Cerulean Stars - Chapter 72

Cerulean Stars - Chapter 72

Stardate 48248.8 - April 1, 2371 - 19:29:00

Holding up a dress in each hand, Raine looked to the two women sitting on her couch sipping synthehol drinks.

“So what do you think?” She asked them as she held each of the dresses up in front of her in turn. “The red halter, or the white tea-length?”

“For a first date?” Keiko offered with a smirk. “The white tea-length.”

“I'd say it depends on where you're talking her.” Jadzia added in with a contemplative look.

“Holosuite.” Raine answered, wondering if she should have brought out her green off-shoulder too. “I called in some favors with a friend in Starfleet Intelligence and found out T'Rel was a frequent visitor to the underwater gardens in San Francisco. So I picked up a holo-program of a similar underwater garden on Betazed.”

“You called in favors with Starfleet Intelligence for information on your date?” Keiko asked in a tone that suggested she couldn't quite believe what Raine had done while Jadzia covered up a giggle by taking a sip of her drink.

For most other cultures Raine would admit that kind of thing was more than a little stalkery, but she had spent a good part of the past two weeks going over everything she had been able to wheedle out of Ambassador Spock on Romulan relationships, so she had a ready answer for it.

“Part of the Romulan dating experience involves figuring out what kind of things your prospective date likes, before you even go on your first date with them.” She explained with a shrug. “It's kind of like a basic limitus test where you prove you're worth their time by showing off your cunning and resourcefulness.”

“That sounds very… Complicated.” Keiko admitted, clearly wanting to say more but not sure how to go about it.

“Less than you'd think. “Raine said as she draped the two dresses over them back of a chair so she could down some of her own drink. “And it leads to some pretty funny romantic comedies.”

“There's one series about an inept adjunct who ends up wooing a stalwart commander by sheer accident because he keeps lucking into all her carefully hidden and disguised desires.”

She still wasn't sure why the ambassadorial corps had gone to the trouble to get their hands on all twelve volumes of that particular series, but she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“I'm more a fan of Klingon romantic epics myself.” Jadzia confessed with a grin. “There's just something about two people fighting against all odds to be together that gets to me.”

“Don't look at me.” Keiko offered when both Raine and Jadzia turned an expectant look to the Japanese woman. “I married Miles.”

“So you're saying you like romantic Irish dramas.” Raine offered with a suggestive wiggle of her eye ridges.

Keiko let out a snort, before grabbing one of the throw pillows and playfully tossing it at Raine, the fluffy object smacking the Asari harmlessly in the shoulder before falling to the floor.

“I hope you're not talking dating advice from Romulan romantic fiction.” Jadzia said with a self-deprecating grin. “Because speaking from experience, that sort of thing does not end well.”

“Speaking from experience?” Keiko asked, looking at the Trill woman with a single arched eyebrow.

“Emory may have gotten it into her head to try something similar with a human who caught her eye.” Jadzia confessed. “She was young, and he was very hot.”

“The story of my Academy years.” Raine agreed with a wry smile. “Of course, that's pretty much the story of everyone's academy years.”

“Pretty much universities in general.” Keiko agreed with a nod as she held her glass up in an imaginary toast.

“Not on Trill.” Jadzia admitted with a sigh as slumped slightly into the couch. “Relationships are heavily discouraged for those in the initiate program.”

“And by heavily discouraged you mean?” Raine proded, morbidly interested given how little she knew about mainstream Trill culture.

“It's potentially disqualifying.” Jadzia replied with a grimace. “Too many possible risk factors for the joining they say.”

Which sadly told Raine more than enough about Jadzia's opinion on that claim. But well, the biggest downside of the Federation's system of governance was that they wouldn't push when it came to investigating non-offensive “cultural issues”.

“How does that hold up?” Keiko inquired, shooting Jadzia a confused look. 

“I mean, okay, I can see how you might be able to keep the exact biological requirements for joining a secret when symbiotes are only on Trill. But surely in the centuries since your people started leaving Trill, at least one joined Trill thought to do a full mapping of everything involved?”

“There’d be too much risk to the symbiote.” Jadzia offered in an evasive tone that told Raine there was likely more to the answer than just that.

“On the bright side, you seem to be doing pretty good on the hot men front now.” Raine offered to the Trill woman with a saucy grin.

“And the occasional hot women front.” Jadzia returned with a weak smile as she shot Raine a thankful look for not prying further.

Keiko let out a self pitying sigh at that, and Raine turned a questioning look to her friend.

“What's wrong?”

“It's just.” Keiko began in a depressed tone. “You're going on a date with a Romulan intelligence agent. While Jadzia has basically had her pick of various captains. Meanwhile, Miles hasn't even taken me out anywhere for going on two months.”

Raine shared a knowing look with Jadzia at that, the Trill woman giving her a nod as if to say ‘you go first’.

“Then why don't you take him somewhere?” Raine put forward. “And I don't just mean to have dinner at Quarks, but something exciting. Maybe a couples holonovel where you play the warrior queen to his barbarian king, or one where he plays the resolute samurai secretly in love with the noble lady he's sworn to protect.”

“I couldn't.” Keiko said, holding up her hands in protest as a flush of embarrassment colored her cheeks.

“Why not?” Jadzia asked, sounding almost perplexed at the idea. “It sounds like something Miles would be up for.”

“Because those kinds of programs are childish!” Keiko exclaimed, leaving Raine to blink dumbly at the woman for a moment before the realization settled home that the Japanese woman may have a few buried issues of her own.

“You know Captain Picard runs pulp detective holo-novels, right?” Raine asked her, going directly to the big guns. “And I'm currently working my way through Lord of the Rings as Arwen.”

An Arwen who was doing a lot more riding into battle mind you, but Tolkien had been broad enough in his characterization and world building that the holo-novel translation could run with changes like that with functionally none of the narrative breakdowns you tended to get with less fleshed out fictional series.

“The Drifting Tor.” Jadzia added in, apparently seeing where Raine was going. “It's an old Trill epic a bit like the human Journey of Odysseus, I'm playing the part of the newly crowned queen who rules the Tor.”

“While I'll fully admit it might just be a Starfleet thing.” Raine continued, aware of her limited experience outside of Starfleet's personnel. “Most officers I know of have run programs like that at one time or another.”

“Same.” Jadzia acknowledged with a grin. 

“So I’d honestly say give it a try with something you think you’d like.” Raine told her, really hoping Keiko would take her advice. “And then maybe try something out with Miles that you think you’d both like to help get that spark of excitement back.”

“And don’t worry about what other people might think.” Jadzia added in with a smile. “Trust someone who’s been there, ignoring what you love to do just because others might disapprove is a good way to die unhappy.”

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Stardate 48251.4 - April 2, 2371 - 18:15:00

The location Raine had chosen was a small force-field generated underwater half dome about eight meters in diameter that sat about three meters under the surface of the ocean on Betazed. The only way in or out, outside of swimming, would normally have been through a small transporter padd, a purposeful part of the design meant to further isolate the location on a world where any type of isolation was a rare commodity.

“An interesting choice.” T’Rel commented with a small smile as she looked around the venue before settling on the single table that sat in the middle of the dome.

“I try.” Raine returned with an acknowledging tilt of her head as she motioned the Romulan woman towards the table.

“You said this was Betazed?” T’Rel inquired as she walked over to the table and took a seat.

“Yes.” Raine confirmed as she followed suit.

“I've never actually been there myself.” She admitted, the idea of a planet full of nosy telepaths more than enough to have her turn down the one chance she had to do work there. “But I double checked the program to be absolutely sure, and this is an actual location there.”

“Then I suppose this may be the closest I ever get to seeing it for real.” T'Rel mused looking out past the force-field to the holographic recreation of aquatic life swimming beyond.

“My sister?” She floated as she turned her eyes away to look over the limited menu selection.

“Put together via intelligence reports.” Raine confessed with a wry grin as she waited to see how well T'Rel had figured her tastes out.

“I think the halashani sounds good.” T’Rel offered with a lightly approving smile. 

Okay, Raine was mildly impressed. Her love of seafood was obvious just looking at replicator records, but to narrow things down from there to an octopus equivalent sashimi dish, that had to have taken some real work given how rarely that sort of meal was available in replicator patterns.

In fact, the only time the Asari could think of recently that she had been able to get it, outside of her stay on Earth at least, had been when Quark had gotten a fresh shipment of Romulan mollusks in last year.

“Quark?” She asked.

“He talks.” T’Rel confirmed with an amused nod. “A good deal.”

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Exiting the holosuite alongside T’Rel, Raine couldn’t help but think things went pretty well all things considered. Though to be fair that wasn’t exactly a high bar given her past dating experiences had run distinctly towards the surprise twist end of the gamut.

“It seems we may have missed a murder.” T’Rel offered, sounding almost intrigued at the thought as Raine followed her gaze down to the bar. 

The surprising sight of Doctor Bashir crouching over a very clearly dead Klingon greeted her, something about the scene almost familiar to the Asari as a gaggle of onlookers seemed to be focusing on a clearly in shock Quark, who himself was just staring at his bloody hands in surprise.

“Well.” Raine muttered tiredly. “That’s probably going to be a thing I have to deal with tomorrow given Odo’s general dislike of Klingons”

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Author’s Notes: Enter, The House of Quark.