Telling Lies

Posted on Mar 25, 2015 @ 12:43pm by Selyara Chen

Mission: Limbo

“Telling lies”

(Cont. Tools of Conquest)

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“I know a girl who tells so many lies,

Anything that's true would truly cross her eyes,

But what that mouse is selling the whole world buys

And nobody smells a rat!” - Velma Kelly “Chicago”

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Location: LIMBO

Stardate: 2.15.0322.1323

Scene: Orion Trade Association

Selyara watched the human like a hawk until she had satisfied herself that any trace of his flash of inspiration had been forgotten. She frowned inwardly, chastising herself for her slip into complacency. All her plans hinged on all the cogs behaving exactly as expected, and she would have to be much, much more careful. Fortunately the realization of her identity had not quite solidified in Raxl's mind, and had been easily chased away with his surprise and a flood of hormones when she kissed him.

Fully formed thoughts and ideas were nearly impossible for her to get rid of, and the best she could do would be to drag a bunch of urgent, competing thoughts and worries to the forefront of the mind to distract from them. It didn't always work, so she'd taken care to round up the bits and pieces of information that had nearly given her away and tuck them into the deep recesses of Raxl's mind where he'd be unlikely to find them again.

Luckily Raxl was the epitome of living in the moment, and he was a refreshingly straightforward and uncomplicated. His mind was simply organized like a closet full of boxes. Important, often used information was kept at the surface of his mind, new threads of thought were filed below that, and as information or situations became no longer pertinent to what he was doing, they were downgraded deeper and deeper into the back of his mind.

There was no deception there, no traps, no pitfalls, no danger. Easy to manipulate within reason, as long as what you wanted him to do was something he was willing to do, easy to read, safe.

Not like Rawyvin's mind. That was somewhere she would never ever go willingly. His mind was a haunted house full of spiders- you'd stumble around in it finding unexpected horrors at every turn, and if you weren't careful, you'd get tangled in the webs and never fully escape, or find you'd accidentally brought back something awful with you when you returned to your own mind.

As it was, she'd spent so much time in and out of people's minds since she was incarcerated at Jaros II, that little bits of mental detritus floated unasked for in her head. Sometimes the random ghosts of other people's thoughts worked their way into her conscious thought and it took her a while to realize that they weren't hers.

"Hey, Aella, you okay?" Raxl said, neatly derailing her train of thought.

"Yes, apologies. I was just thinking, making sure we've covered all our bases," he gave her an odd look and she added smoothly " that is how you humans use the phrase, correct?"

"Yeah," his body and mind relaxed. "So? One more time so there are no mistakes."

"You tell Harad-Sar that you want to make sure that his computer network is secure, and you ask to plug in that isolinear chip to run a simulated attack using the most recent programs. Tell him he can destroy the chip afterwards to put him at ease. You run the simulated attacks, they pass with flying colors, you tell him that the Shadow Master is not a who, but an organization- Section 31, and that Rawyvin Seth is their new representative on LIMBO. You say you need to gather your belongings while they verify, we go home, we ping the backdoor program, the data we want gets handed to us on a serving plate with garnish."

"And why are we saying Rawyvin Seth's the Shadow Master? Won't that give me more competition for his bounty?" Raxl frowned. Selyara sighed, unsure whether he was being obtuse, or suspicious.

"Because, Tella Yavin has a huge bounty on the Shadow Master. I don't know about you, but I always enjoy being paid for something I intended to do anyway. Think of it as it a fuck you from me to him."

"Okay. I can do this," he still seemed a bit nervous, but the adrenaline had kicked in and he seemed to be feeling it.

"I have complete and utter faith in you, Mr. Dreyton," she said with her most charming smile, and a quick squeeze of his hand. "Hurry back, and good luck."

She watched him squirm, wondering if she ought to feel guilty about manipulating and using him so blatantly, but she felt no twinge of remorse, and no particular interest in him as anything other than a pawn in her game. She had a feeling in her former life she would have liked him immensely, found him charming, even. But then again, her track record with men was not particularly good, and her measured opinion was that he was the sort that left a swathe of ruined lives behind him because he simply didn’t think about the impact of his actions on those near to him. So it seemed to her, her apathy was probably for the best.

“Listen, I have some other business to run here for Snek, he has some Spican fire gems that one of Harad-Sar’s harem wanted for a piece of jewelry, and I’m supposed to deliver them. Will you be alright?”

“I think so. You’ll come and charm me out if Harad Sar decides to kidnap me to his pain dungeon to find out what other interesting things I know, right?” Raxl joked halfheartedly.

“Orions don’t really go for torture. He’s more likely to get a female Orion to use her pheromones to turn you into a drooling pile of goo, willing to do anything to please her. But of course I will. Providing you completed your mission,” she left him hanging for a moment, then smiled gently. “A joke. Of course I would. I like you, Mr. Dreyton.”

“Alright. See you later then. I have the directions back to your apartment.”

She stood and headed out the door, casting a wistful eye at the display of Terran food. They had bao and sushi, but it would have drawn unwanted attention- a Romulan consuming anything but good Romulan cooking was unheard of. Which was a shame, because Romulan food was terrible.

She headed down the sumptuous hallway, and began to enter the main chamber of the Mercantile Association, where all the minor merchants had desk space to perform their various transactions. It was stunning, as everything was or could be in LIMBO, and had been lovingly restored to glorious mint condition. White walls with vaulted ceilings and carvings highlighted with gold that seemed to radiate light and air presided over stone floors, dark black with deep flecks of opalescent blue that called to mind the view of nebulae outside of the Atria’s giant windows.

The desks were all made from the burl of some exotic alien tree, and the grain of the wood was warm, lovely, and each desk looked as though it was formed from embers or still molten lava. Her smile faded quickly as her eyes travelled across the floor and fixed themselves on Rawyvin Seth. Her stomach cramped, and the world swum in front of her eyes as she began to shudder uncontrollably. Her heart thudded so hard she felt a physical pain in her chest, and she could hear her heartbeat hammering in her ears. She’d thought she had more time than this, more time to lay her plans, more time… Her eyes met those of the woman travelling with him, and Selyara jerked herself back into the shelter of the doorway, her heart pounding.

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Scene: Aella’s apartment, Oblivion district.

Raxl knocked on the door of the apartment and stood back. There was a shuffling noise behind it and Aella's muffled voice came from the other side. She sounded different, her voice tight and cagey, scared.

"Who is it?"

"MisterDreyton- I mean Raxl. Let me in, we're all set, the plan is going smoothly." He leaned his forearm against the door frame, and waited. More rustling, and her voice came from directly behind the door.

"How do I know it's really you?" She demanded. He frowned. She was acting strangely, suddenly lacking any and all of the perfectly controlled poise she usually projected, just as she had when she first broached the subject of her stalker.

"I had cherry pie in the Orion trade association, and you kiss well?" He offered. "Which by the way, what was that about? Not that I would mind ano-"

The door opened with a hiss of hydraulics, and Aella's pale, deceptively dainty hand snaked out and caught his wrist in an iron grip and pulled him inside. The door shut with an air of finality. It was pitch black inside, save for the eerie shifting light of the nebula outside. He felt momentarily queasy, as though he might fall out into the blackness and drift away, forever lost in the vast nothingness.

"Lights." Aella snapped, and a dim flickering lantern came to life, filling the nearly empty room with a tenuous light. In the half illumination she looked haggard, her dark eyes peering fearfully at him from out from under her dark hair. She inspected him closely and then dropped a disruptor onto the rickety table next to the door.

"Are you okay?" He asked tentatively. "You look-"

He stopped himself before he said ''awful," wincing inwardly. Smooth, real smooth.

She shook her head, her eyes full of unshed tears and her hands balled into trembling, white knuckled fists.

"Rawyvin Seth is here, I saw him in the Association. He's found me. I thought I had more time, I thought I would be prepared, but-" she trailed off, her breathing harsh and erratic. "It’s like there's no way out. I should have kept running."

She stood like that for what seemed an eternity, her jaw working tirelessly, grinding her teeth together as she fought to maintain what little was left of her composure. He had a fleeting impression that she was about to lose the battle, and in a moment of desperation he reached out and gave her a hug.

She froze, and for a moment he had the odd sensation that he was literally feeling her fear, an overwhelming, all consuming terror. The feeling quickly subsided, and all he could feel was the hammering of her heart against his chest. She pulled away from him and slapped him, hard.

“Ouch! Hey, what was that for?” He blinked, more surprised than hurt.

“Don’t ever touch me without permission, Mr. Dreyton,” her voice and expression was normal again, but the muscles around her eyes and jaw had a tension in them. She sat down at the table and opened up a computer display. “I’ll activate the program and download our data. Give me a few minutes.”

She turned away and Raxl tried to shake off the whiplash from her sudden changes in mood. He hadn’t exactly known the woman for very long, and he didn’t know much about social conventions in Romulans. Maybe he’d stepped over some cultural line?

He studied her as she worked. She seemed thoroughly absorbed in her work, her fingers spinning webs through the air as she manipulated the holographic displays of her computer. He couldn’t see what she was doing exactly, but she seemed more at ease lost in the computer than she had the whole time she’d been playing her games with the Dai-Mon and Harad-Sar. He sighed, and hoped that he wasn’t getting himself in for *too* much more than he had bargained for.

He had a feeling he was being used by Aella, hell, not a feeling, he *knew* he was being used by Aella, but at least it was *interesting,* and the payoff could be huge as long as he kept his wits around him and kept a sharp eye out for a double cross.

“I’m sorry for slapping you,” she said suddenly, looking at him askance in a manner that would have been coy if she didn’t seem embarrassed. “I was upset, and you were a convenient target. I have finished accessing the information Dai-Mon Snek wanted. I suggest you sleep, it is late and you will need to be at your most alert.”


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Scene: Orion Trade Association.

Harad-Sar’s day had been going fairly well: He’d made several very lucrative contracts, he had made brisk business selling information on the Shadow Market’s location that he received that morning. The location and time had changed suddenly- apparently there was an upcoming once-in-a-lifetime fight in the Pits that the Shadow Master felt would make a more lucrative venue for the Shadow Market.

Armed with the advance notice of the fight, he’d managed to convince Alket Daheel to give him inside information on the expected combatants in the fight, albeit for a sum that hit the Trade Association’s bottom line fairly hard. Harad-Sar was not particularly worried, knowing he could make all that money back and more by judicious investments in the betting parlors.

Harad-Sar enjoyed a good fight, and this particular fight was of interest because he had an old grudge against the woman involved- The pissant little planet that had earned her the nickname of “The Butcher” had been a valuable source of rare minerals, which the Orions had traded with the monarchy at dirt cheap prices. Then the democratic revolution had happened, and ruined the entire operation. The Orions had assisted a group of monarchists in securing an heir to the ruling class and were set to change the balance of power in their favor once again. The Butcher had, in one bloody day, brought all their plans tumbling down around their ears by killing the young princess, her handler, and an entire settlement of religious extremists that had been recruited to the cause. With no more heirs left civil war was averted, the democratic government endured, and the government had begun trading their planetary bounty exclusively at fair market prices.

He doubted the Balbossans cared much one way or another about The Butcher anymore- the government approved the military action, and he doubted that 20 years out the plebs saw it as anything more than a machiavellian, morally ambiguous method of keeping peace and bringing prosperity to their planet.

For the rest of the Triangle, however, the massacre had become a symbol of the interference of governments they did not recognize as sovereign interfering in the business of the free worlds. They regarded it as a gross overstep by big government, an infringement of the rights of the free worlds to self govern, and above all, a reinforcement of the idea that the three big empires vying for power within The Triangle did not have the best interests of its denizens at heart and were waiting in the wings to become their oppressors. A foolish idea, perhaps, but it did mean that there would be many people baying to see The Butcher’s blood on the ground of the arena, and the toughest fighters would all be jockeying for the opportunity to be the one to take her down.

Aella, the tasty little piece of Romulan tail he hoped to bed in the near future had agreed to accompany him to the fight, albeit with that obnoxious intelligence asset of hers in tow. Harad-Sar didn’t mind too much, it would be that much more satisfying at the end of the night when Aella went home to with him if he was able watch the expression on the Human’s face as he realized that he’d lost the prize.

He was revelling in his thoughts when two of the Bynar computer technicians knocked on his door, looking rather nervous. Loathsome creatures, made his skin crawl, but nonetheless they had their uses as data system managers.

“Mister Sar.” Began the female.

“We regret to inform you that there has been a massive data breach.” The male finished. The two twined hands and gave each other a meaningful look.

“A few minutes ago, a large amount of data was sent from our cores to another computer.”

“Many files were deleted in addition to the transfer.”

“We have recovered the files.”

“And determined how the data breach occurred.”

“And have traced the transferred files to their final location.”

Harad-Sar waited for a long moment. That was the worst thing about Bynars, their tendency for both of the individuals in the pair to speak in turn meant you never were quite sure when they had actually finished saying what they meant to.

“And?” Harad-Sar snapped impatiently when it became clear they had finished.

“The data was stolen using a back-door the original designer had put into the system.”

“It is fairly common, in case a system is hacked.”

“And the intended users are locked out.”

“In this case, the program that was inserted to utilize the back door as a means to steal and delete data was sent by the USS PHOENIX.”

“The USS PHOENIX is also where the data was sent.”

“We have compiled a list of the stolen and deleted files, and have rectified the breach.”

“Give it to me,” Harad-Sar snarled. “And get the hell out of my office.”

The purple skinned Bynars turned tail and fled, and Harad-Sar snatched the padd from the desktop.

Stolen files: Everything on Tella Yavin, the politics of LIMBO, Defenses and firepower of LIMBO and the nearby Romulan military outposts.

Deleted: Information on Rawyvin Seth, Selyara Chen, Section 31, the upheaval in the Federation, recent Federation fleet movement on the Romulan border and near the Triangle, all of his hard won information on the Shadow Master.

Harad-Sar’s breath hissed. A damning picture about the real reasons the USS PHOENIX had for its presence on LIMBO. It was clearly a setup for a coup, a power play, and Tella Yavin would no doubt be *very* interested in this information. Not to mention that this data breach had verified the information given to him earlier by Raxl Dreyton.

Between warning Tella Yavin of the impending attempt by the PHOENIX to wrest control of the station from her and being able to give her the information on the identity of the Shadow Master on LIMBO, he would be able to pull himself out of the little slump he’d been in and crush Dai-Mon Snek and Alket Daheel, and restore himself to his former glory and power.

The Orion smiled.
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NRPG: Hrm. That looked a lot longer in the word processing program. Hopefully plenty to do. If anyone is having issues with writing, just let me know and I'll try to help where I can.

Alix Fowler as:

Selyara Chen/Aella Navarron
A woman on the edge of a nervous breakdown
LIMBO