The conversation had happened one year ago. The three of them had agreed to expede at last in scattered directions. When the panic of utterance was over, the initial negotiations opened on what belonged to whom and for what reason. With the details slipped to one side to be replaced by a bottle of wine, someone leaned back, someone sighed. Aloysius watched, sat upright on the floor by the table.
"Earth. I should go to Earth. It's my home planet but I've only been once, when I was fourteen. And space travel is meant to be so easy." Kay chuckled over her glass. The ragged jumper shook with her, her body pawed by nerves as she laughed.
The Cardassian of their trio shook his head. "I wouldn't go back to Cardassia now. It's like moving from Risa to the Briar Patch." He turned to Aloysius. "Where will you go?"
His lips folded into a familiar smile. "You know me. Finger on the map somewhere."
They quieted. Deep as their friendship was, each was aware that after this evening it would be the end. One would start packing, then another find a ship, and another a lover or a friend. Their lives entwined, shortly they would be tied off very precisely.
"You know, it's going to make it hard for people where you move on to to catch on to your name. Four syllables. Al-oo-ish-us. You should let people call you Ali and get on with it."
He sighed, bored. "Tell your boss to get lost, Anji. I'm not interested."
"It's money, Ali, and a lot of it." Anji's face looked to the side quickly. It had been one of his more excruciating habits since childhood.
"I have all the money I need!" he exclaimed, facing him for a glimpse of a moment. "Not tons, but enough to get me places and do the things I want to do. Why I'd want to get involved with Claude Rathale I have no idea."
Anji leant back in the chair. His legs were swept wide apart, looking out of place on the low-slung chair. He had, for some reason, been convinced into wearing a cheap suit.
"I don't think you really have a choice, you know."
The words were hushed, and they continued to drink their drinks. After a few seconds Aloysius spoke, blowing over the steamy tankard and following the mid-morning strollers with his muddy pupils.
"I'm your oldest friend, Anji, but that will count for absolutely nothing if you continue your liaison with that man. Whatever passing infatuation you may have for cash at the moment, you will have no advice on not losing your life from me." He sipped. The music changed.
"Whatever, Ali. I've got a meeting. I'll send you the files at the end of the day."
He did not follow his friend with his needle-point eyes as he left the bar and turned right. Aloysius was also unaware that it would be their last meeting.
His heart beat slightly faster as his footsteps carried him forwards. Focussing only on the corridor ahead, the side-panels of this passing-place were only a melee of black, yellow and blue. Yakasi Mai had always been a bit like that.
Etienne paced the bloodflow of the prison base, his journey overrunning already. He should, he thought, be near 18/D-03-e. He was on the right deck -- these were the offices of the mysteriously-operated bars, clubs and other amusement venues of the civilian part of the base. The turbolift, xylem of the enormous spatial monstrosity, whined behind him. Someone exited the lift. He watched covertly, pretending to study his padd.
In fact, he was studying his padd. He didn't have a clue where he was according to the map, let alone in relation to anything else.
"Lost?"
The stranger, human, had inquired and he, Etienne, was obliged to answer. "Yeah," he murmured, tapping his hip with the two fingers of his right hand. "I'm meant to be going here."
The man frowned. "Anji's office."
"Huh?"
Aloysius nodded, and leant next to him against the wall, facing him squarely. "Do you know who he is?"
The youngster took offence. He was not accustomed to being questioned by strangers. "Yeah. He's a mate of mine."
"Mm, he's a mate of mine too." Aloysius forced a deadpan gaze. "I'm Aloysius. How old are you?"
"Nineteen," he admitted.
He'd have guessed about seventeen, from his looks. "Do you have any idea who Claude Rathale is?"
He shrugged.
"Claude Rathale," he explained, "is Anji's boss. And also one of the most dangerous men encounterable." He indicated what the youth was holding. "What's that?"
"Just a reply to some message, or a signature or something." He waved it, descrying its apparent unimportance.
Aloysius motioned, and somewhat cautiously Etienne passed it to him. He solidified his gaze the further into the text that he got. "Hmm. Would you like some more advice?"
Etienne shrugged. "I--"
His commbadge bleeped.
"That'll be them," Aloysius nodded to him. "Take care of yourself."
The knock had come on his door a day later, as Aloysius packed up the remainder of his things and bundled them ready for carriage. Anything of importance was safely in storage back on Earth, although a few heart-felt, abstract articles remained. He looked up at the dull thudding, muddled, from the other side of his door and told the computer to open it.
"Etienne?"
The youngster walked in, uninvited but welcome. "You were right. I don't want to get involved. I can't get off YM--"
Aloysius cut him off. "Where are you headed?"
"Anywhere but here," he said, fingertips drumming over his hip.
"That's where I'm going. I'll give you a lift."
Apparently Etienne didn't have any luggage with him. Aloysius felt the vague excitement of friendship redeveloping again as his new traveling companion bounded to the back of the ship, Yakasi Mai's solid, corrupt aura curdling away into space.
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