The Zelda Alegari Chronicles, Part 3

Posted on Mon 18th May, 2020 @ 7:16pm by Commander Paul Graves PsyD & Lieutenant Damion Ildaran
Edited on on Sat 6th Jun, 2020 @ 6:10pm

1,000 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Resolution
Location: Intelligence Department, Interview Room 1
Timeline: MD 3, 0913

Previously, under intense questioning ... ... 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.

And now, the interrogation continues ....

Part Two | Part Four

Damion had not expected the mere effort of describing the place she'd come from to be so frightening to Zelda. He had supposed she'd traveled to Starbase 109 from another starbase as a way of covering her tracks; instead, she appeared to have traveled directly to 109 from the place she feared. Their questioning, therefore was moving faster than he'd anticipated it would.

He quirked a warm smile at the woman sitting next to Ischemia Addams. Her manner had entirely shifted into a look and posture of subtle allure. Damion leaned slightly toward her and gave her his complete attention. "Hello, Destiny. It's good to see you again. You wouldna want me to teach you about plants, love. To me they're food, so I take them very seriously, and the teaching would bore you. We'll not dwell on them now. I'm trying to get a clearer idea of the place you came from immediately before you arrived at Starbase 109--the place like a long tube, where everything was gray, where the woman coughed a lot. What can you tell me about it?"

With that last query, Damion altered his demeanor from interested male to businesslike professional--still friendly, but not looking for a date.

Destiny pouted, "That nasty place? It was completely boring, nothing but gray everywhere. Signs posted in 4 languages and I couldn't always read a one of them. Some I could, though," she brightened and gave him her best seductive smile.

"If I tell you what they said, would it help? Would we have lunch at that darling restaurant ... what was it, again?" She tapped her chin and then ran her finger slowly across her lips. "Oh yes, Orchids & Jazz. Lovely place with things I could always read."

Chlamydia's expression didn't alter, though her mind rolled over and kicked hard at her skull. The casual mention of a woman who coughed a great deal wouldn't have caught her attention, except for the fact that one of her leading suspects for who was developing the nanotechnology which had grown the ring on Allegory's finger was a woman who coughed. A woman injured by her own bioweapon, the Class-A war criminal and terrorist, Doctor Holly Day. Chlamydia tapped on her PADD for a moment, and then a holographic display sprang up.

"Do you recognize any of these four individuals?" Chlamydia asked. In succession, a headshot of each of the four rotated. Ryota MacDougall, the missing physician; his Borg-infected wife, Piper; Admiral Adrian Dobbs; and finally, the Butcher of Clarvis, Doc Day.

Damion blinked but kept silent when he saw Dobbs' face. So Addams suspected Dobbs of being involved in this, just as Elizabeth had. Elizabeth's information came from an odd source. Where did Dr. Addams' information come from? He shot a swift glance at the CMO before returning his attention to Destiny.

Destiny's flirty personality took a back seat when she was addressed by the thin pale woman whose eyes seemed almost like black holes. She didn't meet those eyes, because the one time she had ... suffice it to say, it had given her the creeps. She looked at the holos as they flashed. "Could you slow that down a little?" When the rotation slowed, she looked at each one carefully. "Not the first guy, definitely. The second holo? I can only say maybe. There's something familiar about her ... but I'm not sure."

She studied the third picture for longer, then shook her head. "I can't be sure about that second man, either." She remembered dingy gray walls, and some kind of doctor's office. Several white-coated people flitted through her memory. "There were quite a few people around, and he might have been there, maybe in a white doctor's coat? I'm not sure."

Her voice gained some excitement when Destiny added, "But that last woman? Yes! She was coughing so much, it was hard not to notice her. I only passed her in the corridor, and I didn't see her anywhere else."

So Day was there but likely not involved with whatever was done to Destiny, Damion thought. She doesn't fear her.

Everyone knew Holly Day's story, or thought they did, but Ischemia had reason to doubt the official version. She glanced at her sister, wondering what she knew about the woman, and wondering who the first two holos were. Had her sister grabbed them from somewhere specific, or were they innocents added to possibly confuse her client, or trick her into saying what she thought they wanted to hear? The other one she also recognized and she hoped to someday be able to throw him in the deepest, darkest tank the Federation could find ... or perhaps just send him into a raging star.

Destiny turned to her counsel. "Did I say the right thing?" she asked anxiously.

"Did you tell the truth?" Ischemia asked. "The truth is always the right thing."

Outside the interview room, Andrus Grax stood his arms folded, watching the huge monitor which displayed the quartet inside. Jason Fisher and Adam Keller flanked him, watching with the same undivided attention as he. "Interesting..." Grax murmured to himself.

"Sir?" Fisher inquired, glancing across at his superior officer.

"Later, commander..." Grax replied quietly, without taking his eyes off the monitor. "Later..."

"I sincerely hope Dobbs is not involved," Graves said from where he was seated at the table. He looked a bit pale.

Grax arched an eyebrow, but did not not turn to face the counselor.

 

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