors as Karimi continued to pushed back on Brooklyn Marys. “We’ll leave when we’re done,” Xana decided. “We’ll keep a couple of the experts to give out some statistics that Karimi gave but that’s it. No spin from us.”

Marie-Claire thought it over. “You can’t just leave.”

Xana thought about it. “A simple statement?” “

Martine thought about it. “How about: ‘Hussein Karimi is leaving to go back to defend the rights of diplomacy and the place of EARTH in the Federation’.”

“And we’ll be drinking heavily,” Xana sighed.

Martine shared a glance with a smothered smile, “I think you should leave that out.”

“Ok, but see if I save you a glass,” the blue woman joked.

=/\=

TI: Christmas Eve

The campaign was laying low for the traditional Terran holiday, even if they were on VULCAN. For Xana Bonviva and her two youngest children that meant they were at home enjoying some quality time.

Dahlia was lying on the couch, reading a book and Ben was playing a game with the idea that if he jumped along it would help (despite what his sister told him) and Xana was busy cooking dinner in their small kitchen.

Suddenly the doorbell rang.

“I got it!” Ben yelled.

Xana stuck her head out of the kitchen and gave her daughter a look.

“Yeah I can go too,” Dahlia sighed after a moment.

The mother shook her head. Her relationship with daughter was thawing out since the separation with Jake but it still wasn’t great. She missed it, she missed her daughter, this beautiful bright young woman who was living right here and was slowly drifting away from her right here under her roof.

As Xana continued to chop the vegetables she heard a deep voice followed by...a light laughter. A moment later Ben came running into the kitchen with a wide grin on his face. “MOM! You won’t believe who came for Christmas! Mom! It’s the best Christmas present EVER!”

Then she heard Dahlia’s laughter. The sound was so unexpectedly delightful that it brought a genuine smile to her face. For a moment Xana thought Jake had come home for Christmas, as whimsical of a thought that was.

Wiping her hands on a nearby navy and white towel, she walked around the counter to come out to the foyer. Standing there as a tall man with brown hair pushed back, brown eyes, and as he slung his bag down he wore a simple long sleeve black shirt that blended ever-present gloves, as his jeans hung low.

The young woman, who was only a few years older than Dahlia, had an arm around each of Dahlia and Ben. Her blonde hair which was so similar to her biological mother, was now in a stylish hairstyle that framed her apple cheeks and slight wrinkled Bajoran nose.

No, Jake didn’t come for Christmas; her eldest two children left their other homes to join her and their younger siblings. Suddenly the smile on her face lit up for an entirely different reason; it had been *years* since all her children had been together with her. Normally she had each of her children in snippets here and there.

“We heard there was a change for Christmas,” Gavriosh Bonviva grinned as he came around to hug his mother.

“I’d hug you too if I could get everyone off me,” Erika Byrne grinned.

Ben tried to drag Erika while holding onto his sister, and naturally Erika resisted, and eventually the tug-of-war did not end well, within minutes all of the family was on the floor.

“Ooof--I think this is why we don’t this all the time,” Dahlia pointed out from the near bottom of the pile. Then she laughed again, a deep belly laugh that bounced off the walls.

Sometime later, after Gavi and Erika got settled and food was eaten; everyone was enjoying themselves. Erika was helping Ben with his video game while Gavi listened to Dahlia explain her latest engineering project asked lots of questions.

Sitting on the big chair next to the window, Xana’s mind wandered to Gene McInnis. She knew that he’d be proud of the daughter that he spent so little time with with. Her heart warmed when thought of Daisy Byrne-Davidson-Bonviva and the children that she so selflessly shared with Xana.

Looking out on the stars she thought of Jake. The love of her life who loved the stars. **I hope you’re happy wherever you are,** she thought, her heart both warm when she thought of him and aching that times like this would no longer be available to them.



Then she turned back to her family.

=/\=

TI: Election Day

Scene: Hussein Karimi Campaign Headquarters

“Ok, when I said I was visiting you, I didn’t think I was going to be working,” Gavi pointed out as he plated the hors devors for the campaign party.

“Just for today.” Xana looked at her eldest son. Moving over to the drinks table she re-arranged the work that Gavi just did.

Gavi ignored his mother for a good seven minutes as he went to talk to some of the servers and the other chefs. Finally he went back to her. “Don’t you have staff to talk to?”

“I already checked on the polls,” she said. “Results won’t come in until later.”

“You scared off them didn’t you?” As he continued his work of setting up utensils he continued on with what he knew to be the truth. “Right you scared them off.”

Xana glared at her eldest child. “I don’t like this.”

Gavi looked back at her. “You forget I worked for you. I know what this is like,” he shrugged. Dusting off his chef’s jacket he said, “Look, you’ve done what you can. I’m going back to the kitchen. Don’t follow. It’s bad enough you said ‘Hey my son is a famous Terran chef’ -- which is *not* true --

“You are a Terran chef,” his mother replied.

“I’m not famous,” Gavi pointed out, “and then you told them that I’d be catering to a group of chefs who don’t know me; so no I don’t need my mother to be interfering.”

The stress of the last few weeks flowed out of Xana. “Gavi, life is not turning out the way I thought so buckle up buttercup because interfering in my children’s lives is all I have left,” Xana glared at her son as she went looking for chocolate.

The man threw up his hands and muttered something that probably would have had his siblings grounded. “Mom, you can’t keep this up. Dahlia and Erika will plot to kill you at night if you do and Ben will need intensive therapy before his next birthday.”



"And you're not going to do anything?"



"No. It's why I'm your favorite," Gavi smirked.

The azure woman rolled her eyes at that but then really looked at her son, this young man who stood there so confident, and while she was so damn proud and loved him no less than the children she carried, she couldn’t help but remember the scared young boy he was when he first came into her life. “Ok, I'll think about it,” she sighed. “You look good with your haircut. Did I tell you that?”

The young chef sighed, “Once or twice or a dozen times. I got the hint when the last message you told me that you missed seeing my face.” Walking around he said, “Look, Erika is taking the anklebiters here after school. In the meantime try to stop scaring off people.”

“Stop being obnoxious,” Xana replied as she kissed his cheek.

Gavi rolled his eyes and went off to the kitchen muttering something about having a mother being a bane of his existence.

That night the campaign headquarters were a verifiable hot spot as a bevy of supporters had come out to support Karimi. Shortly after the polls closed at 2000, results began rolling in. But Xana didn’t need to worry because by 2147 had called the election for Karimi and FedComm called it shortly thereafter. There were calls to take, Brooklyn Malys didn’t concede until after 2200 and Karimi didn’t address the crowds 2235 but it was a good night.

By the time crowds started to drift off, Karimi finally allowed himself to relax. “I did it!” he crowed.

Xana shared a look with Marie-Claire and Leitas. Turning around she passed champagne glasses discreetly . “Of course,” she smiled. “Congratulations.”

“Of course, we’ll need to talk next steps,” Karimi mused. When the azure woman gave him a look he said, “It’s early but we need to start planning the next steps where we’ll go from here.”

Champagne never tasted so good, Xana mused.


=/\=

NRPG: Sorry I ran out of steam at the end! But so ends the political storyline for now and Karimi won :) I don’t know how long Gavi and Erika will be visiting Xana but it seemed appropriate for them to make an appearance at Christmas.

=/\=

Sarah Albertini-Bond

~writing for~

Xana Bonviva

“The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof.”

--Richard Bach