Club Beyond [Mahak]

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

[Grexwoir Station]

The warning signs that someone was going to attack were subtle, especially from a Vulcan, but they were there.

With Mahak it was a bit more pronounced. Not only did his breathing increase, his skin flush a slight tinge of green, his eyes narrow, nostrils flare, and so on, but the boxer and keen athlete in him turned to the club owner with a sinuous turn of the body. His shoulders squared, his chest swelled slightly, his breathing became fast and steady, and his fists balled at his sides.

"I must insist that you bring Kali back," Mahak said tightly. He didn't waste words on asking where she was. 

[Kali Reyes]

[Grexwoir Station]

"Request denied. The audience doesn't go on the journey," the El-Aurian said with a good natured grin. "Alas, she has been judged unclean and has descended into the lower levels. You are the Dante, Mr. Mahak - or perhaps even Orpheus in search of Eurydice. This is a great honor. Not many are given exclusive access to all of Club Beyond."

It took the owner to clap his hands to make his bouncers move away from the increasingly agitated Vulcan. He gestured grandly past the gate where two winding staircases awaited: one that led up in an inviting white and blue hololights and the other that led down in ominous red and orange.

"Please enjoy Club Beyond. Oh, and the greatest of luck finding Eurydice. I'm sure you've read Terran mythology - and how it ended."

[Club Beyond - Level 5]

When her molecules finally merged together, Kali blinked and found herself in a gilded cage under the banner of darkness. The only sounds of life were the erratic music that promised violence and the chaotic stamping of feet as the people below her did more than just dance - they were furiously trying to stomp over each other in something akin to a mosh pit.

The walls around the entire floor lit up in fire. It kind of took her breath away if it wasn't for this cage. She knelt down when an Orion server dressed up like a Halloween demon climbed up the cage hanging above with ease and offered her a drink.

"Welcome to the fifth circle of Hell! My name's Mina and I'll be your hostess for tonight!" Up close, Kali could now see why it was so easy for the woman to navigate the mosh pit below - she was mad athletic, with intense green eyes that matched her skin and promised pain to anyone who so much as tipped her tray of drinks.

"What theme is this level? Haven't brushed up much on my religious texts," asked Kali.

Mina grinned. "The mosh pit wasn't obvious, babe? Wrath."

"Well damn." She expected something more like lust. "Can I get a comm signal in Hell? My-" Date? Coworker? Lover? She kind of turned red. "My guy got the VIP package."

"Ahhh... sucks for you, doesn't it?" Mina laughed. "But it happens. The boss loves separating lovers. You'd be surprised how many couples end up leaving with different dates. Makes for great drama."

"I'm not leaving with anyone else but him." Kali blinked in spite of herself. "Oh god. I'm not leaving without him. These words are coming out of my mouth! My mouth!"

The Orion gave her a pitiful grin and raised her tray. "You're adorable. Cocktail?"

"Please." She eagerly took the drink.

"You might be able to get a signal here, maybe. Staff has their own private signal for emergencies. I think you should just dance and have fun until he gets here. If he's not sidetracked, of course. You wanna give me a description so I can point him in the right direction?"

Kali played with the olive in her bright red cocktail. "He's a Vulcan. Dark hair, dark eyes, fantastic scruff, a real bombshell."

"Yummy. Wait - you said he was Vulcan?" Mina asked incredulously. "That's not hard to find at all. But you might be a bit out of luck."

"Why?"

"Species like Vulcans try not to descend here," she reasoned. "Heaven's a lot more classier and less crowded. Think a chateau compared to a sports bar. He'll get the peace and quiet up there than deal with all the rowdy aliens down here."

Kali didn't think Mahak would ascend without her, but she at least wanted to get a head start for him. "Can you get me out of this cage?"

Mina laughed. "Nope! Boss' orders. You're not the only one." She gestured around where similar cages were placed to adorn the battlefield. "Why? Are you claustrophobic?"

She grinned in spite of herself. "I've done a few cage dances once or twice in the past."

"Third time's the charm, then."

When Mina hopped off back into the enraged crowd, Kali pulled the strap of her dress down. Her combadge was pinned neatly into her strapless underwire. She pushed it and heard it beep. "Dante? You there?"

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

[Club Beyond - Olympus]

Mahak was treading on clouds.

The marble floor of the highest level of Club Beyond was creamy white and gray, shot through with blue veins. Painted and chiseled onto it were scenes of incredible remoteness, even to a human: rushing rivers, bustling market towns, a mill, a water wheel, farmland, hellish volcanoes and armies clashing with sword and shield, all of it a superb work of art just meant to be walked upon.

Nearby, an electronic harp was being played languidly by a musician. Mahak, the boxer, appreciated fine art. The man seated behind it was clad in a toga and was fully playing the instrument, not merely miming it.

For someone unfamiliar with Terran myths, Mahak was truly lost. But lucky for him that Olympus was a friendly place.

"Please feel free to recline, my lord. May I pour you a glass of wine?"

The voice belonged to a lissome, feather haired species that he did not recognize. Mahak saw that she was wearing a pure white toga, and that she had on golden bracelets and a necklace. In her hands was a heavy silver flagon.

"No," He told her brusquely. The woman shrugged and moved off.

The furniture around him was soft, plush material in the shape of clouds, each one different in size and fluff. Lounging upon it were richly dressed members of a dozen species, each single one attended by two, three, or four similiarly garbed waitresses. If tey were waitresses. They were behaving more like geisha, or temple goddesses

A big, older Klingon whose gray head of hair and beard radiated vitality was being fed grapes by one attendant and laughing at something another said at the same time. His hand was casually resting on her hip as if pawing at someone serving you a drink was the most natural thing in the world.

On another cloud, a dainty human female with short hair was surrounded by a full quartet of some of the most beautiful women that Mahak had ever seen. Clearly the patron's taste was towards them as she was also...sampling the women and the food and drink they were offering. It was just a bit restrained but the women were all performing acts that would have resulted in their being ejected from the Discovery Mess, that was for sure.

[Club Beyond - Level 5]

When Mina hopped off back into the enraged crowd, Kali pulled the strap of her dress down. Her combadge was pinned neatly into her strapless underwire. She pushed it and heard it beep. "Dante? You there?"

[Club Beyond - Olympus]

His commbadge, which never left his person, began to chirp. Mahak fished the thing out of his pocket and turned away from the slightly lewd scene.

"=/\=Mahak to Kali. Come in, Kali." Strange, how his voice didn't sound frantic, nervous, or worried. Because if he wasn't surpressing any emotions that is exactly how he would feel.

"My lord," said the same attendant who had offered him wine earlier. "Your communications device will not pick up signals well from the lower levels. You must descend."

"Descend? Where? What is this place?"

"Why, you are on Mount Olympus, of course. The home of the gods. And you should be treated as a god." The feather headed woman smiled: she had four lips in place of two and a slit going down from the plectrum which disappeared down her toga. "Why don't you lay back on the cloud? I know several ways that we could--"

"The descent, please." Mahak said in his iron voice, a little perturbed. All of this hedonism was grating on him.

"You are free to leave, of course. Or to descend. There." The woman pointed. "Down those spiraling stairs, at the bottom, you will find an Orcus door. Enter it to descend, if you wish. If you do not, lay back and let me attend to you."

"=/\=Kali." Mahak said into his commbadge. "=/\=I'm on my way."

[Kali Reyes]

"=/\=Mahak to Kali. Come in, Kali."

[Club Beyond - Wrath]

Kali could barely hear him. She frowned and tried tapping on it. If the devilish band playing nearby didn't suddenly drop the beat and caused the cage to vibrate from the bass, she might have been able to hear him. Kali clung to the bars as the cage swayed. Fortunately, Mina came by again and held the bottom steady with one hand.

"You want another drink, cutie pie?"

"This cage isn't very stable. I might throw up if I do!" Kali shouted over the music. "I think Mahak got my transmission!"

"That's nice, sweetie." Though Mina didn't sound all too invested in her problems. "Have you been dancing?"

The response didn't even lift her lips. Instead she let out a shriek when the cage suddenly fell down a large inch. The partygoers below were starting to take notice. Kali clung to the bars tightly like a drowned cat. "Oh my god, I'm falling!"

"If you don't dance, it drops a peg," Mina said with a wry grin. "I can't stop these hellraisers from getting to you if you do. That's kind of the game."

Three years ago for Kali it would have. Below her, the catcalls and the bloodied Klingons below gestured inappropriately would have made her night, but the Starfleet officer in her was a bit disgusted by the display. The cage was big enough to accommodate her, but it wouldn't stop anyone from reaching through the bars and easily grab a hold of her.

Even how, she could feel the tallest of the mosh divers just barely brush the bottom of her cage.

"You sure this isn't the lust level?" she asked weakly. That made Mina throw her head back and laugh. Moving her dress strap back up, Kali stepped away from the bars and started to sashay a bit, but for every circling of her hips the crowd got more excited and congregated closer to her cage. But if she stopped, she was sure the cage would just drop down again and closer to wagging tongues and the violence down below.

It was literally a hellish Catch 22. She kind of admired it.

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

[Club Beyond - Olympus - Orcus Door]

Before he entered the creature's cavernous mouth, Mahak tilted his head up the side of the mountain. Gay laughs, harp music, wine trickling, and a few sighs of pleasure were heard. No one was paying him any mind.

"=/\=Mahak to Crewman Jurn. Jurn, come in."

[Jurn and Mahak's Quarters]

The Tellarite had the day off. Accordingly, he was in his favorite chair, reading, wearing nothing but a pair of Starfleet underwear. Earlier on, he had dined on some authentic human peach cobbler. A bit of it had adhered itself to his bare, hairy belly. Jurn was about to absentmindedly scratch it when the call came through.

"=/\=This is Jurn. Mahak, you devil eared monstrosity. How dare you interrupt my time off!=/\="

[Club Beyond - Olympus - Orcus Door]

"=/\=Crewman Jurn. Chief Reyes and I are trapped in Club Beyond."

"=/\=Shore leave gone awry, eh? The doctor has a cure for that."

"=/\=I am not talking about an infection such as the one you picked up on Harlan VIII,=/\=" Mahak said, unintentionally insulting his friend. "=/\=Our shore leave has indeed gone awry, however. I need you to head to the bridge and find a way to beam us off of the station."

"=/\=Mmm, OK, Mahak. But I won't forget this, you cold hearted bastard. This is my day off, after all." Jurn severed the connection.

Good. Mahak thought. His friend was on the case. He could begin his descent.

"=/\=Mahak to Kali. Kali, can you hear me?  I am descending to you. Can you tell me anything about the next level down from Olympus?"

[Kali Reyes]

[Club Beyond - Wrath]

It didn't take long to get lost in the beat with her body following suit. Like the cages around her, she was quickly aligning each sway of her hips to become a part of this level. The anger of the music engulfed her mind and the out of control partiers down below revolutionized her soul.

Maybe she did belong to Hell, even if her heart went elsewhere. And her heart was beating quickly, almost erratically, because the combadge against her breast was alive and slowly breaking the spell with its vibrating.

"=/\=Mahak to Kali. Kali, can you hear me?"

She pressed it almost absently with her free hand while the other gripped the bar above for leverage. "Hi," she said thickly. "Miss you."

"I am descending to you. Can you tell me anything about the next level down from Olympus?"

Olympus, levels, all of that wasn't essential in her head at the moment. The air itself had its own pheromones and she was slowly losing her mind to it.

"Don't belong up there," she murmured, which made Mina laugh nearby. "Don't know. Miss you." She felt like she needed to say it again. Like it was the last time - like it really was like Dante's Inferno. Mahak was all the way up in heaven - to a place she couldn't dare to reach.

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

[Club Beyond - Wrath]

She pressed it almost absently with her free hand while the other gripped the bar above for leverage. "Hi," she said thickly. "Miss you."

Olympus, levels, all of that wasn't essential in her head at the moment. The air itself had its own pheromones and she was slowly losing her mind to it.

"Don't belong up there," she murmured, which made Mina laugh nearby. "Don't know. Miss you." She felt like she needed to say it again. Like it was the last time - like it really was like Dante's Inferno. Mahak was all the way up in heaven - to a place she couldn't dare to reach.

[Club Beyond - Limbo]

Her response didn't make much sense to him, but then again nothing about this nightclub did. Mahak was about to reply when he stepped onto the next level.

"Queue up, no lollygaggin'." The club bouncer said. In place of a communications device, the fellow had a wax tablet and a long piece of bone, pointed at the end, as a stylus. "You're the Vulcan. You don't belong here, but I'm putting your name on my list anyway."

The line of people was long, long, long. As far as Mahak could see ahead of him were the backs of heads, going sharply downward on a dirt path. A multitude of people, more than he ever thought could fit in a nightclub or even the entire station. How can this be?

"How can this be?" Mahak asked the bouncer. Already people were lining up behind him, crowding him, pushing him forward.

"You're in a state of flux. You can't go forward, you can't turn around. That's why we got you all lined up nuts to butts." The bouncer was ticking off more names.

The press of people was getting bad. Mahak could not be shoved forward anymore or move back. And he had about six inches of space on either side of him.

The stench and sensation so many people around him was beginning to wear on him. Imperceptibly, he fidgeted just a bit.

"Just stay still, it'll go by quicker." The bouncer said. But no one was moving, no one except for him and his sharp, thin little piece of bone as it ticked off names.

More and more people werre added to the human flood, and it felt to Mahak that each and every one was adding to the press of weight all around him.

"I no longer wish to be here." Mahak said, trying to catch someone's eye, anyone's. "Please return to me to Olympus. I cannot wait any longer."

"No. Can. Do." The bouncer said, ticking off a name with each word. "You're here until you're not here."

"Release me." The Vulcan said, his voice beginning to curl into a shout. "Release me!"

The bouncer shook his head and ticked off his names.

Mahak began to throw his elbows from side to side, to try to kick, anything to get more room. If anything it caused more people to pile onto the long, endless line. Dozens abreast and hundreds of people long, there was nowhere to go.

He was being hemmed in and touched and he no longer wished to be touched anymore. In a raw fury, Mahak struck out with his fists, blindly, hammering at the skull of the man in front of him.

The fellow dropped, but his space was quickly taken up. It grew worse, not better.

With a primal and bloodcurdling scream the Vulcan planted his hands onto the shoulder of the people on either side of them and pulled his body up, onto them. His knee found a shoulder as his hands went grasping for something to continue his frantic crawl. The people he was climbing on, stepping on, kneeling on made no sound. His space behind him was filled.

"Can't have that! You're moving!" The bouncer entered the line of people and the sea parted before him as if through magic. He was able to glide his way closer and closer to Mahak.

The Vulcan, as if in a nightmare, heard and felt the breath of the bouncer behind him. A finger brushed up against the back of his thigh, and then a hand tried to grasp at his ankle.

"No!" Mahak turned and saw the bouncer coming for him full tilt.

"Get back in line!" The bouncer cried out, and reached for him with both arms, sharp bone stylus tucked behind his ear.

Mahak's clever, quick hands were his salvation. He reached out and plucked the long, thin shard of bone from behind the bouncer's ear, reveresed it.

"Hey, what are you--" The arms were almost on him.

Mahak buried the pointy end right into his eye.

In just a moment, the bouncer's face melted from angry into a mask of horror. The stylus was very long, nearly a foot, and was made to scratch marks into hard, durable wax. It had utterly pierced his eye. All the fight left him and he fell.

The line trampled over him as more people entered Limbo. Mahak, his breath coming in spurts, looked down at the increasingly gory form of the bouncer as he was trod on and forgotten. A bloodthirsty cry of victory ripped from his throat.

With some curses, all composure forgotten, Mahak continued to knee crawl and walk over the line of people, all of whom made no complaint or sound, making his way to his destination.

To her.

[Kali Reyes]

[Club Beyond - Wrath]

She had fight. Plenty of it. Enough to drown ten men, but she was still mostly human. She had her limits. It felt like she had been dancing for days, months. The high was ebbing off and suddenly, or an eternity later, she stopped dancing.

"Problem?" Mina asked in passing. The tray full of beer was enough to fuel a sports team.

Kali panted and sank to her knees. They were eye-level and the men around Mina were trying to catch at the hem of her skirt. "Party's over. I want to get out."

"You can't. And you should keep dancing."

"I don't want to!" Kali cried out. "I've danced enough!" She jammed her heel against a pair of fingers against the bar as it tried to inch up her ankle. The alien howled in pain and then smacked the cage for good measure, making it shake.

Mina clicked her tongue and watched as the cage fell another inch. Kali scrambled back up before they could slide their hands up and tear at her skirt. "This is retribution for your sin, rave babe. You've danced all of your life. Now you can dance for eternity."

"Wait!" Kali shouted. "You can't leave me here!" But Mina kept on walking and talking and smiling like she didn't just condemn a living, breathing person to a hoard far too gone to the atmosphere. Utterly trapped, Kali shakily got back up to her feet and tried to dance again, the only relief was intentionally stepping on wayward fingers with her heel every time they got too close.

She tried to contact anyone on her combadge, but it remained silent.

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

[Club Beyond - Lust]

Mahak had always been partial to full lips. Kali herself had such full, soft, plush lips that the first time that Mahak had felt them on his own he thought all of his self control would go out the window, just like it had when he'd had to kill the bouncer a few moments ago. It was odd, he felt as if he'd regained control but the control had been replaced by...something else. A yearning, a hunger.

In any case, more than her lips were on his mind as he descended to the next level.

It appeared to him that he was back on his quarters on the Starbase Columbus, a surprisingly large apartment. The junior enlisted quarters was empty, which was decidedly strange. If this was the Columbus, he had shared this space with three other crewmen. For the short while he was on the station he had not had this kind of privacy.

He walked into the center of the living area, put an experimental hand on the sofa. Then the cocktail table. All of it seemed normal.

Mahak was confused but also felt something akin to relief, if he could be said to feeling anything besides a little...well, playful is how he really felt, but he was also relieved. If nothing was going to happen here nothing was going to happen. He might as well start to look for the next lowest level...

"Enjoying your private time, crewman?"

The voice was highly educated but a bit low, husky. Mahak turned to the door and saw the unwelcome form of Ensign Sala.

The Orion flight officer had ditched her uniform and was instead wearing a pale pink sleeveless dress made up of a thousand metallic sequins sewn onto some sheer cloth. It did very little to disguise the sublime figure of the woman underneath.

"This is not possible," Mahak said. "I am nowhere near the Columbus. This is a nightclub."

"This is your part of the nightclub, and I have to say I find it rather...naughty." Her pug nose scrunched up beneath the glittering dark eyes when she spoke. "Mina thinks that it's a little bland but I love how familiar it is."

"This situation has never transpired in the past, and it will not transpire now." But his voice betrayed him. It nearly cracked like an adolescent boy, and his skull felt like it had been upended and then filled with hot, wet cotton. He could not think clearly. His feet inched towards her.

"You have amazing control, Mahak," Sala said, stepping slowly towards him. "Except for one thing. Me. You could have chosen Kali as your fantasy, and I would have had to appear as her. But instead of your lover you chose your former boss?"

She laughed, and the flinty sound reached him from the now six inches that separated them.

"You clearly like to be submissive." Her fingers cupped his chin just the way he always did to Kali's. The sound his stubble beneath her touch was as loud as a red alert klaxon to his ears, and everywhere her hand touched felt electric and dangerous.

"I can take control, not like Kali. I can give you what you need." Smoothly, the dress puddled around her ankles while her hand was stroking his face. There was nothing underneath but Sala.

"Tell me," She breathed against his lips, pressing the full length of herself against him, setting his entire body on fire.

"Yes..." He sighed back, not thinking of anything else but her, not Kali, not escape, not his precious logic or duty...

[Kali Reyes]

[Club Beyond - Wrath]

"Not talking to me anymore, huh? I'm hurt."

Mina kept coming by with drinks, or food, or whichever, but Kali ignored her and just kept dancing. There had to be an end - the novelty of punishing the damned was getting real tiring. Kali had long since kicked off her heels, determined as she was to keep going with minimal damage to her toes at least.

She had swallowed all sense of play and called on her Starfleet training to weather the suffering.

"Hey." Mina climbed up the cage again to console her. "We're having fun."

"I'm not having fun." Kali said through her teeth.

"Mahak is." That made her directly look up. Mina fished out a PADD and pressed screen between the bars. "Just like you wanted. He's taking advantage of the nightlife."

Kali stopped dancing. On the screen was Mahak. Mahak and Sala. It was like ice climbed straight into her chest and the weight of it on her heart dropped into her stomach. Her throat was dry and the beating of her ears outmatched the beat of the club. "It's a trick."

"It's the Lust level," Mina told her gently. "Practically a holodeck to your whims. His whim was the Ensign."

How was that possible? He said he didn't want her - it was the reason why he was on the Discovery now. But here it was as plain at the screen and he was looking at Sala like he looked at Kali, if not more. The cage lurched down along with her heartbreak. She didn't even register more arms easily accessing the bars and reaching for her legs.

Anger. She tried to pull up all the anger. That was why Mina showed her this, right? But Kali had expended all of her anger from the dancing. She had nothing left to give.

"You should keep dancing," Mina warned.

Her voice broke. "No."

"You'll get hurt."

Kali gave her a watery smile. "Can't be any worse."

A dark, angry look replaced Mina's quirky demeanor. "Then fight."

"Fight for what?! This cage?!" Kali snapped. "The only fighting I'm doing after this is clocking that Vulcan bastard! Sala?! Really?! The entire universe for him to pick off on and it's his pervy Ensign?! I don't think so!"

"He's not yours anymore."

"I know that!" she cried out. "But I'm still his superior officer! And I'm gonna knock some sense into him!" If it was true, if he wasn't interested anymore she could deal. She's done it before, she'll do it again. He was still her friend. She'll be damned if she sat back and let him sleep with a predator like Sala. He had an airlock with his name on it.

Mina pushed herself away from the bars as the last chain lurched and sent the cage slamming to the floor. The crowd went mad as they smothered the cage with their bodies to reach the prize within. "You selfish brat."

An arm slithered around Kali's throat and pulled her back against the bars. She struggled, her legs kicking at too many hands and the bars itself seemed to grow tighter and smaller down upon her. And still her last thoughts was a howling jealousy that if she couldn't have him, she selfishly just wanted to live. Just as she was about to suffocate, the cage suddenly shot up into the ceiling like it was a turbolift and the bodies fell away by the dozens until she was swallowed up by the ceiling and nothing else remained.

Then everything felt sluggish, like she was under a lake. Her dress moved slowly around her and everything felt cold. She started to choke under the thick liquid. Desperate, she climbed around the cage and banged around it uselessly until finally the cage bobbed up like it was surfacing. She swam up and took two great gulps of air.

"Like the pool? It's literally hyper-condensed liquid latinum," A voice called out. Kali could do nothing but cough and scramble for the bars.

Mina was there in her bikini and holding up a tray of fruit near a bank of soft silver sand. Behind her was an open night sky with a beach party of people relaxing at the bar under the light of tiki torches. They seemed to not care or take consideration to a drenched woman floating in a cage in the middle of their sandy pool.

Kali watched a couple splash each other nearby, ignoring her completely. The horribly confused look on her face made Mina richly laugh.

"Congrats, Kali. You've reached the Greed level of Hell! Martini?"

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

[Club Beyond - Lust]

Sala's mouth was mesmerizing and sweet. Mahak found himself lost in it, eyes closed, having nearly completely given himself over to her.

"You do not let go with Kali, do you?" She asked when they both came up for air.

"No. Not like this."

"Never?"

"Never," He said breathlessly.

"Good." She said. "Now give yourself over to me completely and all of the pleasure you have ever known in your life will be like ashes compared to what I have in store for you."

"What do I do?"

"Tell me you don't want Kali at all."

Mahak was so hypnotized by her, so utterly under her spell, but the last part made him blink. "Say again?"

"'Say again'? Are we going to salute in bed?" Sala laughed sensually. "Tell me you don't want her anymore, and I am yours forever."

Something about her tone gave him pause. Why...why couldn't they just, well, do it? Why did she need this?

"Why..."

"There's no why here. There's you and me. And right now I want you to tell me you don't want her anymore, forever."

Unseen, the recording devices installed in the Lust holodeck ground away, capturing his reaction.

"I...but, that's not true, you're so gorgeous, but why do you need to know all that?"

"Tell me, Mahak." Sala said, eyes narrowing, some of their sparkle gone. "Tell me. I need you to tell me."

"I can't." Mahak blinked at her, and felt a sensation akin to being completely submerged in water, or how being airlocked must feel. It was a total and complete physical changeover.

He released her.

"I should not be here." He said. He looked down at her naked form, still every bit as sexually appealing and sensually perfect as it had been before. "Please, dress yourself, woman, and show me the way---"

"BASTARD!" Sala slapped him. It connected entirely, Mahak's reflexes were still dull or the sudden change of her mood had shocked him. "Vulcan bastard!"

He raised his arms to defend himself but did not strike. He wasn't sure he could punch out someone who was so utterly weaker than he was. It was not a responsible and logical use of his strength.

"Tell me you want me only, tell me you don't want her, tell meeee--" With a leap, the actress playing Sala wrapped her nude legs and arms around him and attempted to wrestle him to the deck.

Mahak was fully skilled in Starfleet combatives as well as pugilism. It was a simple throw. With a twist of the body he was able to use her own momentum against her, hip tossing the Club Beyond employee to the sofa. The long legged and nude alien done up like an Orion Starfleet officer bounced off the cushions and onto the cocktail table.

"Mahak!"

He turned, and ran headlong for the double door, hearing it swish urgently before he could crash into it.

[Kali Reyes]

[Club Beyond - Greed]

She wanted to curse and thank Mahak for getting her to work on her upper body strength. It took all of Kali's effort to pull herself up the cage, her dress heavy and wet, and used her momentum to tip it backwards so the gate part of it would surface. Laughter ringing in her ears from the partygoers, she used whatever Vulcan strength she had left and frantically kicked against the gate. Whether the water quickly rusted the cage or perhaps Kali was just at the whim of Mina's machinations, the gate popped open. She was free.

Mina's eyes glittered with something akin to pride as Kali dog-paddled to shore in her sopping skirt and drenched hair. "Your makeup's all runny," she told her and offered her a towel. "But you look better without it."

Kali looked up at her angrily from the sand, but snatched the towel. "It wasn't for you." It wasn't for anyone, apparently. She covered her face with it and disguised her tiny sob with coughing. This night officially sucked.

"I told you," Mina said kindly. "You should never bring a date to Club Beyond. You don't always walk out with the same one at the end of the night."

"So you get paid for making people suffer?" she demanded. "I just wanted us to have a good time!"

Mina leaned forward, almost ominously. "We don't reward sinners. You get what you deserve. But hey, I think you're doing just fine. You went up a level! Greed's a nasty habit."

Kali wiped the rest of her makeup off and let Mina get her to her feet. "This doesn't look like a nasty place."

"No one helped you get out of the cage, did they? It's because they're full of themselves."

This was stupidly elaborate. She had to admit that. "You think I'm full of myself?" she asked as Mina guided her to one of the couches sitting around a bonfire. A Ferengi was sitting nearby with a Bajoran and completely immersed with himself about his colonial expansion and the money he hid in a bank in Andoria.

"Everyone your age is full of themselves," Mina replied wisely. "Do you have money, Kali?"

"A lot of it," she admitted, and a bit shocked she said it so easily. "My dad's company takes in billions every quarter."

"Do you touch any of it?"

Kali shook her head. "I wouldn't know what to do with it. It goes through the Board of Trustees." Names, accounts, statements, stocks - all of it was ready to pour out of her lips. The Ferengi continued to incriminate himself to a nodding Bajoran with his financial splendor. She decided to lock her jaw despite the eager look Mina was giving her.

"What do you want, Kali?"

Her jaw twitched. "Nothing."

Mina laughed. "You're not so honest when it comes to the heart." She sat Kali down, still dripping wet, but uncaring of it spoiling the couch. "Look." She showed her the PADD again.

"There's no why here. There's you and me. And right now I want you to tell me you don't want her anymore, forever."

Unseen, the recording devices installed in the Lust holodeck ground away, capturing his reaction.

"I...but, that's not true, you're so gorgeous, but why do you need to know all that?"

"Tell me, Mahak." Sala said, eyes narrowing, some of their sparkle gone. "Tell me. I need you to tell me."

"I can't."

Kali averted her eyes to stare at her lap. "This has been a real bad night." More novelties. Tricks. And Mahak had to deal with a lot of it.

"You got greedy," Mina said seriously. "You wanted to push him by taking him out. Vulcans aren't good with clubs, Kali."

"I know."

"So why?"

Kali squeezed her knees tight. "Because I'm not good at anything but this. I wanted him to see me at my best. I didn't expect you guys to go freaky funhouse on us!"

"Do you want to see him?"

"Do I deserve it?" she choked out angrily. "I probably ruined him! Just like dad, just like Grey, just like Dijon!" And two out of three of those guys were dead. It wasn't looking good on her at all. She dumped her head between her knees and tried to calm down lest she had another panic attack. Mina patted her consolingly on the back.

"Do you want to see him?" she repeated.

Kali's response was muffled and downright pitiful. "Yes."

"Well, he's down two floors already and pretty hellbent to do the same. No pun intended."

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

[Club Beyond - Gluttony]

Mahak was never one for hyperbole, but when he thought to himself that the wooden tables before him should be groaning under the weight of the feast on them he did not chide himself. And when he thought he should gouge his own eyes out he did not chide himself, either. It was the truth.

The stench alone was enough to drive a person mad. The heavy, heady smell of cooked meat and vegetables hung in the air, along with the smoky scent of the fire used to cook it all.

The tables were all filled with starving people, each of them eating frantically, their hands bringing mashed food to their mouths with a frantic speed. None of them ever stopped. They choked to death and keeled over and tried to chew as their breath was cut off. They spit out broken teeth as their weakened jaws bit down ceaselessly into food.

As he walked down the center aisle, an emaciated human without any teeth or hair, whose elbows and knees were wider than his arms and legs, was frantically mopping up rice with mashed potatoes and stuffing it into his mouth with an almost pornographic zeal. His eyes rolled in their sockets, and his skull like head swiveled to look at Mahak. He felt his stomach turn cold and solid. He moved on.

A woman with a bloated stomach was streaking up the aisle at him, completely naked. In her arms was a tiny little bundle. She thrust it into his hands.

"Milk!" She begged. Her eyes were wild, streaked with tears, and she had torn at her face with her nails in frustration.

"There is milk and food all around you," Mahak said as he opened the bundle of rags.

Inside was a tiny and deceased infant. Quietly, with sure and steady gestures, Mahak wrapped the poor thing back up and handed it carefully back to the woman.

"Milk!" The woman cried out in utter anguish, and left him.

If there was any challenge to pass that was it. Mahak glanced over her shoulder at the fleeing woman crying for food to nourish her baby. And at all the starving people eating and slurping so loudly and with such fervor that it would turn a weaker person's stomach.

He moved on, and not for the first time, was grateful that he could bury his feelings.

[Kali Reyes]

[Club Beyond - Greed]

Mina tried to bribe her with drinks. She didn't want anything. She tried her combadge instead and got static even when she tried to hail the Discovery. The towel fell off of her shoulder when she stood up.

"I'm gonna go."

"And where do you think you'll be going, Kali?"

Kali fixed her a glare. "Somewhere that isn't disguised as a goddamn therapy couch!"

Mina wagged a playful finger at her. "Thou shalt not to take your Lord's name in vain."

"I'm pretty sure He's got something to say about a nightclub making an ass out of his divine realm," she shot back. "No mortal is worthy to judge my sins except for myself and God."

"My, my aren't we getting self-righteous." Mina smoothly got to her feet. "I'd point you out to the Pride level, but the bathroom's still under construction - oh, Kali don't be like that!"

Kali ignored her for the exit, which wasn't hard. The door literally said EXIT. It took her a minute to get there. Then another minute. And another. Five minutes later she was still walking across the sandbank for the exit and nothing to show for it.

"Can you not?!" Kali yelled over her shoulder. She tried running from the amused look Mina sent her, but while the hem of her dress was quickly drying from the effort, she was no closer to the EXIT than she was ten minutes ago. Exhausted, Kali fell to her knees and gave a great dramatic shrug at the fake heavens.

If she ever returned to the Discovery, she was going to order this club fired on. "Another trick," she hollowly laughed.

Mina stepped by her side, idly chewing on a piece of pineapple from her drink. "Not a very good one. For all of Greed's riches, it always lacked a creative substance."

"Clever."

"You can put that on the suggestion card later on," Mina said cheekily.

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

[Club Beyond - Greed]

The desert was not as pretty as earth's or as harsh as Vulcan's, and Mahak found himself wishing that the sun would turn harsher or an animal would attack him. Anything was better than this endless walking.

The night was cold, however. Vulcans didn't like the cold. They were tough, extraordinarily so, but if they had a preferred climate it was hot and dry. With this desert being utterly unlike Vulcan even the night felt strange to him.

So when he heard a far off cry for help it was understandable that he perked up immediately and took off running at full speed towards it.

The sound became louder and clearer. Through the moon and starlight Mahak could just make out a man seated on the sand, his legs stretched out before him.

Once the fellow saw him, he began waving his arms. "Over here! Help me, I'm hurt!"

The voice was Ferengi. He had no prejudice towards their kind, unlike many humans.

"How did you injure yourself?" Mahak asked. He had stopped running reluctantly. It felt good to stretch his legs.

"I was trying to get out of here and poor Dolok tripped and fell." The Ferengi was very, very fat. No wonder he had suffered such an injury.

"Is it your leg?" The Vulcan asked, kneeling at the other man's side.

"Yes, it is. Help me to get up."

Mahak did so, and even he had trouble trying to lift a fat Ferengi who was doing nothing but grunting get to his feet.

"Ohh owww! OWWWW!" Dolok had fallen backwards onto his considerable rump, clutching his leg.

"You cannot walk. I will have to get help. Wait here." Mahak stood and looked out at the horizon.

"Wait, wait!" A hand was clutching at his leg, his waist. "Don't leave poor Dolok to the wilderness!"

"I am not, I was merely--" Mahak stopped cold. "You were clutching your left leg a moment ago. Now it is your right. Explain."

A touch of uncertainty creased the Ferengi's swollen, brutish brow, but was soon replaced by a look of bewilderment.

"It's both legs, such a fall Dolok took---!"

Mahak's hands slipped into his trouser pockets, only to come up empty.

"You have stolen my communicator badge. Give it back, or else."

"Or else what, Vulcan?" Dolok's greedy fat face looked exultant as he produced a phaser from behind his back. "Hands in the air!"

There was no choice but to obey. The Ferengi leaped nimbly to his feet for all of his girth.

"Your clothes. Take them off."

"I fail to see what that would accomplish."

The sand between his feet erupted into superheated glass that scattered through the air like shrapnel. In an instant, Mahak's feet were covered in cuts, the jagged glass having burned it's way through the thin boots he wore. He fell to the ground

"Ha! You didn't dream Dolok was such a shot, did you? Right where I wanted to send it! Now, strip!" The Ferengi was practically dancing.

Mahak removed his clothes, struggling to do so while lying down. When it came time to remove his trousers and undergarment doing so over his boots proved impossible. And painful.

"My boots are adhered to my feet thanks to your phaser blast," The Vulcan said, pain evident in his voice. "I will have to tear off the pants."

"Do it. I don't want some sanctimonious Vulcan following me after I have this treasure melted down for gold." Dolok was idly twirling the communicator badge.

When Mahak was as naked as he was like to get, Dolok piled his clothes and incinerated them with his phaser.

"There! Thanks for the donation, and remember the nine Rule of Acquisiton: 'Opportunity, plus instinct, equals profit.'" Dolok said. "You provided all of them!"

He was soon alone. He tried to stand, but to no avail. His feet were too injured to take any weight. His bare skin up against the freezing sand wasn't doing him any favors, either.

Gravely, he inspected his feet. The wounds were superficial at best, but the glass was numerous and had burned so hot that it had sank deep into his skin. The boot's material had been mashed into the wounds, too, and fused with heat into them. He was effectively crippled.

Perhaps not. Mahak could not call for help, or walk, but he wasn't immobilized. Experimentally, he got to his hands and knees and began to crawl.

Despite the jolts of pain at moving his feet so he was able to move at a fairly good clip. The sand chilled and scraped against his hands and knees, but in a few hours that wasn't going to kill him. He only made to make sure he was rescued long before that.

He had no other choice.

"Kali! Kali!" The Vulcan cried out at the top of his lungs as he crawled in the direction his assailant had gone. His voice was desperate, loud, and carried with it more than a hint of emotion.

"KALI!"