It Can't Be.... Can It?

Posted on Wed Nov 11, 2015 @ 12:30pm by erie'Riov Rianni Monteros-t'Khellian

1,327 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Pangaea (Wrap up)
Location: Gregori's Quarters
Timeline: after Fight at Box

It hadn't taken Rianni long to decide that she needed information: real, solid, incontrovertible information. She also knew only one man could give it to her, her grandfather. He would know what had happened! She managed to shuffle, nearly stumbling, to his door, ringing the chime repeatedly until the whoosh of the door revealed her Grandfather.

"Rianni!" He exclaimed, wiping sleep from his eyes as he checked his clock. It was nearly three in the morning and she smelled like a distillery and if she came to her at this time in this state she was in desperate need of help, "Get in here!" He pulled her in gently by her left arm, closing the door behind, "What is wrong with you, child?"

"It's Klia....." Rianni said through tears, "That scumbag I'm being forced to marry.... he... he says she's... alive."

Klia. The name struck home instantly, the lovely Orion girl who used to work at the Box of Delights, the one Rianni had become so fond of, the one murdered by that El Aurian. He looked straight into her eyes, wondering if she was just drunk and rambling, but hearing the mention of his Grandson in Law to Be Over His Dead Body killed that notion quickly, "All right." He nodded, "How does he know? Let's sit and you tell me all about it."

Rianni followed her Grandfather to his sofa, sitting beside him as she recounted the entire event at the Box and everything D'Liin had said, concluding with, "And I don't believe him, but...."

"But you know this is exactly the kind of cruel thing he would do, the monster that he is." Gregori finished the sentence for her, wishing he'd killed D'Liin the day they'd first met, ~Bloody little vole.~ His mind was still keen, and a quick analysis told him that there was at least some truth to the story: there was no way D'rek D'Liin would've known about how close Rianni and Klia had been, so even if he had just wanted to hurt her he wouldn't have known about this, therefore he had seen Klia alive. He stood from his seat, motioning for Rianni to stay seated because she was, one, far too drunk to try walking and, two, there were things she couldn't see as a Romulan officer, for that matter even when she was still in Starfleet she couldn't see the things he could, "Give me fifteen minutes, darling."

Rianni didn't reply verbally, merely nodding her head softly as she was fighting sleep and drunkenness. All she could do now was hope Papa came through for her, ~He always comes through.~ She reminded herself, taking some comfort from the fact Papa had never failed her before and wasn't going to start now.

A few communications later Gregori was on with the one person who would know better than anyone if there was any truth to what D'Liin had said, Section Chief Karl Buck, the Special Branch Agent in Charge of monitoring Romulan Noble Houses. House Tyrranus was small, but under surveillance none the less, "Good evening, Karl." He began, "I'll skip the rest of the pleasantries and go straight to the point, have you got any information on the recent movements of one D'rek D'Liin?"

"Yeah, why?" Karl shrugged, "Look, Commodore, I'd love to help you but I can't have my agents playing PI to see if your Granddaughter's old man is screwing around on her...."

"Nor would I ask you to, my boy." Gregori laughed, "And I doubt Rianni would care if he was. What I need to know is if he might've recently been to a slave auction."

"Funny you should say that." Karl sighed, "We just had an agent killed by Ferengi criminals after a slave auction on Verex III. They realized she was sending video and killed her before she could get their ships on camera. I can send you the footage if you'd like."

"Yes, I would very much like." Gregori nodded.

"I can tell you we see a man who looks like your Granddaughter's fiancée on the footage, along with a man considered a.... person of interest in several unsolved crimes, guy called Torm." Karl continued, "There's a real dirtbag for you, Commodore. He's a regular on the slave auction circuit..."

"A collector?" Gregori asked, his eyebrow raised.

"No." Karl shook his head, "A collector keeps things as close to mint as he can, this guy doesn't give a frack about breaking his toys. Hell, he revels in it."

"What are we talking about here, Karl?" Gregori continued the conversation, his outer façade of calm camouflaging the alarming nature of that piece of information, ~Damn, that's not good...~

"Greg..." Karl paused, removing all vestiges of formality from the conversation now, "There's over twenty bodies so far we think are linked to him, looks like he just uses them until they fall over then he goes and buys their replacement, doesn't mean any more to him than going out and getting a new carton of milk when you drain the old one."

"Well..." Gregori stopped dead in his tracks, this kept getting worse.

"Can I ask why this is important to you?" Karl pressed, it wasn't all that important, but he was curious.

"Rianni's worthless fiancée told her that a friend of hers was there. For sale." Gregori answered.

"Well, if this girl went to Torm...." Karl began, then paused and took a deep breath before continuing, "You better be ready to take care of a very distraught granddaughter, Greg, because she's dead by this point."

Gregori sighed deeply and shook his head, continuing, "Well, send me the footage then. Maybe I can conclude something from that."

"All right, Greg." Karl nodded, beginning the transmission before logging off.

The footage Karl sent was brutal, including the murder of that poor young agent, and D'Liin was definitely at that auction, Gregori would recognize that waste of perfectly good oxygen anywhere. There were several women, and a few men, who had been sold before the footage ended, and one of them was definitely a young Orion woman. He paused and enhanced the footage as best he could, though there was no way for him to know for certain that the victim at this auction was Klia, but every instinct told him it was, now there was the matter of breaking it to Rianni.

Or was there?

Tracing Torm would be easy enough, pigs like that that wouldn't fly right always left trails that the blind could follow, if there was a chance that this Klia was still alive they needed to find out one way or another. He gently shook Rianni awake, "Rianni, I think your friend might be alive."

The dual hazes of alcohol and sleep made understanding most of what Papa said tough for Rianni, but she'd caught the important part, Klia was alive! "Okay," She said, sitting up quickly enough to wish she hadn't, "What are we waiting for? Let's go get her!"

"We don't know where she is, Rianni." Gregori shook his head, then added immediately, "But we can find her. It'll just be a matter of tracing this Torm fellow who seems to have bought her."

"I'll get the Dhelan ready and we'll...." Rianni began, leaping to her feet before being stopped by Papa's raised palm.

"No." Gregori sighed, "I don't think that's a good idea, if you take the Dhelan it could be considered an act of war. We'll take Diana's Arrow, we'll track your friend, and we'll bring her home."

"Okay." She nodded, knowing Papa was right as he always was, "When do we leave?"

"We leave in the morning." Gregori stated, "Go home and get some sleep, Rianni, it's going to be a long trip."

"All right, Papa." She smiled, feeling for the first time that night that things might be about to take a turn for the better.

-End

 

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