Just Business part 1

Posted on Thu Sep 27th, 2012 @ 11:17pm by Elijah "Eli" Samuels

Mission: Sections of the Delta Quadrant
Location: Saturnalia
Timeline: Current

Eli stepped into the bar, box of romulan liquors under his arm.

Been in worse dives, he thought as he scanned the crowd. It didn’t take long to find the ferengi he was looking for. Saddling into the booth across from the diminutive alien, Eli tipped his hat.

“Evening.”

“You got them?” The chunky ferengi looked both doubtful and hopeful at the same time.

Eli pushed the box of liquor across the table.

“There ya go.”

The ferengi opened the box, pulling out one of the four ornately carved bottles full of wine.

“Wine? You put wine inside 2nd Tern dynasty royal urns?”

Eli gave a half shrug as he looked over the menu, motioning over a waitress.
“Earth cheese burger, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, onion, pickle and chili, half rack of ribs, Tennessee rub, Caesar salad, and a side of plomeek soup. Oh, and coffee, earth abrica bean, just leave the pot.”

As the waitress took his menu, giving a similar odd look that the ferengi across from him was giving the slender human who’d just placed the huge order, Eli shrugged again.

“Replicator cut out 4 days ago.”

There was a chorus of “ahs” as the waitress left and Eli looked back to the ferengi.

“About the wine; there’s laws against smuggling priceless romulan artifacts that have been stolen from royal tombs. Ain’t nothing says you can’t ship wine.”

The waitress returned with his coffee, as the ferengi laughed.

“Shrewd, for a hu-mon.”

Eli raised an eyebrow as he stirred in an inordinate amount of sugar in the bitter black drink.

“Yep, but as some rule of acquisition says, ‘show me the slips of latinum’, or some such.”

Smiling the ferengi clapped his hands. “Yes, yes, I will deliver you 83 slips a piece on tomorrow to your ship. What berth are you in?” He was beginning to stand as he pulled the box toward him.

Eli’s hand shot out, grabbing on to the box in a grip like steel, belying his small stature. Slowly, he set down his coffee mug with his other hand. Underneath the brim of his hat, grey eyes that had suddenly gone cold as a frozen glacier. His voice, when he spoke was cold as the grave.

“Deal was 100, a piece. Broken deals make me cross.” He leaned forward slightly, casual demeanor suddenly gone. “We ain’t gonna be cross are we, Stor?”

Stor, the ferengi, stared into that cold, cold face, and stammered.

“N….no….you’re right, deal was negotiated for 100, my mistake. Umm….payment….” Starring into the slight tilt of the humans head, Stor’s comment dried up, as he dug into his tunic, pulling out a handful of latinum. “….Ummm….got a 75 slips in this pouch.” The ferengi pulled out a massive bag that clinked when it cleared his tunic. “Rest will be at your berth in an hour.”

Taking the bag of latinum, Eli sat back giving a half smile.

“Sounds good. See, trust and business go together just fine.” Looking up, he saw his waitress coming burdened down with the massive order he’d placed. “Well, talk ‘bout time. Look, Stor, hate to do this, but I’m starved. You go enjoy them urns and I’ll see ya in an hour.”

“Ummm….yeah, sure, whatever you say.”

“Pleasure doing business with ya.” He looked up to address the waitress. “Well, thank you ma’am, you sure know how to make a hungry man’s day.”

Keeping his smile pointed toward the waitress, he turned those cold eyes toward the ferengi, who was scurrying away.