Subplots And Scheming
Posted on Oct 13, 2015 @ 12:00pm by Selyara Chen
Edited on on Oct 13, 2015 @ 12:00pm
Mission: Civil War
"Subplots and scheming"
(cont. The Politics of Empire)
* * * =/\= * * *
Location: USS Pendragon
Stardate:2.151012.2133
Scene: Peter Aspinall’s quarters
[[Peter,]] the voice from his console was tentative and unexpected, and was not preceded by the customary chiming and computer announcement. Peter had a moment of confusion as he went over to the computer, and he cocked his head as he saw the sharp, lean features of Selyara Chen on the screen. [[I am sorry for disturbing you unexpectedly, but I needed to talk to you, and I wasn’t sure that you would accept my call.]]
Her green eyes bored into him, and Peter’s skin crawled just slightly. Try as he might, he couldn’t shake the image of her as Eris, the Shadow Master twenty years in the future; the insane, power hungry madwoman who played both sides against each other for her own amusement. He’d seen Selyara in the future once, when they’d arrived back in Federation space - her curiosity had gotten the better of her and she’d called him to talk. He’d barely recognized her, but the Pendragon’s computer hadn’t been linked up to the new Federation networks yet. All her carefully deleted history lived on in the Pendragon’s computers, which were quick to determine the identity of the mysterious caller. That chance encounter had allowed him and the resistance to track down the twists of fate that had turned her into what she was, and allowed them to send Kane to intervene. As he searched the woman’s face, he saw very little of the woman from the future in her features, but also very little of the woman he remembered. She cocked her head at him and raised her eyebrows questioningly.
“Sorry, you surprised me,” Peter said smoothly and sat down in his chair, running his hands through his greying hair. “Why did you think I might not talk to you?”
[[Call it a woman’s intuition. Or that your telepathic ability leaks a bit.]] Selyara’s lip twitched in amusement. [[I made you uneasy, and something Michael saw in your computer banks made him worried enough to make an adorable but ineffective attempt to act as an emotional white knight. Putting those together, I imagine that I am not a very nice person in your timeline.]]
“The future has been changed, what does it matter what happened in my future? That’s what you want to talk about, I assume.” Peter eyed her warily. She ran a hand through the end of her ponytail nervously, her cold mask of indifference slipping for a moment.
[[I need to know, Peter. What happened to me? What did I become?]] Her brows had knit themselves together, and she wrung her hands with anxiety. [[What has you and Michael pussyfooting around me like I’m some sort of delicate broken thing? Well?]] Her voice had turned from worried to angry in the blink of an eye.
Peter gently outlined what he knew.
“If you’d like, you can come and have a look at some of the files, Drake will assist you accessing our computer cores,” he offered. She looked relieved, and accepted the offer.
* * * =/\= * * *
Scene: Main computer core.
“Mister Drake, I presume? I’m Selyara Chen, I don’t think we have ever had the pleasure of meeting each other,” Selyara smiled and reached out a gloved hand to shake his. The El Aurian hybrid nodded cordially and took the proffered hand, offering her a charming smile.
“My pleasure Miss Chen, and I believe you’re right, I have perfect recall where beautiful women are concerned. If you’d like to come this way, please, I will assist you in accessing the computer,” he gestured her through the door. Selyara stifled a frown of annoyance, it seemed that Peter Aspinall had been very literal when he said that Drake would be assisting her. Acting as a gatekeeper was more like it. She chanced a glance back behind her, disguising it as a bashfully flirtatious look. She had two things going for her: one, he thought he was more charming than he was, two, he was male with an interest in females, and that was one demographic she had never had a difficult time bending to her will.
She rubbed her fingers over the isolinear chip hidden in the palm of her glove, and said a little prayer that the new systems still used the chip or this whole exercise was for naught. They stopped in front of a console, and Drake goodnaturedly gave her a little explanation of the new computer systems. She made the requisite noises of awe, and flirted back as appropriate, biding her time and building false rapport.
Drake was surprisingly permissive, only denying her access to a couple of requested files. She found herself swept up in the data, horrified and impressed by what she’d become by turns. The things she had accomplished in twenty years were far above what she’d thought was possible. It was almost aspirational, if it hadn’t come at the price of her family. She looked up from the data and scanned for Drake. He was looking rather tired, and she realized that several hours had passed.
Her fingers practically itched, she wanted the Pendragon’s information so badly. She saw Drake staring back at her, his green eyes slightly bored. She smiled her best flirtatious smile and casually removed her gloves, making it seem that she’d done it to facilitate an adjustment to her hair. She could feel Drake’s eyes on her and she flipped the ends and smiled back at him, dropping her hand to pat his.
“You look tired, you should get a coffee or something,” she injected concern into her voice, and with each contact between her hand and his she whispered into his mind that a coffee would really be rather nice. It wasn’t elegant, but it was effective. “I’m sorry for taking up so much of your time, but I am nearly done, but I wouldn’t want you to fall asleep.”
Drake agreed and left to get a drink, while Selyara prepared for her next move. When Drake returned with his coffee she innocently engineered an ‘accidental’ jostle which sent his coffee flying over the console. He tried to mop it up, but the damage was already done. With cheerful good nature, he called engineering, who sent a computer technician up. Selyara palmed the isolinear chip and waited. Her moment came as the technician started to struggle up out of the circuitry. Selyara lended a helping hand, passing the chip into the technician’s hand as she helped them up. Her hand lingered for slightly longer than strictly necessary as she wormed her way into the woman’s mind, impressing upon her the overwhelming desire to integrate the isolinear chip into the computer core, the need to run the program on the chip.
Satisfied that her plan was in action, she allowed herself a very small smile and let Drake to return her to the transporter room. Sooner than later her plan would be set into action and she would be free again.
* * * =/\= * * *
Location: USS Phoenix
Scene: Outside the transporter room
Michael Turlogh Kane was walking past the transporter room on his way back from checking in on the cleanup and repair of the cargo-bays when Selyara exited the transporter room just in front of him. She stopped short as she saw him, and looked ever so slightly guilty. He wasn’t sure if her guilt was associated with whatever she’d just been up to or guilt over her not so subtle avoidance of him since their talk on the bridge and his visit to her quarters. He’d gone back there later to try to get her to go down to the planet, but she’d been nowhere to be found, and the quarters were empty and unused. He had his suspicions about where she’d secreted herself - Jake had mentioned some odd power fluctuations near the tertiary computer core - but he’d chosen to leave her alone to lick her wounds and bruised pride.
She put her head down suddenly and made a move as though to slip by him and disappear back to her hidey hole. Kane stuck his hand out to block her retreat. She gave him an unfathomable glance and stopped, her face blank and unreadable.
“Coming back from Elandipole 4?” he asked casually. She was up to something, if not actively, then at the very least the beginnings of a plan were falling into place in the back of her mind. Whatever it was, he needed to nip it in the bud.
“No,” she responded shortly. There was a moment of silence as some internal struggle took place as she weighed her desire for privacy against the knowledge that it was something he could easily find out anyway. “I came from the Pendragon. What do you want, Michael?”
“I was going to get dinner, I could use some company, everyone is still down on the planet enjoying the beach,” Kane said neutrally, and studied her. She still looked gaunt and lean, and he couldn’t help but add: “When was the last time you ate?”
“I’m half Vulcan, I don’t need to eat as often as a Human. Besides, I would have thought you’d have had your fill of company for the day with the lovely Jane whats-her-faceElandipole IV,” Selyara said snidely, and ducked under his arm to move away. He shifted to block her path again. “Oh, don’t look at me like that. I don’t care. I only know where you were because I checked before I left for the Pendragon. I didn’t want you to stop me from going.”
“Why would I have stopped you from going?” Kane asked gently and took a hold of her arm, guiding her towards the turbolift.
“Why didn’t you tell me why you came to Limbo? Why not tell me what the future actually held for me, Michael? Why not just tell me the damn truth about it, rather than coming to my quarters with cryptic, conciliatory offers of help?” She ignored his question. “Why not tell me that I was still the villain in the story twenty years in the future?”
“Do you feel better knowing about the future?” Kane countered. “I found out about my future, and knowing didn’t help.”
“Of course not. You were killed by Rawyvin Seth so they say. Your sense of self preservation has always been one of your dominant traits,” Selyara said, her lip twisting in dark amusement, “in light of that I am far more impressed by my capture on Limbo.”
“That future doesn’t exist anymore, and I don’t believe you’ll become that anymore.” The doors opened and they exited into the Vulgar Tribble. The place was empty save for John Doe and Sneekum, who were busy unpacking provisions to stock the bar. Kane watched them unpack the crates as he waited for his food to be replicated. He was somewhat surprised by the array of liqueurs and exotic drinks that the rag-tag fleet had to spare to resupply the Phoenix, but as he watched Selyara glide over to the bar and return with two glasses in her hand he was reminded of how much of humanity’s history and connections had been made over drinks, both alcoholic and non. She slid the glass of dark porter in front of him and sat down, taking a sip from the glass of highly bitter Vulcan herbal tincture in front of her. For a moment she seemed to be absorbed in her food, eating in sharp, ravenous bites, like a hungry dog. There were dark smudges under her eyes, and her hair was unwashed and lank. Kane found himself wondering what it must be like to have both the obsession that would allow one to become so absorbed in one’s work that time was forgotten, and the physiology that could allow such a monomania to be indulged for days on end before the demands of the body required rest.
“I won’t.” He blinked, her food was gone, and she was staring at him, her pupil-less eyes boring a hole into his trying to project sincerity. It had been so long since either of them had said anything that it took him a moment to figure out what she was talking about. He put down his fork and waited. “I won’t become Eris the Shadow Master, although in some ways I’m not sure I should thank you for that. I know where everything went wrong. Rawyvin Seth killed my family, just before you…I had no-one left, I was truly alone. I would want the galaxy to bleed, and there would be no reason left for me not to do it. Even now, the things I would do, the things I COULD do if I didn’t care what my father would think of me…”
She trailed off and stared into a space, her eyes losing focus as though she were drifting off into her own thoughts. Kane let the silence stand for a moment and then he laid a hand on hers, trying to bring her back to the present. He remembered being told that touch was an important part of mental and emotional well being, that physical connections were just as important as social interactions in fostering a sense of connectedness. A sense of belonging and of not being alone seemed to him to be what she needed now. Unbidden, the memory of holding her on the bridge and the taste of her lips from her fleeting kiss sprung to his mind. How long had it been since he’d touched another person? Selyara made a slight coughing noise and Kane looked up, his attention returning. Her cheeks were flushed green and her breathing was slightly uneven, but she made no attempt to remove her hand.
“You aren’t alone. I’m still alive, and I’ve been informed that your family is on the USS Demeter, one of the ships that just entered the system,” Kane told her gently. A quick flurry of emotions passed over her face before settling on a look of relief and trepidation.
“Good, I’m glad. Really glad. Thank you.” She put her other hand over his and smiled, looking briefly like her old self, before she bit her lip and frowned. “Michael, what has Peter said to you about his ship’s memory cores? I got the distinct impression by how Drake controlled the access to the computer that he has no intention of letting anyone in our time having free rein of the information.”
“No, he’s worried about the temporal ramifications, I think,” Kane said neutrally. He could tell that they were beginning to reach the crux of her preoccupation. This was probably what she was obsessing over. She surprised him with an angry stamp of her foot and the swift removal of one of her hands from his as she slammed it down on the tabletop.
“It’s not right. That information saved my father. It saved YOU. How many others could it help, how many other disasters could be stopped using what they have in their computer banks? Not all of it would be negated by stopping the Neo-Essentialists, there are planetary disasters, plots and schemes not related to Edgerton,” Selyara snarled in frustration, punctuating this statement with another slap of her hand on the table. She looked at him through her long eyelashes, her face suddenly coy, the tone of her voice wheedling. “It’s not right, is it? That information could save lives. Things have changed so much already, what harm could there be in changing the future more? Why should Peter be the one to decide to withhold it? Shouldn’t we have the chance to change our future for the better?”
And there it was, the other shoe dropping. She wanted the Pendragon’s computer banks, and she was looking for his blessing. Kane hesitated. On the one hand he tended to agree with her when he thought with his heart. On the other hand, his head told him that messing with temporal dynamics was dangerous and potentially catastrophic- how many disasters might you accidentally cause trying to avert a single one? Time was one of those wibbly wobbly things, and small changes tended to cascade into large ones. He trusted her, but he was under no illusions that her reasons for wanting it were solely the altruistic ones she’d just outlined. She continued to look at him, the expression of wide, doe-eyed innocence plastered disingenuously across her face. He chose his next words carefully, knowing that any agreement with her sentiments would be taken as tacit approval to go forward with whatever she was scheming.
“It is Peter’s decision to make because he would be responsible for anything that happened as a result of him giving anyone the Pendragon’s memory banks,” he said slowly. “On the other hand, he bears no responsibility for simply letting history take its natural course.”
“That’s a load of bullshit and you know it.” The profanity was shocking coming from her mouth. “Inaction is as morally wrong as action, if the end result is the death or injury of another, isn’t it? Shouldn’t all the lives of the people Peter doesn’t save be as much his responsibility as all the things which might not even happen if we act on the information we find?”
“And what about all the people who those events you want to prevent are an integral part of their past? What about the people who only exist because of that event? Why shouldn’t they get a say? Why would we, people who have no ownership of the future, be allowed to change people’s pasts, something that is empirically theirs?”
“Are you joking?” Selyara’s eyebrows shot up. “Do you think that anyone would actually object to someone preventing a tragedy in their past? Would you be upset if someone prevented BYSS? Or the Second Dominion War? I would give anything to have someone stop the slaughter of my birth mother and father by Orions, anything to not have to dream about it every time I closed my eyes.”
“But if all that happened, you wouldn’t be Selyara, would you? All the good things that happened to make you who you are now wouldn’t have happened, you’d be someone completely different. If Byss hadn’t happened, who knows what other things might have happened.” Kane took a bite of his food. He didn’t think she’d ever spoken to him about her past before and somehow that felt a little sad, as though somehow the relationship had been more superficial than he’d realized.
“And not being me would have been something of a relief, as I’m sure you might agree if you were honest with yourself. Besides, neither of us would know or care what we would have been,” Selyara’s tone was pragmatic and dry. “And why should the people that will never be born feature into an ethical decision anyway? It isn’t exactly as though they can care that they were never born.”
“In our timeline,” Kane corrected her. “That’s the other thing, Selyara. Messing with time each time you do it you create a new universe, one you might have irreparably damaged for the people in it.”
“And so what, Michael? Why should I care about other universes? All I care about is this one.” Selyara let that thought hang between them. “What about you, what do YOU think? Not what you’re supposed to think, not what you wish you thought, what do you really believe.”
“I understand the temptation, Selyara. But I am a Starfleet officer, and I’m supposed to uphold the highest moral standards and follow the directives of the Federation, regardless of what my personal feelings are.” Selyara’s eyes narrowed skeptically, and she seemed primed to interrupt him. “And that is the way it should be. We should all strive to be better than we are.”
“That is nothing but the abdication of responsibility for your own actions, and the mindless acceptance of other people’s philosophies. Either saving people is the highest good, or preserving the timeline is, you can’t have it both ways.” Selyara spat. “If you really believed what you’re saying, all the ‘rules’ of the Federation, you would be dead, and Edgerton would still be scheming in secret.”
“When you put it like that, I suppose you’re right. I’ve done things that on their own seemed wrong but were right in the context of the greater good.” Kane sighed, thinking about the Discovery, and Drake. Triumph began to spread over her face, but he held up a hand to curb her gloating. “Which is why we’ve got to trust that Peter will do what’s best with his information, and to tell us what we need to know if the situation demands. Do you think you can do that, Selyara?”
She frowned, then sighed in assent.
* * *=/\=* * *
NRPG: Well that was harder than it should have been!