The Trial (Part II of III)
Posted on Wed Mar 30th, 2022 @ 3:16am by Lieutenant Commander Savar cha'Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen [Taylor] & Lieutenant JG Heather De La Rosa {Kelea-Salik} & Lianej Derani
Edited on on Wed Mar 30th, 2022 @ 8:51am
Mission:
Tales from the other side of the Mirror
Location: "Safe Harbour"
Timeline: After The Trial part 1
1683 words - 3.4 OF Standard Post Measure
Previously in The Trial
"Mr. Garrison." Savar answered with absolute calm. "We understand our position here and what is required of us. We will answer the questions put forth to us."
Mal kept pacing. "You don't have a lot to offer, try and focus on what you can do. Don't insult anyone. Don't patronise anyone. Don't look the Ferengi in the eye. Or lobes. He's sensitive... "Craite, the denobulan. Watch him. He likes to set traps. Malecho, the Hekaran, is your best bet. She's not easy to sway, but if you can get her on your side, she's very hard to talk down."
"Understood." Savar replied as he listened and filed away the information Mal was providing to heather and himself.
Mal turned to Heather. "Feeling okay?"
Heather looked at Mal. "No .. But I will not go down without a fight!"
And now the continuation
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The captains parley room was another patchwork chamber, roughly oval. An eclectic group of tables were pulled into a squat U-shape, almost circular, the Captains gathered round it. At the top of the U sat a Nausicaan, sprawled in his chair, long legs spread wide to fit under the table. Next to him was the Hekaran Mal had mentioned, Malecho. Then a Lurian, his black coat of hair gleaming. At the bottom of the U, Craite the Denobulan sat with his feet on the table, and beside him a woman, who might be Human or Betazoid or Zeon or Aldean or Lumerian or...
Whatever she was, her pale face was delicate, and far too symmetrical, uncanny and constructed, like a porcelain doll. There was a gap, and then the sensitive Ferengi, playing with the dark hair of an Orion animal-woman kneeling at his feet, and finally, on the other end of the U, a long haired Andorian man, one eye replaced with a shiny black orb, missing half of his left antenna.
All of them had some sort of companion behind them, a second in command, or body guard or similar. Fifteen suspicious eyes looked at the two Terran's with shrewd, calculating glances. Lianej wandered back to her place, Mal following to lean against the wall behind her. But the rest of their crew stayed with Savar and Heather, far enough back that they would stand alone in the face of the Captains, close enough to stop any trouble before it began.
"So," said the woman with too-perfect face, leaning forward, "Who are you?"
"I'm Heather Salik, former inquisitor for the Terran Empire." Heather looked towards Savar to allow him to make his own introductions.
"I am Savar a former information gatherer for the Terran Empire." He answered evenly.
The woman cocked her uncanny face on one side. "And what does an information gather do?"
Savar looked directly at the woman his gaze unwavering. "As the title implies, gather information, see what is credible and what is not or what is misinformation and pass said credible information along up the line."
Something shifted around the table, and the woman spoke again. "And how, pray tell, does one gather that information and decide if it is credible."
"A mind meld is done. To check against any existing information that may have been already collected and corroborated to see if facts and details match." Savar replied evenly.
"You must have enjoyed your work." the Lurian rumbled.
Savar looked at the Lurian. "No. I did not."
"You're not a young man though, are you. Stayed the distance. Must have got a taste for it. Scraps of power. Sips of deflected revenge."
Savar was reminded of what Garrison had told them about talking back so he remained an implacable calm and his silence.
When it was clear he wasn't going to answer, the Lurian gave a short indeterminate grunt, and looked back to the woman with the too perfect face. She looked at Heather. "And you, Inquisitor. What exactly did you do for your empire?"
Heather took a deep breath. “It was my job to assist with interrogations, being a Betazoid it was my job to confirm or deny whether prisoners were telling the truth.” She looked at Savar then back at the woman asking the questions. “I did what I had to do to survive.”
"Just following orders?" The Andorian man smiled at Heather, tone sympathetic.
Heather nodded. “Yes Sir, I did what I could to make the lives of prisoners easier but I could only do so much.”
But the captains around them looked at her hard.
"Very well," The too-perfect woman looked around at each of the Captains. in return they gave small nods, indications to proceed. "Then we charge you with Torture of prisoners, and Mind Rape of the same. How do you plead?"
Savar exchanged a look with Heather before addressing the captains. "Not Guilty."
Heather bit back the want to argue. “Not Guilty.”
The Lurian snorted. "You seriously expect us to believe you never tortured one person, Inquisitor? That every single mind you stuck your little fingers into was willing, of their own free will and free of fear of consequence?"
“Fine!” Heather gave a look of disdain. “I did what I was forced to do, to survive, to protect myself and our daughter. You all know what the Empire did to Betazoids, I was chosen to be an inquisitor and as much as I hated it I did my job!” She paused. “We came here to help the resistance, so give us a chance to prove it.”
"And why," Craite the Denobulan spoke. "Would we want your help, rather than justice?"
"Heather." Savar spoke. "Stop. They are blinded by their hatred of the Empire, they cannot see past it or accepting anyone to help them overthrow it."
Heather looked towards Savar offering an almost obedient nod of her head, to those who didn’t know them it would almost seem like a submissive nod. “Of course my love, if we are to die then at least we’ll be together.”
The gathered captains all looked at Lianej with raised eyebrows. The Boslic woman just shrugged.
"Perhaps," the Lurian said, "you should explain why we shouldn't hate the empire."
The andorian nodded, and flashed Heather a warm smile, "And maybe tell us a bit more how you were forced to work for the empire for," he looked her up and down. "Ten years?"
Savar spoke up. " It was never stated that you should not hate the Empire. However, your hatred is so encompassing it blinds you to the fact that there are those who have been associated with the Empire who do wish to help you. Yet you refuse to believe or accept any help."
Heather offered the Captains an honest and open response. “There are those here that have accused my beloved husband of ... defiling me, in other terms mainly because the Empire chose for me to be his bride to breed a more powerful child. That was part of my life in the Empire, a life that I volunteered for to avoid becoming a slave.” She paused. “Maybe I was saving my own skin, but what Betazoid wouldn’t?” She looked at Savar. “I love my husband with all my heart, we have a daughter and I may not even live to see her grow up.”
"My dear," the Andorian said. "That must be so horrible, not seeing your child grow up. You must be suffering terribly."
Savar looked at the Andorian and then to Heather, "Heather, be careful. he is not your friend. Do not fall into his trap. Do not give him information he can use against you or us."
Heather looked towards the Andorian. "I'm sure there are those amongst you that would delight in hearing me say yes, but our daughter is safe. As for me I've not much to lose, you can sentence me to die but I'm already dying so what do I have to fear? Question is ... how many people are you willing to lose? We can help you rescue your people, we have the knowledge. Are you willing to lose that advantage?"
The collective audience looked from SAvar to Heather, and the Lurian reached across to say something to Craite, and the too-perfect woman had quiet words with Lianej too, who shrugged and nodded, and the too perfect woman was talking to the Denobulan, who leaned back and put his feet on the table again.
"You had the knowledge." He pointed out. "You've been on the run for what? Six months? Seven. Old intel isn't much use to anyone."
Savar looked at the Denobulan, "It is because of an attitude like that you will never defeat the Empire. You only see the surface and not what lies below. In this case, where to look for an obtain information and then what information is important and what is not."
The captains didn't react to Savar's statement, leaving silence hanging. Behind his captain, Mal covered his face with his hands.
Heather looked towards the Captains “Give us a chance to prove our intentions, what do you have to lose? I can’t hurt any of your people, ask your doctor and surgeon.”
"I think you've already proved your intentions, don't you?" Craite asked. "You'll buy your lives with whatever currency you have to hand. Other people's information. Other people's bodies. Other people's lives."
Lianej caught Malecho's eyes, head cocked in an unspoken question, her flared arches making it impossible to raise eyebrows she didn't have.
Heather stepped slightly forward. “Okay then, kill me! Right here, right now and prove to everyone here that you’re not any worse than the Empire. We came here because we thought the resistance was better than this ... who do you think provided the intel to the resistance on Taylor and his whereabouts? About Empire movements? That was me!”
The Nausican drew his phaser and shot Heather clean between eyes, his phaser spinning back to its holster before she even hit the floor.
To be Continued…
