Political changes

The next morning, Dustin wandered through from his bunk to his ready room with Meli half a pace behind him. He’d wanted a quiet night to ensure he had a clear head for the first morning meeting with Bleu involved, and although his fiancé had insisted she accompany him to bed they hadn’t gone any further than curling up and some quiet kissing. It’d been quite relaxing, and so it was with a smile that he set his breakfast down at his usual place and glanced around at the mostly assembled crew.

Emely and Rye had yet to arrive; Trea’k claimed that they had wanted to take their time in the showers as fur was a pain to clean, but despite the eloquent way in which she said it Dustin could see the corners of the Vex’ess woman’s mouth turning ever so slightly up. Working on the basis that the two had either gotten up to a lot of fun the previous night or had woken up horny and decided to play in the shower, he opted to focus on his food while chatting casually with the others present.

Bleu seemed somewhat intrigued by the casual nature of breakfast, pausing several times to question whether or not this was what she could expect moving forward. Dustin was really glad Rye was out of the room at that moment; he could just imagine the bunny girl making a lewd suggestion about their morning routine to tease him. Just as he was finishing up the last bit of his cereal, the other two women emerged from the ambassadorial bedchamber, the woman in question still towelling her hair.

“Morning Dusty, ladies. Did we miss anything interesting?” was apparently what passed for a greeting from the Rabyth, while Emely merely slipped round the table to kiss Dustin gently before grabbing a breakfast bar from the automat and sinking into her seat. Dustin wrinkled his nose at that - the breakfast bars were technically food and full of nutrition, but only in the same way that a mix of ethanol, water and grape flavouring could technically be considered wine. “You really should make sure you’re up in time for a proper breakfast.” He said pointedly, causing the Feliax woman to blush and bow her head. “Sorry, sir.”

Sighing to himself, Dustin glanced around the table once more before gesturing to Meli. “Now we’re all gathered, chief science officer, would you mind bringing up the crew diagram? I want to discuss our next steps and it’d be a handy background for our newest recruit.” A few taps later and the gently spinning hologram of the ship appeared in the middle of the table, albeit with only a handful of question marks now. Dustin raised an eyebrow at the addition of a row of tiny head shapes floating below the ship - apparently Meli had found the time to add in a count of the junior staff to her model.

“Right now, the only major recruit we need to obtain in my opinion is a cook” he said, glancing again at Emely’s breakfast. “None of the new staff have been on board long enough for automat meals to grow stale, but I certainly have. However…” and here he paused to look at Yril’k before concluding “…that is not our priority at present.” The announcement got the attention of the women around the table. “What is our priority then?” Bleu asked, glancing up from where she was skimming something on her tablet. “Filling out the teams we already have.” Dustin replied, gesturing around at them all with one hand.

“More scientists would allow us to begin to do more exploration, li’ah’a, it is true” Meli said softly before adding “but having been on this mission almost as long as you I would like to get a proper cook soon as well.” The Velca’s comments were echoed by most of the others - Emely being the sole exception. Rye had her hands full as the sole engineer already, and the more crew there were the more things would need repairs just through natural wear and tear. Yril’k had requested more gunnery staff ahead of this meeting, although Dustin had a surprise for her in the short term in that regard - one he was keeping under wraps until they reached the Uinn homeworld for Rocky’s wedding. Emely however felt she was pretty much the only communications specialist they needed. “I’m happy to train up some people to act as support, but I don’t think we need specialists for that sir. Better to just grab whoever is spare or peoples’ partners when we run into couples in the future rather than go hunting for other comms officers.” Was her final word on the matter when Dustin pressed the topic.

With that, a plan emerged. They would actively seek to recruit more staff for the various departments as a priority, while keeping their eyes open for potential cooks and comms trainees. Hopefully, that’d allow them to reach a solid complement by the time they arrived at their next major stopping point - which was the big news of the day. “We’ve been taking big sweeping arcs through the galaxy and gotten a whole bunch of signatures.” Dustin began, as Meli tapped her tablet and the hologram shifted to a spinning scroll. “With the Queri signature and a recent political development, we are now down to needing just one more as well as a handful of other things - tasks completed, research data and weave jump charting conducted and so on - before we complete this mission.” He then raised his hands for quiet at the barrage of questions that emerged after that shock announcement.

“Meli, if you would explain? You have a better understanding of how to make sense of what’s happened than I do.” He said, at which the Velca stood. “It is unusual to need so few signatures - I believe that is what you were trying to say Rye? Dr Bleu? You are both correct if that is the case. However, the attack on Trea’k’s ship has changed things. Specifically, four major species…” and here she gestured at herself, Rye, Trea’k and Emely “…put forward a motion to dispatch a scouting fleet to fully investigate the strange happenings. This was declined by the council in session a week ago; however the overqueen and Feliax empress were able to pass a second motion to nominate a species to act as researchers to seek out further information on the potential threat.”

Bleu leaned forward in her chair at that point. “Your rulers actually managed to convince the biggest bunch of idiots in the galaxy to appoint a damn proctor? There hasn’t been one in three hundred years!” Meli allowed the interruption and nodded her acknowledgment before continuing. “At that point, the ‘bunch of idiots’ thought they had a plan to shut the whole thing down; I got a missive from Emely’s aunt saying that she felt the other leaders were worried that the situation would lead to panic, and that the best thing to do would be to do nothing. The - shall we call them the opposition? Their plan was simple enough - they stipulated that whatever species it was couldn’t be above class nine, and could only use research and ambassadorial craft to minimise the risk of causing upset to the wider community. Of course, no species would willingly send ambassadorial craft after military grade vessels. Except one.” Rye gave a low whistle at that point. “I think I can see where this is going nerd, get to the good bit then.”

Meli nodded. “Yes. Their motion was voted through, and then Artificer-general Flass played his hand - all thanks to a rule that I don’t think has been used in the last thousand years. According to article 157, subsection 3 of the rules governing ambassadorial missions, a proposing species can adjust the mission parameters in the event that a proctorial appointment limited to class nines is raised. Said adjustment requires the approval of at least two additional council species and the species conducting the mission, as it requires them to sign up to be the proctors. One quick call to Earth to explain and he had his approvals. By all accounts the opposing faction on the council were livid when they realized they’d been outplayed. The net result however is a massive reduction in our mission requirements…” and here Dustin stood up and took over “…and a direct order from my government to achieve those requirements during a flight back to Earth so Sola’s performance data can be reviewed for inclusion in the designs for our next line of exploration starships. I’m going to be able to take you all to see my old home far sooner than I’d planned.”