PL - The Mysterious Bar Patron (First Assignment Part 7)

Posted on Sun Feb 12th, 2023 @ 6:24am by Ensign Kato Reon

1,423 words; about a 7 minute read

PL - The Mysterious Bar Patron (First Assignment Part 7)
By Ensign Kato Reon

It was 1800 hours. Reon was sitting at the dining table at his still quite empty quarters at the cadet barracks, eating dinner. With all the time he had to himself, still waiting to find when is a good time to board the Aldrin, he had to admit, he started to miss home more than usual. The whole time he had been away from Bajor he tried to avoid any kind of Bajoran food that was not cooked from scratch, but he couldn't resist. He ordered a small order of hasperat souffle, two scoops of Tavi rice, and a medium serving of Ratamba stew. To drink he had a tall unsweetened moba tea on ice. He tried to keep busy as possible doing whatever he could throughout the day from exercise to reading to more training and extension courses. Today was different though. It was a Thursday Night and the low volume of sound and activity was still incredibly odd to him. He picked up the PADD next to his tray of food, tapped it, then the first thing that popped up was the ad for a new bar opened in the Tenderoin district of San Francisco. He couldn't help but continuing to read it. Suddenly, something clicked in his mind.
      
An hour later.....

      Reon, in civilian clothing, went to the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. He walked up to the bar. It was small and part of a larger building. The sign above said "Alky By Nature" which was flashing in intervals of five or seven seconds. He went up to the entrance, sighed before entering, then walked in. The place was not completely packed. There looked like there couldn't be more than eight or ten people in there. With all the space inside, he went straight to the bar where there was a small row of five open chairs. Sitting down at one of them, he leaned on the counter with his elbow on the countertop. Behind the bar was a somewhat tall man with a somewhat athletic build. He appeared to be Tellarite but had less defind features. His hands were hairy but not three-fingered.
      The "pseudo-Tellarite" man walked up to him after he put the glass he was cleaning down, "What'll it be?"
      "Uh," Reon exhaled, "I'll have a Trachean Ale." when the Bartender nodded and turned around to start working on his drink, he started looking around. Within what couldn't be more than two minutes, he placed a drink in front of Reon, to which he thanked him. He took a sip of the ale, then placed his hand on top of the counter, starting to lightly tap some sort of beat on it.
      "Hi, Mike..." came a voice came a voice from his side outside of his peripheral vision.
      Reon turned to see that a woman had walked up by him. She was stunning. Her hair was dark in long braids, pulled back and hanging down. Her skin was a nice solid shape of brown and her eyes were somewhat almond-shaped. She was in a comfortable but dressy casual dress. She had full-lips which showed a well-proprtioned smile. She seemed like a woman in her mid to late forties, human age wise.
      The woman took her drink from the Bartender, then saw him looking at her. Her reaction naturally was to tilt her head with a raised eyebrow, "Hello."
      "Hi." Reon replied.
      "Do you know me?"
      "Huh? Oh, uh... No. Sorry..." he turned forward, sunk his shoulders a little, and took another sip of his ale quietly.
      The woman turned around and took two steps way from him, heading for the door, but stopped. She sighed and smiled, biting her lip, then turned back around, and walked toward him and tapped him on his back. When he turned around, she put her free hand on her thigh, "What's your name?"
      "Me? Uh it's Reon."
      "Reon," she repeated, "You here alone, Reon?"
      "Yes."
      "Well, let's get a table over there and you can continue buying me drinks."

The next morning....

      Reon woke up. He found himself in a bed that was quite comfortable. It somehow felt softer than his bed usually does. Quickly he also was overwhelmed with a rush of pain that started throbbing in his head. It was so discomforting at first, he couldn't even open his eyes long enough to focus. He took several deep but silent breaths, then curled up in a ball for a few moments. Once he found himself able to open his eyes again, he rubbed them first, then looked around and immediately noticed a few things. One was that he was definitely not in his quarters at the barracks. He definitely had way too much to drink last night. And three, his clothes appeared to be mostly off.
      The door to the room opened. In came the seasoned woman he had met last night. She looked pretty much the same except she was wearing a pink robe. When she saw Reon, she smiled, "Well well.... Look who just woke up."
      In reaction, he pulled the covers up to his neck. He didn't know why because he figured she probably already had seen him without all his clothes on by that point anyway, but still the situation was somewhat awkward for at least that moment. To her comment, he didn't know what to say either. He just played along and smiled back, trying to hide his painful hangover, "Yeah..."
      "How are you feeling?" she asked him.
      "Uh... Feeling okay."
      She tilted her head as she looked at him, then reached into a pocket in her robe and pulled out a hypospray. Then she knelt onto the bed and inoculated him with it.
      "What was that?" he asked, realizing a few seconds too late that he should have probably deflected her hand away before she did that.
      "Don't worry," she assured him, "It's just a little Ventrium-B along with some electrolytes and vitamins to help you get over your hangover. You should feel the effects shortly."
      Exactly as she said, his symptoms seemed to have subsided almost immediately as if 70 or 80% of his hangover had immediately gone away with the remaining 20 to 30% slowly going the rest of the way. He paused for a moment and slowly nodded, "Yeah... I do. Thank you."
      She smiled, "That's good. Now, I've got a meeting to go to in about an hour so I'm going to take a sonic shower. You can get get yourself something to eat from my replicator before you leave. In the meantime," she leaned toward him and gave him a quick peck on the lips, "I'd like to thank you for a fun evening." then she stood up from the bed and headed toward the bathroom in there.
      "By the way, what's your name?" he asked her.
      "It's Ennie." she answered right before the door to the bathroom shut behind her.
      He smiled a little himself. He took a deep breath, then exhaled deep. Then he finally got out of her bed and put the rest of his clothes back on. As he was putting his shirt back on in the living area, he saw she had a bunch of pictures all over her wall. Some were of her alone while others were of various people or her with various people, likely related to her in some way. Toward the door, he noticed there was another picture of her in what looked like a Starfleet Uniform. When he looked closer, what he saw made his eyes widen and his throat sink to his stomach.
      She was a Starfleet Admiral....
      It was a photo of her shaking hands with Federation President Nanietta Bacco in a two-star Admiral's Uniform. Behind them were a small slew of other Admirals and Federation dignitaries who were there as well. Reon figured it was probably her promotion ceremony from when she made it from Captain to Rear Admiral. Under the photo was a small caption that said "Rear Admiral Nevis Campbell, promoted on Stardate 202209.15. Presented by President Nanietta Bacco."
      He took a moment to think. N-E probably is for "Nevis"... Oh my god....
      He didn't waste anymore time. He immediately left her home and when he was a good twenty feet away from the entrance to the building where her home was, he started running as fast as he could.

TBC
      

 

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