Unexpected Order

The large green oak trees were casting shadows on the pavement, the only escape from warm sun those days. Students and cadets were either hiding in academy buildings or ignoring the sun, sitting or playing on the grass. Their voices were sounding far away, but two people sitting in the shadow were not listening.

"Sub-Commander T'Plek... I must admit your request has greatly surprised me." The male of the pair said. He was a tall, massive figure in a Starfleet uniform with diplomatic corps insignia and he was visibly sweating in the unusually heat.

"Admiral, I've done all I could there. The next logical step would be to extend the borders and according to my analysis I am capable of full scale diplomatic work." Came the cold, logical reply from the other person in the conversation. She, unlike her counterpart was not suffering from the heat, her Vulcan origins keeping her body temperature down. After a moment, a small smile appeared "This is what I was trained for..."

"I don't know...." Stated the Admiral again, but a comm signal interrupted him. "Excuse me Sub-Commander; I must take this in private."

He excused himself, rising from his seat and almost ran towards the shade of the buildings nearby, visibly happy to leave the sun. T'Plek watched after him, realising that the Admiral must have been near boiling point in the heat.

But her mind was already reviewing the whole conversation she had just had, looking for weak points in the Admiral's arguments. Before she could find the best path of negotiations, he returned. Even for her lack of emotions, his face was the surprise. He quietly sat down and looked straight into her eyes.

"Sub-Commander T'Plek. I understand you are sure you want to be transferred to an explorer class vessel, travelling in uncharted space." He asked.

T'Plek nodded.

"We may have a Diplomatic mission for you." The Admiral stated. "I have just learnt that an alien ambassador is enroute to Starbase 901. He should be arriving there by the end of the month. I want you to negotiate with this ambassador on the base and represent both the Federation and Starfleet."

"Which race is sending the ambassador." T'Plek enquired.

"They're known as the Axtilities." The Admiral replied. "We don't much information on them, they contacted Starfleet via the G'Kar about six weeks ago. What we do know is that they are humanoid and come from a system on the far side of the Demilitarised zone beyond the 'Briar Patch', hence the meeting at Starbase 901."

"Why are they contacting us now ?" T'Plek asked.

"It would appear that they have been at war with another race and they're losing." The Admiral stated. "It would appear they think the Federation could turn the war in their favour."

"Should the Federation be getting involved in such a war." T'Pex remarked. "Wouldn't that be against the Prime Directive."

"In theory yes….." The Admiral admitted. "….. But they have knowledge of the far side of the DMZ and the space beyond. We've not had that sort of Intel since the USS Hornet was pulled out of the DMZ after the Nipron incident. The Federation council wants to know what else they can offer."

"When do I leave ?" T'Plek asked. "I'll need time to prepare."

"Well... The USS Leviathan-B is about to return to Earth for some minor repairs and crew re-assignment. She's a prototype long range explorer, fitted with a new and highly-experimental interstellar propulsion system. So far the project has been a big white elephant, but if we agree to assist the Axtilities, we'll need vessels capable of crossing the DMZ fast." The Admiral stated. "You've been assigned as the senior diplomat and will act as Federation Ambassador during the negotiations. If they go well it could lead to you becoming the permanent Federation representative onboard."

T'Plek was silent, unusual for her.

"So…. "The Admiral prompted. "….Do you want the job ?"

Students and cadets were still running all around, joking and fooling around. In her years on Earth T'Plek had learnt that this kind of activity was similar to pre-logic Vulcan age, still visible in behaviour of young Vulcans. No matter how illogical it was, sometimes she found watching them quite pleasant and inspiring. The chaos outside the Academy was becoming logical only after long observation and analyze of ways they played.

One of group was playing with a gravi-ball, kicking it at each other with great strength. The idea was to dodge the ball and catch it in the same moment. If done correctly, the player was able to change it's momentum into radial movement and direct to next person. The most skilled were even able to kick it on the way back, increasing the speed. If someone was not too swift, the ball was either flying away or hitting unfortunate player, sending her or him harmlessly several meters away.

One of the cadets was only just able to dodge the ball, allowing it to land a metre away from T'Plek. She took it from the ground and looked at the young student. The whole group had frozen, noticing her diplomatic clothes and awaited her reaction.

T'Plek, knowing how stunning and surprising seeing a Vulcan smile was to other races, sent her nice and pleasant smile to the young Bolian, his jaw dropped open. She threw the ball straight to him, hitting him square in the chest. Surprised the cadet, he had no chance to react and landed flat on his back, causing the rest of the group to burst out laughing.

"Yes." T'Plek said calmly to the Admiral. "Shall we go inside, it's getting a little dangerous around here."

Her facial emotions were something she was not too proud about, but in her work she noticed how much she could gain showing even the slightest of smiles, disappointment or anger. Actually it had nothing to do with her real state of mind and she considered it almost as a lie. Almost….

Her quarters in the Diplomatic corp. were clean and peaceful, as always. T'Plek had lit several candles and was now sat on the floor, once again walking in her own mind. Thoughts were flowing like electricity in a perfect computer and she was gathering her strength and knowledge for her assignment to USS Leviathan-B. For the first time she was supposed to face unknown, without the way to predict the flow of negotiations or prepare any knowledge.

Her final frontier awaited her.