Deception: The lesser part of Valour – Bloodlines - part 5 - End Game
by Commander Isha t'Vaurek & Commander Chelsea Dunham
Post Details
OLD:
"The results show, in summary, that the subject is a perfectly healthy, if somewhat anaemic, Human/Betazoid specimen."
NEW:
She had continued to regenerate his damaged cells as she had been talking and moved around him as she completed patches of repair on different parts of his body and limbs. Finally, she turned her attention to his face and neck.
“The man at the bar, the one who bothered Isha, he followed you both. He wasn’t drunk, he was very, very alert. But I don’t think he was a Betazoid – otherwise he’d have seen me coming. So who works with a part Betazoid associate ...?” Rh’vaurek paused, his eyes darting over her face. “You saw him,” he said flatly.
"Yes" she replied, looking at him quizically. "He rather alarmed us, to be honest. How do you know he followed us? We thought you had gone and we were alone with him, so we came home. We were very relieved to find he didn't follow us though!"
She no longer needed to ask herself why the man had vanished now, it was clear that if Raedheol knew he was there, then that spoke volumes in itself. She drew her own conclusions and was sufficiently grateful for her own safety that night not to question the methods used to deter the stalker.
I’ve been looking in the wrong place Rh’vaurek thought. “Can I move without you hurting me again, Chelsea?” he asked. “Just follow me if you’re not finished.”
Rh’vaurek slipped off the desk and padded round to the other side; he had no problem turning his back on Chelsea as he activated his console, she was right that he did not perceive her as a threat. “Give me that padd again,” he said waving his hand behind him.
"I have not hurt you!" she protested. "I keep telling you I have been your angel of mercy in this whole incident!" She stopped what she was doing and picked up the padd obediently. If she didn't, he would get it anyway so his movement would stop her progress either way.
"Do *please* keep still or you might end up with an extra eyebrow or something worse!" she nagged, finishing up the tear to his lip and putting down the regenerator with an emphatic gesture of triumph.
"There! You're better than you started out!" she exaggerated with a mischievous grin. "and I'm better at reconstructing Romulans than I thought I would be!"
“Well, you’re working with top quality material, Miss Chelsea,” he said his focus on the screen, “Look at that … there is a Pellan Janna on Bajor married to a Pellan Joran, two children. She’s a schoolteacher. Similar build to our blonde fake … very clever,” softly Rh’vaurek began to laugh. “How did you know she wasn’t Bajoran?” he asked.
Chelsea wince-grinned in response to his teasing her by calling her *Miss Chelsea* in the manner of her earlier misdemeanour.
~I guess I deserve that!~ she thought philosophically to herself. ~At least he hasn't taken offence and had me thrown out of an airlock!~
"Her earring." she replied to his question "It bears a religious inscription that appears upside down. It could have indicated a worshipper of the Pah Wraiths, but then she would have behaved differently. It was a mistake no normal Bajoran citizen would make. They take their religion very seriously on Bajor."
Rh'varuek nodded, it confirmed his intuitive conclusion, “She’s a telepath! She lifted their identities straight from their minds … but, she had no idea that she’d picked a couple who follow a cult. No wonder she bolted when she saw you,” Rh’vaurek pointed at Chelsea. “She must have known you suspected her immediately. Then they changed strategy – she backed off and he … let’s assume he isn’t Bajoran either, or a telepath. They’ve both had reconstructive surgery to alter their appearance, they’re living under assumed identities … someone’s paying them a lot of latinum ... someone who’s started demanding results. He got careless,” he speculated.
"Do you have any idea who might have put them up to this? What was the intention in ingratiating themselves with Isha? Information they hoped to glean? You said he was dangerous.... you must believe there was a threat to her?" Chelsea was all questions now.
“Why don’t you tie me to that chair and shine a light in my eyes, Chelsea?” Regarding her oddly Rh’vaurek folded his arms, “How do I know you don’t already know the answers?” he said as though giving that option some serious thought. “Sit down.”
"But why do *I* have to sit down if it's *you* who is to be tied to a chair and questioned?" she responded, sitting down anyway in case he took her by the shoulders and insisted physically as he had done earlier.
"You see, my already knowing the answers could only be possible if I was complicit." she reasoned out loud. "and *if* you believed I were, we shouldn't be such good friends as we've become!" Her grin widened at the look *that* brought to his face.
Rh'vaurek smirked, "More importantly it would mean that my initial assessment of you was wrong, which you'll agree is impossible."
Much less intimidated than she *ought* to have been, Chelsea pulled her face back into a straight expression dutifully.
"Oh but of *course*!" she said, dripping with irony.
He had succeeded in distracting her attention from the screen which was busily trying to match the doctor's analysis with the extensive records of the Tal'Shiar; he had also noticed a brief message flash up on the screen, a whole message within the symbol which reminded him, among other things that she should not really be there whilst that system was up and running.
He leaned against the edge of the console, his body obscuring the screen from her view; "As a good friend, and because you've been so accommodating, maybe you could mention to your other good friend Isha something of the virtues of doing what she's told without arguing, especially when there's someone lurking around who means her harm," he said through a widening smirk. "There seems to be nothing I can say to make her take this seriously. Do that and I'll do you a favour, as a friend; I won't kill your boy next time I see him."
Chelsea's smile faded and her eyes became deep and brooding as the renewed mention of a threat to Ryan acted like cold water on her new found comfort zone, dispersing it rapidly.
"I'll willingly warn Isha of the danger and if you insist, I'll even allow you to think i'm doing it as a favour to you since increasing your debt to me can't be a bad thing." she conceded softly, managing a wry smile.
"As for removing your threat to Ryan, on whom my whole life and happiness hangs, I have never understood why you feel the need to extinguish life for any reason, let alone the most trivial reasons such as pride or revenge. Why would it be so much to ask of you *not* to destroy me just because you can?" she sighed, gazing at him with an odd mix of disillusionment, fear and compassion.
"I wanted to believe you were *bigger* than that, Mister Rh'vaurek. I wonder if you ever had a *good friend* of the unconditional and motive-free kind that I would have made, had you been capable of allowing it."
Turning away, Chelsea found herself moved. She wondered if it was her personal disappointment or simply a realisation of her own naivety that was stinging her so much.
"I'll leave you to congratulate yourself on having achieved your aim in finding something to push me away with."
She walked towards the door. "Keep the padd. You can apply your cloak and dagger methods at your leisure when I am no longer in your way." she cast back in a flat monotone.
Somewhere inside Chelsea the flicker of a tiny hope still burned even though part of her resented the *weakness* (as Raedheol would see it) of stubbornly clinging to a vain and foolish notion - but another side of the woman with the ready smile and sunny nature refused to give up on even such a dark and wounded soul as his.
Rh'vaurek rubbed the back of his neck as he watched her go. Consider it a favour, he thought; she didn't need a friend like him.
His indifferent silence was the only reply she was going to get.
OFF:
by Commander Isha t'Vaurek & Commander Chelsea Dunham
Post Details
| Title | Bloodlines - part 5 - End Game | |
| Mission | Deception: The lesser part of Valour | |
| Author(s) | Commander Isha t'Vaurek & Commander Chelsea Dunham | |
| Posted | Sat Jan 17, 2009 @ 8:08pm | |
| Location | Romulan Consulate | |
| Timeline | SD4 (backpost) After 'Fix You' & 'Keeping Score' |
"The results show, in summary, that the subject is a perfectly healthy, if somewhat anaemic, Human/Betazoid specimen."
NEW:
She had continued to regenerate his damaged cells as she had been talking and moved around him as she completed patches of repair on different parts of his body and limbs. Finally, she turned her attention to his face and neck.
“The man at the bar, the one who bothered Isha, he followed you both. He wasn’t drunk, he was very, very alert. But I don’t think he was a Betazoid – otherwise he’d have seen me coming. So who works with a part Betazoid associate ...?” Rh’vaurek paused, his eyes darting over her face. “You saw him,” he said flatly.
"Yes" she replied, looking at him quizically. "He rather alarmed us, to be honest. How do you know he followed us? We thought you had gone and we were alone with him, so we came home. We were very relieved to find he didn't follow us though!"
She no longer needed to ask herself why the man had vanished now, it was clear that if Raedheol knew he was there, then that spoke volumes in itself. She drew her own conclusions and was sufficiently grateful for her own safety that night not to question the methods used to deter the stalker.
I’ve been looking in the wrong place Rh’vaurek thought. “Can I move without you hurting me again, Chelsea?” he asked. “Just follow me if you’re not finished.”
Rh’vaurek slipped off the desk and padded round to the other side; he had no problem turning his back on Chelsea as he activated his console, she was right that he did not perceive her as a threat. “Give me that padd again,” he said waving his hand behind him.
"I have not hurt you!" she protested. "I keep telling you I have been your angel of mercy in this whole incident!" She stopped what she was doing and picked up the padd obediently. If she didn't, he would get it anyway so his movement would stop her progress either way.
"Do *please* keep still or you might end up with an extra eyebrow or something worse!" she nagged, finishing up the tear to his lip and putting down the regenerator with an emphatic gesture of triumph.
"There! You're better than you started out!" she exaggerated with a mischievous grin. "and I'm better at reconstructing Romulans than I thought I would be!"
“Well, you’re working with top quality material, Miss Chelsea,” he said his focus on the screen, “Look at that … there is a Pellan Janna on Bajor married to a Pellan Joran, two children. She’s a schoolteacher. Similar build to our blonde fake … very clever,” softly Rh’vaurek began to laugh. “How did you know she wasn’t Bajoran?” he asked.
Chelsea wince-grinned in response to his teasing her by calling her *Miss Chelsea* in the manner of her earlier misdemeanour.
~I guess I deserve that!~ she thought philosophically to herself. ~At least he hasn't taken offence and had me thrown out of an airlock!~
"Her earring." she replied to his question "It bears a religious inscription that appears upside down. It could have indicated a worshipper of the Pah Wraiths, but then she would have behaved differently. It was a mistake no normal Bajoran citizen would make. They take their religion very seriously on Bajor."
Rh'varuek nodded, it confirmed his intuitive conclusion, “She’s a telepath! She lifted their identities straight from their minds … but, she had no idea that she’d picked a couple who follow a cult. No wonder she bolted when she saw you,” Rh’vaurek pointed at Chelsea. “She must have known you suspected her immediately. Then they changed strategy – she backed off and he … let’s assume he isn’t Bajoran either, or a telepath. They’ve both had reconstructive surgery to alter their appearance, they’re living under assumed identities … someone’s paying them a lot of latinum ... someone who’s started demanding results. He got careless,” he speculated.
"Do you have any idea who might have put them up to this? What was the intention in ingratiating themselves with Isha? Information they hoped to glean? You said he was dangerous.... you must believe there was a threat to her?" Chelsea was all questions now.
“Why don’t you tie me to that chair and shine a light in my eyes, Chelsea?” Regarding her oddly Rh’vaurek folded his arms, “How do I know you don’t already know the answers?” he said as though giving that option some serious thought. “Sit down.”
"But why do *I* have to sit down if it's *you* who is to be tied to a chair and questioned?" she responded, sitting down anyway in case he took her by the shoulders and insisted physically as he had done earlier.
"You see, my already knowing the answers could only be possible if I was complicit." she reasoned out loud. "and *if* you believed I were, we shouldn't be such good friends as we've become!" Her grin widened at the look *that* brought to his face.
Rh'vaurek smirked, "More importantly it would mean that my initial assessment of you was wrong, which you'll agree is impossible."
Much less intimidated than she *ought* to have been, Chelsea pulled her face back into a straight expression dutifully.
"Oh but of *course*!" she said, dripping with irony.
He had succeeded in distracting her attention from the screen which was busily trying to match the doctor's analysis with the extensive records of the Tal'Shiar; he had also noticed a brief message flash up on the screen, a whole message within the symbol which reminded him, among other things that she should not really be there whilst that system was up and running.
He leaned against the edge of the console, his body obscuring the screen from her view; "As a good friend, and because you've been so accommodating, maybe you could mention to your other good friend Isha something of the virtues of doing what she's told without arguing, especially when there's someone lurking around who means her harm," he said through a widening smirk. "There seems to be nothing I can say to make her take this seriously. Do that and I'll do you a favour, as a friend; I won't kill your boy next time I see him."
Chelsea's smile faded and her eyes became deep and brooding as the renewed mention of a threat to Ryan acted like cold water on her new found comfort zone, dispersing it rapidly.
"I'll willingly warn Isha of the danger and if you insist, I'll even allow you to think i'm doing it as a favour to you since increasing your debt to me can't be a bad thing." she conceded softly, managing a wry smile.
"As for removing your threat to Ryan, on whom my whole life and happiness hangs, I have never understood why you feel the need to extinguish life for any reason, let alone the most trivial reasons such as pride or revenge. Why would it be so much to ask of you *not* to destroy me just because you can?" she sighed, gazing at him with an odd mix of disillusionment, fear and compassion.
"I wanted to believe you were *bigger* than that, Mister Rh'vaurek. I wonder if you ever had a *good friend* of the unconditional and motive-free kind that I would have made, had you been capable of allowing it."
Turning away, Chelsea found herself moved. She wondered if it was her personal disappointment or simply a realisation of her own naivety that was stinging her so much.
"I'll leave you to congratulate yourself on having achieved your aim in finding something to push me away with."
She walked towards the door. "Keep the padd. You can apply your cloak and dagger methods at your leisure when I am no longer in your way." she cast back in a flat monotone.
Somewhere inside Chelsea the flicker of a tiny hope still burned even though part of her resented the *weakness* (as Raedheol would see it) of stubbornly clinging to a vain and foolish notion - but another side of the woman with the ready smile and sunny nature refused to give up on even such a dark and wounded soul as his.
Rh'vaurek rubbed the back of his neck as he watched her go. Consider it a favour, he thought; she didn't need a friend like him.
His indifferent silence was the only reply she was going to get.
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