"Ambassador..."

"What?!" Ajan whirled on Renfred, who had gone pale as a sheet. He wiped his sweating palms nervously on the sides of his crumpled uniform shirt, chewing anxiously on his bottom lip. From beyond the bridge, sounds of battle could be heard: screams, yells and various other noises indicative of the [i]Fortuna[/i]'s crew getting slaughtered. Already the diplomat was beginning to feel like an animal cornered, the approaching pirates akin to grinning butchers. As if, thought Ajan, the news could get any worse. Renfred had been the absolute wrong choice for this mission, unless of course the Association thought him a laughingstock and had [i]dared[/i] enough to send with their beloved ambassador an escort of cretinous morons. And so Ajan held his breath, prepared for the verbal onslaught his idiot of a captain was about to unleash upon him.

"The escape pods are non-functional."

Ajan exploded. "[i]Non-functional[/i]?! This level of incompetency is absolutely preposterous!" He lunged, seizing the captain by his gold-embroidered lapels and giving the man a good, violent shake. It was like the terror he was experiencing was bubbling up into his eyes, wide and panicked, while his mind processed the dozens of ways they could be consequently dispatched. Blown out the airlock, shot with a superheated plasma bolt, beheaded, disintegrated...all these awful means of death only served to further reduce Ajan's nerves to jelly as he finally released Renfred and sagged against the control panel, mouth pressed tightly in an effort to hold back an oncoming swell of emotion. He would not bawl like an infant, he told himself. It was hardly the proper way for a man to present himself, especially one of such standing as he. 

"I'm sorry, Ambassador." Renfred piped up in an effort to redeem himself.

"Take that 'sorry' and shove it in that gaping orifice you call a -" The beginnings of what would've been a classless tirade was summarily interrupted by an incoming bolt, which struck barely a hair's breadth away from Ajan's cheek. Freezing, he raised his eyes to the door separating the bridge from the rest of the ship - a door which had been blown open. Through it barreled the surviving members of the crew, some running at full speed whilst others crawled pathetically on hands and knees, leaving smears of blood in their wake. The entire scene was sickening beyond compare, especially to Ajan who had never before witnessed first-hand the complexities of bloodshed. Nausea surged up his gut, and he pinched the bridge of his nose and gulped several lungfuls of air. This wasn't good at all. As the crew members formed a cluster, Ajan shoved several persons aside in order to get a better look at the [i]Fortuna[/i]'s conquerers. 

The woman who appeared to be the captain was dressed, oddly, like an antique from Earth's old days. The utter confusion and incredulity Ajan would've felt was largely overcome by his instinct for self-preservation, even as he pushed the trembling Renfred aside and cleared his throat, wanting to present himself as someone more than any ordinary crew member. He was dressed differently from the rest, in a dark, high-collared tunic with silver trim, white silk gloves and polished boots. A man of words and certainly not violence. He looked well-bred and positively expensive, something that he hoped would largely work to his advantage. "Ah...perhaps we may...[i]converse[/i]...before you proceed to fry us all?"