Rule 21: Never place friendship over profit.

Deep Space Nine, Promenade, Quark's

„Buy for 300."

Quark pushed the Tongo wheel and looked over his cards. Dax nodded and watched her own hand. „Sell, 400", she said after a while. „By the way, who was the lady you were talking to so late last night?" She threw two slips of latinum into the bowl in the middle of the table and looked over at Quark. „Tsk, you should know that you can't distract me with that!" Dax pushed the wheel and nodded to Krell, one of the Ferengi waiters. „And you should know that I'm not trying to distract you, but am simply curious." „Sell, 350." Krell put two slips of latinum in the pot and pushed the wheel; the turn moved to Gol at his left. „Whatever happened to privacy?" Quark sighed. „A customer, that's all." Dax grinned and glanced over to the bar. „A very good customer, I assume?" „What do you mean?" Quark put on his innocent face and shrugged. „That not every customer plays with your ears." She looked at him with a knowing smile. „It's how Ferengi do business", Quark replied. „Or wait, are you jealous?" He grinned. „It's tearing me apart", Dax said and tried not to laugh. „Confront." She put her cards on the table and Quark's grin died. „You know what they say about gambling and love", Dax remarked and took her latinum out of the bowl.

Habitat Ring, Corridor H-12-A, quarters of the Maoth'ai crew

„I thought this place would be overrun by Ferengi."

Maahir's antennae pointed at Ravennah like accusing fingers. She leaned back in the sofa and sighed. „Same here." She put her feet on the table. „Guess we can forget about finding the matching mouth piece to sell the crap in the cargo bay?" Maahir walked over to the replicator. „Andorian ale." The glass began materializing and he took it. „We need to be careful, that's all", Ravennah replied and grabbed a bottle of Kanar that had been laying next to her on the sofa. „The one in the bar is too much of a risk. A lot of friends in the Federation, permanently watched by the station's security chief. Brother works for the Bajorans and the nephew is at Starfleet Academy." She opened the bottle and took a sip. „What about the waiters?" Maahir returned to the table and seated himself on a chair. Ravennah laughed, showing the entire range of sharp teeth. Parts of the inferior Klingon and Nausicaan genes had won the battle against the Cardassian majority, at least within her mouth. „If they had any contacts to rich customers, or any real ambition to get them..." she began. „...then they wouldn't be waiters on a Federation station", Maahir finished the sentence and emptied his glass. Ravennah nodded. „Exactly. They are not an option." She threw the bottle over her shoulder, onto the bed. „And where are Ariev and Dh'amon?" She glanced over to the door, Maahir's eyes followed. „Let's hope they were more successful", he stated when the door, against the expectations of both, did not open. „It's not as if we had no success at all", she grinned and watched the bottle top in her hand. „Oh yes, when it comes to hitting on every lobe in sight, you were certainly quite successful", Maahir sighed. He got up to go back to the replicator, Ravennah kept on grinning. „Problem is, oo-mox won't sell the damn artifacts." „You never know where it gets you", his kaghan replied from the sofa.

Four Andorian Ales and a quarter bottle of Kanar later the door finally rang. Slightly staggering, Maahir moved over to open. „You got something?" he welcomed the brothers when they just shoved him aside to step in. „Probably nothing you don't know by now", Ariev said, frustrated. Dh'amon said nothing, he went straight for the replicator to order blood wine. The door closed and Ariev fell on a chair next to Ravennah. „Took a bit to modify the shuttle's scanners, but at least we didn't trigger any alerts", he said. Dh'amon and Maahir joined them around the table, carrying three glasses. „There are 16 Ferengi on the station", Dhamon said and drank some blood wine. „I expected more, somehow. However, when we scanned, eight of them were in the bar, five in quarters in the staff section, one in a Jefferies' tube in pylon 3 and one in a quarter, two sections from here." Ravennah sat up, looking thoughtful. „I saw some playing Tongo in the bar. Staff quarters is a bad sign for us, probably waiters or something. Pylon 3 has to be the technician brother of the barkeeper... Leaves the question, why didn't we notice there's a Ferengi on this corridor?" She looked from one crewmember to another. Dh'amon shrugged. „Maybe we should just go check on him", he said.

Promenade, Quark's

„What are you doing here?"

Quark didn't even look up from the table and kept dealing the cards. „If you don't want my money, I can leave." Brunt shrugged and turned to go. „What's wrong with letting him play?" Dax whispered to Quark. „Are you afraid of losing to him?" „Tsk, he's not that good", Quark replied, but finally looked up. „Alright. We start at three strips." Brunt stopped, watched Quark from head to toe, then nodded and pulled over a chair. „I should have known it's not for real money", he said. „My mistake, after all it's a round allowing... clothed females." He gave Jadzia a disgusted glance and threw the three strips in the bowl. „She plays better than you." Quark handed him the cards. „If you are so certain that a clothed female doesn't belong at a Tongo table, you certainly don't mind doubling, right?" Surprised, Dax raised an eyebrow. „Quark, I didn't know you thought of me as such a good gambler..." „Respect where it's due", Quark replied without taking the eyes from Brunt.

„Fine, double."

Brunt cursed himself for accepting this challenge when he put another three strips in the bowl. He had no idea when he would be able to access his bank accounts again and it was certainly not the smartest thing to do to gamble with his reserves. But he couldn't give Quark the satisfaction of backing off from the challenge. How good could a clothed female, - not even a Ferengi - play, after all? This was probably nothing more than another sad attempt of Quark's to impress his Starfleet friends. It wouldn't be the first time that he tried to act so tolerant and open minded; betrayed his culture and seemed even proud of it.

„Did you get a chance to look at my data?" Quark asked casually and pushed the Tongo wheel. Brunt studied his cards as if the wisdom of the universe was written on them. „Buy, 500", he said after a while. „And yes, I had a few minutes to read what you gave me." He threw a strip of latinum in the bowl and nodded to the waiter to his left. „Actually, it wasn't really impressive." Quark reached for his cocktail, drank a sip and calmly replied: „I'm sure a 'capable man' like you can work with it though."