The Zelda Alegari Chronicles, Part 2

Posted on Fri 15th May, 2020 @ 12:22am by Commander Paul Graves PsyD & Lieutenant Damion Ildaran
Edited on on Sat 6th Jun, 2020 @ 6:06pm

1,501 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Resolution
Location: Intelligence Department, Interview Room 1
Timeline: MD 3, 0850

Previously ... Preparing for Questioning Damion returned with two pitchers of water and several stacked tumblers. He went to the conference table and set an empty tumbler at each chair, with a pitcher at both ends of the table. He went to the doorway and leaned into the hallway as the door opened. "Dr. Addams, I think we're ready to start."

After a moment, Doctor Addams entered, also carrying a PADD. "Why, Ms Addams," Ischemia Addams said coolly, "fancy meeting you here."

Continuing the interrogation ....

Part One | Part Three

"That's Doctor Addams to you, Madam Counselor," Chlamydia answered dryly. A stranger would have known in an instant that these two were related... though the Doctor was a few centimetres taller, and the Attorney a few kilograms heavier, they were both clearly their mother's daughters. "I trust you've signed the Non-Disclosure Agreement regarding matters that are discussed in this context?"

"Of course I signed it," Ischemia agreed. "Who do you think wrote the client protection laws that govern this setting? My client ... all of her selves ... has also signed the waiver that allows both of us to be here, and to have Dr. Graves listening, as well. We're looking for the truth that is true in a situation fraught with multiple points of view ... in addition to my clients', of course."

Zelda looked anxiously from one sister to the other. She had no sisters, had she? She frowned a moment, trying to remember, then nodded to herself. There were no sisters.

With Eberstark already seated in the room, all who were expected were present. Damion shut the door and took his place at the conference table, where he already had a PADD and stylus waiting. "All right, ladies and gentleman, let's get started. For legal purposes I will be recording this and encrypting the file."

He glanced about the table to see if there were any objections, even though he knew Ischemia had already briefed Zelda and her fellow selves on how the meeting would proceed.

"Miss Alegari, Miss Addams, thank you for agreeing to help us find someone who we believe to be a very dangerous criminal. That is the sole purpose of us meeting here today." Damion glanced at the table's other occupants. "My hope is that this discussion will take no more than two hours, with time for a break in between. If we can accomplish it more quickly, all the better and less tiring for our witness here. Miss Alegari, are you ready to begin?"

Zelda jumped a little at being addressed, but cleared her throat and said, "Yes, Sir. I'm ready." She glanced at her counsel to be sure she had answered correctly, and relaxed slightly when Ischemia nodded her head. She felt she truly was ready to answer questions and hoped her help would be enough to make all these people happy with her.

"All right, then," Damion said. "If you don't mind, Miss Alegari, I'd like to address you as Zelda or by the names of your other selves if they should answer, so everyone is clear on whom we're talking to. Is that all right with you?"

"It doesn't matter to me, but I don't know what other selves you're talking about. There's only me. What other selves would there be?" Zelda answered, confused by the question.

"Ah--I'm sorry to confuse you. I would simply prefer to call you by your first name, as 'Miss Alegari' is a bit of a mouthful for me. As for other selves, that can be explained later, aye?"

"Sure, that's fine," Zelda said, holding on to her seat with both hands clenched tightly around the sides. "Call me what you want and ask me whatever. Can we just get started? I'll be happier when this is all over."

Damion nodded at her. "Where did you live just before coming to Starbase 109, Zelda?" He gave her the same kind of polite but neutral regard he might give to a stranger he casually met on a shuttlecraft while traveling to the same destination. Destiny would no doubt find it annoying, but he hoped it would put Zelda at her ease.

The woman's face twisted with concentration as she tried to remember exactly where she had been. "I don't know the name of it. I was on a ship with some people ... friends, I think?" She thought through that part. "Maybe friends. And then we stopped some place that looked like a lot of ships together. I only saw it for a minute as we left our ship and went inside. It was a long white tube." She made a stretching motion with her hands to emphasize the distance she'd had to walk.

"There were stores inside, I remember that ... there was a Bajoran temple, I think. I saw a sign that said 'The Orb of Change', and Bajorans are the ones with orbs, so it must have been. There were a lot of places to drink, I remember that, too." She shook her head and looked up at the interrogator. "I don't know what it was called, I'm sorry. I was there for a long time, I think. A long time ...." Her voice trailed off.

"That sounds familiar," Damion said, "I've heard stories of a place where a lot of ships are congregated, but we don't know where it is."

"I can't help with that. We were there and then we got into another ship and came here. I can't even tell you how many days it took. It seemed like several ... I slept, I ate, but ..." she shook her head again. "I don't know how long. I didn't see a map. I wasn't on the bridge." She twisted her hands in her lap.

"Could we move on to the next question, please?" Zelda's lawyer said, scowling at the intelligence officer. "There's obviously nothing more to be learned with this one."

Chlamydia quirked an eyebrow at her sister. "Are we to believe that your client is a congenital idiot, Madam Councilor? She doesn't know the name of the ship on which she traveled? The name of the port at which she called? The names of the people with whom she traveled? Why, even my child, scarcely old enough to attend school, can rattle off the long-form address of her home, and the names of her friends. It beggars the imagination that a grown woman cannot. Perhaps the issue is that she will not?"

Alegari opened her mouth, but her counsel cut her off. "Dr. Addams, your child is known as a prodigy, but even if she weren't, has she been subjected to medical experiments, drugged, had deadly jewelry implanted in her body, or been psychologically brow-beaten? It's perfectly understandable that she doesn't have the information requested, if her handlers didn't want her to have it."

Chlamydia glared at her sister for a moment. Ischemia knew full well what Experiment Number Six had been subjected to before Chlamydia rescued her, but that wasn't truly germane at this juncture. "It is well within the capability of children not yet old enough to attend school," the Doctor countered. "Surely, there must be something more your client can tell us? What color were the bulkheads? Were the corridors square? Hexagonal? Circular? When she saw a computer display, in what script was the information presented?"

"All excellent questions and things you could notice even if the folk with you were trying to conceal the name and location of the place," Damion agreed. "What can you tell us of those details, Zelda? And did the place have plants? If it did, what sort were growing there?"

"Gray," the suspect answered in a whisper. "Everything was gray. Blurry on the edges. That's all I saw. Gray. No plants," she glanced at the man. In a slightly stronger voice, she told him again, "I didn't see any plants. I didn't see anything but gray. There were people - funny-looking mostly. Not humans. One woman was human, but she was coughing ... into a cloth piece. It sounded ... it sounded like her insides would come up."

What else could she tell them? She hadn't seen anything. She didn't know anything. Her fingers twisted and twisted, and she wanted to cry. Why were they doing this to her? She didn't have the answers they wanted! Would they kill her if she didn't know the right answers? Her breathing quickened. She needed to get out of here. Her eyes darted around the room, but the only way out was blocked.

Then her breathing slowed. She closed her eyes and took deep breaths in and out. After a moment, her eyes opened and she looked at the investigator. "Well, now, honey, I don't know a thing about plants," she winked at him, "but I bet you could teach me plenty."

Destiny had arrived for the meeting.

 

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