Path: newsspool2.news.atl.earthlink.net!stamper.news.atl.earthlink.net!elnk-atl-nf1!newsfeed.earthlink.net!bigfeed2.bellsouth.net!news.bellsouth.net!cyclone1.gnilink.net!gnilink.net!wns13feed!worldnet.att.net!216.196.98.144!border2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!newsread.com!newsstand.newsread.com!POSTED.monger.newsread.com!not-for-mail Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated Approved: ascem@earthlink.net Organization: Better Living Thru TrekSmut Sender: ascem@earthlink.net Message-ID: <41587EAF.9080008@saers.com> From: Katrine Myra MIME-Version: 1.0 Mailing-List: list ASCEML@yahoogroups.com; contact ASCEML-owner@yahoogroups.com Subject: NEW DS9: "Nothing Ventured..." 1/1 D/Qu) [PG-13] Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Lines: 151 Date: Sun, 26 Sep 2004 22:55:07 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.198.142.218 X-Complaints-To: Abuse Role , We Care X-Trace: monger.newsread.com 1096239307 209.198.142.218 (Sun, 26 Sep 2004 18:55:07 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 26 Sep 2004 18:55:07 EDT Xref: news.earthlink.net alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated:84819 X-Received-Date: Sun, 26 Sep 2004 15:55:08 PDT (newsspool2.news.atl.earthlink.net) Title: Nothing Ventured... Author: Katrine Myra Series: DS9 Codes: D/Qu Rating: PG-13 Parts: 1/1 Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, or anything Trek-related. If I did, do you think Data would be dead? I make no money from this either. Wish I did, and so on, and so forth. Archiving: Anywhere, but other than ASCEM please let me know first. Feedback: Gimme! Beta: Chris Summary: It's the day after one of Jadzia's (in)famous parties, and Forcing himself to relax in the half-light of the corridor, Quark rang Jadzia’s door-chime. It took some time before she answered. He could guess why; last night had been… Interesting. Which, of course, was why he was here. He shifted a little, fidgeting with the buttons on his cuffs. Finally, the door opened, and a heavy-lidded Trill face popped out. “Hulluh?” She seemed drunk still, and perhaps, Quark thought to himself, she was. Trills metabolized alcohol in odd ways, annoyingly (to less fortunate species) suffering few or no negative after-effects. You learned these things after a while, tending bar. “Jadzia, we need to talk," he said. She frowned. “Oh, s’you. C’m ‘n in… Hang ‘n…” The door closed, and there was the muted sound of things being moved around hastily, a few select Trill curses and finally the long, drawn out “swooosh” of a sonic cleanser being swept across something or other. It could well be her, Quark noted in absent-minded bemusement. The door opened again, and he stepped inside hurriedly, before he could change his mind. Jadzia was nonchalantly leaning against the wall, her normally perfectly styled hair loose, falling in soft waves around her face. “What’s up?" she said, sounding more sober than she looked. For some reason or another, she had chosen to wear her uniform. Quark was pretty sure she hadn’t been wearing it when she opened the door. Quark hesitated. He motioned for her to sit down, which she did eventually, on the couch. He carefully sat down on the chair opposite her, and began wringing his hands. “I think something happened last night," he said finally. Jadzia made a face, and burst into laughter. “Well THAT was the understatement of the year!” He shook his head. “No… No! I don’t mean your party. I mean something happened AT your party.” Jadzia smiled her broadest smile, eyes gleaming with curiosity. “Really? You noticed it too?” He hadn’t expected that reaction. “Um… Yeah. Kind of hard not to.” He glanced up at her, trying to figure out what her angle was. Her eyes lit up in seeming triumph, and she leapt up off the couch to crouch by his chair. “I thought it was just me! I mean, normally I would have talked to Kira about something like this. But under the circumstances… Well. You know what I mean”. There was that radiant smile again. Quark felt his resolve melting into a pathetic puddle and running out of his body, trickling along the floor and finally seeping under the door. He wished he could follow it, escape somehow, but it was too late now. The cards were on the table, and the latinum was in the pot. It was time to spin the wheel. “So what do you suppose we should do about it?” She frowned. Ah. Not a good reaction. “I hadn’t thought about that. I suppose we should do something about it," she said after a moment of thought. Quark didn’t answer. He really didn’t know what to say. It was her move. “But really though”, she went on, “you’d think the two of them would get off their butts and fix this thing themselves!” “What?” He blinked at her. Jadzia looked back with a steady gaze which belied the drunken state Quark had supposed she was in moments ago. She could have popped a Sob-R-Up of course, but even so… “Yes," she said, her eyes still on his. “I mean, I consider them both good friends, but honestly, Nerys is as oblivious as that new waiter of yours who tried to serve me ylaga-root juice in my drink the other day – remember? What was his name again… Gro…Gra… Something – they all look the same to me anyway, all pale and wasted – are you paying them enough, or have you been skimping on wages again?” “I keep it at Ferengi industry standard, nothing more, nothing less”, Quark commented automatically, his mind elsewhere. “Well. Anyway, you KNOW I’m allergic, so it’s in the menue database, but he just ignored it. You know? Like his mind was somewhere else and he couldn’t see what was right in front of him.” “Right in front of him," Quark mumbled. “Exactly! And that’s Nerys. You’d think she was blind not to notice.” Slowly, the mental gears in Quark’s brain gathered speed, and churned out a suggestion. “Odo and Major Kira. You’re talking about Odo and Kira.” Jadzia frowned again. “Well of course.” She paused, the corners of her mouth, her eyes, twitching. Into a smile? “But you’re not, are you?” Confront. “No.” What did she remember? Possibly nothing. Trills processed their alcohol in weird ways. She may not remember. Evade or Aquire, that was the question. He remembered. Whispered words in hidden corners, loud music and holographics hiding them from the other guests. Sneaking into her bedroom in a drunken haze, laughing like teenagers over some forgotten joke that probably wasn’t even funny when you were sober. Falling into bed together like the most natural thing in the world. Her skin on his skin. The softness of her hair, the taste of her, the smell of her breath as she teased him. Seven lifetimes of experience in pleasure in her hands, as they closed around his ears, made him feel things he never would have thought possible with a non-Ferengi. But he had dreamt would be possible with her. It felt good to be right. It felt good to be with her. Evade or Aquire? She was watching him now, Dax was watching him. And he knew she knew. Aquire or Evade? Oh well, he knew the stakes. Walking out the door was tempting, but running away from risk rarely left you with much profit. He managed a grin, and tossed a slip of latium onto the table. “Aquire”. After all, what did he have to loose? ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ ASCEM messages are copied to a mailing list. Most recent messages can be found at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ASCEML. NewMessage: