Darkened Stars - Chapter 21

Darkened Stars - Chapter 21

Stardate 29386.5 - May 21, 2352 - 11:00:57

Trudging up the walkway to the small islet the Deathwind had landed on, a near permanent blush stained Rain's cheeks as she couldn't help but feel every person she passed on the way back had been staring at her naked ass.

It wasn't remotely logical, not the least because her feminine modesty was normally something that could be considered barely formed at best, but either this walk of shame had somehow jump started it to being fully formed, or she had even more issues than she previously thought.

Her one hope was that she'd be able to get back to her cabin with the bare minimum of people she actually knew seeing her naked, because she had enough trouble looking her overly hot crew in the face as is. And she very much did not need to add that further fuel to the already blazing bonfire that were her teenage hormones.

Stepping onto the landing islet, she stopped dead as something shifting on the beach caught her attention, and almost of it’s own accord she found her head tilting to try and get a better view of the familiar and very naked Vulcan woman who seemed to be sleeping on top of an equally familiar and naked half-Cardassian.

“This is Q fucking with me isn't it.” Rain muttered as she dragged her eyes away from the sight to continue to the ship only to nearly run into a bleary eyed Keiko.

“Morning.” She offered as she gave an awkward wave that she hoped would lead the other woman to think everything was completely normal. “No trouble while I was gone?”

“We had a beach party.” Keiko said simply as her eyes noticeably flicked across Rain's body paint covered form.

That was moderately impressive given Rain had thrown that out as more of a best case scenario then anything she'd actually expected they'd do.

She narrowed her eyes in sudden suspicion at the Japanese woman. “Nobody died, right?”

Keiko seemed to take a moment to consider the question before shrugging. “Possibly Korak if Strelka caught him.”

“Ah…” Rain muttered, still not completely sure what was going on with that pair given the way they seemed to constantly butt heads with one another about everything under the sun. “I suppose he'll either be okay, or he won't.”

A moment passed before Rain realized she had literally just listed the only two options available, and the Asari hung her head and signed, because it was very obvious she was still not operating anywhere near her best.

“I have a hangover.” She explained with a grimace upon seeing the odd look Keiko was giving her. “I'm going to go back to the ship and get cleaned up, maybe see if I can squeeze myself into whatever extra clothing we have around so I'm not running around with my bits hanging out.”

“Couldn't you have just bought something from a store?” Keiko inquired in a slightly confused tone as Rain began to walk past.

Rain's eye ridge twitched, the sudden realization that she could in fact have done just that the absolute last nail in the coffin of her morning. “Fuck it, I'm taking the rest of today off.”

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Stardate 29389.4 - May 22, 2352 - 12:29:22

Prior to taking a day off, Rain hadn't thought she actually needed a day off, which just went to show that she was an absolutely horrible judge of her own mental state. Because a day laying in bed snacking on salty foods and watching the local equivalent of reality television without anybody bothering her had left the Asari feeling remarkably relaxed.

A feeling that had lasted all the way until her third ‘please hold while I transfer you to someone who can help you with that’ of the mornings attempt to get in contact with ‘Supervisor’ Nira.

“Yes.” She told the extraordinarily generic Risian woman on the other side of the communications link. “Captain Raine, of the Deathwind. It’s the green Orion ship parked on landing islet forty-seven.”

“I see.” The woman on the other end of the line murmured as she quickly typed something into the computer in front of her. “And you wish to arrange a sales appointment with Proconsul Nira?”

“I was hoping to.” Rain bit out with faux politeness, having made a promise to herself long ago to try and not take her annoyance out on people who were just doing their jobs.

“And you say you’ve already tried stellar imports and they sent you to us?” The woman inquired in a practiced tone.

“Procurement sent me to hosting, who sent me to resource management, who sent me to port control, who sent me to public works, who sent me back to procurement, who directed me to stellar imports, who finally gave me your offices com code.” 

And if they tried to transfer her one more time she was going down to city control in person to start threatening to do property damage.

“Very well.” The Risian woman said as she typed more. “I've inserted your name into the next opening Proconsul Nira has in her schedule, which should be seventeen days from now at eleven hundred hours.”

With that the screen went blank, leaving Rain to blink owlishly at the device for a moment before reaching over to grab one of the pillows next her desk chair and just squishing it with all the physical strength she could muster.

It took nearly five minutes for Rain’s urge blow up several buildings to die down to a point where she wasn’t seriously contemplating mass murder, at which point the decision had fully cemented in her mind that seventeen days on Risa would likely drain both her bank account and patience to the point she would end up taking several very regrettable actions.

“Contact Sorren Grest of the Fighting Caracal arena.” She ordered the computer, more than a little glad Nezia had sprung for a voice control system for her personal desktop interface.

Music started playing as the blank screen switched to a happy animation of a small anthropomorphic cat-like creature fighting its way through various other anthropomorphic animals.

She was just about ready to pull out her padd for some light reading when the screen changed to show Sorren Grest sitting in a very rich looking leather back chair.

“Lady Raine.” He greeted, leaning forward slightly in his chair to shoot her a charming grin. “It’s good to see you again.”

Rain returned his smile with one of her own. “Sorren. Thank you for taking my call so quickly, I was more then a bit worried I’d end up having to go through Torra again.”

“I’ve always found it good business to handle people above a certain level of importance myself.” Sorren returned with a secretive smile that made Rain feel distinctly like the man was plotting something. “Since I doubt this is a social call, I take it you are hoping for some help getting in contact with Nira?”

That the Arena owner was able to deduce her problem as easily as he had was enough to tell Rain that she could probably have saved herself an entire morning of aggravation by contacting him to act as an intermediary from the start. A rather depressing thought all things considered given the only reason she hadn’t was because something about him just made her generally uncomfortable in a way she couldn’t quite put words to.

“Would that be possible?” Rain pleaded, unable to entirely keep the hopeful tone out of her voice at the thought of finally getting this entire issue dealt with.

Sorren crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “Of course. Though I’m afraid to say the soonest I could possibly do so would be tomorrow night.” 

An oddly specific time that suggested to Rain that there might be more involved than just calling the woman over the planet's communication system. 

“Is there a reason you can’t just call her now?”

“Nira refuses to discuss business over coms.” Sorren explained as he gave a pitying shake of his head. “And my next chance to talk to her won't be until the gala at the living art museum tomorrow night.”

Rain eyes brightened, as she could absolutely work with that. And tomorrow night was a lot better than waiting another two plus weeks for an appointment that might not happen anyways.

“It's invitation only.” Sorren offered with an amused smile, having apparently read her plans by the look on her face. 

Because of course it was, after all, in the mirror universe nothing but killing people seemed to be easy. 

“Is there any chance you could get me an invitation?” Rain asked, desperately hoping he wouldn't ask for more than she could afford in exchange for the favor.

“At this short notice I'm afraid that would be quite impossible.” Sorren demurred as he rubbed his chin in thought. “However I could bring you along as my plus one if you'd be willing to do me a small favor afterwards.”

Alarms began going off in Rain's head at that, as years of small favors that turned into large ones warned her not to accept without first finding out exactly what he wanted her to so.

“And that favor would be?” She inquired hesitantly.

“Nothing too troublesome for a member of a Klingon house.” Sorren returned with a smirk. “Just a time sensitive package I need transported to Trill by someone who won't have to worry about stopping for Cardassian inspections every couple light years.”

Which probably meant smuggling, but on the scale of various objectionable activities something like that didn't even really register to Rain at this point.

“I can do that.” She agreed with a nod. “But my ship won't be leaving till I sell my current cargo.”

Sorren clapped his hand together as he gave her a grin. “Excellent! I'll have a dress sent over to your ship for tomorrow night. Be ready at your islets hovercar landing site by sixteen hundred hours.” 

“I… Ah… Sure…” Rain stuttered as the stark realization that she'd technically just agreed to go out on a date with the man settled over her.

“I wish you a good day then, Raine.” Sorren finished, looking every bit that cat that just caught the canary as he tapped a control on his desk and the screen returned to its default blank state.

She grabbed her pillow again, this time burying her head in it and screaming.

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Three days into her visit to Risa, Keiko was almost ready to admit to herself that maybe she actually liked the place. Day or night the weather was functionally perfect, the air clear in a way she had never really experienced on Terra, and practicing her sword forms on the sandy beach as the twin suns rose had a charm she didn't know she was missing in her life.

Even the various bits of drama that she'd had to deal with during their week on the ship seemed to be petering out, a relief on multiple levels given she was coming to realize she was very much not cut out for dealing with the absolutely huge amount of bullshit that came with being adjacent to the person in charge.

There was one downside to the place, and that was the Risians themselves. Or more specifically, the Risians she had thrice caught sneaking around the landing islet pretending to be the more numerous ones who just seemed to want to party, have sex, or sell them dubious quality pharmaceuticals.

Thankfully they hadn't made a move to try and board the ship, yet. But Keiko suspected it was only a matter of time till they did, though hopefully Raine would give her the go ahead to bring one in for interrogation before it reached that point.

She frowned upon seeing a Risian man, carrying a rather large box of some kind, walking towards the chair she had set up next to their ship's boarding ramp.

“Delivery for Raine, daughter of Liara.” The man offered in the curt tone of someone in the service industry who absolutely knew their place in life. 

Keiko hadn't known Raine's mothers name was Liara, so that was moderately interesting to find out given she had been leaning more towards the blue woman being a partially successful Klingon bioweapon of some kind.

“What is it?” She asked the man as she reached down to her belt to grab the old Empire scanner she'd found in one of the ship's equipment stores.

“Delivery from Miriam's fine apparel.” He returned simply as she ran the scanner over the box, and then relaxed slightly when the results came back with nothing.

“I'll bring it to her.” Keiko said as she grabbed the box from the man, mildly curious just what sort of outfit she had ended up getting after all the complaining she had heard the blue woman do about Orion attire.

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Author’s Notes: Rain, you’re a Klingon now, going to city hall and punching people till you get an appointment is a perfectly valid way of doing things.