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CH03: S [D06|0845] Hard Bind

Chapter 03: Supplemental [ Day 06 | 0845 hr. ] Hard Bind

[ Cmdr Carrigan Trent | Day 06 | 0845 hrs | Secured VIP quarters | Deck 11 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] @FollowTomorrow @Auctor Lucan

The transporter effect had stifled Trent's scream of rage and helplessness.  Just like that, he had his command stolen from him, any hope he had harboured dashed, and his trust violated in the vilest of ways.  But he did know one thing: the arrival well might be very unpleasant.  There was a reason Starfleet personnel received actual training in the use of transporters.  Sure, everyone in the Federation had access to them, but for most people beaming somewhere meant going from one pad to another, where the receiving coordinates were well-known and the systems at the arrival end would compensate so that the traveler would be landing flat-footed. 

But when beaming down somewhere else, Starfleet did teach it's people to widen their feet a little, and bend their knees to make up for a possibly unpleasant arrival in case of uneven terrain.  And in this case, he had been seated at departure...

So it had been at chair-height that Trent rematerialized in the middle of the room, still in a seated position, and gravity saw to it he would thump to the deck.  His heels had hit first, then his backside, and as he rolled onto his back, he extended both arms out to slap the deck in a break fall as he tucked his chin to his chest.  His hand of flesh and blood thumped; his prosthetic struck with a muffled metallic clank. 

Quickly, he took in his surroundings.  He was in what appeared to be VIP quarters at first glance, and the absence of windows indicated it was one of the suites that could be more easily converted to species with a different biochemistry.  And he was not alone.

Before him stood, still holding her PADD, Dyan Cardamon, and the Romulan mercernary, Drauc.  Him, Trent had not met yet, and there had been no immediate need nor time to deal with him after the debacle at Starbase 84; as for the Asurian?  Trent knew damn well she hated him for the loss of so many of her people and her subsequent exile.  But there they were, having beamed in with him. 

From the deck, he looked up at both of them, and his lips curled back in a mix of a sneer and a snarl.  His fury was such that he would not even try to hide it.  And given the depths of Dewitt's treachery, there were few lows he deemed to be beyond her at this point. 

"So you're here.  Is this where I get killed trying to escape?"

Re: Chapter 03: Supplemental [ Day 06 | 0845 hr. ] Hard Bind

Reply #1 –
[ Sar-Unga Neleo/Dyan Cardamone | Day 06 | 0845 hrs | Secured VIP quarters | Deck 11 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] @CanadianVet  @Auctor Lucan

She always knew that stupid calm face of his was a facade. He wasn’t really calm. He just thought it would make him look more authoritative. It didn’t, she thought, her hatred seething. It just made him look like he had no clue what he was doing. That he cared more about how he looked, and he wanted to look cool. Real leaders were like her father—the man who had passion in his heart and fire in his blades, even if he didn’t look cool at all. The man who died a stupid, totally preventable death.

Her heart ached again.

As they slowly re-appeared, they were in the chosen VIP quarters. Dyan, Trent, and Drauc were together. The room was quieter. Less people stood here. If Trent wanted to fight, he could do so here, and Sar-Unga waited with anticipation for the moment he struck out. She planned to strike back, one hundred fold. Her blade needed blood.

She found delight that he fell on his ass. She was standing before him, feeling tall for once. His face was one of agony. Hatred. She knew the fire in his heart, because she felt it in her own. It burned up the very being, twisted and warped it into something else. Something darker.

“Depends,” She sneered back down at him, “on whether or not you try to escape. My job is just to guard you. If you sit around nice and pretty on your ass and let this all happen then I don’t get to have any fun at all. Are you gonna sit on your ass though?” Her tail swished, her eyes flicked over to Drauc, “Just sit there and talk about how miserable your life is, so why bother trying any harder?”

Re: Chapter 03: Supplemental [ Day 06 | 0845 hr. ] Hard Bind

Reply #2 –
[ Drauc T'Laus | Secured VIP quarters | Deck 11 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @CanadianVet @FollowTomorrow
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Before Dyan Cardamone had included him in the transport, Drauc T'Laus had stepped unto the bridge. He'd never set his foot there before, but he had seen plenty there - picked up on a lot of heated emotions. He'd seen the precarious situation on the viewscreen, and had a somewhat better understanding of the dire straits in which the saucer section of the Theurgy was. The brightest flare of contention, however, had come from the Human that had been deposed of his command, ending up on the deck of neutral quarters. Confined there, for the time being, because he had wished to save a woman rather than protect the crew and the truth? Such was the word from the new Captain.

Drauc stepped through the quarters, flexing his scarred hands inside the frayed sleeves of his threadbare robe. A cursory assessment of his surroundings, before the minds of Dyan and the former Captain of the ship made him look their way. Dyan taunted him, wanted him to try and escape. This, was when Drauc remembered what she'd said earlier. That she'd lost her family at Starbase 84, and that she'd held people accountable for it.

Even Drauc knew that Carrigan Trent had been the First Officer on the Theurgy during that battle. Suddenly, he came to wonder, was this personal for Dyan? Had there been more to it than the mere thrill, to reach the security checkpoint and handle the new prisoner? Breathing slowly, chest rising and falling, he spoke up in the wake of Dyan's words - turning his dark eyes towards the Commander. Lit from the overhead light, his face was largely cast in stark shadows.

"Is it true, Commander Trent?" he rasped, like a serrated blade, yet he was not moved by passion. He wished to know more, having read Dewitt's message. Realising he used the man's rank, he though it had to be... a vestigial habit from his time in the fleet. "Were you about to send the Theurgy against the Savi dreadnought?"

Re: Chapter 03: Supplemental [ Day 06 | 0845 hr. ] Hard Bind

Reply #3 –
[ Cmdr Carrigan Trent | Day 06 | 0845 hrs | Secured VIP quarters | Deck 11 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] @FollowTomorrow @Auctor Lucan

Cardamone wanted blood.  Trent had no illusions about this, and she would try to exact it whatever way she could.  But, apparently, she was not there as part of an attempt to assassinate him from Dewitt.  Which, truth be told, would hardly have surprised him.  After all, she had actively called for him to effectively murder not only their captive shipmates, but those of the other Vectors by running away and letting them run into Task Force Archeron without warning.  So, after hundreds of lives, what was that of the man she had just deposed?  Especially if there was anything resembling the chance he had any support among the officers and crew and they take exception to that change of command. 

That, or the implication he had just stated had just gone clear over the Asurian's head, blinded by the blood in her eyes.

And then, the Romulan mercenary asked a very much pointed question.  "Of course I meant to," Trent replied.  His voice was not the precision instrument it normally was, cool and composed.  It dripped with the contempt due to anyone who would expect a commander to simply abandon his crew, let alone the woman he loved, without a second thought. 

Deliberately, the ship's rightful commander gathered himself and rose to his full height to look the other man in the eye.  "But of course, Dewitt had to not only violate my confidence, she also had to misrepresent what I had told her.  I never intended to do it with this underpowered, undergunned, undermanned Vector alone and if you honestly think I was about to just go in hell for leather without a plan then Dewitt is just the kind of commander you deserve."

Walking away from the pair that had beamed with him, he started pacing what would be his prison.  "Starfleet doesn't abandon its people," he fairly spat.  "And yes, the woman I love is on that ship and you bet what passes for your souls I want to rip apart that obscenity and every last one of the monstrosities it has aboard with my bare fucking hands, but what Dewitt neglected to mention was that I was willing to break off such an attempt if it was going to be hopeless."

Then, he turned around.  He had not made any effort to school his features, and still it remained a mask of hatred and scorn.  "I don't know if you were there when it happened, I was too damn busy trying to keep us alive, she is the one who forced the fight.  My strategy had been of avoidance and indirect harassing fire, but she had to commit fighters to an action they couldn't survive, and opened direct fire on ships that could mark only mark our position better, with no shields.  What was I supposed to do?  Let her murder those pilots she sent out in my name and run away?  Go with her plan and engage in a suicidal long-range duel?  Or take measures to suppress the threat?  I ordered a mission-kill strike, not the destruction of Bellerophon."

Re: Chapter 03: Supplemental [ Day 06 | 0845 hr. ] Hard Bind

Reply #4 –
[ Sar-Unga Neleo/Dyan Cardamone | Day 06 | 0845 hrs | Secured VIP quarters | Deck 11 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] @CanadianVet   @Auctor Lucan

Drauc had a good point. The little scarred man had many good points, which made him useful to keep around, even if he was decidedly a doormat. Was Trent really about to send this single vector against the Sheromi? Although it’d be a bloody, glorious death, she was pretty sure they’d be annihilated before they even put a dent in the Sheromi. Filthy, filthy bugs they were, but they had developed superior firepower compared to the Asurian’s initial rebellion.

Trent went on about how he would engage the Sheromi ship. Or he wouldn’t. Maybe he would. Stupid, wishy-washy humans. What she did like is how hatred oozed from his very being. He knew those feelings, the same ones she had. It made their hearts black, their teeth gnash, their dreams filled with monsters…

“You want to scream.” She stated, with the brevity she felt the moment deserved. “You want to scream, do it. Stop hiding, don’t act like you’re better than us. Scream, man! You feel hatred, act on it!!” Her voice rose up to her own yell as she indulged again in her hatred and anger, her tail whipped about. She wanted him to fight her. She wanted an excuse to kill him.

But at the same time, she was at least dimly aware that she was building him back up again. She was stoking the fire she knew existed in him. She would not fight a man too low to raise a hand in the first place. He reminded her of Drauc, somewhat, and she glanced back at the dreary Romulan.

“Don’t let someone else kick you down to your knees! Stand up and fight! Win, or die screaming!” She announced, maybe even recited, looking between both men as she taught them what it meant to be Asurian.

“You want that woman, you go get her. Fuck being hopeless—you don’t need hope. You need passion, you need a pair of balls." She pointed her finger, as if this were a lecture.

"When you want something, something will always stand in your way. This stupid thing you've got going on, trying to be all cool and emotionless--it just shows you have no fucking clue how to lead. No clue how to fight. No clue how to live." She felt fire burning inside her as she spoke. She wanted to strike out right now, no more warning. But...she also wanted to do this. It confused her, but she didn't question it.
"A leader uses their anger like a sindt! Channels their passion to fuel the fire! You," She pointed, her finger aiming directly between his eyes-- " Are not a leader, you're a pussy. But now you have that chance to rise again! Be a leader!"

Re: Chapter 03: Supplemental [ Day 06 | 0845 hr. ] Hard Bind

Reply #5 –
[ Drauc T'Laus | Secured VIP quarters | Deck 11 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @CanadianVet @FollowTomorrow
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While he knew there were always two sides to a story, it seemed that Commander Trent believed he walked a righteous path.

This much was plain to Drauc, hearing him denounce the new Captain and defend his own actions to this impromptu audience. Not knowing the entire situation, Drauc had no means to tell whether or not the words presented were facts, or just the facts as Trent knew them. The answer he had sought had been granted, and while Dewitt might have been mistaken - or uninformed - about the full plan, Drauc was relieved to hear that the Commander wasn't inclined to forsake the ship entirely on the basis of saving his love interest on the Versant. Drauc had seen it through the viewports during the battle, and in all his years as a mercenary, he had never seen a ship of such size and plain armament.

Then, the old - yet young-looking - Asurian in the room began her tirade, in which she berated both Drauc and Trent in turn. At least Drauc felt she addressed him as well, even if the majority of her ire was directed at the Commander.

The emotions that rolled off her mind was... fiery in nature, fully committed to the ways of Asuria, projected at this present bane of her people's fleet, both in their honour, as well as their memory. Drauc had felt it before, in the Main Computer Core, but that was nothing compared to the challenge she offered this Human that - voluntarily or not - had gotten her family killed. And she positively loathed the man for being a craven. A coward, because the Theurgy had retreated at the expense of the Asurian fleet at Starbase 84.

For Drauc, since she had been wearing at his fortifications since they met, this burning hatred of hers was taking its toll. Because on one side, he could understand her passion's intrinsic values, reading the intentions behind the barrage of words she assailed him with, and he could understand her motivations, and see them for what they were. Yet on the other...

...just like her passions had fueled his own - making her desires awake a response - so did this kind of passion stir him. In fact, anger came more easily than desire, and as vocal as her voice and mind was about the need to hate... he was finally feeling inclined to answer. He knew this, because he could feel the planes of his face shift, and his scarred hands fold into white-knuckled fists.

"I have no enemies left," he rasped to Dyan, eyes gleaming behind his hair, and he did so more loudly than he had intended. "They are either dead or gone. While it took me less years, that will be the end of your path. If you win, and keep winning, the battles become less personal... and there is no more passion to use."

He curled his lip and turned his eyes to the other man in the room. "Starfleet gave me a battlefield in the war. When the war was over with, I had to find the battle elsewhere," he said, omitting all the other reasons to make his point. "You were a spy, were you not, Commander? Are you one of those that operate in the field, or are you the kind that hide behind hulls and computers? Deploying others in your stead?"

Like the Tal'Shiar.

Dyan had pushed him on long enough, he knew, and he attempted to bridle his ire, even hoping Trent's mind might offer a counter-point so that he might center himself. As it were, he had already resorted to something very Romulan: testing another combatant's resolve, before even striking a blow.

Re: Chapter 03: Supplemental [ Day 06 | 0845 hr. ] Hard Bind

Reply #6 –
[ Cmdr Carrigan Trent | Day 06 | 0845 hrs | Secured VIP quarters | Deck 11 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] @FollowTomorrow @Auctor Lucan

A sharp, mirthless bark of laughter escaped Trent's throat.  It was an ugly, sharp sound, a fair match for his current state of mind.  Cardamone telling him to just ignore the obstacles and keep forging ahead?  Right, and give her precisely what she wanted?  "Do you really expect me to just hand you a pretext to kill me?  I know you've been wanting to do that since Starbase 84, and I'm not about to give you the satisfaction of being able to do it under colour of law, Cardamone. So if you want me dead, you'll have to make it a straight up murder."

His eyes met hers, and he held her gaze.  He was so damn tired. 

"War is not passion.  War is intellect.  Your people failed to realize that, and they were so wed to fighting with their passions that instead of falling back with the Vectors, they decided to go forward and engage in a knife-range fight.  You fight angry, you fight with rage, the moment you find someone who fights cold, you die." 

"But it's not because I fight cold that I don't feel, Cardamone.  You wonder why I don't scream, why I don't hammer at the bulkheads, why I don't break things?  Because right now, that control is all I have.  I give that up, then there is really nothing left."

Then, he resumed his pacing across the quarters, only to stop after taking some time to consider the Romulan's words.  He could sense there was a challenge there, too.  Was he as spy, of course he was not  He did not have the aptitude for it; and when he was recruited by Starfleet Intelligence, he did not have the nerve for it either; they had recruited a man whose ability to lead had been shattered for he had lost all confidence in his ability to make command decisions.  They had taken the analyst and tactician who could turn raw data into the kind of actionable information that commanders could use to accomplish their missions with as few casualties as possible, to give them an edge over the opposition. 

"I have killed with my own bare hands; I've led crews into battle; and I supplied the information commanders in the field needed to make their decisions." His voice had grown quieter, colder, harder.  Behind the Human's eyes danced flames of sadness and regret.  "What I did was provide analysis support for deployed assets.  At first, my reports got to the right hands, at the right time.  Then they started being delayed, or altered, or re-classified so high they simply could not be forwarded to the front lines."

But, then something snapped.  "And if you think I just spend lives like water, T'Laus, you are sorely mistaken."  His quiet voice had gone up in volume and intensity.  For he remembered the Harrier, the crew that still followed him when everyone knew it was going to be a death ride to take on those Jem'Hadar, but they had understood their sacrifice was necessary.  Those gallant, brave, determined souls that had fought, and died, at his side and at his word.  "Not a day goes by I don't see the faces of those who died because of me.  Every. Last. One.  And now, I don't even know how many more will join the ones already there."

Re: Chapter 03: Supplemental [ Day 06 | 0845 hr. ] Hard Bind

Reply #7 –
[ Sar-Unga Neleo/Dyan Cardamone | Day 06 | 0845 hrs | Secured VIP quarters | Deck 11 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] @CanadianVet   @Auctor Lucan

Things were starting to change, but not in the way she expected. Drauc, for one, seemed to think he had nothing left to fight. She supposed he didn’t yet fully understand what she was talking about. He sort of reminded her of...her brothers, when they were still young. She missed them bitterly…

but Drauc wasn’t so calm anymore. She thought she picked up hints of a fight starting in him, the spark of battle. Yes, she thought, that’s it! That’s the spark you need! And when she turned to Trent, she was defying expectations too. When their eyes met, his was so tired, but hers were full of energy. And confused.

She had entirely meant to provoke him. She remembered that, but now, as her eyes darted about,s he realized that she...didn’t want that? But she did, but she didn’t. She wanted too many things and she was criss crossed in the wires, all tangled up and tripping over. It made her angry again, angry that Trent just didn’t get it. By any Asurian standards, and even by Federation ones, she was being quite generous, trying to make him feel better despite murdering everyone she’s ever known and loved. and yet here he was, describing how he really thought of her people. Displaying that ever-so-common Federation discrimination she'd come to recognize.
“You,” She snarled, teeth bared as the anger boiled up in her, “You spend lives like water, and then call them stupid for having died, and have the nerve to deny your role in it! Has it ever occurred to you that thinking differently does not mean my people aren’t intellectual? That our style of battle is intellectual--you were too sure of yourself to think outside of your own experience! And now you wax poetic about remembering every life—you don’t.” She felt her tail whip, and it scared her how quickly and deeply her fury was rising. She didn’t know what she wanted, but she knew she didn’t want Trent dead yet.

“That’s why I hate you.” Her voice rose, partly because she had come to discover this just now, “Because you pretend you’re some great leader. Like you deserved that chair up there! You don't care at all about those lives, because if you did, we wouldn't even be here! You'd be thinking about how to be a better leader and I'd be outside bored as shit! You vile craven-- I’d give you what you deserve if I didn’t have a witness!”Privately, she was...thankful, at least, for Drauc, because she was very close to falling over the edge of fury and making bad decisions. She hoped if she was about to, that he’d stop her. She knew that he wouldn’t, he was too...wimpy. Too used to letting people run him over. She hated these men so, so much.

Re: Chapter 03: Supplemental [ Day 06 | 0845 hr. ] Hard Bind

Reply #8 –
[ Drauc T'Laus | Secured VIP quarters | Deck 11 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @CanadianVet @FollowTomorrow
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Hearing the Commander defend himself, trying with his words to convince Drauc what he did in his service to the fleet, his words were only the noise generated by the flickering images Drauc experienced. He saw a Betazoid in agony, lying on the deck, with Trent's memory of his own mismatched hands above the officer. He saw a Vulcan, brown of skin and face twisted in riven composure. And since the battle at Starbase 84 was bespoken, he could see the fleet of Sar-Unga's people get destroyed - the black gravity wells in the aftermath. He spoke of the Infested, and how they had gagged him in his service to the fleet. Flashes of memories, untethered, hard to define or make sense of. The unbridled thought of all people were seldom words, but impressions, reactions, emotions, springing from new and old experiences.

As much as these impressions were there, Drauc had just heard the man denounce Dyan Cardamone's people, in a rare example of unfiltered arrogance towards their ways as opposed to his own. Even though they were older, and while different as a people, far more inclined towards battle than most Federation member worlds. To suggest that they would always loose because they invested themselves fully in their fighting, against an opponent that treated the battlefield as a game of Kal-toh, would have sounded like a disdainful deflection on the Commander's part. A way of laying the blame on the Asurians rather than his own shortcomings. If Drauc hadn't realised that the man truly believed war was cold intellect, he might have reacted as Dyan did, thinking him a lying coward, but it appeared the man just trusted what he'd been taught and what he'd experienced. If anything, the fault lay in him thinking Starfleet doctrine of engagements was supreme. The epitome of tactical prowess. Or... that he believed he was this supreme himself.

As rational as this assessment was, Dyan's blazing hate - kept in check at great expense - was so contagious at this point, and Drauc craved and outlet for it. His teeth locked, he knew he was facing someone physically inferior, and that the slights were not even directed his way. Therefore, rasping words alone served to strike the man down in his delusion. "Ignorance, pride, arrogance..." he said to the man, even as the ship lightly shook, likely sustaining phaser fire. Drauc's balance compensated, while he stared with wide eyes at the man through the tresses of his hair. "The arrogant considers their methods perfect. It may have been your downfall, for it interferes with your main task in life. In your duty to the Federation. The responsibility... to become better."

The wave of ire from Dyan made Drauc's fists crack, yet his stare was unblinking as he stepped towards the Commander. "Here you are now. Deposed. How did you fare, using this cold intellect? You are at the mercy of an armed Asurian, who will kill you after I step through that door. No amount of calculation will spare you from the fury that preside in this woman, after you had her family killed, and never even so much as apologised to her... or made amends for your shortcomings. Was it because you did not care, thinking them pieces in your Kal-toh game... or do you hide behind your arrogance, and projected blame on them for not fighting like you were taught?"

At arms length from the Commander, Drauc stopped, thinking about what Dyan had said the night before, about the officers to blame for her death, and how while Ives had offered his condolences and regrets, he had been alone in doing so. He also knew that Asurians did credit actions over words, and even in this regard, she had been slighted.

"I think you ought to beg for your life now, Commander. Not deflect the blame."

Staring at the Human for a couple of more seconds, Drauc then slowly turned for the door - eyes hidden by his hair as he passed Dyan by. If he didn't leave, he wasn't sure what might happen.

For if Trent had been the one responsible for Kraun's death, fewer words would have been shed.

Re: Chapter 03: Supplemental [ Day 06 | 0845 hr. ] Hard Bind

Reply #9 –
[ Cmdr Carrigan Trent | Day 06 | 0845 hrs | Secured VIP quarters | Deck 11 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] @FollowTomorrow @Auctor Lucan

"I tried to save them," Trent replied, his voice much lower.  He remembered watching his threat panel screaming as the myriad targeting sensors came alive on the pair of pod-launching ships.  Seeing his plot as hundreds of the lethal independent launchers lit up their on-board power, launch and fire control systems as they prepared to belch out their lethal payloads. And how he had screamed for the Asurians to go to warp when thousands of torpedoes were fired into the fray, only to watch them get savaged by a barrage designed to be a be a fleet engagement and defence saturation asset against full-size starships, let alone what amounted to overgrown armed shuttles.

One more vision that would forever live in his nightmares.  He remembered the only nights he had slept without nightmares recently: they had been the two he had spent with Heather in his bed.  Now?  Sleep was no longer a rest; oh, it was a biological imperative, but he dreaded the moment he would slip into unconsciousness for that was when the nightmares would assail him.  So damn tired, he was.  Tired of decks awash in blood.  Tired of fighting.  Tired of never being able to claim a real victory.  Tired of losing friends.  Tired of seeing good people die and starships get turned to battered wreckage or expanding balls of plasma and debris. 

"They were outside our EW coverage, past our point-defence envelope.  But even then, our defensive fire was barely enough to keep us alive.  I tried to tell them to run, go to warp.  They stayed, and fought instead.  There was nothing I could do."  The last sentence was spoken with a quiet rage, heavily tempered with grief.  There was so very much weighing down on his conscience, so much that was only being barely held at bay most of the time.  The guilt of being among those still standing when people he deemed better than he was did not.  A friend of two decades; young ensigns and one commissioned from the ranks who had put their trust in him.  A pilot wiped out of existence.  Every last soul lost on either side at the debacle of Starbase 84.  Heather, whom he had not argued against sending on that away mission. 

And then there was helplessness; his one, single greatest fear and hatred.  He had always striven to control the circumstances around him, include them in his thinking, make them work for him.  And so far, it had worked well enough.  But he was merely mortal; there would always be eventualities he could not account for, or fail to see coming.

And this betrayal by Dewitt, her lies, her mutiny now chief among them, it was becoming too much for him to bear. 

He had been told to murder his crew by virtue of abandoning them, something Starfleet never would condone.  He was told to forget about the woman he loved, she who had reminded him there was indeed some good in this nightmare of an existence.  Who had reminded him what it really was to be alive. By doing so, Dewitt had effectively told him to kill her just as surely as if he'd put a phaser to her head.  He had refused to accept it, meant to fight it.  Even made plans to do so that had a chance to work, plans he needed other eyes on to review and the people with the skills to turn his theories into fact.  Plans that now sat, probably inaccessible from his captivity, behind layers of the best security and encryption the Federation had access to, little more than junk data within the computers now. 

And he was done.  Done fighting.  Done resisting.  They wanted to follow someone who took counsel of her fear?  So be it.  Cardamone wanted to kill him right then and there?  He couldn't stop it.  "Do what you need to do, or get out and stand in that hallway."

Re: Chapter 03: Supplemental [ Day 06 | 0845 hr. ] Hard Bind

Reply #10 –
[ Sar-Unga Neleo/Dyan Cardamone | Day 06 | 0845 hrs | Secured VIP quarters | Deck 11 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] @CanadianVet   @Auctor Lucan

Dyan wasn’t satisfied. She had more to say, more to shout really. But...it’s over. Trent wanted them out. The conversation was over. No more chances for her to prod at him, no more arguing

“That’s it?!” She exploded, her anger making her sound for all the world like a tantruming child. “There’s nothing in you?! Nothing at all?! You don’t have even a drop of fight left in you?!”

“No wonder you’re kicked off the bridge, no wonder you lost everything. You never deserved anything to begin with! Your weakness is why you killed everyone! You’re no leader! You’re dead weight!”

but she did not attack. She was about to, but acutely aware that she shouldn’t, and Drauc was there, and if she did, Drauc would very easily tell everyone exactly what she did, and she’d lose her job and her sindt. Damn these...these cravens for their weakness. Damn them all!

She spat at the floor where Trent stood--a move she had seen a few times in holonovels, just enough for her to grasp the meaning. After all, Trent would not understand the shame that came from her refusal to fight him. It's just not in their culture.

- FIN

GM Note: Scene outside the room continues with the Intruder Alert in Knife's Edge.
 
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