Mind Games (Highlights - Meeting Taheen - yr 2385)

Posted on Thu Jan 19th, 2023 @ 11:52pm by Lieutenant Commander Rayek trLhoell

1,795 words; about a 9 minute read

Uhlan Rayek tr'Lhoell
[Romulus - Ki-Baratan - Senator Tocul's manor house]

Rayek took the smallest of sips, to help encourage his host to keep drinking, but was cautious not to drink too much himself. It could potentially affect his telepathy and Rayek wanted to be sure he didn't alert the Senator to his presence in the man's mind.

Rayek watched the doorway in apparent anticipation after the servant was sent to fetch Taheen, while in truth he was plundering what he could from the Senator's thoughts. Reading him was harder without the eye contact... but not impossible. The fact that Tocul wanted time to think... was a bit worrisome... unless he was considering on letting Rayek in on his rebellion but it seemed unlikely after just one day... oh.. unless he planted the idea in the man's mind.

It was something that his Reman instructor had been able to do easily.. but Rayek had only just begun to try his hand at the technique when he'd been called back to Romulus. However there was a risk to doing so. Planting a suggestion in the mind, if not done delicately, could alert the individual to the fact that they were compromised.

For now Rayek would hold off and see what the Senator had planned after the fact.

Then Taheen arrived. She had grown into quite the beautiful woman.

"Rayek!", she spoke with a smile. "It's good to see you again!"

Her happy greeting was genuine and Rayek stood, thinking to offer her a bow, when she surprised him with a hug, much like how she used to greet him when they were children. Rayek returned the hug, holding her slightly longer than was proper - as one smitten might do. He needed to keep up appearances after all.

"Taheen, likewise, it is good to see you. You are even more beautiful than I remember. You have been in my thoughts much lately."



Rayek must have played his part too well, for a moment after Taheen and he embraced, her father was taking his leave.

'Fvadt!' he was there to discover the truth and find proof of the man's treasonous plan, not actually court his daughter. But to do anything else might make the man suspicious, so Rayek merely nodded at Tocul's leaving before turning back to Taheen with a smile that he hoped seemed sincere.

"So, you've been thinking about me? What kind of thoughts might that have been?" Her teasing tone as well as her thoughts told him that she found this exciting - like a game. He was good with continuing that for the moment.

"Are you sure you want to know? I am an unbonded man recently returned from 5 years of lonely service to our Empire. My thoughts of you may not be as chaste as they once were - when we were children." he warned with a teasing smile of his own.

He then toned it down, he didn't want to scare her off and lose his chance at having the Senator be at ease around him - like he seemed to be "Teasing aside, I'm happy to be so well received by you. I was uncertain if you would think well of me still. I understand you will be graduating soon. You must be excited... and perhaps a little nervous?" He recalled feeling both those just prior to his own graduation.

While he doubted Taheen would be a part of her father's conspiracy, as he spoke Rayek sifted through her completely open mind. Teenaged females were never as oblivious to things as they made you think they were. They were master manipulators - Rayek knew this because of his sister. It was quite possible that Taheen was somewhat aware of her father's treason but chose to hide it.



... a little later...

Uhlan Rayek tr'Lhoell
[Romulus - Ki Baratan - Senator Tocul's manor house - gardens]

Rayek met her eyes with an earnest look. It had to be convincing. The direct eye contact had been helpful in deepening his 'read' of her. He moved past her wariness and strove to find something of use in her mind.

Ah! A name - Lolir - he would need to check back at the Tal'Shiar compound for information on anyone named such.

Then Taheen was speaking though he could read her arguments from her mind easily enough.

Her questions were valid and at this point Rayek could be a little more honest in his reactions. He glanced down towards the hand that still held hers and sighed. "I don't know. I didn't think that far ahead. I just figured if I could convince you to leave here with me, they couldn't use you to get to him."

When she lied to him, Rayek was admittedly disappointed, though he tried not to show that. Her comment about how respected and popular Tocul was, nearly earned a slight smirk. He noticed that she didn't include loyal in her description.

He 'read' her suspicion - and heard it in his tone. He needed a plausible answer. So he kept his head down looking at their joined hands to hide any tells he might show when concocting the story. "Because I overheard another say 'the package' was found in his office. But later when I queried my supervisor about the bomb, I was told it was a false alarm and nothing had been found. Someone's lying and it has to do with your father. Maybe it wasn't a bomb.. but I don't want to take the chance that it might be." He answered quietly before looking to her face once more.

"I see the skepticism in your face. I don't know how to prove it, Taheen."




Rayek felt his gut twist at the way he was manipulating her. Using his knowledge of her thoughts to guide her into betraying her father not just in her thoughts but openly.

With his free hand, Rayek ran his fingers through his short hair in apparent surprise at her words, turning his head away from her for a moment. Actually he was activating an audio recording device inserted in his ear, so that he could record the conversation.

"There are things ...", she began slowly, "... my father had been doing and saying that would explain that incident you described. I didn't think it would be that serious, though." There was a small line of worry on her face. "May my father forgive me for saying this, but I know his loyalty to Praetor Chulan isn't as genuine as it appears to be."

He let out a low whistle as he looked back towards her. "Taheen! Do you know what your are saying!?" He questioned back, keeping his voice quite low now. "Why would you question your fathers' loyalty to Praetor Chulan? This makes no sense. Senator Tocul is an honorable Romulan. Someone I look up to. What could he have possibly said or done to make you think such?"

The trap was baited...


When Rayek expressed his disbelief of what she had said and how impossible that was, she felt a pang of shame and she looked down, avoiding his gaze. It was something to be ashamed of. Loyalty to the Praetor was essential for a Romulan, a Senator even more so.

"He is loyal, I would never question that. His loyalty belongs to our glorious Empire. He wants nothing more than to protect it and lead it into calmer and even more successful times." she defended.

"You know that there is that oppositional group? They lack leaders in high positions, officially, that is. They object to Commander Donatra and our Praetor - may he forgive me for saying this." She added in a hushed tone.

"Once there was a man visiting our home. He was in no way matching our social class - at first I thought my father had brought a new servant in our house. But he was just staying with my father, disappearing in his office with him and then he left again. It was in the late evening and I happened to overhear their conversation. Well more correctly, I had been eavesdropping." She shrugged as if it was something normal. "I couldn't understand everything they said but it sounded like they had been meeting a few times already before that and that meeting in my father's house was an exception. However, that man kept talking in a disparagingly way of the Praetor." She frowned, clearly the mere thought was repulsing to her. She thought she had to uphold the Praetor of the Romulan Empire like she had learned it from an early age - at this point, she didn't question who the Praetor was and what he was standing for politically.

"Anyway ..." She faltered, the following words hardly passing her lips. "I think he was planning something ... something violent." She was pretty sure they had been talking about an assassination. "My father didn't say much, but he ... he wasn't objecting."

She looked up at Rayek, with the new information about a bomb in her father's office it meant that they had been finding out about it or that Lolir was a spy who tried to take down her father. She realized what that meant for him and for herself and her whole family.

Her grip on Rayek's hand tightened as she looked in his eyes. "I'm scared, Rayek." She whispered.



Rayek listened, and secretly recorded, her words. It wasn't the certain proof he was looking for - but in anyone other than an Senator it would be enough to warrant time being interrogated using a Mind Probe no doubt.

Rayek felt her grip tighten on his hand as she whispered her admission to being scared. He was silent a moment as he considered how best to use what she told him. Was it best to react like the loyal public servant he was and persuade her to give up her father? Given her thoughts that wasn't likely to happen easily. Or perhaps he should continue his lie and offer to help find out more as a means of keeping her safe?

That seemed the better route to Rayek, that way if Taheen confronted her father, Rayek still had the potential of playing a similar minded individual - that could lead him further into the conspiracy.

After a brief hesitation, Rayek wrapped his arms about her in a hug, holding her close offering her his emotional support - but being cautious to not have his right ear towards her - lest she see the small recording unit.

"I'm scared too, Taheen, but we'll figure this out together. I'll do whatever I can to protect you. Your father too." he said telling her what she wanted to hear.



End Scene

 

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