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Parallel Universes - "What if?" / Re: [2376] Entanglement of Chaos
Last post by Ellen Fitz -While Zark occupied herself with the tech, Enyd caught the gaze of the Ghin and Javec. “Let me try my hand at Luske Ontatt.”
The Ghin laughed, “You?” He nearly doubled over in laughter. “You think you can get more information out of him than me?”
“It depends on the information,” Enyd remained calm in the face of his mockery, “some information doesn’t require brutality. And as you said, he basically delights in the more brutal tactics because it allows him to build up mental and physical barriers.” She gave a noncommittal shrug. “Doesn’t seem to be a reason why I can’t try.”
Javec mimicked her earlier shrug, looking over to the Ghin until the hardened man grumbled his agreement. Enyd hopped off the table, immediately shorter than both men. She sashayed past them, confident that she could get something from Ontatt, even if only from his body language and non-answers.
She found him tied to a chair in a pool of his own blood. The Ghin stood in the doorway behind her and signaled the rest of his men out, though he intentionally left the door open. Ontatt’s breathing was a shuddering rasp at this point, and from his hunched-over stance, Enyd deduced he’d retreated someplace else mentally. Much as she’d done when he’d been having a go at her.
“Hello again,” Enyd kept her voice even when she spoke, moving over to the table where the Cardassians kept their interrogation tools. Further back on the table was a med kit, which Enyd snagged before grabbing the only other chair in the room and dragging it across the floor until it was just beside Ontatt’s. “You’re looking a bit worse than when we last spoke.”
Ontatt said nothing and made no exterior movement, signaling that he even recognized her presence. Enyd took this as a good sign and hummed to herself. She opened the kit and removed the cleaning paraphernalia necessary to prevent infection while prepping his wounds for further treatment.
“The nice thing about rebuilding a civilization after such a massive reset is that even the most seemingly insignificant of people can make quite a big mark.” Unsurprisingly, Ontatt didn’t flinch when she began, still sitting catatonic and leaving Enyd to continue her babbling. “In a way, there’s more profit to be made the longer things remain unstable. Off-planet do-gooders continue to pump resources into the system that can be tapped into. It is really quite a profitable set-up. One even the Ferengi would delight in.”
The latter comment got a marginal snort from the older Cardassian but nothing else. Enyd stood from the chair and shifted to the man’s side, rolling his head upward and back, cradling it against her stomach as she worked to clean the various cuts on his face.
“Even so, there comes a time when the one making all this profit may think about legacy, either their own or for the ones they consider family. What will it be? And who will safeguard it?” She got the first flinch, but again, he remained quiet, his gaze focused on the distance. “Instability for too long risks another reset, and another, and another, and there’s no guarantee that those who profited from the first reset will survive to profit from the subsequent ones.” She let go of his head and returned to the med kit, switching out for the dermal regenerator. She started on his hands. “Civilisations that last the longest all have a necessary underbelly, and while there is the figurehead of power that is seen by all neighboring worlds, that figurehead is only given their power by the one who controls the underbelly. This is true even of the Federation, though the fanatical higher-ups would deny it.”
She began working on his neck, pausing only when she heard the door open and new voices filling the exterior room. Those must be the plainclothes her CDO had sent.
“If someone asked my opinion, which rarely happens surprisingly enough, I’d advocate for withdrawal from Cardassia as soon as possible. Let Cardassia jockey amongst their own factions for who will be the next in control, both officially and unofficially. Ideally, we’d be good neighbors and not have to repeat the mistakes of our past, but we don’t necessarily have to be best friends. And neither would Cardassia have to join the Federation. There are plenty of reasons not to, and anyone who says otherwise is a nincompoop.”
“Nincompoop?” Ontatt’s raspy voice interrupted her words and her work. Enyd paused, dermal regenerator hovering over his cheek. Her gaze collided with his as he spoke again. “I’ve never heard that term before.”
Enyd laughed, “Oh, that’s something my grandmother always said. I was raised by her mostly after my parents died on away missions. She was very old-fashioned and, well, rather influential on the terms I use. It is a fun word to say, isn’t it?”
Ontatt merely hummed acknowledgment before falling silent. There was a knock at the door before Enyd could push further, both with her healing efforts and coaxing. It was one of the men from the CDO.
“We have an update we’d like to share out here when you’re available.”
Enyd nodded, waiting until he backed away again before she looked back to Ontatt. They studied each other for a few silent moments, Enyd wordlessly pleading with him to share.
“Do I have anything to share with them?” She set aside the dermal regenerator.
“What guarantees do I have from the likes of you and Starfleet? You just said, ideally, you’d pull out and leave the planet to wrestle itself back into some semblance of normalcy. Why should I share anything with you when you have no interest or loyalty to the Cardassian people?”
Enyd gave a breathy snort, “And making a profit off the backs of those very Cardassians, allowing them to continue in misery and instability instead of using your channels to pump in more opportunities for growth, is loyalty to Cardassia?” Enyd shook her head at the man. “No, sir, you cannot make excuses for remaining silent when you’ve been the villain to your own story long enough. We are neither villain nor hero here. Apathetic bystanders at worst, or over-involved and enthusiastic pragmatics at best. You’re looking at the enthusiastic pragmatic. I think you are a good person to have on the side of rebuilding. You have connections to the underbelly that the Federation would balk at and that the new propped-up leader would have to officially balk at as well, but we both know the leadership of this planet cannot and will not stand without power, true power, coming in from all sides. The question is whether you have a creative enough mindset to visualize your part of the future of this planet or if you’ll continue to play hard to get and make yourself obsolete. And quite dead if that’s the case.”
Giving him an archaic salute, Enyd backed away, “I don’t think I have to tell you that your decision should be made soon. Pretty sure you’re only going to be alive for as long as any of us Starfleet personnel are around unless you start making yourself more useful.” Enyd blew him a kiss for good measure before turning on her heel and joining the others outside.
Enyd moved to stand next to Zark as the report was made. The confirmation that Atha Ono and Jassarac had been sighted nearby earlier that day, according to scans, was an unsurprising update. Enyd had already presumed the Bajoran terrorist and Orion brute no longer saw Ontatt as useful and had sought to end their business relationship in a particularly spectacular way. The news from the tech that the transfer had been set up by a Ferengi middleman and the numerous droplets of evidence that pointed toward a heavier Bajoran involvement in recent violence and upheaval on the planet were more surprising.
“Have there been recent promotions or transfers in the Bajoran government? Anyone with ties to the old resistance cells?” Enyd asked once the report was finished. “If ever there was a time to ensure an old enemy stayed down, it would be now.”
