Darkened Stars - Chapter 5

Darkened Stars - Chapter 5

Stardate 27602.8 - August 9, 2350 - Time: 00:31:00

Grabbing the back of her too large tank top and pulling slightly, Rain could only grimace at the undeniable shape she could see forming in her reflection.

She'd known it was coming of course, it was hard not to given she'd shot up over a foot in height the past two years. But denial and pretending otherwise could only take her so far given the two growing weights on her chest.

What made it all the worse was that Rain had caught Madam Gemma eyeing her in a way that suggested her attempts to 'dress dumpy’ had been about as successful as her first attempt to draw in eyebrows to try and make herself look a little more human.

Which was to say not at all.

“I miss having hair.” Rain muttered under her breath as she stared into the mirror with more than a bit of melancholy. 

Because she really did, sure she hadn't had long hair as a guy, or done much with it, but at least she had had the option since the one attempt she'd made to do anything with her head tentacles other than lay them generally flat had left her with a pounding headache.

She was honestly coming to suspect that was why so many Asari had gone all in on various types of facial art, after all, what other options did they really have for making themselves look different.

Not that Rain was planning to follow their lead, she preferred anything she put on her skin to be temporary thank you very much. Doubly so given a lifetime of regret for her had every possibility of being measured in centuries instead of decades.

“Told ya kid.” Leck offered from the doorway to the small side room of the Ferengi's apartment that she had been calling her own. “You stick around you’ve got maybe a month, two on the outside, before Gemma tries to auction off your first time.”

Rain didn't even bother to argue with him about her sure refusal of that, she'd been around the Glimmering Reach long enough after all to know Gemma wasn't above out right drugging her if it came down to it.

Especially given the older woman seemed to be relatively sure Rain was older than her growth spurt would suggest.

“The worst part is I'm still a good twelve thousand Lek short of what I would likely need to get myself off this rock.” She muttered as she released the back of her shirt with a sigh.

“Don't sell yourself short.” Leck offered with a chuckle “Twenty eight thousand is damn impressive for someone your age to make in two years.”

“Just lucky I guess.” Rain offered, glancing over to Leck with a wane smile.

That was a lie of course, her luck was what amounted to returning to Friend Computers facility every couple months with a bag full of old Terran parts and using it as payment to make off with various bits of unneeded or damaged personal equipment she could sell for several times what the parts had cost.

And she would just continue to ignore the fact that Friend Computer had likely restored it's subspace communication uplink by now and was doing who knows what with it, because she was pretty sure that it liked her, so whatever happened with it hopefully wouldn't be her problem.

“Lucky, sure.” Leck returned in a skeptical tone as he gave her a side eyed stare. “I take it you're finally ready to go along with what I've been telling you for years and get out of here?”

“No.” Rain admitted with a shake of her head as she gave the Ferengi a sad look. “But I've reached the 'no choice’ point so I'll be leaving anyway.”

“You'll finally take Nerhis up on that offer and join up with Jarlux then?” Leck floated as he gave Rain a hopeful look.

“I'd… Rather not.” Rain told him with a grimace as she started moving around the rooms to gather up the few possessions she had accumulated over the years that weren't kept ready to go in her bag.

She trusted the Orion mob boss about as far as she could physically throw his hundred and fifteen kilogram bulk. But that lack of trust held true for most of the people she had met in this universe, so it wouldn't have been a general deal breaker except for the fact that she really didn't like being around Nerhis.

It wasn’t that Rain didn’t like the half-cardassian teen, the opposite really. He was smart, funny, charismatic, and probably had a bright future ahead of himself as a face for Jarlux’s organization. Which was why she didn’t like being around him, because she knew the beginnings of a crush when she felt it, and Rain was nowhere near ready to deal with the idea of having a crush on a guy.

“But you don’t need to worry.” She tried to reassure the man as she saw a look of worry begin to make its way across his face. “I have a friend over in brown sector that’s mentioned more than once that she wouldn’t mind taking me in so long as I chip in on the rent.”

“It isn’t Jel’ang is it?” Leck asked, crossing his arms and shooting Rain a judging look at the thought.

“Yes…” Rain confessed, looking away with a flinch as she put the last of her things into the bag and zipped it up.

“She’s Alliance.” Leck told her with a disappointed shake of his head. “All you’re doing by hanging around her is painting a target on your head.”

“Most of the blue district's clients are Alliance, and nothing happens to them.” Rain pointed out with a scowl, having had this argument with him a number of times in concerns to a number of different people. 

“Yea.” Leck agreed with a nod as Rain slung her pack over her shoulders and moved to leave, only for the Ferengi man to interpose himself in the doorway before she could. “But you don’t know even half of what Gemma and Jarlux do to keep it that way.”

That wasn’t entirely true, Rain had figured out pretty early on that Gemma likely had some connection to the Terran ‘Rebellion’. Nobody running a whore house needed that many easily concealable energy weapons after all. But that was also a big part of why she didn’t trust the woman, because while it may have been different elsewhere, on Earth the Terran Rebellion was just another name for remnants of the Terran Empire.

“I’ll be fine, Leck.” She offered with a soft smile, knowing with all the time they had spent together that the Ferengi was just worried for her. “You know I’m a lot tougher than I look.”

“Just because you're a bit stronger and tougher than a Terran doesn’t mean you can survive a phaser to the back.” Leck told her with a concerned frown.

“I know.” She said, not having the heart to tell him she already had during an unfortunate encounter with a Terran who had thought to follow her to the drainage pipe she used to get in and out of the old weapons facility without having to go back through the city's slums. “But Jel’ang’s a Bekk, literally nobody cares about her.”

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Rain had first met Jel’ang about two weeks after she’d first started staying with Leck. The young Klingon woman having been rotated in as a new guard for one of the gates between the blue and brown sectors of the city.

At which point Rain had done what she had been doing with various available Klingon guards whenever she had a chance, and asked Jel'ang if she could regale Rain with stories about her glorious victories in battle.

Because it rarely hurt to suck up to the police.

They had struck up an odd friendship from there, with Rain reminding Jel'ang of one of her little sisters, and Jel'ang reminding Rain of one of her friends from her original world. Something that had culminated in the Asari sharing her honest desire to never be a sex worker, and Jel'ang offering her a place to stay if she ever needed it.

“Little Krencha!” Jel'ang called out with a grin upon seeing Rain's approach to her post only for her cheer to transition into a look of concern upon noting the Asari's demeanor. “You look troubled, do you wish to borrow my kut'luch to stab someone with?”

“You honor me with the offer.” Rain put forward in a similarly boisterous tone as she walked up as close as she could to the woman without making the other guards twitchy. “But it is not that one which I was hoping to accent.”

Jel'lang visibly tensed at that before looking Rain over with a critical eye. Seeming to come to a decision about whatever it was she saw, the Klingon woman turned to one of the other guards.

“Lugor!” She yelled. “I have issues to discuss!”

“Then discuss them!” The Klingon who Rain supposed must be Lugor told her mockingly.

“Women's issues!” Jel'ang added in giving Rain a knowing look.

“Away from here.” Lugor finished with a wave of this hand towards the small building adjacent to the gate as if he had always meant to continue with that.

With permission given Jel'ang motioned for Rain to follow her, the Asari falling in behind her as she wondered just what the Klingon woman had said that translated so specifically to 'women's issues’ given the general connotations that tended to have in english.

“So.” Jel'ang began, turning to Rain with a serious look once they were inside the small security building. “You have had your first blood then?”

Rain twitched, just barely keeping her sudden horror at the thought from devolving into a full blown shudder.

“No.” She squeaked in a much higher pitch than intended. “I don't… That's…”

Pausing Rain took a moment to compose herself, sending a silent prayer to any gods or godlike beings listening that her theory about Asari not suffering that particular biological problem continued to hold true.

“It's not that.” She finally got out, blushing a bright purple and refusing to meet the older woman's amused gaze. “But there's a similar reasoning for me needing to find someplace beyond the reach of Gemma's claws to stay for the foreseeable future.”

“Then of course.” Jel'ang agreed with a smile as she clapped Rain on the shoulder hard enough that it would have likely caused her barrier to springe up if she didn't clamp down on the instinctual reaction. “I look forward to finally being able to show you the proper way to prepare and eat gagh.”

It was at that moment that the sudden realization hit Rain that she might have made a horrible mistake.

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Stardate 27611.2 - August 12, 2350 - Time: 02:06:00

An incessant chirping woke Rain from a very odd dream involving Jel'ang and tentacles that made the Asari think there was probably a really unfortunate association forming there. 

Reaching over to the bag she kept next to her sleeping mat, she dug around half blindly for a moment before pulling out the emergency communication she had kept from scavenging trips.

“What is it?” She mumbled, her brain still half asleep as she flipped the device open.

“Oh thank the divine.” Leck's voice echoed out from the device in a near panicked whisper. “Listen kid, something huge is about to go down. So get someplace safe and–”

A distant thunder caused the building to shake slightly, and Leck's voice was cut off as the communications link went dead leaving Rain to blink owlishly at the silver and gold communicator as her tired mind tried to put together whatever it was the Ferengi had just tried to warn her about.

The door to her room flew open, a half dressed Jel'ang running in to grab Rain and yank the Asari to her feet.

“Up!” She yelled in a tone Rain had never before heard from the normally confident Klingon woman. “The Terrans are trying to take back the city, we need to evacuate!”

A surge of adrenaline shot through Rain at those words, bringing the Asari to full wakefulness and she grabbed her bag looking to Jel’ang with a panic in her eyes. Because if the Klingon woman was telling her they were evacuating, that meant the Alliance wasn’t planning to try and hold the city.

“Can I come with you?” Rain asked in a panic, knowing what would likely await her if that happened given Gemma’s suspected connections. “I don’t have any papers but–”

“I will deal with that little krencha.” Jel’ang put forward as she all but dragged Rain towards the apartment's exit, stopping only to grab and don the chest piece of her armor from the stand by the door.

“If anyone asks.” She continued, pulling one of the metal emblems off the shoulder of her armor and shoving it into Rain’s hand as they ran down the corridors of the building. “Tell them you’re a shuVak of house Palkar, no Cardassian qu'vatlh would dare refute that with me there.”

A clear explosion rang out, close enough this time that the shaking of the building was strong enough to cause the fixtures on the wall to rattle as they passed through the door to the street and beheld a scene of barely controlled chaos. 

It was clear by the dim glow of fire and smoke rising into the night sky from other areas of the city that whatever fighting had started had been going on for at least a little while and was only just reaching the central area of Alliance control that was brown district.

“The rotten p'tak’s found some way to knock out coms across the entire planet.” Jel’ang snarled as she dragged Rain towards the military port. “If the general hadn’t thought to send runners most of the garrison would–”

Jel’ang’s words were cut off as time almost seemed to slow for Rain as from the corner of her eye she caught sight of a pulsing red light slowly approaching the building they had just passed. 

Not even thinking, the Asari grabbed onto the Klingon woman and prayed as the entire building exploded, the force of the explosion slamming into her hastily erected barrier with such force that she felt both of them go flying to slam into a nearby building with enough force that her vision waivered and went black.

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Authors Notes: A bit of a time jump this chapter to the start of the second part of the story. Also, keep an eye out for later today as I worked like crazy over the weakened and will be adding Chapter 61 of Cerulean Stars for the 1$ and 3$ here. And continue from that point to release the story 1 chapter ahead here.