Disaster Date

Posted on Thu May 26, 2016 @ 11:28am by Civilian Sigrún Aronsdottir & Lieutenant Liam Reynolds

2,734 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Interlude - Day 1
Location: Box of Delights
Timeline: 1800

ON:

Liam walked into the Box of Delights. The last time he had been here, Yolanthe had torn him to pieces. Then his last interaction with the alien, it seemed she wanted to physically project and tear off more pieces. So it figured that Cades friend, the women who it seemed was annoyed at him for not talking to a total stranger at his work diplomatic reception, and needed Cade to talk her into this would pick a place where he would be on edge.

What worried him even more was a certain redhead was also there, dressed to the nines and sat at a table. "Oh you have GOT to be kidding me," he muttered under his breath. How had she even known. How was she doing this? He had the thought to go wait outside for this "Sigrun" and suggest someplace else but she would likely follow them. Never the less, he turned to leave and of course Cade's friend walked right in.

"Hi, you're Liam right?" Sigrun asked. Even as she did so she chided herself. Of course he's Liam. You know what he looks like and he knows what you look like. How could you ask such a stupid question right out of the gate? She smiled to conceal her nervousness. It was a seemingly artificial gesture. Not her best smile.

"Yes hi," Liam greeted. She was nervous. That much hit him straight in the chest from her emotions. His stalker was suddenly irrationally angry at Sigruns appearance and he did sense Yolanthe somewhere in her bar. There was only one thing for it. "Can I get you a drink?" He sure as hell needed one he decided.

"Sure, that would be nice," she said. Staying close together they made their way through the crowd. As usual the Box of Delights was crowded and noisy with music and hundreds of conversations all going on at once.

Liam managed to get to the bar. This place was a lot busier in the evening. A young Trill male served them. "What can I get you mate?"

"A beer and," he turned to Sigrun to let her order.

"Ill have a White Russian," she said.

"I'll bring them over," the Trill suggested indicting his head to a table that had just cleared. Liam nodded and walked over to secure the table. In an attempt to be a gentleman, he pulled a chair out for his blonde companion. Once they were both settled he tried to relax. But it wasn't coming easy as Rahia decided to move to the bar, keeping her eyes on them.

"So," he started trying to ignore her and focus on his "date". He was about to say how was your day but something dawned on him, "You were at my diplomatic soiree?" he queried.

She nodded. "Yes, I was there. I stayed out of the way for the most part. It felt like it was really about the 'important' people. Made me feel uncomfortable the whole evening. I left as soon as I could."

"Yes, Cade mentioned it. You thought I was rude to you," he supposed he ought to apologise but still Liam thought it unfair he had been painted this way. She had certainly not been on his guest list. Not that Cade wasn't as XO and his friend allowed to bring an extra guest. The Trill just hadn't given him any warning. He hadn't even introduced them. Cade had apologised for that though. And at the end of the day it was a diplomatic party. The important people had been the diplomats. Best not to tell her that though. So he tried;

"I didn't intend to give off that impression. For me that night was a lot of fending off the Cardassian Ambassador having a fight with a civilian and trying to work out what ....." he trialed off as another thought entered his head. In everything, they had NEVER had that conversation. That Dorian was still out there pretending to be something he wasn't. He needed to pick that up with Cade and the security chief. "The point is I didn't know who you were."

The Trill suddenly dropped the drinks off at the table for them, Liam picking his up and taking a sip. She still wasn't happy about it going by the emotional response.

"It's not important," Sigrun said with a resigned shrug. "Cade explained it to me. You were working. I wouldn't even have been there if he and Amia didn't insist on getting me out to socialize." She hoped he wouldn't spend the whole night talking about his work. Sure it was mildly intriguing but hearing him speak of 'fending off the Cardassian Ambassador' made him sound so full of himself. She glanced up and made brief eye contact with a redhead walking past their table. The redhead was holding a drink in her hand, and for a moment Sigrun thought she saw something contemptuous in her eyes. But the redhead averted her gaze quickly and passed by. Sigrun thought nothing more of it.

Liam nodded. It still felt uncomfortable but he wasn't going to force the matter any further. She didn't seem the slightest interest at his mention of work so he decided to steer clear of that any further. "So tell me about yourself?" he smiled raising his glass. "Cheers,"

"Cheers," she replied in kind before taking a sip of her drink. "I'm from Iceland. Reykjavík to be exact. Spent a few years in Starfleet. That's how I met Cade and my husband." Realizing Liam may not be aware of that tidbit, she held up an index finger and emphasized, "late husband." Before coming down she had resolved not to mention Riley, and again was disappointed with herself for doing so. Now Liam would probably ask about him. Surprisingly he did not.

"How long have you known Cade?" he asked about their mutual friend, while suddenly doing a double take. Rahia had just necked an entire glass of something and was heading to the dance floor. The feelings she was throwing out, she was trying to get his attention. Liam turned firmly back to his "date" determined to ignore the clearly inebriated women.

"Oh my," Sigrun said, her eyes wandering up to the ceiling as she did the math in her head. "It's been more than ten years, I'm sure. We were ensigns back in those days. Just kids. It seems like ancient history now. What got you into Starfleet?"

"I was a tearaway teenage terror, and a Starfleet officer straightened me out," Liam admitted. "It took me a long time to acclimatise to moving to Betazed and being surrounded by telepaths and empaths full time. I missed Earth. A lot. I had to have some counseling and came to realise helping people was a good thing. I then trained as a counselor. Both my twin and I wanted adventure. Starfleet seemed the way to get that."

Liam took a sip of his drink. Rahia had made her way to the bar again and was getting another drink. She had also removed the little shrug thing she had been wearing and was parading more flesh. He was getting uncomfortable. And usually when you brought up that you were betazed with a new person, they would have some worry you would try read them or get all there secrets.

"And then somehow you ended up in the diplomatic corps? How did that come about?"

Liam froze for a moment and immediately felt defensive. He didn't want to have to go into any of the being held hostage and feeling he had lost himself stuff. Plus despite dealing with some of this, it wasn't the sort of baggage any women was looking to pick up.

"That's a little more complicated. Maybe a story for another occasion," he stated neutrally. Okay, Cade had known this lady for years but he certainly hadn't.

"What do you do?" he shut down that avenue of conversation changing the subject. He knew she was a captain of a freighter from Cade but it would be nice to hear her talk about it in her own words.

Sigrun tilted her head curiously at Liam's sudden re-routing of the question. All she had asked was how he ended up in the diplomatic corps. Was it something embarrassing? She opted to let it go and shrugged. "Well, I'm a captain in the Fleet Auxiliary which is technically a civilian position. So my job consists mainly of making cargo runs between here and the outlying colonies in an overworked, underpowered freighter that should have gone to the scrapyard years ago." She smiled. "We can also take passengers if you need a charter to somewhere, and you're in the mood to rough it for a few days."

Liam nodded. He wasn't looking to take a trip anywhere at present. "Do you enjoy it?" He asked. Then grimaced as Rahia chose that moment to walk over to their table. He clenched his teeth. Nervous.

"It's a living," Sigrun said with a thin smile.

"Hi, Liam!" Rahia said, holding a tall glass of neon yellow liquid in her hand. "Can't say I see you in this place much." Then she glanced down at Sigrun and offered a short, dismissive "Hello."

"Hi?" Sigrun said, looking between her and Liam. She recognized Rahia as the redhead she had seen only a moment before. Friend of yours? her eyes asked Liam.

“Rahia,” Liam said neutrally. Maybe if he told her he was on a date she would leave him be. “I’m on a date. This is Sigrun. Sigrun, Ensign Rahia Aler. She works in Ops with Cade.”

"Sigrun?" Rahia asked with a bemused look. "Cute name. You're a tiny thing aren't you?"

Sigrun placed her elbow on the table and laid her chin atop the back of her hand. "Yes, I'm quite petite. It helps me remember that I shouldn't drink so much."

Liam blinked several times. Had Rahia just insulted Sigrun? He was definitely sensing some jealousy and malice off the younger woman. Sigruns response was meant to be a joke, that much he was picking up emotionally from her. But the other women didn't take it that way. Rahia's eyes narrowed.

"So I guess you're the flavor of the week, eh?" Rahia said. "Liam here does seem to have plenty of those. Not long ago he was out with some Bajoran. He followed her back to her quarters." She took a pull from her glass.

Sigrun's expression didn't change. "Liam and I are just now getting to know each other. What he does in his personal life is none of my business, or anyone else's." She had already decided she didn't like this person.

Liam felt himself freeze suddenly. His suspicions that she was following him about suddenly confirmed. "Thank you," he said to Sigrun feeling himself flush at Rahia's implication that he had a different women every week.

He turned back to the redhead. "I think maybe you ought to keep your comments to yourself. And I don't have flavours of the week," he felt the need to clarify to his date. What was this women playing at.

Rahia bit her lower lip. Her eyes glistened with the sudden realization that she had gone too far. However, she wasn't about to back down. "I was nothing but nice to you, you know that? And all you ever were was a bastard." Looking down at Sigrun one last time she said, "Best of luck to you, hon. I hope you get what you deserve."

Sigrun opened her mouth to reply but Rahia was already taking a step back to retreat. In her tipsy state she stumbled, however. Frantically reaching for something to grab hold of she lost her grip on her drink. Most of the yellow liquid ended up on Sigrun's face, hair, and chest. Her mouth fell open in shock. She sat up and wiped the stinging remnants of the exotic drink from her eyes, while other droplets streamed down from her hair.

Noticing what had happened a few other customers turned and laughed, thinking they were witnessing the start of a catfight over some now-stricken looking guy. From the spot on the floor where she had fallen on her backside, Rahia also laughed.

From the crowd one of Yolanthe's burlier employees also appeared. Only he wasn't laughing. He stood ready to intervene in case things escalated any further. He shot Liam a look that said take the bitch fight somewhere else.

Liam was completely stunned for a moment. He NEVER expected her to suddenly turn so nasty. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. One second he was branded a bastard publically and completely unfarirly and the next his date got completely doused in the angry ensigns drink. Everyone was laughing. Both women in front of his were angry. Sigrun quite rightly so, Cade was likely to not be impressed when he heard about things and to top it off a massive bloke, clearly security for the box who was looking on giving him a very angry face. He had to do something.

"I am so sorry about that," he said to the blond mortified.

"Rahia," he stood up and bent down to try help her up. "I think we need to have a proper talk, when your sober. But right now, I think we need to get you back ...." he pulled her up and the redhead went through a mix of delight that he had stepped forward to help her, amusement that her rival was currently humiliated and dripping wet and then cold anger and jealousy. When she was back on her feet Liam wasn't quick enough to get out of the way of her arm.

"Don't touch me!" Rahia snarled as her hand made contact with the side of Liam's face. It made an audible smack, which in turn created another ripple of laughter from those watching over their drinks.

Yolanthe's security man was there instantly, grabbing her wrist before she could strike again. "All right, you're out of here," he said. He twisted her arm behind her in a firm but non-injurious way and steered her for the door.

Rahia struggled. "I'm a customer! I paid for my drink!"

"You're done," the security man said. "And I know you're Starfleet so you'd better play nice if you don't want to end up in a brig."

Meanwhile Sigrun had also grabbed her things and was marching towards an opposite exit.

Liam's cheek was smarting. She had whacked him hard. It was also brusing. "We are done too," he said angrily at the younger women not prepared to make any further effort of communication on her part now. All he had done was help her to her feet. He set off after his date. Well probably ex date now.

"Sigrun, Sigrun," he gasped trying to ignore his hurting cheek and keep breathing as he caught up with her. "Wait, Sigrun. It's not what it looks like."

Sigrun didn't slow down or look at him. "I don't care what it is. I don't want to get involved in whatever that was back there."

"She's in love with me. She's nuts. She's been following me around," Liam protested. He could sense she didn't want to believe him. Who would. That just sounded crazy. He still couldn't get his head round that all this was happening.

"Nuts? Yeah, you don't have to be Betazoid to figure that one out." They had reached the entrance to the Box of Delights. Sigrun stopped and turned to him. Though she wasn't empathic she knew this was embarrassing for him too. "Look, Liam, this was all a bad idea. No offense. Let's just call it a night, okay?" She reached up and pushed her drenched locks of hair away from her brow.

"Fine. Whatever you want," Liam responded fed up. He couldn't make her believe him. Something occurred to him as well. Tera had not responded to any of his messages since he had got back from the planet. Had Rahia said or done something to her too?

"Take care of yourself," was all he could thing up to offer before turning on his heels.

[OFF]

Sigrún Aronsdottir
Merchant Vessel Captain
(NPC Bert)

&

Lieutenant Liam Reynolds
CDO, DS5

 

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