46 Mission Gamma 3 by Michael A. Martin & Andy Mangels

Author:Michael A. Martin & Andy Mangels [Martin, Michael A. & Mangels, Andy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General, Fiction, Science Fiction, Space Opera, Adventure
ISBN: 9780743445658
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2002-10-14T23:00:00+00:00

14

As Quark dressed for the evening, his belly roiled with a curious mixture of anticipation and fear. The anticipation was easy enough to understand--Ro Laren was an extraordinarily attractive female. The fear was a little harder to fathom. After all, tonight wouldn't be the first time he and Ro had shared dinner together. But it would be the first time he had been the one to pick the evening's activities.

On the previous occasion, Ro had treated him to an evening of pointlessly strenuous windsurfing on a body of water called the Columbia River, which she had told him she'd visited during her Starfleet Academy days. No fun at all really, except for the company.

He set aside the tooth sharpener and inspected his tuxedoed reflection one last time. What if she can't relate to this holosuite scenario at all? he thought as he carefully smoothed his cummerbund and adjusted the knot on his black bow tie. It's not as though she's some nostalgia-crazed hew-mon.

As he made his way from his quarters onto the lightly populated Promenade, he tried to put his lingering misgivings aside. Whether or not Ro would appreciate Las Vegas might not matter any more than Quark's attitude toward windsurfing had.

Because if there was one being in the entire quadrant capable of putting Ro into a romantic frame of mind, it was Vic.

He entered the bar and crossed to the spiral staircase that led to the upper level and the holosuites. Behind the bar, Frool was doling out drinks to a pair of Rigelians and a Valerian while Morn appeared to be trying to regale them all with one of his innumerable traveler's tales. Quark walked quickly to avoid being drawn into the verbal melee. As he ascended, he glanced down toward the dabo wheel, where Broik was taking drink orders while Deputy Etana watched a hulking Nausicaan with obvious suspicion. Hetik, the aggressively profitable dabo boy Treir had hired, was doing an admirable job hustling the dabo customers--representatives of at least a half-dozen worlds--who had obviously been drawn to the gaming area by Treir's abundant charms. The tall Orion woman met Quark's gaze and regarded him with an unrestrained smirk. He wondered yet again what she had really said to Ro about their impending dinner engagement, then decided that it wasn't worth worrying about. It's never too late to fire the staff, Quark thought, quoting the 193rd Rule of Acquisition to himself. Let's see how the evening goes first.

There still was no sign of Ro, which concerned him. She was nothing if not punctual. Then he opened the holosuite door, where Julian Bashir's 1962 Las Vegas lounge scenario was perpetually up and running--except on those occasions when Vic himself voluntarily took his own program off-line. The band was tuning, perky cocktail waitresses were serving, and hew-mon alcoholic beverages of various sorts were flowing freely among the sparse but growing dinner crowd. Quark noted with considerable relief that Taran'atar apparently hadn't left the place in ruins after his visit a little earlier.

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