Asfastr liked his life as an artisan much more than he had ever enjoyed his military service. Not even when his mother was a renowned senator and his family name was respected, his time in the fleet had been really pleasant. He had become a soldier because his relatives would have never allowed a different choice; it would have been dishonorable. During that time, he actually thought they were right. During that time he actually felt proud of wearing the uniform, of upholding the Empire and its values; during that time he even agreed with them that they protected the Romulan people. Of course, his mother still believed all that; she was so utterly loyal to her former life style that not even being condemned as a traitor had shaken her firm principles; she even thought her imprisonment was fair. He did not.
His mother's sudden fall from glory had changed him very much, and even if sometimes he still felt somewhat ashamed of the decisions he had made, he actually knew he had done what was right. He was never cut to be a soldier; he was an artist and his career choice was as necessary and honorable as the military or politics were. However, he had become a second class citizen, even a suspicious one, and that didn't help much Cretak's cause. For that reason, he still put on his old uniform sometimes and even went to some veterans' meetings, even if he really didn't feel very comfortable; Asfastr realized he needed to show he was still a loyal Romulan, even if somewhat odd.
But oddities were always threats to the Empire. Dressed in correct clothes, his hair only slightly longer than usual, Asfastr tried everyday to look as average as possible, even if his heart cried out for rebellion. At the privacy of his home, he experimented with the most striking forms of art, but he was only known for the creations he did mainly for military officers and government officials, which followed strictly the classical Romulan themes and styles. Still, every piece of work was an expression of inner liberation for him.
He had decorated his small humble home with many of his paintings and sculptures, as well as those of other fellow artists he had met and befriended. One of those was of special importance to him. After visiting his mother, he had went home and he had inwardly came to rest in front of it. He kept an armchair there, for he usually spent a lot of time contemplating it. It was a ceramic set'leth decorated with semi-precious stones; it was a valuable piece, but people could not imagine how much. A close friend had created it for him, one who was used to keep dangerous secrets and never questioned him. The sculpted animal was in fact a high security box and inside was the most precious documents he held.
His mother took a while in realizing she had been framed. During her first months of imprisonment, she never suspected a black hand could be behind her arrest. She only cursed the Federation and their foul plans, and especially their doctor who had so easily convinced her to commit such a crime. She swore revenge against that Doctor Bashir and his feigned naivety, and all his empty words about peace and friendship between their people. Doctor Bashir never believed in any of them, of course, and she shouldn't have either. She cursed herself for trying to help an enemy, two of them, actually, and falling instead into a trap. She regretted deeply having tried to save Koval's life; he certainly hadn't returned the favor. That's when she turned to insult her political adversary too, and then finally, four months after that disgraceful day who changed their lives, she started to accuse him directly of framing her.
When Asfastr first heard of it, he just thought that her mother was losing her mind, and his sheer fear made him try to shut her up. As chairman of the Tal Shiar and a member of the Continuing Committee, Koval was not a man Asfastr wanted to cross. But Cretak insisted; she remembered how Koval had approached Bashir and how they have talked more than once, when she and most notable Romulans could never get an appointment with him; she said that Koval wanted to get rid of her since they both competed for the same chair in the Committee and he had conveniently recruited Bashir for his cause. She still blamed the Federation, she still despised the human doctor, but she now was obsessed it was all Koval's plot. She had been the one to set her up, and even from prison, she intended to make him pay.
Asfastr contemplated the image, and reached out his hand to caress it. Some ugly scraps crossed its otherwise smooth surface, but he didn't care. His hand trembled slightly. He remembered how shaken he was the first day he heard his mother's fragrant accusations, and the first weeks afterward. He thought Koval would fall upon him; he never did. Apparently, he had better things to do than pay attention to the delirious claims of his disgraced former rival. Still, Asfastr was unable again to fulfill his mother's desires, and he never contacted her old friends and allies to ask for help; her mother insisted on retribution, but the only retribution he feared was Koval's. He shamefully realized he had been a coward; he did not help his mother out.
Cretak's insane theories could easily have ended at her cell's deaf walls, except that her son was really feeling guilty for failing her so much, and one day, stricken with grief, he blurted out his predicament to the only persons he really trusted. And one of them really heard him out.
That's when the ceramic set'leth entered his life. It was left at his door's threshold by someone nobody saw. He had at first looked puzzled at it, and as everyone who gazed upon it, he never imagined it could be more than a statue. But the anonymous gift came with a note, and when he entered his house and read it, he was amazed at the sophistication of it, and also intimidated.
A first opening sequence following a previously established order of touching the small gems that were incrusted in it. Then a retinal scan, a DNA analysis and finally a voice command. Once the not so unanimated animal had ensured it was really him the one before it and there was no danger, the security box opened its contains. Frightening contains. For inside it were several recordings belonging to Chairman Koval, documents that went far beyond what his mother ever attempted to obtain. Links between Koval and the Federation he would have never suspected. None was a real proof of his treachery, but the word treason seemed to be written all over them.
When he first set his eyes on them, he tried frantically to shut the box again, to get rid of the sculpture and all its wicked contents; he was hysterical. Once he calmed down as much as he could, he wondered who had sent him the set'leth and with what purpose. It had to be someone from his group and the reason why… He could not think of it. He wondered if it could all be a forgery, but this time he pledged himself to find it out.
Still wrapped in fear, he told himself he had hidden for too long, he had been a coward for too long, he had been a dishonorable child for too long. This time, he was going to do as his mother wished, and making copies of the striking information he had then in his power, he sent it out to all his mother's former contacts, exhorting them to help them to expose the truth and the man who had wronged them.
None of them answered back, of course, but Koval. He approached him in the streets a few days after sending his stunning messages; several of Cretak's old allies had changed sides and had quickly informed on him. Asfastr had feared he would arrest him; he had expected the Tal Shiar to take him to some horrible place and force him to reveal everything he knew. But Koval just invited him to a soup at a nearby restaurant, and very gently he insisted his mother had just lost her mind, as he had firstly assumed, and he would do well in not pursuing her mad ideas. He had inquired about the original documents of the copies he had sent, but he hadn't pressed much; he had assured him they were all fake, and he didn't really care about them. After finishing his soup, he had left him alone.
No hard questioning. No reprisals. Just a veiled threat if he continued showing the controvert files. And a search. Several of them, actually. Asfastr found his home had been searched more than once. It was one of that times when the precious statuette was damaged, probably because someone had suspected of it and had tried to force it open. But they had failed, since the data was still in there. That's when he realized that Koval only feigned to be uninterested, while he tried hard to recover his private recordings, and that could only be due to a reason: they were true, and truths were always far more dangerous than lies.
Koval, however, had still the upper hand, since Asfastr was alone, with no powerful allies who could support him and prove him right. He only had his sculpture and that was not enough. Two months passed and all he could tell to his mother was to hope, even if he had lost faith. And again, something unexpected waited for him in his threshold. A person this time, an aged woman he had never met. She had hardened features, an old scar crossing her right cheek and two piercing blue eyes. That's why he recognized her. He had sent a note to her too. Admiral Ajeya. Always an ally, never a friend, his mother used to say about her. He shuddered, and wondered what else was to come.
Surprisingly, Ajeya had helped him until now. She had told him she also had a feud with Koval, even if she had refused to clarify which one, and had become the powerful and resourceful ally they needed. She had dug further in Koval's many dirty business and last time they talked she assured him she had the final evidence, the one they needed to expose him as a traitor and make him fall; there was venom in her voice when she spoke. But that was forty days ago by now, and he already knew something had gone afoul.
The set'leth and him were alone again, and even if much have been discovered and they had enough evidence to accuse him of several crimes, they lacked the sounding proof they needed to expose him as a Federation operative, and this way, he hoped, free his mother. Besides, Ajeya had kept for herself all the other evidence she had found, and he only had the copies. Asfastr mussed. It was funny, Koval was really a Federation collaborator, and he, of all people, pretended to spot him out. And he planned to do it in the most ludicrous way. A sly smile formed on his lips. Life really had a twisted sense of humor.