Interrogation; Round Two - SD 50308.22

[LtCmdr Roget 0]

The straps around her wrist bit into her skin as her arms were extend up and secured over her head.   Two of the guards secured her feet and left, leaving her strung up in front of Atragon.  

 

Atragon did not stare at Rogét as she was being secured, but he did not avert his gaze either.  Instead he focused on keeping his emotions in check, keeping his expression neutral.

 

"Quite lovely, isn't she Admiral?"  The Daise Dheno moved out of the shadows and walked around Margaux, surveying her wounds.   "We meet again, Daise Erei'Riov.  I hope this conversation will be more to my liking."  He reached out trailing a finger over the wound zigzagging across her abdomen, causing Margaux to suck in her breath.   "A shame to mar such fine skin, don't you think Admiral?" 

 

Atragon narrowed his eyes and spat, "You're a bastard."

 

Margaux pulled at the leg bindings, causing the Daise Dheno to turn and smile slightly.   "Such spirit after our last meeting.   You are a worthy adversary."  He glanced back at Atragon.   "You must have your hands full with this one."  He reached up and pushed Margaux's hair out of her face and stared hard into her green eyes.   'It is quite simple, really.   Either you or your Admiral has information I need, and I intend to get it.   It seems that your illustrious leader can stomach watching the men on his crew suffer my interrogation, but I wonder ..." 

 

With one hand he ripped what remained of Margaux's tunic from her.   She saw Atragon pale and try to avoid any strong reaction, but she could see the anger in his eyes.   Margaux felt her cheeks redden with both anger and humiliation at being so openly exposed.   "Can you stomach watching a woman suffer, Admiral?"  The Daise Dheno walked around Margaux, looking at her intently, "Yes, most definitely a woman."  He spun back around to face Atragon, "the codes Admiral."

 

"You know I can't give you the Command Codes to my ship.   You may possess the ship, but it will never be yours!   The more you hurt us, the more we will resist you."

 

The Daise Dheno sneered, turned away from Atragon and grabbed Margaux's hair, craning her neck back.   "The codes, Commander."

 

Margaux's heart was beating rapidly.   Her hands were going numb and her skin was covered in gooseflesh from both the raw emotion and the temperature of the room.   Her eyes blazed with hatred, "Rot in hell."

 

"Such a shame," the Daise Dheno said with a sigh.   "Such lovely skin."

 

Atragon's eyes went wide, "No! You don't have to do that! She doesn't know..." 

 

Margaux looked at Atragon, a look of confusion on her face.   The whip came down across her back without warning.   The shock of it was worse than the pain, but it was more than enough to break the skin.   Her eyes went wide with surprise, and then she closed them tight as the whip came down on her again and again.  She could feel the blood beginning to trickle down her back and it was a sharp contrast to the sweat that coursing down her face and burning into her eyes.

 

Atragon felt a fury engulf his body.  Using his telekinesis, he pulled back on the whip's tails so that it seemed to hit Margaux, but actually slapped back on itself at the end of the Daise Dheno's strokes.   He was hoping that Romulan wouldn't notice, but he did see Margaux open her eyes slightly to see what was happening.   She seemed to register the concentration on Atragon's face and close her eyes slowly again.

 

It took a dozen or so more strokes, not all perfectly deflected, for the Daise Dheno to wonder why Margaux was holding up so extraordinarily to his attacks.   He finally noticed Atragon's focus and, with one fluid motion, he brought the handle of the whip hard across Atragon's face, breaking his concentration and his consciousness.

 

"You fool," she said between gasping breaths. Her mind was working overtime now, putting pieces of a plan together, ignoring the searing pain of her back.  Precip needed time and she needed a way to buy him more.  "Even if he did willingly give you the access codes to Manticore they wouldn't work."  She looked up, her eyes hard and cold.  "All you've done is earned yourself a lifelong enemy."  She looked over at Atragon's unconscious form.  She knew he had been trying to help, trying to spare her from the beating.  Had she been thinking logically, it may have made perfect sense, however; his actions only fueled her rage.

 

The Daise Dheno walked around Margaux, the whip folded in his hands.  He had a sheen of sweat over his skin from the exertion.  "And why wouldn't they work, Daise Erei'Riov?  What did you do?"  He brushed the coiled whip over her laid open back.  Margaux cried out and tried to arch herself away. 

 

Stepping back, he uncoiled the whip, "What did you do, Commander?"  He bit the words out and waited only a moment before the leather lashed out again onto her flesh.

 

"I changed the program," she choked. "I couldn't let the ship be taken, and I couldn't trust the codes with anyone," she looked up her eyes blazing with hate. "because I knew what you would do to get the information.  None of them can tell you anything."  Time, she kept thinking, time for Precip and perhaps they'll leave Garnoopy and the others alone.  Her hair was plastered against her face, "Your goons can work on it until kingdom come and they will never figure it out."

 

The Daise Dheno narrowed his eyes, and let out a scream of frustration.  Three more times the whip found it's mark and then the Daise Dheno stopped, throwing the whip to the floor.   Marguax sagged against her bindings, her breathing labored.   He turned to a guard in the corner.  "Get her out of my sight."

 

They dragged her back to her cell, dumping her ceremoniously onto the floor.  "We need to take their commander back to his cell," one of the gaurds muttered.

 

They reactivated the forcefield and walked away.  The two Botanist in Margaux's cell stared at her back, horrified and looked over Garnoopy, who's expression matched their own.  It hurt to move, it hurt to breathe, but Margaux could not stop the shaking or the sobs that seemed to come from deep in her soul.

 

Quietly, the two Botanist removed their shirts and covered as much of Margaux as they could without touching her back.  Somewhere, far inside her mind she said, "thank you"