Glinn Giria Palnin - Horseplay
d.finch
((Senate Room, Council Building, Maingard District, Witherington, Indre III))
The three conspiratorial lowlife vagabonds carried on with their brave but foolish lies, circling Palnin’s questions back to her, attempting with some modicum of hope to deter the brilliant woman from whatever it was she had planned for them. But the truth was that she had no carefully constructed plan or method of interrogation, no gold-plated blueprint to work from. She wasn’t like Glinn Terek, or Gul Korat, she preferred to move on instinct, to psychologically manipulate her targets based on their behaviours on that day, in that hour, that moment.
Her preferred audience was that of a masculine meld. It didn’t always work of course, but most of the time her beauty was enough to befuddle her victims into a false sense of security; firstly, her perfume, whether sweet or musky or some other blend of consciousness altering aromas, would blanket a man’s senses, making that the focus of his attention. Then her sweeping, devastating looks would do the rest, weaving a seductive web around them like insects ready to be eaten alive.
But her audience this time contained a woman. No ordinary woman either; a woman whose beauty was quiet and discreet and irritatingly natural, also enveloping a hidden intellect that Palnin could smell from a mile away. She knew almost as soon as she entered the room that her usual hypnotism wouldn’t work on her, and that eventually her listless interrogation would require more than her usually dependable foray.
Sim: No, I’m serious. You’re not going to get anything out of us except the twisted idea of fun that you seem to have. ::He spoke with courage, though that wasn’t the emotion churning underneath,:: Go on… torture us.
Palnin: Courageous words from a man hanging by his wrists. ::she looked at his stump and pursed her lips with pity:: you can tell me where they are, and I just might spare them. Or you can carry on with your…::waving a lazy hand:: aimless horseplay, and when they’re found, I’ll have every single one of them killed for treason.
Palnin had had enough of the loud-mouth now, and the tables were about to turn, as well as her technique. She could feel Caedan and Erin’s eyes boring into her, calculating her next move and what they could try and do to dissuade it, and she could not allow that to happen. Not here, in that withering colony, in the company of Glinn Terek and Gul Korat.
Sim: The hells you will. Our friends have a head start on you, which is more than they need. Our Captain’s got friends in every starport and colony from here to the Neutral Zone, and our crew speaks every known language, know every local custom, they'll blend in, disappear, you'll never see any of them again. With any luck, they’re at warp already.
Palnin: …And I suppose you would know all about blending in.
She looked at the three of them and raised her left eyebrow, a wrinkled ravine of irritation starting to show on her meticulously maintained visage.
E. Reynolds: Honestly, I admire you. ::She grimaced, the admission coming grudgingly.:: I don’t think I’d be so calm knowing I’m being set up to fail.
Palnin’s head lowered.
Palnin: Do enlighten me.
Sim: Response
E. Reynolds: The other glinns are out chasing down the Maquis and local resistance, right? If they find them, they’ll say they were doing the real work while you wasted valuable time on prisoners with no information. If they don’t find them, they’ll say it’s because you failed to get the information they needed. Whatever happens, they’re going to use it to make you look bad in the Gul’s eyes.
A quiver of disturbance rippled in Palnin’s mind. She visualised Glinn Terek out in the streets with his men, hunting down the Maquis, ripping out the weeds of the resistance, gathering physical evidence to present to Korat, adding medal after medal, trophy after trophy to his continuously bulging cabinet of excellence, ready to step up into Korat’s position at a moments notice.
Of course, he wouldn’t take her with him to more worthwhile annexations, and wouldn't honour their professional relationship. He was a difficult stone to cut, and a worthy competitor within the ranks of the Military. So had he tricked her? Subtly propositioning her, knowing that she would take the interrogation route, as she so often liked to do, setting her up to fail as that vindictive hybrid suggested.
The fingers of her right hand writhed beside her.
Palnin: And what exactly makes you think it wasn’t all my idea?
Sim: Response
Nkai: You know Gul Korat better than we do. ::He tried to shug on reflex, and instantly regretted the attempted move, sucking in a sharp breath through his teeth. When he continued, his voice was strained.:: But from what we could find out, he’s earned his position by making sure he always had someone to dump the blame on when things go wrong. You sure the other glinns aren’t covering their asses by making sure it’s you and not them?
Palnin’s hazel eyes switched over to Nkai, and bored into his soul like two panes of cold glass. She inhaled slowly, and exhaled even slower, tilting her head for a moment, followed by a purse of the lips, seemingly in conversation with herself.
Then there was a knock on the door, causing them all to look into its shadowy direction.
Palnin: ::feigning politeness:: Please excuse me for a moment, won’t you.
E.Reynolds/Nkai/Sim: Response
Palnin had exited the room in strident steps, her feminine and graceful figure disappearing into the shadows and through the creak of the door. Some minutes passed by, leaving the painfully trapped Maquis alone in the dusty and murky senate room. Through the door, Palnin’s discernibly annoyed voice hissed at someone.
Palnin: ::muffled:: Idiots.
E.Reynolds/Nkai/Sim: Response
The door swung open, closing swiftly behind her, and her figure moved more rapidly than before to the back wall. Suddenly a switch was flipped, and lights as bright and almost as scorching as a sun shone violently upon the Maquis, sending a sweltering heat in their direction. Not painful, but enough to disorient them, make them uncomfortable.
While in the corridor, she had been informed that two trains had accidentally collided with one another on the underground system, rendering it useless for their troops, and setting Terek and Palnin’s master plan back a few steps.
As much as she wanted to relish in the fact that she had been right about the trains being a deathtrap, the half-Deltan had infected Palnin with a nanobyte of unease that was rapidly multiplying and spreading throughout her veins.
She knew nothing yet about why the trains had collided, just that they had incurred a heavy loss, and still had no intelligence that could well explain why.
Palnin: You. ::she pointed to Nkai:: Tell me how many of your people are on the ground.
She watched as they squinted and floundered under the blazing lights that seemed to have just come out from nowhere.
E.Reynolds/Nkai/Sim: Response
Palnin: I’ll ask you again, ::her voice crackled:: how many of your people are on the ground.
E.Reynolds/Nkai/Sim: Response
Glinn Giria Palnin,
Obsidian Order Expeditionary Force
Cardassian Union
As simmed by,
Ensign Doz Finch
Engineering Officer
C239809SH3