"Learning Processes" (Mature)

[Guest Sar'vek t'Jhiin]

Avery sat in his office, rummaging through a stack of padds. He looked up as the door to his office opened.

 

"I'm not intruding, am I?" a soft voice asked, looking around curiously.

 

His eyes came to rest on her slight figure as she walked through the door, her hand gently resting on the side of the wall. So delicate... "No, not at all." He smiled, sweetly. Take your slave to work day... he muttered in his mind. "Just, do not touch anything," he said pointedly.

 

"Didn't I already learn my lesson on touching your things, Avery?" she asked quietly, no smile on her face. Was there ever?

 

He moved his hand to her chin, twisting her head to look at her cheek. A small portion of her right cheek had turned a light greenish color. Such a shame to bruise such a lovely face. He sighed, she would learn. "Yes, I believe you did."

 

She nodded, looking to the floor, submissively. "I apologize again, Master. I hope I did na ruin aur work," she said looking back up at him, her eyes wavering uncertainly.

 

"You did not, at least not irreplaceably," he motioned for her to sit, though not in the single empty chair in the room, but to an empty spot on his desk. He would never admit it to the slave, but her efforts had shown several errors that he had previously overlooked.

 

She looked at him for a moment, unamused, though she nodded, complying. "You could always make use of me as a scientist, if you wished, as I'm sure you're aware."

 

"I am very well aware of you attributes, Nav'iae," he remarked as he tossed a padd at her.

 

Giving it a glance, she frowned. "Au are actually asking me to match these samples?" T'Jhiin stared at him incredulously, more than a bit insulted.

 

"No," he looked up from his padd at her. "I'm telling you to."

 

"I won't be bothered to do a task that I have been able to do since before I was five years old." She pushed it back across at him. "Have io of aur assistants do it."

 

"My assistants are all busy," he caught the padd as it slid across his desk. With a quick snap of his wrist, the padd flew through the air back at her.

 

"Do I look like an imbecile to au?" She looked at him through slitted eyes, her pride visibly damaged.

 

"No, you look like a slave," his tone was reprimanding, his voice holding a cold edge. "Which is exactly what you are, t'Jhiin," He laid the padd in his hand down, holding his gaze on her.

 

She crossed her arms again, closing her eyes. "You seem to enjoy reminding me."

 

"My dear," his eyebrow raised. "I have only begun to teach you." He jerked his head towards the padd in her hand. "I do not have all day."

 

"I will not do it."

 

He reached out and grabbed the neck of her tunic, and in moments she was sprawled across the desk, her face mere inches from his. "I would like you to reconsider that for a moment, Tempest." The back of his left hand brushed her bruised cheek, applying pressure to the skin.

 

"It is an insult to me as a scientist," she hissed, shrinking from his touch. "Even if I am your slave, you should respect me as you would any other disciple of knowledge."

 

He twisted his wrist then threw her off the desk, padds and other objects flying off with her. "Respect?" he snarked. "I have shown you far more respect than any slave I have had in the past." His voice now carried an angry tone. "I think it is you who do not respect me." He moved to sit on his desk, looking down at her. "You do not respect me for all I have done for you."

 

"All you have done for me?" Her eyes met his, challenging. "What have au done for me? Oh, ie, au let me live, but I did na ask for that." She drew herself onto her elbows, breaking his gaze. "I asked that au y'ya me, rather the opposite of what au did. In fact, na io thing au have done for me was something that I willed." She smirked sardonically, tilting her head back. "Au must consider taking me into aur bed a reward as well."

 

His boot found her neck, pinning her against the deck plate. "Is death truly what you wish?" His voice held a menacing tone; his patience was wearing thin.

 

She stiffened, her eyes flitting away. "To this life? Ie."

 

He ground his boot harder into her neck, squishing her like a bug against the deck plating. "Such a waste..."

 

She struggled against him, trying to push him away. "Fhaen," she gasped.

 

He felt her push against him, and drove his foot down harder.

 

Four hours later, she stirred, feeling soft sheets against her nude form. She rolled over, attempting to open her eyes, and it hit her. The world spun around her, pain forming in her neck and head. The view in front of her went from black to gray, then from gray to blur, finally coming into focus on a single form standing as a desk a few meters away from the bed.

 

The Bajoran turned, moving towards the bed as he heard her stir. "Good morning, Nav'iae," he spoke softly.

 

She drew in a few stilted breaths, sitting up as she touched she bruises on her neck, flinching. "Au let me live?" she asked, a bit surprised to still be breathing.

 

"I did only what you asked, Tempest." He smiled, but with a self-assured coldness to it. He sat down beside her on the bed, holding out his hand to caress her bare shoulder.

 

She pulled away, cringing. "If you could not finish what you started, you should never have begun."

 

"My love," he spoke, furrowing his brow and placing his hand beside her on the bed. "I simply could not take your life...when you were begging to keep it."

 

"Don't call me that," she whispered. "And I did not beg you for anything."

 

"Oh?" He quirked an eyebrow. "And does the word fhaen ring any bells? You seemed to be quite fond of it as you were gasping for air."

 

The muscles of her jaw tightened considerably. "If this is an attempt to shame me, you're failing. And if you lack the appropriate nerve to kill..." Her voice trailed off.

 

He grasped her throat, ignoring its already bruised surface. "If I had lacked the appropriate nerve to kill, half of your crew would still be alive, my love."

 

She grit her teeth at the physical pain, her eyes closing as she made an attempt to block out the sensations. Ignoring the other, even more painful jab he made was even more difficult. "I told you not to call me that."

 

"And I have told you to show respect," he released her neck, laying his hand atop the covers on her leg. She was strong, but she was close to breaking...he could feel it.

 

She looked downwards, unwilling to let the burning tears fall. "Surely you can tell that this cannot work. I'm unable to submit as you demand."

 

He put his finger to her chin, turning her face up to look at him. "You are submitting right now. You will learn," he sighed, lightly. "It took her time to adjust as well."

 

"The Orion?" she asked, jerking her head.. "But you two get along so smashingly now. How could the little greenskin ever be anything but loyal?"

 

"I assure you," he smirked, "she had quite the temper." The smirk turned to a considering gaze. "In time, we too shall get along...smashingly."

 

"I wouldn't count on it."

 

He stood and moved off towards the desk, and moments later a padd flew from his hand to land just beside her.

 

She shrugged, shaking her head slightly. "I would have assigned this to the most illiterate member of my department. I won't denigrate my own mind by working on it."

 

He rubbed his temples in obvious disbelief. "How many times must we go through this exercise Sar'vek?" He leaned against the deck. "You are a slave now, my dear, you no longer need that mind you hold so close."

 

"Perhaps I still find it necessary, to maintain my sanity." With a sigh, she picked up the padd, a sad expression in her eyes as dialing equations into it with no more than a minute‘s time. "Take it, but don't ever insult me in such a manner again."

 

He snatched the padd from her hands, looking over it, then tossing it aside before coming to sit on the bed again. "Now really, e'lev, was that so hard?"

 

"Ie," she stated, not looking at him.

 

He moved his hand along her right cheek, gently caressing its supple skin. "I do not understand..."

 

Turning her head, she raised an eyebrow. "Understand?"

 

"Why, with beauty such as this, you think you require a mind..."

 

A wave of unbridled rage stirred in her, quelled by a bit of sense from that same questioned mind. "Why wouldn't I? I'd like to think that my mind holds at least some appeal of its own."

 

He smiled. "Do not get defensive, Tempest. I was not diminishing your mind, simply complimenting your beauty."

 

"I should take it as a compliment?"

 

"Life is too short to take everything as a criticism."

 

She looked him in the eye, running a slow hand through his hair. "In my life -- my real life, not this fantasy of yours -- that's how one becomes a leader. But while also being on guard."

 

He ran his hands through her hair in turn. "In relation to that life, your life, you get your wish. You are dead to it," he looked her in the eyes. "My fantasy is all you exist in now, it is all the meaning your life carries."

 

With the arm farthest from him, she gathered her hair, turning from him. "Then, Avery, what would be left of Sar'vek... Nav'iae? With no spirit?"

 

"What is left," he smiled, knowing she could not see it. "Is a calmer version of you, precisely what we are trying to accomplish."

 

She smiled, a bit sadly. "That doesn't sound like Sar'vek anymore."

 

He leaned in, his voice a warm whisper against her ear. "Then rejoice, e'lev, for you have your desire." his lips again twisted into a cold smile. "That Sar'vek t'Jhiin is dead."