Change of Plans

Posted on Wed Jul 3rd, 2019 @ 6:45am by Commodore Phoenix Lalor-Richardson & Commander Liselle Qwyyn

Mission: Episode 1: Hell is a four letter word
Location: Phoenix's Cell
Timeline: MD11 - exact time unknown
886 words - 1.8 OF Standard Post Measure

Keeva Lome held his fingers to his temple, sweat rolling down his fingers where they made contact with his own burning skin. He twisted his head to one side, squeezing his eyes against the building pain in his aching brain. With a final frustrated gasp he pulled his fingers away, using the hand to slap Phoenix Lalor. She rocked to the side from the force, but stayed pinned to the chair where she was tightly bound. "Damn you, Erisian whore! How you are stopping me!? Tell me!" He slapped her again. "Tell me, damn you!"

She raised blank eyes to her assailant. "Can't tell you what I do not know."

"No. No! It's not true. You have an implant or something. Some kind of training!" He placed his fingers against his temples again and took a step forward.

Like in the showers before, Phoenix could begin to hear the faint whispers of Keeva's own thoughts echoing along their connection.

*If she doesn't give me something, they'll kill me. I need to get something from her. Something that will make them happy. Anything. I need more time. More time!*

She raised almost blank eyes to his. "Kill me." she said calmly. "I can give you nothing."

"This isn't working..." the watching guard said from against the wall, his voice weary with boredom. "I think it's time to call this plan a failure."

"Wait!" Keeva insisted. "Wait! Please wait! I can get something from her. Please! Just one more hour!"

The guard shook his head. "No more hours, Betazoid. I've already given you two extensions and you've yet to learn a single thing we didn't already know."

"Please! Just -- just thirty minutes. That's all I need. Just thirty minutes."

The guard pushed himself away from the wall, and began walking to Keeva.

Keeva spun about and fell to his knees before Phoenix. Closing his eyes tightly, he placed the palms of his hands to either side of her temples. His lips trembled, and the footfalls of the guard were punctuated with the pitched whine of his teeth squeezing tightly together as he directed the full force of his mental will in an attack against Phoenix's own mind. He needed something from her. Anything.

Her mind was cracking slowly. Images leaked through, images of a tall Human male and the emotions around that image was strong. But still she fought.

"Yes!" he cried out in triumph. "Ken! Ken Waters! That is her weakness. Him! She may not care what we do to her, but if you can take him..."

The guard sighed. "There was no Ken Waters among them. So unless you have a plan to bring him into this room, this interrogation is over."

"No!" Keeva sputtered. "Wait. I'm getting something else. Another Erisian. A...girl..."

"No more names, Keeva. You've used up all of your time and then some." He moved behind Phoenix's chair and released her bonds. Pressing the nose of his rifle to her forehead, he spoke harshly, "Stand. Both of you are going coming to see the Warden. I trust he will be most disappointed with the time the two of you have wasted. Don't worry, this is all going to end now."

Miran Lalor. Keeva positively beamed as the name slipped into his head. There was more. Emotion. He knew that Phoenix did not want him to speak it aloud. "Wait. I have her name. It's --"

The floor shook beneath them suddenly, violently, throwing all three of them to the ground. From somewhere down the hall an alarm sounded and guards began shouting to one another. It sounded as though they were yelling the word 'bomb'.

Keeva groaned, rolling onto his side. He had landed against the side of the steel chair, breaking a rib. Next to him he could see the guard was equally disoriented, looking around himself to find where he had dropped his rifle in the unexpected localized earthquake that had shaken their feet out from under them.

Phoenix may have been struggling to keep herself in one piece mentally but the will to survive was still strong. She rolled with the explosion that rocked the cell and as she did so, her hand flashed out and she grabbed the guards Honor blade. -Ha, honor. Not likely.- she pulled it from its sheath and stood on shaky legs. As the pair stared at each in a daze she plunged the blade into the guards back.

Keeva stumbled backward on hands and feet, crawling away from Phoenix in a panic. "Please. I was only doing what I had to in order to stay alive! Mercy!"

As the guard died, Phoenix watched the betazoid coldly. Her normally blue eyes were so silver they were almost white. "You forget one thing." She said coldly. "My people, they do not grant mercy to those who betray them, even for such paltry reasons as life." She yanked the blade free and advanced on the cringing male. "I would have let you live, but you are such a pathetic worm that it is an insult to worms to let you live." She chose then, the plunge the blade into his stomach. "A slow death" She said almost robotic-ally. "Suits you." Then she stepped over him and opened the door to the cell.


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