A Box Of Drinking Questions

Posted on Wed Oct 19, 2016 @ 4:02am by Civilian 'Key Holder' Yolanthe Ibalin & Ensign Korudos th'Razh

2,131 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Rumours
Location: The Box of Delights
Timeline: MD01 2200

[ON]

For once, it was quiet in the Box. With Pangaea now open to be settled, the crowds of waiting hopefuls had decamped to the surface and the crowd was amde of the station natives. There was plenty of space at the long, undulating, bar for people wanting a drink.

Back temporarily from Pangaea Korudos had a rather tired look on his face as he entered the box. Wearing a teal uniform shirt he found himself a chair and sat down. Waiting until he could catch the attention of the woman behind the bar he raised a hand and waited.

A statuesque woman, six and a half feet tall, with violet skin and a deep purple hair was pouring out some sort of ale from a pump a third of the way in from the left end of the bar. She saw the andorian and gave him a nod. "What's your poison?" she asked, placing the full mug onto a tray a waiter was holding, before coming down to him.

"After the last few days? Something hard I think." Kourosh said wth a chuckle. "But, how about we start with an aldebaran depth charge for now?"

Yolanthe reached for a pint mug and put it under a tap while she went to the huge selection of bottles for the aldebaran Whiskey. "Thats usually the prelude to a bad weekend. Having a bad week?"

Korudos antennae moved about as he thought over his answer, and how to word it tactfully. "I'm two weeks in to my assignment aboard Deep Space Five and coming back to Starfleet I wasn't expecting everything that's been thrown at me so far in that period of time. We'll start there." he said as he eyed his drink being finished up by Yolanthe.

"What weren't you expecting?" Yolanthe put the pint jug down in front of him, and started to pour the measure of whiskey for the depth charge."

Waiting patiently, Korudos shrugged. "All of it. I left Starfleet a few years ago to attend to personal matters for my people. When I came back the last thing I was expecting was winding up in charge of a department that's had no oversight in some time on a station dealing with a neighboring planet that was a temporal mess. It's exciting, don't get me wrong but it's a bit overwhelming right off the bat coming back too."

Looking around at the cruise in the Box for a moment, Korudos returned his attention to Yolanthe. "I'm curious, what's the civilian take on Pangea?'

"Depends who you ask." Yolanthe topped off the measure, and went looking for the bar lighter. "Some are really excited. Lots of opportunity. Dreams of discovery and fame. Others less so. We've had lots on incomers hanging around waiting for it to open, and on top of that you've got the snot stains from the Dilithium Chamber making grunting noises about resources being reallocated away from humans. And how aliens are being favoured over Humans despite this clearly being a starfleet operation. Mouth breathers."

Nodding quietly Korudos was curious where the bartender feel into all of these opinions. Watching as his drink was lit he nodded at her. "And what about you? Where do you fall into that menagerie of eclectic opinions?"

"This is my home. They still have to come here before they get permission to land, so i've got plenty of business. I've thought of opening up an offshoot down there, but Its all pretty basic right now. I'll wait till they've got running water and electricity. And I don't like the idea I can't be transported out at a moments notice if anything goes wrong up here." She held up the whiskey shot over the beer glass, lit it, and dropped it into the drink. "Fire in the hole."

The alcoholic beverage in front of him lit up brilliantly, causing a few eyes to gander over in the Andorian officers direction. Waiting for an appropriate moment Korudos reached forward and then took the drink and allowed the flange to dissipate before taking a drink. The grainy alcoholic beverage felt good after today but if he had too many he knew it would lead to feeling terrible come the morning.

Returning his focus back to the kind and surprisingly attractive Bokkai bartender. "You worry about beaming back up, but what about the risk of being whisked away by a temporal disturbance? I wouldn't be surprised if Starfleet doesn't quarantine the whole place. Well if they had any smarts at least."

"Ah, but the smart thing and the politic thing are not always the same." Yolanthe observed. "And I'm pretty sure if the Federation tried to quarantine it, the others will give them headaches for years."

"Hence my drink. " Korudos said with a small laugh, a smile breaking through. "Here's to exploration and the headaches that come along with it." Raising his glass in salute, the Andorian downed the rest of his drink before slamming the glass down on the bar. His face and antennae squinched at the lhard iquor running through him but it tasted great.

"How about an Andorian Ale for the next round? I'd like to report for duty tomorrow." he asked Yolanthe, his voice a little more relaxed and less stressed than when he had first arrived.

"Coming up." She put another mug under the tap. "So...you have a basket case department." She eyed the teal of his shirt. "You're the new head of science?"

"Yeah, that would be me. An exobiologist at heart who could never give up exploring the unknown no matter how much it seems to piss off everyone around me. I'm going to go out on a limb and say you're more than just the average bartender here aren't you?" Korudos asked. To him the beautiful woman seemed like she was either a manager or possibly even the owner the way she interacted with the customers and seem to have such a pulse on the station. Plus her desires to open up business on Pangea was a helpful clue to boot.

The violet of her skin changed and became a soft baby blue. her hair changed too, from vibrant purple to that of a summer sky, and she smiled at him. "bar tender, owner, voice of the people." She raised a hand to indicate the many thousand square feet that The Box of Delights took up. "Welcome to my humble establishment."

Korudos smiled, the blue skin suited her. "You know if your added some antennae you could add Andorian to that list too with that neat trick of yours." Taking the ale she had placed in front of him he took a drink of it before deciding there was more interesting things in front of him. "it's quite the accomplishment you have here. I'm Korudos th'Razh by the way. I didn't happen to catch your name." Across the counter the Andorians hand was reached out towards Yolanthe's.

This time she laughed, and turned shades of cerulean and sapphire. as she reached out to shake his hand. "Yolanthe Ibalin. And flattery will get you everywhere."

Shaking her hand gently Korudos let her hand go, albeit slowly while chuckling as well with her. "Well if you keep the Andorian ale in stock I'll make sure to keep the flattery going whenever I drop by. How's that? Unless there was something else I need to trade for in order to get drinks around here." Korudos smiled, his eyebrows raised playfully as he finished the rest of his ale.

"Sounds good to me." She turned to take a drinks order from a waitress whose tight skirt and long legs drew the eye of many of the people sat along the bar. A thought occured to her as she reached for the first glass. "Actually," she turned back to Korudos. "Can I ask you a question?"

Korudos posed and his eyes shifted only momentarily before returning intently towards Yolanthe. "Seems only fair with all the questions I've asked tonight."

"What do you know about the Dominion?"

The Dominion War was only a few years over when I had entered the Academy however as an exobiology major we had a whole section dedicated to the Founders, Vorta, and Jem Hadar. Quite a fascinating technique of cloning they use with the Vorta to ensure all the memories are carried over from one clone to the next." Pausing, the Andorian caught himself before he began to ramble and he blushed. "So why do you ask?"

"Oh, random curiosity." she tried to be casual, but the blue was giving way to palest pink. "So, if you rounded up say, a whole bunch of dominion tech, you'd be able to make a whole load of progress, on, say, medical research?"

Korudos noticed her skin changing color again and said nothing even though he was sure it was coincidence with her response. Instead he considered her question and what she was trying to really get at. "It would really depend on what type of research someone in the medical field was taking part of to be honest. Really their equipment wasn't that much more advanced than ours unless your looking at cloning, or creating addictive substances. Their weapons are much nastier though in a medical sense, firing bursts of plasma mixed wth an anti-coagulant." Pausing at the thought of either devices suddenly wanted by or in the hands of a bartender he leaned forward and looked at her, his antennae pointing straight towards her.

"You haven't happened to acquire any of that technology have you Yolanthe?" he asked her pointedly.

Yolanthe looked deep in thought, and she shook her head slowly, "no. No. I don't." she dropped a couple of bright red berries onto the top of a glass she had filled iwth pink goop the consistency of yoghurt and so potent fumes could be seen coming off it. "So, what about things like.. curing diseases, or viruses. Things that spread easily?"..

Korudos was suddenly beginning to feel a bit uneasy and wondering if this conversation was going to lead somewhere he'd regret afterwards. "That would have to be something to study with the Doctor to be honest. Their generic engineering technology could possibly be modified for medical research purposes. I have to ask though, is there a point to all this? Something your not telling me? You know i can't help if I don't have the whole story."

Yolanthe's gaze settled on the far side of the promenade, not that she could actually see anything that far away, but she found herself looking towards the Dilithium Chamber nevertheless, her mind's eye momentarily observing the crates and crates of Dominion tech sitting in Melvyn Raddon's private hangar bay. "Honestly? I don't think I have the whole story either."

Korudos shook his head and considered whether or not he needed to order another drink at this point. He wasn't sure what the story was here but something seemed to be going on. "Look the Dominion was nothing special in the medical and science realm. The Founders as a species were great but they had cloning technology, that's it. The Jem'Hadar and Vorta were just disposable assets for them, nothing more or less. You want to talk military tactics then you have something."

Yolanthe just looked at him for a moment, before a rose pink suffused her colouring. "Oh, I'm beginning to think I do have something. I'm much obliged to you." She nodded to the drink in front of him. "On the house."

Confused, Korudos shrugged his shoulders but was very appreciative of the free drink. This woman was as confusing as she was easy on the eyes. Picking up the drink he took a long chug of it and then offered his thanks. "Thank you, glad I could help. If you ever need help with whatever you have let me know."

"oh I will." Yolanthe's smile was almost predatory in its satisfaction, like a cat with a canary. "It really is a genuine pleasure to meet you, Korudos."

Korudos wasn't sure if he was in trouble or inn trouble at some point when it came to Yolanthe. He needed to find a fellow officer who knew her well enough to fill him in at some point. Some point soon. Finishing his last drink he stood up and nodded to Yolanthe. "It was a pleasure meeting you as well Yolanthe. I'm sure I'll see you around and thanks for the drinks." Turning around the dark blue sciences officer left the Box of Delights and then disappeared from view as he headed off to his quarters, ready to call it a night.


[OFF]

Ens. Korudos th'Razh
Chief Science Officer
DS5

&

Yolanthe Ibalin
Owner, The Box of Delights
DS5

 

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