Final Agreement

Posted on Wed Apr 11th, 2012 @ 11:04pm by Captain Benjamin Byrne

Mission: Deep Space 19
Location: Deep Space 19 - Tholian Conference Lounge
Timeline: MD39 0800hrs

Benjamin and the other three Starfleet officers stood in almost identically firm poses at one end of the partitioned conference room that had colloquially become known to many on the station simply as 'the Tholian Room' as they faced the crystalline creatures stood at the other end, who had been punctual as ever; arriving at their seats exactly upon the hour.

"We have reviewed your offer, in addition to the numerous counter offers and refusals you have offered throughout these proceedings, Captain Benjamin Byrne," Metkonne began, the Universal Translator somehow managing to decipher a more formal tone than they had become used to over the past few weeks. "And it is my duty to inform you that, on behalf of the Tholian Assembly, we accept the terms."

Benjamin could feel himself mentally sag with relief, but wouldn't dare allow himself to physically, at least not until he had left the room. He could feel the knots of stress that had built up in his shoulders over the course of the past several days, and knew that now he might actually get the time to work them out.

"I will send three of my ships back to Tholian space in thirteen minutes, with orders to return for supplies. You will be informed of our timetable," Metkonne continued, clearly wishing to move immediately on to the logistics of the operation now. "We will require to liaise with your technical officers in order to ensure that an adequate operations centre is set up, and connected to all of the databanks specified in our agreement." With that final statement, Metkonne decided that he was done, and he and his officers promptly left, returning to the section of the station that had been rapidly converted for the Tholian's stay, and had already needed maintenance work on a few of its systems to account for the unforeseen length of time the systems were being kept online for. Now it would appear that they would need to be functioning permanently.

As if somehow fearful that his voice would still carry to the Tholians though the single closed conference room door, Benjamin waited until he was back out in the standard corridors before speaking. "I've decided to give up diplomacy from today onwards," he announced.

MonRoe chuckled. "I say that after every set of negotiations I attend or mediate, Captain."

Byrne reached up to rub his face with his hand, pleased to have shaven that morning. "Tell everyone not working in functions immediately apparent to the Tholians to take the rest of the day off, and put the rest on short-shift rotas," he told Jaieh. "We can get to work on making the Tholians' stay more permanent tomorrow. For now; I'm going to go find a holodeck."