Magic Words

Posted on Thu Dec 12th, 2019 @ 1:40pm by Captain Enalia Telvan & Ensign Varnok Jahal & Jaeih Dox-t'Aan
Edited on on Wed Dec 18th, 2019 @ 12:25am

Mission: Neutral Zone Neutrality
Location: Deck 11, Main Brig
Timeline: 2396

The unthinkable had occurred.

During a pitched battle in the Aldeberan Nebula against Riov Dalia Rendal of the Romulan Tal’Shiar, the U.S.S. Hera had been betrayed. Infiltrated and stripped of its secrets by one of their own. The Cardassian Ensign, Varnok Jahal.

Vetted by Starfleet Intelligence, the officer had a record that had been spotted with issues that seemed to be chalked up to racism and lingering distrust from the Dominion War and he had not seemed to have any issues integrating to his new assignment. He had made friends and performed his tasks exceptionally well. But now, all of that was suspect.

In the turbolift on her way to the brig on Deck 11, Jaeih Dox was concerned. Serving on the Hera as an Independent Intelligence Consultant, she had detected the security breach where Varnok had placed vital data on Protomatter Weapons into a beacon and shunted it into space where it was intercepted during the battle by Rendal. She identified the threat and helped the ship’s security to apprehend the officer. But the whole thing sat like a weight in the elder Rihannsu’s stomach. She had thought she had a measure of the man she had served with, but when he spoke briefly during his capture, it was like talking to a stranger.

The Hera’s Captain, Enalia Telvan, had asked Jaeih to accompany her to the brig for an interview. If this was tampering and manipulation by the Tal’Shiar, then who better than a reformed former agent of that clandestine organization to help root it out. As the turbolift doors opened, Jaeih adjusted the gray Intel uniform she wore and made her way through the multiple security checkpoints to the main waiting area where the Captain was waiting.

A bit of anxiety rose in the woman as she got deeper into the Hera’s secure brig. While largely white-walled, pristine and well lit, it was still essentially prison cells and Jaeih Dox and prison cells had a long and unpleasant history. But her old friend and Captain needed her, so she maintained her perfect facade and ignored her momentary discomfort. “Captain. Reporting as requested.”

"Thank you," Enalia replied, her arms crossed under her prodigious bosom, a look of consternation creasing her brow. "Doc Power says he's looking over the scan data to see if there's anything we could have picked up, but it may take some time. What I want to know is the probability of the cause being that neural whatsit thingy... Th Ju'rot..."

Pausing, Jaeih sighed for a moment, her arms folded behind her back as her eyes went down for a moment. "As you well know, I spent many, many years with the Tal'Shiar. In that time, I... inflicted the Neural Extraction Converter on... far too many of my fellow Rihannsu."

Collecting herself, she looked back up to meet Enalia's eyes again, "Yes, I suspect that the Ju'rot has been used on Ensign Varnok. There are several ways in which the machine is used. What was done to Senator t'Rul... and what they attempted to do to Mn... to Commander Dox... was what is called a loyalty overlay. They only had time to treat Verelan once before she was freed, leaving much of her mind still intact. Had they completed the sequence... between three and five treatments... and the core of her personality would have been irrevocably re-written to be blindly loyal to Rendal."

"What I saw in the pod, was a... different application." Jaeih said as her voice dropped slightly, "The Ju'rot can implant a programmed, created persona. Completely hidden and largely dormant until triggered by a number of elements. Dormant, unknown to the subject's true personality, but still there, capable of influencing their actions towards their programmed goal."

"It makes you wonder just how many ways they can use this thing on people," countered Enalia, her brow furrowing deeper. "Also, we need to know when and how they got him into one of these machines. Was it during shore leave? Was he a prisoner at one point? before he even joined Starfleet?" As she trailed off, she realized just how deep the rabbit hole went that someone she trusted to help save her own daughter could have been a secret sleeper agent this whole time and not even known it. What if he had been triggered during that mission? What if Moira's life had been thrown into the balance because of this programming?

The implications were worrying and Enalia made a silent vow to not only help the one that had helped her and her family, but to bring the one that did this to him... That stripped his very mental freedoms... The one core principle of the Artans... To bring them to justice.

Furrowing her brow, Jaeih recalled the personal data she had read up in the short time since the incident and replied with sadness in her voice. "We worked side by side. We talked and I never suspected a thing. On his first day here, he ingratiated himself to my daughter. Since this all occurred, my mind has been racing to wonder if it had all been on purpose."

"He did not leave the Hera during our stay in the Sol System." Jaeih continued, shifting to what she knew and away from emotions. "I'm running a full sweep to check for any transmissions he may have received, but so far nothing. He was orphaned at fifteen. During the Dominion War."

Then she looked grimly at Enalia. "My people had a STRONG presence in Cardassian space at that time. This programming could have been inserted as early as then. But there are few ways to know for sure. And if there is a hidden program… an alternate persona... I may be able to get it to reveal itself."

Enalia thought it over for a moment before making a decision. "If there's a safe way to do so. We don't want to provoke it. We also don't want to strip Varnok of his mental faculties if at all possible. If that's still possible..."

"It would require my... fishing for a trigger phrase. Depending on when this was done to him, a number of the ones used during my time might be the one used for him." Jaeih said nodding. "However, to activate the secondary persona would place Mister Varnok into a state akin to being asleep. He would have no recollection of the time afterward if this is the case. If we are dealing with a sleeper persona as I suspect."

"However..." Jaeih added with a nod, "I shall only do so with your permission."

"You have my permission..." the Trill woman began as she pointed into the interrogation room, through the glass at Varnok. "If you have his consent. Either way, I want information."

The expression on the reformed Tal'Shair operative's face was a rarely unguarded one. There was, perhaps, only three or four people that Jaeih Dox would allow to see her true emotions at play, and Enalia was among them. On her face was a show of concern, compassion, guilt, and anger all vying for control. But after a moment, she composed herself and restored her icy facade of professionalism. 

With a nod, the Intel expert deferred to the Captain as the pair of women entered the small chamber on the other side of the shield from the panicked looking Ensign. The man both women thought that they knew.

In the interrogation chamber, Varnok was looking around with an expression of mounting panic as he called out to the empty room. “Why am I here? Someone answer me? I have the right to know why I’m in the brig? What’s the meaning of this!?”

As Jaeih and Enalia entered, Varnok’s expression shifted to a mix of surprise and thankfulness at the familiar faces. But that soon dissolved to return to concern as he read their stern expressions. In the moment, the frantic looking Ensign forgot protocol as he spoke, “Jaeih! Captain! What’s going on? Why am I here?”

Enalia spoke first as she took up a standing position not too far into the small room. "Ensign Varnok, I'm sorry to treat you this way, and I'm sorry we have to be blunt, but there's really no easy way to say this. During the battle between us and Riov Rendal, you... Or a hidden personality controlling you... Assaulted several members of this crew and launched a beacon containing vast amounts of data on protomatter technology which fell into the hands of the enemy. We need to ascertain the threat level that this situation has introduced so we're able to determine a course forward and, if possible, a method of treatment for you."

The young Cardassian Ensign looked at Enalia blankly, "I was working in the pod, but I would never betray the ship's secrets. Who brought these accusations against me?"

Looking from one woman to the other incredulously, Varnok could not believe what he was being told. On her face, Jaeih could barely hide her concern as she pursed her lips and looked over to Enalia for permission to answer.

The leopard-spotted woman nodded to her Rihannsu cohort approval before stepping back to lean against the wall.

Stepping forward slightly, Jaeih looked down at the man she had served with. "I am truly sorry, Ensign, but these are no accusations. During the battle, you entered Yeoman Dedjoy's lab and locked her in her rechanging cradle and deactivated the lab AI, Lucky."

"I investigated along with Petty Officer's Liu and V'Nus. You attacked Petty Officer V'Nus using a magnetic charge that crippled her EVA armor momentarily while I watched. You spoke to me, Ensign. I threatened to fire with my phaser and you said clearly, 'Not in here, you won't'." Jaeih continued as Varnok watched her, his eyes widened with shock as the truth of her words rung out.

"Petty Officer V'Nus freed herself and you attacked her again. There was a brief struggle before you were detained. As soon as you were detained, you fell unconscious and were moved to here." Jaeih finished, letting out the slightest of sighs. "Yeoman Dedjoy, two security officers and... myself... we were all witnesses, Ensign."

The Ensign stammered, "How... how could I have done that? I would have remembered... I would have never attacked a crewmember!"

Looking over at Enalia, Jaeih took a moment and then pulled out the chair opposite the plastisteel barrier to sit at Varnok's eyeline. "I... I have seen this before, Ensign. We believe that at some point in your past, you have been the victim of the Tal'Shiar's Neural Extraction Converter. We believe you may have had a programmed alternate persona implanted in your mind."

At that statement, the young Cardassian thought to himself that his worst nightmare might have become a reality.

"There are... ways I can bring this out if this is true. Trigger phrases. There are security dampening fields in there. You would be incapable of hurting yourself or anyone else, but I cannot proceed without your permission, Varnok." Jaeih said gently, using the ensign's name to try and calm him as much as possible. "But we need to know what they did if there's any hope of helping you."

Looking Jaeih in the face, all protocol aside, Varnok begged, "Jaeih, please help me."

Getting up from the chair, Jaeih nodded at the young, panic-stricken Ensign. Then she turned towards Enalia. "Captain?"

Desperately trying to push the panic down, Varnok waited for them to begin.

Enalia nodded and moved forward as she began speaking, sitting in the other chair next to Jaeih. "Ultimately, the decision to do this is yours, Varnok. I owe you a lot and I still trust you. Since you've asked for help... Then as long as you're ok with it, we'll proceed. I'll be right here with you through it, ok?"

Steeling himself for the interrogation, Varnok nodded at the Captain as Jaeih closed her eyes and gritted her teeth slightly. What she had to do was beyond uncomfortable for her as she knew it would be for Varnok. Opening her eyes, she met his worried gaze and nodded slightly. 

And when she spoke, it was firmly and in her native tongue. "Card'hassinnsu ben'Lehrie Varnok, Itallh'na. Ssuaj-difv?"

Enalia, who knew the language as well, understood what Jaeih had said. She called Varnok a Cardassian agent. She demanded his report and asked if he understood. And across the shield, the young man's eyes seemed to glaze over for a moment and go unfocused as his head dipped slightly. In a low, hoarse sounding voice, he replied that he understood in Rihan, and then Varnok called her a 'fellow Romulan': "Ssuaj-ha, ke'rhin."

Nodding slightly, Jaeih began to count down slowly, from ten to one,
"dha, 
lhi, 
the, 
lli, 
fve, 
rhi, 
mne, 
sei, 
kre, 
hwi."

As she said 'hwi', Varnok's head rose up again and the expression on the young Ensign's face was cold and distant. He looked like a completely different man sitting across from them. 

Sitting back in the seat, his face spread into a broad and disturbing grin. As he did, he locked eyes with Jaeih and spoke in a quiet, drawn-out tone. "Oh, It's about time we were properly introduced."

Ignoring the taunt, Jaeih sat back and nodded. "That's not a valid report, Agent. I gave you an order. What are your mission parameters?”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Why do you presume someone excommunicated would ever have that hold on me?” Varnok replied knowingly.

“My current status is irrelevant, Mister Varnok. I may no longer be Tal’Shair, but you’re no longer hidden. Or free to act.” Jaeih said, leaning forwards slightly. “We are reviewing all ship’s communications and have put in for your logs during your time on the Varys as well.”

“Oh, my dear. I was a very busy boy with the Varys.” He replied matter-of-factly, “That’s going to be a lot of reading for you.”

“That depends on you, and just how difficult you plan to make things for yourself.” Jaeih said with a narrowed gaze, “Or for him.”

The sly Cardassian leaned forward and locked gazes with the stern Romulan woman sitting across from him, and asked huskily. “Oh, my dear, why don’t you ask me what you really want to know?”


“You know what we need to know. Your little act of sabotage was well-timed, but you had ample opportunities to give them what they wanted before that, and you didn’t. Meaning you’ve been contacted fairly recently and had no orders before that to act on.” Jaeih said, tilting an eyebrow at the Cardassian man knowingly.

“You know as well as anyone that a good agent needs no specific orders to act when the opportunity arises. This was just the newest in a long list of opportunities. Admittedly louder than most and not my finest execution, but not my first either.” Varnok said with a wry smirk, admitting that his capture was clearly not according to plan.

“So, you have been installed at least since your time on the Varys? And functioning autonomously?” Jaeih asked with a raised brow.

Chuckling to himself, Varnok replied, “Oh, do you think I’ll make it that easy for you? I’ve been at this game far too long.”

“Oh, I’m aware of that, Mister Varnok. The trigger phrase I used on you hasn’t been in effect in over two decades. And then, for only a period of five years, which narrows down when this program happened.” Jaeih said with the slightest hint of a smile, revealing what she had already learned from the questions she was using to fish for information. “Meaning you were quite young. And you made no notice of separation between yourself and your other personality. The chicken or the egg, Mister Varnok?”

The cagey Cardassian narrowed his eyes and replied dismissively, “Oh, THAT.” He paused, “That’s of no consequence. By the way, Jaeih, how’s your daughter? I take it she’s fully recovered from her ordeal. I read her report, it must have been quite harrowing. Such a shame, she was such a lovely woman.”

Leaning forward, Jaeih tensed up slightly and her lips pursed at the mention of Mnhei’sahe. But after an instant where her skin flushed green with momentary anger, she collected herself again. “You don’t like talking about the Ensign, I take it? I would presume having to take the back seat to a better man must have been frustrating for you.”

The muscular chords on the Cardassian’s neck tightened as his jaw clenched. “The better man is a matter of opinion.”

“Thankfully, yours isn’t the opinion that matters. And you are excisable.” Jaeih said flatly as she grimaced at the man, then turned to Enalia. “Captain, I believe I have sufficient information to conduct a proper investigation. I can… deactivate this at your will.”

The intel operative turned to the Trill Captain that had been watching and listening the whole time, giving her the proverbial floor to ask any questions or say her piece.

The spotted woman swallowed hard as she thought over what had been said. She wasn't up on everything that Jaeih knew, but if she pieced the puzzle together properly, Varnok had been programmed during the Dominion war before he even became a refugee in the Federation. It also seemed that this 'persona' was more than a triggerable program and more of a fully fledged second self that was deeply ingrained in the man, acting on its own free will, even without Varnok knowing about it or even orders from the Tal'Shiar. Being in Intel would tell him exactly what they and even the Obsidian order, if they still existed, wanted and he could act on it without any external prompting.

The implications were terrifying to say the least.

"I have one question," Enalia began as she leaned forward. "Who did this to you? Who put you in there? Was it Rendal? Someone else? Will you give us any names, or will you make us ask someone else?"

"Power changes hands often on ch'Rihan, Captain. Those that I served initially died during Shinzon's uprising. My service is now to the Imperium as a whole, and no one Riov." Varnok said with a condescending air, seeming irritated by the question.

"And almost all the Cardassian leaders from those days were killed off during the Dominion war," Enalia added with a soft sigh. "No further questions for now. Jaeih?"

"No, Captain. Shall I?" The clearly upset intel operative asked flatly. As she did, Enalia simply replied with a nod as Varnok's eyes narrowed with unveiled rage behind them.

"You can't..." the Cardassian sleeper agent began to say before Jaeih cut him off, calling out in Rihan, "Ihlla'nh, Card'hassinnsu ben'Lehrie Varnok. Ehhaai."

At the order to 'sleep', the mind-altered operative's eyes flickered as he appeared to be trying to fight the programmed response for an instant before those eyes went unfocused and his head drooped down against his chest. Looking over at the medical readout on the wall that had been scanning the Ensign during the entire interrogation, Jaeih nodded. He was, indeed, asleep now.

"That was... disturbing," Jaeih said, crossing her arms in front of her and pinching the bridge of her nose as she took a breath. "He's been like this for years... decades. Without further information, we may have no way of knowing which persona is the original one. All I know for sure is that the two are in conflict. His reactions depersonalized the Varnok we knew. Attempted to devalue his influence."

"However," Jaeih added with a hopeful nod, "Since all evidence seems to point to him having been acting independently of any specific orders, there's a window of hope. Varnok had multiple opportunities to betray us in ways even worse than what he eventually did. During the rescue, he was positioned in the facilities control booth. With the flip of a switch, he could have ended that conflict by calling in Tal'Shiar reinforcements and gave Rendal ALL of us in one moment, and he didn't. THAT tells me that the person that we knew... the Ensign that I fought with that helped us save Moira... is still in there and still fighting... even if he's consciously unaware of what he's fighting."

Enalia took a moment to think it over before replying, eventually nodding. "I'm forced to agree. However deep or whichever one is the controlling persona... I'm going to choose to believe in the one we've come to know rather than this one we've just spoken with. Even if it's folly to do so. I suppose our next step now is to figure out how to help him."