"Reflections"

[Guest Sar'vek t'Jhiin]

Sar'vek sat back in her chair with a sigh, doing her best to focus on the rolling data out of the sensor banks and failing. It was na as if she were going to miss "something" suddenly appearing when she was currently looking at... na thing. Scanning sector after scanning sector full of... na thing.

 

She really should have been disgusted at herself. On two counts. Na na -- three. Io, she should na have bothered going up to speak to that intractable excuse for a man. Two, she should na have jumped to ridiculous conclusions -- as h'nah she suspected that was all they were; na that she would admit that. Three, she should na have engaged him in debates about her current situation... or his brother.

 

Though that discussion had raised a point that bothered her more than she preferred to admit. First of all, she was going to y'ya the little veruul in cold-hearted blood if she found out he really was responsible for the obstruction of her transfer requests. Really. Serving the Klinghann'ssu on Rura Penthe would be preferable to this... this... this. Na that she had any intention of returning to any prison world, ever.

 

But na. Destorie had to be lying, or exaggerating the truth, as always. Sar'vek could na imagine that the little whelp would deliberately keep her hrrau Talon if he had a chance to get rid of her, much less go out of his way to risk his big brother's wrath in bringing her back aboard when she was already sent to Hell Camp 3000. Na that she even needed help getting out of Vkai'l. Saving her life indeed. She had a bad first day; that was all. Na thing a week or two of adjustment would na have ended.

 

Sar'vek frowned. If Destorie was, by some strange stretch of the imagination, not lying, then this was even more strange. Why would a man who was at least semi-intelligent bring his worst enemy back aboard a ship when he could have left her -- by his reports, at least -- y'ya for the vultures to pick at? Yet nor could she conceive of any reason why Destorie would invent such a tale. If he wanted to take the credit for keeping her aboard to torment her further, she would have thought that he would have... gloated a bit more, especially h'nah that she had just given him the opportunity. But na, he was a stonily impassive as ever; hardly the attitude of a man who had (also, reportedly) paid a significant amount to retrieve her from her prison. And Issaha? She truly could na fathom the idea that he was motivated by sheer pity. She really could na. This was the son of io of the most ruthless families in the history of the past centuries. Such men were na often moved by their softer sides, when they even had them.

 

Which left a more... prideful explanation. Had Issaha simply brought her back aboard to gloat over her? To punish her for all of her "injustices" against him in the past? As a cruel mark of his own power -- being able to run her into the ground while he wielded the title of Daise? The idea had some merit, she had to admit. Keeping around a vanquished enemy -- especially io that personally despises au and au's family -- was a bit of a status symbol. That made her scowl even more darkly. She had na intention of being a status symbol ever again; that was a role a woman like Sar'vek could only tolerate once in her life. She had to give Issaha credit for his acting ability, though. After all, she really did think Issaha had Destorie convinced that he cared what happened to her.

 

Suddenly Sar'vek doubted very highly that any amount of "menkha behavior", as Destorie had put it, would get her out of her extended duties. If Issaha was hell-bent on keeping her chained to his department, and clearly had free rein from his enarrain to do so, the chances of her being able to buy her way out of the mess with good conduct points were, well, low. Still, she supposed it was worth a shot. After all, getting into his loyalties (though she supremely doubted that Destorie was correct that she had ever had them) could na hurt her. Especially if any part of his plan was the "reforming the contrite sinner" element. Na that she had any particular desire to repent her sins to the little veruul and become his little friend, but if he thought she was playing his game, then it would be much, much easier to get him to play hers.

 

Though there was a small, small part that wondered if maybe, just maybe, it could even be possible that both Issaha and Destorie could have been telling the truth; it was quite frankly the most confounding of the options. Manipulation and game-playing Sar'vek could understand. Outright mercy, well, that was an art left to the diplomats and maenaks, and io that Sar'vek could stand to avoid. But Destorie had said Issaha was not malicious. The idea was preposterous on first examination; by definition an N'Dak was ambitious, and malice certainly had a place in that.

 

And Destorie had made another true, if particularly galling point -- that Issaha could have had her position whenever he had wanted. For all Sar'vek had liked to throw herself around and safeguard her position with more propaganda and self-propagated boasts that she was all but invulnerable in her position, the new enarrain was right -- with that boy's pedigree, even with his... occasionally stalled work ethic, he could have called the command of any Sciences department in the Galae, including hers. Before she made an enemy of the head of said Galae and his blushing bride. Hells, Issaha probably could have been an executive officer by this point -- if he had wanted. It reminded her of a passing thought she had na had since her department was taken from her. Now and then in the past she had wondered if the boy had masked his true potential to avoid such a calling.

 

Odd, she had na considered the idea since he had ascended to the throne of Science, but regardless of the "exceptional" circumstances under which he had attained the position, she had to say that there was some potential for truth in it. But if that were true, then that would mean, unfortunately, that Destorie was correct, and that she had na only spent years depreciating a -- na the most -- loyal member of her staff. That was a disheartening thought. And na only someio who had served her faithfully, without hope of reward -- in fact while effectively turning them away -- but in that case, the boy had saved her life, too. A pang of regret shot through her at the thought. And in that case, why would he even bother, given his treatment?

 

The door to the labs brushed open and shut, and for a siuren Sar'vek wished that Issaha had come down -- then was glad it was io of the other arrains instead, on second thought. Her thoughts on the boy were still racing too quickly to have a "conversation" just yet. On the other hand, whether Destorie's stories were true, she was going to have treat Issaha a little bit less callously for awhile -- whether to help herself or out of gratitude, or both. At this point, it certainly could na hurt her. And if the tale his brother had spun was true, Issaha at least deserved that the brunt of Sar'vek's ire and the scalding amounts of hatred that remained na be directed entirely at him.

 

H'nah, Destorie, hrrau the other hand...

 

A shift in the sensor readings broke her out of her brooding, attentions snapped quickly to what was coming through hrrau her scanners. Well. Think of the Klinghann'ssu devils and they appeared. That was na "na thing on sensors"...