
shoulder.
"Don't worry, brother, I followed your instructions exactly," Rom replied, sounding annoyed but patient,
at least so far, as he finished mixing the batch of cloudy green punch.
Someone has to worry, Quark thought with a mental sigh. Rom had been given a week off from his
regular maintenance duties on the space station and had agreed to help out at the bar for those few days,
just like old times. Already, though, Quark had begun to regret the arrangement; there was nothing worse
than an employee who wasn't afraid of being fired.
"It's not that I think the Aulep are terribly picky," Quark explained, getting back to the subject at hand.
"In fact, they don't strike me as a very discriminating bunch at all. But I want everything to go right.
This is too good a deal to let it get fouled up by some little detail, and I have a reputation for attention to
detail." "You do have a reputation, brother," Rom said evenly.
"What's that supposed to mean?" "I am only agreeing with you." Rom grinned as he handed the pitcher
over.
Quark wrinkled his broad, grooved nose and curled his upper lip back slightly, letting the pointed tips of
his uneven teeth show. "Well, spare me," he said. He waved the punch under his nose, checking the
smell, then shrugged, flipped the lid shut, and set the pitcher under the counter. He turned his back on
Rom, temporarily dismissing him.
Slowly he glanced about the bar, sizing up the crowd. Quark's Place was busy but relatively peaceful for
now, which was just the way he liked it. And as evening approached, it would only get busier. He always
looked forward to that, to long lines at the Dabo tables and the holosuites and the bar itself, but he felt
especially good whenever a lucrative acquisition was at hand--and tomorrow there would be one.
The Aulep came from an unexplored part of the Gamma Quadrant. A rather tall, thin, bony-faced race
with dark orange skin, sparse black hair, and bright green-and-yellow clothes that seemed always to
clash with their bodies, they had been anything but inconspicuous during their short stay on the station a
few weeks ago. But the visitors had privately expressed a pressing desire to begin trading on this side of
the wormhole--and trading, in particular, with Quark.
"We understand you are the one to see," Leth, the chief Aulep representative, had explained after taking
a seat in a quiet comer of the bar, away from the other patrons.
"Then you are an understanding people," Quark had glibly replied, already able to smell the latinurn.
"But is it true?" Leth had pressed, his long, bony face getting longer. When Quark quickly assured him it
was, Leth had hinted at the broad strokes of the Aulep's trading plans and their expectations regarding
Quark. But that was all. Quark had done his best to strike a deal on the spot, but all the Aulep would do
in the end was agree to return in the weeks ahead and talk some more.
"I'm ready right now!" Quark had insisted.
"Good," came the reply. Then Leth had gotten up and wandered out onto the promenade, leaving Quark
to sit and imagine--which, when it came to business dealings, was something he had always been very
good at.