Chance Meetings

Posted on Sat May 25th, 2019 @ 12:01am by Commander Kaelyth Solmarr & Administrative Assistant Jinzle Pejaa

Mission: Ready For The Weekend!
Location: A café
Timeline: 2388/08/31 1200 (Sun. Aug. 31 2388 12:00pm)

The small café that was down a few buildings from the Colony building. Her heels clicked on the stone as she walked briefly to the café finding her usual table Jinzle took a seat. “The usual Ms Pejaa?” The waiter asked knowing her order very very well seeing as she came here at the same time everyday.

“Please,” Jinzle said removing her fur and setting it on the back of her chair.

“Oh Ms Pejaa I’ll hang that up for you.” The waiter said with a smile as he picked up the lovely fur and brought it inside and hung it up before getting her drink order. While she waited Jinzle crossed her legs underneath the table and pulled out her PaDD and looked over the days calendar. Few moments later her tea arrived, “here you are Ms Pejaa."

Kaelyth had taken a break, left his office and the self-replicating PADDwork to breed while he took a walk. Those desks were not built for people his height, he guessed. His legs always got cramped under them after a few hours, and he needed to stand, if only to pace his office and restore circulation. But today was a nice day, so he decided to walk outside the office... and found himself in a small cafe. A smile slid over his lips as he entered. He liked these small establishments; they usually had better service and better quality than the larger, more corporate places.

"Please take a seat wherever you would like." The same waiter that served the Vorta/Klingon hybrid. "I'll be getting to you shortly." He added with a soft smile to the new comer.

Kaelyth nodded politely and glanced over the room, noting everyone present. His eyes caught the intriguing female, and he tilted his head slightly. He could not remember ever seeing a cross-breed of her type before, and so it fascinated him. Crossing to stop near her table though not right next to it, he cleared his throat to acquire her attention. "Excuse me. I could not help but notice your... uniqueness." It was a compliment coming from him -- he was unique among Lessanthi, after all. "Do you mind if I join you?"

Jinzle looked up at the well muscular man. She sat her PaDD down, "....of course please take a seat." Jinzle said her voice sounding harsh but there was a softness/silkiness to it.

Kaelyth smiled and sat. His movements were more graceful than one would expect given his build. "Thank you. I am Kaelyth Solmarr, the Operations Department Head. May I-" He paused as the waiter returned.

After the commander was seated the waiter appeared again, "what can I get started for you?" He asked looking at Solmarr.

"Mint tea will suffice, thank you." he answered easily.

"Of course," The waiter turning his attention to Jinzle to check in with her, "and Ms Peeja anything more for you?"

"The same please." Jinzle said to the waiter. The waiter nodded turned and headed to get their teas. "Jinzle Pejaa, colony administration assistant." Jinzle said holding her hand out.

Kaelyth smiled his normal, warm smile as he took the woman's hand in a firm shake then released it. "It is a pleasure to meet you." His head tilted slightly as his expression shifted to contemplative. "Please forgive me if this question seems... odd, but is your name a single name or a given name followed by a House name?" he asked. He did not want to insult her by shortening it if it was a single name... or sound like a mad person by using both if it was two separate names.

"Because of my status, being a bastard, I am not allowed to use my house name so I chose to take my mother's name as my last name." Jinzle said simply.

Kaelyth paused thoughtfully. She had given him more information than he had asked for, but it did not bother him. He was, and always had been, something of an explorer, so the more information the better. "I am sorry if my question offended you in any way. It was not intended to." She did not sound offended, but it was better to offer the apology anyway, just to be safe, err on the side of caution as it were.

"No offense taken. It's what it is. No need to dwell on it or even hide it." Jinzle said as the waiter came back with their orders and cleared her cup. "......what do you to do for Starfleet?"

He nodded, pleased that he had not offended the lady. "I am the Chief of Operations for the station and planet." he said, frowning slightly. He recalled saying that before, to her, but perhaps she meant something else? He let it stand for now; if she meant something else, he would allow her to more specifically state her request for information.

Taking a couple of sips of her tea before speaking again. "Apologies but what exactly does a chief of operations do?" Jinzle asked not 100& sure what all positions within Starfleet did.

Kaelyth smiled kindly. "I oversee both the Operations Department and the Engineering Department. It is our task to ensure that all systems on both the starbase and the campus remain in optimal functioning condition." he explained without getting technical. If this was not helpful, he would try to be clearer, though.

Sipping her tea Jinzle pondered this place it was indeed interesting especially when it came to how Starfleet and civilians would interact with each other. “So this does not include the colony? Well that be a civilian or whatever the civilian counterpart would be?"

He smiled; she was trying to get a handle on his job, and he had always encouraged questions. As his fathr had taught him, that was how one learned. "In most Starfleet operations, my department would handle the more software side of systems while Engineering would handle hardware, though Operations officers are trained to deal with the hardware as well. They would be separate departments. Also, normally, civilians would have their own structure in place to handle this. But I believe, and understand that this is as clearly as I understand it now, in this case, my department handles all of it, and Operations and Engineering are merged, Engineering being a sub-division of Operations." He tilted his head, watching her for a moment. "I hope I did not just further confuse you."

“No this makes sense,” Jinzle said thinking back to Klingon colonies and that it was pretty similar. “Very similar to Klingon colonies but not so much of a split like you can see on some Federation colonies.” Jinzle said taking a couple more sips of her tea. “How long have you been in Starfleet?"

Kaelyth thought about that for a moment, taking a sip of his tea as he did. "That depends upon whether or not you count my time at the Academy. If you could that, thirty six Terran standard years; thirty three if you do not count the Academy." he finally told her. "Was Administrative Assistant your desired career path?" Some people enjoyed such things, so he never assumed that a peson did or did not. It was always best just to never assume.

Jinzle took a second to think about the question as she did she took some sips of her tee before answering. “No. My major is in business and a masters in art history. So before this job I was a personal art dealer for 2 years along with being the curator for the Devritane Museum on Trill.” Jinzle said realizing that didn’t answer the question. “But this was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up especially if I want to move up in the art world."

Kaelyth listened with interest. "You wish to have your own business then, yes?" he asked. It did occur to him that what she was doing before this had been, from the sound of the title, her own business. So he did not quite understand why she would have given it up to serve this far away as an Administrative Assistant. But he did not judge, merely expressed curiosity.

“At some point yes I would like to own/run a gallery or even be a cultural attaché. Hence why I have taken this position as administrative assistant to give an insight into government work.” Jinzle said taking a few more sips of her tea.

Kaelyth sipped his tea thoughtfully, deciding how best to respond. Finally, he set down the tea. "All knowledge is useful." he said slowly. "But may I ask... what makes you interested in government positions?" Having been born to be Speaker of Sendell, he was not terribly fond of the idea of being anything related to government, but not everyone had his filters, and he understood that. Therefore, he was curious to know her reasoning.

Jinzle looked at the man as she thought she had answered that question. Or was this answer gonna be similar to the question she answered before. “If I want to be an cultural attaché I’ll need experience within a government and well I got lucky with this position opening up on this colony when it did."

Kaelyth frowned, more at himself than at her. Obviously, they had run into a place where his command of Standard was a tiny bit lacking. "Forgive me. I understood that you wished to be a Cultural Attache. The rest is preparation for that. What I had intended to ask was what made you desire to hold any government position, including Cultural Attache." he tried to clarify. Having been raised to be Speaker, he had learned first hand what made governments function, and he had no real desire to swim with those particular sharks again. Therefore, he was curious why someone would choose to.

This was tricky answer as she couldn’t quite put her finger on why art. “The art. To protect it,” or was it to horde it? Jinzle thought as she shook her head to get rid of that thought. “….truthfully all I can say is that art was never big in my life well my young life. As I got older the pull of art grew stronger.” Jinzle said, “…..but I couldn’t tell you why I really wanted to take this position.” Jinzle said as she really looked back at her life art was really the only thing that has stuck with her.

Kaelyth studied the young woman for a moment then nodded, accepting her answer. He could see the Truth of it in her eyes. "I apologize if I have made you uncomfortable." he said sincerely after a moment to sip his tea and refocus. "It was not my intention. However I have been told that I ask piercing questions, and some do not like it." He smiled kindly at her. "If I ask you something that you do not wish to answer, you may simply tell me that you do not wish to answer. I will respect that." he assured.

Jinzle nodded appreciating the sentiment but she hated people that shied away from difficult or uncomfortable questions. “No. You have not made me feel uncomfortable. In all truthfulness no one has really asked those questions not even when I was getting my degrees."

Kaelyth tilted his head again, that by now familiar (or becoming so) look of non-understanding crossing his features. It surprised him that no one had asked this. "Not even the Evaluators?" On Vedarr Prime, everyone taking any sort of degree program, especially those attempting to go into fields that dealt with people a lot, was evaluated psychologically by someone whose title l;oosely translated into Standard as Evaluator. He had been required to speak to one in Starfleet's Academy as well, so he had assumed that everyone did. He was surprised that at least that person had not asked such questions.

Jinzle took a second to think about that. Yes the Empire did have evaluators which either placed you as a warrior or non-warrior; medical and scientists. Before she could be evaluated, she was smuggled out of Klingon territory. “Was never evaluated err….sorry that’s not entirely true. I was evaluated when I was accepted into the Kem’alta Institute.” But whatever they said wouldn’t have changed my destiny Jinzle thought.

Kaelyth's head remained tilted, thoughtfulness replacing the look of non-understanding. "Perhaps I chose the incorrect word. I was referring to what Starfleet calls..." he paused for a moment to remember their chosen designation "counselors." He smiled a smile that held slight embarrassment in it. "I must apologize. Sometimes I forget to double translate my thoughts. Some words in my language translate directly into the correct word while others' direct translations need to then be converted into another word. Our word for the Mind Healers who assess directly translates into Standard as Evaluators, but I forgot to convert that to counselors. I am sorry if this caused further confusion." He seemed to do that to her a lot, confuse her. Frrecht!

Jinzle was now confused. Now the concept of counselors in Klingon culture was well non-existent. As for her mental status as far as she was concerned she was healthy. So why she would have needed these was confusing to her. Jinzle kept her smile as well as she watched him. “I didn’t need one as art was a calling from a young age.” Jinzle said as she started thinking about what was truly calling her and it was art. “And to achieve or to answer that call I’ll take whatever I can to answer that call."

Kaelyth considered her answer for a moment then nodded. "I understand. It was not that I thought you were in need of counseling. Starfleet seems to require everyone to be evaluated by a counselor periodically, and so I had thought that the political sector might as well. I apologize if I gave you the impression that I was suggesting that you were not mentally stable." His expression told her as well that he sincerely had not wanted to give that impression.

From what she had seen of the political theatre you didn’t need much or any experience. Hell in some locations charisma was really all you needed to win. “From my understanding and what I have seen of the private/civilian sector that’s not the case again that’s what I have seen.” Jinzle said simply.

Kaelyth nodded, sipping his tea. "Understood. Thank you for correcting my misunderstanding." And he meant it. Faulty information could cause all sorts of problems, as it might have here had she taken offense to his question. "And thank you for taking no offense to my question."

Jinzle allowed a small smirk and nodded. “It takes quite a bit to offend me. I very much appreciate you also asking for clarification on these things to help avoid future confusion."

Kaelyth allowed a soft chuckle. "I find that there is far more than enough confusion in my life without setting myself up for more." he admitted. "But my father always encouraged questions; he said it was how we learned. So I am afraid that I tend to ask more than my fair share." he warned with a smile. "But in the same vein, I welcome questions if you have them." After all, it was not always about him.

Jinzle pondered that for a moment finding it not odd but refreshing. She has met many people that weren’t fond of questions or expanding on what they just said. “I must say you are very enlightened it’s nice to see that these days.” Jinzle added as she picked up her fur as she stood. “Apologies but I need to get back to the office.” Jinzle said as she slipped her furs onto her shoulders.

As she stood, Kaelyth stood as well in the fashion of gentlemen. "I understand. It was a pleasure to meet you and to speak with you. Perhaps we will get the chance to speak again." he offered with his normally warm smile. "I wish you a pleasant and productive day, Jinzle."

Jinzle gave him a polite nod. “As to you as well.” She said simply before exiting the café.

Kaelyth nodded with a smile. He cleared away their dishes, taking them to the counter to be cleaned so that the wait staff did not have to retrieve them. Then he, too, exited, making his way back to his office to continue his day's work.

~End~