Heir to the Empire

Posted on 16 Nov 2015 @ 12:34am by Queen Regent Lirha Saalm & Lieutenant Commander (La'Hom) Atalan tr’Khnailmnae

786 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Episode 09 - Empires
Location: IKS Saalm - Lirha's Chambers
Timeline: MD 02 - 1830 hrs

ON:

Empires rise and fall, it was the way of things, and yet for two thousand years the Romulan Star Empire had endured against the forces of nature and the currents of history. Such success was (in part) due to the presence and actions of Tal-Shiar: part secret police, part military oversight, part intelligence agency, the will of a singular agent of the Tal-Shiar was law. Well, so long as it conformed to the will of the greater organization, and the interests of the Empire, the praetorate and the continuing committee. Some agents of the Tal-Shiar used this power in a juvenile fashion, terrorizing shopkeepers and civilians. Major Atalan tr'Khnailmnae, was not one of those agents.

As he sat in his quarters aboard the Klingon ship he detested, he viewed an action playing out lightyears away, from the view of a Tal-Shiar probe. As the action concluded and the victorious ship sped away from the husk that remained of the defeated ship, Atalan kept his emotions cool, but his face reflected the signs of stoic disapproval. Turning around in his chair, a sliver of light illuminated his eyes to his assembled Romulan officers.

A few darts of his eyes around the room, Atalan conveyed everything to his team and within seconds he was out of the chair and striding towards the door to his quarters.

Two Galae shocktroopers followed him into the more aesthetically Klingon corridor of the IKS Saalm, keeping exactly half a pace behind him and walking in tandem with the clanking, heavy footfalls his black Tal-Shiar boots made on the deck. To anyone who knew the Major, this was the only sign that was needed of his disapproval, one the Klingon members of the crew had by and large, yet to pick up on. This was epitomized when a druken Klingon, escorted by a sober Cardassian, almost crossed in front of the Major on his power trip to the Regent's quarters.

As if like clockwork the right flanking Galae soldier used the force of his arm, backed up by his rifle to bash the Klingon back, forcing him to fall against the bulkhead, all of this while still keeping pace with the Major. Atalan and the troopers were unphased but when the Klingon tried to drunkenly slur some insult at them, Atalan came to a full, rigid stop. Glancing over his shoulder, his fine, deceptively delicate and sharp Romulan features were displayed in partial view to the inebriated Klingon and seemed to strike a sort of fear into him. Either that, or some sense.

With that, the Major kept walking down the corridors of the Saalm until he approached the door to the quarters of the Queen Regent of the Klingon Cardassian Alliance. Simply standing in front of the door, the Major vocalized his desire to see the Queen without looking towards or acknowledging the sentries posted outside. "I request an audience with the Queen Regent." Atalan said, his voice somewhat thorny.

Lirha heard voices outside of her living room. A disturbance that she was not very happy to entertain at the moment considering her present desire for food in the form of a currently-cooking Tribble steak with several Bajoran potatoes boiling in the pot next to the skillet.

"Enter!" she yelled.

The room was typically barbarian. The boiling of pots, the presence of pelts, all in lighting that barely illuminated anything. Dark, red and for some odd reason misty, the Klingon décor had changed little across the many ships Atalan had seen of the Klingon Fleet. "Regent." Atalan finally said, keeping his gaze locked forward and level, staring at nothing and yet everything.

Lirha turned towards the door when it opened and immediately took notice of a tall, hybrid man with traditional distinctive Romulan features and green eyes. "Yes?" she asked, hoping this person would not waste too much of her time.

Atalan's tone was cold, "Regent, I wonder if I could get assurances from you that the war is going well, that you are confident in the Alliance's eventual victory. Just something I could report back to Romulus." He stepped forward gradually, each weighted word brought him one graceful step closer to the Orion.

"The war goes as the war goes," Saalm answered with some disdain for the untrustworthy Romulan who had breached the confines of her quarters. "rest assured, victory is in our grasp. And it will be delivered. Soon..." Or so she hoped...if only her commanders could locate the Terran outpost that she knew was somewhere in the vicinity of their present location.

[TRUNCATED]

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QRGT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
IKS Saalm
[PNPC Saalm]

LCDR Atlan tr'Khnailmnae
Crew Member
IKS Saalm
[PNPC Khnailmnae]

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