S01 E07: Chronicles of T’Avaya: Truth of the Raptor's Children, Part 1

 

Mission log. Stardate 45125.0. Agent T’Avaya reporting. I have just completed several months of Starfleet Intelligence training. Though the training is still ongoing, I have been assigned by Starfleet Intelligence to investigate a possible Romulan alliance with the Kettirohm Sovereignty. Intel reports that a member of the Kettians’ ruling family has had subspace communications with the Romulans. There are also unconfirmed reports of Romulan ships going to and from Kettian space. The Kettirohm Sovereignty is made up of ten planets in one star system. They are a culture of Bajorans that left Bajor some two thousand years ago, and another race--the ruling class--that appear to be humanoid. The Kettians have been known to be isolationists. It would be a major disadvantage to the Federation if the Kettians allied with the Romulans. Kettian space has a strategic location close to Federation space.

 

               “Surak is a fool. He advocates a passionless regime. This planet will have no one left but pallid stalwarts on a grey world.“

               T’Avaya stood among the crowd, listening intently. Who is this? She thought.

               “We will make our own path to the stars. This is no longer our home.” The crowd screamed, “Yes! We will find our own home!” Then, a silver streak blazed through the air and swirled around the speaker like a snake. A green liquid started leaking from his eyes. The silver streak coiled around his throat. He struggled for air as he fell to the ground.

 

               T’Avaya raised her head from the pillow. A dream. She had not dreamed such disturbing images since her childhood. She felt a wave of unwelcome emotion, then let it drop, as logic took over. The Vulcan took a few deep breaths and cleared her mind. The human concept of Ujjayi breathing allowed her to focus her mind back to reality. She looked at the chronometer. It was morning. She had just spent her first night on Baeruta, a planet in the Kettian system. She hoped there would be no more disturbing dreams. She got out of bed and got ready for her first day at her new undercover assignment.

               She recalled the research she had done the previous night. She had studied the backgrounds of the government personnel who worked in the Statehouse building where she would be spending her day. She had compared Starfleet Intelligence records to the official public records of the personnel.

Starfleet Intelligence had arranged for T’Avaya to be an assistant to Tirinor Daiel. “Tirinor” was the title for the ruling governor of this planet. Each Tirinor was a member of the royal family of Kettirohm. Starfleet Intelligence knew that the members of the royal family kept close ties with each other. If Daiel was in league with the Romulans, then it was possible all of Kettirohm was involved.

***

               T'Avaya was escorted to her desk next to Tirinor Daiel's offce. She was told the Tirinor was not yet ready to meet her. He was in a meeting now and would be back in half an hour. The Vulcan took a few minutes to look inside the Tirinor's office. Then she came out and sat at her desk. When Tirinor Daiel came from his meeting, he introduced himself briefly to the Vulcan and then went to his office. T'Avaya could see he was preoccupied with something. A young woman walked up to T'Avaya's desk. The woman had a piece of metal surrounding her left eye. T’Avaya’s Vulcan telepathic abilities sensed the woman’s mind making slight contact with hers. T’Avaya noticed the woman’s dark eyes. She was a Betazoid. And, judging by the eye piece, a liberated Borg. “I am Viadne. I am here to see the Tirinor," said the ex-Borg woman. T'Avaya looked at the computer on her desk and saw the Tirinor's appointment schedule. "You are right on time," T'Avaya told her. She called the Tirinor to let him know. He told T'Avaya to send her in. Viadne went into the Tirinor's office and closed the door.

               Daiel sat behind his desk and looked across at Viadne. She sat very rigidly, staring at him. Since she had been working for Daiel, she had had some depression and some bouts of moodiness. She was born a Betazoid, but had only shown slight telepathic abilities. Daiel surmised that her time as a Borg must have stunted her telepathy and her mental state. Kettian therapists and medical doctors had examined her and provided some aid. They had given her drugs and therapy sessions. She had made some progress, but more sessions were necessary. He asked her how she felt today. She said she was better than she was a week ago. He told her he had a plan to help her recovery. But he was unable to give her any details at this time.

***

               One hour later, Daiel was alone in his office when he got a call from his assistant T’Raikel (which was actually T'Avaya's undercover name) that the leader of his watch patrol, Jovir, needed to speak with him urgently. Once she had patched the call through, Jovir told him a Romulan warbird had decloaked in the planet's orbit, just as expected. He told his watch patrol to stand down. The freighter ships that usually made deliveries/pickups at this time had all been rescheduled so that the surrounding space would be clear at this time. Daiel made direct contact with the warbird. A Reman, Xiokir, beamed into his office. Daiel said, “Did you find the location of our prisoners of war?”

               “They are in good condition,” said Xiokir.

               “When can you have them returned to us?”

               “They will be delivered here on a Kobheerian freighter in two days. Now turn over the Borg woman.”

               “The deal was that we get our POWs first.”

***

               T’Avaya was secretly listening to Daiel and Xiokir's conversation through a listening device she had planted in Daiel's office. The device transmitted to a small receiver under her ear.

               The Dominion War, which had just ended a year ago, had spread through the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. The Kettians, much as they tried, could not remain neutral during the war, and sent some soldiers to serve in the war. Several of them died in the war. There were four, as Daiel had come to find out, who had been captured in a skirmish with the Romulans and were still being held as prisoners of war. Daiel had taken advantage of this opportunity to get them back, offering to exchange the liberated Borg for the POWs.

               T'Avaya listened intently to the private conversation. The Reman said the Borg woman was Romulan property. It was Romulans who liberated her from the Borg. She had been part of the crew of a Borg scout ship with three other drones that crashed on an uninhabited planet. She was the only one that had survived the crash. The Romulans had found her and disconnected her from the hive and took her back to Romulus. She only had partial memories of her life before assimilation. She remembered that she had been a Starfleet officer who was assimilated at . . . She could not remember, but the Romulans had determined that it was Wolf 359. She recalled that her Betazoid first name was Viadne. She did have sparse memories of growing up on Betazed. And she remembered the fateful day when her Starfleet ship--though she couldn’t remember the name of the ship-- engaged the Borg. As far as she could remember, she had no family on Betazed or anywhere else. Her parents had died, leading her to join Starfleet. Xiokir, using his Reman telepathic abilities, had tried to restore her memories of her exploits as a Borg drone, but to no avail. A Romulan medic had taken pity on her and helped her escape. Daiel said he suspected that Xiokir did something else to Viadne’s mind, but he denied doing anything besides simple mind probes.

               Daiel said Viadne was a free person and had been granted freedom on his planet. He would give her to the Romulans only if his POWs were returned.

***

               T’Avaya went to find Viadne. She had a cubicle a few levels down in the Statehouse. She worked there as part of the public relations staff. T'Avaya took Viadne to a private room and told her what she knew from listening to Daiel’s conversation. Viadne let her know that she had been afraid to tell anyone except the Tirinor that she had escaped from a Romulan laboratory. She said they did some kind of experiments on her. She had latent telepathic abilities. She had felt another presence in her mind. She knew it wasn’t Xiokir or anyone she knew. She had felt it ever since she woke up in the Romulan lab.

               T’Avaya said, “I may be able to help you recall what happened. Would you allow a Vulcan mind meld?”

               Viadne looked confused. The Vulcan explained, “If I can restore your memories, I may be able to determine why they want you back. It is not logical that they would come this far just for one former Borg, or that they would trade you for prisoners of war, unless you were very valuable to them.”

               Viadne said softly, “I do not know how to control my mental abilities. What would I do in a Vulcan mind meld?”

               “I will communicate with you through my mind and guide you. You will not be harmed,” T’Avaya promised her.

               Viadne agreed to the mind meld. As the Vulcan conducted the meld, her mind saw images from Viadne’s mind. Images of the past. It was almost like a dream.

 

               T'Avaya/Viadne saw that the Borg scout ship sensors picked up signs of a small spatial anomaly. They set their navigational course to go around it. The navigation failed. The ship was drawn into the anomaly. The Borg drones ordered a sudden stop and reversed the course of the ship. Their navigation and helm systems failed, and they crashed on an uninhabited planet. Unit 4 of 4 woke up. Her internal sensor told her she had been unconscious for five hours. The other Borg drones were dead. She stood up and scanned her surroundings. She left her scout ship and saw a larger ship three meters away. Her Borg historical archives identified it as a Vulcan design that had not been in use in two thousand years. She walked inside the ship. Following her Borg programming, she attached her nanoprobes to the ship. Then, something consumed her mind. It was another presence. The presence overwhelmed her.

***

               Tirinor Daiel and Xiokir were still discussing Viadne. Then, they received a call from the                Romulan warbird.

Daiel put on his vid screen.

               The vid screen on one wall of the room snapped on. It lit up with the image of a Romulan Subcommander. “I am S'Task. Leader of the Raptor’s Children. State your business here.”

               Xiokir walked up to the screen and said, “Subcommander! What are you talking about? Why have you called us? Your orders were to wait for my signal.”

               The Romulan Subcommander stood his ground and said, “What insolence! You do not order me to do anything. What is your name? Answer me or I will kill you where you stand!”

               “You! Centurian!” Xiokir yelled at one of the other Romulans, “Relieve this jainal Subcommander at once!”

               No one moved.

               “Centurian!” Xiokir yelled again, “You will follow my orders!”

               The Romulan Centurian standing next to the Subcommander said, “I take orders only from the great S'Task!”

               Daiel pushed a button to end the transmission. “So that was your loyal Romulan crew? They must have had too much Romulan ale,” he snapped at Xiokir. He did not like how the Romulan crew was acting. "And why would you expect them to take orders from you, a Reman? I thought your race was subsurvient to them."

               The Reman decided there was no harm in telling Daiel. "I work for the Tal Shiar. I was put in command of that warbird."

               "Frohhn!!” Daiel said. "Why would they let a Reman in the Tal Shiar?" Xiokir told him the Tal Shiar takes anyone who is ambitious and cunning enough. Besides, they also valued his psionic abilities.

               With that, Daiel made a call back to his control room personnel. “What is the status of the Romulan warbird?”

               “Holding steady, Your Highness.”

               “Have they powered up weapons?” asked Daiel.

               “No, Your Highness.”

               “Launch two attack ships. Have them lock weapons on the Romulan warbird. But don’t fire unless I give the order.”

               Daiel turned off the comm. To Xiokir he said, “Well then, Mr. Tal Shiar, you had better tell me what’s going on up there. Or your warbird gets blown out of the sky, and you get to see what our prison looks like.”

               Xiokir spoke, “It is the katra of S'Task.”

               Daiel, like many of his people, had studied the lore and history of many different worlds, including Vulcan and Romulus. He said, “Katra. A Vulcan soul? And S'Task: The ancient one who led the Vulcans that did not want to follow Surak’s teachings. The Vulcans who eventually became Romulans.”

               Xiokir was surprised. “YOU know Vulcan history?”

               “That information is readily available to anyone who wants to read it. There have been several research papers involving the katra. And some stories about Romulan history have been known ever since the Federation made the Eridam Papers public.” Eridam was an old space station that existed centuries ago. Romulans had built and occupied it until an unknown disease killed most of its inhabitants. The Romulans had abandoned the station, leaving its data banks intact. It was later discovered by a Starfleet ship. It was the first major source of any type of information about the Romulans.

               Xiokir said, “Viadne has S'Task’s katra insider her mind. But why the Subcommander thinks HE is S'Task, and why the crew thinks they are S'Task’s followers, I cannot explain...Wait...”

               “It must be that psionic field actuator on the warbird,” Xiokir exclaimed. “We had the actuator to increase the amplitude of Viadne’s brainwaves to enhance her telepathic abilities. We were hoping to be able to communicate with S'Task’s katra and perhaps even transfer it to a permanent receptacle and keep it open for communications. I will beam up and turn off the actuator.”

Daiel called security and said, “Find Viadne and bring her here right away!”

***

               “Viadne! You are ordered by Tirinor Daiel to come with us!” said a guard with his energy pistol drawn.

               “They are in a Vulcan mind meld. I have seen this in Starfleet records. It could be harmful to their minds to disturb them!” the other guard yelled.

The first guard ignored the other and pulled Viadne away. T’Avaya was still in position with her fingertips outstretched, but her face went flush, and her slanted eyebrows furrowed in pain. Viadne opened her eyes and screamed. The guard hurried the Betazoid woman out of the room.

               “Vulcan, are you alright?” the other guard called out. The Vulcan opened her eyes. They were glazed over. She spoke timidly. “The meld has not been broken. Viadne is a strong telepath. Her mind had been weakened by the Borg, but the meld triggered something. An ancient being from long ago. I must find her and properly sever the meld or her mind will remain unstable.”

***

               The guard brought Viadne to Daiel. She was unconscious. The guard said he had to stun her. Xiokir, who had just beamed back down from the warbird after shutting off the field actuator, said he had a stimulant that could help her. He injected her with a hypo. Viadne woke up suddenly and stood up. She did not seem panicked or frantic. She was calm and stately. She said in a deep voice, “Where am I? Where are my followers?” Daiel and the guard looked at her in confusion. Xiokir spoke to her,                “We are here, great S'Task. We are at your service.”

               “No,” yelled Viadne, “I do not know you.”

               She headed for the door. She got away before they could grab her or stun her. She walked through the crowded building yelling, “Where are my people? The Raptor’s Children?”

Then she saw T’Avaya, who had just entered the crowded hallway. Viadne stopped as T’Avaya walked up to her. The Vulcan was trying to remain calm as her mind was being flooded with emotions from the unbroken mind link.

               “You look familiar. Are you one of the Raptor’s Children?” Viadne questioned T’Avaya.

               As T’Avaya started to reply, one of the guards aimed his pistol at Viadne. Viadne suddenly fainted. Xiokir said it was caused by the drug he had given her, combined with her over-exerted mental state.

               Daiel spoke to Xiokir. “So that’s TWO people who think they are S'Task. We need to get this under control NOW!” T'Avaya said, "I must sever the mind link with her." She knelt down and placed her fingers on Viadne's face.

               Xiokir said, “It is the psionic field actuator on the warbird. The actuator was turned on by Viadne’s mind when she mind melded with the Vulcan. It amplified S'Task’s psionic imprint that was in Viadne’s mind and projected it onto the Romulan crew. I have shut the actuator off now. The effects on the Romulan crew will wear off. As for Viadne, the injection I gave her should lessen the effects.”

               T’Avaya asked that Viadne be taken to a hospital to recuperate. She did not think any permanent damage had been done to Viadne's mind or her own.

***

               Xiokir opened the door. He walked into the small room and closed the door behind him. The Betazoid was alone. She was still asleep. Good, thought Xiokir. This must end here. He drew his dagger from his pocket. Viadne awakened just in time to see a dagger coming toward her. She screamed. “Hold it right there!” said a voice coming from the room’s entrance. The Reman turned around. It was a Kettian policeman with his phase pistol aimed at him. “Drop the dagger,” he said.  Xiokir ran toward Viadne, raising the dagger. The policeman fired the pistol and stunned him. He fell to the floor. His dagger landed beside him.

               Viadne gasped.

               T’Avaya came into the room as the policeman carried Xiokir out. She walked over to Viadne’s bedside. Viadne felt exhausted, but her mind felt . . . clearer . . . than it had felt before. She asked what had happened. The Vulcan explained what she learned from Viadne’s mind.

               The planet that Viadne’s Borg scout ship had crashed on had an old Vulcan ship that had landed there more than two thousand years ago. It had been a ship carrying the ‘Raptor’s Children’, Vulcans who had left their home planet because they did not want to follow Surak’s teachings of logic and unemotionalism. They had left Vulcan to make a new life for themselves and find their own planet, their own home. The katra, or spirit, of their leader, S'Task, had been left on the ship that had crashed. When Viadne connected her Borg nanoprobes to the ship, S'Task’s katra entered her mind. From there, T’Avaya could only surmise that the katra had overwhelmed Viadne because the Borg implants did not allow for such mental invasions. It left her unconscious until she had been discovered by Romulans. Through their telepathic slaves, the Remans, the Romulans discovered that Viadne had S'Task’s katra. It was a wondrous and extraordinary discovery that they couldn’t leave unexplored. They kept her prisoner while they tried to recover the katra. But because of Xiokir’s limited mental abilities, or perhaps because of the Borg’s affect on controlling her mind, the katra was never fully recovered.

               T’Avaya said she was going to arrange for a Vulcan master to come and relieve Viadne of the katra and take it back to Vulcan. Through the mind meld, the katra had been subdued enough to no longer disturb Viadne. The katra of S'Task was an amazing discovery. It was a piece of history that was valuable to both Romulans and Vulcans. No one, neither the Vulcans nor the Romulans, had been aware that the katra of S'Task had been left on an abandoned ship all this time. According to recorded history, S’Task had died on Romulus. It would be a great achievement to both races to someday be able to communicate with the mind of such a great leader and learn more about both of their histories.

               “But why did the Reman try to kill me?” asked Viadne.

               The Vulcan explained, “He was working for the Tal Shiar. I ran his name, face, and voice print through the Starfleet Intelligence database. He was sent here by the Barel Clan. That is one of the most powerful political families on Romulus. Their power and prestige go all the way back to the time of S'Task. It is said that S'Task gave Barel, the first member of the clan, a shining gold-colored staff as a token of appreciation for his loyalty. The staff has been kept in their family for generations. It is still in the house of their matriarch. The Tal Shiar learned several years ago that the story is fiction. There is no record, verified or unverified, that the Barel family goes as far back as S'Task’s time or that they were ever connected to him in any way. Since Xiokir couldn't successfully extract the katra from your mind, he needed to kill you, thereby destroying the katra, to protect that secret. The Barel clan has given much support to the Tal Shiar and many important government leaders. If the clan were brought down, the entire Romulan government could collapse.”

               Daiel spoke up from behind T’Avaya. “I’m so sorry, Viadne. You know I had no intention of turning you over to the Romulans.”

               The Vulcan turned to Daiel and said, “But you made a deal with the Romulans.”

Daiel said, “I was trying to get my POWs back. They will be here in two days. I wanted to get Xiokir to come here because I heard, from the same Romulan informant who told me about our POWs, that Xiokir had the means to help Viadne with her mental state. He was the one who had studied her on Romulus. He was the one who knew how to help her. After he did that, I was going to make him leave without her. He wouldn’t have been able to take her without my permission.”

Viadne was relieved. She had always believed she could trust Daiel. T’Avaya said to Viadne, “Your mind has been disturbed for quite some time. When I first came to this planet, I had a dream about S'Task. You must have unwittingly projected it into my mind. It was your subconscious reaching for help.”

               “I have also had such dreams. Dreams that seemed like memories, but not memories that I could recall. Memories that couldn’t have been mine.” Viadne said. “I am so glad it is over now.”

***

               Lt. Gemma Albrecht was in her office on Station Tyrellia. She did not look up from her data padd. “So the deal with the Romulans was a ruse.”

               “Affirmative,” said T’Avaya as she looked at Gemma on the viewscreen. “Daiel does not seem interested in having any kind of political ties with the Romulans.”

               Gemma was still reading and rereading the report. As a Starfleet Intelligence officer, she did not like what she saw. A crashed Vulcan/Romulan ship. The katra of S’Task. Both the Vulcans and Romulans would like to get their hands on it.

               T’Avaya continued, “Xiokir said that the Tal Shiar is still studying the ship that had contained the katra. It does not look promising. There is too much degradation in the data records after two thousand years. The ship appeared to have crashed on the planet. So far, no one has been able to determine why the katra of S'Task had been left there. Perhaps his body had been buried on the planet somewhere. I warned Xiokir that the Vulcans would also be examining the ship, now that they are aware of it. This entire incident will surely have far-reaching repercussions, with both the Romulans and Vulcans claiming rights to the ship and the katra. Daiel will continue to see that Viadne gets the medical help she needs.”

               “This incident,” said Gemma, “will not be made public until we know more. Vulcan Intelligence, the V’Shar, will be sending their people to investigate the crashed ship that housed the katra.”

               T’Avaya nodded in acknowledgement.

               “I am sending you there as well. We need someone there representing SI.”

               T’Avaya expected as much. “Do all intelligence missions take this long?”

               It was the Vulcan’s first mission with SI, and Gemma, her handler, told her that nothing was certain in this line of work. When T’Avaya asked if she could stay on Baeruta long enough to meet the Vulcan master who would be retrieving the katra, Gemma complied.

T’Avaya then said, “I trust you will let Director Nilo know that my leave from Station Tyrellia will have to be extended a little longer.” Her duties as chief engineer on Station Tyrellia had been temporarily filled by her assistant engineer, Luruwa. She knew that Luruwa would be able to handle the job a little while longer.

***

               Mission log. Supplemental. A Vulcan master will be arriving tomorrow to retrieve the katra of S’Task. After that, I will be leaving Kettian space. Daiel assured me that Viadne would be taken care of. It is my hope that someday everyone in the Romulan Empire will know the truth about the Barel Clan. Only the Tal Shiar knows the truth. Surak wrote “The truth is simply the actual state of the universe. To live at odds with the truth is to be in conflict with reality itself.” Romulans always seem to thrive on secrecy and intrigue. Truth is not one of their values.

 

 -by the Honorable Kavura

 

Thank you for reading my Star Trek Adventures: Captain’s Log mission report. Captain’s Log is a solo roleplaying game by Modiphius Entertainment.

 

Acknowledgements:

 

Star Trek Adventures

 

The Way of D’Era (Last Unicorn Games)

 

FASA Star Trek Role-Playing Game

 

Rise of the Federation by Christopher L. Bennett