How it’s going…
Chapter 2: “How it’s going…”
It was 7pm planetside when Rios and Seven materialised from the public transporters within the mammoth gambling complex.
Stepping down Rios mouth fell slightly open at the sheer scale of the place before quietly composing himself. He had read and reread all the promotional information but to see the place for real was truly something else.
While Rios stepped down and looked around in awe Seven surveyed their surroundings with caution.
The complex was gigantic, built on many levels with rooms and annexes stretching along a seemingly never ending promenade which catered for what seemed to be every possible form of gambling the quadrant had to offer. The place was so opulent it may as well have been constructed directly from money.
Seven subtlety looked around.
If she truly was to be Rios bodyguard for this evening and prevent him from losing every credit he owned (or getting robbed if he did manage to win big) then she needed to know every possible escape route and every eye that might be watching them.
She felt Rios move nearer.
“Not every place is a war zone, relax...”, Rios leant in and whispered into the Ranger’s ear, “Just follow my lead, I’m an important VIP with his bodyguard remember? We’ve got this”.
Seven’s look said it all, as did the audible exhalation of breath and the ever so slight shake of her head which was probably more to herself than to Rios.
“VIP babysitting…”, Seven looked to Rios, “…Got it, great”.
“Oh c’mon”, Rios smirked unashamedly at his friend and gave a wink as he made off towards one of the gambling rooms, “just keep reminding yourself just how much Raffi owes you for this favour”.
Seven shrugged as Rios walked away and let her arms flop to her sides in defeat.
She was going to do this, not just because Raffi had asked her to but because Cris had in some ways become to mean a lot to her. “Brother by another Mother” was how Raffi had once described her own friendship of many years with Cris and Seven was beginning to understand this herself.
Maybe not so much in the same terms as Raffi had used, but perhaps he was more of a kindred spirit.
She followed on catching him up just a moment later.
“So where to first?”.
Rios pointed to the entrance of nearest establishment. What the hell, may as well start at the beginning.
“GALACTIC GOLD”, the establishments huge and immensely bright sign read.
It was lit up with bright flickering lights of many cascading colours and the beat of music could be heard booming from within.
The freighter captain stepped away from Seven and pointed to the multilingual information sign on the entrance. He smiled.
“Dabo, Roulette, Tongo, Poker”, Rios stroked his beard with a smile that betrayed his growing excitement, “poker seems a good place to start”.
Still uncertain as to wether or not this was really a good idea but willing to humour her friend Seven nodded for Rios to proceed.
Within a moment both had strode confidently side by side into the establishment - Seven unable to stop herself constantly eyeing the layout of the area.
To the left was a busy bar with patrons milling around ordering their drinks while two Ferengi bartenders shook up fancy cocktails and to the right was the first of several much larger rooms, the first one containing the loud Dabo tables.
Before either could speak a word a Ferengi with a gold plated tray in hand lined with umpteen glasses of champagne sprung himself enthusiastically into their path so neither could proceed any further.
“Sir! Madam! How wonderful that you have chosen our distinguished establishment for your evenings entertainment!“.
“We’re here for…”.
Rios was cut off mid sentence when the Ferengi enthusiastically thrust the tray of drinks before both his new potential patrons.
“Please…. To get you in the right spirits for your evening”, the Ferengi gestured.
Cris shrugged.
“Please take, on the house!”, the Ferengi urged.
The freighter captain looked briefly to Seven and then shrugged once more.
He reached out and took a glass of champagne and politely passed it to Seven before taking one for himself.
“Bottoms up I guess”, he raised his glass but was quickly halted by Seven quickly reaching to place her hand over the glass to urge Rios to lower and not drink it.
He watched with more than a little confusion as the Ranger took a cautious sniff of the glass she herself held, then a small sip.
She waited, then thought for a moment, analysing the taste, texture and composition and then gave him a nod of confirmation that all was okay.
“It’s safe”.
Rios smiled and gave a couple of quiet chuckles as he noted that Seven really was going to take this bodyguard nonsense of Raffi’s seriously. Perhaps Raffi really was looking after his best interests after all?
“Umm err ummm, thank you”, he stumbled a reply and raised his glass to his now esteemed bodyguard for the evening.
Seven gave her customary nod, returned the gesture and took a sip of her own glass.
They both looked back to the expectant Ferengi.
“What we were saying was…”, Seven attempted to continue the conversation.
“We’re here for the…”. Rios joined in.
“OFCOURSE!!“, the Ferengi jumped up, flailing his free hand and his volume leapt to a loud SHOUT!
Rios jumped slightly at the Ferengi’s sudden increase in volume and even Seven too seemed briefly startled.
“...OFCOURSE!”, the Ferengi repeated, “how stupid of me! There’s clearly only one thing you could both be here for!”.
This time both Rios and Seven exchanged a quick glance and a mutual shrug as the Ferengi grinned and gave a sly wink, and they silently agreed that neither had any idea what the Ferengi was talking about.
Rios cleared his throat and continued.
“Well anyway… My good lady friend here would like a seat at the bar, a good seat please, and if you could show me to the nearest poker tabl—-“.
“COUPLES NIGHT!”, the Ferengi exclaimed loudly, his non tray holding hand waving above his head in excitement.
Whatever both Rios and Seven were trying to say was now very abruptly lost, crashed to a sudden halt by the Ferengi’s words.
“I’m sorry, what?”, Seven asked.
“Third day of every solar week, couples night, very popular”, the Ferengi announced with great enthusiasm and the toothiest of eager Ferengi grins.
A momentary panic struck Rios through his entire being and he turned quickly to face the Ranger intent on exercising immediate damage limitation.
“Seven I had absolutely no idea, I swear!”, he assured while emphasising with raised palms. In truth he wasn’t sure who he feared most should the wrong conclusion be drawn, Seven or Raffi or both, or Agnes, or all of the above, who knew?
Glass in hand, the Ranger huffed and she rolled her eyes with a shake of her head. She’d had a feeling there would be something to prevent this mission from being simple because with this crew simple was rarely ever a thing.
She attempted to respond to Rios when…
“FREE GARLANDS!!”, the Ferengi’s enthusiasm was building as he hurriedly set down his tray on the nearest table and picked up two (cheap) multicoloured garlands out of a box-full sat to one side.
And there it was Rios noted, Seven doing her eyebrow thing with that optical implant above her eye. Her silent way of saying “Really??” as she looked from the Ferengi and then back to Rios.
“Look we should just go, there’s plenty of other places here”, Rios nodded decisively as his embarrassment at the awkward situation took hold and he began to turn.
He pointed over his shoulder to indicate to Seven that they should really leave before the situation got anymore awkward for either of them.
“ALL WINNINGS DOUBLED!“.
Rios stopped.
“FREE CHAMPAGNE ALL NIGHT!”.
Seven stopped.
There was silence for several seconds and after a moment Seven and Rios once more looked to each other and made eye contact.
Rios held an abrupt hand up to silence the Ferengi.
“Would you excuse us for a moment…”, he urged.
The Ferengi nodded, smiling his most hospitable smile, and watched as Rios ushered Seven to one side and out of the way of the of the main entrance to speak quietly.
“All winnings doubled”, he whispered, tempted, “Seven I could clean up tonight”.
“Free champagne all night”, Seven quietly repeated.
Again silence fell as the pair looked to each other, weighed up options and thought over possibilities.
The thought of the money he could win ran rampant around the captains mind.
If he won big at the poker tables then doubled his winnings as a fake couple with Seven he could upgrade the engines of La Sirena, buy those high end genuine Cuban cigars he’d seen on Earth visits (not replicated junk), maybe even compensate Seven for her inconvenience, and oh so many things… Hell if he won REALLY big he could even trade La Sirena in for a ship five times her size and speed!
As for Seven, she herself turned the idea over in her own mind. By her own terms this really wasn’t a difficult mission… she could watch over Rios at a discreet distance from the bar, relax for a change instead of diving for cover from live ammunition as was so often the case with most of her missions, and all while enjoying unlimited free champagne - real champagne, not the replicated approximation that never sat so well with her. It really wouldn’t be a difficult job. It couldn’t hurt, could it?
“We could just stay for a game or two”, Rios suggested, “you know play along”.
“I guess a glass or two couldn’t hurt”, Seven responded quietly to the possible plan, “I mean, they don’t need to know that we’re not…”.
“No, no, of course not, I mean how would they even know?”.
“It’s not like we’d have to prove it or anything…”.
“So you’re in?”, Rios winked, a small smile forming.
The nod was all the confirmation he needed, Seven’s nod including a little optical implant waggle, and then Rios turned back to the Ferengi who was now tapping his fingers together in trepidation as if his bonus was dependant on the number of customers he could entice.
“Sure!”, Rios smiled his biggest and bestest fake smile.
“Why not”, Seven held her glass a little higher in agreement toward the Ferengi.
“SUPERB!! SUPERB!!!!”, the Ferengi nearly bounced off the walls with excitement from where he stood.
He quickly tottered forwards and offered up a garland to Rios who stooped slightly to allow the Ferengi to place it over his head.
The Ferengi soon raised the second garland, Seven herself then stooping to receive it while all the time reminding herself that not so much as a single syllable of this was part of Raffi’s original plan.
“Please, please, come this way”, the Ferengi excitedly gestured for both to follow.
Ever the gentleman Rios extended his arm to indicate for the now garland clad Seven to go first.
“After you…”, he bowed his head politely but with a chuckle, “…Mrs Rios”.
If it hadn’t been impolite, hadn’t blown their cover, and hadn’t violated numerous local laws Seven might just have shot Rios right there…probably just in the knee or something.
Instead she smiled back to him with the best and most ‘I’ll kill you later’ smile she could possibly muster.
Meanwhile onboard La Sirena in the peaceful skies far above, Raffi finished a pleasant chamomile tea, got changed and went to bed content in the knowledge that her two most dear people were safe in each other’s hands and that nothing could possibly go wrong…