Shore Leave: Cottage 114

Everyone's attention is drawn to the side of the house, when a loud voice announces: "Finally, the party can get started. The main guest has arrived"
Arriving in the backyards, you see Vega. She's wearing a low-cut black dress that would look much better on her if she wasn't so unhealthily skinny. She walks up to the closest group of people, which happens to be the group around Cassandra. "My deepest apologies for being so late. Zephyr will be here soon, too. He couldn't find an outfit that's pompous enough for him." She hands a bottle of wine to Cass. "My contribution to the drink selection this evening. Don't drink it all at once, we both know how that ends with you."
Looking at the bottle, Cass realizes that it's synthehol wine, there's no real alcohol in it.

Moira

Nic looks at Moira in silence for a while. It's obvious that he came over to talk to Helena, not to her. Finally he decides to break the silence: "Engines, huh? My ship has a Merengi Tagis-19 engine. I've been told it's similar to a Spacefleet Model 32 Gamma."

Cass, Alira

"I'm offended. I picked this out personally from Zeph's replicator database, best wine in the galaxy.", Vega replies, then looks around the garden. "Wow, depressing music, nobody is dancing, people talking in small groups, completely untouched food - This is the best party ever."

Cass, Alira

Cassandra sighs. "I was just going to change the music.", she says. She's visibly annoyed by this woman she's never seen before coming into the party and immediately complaining about everything, but she's trying to be nice to Zephyr's guest.
Helena keeps her eyes fixed on Vega, obviously trying to decide whether she should jump in to defend her little sister or not. For the moment, she decides not to.
Vega turns to Alira. "I've been told I'm very entertaining.", she says with a sweet smile. "And I'm going to be a good girl tonight. I promised."
Cassandra gets up and walks to a small terminal next to the replicator. She types on it for a moment and the relaxing music that had been playing before switches to some actual dance music.
Vega listens for a few seconds then shrugs and asks the group in front of her: "Okay, now who of you is going to dance with me?"

Moira

"I haven't tried that. Maybe my engineer has, I'll ask him." He pauses to think about what to say next and Moira realizes that this was already everything he has to say about engines. "So, why'd you become an engineer? Isn't command much more interesting?"

"Thanks. It was my favorite band growing up. They're from Mars, from my hometown, actually. I thought they might make good background music for talking but if people want to dance... I'm not really a party person.", Cassandra replies. "I'm sorry for distracting you from the party earlier. Let's talk about something else. Tell me about your home world. The only thing I know about it is that it has high gravity."

Moira

"I do. It's what I wanted to since I was a kid and going private allowed me to get to that point without having to wait for some stiff admiral's approval." Nic takes a sip from the drink in his right hand and holds out the other one to Moria again. "Sure you don't want this? It's getting awkward holding two."
When Vega arrives, he turns to look at her and asks: "Who's that girl? She doesn't look like she belongs on your ship"

Alex

Julia steps away from the conversation, most likely embarrassed by the talk about her relationship with her mother. Theliak smiles as if remembering a pleasant memory. "Family is important, maybe the most important thing in the galaxy. Unfortunately, I don't have much family left, and due to my career, I get to visit the fleet very rarely. I'm glad you are here to be with Julia."

Moira

The drink is very strong. You definitely taste fleetwine in it, although it's complemented by some fruity flavors. It feels like you could drink much more of this than you could fleetwine but from your experience, you are pretty sure that's not actually the case and if you tried, you would regret it.
While Helena still seems busy at the other end of the party and doesn't rejoin you two, Julia comes up to you instead. "Your name was Maura, right?", she asks, then turns to Nic. "And I'm not sure we have met. I'm Julia."

Alira

"Your planet sounds beautiful. I was never too fond of Mars. After all the terraforming they did, it just doesn't feel real, almost like this world. But how come you chose that line of work then? I imagine your parents didn't approve." Cassandra looks around for a drink since she's not holding one at the moment. Seeing how neither bottles nor replicator are in reach, she turns her attention back to Alira. "If it's any consolation, they hated me too when I was at the academy, although it was for good reason. I think they only recommended me to go into security because they thought I couldn't do anything else."

Alira

Cassandra nods and you walk over to the replicator. "Cassano, now that you've heard us talk about our home worlds, where are you from? You look like an Earthling to me." When you get there, she adds: "What do you want to drink?"

Moira

"Nic is fine", he says. "You're working on this planet, aren't you? I think I've seen you around, in uniform."
Julia replies: "I am, I've just graduated and started on Caspera. I want to make a career in terraforming."

Cass, Alira

Cassandra orders herself a 'Gortanian Nebula' and immediately drinks a large part of the blue-white liquid through the straw.
"I guess it's true what they say. Ask a Martian where they're from, they say Mars, ask a Yolian, they say Yolus, ask an Earthling and they'll tell you the exact hill they were born on and expect you to know it." The way she says it, it sounds like a common saying or an often repeated joke she's referring to.
When Cass tells her they need to talk, she subtly nods towards Alira as if to ask 'About her?'