(Secret deals made in shadowy Jeffries tubes)
Posted on Sat Mar 21st, 2026 @ 9:58pm by Lieutenant Rala & Petty Officer 3rd Class Fulvia Benvenuto
Mission:
Lower Decks
Timeline: A few days after "Girls' Night"
Jeffries Tube junction 6-C-Delta was one of Fulvia Benvenuto's favourite places on the ship.
Not because it was particularly comfortable (it wasn't), nor because it had a view (it didn't). It also wasn't one of the many Jeffries tubes where Sakura did her best work.
No, junction 6-C-Delta was near enough to her quarters that she could get to it fairly easily, while far enough that any shenanigans happening there would not immediately point the finger at her.
And it was just spacious enough that it could hold a couple of locked cargo containers and permit up to three humanoids to congregate and make deals.
Fulvia had written to her sister two days earlier. Our operation is small, but it's ready for aggressive expansion, she confided. That expansion would likely require external support from one who could help store, hide, and distribute her not-necessarily-permitted goods.
It was fortunate that the being she needed to approach was such a friendly dragon. They might even be able to make this work.
The message Rala had received was...interesting, to say the least. Meeting in a Jeffries tube junction? But she figured it was worth seeing what the young Iotian wanted.
So it was that Rala found herself crawling through the bowels of the ship one afternoon.
She emerged into the specified junction to find Fulvia already waiting there. “Alright, Miss Benvenuto,” Rala said, attempting to find some semblance of comfort in the cramped space. “What did you want to talk about?”
“Rala, my friend!” Fulvia said gregariously. “Welcome to my office. Sorry it’s a bit tight. Can I get you a drink? Gotta have a drink when talking business, am I right? I don’t have rrathka, but I do have something I call the Chimera Special.”
A dozen thoughts flitted through Rala’s mind as she took in the situation; questions, realizations, more questions, likely assumptions. The one that made it to her mouth first was, “What’s in it?”
Fulvia grinned. "Grains from a dozen species smuggled out of the arboretum," she answered. "Much of which converted into good old fashioned ethanol. We got some good hoochmakers on this ship, Rala. It's admittedly better for cleaning engine parts but it packs a punch!" She took the cap off a bottle and sniffed it, her eyes opening wide at the strong odor. "Best enjoyed in small sips." She held the end of the bottle toward Rala for her to smell.
Rala picked up the odor of the concoction basically the instant Fulvia opened it, but when the Iotian held it out to her, the smell hit her like a quantum torpedo. She coughed and snorted, trying to clear it from her nose, and waved a hand at Fulvia to put the beverage away. “By the Makers, Benvenuto,” she said, coughing again and waving all four hands around her snout in an attempt to disperse the odor, “such a name should belong to something much less offensive than that.” She glanced around the junction, spotting the small control panel she was looking for, and stood up to reach it. A few taps later and a breeze briefly wafted in from three Jeffries tubes and out through a fourth, clearing the air. “And if you ever open that around me in such a poorly-ventilated space again,” she continued, returning to her seated position, “we’re going to have problems. N—” she paused, holding up a hand and squeezing her eyes shut as her face contorted before she let out a violent sneeze, finally clearing the last of the odor from her nostrils. She shook her head, blinking, then returned her gaze to Fulvia. “Now,” she continued, “what did you actually want to talk about, and may I assume by the fact that we're meeting in a Jeffries tube junction that it involves things we officially shouldn't be discussing?”
“Right on the money, Rala!” Fulvia said as she checked the seals on her bottle and put it away. “You look like someone who appreciates directness, so I’ll be direct. I’m a bit over capacity. The crew has needs and I’ve become something of a marketplace for getting things that either can’t easily be replicated or might not be exactly permitted. Nothing dangerous, mind you, but still something that needs handling outside channels.” She pointed at Rala. “I need someone with cargo bay oversight who can help me hide a few things here and there, during that tough window between acquisition and sale. Keep the inventory safe, you know?”
Rala let the words hang in the air unanswered for a few seconds before she answered. “You’re the ship’s contraband broker,” she deadpanned, surprised she hadn’t put it together sooner. Most ships had at least one, if Academy rumors were true, but she hadn’t really had reason to consider who the Chimera’s might be until now. “Isn’t that a little...what’s the phrase? ...’on the nose’?” she asked. “I’m not remotely an expert, but I’ve read a little about Sigma Iotia Two.” She looked around the cargo containers taking up much of the space in the cramped junction, then glanced back to Fulvia. A slight smirk appeared on the Draakri’s face. “How surprised should I be that it’s you?”
"I'd be more surprised if it wasn't me, dragon-doll," Fulvia replied with a smirk. "It's a part of our cultural heritage after all. Some even say it's protected under the Federation Charter of Rights and Freedoms," she added, with enough humour to communicate that while the argument had been made, she understood it was full of shit. "What'll it take to make this happen? What's an offer you can't refuse?"
Rala’s eyebrows went up slightly at the ‘dragon-doll’ comment, but before she could comment on it Fulvia had pressed on to her question. “Whoa, whoa, take in some canvas there, Fulvia,” Rala said, glad that most of the traditional nautical slang she’d brought with her from Draakrona tended to get translated accurately enough to get her meaning across. “To be clear, you want my help hiding things that shouldn’t be here, right? Before anything else, I need more info. First, What all needs to be stored?” She held up a hand. “I’m not asking for a full inventory right this instant, but I’ll need it before actually getting started—assuming I agree to this at all, which is by no means guaranteed. For now, a general overview; there are more factors to consider than just mass and volume.”
"Now see that is a very good question," Fulvia answered. Got a nibble. "To start, I will provide my word—and my word is my bond—that none of it is harmful. Nothin' explosive, nothin' toxic, nothin' addictive. I don't play with none a that. No containers are gonna blow up and no one'll end up needing Kally's professional services over what I got. Also! No one got hurt makin' any of this stuff. We do a lot on Sigma Iotia but never exploit the vulnerable, ya get me? What I do got includes non-harmful relaxants and a few different types of entertainment that is either technically against regulation or maybe someone doesn't want on their subspace feed. There's no consolidated written inventory right now but I can get you a list when you need one."
Rala nodded. “That’s a prerequisite,” she said, scratching the side of her snout in thought. “We would want to limit the chances of, say, someone noticing a container is heavier than it should be, or sloshing when it shouldn’t. Ideally, the cargo bays would be avoided entirely, but I doubt that’s realistic.”
"If it were, you and I wouldn't be having this chat," Fulvia agreed. "There are corners, here and there, but a lot are being used, and others are only good for a few weeks at a time."
“Second, who else knows you’re the one getting ahold of this stuff? Am I going to need to watch what I say around the Captain all the time, or just in certain situations? What about Commander Espersen, is he already clued in? I expect T’Vel is, given the relationship I saw between you two at the party, especially combined with her already doing some cargo bay management. Is there anyone else?”
"T'Vel doesn't ask questions about my business," Fulvia answered. "And I refuse to get her implicated. If Mister E comes down he comes down on me alone, not her. Whether she's ever found a stash and not said anything, I don't know.”
Rala nodded again. “Aye, that tracks. But she does work in the cargo bays and I am now her boss, if a few steps removed. If she notices something’s off and comes to me with it, I make no promises I’ll cover for you.”
"Fair play," Fulvia said, nodding along. "Anyone comes to you with evidence of a problem, best I can expect is that the contraband is destroyed with no questions asked, worst is an investigation leads to me. Either way, you're in the clear, and so's she. The trick is to minimize the risks that anyone finds anything.
“Now you mentioned Espersen," she continued. "I think he suspects I'm up to no good but since I'm not harming anyone he hasn't said anything. As for the Captain... let's just say I shouldn't talk about clients," she said with a wink.
Rala’s eyes widened slightly. After a second of thought, she let out a short giggle and said, “I shouldn’t be surprised Cal—the Captain is a client. She definitely seems like the type.”
First name basis with the Captain? Fulvia observed to herself. Tuck that away for later.
"Sometimes she expresses a desire for something and the Magic Contraband Fairy delivers," she said. "I know if she ever found out it was me she'd need to act, but I like to think she'd be pretty chill."
“I get the feeling that as long as she could maintain plausible deniability about it on paper—and you keep up the ‘nothing dangerous’ policy—she might let it slide,” Rala said. “No guarantees, though; just a hunch.
“And third...‘dragon-doll’?” Rala asked, referring back to Fulvia’s earlier comment, her eyebrows climbing in curiosity once more.
Fulvia grinned. "What, you don't like 'dragon doll'? Most gorgeous dames on this ship get a variation of 'doll' or 'dollface' or some other pet name. Kally's been 'Angelface' since the Halloween party. I'll find a better nickname for ya if you like though. Gotta workshop it maybe."
“It’s...” Rala started, trailing off and averting her eyes as she processed the fact that the young Iotian had just called her ‘gorgeous’. Her cheeks and the sides of her snout darkened slightly in a blush as she continued, “...uh, it’s...okay. It was mostly just...unexpected.”
At Fulvia’s next words, her imagination dutifully provided her an image of the Kellerman twins in their ‘Virtue’ and ‘Vice’ costumes from all those months ago. At the time, she’d assumed ‘Virtue’ had been Katie and ‘Vice’ had been Kally, and she hadn’t put much thought to it since.
But now her mind started slotting pieces of information together, including her subsequent encounter with the twins on the beach as they’d practiced their ‘twinning’ routine on her, and the slight difference in their scents she’d detected. The memories combined, first showing her the twins on the beach, overlaying the costumes on them, then shifting back to the moodily-lit Hydra Lounge months earlier with the two still standing in front of her. She’d picked up their scents at the time, including the minor difference, but hadn’t had enough info to assign variations to names. Now she did.
Her mind’s eye focused on ‘Virtue’, her memories and Fulvia’s words all finally snapping into place. Kally, the ‘angel’.
Rala snapped back to the present and felt her face burning, having flushed even deeper during her reverie. She coughed as she collected herself, and glanced back to Fulvia. “So that’s why you call her ‘Angelface’,” she said, smiling and willing her blush to fade faster. “You’re right, it suits her.”
"That it does," Fulvia agreed. "She's led me to heaven a few times," she quipped with a wink.
Rala’s flush somehow deepened even further as her imagination dutifully provided an image of what Kally, Fulvia, and presumably T’Vel had likely been doing at the ‘after party’ when she’d stopped back by Kally’s quarters that night. Then there was a shift and she was among them, one hand each exploring the softer parts of the Vulcan and Iotian’s bodies while the other two focused on Kally as she gave a series of tiny harmless nips with her teeth, starting from one pale shoulder, up the side of her neck, to just below her ear; all while various humanoid hands—she neither knew nor cared whose—were exploring her own body, caressing her breasts, her hips, her belly, sliding down between her legs, fingers slipping inside to brush the tip of—
With a sudden, ragged inhalation she was back in the Jeffries tube junction. For a few seconds she could could have sworn there were phantom hands still touching her, and could feel the same problem she’d had in her nether regions during the party threatening to return. She took a slow, steadying breath, focusing on grounding herself and slowing her heartbeat back to some semblance of normalcy. “Uhm...” she croaked, finding her mouth so dry she almost asked Fulvia to bring the ‘Chimera Special’ back out. She reached up and unzipped her uniform collar by several centimeters, worked her jaw and tongue a bit, swallowed, and managed to say, “Yeah...yeah, I’ll bet she has.”
Fulvia raised an eyebrow and grinned. "You alright there?" She giggled. "Tell me, is the Draakri imagination a vivid and wild place?"
Rala cleared her throat. “It varies, but...yeah, it definitely can be,” she replied, glancing back to Fulvia and giving her a flat look. “What are you grinning at?”
"Just making an educated guess about what's running through your mind, dragon-doll," Fulvia answered cheekily. "You're free to unzip the uniform a bit lower if you need to let the twins air off a bit," she added, unzipping her collar a bit for emphasis.
“And just what do you think is running through my mind, Miss Benvenuto?” Rala asked, raising an eyebrow of her own.
"Oh, not much, just the hotness that are the women on this ship whose name starts with a 'Kuh' sound and end in Eh-Ell-Ell-Why," Fulvia replied with a smirk. "Remember that Truth I asked during the Girls Night, that you didn't want to share? I don't know the details but it's pretty clear who the protagonists might be."
Rala’s blush, which had been fading, experienced a slight resurgence along with a shot of panicked adrenaline. She averted her gaze, eyes darting around as she briefly tried to think of some way to throw Fulvia off her track. She glanced back at the Iotian, ears pinned to her skull, a pleading expression on her face for a second before she composed herself—dropping anchor on her imagination before it could head off into another daydream involving the two women who fit the criteria Fulvia had just enumerated—and ran up the metaphorical flag.
“Fine, yes, I realized the other night that I’ve got a crush on Kally,” she conceded, making one more attempt to conceal the whole truth by not specifying which person that pronunciation could be referring to, limiting her thoughts to the one they’d already been discussing, “in more ways than one. And honestly, when you mentioned ‘four hands’ in your original ‘Truth’ challenge, my imagination hadn’t quite caught the wind yet; I assumed you were thinking of another Draakri, so that’s where my thoughts started to go, and didn’t even think about...” the anchor slipped, then caught again, “...anything else...before I decided the answer to that wouldn’t be for most of the ears in that room and got you to ask me something else.”
Fulvia nodded, sincerely appreciating the honesty. "Fair enough. I'm sorry if that question flustered you; it was meant in good sexy fun but I didn't want to cause you trouble." She paused a second and leaned back against a crate. "So why haven't you acted on your crush then? Take it from me, it's worth acting on."
“Aside from only just realizing it was there a few days ago?” Rala said flatly. She thought for a few seconds, then sighed, shook her head slightly and continued, “Even if I were ready to pursue anything in that regard, and I don't—do you have any alcohol in here other than that rancid swill from earlier? I could use some—and I don’t think I am ready, for multiple reasons...she’s got you and T’Vel, she seems to be getting fairly serious with Calypso,” she very carefully controlled her body language as she spoke the name, “and there's some kind of thing going on between her, Jadzion, and Katie. I wouldn't want to intrude, or risk messing up anything she already has, or...” She trailed off as she felt her throat tighten slightly. Or find out she's not interested, she finished in her mind, unwilling to voice the thought. She sighed again. “Like I said, I'm not ready. Maybe someday.”
“Ok so I’ll try to take one of your concerns off the table,” Fulvia said as she looked through a crate. “Ah here it is.” She pulled out a clear bottle filled with something white. “A legendary drink among young people of Earth. My source found the formula and started brewing it for me. They called it ‘Smirnoff Ice’.” She opened the bottle and passed it to Rala.
Rala took the bottle, giving it a sniff, followed by a sip. She frowned, and held the bottle back toward Fulvia. “I’m sure someone will like that, but it’s not for me,” she said. “Got anything with some kick to it?”
Fulvia looked back in the crate and found something else. "The label vanished many moons ago," she said ominously as she passed Rala the bottle containing a gold spirit within.
Rala took the new bottle, opened it, and took a swig without bothering to sniff it this time. Acidic tang, mild sweetness, and the burn of alcohol she’d been looking for ran across her tongue. “Ahh. That’s more like it,” she said, gesturing with the bottle in thanks.
“So yeah. Listen, Dragon-Doll. Kally isn’t like most other people, “Fulvia explained. “She has this capacity for love that goes beyond what most people possess. Her heart has no limits.” She leaned back and smiled. “Yeah she loves me. And she loves T’Vel. And Jadizon, though I’ve not interacted much with him. And Sakura. And Captain Skyie. And Katie. That she loves us does not mean she can’t love you too. There is room aplenty in her heart. I promise you that.”
“You realize you’re throwing rational arguments against the deep, seldom-rational emotions of a pretty deeply emotional person, right?” Rala asked, a hint of amusement in her voice. Her expression, she hoped, made it clear that the question was only partly rhetorical. “But...that does help, a little. Thanks.” She stared at her drink for a few seconds, pondering, then took another sip. “You know,” she said, “I think I may have been noticing that, a bit, subconsciously. And when you combine that with her, um...reputation,” she glanced at Fulvia for a second, then returned to staring at her drink, giving it a swirl, “...while not exact, you get something that’s a lot closer to Draakri norms than what seems to be common among other species. Maybe that’s what’s drawing me toward her; a touch of familiarity, mixed with the—for me—exotic.”
"Familiar, yet exotic," Fulvia considered, nodding. "Yeah that sounds right for her." She took a sip from the Smirnoff Ice bottle. "I know anxiety about approaching people we like is not easy to set aside, no matter how good the arguments. All I can do is say 'take your shot'. I bet it'll work out. And even if it doesn't, you'll know."
“I appreciate the advice,” Rala said, nodding, “genuinely. But like I said, there are multiple reasons I don’t think I’m ready...” she paused, thinking, then added, “...yet; that’s just one of them.” She looked Fulvia in the eyes with a measured expression. “And I expect you to keep this to yourself until I say otherwise, understood, Miss Benvenuto? Consider it part of my price for helping hide your ill-gotten wares. This is my secret to tell, not yours.”
"Absolutely," Fulvia said, miming locking her lips and tossing away the key. "But aside from that," she continued, closing her crate and taking a seat on it, "what else do we need to make this deal happen?"
Rala scratched the side of her snout in thought. “Hmm...inventory list, a secret kept...if I hear someone needs something that’s generally fine to have but difficult to obtain through normal channels, I’ll expect you to at least make a good effort to get it,” she said. “And I may ask for a favor every now and then; nothing untoward or dangerous, of course.” She took another pull of the golden liquor, then held up the bottle. “Oh, and I’m keeping this.”
"You drive a hard bargain, Dragon Doll," Fulvia said. She reached her hand out toward Rala. "Deal."
Rala took the offered hand in her lower-right and shook. She started to make another comment about the ‘dragon doll’ nickname, but stopped herself. It was starting to grow on her.
"I'll have an inventory for you in the next day or so," Fulvia added. "Expect a few paper notes written in a way that seem to lack context."
Rala paused, gaining a thoughtful expression for a moment. “Tell you what,” she said, “I’ve got some private time scheduled on Holodeck Four in three days, at eighteen-hundred, and a new program I’ve been working on. Meet me there, and bring the list.”
"You got it!" Fulvia said. "I always love a new holodeck program. Now if you'll excuse me, my dear new associate, I have an inventory to take." Once she escorted Rala out of junction 6-C-Delta, she pulled a paper notepad from behind a crate and started taking diligent records.
“Oh, and Fulvia?” Rala said, briefly poking her head back into the Jeffries tube with a playful smirk, “I hope you’ve got your sea legs.”
Petty Officer 3rd Class Fulvia Benvenuto
None of your business what she's up to, thankyouverymuch, what're you a cop?
Lieutenant "What the hell am I getting myself into?" Rala
