Personal matters

Posted on Thu Aug 10th, 2017 @ 7:46pm by Lieutenant Commander T'Pral Jordan & Captain Enalia Telvan

Mission: When Iconians Deserve to Die

T'Pral took in the decorations and surroundings of the castle. The captain did indeed have interesting tastes as castles aboard a space station were a rare commodity with many choosing far more modern living arrangements. However, she could appreciate the decor of the castle. The Terran Renaissance Era is often portrayed by many media outlets to be romantic with handsome knights rescuing damsels in distress by overcoming impossible odds spawning legends such as Robin Hood and King Arthur. The reality however, was far less romantic as she moved to study and ancient sword mounted on the wall.

Of all the over two hundred massive floors of the castle built as the core of the one hundred twenty kilometer wide orbital fortress, it seemed a lot of the crew seemed to prefer the lower, vastly more expansive floors the most. Enalia couldn't exactly blame them - the first thirty floors or so were veritable museums. Thus she found T'Pral on the ground floor admiring the various medieval decor.

Walking up next to her, she commented on the piece she assumed T'Pral was admiring. "That is supposedly a sword from the era of the Vulcan-Romulan Sundering. It's definitely made from minerals and with designs found natively to Vulcan and the quantum dating matches the estimated dates and it was recovered on Dewa III in Romulan space, so archaeologists believe it's the genuine article, but it could still all be coincidence."

"Unlikely," T'Pral replied, turning to look at the captain. "I must admit that this place is amazing. Where did you get the resources and funding for a place like this with all of these artifacts?"

"The Vulcan Science Commission had the same response, hence why it's here rather than in a museum." Enalia chuckled softly as she turned to face T'Pral. "As for funding, my great grandmother happened to be lucky enough to claim salvage rights to the recently destroyed remains of the planet Selen VI back in 2160 mere hours after its destruction. Within five years the Artan family had enough spare resources to outright buy this place, though it was new and rather bare at the time. As for money since then, privateering, piracy against the Syndicate, and deep space mining can be lucrative. As for my personal touch... the thirty third floor houses my personal collection of over thirteen thousand teacups."

T'Pral raised an eyebrow. "That is alot of teacups," she commented. "Do you ever host tea parties then?"

Enalia grinned widely. "What good is a teacup if it's not used to either impress guests or serve them tea? Aboard the Hera, I serve all my guests in replicas from either my collection here or from the one in Switzerland on Earth. Here though... I'd like to eventually hold teacup viewing ceremonies where we drink from teacups as we talk about the more priceless ones in my collection and see if anyone else has anything similar in theirs. I'm told that's normal aristocracy stuff but honestly, most of the local aristocracy has always avoided my family. Something about common blood of a pirate or something..." As her words drifted off, Enalia glanced off towards one of the tackiest chandeliers in the entire castle.

T'Pral knew well what Enalia was talking about. Growing up, she always despised formal social functions that her father held. She took after her mother who believed that many such social functions, were a necessary evil. Her mother always seemed to remind her of the one time when T'Pral was two, she snuck away from the sitter in search of her mother who was attending such a aristocracy event, dressed in her PJs made her way into the event, and had incident in her diaper that according to her mother made a Betazoid dignitary faint. "You have the blood of a commoner, Captain? How scandalous," she grinned as she followed the captain's gaze.

"I'm sure it doesn't help that my family is still considered nothing but common pirates." Enalia giggled softly as she pointed to the chandelier she was looking at. "That chandelier in particular was one of the first gifts from another aristocrat. We found over a hundred monitoring devices in it. Rather than removing them, my great grandmother ordered them left in and just disabled the feeds, having thousands of hours of children's programming fed to them instead."

T'Prall stifled a laugh. "I'm sure the person listening in was confused...just ignore those who say such derogatory comments about you and your family, Captain. They are only jealous," she offered but in reality, she would likely hunt them down and beat them with her bare hands--but that was her.

Enalia chuckled softly as well. "She did steal this place out from under that same family, after all. I suppose they would be jealous since they were still saving for the down payment and she bought it outright. Baron von Scrufflebutt wasn't so high and mighty after that incident. Anyway, a family feud ensued... Eventually he hired syndicate assassins to kill my great grandmother while she was on a patrol so my grandmother personally wiped his entire lineage from the galaxy."

T'Pral nodded in approval. "Go big or go home," she commented with a grin. "I would have loved to have met your great grandmother, Captain." T'Pral was silent as she thought about what she would do if threatened or her family threatened. She had nearly killed a fellow student on Vulcan for simply bullying her little brother. Vulcan children were often very critical of those not of pure Vulcan origins. Though she now kept that violent version of herself at bay with constant mental exercises, it was still there, waiting to emerge again--and a reason why her father was ashamed of her. "You've had a very exciting life thus far it seems."

"I have a feeling you'd fit in very well with the Artan family, if you ever decide to leave Starfleet. My mother is finally retired so if you ever want a position, it's yours." Enalia didn't exactly run the family business while she was in Starfleet, but she knew her second in command wouldn't object to anything she asked of him like that.

"Thank you, Captain. However Starfleet is my life at the moment," T'Pral replied, looking at the woman.

Enalia returned the look and nodded. "Indeed. If that should ever change though, please keep me in mind."

"I will. May I ask what your plans are for this shore leave?" T'Pral asked.

"To relax, enjoy some time off, and make sure my crew do the same without getting into too much trouble." Grinning widely, Enalia snagged one of the holographic catgirl maids. "Please prepare my private library for dining tonight and have Maica decide on the menu." With a bow acknowledging the order, the maid returned to her duties. "And how about you?"

"I am unsure as of yet. Commander Xustos has asked me to join him later in the conference room aboard the Hera for a meeting. What it is for is unknown at this time," T'Pral replied.

"Ah yes, a personal mission came up. It's completely voluntary so please feel free to go or not as you please." Enalia replied. "As for the details, those are up to him to reveal

T'Pral let out a sigh. She thought about Cato and wondered if he was indeed true to his intentions towards her or was she simply another woman for him? She had heard rumors of him being close with Nexi. She had never regarded those rumors with much merit but lately he had been distant towards her and she was beginning to wonder if the rumors were true. "If I may ask, have you ever wondered about the faithfulness or honesty of a lover, Captain?"

"Not really. I monitor the movements of anyone that might be in that position." Enalia didn't always do that, but was prone to investigating and/or stalking people for fun. "Why? Do you want me to investigate someone for you?"

"No, thank you Captain," T'Pral replied. She wasn't completely sure but she did know that West and Nexi had been spending quite a bit time together...with her own relationship with West bordering the line of fraternization, she didn't really want the Captain to know. Especially since the Captain and Nexi appeared to be rather close. 'Perhaps it simply wasn't to be,' she thought. "I should depart for that meeting before I am late. Thank you again, Captain."

Enalia nodded and smiled and went back to wandering the halls of her youth, reminiscing about things only she knew.