Cerulean Stars - Chapter 74

Cerulean Stars - Chapter 74

Stardate 48265.4 - April 7, 2371 - 20:54:00

Checking over the bar’s daily profits at the end of the day was honestly one of Quark’s favorite little rituals. And one he had made sure to continue with even though it no longer represented the majority of his daily income for the sheer joy that came from handling the hard currency involved.

“Bars closed.” Quark offered as the sound of footsteps told him a pair of people had walked into the bar.

“Are you Quark?” A female voice inquired.

Quark looked away from this latinum at that, and then had to hold back a grimace upon seeing the pair of Klingons standing in the entrance.

“That really depends on who's asking.” He offered cautiously, really hoping this wasn't going to be the worst case Natima had warned him about.

“My name is Grilka.” The rather attractive Klingon woman offered with an acknowledging tilt of her head. “Kozak was my husband.”

Not the worst case then, Quark thought to himself, but it still could go either way.

“Oh, well, come in.” He said, motioning to the chairs in front of the bar, since it never hurt to be friendly in cases like this. “Can I get you a drink? Maybe something to eat?”

“Maybe later.” Grilka demurred as she walked over to stand in front of the bar. “I have been told you are the one who killed my husband?”

“It was honorable.” Quark immediately put forward only to pause and give a mild grimace of realization that he should probably clarify that a bit more given the circumstances. “The fight was, not the actions of your husband that led to it.”

“Explain.” Grilka demanded in a tone that suggested she would brook no argument.

“Are you sure I can't get you that drink first?” Quark tried hopefully, only to let out a sigh when the woman's glare just seemed to intensify.

“It was late and the bar was pretty much empty except for your husband and a pair having a late night dinner date in one of the holosuites.”

Which would hopefully be a favor he could hold over Raine for a while since that program hadn't exactly been easy to get on such short notice.

“And a close Cardassian acquaintance of mine stopped by to talk about some joint business interests.”

He doubted the Klingon woman would get the Ferengi euphemism in that, but he couldn't resist including it.

“Your husband was moderately drunk at the time, and apparently mistook her for one of the entertainers. At which point he demanded she put on a performance for him.”

A more kind retelling of events then Quark thought the man actually deserved, but he wasn't sure how Grilka would react if he came right out and said Kozak had demanded Natima take off her clothes for him.

“She politely refused, and in response he pulled one of those.” He paused as he tried to recall what the Klingons called the weapons. “I think you call them d’k tahg's? On her.”

Nasty weapons to get stabbed with in a fight, but the genuine article tended to sell really well to various collectors.

“Which was when I decided to intervene.”

By trying to talk him down long enough for Rom to finish calling security in the back. 

“Things devolved quickly from there, and in the preceding fight I was able to get Kozak's weapon away from him and stab him in the chest with it.”

Pretty close to how it had actually happened, if you considered Kozak charging him, tripping, and then the resulting flailing of desperately trying to fight off a heavily inebriated Klingon that had just plowed into him, a fight.

“An honorable death for a dishonorable fool.” Grilka growled as she seemed to consider him. “Or at least it would be if I believe that story.”

With that she pulled out a dagger, brandishing at him menacingly, and he jumped back, grabbing for a nearby tray to use as a shield only to bump into the back of the bar by accident.

“A truly brave showing from the man who claims to have bested my drunken lout if a husband in personal combat.” Grilka put forward with a sharp bark of laughter.

“What's really going on here?” Quark asked after a moment passed with no further action on Grilka's part. 

“First things first, Quark.” Grilka told him as she secured her dagger back in its sheath. “I want to know how my husband died, and I want the full truth.”

“All right.” Quark told her with a grimace, not seeing any way out of it now that had seen through his story.

“He was more than just a little drunk and demanded Natima strip for him, when she refused he pulled his dagger on her, I stepped in to try and talk him down, he charged me, tripped, and in the resulting struggle of him falling on me the dagger ended up in his chest.”

“So you lied to the station security officer, to your customers, and to D'Ghor.” Grilka offered, sounding just a tiny bit impressed. “You must be quite a liar.”

“Station security and my customers.” Quark confessed, those two a practically daily occurrence for him under regular circumstances. “But I've never met any D'Ghor.”

Grilka frowned at that.

“It seems we may be in even more of a hurry then I thought then.”

She gave a nod, and Quark felt the pressure of a hypospray in this neck before everything went black.

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On the list of various people Raine had been expecting to potentially seek her out after her shift had ended today, Miles O'Brien had honestly been pretty close to the bottom. So it had been more than a little surprising to find the man ringing her door chime just when she had been about to sit down for a late dinner.

“Chief.” She greeted the man with a smile as she stood in front of the open door. “Something I can help you with?”

“I was hoping I could talk to you.” He began a bit awkwardly. “About Keiko.”

“You know the girlfriend code means I can't share anything she's told me with you, right?” Raine joked, shooting the man an amused grin.

“Oh.” O'Brien muttered in a disappointed tone as he began turning to leave. “I'll just–”

“Miles.” Raine interrupted, clapping a hand on the taller man's shoulder before he could turn away while fighting back a sudden pang of worry over him being so mentally distracted he'd miss such an obvious joke. “I was kidding. Come on in and we can talk.”

He left out a sigh of relief at that, before taking her up on the offer, and the two of them moved into Raine's quarters to take a seat at the table.

“So what's the problem?” Raine asked as she ate a spoonful of her still steaming clam chowder.

“Its…” O'Brien began before catching himself with a grimace. “You know Keiko has an offer from the Bajorans to head setting up the biosphere-dome on their new station, right?”

“She's mentioned she's considering it.” Raine confirmed with a nod. 

She'd been more than a little surprised to hear it, but she supposed the Bajorans had figured they needed someone with high level botanical experience if they wanted the project to be anything but a resource sink.

“Well.” O'Brien continued. “She keeps trying to talk herself out of taking it.”

That wasn't entirely surprising to Raine since the Asari knew it would basically mean moving over to the other station till the project was completed. Not the worst option out there given how much nicer the station was shaping up to be compared to Deep Space Nine. But she rather suspected Keiko was more concerned with various family issues that such a move might cause, than she was with the living conditions.

“And you were hoping I might be able to talk her into taking it?” She prodded when O’Brien failed to expand beyond that.

“Could you?” He asked, giving her a hopeful look.

“Nope.” Raine refused.

“If she wanted to take it she wouldn’t be trying to talk herself out of doing so.” She continued, jabbing her spoon at O’Brien a couple times for extra emphasis. “And given I doubt there’s anyone who has talked to her since she closed the school that hasn’t noticed her getting progressively more depressed, the question you should probably be asking is why.”

“I know why.” O’Brien muttered, sounding a tiny bit upset at her for the insinuation he didn’t. “She doesn’t know what to do with herself.”

“And if what she wanted to do was botany related there’s literally decades worth of botanical backlog in the Federation archives she could work on.” Raine pointed out, rolling her eyes at just how dense O’Brien could be at times. “If I had to guess from what we’ve talked about, I’d say she’s missing the general feeling of excitement she got when she was–”

The chip of Raine’s combadge interrupted before she could finish.

“Commander Brooks here.” She announced as she tapped the device while shooting O’Brien an apologetic look.

“Quark has been kidnapped by Kozak’s wife.” The voice of Odo called out as Raine fought back the sudden urge to sigh in annoyance, because honestly, what did he expect her to do about it other than tell Commander Sisko so he could lodge a diplomatic complaint.

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Stardate 48272.4 - April 10, 2371 - 10:13:26

Waiting in front of the airlock for Na’Tal to get off her transport, Raine ruminated on the fact that even though it had been nearly fifteen years since she had last met the Vulcan woman, the passage of time had done nothing to dull the clawing anxiety that the Asari had grown to feel any time she knew a meeting was imminent.

Finally the older woman walked through the airlock, looking much the same as Raine remembered her, a thin woman about 152cm in her seventies with fading brown hair in a neck length bob and steel gray eyes that pierce right through you.

“I see you have not gone insane in the time it took me to arrive.” Na'Tal offered as she walked over to Raine. “That is a good sign.”

“It's good to see you too.” Raine returned with a smile as she motioned to her left. “If you'll follow me I can show you to your quarters.”

Na'Tal gave a nod and then began to follow her.

“I see you were unable to follow the advice we gave you.” The vulcan woman offered as they walked down the empty corridors.

“Yes, well.” Raine muttered, impressed Na'Tal had waited as long as she did before criticizing. “Personal responsibility complex, hundreds of millions of deaths, you know how it is.”

“And yet you let the events of Wolf 359 occur with nary a moment of concern.” Na'Tal stated without even a hint of judgment in her tone.

“It's the Borg.” Raine offered with a shudder. “Anything I could have done would have just made things worse.”

“You can not know that anymore then you can know your actions here are making things better.” Na'Tal said as they stepped into the turbolift.

“Habitat ring, level three section twelve.” Raine ordered the computer as the doors shut.

“I'm pretty sure the Bajorans would say that I've made things better if they could compare.” Raine defended as the turbolift began moving.

“And will it be the same in a year? Five?” Na'Tal put forward in a tone that suggested to Raine that the Vulcan woman thought she had already won. “One can never truly know the future until they have lived it.”

“Point taken.” Raine acknowledged with a sigh as the turbolift came to a stop and they continued out into the habitat ring. “But I'm still not going to try and mess with the Borg.”

“That is logical.” Na'Tal agreed with a nod as Raine had to hold back her sudden urge to groan in exasperation.

“Here's your room.” Raine said as she came to a stop in front of the guest quarters they had readied for her.

“Very well.” Na'Tal told her as she activated the entry pad to open the door. “I will prepare, you may return tomorrow morning to begin the check.”

“All right.” Raine agreed with a sigh, having kind of hoped they could get the whole thing done today. “I'll make sure Odo knows you will be free the day after.” 

Na’Tal gave a nod, walking into her guest quarters before letting the door close behind her, leaving Raine to let out a tired sigh, somehow feeling completely exhausted even with just the five minutes of conversation they’d already had.

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Author's Notes: It's highly likely there will be no chapter of this monday as I'm going to be out of town for Labor day so won't have time to finish writing it, so next chapter will be Wednesday. Darkened Stars release on patreon however shouldn't be effected as that I can make an auto release.