[Promenade]
The captain was not one for festivals. Socializing, holidays, parties...these things meant very little to him. All Malcolm Adeyemi had ever had time for was his duty, his family, and the Word of God.
But some things in an officer's life, especially the commanding officer, are quite mandatory. Adeyemi had been volun-told by none other than Admiral Molyneaux that his attendance at this festival would be "appreciated." Adeyemi spoke
Brass as well as English or French.
Appreciated meant
mandatory.
And so he found himself strolling along the Promenade, out of uniform, sipping on a tall can of Tennents Super. It was a relic from his earlier life. From his childhood, really: knocking back a few lagers, dressing up in his old uniform: a football jersey with scarf. Then the match, then the inevitable fight. A lifetime ago.
"Ribs?" Asked a human man pushing an anti-gravity cart. It was fragrant, decorated with a handful of paper lamps and a distinctly Asian motif.
"No, no...wait. Smokin' Lotus?" Adeyemi asked. He set his can of lager down onto the cart. "You're based at Kerb's, in King's Cross. What are you doing here?"
"It's a festival, we're advertising. Make way for the punters. And get your damn can off of my cart." The vendor demanded.
"If you get your cart off of my Station you can take the can with you. Door prize." Adeyemi said, narrowing his eyes. "How would you like to never work in the Federation again? Go back to fending off drunks at King's Cross Station, maybe?"
"Your Promenade? ...oh. Captain." The man said, and words started to come out of him in a tumble.
Adeyemi waved it all off. "Give me some char siu. How long have these been roasting?"
"12 hours. Slow roasted. All day." The man said as he eagerly handed over a smoking plate of meat, getting ready to close the cart's hatch.
Adeyemi grabbed his beer, sank the remainder. Threw the trash right into the cart and then waved him off with a grunt. Angrily the fellow stalked off.
The ribs were very good. You could never beat free food.
In order to help broker peace and celebrate the wide diversity of different species and cultures that lived, worked or traveled through the station, Starbase Columbus has decided to host its first annual Cultural Appreciation Fair. All along the Upper and Lower Promenade, various shops, stalls and stands had gone up seemingly overnight to represent many of the different cultures present. While it had been somewhat of a nightmare to organize, the event thus far seemed to be kicking off to a good start.
A number of different singers and musicians from different worlds attempted to entertain passerbys with one tune or another. All manner of different exotic foods and drinks were up for sale and one couldn't walk but a few feet without encountering a vendor trying to hawk trinkets and memorabilia. If one looked hard enough, they were sure to find something to please just about anyone.
[Lower Promenade]
In the Lower Promenade, Naira and her daughters joined a few of her visiting cousins and aunts who thought to use the event as a way of broadening their horizons and expanding business. They had rented out a small shop that they had then decked out in a number of throw pillows, cushions, low-standing tables and privacy curtains. The entire shop permeated of a musky incense they were burning while an older Orion woman sat in a corner playing a complex string instrument.
One of Naira's young cousins was instructing her daughters on how to dance from her spot in the middle of the room, while one of her aunts stood in the doorway flirting with people who walked by. Naira was sitting inside the shop, off to the side, while she preformed a prenatal exam on another one of her cousins.
"Do you know how far along you are?" Naira asked the other woman as she passed her tricorder over her swollen abdomen. Her cousin smiled and rubbed the top of her stomach. "And the father is...?" Her cousin shrugged and looked over her shoulder to watch Naira's girls, who were giggling as they twirled about in their colorful skirts.
"It's hard to say in terms of a time-frame when there's mixed parentage, it could be weeks or months that you have left. I'll keep an eye on your progress so that I can be there for you when the time comes."
Like Naira, her cousin was also half Orion and grew up only knowing the one side of her parentage.
Meanwhile, outside an enterprising little Ferengi had walked over from his neighboring stall to inquire as to a possible business venture between the Orion dancing girls and his own lucrative business.
[Lower Promenade - Shop]
"Doctor." Adeyemi said. He'd already polished off the slow smoked, spicy ribs. He had a greasy disposable plate in his hands, and was focusing on how to dispose of it. He fed it into a nearby recycling unit, and turned inside. "I..."
He took it all in: scantily clad Orions, the outfits, one pregnant, a minor...it was all too much.
"...relatives of yours, Doctor?" The captain managed to get out, embarrassed.