[IRW Endless Sky]
Lamont almost smiled at the lieutenant. Her expressions he was learning were almost imperceptible yet with enough practice and careful focus one who knew what to look for could perhaps find meaning even through the tough barriers of Vulcan stoicism. How little he understood of Vulcan subtleties. Being around Lt. Tyrax he was slowly realizing just how little he actually knew of the Vulcan race. He had learned their language, but mastering their culture was a different matter.
He was a veritable infant compared to a Vulcan of his own age. He must seem like an annoying child to the lieutenant. How little he knew. And yet, the lieutenant tolerated him. Was it tolerance or just Vulcan logic? He hadn't sensed indifference from the woman which would indicate he had offended or insulted her, yet his seemingly feeble skills at reading her expressions left him with many questions and few answers. Something within him wanted to open up and divulge a lifetime of troubles for her cool logic to address. Under normal circumstances Lamont would never contemplate speaking of such things to any living person. However, these were not normal times.
He wondered if she could sense such things within him and at the same time debated with himself if what he was seeing was simply an illusion conjured up by his own active imagination. What he had seen was so faint, like a ghostly apparition, it was possible its basis in reality was far more imagined than tangible. As the Vulcan shifted her attention, Lamont did the same pushing such interesting, but idle thoughts to the corner of his mind for later contemplation. The Romulans for the moment had the floor and despite his misgivings about beaming over to this ship also had his attention.
As he stood in the belly of the Romulan ship, surrounded by Romulan soldiers, with a Romulan captain before him, an ex-Romulan captain at his side, and a Romulan cousin, Lt. Tyrax on the other, he couldn't help but feel isolated, alone, and so utterly ignorant. He was out of place and no matter how good his education and knowledge of Vulcan and Romulan culture and affairs, nothing had prepared him for this. Like a schoolboy, all he could do was stand silently and watch. Perhaps he could learn something from the experience. Indeed he would try.
Itsak tr`Sahen was circling the chair in which the woman sat with the air of a predator who has cornered it's prey and revels in the knowledge the prey is fully aware of it's impending doom.
Any other time and place, any other being in that chair, and Sakarra might have been offended by the display. But what was even more disturbing that she wasn't, was the fact she knew if given the chance, it might have been she who was the predator, and with less restraint than what this relative of her Captain was still showing. Unnoticed by all but maybe one, the young Vulcan's features turned to marble.
Any other time and place, any other being in that chair, and Sakarra might have been offended by the display. But what was even more disturbing that she wasn't, was the fact she knew if given the chance, it might have been she who was the predator, and with less restraint than what this relative of her Captain was still showing. Unnoticed by all but maybe one, the young Vulcan's features turned to marble.
"Where did you come from? What happened on this planet? Tell us everything and I will be gracious enough to spare you and your crew. Tell me nothing, well, useless things are discarded are they not?" Itsak smirked and paced around the chair, his eyes were like burning embers as he stared at the woman. She fidgeted but gave the appearance of remaining composed. Finally after a few minutes she broke; there was no reason for her to hide this knowledge.
"We are part of Governor tr'Ulhri's system security forces." She looked at Itsak only, completely ignoring her other guests "seven years ago a man named Terrh convinced our lord to build a research station in the Hirexa system in orbit of the dead planet ch'Hirexa. For his part tr'Ulhri was promised a seat on the senate- however the research station needed test subjects. Ch'Dabhae was perfect; no one would miss a bunch of rebels." Shiarrael visibly scowled at the woman's comments but she remained silent and listened "the station is run by a bunch of Federation scientists for a group called NeoDyne and they paid a large sum to our master to allow them to continue their work. Memento Mori" the woman scoffed "is what they unleashed on the planet. A redeveloped Dominion Mutagenic Retrovirus."
"Hirexa?" Itsak smiled "are you certain?"
"Yes, quite, we brought several specimens to them."
"NEODYNE", Lamont suddenly blurted out. Without thinking the following words escaped his lips. "Fvah dha'nia Areinnye!" (what the hell?) He quickly realized his loose tongue had drawn the attention of everyone in the room upon him. "This cannot be", he stated quickly his heart rate increasing exponentially with each second. "Hre va", he asked his voice nearly breaking both with nervous tension and pent up anger. (What else?) "Hnafiv'rau" (Let us hear it.) He wasn't sure why, but something was possessing him to speak Romulan. His knowledge of this language was meager, but he knew enough to converse with the lying captain before him who was obviously attempting to shift the blame from her own disgraceful actions to that of the Federation.
The Riov was startled by the outburst and finally broke her gaze away from Itsak to glance at the rude human. One of the Gai'Shian lifted the butt of his rife to smash it into the Ambassador's skull but Itsak lifted his hand stopping that action. He glanced at Lamont and then at the Riov "answer him."
The Riov looked at Itsak and lowered her head in a slight bow towards the Vaek'Riov "Memento Mori is not the only item they have researched. I have seen it with my own eyes- they have been experimenting with borg nanoprobes, genetic resequencing and engendering technologies." Her eyes lifted and focused on the Ambassador.
His anger was growing more powerful by each passing moment, but behind that wave of passionate emotion was an equally strong, but silent flow of fear. The name, NeoDyne struck fear and pain into the depths of Lamont's heart as if someone had plunged a spear through his chest. The Romulan female captain was not speaking fast enough for his liking. He demanded to know why she was spilling these vile lies.
The Riov's face turned ninety degrees at Lamont's blow. The sound of the hit echoed through the cavernous room. Having seen enough Shiarrael reached out and grabbed Lamont's shoulder "ambassador what has possessed you? Calm down now." In the corner of her eye she could see Itsak watching with a wicked grin but his focus was not on Lamont, but her. She gritted her teeth, trying to command a great deal of patience when dealing with the Ambassador was difficult
When she had finished, Lamont took several steps toward the Romulan captain shrugging off T'Rehu's own stern grip on his shoulder stopping only when the numerous Gai'Shian raised their weapons in warning to the human officer who was perhaps as unwanted as the Romulan Riov before him.
"IS THIS THE TRUTH", Lamont shouted at the Romulan captain. "ANSWER ME YOU ROMULAN SUSSE-THRAI!" (B*tch)
[To be continued...]
Captain Shiarrael Rehu
Commanding Officer
USS Charon
Commanding Officer
USS Charon
Lieutenant Sakarra Tyrax
Chief Helm Officer
USS Charon
Chief Helm Officer
USS Charon
Ambassador Ian Lamont
Diplomatic Advisor
USS Charon
Diplomatic Advisor
USS Charon
Vaek'Riov Itsak tr`Sahen
Leih
Galae'Krha-Sei
Leih
Galae'Krha-Sei
