When Worlds Collide

Posted on Mon Sep 11th, 2023 @ 7:11am by Senior Chief Petty Officer Hans Mueller & Lieutenant Myne Redal

Mission: Season 6: Episode 3: Far From Home
Location: The Igloo (Part of Das Alpine Haus
Timeline: MD
2182 words - 4.4 OF Standard Post Measure

//ON//

Hans stood inside the Igloo. Since coming back aboard and he had incorporated the bar into Das Alpine Haus with its own entrance, so one could enter the bar without going into the restaurant. He was taking stock of his liquor supply. He had been able to bring what he had on the planet back to the ship and what was already on hand, he could make do for a while. He was busy arranging the bottles in the order he preferred. Whiskeys together, the same with the brandy's and bourbons as well as the vodkas and other liquors. The bar had just opened so there were only a few eager beaver drinkers already inside. He whistled softly as he prepared drinks or served up some snacks. His mind on his bar and the few customers he had.

Myne yawned as she took a right, looking for... erm... looking for... something. Yes! Definitely something! It was not her shift, she had a day off because she had been a good girl and certainly not because she had pushed herself a tad too much and got sick and didn't tell anyone until she fell asleep while standing. Sooo a mandatory day off, but Myne liked to think of it as a different kind of duty—the duty of exploring the mess that was Elysium. Her eyes looked around at the bar in front of her without actually understanding that it was a bar, or a thing really until things snapped into place!

She was looking for her quarters!! Which were a wreck, so in actuality she was looking for the cargobay in which she had stored all of her stuff in and put up a hammock! There, she knew she'd remember eventually. Also, why was there a bar here? Had there always been a bar here? Curiosity made Myne take a few more steps until she reached the bar and saw someone behind it. "Hello there. Is this a bar?"

Hans turned at the voice and saw a young woman standing at the entrance to the bar. "It certainly is Fraulein! Please come in and pull up a stool. What can Hans get you?"

"Oh? You are talking to me? Erm..." Myne looked to her sides and nodded to herself. "Yeah, you're talking to me. Erm, my name is Myne, not Frauline. Nice to meet you. I guess I must really look like someone you know? Is this Frauline also a Trill?" The young-looking Trill began with quite a waterfall of words, the fact that she was in a bar rather quickly forgotten.

"Come in, come in little one! I most definitely talking to you." Hans said waving his hand at Myne. It is good to meet you Myne, I am Hans, the owner of this fine establishment. Fraulein, is German, for young woman and you are certainly both." He said with a laugh. "What can Hans fix for you?"

Her head tilted to one side as she eyed Hans with narrow eyes for a moment. "Alright, you lost me. Fraulein is a germ but also a young woman? Why is it that the more I say the word Frauline I am thinking of a chocolate thingy from Earth? What is a Germony? And do you have anything from Ferenginar to drink?!"

Before Hans replied, he looked at Myne, eyeing her carefully to see if she had suffered a head injury. Not seeing one. He smiled and laughed in good humor. "Fraulein is a German word. Not a germ, Germany is a nation on Earth. It was my home. Now Elysium is my home. You have a delightful sense of humor." Hans paused as he thought of his on-hand liquors. "From Ferenginar? You are in luck little one. I have some Ferenginar drinks on hand. They are not acholic, however. I have some Slug-o- Cola, if that would suit you."

"A nation on Earth?" Myne finally took a seat on a bar stool and rested her elbows on the counter as she eyed Hans. "I thought Earth was occupied by the Federation. Didn't know there were still other political entities on Earth. Just how divided are Humans?!" She asked with barely hidden curiosity, big eyes, and an expression that showed no humor or attempt at it. "Slug-o-Cola sounds amazing, thank you. So you speak a different language than the rest of the Humans? This German thing? So if the Starfleet Academy is on the long top-down continent, that means that the Federation clearly controls that one. Does that mean Germony controls the big Gorn-looking continent, of the weird cephalopod-looking huge continent or the tiny hat-looking one?"

Listening to Myne, Hans was convinced she had suffered some type of traumatic head injury and would humor her until medical personnel arrived. "One Slug-o-Cola coming up!" He exclaimed happily. "Little one, the Federation is Earth. However, there are still individual nations, but they are all under the same government. Germany is part of what is considered Europe. Starfleet Academy is in what is known as the United States." He paused as he tried to remember all of Myne's rapid fire questions. "German is the native tongue to all Germans but we speak Federation standard as well as that is recognized as the official language of Earth." He plopped down a tall, cold glass of Slug-o-Cola as well as a small bowl of pretzels, if she decided to snack. "One ice cold Slug-0- Cola for you Myne, enjoy."

Accepting the glass, Myne took a few hearty gulps and relaxed, savoring the aftertaste of the delicious drink. "Thank you, nothing beats a Slug-o-Cola honestly. So are you telling me that Humans aren't actually united? You still have old nation-states going about? Basically like Klingon Clans? That is so wonderfully archaic. Always thought that Earth had shot past the rest of us in terms of societal evolution, but it is nice to hear it is still so humorously... erm... backward, no offense."

Hans chuckled at Mune's question. " You are welcome little one. I am pleased you are enjoying it. No offense taken in asking honest questions. It is how one learns about the world or galaxy around them." Hans replied with a smile before continuing. "The Earth is united however individual nations still exist. As does their sovereignty." He pushed the bowl of pretzels toward her, "Have a pretzel or two. They are quite good, as for being backward, I do not think so. I believe it to be most enlightened. A single world government that still recognizes individual nations and its people."

Shaking her head politely at the offer of pretzels, Myne took another swig from her glass. "But doesn't that make things just a lot harder to manage? I take it these nations do not have a impact on Federation politics, so doesn't that just mean they make it complicated and difficult to manage the planet itself? How many are there though? That kinda counts I guess. Like five? Four? One for each continent? That would actually make sense now that I think about it."

"There is the European Union. The Asian Syndicate. The America's Confederation, The Australian-New Zealand Alliance. So four or at least the four biggest. The give their views and opinions on matters that are important to the region to the world government based in The Hauge which has the final say." Hans smiled at Myne as he picked up a pretzel and nibbled on it. "Glad you approve."

"Wait, so where does the Germany and the United States fit in then? I am getting confused again. But yeah, with four big entities then to administrate parts of the planet, that does make sense. I can get behind that, it is rather sensible." Quite oblivious to the pretzels, Myne continues to sip from her drink while completely engrossed in learning more about Human politics.

"The United States is the leader in the America's Confederation which also makes up Mexico, Central and South America and Canada. Germany is the leader of the European Union." Hans watched Myne drink her Slug-o-Cola and ever the bartender asked, "Would you like a refill of your drink?"

Lost in thought for a moment, Myne tipped the glass over and handed it over to Hans. "Yeah, refill, thank you. So let me get this straight. Earth has states that are formed out of states that, if I am reading into the United States properly, are formed out of states themselves? So states in states in states? Do those even smaller states have more states inside of them? We're back to humans being very complicated once more!"

Hans was silent as he refilled Myne's drink and handed it back to her. He smiled at her barrage of questions. "Earth has nations, some of these nations have states, like the United States. Some have provinces like Canada. All have smaller communities inside them called counties. In these counties you have various cities and towns and villages." He smiled "It can be complicated little one, but it makes sense if you think about it. Villages are the smallest, then towns and cities. A union of counties make a state and a union of states make a nation."

Taking back her glass and sipping eagerly from it once again, Myne nodded eagerly. "Yep yep, that is right mister barman sir. All of those make sense, just not in a planetary administration scale. Or well, you know, galactic administration scale. It would be like the Federation being organized into two large sectors, one for each quadrant, then each large sector broken down into sub-sectors that are drawn by large grouped constellations, then mini sectors drawn around individual constellations, then system-wide sectors, then each planetary system divided into system sectors based on the geography of each system and so on and so forth. Sounds just so over complicated, right? On Trill and most other worlds of the Federation, unlike Earth, you have settlements, which can be as you said from towns, cities to villages, and all of them are overseen depending on their geography to one degree or another. So you get one entity to administrate the planet or lead it, and below that entity you get a handful of entities dividing the planet into chunks and below them you have the settlements themselves. See? Three steps, not..." Myne began to count on her fingers. "Six steps like on Earth. Sooo complicated!!"

Hans listened patiently as Myne spoke in rapid fire fashion giving her opinion on world and planetary governments. "My friend you have discovered the secret of government, Governments my friend take the following approach. "Why make things simple when we can make them hard?" By making things hard, no one has a clue to what is going on including the government and everything is open to interpretation. It is how governments operate. Make everything has complex as possible. It is why very little changes. Governments come and go but everything basically remains the same. Perhaps you should send a suggestion to the government of Earth pushing your idea. You can call it the Myne plan."

"That is a strange approach to have. Even after half a century and you humans still baffle me. But at least you run very decent bars. This one wasn't here before. What's it called?" Myne asked shaking her head and moving away from the Earth talk, clearly feeling a headache coming her way. Humans always complicated things so needlessly.

Hans nodded at Myne's comment. "To be honest, we baffle me at times on our approach to things. It is what makes us special." He finished with a laugh. Changing subjects, he addressed Myne's question. "It is called the Igloo and you are right it wasn't here before. It was on the planet and when we returned to the ship, I decided to continue it."

"Here's to the igloo!! And to the wonderous super powers of bafflement of humankind!" Myne raised her glass to toast Hans before finishing her drink. "Thank you for the drink. Might as well go enjoy the rest of my day off, find a handsome man and do stuff to or with him. What do I owe for the drinks?"

Hans smiled at Myne's toast. "Here is to the Igloo and to a new friendship! As for the drinks you owe me nothing other than a promise to return more often to the Igloo, so We may have more wonderful conversations."

"Hihi, thank you. I'll make sure to come back. For a regular dose of bafflement at the very least. Just make sure to stock up on Ferengi drinks for me and some snacks if you can get your hands on them." With a wink and a playful salute, Myne turned on her heels and casually made her way out towards her favorite cargobay.

"I promise to have both a healthy supply of Ferengi drinks as well as Ferengi snacks my young friend. I am sure I can find some sort of a bafflement that we can discuss." Hans said with a happy grin.