Greater Expectations

Posted on Thu Apr 18th, 2019 @ 2:41pm by Captain Enalia Telvan & Lieutenant Mona Gonadie & Commander Rita Paris & Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox & Jaeih Dox-t'Aan

Mission: Detours
Location: VIP Quarters, Deck 8
Timeline: 2396

The captain had taken longer than expected with her briefings, but she was finally free and had arrived at the quarters set aside for their guest, Mrs. Jaeih Dox. When she got there though, the room was unguarded and there was no one inside. Setting the nearly one-hundred-year-old bottle of Praetor Select Romulan Ale on the coffee table, she tapped her comm badge.

"Computer, where is Jaeih Dox?"

The computer replied instantly. "Jaeih Dox is located in brig unit seven."

Enalia sat down in one of the green chairs and pursed her lips. "Captain Telvan to Commander Paris. Could you please escort Mrs. Jaeih Dox to her new quarters? I'm finally able to receive her."

"Right away, Captain," Paris responded promptly. Handing the chair over to Lieutenant Thorpe, she signaled to the Brig to prepare the prisoner for transport, and she made her way down in her usual brisk military pace. Within a minute, she was standing before the Romulus reunification fighter turned Starfleet intelligence asset who was here to strike a deal with the Captain. The Romulan stealth technology expert who had now spent sixteen years in Starfleet custody for a smuggling offense. Who had dealings with the Captain's mother, and the Artan family of old. Whose history would now play a political role in the battle between mother and daughter that was building in the future like a stormcloud, moving ever closer.

There was no Security escort this time. Just one Rita Paris, throwback to the last century.

"Mrs. Dox, if you'll come with me, please," Paris said evenly.

Standing up from the platform she had been sitting on against the wall, Jaeih Dox straightened the gray Starfleet tunic she wore as a consultant for Starfleet Intelligence..it was the same cut as the uniform worn by the Hera's Intel Chief, Lieutenant Sam Clemens, but bereft of a rank marking or Starfleet badge. The black wristband still affixed tight to her wrist.

Responding with a simple nod, the Romulan engineer followed behind, not saying a word. She knew the game that was being played here and after her talk with her daughter not long ago, had no heart for trying to antagonize the ships Commander whom she knew held nothing but contempt for her.

"We can do the silent treatment if you like. I'm not the one you're here to have a conversation with, Mrs. Dox," Paris observed as they made their way through the brig checkpoints. Time to break the ice.

"My... silence is simply my desire to no longer... exasperate an already tense situation, Commander." The elder Dox replied with a hint of exhaustion in her voice.

"You're operating under the assumption that I hold a grudge, Mrs. Dox. I had my say, I walked away. You've not done anything to exacerbate the situation with your daughter, which was my primary point of concern." Passing through the checkpoints, Paris ambled toward the turbolift. "You're here to parley with the captain, and I'm here to facilitate it. I believe you may misunderstand my motive, Mrs. Dox. I'm not tense, nor is the situation, to me. That's all you."

"Very well, then." Jaeih replied flatly, not believing Rita's insistence that the tension between the two was purely one-sided but not wanting to press the issue further. "So, is it to your Captain that we go now?"

"It is indeed. I doubt you'd follow military protocol, but I'd advise you not to call her 'sir'. She's not fond of it," Paris pressed the button to summon the turbolift and offered a perfunctory smile. This would play out as it would play out, she supposed, so, for now, she just took the ride.

"I had no intention, but thank you. It's been many years since I last saw her, so it should at the least be an interesting meeting one way or another." Jaeih replied from Paris's side in the turbolift.

As the lift reached its destination, the two women stood in silence. On Deck 8, Paris led the Romulan woman to her destination, whereupon the door to the VIP suite opened, and Paris led the Romulan woman inside.

"Jaeih Dox, may I present Captain Enalia Telvan. Captain, Mrs. Dox." Paris stood by to see if she was expected to stay or be dismissed.

Standing, Enalia assessed her guest as she offered a handshake and motioned for Rita to stay. She might need her First Officer's perspective. "It's a pleasure seeing you again after all these years, Jaeih. Sorry for the mix-up. These are the quarters you're supposed to be in during your stay while aboard. I thought you might enjoy a bottle of the finest that you yourself smuggled across the neutral zone so I brought a housewarming gift."

Returning the handshake, Jaeih simply said: "Thank you, Captain." In a measured and practiced tone. The tone she had learned to use in placating her Starfleet jailers for over sixteen years for the crime of smuggling the beverage she was now being offered as a gift. The painful irony of that was not listed on the elder Dox.

Nor did the casual mention of the 'mix up' that had left her sitting in the Hera's brig since her arrival escape her. A power play and a reminder on her place she knew better than to forget as the discussion was to advance.

'A clever tactic worthy of a Romulan', she thought to herself as she took the offered glass and took a sip. "Excellent vintage. Thank you."

As she spoke, Jaeih walked slightly around, taking in the spacious VIP quarters and thinking carefully on her next words. The princess of the Artan Family clearly had a need of her here but could just as easily make her disappear if Jaeih played her hand incorrectly.

Deciding instead on tact and civility in the immediate moment, Jaeih chose to err on the side of caution. "The pleasure is mine, Captain. It has been... nearly twenty years now, I believe. We were both... very different women. Yourself perhaps even more so. I would not wish to be presumptuous, but would I be correct in assuming that being 'Enalia Telvan' means you have been joined?"

"That is a correct assumption, yes. Thanks to my mother's meddling, of course. I think it turned out for the better, in the end, though. I was only confident in what I knew before. I was disciplined and trained to stay under her control. After the joining, I was able to not only run from her but defy her as well. If that makes any sense." Enalia chuckled softly as she explained. "If I hadn't been joined, I suppose I would have rolled over and acquiesced to her demands to either take over the family or provide an heir years ago."

"Then I am glad it has worked for you for the better." Jaeih replied, taking another sip as she returned to a stationary position standing before the two officers.

"And you know that my family's credo is one about freedom." The spotted and curvaceous captain eyed the Romulan woman meaningfully at that point.

"I know that all too well. That credo was an important factor in my choice to work with your Mother and the family as a smuggler. I had no desire to help free my people from one form of servitude or bondage on Romulus to be replaced with another." The elder Romulan woman replied. "It's why I agreed to even entertain this discussion today. When Mnhei'sahe said that you have reason to believe that your mother is in league with the Orion Syndicate, it was not a pleasant revelation."

"No, it isn't," Enalia replied, taking a seat in one of the armchairs in the room, saving the nicest one for Jaeih. "It may all be coincidence, but in my experience that many coincidences don't just happen. With the Syndicate getting our security codes for our more lucrative mining colony run by one of our most critical swing votes that could sway a couple of the other baronesses... Then as soon as they leave, she shows up to lend aid... On top of that, knowing when and how to strike so as to not hit any of our neighbor's assets..."

"A lot of good Romulans were lost that day. Not technically Artan pirates, but they were refugees you rescued and that were under our protection. Baroness Sienae Nei'rrh, leader of the Romulan Refugee Corps, covers them. She lost several ships and crew that day too. She's about to throw her lot in with my mother because of her aid."

"But I'm sure your daughter briefed you on all that already," Enalia added with a tired grin. It was clear that the politics of this Tribunal were taking it out of her.

"Yes, she gave me the basic information and expressed your need. Sienae Nei'rrh pledged herself to me as a blood sister and owes me a debt." Jaeih replied. "And as she is an undecided vote in this tribunal, it is your hope that I might be able to convince her to side with you."

Then there was a silence for a moment as Jaeih considered her next words. She had things she wanted but knew that strong-arming Enalia Telvan would not end well for her and would be a disaster for her relationship with Mnhei'sahe.

"Know that I will assist you in this." Jaeih said simply. "But there are... things that I need from you. Promises that you may not be able to guarantee, but that I must ask for."

"I am able to offer some compensations, but others may, of course, be more difficult. Please... What do you have in mind?" Enalia motioned her guest to proceed. Now began the negotiation phase of the deal and she only hoped that they could come to a mutually beneficial arrangement. Glancing to Rita, she nodded. This was what she needed her First Officer here for.

"I know better than to ask for my freedom. I am still important to Starfleet as a 'consultant' and I doubt that even you could talk that into happening." Jaeih replied, thinking on the subject strongly.

Pacing slightly as she talked, a body language both officers recognized from her daughter, Jaeih's tone shifted to a more somber one. "When I was a smuggler, I had anonymity. A fake marriage of convenience gave my daughter and I the last name of 'Dox', and the belief that I was dead kept me off of radars I was desperate to avoid. Lying to Mnhei'sahe about her father hid her well enough. The... surgeries and modifications hid her parentage. When I was incarcerated, I agreed to share my knowledge with Starfleet to protect her from carrying a criminal record. She was still hidden and I was protected and it sufficed."

"But now, she knows the truth. She knows the name of her father and her DNA has been restored." Jaeih turned back to Enalia with a serious look on her face. "And her service to you here has, for both good and ill, put her on a grander stage that she does not yet understand the dangers of yet. Nor, perhaps, do you."

"When I fled from the empire, I was able to escape when the Borg destroyed the outpost I was... stationed to. I survived but was believed dead. However, there was one man that refused to accept that and found me. Tracked me down. Dralath tr'Rul. Mnhei'sahe's father. He was an investigator for the Tal'Shiar and for a time, we were very much in love. A love that resulted in Mnhei'sahe. But he had his duties and obligations and he could only hide my continued existence for so long." Jaeih hung her head for a long moment before continuing.

"We had been lovers for a number of years, and it was a relationship that was discovered by his superior that lead to my being stationed on the edge of the neutral zone. His direct supervisor was a woman named Verelan t'Rul. Dralath's mother and, at the time, the director of the Tal'Shiar. The last I had heard, she had become an extremely high ranking senator in the ruling government, Captain. She is ruthless, she will not hesitate to kill to get what she wants, and she is extremely possessive of her family."

"If she learned that she had a granddaughter, our fear was that she would stop at nothing to possess her. Everything I have done I have done to protect my daughter, Captain. And there is nothing I will not do to ensure that she remains protected from that woman." Jaeih was now standing directly in front of Captain Telvan now, her arms folded behind her back.

"You arranged this transfer, and you can very likely keep my service to Starfleet under your aegis on this ship where I can... see her. My consultancy is with Starfleet Intelligence and this is an intelligence ship where my skills can be of exceptional use. But beyond that, I require your word that while she serves under you, you will do whatever is in your power as both a Starfleet Captain and... hopefully with my assistance... as the unchallenged head of the Artan family, to ensure that Verelan tr'Rul never gets her hands on Mnhei'sahe."

Enalia nodded, contemplating what she had just been told. "Then you should know that Riov Dalia Rendal is a Tal'Shiar agent that we consider to be on the payroll of Senator t'Rul. We recently had an incident with her involving the destruction of a joint research base and during her transfer to more secure facilities, she was found to be missing. You have every oath I can make that I will do everything within my power that I will protect not only my Flight Control Chief, but every member of my crew."

"As for your transfer to this ship, I had a feeling you would ask for that and already put in a request. It's been approved and you'll be serving aboard this vessel until such time as you are no longer useful to the overarching mission of the USS Hera. Command will still expect you to file reports remotely, of course... But..." The spotted woman eyed the Romulan meaningfully. "As long as you behave yourself and remain honest and honorable... There's no reason we can't allow you some measure of freedoms."

"You're probably right about early release from your sentence. I've been able to talk Intel Command into giving you bigger and better cages, but they're pretty quick to strike down any chance of you getting out of the rest of your life sentence, even if it's just probation."

"I'm serving a life sentence for smuggling. I have never had any illusions that my sentence was anything other than political in nature. I am a former Romulan Engineer with extremely valuable intelligence. Had I been picked up for loitering, I doubt my sentence would have been much lighter." Jaeih replied, arching an eyebrow as she spoke. "So I wouldn't have bothered asking for the impossible. And frankly, freedom would simply force me back into hiding and would make it impossible to see my daughter or know she was protected."

"Otherwise, you have my services, Captain. Both on this ship and in your upcoming trials. I appreciate the efforts you have made on my behalf and in regards to my daughter. And I... hope to at least try and repair some of the damage I have done, but knowing that you have her best interests at heart is comforting and I am grateful that she seems to have found a place where she has what I could never give her." She then turned specifically to Rita, "Thank you both."

"Thank you, Mrs. Dox. I look forward to working with you." Standing back up, Enalia smiled at Commander Paris. "It seems we have another set of VIP quarters to be guarded now. Please afford her the same hospitality as our other guests."

"Of course, Captain," the first officer replied smoothly, before turning on the Romulan guest of the USS Hera, who'd be sleeping next door to Death herself. "You'll need this as well," Paris handed over a communicator badge that was not in the shape of the Starfleet 'twin tower' delta, abut the spread wings of Al'thindor of the Romulan Star Empire.

"This will allow you limited access to the ship's computer as well as the doorways and replicators. Should you wish to go somewhere, please inform your honor guard outside and once cleared they will take you where you wish to go, and stand by until you are prepared to depart. You have access to a number of fresh foods as well as replicated, and goods can be sought if needed for specific purposes." The first officer had smiled throughout the presentation, and continued smiling now- not a perfunctory plastic smile of one obligated to do so, but that of someone who was being genuinely pleasant.

"With all of that said, is there anything that I can get you to make your stay more comfortable, Mrs. Dox?"

Giving the question... and the moment... a significant amount of thought, Jaeih Dox looked down at the badge in her hand. "No, Commander. I believe I currently have all I could need... "

What she wanted was another chance to talk with her daughter. Another chance to somehow set right the litany of mistakes that set her on the path she was on, but she knew that pushing herself any further into her daughter's life would only end in disaster. But she was there. And if Mnhei'sahe wanted to talk, then it would happen on her own terms. So instead she simply straightened back up and nodded. "Thank you again."

"If you'll excuse me," Captain Telvan nodded to both of them and headed for the door. "I need to visit the pod. There's someone else waiting for me now."

As the captain departed, Paris eyed the Romulan asset. "There aren't that many second chances in this life, Mrs. Dox. I wish you good luck with yours, and let me know if I can help." With that said, she nodded curtly, and the anachronistic astronaut departed, leaving the former smuggler alone with her thoughts.

Jaeih smiled slightly as she thought on Paris's words. "Fifth chance by my count, Commander." She whispered to the empty room.