Darkened Stars - Chapter 18

Darkened Stars - Chapter 18

Stardate 29384.2 - May 20, 2352 - 14:48:00

Looking out at the clear sunny skies, sandy beaches, and crystal clear oceans of Risa from their ships landing platform, Rain couldn't help but wonder if maybe the horrible underbelly of the world might be worth living with if it meant getting to spend the next thousand plus years just forgetting her worries here.

“I don't like it, it's too bright.” Keiko muttered as she held her open palm to her forehead and squinted.

“That's called a sky without massive amounts of particulate matter in it.” Rain returned in a deadpan as she took a moment to just enjoy the warm sea breeze. “Unless you've had some genetic modifications done your eyes will adapt in a bit, and if it's still too bright then I'll get you a hat.”

And it would be a beach hat, in a happy color, because she desperately wanted to get the woman to wear something that didn't make her look dark and broody, no matter how attractive a look it was for her.

“Welcome committees on its way.” Keiko offered as she pointed to an approaching pair of humanoids.

Rain followed the Japanese woman's arm, and then tilted her head slightly as her eyes landed on the approaching pair, because PG-13 they were not.

They were a male and female Risian, mid twenties early thirties if Rain were to guess, and both attired only in speedo bottoms. A fact the Asari really appreciated given both could have had primary jobs as fitness models and Rain wouldn't have been the slightest bit surprised.

“Damn.” Keiko muttered, sounding more than a little impressed with what she was seeing. “Do you think he's for sale?”

“Probably not.” Rain admitted with a whisper as the pair approached, squashing the sudden surge of jealousy as she did. “But you might be able to rent him for a night.”

It was irrational Rain knew, not the least because she very much avoided focusing too much on her own appearance. But having someone she was very obviously attracted to stare at someone else that way just made Rain want to put on the hottest two piece bikini she could find and put on a show.

“Welcome to Risa” The female of the pair offered with a smile that for some reason instantly set alarm bells ringing in Rain's head. “Are you here to serve, or be served?”

Rain returned the Risian woman's smile with one of her own as she tried to focus her eyes anywhere but the other woman's unclad chest.  “I'm here to sell some slaves I took in honorable conquest, and possibly do some shopping.”

The shopping she'd most like to do was get a few proper replicators installed on the Deathwind instead of the bargain bin food synthesizers the ship currently had. Unfortunately that would require somewhere with an actual shipyard, till then she was just going to have to make do with whatever Risa might have available.

The Risian woman exchanged a brief look with her partner before focusing back on Rain. “I don't know what you might have heard from others, but we have no need for slaves here.”

That was absolute bullshit, but if the Risians wanted to play the game of openly denying things like that, Rain would play it. Mainly because she didn't have any other choice given the circumstances.

“I suppose not.” Rain offered as she put on a fake smile. “In which case, how much are the port fees? As we'll likely be staying at least a few days.”

The male of the pair shook his head. “We could never require payment from a member of one of the Klingon houses visiting our world.”

Knowing what she did about Klingons, Raine wouldn't have been surprised if that actually saved the Risians money in the long run. However, something about the way he said it made the skin on the back of her neck prickle in a way that screamed that there was more to it than that.

“Okay then, where's your closest market?” She asked the pair, figuring the local port merchants were probably her best bet of hunting down the proper people to buy her captured Orions since the Risians weren’t going to make things easy.

The pair exchanged another look, and then the woman who had done most of the talking so far stepped forward and gave Raine a flirty smile. “I would be happy to escort such a radinate vision of beauty as yourself to our market.”

Even knowing she was being played, the purple flush that colored Rain's cheeks was unavoidable, and she mentally cursed her teenaged hormones for making it that easy for attractive people to manipulate her.

“I should come with you.” Keiko put forward as she narrowed her eyes at the other woman.

“Don't worry.” Rain tried to reassure her, patting the disruptor at her waist to further emphasize the point. “You know better than anyone that if it comes down to it I can take care of myself just fine.”

“Apologies.” The female Risian demurred with a slight incline of her head as she stared pointedly at the weapon. “But per our people's agreement with the Alliance, personal energy weapons are not allowed beyond the landing islets.”

Rain sighed and pulled out the disruptor before passing it over to Keiko, who now had an even less amused look on her face.

“Couldn't finagle a complete ban I take it?” She offered to the Risians with just the tiniest bit of salt in her tone.

“It would be disrespectful to deprive a Klingon warrior of their honored blades.” The Risian woman returned simply.

“While I'm gone tell everyone not locked up they're free to hang out and relax on the beach next to the landing pad.” Rain told the Japanese woman. “And yes, that's me giving drunk party permission if they want to have one.”

Lord knew they all probably needed it, and it wasn't like the ship didn't have enough alcohol to go around.

“It would be my pleasure to help you set up any such festivities.” The male Risian added in with a charming grin.

For a moment it felt like Rain was forgetting something important with that idea, but try as she might to figure out what it was, she just came up blank. Though she supposed if it really was that important she'd either remember eventually, or it would show up to bite her in the ass.

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“This really wasn't what I was expecting.” Rain muttered as Bree, the topless Risian whose name she had finally gotten during their walk, led her through the Disney shopping district style boulevard that the majority of the landing pad islets seemed to funnel into.

“This is Nuvia's premier shopping district.” She offered as the weaved their way through a moderately impressive crowd of beach wear attired aliens.

Rain paused as a bikini clad Klingon woman with a very amazonian physique walked by, the sight so outside her normal expectations all she could do was stare in surprise.

“Risa welcomes all who wish to forget the troubles of the wider galaxy.” Bree put forward, sounding particularly proud of that fact as she did.

It was honestly getting to the point where Rain might have actually believed everything she had been told about the place was just unfounded rumor, except she knew this was the Risa of the mirror universe. Which meant they couldn't be just like their prime universe counterparts, since that wasn't how things worked.

And yes, this Risa was a lot more tourist trapy then the one she remembered from the television and book series, but unless that was the universe trying to tell her just how evil the tourist trap mindset was, she couldn't understand how that could be enough to fit the mirroring theme of her universe.

“So is there anything in particular you're looking to buy?” Bree inquired in a leading tone that made Rain's eye ridge twitch just the slightest amount at how obvious it was.

“Yes.” Rain said simply as she started walking again, not particularly inclined to play the ‘fleece the tourist of all their money’ game, no matter how hot the person trying to get her to do so might have been. 

After all, Bree was at best a purposefully set up distraction, like a casino host her job was probably to get a feel for Rain and direct her to the places that would be most profitable to the Risian government while directing the Asari away from various things they didn’t want visitors to see. However the girls at the Glimmering Reach had taught her that the key to ‘beating the house’ in such cases, was to look for the little things the dabo girl didn’t want you paying attention to.

People dressed in swimsuits, or those not dressed at all, were obviously there to enjoy the general tropical vacation pleasures. Similarly, those in normal clothing who were doing the shopping walk and stopping to look through the windows of the various stores lining the boulevard were filed away into the same category.

Unfortunately as the minutes passed, it looked more and more likely that those two groups were the only type of off world visitors who were around this area of the capitol. 

“Is night around here equally busy?” Rain asked Bree as she finally came to a stop in front of a small cafe. 

“Most of the city's nightlife is concentrated in the casino and boardwalk districts.” Bree offered, somehow sounding just as chipper as she had before following Rain’s aimless wanderings around for nearly an hour. “Perhaps you’d be interested in watching the combat matches? If so, I can set you up with one of my counterparts in the casino district.”

For a moment Rain had to resist her sudden urge to choke the woman, because she had been hinting at an interest in that sort of thing for almost their entire time walking around the area to no effect.

“That would be great.” She said instead as she put on an overly fake smile. “Is the casino district far from here?”

“It branches off from the main thoroughfare we’re currently on.” Bree informed her as the Risian woman unclipped a small flat device of some kind from her bikini-bottoms and rapidly began typing something into it. “However the district itself extends nearly ten kilometers, and the arena’s are on the far side. Would you wish to walk, take a hovercar, or utilize one of the city's transporter platforms?”

In a supreme twist of irony given how well known the setting was for the technology, Rain had yet to actually use a transporter. And the thought of finally doing so sent a minor spark of anxiety through her brain that was enough to decide for her.

“A hovercar will be fine.” She demurred.

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“A party?” Salora asked as she glanced over her shoulders with a skeptical look on her face from where she was relaxing at the bridge's navigation station before spinning her chair do she could face Keiko directly.

“That’s what she said.” Keiko admitted with a mild grimace, still not entirely sure what Raine’s reasoning behind the order had been. “She mentioned getting drunk, so I think she wants us to use it as a smokescreen to distract the Risians from us getting rid of the maraji crystal’s you found in one of the ships smuggling compartments.”

“They’ll dissolve in salt water after a few hours, so it shouldn’t be that hard to get rid of them as long as nobody is watching too closely.” Salora mused half to herself as she crossed her arms and began tapping her index finger in a way Keiko had come to recognize meant she was working through a problem. “Might cause some long term problems if the local sealife can’t break the chemicals down though.”

“Would it be traceable back to us?” Keiko asked with a frown, doubting Raine would be happy if the blame just circled back to them. 

Salora gave her a pointed look. “Everything’s traceable if you put enough work into it. But unless they have sensors running an active chemical test of the water around the landing islets, you’d have to back track the marine movements to get even a general idea of where the dumping occurred, and figuring out when it occurred would be even harder.”

“Okay, we'll do that then.” Keiko confirmed with a nod, turning to go and tell the others only to pause and turn back with a slightly embarrassed flush to her cheeks. “Er, have you ever thrown a party before?”

“I haven't even been to a party before.” Salora confessed with a grimace. “Father didn't want us embarrassing him any more than we already did just by existing.”

And Keiko doubted her experience of sitting quietly in the corner till her grandmother needed her to pour tea for guests was in any way representative of the type of party Raine had in mind.

“I'll have to ask around.” She finally muttered, sure at least one of the people on board would have some idea, because she'd be damned if she trusted the Risians as anything but potential futon warmers. 

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Author's Notes: Rain… You're in the mirror universe… You can't just expect your minions to think you're being a nice person and giving them some time off instead of an evil mastermind with a dozen cunning plans in the works…