Judgement – Translator, Part 2
by Lieutenant Bridget Stapleton & Alderman Yolanthe Ibalin & Commander Chelsea Dunham & Lieutenant T'Pal & Commander Karen Villiers
Post Details
::ON::
The small consulting room in sick bay was crowded. Very crowded. In a space meant for two, maybe three people at most, was squashed Dr Stapleton, her colleague K'Mar, the Betazoid ambassador Edriar Kelan, two beefy marine escorts who refused point blank to leave the room, and Yolanthe herself.
She didn't really want to be there. She wanted to be anywhere else, and her face was throbbing under the narrow lines of inky black scabs that stood out against the dirty yellow hue of her skin. She'd refused the offer of pain killers, wanting to feel the ache and the anger it brought. It fogged out the truths she didn't want to think about. She fixed Bridget with her pure white eyes, as close as the otherwise expressionless orbs could get to saying, Whatever you're planning, please get it over with.
When the unusual request for his expertise came, Edriar accepted immediately. Apart from being a unique situation, he was really curious. He had acted as an expert witness in legal trials before, mostly involving trade and Federation law related cases, but never anything like this. He had arrived on DS5 only two hours prior, but he needed no preparation. In this case, the less he knew, the better.
His aide and personal guards waited outside as he walked into the crowded room. His silvery grey hair was smoothed back from equally smooth and even features. His looked elegant and regal, with a certain measure of professional indifference in his expression, noticeable even in the over-crowded room. Of course, he had been aware of the Bokkai before he was in the room, as he was of the others. His mental barriers were well in place, as they mostly were, so thoughts of people around him were an indistinct murmur. After a polite greeting, he moved to stand with his back against the wall, quietly observing the occupants.
"Thank you both for coming," Bridget began formally, with a nod to each of the guests. "Your psychic powers will be most useful in assisting us today. We will be formulating a baseline interpretation of Bokkai emo-pigmentation, which unless I am wrong, will be the first of it's kind on record. Your findings will be used specifically in this case to aid the Federation in a murder investigation, and," she gave Yolanthe a small smile, "potentially acquitting this Bokkai woman of the crime. You may be called to testify as witnesses in the trial, so it's important that you let the JAG office know how to reach you." She took a breath, trying to settle the butterflies in her stomach; if this went horribly wrong, she would get blamed for it, whether it was her fault or not. It was her idea, and that's what people would remember.
"So if we're all ready," she scanned the faces around the room as she paused, stopping at Yolanthe's. "Let's begin. Gentlemen, take your places near Ms. Ibalin so as to best read her emotional responses to the following questions."
K'Mar cleared his logical Vulcan mind and focused it on the task at hand. Science was his passion but this was a special kind of scientific project that lent more into the psychological realms, and it was less clinically distinct and cool than his usual line of work. If he were to admit to whims, he would have to say, he was rather relishing the challenge ahead.
Yolanthe glanced at each of them, looking distinctly uncomfortable, her skin becoming more golden yellow than before, and nodded to Bridget to show that she was ready.
Bridget cleared her throat nervously, and handed each man a padd. "Ambassador, K'Mar, you will record your readings in the file that is already open. Any thoughts and impressions you have will be valuable." Lifting her own padd so she could see the list of questions that had been prepared for the session, Bridget faced Yolanthe and asked the first one on the list.
"Your name is Yolanthe Ibalin?"
The woman in question took a deep breath, Here we go. "Yes." her skin flickered almost imperceptibly a hint of green seeping in before her skin returned to yellow.
Edriar made a note on his padd. The recorded color changes had been sent to his padd and he added his findings next to it. The emotions he now felt emanating from her had basically been there right from the start and he would have to take that into account right through the test. He suspected, like most other sentient beings, one could not expect her to flip a switch from one emotion to the next. For now he placed the slight tension and nerves next to green and slight irritation next to the yellow.
Noting satisfactorily that the Ambassador and science officer were busily making their notes, Bridget went on. "You are a member of the Merchant's Association?"
"No." Yolanthe replied, unable to keep the scorn from her voice, "No I'm not."
The woman was still yellow, but slightly more intense now. Edriar made another note on his padd. As her emotion increased, so did the colour.
"You own a business on the promenade, right? Tell us about your establishment." Bridget added the last part to the question, even though it wasn't on the padd. She figured getting Yolanthe to talk about the Box would be a neutral way to start the questions that would be ultimately wound around the holosuite attendant's death.
"The Box of Delights," Yolanthe confirmed, "Bar, casino, holospa, and allround pleasure palace." as she spoke, her colour softened, starting to suffuse with a pale blue. "Apart from the holospa, I try to provide only genuine stock, from the drinks to the barsnacks, to the dabo boys. I pick them for their pretty eyes. Amongst other things..." the blue was briefly infused by pink as the obvious innuendo hung in the air. Then it vanished, replaced by silvery grey for a moment and she fell silent.
Being the wife of one of those dabo boys, the innuendo wasn't lost on Bridget and her face flushed pink. She wondered if the empaths would pick up on that. She hoped not.
Edriar's black eyes moved quickly from the Doctor to the Bokkai, picking up on the undertones between the two women, before he added his findings to the padd. He paused at the grey color and looked over directly to Yolanthe, responding instinctively to the feeling of sorrow and sadness she felt. He was wise enough not to allow his own feelings to cloud her perceptions, but he still felt a moment of compassion for her. He broke the eye contact and looked through his notes. She had such passion and excitement for her business, she truly enjoyed it, clearly expressed by the blue. The pink brought an inward smile to his face. Erotic feelings were depicted by shades of pink. He wondered if they turned red. He looked up again and watched the Bokkai intensely. Still the feeling of despondency was there. He realized how much the Box of Delights meant to her.
"You had an employee named Klia who monitored the holospa. Tell us briefly about her." Bridget expected quite a range of pigment changes from that question.
The grey deepened, and Yolanthe's shoulders sank. "She was a genius. Nothing she couldn't do with a holograph." Without obvious irises or pupils, it was hard to tell where she was looking, but her tone of voice suggested she was seeing into the past. "She was like my little sister."
"Please continue," Bridget encouraged. "Were you very good friends or was it deeper than that? Were you lovers?"
Yolanthe shook her head. "Not lovers. I wasn't anyone's lover." The grey gave way to apricot again, slightly stronger than before. "Not until Tharek." It came out in a whisper, and the orange lightened to a shade of yellow briefly, as a wave of anger burst from her to the others in the room.
For a few moments Edriar got so caught up in what he was hearing and feeling, that he didn't make notes. Her grief over Klia was clear. The colour deepened as the emotion intensified. It was the anger that caught him, flooding his senses. The guilt and loathing he sensed and then the anger. Was it directed at herself? It was not his place to ask, only to associate the emotion with colors, but it was harder to keep an indifferent distance than he had expected.
Though she couldn't read the emotions, Bridget could see the change in expression on Yolanthe's face. It was obvious that something deep had come up and roiled to the Bokkai's surface. The skin around her white, expressionless eyes had hardened, and her lips had pressed into a thin line. It made a substantial shift in her features, which became dangerous, and to Bridget's mind, almost predatory. Bridget shivered involuntarily, and for the first time questioned whether or not Yolanthe was innocent of the murder.
Deviating from the script, she followed up on the emotional change and directed her own question at Yolanthe. "You're obviously angry. At Klia? At Tharek?"
Her skin and hair bleached to a shade of lemon. In her lap, her hands curled into fists. “At everybody!”
Then she sat back and sighed, Yolanthe sat still for a moment, formulating a reply, and as she became calmer the grey took on hints on violet. “You have to understand, where I’m from, reproduction is everything. It’s not left to chance or the whim of romance. Once the courses begin, you’re eligible for the Duty. We have so few men, they’re in constant use. There’s a rota. Every few days, one will turn up at your bedroom door, and you’re expected to get on with it. There’s no choice involved. For either of you. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the mood, or if you like the man of the moment, you just have to get on with it. Tickle him up if he’s reticent and get on with it.
"So when I left, that all stopped. I could choose my own partners, no-one was watching, no-one came to my bed. So I chose to be celibate. From every other night like clockwork, to nothing. It was very liberating. But when I came here, I met Tharek.” Pink was starting to leach back into her skin and hair. “To be honest, I’m still not sure what happened, but I chose him. For the first time in my life, I took a man into my bed that I chose. Not some someone whose turn it was, not someone I-“ she fell short suddenly, swallowed and continued. “I wanted him, I took him. But no-one seems to be happy for me.” By now she was completely buttercup, still angry but the edge was gone.
It was a long moment as Bridget processed what Yolanthe had said. Her compassion being a stronger motivator than her fear, she responded to the tone of voice and Yolanthe's words by trying to understand, to imagine what Yolanthe's life was like, and put herself into what the Bokkai was feeling. But it was impossible to relate by personal experience - their lives had been so different, so alien from each other. Added to that, Bridget didn't know who Tharek was. That left her at a disadvantage, because she didn't know what was causing the undertones and implications Yolanthe was making.
In the silence, she could hear K'Mar and the Ambassador quietly tapping away on their padds. She decided at last to just go back to the list of questions, because her own were probably going to take this interrogation - for that's what it seemed to her - far afield of where they needed to go. And she didn't want to waste the Ambassador's time, in particular. Blinking rapidly, she cleared her rambling thoughts and came back to the list on her padd.
~Tharek?~ Edriar thought. ~The Cardassian Ambassador?~ That took him by surprise and he had to remind himself that he could not allow himself to go beyond his task. Carefully noting the emotions he felt, he saw a clear pattern. She was not lying, she was telling the truth and he related to that. Betazoids lived in a society were deception was impossible. They could deceive other non-telepathic races, if needed, but it was not part of who they were.
"Describe the day of Klia's death. Give a short overview of the day, and how you came to know that Klia had been killed, and what happened afterward," Bridget read aloud, and at the same time wondering to herself who had written the questions. Whoever they were, she would bet money they were a Vulcan. The questions were as warm and cuddly as jagged steel.
Yokanthe took a deep breath, and cast her mind back. "She'd been missing for a few days - we'd had a fight and she'd run off. At first I gave her some space, but when she didn't show up for work, I started looking for her, but she wasn't anywhere I could find her. I'd been missing a lot of sleep, so the day she was found, I'd slept in late, till at least 1400. The I started work in the bar. Various people came and went. Early evening, Tharek came in to see how I was. He was offering help. But when I poured him his Kanar, someone had put something in it. I don't know what it meant to him, but he was livid. Furious. He left, and I went back to work."
Bridget's forehead furrowed. "Go back to the fight," she asked, again deviating from the script but following a thread that might illuminate the situation. "What was it about?"
~The Doctor doesn't like the original line of questioning,~ he noticed and he respected her instincts to do what she needed to get to the truth. Interested, he studied the Bokkai woman, who was intriguing him more and more.
"Tharek and I." She was going grey again. "Klia never liked that I was seeing him, so I kind of told her I wasn't. And she caught us kissing," At the admission, she blushed a beautiful sunset orange. "She was really upset. She stormed off. That was the last time I saw her alive." The orange deepened until it was a dark amber.
Edriar closed his eyes momentarily as he let the emotions wash over him. She cared deeply for Klia, of that he was certain. Again that deep guilt. She could not forgive herself for that. The Betazoid noted his findings again on the padd.
"And after Tharek left your establishment, you went back to work," Bridget returned to the timeline. "When did you learn that Klia's body had been found? Who told you? And what did you do when you found out?"
"Three days later. Security came round whilst I was closing up. After that, I just started drinking. I don't remember much of the next day. I think I told the staff. I remember Rianni T'Khellian coming to see me. Tharek..." she trailed off, unable to recall more. Her hair and body were dark now, Cardassian-grey, as the remembered grief became newly fresh.
This was palpable to Bridget, the pain of searing loss plainly visible on the Bokkai's features. She was swept up in it, so easily swayed by the emotion Yolanthe displayed. "Tharek... what?" she asked, barely above a whisper. And then recalling that it was not as she had suddenly imagined - two women baring souls to one another - she came to herself with a blush. Clearing her throat, she restated the question in a more modulated tone. "You were going to say something about Tharek?"
"I went to see him, to warn him I guess." Purple was suffusing the grey, "Security had made it clear that it was Tharek they thought responsible. And he swore he would give me the head of whoever killed her as a present." For a brief moment, she was purple skinned, with hair the colour of Damsons. "Swore to me that it wasn't him, and would do everything in his power to find them." The purple faded back to orange. "If I'd gone to him instead of trying to do it myself, maybe he would have found her whilst she was still alive."
Edriar dropped his chin, closing his eyes as he realized as intense as her feelings for Tharek were, so deep were her feelings of guilt. ~She could not have killed the other woman.~ he thought to himself.
"So..." Bridget started, confused. "So if Security thought it was Tharek, then why are you under arrest instead of him?" She'd lowered the hand that held the padd to her side, official questions forgotten. "I mean, do they have evidence that ties you to the murder?"
The bartender began to yellow again. "Somehow. I don't know how. They say my DNA is on the knife that killed her. That it was in our quarters and the killer was my height." She sounded bitter. "Its not possible, but they have it."
Edriar had to bite his tongue not to ask his own questions. This was far different from business and trade courts, which could become heated in themselves and he had trouble to keep a professional indifference.
Bridget stood in silence, looking at Yolanthe's face, and let out a huge sigh. The question she had been dreading to ask, the one that was next on the list and which had to be asked, was on the tip of her tongue. She knew what Yolanthe's answer would be, and for herself, she believed the Bokkai didn't do it. Not that she didn't think Yolanthe capable of murder. Just that she hadn't committed this particular murder.
Slowly she dropped her gaze and raised the padd, though she didn't need it for reference. She knew what to say. Her skin prickled in anticipation of the reaction the question would bring.
"Did you murder Klia the Orion?"
Yolanthe recalled Ambassador t'Khellian's advice, to be stoic and resolute in her insistence of innocence, in stark contrast to how she had been raised; but at the moment she wanted to scream. And shout. And rage. But the Romulan's words held sway. The whole situation made her angry, until she moved from gold, to daffodil, and finally a pale primrose, until she said coldly, "No. I did not."
Having quietly made his own notes throughout the proceedings, the Vulcan winced this time. His psyche took the full blast of that bright yellow when it first emerged, clearly more intense than the previous responses. Illogically to his mind, the anger intensified, yet the colour faded accordingly. "Fascinating." K'Mar uttered his first open comment, adding the observations to his already extensive list.
Yolanthe turned to him, her skin bleaching out to a shade of cream. "Fascinating?" She asked, her tone withering. "Fascinating?" T'khellian's advice went out the window, and she stood so fast the chair she was sitting in fell over. "My friend is dead, the person who did it is getting away scot-free, and that's all you have to say? Klia was a real person and I am not a science project! How dare you!" She took a step toward k'Mar, pure rage driving her, rather than any rational thought.
Edriar shot up as well, seeing and feeling Yolanthe's strong and pure reaction. He stared at the Vulcan in utter disbelief.
The Security team came forward in tandem, grappling with Yolanthe's lithe and struggling form to get a a firm grip on her arms. As the others in the room stepped back out of the way, having nowhere else to go but the walls, the burly men were more or less successful in restraining the Bokkai; but only because she allowed them to, instinctively unwilling to raise a violent hand to them. She gave them a glare, but the paleness of her body was soon replaced by a deep orange and then a more reasonable, but sullen ochre.
k'Mar was not so much alarmed as taken aback. He did not understand. "I meant no offence" he stated with candour, staring as the woman was overwhelmed with emotion, an alien concept to him yet one that he *was* capable of dipping into in others. He was already attuned to the Bokkai from the work they had been doing and so the outburst hit him *with his shields down* as it were. He shuddered as the emotion coursed through him, giving him a full insight into her reaction.
He *felt* her instinct *not* to harm the Security team. He also felt her grief and indignation. He felt her desperation and her helpless plight, her frustration and her despair at the way she had been treated and betrayed. He reeled.
Bridget saw him waver, and reached out to steady him. "You okay, K'mar?" She glanced at Yolanthe, who was a dirty yellow, silently righting her chair.
"Yes..... er... yes, thank you." K'mar was as far from alright as a Vulcan could get. He was decidedly affected by what he had 'felt'. It completely changed what he wrote from then on. One could have used the word 'compassion' if this were not a Vulcan being described.
The men that had restrained Yolanthe stepped back again, and Yolanthe looked to Bridget, tinging a pale mango. "Sorry," she muttered.
Bridget looked incredulously at the Bokkai, an eyebrow raised. She was quite surprised that Yolanthe had apologized to her; to her Human way of thinking, the apology should have been directed at K'Mar, if anyone. It was a direct offense to the Vulcan that Yolanthe hadn't addressed him with her apology. What Bridget didn't realize was that, being the only other female in the room, Yolanthe would naturally apologize to her rather than to a man. "Yes, well. Let's get back on track, shall we?" She finally said, the discomfort in her voice apparent. "If we are all in agreement?" Her question was directed first at K'Mar, who looked decidedly shaken. Then to the Ambassador, who had stood stoically watching the scene, visibly unperturbed.
K'Mar gave a curt nod, his face as rigid as a Vulcan who is struggling to regain control. He was regretting that he had accepted this assignment although his logic told him it was *character-building*, this was more than uncomfortable for him and that was not a place Vulcans went voluntarily. He shut off, attempting to reach a calm place inside his psyche.
Edriar had indeed managed to detach his own emotions from what he had felt and fell into the calm disposition of his trade, which was ironic, seeing it was the Vulcan who was greatly disturbed. As a Betazoid he was used to experiencing intense emotions from others, so his metal barriers were in place and well practiced. "Just a moment..... " he said quietly. "If I may," he said to K'mar, politely. "Think of a river, let the feelings flow over you, not into you..." he offered to the Vulcan. "Other than that..... I am ready," he said, dipping his head slightly.
K'Mar did not know which was more disturbing: that the Bokkai's emotions were able to affect him, or the fact that she blanked him and offered the apology to someone else; or the fact that the Betazoid felt he needed to be offered advice on emotional control as a result of the whole 'train-wreck'. He receded further into his own psyche and began to reinstall the building blocks of his Kohlinar basic training, contributing little more to the experiment for some considerable time whilst he reinstated his balance.
Bridget had watched K'Mar and though he said nothing, she took his body language to mean that he would continue. Turning to Yolanthe, she asked the last question on the list. "Do you think Ambassador Tharek killed Klia, or had anything to do with the woman's death?"
"Absolutely not." You could break rocks on the sangfroid of the Bokkai's conviction, and the cool primrose hues returned to her skin. "Without hesitation or doubt. I know he can be violent. But I know he did not do this." She gave Bridget a defiant glare. "Is that it?"
"Yes, Ms Ibalin," her words tight under the intensity of Yolanthe's expression. "You're free to return to your cell. Thank you for your cooperation." Bridget hesitated slightly, and then held her hand out to shake. Even through she had mixed opinions about the Bokkai, there was something underneath it all that lent her a measure of respect for the woman.
Yolanthe hesitated. Then took the proffered hand. "Thank you, doctor. I do appreciate what you're trying to do."
Bridget nodded and then turned to the two empaths. "Ambassador," she said and also offered her hand. "If you'll add any final notes to your file, I'll take the padd when you're finished."
Edriar dipped his head. "I am nearly done, Doctor," he said and finished what he was adding. He had to wonder why the doctor asked the very last question, unless it was only to test the Bokkai's reaction, as it was asking for an opinion. The reaction, however, was carefully noted and then he handed the padd to Bridget. "I think you did very well," he said softly as he gave to her.
"Thank you, sir," she replied, a small smile touching her lips briefly. To her fellow medico, she said, "K'Mar, whenever you're finished with your notes, I'll be glad to collect it."
"That will not be necessary" The Vulcan had regained his equilibrium. "I have completed my task." He handed over the padd he had been using and nodded his head in acknowledgement. "At your service" he closed his part in this work and stood with his usual stiff back, repeating the nod formally to each as he took his leave quietly.
::OFF::
A Joint Post by:
Ensign Bridget Stapleton
Doctor (General Practitioner)
Sickbay - DS5
&
Yolanthe Ibalin
Owner, The Box of Delights
&
Ambassaror Edriar Kelan
Senior Ambassador for Betazed
Currently on special assignment on DS4
( Guest NPC by Sharon)
&
K'Mar, Vulcan Medical Scientist
DS5 (Npc'd by Jools)
by Lieutenant Bridget Stapleton & Alderman Yolanthe Ibalin & Commander Chelsea Dunham & Lieutenant T'Pal & Commander Karen Villiers
Post Details
| Title | Translator, Part 2 | |
| Mission | Judgement | |
| Author(s) | Lieutenant Bridget Stapleton & Alderman Yolanthe Ibalin & Commander Chelsea Dunham & Lieutenant T'Pal & Commander Karen Villiers | |
| Posted | Sat Sep 17, 2011 @ 1:52pm | |
| Location | Sick Bay | |
| Timeline | SD38 1100 (Backpost) |
The small consulting room in sick bay was crowded. Very crowded. In a space meant for two, maybe three people at most, was squashed Dr Stapleton, her colleague K'Mar, the Betazoid ambassador Edriar Kelan, two beefy marine escorts who refused point blank to leave the room, and Yolanthe herself.
She didn't really want to be there. She wanted to be anywhere else, and her face was throbbing under the narrow lines of inky black scabs that stood out against the dirty yellow hue of her skin. She'd refused the offer of pain killers, wanting to feel the ache and the anger it brought. It fogged out the truths she didn't want to think about. She fixed Bridget with her pure white eyes, as close as the otherwise expressionless orbs could get to saying, Whatever you're planning, please get it over with.
When the unusual request for his expertise came, Edriar accepted immediately. Apart from being a unique situation, he was really curious. He had acted as an expert witness in legal trials before, mostly involving trade and Federation law related cases, but never anything like this. He had arrived on DS5 only two hours prior, but he needed no preparation. In this case, the less he knew, the better.
His aide and personal guards waited outside as he walked into the crowded room. His silvery grey hair was smoothed back from equally smooth and even features. His looked elegant and regal, with a certain measure of professional indifference in his expression, noticeable even in the over-crowded room. Of course, he had been aware of the Bokkai before he was in the room, as he was of the others. His mental barriers were well in place, as they mostly were, so thoughts of people around him were an indistinct murmur. After a polite greeting, he moved to stand with his back against the wall, quietly observing the occupants.
"Thank you both for coming," Bridget began formally, with a nod to each of the guests. "Your psychic powers will be most useful in assisting us today. We will be formulating a baseline interpretation of Bokkai emo-pigmentation, which unless I am wrong, will be the first of it's kind on record. Your findings will be used specifically in this case to aid the Federation in a murder investigation, and," she gave Yolanthe a small smile, "potentially acquitting this Bokkai woman of the crime. You may be called to testify as witnesses in the trial, so it's important that you let the JAG office know how to reach you." She took a breath, trying to settle the butterflies in her stomach; if this went horribly wrong, she would get blamed for it, whether it was her fault or not. It was her idea, and that's what people would remember.
"So if we're all ready," she scanned the faces around the room as she paused, stopping at Yolanthe's. "Let's begin. Gentlemen, take your places near Ms. Ibalin so as to best read her emotional responses to the following questions."
K'Mar cleared his logical Vulcan mind and focused it on the task at hand. Science was his passion but this was a special kind of scientific project that lent more into the psychological realms, and it was less clinically distinct and cool than his usual line of work. If he were to admit to whims, he would have to say, he was rather relishing the challenge ahead.
Yolanthe glanced at each of them, looking distinctly uncomfortable, her skin becoming more golden yellow than before, and nodded to Bridget to show that she was ready.
Bridget cleared her throat nervously, and handed each man a padd. "Ambassador, K'Mar, you will record your readings in the file that is already open. Any thoughts and impressions you have will be valuable." Lifting her own padd so she could see the list of questions that had been prepared for the session, Bridget faced Yolanthe and asked the first one on the list.
"Your name is Yolanthe Ibalin?"
The woman in question took a deep breath, Here we go. "Yes." her skin flickered almost imperceptibly a hint of green seeping in before her skin returned to yellow.
Edriar made a note on his padd. The recorded color changes had been sent to his padd and he added his findings next to it. The emotions he now felt emanating from her had basically been there right from the start and he would have to take that into account right through the test. He suspected, like most other sentient beings, one could not expect her to flip a switch from one emotion to the next. For now he placed the slight tension and nerves next to green and slight irritation next to the yellow.
Noting satisfactorily that the Ambassador and science officer were busily making their notes, Bridget went on. "You are a member of the Merchant's Association?"
"No." Yolanthe replied, unable to keep the scorn from her voice, "No I'm not."
The woman was still yellow, but slightly more intense now. Edriar made another note on his padd. As her emotion increased, so did the colour.
"You own a business on the promenade, right? Tell us about your establishment." Bridget added the last part to the question, even though it wasn't on the padd. She figured getting Yolanthe to talk about the Box would be a neutral way to start the questions that would be ultimately wound around the holosuite attendant's death.
"The Box of Delights," Yolanthe confirmed, "Bar, casino, holospa, and allround pleasure palace." as she spoke, her colour softened, starting to suffuse with a pale blue. "Apart from the holospa, I try to provide only genuine stock, from the drinks to the barsnacks, to the dabo boys. I pick them for their pretty eyes. Amongst other things..." the blue was briefly infused by pink as the obvious innuendo hung in the air. Then it vanished, replaced by silvery grey for a moment and she fell silent.
Being the wife of one of those dabo boys, the innuendo wasn't lost on Bridget and her face flushed pink. She wondered if the empaths would pick up on that. She hoped not.
Edriar's black eyes moved quickly from the Doctor to the Bokkai, picking up on the undertones between the two women, before he added his findings to the padd. He paused at the grey color and looked over directly to Yolanthe, responding instinctively to the feeling of sorrow and sadness she felt. He was wise enough not to allow his own feelings to cloud her perceptions, but he still felt a moment of compassion for her. He broke the eye contact and looked through his notes. She had such passion and excitement for her business, she truly enjoyed it, clearly expressed by the blue. The pink brought an inward smile to his face. Erotic feelings were depicted by shades of pink. He wondered if they turned red. He looked up again and watched the Bokkai intensely. Still the feeling of despondency was there. He realized how much the Box of Delights meant to her.
"You had an employee named Klia who monitored the holospa. Tell us briefly about her." Bridget expected quite a range of pigment changes from that question.
The grey deepened, and Yolanthe's shoulders sank. "She was a genius. Nothing she couldn't do with a holograph." Without obvious irises or pupils, it was hard to tell where she was looking, but her tone of voice suggested she was seeing into the past. "She was like my little sister."
"Please continue," Bridget encouraged. "Were you very good friends or was it deeper than that? Were you lovers?"
Yolanthe shook her head. "Not lovers. I wasn't anyone's lover." The grey gave way to apricot again, slightly stronger than before. "Not until Tharek." It came out in a whisper, and the orange lightened to a shade of yellow briefly, as a wave of anger burst from her to the others in the room.
For a few moments Edriar got so caught up in what he was hearing and feeling, that he didn't make notes. Her grief over Klia was clear. The colour deepened as the emotion intensified. It was the anger that caught him, flooding his senses. The guilt and loathing he sensed and then the anger. Was it directed at herself? It was not his place to ask, only to associate the emotion with colors, but it was harder to keep an indifferent distance than he had expected.
Though she couldn't read the emotions, Bridget could see the change in expression on Yolanthe's face. It was obvious that something deep had come up and roiled to the Bokkai's surface. The skin around her white, expressionless eyes had hardened, and her lips had pressed into a thin line. It made a substantial shift in her features, which became dangerous, and to Bridget's mind, almost predatory. Bridget shivered involuntarily, and for the first time questioned whether or not Yolanthe was innocent of the murder.
Deviating from the script, she followed up on the emotional change and directed her own question at Yolanthe. "You're obviously angry. At Klia? At Tharek?"
Her skin and hair bleached to a shade of lemon. In her lap, her hands curled into fists. “At everybody!”
Then she sat back and sighed, Yolanthe sat still for a moment, formulating a reply, and as she became calmer the grey took on hints on violet. “You have to understand, where I’m from, reproduction is everything. It’s not left to chance or the whim of romance. Once the courses begin, you’re eligible for the Duty. We have so few men, they’re in constant use. There’s a rota. Every few days, one will turn up at your bedroom door, and you’re expected to get on with it. There’s no choice involved. For either of you. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the mood, or if you like the man of the moment, you just have to get on with it. Tickle him up if he’s reticent and get on with it.
"So when I left, that all stopped. I could choose my own partners, no-one was watching, no-one came to my bed. So I chose to be celibate. From every other night like clockwork, to nothing. It was very liberating. But when I came here, I met Tharek.” Pink was starting to leach back into her skin and hair. “To be honest, I’m still not sure what happened, but I chose him. For the first time in my life, I took a man into my bed that I chose. Not some someone whose turn it was, not someone I-“ she fell short suddenly, swallowed and continued. “I wanted him, I took him. But no-one seems to be happy for me.” By now she was completely buttercup, still angry but the edge was gone.
It was a long moment as Bridget processed what Yolanthe had said. Her compassion being a stronger motivator than her fear, she responded to the tone of voice and Yolanthe's words by trying to understand, to imagine what Yolanthe's life was like, and put herself into what the Bokkai was feeling. But it was impossible to relate by personal experience - their lives had been so different, so alien from each other. Added to that, Bridget didn't know who Tharek was. That left her at a disadvantage, because she didn't know what was causing the undertones and implications Yolanthe was making.
In the silence, she could hear K'Mar and the Ambassador quietly tapping away on their padds. She decided at last to just go back to the list of questions, because her own were probably going to take this interrogation - for that's what it seemed to her - far afield of where they needed to go. And she didn't want to waste the Ambassador's time, in particular. Blinking rapidly, she cleared her rambling thoughts and came back to the list on her padd.
~Tharek?~ Edriar thought. ~The Cardassian Ambassador?~ That took him by surprise and he had to remind himself that he could not allow himself to go beyond his task. Carefully noting the emotions he felt, he saw a clear pattern. She was not lying, she was telling the truth and he related to that. Betazoids lived in a society were deception was impossible. They could deceive other non-telepathic races, if needed, but it was not part of who they were.
"Describe the day of Klia's death. Give a short overview of the day, and how you came to know that Klia had been killed, and what happened afterward," Bridget read aloud, and at the same time wondering to herself who had written the questions. Whoever they were, she would bet money they were a Vulcan. The questions were as warm and cuddly as jagged steel.
Yokanthe took a deep breath, and cast her mind back. "She'd been missing for a few days - we'd had a fight and she'd run off. At first I gave her some space, but when she didn't show up for work, I started looking for her, but she wasn't anywhere I could find her. I'd been missing a lot of sleep, so the day she was found, I'd slept in late, till at least 1400. The I started work in the bar. Various people came and went. Early evening, Tharek came in to see how I was. He was offering help. But when I poured him his Kanar, someone had put something in it. I don't know what it meant to him, but he was livid. Furious. He left, and I went back to work."
Bridget's forehead furrowed. "Go back to the fight," she asked, again deviating from the script but following a thread that might illuminate the situation. "What was it about?"
~The Doctor doesn't like the original line of questioning,~ he noticed and he respected her instincts to do what she needed to get to the truth. Interested, he studied the Bokkai woman, who was intriguing him more and more.
"Tharek and I." She was going grey again. "Klia never liked that I was seeing him, so I kind of told her I wasn't. And she caught us kissing," At the admission, she blushed a beautiful sunset orange. "She was really upset. She stormed off. That was the last time I saw her alive." The orange deepened until it was a dark amber.
Edriar closed his eyes momentarily as he let the emotions wash over him. She cared deeply for Klia, of that he was certain. Again that deep guilt. She could not forgive herself for that. The Betazoid noted his findings again on the padd.
"And after Tharek left your establishment, you went back to work," Bridget returned to the timeline. "When did you learn that Klia's body had been found? Who told you? And what did you do when you found out?"
"Three days later. Security came round whilst I was closing up. After that, I just started drinking. I don't remember much of the next day. I think I told the staff. I remember Rianni T'Khellian coming to see me. Tharek..." she trailed off, unable to recall more. Her hair and body were dark now, Cardassian-grey, as the remembered grief became newly fresh.
This was palpable to Bridget, the pain of searing loss plainly visible on the Bokkai's features. She was swept up in it, so easily swayed by the emotion Yolanthe displayed. "Tharek... what?" she asked, barely above a whisper. And then recalling that it was not as she had suddenly imagined - two women baring souls to one another - she came to herself with a blush. Clearing her throat, she restated the question in a more modulated tone. "You were going to say something about Tharek?"
"I went to see him, to warn him I guess." Purple was suffusing the grey, "Security had made it clear that it was Tharek they thought responsible. And he swore he would give me the head of whoever killed her as a present." For a brief moment, she was purple skinned, with hair the colour of Damsons. "Swore to me that it wasn't him, and would do everything in his power to find them." The purple faded back to orange. "If I'd gone to him instead of trying to do it myself, maybe he would have found her whilst she was still alive."
Edriar dropped his chin, closing his eyes as he realized as intense as her feelings for Tharek were, so deep were her feelings of guilt. ~She could not have killed the other woman.~ he thought to himself.
"So..." Bridget started, confused. "So if Security thought it was Tharek, then why are you under arrest instead of him?" She'd lowered the hand that held the padd to her side, official questions forgotten. "I mean, do they have evidence that ties you to the murder?"
The bartender began to yellow again. "Somehow. I don't know how. They say my DNA is on the knife that killed her. That it was in our quarters and the killer was my height." She sounded bitter. "Its not possible, but they have it."
Edriar had to bite his tongue not to ask his own questions. This was far different from business and trade courts, which could become heated in themselves and he had trouble to keep a professional indifference.
Bridget stood in silence, looking at Yolanthe's face, and let out a huge sigh. The question she had been dreading to ask, the one that was next on the list and which had to be asked, was on the tip of her tongue. She knew what Yolanthe's answer would be, and for herself, she believed the Bokkai didn't do it. Not that she didn't think Yolanthe capable of murder. Just that she hadn't committed this particular murder.
Slowly she dropped her gaze and raised the padd, though she didn't need it for reference. She knew what to say. Her skin prickled in anticipation of the reaction the question would bring.
"Did you murder Klia the Orion?"
Yolanthe recalled Ambassador t'Khellian's advice, to be stoic and resolute in her insistence of innocence, in stark contrast to how she had been raised; but at the moment she wanted to scream. And shout. And rage. But the Romulan's words held sway. The whole situation made her angry, until she moved from gold, to daffodil, and finally a pale primrose, until she said coldly, "No. I did not."
Having quietly made his own notes throughout the proceedings, the Vulcan winced this time. His psyche took the full blast of that bright yellow when it first emerged, clearly more intense than the previous responses. Illogically to his mind, the anger intensified, yet the colour faded accordingly. "Fascinating." K'Mar uttered his first open comment, adding the observations to his already extensive list.
Yolanthe turned to him, her skin bleaching out to a shade of cream. "Fascinating?" She asked, her tone withering. "Fascinating?" T'khellian's advice went out the window, and she stood so fast the chair she was sitting in fell over. "My friend is dead, the person who did it is getting away scot-free, and that's all you have to say? Klia was a real person and I am not a science project! How dare you!" She took a step toward k'Mar, pure rage driving her, rather than any rational thought.
Edriar shot up as well, seeing and feeling Yolanthe's strong and pure reaction. He stared at the Vulcan in utter disbelief.
The Security team came forward in tandem, grappling with Yolanthe's lithe and struggling form to get a a firm grip on her arms. As the others in the room stepped back out of the way, having nowhere else to go but the walls, the burly men were more or less successful in restraining the Bokkai; but only because she allowed them to, instinctively unwilling to raise a violent hand to them. She gave them a glare, but the paleness of her body was soon replaced by a deep orange and then a more reasonable, but sullen ochre.
k'Mar was not so much alarmed as taken aback. He did not understand. "I meant no offence" he stated with candour, staring as the woman was overwhelmed with emotion, an alien concept to him yet one that he *was* capable of dipping into in others. He was already attuned to the Bokkai from the work they had been doing and so the outburst hit him *with his shields down* as it were. He shuddered as the emotion coursed through him, giving him a full insight into her reaction.
He *felt* her instinct *not* to harm the Security team. He also felt her grief and indignation. He felt her desperation and her helpless plight, her frustration and her despair at the way she had been treated and betrayed. He reeled.
Bridget saw him waver, and reached out to steady him. "You okay, K'mar?" She glanced at Yolanthe, who was a dirty yellow, silently righting her chair.
"Yes..... er... yes, thank you." K'mar was as far from alright as a Vulcan could get. He was decidedly affected by what he had 'felt'. It completely changed what he wrote from then on. One could have used the word 'compassion' if this were not a Vulcan being described.
The men that had restrained Yolanthe stepped back again, and Yolanthe looked to Bridget, tinging a pale mango. "Sorry," she muttered.
Bridget looked incredulously at the Bokkai, an eyebrow raised. She was quite surprised that Yolanthe had apologized to her; to her Human way of thinking, the apology should have been directed at K'Mar, if anyone. It was a direct offense to the Vulcan that Yolanthe hadn't addressed him with her apology. What Bridget didn't realize was that, being the only other female in the room, Yolanthe would naturally apologize to her rather than to a man. "Yes, well. Let's get back on track, shall we?" She finally said, the discomfort in her voice apparent. "If we are all in agreement?" Her question was directed first at K'Mar, who looked decidedly shaken. Then to the Ambassador, who had stood stoically watching the scene, visibly unperturbed.
K'Mar gave a curt nod, his face as rigid as a Vulcan who is struggling to regain control. He was regretting that he had accepted this assignment although his logic told him it was *character-building*, this was more than uncomfortable for him and that was not a place Vulcans went voluntarily. He shut off, attempting to reach a calm place inside his psyche.
Edriar had indeed managed to detach his own emotions from what he had felt and fell into the calm disposition of his trade, which was ironic, seeing it was the Vulcan who was greatly disturbed. As a Betazoid he was used to experiencing intense emotions from others, so his metal barriers were in place and well practiced. "Just a moment..... " he said quietly. "If I may," he said to K'mar, politely. "Think of a river, let the feelings flow over you, not into you..." he offered to the Vulcan. "Other than that..... I am ready," he said, dipping his head slightly.
K'Mar did not know which was more disturbing: that the Bokkai's emotions were able to affect him, or the fact that she blanked him and offered the apology to someone else; or the fact that the Betazoid felt he needed to be offered advice on emotional control as a result of the whole 'train-wreck'. He receded further into his own psyche and began to reinstall the building blocks of his Kohlinar basic training, contributing little more to the experiment for some considerable time whilst he reinstated his balance.
Bridget had watched K'Mar and though he said nothing, she took his body language to mean that he would continue. Turning to Yolanthe, she asked the last question on the list. "Do you think Ambassador Tharek killed Klia, or had anything to do with the woman's death?"
"Absolutely not." You could break rocks on the sangfroid of the Bokkai's conviction, and the cool primrose hues returned to her skin. "Without hesitation or doubt. I know he can be violent. But I know he did not do this." She gave Bridget a defiant glare. "Is that it?"
"Yes, Ms Ibalin," her words tight under the intensity of Yolanthe's expression. "You're free to return to your cell. Thank you for your cooperation." Bridget hesitated slightly, and then held her hand out to shake. Even through she had mixed opinions about the Bokkai, there was something underneath it all that lent her a measure of respect for the woman.
Yolanthe hesitated. Then took the proffered hand. "Thank you, doctor. I do appreciate what you're trying to do."
Bridget nodded and then turned to the two empaths. "Ambassador," she said and also offered her hand. "If you'll add any final notes to your file, I'll take the padd when you're finished."
Edriar dipped his head. "I am nearly done, Doctor," he said and finished what he was adding. He had to wonder why the doctor asked the very last question, unless it was only to test the Bokkai's reaction, as it was asking for an opinion. The reaction, however, was carefully noted and then he handed the padd to Bridget. "I think you did very well," he said softly as he gave to her.
"Thank you, sir," she replied, a small smile touching her lips briefly. To her fellow medico, she said, "K'Mar, whenever you're finished with your notes, I'll be glad to collect it."
"That will not be necessary" The Vulcan had regained his equilibrium. "I have completed my task." He handed over the padd he had been using and nodded his head in acknowledgement. "At your service" he closed his part in this work and stood with his usual stiff back, repeating the nod formally to each as he took his leave quietly.
::OFF::
A Joint Post by:
Ensign Bridget Stapleton
Doctor (General Practitioner)
Sickbay - DS5
&
Yolanthe Ibalin
Owner, The Box of Delights
&
Ambassaror Edriar Kelan
Senior Ambassador for Betazed
Currently on special assignment on DS4
( Guest NPC by Sharon)
&
K'Mar, Vulcan Medical Scientist
DS5 (Npc'd by Jools)