Darkened Stars - Chapter 35

Chapter 35

Stardate 29501.7 - July 2, 2352 - 14:55:58

The Bajoran woman's lack of clothing was unfortunately the only thing Rain could really focus on at the moment given just how distracting the feeling of breasts caressing the back of her head was.

“Seriously!?” The Bajoran woman exclaimed, shifting slightly in a way that made Rain really wish she could murder her imagination. “That's what you're focusing on?”

“Your boobs are very distracting!” Rain whined, her mind constantly coming back to that fact even though she knew it absolutely wasn't the time.

“Prophets save me from horny women.” The Bajoran woman muttered.

“If you didn't want people to get horny for you, maybe you shouldn't jump on top of them without clothes on.” Rain snarked, feeling oddly petty about being called out like that.

“Because I so obviously had a choice in the matter.” The Bajoran woman shot back sassily. 

“But you know what?” She continued in a suddenly smug tone. “You're right, I shouldn't be naked. So tell your friend to strip.”

Glancing over to Keiko, it was clear to Rain that the Japanese woman was finding this whole situation more than a little bemusing as for once she looked distinctly unsure about just what she was supposed to be doing.

“No.” Keiko finally said.

“No?” The Bajoran woman repeated in clear confusion. “I have a knife to your friend's throat, this isn't a situation where you get to say no.”

“Yes, you have a knife to my throat.” Rain agreed, trying to focus on that instead of the other woman's twin distractions. “But I'm an Asari, we don't have important veins there.”

That wasn't even a lie as her medical exam had shown that the Asari equivalent to the carotid arteries were more towards the back of the neck underneath various bits of what she assumed evolution considered semi-protective fin cartilage. 

“You've gotta be shitting me.” The Bajoran woman muttered, attempting to shift her knife away only to stare in confusion at the biotic blue field firmly holding the weapon in place.

“Also that.” Rain added in, grabbing the shocked woman's thighs and prying them off so she could roll away from the Bajoran.

It was probably the nakedness talking, but Rain was finding it more than a little difficult to hold a grudge at the moment, though that didn't stop her from drawing her disruptor and pointing it at the Bajoran.

“Okay.” She began, noting now that she could get a full view of her that the Bajoran woman looked distinctly like she'd suffered through the full length of a Klingon bachelor party.

“Let's start over, I'm Rain.” She pointed with her free hand at Keiko. “That's Keiko.”

“Ro Alene Mudd.” The Bajoran woman finally offered.

Rain's train of thought once ground to a halt at the last name. “Mudd?” She repeated, unable to believe it given the sheer size of the galaxy. “As in the infamous Harry Mudd?”

Alene rolled her eyes. “My great grandfather, though given he had over two dozen kids by the time he croaked, that's not really saying much.”

Given what Rain knew of Harry Mudd, the mental picture of the scoundrel leaving a trail of pregnant women behind him wasn't particularly hard to imagine.

“Who's Harry Mudd?” Keiko inquired with a frown.

“How do you not know that!?” Rain demanded, unable to believe any Terran wouldn't have heard of him. “He was the Emperor.”

“For like a day.” Alene muttered, clearly having heard the story enough times in her life to be completely tired of it.

“Only important Emperors were Sato and Spock.” Keiko returned with a shrug, and Rain felt her eye ridge twitch, because that was very much not how learning history was supposed to work.

“Moving things along now that we've introduced ourselves.” Rain said, smiling slightly at Alene. “Would I be right in assuming you're the person who sent out the distress signal that brought us here?”

It would honestly be odd if the naked woman hanging out around the source of the distress signal wasn't, but Rain had seen enough episodes of Star Trek to know sometimes weird stuff happened.

“You’re here following the distress signal?” Alene asked, pulling herself up to her feet while shooting the still floating knife, the type of cautious look one gave to a particularly poisonous snake. 

“Yes.” Rain confirmed with a nod.

“The one I cobbled together two fucking years ago?” Alene continued, for some reason sounding more than a little put off by the idea.

“Yes.” Rain repeated, a thread of pity joining in on the tangle of very complicated emotions she was feeling at the moment.

“And you’re not here with Helane?” Alene asked.

“No idea who that is.” Rain confirmed with a shake of her head.

An ugly look flashed across Alene’s face before settling into a scowl. “She’s the reason I’m stuck here naked.”

Rain had honestly thought that was a personal choice given the abundance of fern-like plant life on the island that could have easily been made into a marginal level of covering. But she supposed there was probably a good bit more to the story of the Alene’s nakedness than her brief criticism suggested.

“Fair enough.” She said, cutting off her biotic hold and letting the knife drop to the ground. “I guess that means we’re here to rescue you.”

And the Asari didn’t feel nearly as hesitant about that now as she’d been only a few minutes ago. Which said several things about her current state of emotional maturity that she really didn’t want to dwell on at the moment.

“Uh huh.” Alene drawled in clear disbelief. “Let me guess, you were hoping to loot the refinery?”

“It was certainly part of the equation.” Rain confirmed, not seeing any point in denying the obvious.

“Jokes on you then.” Alene returned with a smirk as she bent down to grab her knife. “Place was picked clean years before I found it, only thing left now is the death bunker, and good luck getting in there without a small army at your back.”

If this were the Prime universe Rain would bet dollars to donuts that any bunker or the like would be for safeguarding Federation personnel in the case of disaster. Being in the Mirror universe however, the likelihood was much higher that it had been built with the idea of protecting the local overseer and any ill gotten valuables they had been able to squirrel away during their time in command.

And that made the Asari want to try and open it.

“Tell you what.” She put forward with a grin. “Take us to the death bunker and tell us everything you know about it, and I’ll consider that your rescue fee.”

Not that she had actually been planning to charge the woman a fee for rescuing her in the first place, but it had seemed like the captainy thing to say in the moment.

“Only if you throw in the jacket.” Alene said, pointing to the maroon faux leather jacket that Rain was currently wearing. “Because you’ve been staring at my breasts long enough that I should be getting credits back.”

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Author’s Notes: Short chapter today, and don’t really know about next week because Xenoblade X Definitive Edition is coming out and I’ve kind of budgeted that game as my “take time off to avoid burnout” game of the first quarter.