[snip]

One of the children spoke up then once given permission by the assistant teacher, her attention seemed focused on the Cara, “..Um…how come you are so fuzzy? My great grand-mom told me a story once before she died when I was really young. She said once when she was just a bit older then me now. That some alien guests had come through on a big grey colored ship and they were not so friendly at first. But the Dol at the time, she was able to convince them that making trouble with us was not to their advantage and they calmed down. So then when two of the aliens came aboard, they had a third one that was really short! But she had fuzzy furry skin like you, but it was all white and um....she did not have a tail I think? Uh, the aliens decided to buy some supplies we had in excess and the Dol, she refused to accept other things in trade until the furry woman was part of the deal. After a bit more arguing the furry woman was exchanged with some other things in trade..” She said.

Sal spoke, “..I believe the child refers to a visit a bit under 100 years ago locally here. The race were representing a slaver union called ‘The Guild’, that has since been destroyed by other major powers in this religion we later learned..” She explained.

The girl nodded, “..Yes The Guild! That was it but um…” seeming to collect her question she turned back to Cara, “..sadly the furry lady passed away not long after they left because of her injuries being too bad for us to care for and not understanding her body and stuff. Um....but my question is are the people you are with they aren’t slave owners right? We don’t like slavers..” she asked.

“I’m very sorry to hear about the fate of the furry lady, but no we are not!” replied Cara to the child’s question, “We belong to the United Federation of Planets, and we have rules that say there can be no slavery any longer on any of those hundreds of planets. However, I’m sorry to say that there was slavery in the past, and there is still slavery on planets who are not members of the UFP. Like you, we also don’t like forcing a being into servitude against their will and without compensation, and we will act against it when we are able to and have the power to do so.”

-Cara Meow.

The words of Cara seemed to bring smiles of appreciation to the children, clearly the idea of being anti-slavery and such was deeply engrained in their society and taught strongly from a young age. Sal at this point turned back to the XO, “..Well I am sure we have held up these darling children’s class time enough. Unless any of you got further questions for them or the teachers. Perhaps we should continue on to one of the Seed Pod facilities?” She offered.

A few ‘awwws’ came from the children, likely hoping to get out of more paper work lectures or such to find their alien visitors of more interest.

GM CockRoach

Joe loved the reaction of the children. He was pretty sure it wasn’t him they would miss but still they were cute. And the mention of the seed Pod facility quite frankly made his skin crawl and his fists to clench in an automatic reflex. His distaste of their seed pod program was magnified even more after meeting their children. Joe’s tolerance of anyone who treated the future of their civilization so poorly could be measured only in negative numbers. He got hold of himself then and said to Sal, “Yes there are several of our crew curious to see your seed pod program.”

Lt.Cmdr. Joe Milligan XO

”..Of course right this way then..” Sal said leading them back out of the room with a wave from the children and ‘byes’ echoing in their passage.

After the group began to move away from the school area Joe once more began to get that confined and nervous feeling. It was then he thought of Cross and Del Wolf off somewhere all because Cross had become dizzy. Was something terrible wrong with her? Had they been taken off somewhere and left? The more he walked along pasting phony diplomatic smiles on his face the more irritating things were getting. He wasn’t fond at all of the idea of breaking people up like this. All he could do was to take a deep breath and wait until Sal got a moment so that he could ask her for some sort of update.

Lt. Cmdr. Joe Milligan XO

:Miriam stood up ready to follow the nurse, she thought if by any chance they see the rest of the away team she would wave at them in the hope of them realizing she was fairly well and still in one piece .

Knowing the rest of the team were also in the vicinity of the school Cross kept looking around in the hope of seeing the Cmdr,as she walked with Valar and Lance towards the school’s hospital. The doctor had no intentions to worry anyone unnecessary.

Cross CMO.

Joe caught sight of Miranda out of the corner of his eye as was walking. He turned then with a frown which was replaced quickly by a smile. He was happy that she was alright but none too happy that she seemed to be in the custody of someone, maybe a nurse who was leading her off somewhere. He waved and smiled at her as she was moving away. While he was happy to see that she seemed to be alright he was still not happy with the situation. He had to calm down and face it. He wouldn’t be happy until his team was all back in one piece and preferably back on the Merri.

Lt. Cmdr. Joe Milligan XO

Cross was glad Joe saw them though wondered if she and Lance should join the team again .The nurse was only going to show them the children’s school’s hospital, surely there was nothing wrong with that.

Cross CMO

Just as Sal and the group were passing through an under pass arch back outside to cross a small courtyard to another larger building the runner Sal had sent to find Glen earlier returned only slightly winded from his trip. He handed a paper back to Sal who signed off on it, then the man turned to report to the XO, “..Um, honored guest, as Councilor Sal requested I found your Captain Glen and Engineer Tia on the primary command deck with Dol. I reported to him on the status of your Doctor Cross, and he said that if she did not get better she was to return to your ship for further treatment. Is there any further messages I should relay back of a non-critical nature?” he said.

GM CockRoach