JL | Lt. Evan Merlin & Empress Xue' Daio Nox | "Sanctuary"

Posted on Mon Mar 19th, 2018 @ 4:07am by Xue'Daio Nox Tr'Verelan & Commander Evan Merlin

Mission: Lacuna

Anger, sharp and hot, colored the Albino's eyes more than it did her skin. They were intense tourmaline jewels, shining brightly against the eternal winter of her skin. First the death of her friend and mentor; Vokar, now the kidnapping of her confidant; Valeese, and cousin; Si'a. The growing list of slights against her sensibilities had gone far from being unnoticed. It had begun to drive her around the bend - past that dangerous and harrowing point of no return where war became eminent and unstoppable. It had been everything that Vokar had set out to keep from happening. Everything that Valeese had cautioned against in each and every single one of her reports. Why the two of them had loved the Federation so much left the Empress baffled. It had done them no favors, and now one was in the morgue - the other likely to follow suit somewhere out in the black and far away. She could only hope that the Vorta's resourceful mind would lead her and Si'a far from the belly of whatever beast had ensnared them.

After all... They were both capable women, smart and well learned when it came to the art of survival.

The only thing keeping the Empress from igniting the Federation's funeral pyre was the off chance they would be found or find their way home with an explanation that let everyone else off the hook and pointed fingers in a more specific direction. Either way, she was fuming upon receipt of the news and left standing beside one of the large windows of her suite staring out at the vastness of space with those angry rose colored eyes.

There was a soft sound, at the threshold of hearing, the sound of a transporter. Then a soft thump, something landing on the carpet behind her.

Something that didn't catch her ire or fuel her need for defense. There would come no crackle of raw, invigorating power, but rather the slow turn of the woman's face away from the window. Her eyes would be the last thing to leave the stars, ultimately blinking away to lend attention to that which had come to her by way of technological magic.

A simple glass ball, still rolling when she turned, came to a halt a moment later. A simple glass ball which carried a lot of weight. A messenger without a message, closed and open-ended.

The softest sigh came from her robes as she stepped forth and stooped to gather the crystal in her palms, gazing into it as she rose again. For a moment, silence won out, leaving her blinking as she considered both the object and its sender. Even the way the ball distorted light, giving the world a 'fish-eye lens' warped view and take on any and everything. "Merlin..." His 'name' passed over her lips in warm exasperation. In true fashion, the man was a magician - always playing with his environment to create something new and poignant. "In Earth history there was once an Arthur that trusted a Merlin implicitly, you know," She said, carrying the ball as she crossed the deck towards her favored sitting area, "Taught him everything from A to Z, but did you know that Arthur failed him?" Her head tilted as she sounded the question, "Mmm. He did. Indeed. He allowed his hurt and anger to cloud his judgment and the entire Kingdom burned to cinders." Xue's fingers stroked the ball as she rested into the tufts of feather filled pillows, "Is that the point I'm meant to be taking?"

"I always do my best to make no point whatsoever," the Lieutenant said, stepping in sight from behind the column where he'd beamed in. "But it's a good point, as points go." He nodded as he walked over to her. "Wasn't there another story which could be summarised, 'For want of a nail, a kingdom was lost'?" He lowered himself to the ground, sat in front of her, cross-legged, rested his chin on his hands as he looked up at her. For once, the easy smile was not present on his face. He regarded her earnestly, quietly.

Setting the ball in her lap, she considered him and his words for a few chance seconds. Where had his light gone? For once it seemed dimmed and quieted and she wasn't entirely sure of what to make of the change. "I think so." She answered honestly, "But there's a point to be made there that could go in either direction. Lose the nail, lose the Kingdom." She shrugged, "Or is it that you lose the Kingdom if you covet the nail?"

"One small event can change the course of history, is the moral of that one, I believe." One hand idly began to toy with a loose hanging strip of her gown, maybe seeking an outlet for his playfulness even as the rest was stilled. "Or a butterfly flaps it wings and causes a storm." He tilted his head the other way. "Or a butterfly does not flap her wings and the storm never lands." He shrugged and released the gown, reached up for her hand instead. "I try to never make a point when I can help it," he paraphrased himself. "I'm just here."

"And in not making a point..." Xue's voice trailed off, her own point left to the ether in a rather ironic gesture to his assertions. The warmth of his skin as his fingers gathered her hand into the cradle of his palm was another soothing dose of reality and morbid reminder that there were others out there who were missing their chances at like treatment, both. Her eyes, still burning, hid half-way beneath their lids and lashes as she let her head rest back against a stacked pillow with a sigh, "Never is an absolution, though, and I would say that you're not the kind that deals in those. That they have no place in your purview."

"Ah, hence the 'trying'. I can't say I manage to succeed every time." And now the smile was back, very slightly, but still. "Whereas you, my lady, carry far too many burdens, and have not nearly enough shoulders to share them with."

Her head shook again, "No. Just two great big broad ones that carry far heavier a load than my burdens." She huffed in an airy half-hearted laughed. "What would you do? If you were cornered like this, where there was so much life at stake on both sides of the equation?" She asked, turning her face in his direction, "Everything in me tells me to come out fighting, that this is the fault of Starfleet and the Federation for not doing their jobs and being too complacent, but then I think that there is so much more out there than anyone could prepare for fully." The ending word came in a heavy sigh, "It's logic versus emotion - neither are winning anything but the war to give me a splitting headache and a foul temper."

"Hmm… what would I do…" He rested his chin on the palm of his free hand again and stared into the distance. "So they were kidnapped both on a station, both in the new sections, where we have plenty of cams and stuff. Yet nobody saw anything and footage was tampered with. None of that was registered by any of the systems, which means it wasn't regular Starfleet which did this. So either we're looking at a hidden faction within SF, such as Section 31, or it was an outside organisation with sufficient skills. There are several of those. We have the Romulans, of course, either Tal Shiar or a rogue faction, such as this Tr'Bak fellow. If we focus less on the Starfleet angle and more on the 'exotic beauties' one, we could have Orions, though it would be a bold move for them if they act solo. We might even look at a pawn-and-king situation, where one organisation has been hired to snatch them while the actual culprit is someone else entirely…" He lifted his head and waved his hand in the familiar airy wave. "A lot of speculation, which boils down to this. If we're sticking to sayings, there's another one which might apply here. 'Use a thief to catch a thief'."

She mused on this, rolling it around and weighing it against other options and thoughts within the busy hive of her mind. It wasn't orthodox, but it made sense in some alien fashion she wasn't quite use to. How sheltered she had been during a life spent under the thumb of Psy'Daio and putting the Cardassians into alignment for ascension within the Ascendancy. What Evan represented was 'different' ways of looking at things, alternatives to the usual status quo. At once she knew who it was that she would deploy should she choose to skip along down that thorn lined path. "That one I haven't heard, but it makes a rather impressive amount of sense." Xue replied, linking her fingers with his in a small token of her appreciation. "By all convention, though... This seems to be such a tangled web, like it could have been spun by many different spiders, all of them covering their own tracks." Another sigh and her eyes closed, trying to drown out reality as best she possibly could, "No one is this clean in a crime. They had to have left a mistake. A fiber. A spot of blood or sweat... Something. Some... Thing."

The Lieutenant wriggled his fingers where they were linked with hers. "If it has indeed been spun by different spiders, to follow your analogy, then those mistakes will be where those webs meet. Maybe other people have disappeared suddenly. Ships disappeared from registers. Removed from one file but possibly not from backups, or from files from private vessels… Incidentily," he looked up again, his sea-coloured eyes once again the dark blue of deep waters, as they often were when he was deep in thought, "what do your people have on Commodore Ravnsson?"

"Do what you can to see if those webs fray?" The Empress's soft voice conjured question, request, not order. She could never order him, not even in times of such impressive and obfuscating stress. Her eyes, however, remained closed and her fingers gently toyed with his as they wriggled and continued to make his presence known. "Commodore Aksel Ravnsson..." Yes, she knew and had heard the name, "Head of Starfleet Intelligence, El Aurian and human by blood. He's older than all of us combined..." Here she paused and cracked an eye to study her companion, "Maybe... But he's lived a long time, done a lot of things. None seem particularly interesting. Why?"

"Is he?" the Lieutenant wondered again, thinking about the man and their respective ages. He shook his head, tried to dismiss the thought with that idle wave. Not knowing his own past rarely bothered him, but at times there were moments when it felt close, really close, and this was one of those. Close, yet still beyond his reach. "Never mind that. And, ah… I don't know. He was at the ball. Not long though. Sat in a corner and just observed everyone. I saw him earlier today, eating breakfast. I can't quite put my finger on it. So maybe, probably, most likely it's nothing. But my intuition is bugging me about him, and that is something I do pay attention to." He shrugged. "It might be interesting to watch him and Commander Stacker interact. Ah, to be a fly on the wall during that conversation…" he grinned briefly.

A shrug of her own carried through as the preamble to an official answer. "There's a lot to be bugged by when it comes to a man like him." Rolling in the pillows to face him, she gently set the crystal ball beside herself with her free hand, "Men like that are nothing more than snakeoil and secrets. You're not supposed to trust them."

The Lieutenant tossed his hair out of his face, or at least attempted to. As usual, it bounced right back. "Oh, I don't. What interests me when he talks is more what he doesn't say. The gaps. The misdirections. He's a fascinating man. And if we do want to stir up the hornet's nest, he might be a great place to start. High up, lots of impact." He smiled. "Provided you know when to dodge."

Xue's silvery brows twitched in the only indication that he'd caught her interest with his words, "Maybe..." She nodded, releasing his hand in exchange for a chance to run those delicate fingers through the wild length of his night black hair. The contrast of her skin against it was wild and marvelous, and she was instantly smitten with it. "Maybe it would be wise to watch him, see what he knows."

The Lieutenant nodded and rested his head against her knee once more. "Anyway, that's my input, for what it's worth. I don't know if you have any leads or ideas, but it might be wise to put those into play. Raining havoc can always be utilised as a last option."

"For now, on good faith, I'll opt to take the path of least resistance." The Empress responded softly, allowing her fingers to leave his hair and stroke along his cheek and jaw, "The last thing I'd want is to lose you in addition. Going to war would do that."

"Most likely, though not through any fault of our own," the Lieutenant said with a sigh. "There'll be a senior staff meeting in, oh, an hour or so, and I'm certain the main topic will be to find out how we can get them back. Valeese and Si'a both. And as long as we keep talking and sharing information, I think that's the best options we have."

"Then we do that... Share information, that is." Xue's voice was whisper soft as she spoke, and her fingers became guides as cupped his chin and encouraged him closer. Of all the things she could think of, things that would shift the balance and weight of time and relationships, one 'secret' held heavily in the balance... Swaying like a pendulum ticking down the seconds until it became exposed by way of virtue should this turn to tragedy... Should Valeese break. "There's something you need to know, but keep beneath your own hat." She said, watching the tides shift in his eyes, "This... Should prove my trust in you to be infinite." And perhaps so much more that went without being said.

With a single fluid motion, and without ever breaking skin contact, he hopped on the couch next to her and rested his free hand on hers. "Nothing you say will will travel further than my own head." There was a somewhat ironic twist in his smile for a moment. "It seems that telepaths get a headache if they try to sneak in. Dunno why, never tried to find out. It didn't seem fair to torture them for my own inquisitiveness." A brief flutter of fingers as he waved that thought away. "Infinite trust goes both ways."

She nodded, appreciating what it was he had to say and taking from it the comfort she knew he was offering, "Valeese is my operative." The band aid was torn off quickly, less hurt would come that way, "She's my eyes and ears on the station, and so patient and gentle given how cruel life has been to her." Xue's chin dipped and her demeanor seemed to droop, "It took her awhile after being approached to agree, but when she did it was under the proviso that she be here to help quell fears of war... To help guide us all in peace while warning the Ascendancy of any potential threat from anyone that crossed through. Her loyalty to both sides..." The Empress's head shook and her curled her fingers into the gossamer fabric of her robes, "Unparalleled. I can't have them find her out. If she returns, I will need her to remain in her spot so long as she chooses. Should she perish... She deserves to be remembered with honor, not tainted and hated for being both Vorta and, essentially, a spy."

The Lieutenant digested that information for a few moments, then nodded. "Understood. And I agree with your last sentiment, but let's try to avoid her perishing insofar as possible." He didn't want to add the obvious thing which they both thought, that she might be dead already. But no, most likely both she and Si'a both were considerably more valuable alive. Valuable for what? How well was this information known? Could this be the reason why specifically Valeese was targeted in addition to Si'a, or was his first hunch, that they were both beautiful exotic woman, correct? Or both?

Too many questions, not enough answers, thus irrelevant. Something to store away for now and maybe examine again later if more facts became known. "She's a noble woman."

"She is... They both are." Xue smiled softly before settling her head against the pillows again, trying to recapture comfort, "I want them back home and safe. Si'a will never leave Starfleet, of that I'm certain, but I'd like for her to return to where it is she calls home."

"I believe I saw her at the ball?" The Lieutenant gently pulled Xue closer, giving her the chance, if she wanted to, to rest against him instead of the cushions. "I recognized the glow… and if that is the answer why she won't leave Starfleet, I understand. I can assure you, we'll do everything we can to get them back. Both of them."

"Love..." Xue nodded, trading pillows for the warm solid comfort of his chest and shoulder. Nothing else needed to be said, or confirmed. He'd set a course and charted himself a new mission; the successful retrieval of of her cousin and her confidant, making himself the protector of the crown and comfort to the woman who wore it. The irony wasn't lost on her, not even a little bit... But she loved it.

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Lieutenant Evan Merlin
Chief Strategic Operations Officer
COLD STATION THETA, SB-1170

Empress Xue'Daio Nox
Queen of Apsha
Ruler of Aleine
Stenellian Ascendancy