Crystal Rain
Posted on Thu Oct 15th, 2026 @ 3:53pm by Commander Rhupert Tyree
1,217 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
Shore Leave: Earth
Location: Palais de Concorde, Paris France.
Timeline: Immediately After When Tholians Come to Earth
As most diplomatic affairs went, this one was very posh.
Held at the Federation’s Presidential headquarters at the Palais de la Concorde in Paris, France, the turn out was substantial, with the VIP list a veritable who’s who among the Federation diplomats, Star Fleet Admirals and anyone else who thought they should be present for the first arrival of Tholian diplomats to Sol system and Earth in history.
A Federation News Service crew had been covering the event from the grounds for a week and it had been made mention for the past month that a diplomatic courier ship had been en route from the crystalline species home space, being escorted by a pair of Star Fleet cruisers, which had peeled off once reaching the outer Warp transit beacons outside of Jupiter, where the diplomatic ship had then been escorted to Earth orbit.
And twenty minutes ago, a shuttle had detached from the diplomatic cruiser, viewed on thousands of monitors throughout local space alone. On a projected holo-vid over Paris airspace, the arrowhead shaped diplomatic shuttle fell away from the cruiser and began its descent.
The atmosphere around the Palais de la Concorde was lively, with a roped off sections for the various VIP and security clearances. For tonight, the crew of the Valiant had been afforded diplomatic credentials under the Betezoid mission and were among those who would be able to witness the Federation President and chief diplomats greet the Tholian diplomatic mission of three.
Rhu was just glad their access included the full bar and catering pass.
Standing with Levori, who had decided she needed to be attached to him…a mere Commander among a sea of Admirals, Rhu thought about his life’s choices up until today and a trace thought of maybe life as a diplomat had better perks.
And definitely bigger quarters than the Valiant.
Levori caught that stray thought coming from the Commander and said to Rhu telepathically, ~“Easy enough to arrange, Commander. I believe there’s an opening and standing invitation from the Caitian’s for an envoy.”~
Rhu snorted at that, nearly spilling his drink…which would have been a shame in itself. The President had brought in a shuttle full of ’53 Vodka from Sodeskaya and it was nearly liquid ice when it touched his lips.
~”We both know that’s because they still think that hunting Betezoids was great sport and are of a mind to talk one of us into being game again.”~ Rhu returned, his voice picking at her mind quietly, despite the noise of the crowd around them.
They both had noise cancelling earpieces in, so that helped but Rhu’s personal taste kept his set at enough to keep the crowd noise at a passable roar. ~”You would have more space though,”~ Commander, Levori’s own voice buzzed in his mind. ~”And that would help with that pesky no fraternization policy you have…”~
Rhu, again, didn’t quite choke on his vodka and eyed first the shot glass, then his yeoman, ~”You can keep your nose out of my fraternization policy, yeoman,”~ he thought at her with some humor.
Not a lot…but some.
She demurred and Rhu could feel her blushing slightly, though he wasn’t sure if she had some private thoughts of her own that she was keeping well and truly buried or from the fact that as a Cadet, she probably shouldn’t be discussing fraternization with him.
And he was old enough to be her father.
He wasn’t that old, but still.
The pickups for the shuttle feed split then to show the presidential party taking their places and the shuttle’s trajectory changed as it coasted in at twelve hundred feet above a landing grid that had been built for the occasion and slowly began it’s descent.
Not for the first time, Rhu was of two minds about letting a shuttle be allowed this close to the palace. He understood the diplomatic reasoning. The Tholians as a race had as little to do with transporter technology as they possibly could. Which meant next to none. As far as he understood, and had had it explained to him, it was a morally, maybe even spiritual belief on their part.
Rhu had heard it a few times by other species and people himself. What if, after the first time you were transported somewhere, you were no longer the you that had stepped on the pad. What if you were a copy and someplace, some evil Dr. Seuss had billions of people alive in a super computer someplace, kept as playthings by a so called benevolent machine god.
He actually sort of liked that conspiracy theory himself.
Levori picked up those surface thoughts from the USS Valiant’s commanding officer…No. He preferred the archaic title, Master and Commander she reminded herself with a wry grin. Though when she’d called him Master the one time.
As a joke!
He’d very nearly bounced her from the detail!
The Cadet was of a mind that Commander Tyree had spent too much time surrounded by the Fleet. He would do much better for himself as a diplomat if he’d simply take the plunge.
Rhu caught the title bit and shook his head, though he flashed his shields back up as her own intrusive thoughts bounced around him slightly.
It sort of reminded him of another theory they’d bounced around back in his Wing Commander days at the BDI…Levori was a cute, smart girl. But her attention span brought back the recollections of what a Vulcan might experience mind-melding with a squirrel.
He let THAT thought drift between them as the Tholian shuttle emerged beneath very purposely developed cloud layers that the planet’s climate matrix had been ordered to work into place, the engines from the Tholian crystalline reinforced hull glowing and causing the clouds to take on blueish white glow around it.
The rest of the crowd was all looking up now too and the holographic imagery cut off as even lightning danced around the shuttle.
Someone had really thought to make the shuttle entrance impressive, Rhu thought idly as he finished his vodka before it could warm up any more, even with the climate controlled glass.
Then he heard something even sharper and decided that the weather modification people had gotten a little too excited. Lightning, chain lightning and what looked like fireballs…though electrically charged surged in the sky and slammed into the shuttle. Wincing, Rhu saw the shuttle’s shielding flash to absorb the hits.
And then like a candle being taken by the wind from an open doorway, the shuttle’s shielding shattered in between eye-blinks.
And then the shuttle itself exploded. Fiery bits of the shuttle reined down from approximately four hundred feet into he crowd of onlookers who all attempted to surge and get out of the way. The weather gods themselves turned angrier as hail began pelting the onlookers, lightning dancing along the ground and a wind storm of a sudden tornado ripped into the Palais de la Concorde’s grounds.
END
A solo post by:
Rhupert Tyree
Master and Commander
USS Valiant
To be continued.
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