Isaura's Judas, Part Uno

Posted on Wed Mar 9th, 2016 @ 12:43am by Commander Oralia Zeferino & Captain Li Hawke & IKS Ning'Tao

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: Romulus

* Clean House, Kitchen *

“Aye, sir, I’ll see you in a few hours,” Tindam quietly said to a face on the screen. The face nodded and answered, “Make it sooner than later.”

Tindam gave the man a sly smile and a nod then closed the commchannel and went back to the bedroom, where Isa was still sleeping. He picked up the goofy pajamas from the floor; it hadn’t taken him very long to convince her to shed them during the night.

He slid back into the bed and lightly bit her shoulder, rousing her. “Heeyy,” she murmured as she shifted to face him a bit more. His hands, warm on her skin, brushed across her shoulders, down her back and over her hips. “Luscious,” he whispered against her skin.

A while later, Isaura emerged from the bedroom in leather pants and boots, a drapey t-shirt and a jacket that was a size too large for her - the better to hide the dagger she’d hidden in the back of the pants. “Okay, Tindam, I really need to contact my friend, Jarad. He’s on his way here and I need to make arrangements for where to meet him.” She paused, suddenly hesitant, before asking, “So... is it okay if I stay here again? I’m not sure what his timetable is.”

Tindam leered at her then laughed and said, “Yeah, you can stay. Unless you require a separate bed, in which case, get out. Same goes for all-in-one pajamas.”

“Funny,” she wrinkled her nose at him, grinning.

“Here, a sandwich for the road; keep your energy up,” he handed her a sandwich. “Do you know where in the city we are right now?”, he asked her.

She shook her head. “Last night’s mad caper through the wet streets turned me around. Besides, the street signs are in Romulan and I can't read them.”

He chuckled and nodded, “Good thing I saved your ass from Dimib, then. I know just where to go so you can call your friend. But you can’t walk around looking like you look right now.”

Mid-bite, she looked at him. “Why noth? I look thine.”

“You look Bajoran,” he said, rubbing the bridge of his nose; the movement made her do the same to her nose. He went to the replicator and ordered something. “These will hide those ridges, partially at least,” he handed her a pair of sunglasses. He stopped and looked at her then shook his head. “It’ll be enough to get us there and back. Okay, finish that and let’s go.”

She did, licking a dollop of sauce off her fingers as they headed out.

* Streets of the Capital *

Tindam hurried her along - not like he had during the night, then he’d been nearly abusive in his demands that she move faster. Now, his hurrying merely matched that of the Romulans around them.

Isaura hadn’t ever been to Romulus before; at the moment, she was thoroughly lost in the city and dependent upon Tindam to navigate their way. As she looked around, on the edge of playing tourist, she was glad she hadn’t been here before: the people all looked hard and stern, almost angry. The majority had straight dark hair, cut short. She touched her own curly hair. “We should have gotten me a hat.”

He glanced at her. “No need. You won’t draw too much attention like this. A hat might have been noticed.” He turned down a small side street that had been blocked off for pedestrians only. “Where we’re headed is just ahead, Isa.” He slowed, a relief to the shorter Isa. Partway down the block, he stopped altogether. When he started walking again, he headed for the doorway of a shop and opened the door for Isa to precede him into it.

She did and looked around the place as she entered. It was wall-to-wall engineering and science gear. She assumed whomever ran the place had a set-up for contacting ships without being traced in a back room or something. Her assumption was confirmed when Tindam nodded at the shop clerk and led her through another door to a backroom. The set-up wasn’t there, though.

He led her down a set of stairs then to a hidden trapdoor. They went down again, into a damp, dimly lit room. He flipped a switch and Isa saw it was a tunnel. “Oh,” she breathed, suddenly nervous.

“It’s a bit of a walk,” he said and started down the tunnel.

After fifteen minutes, Isa, who wasn’t a fan of underground anythings, panted, “How much farther? How can a signal possibly get through this rock?”

“Not much further, Isa,” he answered. He looked back as footsteps echoed from the far end of the tunnel. The sound panicked Isaura, “Oh, prophets,” she cursed, “someone’s behind us.”

“Don’t worry, they’re friends.” He turned to continue the walk. A hundred meters on, he stopped again then suddenly grabbed Isa, pushed her against the wall and kissed her.

She looked at him like he was crazy and hissed, “What was that for?”

“Because once you see this, you’re going to want to kill me rather than kiss me again,” he said and opened a door in the wall behind her. She turned and blinked, nearly blinded by the brighter light of the room beyond. Tindam shoved her into the room, just as what she was seeing clicked in her brain: uniformed Romulans, all armed, all waiting for her to enter the room.

At the same time, Tindam’s smug thought came to her, though it was meant for the lead officer in the room, Easier than leading a lamb to slaughter.

Baier stepped forward and smiled at her, “Welcome back to the Fortress, Isaura.”

Tindam grabbed her arms and she slammed her head back, catching him in the jaw and mouth. Scrambling, she fought him, fought them, biting and kicking anyone within reach, till Baier reached forward with a black rod like Rekar’s and pressed it to her belly. She screamed in pain and lost her fight.

“Well done, Tindam, though you cut the time close,” Baier commented as one of his men shouldered Isa’s body.

“She’s rather trusting,” Tindam said, shrugging, “And doesn’t seem to have any hangups about sex.” He grinned at his fellow officer, who rolled his eyes.

* Chairman Rekar’s Office *

Rekar steepled his fingers together and watched as the doors parted. The guards entered, one carrying Isa like a sack of grain over his shoulder. He studied them for a moment, then smiled. It chilled them to the bone, one and all.

“Well done, Tindam. I am glad to see you are earning your keep. She suspected nothing at all?”


“Absolutely nothing,” Tindam smiled, “She trusted me all the way down the tunnel and didn’t have a clue till the door opened. She’s not the smartest, you know.”

Rekar shrugged. “Puzzling isn’t it? I wonder what makes her so valuable to Kaeli. Did she shed any light on that?”

He looked at Isa in the chair where the officer had put her and shook his head. “I don’t get it, Rekar. She’s way too trusting, not that smart... I understand why Drekkar would follow her around, chasing her, but Kaeli? I don’t get it.”

“Perhaps you’ll have the chance to find out, since you will be working with your old teacher. You are our only telepath so I want you as close to her as you can get.” Rekar smiled and motioned to Isaura. “Wake her.”

“Yes, sir,” Tindam said, smiling as he thought of working with Kaeli again. He watched as an officer touched a hypospray to Isaura’s arm.

She came awake yelling and flailing. “Get away from me!” When no one fought her back, she stopped and looked around the room. “Aw, shit,” she muttered.

“Hello again, my little pain in the ass,” Rekar greeted her. “Nice nap?


As she woke up more fully, the pain from Baier’s zap to her belly returned. “Nooaaap? That hurt!” She glared at Baier then shifted her look to Tindam. “You, I’m going to kill you very slowly.”

Tindam laughed. “Not likely.”

“Not right now, no,” she argued the point, glancing around at the plethora of Romulan officers. “But I think Rekar is scared of me. All these officers just for lil ol’ me? Overkill.”

Rekar laughed. “I don’t think so. I like to think of it as prudent. And there are so many of them because they are not all that competent so I ordered more just in case. Feel better now?”

She caught his confidence; he was definitely not afraid of her. “Oh... good help is hard to find. Look at the help I got: jackass led me right back to you.” She threw a good ball of mental hate at Tindam. “Why am I here, though? You said I could go yesterday.”

“There’s been a slight change of plans,” Rekar answered. “Kaeli has agreed to come back to work for me but she had a few conditions. One of those was that she saw you, in person, whole and unharmed. So, given how valuable she is to me, I agreed. She also insists that you are to return to 900 with her when she goes, so you will stay here until she is ready to leave.”

Allowing her confusion to outwardly show, Isa looked over at Baier and stage-whispered at him, “Damned good thing your idea to kill me didn’t work out.”

Baier frowned at her; beside him, Tindam nudged him and laughed, “Good thing I take my orders from Rekar, unlike Dimib. It helped, of course, that she’s sort of dumb and walked into a diner that serves the city guard.” He looked at Isa and asked, “You didn’t notice the name of the diner, did you?”

Her anger spiked and she jumped up to lunge at him; an officer behind her caught her by the shoulders and made her sit again. “I don’t read Romulan!” She turned her baleful flare on Rekar and demanded, “Why in hell would Kaeli agree to work for you?”

“Allow me to show you.” He reached out to tap the control panel on his desk and the wall screen came to life. “She discovered something she had conveniently forgotten, with our help. The fact that she sold you out ten years ago….you, Jarad, her brother….anyone else she could think of. She’s been on our back burner, shall we say? A sleeper your Fleet calls it?”

Her Fleet? She licked her lips and looked at the screen. Rekar hit the sound as she did and Kaeli’s scream filled the room. Isaura’s eyes went wide, her stomach clenched and her brain refused to make sense of the image before her. One of the reasons Drekkar had once wanted to kill her was because she had escaped the torture he’d gone through because of her; she’d never been hurt the way Kaeli was being hurt in the video and she had no understanding of how people survived such a thing. She couldn’t block out the soundtrack of Kaeli screaming, crying, begging and then the words: her name, Jarad’s, Drekkar’s... and their entanglement, who Isa worked for. “Stop it,” she said, dry-retching as her body reacted to the woman’s pain. “Make it stop!”

“So what do you think of your dear friend now?” Rekar’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “She’s been carrying a tag too, that guaranteed that she behaved and repressed the memories of that little party.” He waved at the screen. “Given that, she had no choice but to return to the fold.”

Isa decided that Rekar needed to die. He could have a quick death; the slow one, she was still reserving for Tindam. She couldn’t believe she’d fallen for the instant hero persona; she couldn’t believe she’d slept with him.... She really should have kept the onesie on. “I think the same of her as always. Torture is not something civilized sovereignties do to people, so this is a reflection on you, not Kaeli.”

“She was one of our best and will be again before you two leave here. However, she has demanded you be brought to her so, Tindam, you may do the honors. I hope you enjoyed the movie, Isaura. Enjoy your reunion too. You have a little time before my dinner date with Kae.”

Tindam took Isaura by the arm and led her out of the office. She snatched her arm away, which put her off balance (she wasn’t yet settled from having seen and heard that video) and she stumbled into the officer on her left. He righted her and they continued down the hallways till the officer stopped them outside a locked door. He entered a code and the door opened; he stepped inside and Tindam pushed Isa forward. Isa gasped: the room was the most opulent room she’d seen in this place yet. It competed with her room at Hotel Bainz. “Kaeli?”, she called out. Behind her, Tindam closed and locked the door.

********
Isaura Panossian
Tindam
Baier
Rekar