Interlude – A Subtle Form of Interrogation
by Colonel James Darson & Commander Chelsea Dunham
Post Details
ON:
Darson stalked into Main Sickbay, his dark cloak and armor clashing terribly with the friendly soft light of the medical area. He gazed around and looked for his target…the lovely ACMO, Dr. Adams. After his talk with Isha, he had been most curious about the nature of their relationship and had made a point of investigating it. But with certain other events taking place recently, he decided it was finally time to pay her a visit in person.
He gestured over at a nurse to get her attention and then said politely, “I’m looking for Dr. Adams…do you have any idea where I might find her?”
"She's in the office" the nurse replied, indicating with her arm towards the centre of Sickbay at the back. She went back to her tasks, leaving Darson to find his own way.
“Thank you,” he said pleasantly before doing an about face and performing a ridiculous stalking maneuver with extremely long strides to get to the office door. He straightened up and made sure he was as presentable as possible. Cloak straightened and armor polished. He gave a mental shrug and knocked on the frame of the hatch, “Dr. Adams,” he said, not sure if she would prefer to be addressed by rank or profession, “good day to you. I was wondering if I could have a moment of your time.”
Chelsea looked up from the padds on her desk. "Good morning, how can I help you, Colonel?" She recognized Colonel Darson immediately, how could she not? He was distinctive to say the least.
He stepped smoothly into the office and took a seat in front of the desk, the cloak furling all around the deck, “Well,” he said pleasantly, “I have just been feeling so under the weather lately that I came for a checkup,” A lie. And not necessarily a good one either. He really didn’t expect her to believe it, but he felt that it would be enough for someone like her.
"I've never known you to be 'off-colour' before Colonel, in fact we have no medical records for you as you seem never to have been inside Sickbay before today. A remarkable and unique feat since everyone should have at least a base record in case of emergency." Chelsea replied a shade cynically.
“Oh, I’m on the go so much that it’s hard to keep appointments for such things to be documented,” Darson responded seriously, “That being said, even I, blessed this with this hot piece of irresistible man candy as a body, have my off days,” He gestured grandly at the shiny armor, “But I also came down to talk…have a little chat, get to know you a little bit better. After all, I haven’t talked to you outside the course of daily duties since…well…never, actually. And I wanted to know more about one of the people who have been providing guidance in my precocious little Kim’s life. She’s at a very impressionable age, you know.
"It might be my turn to be flattered to think you wish to get to know me but since your actually here to check out Kim and her influences, I find I'm less inclined to feel adulated." Chelsea replied, still quizzical about this visit.
“Oh, don’t feel that way,” Darson said waving a hand as if to get her to dismiss that line of thought, “Just because I care about her well-being doesn’t mean I would concoct a flimsy excuse to talk to you about it.”
"I am aware that Kim is impressionable, Colonel, but as long as you have her interests at heart, I feel sure it would be an excessively brave or foolish being that would risk attempting to coerce or induce her along an unfortunate path." Chelsea countered. She didn't know why, but she felt defensive. It confused her as she had no reason nor desire to suspect the motives of the man.
“Mmm…yes, well in any case. Let’s talk about you. I believe we both have a mutual friend here on the station, so that seems like a good place to start. Isha t’Khellian, the Romulan Ambassador. I was having a very…intimate…talk with her recently, and you came up as the subject of the conversation. Nothing bad, good things only…but I must admit to curiosity as to the nature of your…relationship,” his tone was pleasant, but there was a probing undercurrent that hinted that this was not a social call. As he spoke he gazed down at her hand and noticed the glimmering ring on her finger and instantly recognized it for what it was.
"I'm sure, Colonel Darson" Chelsea began, withdrawing now it was becoming apparent that he was here to quiz her on the subject of Isha which of course she was sworn not to reveal details to anyone. "....that the Romulan Ambassador would have told you anything she wanted you to know during your *intimate* conversation. There can be nothing I could possibly add." She stood up, indicating the conversation was over and began to move towards the door.
“You know Isha is in a whole bunch of trouble, right?” Darson said as he stood up calmly, taking advantage of Chelsea’s feelings for the troubled Romulan ambassador, “I’m helping her out. And in order to do that, I’m collecting information from people who’ve had close contact with her…people like you, my dear doctor.”
"If you think the Ambassador is *a whole bunch of trouble* then why are you so keen to *help her out*, Colonel?" Chelsea asked somewhat suspicious of his motives.
Darson drew abreast of her in the doorway and said pleasantly, “All I want to do is talk. If you answer my questions to the best of your abilities, I will leave and never question you about it again. I certainly don’t want to look elsewhere for answers and end up revealing something to somebody who doesn’t need to know. What do you say?” The tone was pleasant, but there was something behind it.
"Revealing things to people who don't need to know them doesn't sound like the professional I know you to be." She replied, parrying with him in an attempt to find out what was going on.
“You’re right,” Darson said, taking the backhanded compliment in his stride, “I am a professional. And I will do anything it takes,” he put a delicate emphasis on the words, “to get the job done. You will find that I can be a far more pleasant experience to deal with then either Starfleet Intelligence and Security,” referring to both Wallace and Gabriel respectively, “But you can also find that I have the capacity to be far worse then both of them put together.” There was no threatening tone in his voice.
“All I want is to help Isha. A favor of sorts…to her dead husband, god rest his soul. She has given me her trust, her confidence…to elicit…payment of sorts from those who have done her wrong. So can’t you trust me too?”
"I thought she'd dealt with Nniol?" Chelsea went only as far as she felt safe to, dropping only the most public name of Isha's enemies to let Darson know she wasn't going to be completely naive and taken in by the "I'm her only friend and protector" line. She avoided mention of her *ira'v'Dianvm* (Romulan adopted older brother) but Darson was going to have to realize she wasn't someone who could be simply patronized into the 'comfy chair' type of coercion.
“…” Darson remained quiet for a moment and stared at her. They were still in the doorway and beginning to attract a fair amount of attention from the medical personnel. This woman was fooling around with him. He had thought that she would be easy to break with the right platitudes, but his lack of contact with the good doctor had caused him to make something of a tactical error.
He bent down and craned his neck until his mask was at face level with her, a few centimeters away, blank surface staring into alert and slightly confused brown eyes, “…Do you take me for an idiot?” he asked, honestly curious.
"Certainly not Colonel" Chelsea replied candidly. "I simply do not fall for the kind of condescending manipulative nonsense that you have been dishing out to me since you arrived. If you wish to have a proper conversation, honestly discussing whatever your real agenda actually is, then please come inside my office.
However, if you wish to continue to insult me by trying to trick me into revealing information about my good friend then please leave." She stood back in the doorway allowing him to make whichever choice he preferred. When he strode past her into the office, the door closed behind him making this interview more private.
“She did indeed deal with Ninol,” Darson said in a voice that was still composed but had a tinge of cold tritanium to it, “But only a fool would believe that Isha has no more enemies. What I am referring to in this case is one that has been a persistent thorn in her side…and other places. Someone who is behind series of incidents that you, perhaps, might be aware of. A person,” he lowered his voice to a whisper, “who has violated her in the worst way. As her friend, I thought that you would be more willing to help somebody trying to help her. But I guess I was wrong.”
As if to punctuate the statement, he reached out a finger and shook it in her face, his hand accidentally brushing against her uniform arm on the way up, sending quite a shock up his arm and into his head, setting off quite literally alarm bells in his helmet. Safety instincts taking over, he withdrew his hand quickly and took a step back as if he had been burned, standing straight as if to display his imperial nature. However internally he was confused as to what had set off that reaction. Something was wrong here.
"Colonel Darson, I would give my life for Isha if I thought it would assist her but you have come to me with insinuations, platitudes, an insulting attitude that you can fool and use me for your own ends, for or against her - I don't know which, but with subterfuge that has been designed both to bewilder and fool me at the same time as attempting to milk me of information that I have no proof you might not misuse.
IF you are indeed attempting to assist Isha against the enemy you mention by outline, then you have my full support, however, for all I know you could be his ally.... so I am unable to discern what to safely say to you at this time.
Also, I have no intention of engaging in a battle or words nor wits with you as I know I should lose both if I were to be so foolish. I simply have no idea whom I can trust and therefore I am attempting to avoid your, and anyone else's, attempts to bully, badger, trick or ensnare me." Chelsea explained her position in a calm tone.
“…Of course,” Darson said slowly, still confused as to what exactly was going on here. His sensors had registered a small but noticeable burst of chronitons that were out of sync with his current settings. He made a show of thinking, moving around the room and placing a hand contemplatively on various things…the wall, the door, the chair. Nothing was triggering.
“Listening devices have a tendency to go deaf in my presence,” he said as he circled the room, “But there is always someone who is listening. I want to play you something. It should in fact confirm my allegiances for what they are. You can choose whether or not to believe it…but let me just make one thing clear, you breathe a word of this to anybody, and I will make you disappear. Of that you can be sure.” He placed a small media player on the desk and engaged it.
With a small crackle it began to play back, with crystal clear audio, the conversation he had had with Isha about her own private war, recorded by his own suit, starting with what was clearly Isha saying, “A few days later he retaliated, brutally, and, I imagine he thinks decisively,”
While the conversation was playing, Darson moved behind the doctor, touching things on the back wall behind her desk, still nothing. What the hell? Was the reading him? Did he forget to zero the readings after travelling through time himself? No…if he hadn’t the damm thing would be going off all the time.
As Isha said on the recording, “I happen to know how Getal plans to take over this station and I am willing to do anything within my power to see that that does not happen. I think that is an interest we share, Colonel,” Darson stood behind the good doctor and reached over her to stop the recording, the other hand coming to rest on her shoulder.
“I think that’s enough,” he said tacitly as the alarms went off again. So it was her, “Do you believe me now?”
"I believe that you and Isha have an arrangement to counter a mutual enemy. What I do not understand is why, if she wanted me to assist you with this, she would not have asked me herself or at least given me permission to speak about whatever it is that you want to know. By the way, so that we may move this on, if you have finished your search, perhaps you could enlighten me about what it is you want from me?" Chelsea was guessing from the thorough circuit Darson had made and his sudden interest in being tactile, an attribute she had so often seen him avoid before this, she could only deduce he was looking for something although she had no idea what. She just had a feeling she had just been 'searched'.
~Why can't the wretched man just be straight with me. I hate all this cloak and dagger nonsense.... ~ she thought, suddenly realizing the cloak reference was ironically amusing. A slight glimmer of a smile crossed her expression for a split second as the thought passed across the horizon of her thoughts.
Darson, finally satisfied (to a degree) moved back to the chair across the desk from her and said calmly, “What I want from you is simply how you know Isha. What your relationship is with her, how it started, how much she trusts you, and why. Is that so much to ask for? That is the honest truth. I swear on my grave. And yes, I actually have a grave with somebody in it…but that is a story for another time.”
Chelsea warmed to him in that moment. She didn't want to let her guard down but she was reminded of the story he told at Rianni's party and she smiled. "No doubt that would be a fine after dinner speech for our wedding, Colonel." she said, much less defensively. "You *will* do us the honour of coming to our wedding, won't you?" she added with a genuine smile.
Darson nodded, “Of course, though I was awaiting the invitation. In addition to my vast reservoir or spectacular and magnificent stories (which of course granted me the legendary reputation as the Storyteller of Gandrain V), I will provide entertainment in the form of ice sculptures and juggling. But before that…we must resolve our business here, should we not? I don’t think I’m asking that much of you. Certainly not to betray a friend’s trust.”
"Okay, I don't see how *that* much could hurt.... and whilst I shouldn't like to ever be so unfortunate as to come between you and whatever, or whomever you have in your sights Colonel, I don't believe you're malignant. Mysterious....one could almost say legendary possibly superhuman? Or perhaps *in*human? - I am unsure even now...... as you go to great lengths to keep us all guessing! Yet I am so much in dread of being naive or gullible where Isha is concerned, that you must excuse my deep reluctance to take even the slightest risk, as I am aware that she has powerful and ruthless enemies, as well as friends......" Chelsea gave Darson a long look and decided to trust him with the barest basics.
"I met Isha by chance, when I first came to this station... my very first day in fact. I bumped into her, literally, and in apologizing we got talking and I told her I was going for lunch, which she was too, so we ended up lunching together. She was here as a journalist back then. I was new and I knew no-one. I had been through a recent emotional downturn in my personal life that had led me to seek out a fresh start. I had NO idea who this lady was, otherwise I think i would have been more overawed, but we talked, or rather she listened... it was kind of her to take an interest in my unimportant little troubles, but they seemed to fascinate her, apparently as much due to the vast differences in our cultures as anything, and so we continued to meet and became friends. Is that what you needed to know?"
Darson nodded sagely, “Yes, that’s more like it. But that is the past. What about now?”
"Well, she is kind enough to continue to advise me on my trivia. She was also kind to me when I broke up with Ryan Milarno and she introduced me to Rick, for which alone I shall be eternally grateful! .....but I don't think that's the sort of politically relevant.... or ANY kind of relevant.... information that you're looking for.... unless it's something terrible in that Isha has been kind to me.....? Does that show weakness in her society? To me it shows incredible generosity of spirit, but her enemies might use *that* against her too."
Chelsea looked uncomfortable again. Had even such a little, been too much?
"You see, Colonel, how even the very friendship that I claim *could* possibly hurt her. I should hate to repay her with such treachery as to have even admitted so much as i have, if it were to be used negatively against her. I entreat you to use what I have said only for good. I believe you are someone who is powerful enough to damage Isha if you wished and I would not be a party to that, for all the universe."
Darson should have asked more, should have probed a little deeper, but he had other things on his mind and he had already accomplished his objective by coming here and plying her with questions…it all fit into his extremely circuitous and convoluted grand master plan, “Of course I see,” Darson said calmly whilst leaning back in the chair, “But you must also understand that I am in a tough position. But…I didn’t mean to put you in one. I do apologize.”
Chelsea shrugged. "I'm not going to hold it against you, we all have our roles to play and our jobs to do" she replied without malice or criticism intended.
“I think that’s enough for now though,” Darson said abruptly, standing up, “Thank you for being so cooperative Doctor…it has been most helpful. Although,” he lowered his voice and said in a secretive tone, “We’ll keep this conversation in between us, won’t we?”
"We will!" she replied resolutely, by way of a deal struck.
As Darson left, Chelsea was unsure whether she had just made a friend or whether she had just been taken for a fool. It was an unsettling feeling as she went back to work and to think.
A JP between:
Colonel James Darson
MCO - DS5
and
Commander Chelsea Adams
CMO - DS5
by Colonel James Darson & Commander Chelsea Dunham
Post Details
| Title | A Subtle Form of Interrogation | |
| Mission | Interlude | |
| Author(s) | Colonel James Darson & Commander Chelsea Dunham | |
| Posted | Sat Jan 15, 2011 @ 10:53pm | |
| Location | DS5 - Main Sickbay | |
| Timeline | SD 35 - undisclosed |
Darson stalked into Main Sickbay, his dark cloak and armor clashing terribly with the friendly soft light of the medical area. He gazed around and looked for his target…the lovely ACMO, Dr. Adams. After his talk with Isha, he had been most curious about the nature of their relationship and had made a point of investigating it. But with certain other events taking place recently, he decided it was finally time to pay her a visit in person.
He gestured over at a nurse to get her attention and then said politely, “I’m looking for Dr. Adams…do you have any idea where I might find her?”
"She's in the office" the nurse replied, indicating with her arm towards the centre of Sickbay at the back. She went back to her tasks, leaving Darson to find his own way.
“Thank you,” he said pleasantly before doing an about face and performing a ridiculous stalking maneuver with extremely long strides to get to the office door. He straightened up and made sure he was as presentable as possible. Cloak straightened and armor polished. He gave a mental shrug and knocked on the frame of the hatch, “Dr. Adams,” he said, not sure if she would prefer to be addressed by rank or profession, “good day to you. I was wondering if I could have a moment of your time.”
Chelsea looked up from the padds on her desk. "Good morning, how can I help you, Colonel?" She recognized Colonel Darson immediately, how could she not? He was distinctive to say the least.
He stepped smoothly into the office and took a seat in front of the desk, the cloak furling all around the deck, “Well,” he said pleasantly, “I have just been feeling so under the weather lately that I came for a checkup,” A lie. And not necessarily a good one either. He really didn’t expect her to believe it, but he felt that it would be enough for someone like her.
"I've never known you to be 'off-colour' before Colonel, in fact we have no medical records for you as you seem never to have been inside Sickbay before today. A remarkable and unique feat since everyone should have at least a base record in case of emergency." Chelsea replied a shade cynically.
“Oh, I’m on the go so much that it’s hard to keep appointments for such things to be documented,” Darson responded seriously, “That being said, even I, blessed this with this hot piece of irresistible man candy as a body, have my off days,” He gestured grandly at the shiny armor, “But I also came down to talk…have a little chat, get to know you a little bit better. After all, I haven’t talked to you outside the course of daily duties since…well…never, actually. And I wanted to know more about one of the people who have been providing guidance in my precocious little Kim’s life. She’s at a very impressionable age, you know.
"It might be my turn to be flattered to think you wish to get to know me but since your actually here to check out Kim and her influences, I find I'm less inclined to feel adulated." Chelsea replied, still quizzical about this visit.
“Oh, don’t feel that way,” Darson said waving a hand as if to get her to dismiss that line of thought, “Just because I care about her well-being doesn’t mean I would concoct a flimsy excuse to talk to you about it.”
"I am aware that Kim is impressionable, Colonel, but as long as you have her interests at heart, I feel sure it would be an excessively brave or foolish being that would risk attempting to coerce or induce her along an unfortunate path." Chelsea countered. She didn't know why, but she felt defensive. It confused her as she had no reason nor desire to suspect the motives of the man.
“Mmm…yes, well in any case. Let’s talk about you. I believe we both have a mutual friend here on the station, so that seems like a good place to start. Isha t’Khellian, the Romulan Ambassador. I was having a very…intimate…talk with her recently, and you came up as the subject of the conversation. Nothing bad, good things only…but I must admit to curiosity as to the nature of your…relationship,” his tone was pleasant, but there was a probing undercurrent that hinted that this was not a social call. As he spoke he gazed down at her hand and noticed the glimmering ring on her finger and instantly recognized it for what it was.
"I'm sure, Colonel Darson" Chelsea began, withdrawing now it was becoming apparent that he was here to quiz her on the subject of Isha which of course she was sworn not to reveal details to anyone. "....that the Romulan Ambassador would have told you anything she wanted you to know during your *intimate* conversation. There can be nothing I could possibly add." She stood up, indicating the conversation was over and began to move towards the door.
“You know Isha is in a whole bunch of trouble, right?” Darson said as he stood up calmly, taking advantage of Chelsea’s feelings for the troubled Romulan ambassador, “I’m helping her out. And in order to do that, I’m collecting information from people who’ve had close contact with her…people like you, my dear doctor.”
"If you think the Ambassador is *a whole bunch of trouble* then why are you so keen to *help her out*, Colonel?" Chelsea asked somewhat suspicious of his motives.
Darson drew abreast of her in the doorway and said pleasantly, “All I want to do is talk. If you answer my questions to the best of your abilities, I will leave and never question you about it again. I certainly don’t want to look elsewhere for answers and end up revealing something to somebody who doesn’t need to know. What do you say?” The tone was pleasant, but there was something behind it.
"Revealing things to people who don't need to know them doesn't sound like the professional I know you to be." She replied, parrying with him in an attempt to find out what was going on.
“You’re right,” Darson said, taking the backhanded compliment in his stride, “I am a professional. And I will do anything it takes,” he put a delicate emphasis on the words, “to get the job done. You will find that I can be a far more pleasant experience to deal with then either Starfleet Intelligence and Security,” referring to both Wallace and Gabriel respectively, “But you can also find that I have the capacity to be far worse then both of them put together.” There was no threatening tone in his voice.
“All I want is to help Isha. A favor of sorts…to her dead husband, god rest his soul. She has given me her trust, her confidence…to elicit…payment of sorts from those who have done her wrong. So can’t you trust me too?”
"I thought she'd dealt with Nniol?" Chelsea went only as far as she felt safe to, dropping only the most public name of Isha's enemies to let Darson know she wasn't going to be completely naive and taken in by the "I'm her only friend and protector" line. She avoided mention of her *ira'v'Dianvm* (Romulan adopted older brother) but Darson was going to have to realize she wasn't someone who could be simply patronized into the 'comfy chair' type of coercion.
“…” Darson remained quiet for a moment and stared at her. They were still in the doorway and beginning to attract a fair amount of attention from the medical personnel. This woman was fooling around with him. He had thought that she would be easy to break with the right platitudes, but his lack of contact with the good doctor had caused him to make something of a tactical error.
He bent down and craned his neck until his mask was at face level with her, a few centimeters away, blank surface staring into alert and slightly confused brown eyes, “…Do you take me for an idiot?” he asked, honestly curious.
"Certainly not Colonel" Chelsea replied candidly. "I simply do not fall for the kind of condescending manipulative nonsense that you have been dishing out to me since you arrived. If you wish to have a proper conversation, honestly discussing whatever your real agenda actually is, then please come inside my office.
However, if you wish to continue to insult me by trying to trick me into revealing information about my good friend then please leave." She stood back in the doorway allowing him to make whichever choice he preferred. When he strode past her into the office, the door closed behind him making this interview more private.
“She did indeed deal with Ninol,” Darson said in a voice that was still composed but had a tinge of cold tritanium to it, “But only a fool would believe that Isha has no more enemies. What I am referring to in this case is one that has been a persistent thorn in her side…and other places. Someone who is behind series of incidents that you, perhaps, might be aware of. A person,” he lowered his voice to a whisper, “who has violated her in the worst way. As her friend, I thought that you would be more willing to help somebody trying to help her. But I guess I was wrong.”
As if to punctuate the statement, he reached out a finger and shook it in her face, his hand accidentally brushing against her uniform arm on the way up, sending quite a shock up his arm and into his head, setting off quite literally alarm bells in his helmet. Safety instincts taking over, he withdrew his hand quickly and took a step back as if he had been burned, standing straight as if to display his imperial nature. However internally he was confused as to what had set off that reaction. Something was wrong here.
"Colonel Darson, I would give my life for Isha if I thought it would assist her but you have come to me with insinuations, platitudes, an insulting attitude that you can fool and use me for your own ends, for or against her - I don't know which, but with subterfuge that has been designed both to bewilder and fool me at the same time as attempting to milk me of information that I have no proof you might not misuse.
IF you are indeed attempting to assist Isha against the enemy you mention by outline, then you have my full support, however, for all I know you could be his ally.... so I am unable to discern what to safely say to you at this time.
Also, I have no intention of engaging in a battle or words nor wits with you as I know I should lose both if I were to be so foolish. I simply have no idea whom I can trust and therefore I am attempting to avoid your, and anyone else's, attempts to bully, badger, trick or ensnare me." Chelsea explained her position in a calm tone.
“…Of course,” Darson said slowly, still confused as to what exactly was going on here. His sensors had registered a small but noticeable burst of chronitons that were out of sync with his current settings. He made a show of thinking, moving around the room and placing a hand contemplatively on various things…the wall, the door, the chair. Nothing was triggering.
“Listening devices have a tendency to go deaf in my presence,” he said as he circled the room, “But there is always someone who is listening. I want to play you something. It should in fact confirm my allegiances for what they are. You can choose whether or not to believe it…but let me just make one thing clear, you breathe a word of this to anybody, and I will make you disappear. Of that you can be sure.” He placed a small media player on the desk and engaged it.
With a small crackle it began to play back, with crystal clear audio, the conversation he had had with Isha about her own private war, recorded by his own suit, starting with what was clearly Isha saying, “A few days later he retaliated, brutally, and, I imagine he thinks decisively,”
While the conversation was playing, Darson moved behind the doctor, touching things on the back wall behind her desk, still nothing. What the hell? Was the reading him? Did he forget to zero the readings after travelling through time himself? No…if he hadn’t the damm thing would be going off all the time.
As Isha said on the recording, “I happen to know how Getal plans to take over this station and I am willing to do anything within my power to see that that does not happen. I think that is an interest we share, Colonel,” Darson stood behind the good doctor and reached over her to stop the recording, the other hand coming to rest on her shoulder.
“I think that’s enough,” he said tacitly as the alarms went off again. So it was her, “Do you believe me now?”
"I believe that you and Isha have an arrangement to counter a mutual enemy. What I do not understand is why, if she wanted me to assist you with this, she would not have asked me herself or at least given me permission to speak about whatever it is that you want to know. By the way, so that we may move this on, if you have finished your search, perhaps you could enlighten me about what it is you want from me?" Chelsea was guessing from the thorough circuit Darson had made and his sudden interest in being tactile, an attribute she had so often seen him avoid before this, she could only deduce he was looking for something although she had no idea what. She just had a feeling she had just been 'searched'.
~Why can't the wretched man just be straight with me. I hate all this cloak and dagger nonsense.... ~ she thought, suddenly realizing the cloak reference was ironically amusing. A slight glimmer of a smile crossed her expression for a split second as the thought passed across the horizon of her thoughts.
Darson, finally satisfied (to a degree) moved back to the chair across the desk from her and said calmly, “What I want from you is simply how you know Isha. What your relationship is with her, how it started, how much she trusts you, and why. Is that so much to ask for? That is the honest truth. I swear on my grave. And yes, I actually have a grave with somebody in it…but that is a story for another time.”
Chelsea warmed to him in that moment. She didn't want to let her guard down but she was reminded of the story he told at Rianni's party and she smiled. "No doubt that would be a fine after dinner speech for our wedding, Colonel." she said, much less defensively. "You *will* do us the honour of coming to our wedding, won't you?" she added with a genuine smile.
Darson nodded, “Of course, though I was awaiting the invitation. In addition to my vast reservoir or spectacular and magnificent stories (which of course granted me the legendary reputation as the Storyteller of Gandrain V), I will provide entertainment in the form of ice sculptures and juggling. But before that…we must resolve our business here, should we not? I don’t think I’m asking that much of you. Certainly not to betray a friend’s trust.”
"Okay, I don't see how *that* much could hurt.... and whilst I shouldn't like to ever be so unfortunate as to come between you and whatever, or whomever you have in your sights Colonel, I don't believe you're malignant. Mysterious....one could almost say legendary possibly superhuman? Or perhaps *in*human? - I am unsure even now...... as you go to great lengths to keep us all guessing! Yet I am so much in dread of being naive or gullible where Isha is concerned, that you must excuse my deep reluctance to take even the slightest risk, as I am aware that she has powerful and ruthless enemies, as well as friends......" Chelsea gave Darson a long look and decided to trust him with the barest basics.
"I met Isha by chance, when I first came to this station... my very first day in fact. I bumped into her, literally, and in apologizing we got talking and I told her I was going for lunch, which she was too, so we ended up lunching together. She was here as a journalist back then. I was new and I knew no-one. I had been through a recent emotional downturn in my personal life that had led me to seek out a fresh start. I had NO idea who this lady was, otherwise I think i would have been more overawed, but we talked, or rather she listened... it was kind of her to take an interest in my unimportant little troubles, but they seemed to fascinate her, apparently as much due to the vast differences in our cultures as anything, and so we continued to meet and became friends. Is that what you needed to know?"
Darson nodded sagely, “Yes, that’s more like it. But that is the past. What about now?”
"Well, she is kind enough to continue to advise me on my trivia. She was also kind to me when I broke up with Ryan Milarno and she introduced me to Rick, for which alone I shall be eternally grateful! .....but I don't think that's the sort of politically relevant.... or ANY kind of relevant.... information that you're looking for.... unless it's something terrible in that Isha has been kind to me.....? Does that show weakness in her society? To me it shows incredible generosity of spirit, but her enemies might use *that* against her too."
Chelsea looked uncomfortable again. Had even such a little, been too much?
"You see, Colonel, how even the very friendship that I claim *could* possibly hurt her. I should hate to repay her with such treachery as to have even admitted so much as i have, if it were to be used negatively against her. I entreat you to use what I have said only for good. I believe you are someone who is powerful enough to damage Isha if you wished and I would not be a party to that, for all the universe."
Darson should have asked more, should have probed a little deeper, but he had other things on his mind and he had already accomplished his objective by coming here and plying her with questions…it all fit into his extremely circuitous and convoluted grand master plan, “Of course I see,” Darson said calmly whilst leaning back in the chair, “But you must also understand that I am in a tough position. But…I didn’t mean to put you in one. I do apologize.”
Chelsea shrugged. "I'm not going to hold it against you, we all have our roles to play and our jobs to do" she replied without malice or criticism intended.
“I think that’s enough for now though,” Darson said abruptly, standing up, “Thank you for being so cooperative Doctor…it has been most helpful. Although,” he lowered his voice and said in a secretive tone, “We’ll keep this conversation in between us, won’t we?”
"We will!" she replied resolutely, by way of a deal struck.
As Darson left, Chelsea was unsure whether she had just made a friend or whether she had just been taken for a fool. It was an unsettling feeling as she went back to work and to think.
A JP between:
Colonel James Darson
MCO - DS5
and
Commander Chelsea Adams
CMO - DS5