What Strange Drinking Companions

Posted on 12/20/2020 @ 1:43pm by

Mission: S3E1: Time of Change
Location: Earth - San Fransisco - The Brass Wheel
Timeline: Day 83 at 1730
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Tahlin entered The Brass Wheel to find K'Taal waiting for her. "Should I be thankful or scared, my dear?" she asked the tall Klingon.

"I've yelled at you enough,"--the Klingon wrapped her up in a big hug, and gave her a kiss. "Come on, lets find somewhere we can sit, talk, have a drink, socialize a bit with somebody else... Like that woman over there."

K'Taal gestured to a table by one of the windows. A distinctly feline presence was sitting there. The bar itself was crowded, but not overly so. A diverse clientel made for always-interesting conversations in The Brass Wheel. The place catered mostly to Starfleet types and the Federation Diplomatic Corps and various ambassadors and embassy staff.

"How'd you get a spot in here?" asked Tahlin, taking K'Taal's hand, and leading her over towards the woman. "I thought you had to get reservations?"

"The mystery is somewhat less than reality," her girlfriend told her. "Besides, the owner's son is on my security team... May we join you?" she asked the woman.

Mimi looked towards the voice and immediately recoiled slightly, her fur bristling and unconsciously bearing her long canine teeth at the Klingon stood beside her before controlling herself and covering her mouth nervously hoping she had just scared off two people just looking for somewhere to sit. "Excuse me, bad experiences with Klingons."

"No problem--you'd think she'd be used to it," Tahlin said, pulling out a chair for K'Taal. "Lieutenant Lae'Or Tahlin, of the Crazy Horse, and this is Lieutenant Commander K'Taal, Chief of Security for... What was that new ship you're on, love?"

"The T'Parath Nian. I thought Captain Soltak was going to have a heart attack when he first met me."

"The Crazy Horse?" Mimi asked, her ears twitching slightly, she looked at the unusual pairing. "I am assigned there too, Lieutenant Mimi."

Tahlin gave her a smile. "You'll fit in just fine, Lieutenant... Forgive me--I don't recognize you, nor your species... I hope I'm not being insensitive or anything?"

Mimi smiled, she had a feeling she knew the questions that either one of them was about to ask. "I'm a Nekomi," She told them. "Think part way between a Caitian and a Human."

"Interesting..." K'Taal sniffed deeply, taking in the scents around her. Taking a sip of her own drink--lemon, prune, and blackberry juice with a hint of bloodwine--she turned to Mimi. "What are you drinking--smells fishy?"

Tahlin grinned and patted her on the shoulder. "When in doubt, trust your nose, huh?" She picked up her own glass, which had been delivered to the table by a Bolian waiter. "Thanks..." She took a sip. "I do love red leaf tea."

"My drink is a Trill fruit mix, should not smell fishy," Mimi replied. "The Caitian on the table behind us has some lightly seared salmon, both smell quite nice."

"I'll take your word for it... Not much for fish, despite this one's best efforts." The Klingon chuckled and took Tahlin's hand. "So, Lieutenant, how long have you been waiting on the Crazy Horse to get back from deep space?"

"And tell us something of yourself, if you would like? We're always interested in new people, aren't we, K'Taal?"

"I only found out I was getting reassigned to the Crazy Horse a couple of days ago." Mimi told them. "I was already here for shoreleave and a xenocultural seminar."

"Ohhh, loved those, when I could get to them in my Academy days." Tahlin grinned at her. "Anything, or anyone, particularly interesting?"

"Quite a few species I have not heard of before," Mimi replied before taking a sip of her drink. "most people would not think an ops officer would be very interested in that but I like to learn everything I can about as many as I can."

"Eh, Starfleet's not what it once was... For good and for bad... We're not all confined to our specialties... Take this one,"--K'Taal kissed Tahlin on the cheek. "Security and Helm, right?"

"Minor in Ops and Religion, too." Tahlin grinned. "Busy, busy person that I was."

"It is more for personal reasons then work, my species are mostly isolate.. isolation..ist." Mimi said, she always struggled with that word but it was the most appropriate one. "I want to show them as many species as I can to show them they are not all bad."

"Laudable... I think the word you're looking for is isolationist," K'Taal replied. "Standard confuses me sometimes, so I do understand."

"You are lucky, the universal translator can do Klingon quite well," Mimi took a sip of her drink before continuing. "It can not do my language very accurate, I had to learn English."

"We both learned Standard the old-fashioned way, anyway," Tahlin replied with a chuckle. "K'Taal even learned Bajoran, didn't you?" She giggled and kissed the Klingon on the cheek.

"I thought you weren't going to talk about that... My studies of that were... Quite a bit personal." K'Taal gave Tahlin a mock glare.

Mimi watched the pair for a few moments, romance between a Klingon and a Bajoran was quite unusual to her. "It took me quite a while to learn it to a good enough level, I still find a few words hard to say here and there, and slang is just confusing."

"Oh trust me, idioms are where the confusion really is at... I still wonder at the one about it raining quadrapeds," Tahlin told her with a grin.

The door opened, and Tahlin looked up. "Company," she said to K'Taal. "Didn't know T'Rhe was going to be here."

The newcomer made her way over to the table. "Good to see you... Who's this?" The Vulcan/Cardassian hybrid had spotted Mimi.

"Lieutenant Mimi, nice to meet you." Mimi said looking up at the new and quite unusual person stood before them.

"Pleasure..." She stuck out a hand. "Lieutenant T'Rhe... How do you know these two?" She sniffed. "That drink of yours smells lovely!"

"I did not know them till fifteen minutes ago." Mimi replied. "But I have just been transferred to the same ship as Lt... Lae'Or here." She had to pause momentarily to remember the way Bajoran names worked.

"Ah, good. You'll find her a delightful woman to be on the same ship with... I just came to get a drink,"--as though by magic, a waiter appeared with a glass in hand and she took it--"That's better... Cardassian kanar and cranberry juice..." She sipped at it. "After I'm done, we've got dinner reservations, or did you two forget?"

"We didn't forget," was K'Taal's response, just a tiny bit defensive.

"Likely story. You two got too wrapped up..."

"T'Rhe." Tahlin's tone was resigned. "Must you... We don't want to scare off the poor Lieutenant, now, do we?"

"Do not worry about me." Mimi said smiling.

"Eh, you never know with these two. They get going, and sometimes they don't stop till..."

Now it was K'Taal shooting the Vulcan-Cardassian hybrid a flinty look. "You chatter enough for two Terran squirrels and a Bajoran Elenna bird."

Tahlin patted her arm. "Easy, easy, love..." She turned back to Mimi. "Would you want to join us for dinner? T'Rhe always picks the best spots, and we'd hate to leave you here all by yourself."

"I would not want to..... intrude." Mimi said after a few moments, it didn't feel quite right to be having dinner with people she'd known for an extremely short while.

"Nonsense--we'll keep the inside jokes to a minimum." T'Rhe was exuberant. "I actually meant to tell you Jonathan couldn't make it tonight. Something about a date with a deaf Andorian girl."

Tahlin rolled her eyes. "That boy..." She'd willingly give up teasing her surrogate nephew, though. Love didn't come often to him, and she wished him well. "How about it, Miss Mimi?" she asked the other.

Mimi picked up her drink and drained the last of the fruity concoction. "Alright." She eventually said.

"Excellent... Well, shall we get going?" Tahlin grinned, standing.

---

A post by:
Lieutenant Mimi
Soon to be
Chief Operations Officer
USS Crazy Horse

And

Lieutenant (J.G.) Lae'Or Tahlin
Transitioning to Helm
USS Crazy Horse