"Fifty Two Cards, Four Suits, Two Colours, How Hard Can Poker Be?"
(Previous Post: "Jackpot")
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Stardate: 60320.1930
Setting: TANGIERS ORBITAL, Third Floor
The Shillian scientist had spent a little while
observing the interaction between the Talarian man and
Halanan woman, who for those who knew her for whom she
was had been none other than the Chief Medical Officer
of the USS ANUBIS. Ensign Summers had appeared to be
enjoying herself as had the Talarian warrior who had
seemed to take a liking to the undercover officer, but
as interesting as this had been it had not been
sufficient to pry the attention of the scientist away
from the game she had joined.
With the understanding that there were only thirty
eight possibilities evenly distributed on the
horizontal wheel and that the small white coloured
sphere could land on only one of them per spin, it had
not taken the Chief Science Officer all that long for
her to figure out the odds related to the game of
Roulette. Each number from one to thirty six,
including the zero and double zero had a simple 38 to
1 mathematical probability of being the number that
would come out. Of course the Shillian woman had
given the idea of including the friction of the sphere
against the wheel, as well as the strength of the
spin, an influence value in her calculations, but the
scientist decided to postpone this more demanding
research for a later time. For the time being the
woman playing the role of the Cardassian scientist
named Denir had been more than satisfied with
analysing the simplistic probabilities of the game and
the way the Casino had manipulated the odds in their
favour, always giving a payout which was slightly less
than the odds themselves.
After the departure of Ensign Summers from the table,
the Chief Science Officer of the USS ANUBIS decided to
see if maybe she would be able to learn more about the
casino itself and maybe find out what had brought such
a wide range of alien races to converge on this
establishment at this time. Everyone knew that the
administration of the casino had something special
planned, as they did every year, but although the
rumours had been numerous, the Shillian woman had not
heard anything that she could place any amount of
credibility into.
While traveling the escalator down to the second
level, the Shillian hiding beneath the features of a
Cardassian recognised a member of the crew despite her
having dawned a different outfit, one that the Chief
Science Officer could not remember having been part of
the initial mission parameters. As the woman
portraying Denir stepped onto the colourful carpet of
the second floor, her eyes followed with great
interest the form of the Bajoran woman known as Niema
Sol, whom the scientist knew to actually be none other
than Ensign Susan Mei, the Head Counsellor of the USS
ANUBIS.
Denir, or at least the woman who had borrowed her
likeness and identity for the duration of this
mission, followed the Bajoran woman who had from the
looks of things been joined by another Cardassian
which only made the presence of the Chief Science
Officer less suspicious. If someone should, for one
reason or another inquire as to why the scientist had
been following the two that she had, Denir could
easily claim that she thought she had recognised the
Cardassian and had wanted to confirm this, thus not
implicating the Bajoran next to him.
As she took position outside of the area reserved for
those playing at that particular table, the Shillian
scientist inwardly grinned as she thought that the
time spent with the Intelligence Operative and her
daughter had begun to rub off on her, making the
scientist imagine excuses for situations that had not
yet occurred. The thought of Lieutenant Commander
Enaii and Talia quickly gave way to the intriguing
rectangular pieces of plastic that Susan and those
sitting at the table with her had been given by the
person standing on the opposite side of the
semi-circular table. By the look and colour of the
uniform it had been easy for the Shillian scientist to
ascertain that the dealer worked for the casino, but
that had been the extent of her understanding of the
game which caused the scientist to seek assistance
from another casino employee walking by, pushing a
tray which contained various types of drinks and
delicacies.
"Excuse me," the Cardassian said flashing a nervous
smile at the casino employee, "could you help me with
something?"
"Of course," the woman who appeared to be in her late
teens quickly and happily replied, confirming what the
Shillian woman had heard about the willingness of the
staff of the casino to help and assist their guests in
all possible ways. "How may I help you? Would you
like something to drink? We have a wide variety of
K'narr, or maybe you would prefer some Andorian
chocolate covered nuts?"
Not at all tempted by the offer made, the Shillian
woman beneath the disguise of the Cardassian scientist
returned her eyes onto the game that Ensign Susan had
been playing. "Could you explain to me the specifics
of this game, I do not seem to remember having played
it before."
"Of course, it would be my pleasure," the casino
employee replied, sounding extremely happy to have
been given the opportunity to help one of their
guests. "The game is Terran Five-Card Poker which can
be compared in some ways to Tellarite Zolgad or Krenim
Pilla," the teenager said, indicating by her choice of
races that the Casino brought people from all over the
galaxy to them. "Although far simpler in general
rules, Terran Five-Card Poker does present the players
with interesting possibilities created by the four
suits, containing a total of thirteen cards each for a
grand total of fifty cards. The object of the game is
for each player to obtain a hand of greater value than
that of their competitors, the value of the hand being
equal to the adds of obtaining it."
"That sounds interesting, and rather simple once you
start analysing the numerical probabilities," the
Shillian woman said in an innocent manner to which the
casino employee did not respond to as many other might
have had.
"The problem is that the cards held by each player are
not visible to the others making it extremely
difficult to know which card may or may not come out
next after the initial discard. With a single chance
to trade in cards for others, and the possibility of
the player controlling the game to call special wild
cards, the game itself is very difficult to predict,"
the waitress said, waiting to see if the explanation
had been sufficient or if the Cardassian had required
more information. Just as the Shillian woman had been
about to ask another question, the Bajoran woman
sitting at the table turned around and asked for the
casino employee to approach, asking her to bring some
sort of a drink with her. The Shillian had been so
busy trying to understand this Terran game that she
had not heard what Susan had ordered, but that had not
stopped the two women to share a quick glance with one
another which had been just long enough to inform each
other of the proximity of a fellow undercover
operative.
--- 2005 post #170
Jessica Solarik { maya_992003@yahoo.com }
Lieutenant Commander Maya
Chief Science Officer
USS ANUBIS
