LT Gila Sadar - People of Power
LT Gila Sadar
(( Visitor’s Lounge / Multi function Area - Secret Compound, Surface of Moric (Moon of Galaris VI) ))
oO I’m safe. Nothing is happening. There’s nothing to be afraid of. I’m safe. Oo
Gila wasn’t sure she was fooling herself. The gnawing at the back of her mouth was still there, a perpetual reminder that at any given moment, she was likely to shatter the fragile peace she’d forged around her, like a shield, and that was hardly useful for their current situation. The faint vibrations her tympani registered belonged to their containment field, but she was aware of some sort of conversation occurring between the Kobyar - Grand Marshall Vef-Lai - and the smuggler in his employ. Gila remembered him by face, even if she’d never actually met him before. Sil-net and Lieutenant Bergmen had both encountered the smuggler on Meirash last year, the only survivor of the Tritorian’s crash. And now, here he was. It was odd how the Wheel turned.
While Gila was trying to enforce a semblance of mental calm in herself, she saw Sil-net stand up and start pacing their containment cell. His discomfort with the situation was clear, and it seemed to Gila that he took their current situation extra hard. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Bergmen - who’d been knocked out by one of the soldiers - started stirring.
Vef-Lai: Prison scum. If you wish to live you will answer my questions. If you fail to do so I'll kill the Mizarian :: a shiver passed through him and he faltered slightly :: Then the Gideon. Then the Human. I'll finish off with you, Bajoran - you die in the shame of your defeat. Do you understand?
Sil-net stood in defiance of the Grand Marshall’s overpowering presence and control of the situation, and while Gila’s initial instinct was to become frustrated - her friend had never been very good at talking with megalomaniacs in a non-hazardous way - she remained quiet.
Silveira: We do.
Lieutenant Bergmen joined Sil-net like a physical wall in front of Grand Marshall Vef-Lai.
Bergmen: We do.
Vailani: Response
Gila looked between her colleagues and the large Kobyar, but remained silent. Part of it was her genuinely fearing that uttering anything would only lead to her worsening their current state of affairs, but a very major part of it was simply that she had an irrational fear of opening her mouth. Like the very act of doing so would be the final straw.
Vef-Lai: I am the new Supreme Ruler of Kydon. As such I instruct the Federation to leave our space. I am aware that the traitor Oolwi is aboard your vessel. I would like her returned to our custody to answer for her crimes, along with that fool General Kexxin - who is wanted in connection for the murder of Naru, his executive officer who was found slain hours ago. This order comes from High Chief Kraton of Grunden, soon to be High Ruler of Kydon, my loyal military leader. Will you comply?
oO So Vef-Lai and Kraton are working together. Oo
Doctor Nesin and Engineer Griil would feel vindicated, for sure, but that wasn’t exactly helpful to them in their current situation. And while Gila had an illogical need to inform the overgrown amphibian vertebrate that they’d found their precious underground prison and freed the two scientists, brought them to safety, she knew that saying anything to that effect would likely just worsen the conflict that was brewing.
She felt absolutely zero need to make a bigger target of the Artemis itself, not with Kolya aboard.
Silveira: Well, we can’t exactly do that from here can we?
Sadar: Nor do we have the necessary authority to do so.
Besides, Gila hardly thought Fleet Captain MacKenzie would respond well to the threats of a bully.
Vailani: Response
Vef-Lai: This is not a negotiation scum. I repeat, and if I do not receive a clear answer I will cut out the tongue of this one :: points to Silveira ::
That threat made Gila stand up from her crouched position on the floor. She remained behind her friends, and while she knew that her medikit had been confiscated by their captors, she still hovered a little closer to Sil-net. Logically, she wouldn’t be able to do much to help him - nor did she expect he would want her to risk her own safety to help - but this situation felt remarkably familiar.
((( FLASHBACK - 2375)))
(( Promenade - Deep Space Nine ))
CloQ: You’re getting so close, but excuse me a moment. I want to go back and watch ::they pointed at Silveira:: this guy getting stabbed again. ::a pause:: I’m adding it to my highlight reel, it’s right up there with the fall of Romulus, the Napoleonic wars and ::they pointed to Sadar:: your violent death.
The off-handed way this comment was delivered stunned Gila into an immovable statue, frozen in disbelief, as her brain struggled to comprehend the pretty significant spoiler that had just been delivered to her in the same manner with which someone would deliver the final scoring of a sports game no one really cared about.
Which was apt, perhaps, but Gila still found herself unraveling into a scatterbrained mess as she tried to fully understand what her future held.
Sadar: M-M-M-M-My wh-
Gila felt the - at this point - exceedingly familiar warmth and grace that Lieutenant Jovenan exuded into the air around her, as the Edo scientist stood next to her, her arms forming a kind of protective barrier between her and the nonchalant force of nature dressed in tangelo.
Jovenan: Don’t listen to them, they always lie.
((( END FLASHBACK )))
Grand Marshall Vef-Lai’s eyes hovered near her, and while Gila’s first instinct was to shy away, try to make herself as non-threatening as possible - follow the Tenet of Compliance - but she resisted. She would shore up her friend, even if he kept making the situation markedly worse for himself, and for the rest of them by association.
Silveira: You're not exactly the first one to feel tempted to do so. But if this isn’t a negotiation what is it then? Don’t play hard ball, Mister Grand Marshal. You're a warrior, and a warrior knows that sometimes the best blows aren’t those done by the sword, but those done with the shield. You kill us and you have the Federation at your ankles giving it casus belli.
oO Give him a way out Oo
Sadar: R-Right now, a-all you’ve done is d-detain us after wrongful infiltration of your facility. Th-That can be excused.
Vailani: Response
Vef-Lai: Response
Gila wasn’t diplomatically skilled - especially not with hostile individuals - and so she had little choice but to follow the lead of the others.
Silveira: If I were you I would worry with your supplier.
‘Supplier’? Ah. Gila’s eyes drifted to the side, seeing the smuggler further away in the room outside their containment cell, being kept docile by the wall.
Vailani: Response
Vef-Lai: Response
Silveira: We had dealings with your friend O'Connor before.
Vef-Lai: Response
Gila remained silent, not having been part of the group that had dealt with O’Connor previously, but she gathered that there was some animosity between him and the rest of the crew. Last time they’d seen him, he’d been delivered to DS224 for legal proceedings, so she could imagine the frustration at seeing him ‘up to old tricks’ so soon after.
Bergmen: Trust me, his spine is one of a protozoan, and about his reliability... I would rather not send him for something you needed yesterday… Talking from firsthand experience.
Vailani: Response
Vef-Lai: Response
Bergmen: Dig your own grave, Marshall, if you want. You know who you share your bed with.
With those parting words, Lieutenant Bergmen turned away from the conversation and the Grand Marshall in his entirety. Gila shuffled uncomfortably, concerned that the morose Lieutenant's complete disregard of a warlord so self-important would damage their chances at not only gaining information about the situation on the planet, but also for their chances at escape.
She didn’t have much experience with diplomacy, but she’d had more than enough experience with irrational people of power, and ignoring them or antagonizing them had never seemed to work in the crew’s favor.
Silveira/Vailani: Response
Vef-Lai: Response
Sadar: B-But we only came here because we thought it was O’Connor’s facility. W-We never received any indication that the Kobyar had space installations.
Another thing with people of power? They seldom liked having their perceived ‘hard work’ attributed to other and, to them, lesser people.
Silveira/Vailani/Bergmen: Response
Vef-Lai: Response ((OOC: The following response has been discussed with Vef-Lai's writer.))
Sadar: ‘Deliveries’?
Gila did not like the sound of that.
Silveira/Vailani/Bergmen: Response
Vef-Lai: Response
TAG/TBC
LT Gila Sadar
Assistant Chief of Medical
USS Artemis-A
A240006GS1