<snip>

Marius looked at her with squinted eyes. There was no point in getting annoyed now since they hadn’t actually succeeded in injuring her, or any crew member, but that didn’t mean mistakes weren’t made in security. “That is disappointing security, ours or theirs?” He turned to the commander of the away mission.

Following Sage’s lead, Riley elaborated, “They were willing to take us out of the confines of their governmental buildings, but we faced immediate reaction from the man who attacked Sage. The response of the government was negligible. The image they hoped to portray was contradicted, but they held to their mission. They desperately want to join the Federation and they seemed to ignore anything we said to explain the length and details of such a process. I sensed no animosity from our hosts, only a keen urgency. In it’s own right that was concerning. We gave them no reason for hope and yet, when we left, I sensed they strongly believed they had a strong application. It could be a delusion brought on by their desperation.”

Riley paused for a moment and looked across the table at David before continuing.

“What did they ask for.. tech, weapons, food generation?”

“Lt. Michaels declared a certainty that they are willing to steal our technology.”

Riley didn’t know how David would react to his sharing of that information, but he couldn’t hold it back. Whatever rules prevented the CSO from sharing his conviction with those in this time had already been broken, and it was incumbent upon Riley to share that with the Captain.

Dekker, CNS

David cast Riley a glare, and it was not a pleasant one. It wouldn’t take an empath to sense the man’s disappointment.

“A certainty? 100%?” Marius turned to Michaels, “On information you obtained on the ground?” Marius knew that David had access to information that was from alternate sources.

“Yes,” David said flatly. “And no.”

Reia looked form Sage to Riley to David and back again. She didn’t know the CSO very well but Riley and Sage had been quite kind to her above and beyond their job description. The thought that they might be hurt while doing their jobs brought out a natural protective streak in her.

“And I wonder, what could be at the root of this urgency?” she asked.

• Reia, CIO

“I’m also curious about that,” Thomas said, frowning at the news of the attack. “Especially as they’ve been so insistent that we’re the first external civilization they’ve encountered. What we’ve seen so far doesn’t really support that, at least in my view.”

COS

“So we have a violent element of the populace, a moderately or more so oppressive government and a willingness to steal Federation Technology” Magnus summed up “Besides some tips on how to clean up their world with their current technology I don’t see much more for us to do besides calling the Diplomatic Corps. However, we are so far of they might ask us for a continuous evaluation anyway” He gave the Captain a short glance “We will soon hear from Ensign Park and Engineer Deeg from their meeting with the so-called pirates on the Colonies surface but until then what recommendations do you have” He gave each officer a short scanning glance, stopping longest at the Chief Science Officer before moving on.

XO

“There is a lot of interpretation and not a lot of hard facts… What did we miss, and how can we fill in the report better.” Marius wasn’t a dipolomat and would have no final say on the Membership application, but he wanted to send in a full report. “Perhaps another unscheduled and unsupervised mission.”

“Can you keep a team safe Mr. McGregor, or are we going to have crewmembers in mortal danger?”

Marius

“Tough to say, Captain,” Thomas replied. “I wasn’t with Dr. Brennan’s team, so I have very little gauge of the risk the Pallasians pose. They’re physically imposing height-wise, but their psi-abilities may hinder them in combat.”

“I don’t believe that would gather any new information,” David said. “If you want my recommendation, we finish the official report with what we’ve learned and let the diplomatic corps sort this out if they so choose.” His eyes looked from Marius towards Sage. “There is no need for anyone else to risk their safety for the people who are so obviously not what they are so desperately trying to project.”

-David Michaels, CSO

“I concur,” Thomas said. “It seems like a punt, but we’re not here to make these sorts of decisions, just make introductions and get back on to exploring.”

COS