Discovery and Betrayal

Posted on Sun Apr 19th, 2020 @ 5:42pm by Riov (Captain) Dalia Rendal & erei'Riov (Commander) Arrenhe t'Suil
Edited on on Sun Apr 19th, 2020 @ 11:21pm

Mission: Return to the Core
Location: Riov Rendal's Warbird, the Iurret
Timeline: 2397

Silently and invisibly, the Leosa-Class Romulan Warbird known as the Iurret warped it's way through the rainbow streaks of warp space toward the region known as Galorndon Core. To the place where once was located the scientific research station known as Starbase 336.

A meaningless, human designation not worthy of a Romulan weapon, but that would soon change if the Iurret's mistress had her way, and Riov Dalia Rendal was a woman accustomed to having her way. The true name of the facility was Deleth Station and soon they would make sure Starfleet knew it well. In the modestly sized office of the ships SubCommander Arrenhe t'Suil, work was being completed that would help to ensure that.

Most of the office was filled with computer equipment, all patched into the massive bank of processors that filled deck 22 of the massive starship. All equipment designed to crack the code that had been extracted from the mind of the young Romulan Starfleet Officer, Mnhei'sahe Dox. Now, that data rested in the ship's computers as a complex formula for opening a quantum singularity between realities. A map to the cosmic titan known as Gaia, and possibly so much more. The computers are also working to decrypt the data stolen from the Starship Hera that contained the secret to protomatter weapons and the legendary "Genesis Device".
 
But t'Suil was putting the massive processing power of those computers, still parsing data and unlocking new secrets every day, towards unlocking a different secret: the identity of their mysterious benefactor. 

For months, the loyal SubCommander, or erei'Riov in her native tongue, had felt that loyalty waver. Once, in spite of her common upbringing, she had been the chosen apprentice of the noble Dalia Rendal. She trained under the high-born Commander and all but worshiped her mistress. Until that day 6 long months ago when her Mistress looked across at the blood-traitor, Mnhei'sahe Dox, and called a Starfleet officer "Apprentice".

WHY? t'Suil thought, as she ran the holographics of their benefactor through pattern recognition buffers over and over. Simply because the girl is high-born? A daughter of the house Rul? Why should that push aside a decade of loyalty? A DECADE of service and study and groveling and debasing myself like a common hfai!

Growing increasingly displeased with her current status in her Mistress's eyes, t'Suil instead decided to bury herself in her work. Again, she called up the three-dimensional recordings of their meeting with Rendal's mysterious master. The Romulan royal cloaked in shadows whos features refused to be pulled from the scan data. Who's face seemed to shift as the holographics from the source blurred and distorted the feed to make it impossible to identify him. 

All t'Suil knew was that he was powerful and deeply knowledgeable of Romulan protocol and it's regal history. And when he gave an order, it was obeyed. He had senators in his control and the Tal'Shiar in his grip. But how did he so perfectly reprogram the code of his holographic orders to Rendal? T'Suil looked at the code for what felt like the thousandth time, risking much by running these tests on the ship's systems, but she had to know the truth. Something itched at the back of her mind, and she didn't know why. She only knew that according to the holographic code, his code was somehow unaltered, which was impossible.

Unless... t'Suil thought, her eyes going wide, as her commbadge chirped. 

=^=Erei'Riov t'Suil. You are summoned to Riov Rendal's presence immediately.=^=

Swallowing, her throat suddenly dry, t'Suil saved and encrypted the data she had been studying and erased the computer log before making her way to the training hall.


Meanwhile, Riov Dalia Rendal had begun to suspect that her long time apprentice's loyalties had begun to waver and with the lack of progress in t'Suil's skills further solidifying her beliefs that commoners could never live up to those of noble birth, and the sudden dip in computation power dedicated to the research the cores were supposed to be researching and instead processing holographic data... she was mildly put off.

Hence the reason Rendal now summoned erei'Riov t'Suil as she ran through several warm-up exercises with her sword in hand.

Coming up to the door of the training hall, t'Suil came to attention and offered a classic, military salute, striking her fist to her breast. "Reporting as ordered, my Riov. How may I serve you?" the anxious erei'Riov said, the slightest tremble in her voice.

"You can tell me what you were just doing and why you were using so much computing power," replied the royal Riov as she ran through another exercise.

The lean SubCommander tensed up as she stood at attention in the doorway, watching Rendal's sword moving smoothly. "Riov, I... I have been..."

For a brief moment, her mind raced, trying to think of some excuse before she continued, "I have been researching the holo transmission from our benefactor. Trying to find out who it is that gives us our commands."

"And?" Rendal demanded softly, returning her sword to its sheath. "What have you discovered? How does it help our cause?"

Lowering her head slightly, t'Suil replied weakly, "I have discovered nothing provable yet, My Riov. Each layer I peel away from the mystery reveals another. The code of his holographics read as unaltered, yet the image remains distorted and impossible to pull out enough detail to identify him. There are no records on file of who it could be. No one figure in the senate wields his power. I... do not know."

"Then you have wasted precious time and resources on what? Suspicion?" the riov asked, quietly stepping over to the practice weapons and looking them over. "Yes, he hides himself well. Yes, as a royal he plays the same games within games we all do. However, as a fellow noble, I have seen through this as he uses a classic ploy to disguise himself."

"So tell me, t'Suil... Why have you lost faith?"

"My loyalty is, as always, to the Imperium. To the supremacy of the Hearthworlds against those that would destroy us, my Riov." t'Suil said, with false confidence. "I seek only to ensure that our actions protect that."

"Oh my dear t'Suil... You've been my apprentice for the better part of my life. I know you better than that." Turning back to her oldest follower, Rendal almost had sadness in her eyes for what she knew she had to do. "I ask about faith and you profess loyalty. In that case, as my apprentice, show me how deep your loyalty runs."

Without further words, Rendal slowly unsheathed her sword and took up a one-handed stance, her other hand behind her back.

"M... My Riov, I have not lost faith. I am loyal. I am faithful. I serve the Imperium and your House as I always have. I c... cannot take up arms against you." t'Suil said, stuttering as she began to feel panic setting in as her attempts at maintaining a facade of loyalty had begun to crack as she glanced down at the curved blade in her Mistresses hand, then over to the wall of practice swords.

"A proper royal apprentice would take up arms and match me blow for blow," Rendal growled out, the tip of her sword lowering ever so slightly in disappointment. "And yet you stand there as a common hfai, mewling pathetically. Is all the time that I've invested in you meaningless? All the service that you've rendered mere lip service? All that training for naught? I should slaughter you where you stand and end your lies of loyalty."

Listening, t'Suil trembled as her eyes married and her jaw clenched. In their native tongue, the word 'hfai' meant a servant or a slave. And in that moment, she realized that to the regal Riov, as a commoner, that was all she would ever be. A lifetime of service would never be enough for Dalia Rendal.

Eyes darting, the only other weapons in the chamber were the black, maithe wood practice swords. As the bottom, the curved wooden sword that the traitor, Mnhei'sahe Dox sparred with Rendal with. "I have served you HALF MY LIFE!"
Reaching over, Arrenhe t'Suil grabbed the wooden sword with a sneer and struck a defensive posture. "I have been your loyal apprentice! I have sacrificed everything for you! And still, you disregard me!"

"I gave you a name. I gave you purpose to life. When I found you, you were nobody. And yet you repay me with this?" Rendal spat the words out like they were vile poison, sharpening her stance once more. "No one appreciates your service more, but if you think that I will let you get away with this betrayal of myself, the Tal'Shiar, and to the Empire as a whole, you are sadly mistaken."

Lunging, t'Suil roared as six months of frustration and betrayal exploded out of her. "I have betrayed NOTHING!"

The wooden practice sword that Dox once wielded against Rendal was being swung wildly, as her years of training stepped aside to blind anger and pain. With a hard chunk, the black wooden blade thunked against the side of Rendal's glistening metal weapon as the Royal Riov let her SubCommander advance, swinging wildly. "I have been LOYAL! I have done all you asked! I have guarded you and tired to uncover the threat of one who would hide his face from us both! I have served the House Rendal! I have served the Tal'Shiar and the Imperium! And you would cast aside all of this!?"

Tightening her stance, t'Suil began to focus her anger as her strikes became less wild and more controlled as Rendal's defense tightened up. "You would cast aside loyalty for a pure-blood, starfleet TRAITOR?!" As she spat out the word, her worn and splintering wooden blade struck across Rendal's cheek, scratching out a thin streak of green.

With every one of t'Suil's strikes, Rendal had been taking slight notches out of it even as she deflected it, making it weaker with every blow. When she was grazed just slightly and a splinter caught her cheek and scratched it, she had had enough and with two strikes, the fight was over. The first strike sliced through both the sword at the hilt and t'Suil's left eye and the second strike was with her pommel across her face, sending both the woman and green blood flying across the matt.

"I thought you of all people would have recognized a mind game when you saw it, Arrenhe. Yes, I wanted her as an apprentice. Moreso, I wanted her as a tool." Wiping the blood from her curved blade, Rendal sheathed it as she walked over to the door. "And now because of your petty jealousy and suspicions, you've taken from me the one apprentice I did have. You'll be spending the rest of the trip in the brig. Pray to the Elements that out of respect for our friendship and time together that I do not resort to the device."

On the mat of the training room, Arrenhe t'Suil clutched the side of her face as blood gushed out onto the floor and she stifled a scream, curled into a ball, she heard her former Mistress step out into the corridor as two guards came in to lift her off the floor harshly. 

Tears streamed down her face from the one eye she had left as the guards pulled her arms away from her face and shackled her wrists behind her as she finally let out a scream. It was a long, hoarse thing filled not only with the physical pain of her injury but with the torment of her failure and her betrayal finally revealed.

In a moment of weakness, her hard-won life and promising career had ended with two swings of a sword. And as she saw her Mistress turn her back on her through her one, good eye, she wept and fell limp in the guard's arms as they led her out to her dark fate, the secret suspicion that led to her downfall still a wound as fresh as her eye. That suspicion of just who and what Rendal's master truly was her secret alone.