"I never expected them to ask about the emergency
powers Act," Janice Rand said glumly that evening as the
five of them sat in one of the cheaper eateries on Starbase
18. "I had to leave that one blank."
~Only one,~ Larssen thought, ~one blank answer. My
commiserations, Ms Tidy Rand. I'll make sure I remind
you of it when I'm under your command.~
"They *always* ask about the emergency powers act."
Shimona said wisely, looking around for a waiter. "That's
what Hikaru said. There's only one day left - I think we're
due a drink."
"None for me," Larssen said. "Hikaru, is it, hey?"
"Not like *that*," Shimona said darkly. "I like my men
*tall*. He's teaching me judo. Are you sure you won't
have one? A small one?"
"Oh, Cory, don't be a spoilsport." Brand said, not
noticing Larssen's eyebrow go very slowly up in a
credible Imitation of Spock and N'o beginning to laugh
Shimona's unintended double entendre. "One drink.
It's not even going to give you a hangover."
Larssen smiled, allowed the waiter to fill her glass and
raised it in response to N'o's toast before setting it back
on the table. "Mr Sulu tried to teach me judo." she said as
the others drank. "It was very ... painful."
"You were in my class for a while." Shimona said. "Just
before all that business with the Vouche."
"I was learning how to fall. I certainly got plenty of
practice."
"If you knew they always asked about the emergency
powers," Rand said, "why didn't you tell the rest of us?"
"I did." Shimona said. "On the Grace, on the way in.
Remember? Brand told me I was crazy and N'o waved
his appendages and said I was 'steep' and you just looked
blankly at the wall. Mooning over that engineer, no
doubt."
"I was not," Rand said with great dignity, "*mooning*."
"Affirmative, emphatic, accuracy descriptor." N'o said,
and Larssen hooted with laughter.
"Which engineer?" she asked. "Shim, you going to finish
that moo shu?"
"Have it. The chief, of course."
"I was not - " Rand began, and then ruined it by blushing
and looking down at her plate. "Well, not really."
"Oh ho!" Brand said. "What does 'not really' mean? Did
you do it?"
"Brand." Larssen said softly.
"Of course they didn't 'do it', Brandy, she was with us
almost the whole time." Shimona said, taking pity on Rand
who was now scarlet.
"I just thought he was handsome." she said defensively. "I
didn't have a chance to speak to him or anything."
"Handsome?" Larssen said in spite of herself. Chief
Engineer Madison had seemed many things to her when
she'd seen him: 'dangerous' was the first, closely followed
by 'unkempt', 'dirty', 'bad-tempered', and 'possibly
criminal'. 'Handsome' had not featured anywhere on her list.
"He's too short." Shimona said.
"He's taller than you!" Rand snapped.
"*Everybody*," Shimona said, "is taller than me."
"Inaccurate, temporal, conditional, action." N'o said.
Shimona turned to him.
"Come again?" she asked.
"He said," Larssen said, beginning to laugh, "Only until
you knock them over. Right, N'o?"
"Affirmative, accuracy." N'o said, and waved his feelers in
amusement.
"Good thing you didn't have time, Janice." Brand said. "He
wasn't a very nice man."
"He put a hell of a flea in your ear, didn't he?" Larssen
asked.
"And some! I thought he was going to kill me then and
there." Larssen made an automatic deduction for Brand's
habitual exaggeration, but he looked serious. "And I don't
think he liked Starfleet."
"Well, I never said I was planning on *marrying* him,"
Rand said. "I just thought he was handsome. In a rough
sort of way. He had a nice mouth."
"Newsflash." Shimona said. "Merchant Spacers Are Bad
News. Further bulletins follow: Madmen I Have Known,
Bar-brawls I Have Witnessed, Criminals I Have Arrested."
"Shim's right, Janice." Larssen said. "Don't go there, don't
even think about going there."
"I wasn't *really* thinking about it." Rand said. "Not
*really*."
"Well, good." Larssen said, unimpressed. "I won't be
called down by station security to identify the naked body
found floating near the docking rim, then."
"Oh, now, that's just -"
"All too possible." Larssen said, and reached across the
table to take Rand's arm. "Janice. Look at me. All too
possible."
"I can take care of myself." Rand said, not meeting
Larssen's gaze.
"By staying in nights." Larssen said, and gave her arm a
little shake.
Rand sighed, and looked up, and Larssen saw she'd let go
of the fantasy. "I know." she said. "I know. Who's for
dessert?"
"Not me," Shimona said. "I'm stuffed."
"Me too," Brand said.
"Suggested, action, digestion." N'o said.
"Good idea. Maybe we'll all feel like dessert when we've
walked around for a while." Larssen said.
"Let's go up to the boulevard." Brand said. "There are all
sorts of shops there."
There were indeed, Larssen thought when they got there,
'all sorts of shops'. She wondered if her mild feeling of
loco parentis for Brand involved making decisions
whether or not he was old enough to see the contents of some
of those shops - The Eros House of Adult Toys for the Jaded
Spacer, for example - and decided it didn't. She strolled
a short distance away, near enough to see him when he
came out and far enough away to be safe from any
possible requests for explanations, and studied the nearest
shop window.
"That'd suit you," Rand said suddenly from behind her.
Larssen half turned, and was relieved to see that Rand was
looking at, and clearing referring to, the dress in the shop
window and not anything from the Eros House window
display.
"It's a nice colour." Larssen said. "Too short, though."
"Maybe they have a longer one inside." Rand said. "Let's
ask. Come on." Pulling Larssen with her, she stepped over
the threshold.
The proprietor regretted not to be able to oblige the
ma'ams, alas, the dress was not part of a series, in a shop
such as this all the pieces were made individually by
inspired artists, which meant that they were of the highest
quality but alas also meant there was nothing in the same
fabric, but longer. Alas.
"Try it on anyway." Rand suggested. "It might be longer
on."
"It'd be shorter on." Larssen said. "What do you think of
these pants?"
"Pants are pants." Rand said with devastating bluntness.
"Try the dress on, Cory."
"I'd better check on Brand."
"Not if you don't want to be bombarded with questions
about the exact function of a Westogian Tickler." Rand
said. "Try the dress on."
Faced with two equally poor choices, Larssen went into
the changing room.
The dress *was* too short. It was barely longer than the
uniform Rand wore. Or, as Rand put it with what Larssen
was beginning to feel was an unfortunate resourcefulness
when it came to logic, it was 'at least an inch and a half
longer than the uniform skirt, for goodness sakes!'
"I'd never wear it." Larssen said. The dress left not only
her legs but her arms and shoulders bare, and she shivered
slightly.
'The next crew mixer!" Rand said. "It's perfect."
"There's not enough of it." Larssen said.
"You look fabulous."
"I look cold."
"It's colder in here than most places. You wouldn't be
cold on the ship."
Larssen turned to look at her, the skirt swishing
unfamiliarly around her thighs. "I don't want the
dress, Janice."
"Why not? It's gorgeous."
"On somebody else." Larssen said, and went back into
the changing room. Back in her coveralls, she returned
the dress to the proprietor with an apology for wasting
his time, and went to look at the cookware in the
window two down. Rand didn't join her immediately,
and Larssen guessed she was browsing the dresses
herself. That sort of insubstantial garb was the kind of
thing the Janice Rands and the Shimonas of the universe
could wear. It went with their ability to step off a
civilian freighter looking like they'd just come out of
their own 'fresher and the way they looked at men like
Chief Madison and saw a nice mouth. Corrina Larssen,
on the other hand, did not wear such dresses, had a
magnetic attraction to the nearest source of a potentially
embarrassing stain and noticed not Madison's mouth or
his shoulders or whatever but the stone killer look in
his eyes.
Of course, he might have a different look for the Janice
Rands and the Shimonas.
"Rotting, stinking garbage," Larssen said softly in
Romulan, and looked at casserole pots until she saw Brand's
reflection appear beside her.
