PART I: Davin
...Or Romulan History X
Act 1: Okhala
What follows is an examination of several key events in Davins life, for my benefit as well as your entertainment, trying to answer the eternal question, 'what made Davin into such a frothing bucket of crazy, and why won't he get a psych eval already?' A warning, this episode gets a bit dark, and I can't promise that the series as a whole will be lighter after this as I'm not sure how it's going to play out yet. But hey, if you don't mind that, please give this a read.
Spoiler: Show
Vallir Mandukar ran his fingers through his hair, ruffling the streak of grey he had been given by a particularly angry Jem'hadar and that no regenerator could ever seem to quite fix. Across the room D'Kera just grinned, but she couldn't convince him the gesture was sincere.
"We might never get a better chance," she said. "That doomsday lunatic threatening the senate has the Tal Shiar on high alert. This could be it!"
"Or it could get us all killed," Vallir said flatly. D'Kera's smile didn't wane in the slightest, and that assured him that she was just as terrified of this idea as he was. But maybe, just maybe...
"Look, the fleet is going to be on high alert for at least this week, and that means everything we can spare will be centered around ch'Rihan. You can go, slip away from the convoy and it will be days before anyone even notices! Void, you and Davin could be half-way to Vulcan by then, and I can be there in a cloaked Kestrel in under a month."
Vallir turned back to the doorway, back to Davin sitting on the balcony playing with his little toy warbird. And beyond him he could see the senate building, looming and imperially decadent, perched above the city like a raptor. In that moment, any logic fled his mind. He refused to let his son grow up on this wretched planet, living in fear of the Tal Shiar, telling himself like he and D'Kera had told themselves for so many years that one day they would leave it all behind and escape the tyranny of the Star Empire.
"...Alright... Alright. This is really it." He laughed nervously, again running a hand through his mostly black hair. And D'Kera smiled, actually smiled, as she rose from the table, light gleaming on the checkered plates of her uniform.
"Then we'll have to be quick. One bag each, nothing more, and we'll rendezvous above Nimbus."
Vallir rose too, grinning from ear to ear, and once they were sure Davin wasn't looking they kissed with a reckless freedom they hadn't felt in a long time.
" 'khala!" Davin cried over the din of the open air spaceport, and Vallir followed his gaze to the looming D'Deridex warship rising into the clouds. He couldn't tell if it was the Okhala, but he wasn't about to spoil it for Davin.
"That's right buddy, that's moms ship. Can you see her?" He looked up as best he could at the boy perched on his shoulders, and grinned wide at the smile on his face.
"Uh-huh!" The hand that wasn't holding Vallirs was clutching his little toy T'Varo, moving it in circles around the warbird quickly disappearing into the bright Rihannsu sky. Chuckling to himself, Vallir reached a hand into his loose flight jacket, fished out his flask, and snuck a quick sip to start off his pre-flight checklist.
Vallir's ship, an older model freighter, looked more like a bloated vulture than a sleek T'Varo or a great, commanding D'Deridex, but it was his ship. He swung Davin in a wide arc to send him swooping to the plate metal of the ships loading ramp, an act that the boy absolutely adored but which also had the added benefit of leaving his flight bag as the only weight on his shoulders. Davin ran ahead of him to the cockpit, but he wasn't the only one waiting when Vallir finally arrived.
"Commander on deck!" Siras shouted, leaping to a stiff, militant attention, at least until Vallir slugged him in the shoulder.
"At ease, smartmouth," Vallir said, and the two shared a laugh. Davin was already busy looking over the control panels, not touching but inspecting each control facet, each indicator and readout with a thoroughness that D'Kera's bridge crew might envy.
"Everything set, boss?" Siras carefully lifted Davin into the co-pilots seat as he himself took the helm, running down the pre-flight checklist and starting up the light transport.
"Green as the south seas," Vallir said, and Siras paused. No, he stopped dead in his tracks, frozen for a long moment before he turned back, wide-eyed, to face him. Those five words, a coded phrase that went back to the war, was something Siras had never expected to hear again.
"...Commander?" A nod was all it took to set the helmsman back to work, running down the systems at double-pace, rushing to get the ship airborne. "The last of the supplies were loaded half an hour ago Sir, so we're ready to go on your command."
Vallir just smirked. "At ease, SubCommander," he said softly, "we have all the time in the 'verse. It's a long way to Rator, and we don't want to look like we're in a hurry."
"All the same, Sir?" Siras looked back over his shoulder again, beaming with excitement. The ship started to rumble as it rose free of its moorings, arching up into the clouds to the delight of an enraptured Davin. "I want to leave this rock behind me."
"Look, Dad!" Davin cried, pointing to a wing of warships ahead, set in a low orbit and growing closer with every second. " 'khala!"
"The subspace distortion's too thick!" Siras called from the back of the cockpit as Vallir guided the shuddering vessel. "I can't keep a stable warp field! We're at six-point-two and dropping, Sir!" Beside him Davin huddled in his flight jacket, eyes fixed on the stars ahead. Well, not the stars themselves so much as the way they seemed to ripple and contort, the subspace bubble around them starting to collapse in on itself.
"What the Void is going on, Siras!?" Vallir shifted the ships course as gently as he did, degrees at a time, struggling not to drop warp speed.
"I don't know, Sir! It's like... It's like there's something behind us in subspace, ripping our warp field apart!" Fits of frantic tapping on the auxiliary console give way to pauses that seemed much longer than they really were. "...Get us above this thing, and try to keep our speed up. We're down to warp five-point-seven!"
The freighter shuddered at the course correction, the ripples in the warp field only becoming more apparent. "Siras... I want you to take Davin down to the bunks until we clear this thing, alright?"
"...Sir?" His expression said it all, and Vallir emphasized his point by tussling the cowering boys hair.
"Just until we clear this thing," Vallir said, the ship shuddering around them again. He tore his eyes from the stars ahead and the screens below only long enough to exchange a knowing look with his former first officer. Then his focus fell wholly to the task at hand, the pilot only barely registering his son being carried back into the ship.
Siras paused a moment in the doorway, Davin and Vallirs jacket bundled in his arms. He started to speak, hesitated, and then the door was closed, leaving him alone in the empty cockpit. Vallir cranked the control stick back and locked in his course, then dove back to the auxiliary console. Weapons power to structural integrity, emergency power to force fields, bit by bit he fortified the freighters engineering section.
Another tremor rocked the ship, and the warp bubble collapsed. Ahead was the rest of the convoy, green Romulan ships sputtering at impulse. Some were already damaged, leaking plasma, drifting aimlessly. Others had been torn apart with the force of being hurled into normal space. All this he saw in an instant before throwing himself to his feet and running down the ships corridors to engineering. Another tremor and the lights cut out. Davins surprised cry echoed through the passage, and Vallir struggled to navigate the darkened, jostling path to safety.
"Commander!" The cry came too late, the ship jerked, tossing everyone into the air, the junction at Vallirs feet erupting in a blinding flash of white-hot plasma as metal strained, cracked, and tore away. There was a vague awareness of floating, of a rush of air and then... nothing. Flecks of green in a sea of speckled black, and then below a rushing wave of red-orange. And Vallir could do nothing. His journey was over now, he knew that.
But he had done it. He had left Romulus, saved Davin from a life of fear and secrecy and oppression. Or at least he hoped that was what he had done. It was all so distant now, so vague, and he couldn't see beyond the now. Beyond the tumbling and the green and the serene chaos of this moment.
Caught in the wake of the Hobus supernova, Vallir Mandukar, former Commander of the Romulan Star Empire, gave himself over to the Void.
"We might never get a better chance," she said. "That doomsday lunatic threatening the senate has the Tal Shiar on high alert. This could be it!"
"Or it could get us all killed," Vallir said flatly. D'Kera's smile didn't wane in the slightest, and that assured him that she was just as terrified of this idea as he was. But maybe, just maybe...
"Look, the fleet is going to be on high alert for at least this week, and that means everything we can spare will be centered around ch'Rihan. You can go, slip away from the convoy and it will be days before anyone even notices! Void, you and Davin could be half-way to Vulcan by then, and I can be there in a cloaked Kestrel in under a month."
Vallir turned back to the doorway, back to Davin sitting on the balcony playing with his little toy warbird. And beyond him he could see the senate building, looming and imperially decadent, perched above the city like a raptor. In that moment, any logic fled his mind. He refused to let his son grow up on this wretched planet, living in fear of the Tal Shiar, telling himself like he and D'Kera had told themselves for so many years that one day they would leave it all behind and escape the tyranny of the Star Empire.
"...Alright... Alright. This is really it." He laughed nervously, again running a hand through his mostly black hair. And D'Kera smiled, actually smiled, as she rose from the table, light gleaming on the checkered plates of her uniform.
"Then we'll have to be quick. One bag each, nothing more, and we'll rendezvous above Nimbus."
Vallir rose too, grinning from ear to ear, and once they were sure Davin wasn't looking they kissed with a reckless freedom they hadn't felt in a long time.
" 'khala!" Davin cried over the din of the open air spaceport, and Vallir followed his gaze to the looming D'Deridex warship rising into the clouds. He couldn't tell if it was the Okhala, but he wasn't about to spoil it for Davin.
"That's right buddy, that's moms ship. Can you see her?" He looked up as best he could at the boy perched on his shoulders, and grinned wide at the smile on his face.
"Uh-huh!" The hand that wasn't holding Vallirs was clutching his little toy T'Varo, moving it in circles around the warbird quickly disappearing into the bright Rihannsu sky. Chuckling to himself, Vallir reached a hand into his loose flight jacket, fished out his flask, and snuck a quick sip to start off his pre-flight checklist.
Vallir's ship, an older model freighter, looked more like a bloated vulture than a sleek T'Varo or a great, commanding D'Deridex, but it was his ship. He swung Davin in a wide arc to send him swooping to the plate metal of the ships loading ramp, an act that the boy absolutely adored but which also had the added benefit of leaving his flight bag as the only weight on his shoulders. Davin ran ahead of him to the cockpit, but he wasn't the only one waiting when Vallir finally arrived.
"Commander on deck!" Siras shouted, leaping to a stiff, militant attention, at least until Vallir slugged him in the shoulder.
"At ease, smartmouth," Vallir said, and the two shared a laugh. Davin was already busy looking over the control panels, not touching but inspecting each control facet, each indicator and readout with a thoroughness that D'Kera's bridge crew might envy.
"Everything set, boss?" Siras carefully lifted Davin into the co-pilots seat as he himself took the helm, running down the pre-flight checklist and starting up the light transport.
"Green as the south seas," Vallir said, and Siras paused. No, he stopped dead in his tracks, frozen for a long moment before he turned back, wide-eyed, to face him. Those five words, a coded phrase that went back to the war, was something Siras had never expected to hear again.
"...Commander?" A nod was all it took to set the helmsman back to work, running down the systems at double-pace, rushing to get the ship airborne. "The last of the supplies were loaded half an hour ago Sir, so we're ready to go on your command."
Vallir just smirked. "At ease, SubCommander," he said softly, "we have all the time in the 'verse. It's a long way to Rator, and we don't want to look like we're in a hurry."
"All the same, Sir?" Siras looked back over his shoulder again, beaming with excitement. The ship started to rumble as it rose free of its moorings, arching up into the clouds to the delight of an enraptured Davin. "I want to leave this rock behind me."
"Look, Dad!" Davin cried, pointing to a wing of warships ahead, set in a low orbit and growing closer with every second. " 'khala!"
"The subspace distortion's too thick!" Siras called from the back of the cockpit as Vallir guided the shuddering vessel. "I can't keep a stable warp field! We're at six-point-two and dropping, Sir!" Beside him Davin huddled in his flight jacket, eyes fixed on the stars ahead. Well, not the stars themselves so much as the way they seemed to ripple and contort, the subspace bubble around them starting to collapse in on itself.
"What the Void is going on, Siras!?" Vallir shifted the ships course as gently as he did, degrees at a time, struggling not to drop warp speed.
"I don't know, Sir! It's like... It's like there's something behind us in subspace, ripping our warp field apart!" Fits of frantic tapping on the auxiliary console give way to pauses that seemed much longer than they really were. "...Get us above this thing, and try to keep our speed up. We're down to warp five-point-seven!"
The freighter shuddered at the course correction, the ripples in the warp field only becoming more apparent. "Siras... I want you to take Davin down to the bunks until we clear this thing, alright?"
"...Sir?" His expression said it all, and Vallir emphasized his point by tussling the cowering boys hair.
"Just until we clear this thing," Vallir said, the ship shuddering around them again. He tore his eyes from the stars ahead and the screens below only long enough to exchange a knowing look with his former first officer. Then his focus fell wholly to the task at hand, the pilot only barely registering his son being carried back into the ship.
Siras paused a moment in the doorway, Davin and Vallirs jacket bundled in his arms. He started to speak, hesitated, and then the door was closed, leaving him alone in the empty cockpit. Vallir cranked the control stick back and locked in his course, then dove back to the auxiliary console. Weapons power to structural integrity, emergency power to force fields, bit by bit he fortified the freighters engineering section.
Another tremor rocked the ship, and the warp bubble collapsed. Ahead was the rest of the convoy, green Romulan ships sputtering at impulse. Some were already damaged, leaking plasma, drifting aimlessly. Others had been torn apart with the force of being hurled into normal space. All this he saw in an instant before throwing himself to his feet and running down the ships corridors to engineering. Another tremor and the lights cut out. Davins surprised cry echoed through the passage, and Vallir struggled to navigate the darkened, jostling path to safety.
"Commander!" The cry came too late, the ship jerked, tossing everyone into the air, the junction at Vallirs feet erupting in a blinding flash of white-hot plasma as metal strained, cracked, and tore away. There was a vague awareness of floating, of a rush of air and then... nothing. Flecks of green in a sea of speckled black, and then below a rushing wave of red-orange. And Vallir could do nothing. His journey was over now, he knew that.
But he had done it. He had left Romulus, saved Davin from a life of fear and secrecy and oppression. Or at least he hoped that was what he had done. It was all so distant now, so vague, and he couldn't see beyond the now. Beyond the tumbling and the green and the serene chaos of this moment.
Caught in the wake of the Hobus supernova, Vallir Mandukar, former Commander of the Romulan Star Empire, gave himself over to the Void.