"Ambition"

written by

Michael Gray

Robin Nelson glanced up at the sound of the opening door. She'd been wasting away the minutes of her life in the bleak, dark-walled room for the past four hours. But whether it was in this place, or back in her even bleaker quarters, she was still alone in a world she knew next to nothing about.

The gaunt human stared at Robin a moment before stepping over to the chair across from her. It was a more comfortable chair than Robin's. The one the agent from Temporal Investigations sat down in didn't have the shackles which bound her to her own.

"How are we today?" the gray-haired man asked as pleasantly as he could, which in his case was far less than the average human being.

Doing her best to put him at ease, Robin gave a chuckle. "Still your prisoner."

"You're hardly that, my dear." The tight skin of his face looked as if it might break from the smile he forced upon it. "But we can't exactly let you run around loose."

"Why? It's not like I'm going to rip your guts out with my bare hands or anything," Robin said.

"You'd be surprised what others in your position have attempted."

"Others?" All sense of humor evaporated from her features. For the first time in the week she'd been in this place, Robin Nelson stopped thinking of herself and the frightful predicament she was in. How many others? she wondered.

Looking up from the PADD in his hand, the man's sunken eyes glared at her. "My name is Sydathus Pervalt, and while I don't expect we'll become friends, it wouldn't hurt if we passed the next few minutes with some modicum of civility. Wouldn't you agree?"

Robin jerked her head up, tossing her short, dark-brown hair back. The last thing she cared about was attention being paid to any social graces. Her mind was focused on a single thought: getting out of this place.

"What can you tell me about Larissa James?"

Robin closed her green eyes with a soft snort. "Is there some reason I should cooperate with you?"

"Since I haven't done anything to engender sour feelings from you, it would make things more pleasant for both of us."

"Pleasant would be you removing these shackles from my arms and legs."

The fifty-one year old Pervalt let out a sigh. "I thought we had covered that already."

"I haven't done anything wrong!" she pleaded, struggling against her bonds out of frustration more than any sense it would help her. "Why are you keeping me here?"

Ignoring her, he straightened his plain, dark-blue suit. "How long did the Dominion War last in your timeline?"

"What?"

"The Dominion War."

The frantic need to flee was working hard to consume her, but Robin did her best to focus. She kept telling herself this couldn't go on much longer, but yet each day was as the last. "Two years, I think."

His gaze tightened on her. "You think?"

"I'm an engineer, not a field commander." She turned away from him. "I was only in three battles the entire war. I really don't know that much about what happened."

He frowned. "I see you intend to be difficult."

"Me?" Her hands tightened into fists as she made the hundredth attempt of the hour to wrestle free of her bonds. "Who's keeping me here? Who destroyed my world and everyone I ever gave a damn about?!"

"That wasn't me," he said with a tight grin. "Your friend Mei-Wan did that."

"That bitch isn't my friend!" She knew Pervalt intended to get her angry. Every interrogation for the last week had followed the same pattern. They'd ask her questions which she did her best to answer, but with as little detail as possible. Then they'd push her to break emotionally, at which point, with her barriers down, they'd ask a set of rapid fire questions to get as much information as they could. She had no reason to expect anything different from Pervalt.

But this day, Robin Nelson was determined to not let that happen. "My friend, Mei-Wan Lau was destroyed when her counterpart from this timeline arrived in my own." She took several deep breaths to calm herself further. The overwhelming frantic desire to run had abated somewhat now that she was letting her feelings about the woman who had brought her to this universe come to the surface. "The Mei-Wan I knew would never have done this to me."

Pervalt made several notations on his PADD. "What can you tell me about Li-Na Lau's pregnancy?"

Revealing the truth about the child Li-Na carried would give Robin some measure of revenge against the Mei-Wan of this reality, but she kept reminding herself that it was the child of her Mei-Wan, not the woman from this timeline.

Or was it something else? She didn't want to believe it was because of feelings for this Mei-Wan, but...

No, she told herself. I feel nothing for her. Robin forced a smile. "Well, I know I'm not the child's father," Robin said with a smirk, now that she was starting to feel good about the control she'd gained over her emotions.

"Do you enjoy making my life so difficult?" He shot a frown at her. "You know, I am just doing my job."

"I don't know anything about Li-Na's child. I never even knew she was pregnant." That was the truth. Li-Na hadn't been pregnant back in her own timeline.

Pervalt leaned back in his chair. "From what we have been able to determine, our two timelines are nearly identical. Aside from Li-Na Lau having been born in yours, the existence of Jack McCall and his family appear to be the only significant other difference."

"Mei-Wan's husband?"

He smiled. "Ex-husband. They're in the process of getting a divorce."

Pervalt watched the waves of changing emotion crashing on her like some weary seashore. He felt it wouldn't be much longer before she'd break.

But that was the last thing he wanted to happen to Robin Nelson. He only had to make her think his intention was to break her. Broken, she'd be of no use whatsoever to him or to Temporal Investigations. And he so hated to let a good resource like her go to waste.

He watched her eyes, he could see the despair filling them. He'd pushed her far enough for this session.

"You know, Mei-Wan had little choice in turning you over to us." He paused to gauge her reaction. "A standing Presidential order requires all persons from another temporal reality be turned over to our care. From our interviews with Hank Evans, the same order existed in your timeline."

"I know it did." She closed her eyes. "I violated that order because I couldn't bring myself to turn Mei in. If I had done my duty, you wouldn't be here and my world would still exist."

"Then Hank Evans and Mei-Wan would be in a room just like this back in your timeline." Pervalt inhaled deeply. "My counterpart might be the very one conducting their interrogations."

"I'd have never let Mei go through this."

"I doubt you would have had any choice." He stood up from his chair. "Why don't we take a break? I will have lunch brought to you and then afterward, perhaps we'll try again."

"I've answered all your questions," she whispered. "Please let me go."

He fought to hide a smile. "I will comply with your request in the same way you've answered my questions." He touched a control on his PADD and the restraints on her hands and legs opened. "Only to a limited extent."

Robin rubbed her sore wrists, but was glad for this small morsel of freedom.

"Who knows what your reward might have been if you had answered my questions completely and fully." A wide smile covered his face. He was curious to see if his words would change her attitude for their afternoon session.

***

A few minutes later, Pervalt entered the observation booth adjoining Robin's interrogation room. He came to a stop once he realized who was there--- who had been there watching him all along.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

Belvedere turned toward the older man. "I'm not sure I like your tone."

"I'm just surprised, is all," Pervalt replied, trying to hide his disdain. He hated it when his superiors kept such close tabs on his activities, especially someone of Belvedere's elevated position. "Surprised you'd take such an interest in a mundane case like this."

"None of them are mundane." Belvedere walked up close to the monitor that displayed an image of Robin Nelson. "I'm here by request of the Federation President."

"Why the interest in this one?" Pervalt shook his head and shuffled up next to Belvedere to watch his subject.

"I'm not really certain." The black-haired Asian man observed every nuance of Robin's movement on the monitor. "He asks for reports on a daily basis."

"Then, with all respect, I would suggest you do your job and pacify him until I can finish here."

"The President is malleable, but not infinitely so. This incident has him, shall we say, troubled." He smiled. "Though I think it has less to do with Lieutenant Nelson and more with the Dasari girl."

"He has every reason to be troubled about her." Pervalt pulled out his PADD and set it on the desk in front of him. "We all do."

The angular-faced Belvedere finally turned his gaze from the display to Pervalt. "What's your assessment of Robin?"

"She's angry, but that's to be expected."

"More afraid, I think," Belvedere murmured.

"She's had her whole world vanish to be replaced by ours." He looked at Robin on the display, watching her as she leaned against a wall in the small ten by ten room. "It can't be an easy thing to go through."

Belvedere stared absently at the floor. "Yes," he whispered. "I can imagine what that must be like for her."

"Because of that, I'm still concerned she may pose a danger." He activated his PADD and looked over a few notes. "Her anger toward Mei-Wan McCall is especially bothersome. She might attempt something foolish."

"I've gone over her file. I'm convinced Robin won't cause any trouble. At least none that we'd be concerned about." He let a brief grin come to his features. "And I don't believe she'd try to harm Mei-Wan in any way. As angry as she is about what's happened, Mei-Wan is one of the few real connections she has back to her own timeline."

The other man turned to Belvedere. "Why do I suspect you're more certain about this than her file would suggest?"

"What do you mean?"

"It's just you have an almost unerring knack for predicting these sorts of things. It has caused me to wonder..."

"It's not wise to allow your mind to woolgather like that." Belvedere slowly turned his eyes to Pervalt, glaring at him with an intensity which signaled this part of their discussion was over.

"I would like more time to gather further information from her."

"Exactly what do you hope to learn that we don't already know?"

"For a start, details about this machine that was discovered on Dalvanax Two in her timeline."

Belvedere let a slight smile creep across his face. "Admiral James already has plans to recover the device. Once Starfleet gets their hands on it, I doubt we will ever have an opportunity to examine it."

Pervalt frowned. "Given that it appears to be of Ancient Progenitor origin, are you certain it isn't a temporal device?"

"Quite certain."

Knowing it best to let his questions about the device go unanswered, Pervalt moved on. "I'd also like to discover why Mei-Wan McCall pulled up information on Lieutenant Commander Todd Nakano after she arrived at her parents home."

Belvedere took a deep breath. "I've already looked into that. It's nothing."

Pervalt's eyes narrowed. "Is it nothing, or is it that you don't want me to pursue it any further?"

"Does it really matter?" Belvedere asked with a smirk.

"In the end, I suppose it doesn't." Pervalt grinned. He suspected it did matter, but he wasn't foolish enough to push the matter. Few within Temporal Investigations ever dared to anger Belvedere, and those who did so rarely risked it a second time. He had to be careful that his inquiry was seen as inquisitive, rather than confrontational. "But it does answer the question of why you've been hovering about so much the last few days, now doesn't it?"

"How so?"

"Obviously the Nakano connection is important in some way to those in the upper echelons of Temporal Investigations."

Belvedere fought hard to suppress a smile. "And since you have ambitions to rise within the organization, you're looking for an opportunity to prove your worth to your superiors by discovering as much as you can about Nakano."

"Something like that."

Belvedere leaned toward Pervalt. "Trust me, this is one of those occasions where such initiative will only have the opposite result of that which you intend."

The other man nodded. "I take it that's not just a suggestion?"

"No, it isn't."

Pervalt sighed. "One day I would like to know why you are allowed so much freedom within this organization."

Belvedere turned his gaze back to the monitor. "I have far less freedom than you might imagine, Sydathus. With position comes responsibility and an ever tightening straightjacket upon one's actions." He took a breath. "The final report on Robin Nelson needs to be finished by the end of the week. I want to begin acclimating her to the new life she'll have as soon as possible."

"Why the rush?"

"Every day she remains here, the less likely she'll be to make the adjustment to our timeline."

"Where do you plan on sending her?"

Belvedere slid his fingers across the surface of the monitor. "That decision has yet to be made. She's an engineer, so we have a variety of options."

"Yes, we do," Pervalt said absently, his mind lost in a flurry of thought. "Well," he finally began, returning to his observation of Robin Nelson. "If you are intent on having her released..." A smile came to his face. "Perhaps we shouldn't be too hasty about placing her just yet."

"Why?"

"She might prove extremely useful in ways you haven't considered."

"Bringing her into the organization would not be an intelligent move."

"No, I wouldn't think of that." He turned to Belvedere. "But she might provide significant leverage with someone else."

"Who?"

"A certain archaeologist who could help us with a mission to a dead world."

"Mei-Wan?" Belvedere asked with a lifted brow.

Pervalt only nodded.

Belvedere smiled wide. "What exactly did you have in mind?"

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Dark Horizon Story and Characters Copyright ©2005 Michael Gray

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