No room! No room!
Maddie seemed annoyed when Spiegel refused to answer her request for information, and only seemed to grow more annoyed when Diziara snarked about interrogating corpses. Travis hid a small smile as he continued to pour tea for everyone, and Maddie looked like she was ready to comment on this state of affairs when a tiny Asian woman lead a pair of security thugs into the room, manhandling an Andorian of unimpressive height. Decked out in a multi-pocketed vest, layered over a rough patched tunic and paired with a tool belt, the Andorian looked vaguely familiar to the team when they turned in his direction as Maddie did.
"Mr. Hrav claims to have had business here," the woman addressed Maddie.
"Oh really, what this time?" Maddie asked, standing. Almost as an afterthought, she remembered her manners and added, "If you'll pardon me a moment. Help yourself to the dim sum." Diziara and Spiegel exchanged looks, then Diziara reached for more of the goodies spread across the table as suggested.
"You didn't replicate this, did you? It's really good," Diziara commented. Maddie seemed surprised by either the comment or the source.
"Of course I didn't replicate it," she returned before turning her attention back to the quad of people who'd interrupted the tea party. Travis watched the group as Maddie approached them, then slyly slipped his PADD out. He quickly tapped out a small message and tucked it away again. Diziara caught him putting it away, and raised an eyebrow at him.
Maddie caught the Andorian by the chin, held firmly by her manicured hand, and addressed him as he was held in place by the security thugs. "I'm sure your foreman finds your snooping very beneficial to the blocked toilets in the station," she purred. "And I'm sure he'll be happy to send you right back to the slavers if you're sneaking around and spying on people, instead of doing your job. I'd be happy to tell him, myself." Hrav's antennae drooped, one noticeably lower than the other. "Do you have anything to say for yourself before you go to the brig again?" He looked up, revealing a face that had not a few scars, and a poorly repaired hairlip. He mumbled something, causing the thugs to tighten their grip. "Now, what's that, my dear? I didn't hear you."
"I said," he finally spit out loud enough that everyone in the room could hear, his voice familiar enough to put looks of recognition on all three of the team's faces. "I have something you might find useful."
"Oh, I highly doubt that. Now if I see you again, I will be the death of you, do you understand me?" Maddie's voice was entirely too sweet for the statement that had just passed her lips. The security woman coughed, and when Maddie turned her gaze to her, she produced a PADD.
"Hrav was writing on this," she explained, handing it over to Maddie.
Maddie skimmed over the PADD, tracing her lacquered fingernail along it as she did so. After a small noise of interest, she started to read aloud, "Did you find their point of crossover? Is it the standard transporter trickery, or something new?" Maddie looked up from the pad and leveled her gaze on Noelle, "Hmm, this is very interesting. What do you think, other me?" Noelle failed to rise to the bait, and sat with her lips tight. Masking her disappointment, Maddie turned her attention back to the PADD. "Something new, but I shall need assistance to investigate further. I do not know whether or not it would be prudent to contact Maddie directly, though.”
"Someone with some brains," Diziara shot, then grinned widely as she stuffed another dumpling in her mouth. "These are delicious," she added around her full mouth. Spiegel shook his head, but had to bite his lip to keep from chuckling at her.
"I shall seek out your uncle," Maddie added, and leveled her gaze at Travis. He took a page from Diziara's book, and popped a dumpling into his mouth with a large grin. "So, apparently there's something I should know about," she crooned.
"What do we do with this?" one of the security thugs demanded, giving Hrav a shove.
"Oh, Quinn, I'll just let it off with a warning this time," she answered, provoking a sneer from Quinn.
"Pukey!" Spiegel cried with a grin. Quinn's face dropped into a blank look of non-comprehension, and he tightened his grip on Hrav's shoulder until the Andorian was wincing.
"He can probably hold his lunch in this 'verse," Diziara muttered to Spiegel, looking at the lunkhead out of the corner of her eyes.
"If you catch him here again, Quinn," Maddie started, a sharp look directed at Diziara and Spiegel, "Break his other one, okay? Now, get him out of here. I'm sure there's a stopped drain somewhere on this station." The two thugs, and their petite figurehead, frog marched Hrav out of Maddie's office as Maddie made her way back to her chair. "Such repulsive creatures," she commented with a distracted sigh.
"I'll bet you've never had sex with one, you speciesist petaQ," Diziara snapped, moving to stand up. Travis quickly reached out and caught her by her shoulder to yank her back into her chair.
"...Or two of them, for that matter," Noelle quipped, and Diziara snorted in amusement as she grinned and relaxed back in her seat. "What do you think, Lucas?" Spiegel flushed bright red, and muttered something that resembled disagreement with Maddie's disgust.
"They have such sensitive antennae, I brought Blue to climax-" Diziara started, a grin spread from ear to ear.
"That is enough of that repulsive talk!" Maddie interrupted.
"You know, I saw a zhen and shen fooling around one time, the zhen had the shen really going, and all she was doing was playing with her antennae..." Travis commented. Maddie sneered at him, and he chuckled.
"That explains why you broke up with Jess," Maddie accused. He shook his head.
"I broke up with her because she never figured out that bisexuality is not an automatic get out of monogamy free ticket. That, and she's a back stabbing brown nosing bitch, but you keep her around just for that reason. Keep your friends close, enemies closer is how the saying goes, yes?"
"If that's how it goes, you and I should be quite intimate," she pointed out with a saccharine smile.
"If I wasn't absolutely sure that the lock on your metaphoric chastity belt had rusted shut years and years ago, I'd do the whole quadrant the favor. It'd probably mellow you out some." To this, Diziara laughed, and even Spiegel chuckled a bit.
"So, what happened to your better half?" Diziara asked, nodding her head towards the portrait. The silence that resulted could be cut with a knife, and eventually Maddie broke it by clearing her throat.
"We're not here to talk about me," she insisted. Noelle peered at her.
"How'd he die?" she asked. Maddie stood up, and made a hand gesture to someone outside the door to her office. A trio of security thugs made their way into the office, and grabbed the away team by their upper arms.
"I really didn't want to have to resort to interrogation, but you just twisted my arm," she insisted, acting as if Noelle hadn't even asked her question.
"I'll bet she hasn't been with anyone else since his death," Diziara commented as she was roughly guided out of the office.
"That explains it," Noelle returned, being led along next. Spiegel was guided along last. Travis slunk off before it occurred to Maddie to detain him in light of the conversation caught on Hrav's PADD, and Diziara watched him leave as she was yanked along. He pulled out his PADD again, and looked like he was sending another message.