A Sensitive Diplomatic Mission

The next few weeks went by with surprising speed for Julie. There was so much to do and so much to learn that she had very little time to dwell upon her unfortunate state of perpetual undress. As a matter of fact, half the time, she practically forgot that she was underdressed at all. And why wouldn't she? Most of her fellow crew members were similarly un-attired and they didn't pay her any special attention either, so why make a fuss? Still... not a day went by that she didn't experience some little reminder of her strange predicament. That time in the mess hall when she'd accidentally spilled some Talurian cream sauce on herself, only to watch it run like a river between her all but bare breasts... or that time she had to work in the air conditioned central computer room and her nipples got so hard she thought the sticky patches that comprised the top of her uniform might fly off! She felt most self conscious, however, anytime she had to bend over, as her uniform patches covered her nipples and her sex but.... uhm... well, to put it mildly, her backdoor was wide open. There were several occasions where her job had required her to bend over a computer terminal for long periods of time, and it never ceased to mortify her when her comrades would go about their business, or even carry on full conversations with her while she was thusly exposed.

All in all, however, Julie was making progress, learning what she was good at and what she wasn't, and getting used to life on a starship. Hell, her Lieutenant had even let her get in some target practice on some asteroids using one of the ships tertiary blaster cannons, and she'd even got a nice little pat on the back for her considerable skills! All in all, things were looking up, so when Julie was summoned once again to the Captain's Office she answered the call with cautious optimism. True, her last face to face with the Captain had not gone well, but she couldn't think of any reason the Captain could have to be displeased with her now.

You can imagine how disconcerted Julie was when she opened the door to the office and was confronted with an image she felt was more likely to be found adorning the cover of Dante's Inferno than the office of a Space **** Captain. Captain Z'arr Voosh had a red heating lamp suspended above her resting slab that cast a red glow about the office, and a pair of enormous, blazing braziers sat on either side of the room. On top of that, between the braziers and the heating lamp, the temperature in the room had to be almost a hundred degrees Fahrenheit! All of this combined to impress upon Julie the undeniable feeling that she was walking into Hell to have a chat with the Devil, and as she took her seat upon the little stool before the great reptile, she felt every bit as sheepish and uncertain as she did on her first day.

"My apologies for the scenery, Ensign." The Captain began. "I toned down the decor the last time we met. As I mentioned last time, I HAVE studied Earth Cultures and felt that you might find the usual state of my office a bit... terrifying. Now that you've had some time to adjust, I'm sure it's not that big a deal."

"No, Captain, of course not!" Julie lied, feeling incredibly hot and terrified.

"Good." The Captain continued. "I trust you've been adjusting to life on the Black Talon, and that your initial reservations about your uniform have not been a hinderance to you in the performance of your duty?"

"No, Captain!" Julie responded. "I mean, yes! I mean... I mean, YES, I've been adjusting well, but NO, the uniform has not been much of a hinderance."

"Yes, so I've heard. Lt. Vazz has given you some very positive performance evaluations, and I place a great deal of trust in his opinion. For that reason, I've decided to place my trust in you, by assigning you to your first away mission."

Julie nearly leapt out of her seat. An away mission!? That was the best news she'd gotten since coming aboard! Granted, she'd been enjoying herself so far, for the most part, learning on the job and meeting and overcoming challenges, but an away mission? Exploring alien worlds, making first contact with strange new civilizations, engaging in daring secret missions... to boldly go where no man, woman or weird slug thing had ever gone before? it's why she joined the Space **** in the first place!

Accordingly, Julie had to restrain herself from leaping out of her seat and giving the big dragon a kiss on her beak. "Thank you, Captain. I will do everything I can to prove that your trust in me was not misplaced." Was what she managed to say instead.

"Hmph." Voosh replied. "We shall see. The mission that I'm sending you on is a sensitive one. The Black Talon is on it's way to participate in a security detail for the peace summit taking place on Misogen III and I've been asked to provide one member of my crew to serve as an attache to the Federation Ambassador, and I've chosen you. Until the mission concludes, you will be under the command of Lt. Pin-Chaa, of the Space **** Diplomat Corps, and you will both serve at the pleasure of Federation Ambassador Nard. Your mission should not be a difficult one. You are merely there to serve and assist the Lt. and Ambassador in any way they see fit. Both men are experienced professionals in their chosen fields, so as long as you follow their lead and obey their orders, everything should run smoothly. You will report to docking bay 6 and take Shuttle 425.7 down to the planet's surface to rendezvous with the Lt. and Ambassador at 3700 hours. I suggest you use the time between now and then to study up on the politics involved in this conference so that we can avoid any unfortunate.. misunderstandings. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Captain!" Julie said, more than ready to get up out of this heat and escape the smoke and fire.

"Yes. Oh, and one more thing. Since this is an official diplomatic mission, you will be required to wear your formal dress uniform for the entirety of the mission.."

Julie's heart leapt again. A dress uniform? A FORMAL dress uniform? The idea of putting on some fancy, sharp looking military dress uniform instead of... THIS was enough to make Julie want to jump for joy and yet... she smelled a trap. If the Captain had designed her standard uniform with the minimalist aesthetic involved, then surely the uniform she designed for formal situations must be equally minimalistic.... oh well, only time would tell. At the very least, it couldn't be worse than what she was wearing right now, now could it?

"Here you are..." the Captain said, sliding across the table a small box that could have contained a wrist watch or a necklace and not more. "Go on, take a look." The Captain continued. "In case you have any further.. concerns."

Julie knew better than to complain, and resolved that no matter how bad this new "Dress Uniform" might be, she wasn't going to make an issue of it. The last thing she wanted was for her Captain to associated her with a constant pain in the ass! When she opened up the box however, and saw what was inside, a look of confusion crept across her face. "Uhm... how do you even WEAR this?" She blurted out.