triumphant. Despite fatigue bending their bodies, he and his team reveled in their success.
“Take her back to her cell and by all the Stars of Wisdom, do not let that madman get a hold of her again. She just simply will not survive.”
He squeezed Kari’s hand. “I’d love to write a paper about you. Put you on display, do a dissection on some of the reconstructions that we’ve done.”
Syll shook her head. “Somehow I do not think she would appreciate it much.”
“Yes, but if you can keep her out of the hands of the Beloved Nephew, and when you’re done with her yourself, maybe you can turn her over to me. I’ve continued to upgrade her a bit here and there since the Beloved Nephew started it. I’ve left behind a few things, so there are some very interesting experiments that could be done.”
“I will consider it, doctor.” Syll hoped Kari was deep in her coma. “And thank you. You and your team bring honor, profound honor, upon yourselves.”
The doctor beamed.
They moved her again to her prison. She stayed in her coma even when the suppressor was removed. Syll understood when the students took turns watching her.
She was in her office combing through the intelligence looking for more ways to hurt the Beloved Nephew when her student came for her. She didn’t care who saw them sprinting down the hallways.
“Kari...” she began smiling.
“Run, Mistress Syll,” she cried, stopping her pacing. “He suspects.”
Though she had trained her students well, they still flinched.
“Then it is good that he only suspects.” Syll kept her smile, trying to calm the Human, the students and herself. It wasn’t working on any of them. “If he knew, then I would not be here.”
“He doesn’t need to know.” She grabbed her by the shoulders. “He just needs to suspect. Everything he suspects, he kills. Everything. I’ve been unconscious too long! He is coming. He is coming. Don’t wait. Please don’t wait. Run.”
“It is alright, Kari,” she said, softly. “I have done nothing more than protect the Empire.”
“Shut up you stupid bitch!” She slammed the wall. “You’ve got to go. Now. Right now. Hide. Run and hide.”
“What did he do to you, Kari?”
She hid her face, collapsing on the bed. “He changed me! He deformed me!”
Syll sat next to her and held the hysterical woman. Syll rocked her as she had done so many times before. Kari shrieked out what the Beloved Nephew had inflicted upon her.
The Beloved Nephew told her of how he knew that she had interfered with his investigations by killing the other Human. And that was murder. As he raved about that crime, his cronies changed her. Turning her into a creature that only could live in water. Then threw her in the tank in a conference room. She swam and watched as the Beloved Nephew hosted the Federation ambassador. A Human. A Human ambassador mere centimeters from her. She could hear them talk but she could not speak, she could do nothing. She tried to signal the ambassador but he ignored her. The Beloved Nephew gave the ambassador a tour of the conference room. Finally coming to stand in front of the tank. The ambassador turned his head away to give the naked mermaid creature some privacy though she knocked desperately on the glass. The Beloved Nephew even reached in and grabbed her by her hair then yanked her out into the air her gills gasping frantically, drowning without the water. He offered her to the ambassador. The Beloved Nephew said he could take her with him if he wanted. That she would make a fine pet, a very capable sex toy for him. The ambassador had refused distaste written all over his face. The Romulan dropped her to let her sink to the bottom of the tank. After the ambassador left, he gloated at her. Saying that he would soon rule the entire quadrant. And his enemies would all be crushed beneath his boots. All his enemies even in the Tal Shiar who he knew were somehow behind this all, would wish they’d died. He recounted their first meeting and how that damned Tal Shiar agent had ruined it all for him. That she was a clever one. And Kari saw his mind twist around that thought even as he entertained himself with her.
“It does not mean...”
“Quiet! It does! He will come for you.” She appealed to the four students. “Get her out of here. Now. Take her some place safe! Please!”
They looked at each other but did nothing.
“Shh, if he comes then I best be prepared to show him reason.” She rocked the sobbing Human.
“There is one more thing. No, we don’t need to go to the pain field.” She mastered herself and looked into Syll’s eyes. “I think he’s preparing a way out. I think he’s going to ask the Federation for asylum.”
Syll’s mouth dropped open. “No. Even the Beloved Nephew cannot think to betray Romulus. Above all, we are Romulans. Despite everything and anything, we are all Romulans. He would never...”
She considered. Why would the Beloved Nephew speak with the Federation ambassador? He despised the Federation. And all Humans. Yet, to invite the ambassador to his palace... A Federation ambassador... A Human Federation ambassador... It was so impossible to think about.
Yet, if he left any trail, any hint of a trail, it would finally tip the power struggle.
“You four.” Her students stood at attention. “I accept your resignations from my stewardship. Make sure the record supports your contention that I have become unworthy. Be clear on that as far back as you can. Do this at once.”
Without hesitation, they turned as one and left.
She remembered the Tal Shiar maxim: If it’s important to do, then it’s important to do immediately. Syll took out one of her capsules. She wrote her message with fingers that hardly trembled. A love note to the casual observer. Code to the right person. She placed the tiny note into the capsule and put it in her mouth.
“You must run too, Mistress Syll. Now. Right now. He raves. He thinks he has some special power to rule and destroy.”
“Madness owns him.” There was no need for circumspection any more. She calmed her heart.
“Mistress Syll.” She clung to her desperately. “I cannot go back. Please. If you have even an iota of mercy, kill me first.”
Syll breathed struggling for her control. Even as she had warned her students about the perils of being too long with one prisoner, they had warned her as well. The students had become the teachers. She thought about the beautiful tree in the garden. It was time.
She reached into her pocket and withdrew a thin disk no larger than a fingernail.
A guard appeared at the door. He was not one she recognized. Nor was he alone.
She looked at the disk. She had only one.
Then, pressing it into the Kari’s hand, she whispered into the Human’s ear, “Pull this apart to reveal the answer to your request. Be careful to take all or what you wish for will come slowly. It is irrevocable.”
The Human jumped up and shoved Syll behind her to face the guard. “Don’t go, Mistress Syll. Please. Stay with me. I’ll protect you.”
Syll murmured into Kari’s ear then moved her aside. She straightened and faced the guard. Another Romulan appeared.
“Commander Syll.”
“Sir?” she said startled. It was the Seigneur. “A most pleasant surprise.”
“I am pleased to be able to invite you for a very quick meeting if you have the time.”
“Of course,” she smiled happily. “You always have my best wishes.”
She gave him a quick kiss on the mouth. They both smiled again
Kari wailed and tried to keep her. The guards sealed the door out of the cell to leave her.
Alone.
Punishment for the unprepared comes disguised as surprise - Romulan maxim
She stopped crying. She thought. She stood. She thought for a very long time. Plans. A disciplined mind. It was her weapon. See the path; make the plans.
Finally, when her plans were clear, she spoke to the guards, couching her request in a way that they’d want to and be able to grant it. Soon, a student appeared.
“738766,” Don
le said, brusquely. To her, fatigue looked like it was flaying the flesh from his body. “You will be dealt with soon enough.”
“Is Mistress Syll still here, Master Donle?”
“The whereabouts of Commander Syll are not your concern even if she were here.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. “I know the Beloved Nephew will want to see her punishment himself.”
“Do not be worried about Commander Syll. She is the guest of a master interrogator and one of the Beloved Nephew’s consultants.”
“The Beloved Nephew cannot keep himself away. He is an open book to me. When he arrives, make sure I am there.”
“Your request is hardly my responsibility.”
“And I need these things when I go see him.” She snatched the pad out of his hand and scribbled down a few things.
“I do not shop for you,”
“If you need help, by the Stars of Wisdom, go to Mistress Jhynif and Mistress Myryath for advice.”
“I do not take orders from you.”
“Be quick, Master Donle, be quick.”
He spun on his heel and left.
Syll had told her that in the red bricks high above the entrance of the classes of the Tal Shiar someone long ago had carved:
Trust Everyone.
Most ignored these faint words as naiveté, from some different and forgotten time. Syll had told her she had climbed the walls there to find written in small letters hidden from the casual observer the words:
To Be Who They Are.
Kari waited and practiced. Alone. The students did not visit her. The guards brought her meals. They no longer spoke. She meditated as Syll had taught