Posted by Lieutenant Casela Synthi-er (Counsellor / RTF) in Defend - From the Depths of Turpitude

Posted by Lieutenant Casela Synthi-er (Counsellor / RTF) in Defend - From the Depths of Turpitude

After they had returned to their room, later in the very early hours of the morning, a shadow slipped out the back door of the Inn. Pulling on a long shawl against the crisp night air. “Jolan tru, Honored one.” Another woman, draped in a black robe, indicative of a religious order, hands tucked into her sleeves bowed slightly, “Jolan tru. You have news?” The voice was analytical and soft with an obvious steel to it. The first woman, younger and nervous nodded. “You said to report anything strange. A visitor today, she left the Inn, where I work, very late. At first I thought to warn her about wandering alone so late, but she stumbled several times, acting as if sick, and I was worried about some alien illness.” The older woman nodded. There were such superstitions among those who had never travelled before the sun went nova. “She went towards the landing area. When she returned there was a child with her. With strange eyes, but she did not arrive with a child. They watched the fire dancers until very late. I did not hear them speak but they seemed to be conversing, but I was not close enough to know for sure.”

“Duhatha we have encountered a coded and encrypted message.” Duhatha, black robes whispering silently as she moved came up behind the brilliant communications agent. “Yes?” He was nervous, “I can only get patches of audio. No visual and nothing complete, but…” he pulled up the audio for her. He was frustrated. The message seemed to be spoken in code, but with the snippets he got it could just sound like that. And the encryption was unlike anything he had ever seen. But what had allowed him to even get any of it was the ionization of the Ion Nebula that Rho Pupis was located.

A male voice, “You should static have static Gen, static me static very difficult static I am disappoin static understate static cant abandon static mission and static no static letting Gen go static further, static coming static.”

A female voice, “Mission static damned. static have changed. I would never static me. You are static away, static get here? static meet you, static I static nt staticke static Gen static better static fore static eave. static arrived today static suspicious. static keep static safe. I static se.”

Male voice: “I’ll come alone static there static danger the c static scream static intentions, static keep her safe static no doubt static Gen static dont expect static cookiesstatic look after static I’ll static soon.” The rest was static.

Duhatha nodded, “Some times we can only get what we can get.” She contemplated what was there, not much, but enough to raise her suspicions.

Rikama was sitting in a cafe as he observed who he expected to be a foreigner. They were common on this border world and being on the pathway to Klingon territory made sure that folks could blend in. There was something about her that was just off and he wasn’t sure exactly what it was. He tapped his PaDD and whispered softly “Kjumnaihsou io looks nim iunnh. Thra’s ihdhueeerr’unhr an aehjaeih eyes at moscaernu innaehv a’e” which translate into the more common tongue as “This one looks like trouble. Let’s keep an eye on her”. The recipient was a senior operative who went by the name of Duhatha. Three symbols appeared on his PaDD in the top right of the screen, a triangle with two vertical lines, a snail, and vine wrapped around a snake. To any other observer these symbols would be a part of the book that Rikama was reading, however he simply swept them away after a moment or two. He was to follow her and gather information, do it slowly, and ensnare her slowly. He waved off the waiter and left some credits on the table as he rose, slumped a backpack over his shoulder, and started to ‘do some shopping’.
Duhatha, Rikama, and the rest

Rikama wasn’t the most subtle when it came to tailing the stranger and Casela was able to get the slip on him. He sent a simple message before following, “Hfaei u’lli mosefvir” which could be translated as “Send another team”. They were dispatched to the north as he followed her from the west. She was a seasoned operative after all and while her mind might not be fully on mission she knew well enough to blend in and fade away, even if she didn’t know that she was now being hunted. As he followed, Rikama looked at her outfit, trying to find something to focus on, and he found it! A grey and red pattern, zig zagging down her left sleeve, he had her now and wouldn’t let her out of his sight! He took a quick holo photo and then raised his wrist to his mouth as if to stifle a cough “Ta krenn! E ehdhihss pattern. Idhaeiiiaekssrai’s ehdhihss io iudaiht guard klhu.” For those that can’t read Romulan he let the other team know “Look for the pattern. She’s the one to watch.” From stall to stall he followed a few paces back as she looked at trinkets and baubles to bring home. Little things catching her eye as she appeared to be any other traveler, engaging with the vendors and walking away after a few moments. Then she vanished. Rikama had turned away for a moment and she was gone, having ducked into an alleyway filled with mirrors and shiny baubles all reflecting the light and distracting the senses. As Rikama looked the secondary team met up with him he pulled up his PaDD and showed the image, and pointed out their mark, it was only of her back but they could quickly ascertain her height and build, working to make a profile and spread the word of the stranger.

Casela could feel the tension building and the same faces kept popping up in the crowd, edging closer. She took a quick cut down a side alley and then with a quick run and leap she jumped for an overhang of what looked like a large warehouse window. She climbed and disappeared into an open window. The building was large and a massive open space. She was perched precariously on a metal rafter that ran the length of the wall of high windows. She needed to get away from the windows and she began to edge her way along a beam the crossed towards the other wall. Once she was sure it was stable she stood and began to quickly cross the beam like a tightrope. She reached a cross beam and came to a stop just as the doors below opened. “She has to be in here, there was no sign of her outside or around the building.” “Was Vera sure it was a Synth?” “Yes she said the eyes, neon yellow/orange and it flickered several times.” Rakima looked around, “Spread out, we need to find the woman so we can find the synth. It will be the perfect way to test the virus.” Casela turned her head slowly, listening. Virus and synths? Very very carefully she stretched those injured and weak telepathic muscles. Their minds were surprisingly easy to read, the team coming in was not, they were more skilled. But she was able to catch enough…they had developed a computer virus that would seek out, attack, and disable any computer system that contained even a rudimentary AI.

And then a loud crash as her body began to seize and fell from the rafters into the racks below…
Duhatha, Rikama, and the rest

Casela had been lucky, the fall had been short, the stacks being high, but it had knocked the wind out of her and bruised back and head and her left arm had been caught behind her at an odd angle. There was no doubt an impact fracture there. Casela was confined to a chair. It had been almost a full day since she’d feel from the rafters, and they had wasted no time in questioning her. It was soon obvious that ‘traditional’ interrogation methods would simply not work on the Betazoid woman. Dhatha was pacing the room impatiently. Ice cold and determined, all they had gotten was “Valkyrie, 88259” was all they got out of the woman. Lunema looked over at Duhatha, “It’s ready, but we’ve never used this device on a Betzoid before. It may take several tries.”

Vision 1

She opened her eyes, she was lying on her side in a semi-fetal position. She didn’t recognize the room. It was Federation in design, muted blues and greys, curved edges instead of corners. The orientation was wrong. She was facing the door, but in her quarters she’d be on her right side, not her left. She saw movement out of the corner of her eye, and nothing moved except her eyes, snapping to focus on it. Dr. Thomas Kidd?

“You’re finally awake. I’ve been worried. Dr. Knox expected you to be awake two days ago.” She was confused, why was Knox worried, why was he talking about himself as another person? She started to sit up but found she was dizzy. Some else was in the room, her eyes snapped to the wall directly across from her. Ryder

He crossed the room and hunkered down by the bed, near her face. “Hey, slow down, baby. Let me help.” Baby? She looked around, expecting to see…but some instinct stopped her from forming a clear thought about Gen. It was important that she NOT think about her. Instead she let Ryder help prop her up. She cleared her throat coughing a couple times. “Thirsty,” was all she was able to rasp out. Kidd left and she took stock of the room again. If this was their room where were their things? Why was it flip-flopped? Kidd came back and held the glass to her mouth. Ryder took from him, his eyes filled with hatred as he looked at Kidd/Knox. She must have been extremely sick. Did the doctor do something? Ryder didn’t dote on her like that. He always made her feel cherished, but not spoiled. It’s not that he wouldn’t but she didn’t feel like she’d been that sick. She sniffed the water, old habits, but it smelled clean. The way Ryder was acting toward Kidd/Knox made her suspicious. “You are always so paranoid, Lt. It’s clean.” Kidd said, but Ryder took a sip. She sipped at the water this time when Ryder offered it to her. “Where am I? These aren’t our quarters.”

Kidd shrugged, “The doctor thought you’d feel better not waking up in sickbay so this is a recovery room.” Dr. Knox was worried I hadn’t woken up but he put me in a recovery room where he doesn’t have eyes on me 24/7? Why is he talking about himself like that? She tried to think past the confusion. But all it brought was extreme pain that had her screaming. After a few moments it passed.

“Easy. Dr Knox said there might be some headache from being sedated for so long. Remember?” Kidd’s voice was condescending. Ryder’s arm came up in her peripheral vision towards her hair as he brushed it aside. She moved, lightning reflexes grabbing his wrist with an iron grip, she hated her hair touched like that. He knew that. He knew Mad Man used to do that to her. Now he would start at her arm, running his hand up, across her shoulder, past her neck, to her cheek, and then to her hair. She didn’t startle that way, she knew exactly where his hand was. She didn’t startle, and he didn’t end up with a broken wrist. Sedated? Her ribs, she’d had surgery on her ribs, but something went wrong. That didn’t make sense. Her voice snapped as she focused on Kidd, “If Knox was worried I’d been asleep two days longer than I should, why was he keeping me sedated?” Kidd blinked at her, dumbly, no response, no movement, no intelligence in his eyes. Then he looked at her, “You were having a bad dream, you were muttering something about Romulans. I think you had better tell me.”

Ryder tugged on her hand where she’d grabbed him, “Don’t look at him, look at me. He’s lying to you.” Casela turned to look at him, he wasn’t quite right, and then he was holding her wrist instead of the other way around. He was squeezing her wrist painfully hard and jerking at her. “Don’t you understand?” Ryder didn’t act like that. This was NOT Ryder “Who are you?!” she launched herself at him, the only weapon she had being herself, but she was sure that was more than adequate. And then the pain again, robbing her of breath and sight, and then oblivion.

“That was less than 10 minutes. What went wrong?” A female voice, like black ice, you see it but you don’t know how deadly it is until you’re on it.

“I didn’t have enough detail. There must have been too many discrepancies, and she picked up on them. But we’ve never used this device on a Betazoid before. I need to scan more of her memory to make the images more detailed.” Another female voice, younger but analytical.

“You have 24 hours and we try again. Do not disappoint me.”
Lt Synthi-er, CNS