moon phase

[warpfairy]

Isabella's videos (and their transcriptions, and their translations) are not instantly the topic of conversation in every household in the Federation over breakfast or its local equivalent, but they gain traction, and the Federation is still scrupulous enough not to send Starfleet to get her in the middle of the night for recording her opinions.

(Her opinions are limited here to the subject of her "repatriation" and to the Prime Directive. Her thoughts on genetic engineering are confined to the "polarbear" handle on long-dormant accounts on old, in some cases defunct, fora.)

It is a few months before she's invited to a speaking engagement by an activist club at a university on Viarat, a moon inhabited by predominantly human colonists but some Vulcans.

She accepts the honorarium, writes a speech, and (in the recovered Prometheus, which Renée has been holding for her) goes to Viarat, accompanied by her husband.

They get a hotel room; a liaison from the activist club shows her to where she's giving her speech, she gets as far as thanking them for inviting her and beginning to outline her planned topic before someone in the back row pulls a phaser pistol and squeezes off a burst that hits her in the sternum.

She collapses, exhaling all her air voicelessly. Someone next to the shooter tackles her and gets the phaser away.

Comments

[dream_me_up]

Violence ensues. It's hard to make out the details, because both of them are moving at full speed and their full speed is very, very fast. They're against the wall opposite Isabella's bed - then they're on the floor - then they're up again - then they're against the wall next to the door - then Lalita is thrown clear across the room and into the other cabinet, and the doctor follows him a fraction of a second later. All of this without a word, or even an audible breath, just the various noises of things hitting other things.

[warpfairy]

"What are you doing?"

[or_the_broken]

Whatever it is, it doesn't include answering that question.

[warpfairy]

If they're not going to tell her, fine. She'll look at what she knows.

Lalita, who is even stronger than she is, remarked that the cabinet was heavy - Dr. Hall didn't use any obvious trick to activate some technology attached to the cabinet to make it easier to move - he moved it anyway - Lalita noticed - he attacked.

Dr. Hall is undercover as an augment, or possibly some kind of human-passing alien. The possibility of being noticed is sufficiently distressing that he's willing to blow his cover for a better chance of escaping instead of hoping he was overreacting to Lalita's facial expressions. Or, no - he attacked Lalita before even seeing his face - psi, maybe, or just putting together the fact that the cabinet had been moved in the first place. This instead of - taking her hostage, or perhaps re-injuring her to the point where she'd be unable to summon nurses or other doctors herself and hoping to convince Lalita to remain behind while he fled. Which might suggest any number of things but probably rules out sheer malicious madness of the kind the opponents of genetic engineering expect from augments as a rule. He was working as a highly competent doctor, for crying out loud...

[or_the_broken]

As time passes, the fight doesn't slow down exactly, but it quiets. The things hitting other things are not hitting them so hard anymore.

And eventually, they just... stop.

Dr. Hall has Lalita pinned to a wall by his shoulders—Lalita shoves him away—he recovers his balance and then, instead of attacking again, shrugs slightly and takes another step back.

[dream_me_up]

"Well that was interesting," Lalita remarks. He glances at Isabella and adds, "Sorry I didn't answer you before. Too busy."

[warpfairy]

"Yes, I figured that out. Is attempting to confirm what else I think I've figured out going to get me killed or held hostage, or have you sufficiently - communicated with each other?"

[dream_me_up]

He raises his eyebrows at Dr. Hall.

[or_the_broken]

Dr. Hall smiles slightly.

[dream_me_up]

"Yeah, we're fine. Go ahead and ask."

[warpfairy]

"Augment or human-passing alien?" she inquires first.

[or_the_broken]

"Augment. Mostly human. Some Vulcan, some Betazoid, and that's just what I've identified; there could be more I don't know about."

[warpfairy]

"So, a little psi, enough that you didn't have to spot Lalita ruminating before reacting, but not enough to catch on before now, or enough to figure out without assaulting my husband that we are unlikely to turn you in."

[or_the_broken]

"I don't get thoughts, just feelings. And I have enemies. He could've been one of them. He isn't, but he could've been."

[warpfairy]

"Enemies who'd plausibly turn up as the spouse of a phasered political activist."

[or_the_broken]

"Not looking for me. They don't know where I am. But there's nothing stopping someone who just happens to be with them from showing up here on other business."

[warpfairy]

"Recent project, or enemies acquired since then?"

Since he seems so talkative now.

[or_the_broken]

"Recent enough. Why," he glances at Lalita, "how old are you?"

[dream_me_up]

"2277 minus 1995 - two hundred and eighty-two," he says.

[or_the_broken]

"Huh," says Dr. Hall, impressed.

[warpfairy]

"I'd call it May-December but he's liable to outlive me, assuming no generally applicable immortality is invented in time. I found out when he accidentally hacked into some of my files and then didn't think to cover his tracks."

[or_the_broken]

"Accidentally?"

[dream_me_up]

"I was daydreaming a little. It happens."

[warpfairy]

"And one of the things he found was a half-finished pseudonymous essay which contained my opinions on augmentation. In addition to enough information to tell him what the Prometheus was up to between surveys, if you've been paying attention to exactly what kind of political activist you had for a patient." She pauses, then says, "T'hy'la - come here a moment?" And she lifts one hand, by the elbow, not the shoulder.

[dream_me_up]

He can guess what she wants him for. He goes and nestles his face into her hand.