“What is it the time back on Bravo, 5 hours behind UTC as I recall?”

“Yeah it’s early evening here…to what you’re saying about broader strokes, I can see that being even more prevalent on your end out there in the front line staring down down Sheliac and Tholians.” Traan had heard about it from some of the crew of the Sacremento who had made a port call there for a quick refit several days before. Like everyone else who hadn’t been there, Traan had no idea about the final encounter at the station or any of the specifics of the incident though.

“Indeed.” Aloran said with a hint of mystery behind it before taking a sip.

“In my case, I can think I can actually weasel myself some extra field time doing the rounds, showing new people around and inspections and the like. Oh yeah, get this, the fox is now one of the people in charge of our henhouse on that one. I’m a shipyard hack and weapons tech by nature, we aren’t known as the safest crews on the yard to begin with, and they want me performing and signing off on safety reports and inspections. I predict atleast few safety related minor casualties my first week on the job, if there isn’t my old pals at Luna Yards might just die of shock.” Traan laughed again.

Traan’s laughter faded into a comfortable silence. Aloran regarded him with the faint trace of amusement and fondness. Then, as often happened when idle talk drifted toward weightier topics, his voice took on a measured, contemplative cadence.

“Perspective,” Aloran said quietly. “It changes with distance. I have recently been reminded of that.”

Traan cocked an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“There was an encounter not long ago, a complicated one,” Aloran said, turning his gaze off-screen for a moment. “The Sheliak and the Tholians, two powers so distinct in nature they might as well be different elements of matter. Their conflict began over boundaries. But I believe that each saw the other not as an adversary, but as a trespasser in their very existence.”

He swirled the glass slightly, watching the faint blue reflections ripple against his fingers. “We stood at the border. The Farragut and and an accidental flotilla. We could not intervene without breaking the fragile treaties. Yet to remain passive would have witnessed an escalation. The challenge was not in force, but in application and restraint.”

Traan leaned forward. “And you managed that?”

“Barely,” Aloran admitted. “Restraint is far more difficult than action. The Sheliak demanded assistance. The Tholians demanded withdrawal. Logic required patience, and so the choice becomes when to act, how far that action extends, and then when to stop.”

He paused. “I learned something there, among the chaos. When we act only from principle, we risk blindness; when we act only from emotion, we risk destruction. Diplomacy – true diplomacy – is the practice of standing precisely between the two, where no footing feels secure.”

“The pinkskins call it perpetually ‘walking on egg shells’ I think. And I know what youre talking about, certainly it was nothing like what yoy must’ve been dealing with out on the border. But a few weeks ago, during my first week on the job as the Head of Repair Docks, I noticed some organizational deficiencies that were being caused by a large minority of my sections team leaders becoming slack and overly comfortable in their duties. Then I went on a mission, an ultimately succesfully one but one of my people lost his life.” Traan shifted uncomfortably in his seat before continuing.

“And when I came back I found myself being more a bit more patient and comtemplative about how I’d deal with that certain personnel issue.”

“What was your solution tondeal with the malingering team leads.” Aloran inquired.

“I called all in and layed out a new system for creating teams with various specielties and trades respresented to make them more versatile and adaptable out on the yard, and also mixong the teams with eaxh montha duty schedule. Atleast until I’m confident everyones familiar with eachother a bit better. The team leaders before woukd pick ‘their team’ and keep it together for months or even over a year in a few cases. Sure they were good at their speciality but useless as other common repair dock tasks.” Traan said.

“Sounds very sensible.”

“Seems like it was. I expected half the chiefs who were cauaing the problems to resign on the spot. To my surprise they all bought in and we started using the new system the next week. If Tarsin hadn’t have died a few days before, I’m pretty sure my approach would have been way different.” Traan softly chuckled to himself. He might have shitcanned em all the day he got back.