[snip]

A few days after leaving the planet EP19 and the Ascended being Josan behind, the Merrimack arrived at Space Station Deep Space K-5. Captain Glen had had time to get his story straight about the last mission, and to decided upon his advice and recommendations on what should be done, and he would hand in his report to the Admiral before receiving orders for their next mission.

In the meantime, this visit is a chance for the crew to let their hair down, to meet with old friends and for some rest and recuperation. Space Station Deep Space K-5 is a major modern space hub, and the most populous space station in border zone, and is intergalactically renowned for its luxury shopping, gambling, fine dining, entertainment, ultramodern architecture and a lively nightlife scene. In 2397, DS K-5 was voted the most liveable space station in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, and in 2399, as one of the safest, ranked on factors like rates of violence, crime and corruption.

On DS K-5 you can surround yourself with the greatest entertainment in space. The entertainment on board the station is just as revolutionary and carefully crafted as the station itself. In fact, they claim to be changing the future of entertainment there. The entertainment there happens 24/7 and its fresh and unpredictable, surrounding you and delighting you with spaces and experiences never seen before. If you’re visiting K-5, you should absolutely make time to see a show. Captivating main stage productions will leave you talking long after the roar of applause and final bow. Another must is a performance by Disaster Area; regarded as being, not just the loudest rock band, but the loudest noise of any kind at all.

The K-5 sports centre, located right in the heart of the space station, offers a wide range of facilities. It has two spacious, state of the art gyms, and three sports halls, all the perfect place to workout. Or if you want team sports, their are indoor grass pitches to provide the perfect environment, with markings for volleyball, netball, basketball, badminton and football. There are keep fit classes, two swimming pools, swimming lessons, sport facilities and dance classes.

K-5 boasts four of the largest off-world gardens, and a giant entertainments complex that includes an anti-gravity fountain, with jets and lights choreographed to music. At night, the spherical walls of the waterfall becomes a 360-degree stage for a light-and-sound show. Six artificial spheres attached externally to the station, that span five stories in height, contain several eco-resorts with animal parks of conserved alien land and marine creatures. It is also famous for its luxurious and extremely large casino-hotels linked to the passenger terminals. The station’s tolerance for numerous forms of adult entertainment earned it the nickname “Sin Station”, and has made K-5 a popular setting for the newly developing holographic industries.

The cafés and restaurants provide food to make an incredible food journey all around known space, from cheap eats, to the best restaurants within two Quadrants, and everything in between. There’s nothing that says ‘Earth Food’ like chicken with rice, noodles or potato mash, but on DS K-5 you can also sample Klingon and Andorian delicacies, so unlock your inner foodie, and experience a cosmopolitan selection of dishes from many different parts of the galaxy. It also hosts the largest number of cocktail bars, pubs, corner taps and drinking spots outside of Sector 001. There is something for everyone here with foods and drinks from right across the Milky Way.

The most popular and famous of the bars on DS K-5 has to be Green Dragon Tavern. It exhibits a cheeky insouciance, and attracts the trade of the footloose on K-5. A magnet for boldface writer and artist types, it has perfecting the evanescent magic of adult drinking. However, the rooms are very small, and it’s difficult to find, being tucked away behind a well-known bakery. The Green Dragon has a daring drinks menu from a newly appointed head bartender, who just happens to be someone that the Merrimack knows very well, being a retired Starfleet officer who has served on the ship twice before.

Hunter was getting ready to leave the ship and heading to the station, taking a final look in the mirror . Quiet cuffed, self admiring and delighted with himself the doctor headed to the turbolift ,at that moment he did not care about sickbay or that crazy nursing officer and equally unusually strange character and behavior of the CMO .

His first stop was at a map of the station, he was looking for a bar and memorized the route he had to take to get there. When Hunter finally arrived he headed straight at the bar, sat down on one of the stools and ordered a shot of whiskey ,his eyes where roaming , skillfully scrutinizing the females ,some of which had already seen the handsome impeccable doctor.

Hunter stayed on the stool for he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that they would came to him.

The present owner of the Green Dragon had hated the name of the place the first time he saw it. He hated the way the place smelled. Someone had tried to cover up poor cooking with too many sauces! And then there were the green and red walls! So, he went to work. He did not however get as much done as he had initially thought he would. On the day he was going to yank down that dragon over the door he turned it into something else completely. The dragon became a dragon chasing a four-leaf clover. And beneath that was the skyline of an Earth city with a starship flying above it.

He did change the colors of the walls but changed them according to what area you were in. There was the bar area and then the dining area. And much to his chagrin a small gambling area. The station’s owners demanded he have it. All throughout however the lighting was somewhat dim. It was this way to accommodate the various races and their sensitivity to light.

The owner enjoyed tending bar himself often. He could see what was going on throughout the place from the bar. Most especially the gaming room. That and he was a people person. Everyone said so!

The owner was today dressed as casual as he usually was. He wore sandals, a loose pair of red and green pants held in place with a drawstring and a bright red loose sleeveless top. To top this off he wore dark sunglasses.

He saw the man enter the bar, but he wanted to make sure. He tapped the side of his glasses and was immediately rewarded by the man’s pulse, heart rate, body temperature and as the facial recognition mode did its job, he knew not only who the man was but his rank in Starfleet.

He watched as Hunter sat down. He started laughing silently and began to mix a drink. The drink came in several layers. The bottom layer was red, the second layer was blue, and the top layer was green and appeared to have a small whisp of fog moving across it. There were ice cubes and a lemon slice floating about in there as well. Joe placed the drink down loudly in front of Hunter and said loudly over the din of the bar. “The first one is free Mister Hunter! How DO we keep running into one another?”
Every head bartender needs to have a signature cocktail, amongst a rotating menu of seasonal ‘signature’ drinks that can provide loyal patrons with something new to look forward to, and this was Joe’s.

Dariusz Pokorski had asked Faith Hopkins if she wanted to visit the space station with him, but they had become separated and lost among the maze of small walkways.
The revolutionarily designed space station was built, not as a department store or like a planned town on a Federation planet, but more like the complex network of tributaries of a bifurcating river, or like a wonderfully modern take on an old Arabian souk.

Loaded down with her huge bags of clothes shopping and trying to find her way out of the huge labyrinth, Faith turned a corner to discover Dariusz was no longer with her. Some of the streets are so narrow that only pedestrians, motorbikes, and bicycles can access them. Fortunately, she was able to backtrack her steps and found Dariusz stood watching street entertainment in a courtyard, though she had to fend off the unsolicited help offered by locals expecting an overinflated tip.

Not the best start to a first date, and Faith was annoyed that Dariusz had been totally oblivious to her problems. From his point of view, he had stopped for a minute or so to watch a couple of street music performers getting the crowd ready for their next show and had never left her side. The atmosphere between them now could certainly be described as cool. So, she suggested that they find a bar, have a quiet drink together, and start over again. Dariusz had no objections to that idea; shopping hadn’t been his idea of fun anyhow. Maybe get something to eat too?

So, that was how they came to discover the Green Dragon Tavern, its small entrance tucked away on a narrow alley. right behind the ‘Let ‘Em Eat Cake’ bakery shop. They had no idea where they were any longer but stumbled into the alleyway and then saw the odd green dragon chasing a four-leaf clover sign above the door.

It wasn’t quite what Faith had expected inside. The lighting was very dim, but it was clean, and it had been recently decorated. But how it had been decorated: with walls in red and green?

She put down her heavy bags on a seat in a corner, sighed and then took a better look around. There were a few people around, though you could hardly claim that it was packed. That was good for a first date. She wanted to get to know Dariusz a little better, without all the noise and attention they would find in the Merrimack’s Fan Tail or Forecastle lounges.

Dariusz noticed that some of the customers were also eating, which pleased him as he was now starting to get hungry. The food didn’t look too special. It was soups and various meats in sauces. He also noticed that some of the customers were playing games; three-dimensional chess, holo-battleship, and Fizbit. It was just like being on the Merrimack. He didn’t think that the date was going too well. Faith seemed most annoyed with him about something and he had no idea why. He had spent three boring hours following her into twenty or more shops and hadn’t complained even once.

It was Dariusz who noticed them at the bar first; the Doctor from the Merrimack Sickbay, who must have come straight here from the ship, talking to a barman dressed in sandals, red and green trousers that matched the colour of the walls, and a bright red top. Even under the dark sunglasses, the barman looked incredibly like the old XO.
“Say Faith,” Dariusz asked, “Isn’t that barman the spitting image of Joe Milligan?”

“That IS Joe Milligan!” Faith replied. “Dressed is some weird outfit!”

“Never! No!” exclaimed Dariusz. “This is awkward!”

“Well, this isn’t going as planned!” exclaimed Faith. “Have they seen us?”

“No, not yet! But they will soon enough!” replied Dariusz. “It’s not like we can hide!”

“Don’t go up to the bar! Just sit here and we’ll wait for a waitress. Listen! Tell me three things about yourself that I don’t already know.”

“Okay! I was born in Krakow. I speak four languages and I’m good at math! Now you?”

“Well, I knew those, but okay! I’ve won a boxing championship. I’ve delivered fifty-four babies. And I was once the one sitting on the bed during the at Starfleet Medical charity bed race when the wheels fell off!”

“Ha! Ha! That’s cool! They still haven’t seen us, but I’m getting hungry, and I can’t see any waitresses here. Are you sure about them having waitresses?”

“You do know, this is the worst date that I’ve been on since I dated one of those bed-pushing medics. I went for a date to a museum with him and he laughed like a child at every piece of art with nudity. He even applauded one nude statue of a woman!”

“Come on, I’m not that bad!” Dariusz said. “I just can’t do shopping! …I think Doctor Hunter is looking at us… What now?”

“Ignore him! Pretend we haven’t seen them. I don’t know about the waitresses. The DS K-5 guide book is out of date. This place has obviously got new management and been redecorated very recently. I don’t know why Joe Milligan is here?”

“Me neither! Maybe he bought it? …like a semi-retirement job?”

“What did you do before you joined Starfleet?”

“I used to be in a band!”

“You do know that’s not an occupation, don’t you? I can’t play any musical instruments and I’m not musical in the slightest. You probably know that I had a weird upbringing. It’s long story anyway and not one for today!”

“My childhood was very normal, a mother and father, in a house on Earth. …I’m sure he is looking again!!!”

• Dariusz and Faith