A/N: Finally, we get Aurora flexing her immense linguistic muscles! (No, that's not a euphemism for dirty stuff. This is still rated T, yanno.) And yes, that is reasonably correct Klingon. I did not copy it from somewhere, I read up on Klingon grammar for an hour or two instead. Research is serious business.

I was going to write some actual Vulcan phrases in this chapter too but I ran out of time. Another time, probably.

Anyway, this chapter is (almost) all Malora. Enjoy :)

Chapter 10: Making friends all around

Aurora wasn't sure what was more odd: to wear civilian clothes for the first time in months or seeing Maleficent in them. To be fair, Maleficent had done her best to try to look less official – putting up her long hair in a stylish yet simple hairdo for example – but she couldn't get rid of that rigid, formal stance quite so easily.

Two days had passed since they set course for the Zuvar system and today they had reached it, getting permission to dock with the station without any difficulties.

They left the Fae through the main docking port as the transporters were still offline, nodding in passing to the security officers posted there. The station was a stark contrast to even the battered interiors of the Fae, the dim lighting not doing much to illuminate the metal floor and walls, all in dark hues of brown, gray and black. It reminded Aurora of the less welcoming parts of Deep Space 9 or Klingon architecture.

Exiting the small corridor that the Fae was docked to, they stepped out into a larger hallway where all manners of people hurried past them, some with nothing more than a small bag and some with large anti-grav sleds filled with crates and barrels.

"And I thought Starfleet was multicultural," Aurora mumbled, staring out at the crowd.

"We should head to a social hub to see if anyone has any information for us." Maleficent tapped her PADD, bringing up a map of the station. "It's this way."

"A social hub?" Aurora asked as they weaved through the stream of people. "You mean a bar?"

"Yes."

Aurora didn't reply, too busy taking in the views around her. Despite her interest in other species and aliens in general, she hadn't had much actual experience of interacting with them. Besides Earth Spacedock, Deep Space 9 and a few other minor starbases, she hadn't seen much outside Earth or the starships she had been assigned to. To experience this station – lawless or not – and all of its varied inhabitants almost let Aurora forget why she was there in the first place.

The bar was deep inside the asteroid the station was built on, filled with people from all across the quadrant, albeit mostly the seedier parts, it would seem.

"This place is big," Aurora mumbled, eyes scanning the large room. "I guess we should split up and ask everyone?"

Maleficent nodded her assent. "I will take the left side. When we're done, we'll meet in the middle by the bar."

"Sounds good."

They headed each to one side of the room, asking anyone they passed if they had seen anyone with Phillip's description. Most people barely even acknowledged Aurora's presence and the ones who did were seldom particularly helpful. Some wanted a reward simply for telling her if they had seen him at all, while others gave obviously false or nonsensical answers.

When Aurora finally made it to the bar, she had to admit that the questionings had been a complete waste. She sat down with a heavy sigh next to Maleficent by the bar disk and gestured for the bartender.

"Um, Bajoran ale?" she ordered, unsure if it was something common enough or not.

"Water," Maleficent said, giving Aurora a faintly disapproving glance when the bartender left to prepare their orders. "I assume you're aware that they most likely serve alcohol here, not synthehol."

"So?" Aurora retorted flippantly. "I'm not going to get drunk on one glass. Besides, it helps to blend in."

"I suppose."

Aurora huffed but didn't get a chance to respond as the bartender just then returned with their drinks. "Excuse me," she said to him, "we're looking for someone. A friend. Do you know who we could talk to for information?"

"There are lots of people to talk to on the station," the bartender replied with a shrug. "I'm not one of them. Enjoy your drinks." With that said, he left.

"Okay," Aurora mumbled dejectedly. Downing a large part of her drink, she put the glass down with a thunk, frowning. "What do we do now?"

"I believe you were the one to suggest this excursion, Captain," Maleficent noted flatly.

She wasn't sure if it was Maleficent's tone, her expression or merely the general frustration with everything that had only been growing for the past few weeks, but something reached a boiling point. "And I believe I told you to call me Aurora!" she snapped.

The tension hung in the air for several minutes as both women sat quietly, sipping their drinks, eyes focused on nothing in particular.

"I'm aware that you didn't want me to accompany you–" Maleficent begun but she was briskly cut off.

"This isn't about that!" Aurora shook her head angrily, her loose locks tumbling wildly over her shoulders. "You've been avoiding me for weeks and whenever I've actually managed to get hold of you, you've been acting like we barely know each other!"

A slight clenching of Maleficent's jaw muscles was the only reaction Maleficent gave. "I've been working on repairs since the attack."

"Oh please." Aurora emptied her glass in one go and slammed it down on the counter. "I'm not stupid, Maleficent."

"I'm well aware of that fact."

"This is about what happened in my ready room, isn't it?" When Maleficent made no move to reply, Aurora huffed tersely and gestured for the bartender. "Another one, please." The disapproving glance Maleficent gave her did nothing to dissuade her.

"What happened there was..." Maleficent's face darkened visibly, despite her obvious effort to hide it. "I spoke out of line. I apologize."

Aurora's brows furrowed in confusion and irritation. "You apologize? But you were right." She ran a finger slowly around the rim of her glass. "I was acting like a spoiled princess – just thinking about myself – and you told me exactly what I needed to hear."

"Nevertheless, it was not my place."

"Of course it's your place," Aurora scoffed. "You're the first officer; you're supposed to advise me and tell me when what I'm doing is," she made a vague gesture with her hand, "something I shouldn't do. And if you have to get loud to get through to me, you should."

Maleficent stared down at her glass of water, an odd expression on her face. "Vulcan emotions are not like yours. They are... explosive."

"I know. But you're not just Vulcan, you're human as well." Aurora took another long gulp of her ale, feeling the comfortable heat of alcohol pooling in her stomach. "And honestly, my father has had worse outbursts than what you did back there." Aurora could have sworn she heard Maleficent chuckle at that.

"He sounds like wonderful person," Maleficent drawled, giving Aurora a sidelong glance.

"Not really," Aurora mumbled, "but he's family and I guess that counts for something."

Silence fell between them again as both of them slowly emptied their glasses. When Aurora gestured the bartender for a refill, however, Maleficent spoke up.

"Captain, I don't think you should–"

"Aurora," she corrected her, not looking up from her glass. After two rather large glasses of Bajoran ale, she was definitely feeling the alcohol in her system but couldn't quite get herself to care.

"Aurora." Maleficent turned fully towards her. "This is not the time to get intoxicated. We need to find information about Ensign Scarlett and our attackers."

"Well, I'm all out of ideas," Aurora shrugged, defiantly sipping on her new drink and silently delighting in the hints of emotions – albeit rather negative ones – she managed to elicit from Maleficent, "and seeing how I'm the one who came up with the idea for this little trip I guess there isn't much more to do but to sit here and wait for reinforcements from Starfleet."

"That was not what I meant." Maleficent's voice was tight.

"No?"

"No," Maleficent emphasized.

Out of nowhere – or perhaps Aurora had simply been a little too tipsy to notice – a Klingon walked up to the bar, shoving Aurora roughly aside and interrupting whatever she had planned to say. "Bartender! Bloodwine!"

"Watch it!" Aurora exclaimed, her frustration temporarily finding a new target. "You know you're not alone here, right?"

The Klingon merely laughed at her outrage. "You should be happy you didn't fall off your chair. But hey, let me buy you a drink as an apology." He leaned on the bar, giving Aurora a condescending smile. "I don't think they've got your Federation synthehol here, though. Maybe some milk instead, if that's not too strong for you?"

She met his eyes with a defiant gaze for a couple of seconds before turning and taking a big gulp of her drink. "You know what? I'm the one who should apologize actually," she said, only slurring slightly. "I'm sorry I didn't know that a targ and a boqrat could produce such a piece of taHqeq of an offspring, but here you are."

Blinking, the Klingon seemed genuinely surprised at the reaction. Then he growled, pulled out a dagger from his belt and stabbed it into the bar disk in one swift motion. "Say that again, human."

Aurora leaned forward with a smirk until her face was almost touching the Klingon's. "verengan Ha'DIbaH Sa'Hut roSbejtaH SoSHomlI', todSaH."

Unsurprisingly, she quickly found herself pulled off her chair and thrown onto the floor, slamming into a table nearby. The Klingon tore his dagger out of the bar and lunged for her, but Maleficent jumped in front of him, stopping him with a hand on his wrist.

"That's enough." Unlike Aurora, Maleficent was almost as tall as the Klingon and met his eyes without flinching.

"Out of my way, Vulcan, or I'll gut you like I'll gut this d'blok," the Klingon spat, pulling his arm free and aiming a punch for Maleficent's face.

Dazed from hitting the table, Aurora wasn't sure if the momentary enraged grimace flitting across Maleficent's face was just a figment of her imagination or not. What she did know she saw was Maleficent dodging the Klingon's clumsy lunge and then hitting him hard in the chin with her fist. He landed with a thud in an undignified heap on the ground.

"Are you alright?" Maleficent asked as she reached down to pull Aurora to her legs.

"I think so." Groaning, she gripped the back of her head where she had hit the floor. "Mostly."

"We'll have to get you back to the ship and let the doctor examine you." She paused and gave Aurora a pointed look. "Unless you plan on insulting even more Klingons, of course."

Aurora shook her head, an embarrassed blush coloring her cheeks. "No," she mumbled meekly.

Leaning against Maleficent, Aurora turned towards the exit, only to come face to face with a group of Klingons, one of them attempting to wake up the one Maleficent knocked out. Having sobered quite quickly after being thrown across the room, Aurora didn't feel any of her earlier cockiness.

"You Federation people think you own the galaxy, don't you?" One of the Klingons exclaimed, aiming a disruptor at them.

Before anyone had time to act, a group of heavily armed soldiers rushed into the bar, all in similar uniforms. "Station security! Stand down!"

Looking from the soldiers to Maleficent and Aurora, the Klingons put away their weapons surprisingly quickly, albeit grumbling their discontent while they did it. Pulling their unconscious comrade to his feet, they marched out of the bar without further delay.

"This isn't over, Federation!" one of the Klingons shouted as he walked away.

When the Klingons had peacefully left the bar, one of the soldiers – what looked like the one in command – approached Maleficent and Aurora. "You two okay?"

"Nothing our ship's doctor can't handle," Maleficent assured him.

"Good. You should probably stay away from the Klingons from now on," the soldier told them. "They don't take kindly to insults or defeat."

Maleficent nodded curtly. "To put it mildly. Are we free to go?"

The soldier shrugged. "Sure."

Raising an eyebrow quizzically, Maleficent gave the soldier an odd look.

"Look, if we detained everyone involved in a fight on the station, we wouldn't have space for any visitors. We're mostly just here to break up fights, not to deal with anyone afterwards."

Maleficent's lips curled downward in distaste, so faintly that Aurora doubted anyone else noticed. "I see. Then thank you for your timely assistance."

When the soldiers left and the other patrons slowly went back to what they had been doing instead of gawking at the commotion, Aurora let out a tired breath, slumping against Maleficent. "Well, this went terribly."

"Indeed." She paused, adjusting her arm around Aurora's midriff to get a better grip. "I must say, I wasn't aware of your exhaustive knowledge of Klingon insults."

The noise Aurora made as she covered her increasingly blushing face with her hand was somewhere between a groan and a whine. "I've read some Klingon novels," she mumbled. "Pretty trashy novels."

"I see. Well, if your intent was to get close to being killed in a bar by a drunk Klingon, I'd say your usage of them was impeccable," Maleficent noted flatly.

"Let's... not talk about this, okay? And maybe not mention this to the others."

"Of course not," Maleficent hummed airily. "I'll just say you were to intoxicated to stand up on your own and fell. Would that be preferable?"

Aurora groaned pitifully, slumping further against Maleficent's body. "Let's just go back. You can scold me when we're on the ship."

With Aurora leaning on Maleficent, they made their way slowly towards the exit, weaving past table after table of people who either looked amused, intrigued or somewhat terrified. As they stepped outside, a Ferengi was waiting for them, stopping them with what Aurora assumed was supposed to be a friendly smile.

"Hey, I heard you were looking for someone?"

Aurora nodded hesitantly.

"In that case, you should talk to my employer. He'll find anything you need or want." His smile widened. "For the right price, of course."

"And who is this boss of yours?" Maleficent asked.

"He's called the Mediator. You'll find him here," the Ferengi said, holding out a small holographic note for them to take.

Maleficent took it cautiously, eyeing the Ferengi skeptically. "Do you always confront potential customers this personally?"

"My employer is highly selective when it comes to his clients."

"And it only took him a few hours to decide on us?" Aurora asked, mirroring Maleficent's skepticism.

"A lone Starfleet ship, looking for someone out here? I'd say that's quite the interesting client."

Maleficent's expression hardened and her grip on Aurora became noticeably tighter. "I suppose we are. We'll keep your offer in mind."

It wasn't until the Ferengi was long lost in the crowd of people and they were well on there way back that Maleficent's grip – to Aurora's faint displeasure – loosened.

Despite Aurora insisting that she was perfectly fine, they headed straight to sickbay as soon as they got back onto the Fae, but only after Maleficent had threatened to carry Aurora over her shoulder all the way there unless she went willingly. (A small part of Aurora – one she tried her best to ignore – found that scenario particularly interesting.) To Aurora's relief, only Doctor Neterr and a nurse was present in sickbay when she and Maleficent entered.

"Captain?" Neterr prompted, looking up from his terminal. "Do you need something?"

"She hit her head and possibly her back," Maleficent explained before Aurora had time to come up with a reply.

"I see. Not too severely, I take it, since you were able to walk here?" he asked and motioned Aurora to sit down on one of the biobeds.

"It's not that bad." Aurora reluctantly sat down, not quite able to keep herself steady. "I'm just a little sore, really."

Neterr hummed and ran his tricorder scanner over her neck and back. "You'll have some light bruising and perhaps some lingering pain for a day or two, but apart from that, you're fine. I do, however, notice alcohol in your system." He replaced the scanner in the tricorder and gave her a curious look. "Were you in a bar fight?"

"Well..."

"Our dear captain decided to use her vast linguistic skills to insult a fellow patron of the bar." Maleficent's lips curved up in a faint ghost of a smile. "Apparently, Klingons do not appreciate hearing their mothers being–"

"Commander!" Aurora hissed. "I told you not to say anything!"

Maleficent's face was a model of innocence. "Oh dear. I must have misunderstood, Captain. Perhaps you should have spoken to me in my native tongue as well, instead of squandering your talents on the local drunk Klingons."

"Ponfo mirann," Aurora muttered with a hiccup and crossed her arms with a sullen glare towards Maleficent.

"I see your diplomatic skills truly come out to shine when you're intoxicated," Maleficent noted, her smile only widening from Aurora's insult. Taking Aurora by the arm, she gave Neterr a quick nod of her head. "Thank you, Doctor."

It wasn't until they were well out of sickbay that Aurora realized through her alcohol-ridden haze that Maleficent was leading her around as if she was all but incapable of walking on her own. Deciding that a captain should be shown a bit more dignity, she tried to pull herself loose but only managed to stumble on her own feet and almost fall over, getting caught by Maleficent in the last moment.

"I can walk perfectly on my own," Aurora argued even though she more or less clung to Maleficent's arm. She hiccuped again. "More or less."

"Of course, Captain. I'm sure you simply pretend not to," Maleficent drawled. "Now, unless you plan on let the entire crew know what you were drinking at the station the last few hours, I suggest we go somewhere a bit more private to discuss what to do next."

"You j–" another hiccup, "you just want me alone so you can lecture me on proper dipo– diplomatic procedures. Like not insulting Klingons. Although..." The memory of Maleficent punching her attacker in the bar popped up and she grinned mischievously. "I think you liked hitting that guy."

"Hardly," Maleficent scoffed. "If I wanted to brawl with Klingons I would have done it in the holodeck, where there's less risk of diplomatic incidents.

"Well, you sure have seemed a lot more upbeat after you hit him than these last few weeks. Maybe you just enjoy spending time in shady bars or wasting a lot of time asking people about stuff," Aurora noted airily. "Or..." her smile grew decidedly more smug as she pieced a few more things together in her mind, "you like doing stuff with me. You missed me."

Maleficent looked anything but pleased – she was doing her "Vulcan pout" again, Aurora noted with glee – but didn't offer any objections, instead tugging Aurora along to the nearest turbolift to the sound of Aurora's loud snickering.

A/N: Her degree in Interspecies Relations sure shows, doesn't it?

For those of you wondering, most of the words Aurora use to insult the Klingon are various kinds of not too highly esteemed animals and generic expletives. The long sentences would roughly be translated to "your mother licks dog butts on a regular basis, asshole". If you wanted to know.

"Ponfo mirann" means something along the lines of "go to hell". Aurora is quite the foulmouthed drunk.