The Mrs and the Innocent One

Posted on Fri Sep 8th, 2023 @ 11:34am by Lieutenant Commander Aurora Vali & Commander Jenna Ramthorne

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

Day three, just past noon. There was one left. The conspirator, the accomplice, the aider and abettor. She was the one Savar cared for the most and therefore in order to break him, she was going to break his one love. Or two in this case as it had been revealed she was with child. This was the only thing that gave the Mrs a momentary pause as she recalled her own child and having to tell him how his father had died at the hands of the Federation.

Her son was off planet, being raised by relatives and trained to be a soldier. he was the last Maccet and he would know everything. But first, there was a water girl who had somehow curried favor and needed taught a lesson. The Mrs called her guard, "Bring the Vulcan wench to the stretcher rack. Let's see how strong she really is."

Aurora was busy doing her work as water girl when the guards had suddenly downed her bucket and hurried her away. She wasn’t sure where she was going, but she was sure it couldn’t be good.

A few minutes later she was shoved into a room, where she was greeted by the sight of a rack, granted a more modern version, she’d seen one before in medieval texts from the past but to be faced with one made her blood run cold. Before she knew it she was being latched down onto it.

The sound of sharp heels meeting floor echoed from the shadows of the room and resounded off the walls. "Ah yes, welcome back my young half-Vulcan. I see you recognize and understand the the nature of the Rack." She was walking along the machine, her gloved hand was practically caressing the metal table.

"There is a simplicity to the stretch. In many cases throughout history, this machine was used to pull secrets from ones enemies. Sadly, I do not seek answers from you, only pain." She stopped right when she was face to face with Aurora. "You see, I want to make you hurt until you cry out for mercy, and then I will make you hurt just a little bit more. It's sweet justice one should think, don't you?" She asked rhetorically, before pointing at the guards to have them begin the stretch.

Aurora could only lie there, anything she said would only serve to add to the Mrs entertainment. As the bonds around her wrists and ankles started to tighten she could only concentrate on locking away her emotions and letting her Vulcan half take over. Hopefully it would help her to keep her emotions in check for a while.

The sounds of creaking and pulling rose from the machine as everything became tight. The Mrs ran her gloved hand across the ropes tethered to Auroras legs. She then wrapped her hand around the woman's foot and flexed to stretch it and the attached muscles further than they should.

Aurora cringed but didn’t cry out, she was trying her hardest to focus what Vulcan training she had, what Savar had taught her. Trying to shut out the pain her body was starting to feel with every turn of the rack.

"Oh yes, I imaging that hurts very much. You can continue to fight it all you like, but eventually your body will cave under the strain. Even now, your muscle groups are tearing themselves apart fiber by fiber." She squeezed Aurora's knee which gave a nice popping sound.

Aurora focused hard on trying not to give the Mrs what she wanted, even as she did so the perspiration was starting to form on her forehead as she focused on the same set of words in her mind. << There is no pain, there is no..pain >>

The Mrs continued to move up the table as another click indicated the machine was continuing to move, pulling the young Vulcan girl apart slowly. She stopped at the slight bulge at Aurora's mid section and reached out her gloved hand, laying it upon her abdomen. "You know, they say abnormal levels of stress are harmful for womb entombed infants. The chemical makeup of the mother creates a seizure in the unborn child."

She pressed each of her fingers into Aurora's abdomen as though she were palming a child's ball, and squeezed. The already taunt muscles, hardened against the stretch, began to show external signs of tearing.

Aurora had managed up until now to fight back the pain and fear, but the thought of losing her baby made her cry out, hoping it would please the Mrs to hear it and stop the stretching.

"Ah, there we go. You were bound to break at some point." The Mrs gloated, removed her hand and motioned to the guards to ease the stretch, subsequently releasing the strain Aurora was under.

"Now, isn't that better? You give a little, I give a little. It goes without saying that your cooperation will benefit us both. Now, in this mess you were an innocent bystander or as much as any can be when they are married to a murderer. We both want something and cooperation has it's perks."

"That said, all you need to do is confess that your husband, Savar, murdered my husband in cold blood and the pain will stop. The truth, simple as that. I even believe the Humans have a phrase for it, 'The Truth Will Set You Free' or something of that sort." She smile an rueful smile, one that could only come from someone with all of the power.

Aurora shot the Mrs a defiant glance. “Never! You want the truth?” She tried ignoring her aching and sore muscles as she tried to relax her muscles a little. “The truth is...your husband was a cold blooded scheming murderer! He lured us to that planet, he was the instrument of his own demise!!” She bit her lip as movement of her body made her feel the pain from having all her muscles stretched. “He didn’t think about you when he was planning his revenge…did he? Savar was protecting us! He wasn’t guilty your husband was!!”

"Indeed." She replied confidently as she motioned for the guard to press the stretch. The machine clicked again and the sound of ropes stretching echoed within the room. "So your stubborn group continue to argue." As she walked slowly towards Aurora's face and the long dangling knotted mess of red hair that hung from her scalp she continued.

"I counter with a different perspective in that Gul Maccet was thinking about his family and his home-world by performing his duty to the state. Orias III is a planet rich with minerals, owned and governed by the Cardassian Union. He was there to secure the rights to mine so that the children of the Dominion war have a home worthy and safe to grow up in. Duty and service to his people and you have the nerve to call it evil."

She reached out and grabbed a handful of that long red hair and gave a slow deliberate pull in order to stretch every last fiber. "You, who are of Star Fleet, are one to talk evil and atrocities. You move about the galaxy, asserting you are explorers, yet when there is something that defies your basic understanding or morals, out come the weapons of mass destruction. Sooo benevolent wouldn't you say?"

Aurora didn’t give in to the hair pulling. “I would say your beloved husband wasn’t thinking much of his family the day he chased after his vengeance!” She could feel her muscles stretching again, but she wasn’t going to give up Savar. “All he could see was getting at Captain Kaylen, and it was his undoing!!”

The muscles in the Mrs's face contracted at the jaw line. She then gave a jerk tug of Aurora's hair before pulling back and motioning to the guards. "Release this one, and, double the amount of water she carries tomorrow. She obviously has too much strength for her biased mind to see clearly."

The machine groaned one last time and then suddenly released causing Aurora to enter a freefall into the hard table surface with a heavy thud. She was then lifted off the table and carted out of the chamber, only to be tossed back into her cell with Savar.

Aurora lay in a curled up heap on the floor of the cell, everything hurt and she knew there’d be more pain to come.

{OFF}