Unity – Following the Scent
by Lieutenant T'Pal & Alderman Yolanthe Ibalin
Post Details
ON
The man was easy to follow. His long slick hair, tied in a pony tail marked his back with a distinct black line down his pale maroon top coat. The Promenade swarmed with civilians, a mixture of races that made it effortless for T'Pal to blend in. At times the human was less than ten meters in front of her and he had shown no tell tale signs that he was aware of her.
When he turned into a bar, T'Pal was further back. Deciding how she would approach the bar, she decided not to act, but simply be herself. With long confident strides she walked into the fairly occupied room. A few patrons chatted scatttered around tables, a few standing at the bar counter or sitting on bar stools. Finding one near the end, where she could view her mark, she sat down and waited to be served.
The great thing about lunch time crowd, Yolanthe decided, was they weren't bothered by the ridiculously over the top ban on alcohol sales. That and they were thirsty. Pelin and the beautiful waiter Blake were running around to keep things going, so she could take things a bit easier, and just supervise.
She was enjoying the 'supervising' part quite a lot. Blake was very easy on the eye, and by the time the latest customer was settling down at the end of the bar she was a shade of pink that most beings would describe as girly. Somewhat reluctantly she walked down to the woman, but customers always came first. "Welcome to the Box of Delights. What can I get you?"
T'Pal's sharp eyes noticed the slightly *aroused* state of the bokkai, but then again, they displayed their emotions so easily. "Vulcan spice wine," she ordered and followed her eyes to the male waiter. His physique showed that he trained regularly and that he took care of himself.
Her mark sat by himself, but T'Pal noticed another approaching his table out of the corner of her eye, She would not watch him directly. She recognized him instantly. Gonar Nak, Orion Syndicate. Drug smuggler.
T'Pal never killed anyone without being convinced herself that the reasons were honorable. That she got from her Klingon side. Any person in such conversation with such scum deserves to die and had it not been for Vulcan control nshe would have gotten up and killed him right there, right then. She needed more proof for herself, which meant that she would put a listening device on him shortly.
She tuned back to the woman on the other side of the counter. "And the Trugan salad," she added.
"Coming right up." Yolanthe turned and reached for the current bottle of Vulcan Spice Wine. When she turned backed, Blake was hovering at the bar.
"Sorry to interupt. But the orion on table 12 wants a red nebula, and the guy with a ponytail wants a martini."
The Bokkai poured the spice wine, keeping her eyes on the size of the measure. "Did you tell them about the ban?"
"Yes, but," he put a strip of latinum on the bar, "the Orion said he'd pay double the price, and you could keep the change." He pouted a little, peeved at loss of his tip.
She looked at the cash, her skin shifting into a dark yellow colour. For some reason, people who thought they just had to flash the cash to get want they wanted annoyed her. But it was far too much of a profit margin on two drinks to get sniffy. "Okay, I'll take care of it. Can you go out back and arrange a Trugan Salad?" Yolanthe passed the wine to T'Pal as he retreated to the kitchen. "He'll be a couple of minutes." then she began to mix the new order. "Always someone thinks money takes care of everything."
"True," she agreed and used the time to study the pair openly. "Expensive drink..." she commented and turned back "What else can one buy here?" she asked as she leaned slightly back in her stool, her long fingers playing with the stem of the glass.
Yolanthe gave the cocktail mixer a vigourous shake, and poured the red nebula out. "I have hundreds of drinks, alcoholic, mind altering, and plain ordinary. They're all 100% real. Nothing replicated or synthezised. Not even the ice." Her fingers flashed as she sliced fruit for the garnish. "I'd show you a menu, but i'm not allowed right now." The yellow of her skin had been fading to violet as she concentrated on mixing, but it flared back for a second. "Time on the gaming tables, or in the holosuites. We have a very wide selection of titles to meet every taste... and if there's nothing you like, Klia can program something tailored." She packed the rim of the glass with a small fruit salad. "After that, make a request. I negotiate."
T'Pal made a mental note of the shifting colours in her skin. She had always been fascinated by the Bokkai, not that there are many around. "Why are you not allowed to show me the menu?" she asked curiously.
"I'm not supposed to be selling alcohol after last nights little incident." Yolanthe shook her head in disgust and began assembling the ingredients for the martini. "After the bombs went off - ruining my opening night - some of the Merchants association turned up in my bar for a meeting and it turned nasty. Very nasty. They were a mob. Tried seriously hard to kill the fleet admins and a couple of my other patrons when they didn't get senior officers down here to adress their concerns. As a result security blames the booze, not the complete lack of security on the Prom, and wants every establishment selling alcohol shut down until whoever started it turns themselves in." All the while she had not taken her eyes from the drink, measuring by eye and handling it very carefully. "Except that I suspect whoever started it doesn't even remember starting it. So I negotiated. I don't put the alcohol menu out, and I stay open." She tipped the ice out of the waiting martini glass, and gently slid the drink from cocktail mixer into it.
She placed the olive on the stick into the martini with reverence, It was a beautifully mixed drink and she knew it. "I'm not even supposed to be serving at all, but I know a thing or two about who and when to serve in a bar. And those two are not exactly a batchelor party on the lash."
T"Pal smirked, not wanting to draw attention to any association with the pair and kept off the topic She noticed the precision and saw that she had pride in her work Honorable. "So I missed all the action last night?" she asked dryly.
In her one hand she had the container with the small listening device. It was a minute programmable subdermal implant, with a matching device at the base of the listener's occipital bone. Always wanting to get close and personal with her mark, T'Pal raised from her chair. Where can I find the bathroom?" she asked the woman. She needed to place the device on the man and it would find it's way into his skin. He would never even know.
"Fraid so." Yolanthe turned and pointed her customer to the door at the back. "Rest rooms are through there, ladies on the left." She loaded the glasses onto a tray. She lit the sparkler on the Red Nebula, carefully angling it away from the martini.
"I'm just going to run these over. Your salad should be here when you get back."
"Thank you," the hybrid said and made her way to where the woman indicated, weaving her way through the tables. It was getting busier and timing herself, she bumbed into a patron just as he passed the table where Cane sat. Her hand brushed Cane's arm lightly, depositing the tiny device on his clothes. Careful not to speak she nodded her apologies to the patron and walked inconspicuously towards the bathroom.
The thing about being six-four in bare feet, Yolanthe mused as she slowly approached the table, was that you had to bend over a fair way to reach heights that most beings found normal. She put the tray down carefully. The two men had allowed their conversation to pause so she could serve, but the silence was beginning to take on the slightly heavy-breathed feel of distraction. She glanced up from the cocktail and its spitting sparkler. No surprise, the orion wasn't looking at his drink. "They're not on the menu either." she told him, keeping her tone pleasent and friendly.
"They should be." The Orion didn't raise his eyes.
She put the martini in front of the long haired human. "Life is full of dissapointments." She picked up the tray and straightened. "Enjoy your drinks." She turned away. As she did so, one of them smacked her on the arse. But she gritted her teeth and clampled down on the instinct to spin and crack whoever it had been in the throat with the edge of the tray. These days she took her compliments whatever way she could find them. Not looking back, she went back to the bar, and resumed her 'supervising' of Blake.
The small probe will bore it's way though the fabric and into the epidermal layers of his skin in seconds, not too deep to end up in the bloodstream and not too shallow to be shed with the outer skin layers. It would settle on the back of his arm, an area receiving little attention, even from a man such as Cane, who was a a perfectionist regarding his appearance.
In the bathroom, T'Pal activated the device and pressed the small implant close to her occipital bone to activate her side. The sound came through clear to her and to no one else. When she was certain all was in order she went back to her seat and sat down.
Her salad was there waiting for her indeed and she started eating it. "It is exceptionally good," she remarked when Yolanthe came into earshot. but her focus was really on the conversation.
["What do you mean it is power? How do they use it?" Cane asked leaning forward.]
[Nak chuckled. "Cocaine is snorted, traditionally through a straw and heroine is intraveneously injected. We give you a chip with the replicator instructions, recoding what you replicate and we take thirty..."]
["Thirty! That is high for my risk!"]
["It is a small price in comparison with the benefits...." Nak said coldly, not telling him that he still would have to pay for the raw materials. "If you are not interested....."]
A tap on T'Pal's shoulder let her turn her head, looking into the face of a man. "Can I help you?" she asked half annoyed.
["Of course.... I just hope we can negotiate the deal..." Cane tried.]
"I think you ought to come with me, T'Pal" said the stranger. "Your mother got sick and is calling for you," he said.
Recognizing the coded message from her previous intelligence unit, T'Pal got up slowly. She didn't know that dark haired stranger, but it was the best course of action to follow him for now.
T'Pal pressed her thumb on the credit PaDD and smiled a thank you to the Bokkai woman. It was clear that she would be back for more. Without a glance to the table where a discussion was ensuing, T'Pal walked out with the man, supressing her frustration at the interruption, but of course, if this was what she thought it was, they would know everything already.
OFF
Lt T'Pal
Who knows?
Yolanthe Ibalin
Owner & Bartender, The Box of Delights
by Lieutenant T'Pal & Alderman Yolanthe Ibalin
Post Details
| Title | Following the Scent | |
| Mission | Unity | |
| Author(s) | Lieutenant T'Pal & Alderman Yolanthe Ibalin | |
| Posted | Tue Mar 16, 2010 @ 10:42am | |
| Location | The Box of Delights | |
| Timeline | SD 17: About 11:45 |
The man was easy to follow. His long slick hair, tied in a pony tail marked his back with a distinct black line down his pale maroon top coat. The Promenade swarmed with civilians, a mixture of races that made it effortless for T'Pal to blend in. At times the human was less than ten meters in front of her and he had shown no tell tale signs that he was aware of her.
When he turned into a bar, T'Pal was further back. Deciding how she would approach the bar, she decided not to act, but simply be herself. With long confident strides she walked into the fairly occupied room. A few patrons chatted scatttered around tables, a few standing at the bar counter or sitting on bar stools. Finding one near the end, where she could view her mark, she sat down and waited to be served.
The great thing about lunch time crowd, Yolanthe decided, was they weren't bothered by the ridiculously over the top ban on alcohol sales. That and they were thirsty. Pelin and the beautiful waiter Blake were running around to keep things going, so she could take things a bit easier, and just supervise.
She was enjoying the 'supervising' part quite a lot. Blake was very easy on the eye, and by the time the latest customer was settling down at the end of the bar she was a shade of pink that most beings would describe as girly. Somewhat reluctantly she walked down to the woman, but customers always came first. "Welcome to the Box of Delights. What can I get you?"
T'Pal's sharp eyes noticed the slightly *aroused* state of the bokkai, but then again, they displayed their emotions so easily. "Vulcan spice wine," she ordered and followed her eyes to the male waiter. His physique showed that he trained regularly and that he took care of himself.
Her mark sat by himself, but T'Pal noticed another approaching his table out of the corner of her eye, She would not watch him directly. She recognized him instantly. Gonar Nak, Orion Syndicate. Drug smuggler.
T'Pal never killed anyone without being convinced herself that the reasons were honorable. That she got from her Klingon side. Any person in such conversation with such scum deserves to die and had it not been for Vulcan control nshe would have gotten up and killed him right there, right then. She needed more proof for herself, which meant that she would put a listening device on him shortly.
She tuned back to the woman on the other side of the counter. "And the Trugan salad," she added.
"Coming right up." Yolanthe turned and reached for the current bottle of Vulcan Spice Wine. When she turned backed, Blake was hovering at the bar.
"Sorry to interupt. But the orion on table 12 wants a red nebula, and the guy with a ponytail wants a martini."
The Bokkai poured the spice wine, keeping her eyes on the size of the measure. "Did you tell them about the ban?"
"Yes, but," he put a strip of latinum on the bar, "the Orion said he'd pay double the price, and you could keep the change." He pouted a little, peeved at loss of his tip.
She looked at the cash, her skin shifting into a dark yellow colour. For some reason, people who thought they just had to flash the cash to get want they wanted annoyed her. But it was far too much of a profit margin on two drinks to get sniffy. "Okay, I'll take care of it. Can you go out back and arrange a Trugan Salad?" Yolanthe passed the wine to T'Pal as he retreated to the kitchen. "He'll be a couple of minutes." then she began to mix the new order. "Always someone thinks money takes care of everything."
"True," she agreed and used the time to study the pair openly. "Expensive drink..." she commented and turned back "What else can one buy here?" she asked as she leaned slightly back in her stool, her long fingers playing with the stem of the glass.
Yolanthe gave the cocktail mixer a vigourous shake, and poured the red nebula out. "I have hundreds of drinks, alcoholic, mind altering, and plain ordinary. They're all 100% real. Nothing replicated or synthezised. Not even the ice." Her fingers flashed as she sliced fruit for the garnish. "I'd show you a menu, but i'm not allowed right now." The yellow of her skin had been fading to violet as she concentrated on mixing, but it flared back for a second. "Time on the gaming tables, or in the holosuites. We have a very wide selection of titles to meet every taste... and if there's nothing you like, Klia can program something tailored." She packed the rim of the glass with a small fruit salad. "After that, make a request. I negotiate."
T'Pal made a mental note of the shifting colours in her skin. She had always been fascinated by the Bokkai, not that there are many around. "Why are you not allowed to show me the menu?" she asked curiously.
"I'm not supposed to be selling alcohol after last nights little incident." Yolanthe shook her head in disgust and began assembling the ingredients for the martini. "After the bombs went off - ruining my opening night - some of the Merchants association turned up in my bar for a meeting and it turned nasty. Very nasty. They were a mob. Tried seriously hard to kill the fleet admins and a couple of my other patrons when they didn't get senior officers down here to adress their concerns. As a result security blames the booze, not the complete lack of security on the Prom, and wants every establishment selling alcohol shut down until whoever started it turns themselves in." All the while she had not taken her eyes from the drink, measuring by eye and handling it very carefully. "Except that I suspect whoever started it doesn't even remember starting it. So I negotiated. I don't put the alcohol menu out, and I stay open." She tipped the ice out of the waiting martini glass, and gently slid the drink from cocktail mixer into it.
She placed the olive on the stick into the martini with reverence, It was a beautifully mixed drink and she knew it. "I'm not even supposed to be serving at all, but I know a thing or two about who and when to serve in a bar. And those two are not exactly a batchelor party on the lash."
T"Pal smirked, not wanting to draw attention to any association with the pair and kept off the topic She noticed the precision and saw that she had pride in her work Honorable. "So I missed all the action last night?" she asked dryly.
In her one hand she had the container with the small listening device. It was a minute programmable subdermal implant, with a matching device at the base of the listener's occipital bone. Always wanting to get close and personal with her mark, T'Pal raised from her chair. Where can I find the bathroom?" she asked the woman. She needed to place the device on the man and it would find it's way into his skin. He would never even know.
"Fraid so." Yolanthe turned and pointed her customer to the door at the back. "Rest rooms are through there, ladies on the left." She loaded the glasses onto a tray. She lit the sparkler on the Red Nebula, carefully angling it away from the martini.
"I'm just going to run these over. Your salad should be here when you get back."
"Thank you," the hybrid said and made her way to where the woman indicated, weaving her way through the tables. It was getting busier and timing herself, she bumbed into a patron just as he passed the table where Cane sat. Her hand brushed Cane's arm lightly, depositing the tiny device on his clothes. Careful not to speak she nodded her apologies to the patron and walked inconspicuously towards the bathroom.
The thing about being six-four in bare feet, Yolanthe mused as she slowly approached the table, was that you had to bend over a fair way to reach heights that most beings found normal. She put the tray down carefully. The two men had allowed their conversation to pause so she could serve, but the silence was beginning to take on the slightly heavy-breathed feel of distraction. She glanced up from the cocktail and its spitting sparkler. No surprise, the orion wasn't looking at his drink. "They're not on the menu either." she told him, keeping her tone pleasent and friendly.
"They should be." The Orion didn't raise his eyes.
She put the martini in front of the long haired human. "Life is full of dissapointments." She picked up the tray and straightened. "Enjoy your drinks." She turned away. As she did so, one of them smacked her on the arse. But she gritted her teeth and clampled down on the instinct to spin and crack whoever it had been in the throat with the edge of the tray. These days she took her compliments whatever way she could find them. Not looking back, she went back to the bar, and resumed her 'supervising' of Blake.
The small probe will bore it's way though the fabric and into the epidermal layers of his skin in seconds, not too deep to end up in the bloodstream and not too shallow to be shed with the outer skin layers. It would settle on the back of his arm, an area receiving little attention, even from a man such as Cane, who was a a perfectionist regarding his appearance.
In the bathroom, T'Pal activated the device and pressed the small implant close to her occipital bone to activate her side. The sound came through clear to her and to no one else. When she was certain all was in order she went back to her seat and sat down.
Her salad was there waiting for her indeed and she started eating it. "It is exceptionally good," she remarked when Yolanthe came into earshot. but her focus was really on the conversation.
["What do you mean it is power? How do they use it?" Cane asked leaning forward.]
[Nak chuckled. "Cocaine is snorted, traditionally through a straw and heroine is intraveneously injected. We give you a chip with the replicator instructions, recoding what you replicate and we take thirty..."]
["Thirty! That is high for my risk!"]
["It is a small price in comparison with the benefits...." Nak said coldly, not telling him that he still would have to pay for the raw materials. "If you are not interested....."]
A tap on T'Pal's shoulder let her turn her head, looking into the face of a man. "Can I help you?" she asked half annoyed.
["Of course.... I just hope we can negotiate the deal..." Cane tried.]
"I think you ought to come with me, T'Pal" said the stranger. "Your mother got sick and is calling for you," he said.
Recognizing the coded message from her previous intelligence unit, T'Pal got up slowly. She didn't know that dark haired stranger, but it was the best course of action to follow him for now.
T'Pal pressed her thumb on the credit PaDD and smiled a thank you to the Bokkai woman. It was clear that she would be back for more. Without a glance to the table where a discussion was ensuing, T'Pal walked out with the man, supressing her frustration at the interruption, but of course, if this was what she thought it was, they would know everything already.
OFF
Lt T'Pal
Who knows?
Yolanthe Ibalin
Owner & Bartender, The Box of Delights