Shore Leave: Cottage 114

Theliak returns Alira's bow from his sitting position. "No disrespect taken. Greetings, Vitan."
When Alex initiates the traditional greeting, he, with some difficulty, rises from his chair and puts his hands on hers. "I will ask only what I need and give all that I can", he responds to your greeting in a very old-fashioned way. His voice is warm, even though it still sounds very exhausted. "I see you are familiar with my people, Lloyd, but there is no need for formalities between us. We will be family soon. I allow you to call me by my core name."

"It's nice to meet you again, Cass", Julia replies. "My mother speaks very highly of you so I'm happy to prove my first impression of you wrong." There is a second of silence, then she says with an embarrased laugh: "That did not sound as bad in my head, I'm sorry"

Theliak sinks back into his chair and turns to Cass as well. "And greetings to you." He offers her his hand to shake and adds: "Cass"

Julia looks around the gathered group and says to Cass: "You're the commanding officer of your ship, right? At least temporarily. How did you achieve that? You're so young."

Theliak points at the empty chair next to him, asking Alex to sit. "I would like to get to know you. Julia doesn't like to admit it but you mean a lot to her. Tell me about yourself. You are a diplomat?"

Cassandra comes up to your gathering and, seeing how everyone else is involved in conversations, turns to Alira. "How are you doing? Have you talked to everyone yet?"
Lisa is still standing close to Alira, sipping her wine and not speaking much. Nic is looking over the drink selection again and Moira and Helena are talking, slightly away from the party by Helena's model engine.

Cass

"From what I've been hearing, you've more than passed your trial then", Julia says. Cass notices that she keeps glancing over at Theliak and Alex to try and judge how their conversation is going. "Is it true that you will be promoted to captain soon?"

Alira

"Good, I'm going to talk to Cassano about hiring you in a bit, once everyone is here. We are still waiting for someone, Lt..Comm. Borealis. But don't worry. If you still want the position, I'm positive you will get it."
Cassandra looks at Lisa. "How did you two meet again?", she asks.

Alira

"Some cadets got into trouble and Alira helped me help them. Or she tried at least. They didn't make it easy to help them." She looks at Alira to see if she wants to add more details.

Cass

Nic comes over, carrying two drinks. He hands one to Cass and positions himself next to her and Julia. He takes a small sip from the other one. "What are you two talking about?", he asks.

"Just something I mixed for us", Nic replies with a shrug of his shoulders. "It's strong." Then he looks at Julia. "I can make you one as well."
Julia raises her own glass, which she hasn't finished yet, and says "Thanks for the offer but I'm good for now. Nice to meet you, Nic."

Nic grins. "Take a small sip and find out."

There are some other flavors in there that complement its strong taste but the drink is definitely Fleetwine based.
Nic clinks his glass against yours, then he leans in a bit and says, quietly but not quiet enough that people around wouldn't be able to hear: "Since the tan guy hasn't shown up yet and I don't think Max is your type, I have a new target for you in mind"
Julia takes a sip from her drink and asks Cass: "Should we talk later? You can catch up with your friend first."

"I'm trying to make you look bad?", Nic asks. "Have you looked at yourself recently? I don't know what they did to you when they made you commander, but you're all stiff and boring. I'm just trying to help you be yourself again."

Cass

"Suit yourself", Nic says abruptly. He takes the drink back from Cass' hand and walks away.

Alira

"Why would someone drug cadets to convince them to steal a transport?", Cassandra asks. "Why would anyone want to steal a transport anyway? It doesn't make much sense. Good on you, though, Lisa. Spacefleet needs people like you, even if your fellow cadets don't realize it."

Moira

Helena just finishes up telling a story about how she managed to destroy an attacking Merengi vessel by modifying the Dove's shields to reflect incoming phaser beams back to their source. She's very excited about sharing her stories and is drifting off into tech jargon, which Moira of course has no problems understanding, all the time.
Suddenly, Nic shows up, two drinks in hand. "This part of the party looks much more entertaining. Mind if I join you?"
He offers one of them to Helena , who replies: "I don't know what that is but I can't handle alcohol as well as I used to anymore. I think I'll stick to wine."
Nic then holds out the drink to Moira instead. "What about you? You can handle it, right?"