"Beneficial Arrangements"

[Guest Fiona Weber]

Several months later...

 

The guard looked over to the silver-haired Dameon. “Commander Weber wants to see you.”

 

“Again?”

 

The guard nodded silently as Corizon stood and made his way to the door.

 

It was the fourth time she'd called him into to 'question' him. Apparently there was some new uprising among the prisoners and she hoped to get some conclusive evidence about them from him, her little informer.

 

This had been an easier job than he thought it was going to be. The aforementioned mistress of the Mars Penal Facility had gained a bit of reputation as a cold, ruthless, dark-heart who cared only for the punishment of those the Empire, and by extension she, deemed as unfit to breath air.

 

What he'd found was a woman who was deeply insecure about her own position and used her relative power over her prisoners to keep them in line. She ruled with an iron fist, which worked well in such places. Of course, like the facade of her reputation, he knew that she really only cared about her secret research being conducted in the section of the facility labeled “Weber's Keep.”

 

Fiona glanced up as the door to her office slid open, then smirked. "Oh, there you are. Good." She nodded to the guard. "You may leave us." She waited until they were alone, then considered the Dameon who had, in spite of her objections to him, managed to be a good little dog after all. "I want every name you have."

 

Corizon smiled lightly, looking at her with his deep golden eyes. "And what will my reward be?"

 

"Continued existence," she replied. "Otherwise, I plan to pin this entire little rebellion on your shoulders. Nobody will care as long as I produce some culprit, hmm?"

 

"Perhaps," he said with languid smile as he made himself comfortable. "You''ve heard of using a stick and carrot. Well, I've had enough of just the stick..."

 

Weber narrowed her eyes at him; she hadn't said he could sit on her couch. "I hear they're considering bringing back crucifixion," she remarked, dryly.

 

Snorting her looked at her. "Really, you do know by now that you neither scare nor frighten me."

 

"Not really relevant. You should know by know that I'm willing to make good on my threats."

 

"Threats only have power if they have meaning."

 

Fiona pondered for a moment, leaning back in her comfortable chair. "So the puppy wants a carrot, hmm? I suppose I could speak with my superiors about sending you to a rehabilitation colony for milder prisoners, and possibly reducing the length of your sentence..."

 

"Hardly," he said grinning. "They won't reduce my sentence... something about killing a member of Central Command in front of his children..."

 

"Well, that's your own fault, then." Fiona sighed, shaking her head. "I suppose I'm left with increasing your ration quality. Or, I could just ship you off for trial for 'inciting the prisoners' and deal with the problem on my own."

 

"Or," he said, grinning wider, "you could let me do what I do best."

 

"What, go in and kill the upstarts yourself?" she answered, ignoring his grin. "I'm sure you'd enjoy that, but no."

 

"Far from it," he said. "Just let me deal with them once your guards have captured them, perhaps, you might even learn something... like the Tal'Shiar techniques I picked up while I was in their care."

 

Her eyes lit up at the thought, and she couldn't hide her excitement. "You know Tal'Shiar interrogation methods?"

 

"I spent eight months under the supervision of Colonel Raddik tr'Kolam for... well that's not that important."

 

"Dear God." Fiona nodded a few times. "Yes, yes, I think this could be arranged. A wonderful idea."

 

"The leader of the group..."