By Rada Dengar and Warren Dalca
80313.11
Following Fragrances and before As a Jaybird
-= The Golden Goose Bar, Surprisingly Close to Earth =-
80313.11
Following Fragrances and before As a Jaybird
-= The Golden Goose Bar, Surprisingly Close to Earth =-
Two humanoid shapes stepped through a swirl of smoke and light. A thick haze blanketed the establishment Warren Dalca had been so eager to visit. He waved his arms in front of him, to no avail. The smoke simply danced around him.
There were many shapes. Odd shapes. The humans had apparently abandoned the club. In fact, the two of them stood out like sore thumbs. Various species, many only loosely affiliated with Federation affairs, filled the booths now. Not that it was a problem. Change could be good. Warren just needed time to convince himself of that.
"I thought you said this was a nice place," Rada Dengar stated, frowning.
"It was."
"Really?” asked Rada sceptically “It's hard to tell."
A Caitian woman walked up. "Thisss place iss under new management, Fleetersss." Her accent was unnecessarily exaggerated, but was probably as much a show as the form-fitting jumpsuit with silver trim. "Cover charge, ssslip of latinum or drink, choice iss yoursss."
Dalca held up a credchip. "You take these?"
"Isss there a choice?" she snarled, swiping it from his hand. She smiled placatingly and pointed to the bar. "Drinksss it iss, then. What will it be?"
Whilst Rada doubted that anyone in this establishment was going to be quite as kind as a certain young Betazoid barmaid woman had been once during his time at the Academy, he decided that is couldn’t hurt to order that same drink. If for nothing else other than to be reminded of a happier time during his last moments. He recalled how she was a very honest and direct woman which had absolutely terrified him. He swore to himself right now that he would track her down if he survived this game of billiards.
"Root beer" he said.
"Orange juice,” added Warren.
The Caitian fixed them with a wiltering gaze. "Drinksss coming right up."
Warren shrugged at Rada and turned to the game floor. There were no billiard tables... just Dabo. "Wait. What happened to the other
games that used to be here?"
"Dabo iss more popular, tassty."
Warren blinked. "Dabo is tasty?"
She shook her head and jabbed her finger at Dalca's chest. Her claw slid along his shirt. "Not too sssmart."
"We're not here to play Dabo. We're here to play billiards."
The Caitian did not comprehend.
"Pool?"
"We have hot tubsss..."
"A pool table... with sticks and balls and pockets."
The Caitian flattened her ears. "Oh, dull human game? In the corner. Bit dussty, I think." The clawed finger pulled away from his chest and pointed.
Warren nodded. "Thank you." He and Rada wandered over to the abandoned corner, aware of all the eyes watching them with various and invariably unhealthy intents.
"This has got to be the worst idea you've ever had." Rada said through gritted teeth, keeping his eyes forward and attempting a smile.
"You barely know me," Warren protested.
"I’m not entirely sure how that’s supposed to comfort me…" replied Rada.
"It'll be fun," Warren assured him. "What could go wrong?"
As always Rada could think of a long list of things which could go wrong but he decided it was best not to give anyone any ideas.
“You are armed, aren’t you?” Rada asked at a whisper. He was really starting to wish they’d just stayed on board the Sera and used the Holodeck; at least then the probability that the clientele would attempt an unsolicited facial reconstruction was not a percentage that a better computer would round upward to a hundred.
“We don’t need phasers, if that’s what you mean,” Warren replied. “Besides, I can handle myself well in a fight. It won’t come to that.” Warren picked up one of the sticks and tossed it to Dengar. “I can tell you’re nervous. I’m sure it would have been easier to just replicate one or get a holodeck program. But it wouldn’t be real, it wouldn’t have the… atmosphere.”
Rada was worried that Dalca may have some unknown hidden telepathic ability because the fact that a holodeck wouldn’t have this atmosphere was exactly what he was just thinking he preferred about the idea.
He couldn’t comprehend how it was that the Security Officer could rely on his physical skill in such a volatile situation rather than relying on a phaser. To him it seemed as though it would be like an Engineer deciding to create a circuit using their own body as a pathway instead of bringing the proper tools. It’s true that the operation could be successful and that the Engineer could theoretically survive but it still simply doesn’t make sense for any sane sentient being to put themself in that position deliberately. Rada accepted however that anyone who would want to come to a place like this for the atmosphere was probably not what he would traditionally define as sane. Granted Rada had walked into the exact same situation and knew he had no chance at all of fighting back, but he had at least done it for reasons other than his own enjoyment.
“I’ll be fine.” he replied, patting his pocket to confirm it did still contain his toffees. He knew that these toffees were probably the best protection he currently had.
Rada had up to this point figured that it was probably best to avoid appearing too ostentatious or confident as he knew from experience that some crowds like this would take that as a sign of disrespect or a challenge, like looking the beast in the eyes. He realised however that he was not surrounded by a batch of well fed snakes which would simply get bored and slither away if they decided you were harmless. They were a group of jackals merely waiting for a sign of weakness to attack. Rada now believed it was best to make sure they saw no such sign.
He stood up as tall as he could and strolled as confidently as he could over to the side of the table. He casually removed a slip of Latinum from his pocket and inserted it into the slot, after a slight groan the table released the balls. Both Warren and Rada lifted them onto the table and placed them within the dusty triangular rack except for the cue ball which Warren placed in the appropriate location.
They heard a rather annoyed snorting sound from behind them which was clearly indicative that someone was not happy that they had decided to stay. It would seem they had passed the point of an easy retreat but this didn’t stop Rada from considering a rather rapid difficult one. He just tried to shrug this off.
“You break,” Rada told Warren, his voice reflecting a newfound, albeit falsified, self assurance.
“Good, so you have played this at least once before. Game is Eight Ball. Stripes and solids. First sink decides your suit.” Warren brushed his thumb over the tip of the billiard stick, completely oblivious to the other patrons. Or so it appeared. Every motion of his was entirely deliberate, like he was finding a rhythm to the place and trying his best to match it. He gave Rada a knowing look, then set the stick along his forefinger, snapped back, and smacked the cue ball into the triangle, shattering their form and sending stripes and solids alike colliding against the walls and each other.
Two balls fell into pockets, one of each suit. Warren smiled at Rada. He glanced at a burly Nausicaan out of the corner of his eye, moved around the table, and repositioned himself for an easy sink, claiming solids for himself.
He angled for a tricky corner shot, and frowned when the ball bounced inside the lip and back onto the table. Warren set the base of the stick on his foot and stepped back for Rada, leaning against a wall that gave him a wide view of the place.
It had been suggested to Rada that being an Engineer he should have been a natural at billiards because he could work out the correct force and angles to apply to make any shot he wished. In reality he knew that this was far from the case as all the theory in the world wouldn’t make his hands any more subservient to the will of his mind.
Rada observed that a particular corner pocket had several solids in front of it which would undoubtedly be easily for Dalca to pot. After extensive consideration and time spent verifying he was indeed standing in the correct angle, Rada knocked the cue ball forward softly brushing the nine which rolled slowly to assume position in front of the pocket. He then stepped back to let Warren take his shot.
He was very glad that he wasn’t playing Australian rules as if he were; or it was quite possible he would be pantsed at the conclusion of this game.
The Caitian returned with their drinks, and they each took a moment to test them. Thankfully, she hadn’t included any intoxicants. Their game was starting to garner attention with the others, and they both sipped their drinks tentatively, silently agreeing to stay alert.
Warren frowned at the table, walking around it to the side the cue ball came to rest. He picked a long shot, and managed to guess the right angle to send another solid into the far corner pocket. He stalked the cue ball again, like a predator acquiring its prey. With the cluster on the far side being blocked by Rada’s own ball, Warren sighed, and took aim.
The cue ball shot into the mess, sending Rada’s stripe in, and the other solid balls careening in every direction. One of them nearly made it into a pocket, but stopped just shy of it.
Warren shrugged at Rada, his gamble having failed. “Happy Birthday.”
Rada thought this comment odd but decided it best just to smile politely.
Warren lent against the wall behind the table and gave a subtle turn of his head to indicate to Rada to turn around. Rada observed a shadow had descended upon his position. He turned to observe that a rather sizeable, if that term is not redundant in this context, Nausicaan had decided to join them. He had to crank his neck backwards to see the Nausicaan’s face this unfortunately meant he was looking up the Nausicaan’s nostrils.
“Can I help you?” asked Rada.
The Nausicaan let out a slight growl.
“You play Pool,” he stated in that slow speaking, every-word’s-a-sentence style the species was famous for “I will…watch.”
Rada just replied calmly “If you like,” and turned around to line up his shot. He could see the ideal shot but the Nausicaan’s failure to move out of the way meant that he couldn’t make it without shoving the end of his cue into what Rada would assume was the Nausicaan’s stomach.
“Excuse me,” he said, gesturing for the Nausicaan to move. The Nausicaan just moved his chin slightly and maintained his position.
“Okay then,” Rada said as he drew his cue back, making sure he avoided contact with the Nausicaan on the way. He quickly followed through, rapidly sending the cue ball rolling forward to hit a stripe positioned directly in front of a side pocket. Due to his restricted angle he was only able to skim the ball which caused it to deflect off the lip and to bounce around the table ending up settling in the middle.
Warren frowned and used his body to push off of the wall and walk around the table. He glanced at the Nausicaan. Nodding mostly to himself, he took aim at one of the stripes. Rada raised an eyebrow. The stick pulled back, and Warren hit low, hopping the cue ball over the striped one. It came down on the other side and slid into a solid, which went in. He stepped aside, watched the cue ball come to a stop, and smiled at Rada. Unfortunately, his best shot was also going to be made impossible by the presence of the burly alien.
“Mind taking a step back?”
The Nausicaan glared at him. “You… talking to me?” he asked with another low growl.
“Yes.”
Clearly, the big guy wasn’t expecting such a blunt response, and he stood there, stunned for a moment. It was a very quiet moment; all talk in the establishment had ceased.
And then the noise erupted.
“Raaaahhhh!” His fist came down, but Warren wasn’t standing where he’d been a second ago.
“Arrrgghhh!” Again, the Nausicaan swung at him, but the security officer simply stepped aside, away from the table.
Taking a lumbering step towards Warren, the Nausicaan began to use both fists, but each blow was pushed aside by Warren’s right arm, deflecting the hits with practiced ease, and not returning the aggression. He still held his pool stick in the other hand.
“Glllarrrgghhhh!” With a lunge, the Nausicaan scared the nearest table’s patrons into a scramble, as they fell over themselves to get out of the barreling thug’s way. Warren set the pool stick across the game table.
“Stop!” Dalca shouted, and the Nausicaan turned to face him again, breathing heavily. He did stop, and Warren closed the distance, yelling loudly, his coiled fists moving in. The Nausicaan held up his palms to block one strike, then two. The third one came so blindingly fast that his eyes widened in shock.
Warren’s fist stopped short of the thug’s nose. He smiled, and a slip of latinum slid between his fingers into sight with a quick feat of prestidigitation. “Have a drink. On me.”
The Nausicaan took the slip.
“Perfect.” Warren stepped back to the table, cracked his neck, rolled his shoulders, lined up his shot, and fired the cue ball. It missed its target entirely. He cursed under his breath. Rada did the same; he couldn’t believe what had just happened.
Ensign Warren Dalca
Security Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
and
Lt. (jg) Rada Dengar
Assistant Chief Engineer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Security Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
and
Lt. (jg) Rada Dengar
Assistant Chief Engineer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012