Bar Hopping

Posted on Tue Feb 5th, 2019 @ 2:09pm by Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox

Mission: Earthly Visitation
Location: Earth Space Dock
Timeline: 2396, during Shore Leave

It had been the better part of an hour since Captain Magnus of the Artan family had left the family's newest Baroness, Lieutenant Mnhei'sahe Dox abord her newly acquired ship, the Khallianen. And while she was still shocked to be laying on the Captain's bunk of the mid-sized J-Type ship that was actually hers, she simply couldn't relax.

There was a series of crates that apparently contained gifts for her inclusion into the pirate clan represented by her Captain and the families Princess, Enalia Telvan, but the young part-Romunal pilot had not opened them yet. Her mind was elsewhere. She was worried. She had had a number of boxes of personal effects beamed over to have on the ship. A few changes of clothes and the Romulan disruptor she had purchased at an auction with the Captain and Baroness Schwein over a month ago now. Thinking of that time reminded her of what she was worried about: Schwein.

When she arrived, the Baroness Schwein Von Alcott was there with Captain Magnus. And with Schwein, as always, was her now constant companion, Death. Literally. Dox had recently learned that the two were somehow connected and when Death claimed the life of a sleeping shopkeeper, Dox overhead what happened. Schwein felt it happen and the feeling was unpleasant enough to make the usually unflappable Baroness leave.

Sitting up from her bunk, Dox had had enough waiting. Captain Magnus was going to try and find Schwein and Dox wanted to give them time to talk. But an hour was long enough and she wanted to find out if they were alright. She went to hit her comm badge out of habit before forgetting that she wasn't wearing it. She was still dressed in the deep green formal uniform of an Artan Baroness and would have to find her friends the old fashioned way.

Unbuttoning the tight old world military jacked with the gold, tasseled shoulder boards, she tossed it on her bunk. She still had on the tall black boots and green uniform pants, but otherwise simply had a snug black tank top over which she tossed her light denim green jacket.

While she might be a Starfleet officer, she was an officer for a ship that technically didn't exist, so she couldn't really project her commission while on leave on an Earth station. So she would have to present herself again as a civilian. Thankfully, half a life spent as a smuggler meant that the red-headed Romulan woman was prepared for such eventualities as she stuffed a small wallet into her pants pocket with access to a fairly small private account of Latinum she had collected over the years.

The Federation might not have used money, but most of the rest of the Galaxy did and Dox knew how that game was played. As her new pirate ship's dock fees were paid for for the duration of shore leave, she locked the vessel up and made her way into the massive orbiting station.

When she last saw Schwein and Death, they weren't headed to medical or the turbolifts. They were headed towards the interior plazas where the shops, bars and restaurants were located. So that's where Dox would go to look first.

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It was nearly two hours of walking from bar to bar hoping for a sign of her shipmates before Dox decided that she was likely heading in the wrong direction. Or simply that the station had entirely too many places to drink. But it was out of that frustration that led the tired pilot to finally stop in to one of the bars in the plaza not just to search, but to drink.

It was about half full with an interesting variety of people's from the quadrant. There was a table of Andorians, a lot of humans, one Caitian woman and many more species she was slightly unsure of in the darkness. The lights were dim and the music was hard and Dox figured this was good a place as any to stop for a drink. At each bar she went into, she asked at the bar if anyone had seen Schwein by description to no avail. Of course, she couldn't discount the possibility that some of those bartenders might have been reluctant to answer the questions of a Romulan with a bad attitude.

Still, she found the emptiest section near the end of the bar and sat. A few heads turned as she passed and her acute hearing picked up a few whispers in her direction, but she couldn't be bothered to care anymore. She had dealt with entirely too much emotional garbage in the last few days to absorb so much as a drop more. She was, however, more than ready to absorb a drink or two.

After a few minutes of sitting and watching the activity behind her through the reflection of the mirror behind the bar, the bartender made his way over to her. With all the enthusiasm of someone who hated everything in the universe, the middle-aged, paunchy human nodded in her direction and mumbled. "What'cha want?"

Arching an eyebrow at his attitude, Dox pushed her card forward with two fingers and replied flatly. "Aldebaran whiskey. A double, please."

The bartender took her card, grunted and walked off. Behind her, a few Starfleet cadets began laughing and shoving each other, clearly having enjoyed more than just synthol against regulations. Looking over her shoulder, she smirked lightly remembering her own time in the academy when she was often the cadet other cadets went to break that rule and drink the real stuff. Even back then, she still had contacts from her time as a smuggler and took advantage of it to broker deals between the disreputable for a modest percentage of the profits. After all, that Latinum didn't just materialize in her account.

A minute later, the bartender walked back over with her drink. Dox took it in hand and gestured towards him. "Thanks. Hold on, though. I've been looking for a friend of mine. Leaner woman wearing a long jacket with tassled shoulders. Long, white hair."

He looked at her, glancing at her ear with a suspicious look. She rolled her eyes and she knew that even if Schwein had been in her dancing on the bar, he would likely not say. "Hnave! Really?" She cursed in Romulan, which didn't likely help her trustworthiness.

Quickly, she downed her drink without blinking and plopped the glass down. Holding up two fingers, she pointed them to the glass. She was here to drink and pay for it. She hoped the message was clear.

And it seemed to be, as his demeanor loosened up slightly. "Nah, sorry. I'da seen a lady like that."

She believed him as he took the glass to refill it. It was another failure, but at least it was a productive one.

After another hour of this, Dox had cleaned off the entire bottle of whiskey and moved on to a Klingon Bloodwine. Or at least what this bar tried to sell to rubes as such. The quality was among the worst she had ever sampled, taste-wise, but it was still alcoholic and that was enough for her at that moment. And in spite of the alcohol and the volume of the music, she still heard the drunk human man lumbering up behind her.

Watching him in the mirror, he looked to be a freighter pilot who spent entirely too much time in places like this as he leaned over the bar beside her. "Well, I've been all over this quad and I've never seen a ginger Romulan drink Klingon blood wine."

Dox took a sip, watching through the mirror without turning her head towards the unwelcome lurker. "And now you have. Congratulations." Her tone was flat and sarcastic and she hoped he would get the message and just leave.

Alas, it seemed to spur him on as he leaned in to where she could feel is thick, sticky breath on her neck. Her mind drifted back to the Hera and Mona Gonadie breathing hotly on her neck and the electric shock that sent inside of her. But now all she felt was revulsion.

"So... Maybe I could get you a drink and we could..." But before he could finish, Dox cut him off mid-sentence.

"I can buy my own drinks. Go find someone else that will impress, I'm not interested." Dox's tone was stern and firm as she still hadn't turned to face the man leaning in closer. But before the freighter pilot had a chance to say anything again, he was interrupted by one of the half-drunk cadets.

"Excuse me, Sir. But I believe that the lady said she wasn't interested." The cadet in question was a young, dark-haired and thickly built human. Not overtly intimidating on his own, but backed up by a cluster of uniformed friends, it gave the drunk instigator pause.

"Yeah, fine, whatever. I wasn't interested in the fat bitch anyway." She grunted as he stepped away, incredulously. For her part, Dox simply rolled her eyes and took a drink.

"I apologize if that man was bothering you, miss..." Dox realized that the young cadet was fishing for a name and possibly hitting on her now as well. A thought that sent put a pit of anger in her stomach. This young man wasn't the same smug cadet that took her virginity to check 'Romulan girl's off his checklist of conquests while she was a cadet, but he was close enough.

This time, she turned and stood up, tugging down on her tank top, in the same manner, she would her uniform. "As I told the gentleman, I am not interested. I request you leave it at that unless you'd like the stench of Kali-Fal on your breath reported to Commander Stewart."

The cadet went white as Dox dropped the name of a Commander that she still knew was an administrator at the Academy. She wasn't in uniform and couldn't say what ship she served, but the demeanor was clear to the cadets. She was an officer and they just stepped in it. "Now, go about your business and leave me to mine, and that will be the end of it."

Dox tilted her head to punctuate her statement and the cadets scurried back to their table. Regardless, her 'cover' was blown and it was time to leave this particular bar. So she closed out her tab, significantly poorer and left.

Making her way back to the docks and her ship, Dox felt uncomfortable. She wasn't sure quite why and thought it might be the alcohol getting to her but she had the distinct feeling she was being followed. Her little show for the cadets might have drawn more attention then she wanted, so she decided to test the theory.

Stepping into a small cafe that was opened late, she ordered a large black coffee and a chocolate chip muffin and took a seat in a far corner of the back where she could see anyone coming in or following. And even if she was just imagining things, the coffee and the muffin would help her sober up and avoid a hangover, so it was a win/win.

After about a minute or two of waiting, a tall but equally thick Caitian woman virtually floated in and walked up to the counter. She had a fine coat of dark fur, long, silky black hair that stretched halfway down her back and deep green eyes. She was wearing a short green dress and a three quarters sleeve leather half jacket. From her seat, Dox watched the woman intently over her mug. She was thick in all the places Dox liked and she remembered catching her out of the corner of her eye at the bar when she went in.

After a few moments, the dark-furred woman collected a tall coffee and slowly sauntered back making a beeline to the back, sitting at the table next to Dox's, opposite her.

For a full minute, there was silence as the two sipped their coffee with zero subtly. They were clearly sizing each other up. Dox noticed a low, vibratory hum coming from the woman's table. What Dox could only assume was purring.

"So, you're not wearing a uniform, but your posture back there screamed 'Starfleet' with those children." The Caitian beauty spoke, breaking the silence, though she kept her eyes forward as she did.

"You don't have to be in Starfleet to know how to wrangle a bunch of drunk cadets. How long were you following me?" Dox replied, placing her mug down to look over at the Caitian as she spoke. As she did, the dark woman virtually slid from her table to sit in front of Dox.

"Direct. I like that." The Caitian woman purred. It was obvious she was going for seductive and Dox was not oblivious, nor was she unaffected. But she was also cautious and not about to be caught off guard.

"Not an answer," Dox replied tersely, her dark eyes locked on the deep green eyes of the woman sitting across her. Neither blinked for a moment.

Putting her drink down, the mysterious woman crossed her hands on the table in front of her. "Very well. I had my eyes on you from the minute you walked into the bar if you must know. And..."

But Dox was not in the mood for games and cut her off mid-sentence. "Why?"

With an expression of mock disappointment, the Caitian woman continued, as her lips curled into a grin. "Curiosity... and spare me the obvious joke. I was curious. I've never seen a woman quite like you before. So, I wanted to get to know you better. But I didn't work up the nerve to talk to you before you left, so I thought I'd see where you'd go next. But if that was too forward, I do apologize."

Staring back at the mysterious visitor, Dox tilted her head, somewhat incredulously. Her remarkably poor romantic track record made her immediately suspicious. But she was also still holding out hope that something might develop between herself and Mona Gonadie and wasn't interested in risking that regardless of how attractive she found the Caitian.

She simply wasn't Mona.

"I'll say what I said to the guy in the bar, I'm not interested. And now you know me better." Dox took a sip, coming off possibly a little colder than was probably necessary and added with a light smile. "Though I appreciate the attention."

From behind, the Caitian curled her tail up behind her back as she leaned forward, clearly not giving up. "Well, that man didn't exactly have what you like, did he?"

Clearly, Dox was projecting her sexual preference for women strongly enough but still wanted to shut her down as nicely as possible in spite of feeling herself getting flush and a little warm. "Regardless, I'm spoken for. So thank you, but no thank you."

It was a bit of a lie as, while Mona was aware of Dox's attraction, nothing had happened between the two women. But to Dox's surprise, the Caitian leaned further forward and inhaled deeply through her nose.

Still leaning forward, she kept her eyes locked on Dox's, and began wagging a finger playfully. "Uh uh. No you're not. I don't smell anyone else on you. That flower is currently not being plucked."

At that, Dox felt a rush of conflicting emotions as she could feel the Caitian's warm breath on her face. She was both aroused and angry at the violation of privacy implied in being 'sniffed out'. But at that moment, her anger was bolstered by her feelings for Mona and she pushed past any initial attraction. "That's not your business." Dox hissed.

At which point, the Caitian woman realized she had pushed far too hard and leaned back looking slightly upset now. "Okay, okay. I'm sorry. That was... that was way too forward. I'm... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you."

But the damage was done, and Dox was too angry and a little too drunk to be polite or listen to an apology she didn't know if she could believe. Still, the mystery woman tried to pull back as Dox rose from her seat. "Please, I'm sorry. That was wrong. I really just... I'm a little drunk and a little... I'm sorry, I just... I like you."

But Dox was done listening. Her mind was now running with angry, conspiratorial concepts and thoughts. Who was this woman? Did she know Dox was with Starfleet? Did she know Dox was an Artan Baroness? What was it that really prompted this encounter, because Dox couldn't wrap her hurt mind around the idea that the curvy Caitian might be telling the truth? People simply didn't like Mnhei'sahe Dox like that, she thought to herself as she stepped around the table.

With a cold stare, Dox hissed. "Don't follow me again." And she stormed away, walking angrily back to the Khallianen to see if maybe Schwein had returned to the Hera. And likely, to sleep off the buzz she was riding hard.

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Back at the table, the silky Caitian just sat with a sad look on her face, staring at her coffee. Her posture slumped as her formerly active tail lay flat behind her while she let out a sigh. "Idiot. Why would you think someone like that would like you?"