Captain Bolerov stood in his dress uniform next to the romulan reporter occasionally shifting his feet. He has addressed hundreds of crewmembers before, even spoken at a number of seminars. Standing before a camera broadcasting to hundreds of millions of romulans, however, made his skin crawl. In this thirty-plus years in Starfleet, he had been trained to never trust romulans. The treaty had always been tenuous and they were always looking for a way to undermine it. They were manipulative, cruel, deceptive and just plain evil. Now, here he stands, standing next to a romulan REPORTER of all people, and told to give him a TOUR of the place.
Lietenant Commander T'Nia stood next to Bolerov. As always, she was unphased by any of what was going on around her. She was, however, well aware of the small, but growing movement throughout romulus to learn more about their vulcan cousins. Most of her knowledge came from Stephen's 'godfather', Ambassador Spock. Stephen hadn't heard from him in months, suggesting he was, once again, underground somewhere on Romulus providing the enlightenment of logic. T'Nia had always had a great respect for Ambassador Spock. Getting to know him, even slightly, through her friendship with Stephen Kirk was yet another added benefit. Because of Spock's movement on Romulus, she was curious to know how her image would be received by her distant relatives.
Chief Engineer Tom Kelly stood next to T'Nia. He was loving every minute of this adventure. On his first mission, even though unofficial, he was given a medal before the Council of Federation Representatives. Now, he was going to be interviewed on planetary wide romulan television. He had already begun imagining what his statue would look like at the Academy Corps of Engineers building back in San Francisco. Tom assumed there would be a much larger statue in Australia. He wondered if this fame on Romulus would make any of the local ladies curious about dating a human. He ran his fingers through his wavy, dark blonde hair. Thoughts of his fiancee on Earth were weeks behind him.
The romulan reporter moved closer to Bolerov. "I'm currently standing next to Captain... help me get your name right..." Andrei turned to look at the reporter. No matter how many times he saw it, he still couldn't quite get used to the universal translator and how it worked. He could see G'ethren's lips moving one way and could hear him talk naturally, but his comm badge was relaying his same voice tones, but in english at the same time. Bolerov had to constantly remind himself not to look at the reporter's mouth. For this, he was grateful for the crew of the Devoras whom he met. They had taken the time to learn english. "it's Andrei Bolof?"
Standing in front of the crew and the reporter was a short, thin romulan holding along, black stick that was bent upwards at the end. Presumably, this was a microphone. Next to him was a romulan woman about the same height wearing a large device over her eyes. There were numerous buttons and sliders on each side. Atop the device was a bright light. Presumably, this was the camera. It was connected to a box attached to her belt. "Andrei Bolerov," the captain corrected.
"Bolerov, right." the reporter repeated. "And who do you have with you, Captain?" G'ethren asked brightly.
Andrei motioned to T'Nia. "This is my second officer, Lieutenant Commander T'Nia," he then motioned to Tom, "and this is my chief engineer, Lietenant Tom Kelly."
The reporter nodded to both of them. "Thank you for being on The Romulan Perspective on this Federation holiday."
"It's actually an Earth-based holiday and not celebrated by the entire Federation," Bolerov corrected.
The reporter considered that for a moment. "I see." His voice brighened once again. "Well, we'll be hearing more about this holiday shortly... from your first officer, is that correct?"
"Yes, that's right. Commander Stephen Kirk will be talking to you about Christmas." Bolerov nodded.
G'ethren turned to the camera. "Many of our older viewers are quite familiar with the first officer's great grandfather, the late James Kirk, who... at one point... was wanted for several charges against our empire as a war criminal. Posthumously, he was acquitted of those charges."
That was a nice spin, Bolerov thought.
"It's my understanding that the commander couldn't be with us right now because he's not on active duty. Is that correct?" the reporter turned back to Bolerov quickly.
"That's right. He was injured while we were helping to protect the romulan ambassador." Bolerov said proudly.
"From what I hear," G'ethren started darkly, "he was shot while trying to break into the computer system of a hijacked romulan ship. Would you care to comment on that?"
Bolerov considered his next words carefully. "I would say your information on the mission was incomplete." He forced a smile.
"Ah," G'ethren replied. "Well, maybe we'll get into more of that later. Now..." his voice perked up again, "how about showing us around this new ship of yours." His smile was bright and wide.
This is going to be the longest day of my life, Bolerov thought.