Darkened Stars - Chapter 12

Darkened Stars - Chapter 12

Stardate 29363.3 - May 12, 2352 - 23:13:00

Having been a big fan of Lower Decks, the family name Tendi was instantly recognizable to Rain. But of course, things could never be as simple as they appeared on the surface, as it was not a member of the Prime universe Tendi family that she was dealing with, but a member of the Mirror universe one.

Which should mean that most of the Tendi family here would be considered good people, because the Tendi family of the Prime universe had been mostly on the pirate spectrum of the morality slider.

Except of course that things hadn't ever really been shown as being that simple. Prime universe Kira Nerys had been a freedom fighter perfectly willing to kill innocents, while her Mirror universe counterpart had been a giant narcissist who was also perfectly willing to kill innocents.

And that level of obscure mirroring had held true for the majority of people in the Deep Space Nine mirror universe episodes. From Smiley O'Brien who had been almost exactly the same outside of life experience, to Erzi who had just been kind of slutty and easily led around.

So while she was almost certain there had to be some mirroring at play with the Tendi family, she had absolutely no idea what it might be, or how it might manifest.

“I'd like to arrange passage off of Terra to Orion.” Rain told Nezia as the woman began to look impatient at the Asari's mental dithering.

Not the best choice of drop off locations, but she needed somewhere their ship was likely to already be traveling in the general direction of, and anywhere was better than Terra.

“Sorry kid.” Nezia said with an amused chuckle. “But we don't do passenger services.”

“Not even if I can get your ship past the lockdown?” Rain dangeled enticingly.

Nezia's shoulders twitched ever so slightly at that, the movement telling enough to Rain that she knew her offer at least had the Orion captain's interest.

“If you could do that there might be a deal to make.” Nezia offered with a cautious tone in her voice. 

“The head of my house was recently murdered.” Rain explained since the truth was exactly what was needed in this circumstance. “Those attempting to fulfill a blood oath of vengeance under such circumstances are allowed to pass through most lockdowns while in pursuit of it.”

Nezia looked doubtful at that, a feeling Rain supposed was fair to have given the extremes allowed of the blood oath only really made sense if you had spent a significant amount of time submerged in Klingon culture.

The best part though was that she wasn't even technically lying, because a photonic device with that large of a yield had to have been imported from somewhere off world. Which meant it would be completely expected for her to try and track down the source that had provided it to the Terrans and kill them.

“Two thousand darsek's and I'll let you try.” Nezia put forward with a smirk, likely thinking she could get an easy pay day when Rain wasn't able to.

“And how much for the trip itself if that try is successful?” Rain inquired, having gotten somewhat of a feel for the Orion woman at this point.

“Let's say.” Nezia drawled. “Another four thousand darsek's.”

Rain's wince wasn't entirely feigned given that would be about 70% of her darsek supply.

“Two thousand darsek for the try, and five thousand Lek for the trip.” Rain countered, the exchange rate putting the amount about 15% lower than Nezia's demand, though still a good five times the going rate for a normal passenger transport for two.

“You know what? Sure.” Nezia agreed with an amused grin. “Long as you two don't mind sharing a cabin, that'll do.”

“But we’re still having our drinks first.” She finished with a longing stare towards the bar. “Because it’s been a fucking chore of a day.”

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Stardate 29363.6 - May 13, 2352 - 01:51:00

For the first starship Rain had been on, the unimaginably named ‘Deathwind’ managed to surprise her on a rather unique ways.

Given its generally comparable length to the hundred or so meter Birds of Prey, Raine had been expecting a comparably cramped interior to what she'd seen in cutouts of those same Klingon vessel types. But she'd apparently failed to take into account the fact the Orions actually used most of that length of the ship's hull instead of dedicating a good portion of it to a thin neck.

Unfortunately the walk from the vessel's boarding ramp to its bridge confirmed Keiko's early guess about them being slavers, as passing through the vessel's cargo bay highlighted the secured forms of seven humans, six half-humans, and what Rain was pretty sure was a Vulcan woman who looked like she'd been rather heavily drugged.

Horrible as that was however, the Asari had realized in pretty much her first couple months in the mirror universe that even trying to save people in circumstances like that was likely to end up with her either sharing their fate or worse. 

“We’ve been ready to go since this morning.” Nezia offered with an annoyed glare at the lazy looking trio of Orions manning the bridge as they entered. “But there’s not much you can do other than go out for drinks with the Klingons like this.”

“Comm panel’s over there.” She continued pointing towards a station towards the back where a short looking Orion woman was sitting with her feet up. “Oria’ll set up the channel for you.”

Assuming the other Orion must be Oria, Rain gave Nezia a nod of acknowledgement before walking over to the station as the Orion captain leaned up against the nearby wall with an expectant look on her face.

“Hey.” She began. “I’ll need you to–”

“Already know.” Oria interrupted as she leaned forward and pressed a quick series of controls. “Standard voice setup.”

Hiding her confusion over just when Nezia had had the time to call ahead, Rain took a couple steps closer to the station, readying herself as she did for exactly the type of tone this would require.

“Deathwind to port control, this is Raine of house Palkar, identity code loSmaH Soch javmaH Hut vagh, demanding immediate launch clearance to hunt down the p'taq's that provided the Terrans the bomb that killed the head of my house.” Rain ordered using her best impression of T’ahan in imperious matriarch mode.

“Identity code confirmed.” A Klingon voice returned after a moment. “But we–”

“Know that every tup you delay me is a tup the trail goes colder.” Rain interrupted with a growl, as was the proper Klingon way of doing things in situations like this. “And if I have to go to control to have it done, I will not be leaving until my blade has first been lodged in the stomachs of those there responsible.”

She could all but imagine the argument that was going on in port control right now, but there was sure to be someone there who had dealt with things on that level before that would inform the others that under the circumstances she would get in almost no trouble for actually following through with her threat.

“You're cleared to depart Deathwind.” An older Klingon voice announced nearly a minute later. “May you find success on your hunt.”

With that the com channel closed, and Rain turned a smug grin to Captain Nezia, who had an almost bemused look on her face as she stared at the Asari.

“Gotta admit.” Nezia offered after a moment. “Didn't expect you to actually have the pull for it. But as long as you have the currency I'm a woman of my word.”

The Orion woman held her hand out expectantly at that, and with a sigh Rain pulled out one of the five thousand Lek digital fobs she had taken to carrying around instead of hard currency.

“Password for that one is Lord of the Blings, in Ferengi.” Rain told her, brushing off the judgmental look a few of the other Orions shot her.

Nezia took the fob over to what Rain suspected was a secure data port, before inserting and tapping in the password.

“Checks out.” She said before turning to give a nod to a tall bald Orion man. “Beld, take em to the guest quarters.”

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The guest quarters turned out to be a small almost walk-in closet sized room with a pair of bunks set into the wall, which was more or less what Rain had expected going into this.

“Enjoy the accommodations princess.”  Beld said in a somewhat mocking tone as he watched the pair of them looking around the room from the doorway. “It's a three day trip home, so hope you brought snacks, cause food’s extra.”

With that he walked off, the door shutting automatically behind him moments after.

“Don't worry.” Rain told Keiko upon noticing the concerned look on the woman's face as she stared at the door. “I have two weeks of Klingon emergency rations in my bag. Which is like a month's worth of food for normal people.”

“He's going to come after us.” Keiko offered in response, keeping her eyes fixed on the door as if it might open any moment to reveal a horde of swarthy shirtless Orions with iron cutlasses in hand.

“Come after us?” Rain repeated in a skeptical tone as she banished that oddly attractive image to the dark recesses of her mind.

“You're hot.” Keiko said simply as she sat down on the lower bunk. 

Rain stared at Keiko, taken aback by the suddenly frank admittance as she desperately tried to avoid thinking back to the numerous times she had seen the Japanese woman nearly naked the past two days.

“And he was staring at you like it was just a matter of time till he could fuck you.” Keiko continued, the abrupt swing back enough to leave Rain whimpering slightly in realization that her previous tactic of burying those sorts of feelings under distraction had likely hit its inevitable end.

“I'm sure it'll be fine.” Rain absentmindedly reassured her.

“You have all the weapons.” Keiko said with a glance towards the bag Rain was carrying.

Sighing, Rain reached over her back and pulled the katana and scabbard off from where she'd been carrying it before tossing it to the former ninja.

Annoying as it was to give the weapon up, it was either that or the dagger Jel'ang had given her for weapons that she knew her barrier would stop, and she'd rather risk losing the katana then that.

“This was the waka-gashira's.” Keiko murmered as she partially pulled the weapon out of its sheath to examine it.

“You can tell just by looking?” Rain asked in surprise, the weapon having looked surprisingly generic to the Asari's untrained eye when she'd examined it after the incident with the ninja that had broken into her room.

“Micro-etching on the Habaki.” Keiko answered simply as she returned the weapon to its sheath with a small click.

An awkward silence settled over the small room, and Rain began shifting her weight from foot to foot to fight back the soreness she could feel coming on.

“So…” She put forward to try and fill the silence with something. “I guess you want to be the bottom then?”

“On the bottom bunk I mean.” She quickly corrected while blushing brightly in embarrassment at her freudian slip.

“I usually am.” Keiko returned after a moment as she began removing the slightly too large Klingon boots Rain had loaned her.

The fact that the Asari couldn't tell which of her statements Keiko was answering, or if she had even caught the slip at all, was likely going to torment Rain's dreams in ways she really didn't want to think about right now given it hadn't even been two days since Keiko had tried to kill her.

Which wasn't nearly the cold shower to Rain’s hormones that she felt it really should have been, and she was beginning to suspect her tastes might have become a bit warped after going through puberty in the mirror universe.

With that cheery thought in mind she walked over to the bunks and pulled off the bag she'd been carrying before shoving it up into the upper bunk and kicking off her own boots. 

“I'm going to lay down.” She told Keiko as she climbed up to her bunk for the trip. “If Beld comes back and tries anything, feel free to stab him, but try and make it non-lethal, cause the last thing we need is to piss off the rest of the ship.”

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Author’s Notes: Bad Rain, no horny.

Next Cerulean Stars will be on Wednesday because of a bunch of issues.