—- Kradashian City, Kradashian IV —-

The Captain’s Yacht from the USS Luna touched down on the landing pad at the Federation embassy. In reality it was not much, just a few scattered buildings surrounding a hanger with some shuttlecrafts and a landing pad. In the ship Lieutenant Junior Grade Thomas Winfield maneuvered the craft expertly, setting it down with no problem. 

The planet’s capital city was old, almost as old as the Federation.

As the crew disembarked the head of the consulate ran up to meet them. He was a harried looking human Lieutenant, and Captain Cruz observed there was no diplomatic staff nor was there anyone more senior. Most facilities tended to have a command level staff member at Commander or higher. 

“Captain Cruz, welcome,” the man said, “I’m Lieutenant Haus, head of the Starfleet delegation here. Welcome to Kradashian City.”

Cruz nodded, “Thank you Lieutenant. Can I ask if there’s an Ambassador here or anything?”

He shook his head, “No ma’am, the population is heavily anti-Starfleet. They consider just having us here to be an intrusion into their sovereignty, and all regular Ambassadorial staff have left over the years. It’s just myself and a few Ensigns now.”

Lieutenant Diya Acharya sighed, “That’s going to make our jobs here hard.”

The head of the Embassy nodded, “I’ve tried, but the local population moved here specifically to get away from the Federation upon its founding. They moved out this far thinking we’d never grow out territory this far out, and then they sort of just got caught between us and the Cardassians.“

Cruz nodded, “Okay Lieutenant Acharya work with Lieutenant Haus and get me a meeting with the Prime Minister of the largest nation, and possibly any other influential leaders. The rest of us will change into civilian clothes and look around.”

Haus nodded, “Changing clothing is a good idea. People tend to get cold to Starfleet around here, I’m a known person so I get it whatever I’m wearing, but your staff will be okay. I’ll have the staff assemble some clothing options for you.”

—- Beyond the Embassy —-

Jake Dornall glanced at Lieutenant Junior Grade Winfield and said quietly, “Notice anything.”

“It’s air conditioned under the city shield?” Winfield said.

Dornall nodded, but added, “And everyone’s staring at us.”

”We’re pretty attractive,” Winfield joked, noticing it and knowing it was probably not that he was a fine specimen of man.

”Everyone is white,“ Dornall pointed out, “Except us.”

”Happens,” Winfield shrugged.

”No, not like this,” Dornall said.

Just then they heard a familiar voice as Chief Counselor Kolem caught up to them, she was wearing a light weight summer dress with a floral patten, “Hold up, I’m coming.”

”Your boyfriend was just pointing out we’re the only attractive men around here,” Winfield said, half teasing.

Dornall frowned, “That’s not quite what I said.”

Kolem nodded, her half Betazoid half tingling like a danger sense. The two men were certainly attracting attention and that had only increased since she had arrived. She glanced at Dornall and frowned, “Locals are getting anxious, we should head back.”

Dornall nodded, while he did not much like retreating because of his skin color the fact was that their mission was not going to be made easier due to the nature of who these settlers were. He and Winfield stuck out like sore thumbs and trying to get anyone to talk was going to prove impossible given the nature of the looks they had been getting. 

A uniformed man, clearly a peacekeeping officer given that he was armed with a side arm stopped by them, “These two men giving you trouble miss?”

Kolem shook her head, “No sir, they’re with me.”

The officer scowled at the lot of them, clearly not happy about that. Winfield stepped back, raising his hands, “No need to worry we’ll be on our way.”

The man grabbed at Winfield, “Not until I say so.”

Reached for Winfield’s jacket the pilot knocked his hand away and stepped back.

”That’s assaulting an officer of the law, both you are coming in for detainment,” the officer scowled. Overhead, he used a communicator on his uniform and six uniformed and armed men suddenly beamed onto the scene. Out numbered Winfield and Dornall did not resist as they were beamed up.

”If they’re with you you can get them at the station, though I’d advise you to choose your friends more carefully ma’am,” the original officer said, tipping his cap to Kolem who was left alone on the side of the street.

—- Starfleet Embassy —-

Lieutenant Haus let out a sigh as Kolem related the incident. It was clear that the German man was not surprised by it, though it made him tired and upset. 

“I should have been, explicit in saying that to blend in here you need to be,” he searched for a word, “Less diverse.”

He looked awkwardly around the room, “The colonists here were from a specific fondementalist religious sect back on Earth. Vulcans, Andorians, life with even the staunchest allies of the human race was unthinkable, so they struck out in large generational ships, ships that several generations would live on, back in the warp three days. If they have issues with Vulcans, well they also have issues with various groups from Earth as well.“

”I’m not white,” Cruz pointed out.

”And your rank will protect you, they know better than to mess with a Captain in Starfleet,” Haus said, “but if you removed it, you’d be a target. Your men were because they were incognito.“

”So if it’s been generations since they’ve seen a minority why do they react so strongly?” asked Acharya.

”Some cities allow trading with ships and that’s where they interact with non-European humans,” Haus said, “Our small staff is all human, and European, and to avoid issues like this we keep the staff more uniform than other facilities.”

Cruz sighed, “Damn, this seems like a job for Captain Hawthorne.”

Kolem smiled, “To your credit your crew is diverse. It’ll be an obstacle here but I don’t think it’s a mistake.”

Cruz nodded, “Okay, setting this aside what’s the situation.”

Haus nodded, “As you know there’s a force field around all human habitants on the planet. Those were built about a century ago at the start of this, event. Essentially the sun is going supernova. In another hundred years it’ll be gone, Starfleet wants to relocate the population but to do that they’ll need to start the process of finding a new world, and moving within the next decade.”

”And being super racist is an issue,” Cruz guessed.

”That, yes, it means no cohabitation with other settlers. But also an issue is that despite the scientific evidence and the difficulty in growing crops that have started to happen, the population doesn’t believe there’s an issue,” Haus said.

”We have a historian with us who wrote a few papers on twenty-first century Earth’s environmental denialism,” Cruz said.

”We need you Captain Cruz to at least get the leadership looking at moving,” Haus said, “otherwise it’ll be a mad scramble when it gets worse, and it will get worse.”

“So free my officers, save the planet’s population,” Cruz said, “Be whiter. Great, shouldn’t be any issue.”

Haus shrugged, “If it was easy I could have done it. They sent a starship, you’ve got this Captain.”

Cruz nodded, not feeling confident that she indeed have this.