round 22 Cpt Liam Frost & LtCmdr Oliver Weston: The Fate We Deserve

[+ Alex Blair]

((First Minister's Office - The Citadel))

Zim: What.

:: A moment ago, Arvin had watched one of his oldest friends destroy a the glass he had been holding, seemingly by sheer force of will. It was something he had only seen once in his life before, and it had scared the hell out of him just as much. Zim's tone didn't help the matter any either. It wasn't a question. It was a simple statement of disbelief, an declaration that he refused to believe what he was being told without something else to back it up with. It wasn't entirely surprising. Arvin had nearly refused to believe it himself. If he hadn't seen the numbers of dead, he would have denied it to his own grave.::

Zagan: Someone at the Board of Science authorize this pathogen as a weapon. Laybrim was a part of that project.

Zim: No. No I heard you brother. I...

:: His voice trailed off as he became lost in the implications of what he had just been told. It was something that he had struggled with himself. To think that there was somone who was willing to defy not only the law, but basic decency, and create a weapon of such indiscriminate lethality, and then release it intentionally on an ostensibly civilian population was beyond his ability to process. They would claim it had only minitary targets, but there was no way that Arvin could conceive of that would allow them that kind of control. Perhaps that was why they had abandoned it. Maybe there was somone with enough moral fiber left to point that out and put a stop to the project. Perhaps that had even been Jorgen himself. But he didn't have the time to ask about it.::

Zim: I just can't believe it. This? All of this, because of him?

Zagan: Among others. He's just the only one we can link to it with any certainty.

Zim: I'll kill him Arvin.

:: Arvin didn't have the slightest doubt that Tyrek was serious. they had both been soldiers, they had taken lives on the battlefield. But that didn't make them monsters. Taking a life was not something that was done lightly, on a whim. And it was never done when not absolutely necessary. And most importantly, one did everything possible to prevent the deaths of civilians and non-combatants. They were the rules that made the difference between soldiers and murderers. And a biological weapon with no cure and a 100% mortality rate flew in the face of every one of those rules. And Arvin new just about as well as anyone that there was one thing the Tyrek Zim would not abide; those who broke the rules. As far as he was concerned, Jorgen had just admitted to being a war criminal. And the law afforded him only one fate.::

Zagan: The law affords only one punishment for what he's done. But we need him alive...

Zim: I'm going to- oh... you're right.

:: Arvin reached for the decanter on the table, pouring himself another glass of drisa as he watched his friend clean himself up, pulling what he assumed were a few shards of what had been the glass from his hand with barely a wince. He took a long pull from the glass, suppressing a slight cough as it hit his throat.::

Zagan: I don't like it, Tyrek, but we need his knowledge to have any hope of solving this. Any knowledge he has dies with him.

Zim: You're right, of course. You always are, old friend. But when this is over...

Zagan: We'll do what we've always done, my friend. We'll let the people decide his fate.

:: He knew already what they would likely decide. And he had a suspicion that Jorgen knew what was coming as well. The law was very clear on what would happen to him. But it was important to Arvin that he let the justice system do it's work. No matter how heinous the crime, Jorgen was entitled to the process. It was how they would prove how far they had come since the Great War. No matter what either of them felt, he was entitled to the process.::

Zim: Deal.

Zagan: Starfleet has sent down a team of researchers. They've set up a temporary lab in Talisa Park.

Zim: Yes I just received a progress report from their surface team. I have my men patrolling the park and keeping the riots clear. But we're spread rather thinly.

Zagan: I understand they have their own security as well, hopefully that should be enough to keep them safe.

:: There was a troubling truth to the situation around the lab that Starfleet had set up. The park was a difficult place to guard properly, especially under the circumstances. It was a huge space, and easy to get lost in. If the rioters managed to find the lab, they would tear the place apart. But most frighteningly of all was the fact that it wasn't a matter of if they would get there, but when. If the people knew the lab was there, they would do the same thing that they had done to every other unprotected facility conducting research. the best hope for the moment was to try to make sure they didn't find out about it.::

Zagan: I would have liked for them to be working a little closer.

Zim: We can't risk the Citadel being breached though, Arvin. You and the few thousand people left inside might be the only uninfected Rathosians left in existence.

Zagan: I know. And that thought frightens me more than any other that we've faced so far.

Zim: I'll keep the park teams on high alert, but I'm not pulling soldiers from elsewhere yet. Give me five city blocks from the south end of the park. Is that fair? The riots reach, :: He looked down at a detailed road map of the city. :: Brindala Avenue and I'll relocate more men to the Federation quarantine from the Citadel.

:: It made him a little uncomfortable that they were going to potentially allow a large group of angry and frightened people to get that close to the best chance they had at developing a cure for the pathogen, but Tyrek was right. If the Federation couldn't find a cure for the pathogen, there was still the chance that the people still in the Citadel might be able to ride it out. It would be thir entire civilization in the hands of only a few, but it was better than no civilization at all. This of course, all assumed that they could keep the Citadel quarantined.::

Zagan: That sounds about as reasonable as we're going to get. The federation researchers have reqeusted access to a few of our samples as well as a few... cadavers.

:: It felt so impersonal to refer them to cadavers. They were the bodies of his people. The people he had been elected to lead, the people that he had failed. He would have time to mourn them later. As impersonal and undignified as it may have been to them, they were the best hope of a cure.::

Zim: What? :: This time it was a question. :: They haven't received them yet? Of course! :: He furiously tapped at his control window and called up the necessary orders. :: Fates Wheel I can't believe they haven't been sent yet. I'm giving my formal permission now. Send them whatever they want from the labs and morgue. Give them everything!

Zagan: What have we got for them?

Zim: I'll authorize a transport for half a dozen cadavers and as many samples as we've got. Do we still have a primal sample?

:: Arvin had authorized the board of science to put a lot of effort into finding one of the original samples. Something that had survived without mutation, or at least minimally so. But it had taken dangerously long for them to figure out what was happening. by then, most of the bodies had been disposed of in a number of ways, and even those not dealt with by families had been burned in the early mass disposals.::

Zagan: I'm afraid not. The originals were set loose, and the bodies all disposed of.

Zim: [...]. My people tell me that would have helped.

Zagan: So have the researchers.

:: He lifted the glass again, draining the last of it's contents. He felt a slight burning as it hit the back of his throat. It was a sign that he was hitting the wall that came when he was exhausted; a state that he seemed to be perpetually in of late. He debated the merits of another in the hopes that it might help him get to sleep. But he knew it was only likely to make things worse.::

Zim: Do you think they can fix this, Arvin?

Zagan: I honestly don't know, Tyrek. But it's the only hope we have.

First Minister Arvin Zagan
First Minister of Rathos
Rathos Prime

as simmed by Cpt Liam Frost

&

Lord Commander Tyrek Zim

Rathosian Admiral
RSS Longbow
as simmed by Oliver Weston