Shades of Green - Part 6

“Good work. I would double check sickbay and underneath the seats at your bridge stations - including the captain’s chair. They can be rather wily putting things there and those are the most often missed.” Tiraa smiled and nodded, obviously approving of their thoroughness to the matter. She looked at Zedd again, tilting her head slightly with an amused look in her black eyes. “I’m afraid Zorol might have some footage of you showering, Captain.”

"That would explain a few things" he said, which was not quite an answer and not quite a deflection either. He looked at Mei-Lin. "Sickbay and the bridge stations. Underneath the seats, captain's chair included." He said it without particular urgency, just adding it to the list the way he added most things, cleanly and without excess. Then he looked back at Tiraa with the dry composure of a man who had decided the only reasonable response to the situation was to find it mildly funny. "If Zorol does have footage, I'd like to think I carry myself with some dignity. But I make no guarantees about the first week." The corner of his mouth moved. "Add it to the list of things to discuss with him before we leave."

“I’ll try to make sure you don’t end up in one of their more… colorful holosuite programs.” Tiraa chuckled softly, her eyes lingering on him in the way a gaze did with someone considered attractive. “Are there any leads for our first contract, or do I need to add that to my list as well?”

Zedd let the comment about the holosuite programs land and file itself away without giving it more than the brief acknowledgment it deserved, which was a look that said he had noted it and intended to think about it later when there were fewer people in the room.

"We have something we're working on" he said, shifting his attention to the table knowing when to move things forward. "Lindsy picked up some tokens at the market this morning and has been working on them since. She's still triangulating coordinates but what she's pulling together points toward a salvage situation, and not a small one. The signature she's tracking suggests a large vessel, not debris or a shuttle, something substantial." He looked at Tiraa evenly. "We don't have the full coordinates yet but the shape of it is there and she's close." He leaned back slightly. "That is likely to be our first run out of New Ferenginar. I wanted you to have it before we got underway so you're not walking into it cold."

Mei-Lin had been quiet through most of it, which was where she did her better thinking. She watched Zedd work the room without appearing to work it, easy and unhurried, laying out information the way someone did when they had already thought it through twice before sitting down. It was that quality in him that got her attention every time and held it longer than was strictly professional. She appreciated competence in general but his had a particular pull to it that she had stopped pretending was purely professional earlier that week.

“I appreciate that.” Tiraa said and seemed to mean it genuinely. It was accompanied by a warm smile. “Now, was there anything you wanted to discuss regarding my shuttle?”

Though her attention remained on Zedd, she could feel Mei-Lin’s interest, and it wasn’t about any of the conversations at hand. While she was tempted to look over and give more focus to the rather interesting feeling, she resisted for the moment. If it was unrequited, it wouldn’t be an issue most likely, but if it were… well, it could become a problem. Perhaps less so with Zedd since he was likely more familiar with the dangers of what that kind of thing could cause with a crew like this… but he was human, and they tended to have weak wills over their personal feelings.

"Cormus will want to go over her properly," he said. "He won't be able to help himself and frankly I wouldn't stop him if I could. You'll get a full report from him once he's had the time." He looked at Rallid briefly with the neutral acknowledgment of one professional to another. "If you're willing to walk him through her, that would help. He'll have questions and they'll be the right ones." He settled back in his chair, the briefing having reached a natural resting point, the kind where everything that needed to be on the table was there and the next step was simply moving. "For now I think we have what we need to get underway. Lindsy will have coordinates before long and I'd like to be ready when she does. That is of course as long as engineering has everything finished up. I'm good at computer work but otherwise I can at most patch things."