Jake answered with a twinkle in his eye. "The one in the lead is Han'iss, the Trade Ambassador from the Gorn Hegemony. The big one after him is his newest mistress. The last one is Shuular, the top Gorn food critic. After granddad told me earlier that the Ambassador's staff had made reservations for tonight, I did some digging around and found that the Gorn are looking to make a deal with the Gulf Coast fishing industry. The Ambassador's party is here tonight to sample the local cuisine to see which species and recipes are suitable to Gorn tastes." Jake eyed the trio carefully. "Our relations with the Gorn have come a long way since James Kirk's near disaster of a First Contact."
"Captain Kirk's decision to spare the Gorn Captain in the Arena really made an impression on the Hegemony," Daria agreed. "That's what probably persuaded them to join the Federation Alliance in the Dominion War. What?" Daria said, in answer to Jake's quizzed expression."I had to do a report on Federation-Gorn relations for my Xenosociology class."
Jake laughed. "I'm sorry, it's just hard to remember sometimes that you've had twelve years to get up to speed on 24th century history."
"Which includes two years of Academy training." Daria replied. "That I don't need to recall the expression, 'kill two birds with one stone.' You didn't possibly set up this dinner to be here when the Ambassador's party arrived, did you?"
"Jake grinned. "Just being a good reporter."
"And you didn't think I would mind being left alone here while you went off chasing another story? I feel so – used."
Jake suddenly felt worried. "I promise, just a quick interview, then I'll be back and I'll have your undivided attention."
"Men," Daria said, "You're all alike. Chase one story, then your head's turned by the the next scoop that comes along." Her smirk, though, told Jake that she wasn't serious. "Go. I guess I'll drown my sorrows in gumbo until you get back."
Meanwhile, a waiter had seated the Gorn dining party at a large table that had been set up for them with reinforced chairs, while Joseph Sisko greeted them. "Ambassador, esteemed guests, welcome to Sisko's! We have the finest Creole cuisine in all of the Federation. May I take your orders?"
Han'iss's reply, via Universal Translator was succinct: "Everything. And keep it coming."
Daria watched with amusement as Jake went over to the Gorn table and introduced himself. The Ambassador was apparently in a good mood, and granted the young reporter an interview between courses of crayfish, crab, and oysters, which the Gorn consumed with gusto – shells and all.
The Gorn interview took about fifteen minutes, after which Jake rejoined Daria and sat down, wiping a stray bit of crab from his recorder before placing it in his shirt pocket. "Now, where were we?"
"I was being escorted around the Enterprise by Wesley Crusher," Daria said. "I think that he was chosen as my guide because he was close to my age, and I think that his mother may have had a little bit of matchmaker in her, though I don't think she was conscious of it. Anyway..."
They stopped at a door. "Here are your quarters," Wesley said. "The door has already been programmed to respond to your biosigns. Just walk through."
The door slid aside as she and Wesley entered. In response to their presence, the lights came up, enabling Daria to see clearly. Her quarters were a suite with a sitting room with sofa, table and chairs, and floral arrangements with what she assumed were exotic alien plants.
But what really drew her attention was the view. Overlooking the sofa were lozenge shaped windows set at an angle following the curvature of the ship's hull, going from waist level to the ceiling. She walked over to them and could see rainbow streaks of stars darting past the window. Her breath caught in her throat. She stared for a long time, in silence. Finally, she murmured.
"Holy sh – I mean, it's magnificent."
"The stars aren't really going by that fast," Wesley said smiling as he recalled his first view out of a window of stars at warp. "It's just a side effect of starlight entering our warp field. Roughly, I'd say we're going about warp seven."
Daria regained her composure. "So we're really traveling faster than light? Right now?"
"About 656 times the speed of light. At this speed, it would take about 67 days to get back to Earth, if we were going that way. As it is, Mom tells me that we plan to rendezvous with the USS Charleston, where you and the other sleepers will be transferred for the express ride back to Earth at about warp nine, while we continue our patrol. Let me show you the rest of your quarters."
Reluctantly, Daria turned away from the window. "Lead on, MacDuff."
"You know that you're misquoting Shakespeare, don't you?" Wesley said.
"Shut up." Daria decided to have a little fun at the kid's expense. "I just hope that this flying hotel is equipped to handle all of my, uh, 'girly' needs."
Wesley flushed. "Uhhh, I think you'd better ask the computer about that."
"Ask the computer? I hope that the computers here are better at speech recognition than those of my era."
"Sure, said Wesley, regaining his composure. He addressed the terminal at the nearby desk. "Computer. Explain...the sonic shower to Daria."
#The sonic shower is a device that uses water and sonic pulses to cleanse the humanoid body,# the terminal said in a businesslike, yet pleasant contralto voice. A display came up, showing a control panel. #This is the shower panel in your quarters. Various settings can be used to control the water temperature and sonic pulse intensity to your needs. Some find certain settings very relaxing to various parts of the human...#
"Later," Daria interrupted. To change the subject she asked Wesley, "Does, ah, the computer have a library?"
"The computer uses the LCARS operating system to tie in to the Federation Master Database," Wesley said, not noticing the computer's tendency to supply too much information. "From here you can access any data from history to literature to science... anything that isn't classified."
Wesley finished the tour by showing Daria the bedroom and the attached wardrobe that had several changes of clothes in her size.
"Great," Daria said. "I've had enough of hospital gowns to last me the rest of my life. Uh, if you don't mind..."
"Ah...yeah," Wesley said. "I'll just wait out here in the sitting room..." he backed out ahead of the sliding bedroom door. "We can tour Engineering after you've changed," he said through the portal.
