A Romulan Interrogation, Part III
Posted on Tue Dec 30th, 2025 @ 1:12am by Lieutenant Jean-Baptiste Dorsainvil & Sub-Lieutenant Osirin Acainus & Lieutenant JG Jezra Siv MD & Captain Remy Johansen & Lieutenant Commander Xalanth
2,508 words; about a 13 minute read
Mission:
Peril at the Unification Accords
Location: Interrogation Room 2, Deck 5
Timeline: MD 08, 1925 Hours
"Mister Osirin," she said, her voice smooth as polished basalt, "your frustration is noted. But frustration is not a legal standard."
Her gaze returned to Valik, just long enough to signal hold your ground, then back to the Akadian.
"You assert that witnesses saw my client near the body. You assert he behaved evasively. Yet when pressed, you cannot--or will not--produce those witnesses, nor the logs that captured their statements, nor any timestamped footage establishing proximity. And still, you expect a detainee to answer to your account of events."
She leaned in closer, enough that the reflections in her eyes sharpened.
"This is interrogation by implication. A technique as old as the first jail cell. But implication does not supersede context. My client is a political asylum seeker being hunted by one of the most clandestine intelligence arms in the former Romulan Empire. Hypervigilance is not evasiveness--it is survival."
She let that settle, then added, almost gently:
"You, too, were seen near the Ambassador's body. If witness perception were a flawless instrument of truth, you could be sitting where Mister Valik is."
"If I were, I would be volunteering information to clear my name and find out who the real killer was," Osirin replied. "As far as the asylum is concerned, that, as Terrans would say, is above my pay grade. But I will do my part to protect him if the need arises."
Remy was listening to M'Veira and Osirin go back and forth in a frustrating dance of saying nearly nothing when she heard the attorney finally mention that their detainee was being hunted by what Remy had to assume was the Tal Shiar. It was also at this point that it became clear that neither Valik nor his attorney seemed inclined to speak to Osirin despite M'Veira's initial representations that Valik would likely be cooperating.
Despite her reluctance to join the room simply because M'Veira had demanded her presence, there was now at least something that seemed worth the Captain's attention. She approached the interview room and nodded to Lieutenant Xalanth.
"I'll be going in, Lieutenant," she informed him, waiting a moment for the security chief to make the appropriate security preparations.
The lizard nooded. " I'll be outside." He said still watching the proceedings. His gut was telling him something was off with all of this. Just what, though, was still a msytery.
The Captain then quietly let herself into the interview room, looking first to M'Veira, then to Sub-Lieutenant Acainus, and finally to Valik.
"When was Mr. Valik's request for political asylum first made?" Remy asked. "Or is this meant to be the first request?"
Valik looked at Remy when she entered, then spared a glance toward M'Veira. He knew the question was non-implicating, yet with his simmering anxiety, it was always worth double-checking.
M'Veira rose a fraction in the uncomfortable interrogation room chair--a gesture which was neither defiance nor deference. Her posture softened with the Captain's presence in a way it couldn't with the Akadian.
"Captain Johansen," she said, and the barbed wire was suddenly gone--her tone was now slightly more respectful but still guarded. "The process began nine months ago. The petition should be a matter of record with the Federation Office of Refugee and Asylum Affairs."
She steepled her fingers. It wasn't a power play--simply a lawyer aligning the facts like painter selects the colours of their palette.
"The Romulan Colonial Defense has a history of... disposing of operatives once their purpose has been fulfilled." Her artificial eyes met Valik's briefly. It was a look that said, Trust me, I will protect you.
Turning back to Remy and Osirin, M'Veira continued. "My client was what they called a deniable operative." She ran a hand through her hair, pushing back bangs that had fallen in her face. "Imagine being trusted with state secrets. Then, if you show the slightest gesture that might indicate defiance--the RCD puts you on a list."
M'Veira looked at Osirin momentarily, watching to see if maybe the Akadian might finally understand what Valik had been through.
"A hit list," she said coolly. "Mister Valik was advised to remain mobile until a sponsoring authority could be secured. He came to your reception because the Ambassador had expressed--privately--an openness to reviewing his case."
Osirin had never been convinced of Valik's guilt; now, he was even less so. He turned to the Captain and asked, "Do you believe him?"
"If this was put through official channels, we should be able to verify the request. Though I have to ask. You don't think this... Agency could penetrate Federation Records?" Remy asked. "Hasn't already?"
The Captain walked over to a panel near the door and typed in a code. The lights flickered once and dimmed slightly, barely perceptible.
"Off the record," Remy added.
"Just how deep into it was your client?" Remy asked. She then turned and looked at Valik directly. "If Ambassador T'Varel was looking at protecting you was her assassination even about these Accords, or are you more important than you are letting on?" Remy asked.
For the first time since the questioning had begun, Valik visibly tensed. Being off-record was simultaneously relieving and stressful, and both were because the situation was even more uncertain in his eyes. The tension came from disclosing something that nearly got him killed last time. He looked to M'Veira again and quietly said her name to get her attention. "I believe I can answer this," he softly murmured, using the same hushed tone she had used with him earlier.
M'Veira raised what might've been the most skeptical eyebrow in her legal career. "Are you sure, Valik?" While she trusted Captain Johansen, one could never be too careful--especially when realpolitik happened to be the Federation's current guiding star. Still, perhaps it was best if they heard from him directly.
Valik couldn't help the very brief glance toward Osirin. His change in intent was fast, and to the Romulan he was the most uncertain character in the room; that said, several conditions that rarely aligned for him were imperfectly, but meaningfully, present now. "The circumstances are different from the last time I took this risk. The danger can be controlled here, I can sense it."
"If you're feeling comfortable, Valik..." she glanced from Remy to Osirin, and then back to her client. Her artificial eyes acquired an eerie translucence in the dim light. "Then feel free."
Comfortable was not the word Valik would use --he was anything but comfortable right now-- but silence was not shielding him as effectively as he desired. "As objectively as I can," he began at a normal tone, turning his attention back to Remy, "my presence here and the ambassador's death are unfortunately timed coincidences." His words were chosen carefully, as if positioning dominoes in a line. "I carry information that has the potential to initiate conflict in the quadrant if given to the RCD. My asylum case is seeking a level of institutional protection for that information. Sponsorship would help expedite my case, but it's difficult to obtain a sponsor when you can't explain why you need one. That is the extent of my importance." He adjusted in his seat, clearly uncomfortable with this disclosure but knowing it provided the context they were seeking. "I was advised to stay mobile because the RCD is far more pervasive than you think. They've infiltrated Federation Records before and I have no doubt they'd try it again, especially if it gave them access to exploitable intel."
He took in a steadying breath, though it did little to calm his nerves. The risk he was taking was calculated, and he hoped to every higher being out there that he wasn't bad at math. "I don't know why the ambassador was killed. My intuition is convinced that it was to disrupt the Accords. I visually scanned the room multiple times, but whoever did it hid themselves well. My..." He hesitated, trying to swallow his anxiety, "... my fear had me believe that the RCD finally caught up to me. I wasn't thinking about who had killed her, I was thinking about who was next, and in a room full of important cultural dignitaries it was anyone's guess."
When Valik finished, the room felt thinner, as if some of the oxygen had been spent simply getting the truth into the open. M'Veira could see the discipline he'd been trained into was still holding--just barely.
She stood slowly. Not to dominate the room. To ground it.
"What my client has just described," she said, voice measured, "is not ambition, nor is it intrigue, nor an attempt--" She narrowed her eyes at Osirin--"to play a game of galactic chess." She straightened one of her sleeves, letting the word sit for a moment. "He is simply seeking protection from a system that uses people until they become inconvenient, and then erases them altogether."
M'Veira's gaze settled on Captain Johansen--not in some challenge. Assessing. Like one professional to another.
"Again: my client did not kill Ambassador T'Varel. But her death may very well be adjacent to the same forces hunting him."
"Are you sure you want to go back to the planet just yet?" Remy asked, glaring at both Valik and M'Veira. "Your attorney made it seem like you were eager to return, but if you are so hunted as you claim, perhaps you'd feel more comfortable if we arranged temporary quarters for you here."
Valik watched Remy closely as he answered her. "The sooner I can get back to the planet, the sooner I can gather my things and leave." He didn't soften his words for her, Osirin, or anyone else listening, but he also kept his tone as even as he could muster. "I appreciate your offer, Captain, however staying mobile is my safest option."
The Romulan attorney watched the Captain's face closely for a long moment. She wasn't sure if her offer had come from a place of concern. She studied Remy's face like one might watch weather roll through the Kestar Plains of Romulus, except she wasn't looking for thunder or lightning. Just the first, honest sign of rain. Then she spoke.
"Captain," she said, "temporary quarters--no matter how thoughtfully appointed--are still a form of containment."
She held up one hand, palm outward, not to stop any talk but to keep it from moving in the wrong direction.
"I do not doubt your good faith. Or your concern. But to someone who has lived under surveillance, a room assigned for his safety is indistinguishable from a holding cell with a comfier bed and better lighting."
"I won't hold him here," Remy stated, deliberately not hiding her exasperation as she addressed the Romulan attorney. "But if Valik leaves, I cannot guarantee his safety, nor have much to say about his request for asylum and where that might lead him."
She then turned to Valik. "But there is clearly a murderer on the loose. Logic would lead us to consider that this was an organized attack - we don't even know how it was done exactly. And if the same people want you dead, well then, godspeed to you."
The Captain then stood up to leave, knowing full well that Valik wouldn't get far without Xalanth and his team knowing which direction he was going. She couldn't imagine if the Tal Shiar were in the area, they wouldn't have a similar read on him as well.
"Don't be a damn fool," Osirin said, "work with us. You're putting a target on your back. Work with us, because if you walk away now, without our protection, you're putting your life in danger."
Valik's gaze turned to Osirin. A small part of him wondered if the offer of sanctuary from these interrogators had any genuine intention, but he knew that an emotional response --specifically, one they could perceive as hostile-- would only make matters worse. Fortunately, one didn't need emotion to be blunt. "With all due respect, you don't know my situation. Your perception of what poses a danger to me is misguided at best." One thing Valik never quite understood was Starfleet's faith in its own walls, as if one became untouchable the moment they set foot aboard a starship. With an undertone of finality, he added, "I have given you what you need for your investigation."
Remy smirked.
"Good luck."
She then turned to Xalanth. "See to it we have a way to contact his attorney should we need anything else, and arrange for transport back to the planet or to the Starbase. Whichever is Mr. Valik's preference." She gave M'Veira a quick nod and then left the interrogation room.
M'Veira inclined her head once. It wasn't gratitude but simple acknowledgment. No one would be walking out of this room feeling like a winner. Valik would return to his life and resume the long asylum process while keeping the margins. Captain Johansen and her crew would no doubt have other leads to follow-up on, but they were nonetheless without a suspect for the Ambassador's death. Empty-handed.
The Romulan solicitor had performed her role to the best of her ability: her client's rights were protected and defended.
"That will be acceptable, Captain," she said.
She gathered her PADD as the tension in the room began to loosen its grip, not gone really. More spent.
Turning to Valik, she spoke softly. "We will proceed as discussed. Retrieve what you must. Depart. Do not linger." She paused, then added: "And do not improvise."
Her artificial eyes held his for a long moment. There was no fear in them.
"I will remain reachable. Always."
The relief that this was over was only evidenced in the slight drop of Valik's shoulders. Looking to M'Veira, he gave her a nod of understanding.
M'Veira faced Osirin last. Not with hostility. With closure.
"You have your statements," she said. "You have context. If further cooperation is required, it will be arranged through me." A faint, almost apologetic tilt of her head followed.
"As you wish," the Akadian spoke up. "If your client decides he wants our protection, we are here."
Captain Remira Johansen
Commanding Officer
USS Astrea
Lt. Commander Xalanth
Chief Security Officer
USS Astrea
Sub-Lieutenant Osirin Acainus
Mission Advisor
USS Astrea
Lieutenant Jean-Baptiste Dorsainvil (as M'Viera)
Assistant Chief Security Officer
USS Astrea
Lieutenant J.G. Jezra Siv (as Valik)
Chief Medical Officer
USS Astrea
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