SD241810.02 - Joint Duty Log - CEO & NPCs (De'Lenn & Grey) - "Objection!"

Posted on Tue Oct 2nd, 2018 @ 2:38pm by Brigadier General Jonathan Grey & Lieutenant Commander Ky'La De'Lenn

2,272 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Tremor Trouble
Location: USS Baron
Timeline: Current

=^= Ten Forward =^=

Before the doors had finished opening, a young man in a pinstripe suit was already storming towards the opening. The guards on the inside didn't bother to raise their weapons, and simply watched as the lawyer accelerated towards the door, before halting on a dime. The man knew the rules backwards and forwards, and knew to the centimeter just how close he was allowed to come to the guards before they could consider him a "credible threat".

Such threats got smacked, or shot. The lawyer wasn't fool enough to think he could endure either.

"Who are you, and where are our menus?" The man with the perfectly-combed hair demanded of the new faces in front of him.

Ky'La looked at the faces in the lounge, 'the nerve of him to demand something', she thought. Her hand came up with frightening speed with the menus, "Here are your damned menus. Now sit the bloody hell down and listen to me. I came here to see if you were worthy to be addressed as lawyers and here I find a room of complete fool hair bent on old customs and ideals. Don't you realize that your own people are dying on the planet and the Federation is trying to assist you? Don't you care about the lives of your own people who pay for your services and your advice? Don't you have any feelings or sentiments for the people below? What are you good for? Playing with sentient lives or games?", she bellowed. Johnathan was flabbergasted at her and with what she said. He wondered how it was going to be taken and if it got through their thick heads.

Pinstripe pursed his lips with bottled indignance, his fists clenching at being addressed in such a disrespectful tone. Who was this woman, to come in here and shout at them so?

"I *beg* your pardon?! I have never been so insulted in all my..." he began, cutting himself off abruptly as a hand settled on his shoulder.

"That will be quite enough Jeffrey." spoke another lawyer, in calm, British tones. Pushing fifty years of age, the elderly man pulled a pair of half-moon spectacles from his top pocket, and polished them with a small cloth.

"Charles, they insulted us!" insisted the younger man, firmly, yet unable to meet the other's gaze.

"I dare say you insulted each other." Charles replied, donning his glasses. "Now please take the menus to Reginald. He hasn't had a bite to eat all day."

Grumbling under his breath, the younger lawyer snatched the menus from the Commander's hand with poor grace and stomped off to a cluster of suits waiting just out of earshot.

"I do apologise for Jeffrey." said Charles to the Commander, a look of contrition wrinkling his brow even further. "His ego took quite a bruising when he was arrested by Security. Though I do wish they weren't as capable at keeping him here." he added with a faint smile.

Ky’La looked at the older man named Charles, “You sir seem to be a bit more educated, however, I will believe it when I see it. Now the reason why I am here is because you need to realize that your people need help. Do you see what is happening to your planet? It is being torn apart by forces yet unknown to you and us. Have you even seen your air space lately? It is full of renegades, privateers, those who would pilfer your resources and take what they want in this CHAOS?!?!?!?! Stop throwing your small governmental reasons and articles and the BULL that you toss around like small men. Realize this, YOU and YOUR people are going to be annihilated by all this stupid nonsense?”, she said.

The older man, Charles, had by now sat down, crossed his leg and listened to Ky’La as she walked back and forth talking. “Are you even aware of the major races in this sector, the Klingons and the Romulans are waiting for this pitiful government of yours to collapse? When that happens, they will come in and carve up your precious planet and literally enslave your people? That is not to say that they will make you work for the right to live on this planet, cause they will and your way of life will definitely change for the worst and this and this and all this won’t make a DAMNED bit of difference!?!?!?!?!?!”, getting angry at their stubbornness. “Are you so BLIND that you can’t see beyond your own noses at what is going on here? The Federation is offering you help to save your world and your people...WHY are you being so blatantly stupid and not allowing us to HELP?!?!?!?!”, she said, almost bellowing. Ky’La didn’t care if she offended this man but she had to get the message across somehow and hopefully this man named Charles would listen and not quote the articles and bull they call a government.

Before Charles could say anything, Ky’La let loose again, “And another thing, on my home world, we gladly and openly took the aid from the Federation when we had a vicious war with the Romulans. The Klingon Empire needed help and even though we have our own way of government and our PRIDE and HONOR, we tucked tail and took the help that was offered and now we are deeply grateful for that help. They gave us the much needed things to get us back on our feet. So I don’t understand what is YOUR problem with accepting help?” she bellowed. By now it was clear that Ky’La was fuming and Johnathan had to grab her and sit her down before she really got started. Ky’La has a short fuse and it was getting shorter each minute she spoke so it was a good thing Johnathan made her sit and cool off. “Ky’La calm down, you are not going to accomplish anything by offending and getting angry”, he reminded her. “Yes Johnathan you are quite right but these small fools are really blind and stupid to what is happening here”, she said softly.

A moment passed after the commander had stopped shouting, all eyes now fixed on her. Security didn't know whether to intervene or stand clear, the other lawyers were busy rifling through their files to find precedent on verbal abuse of a prisoner, and Charles simply sat with his hands steepled; listening closely to the tirade, for all it hurt his ears.

"I see." he said, eventually. The older gentleman took his glasses off and polished them with a pocket cloth, carefully checking for specks of dust before donning them once more.

"I believe you have been misinformed. Or, at least, insufficiently briefed, miss." he told her, his quiet voice carrying to all corners of the room. "Our firm represents a number of significant business concerns across YaDalla. When the emergency began, and your people rushed to our aid, we strongly advised our clients to grant full access to Starfleet personnel in order to save lives. Most were all too happy to comply, and we worked with them, as our contracts stipulate, to provide the legal framework necessary for your ingress. That is to say, we made it legal for your people to enter various facilities and airspaces without asking first."

Here, he sighed.

"Sadly though, all we can do is advise." he added, regretfully. "We are bound to carry out our clients' will regardless of the wisdom in it. If we did not, we would be in breach of contract, and a competing firm would quickly take us to court. You may not be concerned by this, but that legal action would quickly put a hold on our other efforts, such as the ones allowing Starfleet to evacuate a number of large facilities across the planet's surface."

Here another lawyer offered him a thin padd, and Charles perused the contents before highlighting a portion and passing it back.

"I presume," said Charles, his attention back on the Commander, "that you are here to convince us to grant you access to one of the facilities our clients have denied to you? If you could indicate which facility, I am happy to discuss the situation with you. As a representative of Starfleet, you will of course have our full cooperation."

Another padd was offered to Charles, this one containing a list of locations with restricted access. He unlocked the padd and offered it directly to the Commander, while his other hand started to gesture to another seat, but then retracted as he thought better of it. She seemed far too tense to sit right now, he judged, and might take umbrage if she thought he was patronising her.

Stunned by his lack of sympathy, she reluctantly took the PADD and skimmed it. "We are going to need access to all of your restricted places. We don't care about what are in these buildings. We need to make sure they are structurally sound or not. We also need to evacuate those who work in them as well. Also there is the matter of your tunnels in your oceans. We need to get those people out before the plates shift and they lose their lives", she said. "How do you propose to do this?", she added.

"I'm afraid that's quite impossible." Charles told her, taking a calming breath. "As I said, those facilities are owned by our clients, not us. We cannot grant you access, as we don't have access codes, nor any way to circumvent the security systems. If you entered, you would be breaking and entering, and we are bound by contract to prosecute."

Here he gave a little sigh, peering at his colleagues for a few moments before dropping his voice to a low murmur.

"However, the tunnels you mentioned are another matter. While we are still bound by contract, the client lost more than those tunnels in this unpleasant affair. They have been forced to sell off one of their other facilities in order to remain solvent." he whispered conspiratorially. "It was sold to a Federation-friendly client, who has opened their doors to your people. Were one of your talented engineers to discover evidence of laws being broken, we would be able to break free of our contract with the client, and enable you to access the tunnels without being prosecuted."

"Furthermore," he added, "we would be within our rights to circulate the news to other legal firms. The client would become toxic, and nobody else would take up their contract either. You would be free to rescue the poor souls trapped in the tunnel." Charles concluded, with a nod.

After hearing that, her most inner thought was to punch this impudent individual, but, she looked him straight in the face, " Then I suggest you call your clients and get them here as soon as yesterday. Lives and time, is running out on both sides", she said. "All legal firms have representatives, so get them here as well. This is going to be settled right here and NOW!", she said.

Maybe Ky'La had gotten in more than she had bargained for on this one. It might have been best if she had quit while the quitting was good and just give up in defeat. Yet she still felt that she might get the private clients and these firms to see reason and allow the help that was offered. She had to try...

"I...I'm afraid I don't understand." admitted Charles, taken aback. "Perhaps you misheard me. If you can prove my clients have broken the law, they will lose their legal protection, and you will be free to rescue the people in the tunnels. I am trying to help you." he emphasised, keeping it simple.

Long, detailed statements served him well in court, but perhaps not so well with an aggravated Klingon.

Ky'La looked at Johnathan~~~did I just lose the scope of what was said~~~she projected. He nodded affirmatively and took her shoulders, "My dearest, you won. You won the argument. You beat the lawyers finally", he said, smiling.

=/\= De'Lenn to Brigader Grey, we got your permissions and more. What are our orders sir =/\= she said wearily, as she waited for his response.

Looking at Charles, "You sir, Charles, would make a good Ferengi dealing with trade. Thank you for your help and your intelligence. We will act upon it", she added.

"Grey here." the comm badge warbled, linking up with Versailles over the Baron's comms array. "What permissions?" he asked, drawing a blank on what his CEO was talking about.

"We have acquired permission to go into the tunnels and get the people out. We also have found out that one of the restricted buildings is owned by a Starfleet friendly client who has given us access to check it. We also were told that if we could find evidence, quite by accident, the client would lose the rights to these other restricted and we would then be given the permission to enter all the structures and do our jobs", De'Lenn said, much relieved.

"Ah, good. Go do that. Grey out." said the General. It seemed a good idea, and he was eager not to get drawn into legal matters. How De'Lenn had solved this headache so quickly he didn't know, and had no plans to ask.

Plausible deniability.


=^= End of Log =^=

Brigadier General Jonathan Grey
Comanding Officer
Versailles

&&

Lt. Cmdr. Ky'La De'Lenn
Chief Engineering Officer
Versailles

&&

Charles and Jeffrey (NPC Grey)
Civilian Lawyers

 

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