A wolf in sheep’s clothing Pt 8A (Interrogation)

Posted on Thu May 16th, 2024 @ 11:24pm by Commodore Finchley Kerr & Lieutenant Evelyn Steele

Mission: The missions never over.
Location: Brig
Timeline: Current.

Her injuries healed, and her strength back Eve made her way to the brig. She wasn’t happy about being required to interrogate T'kLar, she was a Counsellor, Yes she was trained to use her Betazoid abilities in ways that a Betazoid normally wouldn’t, but she’d never used them in the capacity that Finchley wanted her to. There’d never been the need for it.

Walking through the doors she was greeted by the sight of Finchley waiting for her. “Captain...” She looked at Finchley.

"Yes, Lieutenant?" Finchley asked, turning at the sound of Eve's voice.

Eve gave her uncle a curious look. “I wasn’t expecting you to be here, Are you staying for the interrogation?”

"I want to see what you do and how he reacts" Finchley replied. He looked at T’kLar, then back to Eve, "but he also needs to pay for what he did to all of us, do you understand?"

Eve gave Finchley a concerned look. “Are you asking me to purposely do harm to Tk’Lar?”

"I'm asking you to make him feel partly how he made us feel when we were tortured Lieutenant, do you have a problem with that?" Finchley asked.

Eve gave T’kLar a glaring look. “No Sir!” She walked across to the cell that the Klingon was sitting in. “If you want me to get inside his head I’ll need to touch him. It’ll make for a more stable connection.”

"Does he need to be conscious?" Finchley asked.

“Not necessarily, it depends on whether you want him to put up a fight or not” She gave Finchley a brief smile, one that was more on the colder side than a friendly smile.

Finchley dropped the force field of T’kLars cell, walked inside, took his phaser, reversed it, brought it up above his head and brought it brutally down on T'kLars head. The General grunted and fell forward off his bunk and down onto the floor. Lifting him back onto the bunk, Finchley looked at Eve and said, "He won't put up a fight, carry on."

Eve nodded. Walking into the cell she knelt down beside T’kLar reaching out her hand she placed it on his arm and closed her eyes. Entering anyone’s mind was a risk, but a Klingons mind could be more dangerous. She started her search for the information her uncle wanted. “This is...going to take time...his defences are strong.”

~Tk'Lars mind~

The forest density was thick, and the vines intertwined with each other causing it to look like an impenetrable wall of green. It sensed a presence that wasn't normally there, an intruder...

“Great, a forest!” Eve looked around wondering which way to go. Trusting her instincts she chose to go right rather than head forwards, the brain worked in different ways. She had to try and avoid the defences.

The vines sensed the intruder moving and it interwove themselves to stop them moving in the direction they chose.

“Moving vines even greater!” Eve was ready for that one, Her uncle wanted T’kLar to suffer and cutting through his defences wouldn’t be pleasant. She focused her mind using her abilities to cut through the vines as she stepped towards them.

The cut vines dropped to the ground, but others began to snake out and grab at the intruders arms and legs, curling round them and attempting to stop their movement forward.

Eve fought off the vines, putting her training to good use to try and move from the predicament she was in. Stepping through the hole in the vines she was hoping to find where T’kLar was hiding his secrets though she knew it wouldn’t be that easy.

The forest thinned out into a grassy plain, and in the distance, there was a castle. It was surrounded by a moat, no apparent way across as the drawbridge was up and there was no boat.

Eve looked around, it looked an innocent enough scene but when inside a mind she knew it could be a trap. She cautiously approached the castle, looking around for hidden dangers as she went. If she wanted across into the castle she was going to have to dig more deeply into T’kLar’s mind, the longer she was in his mind the weaker she would become as she put all her energy into digging up the answers Finchley wanted.

A guard, dressed in what looked to be fourteenth century earth period armour, appeared upon the parapet, slowly walking back and forth. "I know you're here" he called out as he walked, "but are you brave enough to try to storm the castle?"

“I didn’t come all the way here to stand outside!” Eve plotted her move, visions were never as they seemed, all she needed was to find the weak point of T’kLar’s mind and she could easily overcome his obstacles. She dove deeper pushing herself to the limit, the only outward sign in the real world was a trickle of blood that was starting to run from her nose.

"Then stop being a coward Counsellor, yes, I know it's you Eve Kerr, oh sorry, you're Eve Steele now, you married that wet one didn't you" Tk'Lar replied. "You see, you're not the only one who can get information, you're in my mind and I can read yours. Poor you, you don't think your...Uncle...oh, the Captain's your Uncle, that's very interesting, approves of you're marriage. It bothers you doesn't it. Yes, yes, that bothers you a great deal, you seek his approval and you're not sure you'll ever get it. Well, it seems your inability to get things you want has you stymied here as well, you can't get at me because you can't get into this castle...awwwww, well, you tried, not very hard, but you tried. Run along now little girl, I'm bored with you."

“Get out of my mind!” Eve concentrated hard on putting up a defensive wall around the deepest parts on her mind, she couldn’t have T’kLar rifling around in those thoughts. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with!” She pushed hard tearing deeper into T’kLar’s mind, it could damage his brain but Finchley wanted answers and she was going to get them. As the bridge of the castle fell, she quickly headed inside.

[Inside the castle]

The pitch covered brushes acting as lights flickered in their holders, casting weird shadows on the uneven walls. There was a slight smell of damp and the flagstones on the floor, covered in a thin film of water seemed to glisten. In the distance, sounds of hammering could be heard, and now and again a shout was audible. A lone figure appeared in the corridor, looking at Eve as they said "You've got to help me get away from him!"

“From who?” Eve looked at the figure wondering what part of T’kLar’s psyche this figure represented.

“From the Klingon they turned me into!” the man replied.

“Turned you into?” Eve was starting to struggle, the sheer pressure was as hard on her as it was on T’Klar. “You were born a Klingon T’kLar.”

“But I’m not Tk’Lar, I’m an undercover SFI Officer, I was inserted into the Klingon Officer programme ten years ago, to spy on the High Council, but they found me out a year ago…and turned me into a real life Tk’Lar!”

Eve’s eyes grew wide, her senses were picking up no deception. “They conditioned you? Made you into him?” She sighed this wasn’t going to be a simple case. “Tell me something only SFI would know, something I can relay to prove it!”

“I am Captain Richard Barrat, Starfleet Intelligence Officer, serial number eight eight four Gamma one Zulu nine. I was deployed into the Klingon Officer programme eight years ago, Admiral Brown is my handler” he replied.

Eve nodded. “Got it! We’ll help you Captain, that I promise you!”

With that information in hand Eve withdrew herself from his mind as fast as she could withstand. She practically staggered to the nearest seat to sit down. She looked wearily up at Finchley.

“He says he’s not T’kLar...” Eve paused, her head was killing her. “That his name is Captain Richard Barrat, SFI, serial number...eight eight four...Gamma one Zulu nine. He said...they made him...look and act like T’kLar.”

Concerned to see Eve as exhausted as she was, Finchley listened to what she said. “Richard Barrat…” he said, picking up a vial and loading it into a dispenser. He gave Eve a shot to try to alleviate the pain she was obviously in.

“He was Captain of the USS Moss when I was completing my SFI training” he said, then added “Did he say when and how he was discovered?

Eve shook her head albeit tenderly. "He just said...he was found out a year ago. I'm sorry uncle Finchley...I don't..." She didn't say another word instead she crumpled into an unconscious heap on the floor, blood pouring from her nose even more than before.

Finchley quickly gathered Eve up and began hurrying to sickbay. Once inside, he laid her down on a biobed and explained to the nurse there what had happened. The nurse was joined by the crash team and they immediately went to work on Eve, all Finchley could do wait to see what the outcome would be. He knew standing around in sickbay wasn't going to help anyone, so he went back to the bridge and awaited news of her...and also how the rest of the team were doing.