Awkward Throuple

Posted on Wed May 20th, 2026 @ 10:36pm by Lieutenant Commander Emni t'Nai & Commander Karim & Lieutenant Tork

Mission: Port of Call
Location: Pathfinder Station
Timeline: Mission Day 24 at 2100

[Pathfinder Station]
[MD 24, 2100 Hours]

"That one?" Emni pointed with her free hand at a small shop. From the store front it appeared as if they might sell clothing or things of that sort. The line of shops, eateries, and stalls that passed for the equivalent of a Promenade on Pathfinder Station was still in its infancy, but there were signs of life and Emni had instituted a sort of game as she and Tork walked the corridor. "Malon?" She asked. It was a guess. She knew most of the Delta Quadrant's races through reports and only a very few through direct interaction.

The Ferengi shrugged, "Maybe. Wouldn't know one if they tried to sell me some aftermarket stem bolts, but it's possible."

The pair had taken the opportunity to have something of a 'date night', even if neither of them really called it such out loud. With their departure from the station on the horizon, it had been a somewhat spontaneous jaunt to the market area. Sparse though it was, Tork was still savvy enough to have already snagged a few deals for some bits and bobs during their sojourn.

"With how things look at the moment, you've got to wonder what this place will look like in a year. Will it be a bustling trading post, a hub of diplomatic endeavors, or a seedy spot on the map that only us 'Starfleeters' visit? My latinum is on seedy underhive..." Tork chortled as he looked around.

Emni shook her head ruefully. "You'd like that," she said with a small smirk. "More trading options with more rare parts available." Though her tone was dry, her eyes glinted with amusement and she lightly squeezed his hand, resituating her fingers where they threaded through his.

"You catch anyone giving us looks yet?" she asked. Another game, though this one was much older. Even when the most that could have been said about them was that they were in some sort of situationship during their Academy years, people had assumed much. Emni's roommate was particularly convinced that a great deal more was going on behind closed doors than actually had. And after a while they'd stopped bothering to correct anyone and simply leaned into the assumptions. It had always been darkly amusing to see how strangely folks reacted to a Romulan and a Ferengi holding hands.

"Couldn't tell you if there were looks, but I've heard four gasps of shock, two teeth being sucked in consternation, and half a dozen 'did you see that's' while we were walking here. Does that count?" the engineer asked with a toothy grin.

The Romulan couldn't help it. She laughed, out loud, full throated and startling no small number of passersby. The woman tending the storefront she had last pointed to had actually ducked as if something were being launched at her. It wasn't that Emni never laughed, but it had been some time since something had struck her as so funny and even longer since she'd felt comfortable enough not to suppress the urge. She had a warm, throaty laugh that was lower than one might have expected. Not terrible to listen to unless, apparently, you were a maybe-Malon shop owner.

Still, Emni reigned it back in quickly, glancing at Tork with a merriment that transformed her features. "All that in such a short span of time?" she asked, shaking her head while a chuckle still threatened to escape.

"That's not counting the two or three grumbles of 'must be rich' and 'how'd he manage that' that I caught from the transporter room to the turbolift that brought us to this level. Pretty low numbers compared to when we were wandering around San Fransisco. Those hew-mons knew how to act all judgmental properly. Everything out here feels so... half-hearted. I'm honestly a bit disappointed," the Ferengi remarked with an exaggerated sigh.

"They did not!" Emni slowed, frowning slightly. "I mean, I know we draw eyes, but I do wish people wouldn't assume that I'm something you've bought or... you know... that you'd have to." She sighed, but resumed her pace, scanning the shops quietly for a few steps before adding, "We could, of course, alarm more people if we wanted to..." She let the implication hang laced fully with mischief.

Emni caught the movement first. Further down the promenade, a familiar figure had just turned into the corridor from one of the adjoining junctions. Commander Karim walked with the same measured precision she had seen dozens times before, his hands clasped behind his back, gaze directed ahead as if the half-finished promenade were merely another system to be evaluated rather than a place meant for leisure.

He slowed ever so slightly. His eyes moved across them with the same clinical attention one gave a console readout. Emni felt the briefest pause as his gaze registered the two of them - then their joined hands.

It lasted no longer than a half-second.

"Commander t'Nai." The acknowledgement was formal and unembellished. His eyes then shifted to the Ferengi beside her, appraising. "Lieutenant Tork."

Karim’s gaze flicked briefly toward the shop Emni had been pointing at, its vendor and wares arranged in a manner that suggested a very loose attempt at true commerce.

"Malon, I assume," he said, tone dry. "Their engineering philosophy appears consistent even in retail. Improvised construction and questionable containment practices. A concerning confidence in structural integrity." He glanced to Tork again. "Not quite your exacting standards, Lieutenant."

"Must be a good thing I'm not in charge of the station's compliance department then. I'd have them either torn down or so heavily modified they wouldn't recognize their own shop for standing in it," Tork retorted.

Emni had slowed to a stop at Karim's approach. Unlike she and Tork, the Vulcan was in uniform. That he addressed them both by rank spoke to his memory, but to Emni the formality, though not unexpected, felt like a barrier.

"Karim," she said, inclining her head and ignoring the banter about the Malon shop. "Tork had told me you'd met already." This was said with a dose of doctor's neutrality, carefully crafted--a barrier of her own though it was more a reaction to an unanticipated encounter than anything else.

She gently squeezed Tork's hand, shooting a glance at him to gauge his reaction to the man he had described just a week earlier as 'a tube slug in the mud' with something 'lodged in his exhaust'. "Tork," she said with a small smile, "this is Karim. A former patient and former colleague as well as a friend. We were deployed together on the Adelphi."

Her gaze shifted to Karim. "You can save telling me the introduction is unnecessary. I'm going to do it anyway," she said with a pointedly arched brow, continuing before he could try to stop her. "Karim, this is Tork. You may recall that he and I attended the Academy together and that he saw me through a rather difficult period of my history."

Karim regarded them both in silence for a moment, his gaze moving briefly between Emni and the Ferengi beside her.

"The introduction is unnecessary," he said evenly, only alight emphasis entering his tone. "Mr Tork and I have already met." His eyes returned to Tork. "I found our conversation informative. Your account of your captivity among the Kazon was particularly instructive." His tone remained clinical, but not dismissive. "Combined with your engineering aptitude, your experience places you in a rather small category of officers who are likely to function effectively in this region."

Karim’s gaze drifted briefly along the unfinished promenade before returning to them.

"The Delta Quadrant does not reward elegance. It rewards resilience, improvisation, and a tolerance for inelegant solutions." His eyes settled on Tork again. "You appear to possess all three - laudable qualities. That makes you an asset to the Pathfinder Project... and to the Sojourner." His expression then hardened almost imperceptibly. "Unlike some of the personnel assigned to this side of the wormhole, you appear to understand the environment you are operating within."

Karim then inclined his head slightly before either could remark, the gesture crisp and procedural. "In any case, I will not detain you further." His eyes flicked once more to their joined hands. "I assume the station's commercial district is being evaluated thoroughly."

"Wasn't down here to evaluate, just enjoying a date night while browsing what was here. Might even grab some food while we're here. Anywhere you recommend, Commander?" the Ferengi asked, a subtle shift in his voice at the end of his question.

Karim did not pause.

"Ferenginar," he said, tone even.

The answer was delivered without inflection. He inclined his head a fraction, already turning as he resumed his measured pace down the promenade, hands returning behind his back as though the exchange had been a minor interruption now concluded.

"He's certainly not the loquacious type," Tork grumbled to Emni while shaking his head in disappointment. "Glad I wasn't actually depending on him for an actual response. Probably thinks field rations are gourmet food offerings. Met a few of his type on my parents' trading runs."

What had started as an unplanned, but potentially pleasant, surprise had -- in Emni's estimation -- devolved almost painfully quickly and as she watched Karim depart it was all she could do to avoid gaping in dismay at his retreating back. His emotional signature, fully back to the muted degree that so closely resembled his control when they had first met, had given her very little idea of how he felt encountering her unplanned and with a partner. With Tork, whom Karim should have had context for, no less.

He had simply seemed curious. And confident. And... the Romulan pressed her lips together hard and frowned... smug.

"Don't let him fool you," she said and despite herself her voice gave away a bit of the frustration and unlooked for hurt that she felt at Karim's parting remark. "He can be downright chatty if the moment calls for it and it serves his needs. I hadn't anticipated that he'd be so childishly rude, though."

The retreating form of the Vulcan was quite a ways off from them now and Emni sighed, dropping her gaze to the man next to her and squeezing his hand. "Did you have something in mind for dinner?"

"Of course. I wouldn't take you out and not have a plan," the Ferengi said with a smirk. "I just thought perhaps he might have a decent suggestion is all."

"I thought this was just a spontaneous stroll," Emni teased, though her eyes softened at the comment, some of the tension that had gathered in the awkwardness of the moment ebbing away as she smiled. "Do I get to know what it is, or is it a surprise?"

"Don't you like surprises?" Tork asked. He gave the woman's hand a squeeze as he looked up at her.

"Did I say I didn't?" She quipped, answering his question with one of her own, eyebrow arching as she did. "I should have known you had a plan, though. You always do."

"If only everyone understood that as well as you do," the Ferengi said in a low tone, the phrase dripping with subtle implications.

An Awkward Encounter Between --

Commander Karim
Pathfinder Liaison

Lieutenant Commander Emni t'Nai
XO - USS Sojourner

Lieutenant Tork
Chief Engineer - USS Sojourner