Indoctrination

Posted on Thu Sep 19th, 2019 @ 9:53am by Riov (Captain) Dalia Rendal & Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox & Jaeih Dox-t'Aan & Deihu (Senator) Verelan t'Rul
Edited on on Sun Sep 22nd, 2019 @ 6:28pm

Mission: Family Detention
Location: Romulan Warbird, 'The People's Will'.
Timeline: 2396

Waking up considerably before the lights snapped on in her quarters as they usually did, Mnhei’sahe Dox was beginning to settle into a routine of sorts onboard the Romulan Warbird that was both her prison and her begrudging, if hopefully temporary, new home. On the Hera, she was accustomed to being up at oh four hundred hours to begin exercising. She had adopted a fairly strict regimen over the past year of either jogging with Rita Paris, sparring with the Klingon security sisters, or otherwise practicing one of the various skills she tried to keep sharp as an officer.

A year... Dox thought as she lay in bed, staring into the darkness. It Has... It's been a YEAR now since I joined the Hera. The longer I stay here... the further away it all feels.

For the past two-plus weeks, living on 'The People's Will' en route to Romulus, she had only her modestly sized room to exercise in and had seen nothing more of the ship, but in the darkness of the chamber, she dragged herself up and had been trying to get back into her familiar routine as best as possible. It helped her clear her head. It was a different kind of meditating from the mental exercises learned from Sonak that she did every night in bed. But it helped her remember the Hera. Remember her family.

With limited room, that restricted her to sit-ups, push-ups, and general calisthenics. So she practiced in the darkness of her mornings and thought of the past two weeks. Her exercises weren't the only routine that she had gotten used to.

Every day since she chose to accept her grandmothers offers to learn more about her family and heritage had been a whirlwind of information. Most days, the elder Rihannsu senator would arrive early in the morning to share breakfast with her. And over those meals, usually with a detailed description of each ingredient's cultural significance, came the first stories of the day.

That third morning, after the deal had been made and the initial overtures passed, was all about family. Her family. The family she had been raised knowing nothing about. Over a meal of hlai eggs, she learned about her grandfather, Gorath tr'Rul. A proud, headstrong Rihannsu man. With a wistful smile, her grandmother spoke of his hobbies and his habits. His simple ambitions and how much he loved tending the farmland of their home in the countryside of the Ihhliae Provence. Verelan t'Rul was the politician and her grandfather the farmer and they were happy for a long time that way before he passed, it seemed.

The red-headed pilot hadn't had fresh hlai eggs since she was a girl and one of the refugee families her Mother had taken aboard their smuggling ship, the Forager, had prepared some for her, and they were as good as she remembered. But breakfasts were just the beginning.

After breakfasts, Dox would learn why her quarters on the ship had a small desk with a computer on it as Deihu t'Rul deactivated the lockout and the system's purpose was told. Between meals, she would be given... assignments. Mostly reading coupled with lengthy lectures from the Senator. She was working hard to connect with her granddaughter and spent hours every day with her. The computer had a massive library of Rihannsu information. Cultural, economic, and even political. Information her grandmother pressed her to study and learn if she were to be integrated properly into Rihannsu society, as she was now expected to do one day.

Breakfasts and Dinners were shared meals where her Grandmother held court and told her personal stories. But the days were spent reading. Learning. Studying. And they were intense lessons, rivaling her classes at the academy. And they were surprisingly comprehensive.

Day after day passed as Dox learned things that even the classes at Starfleet didn't know about the Imperium. Details about the structure of the government. The names and policies of senators. Days in session and days out of session. The rulings of the 12 Praetors and the history of the past Emperors and Empresses. A Tri-Cameral system that has stood for thousands of years that the young pilot was expected to learn as much about as possible if she was ever expected to eventually take her Grandmother's seat in the Senate one day. The young Rihannsu woman was being buried with lessons. lessons about the people and life on ch'Rihan. Lessons about the nine major religious holidays still celebrated and their importance to the people and maintaining their cultural traditions. Lessons about the planet's economics and social strife. Lessons about the history that dictated that strife. Lessons upon lessons that overtook Dox's mind.

And as the days began to blur together, Dox became lost in them. Lost in the shared meals with warm memories of people and places she had never met or been. Of the senate and ch'Rihan's economic woes over generations due to a near-perpetual wartime economy. Of the great sundering from Vulcan, thousands of years ago by S'task and the 80,000 pilgrims in 'Generation ships' that spent centuries searching for their true home. HER true home. She learned more in those two weeks than she had learned in a lifetime of searching and, in spite of herself and the horrible circumstances that had brought her there, she was enjoying herself.

Absorbing the information like a sponge, she had not spoken a word of Federation standard in two weeks. She had become absorbed in the details of a world she came from, yet never set foot upon, and it had been extremely overwhelming for the woman who always wondered about her roots. And her Grandmother did nothing to discourage that. There were no questions about Starfleet. No questions about friends or crewmates. No questions at all that would prompt her to think of her life before being on 'The People's Will'.

But still, when she exercised, she reminded herself of them all to re-center herself. Remind herself that she WAS still a prisoner. That any freedoms she would eventually be granted were freedoms under the rules of the star empire. Freedoms that required her betraying her oaths to Starfleet. Freedoms that required her abandoning her family on the Hera. Abandoning Mona and the three children growing within her. Children that her Grandmother seemed oblivious to the existence of, for which Dox was happy.

As she finished her morning exercises, the lights in the chamber snapped on as they did every morning at the same time. And the same computerized voice called out, =^=Morning Ablusons=^=, prompting her to prepare for her day. So prepare she did. Dutifully, she showered and changed into the clean, plain dark green clothes that materialized overnight, every night while she slept. She fixed her hair and rubbed out the wrinkles as she looked at herself in the mirror provided in the alcove with her refresher in it. She no longer avoided her reflection in the Rihannsu clothes, so much like a military uniform that she once was ashamed to look at herself wearing it. But that idea seemed distant to her now as she took a breath, closed her eyes once more, as she did every morning and concentrated on that swirl of lavender energy within her. That fusion of her essence and Mona's that sustained her and reminded her of home and family.

As she stood there, lost in that moment, she heard the door woosh open behind her, slightly earlier than normal.

Standing in the doorway, framed by two armed Centurions, was Deihu Veleran t'Rul. On her face was an inscrutable expression, which in and of itself was telling- the woman had been open and warm with Mnhei'sahe since she had accepted her offer and begun to embrace her heritage, and she had treated her as a long-lost treasured relative. Now her body language was stiff and formal, and her expression was unreadable. It was off-putting for a second until Dox could place it.

She looked, for all intents and purposes, stereotypically Romulan for a change.

"You will attend me. You will make no hostile overtures, nor will you speak, nor make any sudden movements or actions that might be interpreted as attempts to escape immediate custody, or you will be subdued and returned to your cell. Am I understood?" While her words and air were haughty, the older woman's eyes were encouraging, almost pleading. And in that moment Dox realized not only was this a test but that it was a test not just of her but of them both.

Turning, Dox stood to military attention with her arms flat and visible at her sides as she replied with a sharp nod, not speaking as instructed. She wasn't sure what was happening and she was understandably nervous but didn't let it show, but the instructions and the presence of armed Centurions told her that she was about to see more of the ship than just the room that had been her world for the past two weeks.

Turning wordlessly, the Deihu swept into the corridor, clearly expecting Dox behind her. As she fell in step behind the elder stateswoman, the two centurions stepped in behind her- close enough to act, not close enough to be easily surprised, Dox noted. It was clear from their movements, the way their eyes watched her and the way they distributed their weight that both Centurions, a male, and a female, were clearly well-trained. In a fight, she would be hard-pressed to take one of them, and while she wasn't planning to put it to the test, she suspected that while she might overcome both, it would not be without cost to her own mobility and ability.

In short, these two looked to be as dangerous as she herself, which was also something she was going to have to get used to. The forbidden Romulan martial arts in which her mother had drilled her since childhood were much more widely known in the Star Empire, and particularly amongst those of a more martial bent. Even if there were not personnel moving past them in the corridors, all of whom were armed, even if they were not onboard a city in space on board what she had deduced was likely a D'deredix class which held a crew complement of 1,500, clearly this was a test to see just how stupid and desperate she was, and how she would react to the first hint of freedom.

It was also, she realized, a test of her grandmother, and just how well she was getting through to the stubborn Starfleet officer. For if she failed this test, so too did Veleran t'Rul.

As they approached the lift, there were guards, and there were credentials presented. When they exited the lift, there were guards, and credentials presented. As they moved into what appeared to be a detention block of some sort, more guards were present, and these moved with greater martial ease, and it was clear to Dox that while many were Centurions on duty, many of those were overseen by Tal-Shiar operatives, often taking the place of officers. Which wasn't how the rank structure was supposed to work- yet in the modern Star Empire, the Tal Shiar had infiltrated that much of daily life.

When they came to a cell block and were checked on, the doors were opened to admit them, and closed behind them, and they passed through a series of security checkpoints that made it abundantly clear that getting in or out without authorization would be a herculean if not impossible task. And when they arrived at the unmarked and plain door, the silent Senator turned to regard her descendant. There was concern in her eyes, but it was tempered- clearly she wished to say more than she could, but she was trusting Mnhei'sahe, once again, extending herself in the hopes of reaching her granddaughter.

"You have ten minutes," Deihu t'Rul said simply, yet in her eyes there was that note of hesitation, of caution, of concern that seemed strange to see in the eyes of her captor. Yet it was only recognizable to Dox because they had spent so much time together in the past two weeks, and she had genuinely felt that she had begun to know the woman. Perhaps it was a lie, a ploy, a manipulation all cunningly designed to ensnare her.

But perhaps not.

As the door opened, inside the simple cell, sat Jaieh Dox- unharmed, intact, and at the sight of her daughter, her stony expression did not waver- her facade did not crack, nor did she react whatsoever. Instead, she simply noted the open door and waited patiently.

Slowly, Jaeih stood up and approached the edge of the shimmering force field that separated the two as Dox stepped in and the door closed behind her, leaving the two women alone. She was wearing a similar dark green outfit to the one Dox had been given but looked gaunt and slightly disheveled. Her long salt-and-pepper hair hung in a loose braid in the back as random wisps floated in her face. She had no bruises or noticeable marks on her, but she looked tired, and the cold expression was chilling to Mnhei’sahe. And for a long moment, there was a powerfully uncomfortable silence in the room.

“Jolan’tru, Ri’anov.” Dox offered a simple greeting to her mother in their native tongue. It hovered there, unanswered for almost a full ten seconds.

Looking her daughter up and down, Jaeih raised an eyebrow at the unusually formal greeting as Mnhei’sahe stood at almost attention with her arms folded behind her back. “Hello, my daughter. You look well. Very well, frankly. I assume you’ve not been harmed?” Jaeih replied in Federation Standard.

“Dhat, Ri’anov… uh… No, mother.” The sound of her mother speaking ‘common’ actually surprised Dox, a surprise only rivaled by her own reply in Rihan without thinking. More often than not, the mother and daughter spoke to each other in Rihan, and it was all Dox had spoken in two weeks now. She had to take a second to reset her brain to respond in the human language she had been speaking primarily for the better part of sixteen years. “No, they haven’t. Have you been hurt at all?”

As Jaeih started to pace the tiny cell slightly, she was taking in her daughter rapidly and something was wrong. Mnhei'sahe's posture was stiff, her speech seemed almost stilted and she was pausing to think for a second before talking. “Aside from the backs of the oh so silent guards that rarely make themselves known, yours is the first face I’ve seen in two… yes… two weeks. They've not hurt me… they've barely acknowledged my presence. Come closer. Let me see you.”

Hesitantly, Dox took a single step closer to the field, her arms still folded behind her back, standing at near attention. Jaeih squinted as she looked close at her daughter’s face, shaking her head slightly. Dox had never seen this level of mounting anxiety on her mother's face before, as she too was taking in the disconcerting details. The odd twitching, the frantic pacing, the closed down body language with just the hint of a hunch. This was less her mother and more an animal struck too often.

Looking deep into her daughter’s dark brown eyes, Jaeih began to mutter slightly still in common, “No… something’s wrong. This isn’t you. This isn’t right.”

Confused, Dox slipped back to Rihan without thinking as she replied with a raised eyebrow. “It’s me, mother. It’s Mnhei’sahe. I’m fine. They haven’t hurt me, but I was worried about you, so she let me see you.”

Jutting a finger so close to the field that it hummed, Jaeih shouted back in standard shuffling back and forth in place. “Is something wrong with the language I taught you to speak, Mnhei’sahe? The one you speak with your friends and family back on the ship? Are you even aware you’re doing it? No, you aren’t, are you? They’re in there, aren’t they?”

Poking the sides of her head, Jaeih was ranting like a madwoman now. “Talking to you, aren’t they? Telling you all the little things about ROMULUS that you always wanted to know, aren’t they?!”

Still speaking in Rihan, Dox struggled to contain her distress in her mother’s behavior as she replied in a calm and controlled voice, knowing she was being watched and her behavior judged. “Yes, I’ve had many conversations. And yes, I’ve learned much from her over the past two weeks. Many things you never told me.”

Squinting, Jaeih stepped back from the field like an animal that had been burned by it before. “H… her? Verelan. It’s her, isn’t it? Your… Grandmother. Verelan is here! She’s the one doing this! Don’t you remember what I TOLD you about her, Mnhei’sahe!?!?”

Desperately trying not to crack, Dox kept her face as impassive as she could as the women half-argued in two languages and tears began to well up in Dox’s eyes. “I remember EVERYTHING you ever told me! Everything you taught me, mother.”

“You taught me to be afraid of where I come from. Afraid of my own people. And you wouldn’t let me know anything about it. Anyone who tried to talk to me about my people or my culture, you shut up or stopped me from talking to them! The refugees we took on! My friend as a little girl, Hlai'vana. Everyone. So yes, she’s teaching me everything you wouldn’t, Mother. And now you know.” Dox spoke with a forced calmness as her low, raspy voice warbled just a hair.

Jaeih immediately stopped pacing and froze for a moment of eerie stillness before she started shaking her head again. “And your FATHER! Has she told you about HIM! What she DID to him!? What she’ll do to both of us once we reach Romulus!”

Locking in place, the fate of Dralath tr'Rul was one thing her Grandmother had avoided over the last two weeks. It was a subject it seemed she was all but going out of her way to not talk about. According to Jaeih, when her secret love had last returned to Romulus after his last visit, he vanished. The next time Jaeih had seen him, it had been years later and he had become a broken drunk, struggling out on the rim systems. One who looked at her with empty eyes and no recognition. “She wiped his MIND, Mnhei’sahe! Ask her about that! I know that look. I left it on far, far too many Rihannsu faces with that cursed machine, Mnhei’sahe! She destroyed her own son! ASK HER!"

“Y… you told me what you saw, Mother. A man you thought was my father on Chaltok III…” Dox replied, still speaking with a forced stillness in Rihan as her mother squinted slightly at her daughter with dumbfounded disbelief as Mnhei’sahe continued. “But you’ve told me many, many things, Mother. Many ‘last answers’ that never quite were.”

“You told me my father was a human smuggler. You told me I was half-human when I never was. You poisoned my BLOOD. You had my EARS cut off and told me my memories of it all were just childish nightmares. At least she’s not LYING to me, Mother.” The emotions had become too much as Dox’s voice cracked and rose slightly across the force field at her mother who could only stare back in shock, not believing what she was seeing or hearing.

“Oh yes, the truth. She’s telling you the truth, isn’t she? Filling your head with it. She’s telling you all about the great problems our people face. All the corruption in the senate that must be fought from within. Everything she has been striving to make better that YOU can help her with. I know the speeches, Mnhei’sahe. All the pretty truths that she used to talk me into joining the Tal’Shiar oh so many years ago to help save ch’Rihan.” Jaeih stood up straight again and narrowed her gaze as her senses seemed to return to her.

"Did she tell you that everything was the Tal'Shiar's fault? That she was protecting you from them? Child, she IS the Tal'Shiar! She was my SUPERVISOR, Mnhei'sahe!"

“She’s GROOMING you, Mnhei’sahe. Indoctrinating you. Conditioning you to think how she tells you to think. Cultural conditioning is still conditioning, but it’s easier for you, isn’t it? Give up. Abandon Mona and Paris and Telvan and the rest for a little girl's sad fantasy. You’re pathetic if you can’t see it, Mnhei’sahe.” Jaeih turned around and sat back down on the small, rigid shelf with the thinnest of pads against the wall that was her cell’s bed. “I raised you to be strong. Not… this. But I understand. I understand far too well. Just… enjoy your wonderful new life, Miss t'Rul.”

With an expression of utter disgust, she turned her head towards the back wall, turning her back on her daughter, who just stood there shaking.

Shaking as she stood there, Dox’s jaw hung open, and slowly she wiped an errant tear from her cheek as she stepped back slightly towards the door to the chamber, turned away from her mother and waited.

"Say your farewells now, if you care to. If she has you, then she has no more need of me, even as leverage," her mother's voice came from behind her, not the steady, firm assured tone she was accustomed to hearing, but the resigned and weary voice of a woman who knows she is already dead. "There will be an 'accident' or I will 'try to escape' and it will be 'regrettable', but 'something she brought upon herself'. I wish you well in your new life, Mnhei'sahe t'Rul. May the Elements have mercy on your soul."

The words hit like a knife through her heart as Dox stood there, frozen in a single moment that lingered for an eternity in her mind. She had been trying so hard to play their game. Trying to be the attentive granddaughter and somehow bide her time and keep her mother safe. Trying to be a clever Romulan with wordplay and clues peppered into her emotional words to try and give her mother clues that she wasn't gone.

'Hlai'vana' was the name chosen for one of the three children she and Mona were expecting, not a childhood friend. Her childhood friend was her cousin Lhi, who's name meant 'A Game of Wits and Riddles'. It was a clue hidden too well. Jaeih had told her she last saw her father at Tortuga Station, not Chaltok III. Chaltok III was the location of a refueling station they visited regularly that was one week and six days from Romulus. Dox had been trying to convey a countdown clock to her mother of how much time they had. But her mother was right. If her captors believed that they had her, mind and soul, then Jaeih Dox was expendable. She was an Intelligence Operative with limited clearance to the secrets of the Hera. They needed HER. And a loyal Granddaughter just might give them what they wanted without coercion. And she was giving them exactly that. She was giving them herself in trying to bide her time.

And it was in that thought that she thought of the third message she had tried to convey to her mother. "The Last Answer". Something Verelan couldn't know. The secret Vulcan execution technique that Jaeih had taught a twelve-year-old 'Melanie Dox' oh so many years ago. A way to kill yourself with your own hands and nothing more. The last way to ensure that what they knew could never get out. Never be used by the Tal'Shiar.

Dox had hoped to gain enough of her Grandmother's trust to somehow talk her out of seeking that knowledge. The secrets of the gods that Dox was one of the stewards of. A way to avoid that Last Answer. But in trying to bide her time, she was dooming her mother. It was clear that Jaeih hadn't picked up on the messages. It was clear that her two weeks of solitude and imprisonment were breaking her in a completely different way. And it was clear that Dox had a choice to make.

Keep playing the game and trying to be clever or end the game here and now. Take the chance that her grandmother might still listen, but also understand that what might need to happen might be inevitable. This was her no-win scenario. She couldn't protect her mother. She couldn't protect her Grandmother. She couldn't protect herself. But she could protect the rest of the galaxy from what could happen if the secrets of the Hera got out. The one thing Rita Paris hadn't prepared her for. Her own personal Kobayashi Maru.

Turning, Dox stepped back to the forcefield with a determined expression and spoke in Federation standard. "Mother, look at me."

Hesitantly, Jaeih looked up with a confused expression, still frightened as Mnhei'sae continued. "I am your daughter. I am Mnheisahe Dox and I remember what that means. I'm sorry that my words hurt you, but I need to remember what they meant. What we know is too dangerous to be known to anyone else, do you understand? Do you remember the Last Answer?"

Jaeih nodded hesitantly as the pieces began falling into place, the expression on her face looking more like the child than the mother at that moment. Then Dox turned and looked up at the room, knowing she was being watched. And as she spoke again, she returned to Rihan, hoping it would help her be heard and touch that connection she had been making these last two weeks. "Grandmother. You said that I lived in the shadows, and you were right. But you never asked why. I... my family and my crew... we live in the shadows... so the shadows can never escape, to do harm to the universe."

"It was not a role I sought out, nor was it one I ever could have expected. But it is a responsibility that I have accepted and one that I have no choice but to uphold." Mnhei'sahe looked down for a moment, struggling for the words before she continued.

"In those first days, you asked me to do you the courtesy of telling you the truth, and every day since then I have. And even now, I have no intention of changing that. Know that... that in spite of the circumstances that brought me here... that I do appreciate that you've reached out to me. And I have fulfilled my oath to you to reach back and give you my trust. But know that I must also stand by what I told you then. That I would not betray my oaths. Not to you, not to Starfleet, not to my wife, and not to her."

Turning, Mnhei'sahe looked with desperate eyes at her mother who seemed on the verge of panic in the small cell. "She is my mother. And in spite of our differences, I must honor that. She sacrificed sixteen years of freedom for me, and that is a debt that must be balanced. If she is harmed in any way, then I will consider the promise you made to me to be broken... and I do not want that, Grandmother."

"I wish that I could embrace all you offer me freely, but I also know the ultimate cost. Were that cost not so high, I would do so happily. I truly would. I believe in you, Grandmother. I believe you are worthy, or I wouldn't be saying any of this at all. But soon, the lessons I have cherished will make way for the questions. The tales of family I have appreciated in ways I cannot describe in words will become the need to know secrets. And I simply cannot share those secrets. And you need to understand why."

Standing up just a bit straighter, Mnhei'sahe put her arms at her side and raised the tone of her voice just a little stronger. "I don't know if you've ever touched a God, Grandmother. Been touched by one. We categorize these beings as simply... hyper-advanced aliens. Creatures to be studied. And I once thought that as well. But I cannot allow myself that comfort anymore. I've seen too much. I've felt too much. I know that Riov Rendal seeks the power of the titans. Seeks to use me to draw those secrets to her. But the Hera won't come for me. They won't come, because my Captain understands what I learned. These secrets we have been entrusted with must be protected."

In her mind, Mnhei'sahe remembered the impossible day she merged with the slightest of shards of the Titan Gaia. In those few minutes, she saw the universe through the eyes of a god, and saw the connections between all living things and it had changed her forever. "The power you seek won't help you save ch'Rihan, Grandmother. I have held that power inside me. I've been a part of it. And every day, I wish I could forget what I so briefly became a part of, but I can't. So I can only help to protect it. I believe that you do wish to heal... to heal our world. To right the wrongs that you've shown me. I believe that you hope that if you can do so... even through me... that it will lessen the weight of all the wrongs you've already done. And it can. I would help you if I could. But I can't allow you to have the weapons you seek."

There was a shudder to her voice as her eyes grew wet again, but she stood as tall as she knew how. "That kind of power isn't meant for us. Use it, and it will destroy you in ways you can't understand yet, because it's still an abstract idea to you. It's not abstract to me. I've been a part of it... and it will destroy you, destroy Rendal and curse all of ch'Rihan in ways you cannot imagine. The universe requires balance, Grandmother. Use that power... and that balance will come for you, and a thousand generations of our people will suffer for it."

"The oath I serve, Grandmother. It's bigger than being Rihannsu. It's bigger than the Star Empire. Bigger than Starfleet. But I can still pray. I can pray to Al'thindor... to the Elements... to whatever powers you revere... that you'll listen to me. That you are Rihannsu and not just Romulan. That you understand what the name my Mother gave me truly means. That you'll let me save you from what you'll become if you let Rendal do what she wants. That's more important than what happens to me or even my mother. You've tried to help me. Let me help you. Please." Mnhei'sahe bowed her head and stepped back from the door a step and waited.

When the door slid open, Mnhei'sahe Dox was braced for her grandmother's reaction, whatever it may be. What she was not prepared for was to see her grandmother held firmly in custody by her centurion escort, behind the smug smiling face of Riov Rendal, flanked by four armed centurions with disruptors drawn.

"You've helped her to a traitor's grave, Lieutenant Dox. Now let's discuss the fate of you and your mother, shall we...?