Krill was mildly uncomfortable, and so was Sunny. They had all been invited to what the humans described as a "black tie" event on mars mostly for political delegations, rich sponsors, a couple of famous people, and the occasional member of the UNSC or the GA. Most of the GA reps were Rundi since they tended to like this political sort of thing. There was at least one Tesraki, who had made the executive decision to come since he saw financial opportunity in getting to know some rich humans.

Sunny had been invited to stand in for the Drev counselor, who could not attend due to some issues back on Anum. Dr Krill and Dr. Katie had been invited to attend the event in case medical personnel were required for any reason.

Adam was the only one who had been invited for himself.

The black tie event had been sent by way of a physical letter which Adam had called, "Excessively pretentious." in a day and age where everything was sent electronically. The fact they had managed to get a letter to him out in the middle of space in the first place was pretty impressive.

Sunny hadn't really known or cared what all of this meant, but Adam had been nervous and very serious about the dress code. Despite thinking the entire thing was pretentious, that didn't stop him from immediately sending away for his mother's help.

Sunny was, of course, encouraged to wear ceremonial formal armor to the event.

Krill was keeping very close track of this odd human behavior constantly asking questions as Adam was preparing himself.

"Why don't you just wear a regular suit?"

"Because that would be a social faux pas."

"A what?"

He sighed, "I don't know, it's french or something. I think it's a ballet term. IT just means it would be a social screw up and people would totally judge me for it."

"They would judge you for wearing the wrong thing?" Krill wondered curiously.

Adam nodded, "That is the point of these parties, and has been for the last two and a half thousand years. These parties are honestly just the biggest pissing contests where people try to out dress each other in subtle ways, and the old people who know what they are doing make fun of the new people for having no idea how to do it properly."

Krill looked interested, "how fascinating. So it is a way to show your status subtly."

"Oh yes. Status is a big deal. It started to go out of style for a while, but this whole adherence to dress code has come back with a vengeance in the last few years. The fashion world has seen an upheaval in pretentiousness, and celebrities have been laughed out of parties for trying to be avant-garde."

"To be what?"

"Sorry, pretty sure that's also french too. It means new, interesting, or out of the ordinary usually to make a statement."

Sunny leaned in a little, "And they expect an air force commander to know how to properly dress for black tie?"

"They don't, which is why they invited me. I am supposed to make others look good by looking bad. Of course I also make them look good by being invited in the first place. Of course joke's on them because i have a secret weapon on my side..." He patted the front of his shirt, "Thank you mother."

"I am now confused."

Adam waved a hand, "Yeah, I know, It's pretty stupid

"I thought you recently decided that you like dressing up." The human turned in place a couple of times in front of the mirror trying to get a better view of himself, "Correction, I have always enjoyed dressing up – got that from my mom – what I don't enjoy is the pissing contest that comes along with it.

"What is that?"

"Bow tie."

"You look like someone's Christmas present."

He adjusted the bow tie, "Well than someone is getting a sexy as fuck Christmas present now aren't they."

He buttoned up the front of the 'waistcoat' and pulled on the jacket.

When he was done, the two aliens had to admit that he really did stand out, all in black black pants black tuxedo jacket, cuff links, black tie, black waistcoat, and a purple/blue carnation threaded through the buttonhole on the lapel.

His shoes were almost as reflective as the mirror behind him.

"How do I look?"

"Like a goofy idiot, but the suit wasn't going to change that." He lifted a finger to flip Sunny off.

"Not very dapper of you." Katie said from the doorway.

They looked up to see Katie, who had also commissioned a dress from Martha, and honestly made Adam look a little plain.

"Ready to go."

"As I will ever be."

***

Krill kept a shrewd eye on all the strange human protocols. As far as dressing up went Krill could immediately see who the in-crowd included. Ost of those people understood the rules Adam had laid out for him wearing the proper evening attire, where those not in the-in wore clothing that approximated the rules but missed them on several occasions.

The way the evening was set up was a little bit more like a 'ball' as Adam described being announced as they were walked in, and then ordered to mingle with the crowd. Adam and Katie got a few glances from the in-group who seemed surprised that a simple ship captain would known anything about formal evening attire.

Sunny just found the entire thing hilarious. All of this subtle dressing up to impress each other.

If Drev held balls, instead of dancing they would probably just beat each other to death.

But here, there were a lot of subtle clues and hints that went right over her and the Doctor's heads, while Adam seemed to know what he was doing.

As they walked in waiters offered Adam an alcoholic drink, while Krill received water, and sunny a rather strange tincture that was generally just water with plant flavoring. It was pretty good though so she didn't complain.

They were met on arriving by the event coordinator whose eyes opened wide when she saw Adam pausing and holding out a hand.

Due to the conflated and rather twisted nature of black tie events in the future, Adam took the hand, and bowed a bit lowering his head, a strange area between the less formal handshake and the more formal kiss on the hand, which was also not a thing in societies post WWIII

"Commander, I... you look..." She trailed off

Even to sunny it was clear the woman hadn't expected him to know anything.

He smiled icily at her.

Krill leaned in in fascination.

This was one of the most intriguing parts of humanity. The polite way in which they were totally rude to each other, "Well than you. My mother has a Ph.D in the information age and a masters in historical fashion."

That shut the woman up and she politely dismissed herself walking away straight back.

Adam smirked, "Her dress isn't the right length for an evening event."

"I thought she coordinated the event." Sunny muttered

"She couldn't coordinate herself out of a paper bag." He winked at Sunny and Krill, "You can't out-dress the son of a historical fashion expert. Simply not possible, she even used the correct materials." He tugged lightly at his jacket.

Dr. Katie had disappeared on entry leaving the three of them to wander about the room as Adam pointed out the other important people.

There were a few military commanders, rundi, and the aforementioned Tesraki. There were at least five major political leaders, and even larger handful of actors who had their hands in charities or political causes related to the event.

Adam was only halfway through his first drink when he was waylaid by one of the younger actors. Even Sunny could tell straight off that he was not dressed appropriately. He had clearly tried very hard, but his efforts were in vain. While everything looked alright from a distance, up close something was wrong about everything. The material of his jacket, the style of his shirt, the type of pants, the lapels on the coat, and even the patterned pocket square which should have been a solid color but wasn't.

He was joined by another group of men who then began some pretentious conversation about noticing how Adam was new to these sort of events. The way they spoke made it pretty clear they had no idea who he was or what the proper dress code was either.

Adam smiled and didn't say anything.

"And what do you do for a living?" One of them asked

"Simply a UNSC representative."

"Ah that explains a lot." They glanced down at him with pointed looks

The conversation continued. Sunn wondered why Adam didn't just shut them all up by telling them exactly who he was, but Krill had a theory that Adam was just playing with them as a human way to build up the moment so that he could socially crush them.

As humans do, their conversation wandered until it eventually moved around to the UNSC and other related topics.

One of the men nodded knowingly, "I am somewhat knowledgeable on the subject myself." Adam raised an eyebrow.

"Are you?"

"Well yes, I have a brother in law who flies shuttles and planes for the UNSC. Tell me, what is your opinion on the D-4 class engine on a F-90 darkfire. I honestly think they are rather overpowered for what is being asked of them."

Adam frowned, "The darkfire doesn't have a D-4 engine. That is a warp classification which-"

The man raised a hand, "No no. I heard my brother in law talking about it. Personally I think they should have just kept the jet engines they would have been plenty enough power to make it into orbit.

The Commander's face scrunched in confusion as he shook his head, "No, it's a fusion engine, and the jet engine can't fly in the upper atmosphere because there is no lift-"

"Look, Adam, was that your name. I generally tend to know what I am talking about. The darkfire jet engines would have plenty of power to make it into atmosphere,"

"But its a jet engine which implies it is for a plane and not for a rocket-"

The guy cut him off again and continued to ramble onward about how he took some engineering classes in college and would know what he was talking about. Since Adam Joined the UNSC and didn't go to college, that he probably didn't know anything at all, or at least that is what they said in not so many words.

Sunny was getting a bit annoyed and would like to have squished the guy, but Adam just shook his head at her.

She stayed silent and grumpy as the other men continued to correct Adam on knowledge of his own favorite aircraft.

"My brother owns a spaceship with a class E warp core one of them boasted."

Adam rolled his eyes, "There is no such thing-"

"My brother owns the craft, I am pretty sure I know what I am talking about. It's one of the most powerful cores in the galaxy."

"Um, I don't think."

"Yes the E is more powerful than the A. A ship like the Harbinger or the Enterprise would only make it part of the way across the galaxy but the-" He kept going.

Adam looked like he was dying but why didn't he say anything.

It was just then that someone appeared from the crowd. Sunny recognized a political figure they had met at GA summits on occasion.

He raised his glass and stepped into the group, "Ah commander! I am glad to see you could make it."

The group of men glanced at each other in confusion.

Adam nodded, "It's good to see you two counselor." He motioned to the group we were just having a fascinating discussion on warp engines."

"Oh yes." He turned to look at the men, "Than I am sure the commander has told you about his escapades as a darkfire pilot."

The satisfaction Sunny got from watching their faces was priceless, almost orgasmic. She could tell from the look on Adam's face that he was feeling similarly, "Well no we had not made it to the subject, "I was just going to explain to them how the duel E 20 engine has both a jet engine and a fusion engine. The jet engine for flying in atmosphere and the Fusion engine for moving out of atmosphere considering that the jet engine is not powerful enough to lift the craft without air buoyancy."

Sunny was laughing on the inside.

"Ah yes. I seem to recall a discussion along those lines. Tell me commander, what about the Harbinger's engine is it a class A-1."

Adam nodded, "Could potentially get you to the other side of the universe if you asked her. The classification system is A-D 1-4 on each, so my ship has one of the most powerful engines mankind has ever bothered to build."

He glanced out of the corner of his eye and the other men who were beginning to slink away.

Sunny chirped in pleasure.

The rep nodded as they left, "I heard the futility of your conversation from the other side of the room."

"Thanks for the help. I was dying inside."

The two men laughed and took their drinks.

Krill was very pleased with his examination on how humans subtly tried to one up each other with their dress and understanding of certain topics, though it seemed odd to him that someone would claim to be an expert when it was, in fact, their brother or brother in law who knew about the subject and not them.

But he supposed that was the social nature of humanity.