Fortune smiles
Posted on Tue Jun 28, 2022 @ 9:01pm by Captain Maritza Soran & Civilian Hydel Turvan
1,364 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
Si vis pacem, para bellum
Location: Turvan's Bedroom
Timeline: After the Cavalry is delayed
[ON]
At first glance, Turvan’s bedroom seemed no different to how it had been when he went to sleep, no reason for him to wake in the small hours. But slowly, maybe as his eyes adjusted to the dark, probably, he saw the figure. It was balanced on the end of his bed, crouched on its haunches, long limbs resting loosely over its knees, slim hands with long fingers with too many joints, brushing the bed clothes idly.
The moment it reaslised it had been see, it started speaking. But what Turvan's ears heard and what his brain heard were layered, not the indistinguishable combination of a UT, but more if the meaning were suddenly shoved on top, like hurriedly added padding to prevent mental bruising. It said something that felt like, “I can help you with the portals.”
Although Hydel had not engaged in a physical conflict in years, his decades of service as a Soldier for Cardassia had never completely disappeared. Even as his brain still tried to process just what entity was sitting before him, his body jolted into a defensive position on the other side of his bed while reaching for his service weapon that he kept near his bed.
His brain finally processed the words from the creatures mouth just as his hands raised the weapon to take aim. Hydel paused briefly to take in the message.
"How?" He asked. His mind knew that out of all of the questions that he could ask, what the creature was or even why it was in his quarters was not as paramount as the one he had just uttered.
"How can you control the portals?" The Cardassian asked again.
The creature cocked its head, examining the weapon in Hydels hands, before giving a little shiver, like a shrug, and refocusing the red pinpoints in the pitch black sclera on to the man who held it. "Only you can do that" The layered words arrived in his head and started Hydel's brain throbbing. "I can tell you how."
Turvan cringed as the words reverberated inside of his head. He staggered momentarily before looking at the creature again. "Stop wasting my time! you somehow appeared in my quarters for a reason. Show me how I can control those portals so you can go back to whatever nightmarish hell you came from!" He shot back.
The creature's finger stroked at Turvan's bedcovers idly. The fabric parted easily under its touch. "This world is a creation of the People. It runs by their rules. And the People only understand absolutes. Until your victory is absolute, the Portals will remain locked. If you want to control the portals, the queen must surrender, or the queen must die. Swear that you will command the portals to open for me, and I will help you find her." The echo of the words faded away and the creature fixed him with a flat stare, a promise. "Without me, you will be an old man before she surfaces again."
"Who is this *queen* and where is she?" He asked quickly. He commanded a highly efficient and lethal army. With just a simple command he could dispatch his forces to finding this *queen* and bringing her to this creature or whomever.
"Yes! My victory over the Federation will be *absolute* It is the only acceptable conclusion to this mission." He said. "Whether it results in her death or her surrender means nothing to me! I will do whatever is necessary to accomplish." He said.
The being pointed a too-many jointed finger up. "The commander of the station. Think how the fae think. In archaism and cruelty. They can't think beyond titles of their own, their procession of Queens and kings." The layered meanings and sounds were building up, pressing at Turvan's ears and forehead. "Swear on your power that I may pass through the portals to my home, and I will tell you everything I know."
Hydel didn't fully understand what the creature was asking, but he wasn't too concerned about the particularities. Whatever it was, it must have recognized that Hydel controlled the station as well as the planet. It clearly recognized that Hydel was the person in control of all of the levers and if it wanted to return home, then it would have to negotiate with him.
"Fine, once I have secured control over the portals you will be free to return to wherever through the appropriate portal." Hydel said, not fully concerned with the whys or whatfors at the moment.
"Now what must I do?" He asked.
A rush of vertigo arrived in his brain, and then a sense of relief and pleasure hurriedly jumped on top as the sense of "Thank you," arrived in his head. "You cannot lure her out. The Ceorls are hiding her from you in places beyond time. So rip up their barrows and their mounds, break open their tors and their earthworks. She'll be in one, and you can drag her back into this realm. After that." It spread its long spindly hands in a gesture of dismissal. Hands which were now looking pale, and translucent, the rest of it fading away slowly as it spoke. "I doubt you need instruction."
Hydel cradled his head as he fought the rush of vertigo and other strange sensations througout his head. "W...w.." he tried to form the words, but he struggled to articulate his thoughts. "So....so we need to lay waste to the portal complex until we find her?" He asked the creature. He understood that such an act would be significant. It was an action that Cardassia could not deny or take back once done. However, if it was what he needed to do to find Soran, then he would do it.
"If what you are saying is true, then won't that anger the living beings within the portal complex?" He asked.
The creature got down from its perch at the foot of his bed, looking less and less real and the words lined up in Turvan's head a shade too delayed. His head throbbed with it. "Not the Portals. But there are other places, little pockets, that lead nowhere, but are not here. You can find them if you use your eyes. Your real ones. Not those of your machines. Only mortals can see them. Send your minions out and they'll find some soon enough. I'd start with the loneliest places far from the little demesne built here. They'll want to keep her far away from you." The creature was walking for the door, barely more than an outline that dissapeared before its words finished assembling themselves. "Remember, think like the People. Archaic, cruel, bound by their word. Then portals will be yours, and I will return."
Hydel watched as the creature departed and left him alone with his own thoughts. Soran was still alive and she was being protected by. . .whatever those things were that inhabited the portals. Finding her meant finding the key that he needed to secure complete control over the portals and the planet. This task was going to be significant, the creature said to use his real eyes and not those of his machines. That mean that he would have to devote almost the entirety of his forces to search the planet surface. He might even have to pull some Soldiers from the station. Doing so might jeopardize the rather tenious grasp that he had on the station at the moment.
It was a risk he would have to take on he thought to himself as he began to get dressed. He and his people would need to act quickly. There was no telling what she had managed to accomplish in the weeks since the station was taken and her shuttle crash landed somewhere on the planet. He needed to move against her before she could make a move against him.
*COM* "Hydel to OPS, open a secure channel to the planet surface. Gul Denat, priority Alpha-Tango-Three" He said as he stepped before his communication station and awaited the secure connection.
"This ends now. . ." He uttered.
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