Subjective Truths

Posted on Fri Oct 4th, 2019 @ 8:06pm by erei'Riov (Commander) Arrenhe t'Suil
Edited on on Mon Oct 28th, 2019 @ 9:55am

Mission: Family Detention
Location: Romulan Warbird, 'The Iurret'
Timeline: 2396

Sitting in her Spartan quarters on the Romulan Warbird, 'the Iurret' that flanked the Senator's ship at high warp back to ch'Rihan, Erei'Riov Arrenhe t'Suil was stewing.

The loyal SubCommander didn't like what was happening with this mission. She didn't like knowing that the traitor, Jaeih Dox, had escaped her cell and that there hadn't been the slightest trace of the woman since then. She didn't like that they weren't actively looking for the traitor. She didn't understand what game her Riov, Dalia Rendal, was playing with Dox's still-captive daughter. The kidnapped Starfleet Officer with the ridiculous name of 'Mnhei'sahe'.

What kind of fool was her mother to give her such a name. Named after the Ruling Passion itself… what a curse to put upon one's own child t'Suil thought to herself as she watched the security hologram on her small desk computer. The hologram that replayed her Riov's sparring match with the girl. The girl named for a virtue.

Mnhei'sahe Dox, a lieutenant for the Starfleet Intelligence ship called the Hera, had been their prisoner for nearly a month's time as they made their final approach to the hearthworld. And as t'Suil watched the recording carefully, she thought on how much has changed in that last month.

Her Riov had, at first, allowed the Senator to handle the girl her way. Inexplicably, this 'Mnhei'sahe' was, in fact, the Granddaughter of the Senator, Verelan t'Rul. That, by Rihannsu law, made this unknown red-headed Starfleet officer a legal citizen of the Imperium and a legitimate heir to the Senator's lands, holdings and even made her eligible to inherit her seat in the Senate if she could be convinced to reject her false life with Starfleet and defect home.

For a time, t'Suil even supported this idea and made suggestions to help in this process. After all, what could Starfleet and the Federation truly offer to a daughter of ch'Rihan that service to her true home could not handily match? There was no honor amongst the mongrels and alien trash that comprised the toothless federation. No way to achieve all she could be capable of. No way to be more than they would allow her to be: their token 'Romulan'.

Then, something happened. The girl seemed to be receptive to her grandmother's tutelage. From her ridiculously oversized guest-quarters on the Senator's flagship, Dox was absorbing every lesson on the truth of her people like a sponge. T'Suil and her Riov both had suspected that the girl had been starved for her true culture and she seemed to be sincerely working, slowly, towards the light. But the second that the girl had wavered even for an instant… when a softer hand would have pulled her closer… when the true face of the Imperium's mercy would have offered her stability and certainty... her Riov chose to step in… and take over.

The younger SubCommander couldn't help but think that it was a mistake at the time. In her fervor to control the situation and rush its outcome to her favor, Her Riov caged the girl AND the Senator as a traitor. It seemed folly, but t'Suil went along. Her Riov was of noble blood. Wise and canny in ways t'Suil could only strive to be. But t'Suil failed to understand and instead trusted in her Commander's understanding. But now she wasn't so sure.

The Riov then put the Senator to the Ju'rot. The Neural Extraction Converter that could rewrite minds to loyalty as needed. But after only ONE treatment, she had the woman go to her granddaughter as a threat. An example of her own fate. Then the girl did the impossible and beat the Ju'rot. She was subjected to the machine's highest level and maintained her own mind. Rendal had erred again.

Now the girl has lost everything. The Riov took her father from her, then Grandmother's mind, and then her mother herself. And while the traitor, Jaeih Dox, was still alive and somewhere in hiding, the girl believed her dead. And in that void where everything has been taken from her, the Riov now seemed to seek the impossible. To turn the girl still. To continue her tutelage as a noble daughter of ch'Rihan.

Madness. t'Suil thought.

She will kill you the first chance she gets, Riov. t'Suil thought as she watched their fight replay before her. If she has the slightest inkling what that name of hers means, then she must. Why push her further? Give her the means? Encourage her to take MY place as your apprentice? Are you TRYING to break...

Then, watching the fight, t’Suil’s mind all but exploded. Prodded far enough, the girl was driven by her passions. Her ‘mnhie’sahe’. Her Riov pushed her to reveal herself and drop the cover she had been maintaining that she couldn’t fight. And the revealed truth was a deceptively deadly woman. The facade Starfleet had forced on the girl had been chipped away by the Riov. The Starfleet way stripped back to the truth beneath.

The Riov WAS breaking the girl. Breaking her of her preconceptions and Starfleet programming. Breaking her of the lies that taught her to not be Rihannsu.

You seek to... Rebuild the girl. t’Suil thought to herself… Not with soft words and the promise of family, as the Deihu had tried. But with the ultimate truth of the Rihhanse Star Empire. That we are superior. That in embracing that superiority, she can have what her mother and Starfleet took from her: true freedom.

Pausing the feed, t’Suil called up the feed from the girls quarters when her Riov spoke to her that morning. She had watched the recording many times, and it began to make sense. You are showing her the path, Riov. OUR way. The Rihannsu way. Showing her that it was Starfleet’s indoctrination and her mother’s lies that created her situation, not us. You are giving her the truth and the means to walk that path.

And once on that path, even if her mewling government demands that we return her and our own relents simply to forestall the war all true Rihannsu know must happen… what will we be returning? Not a simple Starfleet officer. No, that mask is cracked. That lie stands revealed. She is becoming what she was born to be. You are attempting to sculpt a Rihannsu. A TRUE Rihannsu who will never again be able to look on the saccharine lies of the federation and see them as anything but the weak facades that they are. You are sowing the seeds of doubt for that old life and those seeds grow deep roots.

It is a gamble, my Riov. t’Suil thought to herself as she watched the girl on the screen fight with a skill she doubted she could match, Give her too much power… and she well may take your royal head and all that comes with it. You may be creating an enemy even you might one day fall before. But if you succeed, woe be to that Starship that takes back into it’s fold something with sharper teeth and the will to use them.