Prison Memories

Posted on Mon Oct 26th, 2015 @ 8:52pm by Owain & Lazan

=^= Deck 531 - The Cherry Pit =^=

Following his meeting with Suresh, Lazan had returned to his own offices. “Married,” he huffed, shaking his head as he stepped through the lavishly appointed receiving area and into his office proper. He gave the briefest of nods to N’aix, his Gorn strongman, who stood at the door. He liked the seeming revulsion that the bipedal lizard’s appearance had on most of his Alpha Quadrant visitors, and the reptilian man’s strength was certainly not in doubt.

As the doors closed behind him Lazan made for the bar, pouring himself another bourbon. The first had been gone too soon to adequately deal with Suresh’s admission of matrimony. He grimaced even as he sipped it, knowing that before long his emotional attachment to the Borg would create problems for the persona he sought to present to the Pit. Already Patch was becoming restless, unaccustomed to being so restrained for so long. He reached for a PADD, and sent along a list of names that could use some forceful reminders of how things operated below the equator. That should keep the Cardassian happy a while longer, he mused, as his thoughts turned more to the matters at hand.

Lazan keyed a series of codes into his desk, releasing his secure drawer. He withdrew from within it a kit that further required his biometric data to open and smiled at the tools arrayed within. Escaping the Tracers with all of this had been no simple feat, but he had effectively vanished in the underbelly of 900 all those years ago and created an entirely new life for himself, secured further by the position he’d built. He hadn’t let one Suresh’s mental instability threaten that; he wasn’t about to let another’s passions. But there was another, more emergent problem to be dealt with just now.

Pressing the kit’s hypospray to his neck he administered a dose, replaced it and headed out with an isolinear rod in the palm of his hand. In a few short minutes, he would be ready to see Owain.

=^= Deck 308 - Detention Center =^=

Given the new Suresh's rather chummy relationship with Darwin, among others in Security, Lazan had spent some time greasing palms and seeking new contacts in the station's overworld. It was rather convenient that the unreceptive ones would forget he existed in mere hours. And those amenable? Well, one of them had inserted the provided isolinear rod into a brig terminal for him, and now the stage was set.

As he entered processing, he was directed to sign in and submit to a scan. A virus of Lazan's own devising, contained on the rod, would destroy his sign in and any video recording while he was present. His species' technological augmentation rendered him quite impervious to scanning, so the same virus would fabricate a scan that identified him as human, only to then similarly purge it. With technology handled, he would rely on his unique pheromones (now uninhibited thanks to his hypo) to remove the memory of his visit from anyone he came across.

Lazan was very much a ghost. Only in the Pit did he build any lasting impression, and there his tech skills made him an easy asset to value. Still, he kept his rather unique abilities a secret to almost everyone. The last thing he needed was to flaunt what he was; to attract the Tracers.

But now, as he had many times before, he found himself standing in front of a cell. Officially, he was arranging representation. Unofficially, he was the Syndicate's problem solver.

"Hello, Owain," he smirked, observing the man in the cell. "You seem rather less put together than the last time I saw you in Saturnalia."

Sitting up on his bunk, Owain quietly regarded the man standing outside his cell. He worked to read him and, after a moment, asked, “Who the hell are you?”

“Oh, Owain, I’m hurt,” Lazan feigned emotional distress. “How can Seyla have never mentioned me, thorn in her side that I am? My name is Lazan. I am employed by Suresh,” he explained, though the phrasing grated against him - he tried not to think too hard on it.

“Apparently you aren’t that large a thorn, Lazan,” Owain smirked, not knowing that, really, it was the other way around: Owain wasn’t important enough to know about Lazan and Seyla’s entanglement with him. “What is it you do for Suresh, as his employee?” He’d read enough to know that the man disliked that word.

“Sometimes the thorns you don’t feel are the worst ones,” the Ramuran mused. “We can be left to fester.” There was a darkness behind his eyes and in his smirk that was gone as quickly as it appeared. “I solve problems. You seem to have… several,” he remarked as he looked around the cell. He had caught the stress on employee - indeed, he had known Owain was Betazoid, but none of that truly mattered. Memory was not a concern of Lazan’s, even if he was going to try to steer his thoughts away from anything too sensitive.

“You could say that I do,” Owain said, agreeably. “When one’s world is reduced to three walls and a forcefield... yes, one has problems. I doubt that you’re here to take those problems away, though. I’d have to guess that you’re here to add to them, since you work for Suresh.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that.” Lazan stepped forward, and for an instant the forcefield vanished, reappearing as he stepped back once more. His virus had accomplished two things for him through proximity to the cell: one, it had demonstrated that he could free Owain if he wished; two, it had ensured his pheromones would enter the air circulated within.

“I can solve at least your forcefield problem. I could even get you off this station if I exercise some influence. It would, after all, be unpleasant for us to have you in Security’s hands. It’s difficult to know how much you’ve learned in Seyla’s employ.” Lazan tapped his own temple, his grey-black hair covering his ears. “We can’t all be mind readers.”

“Good. How about a one-way ticket to Risa, then? I’m sure I could make a killing there,” Owain smiled. “And do that forcefield thing again, let me out.”

“I’m sure you could,” the Syndicate boss smiled as he walked back and forth across the cell, never close enough to deactivate the field once more, almost appraising Owain like a piece of meat. “But like you, I do not work for free. Tell me about Niro, and perhaps you’ll be seeing those beaches on Risa.”

“What about Niro? He’s a lying snake who really only wants a wife and a dull, boring life. Awful,” he shook his head.

“Hmm,” Lazan seemed interested in that appraisal. “Nothing I’ve heard of Niro leads me to believe ‘dull’ is an adequate descriptor. But come, my boy, no one is going to break you out of a Federation prison for that. You’ve been in his head. You’ve been on his ship. You can tell me how to get to him. His weaknesses. Those are worth risking my neck for. … Or are you still in love with him?”

“Love? What’s love got to do with it? His weakness is ...at least, was Reva. He wanted a life with her. Beyond her..., I’m not sure what his weakness is. Perhaps his brother - he’s terribly jealous of him.” He shrugged.

“We know about, Reva, of course. If you do find your way out of here, a word to the wise - avoid her Orion protector. You won’t like what becomes of you. But jealous of his brother? That’s intriguing. Tell me how to access the Korenna. What kind of security are we looking at?”

“Lax, at best. Get the code to get onboard and that’s all you need to worry about. Once you’re on, there’s no security. What are you planning for the Korenna?”

Lazan arched a brow at the question. “I make no plans before I have the information to do so, Owain,” he replied. “But it stands to reason that I may have to access Niro’s ship to access Niro.” Of course, if he dealt with Niro, he would also need to deal with Niro’s records. There was little sense in attacking a person’s memory if he had digital records to refresh it.

“Has he mentioned anything about a Falasin to you?” Lazan wondered. “She seems to be the latest person Security is trying to keep safe from our mutual ‘friend.’” Speaking to his contacts in Security had added some new information, and he wondered just how much of a button it might push on the Betazoid.

Snarling, Owain echoed the name, “Falasin? An Andorian? He replaced me with an Andorian? How disgusting! No, he never mentioned the girl to me.”

The Ramuran couldn’t help but chuckle, for which he eventually shook his head and raised his hand in apology. “I’m sorry,” he said, “but I suppose it’s no matter. You’ve given me enough to do what needs to be done. Now, tell me Owain. Do you really want that beach on Risa? There are risks involved in trying to escape from here, after all. A Federation prison is hardly a prison… good food, a warm bed, a forcefield and hordes of security officers to keep Niro at bay. There are worse things in the universe.”

“Keep Niro at bay?” Owain had forgotten just how angry Niro had been when Reva was taken, now he recalled the man’s face on hearing the news. “Oh. Yes, I suppose there are.” Sighing heavily, he sat on his bunk again and stared at the floor.

Lazan was silent for a long moment, watching. He had expected Owain to leap at the chance for freedom, and Lazan would have granted it. Even if he were caught before escaping 900, it would have been enough time for the Betazoid to forget he had ever even met with him. But seeing him looking so despondent in his cell…

“You know,” he said at length, smoothing the front of his suit jacket, “I could use a telepath in my employ. Perhaps once Niro is dealt with we could find you a place in the Pit? A new one,” he offered as a quick addendum. He had no intention of yielding a resource back to Seyla.

Owain lifted his head and looked at Lazan curiously, “Niro’s going to be dealt with? Did he do something? How would you get me released from here? I’m here because I sold an Ensign into slavery.”

There was a nod in response. “Yes,” Lazan said drily. “And that is a terrible thing to a great many people. Even I find the slave trade distasteful, but there are so very many ways for information to disappear, and I do not expect the young Ensign to be making trips below the equator any time in the near future to identify you. You would have the time necessary to vanish, perhaps even remake yourself. Or… I could simply offer you the chance to forget. Seyla, Niro, Reva… they could all be names you’d never heard before. You would likely still be sentenced,” he glossed over the obvious fact that there was a solid case against Owain, “but they do say ignorance is bliss.”

“And be imprisoned for something I can’t remember? I can’t think of a worse fate!” The Betazoid was wary, rightfully so, of this man. “If you want me to work for you, then I will. Just get me out of here and protect me from Niro and Starfleet.” He had already forgotten Lazan’s mention of Reva’s Orion protector.

Lazan had to admit, this was not the way he saw things going when he ascended to the Brig, but the thought of having a telepath at his disposal... a card to play against Suresh and Seyla and the others...

He looked up and down the corridor. They were alone for the moment, but there would be video recording. Even erased after a few minutes, anyone looking right this second could sound an alarm. Lazan fought with caution over opportunity, but if he wanted Owain as an asset he needed to act now, lest the Betazoid forgot this conversation had ever happened.

But ultimately, the crime lord sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger. If the escape were discovered, and it would be, the telltale signs would be red flags for any Tracers in the area. Word of the mysterious always seemed to reach them. At least with the Enforcer, several telepathic elements had already been in play, both Vulcan and Enaran. Memory problems seemed almost normal, and he had remained safely in his cell.

"We cannot act now," Lazan decided. "I am unprepared to extract you. Give me a day," he asked, honestly conflicted in whether he was lying to Owain, comfortable in the knowledge that Seyla's boy would forget, or if he really would be back.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he joked, “I imagine I’ll be right here whether you come back tomorrow or five days from now. Any longer than that and I’ll likely have forgotten this conversation.” He thought he was making a joke; the prospect of getting out, getting away with his attack on Six and sale of Reva. “Go ahead, I’m safe here.”

"Yes," Lazan agreed, "I suppose you are." There was a wry smile playing on his lips as Owain mentioned forgetting. He was more right than he knew.

He turned to go, but hesitated a moment. He reached into his coat and removed the silver flask contained in the inner pocket. After wiping it down with his handkerchief, he tossed it towards Owain, his hand reaching just close enough to deactivate the force field. "To help pass the time," he said, and then stepped away, the field reasserting itself. "I'll see you again."

Under what circumstances, even Lazan didn't know.

“Sure,” Owain nodded, looking at the flask and wondering whether it was poison or potion.

*****************
Lazan
Running Risks

Owain
Passing Time