by LT SG Rada Dengar
80714.23
Twenty Years Before Detention
-= A nice house in a seemingly respectable neighbourhood, Betazed=-
80714.23
Twenty Years Before Detention
-= A nice house in a seemingly respectable neighbourhood, Betazed=-
The door began to chime and the small child jumped from the couch and landed feet first on the floor. Her mother didn’t move as she wasn’t wearing her sensor so she couldn’t feel the vibrations.
*Mum, the door’s ringing!* she thought, but her mother was asleep now and not open to telepathic communication.
Knowing her mother’s bedroom door to be locked so that small children couldn’t sneak in, she decided to answer the door herself.
“Hold on!” she shouted out as she ran into the hall, taking the corner so sharply that she almost crashed into the display screen where her mother would leave notes for her. At the moments only the words ‘Choose your own dinner tonight,’ were displayed, they had been displayed there for many weeks.
When she reached the door she turned around to adjust the rug she had just knocked out of place before positioning herself in her best welcome guest posture, with her left hand by her side and her right hand held up in a welcoming gesture. She switched the hands around when she realised that the button to open the door, which she needed an extended arm to push, was on her left side.
The door chimed again before she opened it. There stood two men Betazoid men dressed in black, probably in their forties, on reflection not very tall but to a child they were giants. There were hard-faced and were clearly not happy to be here. They exchanged a look and she could tell that they were telepathically communicating; only she was not yet old enough to understand it. Not being privy to the conversations of adults was one of the simple facts of life for most Betazoid children, they just had to accept it and live with it.
Eventually they seemed to have reached a consensus and looked down at her.
“Excuse me, little girl,” said the man on the left, whilst getting down on one knee to meet her eye line “We’re here to see your daddy. Could you get him for us?”
Her father had strictly prohibited her from addressing him as daddy, considering the term father to be more appropriate for a family of this standing. She wasn’t sure where he would be at the moment as he didn’t even like to discuss that type of thing with his wife, let alone his young daughter.
“Father’s not here at the moment,” she answered unsurely. “Would you like to come in?”
Her father always wanted her out of the house whenever he had his guests so she didn’t know if she should invite them in. She was unsure if she was even doing it right as whilst she had been able to observe her mother’s posture when she invited guests in she never knew what she was saying.
“Yes, thank you,” said the kneeling man as he stretched back up, his voice contained what you didn’t need to be an empath to recognise was a forced sweetness.
She ran back in with the two of them moving slowly in tow. They both took a seat on the main couch; the cushions audibly compressing as they were faced with these two large weights.
She remembered how her mother would often bring her guests drinks once they’d sat down and so she headed to the kitchen to prepare them. She wasn’t sure exactly what the drinks were normally but her mother had a visual interface installed which included a list of her most recent orders for convenience. Most of the more recent orders were somewhat alcoholic in nature but knowing that her mother didn’t drink alcohol when there were guests around, she kept looking through.
The two men were still seated on the couch.
*Real nice house he’s got here.* remarked one man to the other though it was clear from his tone that he was not here to admire the decor, he then gestured to a device on the wall and asked *What do you suppose that is?*
*That, my friend, is a piece of history.* explained the other, a little bit of an expert with these matters, *A genuine audio unit, not capable of visual or text communication.*
The first man chuckled a little to himself. *Now, of all the people to own something like that, what possible use could…* he stopped himself realising exactly what use this man could have for such a device. His wife’s condition meant she was unable to hear or speak, she would have no need to go anywhere near the relic, rendering it perfect to use for the more private conversations his business required of him.
She over heard the chuckling even from the kitchen, she had developed excellent hearing as she searched to make out words from the silence. She did find it slightly unnerving when they started laughing to one another.
The replicator whirred as it processed her order. A lump began to form in her through now as she realised that she had no idea who these men were and that if her mother hadn’t felt the vibration in her sensor of the door chime and her door was locked then there was no way to contact her.
The couch seemed to let out a sigh of relief as it moved back into its standard position. She heard one of the men’s heavy foot steps moving in her direction now. She left the drinks in the replicator and headed to the nearest communication panel she could find, she should definitely contact her father now.
She tried typing in the commands but realised that she would need authorisation. Voice authorisation had been obviously out of the question and so it instead relied on biometric scans. It wouldn’t accept hers and the man was getting closer.
The foot falls continued getting nearer, they were almost at the kitchen door when they suddenly stopped as another door opened. It was the front door and she recognised the sound of the feet. They were her father’s.
She wanted to run out to greet him but knew he had little patience for that type of thing so she instead chose a sensible walk to the door, just to see that it was him.
Once she did she just nodded in acknowledgement as he preferred, he found vocal communication repugnant and had told her to keep her use of it now to a minimum because he wouldn’t tolerate it when she was old enough to communicate like a proper Betazoid.
*I was just remarking to my friend about how lucky you are to have such a lovely home,* the first man thought as threateningly as possible *It’d be a shame if certain obligations weren’t fulfilled and something happened to it.*
The two men were standing just close enough to her father that there was no mistaking there intentions for being anything other than violent. Her father was however not the type to be easily intimidated and these two were far from the worst he’d encountered. He locked his eyes squarely on the eyes of the first man in a gesture of defiance and ambled forward until there were only inches between them *You can tell Tog that he’ll get his merchandise on schedule and that if he ever sends anyone to my home again that he will regret it.*
The man growled in a manner traditionally expected from a Klingon not a Betazoid but slowly began to back down.
Her father turned to her and ordered “Wren, go to your room now."
LT. SG Rada Dengar
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Serendipity NCC 2012
USS Alchemy NX 53099
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Serendipity NCC 2012
USS Alchemy NX 53099