Posted by Lieutenant Casela Synthi-er (Counsellor / RTF) in Surprising Surprises

Posted by Lazol (Chief Science Officer) in Surprising Surprises

Posted by Lieutenant Casela Synthi-er (Counsellor / RTF) in Surprising Surprises
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
Suddenly, she was no longer sitting across from him, but was in his space, dangerously in his space, a knife pressed hard to the soft spot in his throat. “Who are you? Why are you here? And you better hope to whatever gods of profit you pray to, that you didn’t plant that damn anomaly to hurt those children, or I will disassemble you joint-by-joint. Do you understand?” And in her eyes Lazol would see that avenging angel of death that made grown men and women beg for their mothers with their dying breaths.
Lt. Synthi-er, S31

Well. That escalated quickly. Lazol felt the cold blade against his throat as he broke out in a cold sweat. He raised his hands slowly, placing his wrists together and extending his closed hands outward in the traditional sign of Ferengi submission. This wasn’t the first time his life had been threatened, especially for someone with the wealth and resources he had this was an all to common fear, hence his usual retinue of body guards that he was sorely lacking on this ship. He breathed for what seemed like a suspicious amount of time when he said calmly. “I am Lazol, Diamon in the Ferengi Alliance and Chief Science Officer onboard the USS Leviathian under and officer exchange program. There are many things you do not know about me Counselor and least of all my past but let me shed some light on that for you.” He said staring straight ahead, speaking in a very forced calm tone as he maintained posture. “You saw in my file that my parents had died due to a ship’s malfunction. That was what I wanted the galaxy to believe. My parents and older sister were killed in a very horrific way by an anomaly, but I was a child at the time and didn’t know that, all I knew is that I wanted to stop those things from hurting any other child and the least of all orphans as that is what I became. Please remove the dagger from my throat and I will answer any questions you want. I know you cannot read my thoughts but I will submit myself to any test to verify what I am saying.” Lazol was scared, he was trying not to show it but he was petrified that this would be his last conversation alive and he didn’t even know why.

Lazol, CSO

A slight twitch of the eye, attempting to look away, told her it was a lie. “That’s not true, not entirely. An officer exchange program on the most secretive of Star Fleet divisions. I don’t think so. I didn’t believe it before and I certainly don’t now.” She eased the knife enough so he could talk without risk, but she wasn’t stupid. Ferengi were intelligent and survivalists. And Lazol was better than most. It was a risk if he wasn’t aware, but she watched him carefully. “11 years ago, you gave transport to a young woman, she was injured and sick, from Delotha. A Klingon purchased passage for her.”

She nodded, he remembered. “I don’t need to be telepathic, Lazol, and good thing for you, you’re Ferengi or this would get very painful. Let’s connect the dots then. You took me off that planet, someone, with a lot influence figured it out. Maybe you let something slip in your arrogance. Maybe your reputation drew the attention of the wrong people. Either way it doesn’t matter. Who is paying you to find me?” Her voice had dropped, a soft silky, poisonous whisper, promising nightmarish things.
Lt Synthi-er, CNS

Lazol breathed a little easier as the blade was removed from his throat. He swallowed and looked in her eyes, the black inky pools full of fire and loathing. He thought back long and hard… “My dear counselor a officer exchange is what was officially sanctioned by Admiral Janssen. Unless you want to be complicit in some crimes at the highest levels of the ARU I would suggest you drop that specific inquiry. As for your second point…” Lazol said eying the blade as he swallowed again. “11 years… that was.... Are you talking about Ch’otok?” He said, a man he had worked with back then and to this day with honor and integrity. “Yes I do remember him booking passage for someone with express instructions to make sure that she was comfortable, and not to be bothered. I…” He trailed off before saying, “I owed him a favor and told him that transport wouldn’t be a problem, and his requests would be honored and I put you in the best stateroom that an old Klingon ship can offer and dropped you off of Starbase 332. After that the whole thing slipped from my mind until you oh so aggressively reminded me of it.”

“I don’t give a targ’s rear end about crimes in the ARU. I could tell you stories to make you beg Dave to consume you. They can’t touch me.” Now Shadow Man and the higher ups of her own division were another thing. “But I don’t care about their secrets.” She paused locking eyes harder against his. He knew Ch’otok? Or was his intel that good? No ONE except T’Jal knew about Ch’otok. The details of the transport were correct, so that part at least she was correct about.

He sat up and looked at her in the eyes, dead seriousness in his expression as he said, “I am many things Lieutenant, most of which your people find deplorable but there is one thing I am not. And that is a snitch. You guessed correctly. I picked up an injured sick young woman at the request of a long time business partner with little questions and from there I fulfilled my end of the bargain and went back to making a profit. I did not keep records, nor did I even have you listed on a registry. He gave me a name that I knew had to be false and I told him the less I knew the better. He escorted you personally on the ship and took you to the room that had been assigned to ‘cargo’ and that was it. No money exchanged hands, no logs were kept, no records exist beyond what is in your memory, my memory, and his. I found out during the Dominion War that Ch’otok was a man to be trusted but not fooled with. When he retired to that planet he requested that I work with the village to get supplies that the governor was withholding. I fought Orion blockades, I lost men and profit working with him but I owe him a great debt that I can never repay so when he asked me to take someone off world I did so without thinking anything of it. And here I am 11 years later being held at knife point by the person I was instructed to take off world by the one person who holds me in a perpetual debt. Do you really think I am so narrow of a man to be led by profit alone? Do you not think that I am a deeper man than simply an individual with a lust for latinum. I can buy moons, fleets, but there is something more that drives me and that’s why I’m here. So don’t you dare accuse me of betraying the trust of the man whose debt I can never repay. And don’t you dare insinuate that I am so low that I would sell out people for profit, or risk the lives of children who have already lost so much!” Lazol had risen from his seat and was yelling at this point, the indignation was fierce and he was done with whatever was going on and had been triggered.

Lazol, CSO

Casela paced him as he moved about the room. The door was locked and he wouldn’t be able to leave with out her releasing the lock. The beauty of her security system was that when the door lock activated it put the whole room into isolation: force fields at every access point (door, ventilation, jeffries tubes hatches, all of them), communications jamming unless accessed through her console and her security clearance, as well as a dampening field that prevented basic old fashioned ease dropping techniques at her door. And all recording devices were turned off. Ship’s communications would be stopped before reaching her office and none could get out without her approval. “Computer, direct subspace message to Starship Opaka, for Captain Ch’otok. Priority, emergency message. Sigma 9527 zeta security clearance.” She tapped the console on her desk, encrypting the message. Only one other person alive could decode it, and he should be on his ship. She turned to Lazol. “It’s time to find out, DaiMon Lazol. If you are the honorable Ferengi I hope you are, or someone that is as depraved as Kazakor (OOC: going to pretend this is some famous guy who ran a horrible fake orphanage). If you have harmed, or attempted to, one hair on any child’s head from Caspian…” She let the threat hang in the air.

The console came to life and Ch’otok appeared and she turned his attention to Lazol. “Ch’otok. Do you know this man? And do you vouch for him? Because otherwise he’s put me and this ship at grave risk and I need to know it.”

OOC: Adding information I forgot

Lt Synthi-er, CNS