Darkened Stars - Chapter 22

Darkened Stars - Chapter 22

Stardate 29392.5 - May 23, 2352, Time: 15:55:00

On the scale of things Rain would fully admit that she had been expecting more along the lines of something Lady Gaga would wear than the slinky but tasteful blood red dress that had arrived for her.

Though she was still scratching her head at how Sorren had gotten her sizes so perfect given that even she wasn't completely sure of them. And she certainly couldn't recall standing around for someone to take a scan during her time on the planet.

“I knew that color would suit you my dear.” Sorren offered with a charming grin as she slid into this aircar.

“Red certainly is one of my colors.” Rain agreed as she returned his grin with the same type of sedate smile she'd seen Gemma put on when a particularly important client walked through the door. “And I'll fully admit, this may be the most impressive dress I've ever worn.”

It was also the only dress she'd ever worn, and she'd needed to get Lara's help to even figure out how to wear and move around in the thing without running the constant risk of important parts falling out at inopportune moments. Something that had been made all the more awkward by the fact that the woman's picture perfect resemblance to Linda Park continued to leave the Asari equal parts disturbed and horny.

Sorren’s eyes traced up and down her form as the aircar rose into the sky and began its trip to the art gallery. “My people do good work.”

His people had also given her high heels, and it was only through the grace of whatever gods were responsible for the Asari race's sense of spatial balance that she could actually walk in the damn things without feeling like she was about to topple over the moment a slight breeze hit her.

“Any chance you can tell me your secret?” Rain inquired good naturedly, feeling the need to fill what would otherwise be any awkward silence with small talk. “Because I'm on the lookout for people to fill certain positions and have never really done proper recruiting before.”

“Hire Risians.” He returned with a light chuckle. “And whatever you do, don’t hire Terrans. Sure, sometimes you’ll find one that will stay loyal, but it’s almost never worth the trouble of dealing with all the ones that won’t.”

That moderately tracked track with her own experiences with Terrans, but she would say it was more the really ambitious ones that were an actual problem. Though that may have just been her own skewed perspective at work given she wasn’t exactly what others would consider a ‘soft target’.

“Hiring Risians feels like it’s something that’s easier said than done when it involves work that will take them away from Risa.” She put forward in a slightly impish tone, that fact alone having been enough for her to not even try given how much it would mean she would likely need to pay to draw in said Risians.

Sorren nodded before giving her a wry grin. “True enough. You wouldn’t believe the lengths we have to go through to fill up the ranks of system patrol.”

She would certainly keep that in mind for her future dealings with any Risian patrol vessels, as years of experience told her that unhappy people had a tendency to try and take that unhappiness out on others. And the last thing she needed was to end up on an entire government orginization’s shit list because a bent out of shape patrol captain didn’t like how she treated him and decided she needed to be taken down a peg.

“How much farther is it to the museum anyways?” Rain asked in confusion as the minutes continued to tick by without their arrival.

Her escort for the evening took a moment to look out at the window. “We’re over the ocean now, so probably another twenty minutes to get to the island.”

“We’d normally be taking a transporter of course.” He continued with a pitying shake of his head to show he thought doing otherwise was silly. “But the Imperator brought out some of her personal collection for the event. And she insisted all transporter activity on or off the island be restricted so long as it’s on display.”

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When Rain had heard 'living art’ her immediate thought had been some sort of moving sculptures, or maybe something to do with plants. What had absolutely not been on her list, was that the 'living art’ would be living humanoids of various alien species posed naked and then stuck in stasis fields.

In hindsight it probably should have, since it was the sort of horrible thing that felt absolutely on brand for people in the mirror universe to do. But it hadn’t, and all the Asari could do as they walked past the various displays was put a fake smile on her face and pretend to be impressed.

“It's certainly an interesting style.” She offered as they walked past a Romulan woman and Vulcan man locked together as if they were either about to have sex or kill each other. A likely purposeful posing given the placard in front of the pair read ‘A War's Passionate End’.

“A bit too static for my personal tastes.” Sorren confessed as they walked past a few other small groups of Risians viewing the displays on their way to the reception hall. “But it's favored by the majority of those currently in power, and I'll admit, you do occasionally see one with an interesting story.”

The last was said as they walked past a vaguely familiar Terran woman of Asian descent clutching a knife and snarling at some unseen foe.

“Empire's Last.” Sorren commented as he followed her gaze. “If you can believe it, she was actually the Captain of the Empire's last remaining battlecruiser after the fall of Terra. She caused quite a large number of problems for the Alliance before one of our proconsuls caught her as part of Risa's bid to join.”

Rain bit back her immediate urge to declare whoever had decided to display the Terran woman out in the open like this an utter idiot. Because it wasn’t her job to criticize the Risian's for what was almost surely a monumental level of ego driven incompetence that would one day come back to bite them in the ass.

“The Regent probably got a good laugh at it.” She said as she turned away and continued walking.

Sorren smirked. “When he finished he confessed to the Imperator that it was a suitably dishonorable end for a dishonorable foe.”

That certainly sounded like something she’d expect to hear from Gorkon given what she’d read about the Klingon’s personality. He’d been known to have a spiteful streak a lightyear long for a reason, to the point it was rumored that he had taken Spock’s refusal to form an alliance at Khitomer so personally that he had allied with the Cardassians just to crush the Vulcan’s new government.

“Please stay next to me till after we have greeted the Imperator.” Sorren directed as they entered the building's semi-crowded reception hall. 

She utterly failed at keeping the impressed look off her face as she glanced around the richly appointed interior, wondering as she did if this was how rich people always did things since, even on Earth, she’d never really seen a rich person party outside of the dramatized versions that showed up on television.

“Let’s see.” Sorren murmured as his eyes flicked from finely dressed guest to finely dressed guest. “Now where would she… Ah…”

Following his eyeline, Rain saw a willowy finely dressed woman with long dark hair and fair skin who looked to be in her early thirties, though that wasn’t exactly saying much about her actual age given the miracles modern plastic surgery was capable of.

Sorren quickly strode over to the woman, Rain following suit since she very much didn’t want to risk stepping on toes by not following what could very well be required etiquette of some kind.

“Mellana.” He greeted the tall woman as she turned away from the pair of Risian’s she had been conversing with, with a look of clear disinterest in her eyes. “Your beauty continues to be as breathtaking as the aurion sea on a solstice eve’s dusk.”

“Sorren.” Mellana returned primly as an almost amused smirk graced the corner of her lips. “I see you still have a way with words.”

She turned to Rain, raising a single professionally sculpted eyebrow as she took in the Asari’s form. “And who is this?”

“My new business associate.” Sorren answered before Rain could say anything. “Raine, daughter of Liara, member of House Pelkar. She’s going to be running some cargo for me in between hunting down the perpetrators of that nasty bombing on Terra a couple weeks back.”

“Lady Mellana.” She greeted with a faux smile to hide her shock at the man having a level of information about her that she was pretty sure should only be available to people with moderate level access to secure Cardassian and Klingon files. “Sorren has told me nothing but good things.”

Sorren had told her absolutely nothing about the woman outside of mentioning that her collection was responsible for the high level of security, but it never hurt to be polite.

“Oh?” Mellana returned as her eyes flicked over to Sorren with a sudden dangerous playfulness. “I’d be interested in hearing those.”

The last was said in a tone that made it clear Mellana wasn’t asking so much as ordering, and the Asari had to hold back a cringe at the fact she may have just stepped in the middle of something she wasn’t even remotely aware of. 

“Well, given the circumstances it was mostly about your excellent taste in art.” Rain demurred as she gave the other woman a somewhat apologetic smile. “And I have to say, seeing the Empire’s Last was particularly thrilling on my part given the trouble she caused the Alliance back in the day.”

That was a complete shot in the dark on her part, but it tracked with the increased security and mention of the Imperator at the time conversing with Gorken about it.

“My father was the one who captured her, you know.” Mellana laughed, clearly pleased with the topic of Rain’s answer. “He spent the better part of a year convincing her that Risa would be a safe port for her little crusade. And then when she finally showed up, he seduced her into bed and sprang the trap, catching her and a good third of the Enterprise-B’s crew.”

Mellana sighed and shook her head sadly. “It’s just a pity he wasn’t able to capture the ship itself. Though since it hasn’t been seen since I suppose it was the next best thing.”

Rain continued smiling, though internally she was fighting back a cringe since the Imperator’s story felt like a narrative that would end with someone freeing the captain so she could reclaim her ship from wherever it had been hidden to try and restore the Terran Empire.

“A success which you have used to propel Risa to its current heights.” Rain added in as she shot the woman a suitably impressed look. 

“Indeed.” Mellana agreed with an acknowledging tilt of her head before waving them off. “I wish I could continue this, but it seems proconsul Naral wants me attention.”

With that she walked off, and Rain turned to look at Sorren to see the man letting out a sigh of relief.

“Good choice with the sidestep there.” He complimented her. “It always puts Mellana in a good mood to tell new people about her family history.”

“Klingons are the same way.” Rain informed him with a quirk lipped grin, leaving out the correction that she hadn’t actually known it had been the woman’s father who had captured the Terran captain. “I believe you were going to introduce me to Nira now?”

“I suppose it’s time for that.” Sorren conceded as his eyes roamed over the crowd before settling on a short dark skinned woman in a silver dress idling around the hors d'oeuvre table. “That will be her. Come along.”

He skillfully maneuvered through the various people, Rain following more cautiously behind him since while she was steady enough on heels, she wasn’t entirely sure of her ability to keep that stability if someone accidentally bumped into her.

The Arena owner gave an idle wave as they approached. “Nira my dear. Just the woman I was hoping to find.”

“Sorren.” Nira returned somewhat sourly as they walked up. “I’m surprised yo–

A loud familiar sound echoed out, and Rain barely had time to throw her all into her barrier before the force of an explosion slammed into her and everything went dark.

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Author’s Notes: When that little voice in the back of your head says you’re in the middle of a third party making a very bad decision, you should probably listen to it and get out.