Transformed from a place of business and governmental sobriety, the atrium is freshly decorated with flowers and fresh cut boughs of fragrant pine to lend a festive air to this evenings gathering. Interwoven among the flowers and the boughs are multi colored lights that sparkle and cast the festive colors in bold relief. Banners are freshly starched and flutter in the evening breeze. A lavish banquet table occupies one entire wall of the atrium, plates and bowls set forth to accommodate the guests in attendance. Delicious fare to tempt the traditional human palate is interspersed with delicacies from all member planets of the Republic, representing the different tastes and cultures of the allied worlds. Servers clad in uniform white mingle among the guests, trays laden with drinks of all k