Welcome To The Kiwi Travel Agency

[Cdr Rian Kwai 0]

"We have to travel incognito, right?" Rian had asked the others only a few moments after they had materialized on Risa and had to start formulating a plan to get them to Aegis in the nick of time to stop Brock. They were in a desperate predicament. How in the world were they going to be able to travel from Risa to Aegis without causing more damage to the time stream.

 

It was when Rian watched a small freighter streak off from the landing pads in the far distance of the Risan resorts that she got an idea. She and her father still had friends in the freight trade, perhaps they could catch a ride with one without raising suspicion. She only hoped someone friendly was traveling their way. Blu was wounded, and wouldn't be able to hobble around the tradesmen district for a long, and the injury might cause too much attention to themselves. So Rian told them all to meet her in one hour at small inn bordering the tourist district where they could rest and still not cause too much commotion. Rian would go alone and search for transportation. She hoped this would work, because she hated to see what they'd have to come up with for Plan B.

 

Ten minutes in the spacedock master's office pouring over ship's posted itineraries and registries produced three promising possibilities. All three were owned or operated with humanoids who knew her father. Two would pass through the system near Aegis. But only one of them would ask the least amount of questions about her situation. Quentin Reed, owner of a small freighting outfit out of Tarus four, who would be leaving Risa in just a few short hours with a shipment of Risan perfume and a few other trade goods for the sectors near Aegis. He was Rian's best bet to catch a ride to Aegis.

 

There was a bar not far from the landing pads that many of the crew of the freight ships frequented when they were on Risa. Before entering the establishment, Rian did her best to look inconspicuous as possible, stuffing her uniform jacket into her bag, adjusting the civilian shirt given to her before their 'jump', clipping her combadge to the inside pocket of her pants (she wouldn't lose it again!), splattering dust upon her 'Fleet uniform boots. She felt the curious and sometimes cold stares of the patrons when she entered. When she was quickly and warmly welcomed by the woman tending bar who recognized her as Jozep's daughter, most of that initial attention dissipated. She spotted Quentin in a back booth, one hand scrolling through a data recording device, the other hand clasping a meaty sandwich as beefy as he was. She took a deep breath before approaching him.

 

"Hello Mr Reed. Remember me?" Rian Kwai smiled hesitantly, making her look shy instead of as nervous as she was. Would this work?

 

He glanced up, then did a double take as he stood up to greet her. "Rian...Rian Kwai? Rian! My, how grown up you are!" He gave her a hug bear hug, lifting the Trill girl off her feet. "I haven't seen you since you were this big." He demonstrated with his hand a height of less than a few meters. "Sit, sit, sit...come talk to me. What have you been up to?"

 

Rian slide into the seat opposite the large human. The two exchanged pleasantries, caught up on recent events, gossiped about families, talked about 'old times' for a while before Rian decided to steer the conversation into the direction she needed it to go. Luckily Quentin gave her an opening.

 

"So what are you doing on Risa?"

 

Rian sighed softly, shaking her head, "I was supposed to be on shoreleave. But I think I'm having a string of bad luck because Risa has brought me nothing but a headache. Joined gods, I don't even know what I'm going to do."

 

"What's wrong?" Quentin asked in a fatherly voice.

 

"You wouldn't believe it if I told you." Rian tried to build up that sympathy as well as her courage to tell the next part of this lie.

 

"Try me." He leaned back in his chair, pushing the empty plate away.

 

"Okay," Rian started to launch into her cover story. "We're on shoreleave...a bunch of friends of mine and I for two weeks. One of them got the bright idea to come out here for some R&R. Fun in the sun, you know? Yeah, well, some R&R this trip has been. I made the mistake of leaving them alone for one minute, and I don't know who's bright idea it was, but they decided to check out one of the casinos."

 

"Get in over their heads, did they?"

 

"Worse. They gambled away our return trip tickets."

 

"You're kidding?"

 

"No, I'm not." Rian continued to lie, trying to keep the story simple to make it believe able but also something that has been commonly known to have happened on Risa. "I have no idea what we're going to do now. I mean we're stuck. I don't have money for another ticket. Our ship isn't going to swing by and pick us up. And if we don't report to Sky Harbor Aegis in two days, we're going to be reported as AWOL. Joined gods, I don't know how many months I'm going to spend in the brig if I don't get back on duty on time. What if my dad finds out?" Rian buried her face in her hands. The desperation in her voice was real, even though the story was not.

 

"Aegis, eh?" Quentin leaned back in his chair. "We're headed that way, we could give you a ride."

 

"I thought you did the Risa to Ganymede run?" she asked, trying to sound as if she didn't already know where Quentin's ship was already headed.

 

"Na, there wasn't enough money in it. The Bajorans will pay more for luxury goods now that their economy is picking up. And there's enough profit to risk running near the Cardassian territory. We could drop you off on our way to Deep Space Nine, Rian."

 

"Really?" Rian sounded hopeful.

 

"Oh sure, anything for Jozep's girl. But what do you want to do about your so called friends?"

 

"I...I can't leave them, Quentin."

 

"Why not? They got you into this mess, let them find their own way out of it?" He smirked, then relented when Rian protested that she couldn't possibly leave her friends behind, that the crew of her ship were like family members. "How many of them are there?"

 

She held up four fingers, "Counting me," she answered. "I promise, they'll behave. Honest. Or we'll scrub the decks for you. Or whatever else needs to be done. We'll do it. This is a huge, huge favor. Please don't tell my dad, please?"

 

"Don't worry about it. Just be at landing pad twenty-three in three hours or this ship too must sail without you." He stood up, gathered his things and ruffled Rian's hair.

 

Rian jumped up and gave him his own bear hug. "You are saving my life here, Quentin. Thank you!" She hurried out to meet up with the rest of the displaced Republic crew to let them know what was happening, and so they could get their story straight before they joined Quentin and his crew on their way to Sky Harbor Aegis....just in case Quentin decided to lecture someone on gambling away their trip home.