Cerulean Stars - Chapter 106

Chapter 106

Stardate 48468.1 - June 20, 2371 - 20:33:21

“So, I’m going to be having the grand opening of Quark's Treasure next month.” Quark put forward as he mixed her Supernova.

“Congratulations?” Raine returned questioningly, not exactly sure what had brought on this particular digression. “You continue to have the second best lobes for business of any Ferengi I've met.”

“The second best!?” Quark snapped, sounding honestly offended at the idea. “Have you been meeting with other Ferengi behind my back?”

Trying not to giggle at poking Quark's pride like that Raine ah you her head. “No. But lest you forget I've met Grand Nagus Zek.”

Quark tensed, looking over his left and then right shoulder in worry as if Zek might suddenly pop up and charge him for the unintentional presumption.

Letting out a silent sigh of relief he turned back to Raine with a genial smile on his lips. “Yes, well, I suppose second place is an all right position to hold.”

“Are you selling tickets to the opening?” Raine inquired in interest, her mind already going over the many varied wardrobe possibilities such an event would allow.

“Of course.” Quark returned with a toothy grin. “In fact, that's why I brought the subject up. You see, I'm handing out complimentary VIP tickets to all my business partners.”

“I'll take it.” Raine agreed without a second thought, only to frown slightly as a thought occurred to her. “How much would it be for a second? Because there's a good chance T'Rel will be back by then, and she'd probably enjoy the chance to watch whatever plot you're hatching in action.”

Quark held out his hands in protest. “Commander, you wound me. I can assure you my grand opening of Quark's Treasure is completely on the up and up.”

“Mhm.” Raine hummed, not buying for a second that there wasn't something at play besides the obvious.

“But a second VIP ticket would be ten strips.” Quark continued with the gleam of greed in his eyes as he handed Raine her drink.

A bit steep all things considered, but Raine wasn't exactly wanting for Latinum so she took a sip of her drink and nodded. “All right, put it on my tab, worse comes to worst and T'Rel's not back by then, I'll offer the extra ticket to Jadzia or Bashir.”

Either would probably appreciate the chance to fancy it up for the night.

“Jadzia already won a ticket from me a couple of nights ago during our weekly Tongo game.” Quark complained, sounding almost happy about it despite the fact he had probably lost more than just the ticket to her in that game.

“I should see about talking to Garrek before the rush hits.” Raine mused to herself. “Though given the Gratitude…”

A flash of red uniform drew her eye to one of the side doors, and Raine was left blinking in surprise at the instantly recognizable face connected to it that had just walked into the bar.

“Excuse me Quark.” She said as she stood up from the bar stool with a frown on her face “It looks like I have a problematic someone to deal with.”

With that she stalked over to the man who seemed to be scouting out the various people in the bar with the eye of a professional playboy on the hunt for this next conquest.

“William T. Riker!” She exclaimed in her best approximation of a woman scorned, causing the man to visibly flinch as he turned to her with a somewhat brittle grin.

“Hello there…” His eyes flicked from the chest of her uniform to her face before widening slightly in recognition. “Commander Brooks.”

“Don't you hello Commander Brooks me Riker!” Raine scolded as she shook a finger at the man who was almost surely an imposter given she knew for a fact the Enterprise was currently on the otherside of the Federation. “It's been seven years since our week together on Risa, did you really think you could just walk in here and pretend like you didn’t ghost me!?”

The amusing part of that particular lie was that she actually had run into Will Riker on Risa seven years ago. She had been there for one of her infrequent hookups with Jella, and he had been celebrating his soon to be posting on the Enterprise. 

She doubted the actual Will Riker would remember her though, as their entire interaction had been him somewhat drunkenly trying to hit on her before Jella had decided to cut that off at the pass by staking her claim on the Asari and pulling her down for a rather respectable kiss.

Riker processed her words, and for a brief moment she could see a mix of exasperation and panic flash across his features before settling on the resigned acceptance of a man who knew he was going to have to clean up someone else's mess.

“Sorry about that.” He put forward apologetically as he shot her a grin that she might have considered suave and charming without the beard. “Things were really hectic with my transfer, and well, you know the Enterprise, things never slow down.”

“Tell you what.” He continued with a motion to the bar. “How about I try and make it up to you a little by buying you a drink.”

“A drink?” Raine repeated, her skepticism not even remotely feigned given how cheap that suggested he thought her forgiveness for the faux slight might be.

“How about two?” Riker tried playfully as he held up a pair of fingers.

Staring deadeyed at the man, Raine really couldn't help herself. “Does that ever work?”

Sighing, Riker gave a wry shake of his head as he let his hand drop. “You'd be surprised. But you gotta give me something here.”

Reaching forward with an overly sweet smile on her lips, Raine set a hand on Riker’s shoulder as the man reflexively moved to minimize the possibility of her successfully kneeing him in the balls. A fair guess for what might have been about to happen if the circumstances were what she had been pretending they were.

“Do I?” 

She squeezed her fingers in a textbook example of the Vulcan Nerve Pinch, and Thomas Riker went down like a sack of potatoes.

“Eighteen years of practice to get that right!” Raine exclaimed as she pumped a fist, the sheer coolness of successfully pulling that off enough to distract from the sudden conspicuous silence of the room as the few people still around at this hour stared at her with varying looks of shock.

“Remind me never to piss you off.” Quark muttered, the Ferengi's voice a sudden reminder that she wasn't alone in the bar.

Cringing slightly at being caught acting like a preening teenager, Raine held up a finger to forestall any questions as she used her other hand to tap her combadge.

“Brooks to security, I need a pair of deputies at Quarks, I just caught someone impersonating a Starfleet officer.”

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Stardate 48468.2 - June 20, 2371 - 21:25:55

“How did you know it wasn't him?” Sisko asked as he studied the frowning Thomas Riker currently sitting on a bench in one of Deep Space Nine's security cells.

“I'd like to know that too.” Thomas groused, rubbing his shoulder in a way that suggested she had only barely just been successful with her nerve pinch.

“I've kept in touch with Ensign Sito since that thing in April.” Raine offered truthfully. “And she's mentioned how she's still waiting for transport back because the Enterprise is on some classified mission a hundred and forty odd light years away in the beta quadrant.”

“That's it?” Thomas exclaimed in disbelief, a feeling that seemed to be at least somewhat shared by Commander Sisko if the look he was shooting her was anything to go by.

“Also I never actually slept with him.” Raine added in with a smirk. “The actual William Riker ran off with this tail between his legs when he was beaten to the punch by my ex girlfriend.”

Sisko gave an acknowledging tilt of his head at that. “Good work Brooks.” He turned a less than amused glare on Thomas. “Now are you going to.tell me why you were impersonating Commander Riker, Lieutenant?”

“No.” Thomas began, crossing his arms and leaning back on the bench to rest against the wall. “I don't think I will.”

There were a number of ways to handle an interrogation, Odo for example preferred a combination of intimidation and sheer dogged persistence. A method that usually worked really well for him due mostly to the fact that he only really dealt with various types of garden variety criminals.

Raine on the other hand preferred a targeted combination of incentives, trickery, and psychologically manipulation.

“I'd guess feelings of comparative inadequacy to his twin” She put forward in a considering tone as she gave a somewhat flippant wave at the holding cell. “It's really the same sort of thing you see when certain people encounter more successful dimensional variations of themselves.”

Pursing his lips slightly, Sisko nodded in understanding. “Like you and Queen Tendi.”

She had to resist the immediate urge to object to that, as Queen of a government or not she had absolutely no desire to deal with all the bullshit her mirror universe counterpart likely had to deal with on a daily basis.

Though she guessed would admit, if only in the privacy of her own mind, that she was in fact the tiniest bit jealous that another version of her was having sex with Seven of Nine's counterpart.

“Heh.” Thomas laughed, shaking his head in clear derision. “That's really the route you're going to take with this? No wonder you took fifteen years to make Lieutenant Commander.”

Okay, Raine thought to herself, that was more than a tiny bit emotionally hurtful given her very real inadequacy issues. But then she really shouldn't have expected anything different given the man had spent two years stationed on Betazed.

“I suppose it's also possible you were just using Commander Riker's rank to try and pick up women.” Raine shot back judgingly.

“Brooks” Sisko scolded, likely thinking that particular insinuation was a step too far.

“Let her go on Commander.” Thomas said with a grin. “It's an enjoyable bit of theater before you ship me off for counseling.”

Raine held back a sigh, supposing that was the problem with people who knew the book just as well as you did.

Seeming to consider Thomas's words, Sisko scratched his chin before nodding to himself. “I believe your last councilor of record was Deanna Troi, wasn't it?”

Thomas's shoulders noticeably tensed at that, the beeline in on what might very well have been one of the man's biggest weak points, a stark reminder that Sisko hadn’t received his rank for nothing.

“It likely wouldn't be too much trouble for you to contact her, sir.” Raine added in as she furrowed her brow in consideration. “And I believe Ambassador Troi is coming down for the Gratitude Festival in a couple days, so if we did ship him off it would probably be on the same transport she takes back.”

Left unsaid was the fact that the Ambassador would almost surely read his mind, something that would be moderately illegal if they did it as part of an interrogation, but a-okay if it happened due to incidental action by a non-starfleet officer.

A look of real fear briefly flashed across Thomas’s face, though whether it was the idea of Ambassador Troi in general or because he knew they’d be on to him when she did read his mind about the mess Raine couldn’t quite say.

“Ambassador Troi’s coming down?” Sisko asked, turning to her with sudden alarm. “I haven’t heard anything about that.”

“She wants to surprise Constable Odo.” Raine offered with a thinly veiled smirk of amusement. “I only know because of the sector security grape vine.”

“Better him than us I suppose.” Sisko muttered half under his breath as before focusing back on Thomas. “So what will it be, Lieutenant Riker?”

Sisko’s lack of knowledge about Luxana’s impending visit seemed to have restored some of Thomas’s earlier confidence, likely under the suspicion that Raine was just making it up as part of her interrogation tactic. The joke would likely be on him however, as the Ambassador had in fact arranged for transport to Bajor using Starfleet channels with the specific goal of avoiding notice by Odo.

Leaning forward with his hands on his knees Thomas shot them a trademark Riker smirk. “I think I’ll take my chances with the Ambassador.”

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Author’s Notes: Thomas, you literally asked for the suffering coming your way.