The Mrs & The Breaking of Savar

Posted on Thu Sep 7th, 2023 @ 2:12am by Commander Jenna Ramthorne & Commander Savar cha'Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen

Mission: Repairs and Retribution
Location: Kunar Compound
Timeline: Current-ish

It had now been two full days of toil, lack of food and water. It was enough to break most men. But it would not be enough to break a Vulcan. In the early hours of day three, the Mrs had made her preparations. There was a room inside the central compound perfect for breaking a mind. Inside the room, a resonance chamber capable of disrupting brainwaves and creating the most horrific imagery the mind could create.

She would use it to echo Savar's worst thoughts and twist them into a reality all her own. It would break him, his mind or his heart, or both. Like a candied shell on a bitter pill, she swallowed her revenge and called for the guards to bring the Vulcan from the mines.

Savar had been working in the mines. He was working on automatic pilot. Chipping ore from the mine walls and loading it into a bucket before dropping it in a cart. It was grueling, back breaking work but he made no sound even though with each bend of hid back, the whip marks cracked and bled.

He was halfway through his extended shift when the guards came for him. Stopping his work and escorting him back to see the Mrs. Seems she wanted to see him. He was under no illusion for the purpose of his visit. Another torture undoubtedly waited for him at her hands.

The guards brought him inside the compound, down a large hall and then down a flight of stairs into a cavernous cellar area. In the darkness of the cellar was a room with a large and heavy metal door. He was deposited in the center of the room into a chair with but a single light fixed upon him.

Then her voice sounded off from behind him, yet all around him. "Welcome back. I trust you've been enjoying your stay. The watchers tell me you are a machine in the mines. Working hard to show no weakness, no doubt. But you've also been without your mental link to your wife now, that sacred bond a married Vulcan couple share. Must be getting pretty lonely inside that abnormally large eared head of yours."

There was a clicking noise followed by a slowly increasing hum as an electrical current was charging up. Then for but a moment there was silence. Both without and within. The next time she spoke it was as if her voice was resonating inside Savars mind itself making even concentration difficult.

"Ah, that's better isn't it. Now, the only one inside your head is me. The only thoughts are those I want you to see. Within this chamber, the Vulcan mind and all of it's logic are but a fragile shell of an egg ready to crack. I hope you're ready because this may 'feel' a bit weird." There was a joyful cynicism in her words.

Savar remained quiet as the Mrs. talked and taunted. He would give her no pleasure or satisfaction by replying. He sat in the chair, his face expressionless as he worked to strengthen in mental defenses against whatever onslaught the Mrs. had in store for him. He was under no false illusions, whatever the sadistic Mrs. had in mind for him, it was sure to be formidable. Her voice sounded as if it was inside his head, but he knew that was impossible. It was the room making her voice come from every direction. Wrapping his head in her blanket of noise. All he could do was sit and endure as he silently repeated a phrase. *It is not real. It is an illusion. Her words are false. I will resist.* Yet even as he vowed to remain strong, a little seed of doubt unknown even to him had been planted and the seed was "For how long?" For the Mrs. had all the time in the world.

The room magnified and amplified her voice, yes, but the machinery pierced that voice inside of his thoughts, burrowing past his mental walls. It was developed near the end of the war to aid in the interrogation of Vulcan prisoners and it had proven quite proficient. Next, the room, like a holo-suite could create fantastical imagery.

"Shall we begin with your early struggles, perhaps? Your academy days, no, too trite. No, we need a moment in time for you to relive which will etch in your mind the very reason you are where you are right now." She pressed a few buttons and the room lit up bright and then changed into a rocky cave on a planet in dispute. Outside a storm raged on. It was Orias III and Savar was right back in his cell watching Gul Maccet torturing Captain Kaylen once again.

This time things were slightly different. This was the Cardassian telling of the story after all. It was twisted to show favor for the Cardassians and the Federation as the bad guys. He had seen this version. But she was there, whispering in his head. "You remember this don't you? You, who were in the thralls of a Pon Farr, watched as that woman fought against my husband. You remember how you felt that night? I want you to show me who you are Savar. Show me what you did." She taunted.

Savar was silent even as the Mrs. taunted him. Her voice surrounding, enveloping his mind. So persuasive, so calming. "This is not real." He struggled to say, to maintain his emotional control even as he once again viewed scenes from Orias III. Saw Gul Maccet holding a phaser to Captain Kaylen, threatening to shoot her. Was going to shoot her but then he.... "NO!" He screamed, his voice ragged and hoarse. "I will not comply with your request. Gul Maccet, your husband was going to kill Captain Kaylen. He was the one with the black heart, not her. he tricked her, bound her, made her defenseless. He had no honor." He gasped as he said his next, "Just as you do not."

Not taking his bait she replied simply, methodically, "Are you so certain? Look again." She let the reality play around him. The woman he knew as Rhenora taunted the Cardassian Captain, threatened him, even struck him. "You were in the throws of a 'blood fever' if I recall. Possibly even infected by some sort of viral infection. Is it possible your version of events has been twisted by your own logical mind? It's not uncommon, for ones mind to reconstruct events into a perception of sense when they don't make sense."

She whispered her next words. "You were not in your right mind, by your own words. You, a Vulcan, gave into blood lust and murdered a man. Black heart or not, your mind has reconstructed those events to make more logical sense, ergo you and Starfleet are the just and righteous." She signed, "And yet I am the one without a husband to come home to at night." She could tell he was trying to fight but where was the challenge if it were easy to do ones job?

Savar fought against the whispered, persuasive voice of the Mrs. as she spoke of how his view was wrong and the Rhenora had been the aggressive attacker of Gul Maccet. Of how she had had taunted Maccet, threatened him and finally struck him in a fit of rage. He shook his head to rid himself of her voice. But it was still there, whispering softly, a velvet fog in his mind doing its best to confuse him, make him doubt himself.

He turned his head to look at her, his voice ragged, hoarse. "I suffered no viral infection. Gul Maccet, your husband was going to kill Captain Kaylen. It was he who taunted and struck her, not as you would have me believe. it is you who is trying to justify your actions towards us for your husband's misdeeds. It is you who is trying to restore honor to a man who had none. To bestow a legacy upon him that is a lie." He finished with a gasp. As he continued to fight against the false images running through his mind.

"You perpetuate a false narrative. I was told Vulcans cannot lie, but we both know that is not true, is it Mr. Savar? I know the man you held in your grip until the life left him, intimately. I know what sort of man he was. Do you really know who he was Vulcan? Do you?"

She allowed the images of Savar strangling Maccet to play over and over, and then slowing them down when they displayed the rage that was in Savar's face and the fear the was in Maccets. "This was a doting Father, a loving; caring husband. He had spent so many years in prison for service to his country. He was trying to re-open a mining facility on Orias, a Cardassian controlled planet I might add, when the Galactic Police Force known as the Federation stuck their nose in where it did not belong. Sound familiar?"

The video evidence was clear, the image undistorted as it displayed Savar lifting Maccet up and eventually snapping his neck. "All I want to know is how this moment made you feel? Tall me this and it will all be over."

Savar was silent as the Mrs. spun her web of lies. he wondered briefly if she was trying to convince herself or him. As she worked to paint a picture of Gul Maccet that would rival any saint. He made a small gasp as new false images flooded his head, all accompanied by the Mrs. honey coated voice as she spoke of Maccet and the Federation's interference.

He turned his head to look at her. "It is you who perpetuate a false narrative. Gul Maccet was a psychopath who only wanted revenge on Captain Kaylen and would use any means at his disposal to achieve it. He tried by taking the away team hostage." Savar shook his head, wincing at the effort. "He was trying to suppress the native species on the planet for his own gain." He paused fighting the images that continued to play through his mind.

"Gul Maccet was an evil man and try as you might you cannot change that."

"You continue to perpetuate this falsehood Mr. Savar, but let me ask you this one pondering question. You see him one way and I another. We were both ingrained with preconceived notions of right and wrong, of duty and responsibility. When taking all of that in to account, in your infinite logical mind, is it possible the man you knew, the man you killed, was not as evil as you allowed your bias to make him out to be?"

She flipped off the machine and filled the room with a bright blinding light momentarily. "We all have our biases, our little box with which we perceive our own little corner of the universe we inhabit. For instance you believe me to be evil while I believe I am doing my duty, my job, and delivering punishment to those who deserve it." She let out a sigh.

"Sadly we have not had much of a breakthrough today and must continue this conversation more tomorrow. It was most enlightening, thank you for the visit." She motioned for the guards who unstrapped Savar and carted him out of the room, out of the central compound and deposited him back in his cell for the remainder of the day.

Savar didn't have time to reply as the room was suddenly bathed in blinding light that slowly faded away. His eyes slammed closed at the blinding light. It was another assault on his senses. "Gul Maccet." He gasped out "Was not the man you paint him to be." As the guards unstrapped him from the chair and dragged him back to his cell.

TBC

OOC: Thank you for a most enjoyable and fun JP. Let's do it again. :)

OOC: Agreed.