Star Trek PBEM Sim / Star Trek RPG
OUR STAR TREK PBEM STORIES: REMEMBRANCES PAST
Title: Remembrances Past, Part Eight
Location: Pandora's Box, CO's Stateroom
Flashback Setting (Saldar/Kamranov): Takharesh X
--------------- The Darashevi Caverns---------------
"Like you. You look like a beggar, but yet.." the Prince started to
say. He was very wise and observant for such a young boy.
"Me? I'm taking you to a safe place," Saldar interrupted not wanting to discuss
who he really was. "We will rest a bit, then we have to make it through the
tunnels to be picked up," he finished, hoping that the boy wasn't too scared of
caves, bats or the darkness.
The little prince shook his head yes again. Saldar let out a sigh of
relief and scratched his head. He found the head covering very
uncomfortable and itchy.
"Where are you taking me?" the little prince asked.
"I don't know the final destination yet, just that it has changed. For now, I am
taking you, to a place to meet a friend who can take you the rest of the way. I
was going to take you to your cousin Mahldemi," he started to explain.
The boy looked fearful. "He was the one who gave me to the bad people
who locked me in the cell," he said.
"You are sure?" Saldar asked. He wanted to be careful not to telegraph
what he believed to be true and to hear it from the young prince himself. He had
come to this conclusion earlier when he recognized the voices when he was
hiding.
"Yes," he replied.
"How?" Saldar asked. He believed the prince and his memory for voices, but
needed as much informational ammo as possible if he was going to end up fighting
the orders he had from Starfleet and disobeying them.
"Dreyn Mahldemi invited mother and me for lunch with his children,
when we got to. . ." the boy started to say but, was interrupted by a
coughing spell, " . . . dining hall, four men I have not seen before
seized us," he finished.
Saldar observed his health carefully and had scanned him earlier. He
wanted to do it again, but felt that would impede the conversation. "But then
you did not see him?" he asked.
"Not then, but he has visited me in the cell after they took my
mother. He told me to do everything they said and not to complain or
cry or they would kill my mother. He also asked me where certain things were
hidden in the palace," he said nearing the point of tears
again.
"Thank you. I had only suspected and thought I heard his voice," Saldar replied,
deliberately minimizing his skills in this area.
It was only because of years of practice that he did not flinch when the child
repeated what Mahldemi said of his mother. ~Apparently they did not tell him
that they had already killed her.~
"How long ago was this?" Saldar asked.
"Eight novenei prayers before you came. I pass and measure the time
this way," the boy explained.
Saldar stopped for a second recalling the prayers and the time of day they were
usually performed. He quickly did the math in his head. Assuming the boy would
take a little longer than a practiced adult, (he'd seen monks who could chant
one in 8 minutes), then that was only an hour and a half to three hours before
he'd arrived. ~That means 2 days after she was killed,~ he thought. At that
point her death was common knowledge. This would be enough now to justify his
course of actions to others in the immediate future to help convince them to
disobey orders with him.
Saldar gave the boy more bread. He wanted to save it in case Emma or
the others never came to get them, but the boy was so hungry and
would sleep better on a full stomach. Saldar ate only half his portion
to compensate.
"He will kill me when you return me to him. I am not afraid to die.
But then he becomes Kahnrahazhee," the crown prince explained.
"No one is going to kill you if I have anything to say and I do. You
are not going to die. There are many good safe places in the galaxy. You are not
going back to your cousin," Saldar said with emphasis to get the boy to believe
him.
He was definitely NOT taking him to the cousin as ordered. He didn't know if
someone on the inside in Starfleet, Intel or UFP Council was rotten or only
deliberately misinformed by the cousin and his people. For now though none of
the reasons mattered. Saldar was just simply not going to do it. The trouble was
that not doing it was not simple and Saldar need a plan, a very good plan, to
get away with it. That part he hadn't figure out yet.
"Will my mother be joining us?" Prince Rahdemi asked. He had a
special connection with his mother. While in the cell, he dreamed she
had died and visited him to say she loved him, good-bye, and to
remind him of the special coin used as the secret signal of safety
for the royal family in years gone past. He could trust the bearer of
the coin and should follow him. Saldar wore that coin around his
neck. He had seen it. Although the boy did not understand completely, he
believed the dream came from his mother and listened to her. He had a vague
memory of a time before outside of a dream when she had told him the same thing.
"No, not at this time," Saldar said as of it were no big deal and that
the boy's mother were still alive.
~Hopefully never,~ Saldar thought not wanting either of them dead and not
wanting to tell the prince the truth about his mother.
"You will need to live without her for a while to be safe," was all
he could say.
The boy looked like he would cry.
"Your mother will want you safe. That will be the best gift you can
give her, to hide somewhere safe for a while." This was one reason
the Intel Chief didn't want to have children. He never wanted to put them and
their mother at risk like this. Even with the memory wipes, he was privy to a
lot of information that mustn't fall into the wrong hands and had made several
powerful enemies. The most notable one was believed to be behind several
forcefields on an ultra high security prison colony...
Saldar changed the subject. "Do you like jalfran? I like jalfran. I
have some," Saldar said hoping the boy did. Most of the children he had met on
this planet seemed to love this treat made from stiffened sap.
The boy stopped a sniffle.
Saldar took out the jalfran.
"Where did you get that?" Prince Rahdemi asked.
Saldar shrugged. "I can't say right now. We have to get moving," he
explained starting to clean up the cup and crumbs and other signs
that they had stopped. He couldn't tell the boy anything of how his people
operated on the planet and any alliances regardless. He
needed to keep those allied with the Intel group safe. He took this
to be very sacred and an imperative in how he did his job that anyone
who helped him and his team would not be abandoned, forgotten or
sacrificed as was too often done in Federation politics and Earth history. He
knew that the best way to keep everyone safe was to have no loose ends and
tightly control most of the information. "Ready?" Saldar asked as he made the
sling ready and got the mask.
"I can walk," the prince said.
"We must conceal that we are two for now to have a greater chance to
escape. There is a good place for you to walk up ahead," Saldar said to give the
prince room to save face. He did not believe yet that the boy was ready to walk
yet.
Instead of fighting him the prince waited to be picked up.
"Why do the Jullai want the Holy River and Marsh?" Prince Rahdemi
asked as Saldar was about to slip the mask on.
"There are more than one side to things in war. Perhaps they really
want the minerals in the bogs? Perhaps it is about its strategic
location? Perhaps it is about the religious significance and who
should be their custodian and have the rights associated with that? Perhaps it
is just all part of a plot for your cousin to try and grab the throne?" he said
to get the boy thinking about these things.
"People fight for a number of reasons. Sometimes they tell you the real reason.
Sometimes you have to figure it out on your own. Quite often, greed and power
are at the end of whatever the situation is, but only a few at the top know that
secret and the truth.
Regardless what people say are reasons to fight you need to address
them and their perceptions. Some things though are outright lies ...
for example, we were told that Jullai had taken you prisoner when it
was really your cousin."
"So lies in lies like a spinning in a circle until they get dizzy?"
he asked.
Yes," Saldar replied impressed. "Often in war the lies get so spun and
respun so that people can start to believe them if they hear them
enough. Some evil men count on this too," Saldar said recalling the
propaganda machine of Nazi Germany from his planet's past.
"That is terrible and strange," the Prince said.
"Yes," said Saldar. "War and greed are terrible and strange."
Just as he slipped the boy's mask on and his, the bats became frightened and
flew around confused. Even Edgar didn't roost on Saldar's head as he was fond of
doing to Saldar's mild annoyance.
~More of the terrible part,~ Saldar thought as he moved quickly out
towards the extraction point.
~Company. I've got to get him there fast or be able to sustain hiding here.~
