Happy Hour (Part I of II)

Posted on Mon Jan 21, 2019 @ 8:54pm by Civilian 'Key Holder' Yolanthe Ibalin & Civilian 'Arrival' Avis Larant Ms
Edited on on Mon Jan 21, 2019 @ 8:57pm

1,984 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Doors of Perception
Location: The Box of Delights
Timeline: MD 3 2000

[ON]

The evening crowd on the Promenade was starting to pick up. Gamma shift wasn't due off duty for at least an hour, but there were still plenty of people ready to get an early start on partying for the night. Many were heading for a large frontage on the second level of the promenade, where bright lights proclaimed The Box of Delights.

Underneath the purple neon signage was the most enormous Gorn, a veritable dinosaur but in a nice suit, was watching the people streaming into the establishment with a tolerant, patrician eye, not seeing any trouble with the early evening punters. Some of the women would send him flirtatious little waves, to which he responded with knowing grins, waving them through.

A group of Ferengi elbowed past Avis, heading past the gorn, who gave them a suspicious once over and then returned his watch to the promenade. A cardassian couple wandered in, then a gaggle of young human females, and a knot of Andorians, and a mixed collection of bajorans and others.

A sign to the side announced that it was happy hour, and drinks were half price.

Avis paused to take it all in, the wonder of the place only momentarily spoiled by her being half pushed aside by...well of course Ferengi (what else could one expect), before strolling on in past the Gorn security. She merely gave him a polite smile then continued on within. And there was a lot to take in, this was quite the place. This could definitely prove to be a fun evening. The only thing which would have made it better was had she been escorted in by a date, it was sort of embarrassing to show up all alone. How pathetically desperate she must look she sighed.

If she could not control her lack of accompaniment she could and did control her wardrobe. She was clad in a height of fashion, least where she came from, brightly colored flowery and extremely short skirt with a neon lime top revealing pale shoulders and a hint of cleavage. Not that she had much of that she sadly had to admit. Some women took care of that sort of thing with plastic surgery but she had thus far left it to Mother Nature however disappointing the results. Her hair was a rather bleached out pink instead of the deep red she had arrived at DS5 with. She liked to change things up though and this seemed the perfect occasion to experiment. The whole night out was a sort of experiment after all. Except for her eyeliner, her makeup and lipstick were subdued too, least for her.

Well if she didn't have an actual date, there was always the bar and a date with some strong drinks! With a confident stride she headed for that.

The bar itself was made from an ebony wood, and curved gentle in a wave shape, so it tapered at each end where wait staff were picking up various trays.

Behind the bar was a young bajorran man, and one of the tallest women Avis had ever seen, well over six foot. And she was purple. Her skin was a violet, and her hair was a brighter richer imperial shade. She was mixing a cocktail into a large shaker. She shouted for a bottle, and the bajorran threw it to her. She caught it out of the air, and then poured a stream of red liquid from it into the shaker. Then she added the lid, shoook it, flipped it into the air, caught it and cracked it open intoa waiting martini glass. She added the last glass to the tray. "Service!" sshe shouted, then looked alog the bar. "Who's next please?"

Avis glanced to either side of her and when no one seemed to be demanding attention, she figured she was next in line then as it were. She raised one hand and spoke up.

"That'd be me I guess. Honeyed scotch on the rocks if you have it?" she requested. The scotch was of course pure old Earth but some colonial worlds had added their own little touches. This version cut the bitterness but not the warmth going down the throat and the strength of the liquor either.

"Coming right up." The woman turned away for a moment, the shelves behind her were sparsely stocked, and she walked to the other end of the bar to retrieve a bottle. walking back she picked up a glass and dug it into the ice trough. "This is the last of it, I'm afraid." She tipped the bottle up, emptying a generous two fingers into it, then dropping the bottle into the empties cart for recycling. She pushed the drink over to Avis. "I don't think I've seen you around before?"

"Oh that is too bad," Avis replied but smiled at getting such a generous portion at least, finishing up that bottle, "Thanks."

"I'm new to DS5. Checking out the local sites and this place drew me in," she explained then took a sip of the scotch. Yes! Perfect!

"I thought as much." The bar tender said with a smile. "Welcome to my humble establishment" She gestured to enormous three level bar around them. "All our stock is genuine craft brewing made by hand- you cant shrug off the alcohol like synthetic drinks. We've got various acts in the smaller bars, and the holospa is open as long as we are. Bring your own, or choose from tens of thousands of titles. No censorship"

"Your place?" Avis blinked, "It is certainly not humble, it's damned impressive. And yeah, I didn't order scotch so I could shake it off easily, that's why I like strong drinks. Always thought the idea is to get buzzed."

"Never been much on doing holos by oneself, more fun with other people," she shrugged then added, "For now I think I will sit here and nurse this fine scotch and people watch."

"Be my guest." the bartender replied. One of the wait staff squeezed past her and picked up a tray. The young man was maybe a hair short of six foot, with dark hair hanging in a ponytail that came to his waist. And he was very very pretty. There were an awful lot of female eyes watching him. He collected the tray of cocktails, gave Avis a smile that could have been painted by Michaelangelo, and carried it away to a table of girls close to Avis own age, who seemed barely able to contain their drooling.

Needless to say Avis smiled back then watched with bemusement as he waited on some young ladies who were duly enchanted with his looks.

The bartender put another glass under a tap near Avis and started pulling a pint. "You're hardly the first woman who's come in here to watch. My staff are worth watching."

"Yeah, I can see that. I'd like to hope you would hire people based on their competence rather than their good looks but then I'm sure most of your customers approve of your business model. Who am I to criticize such a successful business like this one obviously is," Avis took another sip of the drink and enjoyed the warmth of going down her throat.

"Men don't need much competence to wait tables. Patience and a pretty face gets the job done nine times out of ten. At least in a bar like this. The Federation Presidential Banquet this is not." The bartender said with a grin, pumping the lever a second time. The tap made a hissing sound and squirted unenthusiastically into the glass. The bartender muttered something under her breath, and her violet skin turned an ochre yellow from head to foot, with her hair turning a shade of old gold.

"I waitressed a couple years when I was going to university, it's not the easiest job at times," Avis mildly countered then stopped when apparently the bartender's tap had just run out of ...well whatever she was pouring. The woman turned actual colors from head to toe, including the hair.

"Don't you hate it when that happens?" she smiled then sipped her drink again.

The dark ochre lightened a shade. "Happening too bloody often these days. Screw Raddon and all his works." She crouched under the bar to loosen the pipe, ready to flush the system, then popped back. "Hope the bastard gets syphilitic sores," she muttered under her breath. "Sorry. We had a fire a few weeks ago. I lost most my stock, and craft brewing can't be restocked at the drop of a hat. It all has to be shipped in."

"A fire? Wow," Avis would have thought a place like this would have more effective fire prevention measures installed.

"As for ...who was it? Raddon and his works? I'm afraid you lost me - remember I'm brand new here," Avis was always curious, never knew when some bit of revealed information might come in handy or even better, lead to a storyline. She was a reporter after all, not a party girl which was lucky for her given how bad she usually was at this nightlife stuff.

"Ah," The bartender turned a delicate peach, "Nothing exciting. I'd stay clear of him. He's poison."

Well, that wasn't a helpful answer, simply a warning. And to a person like Avis that only made the individual even more a person of interest. Avis decided to try again.

"OK, so male...check...has 'works' whatever that means...check. Not exciting but poisonous. Does he walk around with a big sign on his chest identifying him by name or how will I know to avoid him? Could you give me just a little bit more about all this.....please?"

The Bartender leaned across the bar. "You want to know more about Raddon? Why don't you take a trip to the Dilithium Chamber on the next level down. When you do, take a date. Like an Andorian. or A Klingon. Or a Vulcan."

Avis' eyes went big (yeah calculated gesture for dramatic effect, she couldn't help it).

"Ooooh, Dilithium Chamber huh? Sounds very interesting. Wait....do you mean like a date date? Or more like a bodyguard?"

"Either." She said with a smirk, her skin fading to a pale periwinkle. "Someone that will make sure you get noticed. I guarantee they'll give you a warm welcome."

Avis didn't know what to make of that answer. Was this woman setting her up for something? Warm welcome usually had very bad connotations? Would this individual be so callous as to simply be sending her into an ambush, she had done nothing to make an enemy here, had she? One never knew when dealing with alien cultures. Or so her father used to harp.

Well just a moment ago the bartender declared this Raddon to be poison. That had to be taken into account.

"Alright...got it. I will take it into consideration and see if I can manage to find myself that date," Avis nodded slowly.

She did not know any Andorians, Klingons, or Vulcans on this station. Well, so far.

Yolanthe sighed. "I'm sorry. I'm being cruel. The Dilithium Chamber is a humans only club. Take a non-human date and you'll get turned away."

Avis blinked, seriously?

"OK so now I don't know when to believe you. Do you do this a lot with new customers or am I a special one?" Avis wasn't mad, not yet but frustration was setting in. Thing is investigative correspondents had to keep their cool and she silently reminded herself of that.

The blue turned to a pale orange. "I'm sorry, You've caught me at a bad time." The bartender gestured at the pump. " Yet more stock gone."

To Be Continued...

Avis Larant
Investigative Journalist
DS5

Yolanthe Ibalin
Owner, The Box of Delights
DS5

 

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