Star Trek: Theurgy

Day 25 [0427 hrs.] Compromising Allegiances

April 28, 2020, 10:01:43 PM

STARDATE: 57620.9
APRIL 7th, 2381
0427HRS

[ Y'Lev |  Divine Delights Bathhouse/Brothel | Red Light District | Ibai Besi Promenade | Aldea Prime ] @fiendfall @Revan

Y’Lev didn’t often trifle with anxiety, not since his days training with the Syndicate, at least. In the field, he never failed to remain in control of the situation, even in times where he was caught by surprise and got set on the back foot, he always had a trick up his sleeve… Or on his wrist. Or in his hair, or earring, or shoe… He never played all of his cards at once, he kept some hidden, always ready to get the upper hand on someone if the need arose…

Yet, he couldn’t help but feel anxious at his current circumstances. He was forced to lay all of his cards on the table, forced to go against his nature… Sure, he still had some very valuable cards to play, but everything seemed to lose its lustre when it was laid out in the open for all to see. The clandestine nature of his meeting, having to reveal information and hope that it would be worth a lot to the buyer, truthfully, was out of his comfort zone.

If he’d had his way, he’d’ve taken the information that Xelia had shown him, the footage incriminating Z’Lexha, and taken it straight to the Captain. He’d have told him that he’d infiltrated their ship working for the Orion Syndicate, but now had the ability to contact a confirmed parasite, and give them misleading information about the Theurgy. It was a weighty ability to offer, and he was certain that his influence and record would give Z’Lexha no reason to doubt him.

Truth be told, he had know way of knowing whether he had ever served Z’Lexha, or whether it had just been the parasite all along. It was uncomfortable knowledge, but all the more bolstered his plan to stay aboard the Theurgy. Z’Lexha or the parasite, either one, had no reason to not trust him fully. The idiot.

His plan however did hit a snag when Xelia refused to turn over the information. Apparently the woman thought she was intelligent enough to foresee Y’Lev’s motives like some half-penny soothsayer in a back-alley. It was ridiculous that she didn’t trust him, but since it wasn’t the only part of his plan that hit a tiny speedbump, he decided not to dwell on it.

The second snag in his initial plan was the sheer audacity of Starfleet ship inner-workings. To meet the Captain he required ‘authorisation’. He didn’t have ‘authorisation’. In fact, the only member of the ‘Senior Staff’ that he was permitted to speak to, was Commander Hathev, and he didn’t need precognition to realise that she wasn’t going to listen to anything he had to say; it was far too exciting a story.

So, the worst had happened. He and Xelia had formed an alliance…

A new plan arose, though Y’Lev knew that it was just his plan with Xelia shoehorned into it…

Xelia would use her position on the planet to capture whichever Syndicate agent arrived to discipline her, following the preposterously bad kidnapping attempt. He’d be there to assist, so this time it would be far less probable that she would mess it up… That would at least buy them a little more time, and a potential bargaining chip if things ended a little more sour than he was intending.

He, meanwhile, was to use his undercover status aboard the Theurgy to do what he did best; investigate. He needed to find someone who would be able to come to a meeting with them planetside without either arising suspicion or bringing a damned honour guard; oh how the Starfleeters loved their honour guards. The individual would also need to have enough influence to gain the pair of them access to the ship, and combining that with someone who would attend a meeting without an entourage, proved a little more difficult than he’d anticipated…

Twenty-two days more difficult, in fact…

Unfortunately, what Xelia didn’t seem to know about Starfleet, was that they were required to do work when they were on the Theurgy. Repairing things that he had no business repairing. Analysing systems that he had no business analysing. Following protocols he had no business following… It was slave labour. He wasn’t being paid in anything more than a room to sleep in, a replicator that couldn’t even replicate basic poisons, and a pet bat...

Needless to say, even when he wasn’t being treated like a common whore and made to work for money, and actually had free time to investigate eligible parties, he could hardly approach them candidly. He couldn’t saunter up to them in the mess hall and ask if they were willing to have a secret meeting regarding intel concerning a parasite within the Orion Syndicate…

That was about as subtle as him clambering up onto the bar in ‘Below Decks’ and shouting out: ‘Hey all you cool cats and kittens, I’m a member of the Orion Syndicate, drinks are on me, because Starfleet don’t pay you!’; true, but hardly a great direction to take. He did not want to end up back in the brig with the half-armed man again… It had been ghastly the last time.

So he investigated any potential candidates thoroughly. So thoroughly in fact, that he gave his new comrade inspiration to hack into the Klingon messaging system and start hounding him with personal messages every five minutes of the day. If he didn’t reply, she became utterly inconsolable, so he placated her with a few holo-pictures of the bat that he had unexpectedly become rather fond of. He’d taken to calling the creature Licorice, after it’s favoured snack. He still didn’t know the creature’s gender.

But despite constant interruptions, being forced to do work without pay, and having to groom his pet regularly, Y‘Lev had found the task somewhat comforting… Investigations and intrigue were his specialty. He found the information, extracted it, and reported it. It was like clockwork and it felt satisfying in a most sensual manner… He was good at what he did. At least parasite Z’Lexha had good taste…

And naturally, he’d found his mark.

A Trill. He was stuffily titled ‘intelligence officer’, which frankly, sounded perfect for the job. Influence to deal with intelligence, and possibly the ear of the Captain. The man was also somewhat attractive too, which was perhaps the most important aspect of the hunt. If he didn’t want to sit across a table from a decrepit little red-head with more teeth than sense, then Xelia definitely wouldn’t. Xelia was exponentially more concerned with appearances than he was.

So he’d told Xelia to send one of her little messages to the man, the man with deliciously curved lips and a taught, stubble-lined jaw. She’d done so. And now they were waiting to see if the strong-chinned Trill decided to show his pretty little face. But the Orion was sure that the man would. Y’Lev had spent the past twenty-two days working meticulously to ensure that their meeting went off without a hitch… There were no second chances. He would put his cards on the table, Xelia would too, and Zaryn would sit across from them both, and decide whether they were worth his time.

And whilst it was definitely something a normal, naive Orion didn't need to worry about, what a Starfleeter thought of them, as much as it pained the Orion to admit, the Theurgy was perhaps the safest place he could be until the parasitic thread was neutralised… And this meeting would be the last chance to confirm his place aboard that accursed vessel before his cover was eternally blown.

And since this plan involved Xelia, he’d brought Licorice down to the surface with him… Just in case. 

“Xelia, are you…” He began calling, hopping off from the cabinet he was perched upon and poking his head into her boudoir, anxious to be punctual for the very important meeting they were hosting at their own premises. By the stars, he was turning into a Vulcan… Pain coursed through his body at the thought, as he considered throwing himself off of the balcony in protest to the unfathomable change in his character.

He exasperation crescendoed at the apex of stress however, as his eyes reached Xelia’s form, hunched cretinously over her mirror, a pencil in her hands pressing deftly against her temple.

“You still haven’t done your eyebrows?” He asked matter-of-factly, aghast at the thought of her being so unprepared for an imminent meeting. And it wasn’t that Y’Lev misunderstood the importance of the act, because he didn’t. But he’d been sensible and done his own that morning. He prefered a subtle, darker shading, to better accentuate the natural perfection of the arks of hair above his odd-coloured eyes, along with his eye-liner, to create a formidable ensemble upon his face. He’d then applied crystalline body lotion over his form, before donning his harness and then covering the entire thing with the sac that Aldean’s called ‘clothes’. Distasteful, to say the least.

But he was still the one on time.

“We have an important meeting walking through the door any second!” He leant is forearms above his head and pressed his temple into the doorframe, carefully as to not disturb his hair. “I started this morning off planet and I am still ready before you. Licorice got ready quicker than you did, and he isn't even from a warp-capable species..." Upon hearing his name, Licorice straightened up from where he'd been perching on the balcony banister, and launched himself towards Y'Lev, latching to the Orion's back whilst letting out the most adorable purring noises. Of course, that may have also been because Y'Lev had named the creature after it's favorite snack...  But he refused to believe that his darling was that much of a glutton.

"See, you know you're better at grooming than Xelia don't you? Don't you?" He cooed to the creature, taking his attention off of the travesty before him for a moment, to adjust to the weight of a torso-sized mammal clinging upon his shoulders. He turned his attention back to the woman before him, and almost gasped at the devastatingly dangerous angle the pencil seemed to be poised at. "Please tell me that I don't have to remind you not to fill in the gap between your brows in too?.”

He tried to assure himself that it was a distortion from the mirror, given the lower lighting in the room, but the worrying thing was, truthfully, he wouldn’t have put it past her...

Re: Day 25 [0427 hrs.] Compromising Allegiances

Reply #1 – April 29, 2020, 02:18:32 PM

[ Xelia | Boudoir | Divine Delights | Red Light District, Ibai Besi Promenade | Aldea Prime ] Attn: @TWilkins @Revan

Xelia had thought nothing in the galaxy could be as boring as sitting around on Aldea, pretending to be Adisia, but it turned out she had been wrong. More boring was sitting around on Aldea, pretending to be Adisia, and waiting for Y'Lev to do his stupid job. She'd ended up spending a whole day hacking the Klingon dockyards in an attempt to at least see some mention of this secret ship she was having to rely on Y'Lev's word even existed.

It did exist. So that was good. It'd taken her a while to find anything on it, but that was fine, it'd kept her busy. It'd been like a little detective adventure, it'd been fun. But then she was right back to the boring wait. But she'd never closed her backdoor into the Klingon system, and it'd been right there just begging to be used, so she'd figured, what the heck, might as well have some fun.

It'd been just one message to begin with. She wasn't stupid, she didn't want to compromise herself in case the message got seen by anyone other than Y'Lev. So she'd left a voice message that could've been from anyone really, asking how he was getting along with his little project, really sneaky stuff, it turned out she was good at this.

He'd taken a whole hour to respond, by which point she'd sent two more. And then he'd had the audacity to tell her he was busy! She'd vowed not to bother again -- he clearly didn't appreciate the effort she'd gone to -- but that promise to herself had flown out the window the next time she was bored, which was only a few hours later. In the end she was sending him inane video messages designed to piss him off as frequently as possible, nagging him and insulting him, asking him long drawn-out questions about which shade of nail varnish looked better with which dress, she'd even left him messages of absolutely nothing while she did something else entirely.

He had retaliated with footage of a truly horrendous-looking creature that she could only assume was his roommate. God, maybe the Theurgy wasn't the place for her after all...

Things had picked up when the real Syndicate representative had arrived, of course, although even she had taken her time getting here. She'd put up a real fight, she hadn't counted on Y'Lev -- who, Xelia had to admit, was slightly more capable than her useless slaves -- and eventually they had the woman locked neatly away in a trunk.

That had escalated the whole thing, of course. There was only so long they could quite literally sit on a Syndicate agent before their handler started to look for them. And they wouldn't have to look very hard at all to realise Xelia wasn't who she said she was.

So. The wait was finally over. And here Y'Lev was, criticising her timing.

She wasn't even in the mood to be condescending. She just sent him a glare. 'Bitch, it's 4:30 in the morning, and I work nights. You couldn't have arranged this meeting for a real time? Given yourself more chance to fix whatever look it is you think you're going for? Ugh.' She turned back to the mirror, filling in the tail of her brow. Y'Lev had had almost a month to figure this out, and this was the best he could come up with? She was doomed.

He started making strange baby noises and she glanced up at him in the mirror to see -- oh void no. He'd brought his roommate? No... His pet? He willingly associated with that horrible animal? And then had the gall to insult her again?

She was overcome with the desire to stab him to death with her eyebrow pencil. But then she'd be left with lopsided brows, and that just wasn't acceptable. Maybe she could use the eyelash curler...

'It looks like you're the one who needs reminding of that, sweet pea,' she said, covering her voice in more than the usual amounts of saccharine condescension. 'Is it Starfleet's fault you look like this or was this a deliberate choice? I hope they don't assign everyone with gross little animals.'

She finished her brows, taking a moment to assess from various angles before moving on. She was getting faster at the routine, but still nowhere near her old speed -- having slaves to do all this for you had really ruined her. She missed Vaxus, of course, and Duniz, but her hair and makeup team? Oh, she mourned them.

But she would be ready to meet their guest, when he arrived. Another man, of course -- trust a man to find a man! But then Starfleet was very liberal when it came to all that. Not that Xelia was conservative -- she'd committed pretty much the only crime anyone cared about on Vondem -- but still. Men. Ugh.

Whatever. Hopefully he wouldn't be a posturing idiot. Or a dry ricecake of a Fleeter. Although if he was, she could probably aim to give him a heart attack just by showing him around the brothel, which could be fun.

No, no. Not the plan.

Her reader pinged -- it was the downstairs staff letting her know she had an arrival; she instructed them to bring her guest to her boudoir.

Well. She put the finishing touches to her face and rose. 'Showtime,' she said to Y'Lev with a smile. She had always been good at putting on a performance; she could only hope the same could be said for him, although considering his uninspiring appearance she didn't expect much.

But that was fine. She could carry the stage for the both of them.

She opened the door with a flourish, lounging against it sensually. 'Welcome, darling,' she purred at her guest. 'Come on in, let's talk.'

Re: Day 25 [0427 hrs.] Compromising Allegiances

Reply #2 – May 01, 2020, 05:26:35 PM

Lieutenant Zaryn Arn | Devine Delights | Red Light District | Ibai Besi Promenade | Aldea Prime ] Attn: @TWilkins @fiendfall
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As he made his way through the Red Light District towards the brothel Zaryn had to admit getting a message from the Orion woman was certainly not something he had expected but if what the messsage had said was genuine then it wasn't exactly something he could ignore. On the flip side however he'd had enough dealings with the Syndicate in his lifetimes to know it was always best to air on the side of caution when it came to them, this would be no different he was sure. Especially given the meeting place wasn't exactly something the Syndicate had kept quiet about operating, especially in his line of work.

A spy with his experience always knew to dress the part so he'd opted for one of his former Aldean pirate outfits he'd worn during his time here. Spiking his hair and opting for a leather jacket, a nice but not too fancy Aldean shirt and black pants it was just the right balance to let everybody know you wasn't  one to be messed with while simultaiously being just casual enough to not draw too much attention either. Even going to a brothel you could over or underdress and draw attention to yourself and while there was a time and place for such things, this wasn't one of them.

As he saw the brothel in the distance he knew how he was going to play it, and as a solo operative he'd done things like this enough times in the past to not be too worried about it but given it was the Orions he was dealing with the Trill did take some comfort in knowing the was a transporter chief above him waiting to get him out of there if necessary. Being kidnapped and ransomed or sold into slavery wasn't exactly something Zaryn wanted in his life at the moment and that was something that was entirely possible given who he was going to meet.

Making his way into the Devine Delights he couldn't help but chuckle under his breath, during his time as a pirate undercover on this planet he'd been here a few times but he'd never had any dealings with the establishment's ownership before. Making his way to the girl working the desk, he wondered just how many people actually brought into the flirtatious behaviour they used or if most just played along with the act.

"Well hello there handsome." the girl said "Welcome to Devine Delights, how can we pleasure you this evening? Whatever you're after I'm sure we can provide."

 "I'm sure you could my dear, but sadly I'm here on business today. I have an appointment with your boss, she's expecting me." he replied with a smile of his own. Watching as the girl sent a message before instructing someone to escort him upstairs. He thanked the girl and followed his escort upstairs as his guide knocked on the door and walked way.

Chatty fellow. Zaryn thought as he watched the burly Orion leave only to snap his head back around at the sound of the door opening and coming face to face with the beautiful woman he was meeting with. Not at all surprised in the manner she opened the door or lounged against it, nor how she purred her greeting his way.

"A pleasure." he replied with a flirty grin of his own as she invited him in. The game had began. "Yes let's talk indeed, it's not everyday I get a call from the Orion Syndicate. I feel so special." he added with a chuckle as he followed her into the room.

Spotting the other Orion in the room however caused Zaryn to pause a moment. Hadn't he seen him on the Theurgy once or twice? Well this was certainly going to be an interesting conversation. Still he kept his expression neutral as he looked between the two.

"So while I like a trip to the local brothel as much as the next guy, I'm pretty sure you didn't invite me here just for fun times..." he smirked giving one of them the opening to hopefully explain just what exactly he was doing here.

Re: Day 25 [0427 hrs.] Compromising Allegiances

Reply #3 – May 03, 2020, 03:18:56 AM

[ Y'Lev | Leant against cabinet | Boudoir | Divine Delights | Red Light District | Ibai Besi Promenade | Aldea Prime ] @fiendfall @Revan

Xelia, predictably, did not retort to his words with any dignity. Firstly, she referred to him as ‘bitch’, as though she was some back-alley wrangler trying to talk down to her prostitutes; all she needed was some faux-gold and she’d’ve looked right at home in a rundown brothel; he considered their surroundings, and smirked. Secondly, she insulted his outfit, as though he were some pageant model, as opposed to someone dressed in practical attire, in case any violence was to be required; the last time there were three people in Xelia's boudoir, Y'Lev had been forced to stab someone in the throat. Thirdly, the hoofed barbarian of a woman had insulted his darling Licorice, which was, quite frankly, a lie.

Her game was frightfully amateur...

Y’Lev mentally noted her lack of poise and grace in when coming out of a sleep cycle, to one-up her at some undesignated point in the future…

Of course, her reptilian tongue quickly retreated into her mouth when their guest arrived, purring at him like a Catian with a new scratching-post and beckoning him in like some sensually enhanced insect. He slurped it straight up with a flirty smile and bought into her ministrations quicker than a Ferangi looking at a bargain. But, Y’Lev wouldn’t have expected anything more than that from a Starfleeter. It wasn’t hard for Y’Lev to assume that this man’s closest interaction with an Orion female was being on the viewing end of a pornographic holo-programme. 

And he thought Xelia was worth his time? Her pheromones were weaker than those of a clay pot.

Y’Lev was at risk of having his mood darken, when he caught the pause in the Trill’s actions when the man finally noticed something that wasn’t Xelia. The man was a good one at not letting his features give away his emotions, but Y’Lev was good at looking for the finest details. It made him smile a little, from his position leant against one of Xelia’s cabinets. Of course, the Trill could have been surprised by the enormous winged-mammal mounted upon Y’Lev’s side, but the Orion chose to interpret the move as recognition. It afforded him a little more power.

That was more valuable than affection for his pet. This time...

The man then quipped about a brothel visit, and Y’Lev tried hard to refrain from giving him any condolences for making such a poor choice in venues. Luckily for Xelia’s chipped dignity, the man offered Y’Lev a more inviting opportunity, an open ended statement about why he’d been invited to meet, left dangling in the breeze like a kite in the wind. It hung for a moment, and it was moment enough that Y’Lev couldn’t stand to not grab it, lest Xelia wrap her talons around it first and start talking about potpourri or something equally unhelpful…

Potpourri had a time and a place, and he just knew that Xelia wouldn't know what was what. This was far more in his comfort zone than hers.

“No Lieutenant, thankfully this wasn’t an offer for you to have fun. The only fun I’ve ever had in this building was stabbing someone in the throat, and that was, as far as throat stabbings go, a fairly dry affair…” Y’Lev, as it turned out, wasn’t strong enough to ignore his craving to provide some sort of glib remark about Xelia’s wretched brothel; he’d spent more time in the building than he’d ever needed to. He planned to burn it before they left.

Then, Y’Lev remembered that their guest was a Starfleeter, and would probably be wound up tighter than a warp coil, or something that was tight, frankly, he didn't know what a warp coil looked like. He'd always pictured a large spring, possible blue in tone... But either way, he didn't want to give their guest time to flap about unimportant trivialities like morals, so Y’Lev took a brisk sidestep into a more comfortable stance.

“And that throat stabbing was to save your ship. Your mission. Your future. The usual...” The Orion replied with a curled grin, enjoying playing with the cards in his hands for a few moments, before the big reveal. “You see, Lieutenant Kolari, or is it Arn now?” Y’Lev mused, taking a small step forward towards the table in the centre of the room. A power move. "Congratulations on your... Surgery?" The comment was another power move, hopefully enough to encourage the Trill sweat a little.

"Should we have sent a card?" He added in a feigned whisper, as a little side to Xelia, for the comedic factor. She'd find it hilarious, he was sure. Of course they wouldn't have sent some poxy card; they were Orions. It was amusing to laugh at the sheer idiocy of the culture of others every once and a while... Was a staple of Orion dinner party discourse.

“I know this, of course, because I’ve been aboard your ship for over a month now, since I was transported aboard after the Theurgy blew out half of the USS Bellerophon during one of your colourful space battles...” Y’Lev whimsically revealed, allowing a slight pause to linger before his next sentence, for dramatic effect. “I’m also an agent of the Orion Syndicate, one who was tasked, by my handler, with finding out everything I could about the Theurgy, it's crew compliment, it's location, and reporting all it back to the Syndicate…”

“And I was intending to do just that, until all of your talk of Parasites and infested, surprisingly, started to make sense…”  Y’Lev looked the man in the eyes as he spoke, probing for anything key that made the man twitch. “So I looked into it, talked to far too many Starfleeters, had a meeting with a Vulcan of all things, and then I finally got the closest semblance of evidence that I was able to find.”

At that point, he produced a Starfleet-issue datapad, uncomfortably bland and no gold or gemstones adorning it, but unmistakably proving his story. On the pad, displayed a still of the meeting he’d been shown by Commander Hathev, the gyrating woman in the cell, behaving like a mass of insects within a body, coiling insanity unto and upon herself as she spoke her malignant words.

It was evidence enough that the Trill had no choice but to take them seriously.

"And then, not even a day after I was shown this video, my Colleague botched a kidnapping on a crew member of the Theurgy. Obviously that wasn't going to go unnoticed by the Syndicate, so I came down to deal with the problem, and instead..." At this stage, he couldn't help but affording Xelia the smuggest of all of his smirks, something to share between them as it came to fruition the sheer volume of weight they now held above the Theurgy's head.

And whilst he would never admit it aloud, without Xelia, he'd never have discovered the key component in their offer to the Theurgy... That he had a direct link to Z'Lexia, a proven infested, who had absolutely no reason to doubt his words. For some exploitative hacker, who didn't put any real work into finding out information, she wasn't so bad... Plus, without him, she'd never have understood the value of her footage, so, he was still able to hang that little morsel above her head for quite some time...

"... found an opportunity that you, and the rest of the higher-ups aboard the Theurgy, are probably going to salivate over in your next morning briefing..."

By Orion standards, they were now about to be considered one of two things.

Threats, or allies.

Re: Day 25 [0427 hrs.] Compromising Allegiances

Reply #4 – May 03, 2020, 04:45:56 PM

[ Xelia | Doorjamb -> 3rd chaise longue from the left | Boudoir | Divine Delights | Red Light District, Ibai Besi Promenade | Aldea Prime ] Attn: @TWilkins @Revan

Xelia was in legitimate danger of pulling a muscle from rolling her eyes so hard. God, trust Y'Lev to start in with the bragging, the threats, the brazen superiority -- he couldn't even restrain himself from insulting Divine Delights not ten seconds into the meeting! She returned his stage whisper with a glare.

The idiot! The man was determined to present himself as incredibly smart and dangerous, but his very attempts proved he was nothing but a stupid brat playing in leagues miles above his station. He'd burned his bridge with the Theurgy before even getting any assurances, he'd crowed about his murders and threatened more on Starfleet, he'd even bragged about how much he knew to someone who was apparently the Federation's best attempt at a spy! Even if Starfleeters were idiots, you couldn't just tell them that. She'd charmed some truly repulsive and worthless idiots in her time -- she'd thought Y'Lev liked lying! Why did he have to turn into an honest man now of all times!

And so it fell to her to try to rescue something from the situation. Ugh.

'Of course, darling, if you'd like some fun after all this I can pick you out someone suitable,' she said sweetly. 'Unfortunately in the meantime, much as I hate to put business before pleasure, we need to have a little chat. Drink?' She keyed in orders to her reader; a slave would be up with them shortly.

'Have a seat, sweetling,' she said to Zaryn. Y'Lev didn't get an invitation; she was sure he'd pretend he'd gotten one anyway. The table he had destroyed had been replaced with a number of chaise longues, perfect for reclining artfully, the large trunk acting as drinks table in the middle of them; she arranged herself prettily on one of them, encouraging the others to do the same. A serving slave appeared with their order, disappearing just as quickly, and they were finally ready to get down to business.

'Well!' she said once they were all settled and alone. 'As my colleague has so delicately explained, we called you here because we have something to offer you. A number of things, in fact: the very first being safety, an offer which we have in fact already delivered upon.' She stroked the top of the trunk as if it were an animal. 'The Theurgy's presence here was almost discovered by the Syndicate, you see, but we made that little problem go away for you. A gesture of goodwill. A gift.'

She'd used Standard, partly because that was the language she'd used to speak to Zaryn so far, and partly because the Orion word for 'gift' would more accurately translate as 'something given with the purpose of putting the receiver in debt to you', and she didn't want to be so obvious about it; she just had to assume Zaryn here wouldn't pick up on it. Besides, the concepts were broadly the same.

'The second thing we offer is knowledge.' She took a sip from her drink. Here was the risk. Her one concrete piece of leverage. But she knew enough about business deals from Vaxus to realise Zaryn would never offer them anything in return if they couldn't show him something concrete.

So. She queued up the video on her reader and passed it to Zaryn. Y'Lev had already seen it, and she had no desire to watch it again -- it was creepy and nasty, she didn't like it.

It was also strange enough to need explaining. 'This is a video of a high-ranking Syndicate agent' -- she'd save the name up her sleeve for now -- 'on call to a Starfleet officer' -- his name would become apparent shortly. 'The video was taken inside a holosuite, so the agent is the only real physical thing there; you can see how everything else flickers and blurs slightly, holos don't like being recorded for long.' Hopefully that would be enough explanation.

She watched Zaryn as he watched the video. Even though she'd only watched it twice, Xelia remembered it well. Z'Lexha was inside one of Xelia's more experimental holo programs, one the woman had commissioned specially. Generally, the richer the client, the more wild the program -- they had slaves of their own, so they only needed holos for scenarios that were either physically impossible, or potentially damaging to their property. But it was impossible to damage the hologram of Xelia -- in a lasting way, anyway; she'd spent a full week programming the AI's pain receptors, complete with customisable degrees of response. From this video, it looked like Z'Lexha had completely turned off audio feedback, which was an unusual choice in itself.

In fact, Z'Lexha behaved strangely throughout the video. Xelia was used to seeing cruelty in the responses to her holo self -- plenty of sadists on Vondem, funnily enough -- but this was somehow more. Z'Lexha's touch was sharp but passionless, her reactions to physical pleasure were almost empty, like it was a side note, and her hold on Xelia's holo self was forceful to the point of almost being robotic, like she was a machine whose only purpose was to hurt and control.

It was unpleasant.

Luckily, the visuals weren't what they were interested in here. About five seconds into the video, Z'Lexha received an audio call and so up popped the icon, complete with a picture of the caller and waveform of the incoming audio  -- Xelia had worked in UI for external computer functions at the request of her clients, and she was quite proud of the results. The caller was a Human man with a nasty gaunt face and heavy, angry-looking eyebrows; the caller ID identified him as 'Sankolov'.

Z'Lexha and Sankolov talked for a while -- the video actually went on for half an hour -- but for the purposes of showing Zaryn, Xelia had cut it after only two minutes of their conversation. It hadn't meant much to her at the time, although after speaking to Y'Lev she'd realised they were discussing the Theurgy -- its whereabouts, Z'Lexha's intel, and the reports of Syndicate agents within Starfleet, of which there seemed to be several more than just Y'Lev.

There should be plenty to make Zaryn bite.

She waited for the clip to end before speaking. 'That's just a clip, there's more I could show you, but that gives you an idea. We've found a parasite within the Syndicate. We're offering you intel on their communication, a double-agent to report back to her, and the possibility of finding more agents or parasites within Starfleet. And all we want is a space on your ship!' She smiled brightly. 'So, darling, what do you say?'

Re: Day 25 [0427 hrs.] Compromising Allegiances

Reply #5 – May 04, 2020, 03:02:13 AM

Lieutenant Zaryn Arn | Devine Delights | Red Light District | Ibai Besi Promenade | Aldea Prime ] Attn: @TWilkins @fiendfall
[Show/Hide]

As Zaryn listened to the man speak he wondered if the smug arrogance was a genetic trait of all Orion males or if it was something that they had all collectively agreed upon at some point to do and if so, how did that conversation even come up?

Still he let the man continue his little boasting, it was after all how the game was played and admittedly Zaryn hadn’t played it in a while having been stuck on this planet pretending to be a simple pirate for as long as he had, he’d actually missed the dance.

At the comment about the throat stabbing Zaryn remained as stone faced as he had been before. If the comment was meant to intimidate him the Orion would have to do a lot better than that considering the things he’d done in his career in Intelligence. The plot thickened however when he added that said throat stabbing was to save the Theurgy, now that was interesting and a little disconcerting that as far as he knew nobody else as far as he knew had known about it. From what he had gathered in his short time aboard the ship most of the crew had assumed they were safe and undiscovered here.

Hell, even he hadn’t known about the Theurgy’s presence on Aldea until he’d inadvertently kidnapped a few members of their crew and their away team had captured him and yet the Orion’s had known about it. Then again, they were allied with the Klingons so them knowing about it was less of a surprise than the threat.

He watched as the Orion took a step towards him, an obvious power move if ever Zaryn had seen one and addressed him by his name, both his former name and he new joined one, another power move he suspected, perhaps to make him sweat a little that he knew that information, get a little intimidation going to gain him a slight advantage, he’d have to do better than that. All it did was make the Trill snort a chuckle.

 “Really? That’s what you’re going with? You do know my joining wasn’t exactly a secret right? I am supposed to be surprised at that revelation? Intimidated perhaps? Or did you want me to be impressed at the fact you know a recent yet not at all secret piece of news about me? Cos if it was well better try again. If it was to make me laugh however then well done.” he countered, chuckling again. “As for the card well it would have been nice, albeit a little weird getting a card from someone I’d never met…but hey it’s the thought that counts as the old saying goes.” he added with a grin.

What Zaryn did find interesting however was the revelation that the man had been aboard the ship for over a month, not that the made any motion to reveal his thoughts on the matter as he listened to the man continue explaining how he was an agent of the Syndicate, no surprise there and what his mission had been until he had learned about the parasites. He clearly also had a flair for the dramatics and again tried to read gauge something out of him by staring into his eyes, which Zaryn returned with a blank stare, although he did smile just a little.

“A month onboard the Theurgy you say? I’ve only been on it for 16 days so if anything I’d say it’s more your ship than mine at this point.” was the first thing he said, wondering just how well the spy would take the association, especially with the smug grin the Trill flashed him when he said it. Two can play at this game my friend. he thought.

It was then that Zaryn was shown the Datapad with the same video Captain Ives had shown him when he’d first came aboard. It certainly backed up the man’s claim to an extent even though it was possible the video had been obtained by other means too, something Zaryn was sure to use to his own advantage when the time was right. Still though he’d play along for now “Ah yes the welcome aboard the Theurgy video, I’ve seen it already thanks, Captain Ives gave me it. I guess this could prove what you say is true, then again it’s entirely possible the video was obtained some other way and Starfleet Datapads aren’t exactly hard to come by, especially for the Syndicate.” he replied. “Although I know how much you people like things all shiny and pretty so the fact you’re walking around with something so dull and drab says something I suppose.” he added with a shrug.

At least they were getting somewhere as Zaryn watched the man glance over at his companion with a smirk, clearly those two weren’t exactly the best of friends from the looks of it, then again it could all be an act for his benefit. The revelation that she had screwed up a kidnapping however was very interesting and Zaryn couldn’t help but wonder if whatever the asking price was for whatever it was the two thought they had would have something to do with it.

Even if that wasn’t obvious by the fact, they were even having this meeting, especially considering the guy was already on the Theurgy meant they wanted something else and must have had something good to offer up in exchange. Even more so when the Syndicate never gave up anything for free, at least not in any experience Zaryn had had with the group.

Sure enough that’s exactly what was revealed to him in so many words as he was told that whatever they had would make all the higher ups salivate at the morning briefing, a pretty bold claim one that the Trill was curious to find out about.

It was then that Xelia took over with that flirtatious tone of hers and nodded at the offer of a drink “Why not, a nice glass of Bloodwine wouldn’t go amiss right about now. I doubt it’ll be drugged or anything seeing as how this is a business deal after all.” he grinned Admittedly it’s because you clearly want something from me in return for whatever it is you have than any other reason.

She offered him a seat and he took it, joining her and making a note that she didn’t offer a seat to her associate, not that he needed one to join them anyway, another interesting observation to note. Once they were all sat and the slave had appeared with their order and vanished in only a way a well-trained slave could did their conversation continue.

First starting off by saying that had something…no several things for him, including their little protection service they had provided earlier. A gift as she had called it somewhat casually before attempting to past it. Oh she was good and if he hadn’t had the experience with the Syndicate that he’d had she would have easily gotten it past him, luckily for him however he’d been at this game a long time and held up his hand.

“I hate to interrupt you there but let’s clarify something first. I know for a fact that an Orion “gift” as you so nicely put it is less a gift and more a Here’s something I’m giving you now so that you owe me when I decide to collect on it later. kind of deal. If that’s what you mean by a gift then that’s not exactly the best way to start off this exchange…” He said before glancing over at Y’Lev with a very smug grin. Now was the time to use what the man had revealed early against him.

“…Especially when your colleague here already revealed that he was a spy onboard “my” ship as he so colourfully put it for over a month. Which means he was on the ship when it arrived at Aldea and therefore could have easily just told you it was here and then all you had to do was claim that there was a threat to the ship that you just so happened to conveniently foil to use as leverage. It’s what I would do.” he added. “I mean that alone is enough to throw a little doubt on whatever else you have to show me and if said attack was indeed genuine and you did foil it, then claiming it as a gift only to try and cash in on it later…well that just wouldn’t look good would it?” he finished, returning his attention to Xelia and smiling innocently, knowing that at least for now he had gained the advantage. It was up to her to provide him with something really concrete to convince him that this wasn’t all just some kind of Syndicate trick.

She was offering up knowledge. Well they say knowledge is power and this would certainly be interesting. He listened to her explain that they had more video footage of a high-ranking Syndicate agent talking with someone from Starfleet from inside a holosuite. The explanation of any other flickering was fair enough, even he knew that. 

He watched the video while feeling Xelia’s eyes on him the entire time. It seemed ordinary at first until the call came in, listening to the exchange between the agent and the one called Sankolov. That was a name he’d heard once before when he’d been given the brief upon joining the Theurgy, assuming the footage was genuine which he honest expected it would be upon testing then it was certainly something that gave the Orion’s some credibility, not that he would reveal that outright.

The clip wasn’t very long and soon it was over, with Xelia speaking again. Any information on the parasites and spies in Starfleet was information they could definitely use…assuming the information offered was genuine. The only question was, what did they want in exchange for this information. Luckily, she answered his question before he’d even asked it and what it was took every bit of control, he had to not laugh out loud.

Keeping a straight face, he hesitated a moment before speaking. “That would certainly be valuable information to have, assuming of course this footage is genuine, It earns you enough points that I’ll take it to the Captain and see what he has to say.” he replied before speaking again. “Before I do that however, I do have a few questions for you my dear.” he said before leaning forward slightly. Now having another piece of information, he could use to try and get some more information from the woman, especially after she revealed her price. As a general rule, especially when it came to dealing with the Orion’s Zaryn always suspected they knew more than they were letting on and were definitely hiding something. The fact that he was already on the ship well enough meant this whole this was to get her onboard and he wanted to know why.

“Assuming your friend here isn’t booted off the ship, he’s already on it, so why do you want onboard? Or more specifically, just how badly did you piss off the Syndicate?” he asked, curious as to how they would react to his question before leaning back in his seat again.
“The way I see it…” he continued before pausing to take a sip of his Bloodwine and making a show of looking around the room “You must have done something. This is one of, if not the only Syndicate run establishment here on Aldea and you clearly run it, therefore you must be somewhat high up the Syndicate ladder yourself to be given control of such a…lucrative establishment for them and yet you aren’t simply staying and dealing with the situation yourself and while I don’t know everything about how the Syndicate handles things I suspect that they want to at least make some kind of example out of you or just flat out kill you if you want to leave.” he finished before nodding towards the other Orion “Perhaps because of that botched kidnaping he mentioned earlier?”

“After all between staying here or coming aboard a vessel not only hunted by every ship in Starfleet but the entire Federation as a whole, you want to come aboard the single most hunted ship in the Quadrant instead. And if you do get aboard just how much trouble are you going to bring knocking on our airlock? Since given Starfleet, the Federation and these parasites you clearly know about, we have enough problems to deal with.” he finished and took another sip of his Bloodwine.

“With that being said you’re offering me some footage, and intel on some communications between those two, another a potential double agent which let’s be honest now could very well be discovered, it happens to the best of us and the possibility of but no guarantee of finding more agents or parasites within Starfleet. That’s a lot of if’s and buts to justify protecting you and potentially putting yet another target on my ship’s hull.” The Trill added. “Unless of course you’ve got anything else to offer up right now that is.” he added with a friendly smile.

Admittedly he was taking a huge risk, potentially throwing what they were offering out the airlock but Zaryn had a feeling that not only did she have something else up her sleeve she hadn’t mentioned but that she really wanted on board especially considering she must know what coming aboard would mean given Theurgy’s infamy.

Re: Day 25 [0427 hrs.] Compromising Allegiances

Reply #6 – May 04, 2020, 06:54:48 PM

[ Y'Lev | Leaning against the small table a few steps from the assemblage of chaises | Boudoir | Divine Delights | Red Light District | Ibai Besi Promenade | Aldea Prime ] @fiendfall @Revan

Y’Lev found the situation to be something of a dissapointment.

The Orion realised that he’d clearly made the incorrect choice in summoning some incompetent, cocksure imbecile down to meet with them. He’d disregarded the value of the opportunity they had presented him with. He’d dismissed the grandiose achievement of remaining aboard the Theurgy for one month with no prior Starfleet experience or training, undetected. That itself was nothing short of miraculous; he’d broken so much equipment…

But this man was smug, cocky, and frankly, an idiot. The opportunity they were presenting was inexplicable in its value. Z’Lexha would not discover their ruse until she’d fallen for it. He’d never let Z’Lexha down before, and no matter how long the Parasite had been inside of her for, she’d know that. It gave them at least one, potentially more, opportunities to completely ravage the Parasite’s intel on the Theurgy. It was a diamond opportunity!

Of course, their guest was far more interested in Xelia than himself. Zaryn directed all of his questions and legitimate attempts at negotiation towards her, asking for bloodwine like some oafish brute celebrating a half-arsed victory. Y’Lev, on the other hand, was the recipient of his bland sarcasm and witless humour, an intolerable lack of respect considering Xelia had lazed around sipping cocktails and disappointing patrons for the past twenty-two days, whilst he had done all of the work...

And that frustrated Y’Lev all the more.

Because this was fairly normal for him, truth be told. Z’Lexha was the first handler he’d had who hadn’t disregarded him because of his gender. Male Orion agents within the Syndicate were very scarce, and despite going through all of the same training, the same examinations, the same trials… But he’d always been considered lesser, all because he had a different set of genitals to them.

But Z’Lexha had treated him the same as any of her other agents, hadn’t dismissed or belittled him, and he’d bathed under that glow. He didn’t fail her, not once. He proved his worth, time and time again, and anyone who spoke poorly of his abilities were clearly trying to undermine him and curry favour with the Legatus. Perhaps that should have struck him as ‘odd’ back when he first came under her service, or when he found out about the parasites… But he’d been too focussed on rewarding the trust she’d shown on him to think she wasn’t real.

Yet, he’d come to terms with that, and here he was, betraying the only Legatus in the Syndicate who’d afford him the same respect as a female agent. He was betraying everything he’d ever worked for, in exchange to live in senseless hell for heavens-know how long, and probably be on the run for the rest of his life after ‘betraying’ the Syndicate, even after the parasites were gone. Sacrificing everything for the greater good; it was so non-Orion that it made him want to vomit.

But in the end, sacrificing everything would be better than eventually dying to some Borg invasion, and now that he knew that the Theurgy were trying to stop a galactic cataclysm, he couldn’t exactly not be involved. Who knew, maybe he’d killed a Borg drone that would have otherwise destroyed the Theurgy. Probably had; already saving the mission before he’d even found out about it…

And here he was, being dismissed in favour of a female once again.

He’d snuck aboard two Starfleet vessels undetected. Survived a ship splitting in half and a Borg attack, on the same day. He’d managed to pull a believable back-story after a half arsed glance at a crew manifest, and assimilated with the crew enough to get all the information he needed for his assignment. He’d then second guessed his assignment, worried about sending it back to the Syndicate, just before a planetside incident could have blown the Theurgy’s cover.

He’d gone down to the planet, discerned that Xelia could have had valuable intel, whilst she shot at him, and managed to talk her out of killing him as a potential assassin. He’d been right in his guess, her intel confirmed that Z’Lexha was a parasite. The pair made a mutually beneficial arrangement, and he’d returned to the Theurgy and stayed undercover for far too long, before finally getting to sit in the meeting that was the culmination of all of his efforts.

And he was being dismissed, in favour of a woman who made bespoke holo-programmes that allowed people to have sex with her image, and recorded them doing so…

“I’m sorry to interject what I’m sure would have been a very educational conversation…” Y’Lev hopped into the conversation, before Xelia could reply to his request and offer to send Arn one of her holo-programmes or something… “I wanted to remind you that given the circumstances, you aren’t in a position to push us for more information, nor make empty remarks about ‘booting me’ off of the Theurgy.” He tilted his head to the right ever so slightly as he spoke.

“You and I both know that since we both know about the Parasites, a specific Parasite, in fact, you can’t afford to let us go. Command would eat you alive for putting the safety of the Theurgy in jeopardy, because, heaven-knows the ship is only half-ready to go jetting off to save the day once more…” He spoke calmly, collectedly, far less smug than he had been before.

He’d been wrong to be smug and confident in his approach; he’d assumed that their information was obvious in its worth. But since that apparently wasn’t the case to their guest, it would take a little more than smugness to convince the man.

“And moreso, I’m the Syndicate representative here, make no mistake. The only interaction my colleague has had with the Syndicate is angering it and impersonating one of their agents; she makes holo-pornography and floods it with spywear. And, perhaps publishes beauty tutorials on the side? Frankly, her holographic content profile is disturbingly eclectic.” She’d probably take it as a complement. She might as well; for once, it wasn’t an insult.

“And as you can see from the footage, her wares are how we discovered Z’Lexha’s unusual solitary behavior, and her communications with Admiral Sankolov.” He paused, making sure that the little Trill was keeping up with his more professional explanation of the evidence they were offering. If he needed the value spoon-fed to him, Y’Lev would choke him on it.

“Now, I have reason to believe that I was working under Z’Lexha for quite some time after she was taken over by the Parasite, and she has absolutely no reason to doubt any information I provide her. I’m not offering to be a double agent, I’m offering to feed the enemy false information.” He paused, considering another prospect of their mission that had been dawning on him for the past couple of days.

“But, if you really want a little more reassurance as to our worth…” He took the gamble, to go with his gut and offer this man a little more sugar to the deal. “Consider that you not only have the Parasites, Starfleet and their allies, the Borg, and whatever knows else, to worry about stopping your mission… But you now have proof that the Syndicate are after you too. And if you are any good at your job, you’ll know that the Syndicate are far more numerous than any of your Commanding officers would ever admit.”

“I know Syndicate hot locations, dead-drops, informants, safe houses, all places where them catching wind of the Theurgy would be an unfortunate turn of events. I’m not going to uproot every secret of the Syndicate, but I can tell you where to avoid.” He paused, his expression flat, no smugness. It was serious now.

“I am not betraying the Syndicate by working with you; I know that. At the end of the day I’m saving them from cancers like Z’Lexha.” Y’Lev straightened his posture, and made a move to perch on a free chaise not far from him, mindful of not distressing Licorice, who had thus far been very well behaved... “But the Syndicate does not share my confidence, and if you think I would make the choice to compromise my standing with them lightly, you have absolutely no idea of what the Syndicate is capable of.”

And there it was. All of his cards were on the table. He swallowed down a ball of anxiety and pretended that he felt refreshed by having no secrets up his proverbial sleeves... It couldn't be further from the truth, and the sudden deluge of powerlessness made him want to flick out his daggers and start dancing...

Instead, he calmly reached over and fetched up a bunch of berries on a stem from the fruit bowl now behind him, offering a titbit to Licorice who delightfully engaged in the snack. As he did so, he cast a glance over at Xelia, wondering if she’d support his words, and embolden them with her own, or whether she’d disregard everything he’d said, and continue with schmoozing that would gain them minimal ground…

A tiny sigh fled his lips. Neither he or Xelia knew how to engage diplomatically with someone. They both obtained information, she sold it, he reported it. Neither of them actually used any of it. To think how much information he’d been surrounded by on his missions, and he’d never used it beyond the confines of his own objective…

“But, I digress…” He whimsically commented, delivering a non-intended hand gesture that flung a berry onto Xelia’s bed and sent Licorice into a mild frenzy, the mammal launching itself off of the Orion’s back with an unfurling of its impressively sized wings and nestling into Xelia’s bed to hunt for the treat. “Licorice…” He lightly scolded, but truthfully, he’d never been prouder…

“Apologies, my dear…” He returned to Xelia, gesturing to her, whilst he used his left arm as a head-rest as he lounged more comfortably on the chaise, physically indifferent, but mentally rather anguished over the thought of being dismissed yet again in favour of breasts... He only hoped that Xelia would decide to remember their goal and not start “I think you were just about to speak…”

Perhaps, in hindsight, Licorice could have chosen his moment to fly onto her bed, just a little better...

Re: Day 25 [0427 hrs.] Compromising Allegiances

Reply #7 – May 04, 2020, 10:46:14 PM

[ Xelia | 3rd chaise longue from the left, artfully reclined with a beverage, looking quite stunning darling | Boudoir | Divine Delights | Red Light District, Ibai Besi Promenade | Aldea Prime ] Attn: @TWilkins @Revan

Why! Were! Men! Like! This!

Zaryn hadn't even been here for five minutes and he and Y'Lev were already trying to out-smug and out-stupid each other. God, why did she even bother? Was the male inferiority complex so all-consuming that they couldn't put aside their posturing for three seconds to make a deal to save their own lives? Ugh! Kill her!

And now she had to play peacemaker and smooth it all over, because of course she did. She was the only one here with more sense than testosterone, with enough brains to realise no, just yelling how smart you are at someone will maybe not be the best way to persuade them that you're not a total raging moron.

Luckily they settled down long enough for Zaryn to watch her recording, although he was disappointingly unimpressed. It 'earnt her enough points' to speak to their Captain, did it? The way Y'Lev had talked, this had been useful information -- had he just been peacocking? Did the Theurgy not care about this? She supposed all it really did was unmask two fairly useless parasites: one they already knew about, and one in the Syndicate, which was perhaps less of an immediate threat than ones in Starfleet. To Federationers, at least.

Ugh, this was frustrating. She couldn't go showing him the whole recording, she couldn't give away that much for free. And Zaryn was right -- at the moment, she had nothing else to offer. She just had to make it clear she had the potential to offer more.

She did have to smile at his theorycrafting why she wanted on board, though. God, he'd just spent all that time meeting Y'Lev halfway with their ridiculous show of 'I know more than you', and now here he was, barking up completely the wrong tree. Both men were so desperate to show off that all they ended up doing was revealing how little they actually knew or understood. And she was perfectly happy to let them keep giving away their hand, frankly.

Y'Lev jumped in next, before she had a chance to reply to Zaryn. Go ahead, babe, give us what you've got, show us your cards.

The content of his response wasn't unsurprising. More about how important their information was, how comparatively powerful they (read: Y'Lev) were in this situation, how smart and useful he was, and so on. She couldn't even be mad at how he described her business: he wasn't wrong, and her beauty tutorials were unrivalled.

'It's called diversifying the market, babe, you should give it a go,' she said, pretending to check her nails. There was no bite behind it, though. She'd worked hard on her expansive catalogue; the fact that Y'Lev knew even that much meant he'd listened to at least some of her messages to him. She was almost pleased.

Plus he gave her the credit she deserved, something she was frankly a little surprised by. She'd half expected him to claim to be the mastermind behind their discovery, when in fact all he'd really done was be in the right places at the right sort of time.

But even so, she needed him. And he needed her. It was about as close to a partnership as Orions got.

He was also surprisingly smart when he wasn't trying to prove how smart he was. The points he made about the Syndicate were actually pretty good. And he wasn't trying to be smart, at least as far as she could tell -- he kind of seemed genuine of all things. She'd never seen him so serious, not even when they were threatening each other's lives.

Still. He managed to give away Z'Lexha's name for free. And there's the problem with just talking!

Her gaze flicked to Zaryn, trying to read him. Was he persuaded? Was anything Y'Lev said having an effect? She'd never been in this situation, never had to do this before; she was so far out of her depth it wasn't even funny. And Starfleet might have been determined to de-claw itself, but a spy was a spy. Surely Zaryn had only made it this far by not being completely and utterly stupid. Surely.

But did that work in their favour or against it? It'd rankled that he apparently knew far more about Orion culture than she'd bargained on. Oh, he understood the expectations of gift-giving, did he?

'Perhaps we should be having this conversation in Orion, with you being so knowledgeable,' she said to him in her native tongue. Then, as an aside to Y'Lev: 'If your horrible pet shits in my bed I'll have it roasted.' Those sheets were expensive.

She switched back to Standard; her grasp of the language was probably better than Zaryn's was of Orion, and she didn't really want to be proven wrong. 'Anyway, sweet pea, if you're worried I'll be coming to collect I'll just name my price now. A sip of your wine, and we'll consider the matter settled.' If he really knew anything about Orion culture, he'd realise this was as close to a 'free' gift as they ever gave, requesting something obviously inconsequential in exchange. And if he didn't realise that's what is was, then, well. They didn't have to worry about how well he might understand them, clearly.

'I didn't realise the Theurgy was so very dangerous,' she said dryly, eyebrow arched. 'If I had known perhaps I wouldn't have reached out to you!' The temptation to deliver a sarcastic insult was so strong -- a comment on their bravery, or determination, or something similarly stupid; but if even Y'Lev could hold it in, the least she could do was follow suit. So, back to business: 'Really darling, you needn't worry about little old us putting a "target on your hull"' -- she wondered if that'd been a euphemism -- 'when, as Y'Lev has explained, the Syndicate has already taken an interest in you. Z'Lexha has no reason to question Y'Lev's loyalty. He's her attack dog, with the mind of a slave. I'm sure she'd be even more surprised to discover his betrayal than you were to receive my little message. No offence, sweetling.'

She stretched out slightly, cushioning her head on one arm so she could watch Zaryn more closely. How to play this next part... There were two possible avenues, one which she much preferred to the other, but she wasn't sure which would go down better with her little audience here. And if she gambled and made a mistake, he might mark it down against her trustworthiness -- which he should, obviously, she wasn't about to turn into a Federationer, but still. It'd be a shame to fall at this hurdle, out of all of them.

'The Syndicate isn't interested in chasing me,' she said, weighing her options. Y'Lev had managed to not only give away Z'Lexha's name, but also the fact that Xelia wasn't really Adisia, which was annoying. What if she'd wanted to continue that pretence? She didn't, but she might have wanted to. 'My snarky friend over there wasn't lying, either: I'm not Syndicate, never have been. They won't be after me for an attempted kidnapping, not least because the agent they sent to deal with it is currently unconscious inside our drinks table. Your gift, remember?' She took another sip, holding Zaryn's gaze before finally breaking it with an airy gesture. 'But that's whatever. Z'Lexha's a bitch. She deserves everything that's coming to her. And I'm not exactly going to piss her off from here, am I? Theurgy just makes sense, darling.'

It wasn't entirely untrue. She wasn't interested in 'doing the right thing', obviously. The galaxy could burn for all she cared, so long as enough people were left to watch her content. And Z'Lexha had ruined her career, chased her away from her home and her life, destroyed her image, and almost certainly killed her staff, although that last was meh. But Xelia wasn't stupid enough to see revenge as anything other than a waste of energy. It wasn't fun; it was hard work and time-consuming, and didn't even get you anything at the end.

No, much better to spend that time and energy on building herself back up again. But she wasn't able to do that here, either -- the internet connection on Aldea was rubbish. But the Theurgy... The Theurgy had a computing power that made Xelia drool, it had an internal network and external connections, and even better, it had a captive audience of, what, two thousand people? All desperate to touch a boob. She could absolutely work with that.

Also it did kind of suck that Vaxus and Duniz were dead. But whatever.

'Really, it's all a risk one way or another, darling,' she said to Zaryn. 'If you think you can afford to be flippant with everything we're offering you, please, go ahead. I'm sure we'll find someone else willing to listen, won't we sweet pea?' Turning to Y'Lev now. 'After all, I'm sure you've got all sorts of thrilling stories from your time on the Theurgy! Lovely bedtime reading, I'm sure.' She looked back to Zaryn coyly. 'What do you think, darling?'

Re: Day 25 [0427 hrs.] Compromising Allegiances

Reply #8 – May 08, 2020, 03:10:39 AM

Lieutenant Zaryn Arn | Devine Delights | Red Light District | Ibai Besi Promenade | Aldea Prime ] Attn: @TWilkins @fiendfall
[Show/Hide]

Zaryn wasn't really surprised when Y'Lev was the first to speak and claiming that he was in no position to push for more information causing the Trill to actually laugh out loud. "Oh really? My job is to listen to what you have to say and take it to the Captain and how exactly do you think he'll feel when I tell him that one of the people I met with here was an agent of the Syndicate who had been a spy onboard his ship for over a month hmm? I admittedly don't know the Captain very well but I'm willing to bet he won't exactly be jumping for joy at the news. It also means even if I did bring you on board the ship, it probably won't end well for you....unless of course you've got something really good for me to tell him that might make up for that." he answered. Although his tone was one of geniune honestly and seriousness despite his laugh, even the stubborn Orion must have known nobody would just let a spy off easily without offering up something really good in return. "Although I will admit booting you off the ship was a bit much...locking you up in the brig for the duration of your stay is far more likely...hell that might still happen even if what else you offer up is good, but that's the Captain's call, not mine."

At his comment that he couldn't afford to let them go otherwise command would have his head he shrugged "You know what the problem with spies like us is? We lie for a living, it also means we're generally not trusted either and given the situation that the Theurgy has found itself in, trust is in very short supply on that ship, suspicion on the other hand....there's plenty of that to go around. Hence the need to be extra careful nowadays. Especially since anyone could be one of those things."

Still Zaryn had to give the man credit he toned down the smugness and after taking some time to assure him that he was the only Syndicate representative of the two of them proceeded to lay out the rest of his cards on the table, and what he offered was definately worth taking to Ives, not that the Trill gave anything away as he listened.

So he was doing it to save the Syndicate from the parastes much like they were trying to save the Federation, he couldn't fault the guy for that he supposed. However it seemed he couldn't convince others in the Syndicate of that threat though and so he was taking a risk by working with them. Still he had to speak up when he was accused of not knowing what the Syndicate was capable of.

"Oh you'd be surprised what I may or may not have an idea about." he countered as he took a casual sip of his bloodwine. "I used to work for the Syndicate in a past life so I am very much aware of what they're capable of. It also means I know what they do to traitors too. Witnessed that first hand, nasty business." he muttered as he recalled that memory from out of nowhere. Shaking his head to banish the memory, he returned his attention to Y'Lev. "I tell you that so that you know that I understand the risk you're taking, nothing more."

Then it was Xelia's turn to speak, although at first it was more banter between her and Y'Lev, he still hadn't figured out what their deal was. They're banter was something between two people that simply tolerated each other because each could help the other out or some kind of friendship that had a friendly mocking banter to it although he couldn't tell which.

Eventually though she did address him, first speaking in Orion and shrugged "Well we could but admittedly my Orion is a little rusty." he replied. Luckily she switched to speaking Standard so it wouldn't be an issue. At least it seemed she was willing to name her price now, which if she was being honest would at least avoid her springing it on them later and took a sip of his wine to settle it as she said. Of course he knew that it wasn't going to be completely free, he'd delt with Orions enough to know that but to have one offer to name their price up front...well that was as free as anybody would ever get from an Orion so he'd take it.

He listened as she spoke and explained without explaining her situation and yet he wasn't entirely convinced about her. She had explained why Y'Lev had wanted on the ship but had avoided why she specifically wanted onboard, claiming that it made sense to be the theurgy... "The Theurgy does make sense...for him."  he said, nodding at Y'Lev. "For you, not so much. You've clearly got the skills to cover your tracks and plenty of ships come and go from this planet on a daily basis, any one of them would be a much better and safer choice for you...darling. Yet you want to leave on the one ship being hunted by an entire faction of the Quadrant and when I ask you why you tell me why he wants onboard, not why you do. It's a simple question." he said before shrugging. Not expecting an answer, as far as he could tell with them it was a package deal, either they would take both of them or neither of them.

"Oh while I'm sure you could find someone else willing to listen to all his stories about the Theurgy, given the bounty on the Theurgy's head you could have made that deal already if you wanted to, instead here I am because you want onboard and it would seem you want onboard more than you want to sell us out to someone else." he added before downing the last of his bloodwine.

"Not that I suppose it matters, I'm convinced enough to take your proposal to the Captain. If Ives accepts it or not is up to him." Zaryn said. There was no point playing the game anymore, if the false information Y'Lev provided and whatever information they could get in return helped them in the war then it was worth it. As for Xelia, if she turned out to be more than she was letting on they'd deal with that when the time came.

"That being said..."[color] he added, turning his attention to Y'Lev "I wouldn't try getting back on the ship until you hear from me, better to be safe than sorry." There was no threat in his voice more a statement, not that he suspected the Orion would be so foolish having just revealed himself to be a spy.

Re: Day 25 [0427 hrs.] Compromising Allegiances

Reply #9 – May 13, 2020, 05:25:41 PM

[ Y'Lev | Stretched out comfortably on his chaise, a small bunch of berries the colour of Autumn dangling from his deft fingers, legs crossed artfully and eyebrows raised to an appropriate height | Boudoir | Divine Delights | Red Light District | Ibai Besi Promenade | Aldea Prime ] @fiendfall @Revan

Truely, the man was infuriating.

Admittedly, Xelia had most certainly been lingering on the wrong side of helpful; he had been forced to grit his teeth whilst she barked on about the relationship between Z’Lexha and himself, referring to him as an ‘attack dog’ with the mind of a slave. Her ignorance was baffling, considering that if he were anything like that which she had described him as, he’d have certainly killed her upon their first meeting… But he was content on remaining professional, for the moment.

He’d get her back another time.

But she continued, and made perhaps one comment that wasn’t entirely useless. He didn’t miss that she was neglecting to mention how she was being hunted by Z’Lexha, ney, outright lying about it… Whilst Y’Lev would have enjoyed bringing that up, just to catch her off guard, he decided that he’d keep it in his pocket for leverage at a later date… If Xelia wanted to lie, he wouldn’t stop her.

Of course, her mention that she was storing the agent inside the drinks table was hardly comforting. The last Y’Lev had seen of the woman she’d been unconscious at the back of Xelia’s wardrobe. Evidently the obstruction of a very dangerous, hostile, kidnapee, had disturbed one of Xelia’s sarongs or something of that ilk. Y’Lev couldn’t help but cast a rather displeased grimace in the direction of the drinks table. It was probably a pheromone hotbox by now…

Or they’d died because Xelia had forgotten to feed them...

But as he pondered on the unpleasant notion of where their drinks had been resting, Xelia continued talking, and talking. Eventually she concluded with some little morsel that she and Y’Lev could be offering their intel to someone else, which was hardly a viable strategy… Nobody else would believe the parasites existed, and without that, all they had was…

His lips curled into a very slight smile.

Footage of a Starfleet Admiral conversing with a Syndicate Legatus...

Be began to get rather excited about the idea; it was a whole new avenue that the same information could be repurposed into a whole different area of use for the Theurgy. Profit. It excited him enough that he could, to a limited extent, ignore the rantings of their new Starfleet comrade. He mentioned some veiled threats about what the Captain would think of a Syndicate spy on his ship, or how either of the Orions could be parasites, but Y’Lev scoffed the ideas away.

The Captain should be pleased. He’d been on the ship a month and hadn’t caused any mischief… Aside from shooting two security officers on that first day aboard, but he doubted that anyone would hold it against him; tensions had been high and he’d only done that because of the riots that were already happening.

In regards to the ‘risk’ of either orion being infested, Y’Lev scoffed the idea away. He himself had been stood aboard the ship during the antelope sweep that was assured to reveal any parasites aboard. Xelia had no such confirmation, but given that she was providing them evidence to use against the Parasites, Y’Lev decided that their compatriot was clutching at straws for excuses.

He continued to flail his attempts at either intrigue or intimidation, Y’Lev was unsure of which he was going for, for a good while. He even had the audacity to try and speak in an Orion dialect. It was exceedingly poor, and with an accent that made his stomach curdle, a touristy dialect, common for off-worlders. Most species didn’t have the tongue flexibility to balance true Orion pronunciation.

There were more comments, more towards Xelia than himself, although Y’Lev took fair offence at being referred to as him... But he was patient and cordial, even as the man smugly boasted a way through Xelia’s insinuation that they were prepared to take the information elsewhere, and downed his bloodwine like some Klingon teenager…

But finally the man offered to take the proposal to the Captain. And not a moment too soon, Xelia’s forehead was beginning to crease, and he’d never hear the end of it if the woman discovered that she’d developed a frown line… Their gracious visitor finally advised Y’Lev to not return to the ship until he heard otherwise. A statement that the Orion could definitely agree upon.

“Of course, I've already prepared as such.” He dismissed the man’s statement without much care, eyeing the miasmic mauve/green liquid in one of the bottles on the drinks table, assuming it to be a Kinarvon Evening, his favourite cocktail. He doubted it would be constructed perfectly; four of the ingredients were almost never exported from Vondem and the fifth was a narcotic paste that gave full-body euphoria when applied under the tongue. He doubted its authenticity.

Plus, the whole, prisoner-in-the-table vibe was distastefully unhygienic…

“Hence my decision for Licorice to accompany me to this dust-bowl of a planet...” He confirmed, glancing over his shoulder at his pet. “The humidity will be a menace to his fur, but he does tend to get rather agitated when people disturb his rest, and I have no doubt that the first thing you uncreative bunch will do, is search my room. Not that you'll find anything of any reference to this offer...” With a light sigh, Y’Lev raised his position from the chaise somewhat reluctantly, and crossed one leg over the other as he debated the pros and cons of informing Arn of what other opportunities they might have to use the information, to light a proverbial fire under his feet…

Considering that the Trill had agreed to take the information to the Captain, Y’Lev decided to avoid the risk of provocation…

However, he did want to make sure that Xelia and himself weren't going to come off the lesser in the result of this meeting...

“I trust you won't undersell this information…” Y’Lev warned with a soft edge to his voice. “It would be a shame if we had to take it to someone else. For your mission, moreso than for ourselves.” He confirmed, before he briefly tilted his head in Xelia’s direction, a small smirk blossoming on his face.

“It seems that the boy has forgotten to ask us about what we want out of this… Perhaps he thinks that this is, good will?” He chuckled tightly, his tongue dancing as it threaded through the great motions of Orion linquistic patterns. “And if you so much as lay one of your bony little talons on Licorice, with the intent to do anything but stroke him, I’ll flay you so finely that they’ll serve you with melon for hors d'oeuvres.” He warned, his eyes narrowed but his tone bemusingly cheerful. A creative death threat was a true diamond of comedy.

“So, before you take this information to your Captain, perhaps you ought to take note of what we’re selling it for… We aren’t the charitable type, I’m afraid.” Y’Lev turned his attention back to Arn with a stern expression. “We’re to be granted board on your ship. Not in the Brig, and not in one of those putrid little cupboards your crew have to share.” He took a furtive glance towards Xelia, imagining the sheer volume of luggage she’d have. “And most certainly not together. Seperate rooms, if you please.”

“We won’t be running around helping your yellow-chested peons close doors and plug holes, but we will assist you in the capacity of our skill sets. I’ll monitor Syndicate channels and code, help your ship stay out of sight, and work towards misleading Z’Lexha and the rest of her friends where appropriate… I’d also like access to a chemistry lab; I’ll need something to do in my off time, and heavens knows how you Federations like to dawdle …” He paused with an eye roll, before turning to Xelia for her input.

“And what about you, my dear?” He offered politely, before rolling his head back to Arn for an aside. “I hope you’re writing this down…” He warned, in a tone that could almost be considered friendly, as he braced himself for whatever Xelia would have to request from their future hosts...

By the rains, he hoped she wouldn’t suggest anything dramatic.

Re: Day 25 [0427 hrs.] Compromising Allegiances

Reply #10 – May 18, 2020, 08:09:43 PM

[ Xelia | 3rd chaise longue from the left, artfully reclined with a beverage, looking quite stunning darling, also on the verge of clawing her own eyes out with frustration because really, sweetling, this was getting perfectly ridiculous now | Boudoir | Divine Delights | Red Light District, Ibai Besi Promenade | Aldea Prime ] Attn: @TWilkins @Revan

She was actually, literally going to scream.

Were either of these men actually listening to her? The Trill thought she hadn't answered why she wanted on board? She had! Did he think she was talking about revenge for the benefit of her health? She'd put effort into that lie and he hadn't even realised she was talking about her, he thought everything was about Y'Lev -- probably thanks to the boy's rant about not being taken seriously enough or whatever that had been about. Ugh!

'A simple question, with a simple answer,' she said archly. 'If you fail to understand then that's on you, darling.' Fine! She'd labour the point! 'Z'Lexha ruined my career, sold me out as being free illegally, and killed some people I'd grown rather fond of. And the enemy of my enemy is an opportunity to borrow bigger guns.' A messy translation, but it should be clear enough. 'Z'Lexha is my enemy. You're her enemy. I'm a third party interested in helping you ruin her day. Does that make it easier for you, sweetling?'

Ugh. They were just making her do all the work, weren't they? And now they were right back to competing over who had the biggest and stupidest ego. Men! She was going to die of boredom before they even got anywhere at this rate!

At least Zaryn was willing to admit that he would take their proposal to his captain. Finally! It's not as if they were asking to see the sun halfway through the night!

Of course, Y'Lev couldn't just leave well enough alone. They'd finally -- finally! -- reached the point they wanted, after altogether far too much backwards and forwards if you asked her (no one had; that was the problem), and then the boy had to start going on about what he wanted out of the deal! As if Xelia hadn't started the entire exchange with exactly that information!

Ugh!

Fine. Fine! It couldn't hurt to make their terms more explicit now, in case Zaryn forgot them or misunderstood them or whatever else. He'd already shown himself incapable of understanding her once, maybe he'd listen if someone more of his station explained it to him. Men did seem to have an affinity for one another; she'd never really understood the gender herself.

Y'Lev's requests were many and various. But none were totally unreasonable, she thought. Least of all the request for separate rooms. Honestly thank god he'd said that. She'd assumed it was obvious but with Starfleet, who knew. She would probably have literally killed herself if they made her bunk with him.

No, not true. She'd have killed him.

Eventually he turned to give her a turn to speak. God, better lay it all out simply so it couldn't be misinterpreted at all.

'Thank you, sweetling,' she said to Y'Lev. 'You're too kind.' He could suck her toe, frankly. But she had to play nice, ugh.

To Zaryn, then: 'I can offer my coding skills, my backdoor access to Syndicate computer systems, the rest of my footage of that meeting between Z'Lexha and Admiral Sankolov, and future monitoring of Z'Lexha and any other parasites we find within the Syndicate. In return I'll need a room on board -- my own room --' she could not stress that enough, 'and access to the ship's computer system. I'll need the extra processing power and external subspace links to make up for the range. Of course I'll adhere to whatever rules you want to place on me,' she flicked a rogue piece of hair back into place. 'I'm sure there are plenty of those. Oh! And no uniforms. Absolutely not.'

She smiled sweetly at the man. 'I think that about covers it. I'll send you the list, darling.'

Re: Day 25 [0427 hrs.] Compromising Allegiances

Reply #11 – May 21, 2020, 03:02:04 AM

Lieutenant Zaryn Arn | Devine Delights | Red Light District | Ibai Besi Promenade | Aldea Prime ] Attn: @TWilkins @fiendfall
[Show/Hide]

Zaryn remained in his seat listening to Y'Lev go on about his pet and the heat affecting it's fur, a shame but the creature seemed to be doing okay so far. The Trill had to smile when the Orion said they wouldn't find anything in his room when they searched it, which of course they would. "As a fellow spy, I'd be disappointed if we did." he said honestly.

When the Orion then went on to say he assumed Zaryn wouldn't undersell the information, he put on his most friendly smile, even as the green skin low-key threated to expose them again. Which frankly he was getting a little sick of. Oh Orion, as if I'd let you get that far. You'd be dead before even tried. Zaryn thought behind his smile. [color-Crimson]"Oh don't you worry, I know it won't come to that."[/color] he said.

As Y'Lev went on to list their "demands" it took every ounce of willpower he had to not roll his eyes. Why were the Orions so damn theatrical all the time? "I'll be sure to let them know that you get the best civilian quarters avaliable, although the Theurgy isn't a pleasure yacht so you'll have to do with the best Starfleet has in that regard which as I'm sure you know is in no way up to your high Orion standards." he replied, his voice dripping with casual sarcasm. "I'm sure the rest can be arranged however as for you not "closing doors and plugging holes" as you put it, unless you have engineering skills we tend to use people with the skills they have. Besides I doubt anybody would trust you to fix anything without planting some kind of bug first to spy on everybody." he added with a shrug.

He leaned back in his chair and tilted his head up towards the ceiling as he continued listening to Y'Lev as he went on to tell him that they would only work with their skillset which was a given and that he and Xelia would need to have seperate quarters, something he made explicitly clear before turning his attention to Xelia to ask her what she wanted before turning his attention back to Zaryn to ask if he was writing it down.

"Do I look like I have a PADD?" he replied immediately before lowering his head to look at him [color-crimson]"Don't worry though I have a great memory."[/color] he smiled in a somewhat friendly tone before turning his attention to Xelia as she spoke.

"You confuse not understanding with not trusting my dear." he countered with a smile before she told him exactly what had transpired between her and Z'Lexha and her reasons for wanting on the ship. "You know you could have just said simple revenge." he replied and shook his head. Orions, always so melodramatic.

He then sat back and watched the look exchanged between Xelia and Y'Lev, the two clearly only tollerating each other to get this negotiation done before they could be as far away from each other it seemed. Although she at least tried to make it look like they were on somewhat friendly terms...at least vocally anyway. Despite the fact the two didn't care too much for each other my god did they argue like a married couple! At least it seems as though they were coming to the end of meeting so he wouldn't have to listen to any more of their domestic squabbles.

He wasn't too surprised by her requests and nodded "I'm sure that can be arranged." he replied, not bothering to warn her about trying to poke into places in the computer she didn't belong, if she did she'd have to deal with Thea and where would be the fun in warning her about that. He did have to smirk at her comment about  all the rules. "Well you're not wrong there." he said truthfully.

"As for the uniform you don't have to worry about that, you have to go to the academy for a few years and actually earn one of them and I doubt you have an interest in doing that. However some[i/] type of clothing will be required. As sure as I am that you look great naked theres no roaming the halls naked, I'm sure you can understand why." he added as an after thought.

She finished by telling him that she thought that about covered it but that she would send him the list and nodded. "Oh I look forward to it." he smiled back just as sweetly.

"Is there anything else either of you would like to add before I leave and pass on your...offer to the Captain?" he asked, hoping there wasn't so that he could take the demands to Ives and get this over with. God he hated dealing with Orions.

Re: Day 25 [0427 hrs.] Compromising Allegiances

Reply #12 – June 11, 2020, 03:56:47 PM

[ Y'Lev | Holding his nose against the barrage of incense odours, leaning over the balcony to the main thoroughfare of the establishment, like a monarch looking down at his underlings | Divine Delights | Red Light District | Ibai Besi Promenade | Aldea Prime ] @fiendfall @Revan @Auctor Lucan

Y’Lev’s eyes vigilantly tracked the man who held their fates until he had left the building, their negotiations having been concluded and their offers and demands bare upon the table. Y’Lev was significantly less than comfortable with the endeavour, and he knew that Xelia would have several things to say about his relative candor in their negotiations. It was obvious that she had wanted to hide more, keep themselves more mysterious… But he was confident that he was right in this endeavour. The Theurgy didn’t need any more variables in their mission… And the Orion remained somewhat confident that what he and Xelia would be able to offer their cause was greater the worth of allowing the two Orions to come aboard. And not having to wear uniforms, of course.

At least, that was what he told himself. He mentally confirmed it over-and-over until it rolled in his head like a ball of glass. But that did little to make his confidence true. Instead, Y’Lev was harrowingly anxious that they would afford their offer towards Xelia, and ignore himself… He knew that it would be an ill-advised move on their part, for the tactical implications alone, but given Starfleet’s base untrustworthiness towards Orions, they would most certainly not trust a self-admitted Syndicate agent who had already been secreting himself as a stowaway aboard their ship for weeks... If not also responsible for the destruction of a few power couplings…

He knew that Starfleet viewed his species with suspicion in general, assuming anyone with a green-tone to their skin was a spy…

He’d admitted as such, he was a spy.

Turning away from the balcony and padding lightly into the boudoir, he wondered whether admitting that knowledge was a wise decision after all. Perhaps the Starfleeters would appreciate his candor. On the other hand, perhaps it would provide an equally pressing reason for him to not be permitted aboard…

After all, he had lied to everybody aboard their vessel for weeks. That accursed goat woman being the only one to have accused him otherwise, and his stellar display at avoiding the cur for the next few weeks had done wonders for him remaining as anonymous as a green skinned man aflood a see of beige, blue and black could ever hope to be.

It would be unwise of them to do so, to exclude him from their vessel because he’d already secreted himself aboard it. If they did, they both lost an avenue of information to explore concerning Z’Lexha, and had a potential leak as to the whereabouts of their vessel… It would be idiotic of them not to take him and Xelia aboard… Inconceivable even…

Yet they still could choose to do just that…

Y’Lev almost growled under his tongue. Before Starfleet and Galo and Parasites he’d never been this much of a wreck. What on Vondem was wrong with him?

He narrowed his eyes at the thought, but continued moving. It was admittedly not a concept that he was overly amused about, his fate being up to some narrow-minded red-shirt who would no-doubt bawk at the colour of his skin… But alas, what could he do about it now? The thought soured his expression once more. He returned to the chaise he’d been perched on previously, immediately feeling a thicker stream of anxiety bubble up within his gut, a burst of energy desperate to have him pacing the floor like a hurricane or stabbing someone a few times…

But he was accustomed to denying those instincts when he was on-mission. And currently he was on mission. Plus, if he did either of those things, Xelia would no doubt give him an earful, and he didn’t have the mental strength to get through that...

If things worked out, he’d be on mission for a rather lengthy period of time… He’d have to get used to keeping things bottled up...

Especially on a Starfleet Vessel…

Perish the thought. What had possessed him to make decisions ending up with that as a preferable option...

He’d simply have to find some narcotics… Lots of narcotics… That was all there was to it.

~Fin