Title: View from the Outside
Author: Richard Chu
Series: VOY
Part: 5/?
Rating: PG
Codes: K/7

Disclaimers, etc., in part 0/?

Note: This is a continuation of part 4a.  It's basically another
scene with Malboran and Seven.  Those of you who have emailed me
seemed impatient, so I'll be submitting bit by bit to ease your
impatience :-)  But since this is still in the draft stage, in
the end, some scenes may be removed or shrunk.  You will just
have the 'fortune' of reading the long version.

Please email feedback to: rcchu@interchange.ubc.ca.

**************

The Ambassadorial banquet was not about to commence for another
several hours due to the lack of preparation on Neelix's part.
Malboran didn't mind in the slightest, and took the opportunity
to tour the ship with Seven and the Captain.  Neelix had
suggested that Malboran contact the Elogian Ambassadorial Service
to inform them of the delay, but he insisted it was not
necessary.  He assured Janeway, Neelix and Seven that he had made
all the necessary arrangements.

Confident in his assurance, they toured the ship, arriving first
in Engineering.  He was able to get an in depth view of the warp
core as the new dilithium crystals were being installed by
B'Elanna Torres.  He was impressed by the delicate nature of the
warp drive system, as the Elogian FTL drives were less efficient,
due mainly to the fact that interstellar travel was not an
important preoccupation.  He explained to Seven and Janeway that
the land shortage suffered two hundred years ago was due to the
fact that most Elogians desired to remain on the planet.  

Leaving Torres to her work, they went to Astrometrics where Seven
boldly boasted about its efficient and 'state of the art'
equipment.  Malboran seemed exceptionally impressed by the
sensitivity of the instruments and the range of the sensors.  He
tested the equipment himself, looking up the Woracian homeworld
and to his surprise, he found it, in intricate detail, from its
planetary composition to the Woracian population.  The Elogians
had such sensitive equipment, but it was not nearly as
miniaturized as the Borgified systems.  They had enormous
honey-combed sensor arrays in geo-stationary orbit around the
Elogian moon, that dwarfed Voyager itself, for such detailed
scans.

Their next stop was the holodeck, but what impressed him there
was the vast array of programs available.  "How many worlds are
programmed into the holodeck?" Malboran asked.

"Around 150," Janeway answered.  "While I haven't tried all of
them, we have a wide array of programming that can take us to any
place, any time."

"Very impressive.  We too have 'holodecks,' but our programming
is very limited by comparison."

"Interesting," Seven said curiously.  "Given the long history of
your planet and your interstellar alliance, I would have assumed
you would have at least as much programming as Voyager's
collection."

Janeway added, "Especially since what we have here is only a
small portion of what is available in the Interstellar Federation
Library back on Earth."

"Elogians don't like looking back, or going to other planets,"
Malboran said bluntly.  It was a standard Elogian Ambassadorial
response to such a question, one he was practised in giving.
Usually, he hoped that the tone of his voice, and the ambiguity
of the answer would signal to the curious listeners that he
didn't want to talk about it.  But this time was different.  He
wanted to talk about it, if only because he had gained a trust in
Seven, and a respect for Janeway.  

His hope came true when Seven asked, "By my experience, you have
shown an interest in 'looking' back.  You went to great lengths
to tell us about the history of your planet, as well as showing
us some of the Elogian industrial facilities.  I find this to be
in odds to your statement--"  

"Seven," Janeway warned.  "Clearly he doesn't want to talk about
it," she said, commenting on Malboran's tone.

"It's quite alright, Captain.  But to answer the question brewing
in your mind, Seven, you're right.  I do have an interest.  But
I'm different."

****************

Voyager was not a ship designed for diplomacy, at least not the
Voyager that had spent five years in the Delta Quadrant.  All
standardized equipment and protocols from the plasma conduits to
the structure of rooms had been tweaked, reformated, or
transformed in one way or another to make it more of a ship of
survival than a showcase of the Federation's greatness.  The
Captain's personal dining room was no exception when it had
turned into the crew's Mess Hall by an overly eager Mr. Neelix.

But, when it came for a real diplomatic dinner, Neelix had to
improvise again, and for him it was of the worse form.  He had to
try to revert his Mess Hall to a room fit for an Ambassador.  And
the first part was to vacate the premises.  It pained him to
announce to everyone that they had to leave.  It was
heartbreaking for him to turn away his regular customers, but he
knew it was his fault.  When he asked Malboran about coming to
Voyager, he didn't think his spur of the moment decision would
result in a momentary shock to his entire system of feeding the
crew.

But all was not a loss for him, thanks to one Mr. Thomas Eugene
Paris. While Tom was not his best critic, Neelix didn't hold it
against him.  Their differences in culinary tastes was simply a
result of different cultures, different quadrants of the galaxy.
It was only natural that one's Leola Root stew was another's
Pepperoni Pizza.  

Neelix had tried Tom's pizza, but thought it a rather unpleasant
experience.  The combination of melted cheese and the rather
bland pepperoni, topped on a soggy, circular piece of flattened
bread ironically called a 'crust,' was not appealing to his
Talaxian sensibilities.  

But what Tom lacked in taste, he made up in food management.
Neelix feared that the dinner would result in a total shutdown of
his services to the crew.  Tom, however, came up with an
ingenious plan, which he had called 'take-out.'  Apparently, in
the mid to late 20th century, a form of food distribution had
developed where people could order prepared food, and take it
with them as opposed to eating it on the spot in the eating
establishment.  Tom had called it an improvement on the sandwich,
and a precursor to the portable food replicator.  Neelix agreed
with him, and in short order, a 'take-out window' was created
just behind the kitchen.  He had to bore a hole to make up the
'window' but he had acquired help from some of his most
enthusiastic patrons.  It wasn't until the window was complete
that he remembered he should have asked Janeway for permission,
but seeing she didn't mind too much when he had procured her
dining room, he thought this window wouldn't be a problem.

All the time spent taking care of the crew's welfare had eaten
into the time required to prepare the dinner itself.  One of the
first problems was the arrangement of the tables and chairs.
While he had to accept that he couldn't do anything about the
chairs, he had to do something about the tables.  He knew that he
had to have one long table, and providing that was simple: just
push together enough tables to provide enough seating.  The
problem was, the tables were too narrow.  They didn't give enough
room between people across from the table.  It was a slight
detail, but after reading up on the protocols associated with
Federation official gatherings, he came to accept it as a
diplomatic norm to respect the personal space of anyone sitting
and eating at the table.  He tried pushing two tables together to
widen the setup, but that left too much room.  With his helping
hands, he managed to solve the problem by procuring and laying
out a wider piece of duranium over the length of the tables.

While arranging the tables and chairs, as well as the table
settings, was a relatively simple affair, choosing the dishes for
his guest became a challenge.  Once he started to think about it,
he realized that the Elogians had itself a vast interstellar
alliance of dozens upon dozens of planets.  In addition, they
traded with hundreds of other species in the quadrant.  This
would have given Malboran a rather large sampling of cuisines.
How could he make the dinner unique?

***************

The Mess Hall gleamed officialdom as the senior officers wore
their rarely used dress uniforms, two pairs of security officers
gallantly standing at attention on either side of both sets of
oak doors that led to the room, a soft Vulcan ballad covering the
usual hum of the ship's engines. Over in front of Neelix's
kitchen, which was draped with white linen to cover the goings on
inside, four crewmembers stood as servers. 
The room was lit a little brighter than normal to lighten the
shade of grey that covered the walls to try to match the white
table cloth, as well as accentuate the shine of the crystal
glasses and the silver cutlery, as well as the gold trim on the
dishes.  

The dinner was in its final stages of completion as the officers
stood around a talkative Malboran, an apéritif in their hands.
"I once had the misfortune of having to make a trade deal with a
species whose means of communication was through physical
contact.  The first time we met he grabbed and squeezed my--"

"Dinner is served!" Neelix announced as he emerged from the
kitchen.
"Ah, good," Malboran commented as he walked towards Neelix,
leaving the 
senior staff hanging.  "I'm quite interested in tasting what
you've prepared."

"Well, the faster you sit down at the table, the quicker I can
present the food to you," Neelix replied eagerly.  They continued
to chat a bit on their own as the crew drifted to their seats,
Janeway nearest to the head of the table, her back to the
windows, Chakotay across from her, then Tuvok across from the
Doctor, Torres across from Paris, Seven across from Kim, and
Neelix at the end of the table, closest to the kitchen.

"What did that species grab?" Tom whispered to B'elanna, offering
her a seat.

"Wouldn't you like to know," she answered slyly.

With everyone standing in front of their seats, Janeway called to
Malboran, "Ambassador, if you would be so kind..."

Turning to her and noticing everyone waiting, he quickly walked
at the head of the table, "Of course, Captain.  My apologies."
Standing in position, he made sure to smile at everyone at the
table, before sitting down.  Soon after, everyone followed.

Janeway, sitting in the first position nearest Malboran, without
haste, took her glass of wine, and stood up to make a toast.
Everyone took and raised their glasses.  "I offer my deepest and
most sincere appreciation and gratitude for the generosity and
kindness you have shown to us since we first contacted you four
days ago.  Having had the opportunity to be in communication with
you prior to our arrival to the Elogian Homeworld, I do not
hesitate to say that you are truly a man of honour, distinction,
breadth, and spirit, and I know that I speak for the rest of my
crew when I say it has been a privilege to know you."

In unison, the crew nodded their agreement, and sipped from their
glasses.  As soon as Janeway had finished, Malboran stood and
raised his glass to toast.  "I too offer my appreciation and
gratitude to you, Captain Janeway, and to your valiant crew."
Looking over to Seven and Neelix, he said, "Having had the
opportunity to speak with you, and meet and share some of the
monuments of our society with Seven and Neelix, I must say that
the diversity of your crew, as well as the mere fact that you
have travelled so far in your travels, are a tribute to the
Federation's enlightenment, through your nobility of spirit,
compassion, courage, and endurance.  This ship houses a people
that I, personally and on behalf of the Elogian Alliance, am
honoured to have come to know.  You are truly friends."

Everyone nodded and smiled in appreciation as they sipped from
their glass.  Sitting down, Malboran noted, "And also for the
record, your taste in beverages is exceptional."

"It's Saurian brandy," Janeway said.

"Yes, I know."  

His response garnered a look of amazement.  To answer Janeway's
implicit question, he explained, "As soon as I entered my
quarters, I took the opportunity to taste some of the delicacies
I had read about in our initial information trade.  I was most
curious about Saurian brandy, and your replicator was good enough
to give me a sample.

"He enjoyed it immensely," Seven noted.

"You were there?" Janeway asked, a note of concern in her voice.

"Yes, she was," Malboran answered as it to cover for her.  "I had
insisted she come in because I still had some things to discuss
with her."  He tried to hide a growing smile, "But the Brandy
distracted me a little."

Harry tried to hide his suspicion, gulping down the rest of the
brandy in his glass.  Adding to Malboran's statement, Seven said,
"He had explained to me how alcoholic beverages were effective in
attaining results."

Harry choked, from the burning in his throat, or the jealousy
burning in his mind, he didn't know.  "Are you alright, Ensign?
Malboran asked.
"Yes," he managed to cough out.  "I'm fine...Just didn't expect
the...strength of the brandy."

"Yes, it does have quite a kick doesn't it?"

"Yes," Harry managed to reply.

"It is apparently not the only one with 'quite a kick,'" Seven
stated.

Harry looked wide-eyed at Seven, his cough growing
uncontrollably.  It was here the Doctor grew concerned and asked,
"Are you sure you're alright, Ensign?" He began to engage in
medical badgering, "You aren't allergic to Saurian brandy, are
you?"

"No, no...I'm just...It's nothing!"

"Maybe some food will help," Malboran suggested.

"Yes, that's a good idea," Neelix interjected.  "Waiters?" he
asked, sharply clapping his hands twice.  Janeway frowned at
Neelix's actions, but decided to tolerate it for the moment as
the 'enslaved' crewmembers came out of the kitchen, food in hand.
Neelix stood up and approached Malboran, as the servers placed a
bowl in front of him, and to the rest of the crew members.  "For
an appetizer I thought something light would be appropriate."

"Indeed it is," Malboran complimented.  "What may I ask is it?"

"Chicken soup," Paris blurted out in surprise before Neelix could
open his mouth.  The whole table looked at Tom, surprised by his
outburst.

"Well, yes, it is, Mr. Paris."

"Isn't that a bit...simplistic for an Ambassadorial dinner?" Tom
asked.

"Yes, I thought about that," Neelix said, "But, I thought of the
old Talaxian expression, 'The simple things in life are the best
things in life.'  I'm sure that since Malboran has tasted a wide
variety of Delta Quadrant cuisines, I thought it be best that we
give him some of the Alpha Quadrant's common delicacies.  They
may be simple and basic for you, but they're new and different
for the Ambassador."

"Quite right," Malboran agreed.  Taking a spoonful, he commented,
"And very different it is, Mr. Neelix.  Thank you."  Neelix
returned to his seat, a cheerful, if not slightly defiant look on
his face as he passed Tom.

"Chicken soup is quite a staple on Earth," Janeway said before
tipping a spoonful in her mouth.  "In both European and North
American cultures, it serves as a home-made cure for the common
cold, to a meal to have after an outing in the cold of Winter."

The Doctor injected, "This is despite little substantive
scientific evidence to suggest it's medicinal qualities."

"Are you saying it's properties are nothing but old wives tales?"
Janeway asked, quite prepared for the Doctor's comment.

"You may draw your own conclusions, Captain.  I'm simply stating
a medical point of view."

Tom said, "I don't know about the rest of you, but I know that
after I had a bowl of my mother's chicken soup, I felt much
better."

"A psychological response," the Doctor commented.  "Hardly the
basis for any sound medical evidence."

"Well, I beg to differ, Doc," Paris replied.  "There's nothing
like a good, positive, strong state of mind to get the ol' immune
system churning out its magic."

"It's hardly magic, Mr. Paris.  As my 'nurse,' you of all people
should know that."

"As your 'medical assistant' I think I'm qualified to provide the
crew with a relatively sound second opinion."

"'Relatively' being the important word--"

Malboran sipped a final spoonful of soup as he listened to Tom
and the Doctor bicker endlessly.  Leaning over to Janeway he
whispered with amusement, "Are the two of them always like that?"

She smiled.  "Most of the time."

"And they never tire of each other's company?"

"Apparently not.  They've been known to argue for hours.
B'elanna thinks it's Tom's way of keeping sane in the Doctor's
presence."

"A male, holographic Doctor," he said in awe.  "Amazing."

"I thought your planet had developed a highly sophisticated
holographic system."

"Oh, we have male holograms," Malboran explained.  "Just that
none of them are programmed to be Doctors."

"What are they programmed for, then?"

Malboran paused as if unprepared for the question.  He seemed
uncomfortable as his face turned a darker shade of brown by the
question.  It was as if he was blushing.  Quickly taking a sip of
the brandy, he answered, "Well, let's just say they are used for
more...primitive purposes."

Janeway's mouth opened to mouth an 'Ah.' "I see...You don't-"

"No, I don't," he said firmly.  "Others do, but I choose not to.
To borrow a Borg phrase, it seems quite futile...I mean, a
hologram, Captain," he emphasized.

Janeway responded, whimsically, "Some people may consider it good
practice."

He grinned. "Romancing a real person is practice.  Dating a
hologram...that's just fantasy."

She smiled back and patted his hand with hers.  "I couldn't agree
with you more."

*************

END PART 5  To Be Continued...

Story Copyright 1999, Richard Chu

Please email feedback to: rcchu@interchange.ubc.ca