Ansha sat stewing on the floor of the clear holding box she was confined to. It would be hard to pin down what angered her most; Evoch having her captive or that he was able to kidnap her in the first place by using a transporter to beam her into the box out of her suit. Regardless, he, being Wind People, knows all the strengths and this well planned kidnapping and confinement demonstrated that in full detail.
The box was a clear, plexiglass-like polymer with very little room and no clear entrance. The temperature was not uncomfortable at the moment. Without her EVA suit, and in nothing but what seemed to be a medical patient’s gown, she was quite vulnerable and at the mercy of the box, and whoever controlled the environment therein.
They were still on the Von Gruber, which creaked and groaned with every moment of strain caused by the lack of hull integrity as well as gravitational stresses of the larger ice planetoids. It also meant her crewmates were onboard. This was somewhat concerning seeing as if he was clever enough to get her isolated, what other traps await them.
“Are you comfortable, Ansha?” Evoch called out from the control area.
“You’re an asshole,” she replied.
“Oh come now, cousin,” he replied patronizingly. “You have to admit this is a sublime experience. I can hardly contain myself. I can’t wait to share it with you. A daring plan, carried out with precision, and the ensuing escape. It is… it is amazing.”
“What I want to share with you is NOT an experience you’re going to enjoy,” Ansha replied.
“I get it, you’re angry. Rightfully so… but before you completely condemn me, hear me out please.”
Ansha sighed and then said, “Not like I have a choice.”
“Well, somewhat. I would not tell you if you didn’t want to hear it.”
“Fine. What is your plan, Evoch.”
“Alright,” Evoch says, bouncing up from the pilot’s chair excitedly. “I am so thrilled. It’s so devious… and defiant and yet sends a statement throughout the galaxy that we will not be trifled with!” He comes to Ansha’s confinement box and sits cross legged on the floor in front of her.
“So, you can access information I need.”
“You mean I can access information the Tal Shiar want,” Ansha replied, scowling at him.
“Well…. Yes… they do. I mean they did, after all, fund this entire venture just to find that out. Trained me, gave me a ship, and told me where to find you and Charvas, but you see… I started thinking, you and Charvas… your joy and freedom… joy and freedom that were never mine to have. Only orders and discipline. Missions and blood for the Empress! I got to thinking, why should we be their pawns?”
“So…,” Ansha looked at him still scowling, “You’re gonna let me go?”
“No… not exactly,” he replied. Ansha rolled her eyes.
“Look, I’m not done telling you my plan,” he said.
“Then GET on with it,” she growled. “You love to hear yourself talk don’t you.”
“Alright, aright!” Evoch said, holding his hands up in some semblance of pacification. “I did some poking around on my own. I knew about this ship long before the Tal Shiar.”
“And like a good boy,” Ansha sneered, “you told them.”
“No. No I did not. They are competent enough to figure some things out on their own. When I found out they were heading this way, well, I had to crash this party. I must admit, it sure was pleasing to watch Dhisuia get her ass handed to her. Oh that was precious. Nonetheless, if I stayed away as ordered, I would have never gotten what I wanted.”
“…which I’m not going to help you get.”
“YET,” he added. “What if I told you my plans were not to turn that over to the Tal Shiar, but rather WE will use that information?”
“I still am not opening the data.”
“Why not?”
“Because you are an asshole, Evoch.”
“You know, I’d rather not kill you but I will… in this environment box. I’d rather not think of you having to suffer but drying you out is the only way to kill you without taking a chance of harming your precious spores. I’m sure your children will be more than happy to share their secrets… and help their Uncle Evoch.”
“See? You are an asshole,” Ansha said defiantly.
“Yes, and you thought your training to block experiences from being shared would be a surefire protection? Your children, ignorant to what should not be shared, will want to share everything, the precious lil’ devils. They will be a mighty mighty army! My army.”
Ansha growled.
“Don’t worry,” Evoch continued, “I will take such good care of them.”
“Evoch, you do realize we aren’t invincible, right?” Ansha holds her hands up to the surrounding box she was in. “We can be dried out, poisoned, eaten? We are sensitive to environmental changes? Have you thought about that?”
“EV undersuits, like you and I both wear, mitigate much of that. Full armored suits like the specially made suit Starfleet gave you would give them even more advantages. That is a small price to pay for an army that grows up with full knowledge of what it must know, and in the span of 6 months time, and only needs to consume wood shavings and cattle manure. An army of soldiers that can take losing limbs or even their head and continue functioning. That can regenerate on their own. Soldiers that are configurable given the frame to grow on. The possibilities for the Wind People are endless.”
“So, where is that the choice… for the Wind People?”
“Well,” Evoch thought for a moment, “Someone has to lead, and someone has to follow. they need their Uncle Evoch to make sure they grow right.”
“And you are going to lead? Ha!”
“You’ll see… Well, only if you come to your senses and help me. Open that data, let’s find the collective, gather some of our youngest cousins and then make our own collective. One that will have our combined tactical, technical, and martial knowledge. Instead of being someone else’s pawns…”
“We make our own pawns,” she added sarcastically. “Right. How’s that different? You and I just became the bad guys in this scenario rather than the Tal Shiar.”
“Bad guys?” Evoch asked quizzically. “Bad guys? Seriously? That’s what it is to you? Bad guys versus good guys? Oh come now, Ansha, I expect less naivete’ out of you, of all people.”
He leans inward. “There’s no good guys. There’s no bad guys. There’s only selfish people wanting only to help themselves and their own kind… maybe. All others be damned. Someone is exploiting and someone is exploited. For an example look at poor Charvas. He lived in squalor! They used him as a mere beast of burden, before I set him free.”
“I mean seriously,” he stands up, “do you really think that your United Federation of Planets is any different? Do you? Do you really? I got bad news for ya, cuz. They are not. They have, through Starfleet, committed atrocities just like everyone else.”
“Look,” Ansha said. “I’m not going to say they are perfect. Like any large organization, they have many members with many opinions of how things should be done. Once in a while, the best people, those that are good, slip and fall.” She stood up. “They make mistakes.” She points to herself. “I’ve made mistakes. What’s important is what we intend to do, how we fix it when it goes wrong, how we reconcile it with those we’ve sinned against. They do that. I did that.”
“Oh, and next you’ll say something about contacting the widow of the man who died due to your negligence…,” Evoch started, only to be interrupted.
“No, I won’t,” Ansha said. “I won’t give you the satisfaction of hearing it from my voice. You know what I was going to say, and that is because you’ve felt those experiences and emotions. But I knew it was wrong. I was taught that to own up for my mistakes. And I did not hide any mistake any of us have made in Starfleet from you, but I also did not hide the times we paid for those mistakes… when we… I tried to make up for my transgression. My negligence. My failure. You tell me when the Empress did the same, Evoch? When did you do the same? You tell me?”
“Idealist drivel!” Evoch declared. “Besides, she’s a mentally unstable bitch. I would have no love loss for her should she get sucked ass first through a black hole.”
“I might be an idealist,” Ansha said, “but I am securely rooted in the notion that in working to achieve those ideals but we will have a long hard battle to get there, and then a constant fight to stay.”
The two of them stopped and looked at each other in sudden shock.
“Did you feel that?” asked Evoch.
“I did,” she replied, managing a smile. “Did we… We just…”
“Had a truly sublime experience,” Evoch said, completing Ansha’s sentence, “together. Without even touching!”
“We solved the Wind People’s one main flaw!” Ansha exclaimed to Evoch.
“Our flaw! Our species’ main weakness! We did,” replied Evoch. “All of these experiences, these emotions, this knowledge…”
“…and yet we lacked the ability to interpret it…” Ansha added.
“…to determine its meaning…” Evoch then added.
“… the intent,” Yyta finished.
“All that,” Evoch began, “the morals and ethics, the notions, the ideals do not transfer, and so…”
“…we have to gain those through living our lives,” Ansha added.
“Or not just that, Ansha,” Evoch said, “Our voices. We not only share information by touch, we…”
“…share information by words, sentences, facial expressions, gesticulation, written languages,” Ansha added.
“Our ancestors,” Evoch continued, “the collective, they were limited, hobbled, never had that. Only touch.”
“I know,” she replied. “We not only communicated the how, we communicated the why.”
“The complexity of any experience and its accompanying emotions are further enhanced by a full explanation as to the preconceived ideas that lead up to its execution and consequences…”
“…and the experience and its emotions felt are, without the right context, meaningless,” Ansha stated.
“Precisely, Ansha. Precisely. Oh, cousin, if they had known that, and if they could do that, if they could give context to all they had learned,” Evoch began, “They might not have had a chance against the Jannessen-Yashal Mining Company.”
“Maybe,” she said smiling. “And anyone else that wishes to enslave or harm them. Makes you want to go back in time and find out.”
“Yes, it does, Ansha.” Evoch answered and smiled. “It sure does, my dear cousin.”
Both turned from each other and slowly sat back down, pondering the amazing revelation they just shared, back to back separated by the clear wall of the box.
“So, gonna help me get that data?” Evoch hopefully queried.
“Nope,” Ansha replied.
“Then I’m still going to kill you,” Evoch said calmly.
“Well, you’re still an asshole,” Ansha replied flatly.
Evoch shrugged. “Meh, that’s fair.” He stood up and walked back to the control area of the ship leaving Ansha to resume her scowl.