The bridge sat in an eerie silence as the stars streamed by. Kinsho sat in the centre chair, getting more and more anxious the close they came to the warring planets. It had been clear that a couple of times a year the two planets came close enough to each other to more easily launch weapons at each other. The two that had joined them, Mindartis and Trincard, had explained to them that it had started as a revolutionary war, more than a century after the initial colonisation had been successful. But when the independence was won by Kalvade they only gave them both a short respite from fighting. It seemed that those now in control of the new planet felt it was more important to instill their worldview on the origin planet of Kalmose as well.

“Five minutes to our destination, Captain,” the flight control officer in the front of the bridge indicated.

“Now, remember what we talked about,” Kinsho had stood up from his chair at the call and he faced their two guests, “for this to work I will have to do the talking to whomever contacts us, please don’t interfere or interrupt, it’s important that this will go by the book.” It was more important for him and the inevitable inquiry following his filing of logs.

Both Mindartis and Trincard seemed to shiver, a physical response that the crew had start to understand as nodding, “We want to thank you for your help, Captain.”

“Don’t thank us just yet, this is just the beginning, the plan can still fail.” He appreciated the trust they were placing in him, but he also needed to make sure they understood that what they were trying to do had a huge chance of failure, one didn’t simply wipe away a 10 year war with cheap tricks.

The streaking of the stars started to fade out and on the viewer two planets came into view, they were still quite far away but the screen showed both of them clearly side by side thanks to enhancements. The two scientists chittered at the view, a new response the crew hadn’t heard before.

The doors of the turbo-lift opened up and Shairo stepped out, immediately making a beeline for her station on the bridge. She would much rather be in Engineering, but the Captain had requested her presence there for the moment in case he needed to introduce her as part of the aid teams. She relieved the watch officer from his station and took op position behind the console.

Kinsho made his way over to the centre of the command pit, back from the side where he had been addressing their two guests. He wondered which of the two planets would reach out first.

“We’re receiving a communication, sir, it’s coming from the Planet Kalmose,” The operations officer in front of the bridge turned to the commanding officer.

The Bajoran put up a hand to indicate he wished to wait for a moment, he expected the other communication to come in momentarily as well.

A bleep from the console confirmed his expectations, “a second communication, sir, from the Planet Kalvade.”

A nod from his head indicated that he wanted both of them to appear on the screen, when the connections appeared, and a few seconds later a video accompanied the connection, he immediately started speaking as to prevent them getting the first words in, “I am Captain Kinsho, the commanding officer of the Starfleet vessel Isoroku, I represent the United Federation of Planets, our aid was requested by the planet Kaldial.”

There was a moment of baffled silence between the two faces on the screen before both of them started speaking near simultaneously.

“There is no such planet in this system,” The representative from Kalvade spoke.

“We do not recognise the planet Kaldial,” Was the official Kalmose response.

Kinsho turned to StCroix, “Commander, can you please share the telemetry?” He then turned back to both representatives, “my science officer is providing you with the planet’s exact coordinates. In the meanwhile I want to assure you that we come in peace, we only wish to return the delegates from Kaldial back to their home planet so that their preliminary request for association with the Federation can be assessed.”

“This is ridiculous!” The representative from Kalvade immediately burst out, “That barren rock is a forgotten science lab, there’s like ten people there.”

“There is no minimum requirement to the number of residence for a planet to join the Federation, but we will be sure to take note of the special status as a fragile ecology,” The response almost couldn’t have been more perfect for Kinsho, “since there is signs of an ongoing conflict in this system we will deploy defensive forces to protect the assets and people of the planet.”

“The planet of Kalmose does not recognise the planet Kaldial as an independent entity, the assets on the planet’s surface belong to the interplanetary research council, seated in part on this planet, governed by our Union of Tribes,” It was clear that the Kalmose representative had a larger group outside of the screen that was making sure they were saying the right things.

The Kalvade representative hissed, “Steal our words and twist them with your Union speak,” their eyes narrowed, “Kalvade wishes to request association with the United Federation of Planets.”

“Unfortunately the United Federation of Planets only recognises planetary entities that have achieved faster than light travel, as such only the planet of Kaldial can be considered,” Kinsho looked back at Lieutenant Wu, who knew exactly what he had to look out for. It was clear that this would trigger a response, “So unless you’re saying that the planets of Kaldial, Kalvade and Kalmose are represented by a single, united, entity we cannot consider your request.”

The Kalvade signal immediately cut out, the ratio of the video adjusted to put the Kalmose representative in the middle, “are these two responsible for reaching out to your Federation on behalf of the planet Kaldial?”

“They are,” Kinsho nodded and looked back over towards the two scientists behind him, motioning them to step a bit closer.

“Trincard, you are to report back to your Union representative this instant,”

“The elected representatives of Kaldial are my guests,” Kinsho revealed his final ace up his sleeve, “I hope you understand that under the current circumstances of our young and fragile association talks we cannot allow them to put themselves at risk. They will be guarded by Starfleet for the duration of our initial investigation.” There was no way the UFP’s diplomatic corps would uphold Kinsho’s assertion that Kaldial was a sovereign entity, but as far as he was concerned it was valid reason for them to take the steps he was indicating.

“The Union will be in contact,” The Kalmose representative cut out the communication as well leaving them in silence.

Kinsho let out a huge sigh, “That went about as well as expected.”

“Sir, the Kalvade seem to be preparing space vessels on the surface of their planet,” Lieutenant Wu reported.

“Launch the fighters, have them take up a defensive pattern around Kaldial, and put the Isoroku in geosynchronous orbit with the science station on its surface.” He looked over at his XO, “prepare an away team, basic first contact protocols, we might be here a while.”