The Empire's Destiny
By Asso
Chapter Twenty-nine
Memories
There are things that cannot be forgotten.
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Valdore remembered well, very well. Never, he could have forgotten.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["Ha… chchch… thos ih… chchch… hath… chchch… am."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Valdore had struggled to keep the rigid control that the severe romulan discipline imposed. At long last! His man, over there, was calling him! Hathos, the hunter, was calling hatham, the predator. And hathos would never have done it except to say… or that it was not the case to waste any more time… or to communicate to hatham that...
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["Khir hatham."
"Tui… chchch… glohha."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
The transmission was very garbled, full of electrostatic charges, and, on the other hand, it could not have been otherwise. It was necessary in order not to be intercepted and then the chosen broadcast frequencies were those it was highly improbable someone would have thought of using and even less of detecting. A matter of safety, maybe even slightly excessive. Actually, there was to wonder if it could really be possible to identify the source of a clandestine transmission in a place so troubled by solar winds like that one. But that was secondary. In case the Terrans had picked up their exchange, probably they would not have been able to identify the issuer, but surely they would have realized that someone was brewing something behind their shoulders and this would have been decidedly… regrettable. Anyway, you could hear sufficiently, even you could not see the face of the person speaking on the other end of the transmission channel and, all in all, it was better that way. It was foolish, but, someway, it made you feel uncomfortable the view of the face of a Romulan who looked like a perfect Vulcan.
And this Romulan in the guise of a Vulcan, right after he had answered, according to the established code, 'khir hatham' - here predator - had told him, still according to the prearranged code... 'tui glohha'. Fruitful hunting!
Valdore knew he could trust his man. But he wanted to be sure. He had to be sure!
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
[" Ih'kheid? "
[" Ih'k... chchch…chchch chchch…heid."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Ih'kheid! His man was ih'kheid! Was… certain!
Yes, Valdore remembered everything. Nothing of that conversation he could ever forget, not even the slightest word, not even the electrostatic charges that interspersed each of them, that made the sentences confused and difficult to grasp.
Not a few had been, among his compatriots, those who had taken position against his plan. Too frail, they said, too uncertain. Practically nothing concrete, actually.
Sure. His plan. That of taking advantage of the fact that the supervisors of the derelicts obliged, more or less by force, virtually to being consumed in the work of extraction and processing of mineral resources useful to the terran effort of war production… were Vulcans.
Yeah, sure.
Once more Valdore found himself admiring the cruel concreteness of the Terrans.
The Vulcans were perfect for such a task. Obedient, physically robust, rigid. Animated by a remarkable sense of duty, prone to follow orders even at the expense of themselves. And indubitably pleased to be able to be them, for once, to dispose of their rulers, even if the people they were supposed to oversee were not the cream of the Humans. But it was still a great satisfaction. And then... well, then, if the Vulcans selected to act as supervisors had done well their job... oh, definitely it would come to them some personal benefit, not a little thing, this one. A nice incentive for the Vulcans, who of incentives from the Terrans had little or nothing. Moreover, if they had acted clumsily or had proven not to be much reliable... oh well, one Vulcan more, one Vulcan less... what did it matter this, to the Terrans?
Eh, yes. Nothing to say. The Terrans were rather skilled; on the ball, a certain one among them would say.
The Vulcans were perfect for that dirty job.
But there was more. And very important. Those among the Vulcans who would have done that job, would have been, inevitably, also less tightly controlled than the normal. They could have approached many Humans without fear of being turned away or being put at their right place. They would have had way to know a heap of Terrans and to interact with them without many hitches.
Many, many Terrans.
Bad and good. Intelligent and stupid.
Useless or, maybe… useful.
To them. The Romulans.
Which, in the midst of all that grime of various humanity, was far from impossible. Indeed, quite likely.
And the Romulans were very, very similar to the Vulcans. Just a few surgical corrections, to make them be perfect Vulcans.
And it was not at all difficult to make enter a Romulan in the group of Vulcans selected and recruited to serve as supervisors.
Yes, because many were the Vulcans who presented themselves as volunteers for that job. And if one of them, a perfect Vulcan - in appearance - with perfect vulcan documents - in appearance - had come forward for that job and had had at his disposal perfect credentials - in appearance -... well, who ever among the Terrans would have had anything to say? If one of those nitwits of the Vulcans wanted to run the risk of having his guts scorched or frozen in that horrendous bad place where he was to fulfil his function ... Okay, in agreement! Free to do so!
All this was possible. The years that the romulan infiltrators had spent among the Vulcans before the arrival of the Terrans, had not passed in vain. The infiltration of a Romulan - one only, the most faithful and capable of his men, and the most ambitious, to the point even to be recklessly foolhardy, almost like a Human - under the guise of a Vulcan, within the ranks of the vulcan supervisors, could have been actually put in place.
Sure, Valdore was perfectly aware that his plan was rather weak. But what was the alternative? Defiantly, he had urged his opponents in the Senate to come forward to propose something better. He had even gone so far as to say that his plan was not at all the best thing. Perhaps the best thing would have been to take advantage of the particular moment that the Terrans were going through; in other words, maybe it was the right moment to get down on the field openly.
But he knew that none of the opponents would have welcomed such a possibility.
The moment, for the Terrans, was particular, okay. But they had lost nothing of their pugnacity and, indeed, they appeared more aggressive and ironclad than ever. And very strongly determined. There was to get hurt, in challenging them in the open field, and perhaps at that time more than ever.
And so in the end, his plan - much as frail and uncertain - had been approved.
And in the end, what was there to lose? A single man, at most. And nothing more. And there was no reason to fear that a Romulan, if discovered, could let himself be captured before killing himself.
Just one man. Nothing else.
Nothing else other than a man. And his ambitions. His, of Valdore. His future.
The preparation had been meticulous and the plan had succeeded, at least in the start-up phase. His man had managed to infiltrate the group of the Vulcans who were supposed to act as supervisors of the terran riffraff. Terran and not only terran.
And time had passed.
Much time.
And now, finally...
After months of empty waiting, suspended in the fear that it was all vain, that his hopes could go completely disappointed, that the Senate could proclaim the failure of the action suggested by him, and previously accepted and undertaken under his command, that man, his man, Major Talok, the hathos, had made contact.
To tell him that glohha had been tui . That hunting had been fruitful.
Hathos had found… the prey.
And hathos claimed that he was ih'kheid about this. That he was… certain.
How could Valdore ever forget?
He had managed to dissemble his unquiet anxiety, but he had failed to keep from repeating his question. HE HAD TO BE SURE!
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
[" Ih'kheid? " ]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Talok had cut short. And that spoke volumes.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
[" Illhea… chchchchchchchchch… lai sei… chchch…Temgl… chchchchchchchchch… ohha… chchchchchch… khhiu. Hrrau chchchchchch… daegnus siu. Mh'hoær nnea… chchchchchch… ae… chchchchchch… hhenelh… chchch… "]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Oh sure. Valdore remembered perfectly well. Even the troubles he had had in not flinching at the hardly discernible request of Talok. Hardly discernible; but not for this not spotlessly understandable.
Talok was asking him to pass directly to the illhealai sei! To the third phase!
No work of preliminary ensnarement. Direct contact for a possible recruiting on the part of Valdore in person. His direct intervention! His! Of Valdore! Major Talok was asking him to disguise himself, him too, as a Vulcan and to go down there, where he was! He, Talok! Appointment in the temglohha khhiu, the hunting ground, of the hathos, the hunter; hrrau daegnus siu, at the exact time; mh'hoær nnea aehhenelh, according to the plan. To phase three of the plan. To verify personally, with no other preliminaries. And, if in his opinion actionable and appropriate, to proceed to the direct recruitment of...
Of whom?
Whom had Talok found?
Who was the prey of the hunter?
How could the hunter be so sure to have tracked down the right prey?
Valdore had made it again. He had been capable again of speaking in the cold and essential tone that everyone knew as own of him, reducing his words to the bare minimum, still in romulan language, not only because obvious and natural, but also in order to confuse, by resorting as established to an idiom that Humans had never heard, anyone who were potentially listening.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
[" Rhai. Shanaku fehill."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Then he had stood sitting, watching the mute console. The echo of his last words still resounding in his mind.
Rhai. Shanaku fehill. Agree. Transmission end.
The phase three. Without any middle passage. With no concession to the rooted, racial propensity for the caution own of the Romulans. This meant that Talok thought he had really found what they were looking for, the possible way of penetration into the coriaceous nucleus of the Humans and that he was so self confident to consider as superfluous any even planned prudential intermediate step. What was it? Who was it? But there wasn't to doubt about Talok's capabilities, and, moreover, Major Talok knew very well what he would have had to face if he had incongruously forced him, Valdore, to pass directly to phase three. Such a remote possibility had been scheduled, actually, but no one would have thought that it could be put in place. It was what the Terrans would call a wishful thinking. But Talok had put it into practice, and with virtually no possibility for him, Valdore, to deny his consent, to discuss. Talok had to be extremely self assured!
And he, Valdore, at that point, had had no choice. He had reached Talok.
Hrrau daegnus siu. At the scheduled time.
And in the temglohha khhiu of the hathos. The hunting ground of the hunter.
A well precise place of the inferno - a very suitable term and deign of the Humans - formidably rich in the raw materials essential to the war effort of the Terrans, which was the innermost of the planets of the system of the star Sol.
Mercury.
An inferno. Just so. An inferno.
An inferno that no paradise will ever make you forget.
Never.
"It was a human female, T'Pol. Dirty, badly reduced, full of scratches on the face, with a number, similar to mine, on her working uniform, similar, this too, to mine. Far from ugly, most likely, had it been possible to see her without that mask of toil and sweat that covered her entirely. She was the first person who spoke to me after my supervisor in charge, that... strange Vulcan, that person who looked as a Vulcan and who had… welcomed me when I had woken up, had introduced me without many compliments in the ice and in the fire of that inferno."
T'Pol was listening attentively to her Adun.
They had not stood up. Had remained so, lying on the grass, clinging together to each other.
It was late, it was cold, it was wet, there, on the grass.
But T'Pol did not feel cold. How could she ever feel cold, with the warm strong, powerful arms of her Ashayam, that held her so tight to him?
However, she felt his cold. The cold without a shadow of warmth that had nourished his soul.
He had resumed to tell her of what had been his life, unknown to all; of the pain in which and by which he had been forged.
And the cold of his soul, the ice of suffering that enveloped his heart, had reappeared. Instantly. Despite her, despite her efforts, despite the warmth of her love, it had reappeared.
Practically at the exact moment he had resumed the narrative of his life
And from his spirit and from his flesh, it penetrated into her spirit and into her flesh.
And yet…
T'Pol felt it, she could perceive it perfectly. Even now.
There was a flame that burned, concealed and yet terrifically mighty, in the midst of all that chill.
She had already been wrapped by its amazing heat.
In her flesh. In her soul.
In her heart.
It was a flame of love and of passion that could disperse all that frost.
But, as much intense and powerful and burning that flame could be, it was a flame destined to die out, in all that ice that surrounded it.
Unless…
Unless somebody had given it the strength for flaring up.
And this somebody…
The mind and heart of T'Pol, now, had well understood.
The greatest pride blazed up in her.
The pride. And the happiness.
That flame…
It was a flame that she, and only she, could make flare up gloriously and keep alive. Forever and ever.
In her and only in her, it lay the force of defeating, forever and ever, the icy grip of the ice that sooner or later would have ended up freezing that flame.
He, her Adun, her Chosen One, her invincible Champion, had saved her. She - now and for ever and ever - would save him.
The fire of her love for him would have nourished forever, would have made flare up forever, irrepressible, stronger than any ice, that flame of love and passion of him, which...
Which was love and passion for her!
Without thinking twice, indeed without even thinking about it... instinctively; gently; warmly; tenderly; fondly; impetuously... T'Pol clung to her Ashayam even more; wrapped herself even more in his embrace; curled up in his arms; rubbed herself against him; stroked lovingly his face; took it in her hands; stormed with a myriad of sweet, small, soft kisses his temples, his eyelids, his nose, his cheeks, his lips.
His scar.
And the frost emanating from inside him got dissolved, in the twinkling of an eye and completely, into an infinite, ineffably soft, warmth.
Her Adun pressed her to him.
How much sweetness, how much love and desire for love in the one she had believed being nothing else but grim wickedness and violence.
Deceiving - deliberately and stupidly; blindly and thankfully vainly - herself.
Repressing - deliberately and stupidly; blindly and thankfully vainly - her own desire for love.
For his love!
Totally snuggled against him, in the warmth of his arms, her face sunk in his neck, lost in his intoxicating scent, T'Pol made her voice heard, soft and sounding almost like that of a little girl, purposely rubbing his skin with her lips.
She would never have believed to be capable of doing all this and to be willing to do it, but she was capable. And she wanted it! Immensely! She... yes, she now could understand it... she had lived her whole life - the life she had lived... before - for attaining all this!
However… *Far from ugly…*
Ho… however… *Far from ugly!*
"Has she been..."
Who knows why such a question surfaced from inside her?
Yeah. Who knows why.
"... has she been an… an important woman, for you, my Lord and Master?"
Her Lord and Master pushed her even closer against him. "Yes, she has been, my little vulcan doll."
There was something tenderly teasing in his voice. Something... smug, too. But T'Pol did not notice. She could not.
Because...
There was… there was, inside her… there was…
Who knows why her voice trembled a little. "Why?"
She did not raise her face from his chest, in formulating her question. She did not look up to meet his gaze as he answered. She didn't want to look at his sparkling blue eye, at that moment.
Who knows why.
She felt his hand gently rummage within her hair. And for some reason, his gesture made her feel better. As... as reassured.
And, for some reason, the soft and muffled chuckle that he let out, almost - almost, however, only… almost - made disappear that strange sensation... that... that pricking, inside, in her heart, that she did not understand. And… and that was hurting.
"She has been important to me, my pretty vulcan doll, because she has been the one who opened my eyes, who made me understand."
His voice became mellow and deep. "It was her who... weaned me, you might say; the one who made me realize where I was and why I was there. She helped me to understand and, even, to survive. This she did for me."
His voice became even more profound. His hand sank into her hair. It stroked her head with strength and gentleness together.
"And nothing more, T'Pol."
Who knows why, as that incomprehensible and subtly painful pricking within her suddenly disappeared – entirely; as if it there had never been -, T'Pol found herself sighing by contentment, at hearing that 'And nothing more'.
She huddled against her Adun, settling herself very well in his arms and using them as if they were a blanket able to protect her from the cold; and from anything else.
Just as it was; for real; truly.
Her voice sounded almost dreamy, subtle and quiet. Even a little absent-minded, you could have said. But it was not easy to be fully self-possessed wrapped in that way, as she was, in his inebriating smell and in his brawny arms; and strong; and gentle.
"So I must be eternally grateful to that woman, if it has been thanks to her that you can be here to hold me between your arms, my Lord and Master."
His laugh was a silvery and golden waterfall that sent into raptures her ears.
"Oh yeah. Mh, well... on condition that your Katra chose really well." He laughed again, softly. "But you said that your Katra... mh, no. Correction... that you chose very fine."
T'Pol, this time, did it really. She purred. How the hell she had been able to do it, well... this is impossible to know. But, however it were, she did it, her face buried in his chest. And she didn't feel ashamed in the least.
"What was her name, my Master? What was the name of the woman to whom I owe everything?"
Tucker reverted suddenly to being serious. The cold - that cold - was gone. But his mood changed abruptly. T'Pol perceived something harsh, in him. Something… sad.
"I do not know, T'Pol. I do not know how she was called. And... she had no way to say it to me before she… went away. There, we were nothing more than numbers, we could call each other only with those numbers. For our own good. This was among the first things she taught me."
Tucker sighed, holding his living treasure tightly to him. "I owe her a lot, my little doll."
T'Pol clung strongly to him. "I owe her extremely far more than a lot, my Ashayam."
Tucker nodded. T'Pol could feel his gesture and, together, his pensive wistfulness.
Then, suddenly, he cheerfully ruffled her hair.
She lifted her face to look at him, in surprise. He was smiling at her buoyantly.
"Well, my dear beautiful vulcan doll, sure, judging by how she approached me at the beginning, there would have been to swear that she was immediately looking for the best way to induce me to strangle her. And that's nothing compared to how things went on, in that first talk we had."
He winked at her, with his magnificent blue eye, which twinkled slyly. "Aren't you a bit curious, by chance, little doll?"
At first, T'Pol had to struggle to grasp the why of that swerve, sudden and unexpected, in her T'haila's demeanour and attitude; that ostentatious playfulness.
Then...
Then she understood.
Perfectly.
That now she was no longer, and never again would be - and never again she would have wanted to be - the woman of before, this was out of the question and not only because she had found love. The totally unique fact was that she had found love by going to fall in love with a Human and if love was in itself an unmatched emotional thrill - such powerful as to frighten, even - it was also true, in addition, that being in love with a Human and being linked to him in a Bond which meant sharing of mind and heart, it meant also having to live with and in his emotions, over that with and in the new emotions, all hers, that she felt now and that, like his in her, they, too, reverberated in him, ending up inevitably to reinforce each other in this game of mutual exchange.
T'Pol sighed softly. In this beautiful game.
And he, her wonderful Ashayam, had understood all this to perfection.
And he, her splendid… her splendid Lord and Master - her BELOVED Lord and Master! - had realized the subtle danger that all this could imply for her.
And he, her Adun, the best of the Aduns who could ever exist, wanted to avoid she could come overwhelmed by all those emotions. She was a Vulcan; she could not, had not to, let herself go too.
Surak! Even in this he was protecting her!
This risk existed, sure. It was true that emotions could be destructive for her people, because too strong, too violent, such as to be destructive, precisely. For this, Vulcans sought desperately to restrain them. And, no use denying it, for this they envied the Terrans, who were capable of not being destroyed by their own emotions - equally strong, equally violent - but who, indeed, used them for their own purposes and to their own intents.
Certainly, this risk existed.
But for the T'Pol she was before! Surely not for the T'Pol she was now!
Now, for her, for this new T'Pol - new and… far more fortunate than the previous one - there was no longer any risk! There were his arms now! And in his arms she ran no risk! In his arms she could indulge in in all the emotions that may exist, could even grant to herself the luxury to give herself up to them and to enjoy them, which was exactly what every Vulcan would have wanted to do, if he had been able to afford it!
Oh yes, yes, yes! T'Pol was sure! If not, how would they ever have done, the ancient Warriors Princesses of Myth, to survive - no! To live! To live for real! Because was this, life, the true life! Her new life! - through the emotional storm that was Ashaya? They could do so because, in their Champions, in their Chosen Ones, in their Aduns, joined to them in the binding of the Bond, they could find complete safety!
And she, she T'Pol!… oh she had her Champion, her Chosen One, her Adun, united to her in the binding of the Bond! In him, now, she could find all the safety she needed and even more. Much, much more! He was her refuge, her fortress, the source of a new - and wonderfully firmer and superior and immensely more beautiful - balance for her.
However, he... how could he have known all that? Oh he knew a lot of things! It was clear, now, to her. It was amazing how everything, of him, she had caught sight of before, was only the miserable tip of a huge iceberg, submerged within him. No! It was not true! It was the minuscule flamelet of an immense, blazing bonfire smouldering inside him and which was just waiting for a nod from her, to burn irrepressible. But, nonetheless, he certainly could not know everything. Certainly could not know something that she herself could know only because she felt, with a certainty that brooked no doubt, that it was so. It was her, the Vulcan! It was in her that… that… - and T'Pol's Katra inflated with astonished pride - …that lived - that relived! - the glorious heritage of Vulcan!
He could not know what she and only she - and only now! - could know!
And therefore... therefore he was trying to protect her from his emotions. His... and hers.
And how was he doing this? But being well careful not to be too direct, to act in a roundabout way, so as to avoid she... well yes... she might resent. T'Pol certainly could not deny that she would also have been capable of reacting in this way, if he had been clear and direct in his intentions. Oh for Vulcan's sake, certainly no longer now, at present! But before... eh before, she could have done so. And he had been burned more than a little by such a way to behave on her part and he wanted to… sure... he now wanted to avoid any possible reason of misunderstanding between them, right or wrong was he. So, with a sensitivity that T'Pol was now able to fully perceive, now that her love for him, finally shining in full light, had torn away from before her eyes the veil that obscured the view of her heart, he, her marvellous T'hai'la, was resorting to what he knew how to do so good, that is, putting things in jest, clearly aiming in this way, so characteristic of him, to ease the tension of the emotions.
Nothing of his stinging sarcasm, though. Oh no. Nothing of this. For her, for his… - T'Pol felt within herself something... something that almost urged her to cry of joy - … for his little vulcan doll, only sweet and playful jocosity.
Oh how she loved him!
What had she ever done to deserve him?
T'Pol did not know, but she knew exactly what she would do from now on to deserve him.
For the umpteenth time, on that night that she would never forget, she kissed him with ardour and passion and tenderness. And infinite love.
And for sure it would not be the last time, on that night. And it would be only the extremely pale shadow of everything she would give him in the future.
This was a solemn promise that she made to herself.
A promise that she would remember forever.
And that she would not at all have found it difficult to honour.
For ever and ever.
["Why do you think he might be the right person, Talok?"]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Valdore remembered very well. And how could he have forgotten?
That place, the hunting ground of the hunter, it was ... it was really the hell! Frighteningly blazing during the day. And frighteningly gelid during the night.
And there, that is, not right there, in that remote place of the planet, previously established as the hunting ground of the hunter, but in that hell without God, as a Human would have said, which constituted the extraction quarry and of first refining of the raw materials needed to the Terrans... there, that man who Talok had identified as their man... there, he and many, many others, were working and giving up the ghost, to want to resort to the way of expressing that that Human would have used, in their terrifying job, for the salvation and the glory of the Human Empire.
Talok had not answered, had not said anything. Had remained watching him, with those false vulcan features that masked him, silent. Hard and enigmatic.
Then he had pulled out something from his pocket and had handed it to him.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["And this, what should it be, Talok?"]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Valdore could repeat one by one the words he had said, at seeing be delivered to him, without a word of explanation, what Talok had pulled out from his pocket. So he had spoken, while trying to conceal the suffering resulting from the hellishness of the place and from the vulcan mask that, in turn, he had had to take surgically. A few harsh words, spoken without looking up towards Talok and turning over in his hands the little burnished metal box that this one had given him. His eyebrow raised. His eyes fixed on the little box.
Talok hadn't lost anything of his impassivity.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["Open it, Admiral."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
And so he had done.
A little annoyed, to say the truth. But, no point in denying, definitely intrigued.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["And this?"]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
A thin mist of impatience had begun to mount in him. That place... that place without God, had it accidentally gone to his head, to Talok?
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["And this, Talok... what would it be? And how often will I have to repeat such a question?"]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Talok had smiled. Just like that. Slyly. And brazenly.
For the first time, and certainly it would not have been the last, he, Valdore, had found himself thinking that Humans could be far more than simply dangerous owing to their ambitions and their military ability. They could be extremely dangerous because contagious.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["I think it's very clear what's that object, Admiral."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Valdore had had to restrain himself from snorting.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["It is a button."
"Exactly. A button."
"And what..."
"And, if you look closely, you'll notice, as far as it may be... rather charred, that it is a button of the combat uniform of a soldier of the Human Imperial Guard."
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
At that point, he had blurted out. But pointless to deny that he was more than intrigued, now. He was… damn intrigued.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["I expect you to want to explain, Major Talok."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
And his voice had resounded low and definitely… hissing.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["Understood?"]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
And Talok had understood. Better not push things too far, to put it in the manner of the one whom at that time Valdore did not yet know and who, even before meeting him, had already began to exert his domineering presence.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["I admit I can seem a little melodramatic, Admiral. Perhaps Humans have something of dangerously contagious..."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Valdore had nearly jumped, at hearing Talok assert this.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["… but I thought it was a good thing for me, since I had the opportunity, to pick up that button and store it in this small box, to well preserve it for the time when I could deliver it to you."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
He had spoken in a low voice, looking at Talok well straight into the eyes.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["What does this button mean, Talok?"]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
And, in an equally low voice, he too looking at him straight into the eyes, Talok had finally decided to explain.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["It is all that remains of those who have led our man here."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Valdore had remained silent, waiting for the rest of what Talok had to say.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["I realized from the start that that man with that scarred face and that eye - the only one left able to see well - so alert and attentive, could have something peculiar. He told of a baby sister who would have been raped and killed. He said 'by Officers of the Imperial Army', and just by some soldiers of the Imperial Guard he had been brought here, hastily and in bad condition, his face burned by a phaser blast shot up close. He had recovered quickly. He was strong. I decided he had to be closely monitored and I made sure that I and only I could be informed of the results of monitoring."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Talok had smiled slyly.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["I have my informants, here. I acted well and I gained the… rather interested collaboration of some 'workers'. I turned to a woman and I did well. Women like that man, they like to be with him. By following my directions, that woman approached him and was able to earn his trust. He told her that his sister had indeed been raped and killed before his eyes by soldiers of the Imperial Guard and that all he remembered, in addition to that tremendous episode, it was a sudden pain, cruel and violent, on his face and then only the room in which he had awakened. And where he has seen what had remained of his visage. He also told her that he was an engineer, military cadet, part of a group, elitist and very close-knit, of cadets. I put two and two together and I drew my own conclusions."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Yeah. Just so had said Talok, that he had put two and two together, a human way of saying that at that time he, Valdore, did not yet know, but whose meaning was clear to him right away, on the basis of what Talok was telling. And this one had not been a very long time with the Humans. Yes. These could be really dangerously contagious.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["There was no reason to doubt that the man were inventing the episode of violence and the killing of his sister and, on the other hand, his first thought when he had awakened in front of me, had been just his sister and, even at that time, he had spoken of rape. Therefore that episode must have actually happened, as well as the killing of his sister. But why had he been brought here? And by soldiers of the Imperial Guard. And he had said to my informer, that woman, that those who had raped and killed his sister before his eyes, had been exactly soldiers of the Imperial Guard. And then, that wound. That tremendous wound, to his face. A wound caused by a phaser. Okay, agree than you can find phasers in some way, more or less illegal, but, as a rule, only the soldiers have them in equipment, and not all the soldiers. Certainly, in any case, the soldiers of the Imperial Guard have them."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Valdore grinned to himself, in remembering. Nothing to say, Talok was really a very capable man. And he had begun to understand where he was driving at.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["Nothing more logical to think that those soldiers, those who had raped and killed his sister, wanted to kill also him, or in the blind excitement of the moment or for precise intention, although it is hard to think of this second hypothesis, if one follows my line of reasoning all the way. But he had not died. Had collapsed into unconsciousness, of course, because of the phaser shot on his face, but had not died. And then something must have happened. Maybe his attackers - his and of his sister - had realized they would have to somehow justify not only the rape and murder of his sister but also his assassination; or maybe someone else had realized all this in their stead. Not that the Imperial Guard cares too much about the wrongs suffered by the subjects of the Empire at the hands of the member of the Guard, but a rape... and a murder... a double murder, even. Blameworthy. Extremely. Such as to tarnish the good name of the Imperial Guard. And, therefore, of the Empire itself. And at such a time, then! When everyone has to think of the soldiers of the Empire as ironclad bulwarks against the external forces hostile to the Empire."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Valdore had been surprised, honestly, for the limpidity of reasoning of Talok, so deeply versed, it seemed, in the behavioural pattern of Humans.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["It looks like you're very good in the psychology of these Humans, Major. Perhaps, after all, it was not strictly necessary for us to embark on this venture."
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Valdore remembered perfectly well the answer of Talok, as well as the strange expression that he had shown, in giving his response. He couldn't not remember it. It was the first mighty affirmation, the first conscious acknowledgment of what Humans were, of what that Human was. That Human whom he did not know yet. And who would forever change his life. And that of all the Romulans. And not only. Not only.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
"I said that Humans appear to be dangerously contagious. And it's true. They know how to lie, like no other. And me too, I have lied. In this, I have been infected. But, about how to penetrate inside the way they behave and think... this is quite another thing. About the lying, however..."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Talok had grinned wickedly.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["It was not me, the one who has put two and two together, Admiral. It was him. The Human of whom we are speaking."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Valdore raised his eyebrow. Just as he had done at that moment. Reliving the same sensations he had lived at that moment. The same disquieting surprise.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["All I have told you, Admiral... all my limpid reasoning... it was his reasoning. His. Of that Human. And it was that woman, my informant, the one I have driven to approach him and who has managed to gain his confidence, most likely by reason of his perception of her attraction to him, to make informed me of his reasoning. Quite logical and rational. Quite true, definitely.
"Okay. See to continue your... his reasoning." ]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Valdore remembered well the subtle uneasiness that he had felt at that time, well hidden behind the steadfastness of his injunction.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["The possibilities for those soldiers - for the Imperial Guard. For the Empire - to come out untouched from this bad business were two."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Valdore had followed very attentively Talok's words. And even now his concentration was terribly intense. From there, it was all started.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["Completing the work. I.e., eliminating him, our man. And leaving him and his sister to their fate. Someone would have noticed the two bodies and warned the authorities. An investigation would have been opened. And it would not have been difficult to make it that such an investigation would end in nothing. Rape and double murder at the hands of the usual unknowns. But, perhaps, it would not have been so easy. And then our man is part of a group that can not be ignored, whether who found himself making decisions about what to do was aware of this or not. And there is to believe that such a fact was not unknown to those who found themselves having to decide what to do. But also keeping him alive would have been counterproductive, because his group of belonging would come to know the facts, a fortiori, with even worse results. And, independently of this, he would have shouted from the rooftops what had happened, and things could have finished very badly. So what? The second possibility, obviously. The best."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Talok had grinned again, almost with pleasure.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["Making him disappear. Him and his sister. The dead body of her sister and his yet living body. But… softly. By making sure that everything could appear normal and that no one could think to begin to search for him or his sister."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Valdore could yet see the expression almost triumphant of Talok, while he was completing… his reasoning.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["He had to be brought here. His group, and all people, would have simply learned that he, and his sister, had decided to make their contribution to the war effort by giving their services here, thing that many do. And it would all be over in the best way. For the Imperial Guard. And, wanting to watch things with a closer look, for the Empire in itself. Yes, really a good solution, for the Imperial Guard and the Empire. A 'tranquil' disappearance; sudden, all right, but not for this impossible. A disappearance such as not to arouse suspicion and, all things considered, maybe even not at all devoid of possible good results. Yeah, because our man was - is - still an engineer and even if, of course, he wouldn't have been utilized in jobs of high concept but only in humble and hard jobs of low grade, who knows, maybe his technical and scientific knowledges could have even been helpful, here. Although…"]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
The hint of the malignant and sly smile that hovered on Talok's visage had grown more blatant, as he had stopped speaking for a short instant.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["… although very hard, however, to believe that he could succeed in staying alive, here. But this, after all, is normal. His fellow cadets, members of his group, would have had nothing to suspect in case they had had to be notified of the occurred death of him and of his sister in this infamous place. It is known that life here is hard, even if, on the outside, nobody knows how hard it is; that here it is easy to die, even if no one, outside, knows how easy it is. Oh sure. Definitely an excellent solution. For the Empire."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Yes. Valdore remembered very well that conversation, almost surreal. Word for word.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["Well? What do you think, Admiral? A perfect reasoning, do not you think? And, let's face it, there's more than enough to arouse in a man an all-consuming yearning for vengeance. And hatred. Deep. Destructive. To push him even to betray. Even his homeland. For vengeance. For hatred."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Valdore sat down, his mind crowded with memories. Almost he could see himself, while, in the silence that had fallen between him and Talok, he twirled in his hands that button, scorched and blackened, looking at it with intense stare.
He could see himself, while, with the button well tight in his fingers, he had lifted his eyes to watch obliquely Talok.
There had been no need to ask anything. Talok had nodded, as if to mean that he had understood.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["One day some soldiers came here. It is not uncommon. There may be controls, as routine, as well as other issues. They were those same soldiers who had brought here our man, unconscious and summarily bandaged, to entrust him to my custody, as the supervisor of the area, task that I accepted fully, without asking questions, of course. I have not been the only one to see those soldiers, when they showed up for the second time. Everyone working in the area in my jurisdiction saw them."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Talok had grinned again.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["Everyone."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
And his smirk had become more intense.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["I wonder if they were those same members of the Imperial Guard who had raped and killed the sister of our man and reduced his face in that state."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Talok had shown off a real sly sneer.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["Who knows, huh, Admiral?"]
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Then Talok had returned serious. And harsh.
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["Sure, it's strange the way those soldiers have met their end. You know, Admiral, it had never happened to the protection bulkheads of the boarding lounge to snap open wide without warning and without any apparent reason. Yet it happened, and just as those poor, innocent, soldiers, alone in that room, were embarking upon the auto-piloted module to go away. Poor souls! What a terrible end! The scorching heat of the sun, here, during the day, it's scary, so intense as to be capable even of sublimating almost instantly whatever - any living being - exposed to it."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
The hint of a sly grin had gone back on Talok's face, for disappearing almost immediately.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["Nothing remained of them, not even the echo of the scream of horror and dismay that we all, from the screens, saw them yell at the moment they left this world, without almost - only almost, though - realizing what was happening. Nothing. Except that button, which, somehow, escaped the blade blazing of the sun. Maybe it was lost before the bulkheads have opened and their immediate, but belated, shutting has spared it for the moment when, coming in futile rescue as well as many others, I would have picked up it. To give it to you today, Admiral."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
He, Valdore, had spoken at last.
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["And you want to tell me that no cause has been found?"]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
He had stressed strongly his words.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["No culprit?"]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Valdore well remembered the malicious glint of Talok's eyes, as he had replied.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["Oh, Admiral, you can not even imagine the iron controls and the incisive inquiries that have been carried out. Me too, I have gone through my troubles. But it wasn't possible to work out anything. Nothing was found. Unpredictable technical incident. This was the response. And, of course, no culprit. No accountable. Although, of course, the big chiefs proceeded to an adequate replacement of the assigned technical personnel. And, on the other hand..."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
The mischievous glint had become brazen.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["... On the other hand, which man could ever be able to design and implement such an incredible crime - such an undertaking - in spite of everything and everyone? In the face of every possible and sophisticated means of control and surveillance? Absurd. Unthinkable."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
The glint had become even mocking.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["No. No one could be capable of doing this. Not even that man - that Human, with the ravaged face - who had been placed under my control, and who was not far from me, while I watched from the screens, together with him and with many others, the tragedy that was taking place in the boarding room. Close enough to me, to allow me to observe his blue eye - the one still able to see well - shimmer grimly on his impassive visage, while the drama was happening."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
At that point, Talok had looked at him, Valdore, with a look that, if he had not been Valdore, almost he would have felt fear.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["Sure, if that man had really been capable of accomplishing such a feat..."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
The Major had left the sentence hanging, his gaze fiercely fixed on him.
Valdore remembered perfectly. And he remembered how he had had to remain silent for a few moments. Then he had spoken. Imperiously.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
["I did not come here for anything, Major. Take me to that man."]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Valdore bowed his head on his chest.
That head full of memories that he could never forget.
Never.
End of Chapter Twenty-nine
TBC
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Yes. There are things that cannot be forgotten.
Things that change your life forever.
And that is worth telling. Do not you agree, my friends? Are you? Well then, be patient, please. New memories will follow.
