Interlude – Hypothetically speaking ...
by Commander Isha t'Vaurek
Post Details
Procunsul Vaebn i-Mnaehe tr’Vainlli was the last person that Isha had expected to see on Deep Space Five but there he was, current Chairman of the Continuing Committee and arguably the most powerful politician in the Empire. It was he who generously offered to conduct the Rite of Citizenship for Rianni, a quite extraordinary honour after which Isha’s mother had lead the formal adoption ceremony.
Proconsul tr’Vainlli was perhaps Isha’s most ardent supporter in the Senate, a contemporary of Isha’s late husband, and the reason that she had been given this posting in the first place.
Curiosity gnawed at Isha’s ankles all the way through the formalities of Rianni's ceremony, and by the time she managed to speak with him alone she was itching to know why he had come.
She eventually caught him just as he was about to descend to the lower level. “Vaebn,” she said grasping the older man’s hands in hers without any pretence of formality, and drew him aside. “Aren’t you worried that coming all the way here will give the vultures back at home will swoop in?”
“I hope they do,” he said with a smirk, “It’ll save me the trouble of identifying them if they rashly show their hands when I’m conveniently elsewhere. Your niece is a very singular young woman, Isha,” he added, “Are you sure she’ll fit in?”
“Fitting in is overrated?” Isha replied, “I’d sooner she stood out a little than became another stoic paragon of mediocrity, besides, it never did me any harm.”
“Spoken like a true daughter of privilege,” Vaebn said, taking a fresh glass from a tray carried by one of the neatly uniformed waiters. “What do you think this is?” he asked sniffing the orange liquid. “Most people find that undue attention interferes with their lives too much,” he continued, they both knew full well that for the lower orders the option of being conspicuous was a dangerous one, and even sometimes for the higher ones
“I am not most people,” Isha replied resting her hands on the
“But would you claim that every bit of attention you draw is positive and welcome? Attention can come in all sorts of different forms, Isha,” he observed.
“Why do you say that Vaebn?” she asked, the particular phrasing of his question, the use of the root ‘ifihaele'edh’ rather than the more natural ‘aemni’ made her skin prickle.
“I merely wondered if you were receiving the sort of attention you crave,” he said mildly.
How in hell did he know? Isha wondered as she decided how to reply to his question, or did he just suspect something?
“As the figurehead of the consulate one naturally receives all sorts,” she replied, “and no, Proconsul, it is not always welcome,” she added.
“Such is the nature of public office. Even you cannot aspire to a hundred percent approval rating. One can hardly be doing one’s job properly if the occasional enemy does not crawl out of the bulkhead, and I’m a firm believe that one can tell a person’s worth by the sort of enemy they make.”
Isha chuckled softly, “That must be why we manage to remain such good friends, Proconsul,” she said, “your ego is not so fragile that it can be scratched by my tongue.”
“That, and people who get on the wrong side of you have a habit of dying prematurely.”
“My conscience is quite clean, Procunsul,” Isha said, “mhnei’sahe guides me, and whilst the path to justice may not be swift, it is thorough. And when necessary I can be exceptionally patient. Tell me, Proconsul,” Isha continued returning to his question, “if a hypothetical diplomatic were having issues with his counterpart from another embassy, what would you advise?” Isha asked – hypothetically, of course.
“That would depend upon what those hypothetical issues were,” Vaebn replied, “would you care to suggest some?”
“Imagine that the diplomat in question, following a security breach, had found themselves in a dangerous and compromising situation.”
“I would suggest that that diplomat ought to consider the impact on their professional reputation,” he said, “and to find a way of dealing with the situation quietly. The Continuing Committee would not look kindly on such a security breach, and making an official complaint would be out of the question if the other embassy represented a government with which we wished to co-operate,” Vaebn explained without the slightest indication of surprise. “If, despite, that, your hypothetical diplomat chose to request official proceedings to be brought, they would find their own competence called into question, and far from the resolution they might hope for, they would likely find that the Continuing Committee would find cause to blame them for the loss of face brought to the Empire.”
It was harsh, but no more than Isha had expected for she had earlier reached the same conclusion. No matter how reprehensible the attack, her government were not going to put the needs of one ambassador over the interests of the Empire. “I think that any diplomat with a shred of self respect, hypothetical or otherwise would be well advised to get on with their job,” she said quite certain now that Vaebn knew.
And Vaebn knew that Isha knew he knew. The report filed anonymously had made disturbing reading and his main purpose for being here had been to ensure that she was not going to make a scene over the attack. However it was not his only purpose, he also needed to be sure that Isha was still capable of litigation. As soon as he saw her, as sharp and self possessed as ever Vaebn realised that he need not have worried, the woman was as tough as duranium if less yielding. Of course Vaebn had no way of knowing that her façade hid cracks that splintered through into the depths of her soul. To him Isha appeared as she should do, so much so that Vaebn suspected that the anonymous report he had read was a fabrication, or at the least an exaggeration intended to lure him away from the Senate, or to damage the ambassador's reputation.
“Hypotheticals aside,” Vaebn said finally tasting his orange drink, “we should talk about one real and very pressing matter. Perhaps somewhere a little quieter?”
“My office,” Isha said. Rianni’s guests had begun to arrive and this was not a matter she wished to discuss under Federation ears, “we can return later. I’m sure that even Arrain t’Merek can let me out of her sight for an hour for a private conversation with the head of the government.”
“Oh, is the Praetor here too?” Vaebn asked with disingenuous surprise as he placed his barely touched drink aside. “Lead on, Ambassador t’Illialhlae, I may as well see you embassy in the short time I have available to me.”
----
“So, Procunsul,” Isha asked as she poured a drink for him, “what is so sensitive that it cannot be encrypted and committed to subspace?” she asked both to begin the conversation and to make it clear that she knew that the ‘hypothetical’ conversation they had had earlier was the actual reason for his presence. “And tell me, please why are we going to so much trouble? We could have taken Gabriel off this station at any time without having to go through the farce of a Federation trial. Even based on the information already in my possession he cannot prove his innocence. The case would be concluded in an hour and he would be executed by sunset,” she said as she held out the half filled glass to the Procunsul.
Gabriel’s hands were all over the bloody corpse of Dr Ku’rann, the presence of his comm badge at the murder scene was merely icing. As she sat Isha wondered at the incompetence that had allowed him to walk free the first time the case had been brought.
Vaebn smiled as he accepted the glass and sipped finding something more to his palette than the orange coloured liqeure offered at the party, “Ahhhh,” he said as he lowered the glass to his knee, “but with what I am going to give you, you should be able to prove his guilt,” Vaebn replied.
“Why is it so important that we are being seen to accommodate Federation legal sensitivities?” Isha asked. This question appeared to be at the centre of the case and if she did not know its answer then she might struggle to be convincing, knowing that a more appropriate verdict could be reached in less than a day if the case were tried in a proper court: a Rihannsu court.
“Gabriel’s fate is of little interest to us either way. What we require is a verdict that the Federation are happy with. Abduction, trial and execution might be efficient and justified in the light of the case against him, but it would cause untold problems elsewhere. Push for extradition to face trial, but be prepared to settle for something less.”
“How much less?”
“Use your discretion, Isha. You’re the litigator.”
“And your explanation is not very helpful,” she told Vaebn. “I’ll handle the case as you ask, but there is something that I would like you to do for me.”
Of course there was. Vaebn sometimes wondered if Isha’s mother had dallied with a Ferengi given the Ambassador’s propensity to bargain down to the Nth degree. “I’m listening,” he told her.
Isha related several things to Proconsul tr’Vainlli.
The first was the conversation that she and Getal had had when she had returned to Deep Space Five.
The second was her own casual alliance with the Klingon embassy and its basis in the recent trial where she herself had faced the prospect of execution but won her case.
The third was the content of the recording that captured Rh’vaurek and Getal’s discussion surrounding their upcoming movements.
“Do you trust him? Rh’vaurek Raedheol I mean?” Vaebn interrupted. “He’s a dangerous man. Nobody rises through the Tal’Shiar that quickly and blatantly without removing the obstacles,” he said.
Isha sighed, for all she knew Rh’vaurek may really have betrayed her this time, he was certainly playing his part convincingly, but she put that thought aside and continued.
“Vaebn, trust has nothing to do with it, of course he’s dangerous,” she said with a smirk though her hand absently traced over her stomach, “but there’s no point in playing Reman Roulette if the gun is not loaded, is there?”
And then Isha outlined her own plan, the one that she might have shared with Rh’vaurek and his co-conspirator had the soup of misogyny and testosterone not clouded their one-track warlike-brains. The plan with which she now intended to subvert every action they took to suit her, and of course the Stelam Shiar.
Vaebn listened with interest.
Isha had a very good plan.
In return he told her what the Continuing Committee stood to gain in return for their leniency in the Gabriel case and then they discussed where the three plans, Vaebn’s, Rh’vaurek’s and Isha’s, touched and where they intertwined and by the time they had finished Proconsul tr’Vainlli and Ambassador t’Illialhlae had a new and subtle plan, one backed by the Continuing Committee, the Illialhlae’s Senatorial coalition, and without them knowing it, by the Tal’Shiar – the involvement of the Cardassians was peripheral and irrelevant in their eyes.
Isha could not help but smile as she and Proconsul tr’Vainlli returned to the Box of Delights to rejoin the party. Getal fancied himself a strategist but she doubted that a subtle thought had ever crossed his mind, he was more the sort to confront head on as she knew to her cost. Isha knew that Getal wanted the station, and she knew that she could take it from beneath his nose and with the assistance of her government and the assent of the Federation.
This would be the next layer of her revenge.
OFF
Ambassador Isha e-Khellian i-Ramnau t’Illiahlae
erie’Hfirih t’Khellian
Hru’Hfirh t’Illialhlae
Queen of Cunning Plans
&
Procunsul Vaebn i-Mnaehe tr’Vainlli
Chairman of the Continuing Committee and co-conspirator
NPCd by Louise
by Commander Isha t'Vaurek
Post Details
| Title | Hypothetically speaking ... | |
| Mission | Interlude | |
| Author(s) | Commander Isha t'Vaurek | |
| Posted | Mon Jul 19, 2010 @ 6:32pm | |
| Location | Box of Delights | |
| Timeline | Immediately after 'Welcome to the Family (part 2)' |
Proconsul tr’Vainlli was perhaps Isha’s most ardent supporter in the Senate, a contemporary of Isha’s late husband, and the reason that she had been given this posting in the first place.
Curiosity gnawed at Isha’s ankles all the way through the formalities of Rianni's ceremony, and by the time she managed to speak with him alone she was itching to know why he had come.
She eventually caught him just as he was about to descend to the lower level. “Vaebn,” she said grasping the older man’s hands in hers without any pretence of formality, and drew him aside. “Aren’t you worried that coming all the way here will give the vultures back at home will swoop in?”
“I hope they do,” he said with a smirk, “It’ll save me the trouble of identifying them if they rashly show their hands when I’m conveniently elsewhere. Your niece is a very singular young woman, Isha,” he added, “Are you sure she’ll fit in?”
“Fitting in is overrated?” Isha replied, “I’d sooner she stood out a little than became another stoic paragon of mediocrity, besides, it never did me any harm.”
“Spoken like a true daughter of privilege,” Vaebn said, taking a fresh glass from a tray carried by one of the neatly uniformed waiters. “What do you think this is?” he asked sniffing the orange liquid. “Most people find that undue attention interferes with their lives too much,” he continued, they both knew full well that for the lower orders the option of being conspicuous was a dangerous one, and even sometimes for the higher ones
“I am not most people,” Isha replied resting her hands on the
“But would you claim that every bit of attention you draw is positive and welcome? Attention can come in all sorts of different forms, Isha,” he observed.
“Why do you say that Vaebn?” she asked, the particular phrasing of his question, the use of the root ‘ifihaele'edh’ rather than the more natural ‘aemni’ made her skin prickle.
“I merely wondered if you were receiving the sort of attention you crave,” he said mildly.
How in hell did he know? Isha wondered as she decided how to reply to his question, or did he just suspect something?
“As the figurehead of the consulate one naturally receives all sorts,” she replied, “and no, Proconsul, it is not always welcome,” she added.
“Such is the nature of public office. Even you cannot aspire to a hundred percent approval rating. One can hardly be doing one’s job properly if the occasional enemy does not crawl out of the bulkhead, and I’m a firm believe that one can tell a person’s worth by the sort of enemy they make.”
Isha chuckled softly, “That must be why we manage to remain such good friends, Proconsul,” she said, “your ego is not so fragile that it can be scratched by my tongue.”
“That, and people who get on the wrong side of you have a habit of dying prematurely.”
“My conscience is quite clean, Procunsul,” Isha said, “mhnei’sahe guides me, and whilst the path to justice may not be swift, it is thorough. And when necessary I can be exceptionally patient. Tell me, Proconsul,” Isha continued returning to his question, “if a hypothetical diplomatic were having issues with his counterpart from another embassy, what would you advise?” Isha asked – hypothetically, of course.
“That would depend upon what those hypothetical issues were,” Vaebn replied, “would you care to suggest some?”
“Imagine that the diplomat in question, following a security breach, had found themselves in a dangerous and compromising situation.”
“I would suggest that that diplomat ought to consider the impact on their professional reputation,” he said, “and to find a way of dealing with the situation quietly. The Continuing Committee would not look kindly on such a security breach, and making an official complaint would be out of the question if the other embassy represented a government with which we wished to co-operate,” Vaebn explained without the slightest indication of surprise. “If, despite, that, your hypothetical diplomat chose to request official proceedings to be brought, they would find their own competence called into question, and far from the resolution they might hope for, they would likely find that the Continuing Committee would find cause to blame them for the loss of face brought to the Empire.”
It was harsh, but no more than Isha had expected for she had earlier reached the same conclusion. No matter how reprehensible the attack, her government were not going to put the needs of one ambassador over the interests of the Empire. “I think that any diplomat with a shred of self respect, hypothetical or otherwise would be well advised to get on with their job,” she said quite certain now that Vaebn knew.
And Vaebn knew that Isha knew he knew. The report filed anonymously had made disturbing reading and his main purpose for being here had been to ensure that she was not going to make a scene over the attack. However it was not his only purpose, he also needed to be sure that Isha was still capable of litigation. As soon as he saw her, as sharp and self possessed as ever Vaebn realised that he need not have worried, the woman was as tough as duranium if less yielding. Of course Vaebn had no way of knowing that her façade hid cracks that splintered through into the depths of her soul. To him Isha appeared as she should do, so much so that Vaebn suspected that the anonymous report he had read was a fabrication, or at the least an exaggeration intended to lure him away from the Senate, or to damage the ambassador's reputation.
“Hypotheticals aside,” Vaebn said finally tasting his orange drink, “we should talk about one real and very pressing matter. Perhaps somewhere a little quieter?”
“My office,” Isha said. Rianni’s guests had begun to arrive and this was not a matter she wished to discuss under Federation ears, “we can return later. I’m sure that even Arrain t’Merek can let me out of her sight for an hour for a private conversation with the head of the government.”
“Oh, is the Praetor here too?” Vaebn asked with disingenuous surprise as he placed his barely touched drink aside. “Lead on, Ambassador t’Illialhlae, I may as well see you embassy in the short time I have available to me.”
----
“So, Procunsul,” Isha asked as she poured a drink for him, “what is so sensitive that it cannot be encrypted and committed to subspace?” she asked both to begin the conversation and to make it clear that she knew that the ‘hypothetical’ conversation they had had earlier was the actual reason for his presence. “And tell me, please why are we going to so much trouble? We could have taken Gabriel off this station at any time without having to go through the farce of a Federation trial. Even based on the information already in my possession he cannot prove his innocence. The case would be concluded in an hour and he would be executed by sunset,” she said as she held out the half filled glass to the Procunsul.
Gabriel’s hands were all over the bloody corpse of Dr Ku’rann, the presence of his comm badge at the murder scene was merely icing. As she sat Isha wondered at the incompetence that had allowed him to walk free the first time the case had been brought.
Vaebn smiled as he accepted the glass and sipped finding something more to his palette than the orange coloured liqeure offered at the party, “Ahhhh,” he said as he lowered the glass to his knee, “but with what I am going to give you, you should be able to prove his guilt,” Vaebn replied.
“Why is it so important that we are being seen to accommodate Federation legal sensitivities?” Isha asked. This question appeared to be at the centre of the case and if she did not know its answer then she might struggle to be convincing, knowing that a more appropriate verdict could be reached in less than a day if the case were tried in a proper court: a Rihannsu court.
“Gabriel’s fate is of little interest to us either way. What we require is a verdict that the Federation are happy with. Abduction, trial and execution might be efficient and justified in the light of the case against him, but it would cause untold problems elsewhere. Push for extradition to face trial, but be prepared to settle for something less.”
“How much less?”
“Use your discretion, Isha. You’re the litigator.”
“And your explanation is not very helpful,” she told Vaebn. “I’ll handle the case as you ask, but there is something that I would like you to do for me.”
Of course there was. Vaebn sometimes wondered if Isha’s mother had dallied with a Ferengi given the Ambassador’s propensity to bargain down to the Nth degree. “I’m listening,” he told her.
Isha related several things to Proconsul tr’Vainlli.
The first was the conversation that she and Getal had had when she had returned to Deep Space Five.
The second was her own casual alliance with the Klingon embassy and its basis in the recent trial where she herself had faced the prospect of execution but won her case.
The third was the content of the recording that captured Rh’vaurek and Getal’s discussion surrounding their upcoming movements.
“Do you trust him? Rh’vaurek Raedheol I mean?” Vaebn interrupted. “He’s a dangerous man. Nobody rises through the Tal’Shiar that quickly and blatantly without removing the obstacles,” he said.
Isha sighed, for all she knew Rh’vaurek may really have betrayed her this time, he was certainly playing his part convincingly, but she put that thought aside and continued.
“Vaebn, trust has nothing to do with it, of course he’s dangerous,” she said with a smirk though her hand absently traced over her stomach, “but there’s no point in playing Reman Roulette if the gun is not loaded, is there?”
And then Isha outlined her own plan, the one that she might have shared with Rh’vaurek and his co-conspirator had the soup of misogyny and testosterone not clouded their one-track warlike-brains. The plan with which she now intended to subvert every action they took to suit her, and of course the Stelam Shiar.
Vaebn listened with interest.
Isha had a very good plan.
In return he told her what the Continuing Committee stood to gain in return for their leniency in the Gabriel case and then they discussed where the three plans, Vaebn’s, Rh’vaurek’s and Isha’s, touched and where they intertwined and by the time they had finished Proconsul tr’Vainlli and Ambassador t’Illialhlae had a new and subtle plan, one backed by the Continuing Committee, the Illialhlae’s Senatorial coalition, and without them knowing it, by the Tal’Shiar – the involvement of the Cardassians was peripheral and irrelevant in their eyes.
Isha could not help but smile as she and Proconsul tr’Vainlli returned to the Box of Delights to rejoin the party. Getal fancied himself a strategist but she doubted that a subtle thought had ever crossed his mind, he was more the sort to confront head on as she knew to her cost. Isha knew that Getal wanted the station, and she knew that she could take it from beneath his nose and with the assistance of her government and the assent of the Federation.
This would be the next layer of her revenge.
OFF
Ambassador Isha e-Khellian i-Ramnau t’Illiahlae
erie’Hfirih t’Khellian
Hru’Hfirh t’Illialhlae
Queen of Cunning Plans
&
Procunsul Vaebn i-Mnaehe tr’Vainlli
Chairman of the Continuing Committee and co-conspirator
NPCd by Louise