Walking On Eggshells At Diplomatic Dinners

Posted on Jun 24, 2017 @ 2:36am by Lieutenant Jasmine Yu
Edited on on Jun 24, 2017 @ 2:36am

Mission: The Romulan Way

“Walking on Eggshells at Diplomatic Dinners”
(Contd. from Jerome’s ‘Regrouping’)

Location: USS PHOENIX
SD: [2.17] 0621.2052
Scene: The Vulgar Tribble

The dinner was underway and everyone seemed to be enjoying the food that Iphie kept replenishing every time a tray or plate became empty. Jasmine observed with a tiny smile the enthusiasm that radiated from the blue woman as she was bringing in one new dish or another. This was obvious from watching the chef, glowing with pride as the half-Bolian was explaining to the female Romulan, the process of making the Romulan dessert, osol twists.

Speaking of Romulans, as soon as Yu took her seat, she had spent some time in between conversations, observing their guests from the Shai’Dan. They all had different personalities, the first thing she noticed. Commander Jaron had a sober expression – showing he was neither happy nor unhappy to be here. But that didn’t really say much regarding how he truly felt as people put on masks at diplomatic functions – a mask covering a sea of turbulence beneath. The Romulan, Deleem, was quite talkative and could spot him, giving Crichton a long monologue. Deleem sure liked listening to himself speak and had opinions about everything from Klingons to even the Q Continuum. Invading the Q Continuum, which in the Asian woman’s opinion, seemed quite bold, and reeking of arrogance.

Yu turned her attention to the other Romulans, Ratal and Herut. Ratal, at first glance, seemed as cold as ice with a stern look in her eyes and a harsh facial expression. It was obvious and one needn’t be a telepath to figure out that the female Romulan held some disdain for Non-Romulans but then again maybe it was the mask she was putting on. Hard to tell at these events, where everyone had to walk on eggshells.

Sighing, Jasmine filled her plate with two pieces of breaded eggplant and hummus spread over it on multi-grain bread from a single row, standing next to another consisting of the Terran BLT on artisan ciabatta bread. The security chief wondered as she took a bite off the sandwich whether any of the Romulans were vegetarians, which didn’t really seem the case as all their guests were digging in on the meat rolls and mollusks. Yu grimaced, unable to imagine eating any meat. She had been a vegetarian all her life.

“I see you seem to avoid the mollusk or any of the other meats,” a female voice spoke, catching the dark haired woman’s attention.

It was Ratal, Jasmine recognized, yes the same Romulan who seemed rather standoffish and cold for most of the evening, except during her exchange with Iphie about dessert. Placing her sandwich gently down on the plate, the security chief turned her gaze to the stern Romulan woman and spoke in a polite and calm voice, “I’m a vegetarian, Centurion.”

“So you don’t eat anything made from an animal…like a Vulcan,” she said the last part with derision. Well, it was common knowledge, Romulans generally didn’t think highly of their ancient biological cousins. “It seems unusual, considering I spot many of your fellow humans eating meat. Are there those of your species who reject food made from animal?”

How would she answer this question? And it was unexpected – the Asian American didn’t believe vegetarianism would be a topic of conversation at this dinner, when there were other, more interesting subjects to discuss and even debate. It made sense the Centurion was interested in the osol twists but that was a Romulan delicacy. “Yes, there is a large segment of Earth’s population who chose to follow a diet, free of animal meat, either due to a personal choice or a religious one?”

“Tell me, was it a personal choice for you?”

Jasmine nodded, taking a sip of the ale. “Yes.” At the corner of her eye, Yu spotted Iphie, Calvin and Hobbes make their way towards them with a few trays containing an assortment of desserts from various Federation worlds and more Romulan ones. The Osol twists were already brought earlier because Ratal mentioned from the aroma, coming from the kitchen.

Herut reached out for one of the trays that the Bynar, Calvin was carrying and grabbed a small cup filled with a custard, topped with a layer of hard caramel. “I’ll take this one. What kind of dessert is this? Looks burnt.”

“It’s crème brulee,” Iphie replied, a few feet from the Romulan. “An old Earth dessert. If you’d like, I can tell you more about it, once I’ve set these trays on the table.”

Ratal said, her lips curling into a mild sneer, “Have you actually tried meat, Lieutenant…”

Yu.” Jasmine then replied, “And no. Not once in my life.” She wasn’t the only vegetarian in her family, both her mom and dad were too. While her father, just like herself, had dairy products as part of the diet, her mother, on the other hand, was a vegan – no animal products of any sort, not even milk. It was their personal choice just like it was hers.

To Yu’s relief, the conversation abruptly ended as Ratal’s focus went to the desserts and grabbed a few more osol twists. Finding her glass empty, Jasmine sighed, deciding to get a refill. She was cautious about drinking too much and losing focus, so paid attention to the amount of alcohol consumed. So perhaps one or two more glasses should be fine and then it was either water or hot green tea for the rest of the evening.

The security chief got up from her seat and made her way to the bar. “Lieutenant,” came the voice of her CO. Yu stopped in her tracks and turned around to face the Irish man. “How are things going?”

“So far so good, Captain,” Yu replied calmly. “I’m happy to report the dinner seemed to be going rather smoothly and there are no incidents from both the Romulans and our side as of yet.” Though the night was still young but the dark haired woman kept that thought to herself.

“What are your thoughts on our guests?”

“It’s hard to tell, sir,” Yu said candidly. “Like us, it’s possible, they too may be wary of us and our intentions for peace. I think there is caution on both sides. But that in my view may be close to a best case scenario as there is hope of improvement in our relationships, which would be steps towards peace.”

Kane’s voice lowered to a whisper. “And I hear you and Major Thytos have also been preparing for the worst case scenario.”

“Yes.” Yu nodded slowly. “Which I hope doesn’t come to fruition.”

“It’s all what we want.” He further added, “Lieutenant, Commander Jaron just told me that one of his officers, the Centurion Herut is also a Tal’ Shiar agent.”

Jasmine’s brow furrowed, her posture stiffening. “Should we be worried?”

“Perhaps. We just need to be careful,” her CO answered. “Anyway, Lieutenant, I will leave you to it.”

“Captain.” Yu nodded as she headed to the bar and noticed the newly assigned FCO heading in the same direction. As both reached the bar, Jasmine turned to the Human/Borg, couldn’t really call him a hybrid or maybe she could and greeted the man with a smile, “Lieutenant Vukovic, I didn’t have a chance to speak to you earlier on the bridge. So I just wanted to welcome you to the ship.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant Yu.” Tomas raised a half-full glass of ale. “It is a pleasure meeting you.”

One of the bynar refilled their glasses with more ale. “How are you finding the ship?” Jasmine inquired, taking a sip.

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NRPG: More stuff on the dinner and no drama yet ;)



~*~
Ranjani S.
Writing for

Lieutenant Jasmine Yu
Chief of Security and Tactical
USS PHOENIX