The Visitors

[Liliana Hamilton 0]

The Naussican fell to the floor with a thud. Crewman Liliana Hamilton's trip to Rigel X had fallen somewhere between an information-gathering mission and a continuous barfight. She waved her hand, making sure she still had feeling in her knuckles as she walked towards the bar. Being a woman didn't make it any easier. For many of the traders here, she was prey. Sometimes it helped. There's no better way to attract attention and get someone to talk to you than being an eligible-looking woman. Sometimes, it didn't. She put two ducats on the bar. "For the glasses and the table." The bartender accepted the money and looked on silently and slack-jawed as she walked back to her table, now alone, while two Naussicans dragged their comrade away.

 

She collected her thoughts. So far, she had heard quite a few rumors. Beyond the traders' daily worries about making a few ducats, many had opinions about the future of local galactic politics. They actively debated which was greater: the Klingons' appetites for territory or for fresh, exotic meat. And yet others thought a grave threat was coming from the reclusive Rihannsu Star Empire that had started mining and defending its border. Some of them even thought we were in the hot zone of a "temporal war" of some sort. Earth was high on their minds, having come to their attention by the Andorrians' blockade. The majority of the merchants were of the mind that it was going to be just another "minor" skirmish in the power struggle between the Vulcans and Andorrians, leading to another stalemate and a lot of lost business. Small minorities strongly held that the little nothing of a backwards planet was either (1) the greatest danger to their freedom since the Vulcans, or (2) the greatest boon to safety since the Vulcans. Captain Archer's "police action" against a group of Naussicans had made an impression on more than just the pirates.

 

~~

 

Ilsen Gibor took a sip of beer and watched the cleanup from his back table. It hadn't been a fair fight. He didn't know the woman, but, he knew that she came with an Earth Cargo Ship, and he sensed that she might be able to help him. He only had to find something he could offer her in exchange. A lone Klingon had been spotted in the city. It was a rare opportunity, and perhaps a ticket home for the lost symbiont. He gathered up his courage, raised his glass from the table, himself from the bench and walked over to Earth-woman.

 

"Mind if I join you?"