As the starships approached the station, docked, and unloaded compliments of Starfleet officers, the disembarking passengers began to explore the station, looking around. The Captain had ordered all officers to meet him in the briefing areaof the Excelsior at 1430 hours, but that left 3 hours and 30 minutes to explore the station and the planet below.
Everyone went their separate ways, first to their quarters, then to explore this new station they would call home for quite some time to come. The space station was big enough so that you could spend weeks wandering around and not find all of it, and most people spent their entire time there, but some impatient officers decided to look only briefly and head down to the planet's surface to have a bit of fun. As some people were still afraid of getting their molecules disassembled, compressed, and reassembled in a transporter and as the ships were too busy using them to beam aboard cargo, the officers that wished to see the planet took a shuttle to a space elevator platform, which brought them to the capital of the planet. But since most weren't going to the surface, it was less crowded and quieter in the shuttle, perfect for someone just trying to look around and have a few minutes of peace.
One of those people was Operation's officer Commander T'Liz, of Vulcan. Vulcans are known for basing their entire lives around logic instead of emotions, their pointed ears, having strength three times that of a human, and superiority complexes. All of which culminate into probably one of the most infuriating species in this corner of the galaxy. However, T'Liz was not most Vulcans. She had a disorder from birth that weakened her emotional barriers, causing her to experience emotions like a human. That being said, she still had only tapped into a fraction of her emotions, any more, and she would be put into her people's version of an insane asylum, and she still had the superiority complex.
Another thing that was odd about her in comparison to her species was that she liked to drink, not alcohol or anything labeled as remotely intoxicating by most species definition, but she liked to have a sugar laced beverage quite frequently. This quirk of hers led her to a human bar on the outskirts of town known as Guido's Bar, where several Starfleet officers were already at, and she calmly took off a few pips on her collar. Thus degraded to an ensign, and as such nearly unnoticeable, save the ears, she walked in.
The bar was full, crammed to the brimming with Humans, Naussicans, Rigelians, and Klingons, all drinking out of metal cups. To avoid detection, she shuffled over to the far edge of the bar, farthest away from everyone else, then began to relax subtly, easing her straight posture, leaning forward slightly, and listened to the others in the area. She could have listened in on any of the conversations in the room, but as etiquette required, she only stretched her hearing to human levels, and waited for the bartender to come towards her. However, unfortunately, even at human levels, she could still hear the Klingons in the corner harassing a bartender. "If you ever are that sloppy with our drinks again I'll make you eat your own throat" she wrinkled her nose in distaste as the Klingons pushed him to the ground. She had turned around to do something when the main bartender, reached over and grabbed her arm. He whispered in her ear "Don't do anything, if you do, they will beat you" "Why won't the local authorities arrest them" "Who do you think would win in a fight, a group of human deputies who haven't been in a real fight for 12 years, or a group of battle hardened Klingons? Order a drink and leave them be, they have been here for several weeks already, strongarming half of the the city" "That is horrible, why don't you fight them" "Look, they are a nuisance, nothing more, are you going to order a drink or not" "Fine, I'd prefer lemonade, if you have it" "Coming right up"
At the other end of the bar was tactical officer Lieutenant-commander Talla Shran. She was a thin blue skinned alien, and had come down to the human bar ditching her pips on her collar because she knew from experience that knowing someone was several ranks above you was disconcerting, and though most would later recognize her as the lieutenant commander she was, it would still put everyone at ease for now before they realized who she was.
In this particular bar, she was hoping for a vodka martini, shaken, not stirred, because the entire ride in the cargo trawler, a group of humans she had befriended coerced her to try watching a 20th -22nd century set of human spy movies and had gotten her hooked on the series. The whole ride here she wanted to try it the signature concoction the protagonist always indulged in. Finding she liked the 'vodka martini', she ordered three more, to give her Andorian constitution a wakeup call. By the fourth one though, she was a bit tipsy, and when she and her newfound friends saw a Vulcan enter the bar, it was too good of an opportunity for her to miss. She immediately told her friends to "watch this" and walked up to the Vulcan.
The Italian bartender Guido Sanzo was a good man, who firmly believed that his experience behind a bar could steel him against being ruffled by anything however, when a very attractive Vulcan female came in, looked like she was going to beat a Klingon, and ordered a lemonade, he was dumbfounded, this was the first time that he had ever seen a Vulcan within this sector, let alone in his bar, but he regained his composure before she noticed.
After he delivered her drink, he kept a special eye on her, taking in information to learn more about her. He realized she wasn't like most Vulcans, more fidgety and expressive, and she was not here to observe human behavior as was the general stereotype of Vulcans. If he didn't know better he would say she was here to make friends and mingle, though it appeared she didn't know how. He then noted smaller things, like that her name was T'Liz, and was an engineering officer.
Guido also noticed that the other odd customer today, Talla, was eyeing her. Not romantically, but the mischievous way which meant that in the next 45 seconds something was going to happen. He quickly palmed the hypospray of antitox which if need be could make the Andorian hybrid sober in 12 seconds flat, and a medkit, both of which were hidden under the counter for just such an occasion. But instead of jumping out and stopping it before it began, he waited. Personally, he knew the Vulcan and the Andorian could take care of themselves and it always boosted business when there was a fight. Plus, the rumors of Starfleet officers in this quadrant were legendary, some said that the last time a Starfleet ship entered the Delphic expanse, it had fought off all five of the Xindi races and won, others said that the "Mayko" division of Starfleet had once gotten 18 confirmed kills in 5 minutes, and of course the Klingons had at least a dozen rumors surrounding "those crazy humans", mostly along the lines of Terrans being the only race ballsy or crazy enough to piss off the Klingon empire on purpose, the only ones that were stupid enough to do it multiple times, and last of all, the only ones dangerous enough for the Klingons not to want to fight them. Additionally, if they really damaged anything, he could bill Starfleet's local treasury for reimbursement for damages, but since he used the toughest materials for everything in the bar, there was very little damage they could actually do to the foundations in the bar.
So he waited, and sure enough, Talla walked right up to the Vulcan sat down next to her. "What are your drinking?" Talla asked. T'liz pointed a raised eyebrow and at her, and replied "Lemonade.". Talla, who had brought her drink from the next table snorted into her glass, then, with a bit of a disbelieving tone, asked her "Isn't that an unusual choice, doesn't that break like a ritualistic cultural rule or something?" "At least three rules in my society". The blue lieutenant commander cracked a grin and said "Nice, you know, I think I'm going to like you, what's your name?" "T'liz, yours?" "Talla Shran, at your service"
By this time Guido had realized they were going to be fine, and was about to replace the medkit and the antitox, when he realized that the Klingons that had already bullied some of his customers were walking over to the two. He was about to warn the Klingons off of them, but decided to let things take their course, he was curious to see their response to this, to see if Starfleet officers lived up to the legends. At any rate, if the stories were true, the Klingons deserved what was coming to them. One of the Klingons walked up to T'liz, yanked her around and pointed his knife under her chin. At the unsheathing of the knife the whole bar had gone silent. The Klingon whispered in a low voice that still carried across the room "I heard Starfleet officers taste like targs, I wonder if you're skinned like one". Very calmly T'liz lightly grabbed the Klingon's knife hand, and with a smirk, twisted his wrist backwards with extreme force. He immediately dropped the knife and began to sink to floor in pain. Talla walked up next to him as her friend still had the Klingon in a grip like a vice and whispered in his ear "I heard Klingons are as tough as tribbles too bad you can't fight as well as one". With a nod to T'liz to release him, they two women walked back to the bar and ordered another round. The Klingon, with a extremely broken wrist was about to walk out when he grabbed a knife from the floor, and rushed at Talla, looking to stab her in the back. There was no way Talla could see him, but when he was about to stab her, she whipped around, dodging his lunging arm, grabbing his head, and using his own inertia to drill him into the bar's counter knocking him out. With a slightly drunken and crazy grin, Talla yelled out to the rest of the club, "ANYONE ELSE WANT A PEICE OF ME!". There was dead quiet, then the rest of the Klingons began to circle her and T'liz, when another Starfleet officer from another part of the bar pulled one of the Klingons around, slugging him in the face, and breaking the semicircle. Another Klingon whirled around and hit him, throwing him into a pair of angry Naussicans. After that everything escalated, until the whole bar turned into a brawl, with Starfleet officers, Klingons, and other bar patrons in the fray.
Author's postscript: Please leave reviews on whether or not you liked it, or not, I expect/want criticism on this story and how I can do better,