History is its own Vice

Posted on 30 Jun 2014 @ 6:01pm by Lieutenant Theron Rhodes & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim
Edited on on 02 Jul 2014 @ 3:18pm

3,315 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 4, Passageway
Timeline: MD -04 0800

ON:

"Holodeck training has brought several personality issues to light." Lt. Rhodes continued to read the report as he walked down the passageway on Deck 4. "During simulated confrontation, there was successful diminishment of hostilities in 87% of incidents within the expected . . ." Theron then heard his name called from behind him, but it seemed very distant. When he stopped and turned to look, no one was there. He thought that odd. He could have sworn he had heard something. This had happened twice before since the mission had begun. It was not a good president for him to be hearing voices in his head.

Turning back the direction he had been going he came to an abrupt halt finding himself face to face with Commander Warraquim. If he had taken another step, he wound have knocked her down for sure. As it was, he was practically nose to nose with the Akkadian doctor.

Allyndra had remembered the party and the Security Chief and she was headed toward his office to take him up on the offer of talking about history. She loved studying the past and not just her own, but many other worlds. It was that and besides, she wanted to get to know more of the crew on a more personal level.

She blinked as she had called to him, but he seemed preoccupied until he was on top of her almost nose to nose. "Are you alright Lieutenant Rhodes?" she asked. "I did not mean to interrupt your train of thought."

Theron took a respectful step back, "My appolgize, I guess I was not looking where I was going." He began to sound more introspective, "I . . ah . . thought I heard something." But, then looking again at the Doctor he asked, "I trust your day is going well, less distracted than mine?"

"Actually it is rather boring. The crew is thankfully healthy and the cruise is without complication so my sickbay is rather empty." Allyndra shrugged slightly. "Trust me, not a bad thing and no complaints, but it leaves much time on the hands and right now I have little inclination to work in the laboratory. You mentioned at the Bar opening that you had some interest in historical objects?"

Theron crossed his arms thinking about the topic, just a little surprised that she remember that conversation a week ago. "Yes, yes I did."

"If you are not otherwise engaged, perhaps I can take you up on your offer," Allyndra looked hopeful, but she knew that others had their own schedules and added, "that is if you are not otherwise busy."

Theron raised his eyebrow, feeling very interested. He glanced at the chrono on the corridor wall. "No. There are several hours until my shift on the Bridge. Is now good for you?"

"Yes it is. Please lead the way, this eager student will attend." Allyndra made a short, but very formal curtsey like she would to any Master Guilds person on her home world. It felt good to her, for it had been years since she had been a student and the slight rush of wanting to know filled her suddenly.

Allyndra's eagerness made Theron raise and eyebrow and smile, "Very well then, right this way."


Rhodes Quarters

Entering his quarters with Allyndra, he all of a sudden felt slightly vulnerable. He had tried very hard to lower his personal boundries. His mouth and throat went dry and he felt flush all of a sudden. This apparently was another significant step, pushing his ability to let others close to him and what his world contained. He stepped toward the replicator, "Water cold." Then remembering proper manners he turned to Allyndra, "May I offer you a beverage or anything?"

"Sweet tea...no Bloodflower necture," Allyndra said and then quickly changed her mind. "It is native to my world and I brought a sample back from my last trip so the engineers could programme it in."

Theron was a bit confused initially by Allyndra's drink request. He was then grateful for her explanation. Turning back to the replicator, he picked up his glass of water and then said, "Sweet tea...no bloodflower necture, the way Commander Warraquim likes it." As it was materializing he took a long drink of his water. He probably could have drank the whole glass, but that would have been unsociable. Something he was still working on.

Picking up the sweet tea, the Tandaran held out the glass to her.

Allyndra took the offered glass of dark read liquid and sampled it and then smiled, "Close enough, do go ahead" She indicated the glass he had ordered.

Theron was a little uncertain, for a couple reason, but just replied, "Maybe another time." He took another long drink to get his thoughts together. He was frustrated slightly because there was no reason for him to be nervous. He didn't quite understand.

After a long pause he said, "Commander Warraquim, I . . well . . have read some on your file." Trying to explain that statement continued, "As security chief I read all personnel files." He was feeling nervous again and sat the glass down. He smiled and said, "I have read some about the Akkadians. Is it true that the species, in centuries past, use to drink the blood of victims?"

"Of victims? No, as lovers yes. Technically, and by the way I much just prefer Allyndra, we are optional hematophagies, that is we do exist on blood but other drinks especially something sweet. Trust me, I do not go around biting other people." Allyndra referred to the glass with a motion of her hand. "This is a sweet drink, and while it is red like many species blood, it has nothing in it that resembles such liquid. Now then," Allyndra made a small curtsey with much practiced grace, "we are here to talk history."

Theron looked down slightly, hoping that he had not touched on a subject that was too personal topic. He smiled, looked at Allyndra, and replied, "Yes, yes of course." He stepped over to the wall behind a couple chairs. He activated a mechanism that moved a curtain away to reveal several weapons that hung on the wall.

Allyndra straightened and followed. She had hoped that she had not been too harsh, but so many just did not understand that blood was natural way of existence to her. It had always been that way and though she tried to be scientific about it, it hurt that way people always reacted. She tossed that thought to the side though as the curtain moved open and several bladed style weapons were revealed.

"Quite a collection, I only recognize one or two, but by no means an expert. That is Vulcan is it not," she put a hand out but did not touch a particular weapon.

"You are correct." Theron replied as he raised a hand and touched the long spear-like rod with a fan-shaped blade on one end and a club on the other. "This is a Lirpa, a traditional Vulcan melee weapon."

Theron glanced over the weapons identifying them quickly in his mind, "There are weapons here that come from many cultures and species; Human, Klingon, Andorian, Vulcan, Jem'Hadar, Shinzon, Dalek, and even Romulan." When he finished he was pointing to a short sword at the center of the display.

Allyndra looked at each while Theron named each and the culture in turn. "And how about your own culture were they violent? Are there weapons there?"

"Unfortunately yes." Theron responded as he stepped over to the wall and touched two crossed blades with the points up. They looked more like cleavers, but extended to a point about 18 inches long. "These are from an era of repression a couple hundred cycles ago on my home planet." Theron shook his head at the memory of reading the history. "Very brutal weapons used for hacking people into obedience. The Ruebke are razor sharp and used to chop of hands off those that did not obey the Fascist government at that time." He had to close his eyes, because the stories of his grandfather came back to him, too vividly.

The weapon did not catch her attention so much as the bit of history of Theron's planet. "Interesting, so what brought that about, the government? I must admit, I am not very versed in many cultures history but it seems many had many long centuries of strife as they struggled to the stars."

"These date back a couple hundred cycles." Theron began, "At that time the Tandaran people were trading freely with other space faring people. But, when corruption was found wide spread, a great leader stepped forward to rally the populous. He is know as the Kife and gained great respect."

"I see, a charismatic type but full of eventual megalomania. So what was this..."
She imitated what sounded to her like a title, " Kife name?" She was much more interested in the history than the weapon now.

"His name was Laymish Orgmore. He rallied the people and over the course of 40 cycles a factious government was formed. They were brutal, but implemented some of our founding belief of non-personal contact."

Allyndra said nothing but gained an insight into Theron. Non-contact, it was not dissimilar to her own world, but for different reasons. "So if I understand then anything alien was used as a sort of....excuse to blame problems on?"

Theron closed his eyes and snickered slightly, "Yes. That is one way to put it."

"So I have the concept, please continue," Allyndra indicated.

"The Government drove out any influence from other worlds, crushed illegal activity, and brought peace to our worlds. Like I said, it was a brutal period, but after 30 cycles, a Declaration of Subordination was signed into law, and the current Council was formed."

"A Declaration? Is that like some sort of organizational document? The Charter of Rigel, the old American Constitution?"

Theron had to ponder his answer before he replied, "The document was just saying that all those present, which were military leaders and owners of powerful corporations, all agreed that it was time to stop dictatorial style government, under the Kife, and a Quorum Council was formed. They all agreed to subordinate their power through this Council."

It seemed strange to Allyndra. The Guilds that had formed long ago as far as she was aware of had never put anything down, just more or less agreed to things. A much different concept.

Allyndra was not sure what a cycle was, but had presumed years or more. "Interesting though, a constitution usually implies some sort of codified laws protecting the rights of the people as well. That is not something that I thought would have been done with what you described. How was this organized?"

"So there were certain family lines, certain..." Allyndra wanted to say Guilds but it was different. "Accepted groups? Is that correct?"

"Of a fashion." Theron replied, "It was not so much the blood, but the accomplishments by our leaders. They and their family would be recognized, but not forever, only 2 generation. It was important that good deeds to the nation continue, and those individuals be recognized."
tag

"The Kife was the first to receive a Basche." Theron pulled up his sleeve to show the Tridant tattoo on his left inner forearm.

Allyndra peered at the tattoo. "So this Bask?" She was not sure she got the name quite right.

"Yes." Rhodes acknowledged, "this is the symbol of the family Basche.

"Basche," She let the name roll on her tongue. "This was your symbol of your House?"

Theron smiled, "Yes. Because my grandfather was instrumental in a disaster relief and water reclamation, this symbol of the sea was chosen."

"I see, sort of like out Guilds but a little different. Interesting." Allyndra wanted to delve further but she had come to his quarters to learn of historical objects and she asked about another object.

"This one here is a replica of a Rosesh, a Romulan Officer's ceremonial sword from a hundred cyles ago. Kiri Cho and I found it near the Vega Colony during shore leave." The bronze looking blade was straight and double edged. It did flair out slightly 1/3 way from the tip. It had a single and grip with an oval shaped hand guard.

"Interesting," Allyndra peered at the object. "I can not help but wonder why a Vulcan off shoot picked up so much about Earth's ancient period."

Theron canted his head to the side in thought, processing through what Allyndra was alluding to, and then said, "I'm not so sure they duplicated another society's styling of weapon. For some societies what works best for that species, the materials available, and methods or techniques of use do play and important role in determining the weapons final appearance."

"OH! You are quite correct," Allyndra replied with a secretive smile playing on her lips. The diary that she was translating into her log indicated sometimes another did pick some customs and other up.

"Still Romulus and Remus were Earthlings and such came to be the name for the two worlds of the Romulan home system. Vulcans are an old race, one cannot wonder if perhaps someplace 'Those Who Decided to March Under the Raptor's banner'," which Allyndra had heard from Vulcan history to describe the split. "Did not encounter or stop by Earth even temporarily." She then made a slight dip. "I digress, please show me more for I must admit that they are interesting for we never had such weapons."

That last statement was true in so far as nothing bladed. What the Ak'su had unleashed had been sometime far more terrible.

Theron was very pleased that the good doctor was interested in more than just the items, but the history behind them. But then, at times he felt that she was not saying something. He thought, Maybe for another day.

Also feeling that she wanted to see something different, Theron smiled and turned to the other side of the room. "Over here is a weapon, much different from most." He stood looking down and a metal gauntlet with multitudes of tiny metal pines sticking out from the outer surface. "This is a Glavin, a type of weapon used for ritual hand-to-hand combat by the Ligonians."

Allyndra examined the object, her fingers not quite touching the thing since she was not sure if she should but it was intricately made.

"As you can see, it is to be worn on the hand like a glove. The multitude of spines are ceremonially coated in neuro toxin. This usually causes hallucinations. Of course if too much toxin is absorbed, then the victim will pass out, and depending on his body's ability to deal with it, they may die. Some times they recover, but are never the same. This particular item has had all residue of the toxins removed." Theron looked directly at the Doctor. "It has been double checked."

Allyndra chuckled. "I will take your word. I figure you would take care that someone did not get hurt on accident."

"Absolutely." Theron replied and then added, "The technology of war has always preceded the technology that built great civilizations."

"Or brought about their destruction?" Allyndra added. "Do you know that we never had weapons such as these in our past?

The Tandaran agreed with her assessment and then replied, "Is that right?"

"That is correct and yet, we developed weapons and turned them on ourselves. It is why to this day that you will not see much outward sign of technology on my home."

Theron thought grimly on her planet's people and situation. "That is unfortunate." Then he recalled that she used the word outward. "Are you meaning to say that you have technology, but you keep it hidden from others?"

Allyndra stiffened, that comment was right on the mark but she could not confirm that. She instead said, "We kept what we thought useful, medical and that sort of thing but something that was harmful or was strictly a weapon no." She looked at Theron. "Do you think it unwise of us?" Allyndra asked suddenly.

Theron considered her answer. It was tactfully worded, not to reveal the whole truth, but lead him to a question about, interpretation. Interesting. After a thoughtful moment he replied, "I would always find it wise to consider the ramifications of knowledge unto those that do not comprehend the long term significance of that information or technowledgy." he left her with a slight smile. He felt it best to not press that topic further, but possibly at a later date.

Allyndra muttered, "A'ilk na'uano mea man'a I'luna k'oia
Ak'loe m'ike makapa. She looked at Theron knowing he probably did not understand her language and translated. "To know a thing is to have power over it, but not to see is to be blind."

Theron found her insight to be inspiring. He continued to look to her thoughtful.

It seemed awkward for a moment and then she turned to another weapon and asked "What tale is about this thing."

The words seemed to break the trans they had been in. Theron smiled and looked to the weapon Allyndra pointed to. He chuckled slightly, "That my dear Doctor is a called Denn'bok." Theron reached over and picked up the shiny metal cylinder that was about 4 cm in diameter and 10 cm long as it lay across his palm. There was a center band of engraving, but no other obvious markings.

"A Denn'bok?" The question was there and while the pronunciation of the word was precise one could tell it was a mimic. "Please explain," She continued, "I have not an idea of what that is or what it means."

Theron smiled slightly, "It might be easier to show you." He reached over and gently lifted the shiny metal cylinder from it's carriage, gripped it into his fist, and stepped back. With only a very slight change in his hand the metal extended in both directions to an overall length of 1.6 meters. It did not appear to taper, nor were there any lines along the shaft of metal that gave explanation as to how it was broken down. It appeared to be a single shaft of metal held firmly in his hand.

Allyndra watched. "Ah, very interesting. A form of shape-memory alloy? " Her mind kicked into gear and before he had a chance to answer, she continued on, "So it is a metal that has different crystalline structure. Is it activated by the temperature of you hands, that is a subtle change in the ion capacity of the skin. I presume the atoms in the structure will travel through the metal by electrical diffusion, changing all the atoms shift at the same time to form a new structure, much in the way a parallelogram can be made out of a square by pushing on two opposing sides...."

Allyndra stopped suddenly. She was suppose to be a doctor and she was but that did not mean she did not understand and her mind had kicked into that other thought process. The one which had almost doomed her race and which had put her both into secrets but at the same time under scrutiny to see how much of A'ksu she carried in her genes.

That sudden insight frightened her and she flushed. "I am sorry, I just remembered an appointment. Please forgive me," Allyndra made a small dip and then turned, took a few steps and stopped and turned to face him. "I truly appreciate you showing me some of your collection, perhaps another time."

OFF:

--
Lt Theron Rhodes
Chief Security Officer
USS Galileo

Lt Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Gallileo

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