Down to Business

Posted on Mon Aug 14th, 2023 @ 3:12am by Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Commander Savar cha'Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen & Remal Kajun

Mission: Repairs and Retribution
Location: Kunar - Mrs Quarters

They were outside her door. They had waited long enough.
As the morning light streamed through slivered cracks in the long ceiling to floor curtains, providing the only real light within, she sat behind her desk and turned on her spotlights. A series of four lights brighter than the daytime sun shined brightly towards the center of the room. Then she motioned for the trio to be brought in.

The large ornate doors parted and one by one all three prisoners were brought into the room and placed inside the circle of light. Their blindfolds, if they were wearing any were removed, and then the guards stepped back and encircled the prisoners, in the shadows, just beyond the light. One of the guards coughed, a symptom of the dusty planet perhaps. None-the-less it was enough to cause the Mrs. to grit her teeth in disgust before she spoke.

"Welcome, to my home. I trust you have found the accommodations acceptable and that my soldiers are treating you with the respect that you deserve." Her tongue clicked upon the last word as she spoke it, indicating her animosity. There was a sound like metal scraping wood as she pushed out her chair and stood up from behind a large desk, again just beyond the lights.

She walked around just to the edge of the ring, her crop in hand. "Here, they call me the Mrs. I am the administrator of this fine establishment of a world, once home to the finest fields of fruit which produced the finest product known to Cardassians." She paused as she watched their reactions.

"Thousands worked tirelessly to produce bushel after bushel and barrel upon barrel of sweet Kunar only to have the planet strip mined for all that it was worth. My family survived drought, blithe, a dust bowl and now we survive by our sheer determination to see our enemies brought to justice. It's a cold breath of karma, don't you think?" Her words were of course rhetorical.

Savar along with Aurora and Rhenora were brought into a lavish and exquisite room as their captor showed herself and spoke. Her words were cold a direct opposite of the temperature of the minds and surface. They were also laced with malice and he knew no good would come any encounter with the Mrs. All he, Aurora and Rhenora was to wait and see what was to come and then deal with it the best they could. He knew the Mrs. Would want to prolong their suffering before killing them and he was positive their tortures would be most cruel and twisted. He strengthened his mental shields and waited impassively.

"More ironical I imagine is that now with one child left to my family name and robbed of my husband thanks to three nobody's who will die most painful deaths, I am now left as the sole heiress to this most glorious land. I thank you for that, I suppose, but who are we kidding. I intend to thank each of you in person." Her heels clacked upon the floor as she crossed and stopped in front of Aurora first.

"Lieutenant Aurora Vali, Junior Grade if I'm not mistaken. Former Counselor of the Federation starship U.S.S. Sunfire." She placed the crop upon Aurora's cheek and pushed a stray lock of hair back slowly, gentle. "So pretty for a half-breed. I've been told you are the new water girl. Congratulations, you've managed to extend your slow and painful experience a bit longer by winning favor. Don't allow it to go to your head."

She cleared her voice which was already resonating within the room. "Convictions include accessory to murder in the first degree, government conspiracist, fleeing from trial and failing to make your court appointment which no one was surprised by in the slightest. You've been sentenced to death with no hope for plea or parole and in case you had in in that pretty little head of yours, no escape either." She retracted the crop and let lose a strike upon Aurora's face hard enough for it to crack open and bleed. For salt in the wound she added, "Welcome to my home."

Standing next to Aurora, Savar tensed as the Mrs. first spoke, listing the trumped up and fabricated charges against Auora in a calm and firm voice before she violently struck Aurora on the face with such force using her crop, causing the wound to bleed. As she continued with her delusional lies. He made no move as that would be illogical and bring an even quicker reply then the one he knew would be forthcoming. It was clear to him that the Mrs. was insane and she was bent on taking what she saw as a fit punishment out on them. He also supposed that he and Rhenora would receive the brunt of the most violent and physical abuse. For what the Mrs. saw as their part in her husband's death.

Rhenora watched on, trying to keep the emotion from her face despite her gut twisting with every passing moment. The Mrs was enjoying this a little too much, the sadistic expression bordered the Cardassian bore was perfectly balanced by the sophistication of the room and the attire she wore. Rhenora dreaded what was to come next.

The Mrs. took two steps, her heels hitting the floor as the only audible in the room, and stopped in front of Savar. "Ah, Former Commander Savar, murderer, accused and convicted. Vulcan, rigged, emotionless, logical." She stated succinctly and bluntly to the point. "You murdered my husband, and I would gather that you felt no guilt in the act what-so-ever."

She placed the crop under his chin and pressed in an action to force him to look up at her or more so that she could look into his eyes. Catching his rigid gaze she added, "You are the stallion I will take pleasure in breaking." Her head tilted as she looked for any sign of weakness deep within. "Your high tolerance for pain not withstanding, every man breaks, eventually. Every man has a weakness, finding yours might be a challenge or it might be as simple as the company you keep." She made a point of looking towards Rhenora and then to Aurora.

When he didn't flinch, she knew her challenge would have to be a mental one and she had one ace hidden well. "Perhaps... yes perhaps I will force you to watch as I torture your poor Captain and your wife right in front of you. I should make you watch, over and over as I had to watch when you brutally killed the man I bore a child for." She glanced again to Aurora and looked down at the bump in her belly, and sneered. "Or perhaps I will take the child you've created from you before it has take a single breath?"

Savar eye's met and locked on hers. He showed no emotion as she spoke her lies. Showing a reaction would show weakness and give their captor a weakness to exploit and take full advantage of.

She smiled a crooked smile, pulled back her crop and let it loose across his face. As the green tinted blood oozed out he did not flinch making the act feel unsatisfactory. "Welcome, to my home." She finished with, as was her way. Then she turned walked two paces and stopped in front of Rhenora.

Savar felt warm blood running down his cheek and then dripping onto the floor but he showed no reaction to the blow, no flinch, no gasping or moan in pain even as head twisted as the crop struck his cheek with the force of a thunderclap. He would not give their captor the satisfaction or pleasure by showing a reaction.

Rhenora toned down the icy glare that had pervaded her expression beforehand. Antagonizing your tormenter never ended well. Instead she remained impassive and calm, not letting any inkling of how she was feeling be displayed. It would come in time, even she wasn't unbreakable and many had tried unsuccessfully to do just that. She had a gut feeling though that this was not to be one of those times.

Finally the 6 foot 4 inch Mrs looked down into the yes of her last captive and just stared for a moment. She was reading her enemy for signs of weakness or defiance. After the silence had passed at least a full minute she spoke. "Rear Admiral Rhenora Kaylen, former that is. Bajoran freedom fighter and some would say, mass murderer. Oh yes, I know more about you than I care to, and yet..."

She pressed the crop against Rhenora's chin and lifted. "...we're just getting started aren't we?" She got up dangerously close to Rhenora's face. "You see my dear, there is a subtle art to breaking a mare. You've got to know how they think, how they are going to act when you did your heels in." She pressed the crop for emphasis.

Taking a step back, and dropping the crop, the Mrs. signaled for her guards. "For you, we shall start by hurting someone you love perhaps."

With that a battered and drained Remal was deposited unceremonially at Rhenora's feet with a heavy thud. He had landed face first but managed to roll and look up into the eyes of his wife. "Hey honey, mind if I..." he swallowed, his spit the only moisture in his mouth. "...pick the vacation spot next time?"

His face received the sting of the Mrs' crop. "Insolence will not be tolerated." She practically growled.

There was a look of shock that was quickly replaced by anger, rapidly superseded by a seething look that would normally cause mirrors to slink off the walls and go elsewhere to shatter.

"Remal is not involved in this situation" She growled at the woman holding all the power in the room.

The Mrs. glared out of the side of her eye at Rhenora but did not respond immediately. Instead she maintained composure to the letter. A moment passed where the growl fizzled into silence. "For speaking out of turn, seven lashes. One for every word uttered without permission."

She then turned and faced Rhenora directly, her jaw line clenched once before speaking again. "Remal Kajun was captured while trying to enter Cardassian space. He is charged along side his former traveling companion with the murder of three fallen soldiers. In addition to murder, Mr. Kajun has been charged with collusion and aiding and abetting a fugitive of the law."

Rhenora found the crop upon her cheek. "So, my dear, he is indeed involved in this, 'situation'. He will also be my favorite tool with which to break you." Her jaw clenched again just before she pulled back the crop and let it whip with a thwack across Rhenora's face, breaking the skin. All four of them now bore the same scar across their cheek as a reminder. She finished with a step back, and a grand gesture, "Welcome to my home."

The Captain winced, unable to avoid the blow and unable to defend neither her husband nor her 2IC and counsellor against the wrath of The Mrs. Her mind whirled as she attempted to figure out a way out of this mess that would mean they all would live - but at this point, her options were non-existent.

TBC