12592/Shi'ar: Right of Salvage

Shi'ar: Right of Salvage
Date of Scene:	01 September 2022
Location:	Public Rotunda - Atlantic Starport
Synopsis:	A boring conference on alien arms control ends in a less boring assassination after a trip to the Spaceport Gift shop. The civil war isn't over, it seems, and loyalists of Cal'syee Neramani - Deathbird - have shown what they think of making peace with lesser planets. Next time: SPACE CHASE.
Cast of Characters:	Jean Grey, Emma Frost, April O'Neil, Michael Erickson, Jennifer Walters, Jessica Drew, Tabitha Smith

---

Jean Grey has posed:
A year ago, the Shi'ar Imperium under went a civil war. Pitting brother against sister (with another sister in there somewhere), the ambitions of Majestor D'Ken Neramani quickly spread to Earth, where loyal forces pursued his exile sibling Lilandra. Soon, an open battle took place between the Justice League and the super-powered Imperial Guard, fought above the surface of the moon and the Watchtower base. Although the first battle was lost and the tower taken by the Shi'ar, the heroes would go on to win the war, their victory reinforced by mutinies within the Imperial Guard as word came of D'Ken's arrest in a far-flung corner of Shi'ar space.

Ultimately, it was one of many encounters with alien powers that drove the Earth Starport project. No longer could the planet afford to exist as a bit of flotsam in space, carried along by the currents of conflicts it didn't understand, always at risk of destruction... as nothing more than collateral damage. If Earth was going to survive, it would need to join the party. And not long after the port's construction, the newly-crowned Majestrix made hers the first alien government to send a formal delegation, beginning with a state visit by Chancellor Araki a few months earlier. The venerable Shi'ar leader has since returned home, but he has left a small delegation behind, to oversee negotiations for a formal treaty.

In his place is Sub-Minister K'van, a middle-level bureaucrat, who at present is making QUITE a fuss about the salvage rights for one of the Shi'ar cruisers destroyed during the Watchtower battle, it's wreckage mostly captured by the moon's gravity and several pieces since recovered for study by various organizations. The proposed treaty calls for a return of advanced Shi'ar technology in exchange for a cooperative lending and mentorship program; the Shi'ar have already provided a single functional Warp-Gate drive, installed on the X-Men's prototype SR-X Blackbird (although those in the know might consider this more of a personal favor, considering the Majestrix claiming Charles Xavier as her personal consort).

---

All said? It has been a very long, annoying, and less than productive day of negotiations. K'van is no Araki. He is meticulous but stubborn, closely bound to the letter of the law. And apparently, literal bird law is very complicated. Who ever would have guessed?

After hours of discussion, the negotiations are now in recess, with various representatives - human, alien, and otherwise - free to enjoy the ammenities of the Starport. It's quite nice, with the amount of resources Atlantis, Themyscira, and Wakanda - three of Earth's most powerful civilizations (no one tell Dr. Doom) - have poured into it. Outside of the negotiations, the Shi'ar diplomats have proved polite if somewhat standoffish guests. K'van travels with a small personal entourage, an aide of sorts and a pair of bodyguards in their stylish head feather-shaped helmets. The Imerpial Guard contingent that escorted Chancellor Araki departed with him, so these are only normal troopers, and largely ceremonial, given permission to carry de-activated versions of their energy-staves.

A few other Shi'ar are present, crew members from their ship, which is docked at one of the visitor bays to the south. In contrast to the negotiators, these Shi'ar are more openly curious of the many sights and ammenities featured at the public rotunda. Several have discovered the taco stand. Another, an engineer by her uniform garb (the Shi'ar seem to color-code things, like Space Trek), searches curiously through one of the Gift Shops. Can't go back to the Throneworld without a souvenir!

Emma Frost has posed:
These negotiations involve going over minutiae of interstellar law, recognitions of stellar territory, various treaties which Earth may or may not be a signatory of and the various realities of deep space with a 'neutral' planet given an outside amount of respect over due to the sheer number of meta-beings it has. For Emma Frost, this means rotations of being on standby in case things get out of hand, checking up on some information coming in..
    And mostly an opportunity to catch up on some sleep. She's long since mastered the art of meditating to a light sleep during events. So while some of the Shi'Ar are going around gawking/likely trying to not be caught gawking, Emma has taken it upon herself to sit up, eyes lidded while she would be listening to the back and forth.. And getting a quick few minutes of relaxation in. It was just like board meetings. Only where rules of decorum were at least followed as discussion over extreme minutiae went on.
    A perfect time to rest.

April O'Neil has posed:
April O'Neil is on hand this evening in the role of the News Media. She's been doing some remote pieces all afternoon and is now scoring, or trying to score, interviews with any of the Shi'ar that she can wrangle up.

This includes any at taco stands. As it so happens, Harley Quinn-- April's roommate --is a hell of a taco chef! Perfect line to get in for a bit of back and forth, right?!

Dressed in a black pencil skirt, high heels, a white blouse, and her dark hair tied up in a bone on her head, April is looking quite lovely, using that to her advantage to get some words outta folks' mouths!

Michael Erickson has posed:
    It has not been long since the cargo craft tasked to SHIELD Agents Drew and Erickson has touched down; the big plane keeps its belly shut even as its VIPs descend the gangway, other agents keeping its mysterious payload secure. With hands tucked behind his back, Michael regards the spaceport with interest as he leads ahead of Jessica, nodding slowly as he surveys the planet's first modern spaceport.

    "It's a nice start," he says to Jessica as they descend to the ground and head for the terminal. "Better armed than I thought. Though still, anyone who really wants to take this place, at least for now, probably could." A beat. "Then again, that's exactly what I'd want people to think whilst the heavier artillery is shielded in sublevels." Wheels within wheels, schemes within schemes. A career spy, he is.

    And then...it all takes place. Hours of negotiations, and the guardians that track K'van still get worthy attention from Erickson; after all, armor aside, they can still kill or cripple humans with a punch, and bench a ton. His people are /not/ fragile violets.

    And so, he remains silent, watching. It's what he does.

Jennifer Walters has posed:
    Did somebody say extraterrestrial trading negotiations? Say no more. Jennifer Walters esq. is on the case! She spent the better part of a week reading up on Shi'ar law and, while she wouldn't call herself an expert on the matter, she feels that she has a firm grasp of the basics.

    The negotiations have proved to be nothing but frustrating. K'van's stubborn dedication to the law has made the exchange slow to a crawl, as she had to look up one obscure section after another to make sure that he wasn't pulling one over on the Earth side. And then there were places where Shi'ar law and Earth law just didn't mesh at all and his insistence that they should use *their* laws unconditionally made things even *more* frustrating.

    Finally they retire to a recess and Jennifer finds herself slouched in one of the chairs, exhausted. She's green, as always, and is dressed up in a sharp pantsuit with a cream colored blouse that shows off a bit of cleavage. She's got a pair of matching square blocked heels, and a briefcase stuffed to the brim sitting next to her.

    She looks at the tacos with envy, having decided she didn't want to risk staining her suit before they end the recess. She notes to herself that she needs to catch Reed and have him make an unstable molecule version. One of the many amazing properties of unstable molecules is that they're always stain-free.

    "Tacooooos," she all but whines. "They smell so good. Hopefully there'll be some left after the negotiations."

Jessica Drew has posed:
"Of course, they'll hide all the boom from the guests," Jess replies quietly. His observation that anyone really wanting to take the port could strikes her as rhetorical and she nods in agreement. Jess shrugs at the guard when she checks her ICER at the door and lifts her eyebrows at Michael. Checking a weapon is a feint of sorts. The agent is the weapon, and if port security has done their homework, she'd be a known quantity.

The agent had consulted the proposed guest list before coming and mentally checks off faces against the names she remembers as she follows a few paces behind Erickson like a good bodyguard. She is discreetly dressed in a black pants suit and a green silk blouse the color of her eyes, clothes meant to signal that she is no one of importance, an attache, perhaps. And, despite having to keep alert while appearing relaxed, Jess likes gigs like this for the perks. No drinking, true, but she can console herself with well-made finger foods and politely gawking at the interplanetary guests.

Jean Grey has posed:
"Much of the filling is not to our taste, but we are fond of the... containers?" one of the Shi'ar at the taco stand explains to April, demonstrating as he picks out some of the meat onto his plate, to eat the soft corn tortilla wrapper. There are no sci-fi translator devices, it should be noted - the ones on duty here have apparently all learned English. Impressive, in the scant time sine their assignment! (They may have cheated and had it telepathically downloaded into their heads by a trainer). After they've claimed a few such 'deconstructed' tacos (the brave one in the bunch leaves in some of the lettuce and cheese!), the group of them move over to one of the seating areas to enjoy their meal.

K'van and his guards also have a meal of sorts, although it has been arranged with their hosts, more of a 'sampler platter' with a variety of offerings that is brought to another one of the food court tables. K'van and the aide eat, joined by one of the Earth delegation - a SWORD director of some kind. The two guards continue to... guard, their poses sharp and attentative. Both seem particularly wary of Michael, it should be said, and he is the recipient of more than the occasional hostile glare, both during the negotiations and after. "May I speak frankly... Herbert, was it? I have difficulty with these human names still. But do you think it wise to trust him in these affairs, in your affairs at all, for that matter? He has betrayed one government already."

Apparently, Mike's not popular with the old team.

Across from the food court, the engineer emerges from one of the gift shops, sort of a Skymall/Sharper Image/etc style place with a lot of 'high tech' gizmos for people with too much money, carrying a pretty sizable bag. Maybe she got them as 'ironic' presents for her friends.

For Jennifer and Emma, the rest is nicely restful, at least! No one seems overly interested in causing any trouble. Yet!

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost isn't paying attention over to the food. Let the others slowly kill themselves over the artificial preservatives and sweeteners and fat those things are loaded with while she goes to kill herself slowly with indulgence in alcohol. Emma would slowly bring herself to a slightly more alert status adn waareness that things have at least taken a break for awhile, and with the general muttersing giong on she presumes that it's made next to nothing on progress and that it will continue later on finangling over minutiae.
    Whereupon it will be tabled for later discussion, sent up to a committee which will make a recommendation, but table it upon realizing that it's the perogative of another department. This will cycle a few times until they've forgotten what they were discussing and things somehow go on.
    That's the way it goes in academia, and Emma thinks that diplomacy doesn't have much different. She goes to take a sip over of her wine while glancing at some of those going past, "Why, it does seem like thigns were particularly graceful." She would allow while taking in events.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabby had gotten roped into helping with the Space Blackbird. She was totally fine with that cause handing out wrenches and wheeling mobile tool kits and driving forklifts and stuff is fun and maybe a reminder of one of the few pleasant memories of her dad.

Working on cars.

Spaceships are way cooler.

But even she needs to eat and the food court has yet to be explored by the Boomster. Beat up old bluejeans, clunky workboots in a dull scuffed up yellow. A sensible blue worksirt that actually covers most of her upper half with sleeves rolled up, That mane of hair bound up into a bun and then hidden under a backwards worn ballcap with XAVIERS printed on it. Her yellow tinted glasses on top of her head so she can actually see what she might pick to eat. Mostly so it doesn't all look like it has waaaaay to much saffron.

Michael Erickson has posed:
    The 'old team', of course, wouldn't have this problem if they weren't busy trying to take everybody's star players on game day whether they wanted it or not. Michael, his hearing nice and sharp and not /that/ far away from K'van and Herbert-Of-SWORD, smiles warmly as he realizes he's being talked about. It's like someone stepping over one's grave, but cattier.

    "I'm going say hello," he informs Jessica, his plain gray suit a dubious wrapper for a yet cattier soul. "Come on."

    And so he approaches, stopping outside of a distance to get drawn upon, nice and polite. < Honorable Minister, > he says in the High Shi'ar dialect, grand and fluid, every syllable arrogant and yet beautiful at once whilst executing an ornate quarter-bow. < I greet you. > Then, to Herbert, in his usual unaccented English: "Subdirector Stevens, hello. Do you mind the interruption? I wanted to greet my countrymen and introduce them to Agent Drew."

April O'Neil has posed:
After hearing this, April watches that Shi'ar walk off, leaving her holding her phone recording the back and forth. She glances down at it, reaching her free hand up to adjust her black framed glasses over her light blue eyes. "Good job, O'Neil. 'What do Shi'ar think of Tacos?' This is gonna be front page news..." She mutters to herself before she looks up, and over at the young man behind the counter who is smiling at her and looking awkward.

April sighs. "I'll take two, and a raspberry icy blast thing." She tells him, before she notices Jennifer. She offers the lawyer a smile, recognizing her. She waves toward Jenn then. "Want something to eat? I'll buy." She offers, trying to tempt the lawyer, so it seems!

Jennifer Walters has posed:
    Jennifer looks at the sampler platter that the Shi'ar delegation brought over with interest. She figures that trying alien cuisine is a good way to win points for her side so she grabs a plate and starts picking out the treats that she can reasonably identify. Some of the others, however... "What are these squiggly looking things over here?" she asks one of the aids.

    The arrival of the engineer with the bag of gizmos gets a skeptical raise of an eyebrow before she just shakes her head and loads one some more questionable foods.

    April gets her attention though, and she makes her way over to the reporter. She chuckles, "I'm trying what the Shi'ar delegation brought. I'm /assuming/ none of this is toxic to humans but if they are..." she shrugs. "I'll metabolize it faster than it can affect me. Thank you for the offer, though. So. Have you found the Big Scoop yet?"

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost attempts to lightly scan some of the passing diplomats as discussions cease. Interesting.. She doesn't get through or even get baseline thoughts. Someone's blocking her. The Shi'Ar don't hvae the technology to fully screen out telepathy.. So that means they have someone on their end that's blocking out. Smart and pragmatic. They might have said that all of the Imperial Guard has left..
    But apparently not. Or someone on the diplomatic staff is a -very- good telepath. Emma muses for a moment, and then goes to close her eyes and sends over to Michael telepathically, for now not including anyone else <<It does appear that they've got a telepath screening them. A rather good one. I'd have to force my way through their shields to get anything. So likely they have a telepath left amongst the diplomatic staff.>>

Jessica Drew has posed:
Jess listens to the trilling speech, having heard enough of it to recognize the tone. What is the catty version of a bird, she asks herself and then bites down on a smile to preserve a polite face before the delegation. Why, of course, a Shi'ar.

She is only mildly surprised when Michael offers to introduce her. The agent always expects the unexpected with him. Stepping forward, she nods pleasantly to the sub-director, "Sir." After a questioning glance at Michael, she mimics the bow he used, hoping she has not just insulted the delegation and their ancestors six generations back.

Jean Grey has posed:
Tabby's late arrival has her cross paths with the Shi'ar engineer with her big bag o' stuff. She offers a smile in passing, not all 'Aloof Alien' at all. From there, she continues toward... the bathrooms. Well, even aliens gotta go!

Meanwhile, at the 'big kids' table, things continue to get interesting. Director Stevens is not really a diplomat, but he's the veteran of any number of Congressional hearings explaining why his budget needs to be as big as it is (answer: space is skeery!), and this experience got him assigned to this unusual job. "Personnel isn't really my department," he answers at first, when asked about Michael. However, it's clear that the beautiful art of birds being catty to each other isn't really his forte, that the whole thing makes him a little uncomfortable.

Michael coming over probably doesn't help!

"Former Imperial Guard Intelligence agent Cal'hatar," K'van answers with perfect formality but certainly little in the way of pleasantry. He also, very pointedly, sticks to English, with the sole-exception of that name. "We are eating, so there is no business to interrupt." A very fancily polite non-answer.

To Jessica: "Good afternoon." Then, he gives her a kind of thoughtful look, passing back and forth to own guards and back, as if comparing their escorts. "Our former operative must have gained considerable status, that he now warrants his own detail."

There IS a kiosk at the rotunda that allows for alien visitors to display their own foods, wares, and other cultural items, although it hasn't caught on quite so quickly with the Shi'ar. Still, after someone explained its purpose, apparently they did bring out a few trays from their ship's matter replicator, which now sit there, heating. They are as strange as Jennifer can imagine. One looks like it involves moving worms!

Tabitha Smith has posed:
The girl in the grease monkey outfit is probbly far from dressed for anything diplomatic. She even has a little oval shaped patch on one side of her chest with 'BOOM' embroidered on it in pink text on a white background and pink border.

And the background noise from everyone might be a bit loud requiring some extra effort to block and supress her own telepathic foot print as much as possible. A lot of unshielded chatter still gets though like being at well a food court.

She still keeps up a smile and waggles fingers to everyone she does recognise. Emma and Michael, Jennifer does too. There was that one thing rescuing Black Cat a while back. April and Jessica get smiles and maybe the girl can't help but check them out.

The engineer gets a playful smile and wink as well when the woman disappears to the bathroom. "Huh. Do we have bathroom facilities to match most known species? This isn't gonna be a three seashells thing I hope? Space is gonna be awkward if we have to bring our own toilet paper everywhere." she statts muttering to herself.

Asking herself the real questions here.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost keeps her hands folded togehter while she pays distant attention over to things going on. She's attempting to scan surface thoughts of others around; just to make sure that the blockage iso nly effecting the Shi'Ar delegation. And if so she's going to ever so subtly try and see if she can gather -where- the disruption is coming from. She's presuming it's not technological in nature.. Normally a telepath doing blocking needs to be close to the area. It can be done from far off, but closer makes it easier.
    Oftentimes in line of sight, but she presumes if they were around the immediate area she could tell. So Emma goes to take another sip of her wine, and moves to start with her careful scanning. She's looking for the tell-tale traces if possible of another telepath making things 'fuzzy' and trying to block things. Not trying to directly read the minds or bypass the blockage.. But attempting to if she could narrow the widnow down in the areas that the mental sentinel might be working through. They're very good.. But she's better. So, Emma goes to pay a casual attention while going to sweep through the area, sending out light telepathic pings.. The intent being to hopefully not be noticed while trying to narrow down where the player on the opposing side is. Well.. Not opposing. OR adversarial.

April O'Neil has posed:
April recieves her order from the man over the counter, and she slips him some cash monies. She huffs out a laugh at what Jennifer asks her and shakes her head in return. "I wish." She grumbles back at her before putting a staraw in to her drink. "Well, to be fair. I'm in the world's first starport..." She says, shooting her eyes around quickly. "Meeting some aliens from another planet, that don't require Will Smith to sweep in and slap silly to keep us all safe... So. I gotta take some perspective where I can get it, right?" She asks with a grin before sipping from her drink and stepping over to a standing table then where she sets her tray of two whole beautiful tacos down in front of her.

Michael Erickson has posed:
    Michael does /not/ like telepathy - but you have to basically get used to it as easily as breathing up there at the Xavier school, so when Emma's arch, crisp voice sounds within his mind, he manages not to betray a moment's surprise. At her signal, at least. Of /course/ they'd have a telepath around.

    "I admit myself surprised at such a description, Honored Minister," replies Michael to all that not-answering, faux politeness - feigning said surprise politely. Quelle surprise, even! Had he pearls he might have clutched them. "I did not betray the Empress, after all, merely stood up against parties that no longer had the Empire's interests - and galactic peace - in mind. Should it be counted against me that the leader of those parties sat the throne at that time?" He's practically fluttering his lashes.

    But! There is Jessica, and he chuckles at her description as a detail. "Agent Drew is my superior in SHIELD, Honored Minister. She would, indeed, stand tall amongst the ranks of the Guard with her professionalism and craft. She would impress, I am convinced." Stevens, well. He gets a glance. Apology, perhaps. But only for an instant. "Tell me. Does the noble house of Atlex no longer stand?"

Jessica Drew has posed:
Surprise on layered surprise. With veiled amusement, Jessica watches K'van's quick comparison of his detail with herself. What is said to Michael, she decides, is a politely worded insult. Next time, if there is one, he should have at least three agents in his entourage, even if they aren't bodyguards, she decides.

An astute observer would see her blink and cast a glance at the Sword sub-director when Michael introduces her as his superior. Technically he is right, but today she does not have Michael under observation but the Shi'ar. She remains impassive at his flowery description of her abilities, thinking that Shi'ar need to fluff their plumage at each other at every opportunity.

Jennifer Walters has posed:
    Jennifer has her mind shielded as best she can, for a non-telepath. What they get is a smattering of ancient Roman law in Latin. Probably something from the Twelve Tables, the earliest known. She knew that Emma would be here, so she figured that the Shi'ar would probably bring their own telepath, so if anybody's listening in, all they get is a litany of dry legal tenants.

    "If nothing else," she says, "I'll do an interview on the taste of Shi'ar food. One of the ambassadors was kind enough to identify this squiggly thing as a kind of root vegetable." With that she pops the squiggly thing in her mouth and chews thoughtfully. "Hm. Kind of like if a parsnip and ginger had a baby. It's really not bad. Could use some salt, though." She chews thoughtfully some more. "Maybe some butter."

Jean Grey has posed:
Emma has no trouble establishing contact with friendly minds. Only with the Shi'ar - and not counting Michael, who is clearly out of the club. Perhaps its a fairly normal precaution to take. Perhaps its normal etiquette, in space, and everyone brings a telepath to their negotiations to make sure no one is getting any special treatment! Or perhaps something is afoot. Regardless, she can't easily localize it to a person, but there's maybe a dozen odd Shi'ar in the room, most of them 'minding their own business.' Or eating tacos. Many potential suspects.

K'van seems happy enough to sit trading politely veiled Mean Girls routines with Michael. "Is it not an accurate description? The Majestrix has issued a blanket pardon to members of the Guard for their actions in the prior coup," no doubt a political necessity considering nearly -all- of them fought for D'Ken, at least for a while, "but it is my understanding you are no longer in service. Is it not so? Surely it would be impossible for you to be openly employed in our intelligence service, and in Earth's? Ergo, you are a former agent." Then he makes a little wave. "As I said. There were many pardons. The Majestrix, in her wisdom, wishes for us to move beyond the conflict. Do not reprisals inspire only further resentment? Mercy is the wiser course." He says this very flatly, unclear as to whether he believes it - reciting it like a dry logical axiom - or if he is simply dutifully supporting the current policy.

"Of course, some fare better than others, in the new order."

Meanwhile, Herb is playing with a piece of his lunch with his fork, but he looks up after a moment, to interject with a change of topic. "I think- despite all the details, we made progress today. We can supply any information you need on the disposal procedures for the items recovered from HYDRA, and begin development of a compliance regime that should satisfy your needs. Did you have a chance to read that material I gave you? It covers a few treaties like this, that Earth governments have-"

This provides K'van an opportunity to disengage from all that talk about Jessica, which doesn't seem to impress him very much, for all that Michael is enthusiastic. "I am sure she is most capable. Ah, yes. Your State Department's VCI program..." Dry stuff!

The group of Shi'ar with the tacos (they're operations and science officers, by uniform) seem to be finished with their lightly-flavored corn wraps. A lovely meal! They rise, and start making their way back across, toward the section where the visitor docks are. Bathroom lady is still gone!

Emma Frost has posed:
The Guard brings -very- good telepaths. If they have enough ones to spare for a backwater like Earth.. Then that makes Emma reassess a few things. But at the very least she knows that the Guard has taken at least a personal interest in monitoring things here.. Which she considers some small value to confirm, even if expected. She's not going to get much further without brute forcing things and escalating. So now it's time to play polite as she sends out in a general, casual sort of broadcast..
    <<Oracle, I believe it is? Why don't you come out and join your brethren exposing themselves to Earth cuisine?>> A light gambit if only as it's the only Shi'Ar telepath that Emma encountered to any significance during the last negotiation when the starport opened. She keeps her mind mostly relaxed. This is just discussions. The Shi'Ar are enjoying themselves, Tabitha may be about to co-opt an alien ambassador into helping her cherry bomb the lavoratories..

April O'Neil has posed:
April casts a smile toward Jenn. "That would be quite nice, in fact. I should become a food review journalist. It might even be---" April cuts herself off as she's raising up one of the tacos to take a first bite, when she sees the Shi'ar that she'd gotten to know starting to walk off.

"Crap." She mutters then, wiping her fingers off and throwing the napkin down on the table as she picks up her stuff and starts to rapidly move to catch up with them, her PRess Pass swaying back and forth in front of her torso=, and her heels clicking on the polished stone floor!

She's soon to sidle up to the one she'd been talking to, to begin a new line of questions, and shmoozing, of course! Do Shi'ar like smiles? Or is a smile offensive to them? God, this is hard enough with Humans...

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "Well I am pleased to hear this, Honored Minister," says Michael, who grants K'van another little bow. "After all, while I am not in Imperial service, I am, still, a son of the Empire. I do not wish to see it harmed. Good evening." Except for, you know, slaughtering its soldiers last year. Ahem. Ahun. He is content to withdraw, then, and gives Jessica a look as he turns his back on the Shi'ar contingent that practically screams 'You see what I have to put up with?' as he gently nods for her to follow him away from the table.

    "So much for the superior species," he murmurs to Jessica as he passes. "Keep an eye out. They still have a telepath on station, screening out intrusion. At the very least."

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Things you should not do when you are trying to decide on what to eat. One of them is think about going to the bathroom. It's why running water can make it worse. But Tabby can hold things a bit so she moves closer to one stall she looks over near by and makes her order.

When she's told she might have to wait cause everyone else has their orders ahead of her gets the girl pouting and bouncing on the spot. Does she wait for food? Is the bathroom gonna be free soon? Will she miss her food if it the bathroom does free up and she's in there? Wiill someone else snag her delightful looking weird alien spinach pasta thing? Can she get the food, then run to the bathroom in the Xavier's hangar. No she won't destroy a toilet. Plasma bommbs may work in water for her but she maybe kinda needs to go.

So maybe to gauge how long a wait she has. She maybe kind of tries to probe the engineer lady as much as the people preparing her food. Mostly surface scans to see if there's any possibility she should just wait on food and go in the X-men's own bathroom.

It's not like she's poking anyone important right?

Jessica Drew has posed:
It is always better to be underestimated by an opposing force, not, of course, are the Shi'ar enemies. Only former enemies. With a gracious nod to K'van after she has been summarily dismissed, she follows Michael away from the table and shares a commiserating look with him.

Keeping her voice low, "And what, pray tell, would I have to hide from a telepath? I know nothing," she observes, in seeming innocence. "Are you hungry?"

Jean Grey has posed:
It's been a very boring day. The negotiations were mind-numbing, and K'van, well, he doesn't prove any more stimulating outside of the negotiating table. Just to be kind of a dick. Herbert is doing his best, although no doubt he was sent along because he's precisely the same breed of dull bureaucrat. Maybe tacos are fascinating to some. Maybe not. A very boring day...

Until it isn't, and everything kind of happens at once.

Emma doesn't get an answer. What she does get, is a brief, sudden, overwhelming psychic spike, like a mental flashbang. She's very good, and can recover from it, but it provides just a few seconds of pure dizzying mental confusion. A microcosm of the room at large.

Tabi gets it too, as she flexes her BRAND NEW POWERS. However, she's turned to look back at the bathroom entrance just before it hits. Other people will only see it in the periphery, but she gets a good look (right before her brain goes zzzzt) of the smiling engineer emerging with... holy crap did she build herself a space gun with the crap from the gift shop?

There's a bright flash as it fires.

A shout. K'van. Simultaneously? Or just after? The two guardsmen are moving. One toward K'van. The other toward Michael.

The party of Shi'ar returning to the ship seem the last ones to catch on to what's happening, turning back with confusion.

The people spared any immediate part of this chaos are April and Jennifer, because... well they're just eating!

Emma Frost has posed:
The pushback catches Emma by surprise. She was expecting something snarky, something curt.. So the equivalent of a mental flashbang almost makes her stumble while she's sitting down, dropping her goblet of wine over on her lap and spilling it all over her very expensive outfit. That's the last thing over on her agenda for the moment over while she would go to rapidly erect her shields once more and move to send a warning over to cycle through each of the others in the room.
    <<Something happened, the equivlaent of someone throwng down a mental concussive. All members, report in. Have a security team ready if someone can pass that along to SWORD?>> Just in case now as Emma goes to rapidly pass along the thoughts to each of the X-Men, SHIELD members, and Avengers present.
    Now that there's been the flash Emma is down to scrying. Now bothering ot be subtle or polite on it. Just intent on going through as many minds in as short a time as possible to try and get -some- perspective as to see if anyone saw something or picked something up beyond disorientation.

Jennifer Walters has posed:
    Jennifer grins as April takes off. "Go get 'em, girl," she says just loud enough for the reporter to hear, but not /too/ loud.

    She continues to try various bits she got from the sampler platter, finding them mostly delicious, with a few being rather bland, and a couple that are just actively bad to the human tongue. She notes to question the helpful aide again on what everything is so she can report back to April in case she doesn't find that big scoop.

    While she's been eating she's been occasionally glancing at the bathroom, idly wondering where that Shi'ar woman went to. She's almost certain that the Shi'ar don't spend *that* much time in the bathroom. And then the woman emerges with the cobbled together weapon and, well, that answers that."

    Dropping her plate she shouts, "Everybody get behind me!" and rushes the woman. Praying that one of her best professional outfits won't get destroyed, she confronts the assassin... terrorist? (she hadn't made her intentions clear) and tries to strip her gun off of her, willing to take a hit from the weapon if it means that it saves somebody squishier from her.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
That psychic flash bang makes Tabby clutch her head and drop to ner knees. There's a shrief of pain and bzzzzzt is probably a snarl before she's down.

She never did her her weird but tasty looking alkien spinach pasta.

The fact that it's got her scrambled enough has her shaking as she tries and maybe struggles to find the woman and throw a bomb. There's too many people with guns swarming in and maybe adding live explosions is a bad idea.

She's probably in a lot of danger as a result and thhis is a whole new thing of distraction and pain and so much noise in her head she can't focus on keeping things out or letting the right stuff in like Emma's telepathic probes. Which leaves her stuck on the ground scared and actually terrified.

Maybe flashing back to Genosha.

Michael Erickson has posed:
    Because when shooting starts, of /course/ the Shi'ar will assume that their prodigal son is involved - but this, this is not the case. In the slowtime sludge of adrenaline-fueled reaction, where everything seems to happen at once (or for some, nothing at all), Michael sweeps a hand across the table next to him for...a salt shaker...whilst one of the armored guards comes thundering his way to apparently take him down.

    << Not /me/, you fool, >> he thunders in the high speech, taking on a tone that is both equal parts military command and the regal bearing of a member of alien aristocracy. << See to the Minister! >>

    Of course, if the man keeps going, he's gonna get jimbo-rolled to the ground if Mike can help it. He's likely the more competent combatant, after all!

Jessica Drew has posed:
Boring until it isn't seems to be the modus operandi around Shi'ar. Jess has had more experience than many humans with them.

Sudden movement in the room, pushes her reflexively into defensive mode for Michael, who she knows is more than amply able to take care of himself. In that instant that explodes like pool balls scattered to every corner of the table, she turns to face the guards, dropping into a defensive stance, palms held out in what could look like an appeal to stop. Instead, if they step beyond a certain point they will receive a surprise in the form of a bio-electric blast.

Jean Grey has posed:
K'van slumps forward, a hole burning in his upper torso, and then moments later is tackled to the floor by the guard. It's a protective measure, the soldier landing to cover him with his body, in his gleaming ceremonial armor.

It's just a moment too late.

The bathroom assassin ends up faced with a charging She-Hulk. It takes a few moments to cross the space, which is good for her, because her make-shift gift-shot space gun is... well, kind of a crap weapon. It doesn't come with auto-fire. In fact, it's not clear she can even fire it again. She fiddles with it, gets it to start charging again, and aims to fire a second shot... only to see K'van covered. By now, her own attacker is closing, and she turns-

-it won't quite be fast enough, but she grins as if it doesn't matter. The same friendly smile. The weapon 'fires' again as Jennifer reaches her. Well, no, it just kind of blows up. It's not clear if it does so on its own, or as it's struck in that attempt to disarm her. There's another bright flash.

It's good that Jenn is a tough lady.

The trooper turning to Michael has obviously already made up his mind. Once a traitor, always a traitor. Whatever the cause. He's wrong, and that's the tragedy of the moment. He comes at his former comrade fighting for keeps; the staff is still a solid melee weapon even with the blast function deactivated; with a flick of the wrist blades extend to make it into more of a sort of glaive or halberd-like thing. Michael can certainly prevail, even ignoring any other factors his training is certainly more elite. But his lesser willingness to murder his counterpart on the spot is a relative weakness. A slash across the cheek proves how close things get, and his reliance on the less conventional weapon option of a food additive is a weakness. But with a little effort he can wrestle control of the staff...

...or Jessica can just shock the guy. That turns out to be rather effective at getting him to 'listen.' The armor has insulation, but it's not complete, and it stuns him enough to let Michael finish the job.

The ops and science guys keep running, for the exit to the other area. Although at this point, the Starport's own security is starting to step in, with several Amazons moving to cover the exit

Emma checks in. By the time her mind has cleared, well... everyone is fine. Except for K'van, who has a big smoking hole in him. And the assassin, who handles the close-up blast less well than She-Hulk does. She's been knocked backward, slumped down by the bathroom entrance, not dead, but her features burnt and seared, lips moving, but having difficulty making any sound.

Emma Frost has posed:
Ten seconds. That's all it's taken to go from back and forth ribaldry to total chaos and an assassination attempt. Of course, the attempt begets whether or not it was usccessful, which remains to be seen. Emma takes a few mometns to stand up, bracing herself and moving to quickly sweep Tabitha and the other mutants. <<Roll call. Everyone, give location, status, adn what you ran into. You'll be briefed en route if you haven't already figured out what happened.>>
    Emma's going silent for a moment to let whomever calls the shots to get the fallen medical aid.. IF he's still in a position to get it.
    Then she's going to start to do some full power psi sweeps. No restraint. Either the attacker was psionically gifted enough to block them all out, or someone else was doing it. Whehter or not they were with the Shi'Ar contingent or not there will be hell to pay as Emma doesn't particularly bother with niceties. She's intent on simply going through the veils of each and every consciousness here with brute force if she needs to until she finds what she's after.

    Whether or not they're still there. And probably adding more to the kerfluffle.

Jennifer Walters has posed:
    "AUGH! MY SUIT!" She knew it. She just /knew/ that this evening would end with her business suit just shredded to pieces. She rocks back with the explosion, but keeps to her feet, and otherwise looks unharmed.

    She rushes to the assassin's side to check to see if her wounds are fatal, and finding that they're not she turns to one of the Amazon guards that comes running. "Hey!" she says. "She's the one who assassinated the ambassador. Get her somewhere secure and make sure she doesn't die on us. Do we even have cells here?" God, she hopes so.

    <<She-Hulk here, Emma. I'm at the nearby bathrooms. Tell Jessica that I've got the assassin secured. She'll probably want to have a little chat with her if she survives. God, I hate Shi'ar politics.>>

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Physically Tabby is fine, a littlke headachey and her nose is bleading from messing with already screwy brain wiring so when the smoke clears Tabby tries to not look like the scared eighteenish year old she was on that island.

And she dabbles in mutant black ops. She's still new at that. Damage is done and some nerves get left raw,

<<I... I'm okay. What the hell was that in my head? I saw the woman, my head went buzz and out and now everyone's shooting and shouting in their heads. And it's hard to shut them out again!>> she feels very very scared and confused. And hungry. <<I can go check the X-Hangar, If we tooling up for a chase. I can go bring the noise.>> she offers time to go X-Man up. She probably could have stopped the whole thing but annoying ass new psychic vulnerabilities.

Michael Erickson has posed:
    And in the end, it was for naught, and the Minister has a brand new orifice open and smoking in his torso.

    Fighting an elite soldier in battle armor, when he has all but a shaker of salt, is difficult even for him - but he wins out all the same, smashing it against the man's armored head just as Jessica drills him with her bio-electric blast. Sporting a long slash from cheekbone to chin, streaming dark red blood, Michael, panting hard, takes up the halberd from his fallen countryman and makes straight for the fallen assassin. A certain fury fills him; he is a tower of rage in that moment, a cold, brilliant light that almost seems to shine from him as he makes for the fallen woman and stands over her with the weapon in hand. A headsman, almost. But the weapon is not raised.

    < You fool, > he hisses in the lower tongue of the Shi'ar, that which is called Glorkon. < He was a dutiful son of the Empire, working toward peace! /Why/ would you do such a thing? > The trilling beauty of the high speech is replaced by this gutteral, almost growling sound, made angrier still from the balefires burning in his gut. After all, this was meant to be a moment to move forward...

Jessica Drew has posed:
The glaive makes it past her guard to strike Michael. Said guard's head is englobed in bio-electric green, her 'venom', which she discharges with a vengeance as he has injured her colleague and friend. Jess watches the guard stiffen and succumb to the charge of electricity coursing through his body and the deadly salt shaker.

She follows in Michael's wake of outrage to stand over the assailant in silence as he lambasts the woman. She only catches a few words but knows the man. Without a word, she grabs a linen napkin from the dignitary's table to hand to Michael to staunch the blood flowing from his wound.

From the ruckus at the main table she surmises that the assassin accomplished her foolish mission.

Jean Grey has posed:
People start checking in with Emma, including a few X-Men next door at the hangar. Nothing has been harmed there.

The main docks are a different story. An unfamiliar Amazon is the first to answer there: << Aghh... there's... there was fighting here. The Shi'ar ship. I don't know? It's- >>

There's nothing for K'van, unfortunately. The hole in him is... pretty big, considering. Later investigation will show that the engineer had a few parts cleared by security - ironically earmarked for work on the SR-X - and that the bits from the gift shop were only the finishing touches on her improvised weapon. The Gift Shop is powerful, but not that powerful!

Approaching the Assassin, Jennifer finds her smiling still, even though her lips are now badly burned away. But it is only Michael's arrival that encourages her to speak, answering in their shared language. < Why? For the... true Majestrix. > she rasps, speech difficult in her burnt deformity. < And she wants no peace. > Soon Jessica and Amazons both arrive, to take her into custody and care alike. She may yet survive - perhaps against her own intentions.

And in the end, Tabitha's instinct proves right: the whole rotunda will hear the roar of the engines as the Shi'ar ship launches. Once the port security secures things, they'll find that after a short battle in the hangar, it departed in haste... leaving much of its crew behind, effectively stranded on Earth.