Lt JG Imril - Knowledge Equals Profit
Chris Taylor
((Auditorium - Operations Center, Deck 5, USS Artemis-A ))
Imril tucked their padd away into their jacket as they entered the auditorium. Its screen was still open to an updated listing of The Rules Of Acquisition, each one tagged to a corresponding commentary.
Doctor Jaran was already there, Cole behind them. Tho’Bi, slumped in a chair by the door. Ever the information sponge, Imril chose a seat close to the stage, where Lt. Berman was already standing.
Bergmen: Hello, and welcome everybody! I’m Lieutenant Junior Grade Ollie Bergmen, Operations, for those who don’t know me, and I’ll be your lecturer today for our seminar on Ferenginar. This session should inform you about and help you learn the specifics of the Ferengi culture, their customs, and what to expect—or avoid—during your visit to Ferenginar on this shore leave.
Cole leaned forward.
Any: Response
Bergmen smiled charmingly as he took the clicker from the table and stepped forward.
Bergmen: I know some of you have a lot of work you need to attend, and some of you already can't wait to see the planet, so I won't drag it out too much today. This will be a little free to inform you based on your questions, yet we still need to point out some things within the mandatory topics, so let’s start with a little video…
Ollie clicked the clicker, and on the holoplatform next to him appeared a holographic Ferengi that began its speech for the Ferenginar official travel advertisement. Very much a sales pitch.
Bergmen: Exciting, right? Ferenginar has so much to offer! So, get a little temperature in this wonderful audience —please, raise your hands if you've already met some Ferengi or visited Ferenginar. What can you tell me about your experience?
Jaran: I've met a couple Ferengi. We would occasionally make trips to Deep Space 9 when I was a child, and I continued that tradition into adulthood. There were always Ferengi there, especially around Quark's. Even as a kid, they were always trying to sell me something.
Cole: Having met a few, I think they’re capable of growth. Just takes them a little longer. Like bonsai trees.
Tho'Bi: ::kindly:: I think many are happy as there are.
Imril: I’ve been to the original Quark’s a few times. I don't see why the holo-salesman is so defensive about Ferengi food. I like it. I'm planning to go on a restaurant crawl, if anyone's interested in joining me.
Given recent events, though, they would likely skip the fried spider legs wherever they ended up eating at.
Any: Response
Jira nodded along.
Jaran: Are we being a little harsh here, perhaps?
Cole: Jaran, I don’t think it's that simple. Clearly some ::gestures around:: of our crewmates have, unfortunately, had bad experiences and that has led them to have biases towards the Ferengi.
The young Andorian chuckled to himself.
Imril recalled an ugly incident with not a Ferengi, but an obnoxious Colonel on the Genesis Planet which the Artemis had been ordered to investigate. Evreste’s name was seared into their memory as an example of everything an officer should not be.
Imril: I had a bad day with a Da’al once. I’d like to think he isn’t representative of his whole civilization.
Bergmen/Any: Response
Cole: Personally I try not to judge an entire race solely on how a select few have chosen to conduct themselves, even if regrettably there are vast cultural differences that lead to preconceptions and assumptions.
Tho'Bi: ::nodding:: Yeah… everybody thinks Andorians just solve problems with knife fights ::pause for thought:: …I mean we do …but, still. …you know …bias.
Imril: It’s easy to think of all Andorians as duelists or Ferengi as greedy, when those traits are generally held up as a society’s most likely means to be successful in life. The people that succeed at being those things are the ones outsiders are more likely to interact with and be given impressions by. Take Grand Nagus Rom. He was pretty anonymous, for a Ferengi. Just some guy who was better at engineering than profit-generating, tinkering away in the background out of view while his brother openly and eagerly chased latinum… Until, one day, he was running Ferengenar and challenging some of the things his people are stereotyped for.
Tales of Rom, and of his equally-noteworthy son Nog, were shared freely and happily with Imril whenever they had been to Quark’s. (In part, perhaps, because it was good marketing to associate the establishment with its most famous former employees).
Bergmen/Cole/Jaran/Any: Response
Tho'Bi: What they have …works for them. …Profit is their knife fight.
Imril: And the Rules Of Acquisition their Art Of War.
Bergmen/Cole/Jaran/Any: Response
Tho'Bi: Maybe the real bias is The Federation's insistence we know best…
Imril nodded solemnly, in total agreement.
Imril: The Federation has done things that leave a bad taste in some mouths, too. The treatment of Synths after Mars, for instance. And augments and ex-Bs who were changed or assimilated against their will. All that suspicion and discrimination, over horrible things which none of them were responsible for.
If the class wanted to be there all day, someone could get Imril started on the inconsistent application of the Prime Directive.
Bergmen/Cole/Jaran/Tho'Bi/Any: Response
(OOC: This email is brought to you by Legends Of The Ferengi! Now available in audiobook format!)
TAG/TBC
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Lieutenant JG Imril
Engineering Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240110I12