The DrearGyre

information. Reliance on technology lead to laziness on the interrogator’s part. Information that the prisoner willingly gave up was far more credible and therefore more useful.

  The next day in the middle of a discussion of what was and was not outright torture, one of the guards stepped into the room. Most everyone in the Tal Shiar complex eschewed using electronics including the communicators. Most suspected that eavesdropping on them was easier. And if the Tal Shiar excelled at one behavior above all others, it was suspicion.

  “The prisoner has awoken, Commander.”

  The students jumped to their feet.

  “Are you going somewhere?” she inquired.

  They immediately sat back down.

  “I suppose you can observe from outside the cell.”

  They followed the guard to the prison, then waited looking through the window. The other side of the window appeared to be metal to the prisoner.

  Syll studied the Human trying to understand what she was seeing. 738766 was sitting up. The soles of her feet were flat on the ground. Her hands rested on her thighs. She stared, her head slightly bowed, as if she could see them clearly through the metal wall. She was still wearing the white hospital gown the doctor had dressed her in. It was too big.

  “How long has she been awake?” Syll asked the guard.

  “Twelve and a half minutes now, Commander. We came for you as soon as she started to move.”

  “She has not done anything more?”

  “Nothing, Commander.”

  She wondered why he was speaking in such a hushed tone. But then, so was she. Everyone moved quietly, keeping their eyes on the Human.

  “I need a chair,” she said composing herself. She tried to speak at a normal volume but it sounded to herself as if she was shouting.

  The guards opened the door to the cell and followed her in. They placed the chair in front of 738766. When they just stood there, Syll reluctantly waved them away. They were even more reluctant to go, but obeyed. Carefully, she sat opposite her, perching right on the edge. The Human showed no signs of recognizing where she was or who sat in front of her. The readings on the pad didn’t change. Her long black hair framed her face, keeping it in shadow. Syll thought she was being stared at by some strange animal that had carefully hidden itself away in a long dark tunnel.

  “738766?” Syll asked. “Can you hear me?”

  Nothing.

  “Kari? Can you speak?”

  She reached forward and moved a lock of hair from the Human’s forehead, tucking the strand behind her ear. Human ears were truly strange, she thought. A sort of amputated look rather than the delicate point of a Romulan’s ear. She pushed more hair around her other ear revealing Kari’s thin pale features. Her eyes seemed even larger. She couldn’t tell just by looking at her that she was even breathing. With difficulty, she dismissed the impression that a corpse stared back at her.

  “Kari,” she tried again, this time in native Federation. “If you can hear me but cannot speak, you can move your hand.”

  Kari stared straight ahead, her hands stationary on her thighs. Maybe because of the regeneration, she seemed younger than when she had left. Only her eyes seemed aged. Syll moved side to side to see if the Human’s eyes would follow her. They did not.

  She sighed and looked down at the pad again, concentrating on the readings. Maybe the student was right. A little jolt on the punishment module might induce a response. She would postpone it until tomorrow.

  Kari touched her knee.

  Syll almost shrieked. Kari was looking directly into her eyes mere centimeters from her face. The Human didn’t blink. Her eyes drilled into the Romulan’s.

  Only the Tal Shiar’s intense training kept her from dropping the pad. She hoped that those watching had not seen how badly startled she was. Master yourself, she demanded of her mind and body. She slowed her breathing, willed her heart to stop thumping so furiously.

  “Kari?”

  The Human retreated slowly never letting her gaze leave Syll. Kari’s hand went to the blanket next to her. She moved as if surrounded in thick honey. The hand went up and down on the bed. Up and down. Slowly. Up and down.

  “You want me to sit there?” Despite her best efforts, her heart rate elevated again.

  The hand kept moving up and down. This was a terrible idea. Every particle of her training told her how dangerous this action would be. Her control wanted to lock her body to the chair. Instead, she rose slowly then sat down next to the Human their eyes never losing lock.

  Kari lifted her hand, raising a finger. She twirled the finger around.

  Syll almost jerked away at the request. “You want me to turn my back to you?”

  The finger didn’t stop twirling. Control, she urged herself. Control oneself.

  Syll could almost feel the guards straining to rush in. She swallowed and licked her lips, then turned, and as long as she could, did not break eye contact. Her pulse thudded in her ears. But the finger kept twirling. She bit her lip and shifted so that her back was completely to the Human. She stared straight ahead. Kari’s feet disappeared from her peripheral vision as the prisoner shifted behind her. Then she felt Kari’s knees go on either side of her, then her breasts push against her back. She willed herself to not jerk away. Kari moved slowly but with such efficiency that she seemed quick. The Human’s arms traveled over the Commander’s shoulders. Strangely, considering the abuse she had sustained, her skin betrayed no blemishes. A light brown that was fresh and new. Kari folded her arms so that she held the Romulan’s throat in the crooks of her elbows. Syll wanted to draw her chin into her neck but instead raised her jaw so that it rested upon Kari’s arms. A Tal Shiar agent could break a spine in a second. Stay calm, she shrieked to herself in her head.

  Kari leaned forward and breathed into Syll’s ear. The voice was softer than a whisper, warm, the words hardly discernible, delicate as silk. But what the Human said was perfectly clear to the Romulan Commander.

  “I’m now going to kill you.”

  The guards rushed in their batons crackling out pain as they raised them. Syll signaled them to stop. Kari had made no other motion, said no other words. Everyone stayed frozen, the bee-like buzz of the batons the only sound. Cautiously, she unwrapped Kari’s arms from around her neck. The Human provided no resistance. She turned and stared into the Human’s eyes. She held Kari’s shoulders, as plans sprung into life. A part of her noted the almost skeletal nature of the Human. Despite the almost silence of the words, the guards had heard. The cell was not safe.

  “Prepare the interrogation room,” she barked to the student at the door.

  He disappeared.

  “Can you stand?” she asked the Human. “Let me help you.”

  Kari hung onto her and staggered to her feet. She clung to Syll. They made their way towards the door. The progress to the interrogation room was snail like. Hiding her beneath a blanket, they dispensed with the usual restraints. Not even her feet showed. Kari seemed unaware of the people around her though she shrank away if anyone came too close. Pressing against Syll, the Human gripped the Romulan around her waist.

  When they finally arrived at the interrogation room, she seemed to relax again recognizing the familiar surroundings. Syll found that counterintuitive but she would not question the Human’s response.

  “Set the field on two,” Syll commanded.

  She hesitated then started to disrobe.

  “Commander?” a student asked.

  Syll would have laughed the way the student averted her eyes. “I cannot go into the field with metal on.”

  She stripped down to her underwear and bra and started toward the field. Kari dropped her hospital gown. She mewed at Syll then plucked at her bra. The Romulan Commander tried not to blush.

  “Of course.” The clasp. She undid the bra and placed it on her folded clothes. With difficulty, she avoided trying to cover herself. And she scowled at the two male students who busied themselves with the controls. She thanked the St
ars of Wisdom for there being no metal on her underwear. She jerked a cord out of the base of the platform.

  “Without the hardline and with the pain field active, there can be no eavesdropping of any kind, electronic or otherwise. Nothing can be heard or spied upon within the field.”

  Kari nodded and allowed her to support her on the stand.

  Syll signaled the student to activate the containment field. The aura of pain washed over them. Syll gasped. The last time her training had mandated that she experience these effects had been decades ago. The levels had been set higher then but at this level, she still struggled to maintain her concentration and focus on what she needed to do. Kari seemed unaffected, though she cocked her head at Syll’s shivering. The Romulan eventually calmed her body. Kari turned in the confined space to face her and wrapped her arms around her neck. Syll moved her arms around the Humans’s waist to not let her fall into the containment field. Kari rested her cheek against her shoulder for a moment then moved her mouth to Syll’s ear.

  “You’re so smart,” she whispered.

  “Thank you.” She tried to gather her wits about her. The woman’s body, naked against her, the pain, the fact that her students were watching played havoc with her control.

  “I hate him.” Kari whispered. “I want to torture him until he dies. I want to torture him for years.”

  “I understand. I hope he dies soon as well.” She realized that she should not have said that but there would be no one to hear outside this field.

  “If