Interlude – Shooting the Breeze
by Commander Richard Dunham & Alderman Yolanthe Ibalin
Post Details
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Uniform sleeves rolled up, oil grease on his arms and face, Dunham walked into the Box of Delights carrying a large metallic object in both hands, almost half the size of himself. It was cylindrical in shape, data ports, wires and power cables hanging from it indicated, it had been removed from some sort larger mechanical system. The object proper was reflective silver. Dunham placed the silver cylindrical device up right on the bar. "This is yours" said Dunham to Yolanthe.
The bartender looked down at the filthy object sitting on the beautifully polished surface of the bar, examining it in silence, as she slowly turned a pale shade of teal. "Thats so sweet of you!" She said with a grin, "I've always wanted one of those." Then she looked down at the young pilot. "What is it?"
"It's the computer core to the ship you sold me.....seems it has a personality all of its own. Couldn't wipe the thing, so now I'm gonna have to replace the entire unit. So you can have this one."
Yolanthe nodded. Technically, the lieutenant was wrong. It didn't have a personality all its own. It had had six. "Well you can't leave it here. Bring it out back." She waited for him to heft the device, and then showed him through the staff only door, into the Box of Delights' back of house where she pointed him at the door to the Industrial replicator. "So, how goes the renovations?"
"Hazardous but fun” said Dunham with a grin, as he hefted the large cylindrical device into the back room, then with a bit of a grunt, put it down next to the industrial replicator. He wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his wrist. “Still have to bypass the anti-matter stream from the anti-matter injectors to induce a tachyon flow. Then I have to stabiles the flow of phase-modulated chronotron particles from the sensor array. After that, re-initialise the positronic charge from the optronic relays to correct a phase differential to the warp core. Then maybe…..” Dunham paused as he realised he was probably getting away with himself on the techno jargon. He smiled “I was thinking about painting it blue.”
The engineering speak flowed across her ears. She understood the individual words, but the sentances meant nothing. Instead she focused on what she did understand. "Blue is a good colour. Happy. Positive."
"hmmm" said Dunham in thought. "Maybe, maybe I should paint it white with go faster red stripes?"
Yolanthe considered it. "Will that make it go faster?" She rolled the core with a foot until it was on the materilisation pad.
Dunham smiled to himself, "so the theory goes, but there is no scientific evidence to support it." Dunham shrugged, "but people on earth have been doing it for centuries." He was pretty sure that talking about his new ship acquisition was probably boring, so he changed the subject a bit. "So how are you and your business?"
"Doing good. Things are beginning to settle now. I think i'm going to survive." She tapped the replicator, and the old computer dematerialised. "I've even got a few candidates for bar-fly and regular already. And Klia's getting commisions for custom programs too. It looks like this place has been screaming for something more entertaining than flat-cap pub and die-if-you-look-at-them-funny Klingon bear-pit."
Dunham nodded and smiled. ~Each to their own,~ he thought to himself, "Its a big station, lots of different types of customers, must walk in through your door. Wanderers, entrepreneurs, villains, the rich, the poor, all sorts of people from all around the galaxy. What made you decide to stay in one place and move here?"
She turned away from him, working the replicator. Her skin passed through a sharp green, then a swampy grey. The replicator materialised a small bowl and a pair of white fluffy towels. "Here, get that muck of you, you look a mess." She held them out to him, as her skin moved back to the usual violet, though it retained a hint of murk. "It was boring. There's only so much fantastic no-strings sex with handsome young men whose lives are devoted to your pleasure a girl can take, you know." She paused just a beat. "You must be spending a lot of time with that heap of junk. Is your woman getting jealous?"
"Wha?" said Dunham in slight confusion, he was still slightly taken aback by the statement of; fantastic no-strings sex with handsome young men whose lives are devoted to your pleasure a girl can take, you know. Surely such a thing was not possible? Or was a blatant cover up for something else? Something far less glamorise? Who knew, the sudden change in conversation may certainly indicate that she didn't want to talk about it. Dunham snapped himself out of his train of thought after realising he had been silent for a few moments. "Not that I'm aware of?" said Dunham slightly worried.
"You know, I don't think she exists. I've not seen you come in with her. I think you're making her up to avoid spending money in my bar." Yolanthe raised an eye brow, but her tone was light and teasing. "Am I right?"
"Hold up," said Dunham holding his hands up in mock surrender, "First off, as I recall I actual gave you a considerable bonus amount for that scrap pile down in the cargo bay. Secondly she is very real. I'm sure being such a social guru like yourself that you probably all ready met her."
The bokkai laughed, and put her arm around his shoulders. "The ship doesn't count; my favourite customers are the ones who come back again and again. And since you don't drink, don't gamble, and don't want to watch pretty women take their clothes off, I simply worry i have no way of looking after you." She propelled him through the door back to the front-of-house. "And to date, I've only met one of the many doctors on this station. I'd hate to just assume that you belong to her, in case I was wrong."
Dunham "Ok lets get a few things clear. One; I keep coming back to the bar. Two; I drink, sort of, in proportion...kinda, now and then, on special occasions, now and again. Three; your right I don't gamble. Four; I watch pretty women take their clothes off, real women not holograms, and when I say women, I mean one woman, because I believe in a certain code of conduct..... I'm not sure I'm explaining it right?"
As he got more flustered, her grin only widened. The more he protested the more adorable and innocent he sounded. By the time she had manouvred him back into the main bar, she was a strong shade of periwinkle blue. "You're explaining it just fine," she assured him, "and I think its very sweet."
"Sweet, sweet," said Dunham in a slightly squeaky high pitched incredulous tone, "I'm not suppose to be sweet, I'm a bloody fighter, a life taker and heart breaker."
Yolanthe returned to behind the bar, collecting a tall glass and opening a bottle of a dark, fizzing liquid bottle into it. "Obviously not the last. I give you plenty of opportunites - dancers, holosuites - but you don't take them." She bent down to open a cabinet under the bar, and extracted a small container. "As for the rest, well, I don't doubt a hot shot pilot like you has to be the other two." She pulled a large spoon from a jar of untensils and expertly carved a scoop of pale yellow ice-cream from the container. She plopped it into the glass, and added a straw. "On the house, heart breaker."
Dunham put down the towel he was using to wipe off the grease and oil from off his face, onto the bar. He picked up a spoon, poked the contense of the bowl gingerly, then took a mouthful. He nodded appreciatively at the flavour. "So what about you Yolanthe, any men your life? Or Woman?"
"Woman? Cheeky boy." She swept the greasy towl off the bar, and wiped down the area with a clean cloth and something that smelt like cheap kanar. It made short work of the oil sheen. "No. No men, not any more." She thew the cloth into the same bin as the towel. "Why, are you looking to earn the title of heart breaker afte rall?"
"It doesn't just have to be a man it could women. After all its the 24th century. Its an enlightened time. But alas I am taken, so no heartbreaking for me." Said Dunham with a mournful smile.
She grinned at him, "I think I'll live. Besides, your doctor sounds scary, I'd hate to get on her wrong side. So I ask again, when do I get to meet her?"
"You must of met the chief medical officer by now?" Said Dunham with a smile and matter of factly tone.
Yolanthe stepped back from the bar as the jigsaw fell into place. "Yes, I have met her." She winked at him, "You're a brave boy."
Dunham grinned, "I wouldn't have it any other way."
She left him to his ice-cream soda for a few minutes whilst she put away a fresh batch of glasses, before returning to fill the companionable silence with a question. "Did you ever decide what to spend that big pile of latinum on in the end." When he'd taken the ancient shuttlecraft off her hands she'd had to give him a lesson in using money. He had had no idea just how much he had saved. "I'm guessing frittering it away at the card tables is still off the agenda."
Dunham shrugged, "I dunno, its only money....maybe give it to charity or something?"
"I'm not the person to ask. I didn't think there were any charities in the federation." SHe thought about it for a moment. "What sort of charities would you want ot give it to, assuming there were?"
Dunham smiled "Hold on aren't you suppose to get all flabbergasted and shocked that I don't wan't to spend the money on material goods or something? That's not what they teach us in the academy you know, they tell us to be sympathetic and weary of money driven cultures."
"Ha! I didn't fall off the boat yesterday, you know." She shook her head as if in despair, but she was smiling too, and turning a soft shade of periwinkle blue. "I've had time to get used to your strange alien ways. Besides, I may be from a culture that still uses money, but we're not Ferengi. We have some standards. And we still have charity, so its not so strange."
"Yeah your nothing like a Ferengi," said Dunham sarcastically but with a smile on his face. "No level of misandry at all" he winked.
She snorted. "On the contrary, I love men. If there's anything we Bokkai have drummed into us from a young age is that men are rare and preceious jewels to be cherished and loved." she reached over and ruffled his hair, "Bless your little hearts."
"Is that are cultural thing? Or are just not allot of men on your world?" Dunham knew next to nothing of these Bokkia. He had yet to check the Federation database on this species, but he got the feeling he wouldn't fined much, or answers to his questions, such as what the different colour changes on the skin meant.
"Males make up about 5% of the population." Yolanthe shrugged. "So we tend to keep them under lock and key. Can't afford to lose even one."
Dunham raised his eyebrows in slight exclamation. "So your men don't have the same rights as the women?"
"No." She decided to choose her next words carefully, just in case she spooked his federation sensibilities. "They're just too valuable to be allowed to do as they please." She looked at him. "So count yourself lucky you're from a species where women outnumber you only by about four percent."
"So there’s no gender equality on your planet? Your men are just wrapped up in cotton wool and kept out of harm’s way?” Dunham was curious now, no wonder he had never heard of this place, the federation had probably avoided it, equality and equal rights for all being a major part of its moral and political fibre. He wondered to himself in this modern age why they had not fixed the problem through gene therapy or other means of science. Maybe they were to backward? Dunham chided himself for such a detrimental thought.
She shrugged, "Pretty much." She saw the look on his face, "Its a very serious business, we're heading for extinction, and it could be worse."
"Extinction, that’s terrible" said Dunham with genuine sympathy. He scratched his head in confusion. “But, I’m no doctor or science bloke, but why can’t you just play tweak the stem cells or change a chromosome or two. You know change x to y or y to x or however it goes?”
"I failed science. They've been trying, but its not working. Something to do with resistance to genetic mutation. Either way, currently all we have is the old fashioned way, but its just holding off the inevitable."
~A dying species~ thought Dunham to himself. "What about cloning or In vitro work?"
She made a face, and her skin took on an sandy tinge. "Like the therapy, we've proved resistant to In vitro. And as for cloning? Ughh! We'd rather die." she shuddered. "Lets talk about soemthing more cheerful than the use and abuse of the bokkai male. Its nowhere near as interesting or exotic as you'd think."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you," said Dunham with empathetically, he put one hand on top of hers. "Hey maybe there's a charity for it, that I could donate my money to?"
"I'm not upset." She assured him, ignoring the fact she was broadcasting the complete opposite from her mustard coloured skin. "but a good bartender never talks about herself. She's all about her customers. For example, how did you loose your colour?" She lifted the lock of white hair on his fringe and let it flop into his eyes.
Dunham took the hair in his hand, looking at it in close proximity to his eyes made them cross, "I inherited from the old man, he had to, as did my Granddad."
"So your children will have it too?"
Dunham shrugged. "Dunno, maybe, maybe not. My sister doesn't have it. Maybe it's just on the male side?"
"Going to find out one day? Or are rugrats not your thing?"
"Watch this space," said Dunham quoting the old 20th century saying, with a very un-confident smile. Dunham knew that he really wanted kids someday, family and everything like that. But would he be good at it? It was a question that was playing on his mind for a while, exacerbated by the events of his little holiday, and his niece opting to stay with her grandma.
She grinned back at him. "Why look so worried. I thought the mechanics of babies for humans were the same as for most other species." She frowned as a sudden thought struck her. "You can father children, can't you? You are... compatible... with the Doctor?"
Dunham nodded his head, "Half human half Bajoran babies are nothing new. Me being dad, that's a new concept, and one I feel I may not be good at."
"Why ever not?"
"Oh no, don't get me wrong" said Dunham smiling, "I want kids I'm looking forward to it.
"I just hope I turn out to be a better parent than my mum ever did." Dunham was looking towards Ibalin, but his stair was into the middle distance, like he was looking at the past.
It was Yolanthe's turn to put a sympathetic hand over his. "I'm sure you will. The very fact you're worrying about it says you will." She patted his hand. "Trust me, you'll be so busy making sure you don't repeat her mistakes, you won't even notice that you've screwed them up all on your own."
Dunham shrugged, "your not inspiring me with confidence dear"
"The point is, if i had a bar of latinum for every person who sat at my bar and worried they were a bad parent, I'd be obscenely rich. Your not the first. And neither do you see the world over-run by maladjusted adults. Everyone worries, but the vast majority of us turn out okay. Yours will turn out okay, even if you're not 100% perfect daddy every day."
"What about you" said Dunham changing the subject and not wanting to linger on the depressing thoughts in his mind. "Ever thought of being a mum?"
She started to turn a soft dusky grey. "I don't think I can. There's been lots of trying. If it was going to happen, it would have by now."
"What about adoption?" asked Dunham a tone of sympathy in his voice. He didn't want to hurt her feelings.
She shrugged, "never really thought about it." Then she looked around the bar, and the grey was replaced with the usual purple. "Besides for now, this is my baby." She gave him a wicked grin. "Noisy, keeps me up all night, sucks up my money and my free time..."
Dunham frowned, "So does that make you the dad or the Orion?"
the bartender laughed. "I don't know. paternity isn't really an issue where I come from. You could say both of us."
"What both of you are the Dad's in the running of this bar....that kinda makes sense." Said Dunham with a slightly sly smile.
She cocked her head on one side, as she turned a soft shade of teal. "And why does that make sense?"
"urrr...." Dunham suddenly relised he may of dug himself a rather large hole. "Uummm, but, I.... Did I mention you were looking great today." He said hoping the compliment and change of subject would get him out of said hole.
He was very cute when he squirmed, and it was all too easy. "Flattery will get you many things," she leant forward to bring herself to his level. "But I still want to know what you meant."
"Hey come on..." said Dunham innocently and raising his hands above has head in mock surrender "you gotta be nice to me, I got shot you know."
"Really?" She raised an eyebrow. "In that case I'm betting the Doctor you keep saying can cause you all manner of pain told you to take it easy. Am I right?"
"Absolutely, no stress or confrontation" said Dunham with a grin.
"So she would take it badly if I told her that you've been rolling around in the dirt and lifting heavy computer cores?" Her own grin became positively wicked. "or that you came into my bar all oiled up, demanding that I treat you nice?"
Dunham eyes darted about the room, like prey looking for an escape route out of a corner. He gulped slightly, but continued to try and smile. "You know what, I'm really out of my league."
"You have no idea. Now are you going to tell me what you meant, or should I go hunting for whereever I put my combadge?"
=^= Lt can you head back to the barn sir? We got a problem with one of the Broadsword Multi-role Assault Fighter's=^= Dunham flashed his best charming smile, pointing at the comm badge on his chest, "I gotta take this." He pressed it and began to speak. =^=I'm on my way=^=, He then looked up Ibalin's eye's "You've been charming as always my dear, but I got to go"
"The bell won't always save you, you know." She warned him, collecting his empty glass. "See you around, Lieutenant."
"Parting is such sweet sorrow." Said Dunham, but also thinking to himself that she would probably be a little hurt, if she discovered he had pre-arranged the 'escape' comm with the boys down in docking control, on his way up to the bar. He liked her, but he felt it to be a little wise to take such a precaution, as she did intimidate him a little.
She rolled her white eyes, and threw a bar towel at him. "Get out of here, fly boy. You're making the place look untidy."
Dunham bowed, gave a little wink, and headed out of the bar.
Off:
Lt Richard Dunham
Squadron Leader
&
Yolanthe Ibalin
Owner and Bartender, The Box of Delights
by Commander Richard Dunham & Alderman Yolanthe Ibalin
Post Details
| Title | Shooting the Breeze | |
| Mission | Interlude | |
| Author(s) | Commander Richard Dunham & Alderman Yolanthe Ibalin | |
| Posted | Thu Jun 10, 2010 @ 11:15pm | |
| Location | Box Of Delights | |
| Timeline | End of Interlude Mission |
Uniform sleeves rolled up, oil grease on his arms and face, Dunham walked into the Box of Delights carrying a large metallic object in both hands, almost half the size of himself. It was cylindrical in shape, data ports, wires and power cables hanging from it indicated, it had been removed from some sort larger mechanical system. The object proper was reflective silver. Dunham placed the silver cylindrical device up right on the bar. "This is yours" said Dunham to Yolanthe.
The bartender looked down at the filthy object sitting on the beautifully polished surface of the bar, examining it in silence, as she slowly turned a pale shade of teal. "Thats so sweet of you!" She said with a grin, "I've always wanted one of those." Then she looked down at the young pilot. "What is it?"
"It's the computer core to the ship you sold me.....seems it has a personality all of its own. Couldn't wipe the thing, so now I'm gonna have to replace the entire unit. So you can have this one."
Yolanthe nodded. Technically, the lieutenant was wrong. It didn't have a personality all its own. It had had six. "Well you can't leave it here. Bring it out back." She waited for him to heft the device, and then showed him through the staff only door, into the Box of Delights' back of house where she pointed him at the door to the Industrial replicator. "So, how goes the renovations?"
"Hazardous but fun” said Dunham with a grin, as he hefted the large cylindrical device into the back room, then with a bit of a grunt, put it down next to the industrial replicator. He wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his wrist. “Still have to bypass the anti-matter stream from the anti-matter injectors to induce a tachyon flow. Then I have to stabiles the flow of phase-modulated chronotron particles from the sensor array. After that, re-initialise the positronic charge from the optronic relays to correct a phase differential to the warp core. Then maybe…..” Dunham paused as he realised he was probably getting away with himself on the techno jargon. He smiled “I was thinking about painting it blue.”
The engineering speak flowed across her ears. She understood the individual words, but the sentances meant nothing. Instead she focused on what she did understand. "Blue is a good colour. Happy. Positive."
"hmmm" said Dunham in thought. "Maybe, maybe I should paint it white with go faster red stripes?"
Yolanthe considered it. "Will that make it go faster?" She rolled the core with a foot until it was on the materilisation pad.
Dunham smiled to himself, "so the theory goes, but there is no scientific evidence to support it." Dunham shrugged, "but people on earth have been doing it for centuries." He was pretty sure that talking about his new ship acquisition was probably boring, so he changed the subject a bit. "So how are you and your business?"
"Doing good. Things are beginning to settle now. I think i'm going to survive." She tapped the replicator, and the old computer dematerialised. "I've even got a few candidates for bar-fly and regular already. And Klia's getting commisions for custom programs too. It looks like this place has been screaming for something more entertaining than flat-cap pub and die-if-you-look-at-them-funny Klingon bear-pit."
Dunham nodded and smiled. ~Each to their own,~ he thought to himself, "Its a big station, lots of different types of customers, must walk in through your door. Wanderers, entrepreneurs, villains, the rich, the poor, all sorts of people from all around the galaxy. What made you decide to stay in one place and move here?"
She turned away from him, working the replicator. Her skin passed through a sharp green, then a swampy grey. The replicator materialised a small bowl and a pair of white fluffy towels. "Here, get that muck of you, you look a mess." She held them out to him, as her skin moved back to the usual violet, though it retained a hint of murk. "It was boring. There's only so much fantastic no-strings sex with handsome young men whose lives are devoted to your pleasure a girl can take, you know." She paused just a beat. "You must be spending a lot of time with that heap of junk. Is your woman getting jealous?"
"Wha?" said Dunham in slight confusion, he was still slightly taken aback by the statement of; fantastic no-strings sex with handsome young men whose lives are devoted to your pleasure a girl can take, you know. Surely such a thing was not possible? Or was a blatant cover up for something else? Something far less glamorise? Who knew, the sudden change in conversation may certainly indicate that she didn't want to talk about it. Dunham snapped himself out of his train of thought after realising he had been silent for a few moments. "Not that I'm aware of?" said Dunham slightly worried.
"You know, I don't think she exists. I've not seen you come in with her. I think you're making her up to avoid spending money in my bar." Yolanthe raised an eye brow, but her tone was light and teasing. "Am I right?"
"Hold up," said Dunham holding his hands up in mock surrender, "First off, as I recall I actual gave you a considerable bonus amount for that scrap pile down in the cargo bay. Secondly she is very real. I'm sure being such a social guru like yourself that you probably all ready met her."
The bokkai laughed, and put her arm around his shoulders. "The ship doesn't count; my favourite customers are the ones who come back again and again. And since you don't drink, don't gamble, and don't want to watch pretty women take their clothes off, I simply worry i have no way of looking after you." She propelled him through the door back to the front-of-house. "And to date, I've only met one of the many doctors on this station. I'd hate to just assume that you belong to her, in case I was wrong."
Dunham "Ok lets get a few things clear. One; I keep coming back to the bar. Two; I drink, sort of, in proportion...kinda, now and then, on special occasions, now and again. Three; your right I don't gamble. Four; I watch pretty women take their clothes off, real women not holograms, and when I say women, I mean one woman, because I believe in a certain code of conduct..... I'm not sure I'm explaining it right?"
As he got more flustered, her grin only widened. The more he protested the more adorable and innocent he sounded. By the time she had manouvred him back into the main bar, she was a strong shade of periwinkle blue. "You're explaining it just fine," she assured him, "and I think its very sweet."
"Sweet, sweet," said Dunham in a slightly squeaky high pitched incredulous tone, "I'm not suppose to be sweet, I'm a bloody fighter, a life taker and heart breaker."
Yolanthe returned to behind the bar, collecting a tall glass and opening a bottle of a dark, fizzing liquid bottle into it. "Obviously not the last. I give you plenty of opportunites - dancers, holosuites - but you don't take them." She bent down to open a cabinet under the bar, and extracted a small container. "As for the rest, well, I don't doubt a hot shot pilot like you has to be the other two." She pulled a large spoon from a jar of untensils and expertly carved a scoop of pale yellow ice-cream from the container. She plopped it into the glass, and added a straw. "On the house, heart breaker."
Dunham put down the towel he was using to wipe off the grease and oil from off his face, onto the bar. He picked up a spoon, poked the contense of the bowl gingerly, then took a mouthful. He nodded appreciatively at the flavour. "So what about you Yolanthe, any men your life? Or Woman?"
"Woman? Cheeky boy." She swept the greasy towl off the bar, and wiped down the area with a clean cloth and something that smelt like cheap kanar. It made short work of the oil sheen. "No. No men, not any more." She thew the cloth into the same bin as the towel. "Why, are you looking to earn the title of heart breaker afte rall?"
"It doesn't just have to be a man it could women. After all its the 24th century. Its an enlightened time. But alas I am taken, so no heartbreaking for me." Said Dunham with a mournful smile.
She grinned at him, "I think I'll live. Besides, your doctor sounds scary, I'd hate to get on her wrong side. So I ask again, when do I get to meet her?"
"You must of met the chief medical officer by now?" Said Dunham with a smile and matter of factly tone.
Yolanthe stepped back from the bar as the jigsaw fell into place. "Yes, I have met her." She winked at him, "You're a brave boy."
Dunham grinned, "I wouldn't have it any other way."
She left him to his ice-cream soda for a few minutes whilst she put away a fresh batch of glasses, before returning to fill the companionable silence with a question. "Did you ever decide what to spend that big pile of latinum on in the end." When he'd taken the ancient shuttlecraft off her hands she'd had to give him a lesson in using money. He had had no idea just how much he had saved. "I'm guessing frittering it away at the card tables is still off the agenda."
Dunham shrugged, "I dunno, its only money....maybe give it to charity or something?"
"I'm not the person to ask. I didn't think there were any charities in the federation." SHe thought about it for a moment. "What sort of charities would you want ot give it to, assuming there were?"
Dunham smiled "Hold on aren't you suppose to get all flabbergasted and shocked that I don't wan't to spend the money on material goods or something? That's not what they teach us in the academy you know, they tell us to be sympathetic and weary of money driven cultures."
"Ha! I didn't fall off the boat yesterday, you know." She shook her head as if in despair, but she was smiling too, and turning a soft shade of periwinkle blue. "I've had time to get used to your strange alien ways. Besides, I may be from a culture that still uses money, but we're not Ferengi. We have some standards. And we still have charity, so its not so strange."
"Yeah your nothing like a Ferengi," said Dunham sarcastically but with a smile on his face. "No level of misandry at all" he winked.
She snorted. "On the contrary, I love men. If there's anything we Bokkai have drummed into us from a young age is that men are rare and preceious jewels to be cherished and loved." she reached over and ruffled his hair, "Bless your little hearts."
"Is that are cultural thing? Or are just not allot of men on your world?" Dunham knew next to nothing of these Bokkia. He had yet to check the Federation database on this species, but he got the feeling he wouldn't fined much, or answers to his questions, such as what the different colour changes on the skin meant.
"Males make up about 5% of the population." Yolanthe shrugged. "So we tend to keep them under lock and key. Can't afford to lose even one."
Dunham raised his eyebrows in slight exclamation. "So your men don't have the same rights as the women?"
"No." She decided to choose her next words carefully, just in case she spooked his federation sensibilities. "They're just too valuable to be allowed to do as they please." She looked at him. "So count yourself lucky you're from a species where women outnumber you only by about four percent."
"So there’s no gender equality on your planet? Your men are just wrapped up in cotton wool and kept out of harm’s way?” Dunham was curious now, no wonder he had never heard of this place, the federation had probably avoided it, equality and equal rights for all being a major part of its moral and political fibre. He wondered to himself in this modern age why they had not fixed the problem through gene therapy or other means of science. Maybe they were to backward? Dunham chided himself for such a detrimental thought.
She shrugged, "Pretty much." She saw the look on his face, "Its a very serious business, we're heading for extinction, and it could be worse."
"Extinction, that’s terrible" said Dunham with genuine sympathy. He scratched his head in confusion. “But, I’m no doctor or science bloke, but why can’t you just play tweak the stem cells or change a chromosome or two. You know change x to y or y to x or however it goes?”
"I failed science. They've been trying, but its not working. Something to do with resistance to genetic mutation. Either way, currently all we have is the old fashioned way, but its just holding off the inevitable."
~A dying species~ thought Dunham to himself. "What about cloning or In vitro work?"
She made a face, and her skin took on an sandy tinge. "Like the therapy, we've proved resistant to In vitro. And as for cloning? Ughh! We'd rather die." she shuddered. "Lets talk about soemthing more cheerful than the use and abuse of the bokkai male. Its nowhere near as interesting or exotic as you'd think."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you," said Dunham with empathetically, he put one hand on top of hers. "Hey maybe there's a charity for it, that I could donate my money to?"
"I'm not upset." She assured him, ignoring the fact she was broadcasting the complete opposite from her mustard coloured skin. "but a good bartender never talks about herself. She's all about her customers. For example, how did you loose your colour?" She lifted the lock of white hair on his fringe and let it flop into his eyes.
Dunham took the hair in his hand, looking at it in close proximity to his eyes made them cross, "I inherited from the old man, he had to, as did my Granddad."
"So your children will have it too?"
Dunham shrugged. "Dunno, maybe, maybe not. My sister doesn't have it. Maybe it's just on the male side?"
"Going to find out one day? Or are rugrats not your thing?"
"Watch this space," said Dunham quoting the old 20th century saying, with a very un-confident smile. Dunham knew that he really wanted kids someday, family and everything like that. But would he be good at it? It was a question that was playing on his mind for a while, exacerbated by the events of his little holiday, and his niece opting to stay with her grandma.
She grinned back at him. "Why look so worried. I thought the mechanics of babies for humans were the same as for most other species." She frowned as a sudden thought struck her. "You can father children, can't you? You are... compatible... with the Doctor?"
Dunham nodded his head, "Half human half Bajoran babies are nothing new. Me being dad, that's a new concept, and one I feel I may not be good at."
"Why ever not?"
"Oh no, don't get me wrong" said Dunham smiling, "I want kids I'm looking forward to it.
"I just hope I turn out to be a better parent than my mum ever did." Dunham was looking towards Ibalin, but his stair was into the middle distance, like he was looking at the past.
It was Yolanthe's turn to put a sympathetic hand over his. "I'm sure you will. The very fact you're worrying about it says you will." She patted his hand. "Trust me, you'll be so busy making sure you don't repeat her mistakes, you won't even notice that you've screwed them up all on your own."
Dunham shrugged, "your not inspiring me with confidence dear"
"The point is, if i had a bar of latinum for every person who sat at my bar and worried they were a bad parent, I'd be obscenely rich. Your not the first. And neither do you see the world over-run by maladjusted adults. Everyone worries, but the vast majority of us turn out okay. Yours will turn out okay, even if you're not 100% perfect daddy every day."
"What about you" said Dunham changing the subject and not wanting to linger on the depressing thoughts in his mind. "Ever thought of being a mum?"
She started to turn a soft dusky grey. "I don't think I can. There's been lots of trying. If it was going to happen, it would have by now."
"What about adoption?" asked Dunham a tone of sympathy in his voice. He didn't want to hurt her feelings.
She shrugged, "never really thought about it." Then she looked around the bar, and the grey was replaced with the usual purple. "Besides for now, this is my baby." She gave him a wicked grin. "Noisy, keeps me up all night, sucks up my money and my free time..."
Dunham frowned, "So does that make you the dad or the Orion?"
the bartender laughed. "I don't know. paternity isn't really an issue where I come from. You could say both of us."
"What both of you are the Dad's in the running of this bar....that kinda makes sense." Said Dunham with a slightly sly smile.
She cocked her head on one side, as she turned a soft shade of teal. "And why does that make sense?"
"urrr...." Dunham suddenly relised he may of dug himself a rather large hole. "Uummm, but, I.... Did I mention you were looking great today." He said hoping the compliment and change of subject would get him out of said hole.
He was very cute when he squirmed, and it was all too easy. "Flattery will get you many things," she leant forward to bring herself to his level. "But I still want to know what you meant."
"Hey come on..." said Dunham innocently and raising his hands above has head in mock surrender "you gotta be nice to me, I got shot you know."
"Really?" She raised an eyebrow. "In that case I'm betting the Doctor you keep saying can cause you all manner of pain told you to take it easy. Am I right?"
"Absolutely, no stress or confrontation" said Dunham with a grin.
"So she would take it badly if I told her that you've been rolling around in the dirt and lifting heavy computer cores?" Her own grin became positively wicked. "or that you came into my bar all oiled up, demanding that I treat you nice?"
Dunham eyes darted about the room, like prey looking for an escape route out of a corner. He gulped slightly, but continued to try and smile. "You know what, I'm really out of my league."
"You have no idea. Now are you going to tell me what you meant, or should I go hunting for whereever I put my combadge?"
=^= Lt can you head back to the barn sir? We got a problem with one of the Broadsword Multi-role Assault Fighter's=^= Dunham flashed his best charming smile, pointing at the comm badge on his chest, "I gotta take this." He pressed it and began to speak. =^=I'm on my way=^=, He then looked up Ibalin's eye's "You've been charming as always my dear, but I got to go"
"The bell won't always save you, you know." She warned him, collecting his empty glass. "See you around, Lieutenant."
"Parting is such sweet sorrow." Said Dunham, but also thinking to himself that she would probably be a little hurt, if she discovered he had pre-arranged the 'escape' comm with the boys down in docking control, on his way up to the bar. He liked her, but he felt it to be a little wise to take such a precaution, as she did intimidate him a little.
She rolled her white eyes, and threw a bar towel at him. "Get out of here, fly boy. You're making the place look untidy."
Dunham bowed, gave a little wink, and headed out of the bar.
Off:
Lt Richard Dunham
Squadron Leader
&
Yolanthe Ibalin
Owner and Bartender, The Box of Delights