Not So Mysterious After All

Posted on Wed Dec 5th, 2018 @ 6:02pm by Attaché Elizabeth Walshingham

Mission: My Place In This Universe
Location: Diplomatic Wing
Timeline: 2388/08/21 1030 (August 21 2388 10:30ish am)

After meeting Ambassador Odar at the Faculty staff meeting, Devin decided that he needed to confer with at least one other member of the Ambassadorial staff to get their views on discrete versus indiscreet intelligence gathering. Checking the personnel records, he saw that there was an aide to Odar by the name of Elisabeth Walshingham.

Deciding that she would be his best bet to start gathering a different type of intelligence, he made an inquiry to the computer as to her exact whereabouts.

Elizabeth Walshingham is in her office in the Diplomatic Wing.

Elizabeth's office was unusual in that required technologies were hidden. For example her desk computer looked like it came from Victorian London, all leather and brass. Walls were lined with wooden panels. Her desk was Earth Oak and even the chairs fit the theme. It looked for all intents and purposes like a Victorian office but the tech was there. It was the first time Elizabeth served on a planet for a long time and since her assignment was likely to last awhile she finally got to bring out things she had in storage for some time. Pictures of her family and friends were present as well as a smattering of other items. A fencing sword, a wooden chess set she had carved herself, and other bits and pieces.

She sat in her office with a cooling cup of tea at one elbow as she worked on the Ambassador's 'to do list'.

Getting the response, Devin headed to the Diplomatic Wing after checking the map of the campus to get the location. He wore a standard instructor uniform with a grey stripe across his chest to indicate his department, and his longish hair was swept back on the sides, giving him a slightly hawkish appearance.

Arriving at the wing and making one more check on the map, he went down the hall until he came to the indicated door and pressed the chime.

Elizabeth, as staff didn't have to wear a uniform so was in civilian business clothes, looked up. "Enter" She said curiously, oddly enough the Diplomatic Wing did not get many visitors. At least not yet at any rate.

Entering the office, Devin gave a smile and inclined his head. "I was looking for a Miss Elizabeth Walshingham. I'm Command Devin McCall, the Intelligence instructor for the campus."

Elizabeth smiled politely at her visitor, "I'm she. Refreshment?" She gestured to a chair as she remembered her own cold tea.

Devin looked around the office curiously, feeling as if he entered a different time period as he took the offered seat. "Thank you, but not. I have enough caffeine in me to do serious harm to a Q. I was wondering if you had a few minutes to spare, Miss Walshingham?"

"Suit yourself then." She said sitting down on the edge of her desk, "Now that my mother would be proud, and as I have a few minutes, what can I do for you Commander McCall?" She said in a polite but genuinely interested Earth British voice.

"I spoke briefly with Ambassador Odar at the faculty staff meeting and he mentioned wanted to work with me to do a class mixed between Diplomacy and Intelligence. He went as far as to say that the two were very similar and made a few good points. However, as I'm not very diplomatic in my own chosen career, I felt that the best place to start be would be with you."

Elizabeth was silent a moment and looked thoughtful. She picked up a round, glass ball from a holder on her desk and started to move in slowly from and around hand to hand.

"I did get a note from the Ambassador about a cross over class but he hadn't the time to more fully inform me." She considered, it wasn't totally outside the realm of possibility, there was time in British history where MI-6 agents used diplomatic covers and worked from embassies in foreign lands. "Suppose we start with how you see this playing out then perhaps I can better advise" She said the last questioningly as she stopped rolling the glass ball.

Devin watched her work the glass ball in her hand, raising an eyebrow at her unusual dexterity. It look him a moment to tear his gaze away from her hands and realize what she was saying. "Offhand, I would say that you'd just attempted to distract me to a highly successful degree, therefore allowing yourself a moment to think of how to answer. That leads me to believe that distraction is highly related in both fields, which would lead to a successful merger of the two. Would I be correct, or am I so far off that I may need a wormhole and transwarp to get back on course?"

Elizabeth was surprised into laughing out loud, not something she normally did on first meeting. "I think you must lead an interesting life wherein all must mean something else. Even in diplomacy sometimes a duck is a duck. And sometimes I am just using this as a tool to think, I suppose sometimes I forget how it looks to others. Sorry..." She smiled a little as she apologized and put the glass ball down. Amused she managed to disconcert an intel officer. And even resisted the urge to tell him what she could do with 5 of those. Hey alot of field assignments means alot of travel time to kill and not always a chance to pace so this took place of that.

Devin gave a self-depreciating chuckle. "Touché, Miss Walshingham. You are correct in your statement that everything is something else in my field. I am constantly seeking that which may be something else and find it hard to believe that someone is capable of saying what they mean and meaning what they say. The only time that usually happens is when someone is holding a weapon on me and threatening to kill me."

Her smile faded as she took in his words, "It is true in conflict ones true heart is difficult to hide and its regrettable that it happens to you so often you can speak of it in such blase terms...." There was a kind of sympathy in her eyes, she paused considering her next words carefully, "When I work on a peace settlement or something like sometimes its hard because what they say is the point of contention isn't and one must go looking. Other times it is what is, the challenge is knowing the difference. Your challenge I think..." Said slowly, consideringly as she looked into his eyes, "Is all is shadow and in such a place it can be hard to see anything else..." She wondered if she should say more but it wasn't her place to advise but she did end with, "Try to remember not all is shadow..." And she smiled not unkindly before moving to pick up a PADD encased in leather, politely giving him a moment if he wished it.

"I knew the dangers of it before I exited the Academy when I was a Cadet," Devin said. "I fully plan to tell my own students the inherent dangers of that particular aspect of it and make sure they understand. I have operated in the grey so much that there are times that I have to wonder why my own intentions are with a person even when I'm off duty. I have become an onion to myself with a conundrum in the middle. I dread to think what others who are not versed in Diplomacy and Intelligence would think of me in normal circumstances."

"Well this got off topic.." She thought to herself mildly as she considered how best to reply and decided a straightforward approach would work here, she didn't grow up with the nickname 'Peacemaker' for nothing. "What would you die for? What would you kill for? That is what you value. If you can at least hold to a code you are not lost to the light, merely a knight in tarnished armor..". She looked deep into his eyes and nodded almost to herself, "Yes still a spark there...not lost yet.." She said decisively.

"Those two questions in my field leave a very wide variety of answers," Devin replied. "I have been willing to do both, and have done one of the two, in the pursuit of my profession. Has it scarred me? Yes. Do I regret doing what I have been called on to do? No. Why? Because it was for the greater good and there are times when I am just a player in a game that, at times, has been as big as the Federation. A spark? Perhaps. If a spark did not exist, then I may as well beam myself into the heart of a star, for I would be burnt out."

It took her a moment to realize he was agreeing with her, she thought of replying in kind but couldn't completely suppress an impulse "Bit of a long way to go to agree but I take it as a valid point." She said teasing very gently even as she took his words seriously. She wondered if he ever joked about anything. "Well now that we've agreed you are still human do you wish to discuss the cross training?" She asked with no judgement in her voice, she was fine either way but she wondered if he perhaps might feel as if he'd overshared.

"That's why I'm here, Miss Walshingham," Devin agreed. "Now that we've gotten the preliminaries out of the way." He gave a light cough. "What I need, actually, is a way to merge the two fields in a comfortable fashion which will allow students to understand what we've said without needing counseling for two to four months."

Elizabeth laughed, a gentle one full of quiet humor. "Yes I suppose so..." She flipped open the leather PADD cover, "Let us begin and if you like, my given name is acceptable as we will be working together." She said with a greater understanding of him now than when he entered, perhaps a bit more than he might prefer but she kept the rest of her thoughts to herself.

"Thank you, Elizabeth," he said. "You may call me Devin. Now to the heart of the subject. To quote someone who never existed...the game is afoot!"

"I thought it was a game.." she muttered as they bent to their task and a part of her wondered just where she'd heard that phrase before....

Commander Devin McCall
Intelligence Instructor
Magellan Academy

&

Elizabeth Walshingham
Diplomatic Attache
Magellan Academy



* Brought to you by Two Twisted Minds Productions Unlimited*