Darkened Stars - Chapter 31

Darkened Stars - Chapter 31

Stardate 29460.9 - June 17, 2352 - 16:32:44

The one bit of unabashedly good news about their current location was that they’d been able to update both their universal translators and the ships general user interface with a minimum of trouble. Something that Rain knew was going to make various members of the crew who could barely read the limited language selection they previously had more than a little happy.

It also meant she could finally have a meaningful conversation with Paracene about their immediate future without feeling like an absolute idiot.

“Are you going to continue to stare at me or speak?” Paracene stated as they tilted their head slightly. “Oh perhaps you have still to update your translator and are yet incapable of understanding intelligent speech.”

“No.” Rain admitted, a bit weirded out that the translator was making the Tholian sound like an anime ojosama. “I can understand you just fine.”

“At last.” Paracene deadpanned, making an odd motion with one of her hands that probably meant something but went completely over Rain's head. “We can converse properly. And you can finally answer why your song vibrates with the resonance of the stars.”

Resting a hand on her hip and staring down at the sitting crystalline being for a moment, Rain let out a slightly annoyed breath as she completely blanked on whatever it was the Tholian might have been describing.

“Yeah, I don't know what that is.”

Paracene studied Rain for a moment before their carapace flushed with a bluish purple color the Asari was pretty sure was some sort of ultraviolet emotional signal. “Of course you do not, if you could hear the song you would not be deaf.”

“This is going to be one of those things that will be obvious in hindsight isn't it.” Rain muttered under her breath.

"I can hear you.” Paracene put forward, the translator giving her voice a slight tone of annoyance.

“Right.” Rain drolled, having forgotten just how good the Tholian's hearing was. “Let's put a pin on that for later then.”

Because she really wasn't in the mood to try and figure out her way through a Darmok and Picard after the day she'd had.

“All things willing, we'll be leaving Trill in a couple of days, at which point we'll be free to take you back to your people without anyone looking over our shoulders.”

A derisive laughter echoed out from Paracene, and Rain's brow furrowed in worry since that was nowhere near the reaction she had expected from the princess. “Am I missing something?”

Pushing herself to her feet, Paracene took a single step towards Rain. “That you still believe my people would welcome back one who has been as mutilated as I suggests you are even more naive than I had previously thought.” 

Rain blinked, then blinked again, taking a moment to try and process that only for the sheer deluge of questions her mind was conjuring up to leave her unable to figure out just what to say.

“If you return me to them, I will be killed.” Paracene continued, sounding worryingly unconcerned by that thought. “And you will almost surely be killed alongside me.”

Opening her mouth to say something particularly unkind, Rain stopped and shook her head because that way led to more problems then it would solve.

“You realize that was literally the only reason I wasn't returning you to the Risians?” She said instead, clenching her right hand into a fist as she fought down the growing urge to deck the Tholian.

“And now it is too late to do so without incriminating yourself.” Paracene returned simply as she turned and sat back down on the edge of the bottom bunk. “So kill me, or don't. Exile me from your ship, or don't. Because the only fate I truly wished to avoid, has already been avoided.”

Rain held up a finger. “I… You… Ergh!”

The annoying part was she couldn't even really get angry at Paracene for it, because she would have probably done the exact same thing if she was in the Tholians position. Nor was Paracene wrong about the Risian’s likely taking a dim view of Rain’s actions if she tried to bring the Tholian back to the planet.

“I could find someone else besides the Risian’s to sell you too.” Rain threatened in a tone that the Asari hoped wasn’t nearly as anemic as it felt.

“You could.” Paracene returned in a tone that suggested the Tholian thought it an unlikely option. “But the end result of that will be the same as others do not possess your protective light and I do not accept enslavement quietly.”

The end result wouldn’t be the same, because Rain knew even if she was actually willing to sell someone who hadn’t done anything to her, which she wasn’t, she would potentially be on the hook if Paracene went on to kill whoever the Asari sold the Tholian too.

Turning on a heel, Rain stalked out of the room, making sure to slap the button that would close the door behind her extra hard even though she knew it wouldn’t actually make the door close any faster.

“Fuck!”

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Stardate 29461.2 - June 17, 2352 - 19:10:50

As much as Rain wanted to spend the next several hours in her tub trying to figure out just what she was going to do with her new princess problem, she still had a call to make. One she wasn't willing to risk putting off given how badly things could go if Chonak got it into his head to discommidate her.

Which was why she was currently alone on the bridge in full uniform Klingon armor waiting for the current head of House Palkar to answer the subspace communications.

Finally the main viewscreen switched to show the interior of Klingon dwelling with an early thirties Klingon man who still looked like he was trying too hard to look like a badass Klingon warrior. “I see my former sisters shuVak finally designs to honor her new head of house.”

“Nuq'nuh Chonak.” Rain greeted, mentally rolling her eyes at formality. “My hunt continues, but it has yielded an unexpected bounty that I share with my house.”

With that she tapped a command into the interface on her armrest that would send the code-chain containing a full tenth of her digital assets. A painful tithe to pay, but it was the standard, and she didn't want to give the man any excuses.

He glanced to the side for a moment and then rolled his eyes. “You spent too much time around my mother.”

Rain suspected that wasn't wrong, not that she'd had much of a choice in the matter given T'ahan had decided the Asari was a useful vector for pushing Jel'ang to become more of a proper Klingon lady.

“Lady T'ahan was thorough in her teachings.”

“Pah.” Chonak scoffed. “Victory speaks for itself, and yours have been small but acceptable.”

Grinning, he let out a mild chuckle. “And the whining of the Orions has amused me. But enough of that, what have you learned from the Vulcan about where her ship received the weapons components from?”

Putting on a frown to cover her confusion, Rain's mind raced as she attempted to figure out just what Chonak was talking about.

“She was the captain's daughter.” She finally tried, since the only Vulcan the Asari could think of that he might be referring to was T'Lyn. “Barely aware of anything outside her cabin walls.”

Which was probably being a little harsh to T’Lyn, but what Rain had learned about the Vulcan woman’s time on her father’s ship suggested it wasn’t that far from the truth.

“Then you have learned nothing?” Chonak pressed as his glare seemed to bore into her across the lightyears.

She hadn’t even known the bullshit excuse she’d used to justify lifting the ship's lockdown had any basis in fact till he’d mentioned it, so that was more than a little obvious. But it wasn’t like she could tell Chonak that given it seemed like he was operating under the hopefully mistaken belief that T’Lyn’s father had been smuggling the weapons in question.

“As far as I have been able to discover, the Vulcan fully believes her father was nothing more than an honest trader.” And since from what Raine had seen T’Lyn couldn’t lie worth a damn, hopefully that had actually been her being honest.

Letting out a sharp barking laugh, Chonak leaned forward to stare directly into the screen’s sensor pickup. “So your quest for vengeance has been nothing but a Rika hunt. How fitting given you share its purported colors.” 

Crossing her arms, Rain stared definitely at the Klingon on screen as his skepticism irked her on principle. “It took Dahar Master J’omath nearly seventy years to hunt down the p'taq who killed his brother. This is at most a minor setback.”

“We shall see.” Chonak returned in a somewhat mocking tone. “Do not bring dishonor to the house.”

With those words the viewscreen went blank, leaving Rain to stare quietly for a moment before pushing herself to her feet as her annoyance hit the boiling point.

“Fuck you too! Because I could totally hunt those bombers down if I actually wanted to! I just don't because it's the type of stupidity that would have me spending the next twenty years chasing down idiots and revolutionaries!”

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Stardate 29463.2 - June 18, 2352 - 12:44:55

“Doctor Kalon?” Rain asked as she stared at the young John Glover, desperately biting back her instinctual urge to scream and run back to the ship.

“I prefer Verad.” The early thirties looking Trill offered with a friendly smile

“Of course, Verad.” Rain returned with a wan smile as the recognizable first name confirmed her fears.

She distinctly remembered Verad from the series, a mentally disturbed Trill who had nearly killed Jadzia by removing the Dax symbiont. That didn't mean he was the same in the mirror universe, and this one certainly looked more put together than the man with the very distinctive bowlcut. But it still left her feeling like she wanted to crawl up a wall to escape him.

“This is… nice, clinic you have here.” She continued as she looked around the rundown hole in the wall that looked like it hadn't seen a maintenance worker in longer than she'd been an Asari.

“You don't need to sugar coat it.” Verad returned with an acknowledging incline of his head. “It's a dump. But it was a choice between this or not practicing my specialty at all. And that really wasn't a choice I was willing to accept.”

“And that specialty would be?” Rain floated questioningly as she focused back on the man.

“Xeno-medicine.” Verad returned happily. “Not the most glamorous field of study for a Trill I'll admit, but I've always felt we should focus outward as a species instead of inward.”

A sensible bit of reasoning Rain had to admit given experience had taught her that the rest of the universe didn't really care if you wanted to stick your head in the sand and pretend it didn't exist.

“I take it that's why you're looking to sign onto my ship?” 

“More or less.” Verad admitted with a tired sigh. “Things weren't this bad when I first arrived at the station, you understand. But the last couple years things have gotten worse and worse between the old government and the new. And it's reached a point now where your's is the first ship to arrive in nearly two months.”

“I see.” Rain said, drumming her fingers on her thigh as she tried to think of a reasonable reason to just say no to him. “And you have a lot of experience treating non-Trill?”

“I've treated Terrans, Cardassians, Bajorans, Kressarians, Orions, Ferengi, and at least two dozen other species in my time.” Verad admitted as he glanced around the clinic with a sad look before focusing back on her. “I'm sad to say I've never encountered a member of your species before however.”

Rain would have been surprised if he had given the circumstances of her arrival. “We're called Asari. You might say we're something of an imported species to this area of space.”

More like to this universe in general, but that wasn't something she was planning to share with anyone.

“I'm sorry to hear that.” Verad offered in an apologetic tone as he walked over to the locations sole biobed and began to fiddle with the controls. “I can offer you a free checkup if you'd like to check my abilities?”

That was oddly tempting given the fact Rain hadn't had a medical checkup since she was turned into an Asari, but she wasn't going to risk having Asari medical data on whatever potentially networked system Verad's clinic might be connected to.

“I'll have to pass on that.” She demurred. “And my second officer has already confirmed your résumé, so it's not really needed.”

Though she was beginning to suspect she may have delegated matters a bit too heavily given the identity surprise.

“She did however want me to ask if you had any experience with cybernetics?”

“Limited.” Verad confessed as he walked back over to her. “Until recently the technology was banned on Trill, so my only experience with cybernetics has been with offworld patients.”

That was interesting in the sense that it further built on the mental picture Rain was putting together of Trill, but it wasn’t really a plus or minus for the Asari herself since perfect was the enemy of good enough when it came to these sorts of things.

“And you’d have no problem with the pay?” She tried in a leading tone as she shot him a pleasant smile. “I know it probably seems a bit low for a medical professional given the potential risks involved with space travel, but the comparative analysis I ran suggests it’s perfectly in line with the standard for a ship’s medical officer.”

“On no.” Verad waved off. “In the spirit of honesty I’d have jumped at the chance for even just half of what you are offering.”

“Of course.” He continued in a somewhat apologetic tone. “I also can’t promise I will stay on board past the terms of the contract.”

Crossing her arms and studying the way the Trill carried himself, Rain was left with the oddest feeling that Verad could very well be completely at home in the prime universe version of Starfleet. Something that made the emotional part of her rebel even though she knew intellectually that it made perfect sense given the purported mirroring dynamic between the two universes.

Letting her arms drop back to her side, she decided to ignore the little voice of her metaknowledge insisting that this was a bad person. “I assume you’ll want to look around the ship's medical bay before making a final decision?”

“It would be preferable.” Verad agreed with a nod. “But it’s not really a deal breaker either way given your ship is my only real option for getting off the station.”

“Fair enough I suppose.” Rain admitted, having felt the same way herself when she’d made a deal with Nezia to get off Terra. “However I’d like it myself since it means you can give me a list of any medical supplies that might be needed that we don’t have.”

Verad beamed at her. “Well then, give me a moment to close up here and you can lead the way.”

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Author’s Notes: There’s probably a question of “why Verad”, and the answer is that since his prime universe version was someone beaten down by and obsessed with the ultimate expression of Trill culture, his mirror would be someone with a steel spine who desperately wanted to get away from Trill culture.