bed then crawled in beside her. She wrapped her body around the still shivering Romulan.
“Back to our problem,” Vain said, snuggling against her. “I think it would be best to find out if at all possible whether any of the bounty hunters this Romulan has hired know something more. Especially this notion that I have something they want. That could be just a story to motivate the bounty hunters to work harder. But if there is something, perhaps a negotiation could be arranged. Assuming it is not some faction more intent on seeing my head on a stick. What are your thoughts?”
Seren snored onto the top of the Romulan’s head.
Vain dozed off until she realized that the Human was on top of her slowly licking her ears.
“Seren,” she murmured. “Will you never tire of that?”
The Human had her pinned down on the bed. “No.”
Her tongue traced the Romulan’s ear from the lobe up to the point then down the front to the tragus, on to the lobe once more, then repeated. When Seren felt that she had done one ear enough, she turned the Romulan’s head and started on the other.
“You have no idea how erotic your ears are.”
“You should be with a Ferengi.”
Vain had to admit that the slow movement of the Human’s tongue over her ear now excited her far beyond what she thought was possible.
“Are you going to listen to my plan now?”
“Does it involve us escaping through a wormhole to go live far, far, very far away from here?”
“Oh yes. So long, suckers!”
Seren paused. “Where did you learn that?”
“I am well acquainted with the peculiarities of your Human speech.”
Seren went back to the gentle lapping of the Romulan’s ears.
“There is a brothel in Hellsbitch.”
Seren stopped again. “Am I going to like where this is going?”
“Do not worry. We are not needing your depraved Human tendencies just yet.”
“Mmm.” Seren hummed along the point of the ear. Vain writhed almost throwing her off as the vibrations washed down into her toes and all points in between.
“Many bounty hunters go there. It is possible, in fact likely that they have been boasting and we can, therefore, find information in such a place.”
“How? Mmmm.”
“Grrg!” She drummed her heels on the bed.
“What?”
“I said we will talk to the employees.”
“Mmmmmm.”
“GRRRGG!”
They waited outside the Big Red Brothel until a few employees took a break to drink and do drugs by the back exit of the building. After sizing them up, they approached one of the young men standing a little apart from the others. His eyes, bright with drugs, appraised them.
“I’m not freelancing. Services are hired. Yeah. Right at the front desk,” he said. “I don’t do guys. Unless you know. You’re wanting to watch me. Do her. Talk to the front desk. That’s if you’re into. Anything else.”
“Latinum for information,” Vain said, her voice coarse.
He looked at the strip of latinum. The glitter lured his consciousness back to him.
“We want in on the big hunt.”
“Yeah? Big hunt? What big hunt?”
Vain made the strip disappear. “He doesn’t know anything.”
They turned away to go talk with the other employees.
“Wait.” He tapped on a device embedded into his wrist. It dripped something into his veins. The effect reminded him of happiness. “Lots of people. They’re in on. The big hunt. Latinum. Yeah. It’s being spread. Around.”
“We don’t want to share with those dicks inside there.” Vain added another strip of latinum to the one in her hand. “We just need to know who’s running it and who they’re looking for.”
The young man eyed the currency, impaled on the shiny hooks of the gold pressed latinum. Despite the thick makeup caking his face, he still looked wan. His body needed drugs. Drugs needed latinum. He raised his eyebrows at Seren. “Know nothing. Not about. Who’s running it. Who they’re looking for? What I hear. Yeah, she’s a Romulan. I’m thinking. A female.”
“Huh, that shouldn’t be hard,” Vain grunted. “Can’t be much money in that.”
“You’d be. Surprised,” he cooed at Seren, his tongue running along rouge stained lips. “Someone’s wanting her. Bad. Real real bad. Got something of theirs. Hon.”
Seren moved a little behind Vain. He pursed his lips into a soft moue never taking his gaze from the Human as he swung back and forth to some unheard song.
“This sounds like nothing but a stupid waste of time. Treasure hunting’s not my thing.”
He lowered his lids at Seren, letting his startling blue eyes peer at her through his long lashes. “Suit yourself. Some artifact. Can’t be. Too big. That’s my guess. But you know. There are far less. Dangerous things. That might be big. Hon.” He looked directly at Seren, putting his hands on his hips. “More pleasurable. Much more fun than. This big hunt. Or whatever it is. That is real dangerous. Supposedly.”
“They all say that. They don’t want you running off with their stuff. Unless it is dangerous. Then it blows your ass off. I hate treasure hunting. See you around.” His hand with painted nails accepted the latinum. “Maybe watch you do her next time.”
Seren whacked her on the shoulder.
“Anytime, hon.” He blew Seren a kiss. “I’ll give you. Yeah, a big discount.”
When they were far away from the brothel, Seren shuddered, “Urgh. I think I need a shower.”
“That was a little on the creepy side I must admit. He did seem to be getting overly excited about you if you noticed.”
“How could I not? And no, I absolutely don’t want to talk about it.”
They walked back to the tractor.
“Does it sound like they want something as much as they want you?”
“I think it is time we go on Vacation,” Vain said.
There is no good or evil, no right or wrong, only weakness and strength - The Beloved Nephew
Kari huddled in the corner. Her shrieks had reached Syll’s ears as soon as she had entered the outer cell where the guards usually sat. They along with the four students stood over the prisoner.
“The Beloved Nephew has called for her,” Myryath said over Kari’s screams.
“What?” Syll said. “He just returned her.”
“It’s too soon. I can’t. It’s too soon,” Kari wailed. She dug herself into a corner of the room, pulling her knees and arms into her body. There was no more light in her eyes. Only terror. Abject terror.
“Please!” Kari screamed at Syll. “Please, please, please. I can’t. I can’t. Please, Mistress Syll, I beg of you, I beg you. Please don’t make me go.”
Syll steeled herself, willing every ounce of control into herself. She opened her mouth to speak.
“Commander Syll,” said Myryath. “I will handle this, if you would allow, as this is good training for me.”
The other students looked at the young Romulan.
Syll hesitated.
“Dress her!” Myryath barked at the three. “Do it now.”
They took the clothes that they always dressed her in, a simple tunic, and dragged her out of the corner. When she fought back, Myryath shocked her into submission.
“Stand up! Do this now, 738766. Stand up now.”
Kari couldn’t or wouldn’t. She sank to her knees whimpering. The young Romulan strode up and punched her.
“You are not our pet!” She slapped the Human. “You are not our friend!” She kicked her. “You are not one of us! You are nothing to us. Nothing. You are a source! Do you understand this, 738766? You will do what we say. Now.”
Kari curled up screaming and crying.
“Get her up,” Myryath snarled at the three. “Is the Beloved Nephew’s shuttle here? Then get her moving.”
Welan and Donle heaved her to her feet. Jhynif tried to tell the Human to walk but her feet d
id not seem capable.
“She is ready, Commander,” Myryath said, breathless from her exertion.
Syll nodded and led the way. The guards followed. Sometimes, Kari seemed to gather herself to try to walk. Then the terror seized her again and she’d shriek in panic until Myryath shook her or berated her into submission. They hauled the prisoner out to the landing pad. Two of the Beloved Nephew’s entourage waited.
“You have been slow,” one whined. He looked worried. “Our Beloved Nephew does not have any patience.”
The other grabbed the Human by the hair hammering her again and again with a pain baton. They threw her onto the shuttle and took off. Kari’s screams still echoed around the landing pad.
“That one could use a lesson on the proper usage of a pain baton,” one of the guards remarked, slapping her own baton into her palm.
“Agreed,” the other guard muttered as they walked away.
The three students looked at Myryath.
She turned to the them. “Go to the study room. Find something to hurt him. Anything. Make sure it is something painful.”
Syll looked at the young Romulan who stared at the craft receding in the distance. The Commander followed the three students to the study room. The three pored over the data while Syll watched them. Then she left them and returned to the landing pad.
Myryath still stood there. Other Romulans passed by but the evening grew late. Syll waited until the area was empty.
“Self punishment is a vanity, Myryath,” Syll said.
After a moment, she asked, “Is that what I am, Commander? Vain?”
“It is an indulgence to believe that you can make up for that which you feel guilty by hurting one self.”
“I am unsure of who we are speaking.”
Syll flinched. “I am not sure either. However, we do what we must.”
“Results.”
“As you say. And our path to end this may be in that room where your classmates now study.”
Myryath was silent. Then, “They hate me.”
“Perhaps so. But importantly, they respect you.”
“For making my heart as cold and hard as...” Syll touched her elbow.
Myryath paused, then unclenched her fist and looked at the stone in her palm.
“Myryath,” Syll turned to look at her. “Your heart is the strength that we all, Kari included, needed at this time.”
The young Romulan fixed her gaze where the shuttle had long ago disappeared.
“I will wait here. When she returns, I will call you.”
Myryath took breaks since Syll ordered her to and took her watch. But she always returned though sometimes studying on a pad. They found little things to diminish his power. Syll would have gladly traded this death by a thousand cuts for one good disruptor blast to the Beloved Nephew’s head. Only two days passed before the shuttle returned.
The door opened and they shoved Kari out. She fell to her knees. She staggered upright, holding a near empty bottle of Romulan Ale. She was dressed in finery that could have looked beautiful. But blood drenched the clothes. Blood coated her hands. Blood covered her body. She tracked blood along as she lurched towards them. Everywhere, she dripped blood. Red blood.
She drained the bottle before they could get to her. They transported her to the hospital but the doctor found nothing wrong physically other than a near lethal level of alcohol intoxication. The blood was not hers.
“I need the pain field, Mistress Syll,” Kari slurred. She leaned on Myryath as they made their way to the interrogation room.
Kari relayed so much information that Syll had to use all her concentration to remember every detail. The Beloved Nephew was now matching his paranoia with sloppiness. He had killed off so many of his top aides that the few remaining ones were too frightened to give any meaningful guidance. But it was the last part that chilled the Romulan Commander.
“Seren will be returning soon,” the Human said, her face dead. “Her handler has been one last time, negligent. Seren will call for me.”
Syll relayed the immediate information to the Seigneur. Then she and the other students started sifting through the rest of the intelligence. But in a few hours, the doctor called her with the request.
“Kari,” Syll said walking with the students into the cell.
She rose a little unsteadily. “Yes, Mistress.”
“Seren is in the hospital.”
Kari just stood there as if she hadn’t heard. She swayed as if she were a broken twig in a very slight breeze. The doctor had recommended letting the intoxication run its course though he gave a little medication to help. She kept wiping her hands on her tunic though none of the Romulans could discern anything on them.
“Seren has been severely injured. She has asked to speak with the Human she had spoken with earlier.”
Kari rubbed her face finally comprehending what Syll told her. She nodded to the Romulan Commander.
They dressed her quickly in the robes similar to the Tal Shiar students and made their way to the hospital.
The doctor was ranting. “I am not going to try to save her. This is ridiculous. I will no longer be a party to such wastage of my time. And our resources. He should send her to his own damned hospital.”
Seren lay on the operating table. Half her body appeared to be missing. Yet she still breathed. Worse, she was conscious. Barely.
“What in all the Stars of Wisdom did he do to her?” the doctor bellowed throwing an instrument against a wall.
Kari looked at him as if she had willed herself into sobriety.
“I recognize what has been done, doctor, as well as how it was done,” said Kari, her voice clear but hushed so the other Human could not hear. “With respect, sir, in this particular case ignorance of the Beloved Nephew’s methods is good fortune.”
He gritted his teeth. “She won’t take medication until she speaks with you.”
Kari approached the table. “Hello, Seren.”
“Just wanted to say,” she coughed out. “That I’m glad. I’m glad I won’t return to the Federation to tell them. Traitor. You can die here. Alone. Unknown. Traitor.”
Seren gasped, blood bubbling from her mouth, when Kari lifted her veil.
Kari nodded looking into her eyes. “Rest now, Seren, rest now.”
Kari picked up the knife usually used to cut away clothes. She slashed quickly through Seren’s neck. It almost severed the head from the body. Redness, like what had stained her clothes earlier, gushed out onto the table. The eyes continued to stare at Kari.
She returned the knife to the table. Syll had stood frozen. Kari had moved with speed that she didn’t think was possible in a Human. The guards had hardly taken a step before the knife was back where it belonged. Kari did not tremble when she closed Seren’s eyes. She efficiently pulled the sheet over the body. Practiced.
“Mistress Syll, retribution will be severe,” Kari said, covering herself with the veil. “With your permission, I’d best go prepare.”
The students followed her back to her cell.
“She’s right, Commander,” the doctor said. “Keeping this a secret is going to be impossible. Too many people here.”
Syll caught up with Kari at the cell where the Human meditated.
“That was not the first time you have killed, Kari.”
Kari didn’t open her eyes. “No, Mistress.”
“You have killed when you were in Starfleet? Before?”
“Mistress Syll, please, I humbly petition you to pursue this subject no further.”
The Romulan clenched her jaw. “Romulans say that all evil is forgiven when we do what we must do.”
“As you have taught us. I have a request, Mistress.” She kept her eyes closed. “Assuming I survive my engagements with the Beloved Nephew, my usefulness will eventually end.”
“We will speak of it then, Kari.”
“I may not be capable. I ask this while I still possess my temple, my shield, my weapon, and...” She smil
ed a little. “And still do not yield. I ask that if I am unable to perform what must be done myself, that it be one of the students. Not you.”
“The decision is mine.”
“Yes, Mistress Syll. I submit to your wisdom. However, it is Mistress Myryath who should complete my service to the Empire. She is the strongest.” Kari opened her eyes. “The strongest of you all.”
Syll opened her mouth to argue, then closed it.
“I would like to meditate with you, if I may, Mistress.”
They closed their eyes and murmured their mantra.
The Beloved Nephew had retrieved Kari and kept her for days. Syll began to wonder if the Human would ever return. Her students, defying her orders, worked their network for some word about the Human. Chaos, however, had turned the whole sphere around the Beloved Nephew opaque. He balanced on a cusp. Those who supported him were still many and still powerful. But they were starting to slip away. The enemies of the Beloved Nephew were legion and becoming emboldened but still not enough to come out in the open. Alliances were made and broken. People disappeared. Even important people. The drumbeat of war with the Federation thrummed louder trying to drown out the threat of civil war. Violence roiled the populace. Fear ruled.
Finally word came. The Beloved Nephew was returning Kari. They met the shuttle only to have someone shove the stretcher out and leave without speaking. The guards hurried forward to stop the stretcher from floating off. Kari was thrashing inside. Syll ran up and opened it. Then jerked back. It wasn’t Kari. It was some alien. A fish type creature gasping.
“They’ve sent back someone else,” one of the students cried.
Syll looked closely and gasped. “Transport to the hospital immediately. It is Kari. He has damaged her.”
The doctor swore the moment they materialized.
“What have they done?” Syll sobbed. She grasped Kari’s webbed hand. The Romulan’s control had fled. “What have they done?”
“Games. Make room, Commander. She’s suffocating. She should be in water.”
Kari’s webbed hands fluttered at Syll. Her mouth gaped but no sound came. The Beloved Nephew had cut her vocal cords. Her nictitating membranes blinked desperately. Finally, the sedative took hold. The medical staff stabilized her by running water over her gills.
“Think they’re so damned clever do they?” the doctor thundered. “Think they can beat a Tal Shiar doctor do they? We’ll see about that. We’ll see.”
The doctor and his staff labored to undo the damage and restore her Humanity. Reconstructing her limbs and body, restoring her DNA so that she could heal, they pieced her back together.
The Romulan doctor growled to himself as he worked on the Human. “You think you’re so clever do you? Do you? Let me show you a thing or two. You think that’s permanent? You’re going to be surprised, you damned bastards.”
Once, Kari’s vitals plummeted. Syll thought the machine displaying her readings simply ceased working. All the numbers plunged towards zero.
“Live, dammit!” he bellowed at her as they worked to resuscitate her. “Just so you can see what a real doctor can do. Then you can die, dammit. Live!”
And slowly, the numbers clawed their way back into the realm of the living.
They regenerated what they could, improvised where they had no option. Days later, the doctor and his team stepped away. The young woman looked almost the same as before. Exhaustion had shredded the students’ control. Syll’s was hardly better. The doctor, however, exulted,