Beg, Steal or Borrow – Before you go . . .
by Alderman Dorian Gabriel & Commander Isha t'Vaurek
Post Details
Gabriel walked down the hall glancing at the Padd in his hand. The day was almost over, and he still had enough work ahead of him to last him for an entire week. ~No rest for the weary~ he thought to himself as he walked around the corner, came upon his intended destination and pressed the chime forcefully.
Isha rose from her chair, the doctor’s repairs still too new to allow her natural movement. Her fingers curled into her palms as she stepped toward the door, “Why can you not leave me in peace,” she hissed. “Let him in,” she said wishing that she had asked Chelsea to stay.
Gabriel stepped through the barrier of her door and gave her quarters a sweeping glance before turning to face her. "This doesn't look like Sick bay, Ambassador" Gabriel said in a less than sympathetic tone. "I figured that my subordinates would directly disobey me, so I never bothered to go down there for our conversation." He said.
Gabriel knew that he was going to have to do something about the blatant insubordination that he was beginning to experience amongst his security and intelligence officers. Just add that to the already growing pile of things that needed to be done.
“I have nothing to say to you. How can I phrase that so you will understand?
Gabriel paused for a moment before responding. Instead of speaking he simply handed her the Padd in his hand for her to review. "I want you to memorize the names on that padd. Those are the names of all the non-starfleet Federation citizens that died at your people's hands" He said bitterly. "I want you to remember the name of each innocent civilian that became an unwilling pawn in your House's pointless spat." He continued.
Her hand dropped without so much as a glance at the padd. “What you want and what I will do are unlikely to coincide, Agent Gabriel … or is it Constable now?” she took a step back, the fingers of her free hand gripping the back of the sofa.
He could see that the stress of the past several days were beginning to show themselves on Isha's face. In fact, it was obvious that it was beginning to affect her physical appearance throughout her entire body. Perhaps it was her age that was finally catching up with her or maybe she was dying. Either way, her medical history was not Gabriel's concern.
“Why don’t you do something about the negligence on board this station instead of bothering yourself with things you cannot begin to understand?”
"I don't care Isha," Gabriel responded. "My people are dead because of you and all I have in my custody is a Romulan Commander and some lowly pilot, and neither one of them seem too interested in cooperating." He added. "And in the middle of this hell-storm seems to be you and your dysfunctional family!" He said, as his temper began to rise.
She drew one arm over her body, the padd flat and hard against her stomach, “What do you know about anything? If they are all you have captured it is because they are all you are capable of capturing,” Isha said evenly.
He continued to look at the woman as he spoke. "It doesn't surprise me that your own son would try to get rid of you. Your government doesn't know the first thing about loyalty, why should your children be any different?" He said caustically.
Not thinking Isha drew back her arm and flung the padd at his face. The sound from her lips was torn both from her rage and from the tear of bruised muscle that ripped down her torso, “Out! Out, OUT!”
Gabriel did not expect such a sudden move and did not react quickly enough. The padd smashed into the side of his head, creating a significant gash across the side of his face. He took several seconds to cradle his injured face before looking at the obviously disheveled woman.
"You called me a 'Constable', but what would your kind know about law and order, you don't even know the basic precepts of family. You are no worst than the Terran Crabs in a barrel that wouldn't hesitate to pull one another down to suffer just like them." He continued to press on.
"Normally I wouldn't care about you degenerate clan, but they've decided to bring Starfleet into your family's torrid affair and I intend on finding out who is responsible. Your House has two choices: Either help me now, or wait to find out just how far Federation justice will go." he said as he narrowed his eyes on her.
"What do the attacks on this station and on Commander Da`nal's family have to do with one another?" He demanded, more than asked.
“What has that bloody Klingon got to do with anything?” she cried, running her hands into her hair. “Everyone in the quadrant apart from you knows there is bad blood between our families – am I guilty for that too? Perhaps there are a thousand other things that happened before my birth that you’d like to accuse me of. Gabriel, I have no choice, there is none that you can offer me. Federation justice?” Isha laughed as her hands fell to her sides, the blaze that lit her eyes dim but as dangerous as her tone. “You have no idea what you are talking about when you mention the law.”
Gabriel was slightly taken aback by her response. This was not the Romulan that he had encountered before. She had obviously been hurt, emotionally in addition to physically. It was obvious that this recent attack had always waged an equally damaging engagement against her soul, if Romulans could possess such things.
"As a Starfleet officer I took an oath to obey the law in order to enforce it, therefore I'm constrained by what I can do to bring your kind to justice. However. . ." He said as he rubbed his cut, "Maybe your son did this entire galaxy a favor by attempting to dispose of you in such a fashion. Who knows how many lives could have been saved." He said pointedly.
As she gripped the back of the sofa Isha wanted to do nothing more than to throw herself at him and dig her fingernails deep into the gouge in his cheek and pull the sides apart. Breathing deeply she tightened her hold on the fabric, “if you were capable of having a son you would not speak so lightly of betrayal, Gabriel,” she said, her tone almost a groan. “But you don’t understand it any more than you understand love or joy. Enjoy the comforts of those constraints, and if the day comes that they win and a hundred suns across the Alpha Quadrant shine on races enslaved to their new Empire I hope that my ghost lingers long enough to hear you wish that somebody had accepted that justice needed to be served, whatever the cost to themselves.”
Gabriel stared off into the distance for a moment before responding. For several moments he thought about what her kind had taken away from him: A chance at having child, a family, Her. . .
Isha shifted slightly as she peered at Gabriel and relaxed her grip. Contemplative silence was the last thing that she had expected from him, the ache she read in his empty expression, a bare sliver of vulnerability and one that he would probably prefer her not to have seen; Isha filed that away for future reference, there was no benefit to using it now … and loss, loss she could understand.
“I think you ought to go,” Isha told him. “Your subjective and deficient notions of right, and wrong are of no interest to me. As usual, the Empire will step in and quietly deal with yet another problem that the Federation prefers to ignore because it threatens to upset those delicate sensibilities that constrain you so.”
Gabriel continued to stare off into nothingness until the sound of Isha's voice brought him back to the present. "If there were true justice in this galaxy, that orb of mendacity you call a planet would be nothing more than a bombed-out floating rock." He said with finality as he walked across the foyer and towards the door.
To think, she had almost wasted a pang of sympathy on him! “You have a rotten heart, Gabriel. A rotten heart and a poisonous soul - it's no wonder you’re always alone - such an aura is repellent to all but the most base of beings,” Isha said after him, to hate an individual or a family was one thing, but to advocate the eradication of her world … Isha fumed … for no better reason than malice … “Skulk here until everything you ever held dear is revealed for the sham it is and pray that I don’t find cause to help bring that home to you.”
As Gabriel stepped through the doors he stopped to face her one last time. "Ahh yes, you are one to speak about love and companionship, aren't you Isha. By the way, where is your friend Raedheol?" Gabriel said while purposely mangling the pronunciation of it in a Federation dialect. Before she could respond Gabriel raised his hand and cut her off, "No wait, don't tell me. Regardless of where he is, the important thing is that he isn't with you." Gabriel said with a smile as the doors hissed shut between them.
END
Ambassador Isha t’Khellian
Lieutenant Dorian Gabriel
Chief Security/Intelligence Officer
by Alderman Dorian Gabriel & Commander Isha t'Vaurek
Post Details
| Title | Before you go . . . | |
| Mission | Beg, Steal or Borrow | |
| Author(s) | Alderman Dorian Gabriel & Commander Isha t'Vaurek | |
| Posted | Sun May 24, 2009 @ 3:35pm | |
| Location | Ambassador's Quarters | |
| Timeline | SD 8: 22:15 |
Isha rose from her chair, the doctor’s repairs still too new to allow her natural movement. Her fingers curled into her palms as she stepped toward the door, “Why can you not leave me in peace,” she hissed. “Let him in,” she said wishing that she had asked Chelsea to stay.
Gabriel stepped through the barrier of her door and gave her quarters a sweeping glance before turning to face her. "This doesn't look like Sick bay, Ambassador" Gabriel said in a less than sympathetic tone. "I figured that my subordinates would directly disobey me, so I never bothered to go down there for our conversation." He said.
Gabriel knew that he was going to have to do something about the blatant insubordination that he was beginning to experience amongst his security and intelligence officers. Just add that to the already growing pile of things that needed to be done.
“I have nothing to say to you. How can I phrase that so you will understand?
Gabriel paused for a moment before responding. Instead of speaking he simply handed her the Padd in his hand for her to review. "I want you to memorize the names on that padd. Those are the names of all the non-starfleet Federation citizens that died at your people's hands" He said bitterly. "I want you to remember the name of each innocent civilian that became an unwilling pawn in your House's pointless spat." He continued.
Her hand dropped without so much as a glance at the padd. “What you want and what I will do are unlikely to coincide, Agent Gabriel … or is it Constable now?” she took a step back, the fingers of her free hand gripping the back of the sofa.
He could see that the stress of the past several days were beginning to show themselves on Isha's face. In fact, it was obvious that it was beginning to affect her physical appearance throughout her entire body. Perhaps it was her age that was finally catching up with her or maybe she was dying. Either way, her medical history was not Gabriel's concern.
“Why don’t you do something about the negligence on board this station instead of bothering yourself with things you cannot begin to understand?”
"I don't care Isha," Gabriel responded. "My people are dead because of you and all I have in my custody is a Romulan Commander and some lowly pilot, and neither one of them seem too interested in cooperating." He added. "And in the middle of this hell-storm seems to be you and your dysfunctional family!" He said, as his temper began to rise.
She drew one arm over her body, the padd flat and hard against her stomach, “What do you know about anything? If they are all you have captured it is because they are all you are capable of capturing,” Isha said evenly.
He continued to look at the woman as he spoke. "It doesn't surprise me that your own son would try to get rid of you. Your government doesn't know the first thing about loyalty, why should your children be any different?" He said caustically.
Not thinking Isha drew back her arm and flung the padd at his face. The sound from her lips was torn both from her rage and from the tear of bruised muscle that ripped down her torso, “Out! Out, OUT!”
Gabriel did not expect such a sudden move and did not react quickly enough. The padd smashed into the side of his head, creating a significant gash across the side of his face. He took several seconds to cradle his injured face before looking at the obviously disheveled woman.
"You called me a 'Constable', but what would your kind know about law and order, you don't even know the basic precepts of family. You are no worst than the Terran Crabs in a barrel that wouldn't hesitate to pull one another down to suffer just like them." He continued to press on.
"Normally I wouldn't care about you degenerate clan, but they've decided to bring Starfleet into your family's torrid affair and I intend on finding out who is responsible. Your House has two choices: Either help me now, or wait to find out just how far Federation justice will go." he said as he narrowed his eyes on her.
"What do the attacks on this station and on Commander Da`nal's family have to do with one another?" He demanded, more than asked.
“What has that bloody Klingon got to do with anything?” she cried, running her hands into her hair. “Everyone in the quadrant apart from you knows there is bad blood between our families – am I guilty for that too? Perhaps there are a thousand other things that happened before my birth that you’d like to accuse me of. Gabriel, I have no choice, there is none that you can offer me. Federation justice?” Isha laughed as her hands fell to her sides, the blaze that lit her eyes dim but as dangerous as her tone. “You have no idea what you are talking about when you mention the law.”
Gabriel was slightly taken aback by her response. This was not the Romulan that he had encountered before. She had obviously been hurt, emotionally in addition to physically. It was obvious that this recent attack had always waged an equally damaging engagement against her soul, if Romulans could possess such things.
"As a Starfleet officer I took an oath to obey the law in order to enforce it, therefore I'm constrained by what I can do to bring your kind to justice. However. . ." He said as he rubbed his cut, "Maybe your son did this entire galaxy a favor by attempting to dispose of you in such a fashion. Who knows how many lives could have been saved." He said pointedly.
As she gripped the back of the sofa Isha wanted to do nothing more than to throw herself at him and dig her fingernails deep into the gouge in his cheek and pull the sides apart. Breathing deeply she tightened her hold on the fabric, “if you were capable of having a son you would not speak so lightly of betrayal, Gabriel,” she said, her tone almost a groan. “But you don’t understand it any more than you understand love or joy. Enjoy the comforts of those constraints, and if the day comes that they win and a hundred suns across the Alpha Quadrant shine on races enslaved to their new Empire I hope that my ghost lingers long enough to hear you wish that somebody had accepted that justice needed to be served, whatever the cost to themselves.”
Gabriel stared off into the distance for a moment before responding. For several moments he thought about what her kind had taken away from him: A chance at having child, a family, Her. . .
Isha shifted slightly as she peered at Gabriel and relaxed her grip. Contemplative silence was the last thing that she had expected from him, the ache she read in his empty expression, a bare sliver of vulnerability and one that he would probably prefer her not to have seen; Isha filed that away for future reference, there was no benefit to using it now … and loss, loss she could understand.
“I think you ought to go,” Isha told him. “Your subjective and deficient notions of right, and wrong are of no interest to me. As usual, the Empire will step in and quietly deal with yet another problem that the Federation prefers to ignore because it threatens to upset those delicate sensibilities that constrain you so.”
Gabriel continued to stare off into nothingness until the sound of Isha's voice brought him back to the present. "If there were true justice in this galaxy, that orb of mendacity you call a planet would be nothing more than a bombed-out floating rock." He said with finality as he walked across the foyer and towards the door.
To think, she had almost wasted a pang of sympathy on him! “You have a rotten heart, Gabriel. A rotten heart and a poisonous soul - it's no wonder you’re always alone - such an aura is repellent to all but the most base of beings,” Isha said after him, to hate an individual or a family was one thing, but to advocate the eradication of her world … Isha fumed … for no better reason than malice … “Skulk here until everything you ever held dear is revealed for the sham it is and pray that I don’t find cause to help bring that home to you.”
As Gabriel stepped through the doors he stopped to face her one last time. "Ahh yes, you are one to speak about love and companionship, aren't you Isha. By the way, where is your friend Raedheol?" Gabriel said while purposely mangling the pronunciation of it in a Federation dialect. Before she could respond Gabriel raised his hand and cut her off, "No wait, don't tell me. Regardless of where he is, the important thing is that he isn't with you." Gabriel said with a smile as the doors hissed shut between them.
END
Ambassador Isha t’Khellian
Lieutenant Dorian Gabriel
Chief Security/Intelligence Officer