The Moonlighter
Stardate: 94230.7
Present Day
“Well if it isn’t the Moonlighter?”
The Orion instinctively rolled her eyes, then rolled her glass to water down her liquor.
“I never expected to see anyone worthwhile aboard this station again. The least of which you.”
“Well, it’s certainly not for sentimentality, Kul,” she said before pacing her next sip. Sogun knew the Klingon was metaphorically toothless now, but, she never really wanted to take chances with him.
“I thought everyone was gone,” the Klingon leaned against the bar and flagged for a flagon, “Kargas isn’t what it was.”
“Do we thank you for that?” she smiled.
“You flatter me,” he spat, “But do you really think I ever had that much say?”
“Nope,” echoed loudly out of a tilted glass.
There was a silence as he received his own drink, and took the seat two down from hers. Even at this range he made her skin not so much crawl as clamor up the walls and then onward to the ceiling for good measure.
“I really would have thought,” he paused, “…everything considered, you would have been anywhere but here.”
“With the station all but abandoned, it actually works well for me once. Well, what little it’s useful for,” Sogun relented. “To tell the truth, I’ve been thinking about heading out to the Zenas Expanse. Hear there is a group of privateers out that way who don’t ask too many questions and let a girl keep her secrets.”
“You and your little collection of starships.”
If side-eye could sink ships, the whole station would be floundering.
“Relax, I could think of worse hobbies. Besides, yours does garner a bit of prestige. That is, if you ever would let on to anyone you have it. What did Traise say when you let him know?”
There it is, she thought, he just had to go and bring up Traise. She took another long sip, bordering on to full fledged drink territory. “He was marginally impressed. Commander Sierra was really the one who got excited about it.”
“Ah, yes, I would expect so. Must have been quite a shock for her to find out the little engineering exchange officer her Captain relied so much on was a captain in her own right with a penchant for moonlighting.” There was a pause for a long drink, “When did he tell her?”
“About you blackmailing me?”
“Hmmm,” he affirmed.
“Not until long after it didn’t matter. Traise knew she was always a bit protective of the Albion. Didn’t want her to take it the wrong way. He never wanted to risk anything to let you know that he knew.”
“And when did he find out?”
She didn’t respond right away, choosing to hide behind her glass.
“I always assumed he knew after a point, but, I don’t think I ever really asked you when it was he actually found out.”
The woman finished her drink, and tapped on the counter for another, “Right after you started, really.” Kul saw the label when the bartender poured and made note of it being… expensive. “I panicked, even asked for advice first, from one of his friends.”
“Whom?”
“Commander Quaen, of all people. Cornered her at Quarks on Deep Space Nine. Had to pull out the dancer outfit to avoid attention on that one.” She actually laughed at the memory, “You should have seen her face.”
Windmills ground behind Kul’s eyes, “If you told Quaen you weren’t afraid of Starfleet pulling you from his crew for being a compromised intelligence risk?”
“I was actually more worried that if Traise found out he’d pull me from working on subsystem design for the D. I’d never had more fun than I did working with Starfleet resources on that fresh Oddy.” The memory tasted sweet, she needed the liquor to try and remember that it should burn now.
“So he knew from day one, that I was pushing you for that ship’s design schematics.”
“Close enough to day one, but yeah, pretty much. He even approved on everything I sent out before I handed it over to you.”
“I often wondered what exactly his plan was that he had concocted to counter me on that little scheme. You never sent me false data, I checked it against Utopia’s records as soon as the war ended. I had a wealth of information on the Albion – D. It’s a shame I never found a way to properly make use of it. Just when I thought I would have something, I’d learn something new…” a hand fluttered, “and it would never work out.”
Sogun’s smile grew wide.
“Unless, that… was always his plan. Not to try and trick me, but, to always know what I knew and look for what flaws I would be looking for.”
“We called it ‘Kul Proofing’.” She chuckled, “Believe it or not, you probably had a big part in designing half the systems layout for the Yorktown refits. Traise even pushed to have your name added to the Albion’s ship plaque as a little personal reveal for you. He said command… didn’t like that.”
“I’m impressed,” he admitted, “You can officially call me foiled.”
“I’ll get you meddling Federation next time,” she squinted and cackled, “and your little Orion too?”
He raised his bloodwine, “The Albion is saved from my clutches. Not that, I could do anything to her anymore,” the mug lowered and the levity in Kul’s voice drained into it, “She is beyond my reach.”
Sogun drank to that.
“You know what it is I think I miss most? I find myself wondering what plans I’ll never see with him gone. What would have been if he was still here.”
“Trust me,” she said wryly, “I miss the ship more.”