You Are Cordially Invited (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on 03 Feb 2025 @ 1:00am by Commander Morgan Tarin & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius & Lieutenant JG Serran & Lieutenant JG Delainey Carlisle & Lieutenant JG Sofie Ullswater & Ensign S'Ers-a M'Lyr'Zor & Lieutenant JG Hovar Kov & Ensign Tora Zalos & Chief Petty Officer Afthinam Naime & Petty Officer 3rd Class Jeysa Zeror & Petty Officer 3rd Class Yasmin Aquino & Yukime Frost

4,147 words; about a 21 minute read

Mission: Episode 20 - Reconstruction
Location: Regula I - Level 15, Holdeck One
Timeline: MD 10, 1600 hrs

[ON]

In one of Regula I's holodecks Jeysa scurried through several rows of chairs being careful not to catch her dress on them, the crew would be arriving soon and her task for the beginning was to welcome them and make sure everyone had a seat somewhere if they wanted one, though she had no idea how many would turn up. She headed for the spot where the entrance was and looked out at the scene that had been created for the event; an attempted representation of a flatter spot on the side of a mountain Mimi called Garai mjestim the highest mountain on the Nekomi homeworld, where she’d been told from the top of you could see all fifteen of the major Nekomi cities but from this spot only one could be seen in the distance, and beyond that a very long stretch of the vast ocean that covered over eighty percent of the planet. The sky was clear but for a few small clouds and the warming sun bathed the mountainside in light, two small marquee’s had been set up for both John and Mimi to finish getting ready in, she’d made sure Mimi was already inside before John had arrived.

Serran hadn't been feeling well and he was pretty sure he knew what the symptoms meant. Pon Farr If that were the case it wouldn't be good. So far though the effects were mild and he'd be able to mask them for a while. Right now, he needed a distraction. So he'd decided to stop by the holodeck and see what happened.

He was dressed in a pair of black slacks and a crisp white button-up shirt. He hadn't worn his uniform, but he did want to look nice for the wedding.

Yasmin Aquino arrived at the holodeck ready to have a fun, enchanted ceremony. Her makeup and hair signaled she knew what was going on. She was dressed as would be called for a wedding within her family. It was a sky-blue silk dress with sleeves that extended just past the elbows with a white ornate design that extended from her neck to her abdomen and back up. The dress itself was held in place by three buttons on the exterior, but the fabric overlapped so in case of a wardrobe malfunction, she could make a quick repair. There was a V-neck collar that exposed her flesh just past her neck.

The bottom of the dress rested just above her knees, and a pair of half inch heel laced shoes exposed her feet and her white painted toenails (her fingernails were the same) adorned her feet. In her hands was a somewhat small hand purse that had the basic necessities: a small sewing kit, make up, and her communicator. She was told that it was a wedding, so she was dressed like a guest attending a wedding.

She then looked over and saw her superior officer who was in attendance. She approached him and remembered that even though this was an extra-curricular activity, she didn't want to dishonor her Department Head's rank.

"Mr. Serran, sir. Glad you could make it."

"It is agreeable to see you. Frankly, I have been better, but I am doing well enough."

"That's good to hear. I am curious about how this wedding will go. In my family, weddings tend to be a controlled chaotic affair of rice throwing, coin tossing, and parties that tend to go well into the night, and sometimes the next day."

"Vulcan weddings are much different," the Operations Chief replied. "Though my own wedding was not dissimilar to the kind you are used to."

"My only complaint about weddings is that they tend to go on and on and on. My brother's wedding, just the ceremony, took two hours of just talking. I am ashamed to say this, I fell asleep."

"You fell asleep at your brother's wedding?" he asked in a non-judgemental tone. "There must be an interesting story there. Would you care to share it?"

"In my defense, I was young at the time and I only had a very light breakfast when I got up, so please spare me with those details."

Her head shook slightly as she recalled that fateful day.

"On the wedding day, my brother Oscar, the groom, was a freshly polished Ensign at the time. He made us get up at 0530 so that we can be at the wedding, on time, at 1300. What I did not know at the time was that after religious service, an hour or so later, the families decided to have the wedding service at that point. And not only did the pastor give a short talk on marriage, but our parents and grandparents gave a talk as well. This was not on a spur of the moment deal, they planned this."

Yasmin shook her head as she looked traumatized by the event.

"The pastor spoke for about 30 minutes, that was expected. But then my father spoke, then my mother, then her father, and her mother, and then my grandpa, then my grandma, then her grandma, and her grandpa, and everyone was fine with it. And they went, on, and on, and on."

She shook her head as she looked up at Serran,

"Sir, the next thing I knew after my sister-in-law's mother started talking was the organ blaring the Wedding March."

Serran did an admirable job of keeping an impassive expression on his face, but he couldn't quite pull it off. The corners of his lips turned up. It was brief, but it was noticeable.

"That is quite an interesting story. You were young at the time, I might have done the same thing myself under similar circumstances."

Tora had been to a multitude of weddings in her (thus far, rather short) lifetime. Each of them was unique. She wasn't familiar with Mimi, but she did know that the feline woman was of a species she'd never seen before - which made the idea of what kind of wedding she might want to have all the more exciting. The Cardassian came dressed in a simple white dress and joined the crowd filing into the holodeck; as a woman, you never dressed more lavishly than the bride on her wedding day, of course.

"Hey Tora." Jeysa said as the Cardassian woman came through the entrance in a very distinctive white dress, an interesting choice against her grey skin. "You look great."

"So do you - my god, you look amazing. You’re one of the bridesmaids for tonight?" Tora smiled at the pretty blonde Trill. "Think you'll catch the bouquet tonight?"

"I don't think Mimi is doing that part of a human wedding," Jeysa replied. "The wedding is a bit of both Human and Nekomi traditions."

"'A bit' might be an understatement, Zeror," came the distinctive dry inflection of Galileo's captain who'd strolled from afar over to the Trill yeoman and Cardassian science officer. A small silver PADD was lightly clasped in one of her hands while a syntheholic pint of golden pilsner was held in the other. Tarin's white Starfleet dress uniform hugged her athletic torso and the gold striping along the break lines accented her black pants and the gold piping descending from the sides of her hips down to her polished boots. She wiggled the administrative device before adding, "I've never seen an amalgamation of marriage ceremonies like this before."

"Good afternoon Captain." Jeysa said, "You're right it is a little unusual to mix two styles of getting married together but Mimi wanted at least some Nekomi parts to it and someone to speak a little bit of their language to bless their union. That's where Allyndra comes in."

"Captain." Tora nodded to her. Tarin seemed much calmer than she had the first time they'd met. Granted, their first meeting had consisted of Tarin hurling accusations of Tora's parents having been party to the Cardassian occupation at her, and surely nothing much else tops that, but still. Had something happened to get her to chill out, she wondered. "Well, if it's a Nekomi and human amalgamation, there can still be a bouquet toss! I guess we'll just have to wait and see, won't we?"

The bouquet toss... A time-honored tradition across many cultures which - while closer to pseudo-psychosocial science - was sometimes a surprisingly effective indicator of future weddings to come. Tarin suspiciously raised her eyebrows at the Cardassian. "Eager to be the next, Zalos?"

"Not terribly, captain. I just think these little traditions are what make weddings and occasions like this fun." Tora quipped. "I believe my own wedding will come when it comes, and I'm honestly not in any rush to get married."

Discreetly stepping closer to the shorter science officer, Tarin lowered her chin and the volume of her voice to relay a morsel of wisdom. "Never let love or romance get in the way of duty. You're on the right track already; keep your eyes on the stars and don't jeopardize this opportunity for a few moments of fun."

As much as Tora knew that Tarin's words had some sliver of truth to them, she sensed more than just a little cynicism in there too. There were oh so many reasons why that could be, really, Tora had seen the entire gamut in her time living and working on Risa - but she wasn't here to judge. "Of course." She said with a sweet smile. She wasn't in the mood to piss Tarin off, not tonight.

Sera entered the holodeck, and quickly turned her head in an arc to take in the entirety of the environment. It was of a mountainous background, with two sections of chairs facing the spot selected for the couple to engage in their marriage customs. She was inwardly fascinated by the opportunity to experience this.

The Vulcan woman was dressed in an ebony silk, cut in a form-fitting, long-sleeved silhouette that outlined her lean form. At her neck was a large collar-like piece of jewelry that was set at the base of her throat with a large, brilliant blue vokaya stone that almost perfectly matched the hue of her eyes. Over everything was a dark grey robe, embroidered with Vulcan calligraphy in a shimmering smoky-colored thread along the wide sleeves and bottom hem of the garment. Sera did not often dress in her native clothing, but the cause was sufficient.

Looking about, she saw Captain Tarin and a Cardassian female she had not had the opportunity to meet, and chose in the moment to walk over and greet them first before moving on; at least that was her intent.

Falling in step behind the ensign came Naime, she looked maybe a bit more formal than usual in her purple jingpai qipao. Her knowledge of Earth weddings came mostly from having planned her own and maybe John didn't come from quite the same part of Earth as her fiancée had but she hoped to not look too out of place. With a sheepish grin she gave a little wave to the assembled officers and a more private nod in the direction of Jeysa.

Best to let the commissioned officers speak first, she thought. Invitations might have said that rank was being left at the door but that didn't mean she wouldn't be cautious. Rank was never truly left at the door, power is power and authority can not be discarded. This was likely why she had chosen to fall in step behind Sera, in her resplendence, as the Vulcan had entered the room. But aside from just the protection of comrades this was a big day for engineering, it was one of their own going up there. It would be nice to show some kind of unified departmental support for the occasion.

Not far removed from Sera was Lamar Darius who'd arrived in tow and mimicked her perusal of the holodeck's environment. "Looks like a wedding," he observantly whispered to the Vulcan who donned the most elegant native dress. His own dark gray tunic and black trousers felt muted compared to some of the other decorative displays of dress in attendance, but he'd never been one to possess an elaborate personal wardrobe.

The Vulcan woman approaching her and the captain drew a slight smile from Tora. She admittedly hadn't yet had the time to get to know all her crewmates, even up till now. "Don't think we've met. I guess later's better than never, huh?" She said, cheerfully. "The name's Tora."

Sera dipped her head in a graceful nod of greetings. "Greetings Tora. You may call me Sera." She felt a presence behind her and glanced over her shoulder and saw Lamar before his soft utterance regarding the nature of this event. Why humans had to state the obvious was a mystery to her. Perhaps she would ask later. However, she also saw Chief Naime dressed in a most auspicious purple garment. She dipped her head to her in greetings as well. "Chief."

A nod was returned by Naime "You look great, sir." She gave a little sidewards glance in the direction of the pilot, she still wasn't sure what to think of him after all she had seen and overheard in Main Engineering but today was not a day for suspicion "A very exciting day," she said to none of them in particular "Very proud of them both."

Darius caught the Farian engineer's glance with one of his own which produced a small moment of awkwardness. He recognized her from simple passing numerous times within the ship but most pointedly from his ill-advised adventure in main engineering several days ago. Weeks ago? He was still struggling to process that what had occurred in the future had been reset - the day, time and years. "Yeah, proud of them," he echoed to make casual conversation. Then he quickly decided to try and make amends. "Sorry about the other day. Wasn't really thinking straight." He proceeded to give a cursory nod to the Cardassian who he was even less familiar with. "Lamar Darius, conn," he introduced himself to Tora.

"Tora Zalos. Scientist." She didn't quite know what Darius had meant by 'the previous day', considering they'd not met before today - but she wasn't here to judge. "How are you?"

He opened his palms in a casual gesture before cocking his head lightly to the side. "Another day in paradise. Not quite Risa but I'll take it." His dark brown eyes drifted from Zalos' to continue surveying the detailed venue surrounds. "They got places like this on Cardassia?"

"Well, I wouldn't know. I've never been there. Risa simply isn't quite the same." Tora smiled mischievously. This was the point where the other party would usually stop and stare as if she'd grown a second head. A Cardassian that's never been to her homeworld? Preposterous!

With the arrival of the Captain, in her dress whites no less, Yasmin noticed that there was something missing. That something by title was actually someone by person, the ship's Chaplain. Looking around, the sight of a tall Klingon was noticeably absent. Reaching into her purse, she pulled out her communicator and sought after the padre.

"Aquino to Kov?"

There was a small pause in the return.

"Kov to Aquino, are you okay?"

None of this made sense.

"Ensign Mimi's wedding is starting soon. Where are you?"

There was a pause, a rather long pause, that was her response. As she waited, she was about to ping the Chaplain again, but she got a response:

"Please extend my regrets to everyone, I will not be able to attend."

Aquino stood in shock as she heard the words coming from the Klingon.

"Father?"

She thought it was against the rules for a priest to miss a wedding, and in many ways she would be right. However, his response was peculiar.

"I am hearing a confession right now. Please pass on my blessings to the betrothed couple, with my regrets to Captain Tarin. If she asks, tell her to keep her sermon short and sweet, 15 to 20 minutes at most."

Her eyes narrowed slightly as she looked around, feeling that she was being placed on the firing line.

"Understood Father. Please pray for me for being the messenger."

There was a chuckle from the Klingon as both of them knew the implications.

"Understood, Kov out."

Yasmin closed the communicator, and she took a deep breath. She did not know what was going on, nor was it her place. However, she had no idea how anyone else was going to react, or what she was going to say if, or when, she would be asked if she knew anything about the Chaplain.

Sofie wasn't trying to stand out, she hung near the back of the cleared area, she wasn't wearing anything ostentatious. No, today she would be happy to fade into the background. The facsimile of Garai Mjestim had ended up quite pretty. She imagined this would be a nice place to have visited in person.

Glancing around the already assembled guests Sofie looked for her friends and allies. Neither T'Lin nor Vala seemed to have arrived yet and as she scanned for Tora she saw her standing with a small huddle of others. There was the captain as imperious as ever, the lovely Jeysa stood close by. There was also the engineer from Trial, Sofie couldn't quite remember her name. But seizing her attention more than any of those others was Sera.

She was splendid, more so now than any time that Sofie had seen her before. This traditional Vulcan garb was definitely more flattering than her uniform, she was captivating like a brilliant star around which the room seemed to orbit. Sofie had a sudden urge to go up to her and tell Sera just how beautiful she was, to forget all sense of propriety and just spill out all these feelings. The impulse was tempered by a wave of nausea and the knowledge that these thoughts were not her own.

And then there was the unavoidable fact that Sera's real lover was standing next to her.

A couple of weeks earlier it would have been Sofie that he had been standing next to. She couldn't blame him for changing, Lamar deserved to spend his time with someone who didn't keep dragging him into nightmares, someone who wasn't going to get him to assist in a murder plot. And Sera was so very very beautiful.

She looked away, trying to shake off these invasive thoughts and reached a hand into her pocket to find the reassuring shape of a bottle of pills. The nausea wasn't that bad yet but just knowing she had something to fight it helped ease her mind. Things would be fine, she was here for Mimi's sake and she wasn't going to let anything else ruin that. Sofie continued to hang back at the edges of the gathering, making her way to the back corner: the traditional location for attempted murderers of the bride.

Lamar spotted a familiar form out of the corner of his eye then turned his head toward Sofie. Not only could he see her...he could feel her proximity. How, why? The only answer he could conjecture pertained to dark and recent thoughts in his mind. The ones he shared with her. He swallowed a budding lump in his throat while taking in the science chief's reclusive demeanor. "I want you to meet my friend," he quietly said to Sera while flicking his chin toward the rear of the assembly location. "Com'on."

Sera raised a brow in question - not in what Lamar had spoken to her, but at the sense of subtle turmoil that was a very different 'flavor' than her own. As they were in public, however, she subsumed her questions and dipped her head in acquiescence. "I must excuse myself, Mr. Tora. Perhaps we shall speak later."

"Of course. Catch you around, then!" Tora smiled back, unaware of the turmoil presently simmering under the bridge.

Lamar casually walked out of the large gathering of Galileo officers and broke through the small crowd to approach the lone Human woman. "Hey Sofie," he gave her a candid but subdued smile. "Ate some bad food again?" he tried to conceal in public what she might be experiencing in private.

"Vulcan cuisine seems to disagree with my stomach." Sofie responded curtly. The moment she'd seen the two of them start walking towards her she'd taken the first of those pills, just the thought of having to speak to Sera was enough to have given her insides ideas about getting out. The feeling of nausea had only got worse as the two of them got closer.

She turned her head so that she didn't have to see Sera as she spoke. Sera wasn't the only problem though, the last thing she needed was to get stuck in a nightmare with Lamar again. "Lamar, please leave me alone. This is Mimi's wedding day and I don't want us causing any issues. So let's not do small talk and you can introduce me to your partner later. After all the trouble we put her through we owe it to Mimi to not mess things up."

Halfway opening his mouth in expectation of a much different and warm reception, the conn officer paused then was momentarily speechless. His eyes searched the scientist's gray irises and discovered an iciness to them. Her brusque dismissal forced him to swallow an uncomfortable lump in his throat then glance down and to the side. He didn't want to ask or argue in public, but how could a simple social conversation lead to another murder attempt? ...Oh. "Yes, ma'am." A mock salute accompanied a turn of his body to wander somewhere else; far away from Sofie.

"Thanks Lamar," She threw the words after him "I'm..." I'm what? Sorry? There wasn't any point in finishing the thought anyway, he was gone. She buried her head in her hands for a moment, taking deep breaths. That had been too much, too harsh, and directed against someone who she cared about. Things were still falling apart, she was not holding together. This monster was tearing their lives into pieces. In that moment Sofie wished more than she had at any other point in the last few weeks that she had never set foot on that cursed station.

Sera had been a few steps behind Lamar, but she had very good hearing and overheard the terse exchange. She stopped her forward motion to stare at Ullswater with a narrowing gaze. The scientist's words hurt Lamar. That immediately set her teeth on edge, and her primal nature wanted to eliminate any threat. Thankfully, Sera's control was firmly in place in that regard. The woman had requested Lamar leave, and Sera had no reason--other than his desire to introduce her to Ullswater--to speak with her, so she too turned and strode away with a gentle swish of her robe and skirt to follow the retreating pilot.

Silk decided to attend and slipped in the back row to watch the proceedings. She knew there were too few times to have something nice happen.

Delainey entered the holodeck wearing a like new emerald green cocktail dress and her hair up in a French twist, a style that was much fancier than her typical on duty updo. She was beyond grateful to have the opportunity for something to celebrate, not just for the happy couple, but for the crew as a whole. Recent events had weighed heavily on all of them, and in her heart of hearts, Carlisle was still coping with her own feelings of trepidation about the future even as she presented herself as a vessel to hold that of others. Occasions like this wouldn't entirely erase those feelings, but they did offer hope, and the counselor was not about to turn that down.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CMDR Morgan Tarin
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A

PO3 Jeysa Zeror
Yeoman
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Mimi]

LTJG Serran
Operations Manager
USS Galileo-A

PO3 Yasmin Aquino
Operations Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Kov]

ENS Tora Zalos
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Juventus]

ENS S'Ers-a M'Lyr'Zor
Chief Engineer
USS Galileo-A

CPO Afthinam Naime
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Ullswater]

CWO3 Lamar Darius
Conn Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Tarin]

LTJG Hovar Kov
Chaplain
USS Galileo-A

LTJG Sofie Ullswater
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

Yukime 'Silk' Frost
Station Administrator
Regula I
[PNPC Warraquim]

LTJG Delainey Carlisle
Chief Counselor
USS Galileo-A

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