Terry Sauter hurried to catch the last portion of the protocol regarding how to behave on the Ferengi outpost, New Ferengal. She would not have missed this much if not for that inspection Lt. Cmdr. Taggert was always complaining about. She had to double and triple check systems which she knew were already perfectly fine. But it seems perfect was not good enough for Maxine Taggert! Anyway, she hoped to learn something from the last part of the session. She managed to slip in quietly and sit at the back of the room.

After the class, Terry hurried to the transporter pad to catch a quick trip down before Commander Taggert caught her again and asked her to check another already checked system! She had been looking forward to meeting some Ferengi's. This would be her first time. She thought they were rather, cute. In an ugly sorta way! And besides, they were all shorter than she was!

After beaming down, she decided to try out a restaurant everyone was talking about, The Profiteer..

Terry sat down at a table by herself and ordered a Ferengi drink. While she was musing over what to eat, she noticed a Ferengi in a corner, staring at her. Being the nice and polite person that she is, she smiled back. Unfortunately this was an open invitation to a male Ferengi. Before she knew it, the Ferengi was at her table eyeing her.

"Excuse, me," began Terry, "can I help you?"

The Ferengi smiled at her, more of a leer actually, and said, "Yes, you can. How much do you charge?" he asked.

"For what?"asked an innocent Terry.

"Your services of course. You invited me over here."

"I beg your pardon, but I didn't invite you over! I merely smiled at you. I was only being polite."

"Playing hard to get, huh?" he leered. "I can go for that. But I'm not paying extra for it!"

Obviously this Ferengi was not going to believe anything she had to say. "If you will excuse me," she said as she got up to leave, " I'm needed back on my ship now. Good bye."

As Terry walked to the door, the Ferengi smiled and promptly got up to follow her. Terry was outside the restaurant before she noticed him. "What are you doing?"

"I thought you wanted me to follow you," he explained. "I thought we were going to your place of business."

Terry gave him her meanest stare, which wasn't very intimidating and said, "Look! I've tried to be polite because I am a visitor to your outpost, but I must insist that you leave me alone! I do not want to do business with you! Don't you understand me?!" She was becoming very upset now and wished that she hadn't even beamed down in the first place!

"Look. I understand your need to try and up your price, but you are going a bit too far. I will not pay more than your standard price. All this excitement is nice, but now I prefer to get down to business!" With that he grabbed Terry by her wrist and pulled her towards him.

Terry was little, but by no means a pushover. She let the Ferengi pull her toward him, raising her knee at the same time, shoving it hard into his stomach. She considered a chop to the neck while he was bent over, but decided against it. She thought she had made her point. "Now, leave me ALONE!"she screamed and left him doubled over in pain.

As she turned to leave she literally ran into Lt. Cmdr. Simon McRaney. "Ensign, are you all right?" he asked, noticing what had just happened.

"Oh, yes, Commander, I'm fine. I just had a little misunderstanding that's all," she said looking back at the Ferengi.

"I guess you missed the briefing about unescorted females on this outpost?"

"Uh, yes sir. Well, at least I managed to catch the last part. But I didn't hear anything about coming alone."

"Apparently. Ensign, the only unescorted females on this outpost are the ones who are in business for themselves."

"Business women?"

"Yes. But not the kind of business you'd care to be involved in. Shall I escort you someplace, Ensign?"

"Oh, no sir. I wouldn't dare to impose on you, sir. Really..."

"Nonsense. I was just taking a walk, not doing anything in particular. I'm waiting for Dr. Montgomery to beam down. We're to eat at that restaurant you were just at. Is the food any good?"

"Actually, sir, I never got the chance to eat anything. I kinda had to leave suddenly."

"Hmm, yes. I can see where you would have had to do that," he said, glancing back at the still doubled over Ferengi. "Well, Ensign, if you don't want any company, I would suggest that you either beam back to the ship or find someone to travel with. You will continue to be approached if you don't."

"Yes, sir. I think I will go back to the ship. There isn't much to see down here anyway. Thank you sir."

"No problem, Ensign...uh"

"Sauter, sir, Ensign Terry Sauter, Utilities and Auxiliary Specialist."

"Good to meet you Ensign Sauter. I'm Lt. Cmdr. Simon McRaney, Geologist. I'll escort you back to the transport sight, Ensign. It's time to meet Dr. Montgomery anyway."

"Yes, sir. Thank you sir."

Terry made it back to the ship without further harassment, thanks to Lt. Cmdr. McRaney. She decided she would learn more about the Ferengis and their customs before her next encounter with them! After this experience, she decided that Ferengis weren't that cute after all!