One Ring to Disturb Their Calm, Part 2

Posted on Mon 8th Jul, 2019 @ 2:04pm by Commander Paul Graves PsyD & Captain Andrus Grax & Lieutenant Adam Keller & Lieutenant Damion Ildaran
Edited on on Mon 8th Jul, 2019 @ 2:10pm

1,352 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: A Diplomatic Affair
Location: Intelligence Department, Interview Room 1
Timeline: MD-2, 1500 hours

The observation room next to Interview Room 1 was getting crowded, Damion thought. Four other people besides him stood inside it: Lt. Commanders Graves and Fisher, Captain Grax, and Lt. Keller. Meanwhile, Lt. Perry sat in the interview room with Zelda--or maybe Tanith?--keeping her company until the rest of them were ready to resume the interview. Damion had placed the secured evidence container on a table in the observation room.

Something was not right about the ring and the container, but for the life of him, Damion couldn't think what it might be.

"I guess we're all here, then," Damion said with a nod to the others. "Captain Grax, do you have any lines of questioning you'd like me to pursue, or any particular ways you'd like all of us to handle this situation?"

Adam took his seat and waited. He was anxious to see who showed up to see the ring but also curious as to what reaction she might have.

Andrus Grax folded his arms across his chest. This particular investigation had gone further sideways than he could possibly have imagined. He shook his head and let out a long sigh. "Let's just try and establish if... any of this woman's personalities are affected enough by this ring that they might be able to give us some information we can act on. I feel like we're being led on a wild goose chase here and I don't like it."

"I need a brief description of the personalities you've discovered and their names," Graves said.

"There's Zelda--which so far as we know is her legal name. Zelda seems to have the least memories of the three we've encountered so far. Because she lacks so many memories, I'm guessing she's the original personality," Damion said. "She likes plants and seems bewildered at what is happening to her. Next is Destiny. I think she handles, er, sensuality and flirtatiousness and talking her way out of trouble. She's a woman of few attachments, though--I suspect to people as well as to things. The third personality I encountered identified herself as Tanith Endrade--very much a take-charge type who always had very definite opinions and was always very clear about her wants."

"Thank you," Graves said. "That's enough for me to work with. If other personalities manifest when she handles the ring, I should be able to distinguish them from these three."

Damion nodded. "I guess it's time for me to go in, then." He stood and picked up the container. He frowned at it. "Something is off about this thing. Can't for the life of me think what it is, though." He shrugged. "Wish me luck."

Damion exited the observation room, turned the corner, and rapped on the interview room door before opening it. "Hello, ladies. Sorry for taking so long," he said as he entered. He set the secured container on the desk. Then he looked at Zelda and tried to figure out if she was still Tanith or if she'd reverted to Zelda in his absence. "Tanith?" he said.

"See?" the woman pounced on the name. "I knew you had the wrong person in here! I'm Destiny! Destiny Alegari, and you can let me go now. It's my sister you want, though I can tell you for a fact, she would never do anything wrong. It just isn't in her."

She used her most come-hither smile on the investigator but was distracted by a flash in the container the man held. Squealing in delight, she exclaimed "Oh, you brought me a present! What is it, Honey Bun? Is it jewelry? I could love a man who brought me jewelry."

Damion blinked. Am I ever going to get used to this? "Good to see you again, Destiny." He rested a hand on top of the container but didn't open it. "This does in fact contain a ring. You're welcome to take it out and look at it, but please be careful with it. Don't put it on. All right?"

The woman pouted in her most adorable way. "You bring me a ring and tell me not to wear it? That's just mean, you know?" She sighed and pulled her hands away as far as the chain would let her. "I guess this isn't a marriage offer, then, or even a bonding contract. But, okay, let me at least see it, so I know what I'm missing."

Glancing up at him from under her eyelashes, she smiled sweetly and said, "Maybe sometime I could show you what you're missing."

"If I ever propose to you, Destiny, it will be with a ring box that fits in my pocket, not this thing." Satisfied that Destiny's hands were well away from the container, Damion pressed his thumb against the tiny scanner. The blue light moved up and down his thumb, and then the container gave a brief hiss as the lid clicked and raised slightly. Damion set the lid aside so Destiny could look into the container. He paid attention to her expression as she looked at it.

After a moment, the woman looked up at him, all teasing gone, and fear in her eyes. "You brought me this? This is death! Get it out of here!" She was trembling, visibly shaking, and leaning as far away from the box as she could. "Cover it up, lock it away, throw it out!" she said.

"Gladly," Damion said. He reached for the container, to do as Destiny had asked.

And then she stilled. Her body went completely motionless. She looked into the box again, as if peering into a snake pit. One hand wrapped around the container, and she lifted it to see better, staring at it.

After a moment, she looked up at the two investigators, eyes going from the man to the woman and back again. "Is it safe to touch it?" asked a woman who might have been Tanith but for a darker look in her eye, a more careful way of holding herself, a deeper voice.

"I wouldna touch it wi' a ten-foot pole, and you shouldna, either," Damion said, his accent much more pronounced than usual. He paused and studied her for a moment, noting the deeper voice than any of the others he'd heard come from Zelda's mouth.

"Ma'am?" he said cautiously, "My name is Damion. This lady is Isabella. Your ... sister Tanith asked to see this ring because she didn't remember it. Are you the one who helped Tanith so she wouldn't have to remember?"

In the other room, Adam leaned forward. "I'll be damned. There is another one." He looked at Grax. "This one knows something about that ring. But Destiny was scared too."

"Destiny was terrified almost to sickness," Paul said. "That's why she withdrew." He glanced at the others in the observation room. "You notice who is markedly absent."

"Yeah, the quiet one." Adam gave a snort. "It's always the quiet ones." he shook his head.

"I'm not surprised Zelda, the waking personality, isn't here," Paul said. "But the personality who asked to see the ring--Tanith, is it?--has not made an appearance--possibly because of this fourth personality." He paid close attention to the woman who stared into the evidence container. "I think we should be prepared for a fifth personality, depending on how this fourth one behaves. I'm looking for something, and I haven't seen it yet."

Grax had stood silently, his arms folded, observing the scene as it had unfolded before him. At this new revelation, however, he took a step forward, uncurled one arm and reached up to pensively stroke his goatee as he reflected that this could well be the moment of breakthrough in this interrogation. “Her,” he said, but also so that Damion would hear, “That’s the one that we need to get to talk.” He had no doubt that Damion (and probably everyone else in the two rooms) was thinking the same thing, but he felt the need to articulate it, just in case anyone was in any doubt.

 

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