***Time Is Too Slow…***
~Chapter 5~
Keei looked at the two Vulcans staring at the pool, then back to her fellow lifeguard, who shrugged. She took a deep breath.
"Well, it's like this. . ." The redheads face went through disgust all the way to glazed shock, as Keei explained about the comfort of the water, comparing it to the womb, and from skinny dipping to free fall nookie and somehow all the way to swimming as a sport.
" . . .And that's why it's fun!" The Vulcans turned a nice shade of seaweed green and hurriedly excused themselves. The diminutive officer put her hands on her hips.
"Wow. So uptight. Even Sarah would have known I was joking." The other lifeguard declined to comment.
*****
Ocala'Dhael dressed herself in her diplomatic robes slowly. Today was the big day, her chance to see if her bluff paid off. The programs Starfleet was giving the Romulans were indeed pretty rough; most were Beta's of ones they now used. And it would deal such a crippling blow, but what was diplomacy without a bit of lying?
Once everything was on, she took a deep breath and headed out to where the meetings were going to be held. She just hoped that whatever the Romulans did, her name wasn't brought up. Most of them were already suspicious of her origins; how many half human half Romulans were there running around, especially in Starfleet. And as much as she hated her father, she knew that it would deal a huge blow to his image and position. He didn't need that now.
Carefully, she opened the doors to the diplomatic chamber. It appeared she was the last to arrive, and everyone watched as the hybrid Starfleet officer walked down the central carpet and took her seat amongst her peers.
*****
Keei sighed and sprawled in the lifeguard chair. Nothing. Not one stinking emergency.
What the Hell were they supposed to be preventing anyway?
An assassination? From what she'd heard no one had tried anything.
A bomb threat? Not happening.
Some evil, yet seductive creature rising out of the pool and tempting the diplomats to do the mamba naked in the lobby?
". . . . I can only hope."
*****
When Sarah arrived on floor six, she was very pleasantly surprised to find the occupants of this room were part of the Romluan delegation. Putting on her best "face" and pulling her hair tightly over her ears, she knocked staccato on the door. "Room service and housekeeping!" she said loudly.
The door opened to reveal a man who must have been an aide. His eyes narrowed, and he appeared to be searching for something out of place about her. She pulled the cart (which had enough food to feed the entire delegation! she thought excitedly) into his view, "Your order, Mr.-" She held up the PADD and pretended to have difficulty as she read the name. He yielded, and she pulled the cart carefully into the room. She then returned to the hall to retrieve her cleaning supplies and entered the room again. No one in the room had a said a word yet, and all were trying to act like they weren't watching her. Sarah went into the bathroom to clean, and only then did they begin again. It's not exactly a common talent, speaking Romulan, so they didn't seem to mind that Sarah was listening, and she didn't mind either.
"Tremok, I do not care what this... delegate... has to say! If we do not ally ourselves with someone, the Empire will be destroyed." In the mirror, Sarah could see a man stand. This man must have been Tremok.
"This bargain is not good enough either! Why would the officer try to sabotage this treaty unless she knew it was an attempt to cheat us from our due? If we only gave her one thing, it was honor."
"She is no more a Romulan than that woman cleaning our bathroom," said a woman. "Even if she was raised by us, she left the Empire! Where is the honor in that?"
"Who are you to decide who has turned traitor and who has not?" a quiet man asked. The woman just shut her mouth and puffed her cheeks a bit. "I agree with Argelian. We should take this bargain, even if it is not as good as we might have hoped. We need a strong ally, and I would see only the Federation as being able to keep their end of the bargain."
The first man she had heard, Argelian, Sarah supposed, spoke then. "Exactly! We are can fiddle with the details in treaty later, with force if necessary. We need a treaty now if we are to be able to sustain minimal losses."
Tremok shook his head. "The Praetor will not be pleased if we settle for less than is due to us. Besides, Ocala'Dhael will not allow it." Sarah nearly dropped her load of used towels. Katana had mentioned that name as someone who was a Federation delegate but could throw back Romulan drinks without blinking. She had to find Katana.
*****
*Text in is in Japanese.
"Thank you ladies, gentlemen, Ferengi- you're a wonderful crowd- we're going to take a short break, but we'll be back soon!" Katana stepped off of the mock stage, the green dress slinking after her. She sat on 'her' stool at the bar (much like 'her' chair on the bridge) and tapped the counter. Kinta passed her a glass of water which she sipped at comfortably. Her perfectly manicured eyebrows quirked as Ocala slumped into the chair next to her.
"Where's that green stuff at?" she asked tiredly. Katana smiled as Kinta went to the 'special interests' section of the bar. Katana's eyebrow of weird-stuff-o-meter went up another notch as Sarah did her version of a frantic run, i.e. a brisk walk, into the bar.
Sarah sat down on the other side of Katana, leaned over and whispered, "You know what?" Katana smiled.
"Well, I know 'I don't know' and 'Who', so why shouldn't I know 'What'?" Katana replied and Sarah gave her a funny look. Sarah then shook her head slightly, and whispered again out of the corner of her mouth,
"I know who's messing up the negotiations," she started. Katana raised an eyebrow.
"Dude, you're sitting next to me, you could talk normally..." she said slowly, as if talking to a mentally impaired person. Sarah wanted a headache reliever. Badly.
"She's sitting right next to us." She resumed in her supersneaky!speech. Katana's jaw dropped, and at speeds beyond light, she looked at Ocala for a moment, then back to Sarah.
"What? Shut up!" she cried. Sarah resisted the urge to grind her teeth.
Idiot. she replied tiredly. Katana, catching the hint, switched to Japanese.
How'd you find that out? she asked. Sarah frowned.
From the Romulans.
You trust them!
At this point Kinta was studiously avoiding looking at either of them, and a few people, Ocala included, were watching the two women rapidly converse in a dead language in a very public forum.
It's not like they told me, but they told me.
What? Frustrating little devil woman!
I was eavesdropping!
Oh, that sounds familiar...
"Urusai." Sarah nodded to Ocala. "Introduce me? And pull your jaw in while you're at it." Katana sighed.
"Sarah Cosmo, Ocala'Dheal. Ocala'Dheal, the devil incarnate." Ocala raised an eyebrow, as Sarah remarked,
"I resent that, really." Katana grumbled.
"You resemble that." She said and looked between the two women. "You've met now? Good, grand, I've actually got works to do."
As Katana stalked back to the stage, a whirlwind of green satin and high heels, Ocala and Sarah looked at each other, both simultaneously cursing their social ineptitude.
In a last ditch attempt at civil conversation, they both simultaneously said,
"Uh... Hi."
*****
Ocala'Dhael watched quietly as Sarah Cosmo ordered another drink. Conversation had dropped off after the 'hi', and they had both been watching the bartender, taking sips of whatever happened to be in front of them. Bored, Ocala decided to take a stab at talking again.
"So, do you work here?" Sarah's eyebrows arched.
"You could say that." A pause. "And you?" Ocala motioned towards the Starfleet garment for her response.
"I'm with the Federation delegation here to settle the peace treaty with the Romulans." She took another gulp of the fiery liquid. "And they're really starting to get to me."
"Ah. Not going well?"
"No. Romulans and humans don't belong together at all." Ocala realized the irony of that statement as soon as she said it.
Sarah Cosmo only arched another eyebrow and drank from her glass.
*****
"Why do you say that?" Sarah asked.
"That's none of your business," Ocala said, perhaps a bit too harshly. She softened a bit. "Why did you want to meet me?"
"I don't think that's any of your business, either." Sarah stopped and Ocala seemed a bit deflated. "But, I suppose I could offer the olive branch here. I'm actually quite interested in what you all are doing here. I suppose you know about the protests?"
"What are you, their leader?"
"Actually, I think they're wrong." Sarah paused for a moment to let this sink in and then continued, "I think the only way anything positive will be achieved is if we come to an agreement with our enemies, whether we 'belong' together or not."
"And what do you know about it? There are many long term consequences of a treaty like this."
"I know. But I also know we can't go it alone, and neither can the Romulans."
Ocala fought the urge to say anymore. She wasn't going to reveal her position anymore than she already had. She wasn't even supposed to have an opinion, officially.
"Madam Delegate,"
"I'd really rather not be called 'delegate,'" Ocala stuck in.
"Alright, Lt. I am familiar with the idea of discipline, and I know military discipline can be one of the most strict varieties. Why would Starfleet send a person opposed to the treaty to negotiate it if they wanted her to speak her mind?"
"You make it sound like I'm not supposed to be anything more than a mindless vegetable."
"I'm trying to make it sound like maybe Starfleet knows something you don't that makes this treaty more important than you think it is, and they want you to negotiate it because of your history, not because of your opinion."
Ocala narrowed her eyes. She hadn't met anyone who would say something like that unless they had a high rank or were incredibly stupid. Of course, she found that these two were anything but mutually exclusive, and they usually invited each other. She didn't really know what to make of this woman. So, she changed the subject.
"That language you were speaking earlier, what was it?"
"It's just an ancient Earth language."
"...Does it have a name?"
"It's called Japanese. It's barely spoken today, only in the most rural of places."
"And how did you learn it?"
"I taught it to myself." Sarah sipped the Dew in her glass. "Why the interest?"
"It just seems a bit strange that someone who teaches herself dead languages and has such deep insights into the diplomatic process is a maid." Ocala waited, hoping Sarah would slip and say something wrong.
Instead Sarah shrugged. "I suppose I'm just young yet." She threw back the rest of her drink. "It was very nice speaking to you, Lt. Ocala'Dhael. I hope we can meet again sometime in the future."
Ocala just sat there and watched her go, not really sure what to think. Well, it's not like some naive little girl was going to change her position on the treaty. Ocala too drained her drink and left the bar. She had a lot of planning to do.
*****
Keei was about to give up and go crash on one of the lobby's couches when she smelled it. That aroma, the one thing besides chocolate guaranteed to bring her running.
"PIZZA!" She was out of the lifeguards chair like a shot startling one tanner and sending a nearby Room Servitor diving for cover, she followed the enticing scent out of the front doors and into the mob of people gathered outside the hotel.
She elbowed her way through to the large table where there were thousands of pizza boxes, spread out, newly opened. Moving with the crowed she lunged and caught up an extra large slice of her favorite kind, Hawaiian.
"Seriously Rick, why are we here? It's not like those delegates are going to listen to us. They're probably not even here." The tiny Science officer's ear perked up. Oh ho! So there was dissension in the ranks eh? Better help that along.
"They're not here. That's just what the government wants you to think. It's actually actors. the real negotiations are taking place on a ship up there somewhere." She gestured skywards and bit into her slice of heaven. The boys were looking at her now, along with some other protestors nearby. She put on her best "Innocent Face" and swallowed.
"Trust me! I work here." There were some discontented mutterings and those that had heard moved off to confer. Using this chance to get back to safety, Keei slipped back into the hotel and smiled.
"Confusion to the enemy."
*****
Katana was perturbed. She hadn't considered the possibility that someone might just change their mind and therefore change the future. "Why can't it be simple? Like, someone's gonna die and we save them so they can negotiate the treaty."
Sarah rolled her eyes. "Because that's easier."
They were backstage during one of Katana's breaks and Sarah had just repeated everything she and Ocala had talked about.
"Listen, Elenna's the psychologist. I just have people skills. Why don't you go talk to her."
"Okay, fine. Don't let the good Lt. disappear."
"I won't. Promise." Katana grinned, and Sarah felt slightly uneasy. But then Katana went back on stage, so Sarah had no choice but to seek out Elenna.
*****
Elenna had a funny look on her face, the type of look that did not bode well for the Captain.
"Er-- Well, maybe, um, you could... Look, I really don't know a lot about this woman. And you can't tell me much about her, so I don't know what her possible motives might be."
"So you need more information?"
"Yes."
"Okay. I can do that. You keep thinking on it." Elenna nodded, and Sarah left the small laundry room they had been using to talk. She ducked into the storeroom where the crew had stashed their period clothing and reappeared ready to go out onto the street. She needed special skills for this job.
*****
"Captain, I must say again, I really don't think I am qualified--"
Sarah tried very hard not to lose her temper. She was talking to Haioden, but it wasn't going anywhere. "Listen to me," she cut him off, "I know what your talents are. You are not gaining anything by denying it. As a matter of fact, you are making things worse and I am just a little bit desperate at this point. If we do not do something within the next 24 hours the delegations will go home and we will have lost our chance as well as our future. So. Are you going to help me, or will I have to find a more effective way of persuading you?"
Haioden sighed. "I will help. What must I do?"
Sarah smiled a tiny bit. "I knew you'd come around. Now, what I need you to do is..."
*****
"You want me to what?"
"I want you to hack into the Romulan government's records and change them," Sarah said to Toru as if he were a very slow child.
"You're kidding."
"I am not."
Toru gave her a look. "You know, this is one of those times I wonder if you haven't hit your head too many times."
"You've been talking to Katana too much. It's actually quite simple."
"Oh?"
"i-Erreah's records are so old, no one will be looking after them."
Toru narrowed his eyes. "I don't think you understand exactly how hard it is to get into the Central Records, from a Federation ship no less."
"Are you saying you can't do it?"
"No. I'm covering my butt. Now point me in the direction of the fake records so I can plant them."
Sarah was a bit surprised, but she wasn't one to argue, so she gave him the files. "Here you go. Have fun."
Toru rolled his eyes. "Oh, I will, don't worry."