Telvan's Leap 6: Empress

Posted on Mon Aug 10th, 2020 @ 12:46pm by Captain Enalia Telvan

Mission: The Bulikaya Particle
Location: Various
Timeline: 2397

As Enalia shimmered into existence, this time in what appeared to be the middle of a busy war room with a circular dias displaying a holographic star map, it didn’t take her long to be piled on by several Baronesses that she recognized. Now on the floor, face down, she was in no position to fight back as this universe’s Schwein held her down with ease.

“Meine Empress, this must be an attack by ze Federation!” Came the thick accent of the Baroness on top of her.

“Unless they have cloaked ships to get past the patrols, or some new long range transporter tech, and found a way past the transport scramblers, I doubt it.” This voice, Enalia recognized. She’d heard it many times before in a few different variations over the last half hour. Her local self was in charge here as well.

“I can explain,” Enalia began, working out that she’d have to make it through sixteen minutes here while causing the least amount of damage. “I’m you from another universe...”

“As if I would believe anything that came from the mouth of Federation scum!” the local Enalia yelled back, slamming the heel of her boot down on her shoulder. “After the crimes you pigs have committed? You’re lucky we haven’t killed you already!”

She then kneeled down to inspect the intruder closer, removing her heel as she did so. “You came here unarmed, beamed right into our war council, and even wore that tacky Starfleet uniform. You even look a bit like me. You are definitely getting a special interrogation.”

“Like I said, if you scan my quantum signature, you’ll see that it doesn’t match yours,” Captain Telvan insisted, wiggling a bit to see if this Schwein was as strong as hers. Unfortunately, it seemed she was stronger.

“That can be faked,” the local Enalia insisted, standing back up and turning away from them. With a wave of her hand, she motioned for Schwein to return the intruder to her feet.

In less than a moment, Enalia was lifted to her feet, shackled, and able to clearly see her local self as well as everyone else. The Enalia before her was obviously battle hardened and judging from the glowing map, from years of combat her whole life thanks to the Dominion war. It looked like the white and gold robed warlord held around a third of the territories as the Federation, but thankfully the Dominion was no more.

In fact every Baroness here, only half of the two dozen she recognized, showed some sign of combat injuries. It made her wonder just what kind of sacrifices this universe had to make to boot the Dominion out of the Alpha quadrant.

The local Enalia then pushed her face into Captain Telvan’s and she could see clearly the decompression damage as well as the fine lines from poorly treated scars. “Did you get a good long look, Federation? Or would you rather stare some more at what it takes to win a war? To keep people protected and fed?” Not waiting for an answer, the Empress waved one hand at the gathered Baronesses. "If you will please excuse us. This interruption has prompted a recess."

For her part, Captain Telvan did her best to remain stoic as everyone but her counterpart and the local Schwein filed out, but it was a lot to take in. “So I take it the Federation of this universe is a bunch of spineless cowards? They’re rather soft in my universe as well, though the Borg taught them some heavy lessons.”

The local Enalia furrowed her brows at the mention of the Borg, doubt crawling into her convictions. “The Borg you say? They attacked the Romulans. What would the Federation learn from that?”

Mild surprise finally registered on Captain Telvan’s face at the realization that even that detail had changed. “So if the Borg attacked the Romulan Empire instead of Earth... They didn’t join the Alliance during the Dominion war, did they?”

Empress Enalia scoffed as she took a step back, now wondering just what this intruder’s game was. “How could they when their sun, Eisn, was all but destroyed by Starseed to get rid of the Borg?”

“Ah... That explains a few things then,” Captain Telvan replied. “When the Borg attacked Earth, a fleet of Federation and Klingon ships wasn’t enough but through sheer luck we were able to somehow hack the cube and put it to sleep right before it assimilated Earth. Romulus then joined us in the later years of the Dominion war and we were able to push them out right as they collapsed the wormhole minefield.”

The Empress scoffed at such a fanciful history. “With only the weak Federation and the Klingons trying to lead the charge against the Dominion, Cardassians, Breen, and Tzenkethi, there really wasn’t much hope so my mother formed a pirate’s alliance under the Artan banner.”

“Wait... The Tzenkethi joined the war? But they’re...”

“Isolationists. Yeah. But the changeling promised them protomatter technology and that was something they couldn’t pass up.” As she spoke, the Empress was eyeing the intruder, studying her for any hint of duplicity. However, every reaction seemed genuine and there wasn’t a single telltale sign of deception that she was used to in programmed spies. Besides, the transport inhibitors, even if they had found a way past them, any intruders would have been redirected to the brig.

The suspicion that this person was who she claimed to be was now starting to eat at her. “But all of this is taught in your history classes, Federation. You should know it already.”

Here was where Captain Telvan put on her best pirate grin. “Sorry but I was taught by a private tutor on the Artan Orbital Fortress. Being Enalia Telvan, daughter of Arenara Artan, I was trained to be a pirate queen. I joined Starfleet for personal reasons, one of which is to see if I could make a change in their policies and steal what’s good about them to bring back to the Artans.”

“Telvan... I haven’t heard that name in years...” mused the Empress. “The more you talk, the more I want to believe you.” She then turned and stared at the star map, slowly rotating in the middle of the room. “Which means you’re just here to make me doubt myself. Take her to the brig, have the Master of Gol interrogate her, and execute her.”

With a bow of her head, Schwein complied, shoving Captain Telvan towards the nearest turbolift doors. Once inside, the glowering pirate kept a firm grip on her as they descended.

Enalia, on the other hand, was pretty sure she’d been there for a bit over half of the expected sixteen minutes. She wasn’t sure if the binders would go with her or not, but she wasn’t keen on finding out.

“You know, after all the training and fighting we’ve done side by side, it feels odd being on this side of your strength,” Enalia offered with a grin. Since all Schwein did was grunt back in reply, she pressed on. “My Schwein hooked up with Thor and is betrothed to him. The wedding is planned for around seven years from now. As I understand it, in Asgardian time it’s only a week or two.”

“I do not wish to hear of your delusions,” Schwein growled, lifting her eyepatch as she did so. Her scans so far had shown that this woman had no signs of lying nor delusion. Neither was she artificial. She was definitely a conundrum.

“Fine, fine. I’ll keep my stories to myself.” It only took Enalia a moment longer before she spoke again though. “Is Cetlik Seven ok in this universe?”

“Ja, the infestation was wiped out and the colonists... Hmph...” The silver haired pirate could see the honest concern on the woman’s face and it distracted her just a moment as she looked away.

And that gave Enalia just the moment she needed. These binders had keypads on them and if she were herself, and she was pretty sure she was, then they would open if she could get her finger on it and let it scan her.

With a click they opened, releasing her hands and dropping to the floor behind her.

With a look of shock, Schwein stared at her prisoner, expecting an attack, which didn’t come.

“Sorry, they scanned my DNA and popped off,” Enalia said with that piratical grin of hers. “I’d put them back on, but I don’t think they like me.”

With another growl, Schwein flipped Enalia around and just held her to the turbolift wall, her feet slightly off the ground, for the rest of the ride down to the brig.

"This is slightly uncomfortable," Enalia muttered against the wall.

"Your comfort is not meine concern," Schwein replied harshly, sliding Enalia up a little further and popping several bones.

"Yeah... I can tell..." Enalia replied with a gasp. She was glad she never got on her own Schwein's bad side now.

"So I'm guessing that war room was close to the top of the castle and the brig is in the middle of the primary support and supply structure. That's how it is in mine." Enalia was still having a hard time breathing against the wall, but she could at least get words out well enough.

And since her lift companion didn't seem particularly talkative anymore, she continued. "And that means about a five minute lift ride as long as there are no stops, right?"

Again, no response so she pressed. "So how about we talk about something? Anything you want? Maybe your love life?"

"I am not here for your amusement, Federation!" That got her fired up, but unfortunately Enalia was now pressed harder against the lift wall and over a foot off the ground.

"Ow... Ok... Silence is golden... Unless you're floating in the vacuum of space waiting for rescue that may never come..." Enalia admitted that that was a bit low, but it was an experience that she knew both of them shared. Or at least hoped this one had that experience.

It seemed she had at least to some extent since Schwein eased up and wasn't pressing her quite so hard into the lift wall anymore.

"Thank you..." Enalia gasped out, trying to get a bit more air into her lungs. She figured another minute left to get to their destination and a few seconds less than that and she'd be gone.

"No more words or I break your limbs," Schwein added for good measure and Enalia believed her wholeheartedly.

However, by the time the turbolift opened Enalia had vanished once more, leaving a confused Schwein and an otherwise empty lift.