Welcoming Parade

Posted on Wed Jun 29th, 2011 @ 11:19pm by Captain Benjamin Byrne & Provisional Lieutenant Commander Narayn Ballard & Lieutenant JG Mykel Owen & Lieutenant JG Dylan Tyler & Ambassador Grintol S'Reln [NPC] & Arthur Schniedt [NPC] & Ensign Evelyn Sol

Mission: Kingdom Come
Location: Nevarra Prime
Timeline: MD09 1245hrs

Benjamin, S'Reln, Schniedt and the majority of the senior staff had left the ship in a small 'convoy' composed of the Captain's yacht and the ship's double compliment of Type-11 Shuttlecraft, and were joined by a small number of escort craft from the Anorevin, one of which Benjamin understood to carry Bann Finn also. They could have transported down to the surface, but S'Reln and Schniedt's files on the Nevarrans showed that they were a deeply traditional people - personified by their monarchy - and that even such a relatively small event as negotiators arriving for trade negotiations received a certain amount of pomp and ceremony to it. Personally, Byrne liked the idea of the procession, though he believed it would be better suited to stick to such things for state visits and the like, but then of course if the President were to visit the Nevarrans, there would be a much larger Starfleet presence amongst the ships around the home planet.

As the shuttlecraft procession made its way down into the lower atmosphere, the shuttlecraft occupants could see the vistas splayed out below them. Though a technologically advanced race, the Nevarran architecture held true to the Nevarran belief in tradition, and the technology in the many homes and estates below must have been blended seemlessly with architecture which appeared very reminiscent of the golden age of many of Earth's Western monarchies. As they dropped beneath the last bit of light cloud cover, the forward view ports showed a fantastic view of the main Royal Palace; an immense structure that certainly worked hard to put any other building in the Cluster to shame, it stood at the top of an immense hill, clearly separated above the rest of the city, and from their vantage point, the Starfleet officers could see the expansive gardens, with the long pool that led off down towards a man-made waterfall at the nearby cliffs that fell into the sea. The Royal Gardens seemed to proceed all the way along to that waterfall, and must have been a good few miles long.

"Funny, that's how I've always imagined my retirement home to be like," Benjamin quipped, offering a smile to those in the yacht with him.

Mykel smiled and nodded, turning away from the window for a moment, at the Capitan's comment. "I hope to disappear into Yosemite, when I retire, maybe spook tourists on occasion." Turning back to the window, he continued. "It reminds me of some paintings of Olympus I once saw."

"So you're going to live like a Sasquatch, Mykel?" Narayn said from the rear hatch of the cockpit.

Dylan was looking over the duty reports from the last two previous shifts. His new assistant was working out all right, but he wasn't Dylan Tyler. It was difficult to work with an assistant for Dylan. After all, whenever he had wanted something done he did it himself. However, he was trying to delegate duty to his assistant interim. Who knew how long Dylan would be stuck with him.

Dylan tipped his head away from the data pads for a moment at the conversation between the captain and Mr. Owen. Dylan had been told that Mykel had been promoted to lieutenant as well. That pleased Dylan. At least he was of a proper rank to be a department head on board a ship of this size. It was also pleasant to know that he was not the only one who had recently gotten a promotion.

Dylan stifled a chuckle at the first officer's joke. Dylan finally noticed the scenery around him and he tried to let the sereneness come into him, but very rarely did Dylan find peace anywhere. He was drawn to the beauty, but the calm that the rest of his crew felt seemed alien to him.

Mykel smirked and shrugged. "Exactly, Bigfoot's the way to go."

The shuttle convoy followed a pre-determined route which arced around the palace gracefully, heading for a large section of lawn to the rear of the Palace. The lawn could not hold all the craft at once, and so Benjamin believed a number of their escorts would peel off and return to their motherships in orbit. The shuttle's topography sensors however revealed that the section of lawn was perfectly flat and level - clearly manufactured to be so.

"So, Mister S'Reln," Benjamin said, attempting to take his eyes off the sights for a few moments. "What is our itinerary like today?"

"We shall be greeted by the King and his wife upon arrival," the Andorian announced, speaking from memory. "We will then proceed inside to meet various members of their family before breaking for lunch, where we may go anywhere within the city we wish. Later, we have a state dinner with the Royal Family and the Witenagemot; the Council of Nobles, who serve as the Cluster's government."

Benjamin nodded. "That sounds to me like the perfect time to ask about some exploring, don't you agree?" he smirked, as he looked to his first officer.

"I'll get my trowel." Ballard replied. "Although somebody else can carry the spades."

"I like the idea of discussing exploring options. It'd be nice to see what I have to schedule for security details on these missions," Dylan said matter of factly.

"I would like to explore as well, it would be a valuable opportunity." Mykel said, nodding in agreeably with the Captain, the XO and Lt Tyler. Mykel nodded to Dylan, before turning back toward the Captain.

"Hopefully, we'll all get ample opportunity to do a bit of exploring and study," Benjamin said, his voice full of eagerness to get started.

As the group conversed, the yacht and its two accompanying shuttles touched down on the flattened area of lawn, the power of their engines repulsing the grass outwards underneath their bellies as the craft touched down. Two of the escort craft also touched down, off to the far side of the lawn area. As the ships settled and the engines could be heard whining down, the entryways of the shuttles swung down to permit egress. As Benjamin stood and moved to the back of the yacht to walk down the ship's V.I.P. gangplank, he could feel the warmth of the sun on his face, and looked over towards the Palace at the welcoming committee walking over to meet them.

Ballard followed the Captain out of the door, the heat hit him. It was a different heat to the arid environments that he used to frequent when he was an engineer on the Morality. It was pleasant. Warm but not humid, refreshing but with no breeze. Much more enjoyable than the air conditioned yacht, that was for certain. He imagined that rolling up his sleeves in pursuit of tan might be frowned upon though. He followed Byrne's gaze toward the welcoming committee. At least twenty people appeared to be approaching them. He leant forward in his stride and murmured, "They've sent enough of them, haven't they?"

Dylan walked behind the Captain and the First Officer. Immediately he felt that the number of greeters was highly irregular for their landing. Dylan found his hand straying toward his phaser and fought the urge to grasp it. Dylan turned toward S'rein, "Is it common for so many to welcome so few or are these special circumstances?"

Mykel kept pace with the group, taking a deep breath of the vaguely sweet air, while enjoying the opportunity to be outside again. Noticing the Tactical officer tense slightly, Mykel followed his gaze to the upcoming welcoming committee. Closing the distance in two long strides, he comes up on Lt. Tyler's right side, he says very quietly. "Relax Tyler..." Hoping to avoid any incidents.

"Easy for you to say, you got us down here safe and sound. Your job is done. This is where my job gets...complicated," Dylan said with a bit of a grin. His paranoia were both his most valuable though sometimes most fatal quality about him. He looked at S'Rein, still awaiting his answer.

"It is a special occasion for the Nevarrans, Lieutenant," S'Reln answered. "Remember, it has been nearly 200 years since their last contact with the outside galaxy before our first contact with them recently."

Dylan didn't know whether to be relaxed or annoyed by the diplomat's response. Apparently these people had finally hit an age similar to earth when they were discovered by the Vulcans, Dylan had written a paper on it called "The Age of Universal Curiosity: Let Me See". This meant that the people here who were genuinely curious and wanting this mission to succeed would be wanting tours of the ship, asking questions about their hair and skin color, this was going to get annoying.

"So it's a mob of curious strangers rather than an angry mob, at least with angry mobs we're allowed to set our phasers to stun," Dylan whispered to Mykel.

"Take it easy, Lieutenant," Ballard said quietly over his shoulder, "Just hope that they don't start poking and prodding at you to see what you're made of."

Dylan looked at the First Officer, realizing more and more that though the man was very likeable with the rest of the crew, Dylan preferred his commanding officers to be more...blunt. But despite this, it was hard to stifle a chuckle. "If they wish to see what I'm made of, all they need to do is ask and I'll demonstrate for them," and then Dylan leaned into Mykel, "and what I'm made of is several forms of martial arts specifically designed to prevent poking and prodding of any kind." Dylan chuckled a bit at his own bad joke.

It was always hard for Dylan to be in these kinds of situations. He would take on a borg cube single handedly rather than be part of a diplomatic mission. Sometimes, Dylan felt he was in Starfleet during the wrong era. If he had been around when the Borg and the Dominion War were the problems, he would have a lot more comfort knowing that his skills would be utilized. But a state dinner? It's terrible to think that Dylan would hope against all hope that a fight would break out.

Mykel tried not to chuckle at the thought of the Nevarrans 'attempting' to prod Dylan...

"Mister Ambassador," said the lead Nevarran, as he approached the group. Though it was more subtle than could have been expected during Earth's monarchial era, it was clear by the style of his clothing that he was a definitive class above everybody else in the group. "Welcome to Nevarra," he smiled.

"Thank you, Your Majesty," S'Reln responded, a respectful bow of his head. "May I introduce my assistant, Mister Schniedt, and Captain Benjamin Byrne, commander of the USS Endeavour."

"It's a pleasure," Benjamin said, bowing his head in turn, feeling suddenly that he needed to refresh on his diplomatic lectures regarding the proper way to act around nobles. "These are all members of my crew; Lieutenant Commander Ballard, Doctor Ogino, Lieutenants Jones, Jenarian, Owen and Tyler, and Counsellor Sol."

"The pleasure is mine," the King of Nevarra responded. "We haven't had many visitors here in... well, in a long time."

The Lieutenant Commander offered the King a polite nod. He felt like a child. Seen but not heard, Narayn. Seen but not heard.

Evelyn smiled warmly and nodded respectfully when the captain mentioned her. She grew up the daughter of a diplomat and was used to greeting foreign diplomats and heads of state. That didn't mean she was particularly fond of the processes. While absorbing a new culture was fascinating, these welcome processions and state receptions could get incredibly...long.

Mykel nodded and smiled to the King, following suit with Counselor Sol.

"Please, if you'll follow me," the King's wife said, indicating her arm back towards the Palace. "I'll show you inside."

As the group followed the Royal Couple inside, their group began to get rapidly smaller, as the Nevarrans gradually left them, Bann Finn being the last to do so, leaving them with just the King and Queen and a small number of the Royal guards.

As the next hour or so progressed, the group met various members of the Royal Family - a number of them running fairly low-key lives until they reached the age where they would take on full official royal duties, while others worked as members of the King's staff; the group learnt that they often were the ones going out on the King's behalf to the various other systems within the Cluster. At the conclusion of the meetings and after a very generous lunch, the officers were told that - just as S'Reln had predicted - they would be able to use the time available to them now to travel anywhere within or around the city that they desired.

Ballard stood from the table at the appointed time. He relished the opportunity to get away from the pomp and circumstance of the state table and being surrounded by people whose sole task in life was to wait on other people hand-and-foot made him feel queasy. He rested a hand on the shoulder of the commanding officer and spoke quietly in his ear. "I imagine you have things you want to check out- I'm going to go and have a wander down to the old part of the city, see what's going on down there. You're welcome to join me later on if you can't stomach being brought trays of glorious food every ten minutes." He chuckled.

"I'll make sure to bear it in mind," Benjamin said quietly, sharing a chuckle with his first officer.

----------------------
Captain Benjamin J. Byrne
Commanding Officer

Lt. Commander Narayn Ballard
First Officer

Lieutenant JG Mykel Owen
Chief Flight Control Officer

Lieutenant JG Dylan Tyler
Chief of Security

Ensign Evelyn Sol
Chief Counsellor
USS Endeavour

With;
Grintol S'Reln, Negotiator (NPC)
&
Arthur Schniedt, Negotiator (NPC)