Star Trek: Eventide 777 - interrogation-room

She sat the Reman down in a chair. "Would you like anything to drink?" She asked politely before sitting down in her chair as well. She closed her eyes briefly before opening them again. It had been...a long day for sure. She hadn't even had time to process everything yet, going from one thing to another. In fact, she still didn't have time to process anything. To be honest, she kind of expected things like this. The bombing, the rescue mission, all these things she expected and prepared for technically even before the academy. But even then, she'd never experienced them before. Both situations were...she hated to think it but scary. In there own ways of course. The rescue mission with all the adrenaline felt almost as if she was invincible but as soon as...that...the Reman had used his telepathic manipulation? She felt so ding ding scared she barely knew what to do. And after shooting Whidbey, well, it felt like she never deserved the praise that the civilians she saved rained down on her. But enough of those thoughts, if anything she could think them later, try to understand everything that had happened but not now. Not she had a job to do. "So, what would it be? water? Tea? Coffee? What would you like?" She asked, focusing her mind back on the women in front of her.

Whidbey silently crept into the back of the interegation room. He carried a physical notepad in his hand. His bulky frame would likely make him menacing to people who didn't know him but that was rarely a negative when it came to interrogations. For now he would stay stoic, not interfering with Emin's investigation.

Georgia had followed the pair here, standing near the door again, leaning against the wall. She was just here to check if the person was telling the truth or not. That's really all that matters to her.

Whidbey turned to the Tactical Lieutenant with a questioning look. "This interregation is a security matter, who even let you in here?" His voice was collected but stern in its message.

"The commander gave me permission to help, same for the commodore. If you wish for me to leave, I'll do so. But I do think my empathic abilities to detect lies will be of use here." She said back in a somewhat hushed tone. She didn't want to interrupt the interrogation after all by speaking up loudly.

He shrugged. "Well if the commodore said you could attend I can't really contend with that. However in the future you need a request signed by me or someone higher ranking on the station" He leaned back against the wall and returned to observing.

"Sure thing, I'll make sure I'll have one next time." She said with a quick smile before returning her attention to the people talking.

She shifted uncomfortably in her chair at hearing the Lieutenant's talk. But enough of that, she had to focus her mind on the task at hand. She held onto the things Akuvek had stated before and they whirred around in her mind. Akuvek was a thief, a good thief but one with morals. Not knowing that what she stole? Or perhaps more likely where she slipped the explosive to. She probably would never have accepted a job like this if she knew what the outcome would be. So there was obviously someone above this, someone with contacts in Mol'Rihan? New Romulus...she of course needed more information. She refocused her gaze to the Reman, waiting for an answer.

Being marched through the station with the judgemental gaze of everyone she passed being set upon her might as well have been punishment enough. Word spread quickly it seemed, and there wasn't much way of disguising that you were being apprehended - with all of the visiting civilians having been evacuated it meant that she stood out... Especially considering that she was being escorted by Starfleet's distinctive security officers. There was no avoiding the feeling of countless eyes watching her as they passed other officers in the hallway and turbolifts. The guilt and the downright shame may well have been enough. In the interrogation room she had taken her seat without complaint, resting her hands against the cold metal of the table in front of her. When the Ensign opted to be hospitable she went to reply but instead found herself quietening down, not wanting to get in the way of the conversation going on between the other two officers. It was only when they seemed to stop that she replied meekly: "no, thank you... I'm alright."

She nodded. "Alright then, I guess we can get officially started." She said with a friendly smile. "So, you said you were hired on Mol'Rihan correct? Do you know who hired you, or know the contact at least?" She started, that was a good place to start. Who was in charge? Although most likely they wouldn't get much but a few pieces that could possibly be helpful. Still, she felt slightly self-conscious that Lieutenant Whidbey was watching her while she worked along with the tactical Betazoid Lieutenant but she had to be there to tell if the Reman was lying. It felt just like the Academy all over again, her professors staring over her shoulder.

It seemed as though they were getting straight into the questions. At least it meant that this would be over and done with sooner, she thought. What would happen afterwards was a mystery -- and it was one she dreaded to think about. At the question she shook her head slightly, drawing in a slow breath to try to calm herself before speaking. "I don't know them, no. They didn't give their names, and like most people who go around the... You know, the..." "She lowered her voice, not as if she wasn't speaking to the equivalent of the patrols on Romulus.* "*Markets, they probably wanted to blend in. They didn't seem distinguishable by anything..."

She nodded thoughtfully, no names, blending in well... "What species were they? Or could you not tell?" She asked curiously. Species was a big thing, even if they were the most common alien in the quadrant. "And what were your orders specifically?" She asked, her mind rang with all sorts of questions. But she had to be slow, calm down and ask them one by one. The Reman was nervous enough as is. She didn't need to overwhelm her by shooting a bunch of questions at her.

Austin heard his Comm and stepped out of the room for a minute before returning.

"Definitely Romulan," she replied, nodding as firmly as she dared -- she was still cautious, evidently. There were too many stories of an accused person making an accidental move and it being misconstrued leading to them getting into more trouble, or worse. "The shape of the ears and the way they spoke gave it away. I was just told to take that... Object and hide it, and they told me where. I figured it was so some collector could pick it up or a merchant could sell it on. That's why I put my own things in there -- I had no idea it would be a bomb, so I was planning on going back for my own things... They were pretty meaningless so I hoped that the collector would leave them alone, or if they thought it worth selling on then they might at least leave me something for the hassle..."

Romulan, curious although it made sense if the contact was on Mol'Rihan. "I see." She commented as her mind processed the information. Obviously the Reman in front of her knew little to nothing about the real plans, she was just someone caught in the cross fire. The question was who hired her? Unfortunately, there probably wasn't too much they could get from her. But what she had said so far was helpful enough. "Is there anything else that you can recall or think may be helpful for our investigation?"

"I don't know what else would help," she stated, casting her gaze down again. She laced her fingers together and took another slow breath as if she was steeling herself. "And I don't know how to fix any of it. It was all- it was all just so stupid of me. I should have known that there was something else going on! I..." Her efforts to stop herself from getting upset had obviously failed. "There's no way of fixing it when it ended up with people dead."

"No, there isn't." She agreed. "But your cooperation will help us catch whoever was responsible, so thank you." She said graciously. "And I'll see what I can do for you punishment wise, since you unwittingly knew what you were doing. Although you were involved in the deaths your cooperation should help lessen the consequence." She assured the Reman before getting up and walk over to Lieutenant Whidbey. "I think that's about all I can get from her, she's just a pawn for the bigger player." She paused before opening her mouth again. "Anything you want to ask her? Anything I missed that I should have asked?" She asked. She hadn't messed up had she?

He rubbed his chin for a moment. "I might try and get some more information later, there is a chance some of her connections could lead us back to the root." He began moving towards the table, addressing Akuvek he asked. "Is there anyway alternative way you can help us out. I'm afraid we will have to keep you here for a little while but, any cooperation you could give us as far as information goes could easily see your sentance lightened or perhaps even eliminated."

"Alternative way?" She asked, eyes widening a fraction. What sort of alternative way? And how long would they have to keep her here - if not indefinitely? She had family back home that she needed to provide for, but staying here would technically be luxury... A Federation jail probably would have been luxury. No, she couldn't think like that, any punishment was designed just as that - a punishment - and she shouldn't try to see any upside of it. Not when... Not when people had- Not when her actions had led to people being hurt, people dying. Her thoughts felt like a continued conflict spiralling out of control, but she tried to focus on the questions. Answering them was the best she could do at present. "I don't know what else I can do to help, but if there's anything then I'll try... I just want to try to make up for all of this. Please."

He weighed his options for a moment longer, eventually deciding there wasn't much more he could ask as of now, Emin had practically covered what needed to be covered. "There are some ways that we will likely check into in good time but, for now I should probably discuss with you how things are likely to go down for now. Currently we have no choice but to charge you with at the very least theft. I intend to have you held here in our brig for now as opposed to a Federation prison if that is allright with you?"

Truthfully she had no idea of how the likes of being charged with crimes worked in the Federation, but being kept here sounded very reasonable. The alternative was... She didn't want to think about where she might end up otherwise. The lack of knowledge about the system here was daunting, and it wasn't easy to process anything at all through the internal guilt and torment... But despite recent opinion on Mol'Rihan, she was aware that the Federation was safe. They treated prisoners well, right? If she was handed back over to her own people... No. She didn't want to think about that right now. She didn't want to think about home, or her desperation, or her guilt or knowing she needed to face punishment but desperately, desperately wanting to avoid whatever would face her back home. "Please - whatever you think is best. I'll stay here, I'll do what I need to, I'll stay here as long as I need and I understand if you send me to jail, and-" She stopped, trying to halt so she didn't end up panicking again. Would her family back home be okay without her providing for them? They would have to be... There was too much to this. It was too complicated. She had never even wanted to hurt anyone... She may as well still have been trying to come to terms that she had planted a bomb.

He nodded to her, trying to calm her down. However his voice was not soothing in the slightest, it was clear he was frustrated by the events of the day. "Trust me, you will be well taken care of. Our main brig officer is quite a kind person and she will make sure you are well cared for."

"Everything is going to be just fine." She confirmed in a calming voice, the stress was getting to her too but her mind was still preoccupied with too many things for it to show outwardly. "Just like the Lieutenant said, you will be cared for. Even though you were involved with the explosion it's obvious you have a good heart." She smiled warmly. "You wouldn't be regretful if you didn't."

"Thank you," she stated, trying to focus on the words of the two officers instead of the growing panic which wracked through her brain. It was a little easier to listen to facts when they came from a voice that wasn't your own, ones that weren't caught up in a rambling internal monologue. "I'm just... Still trying to come to terms with all of this. I know that I have to face some kind of punishment. And I know I can't turn back the clock and undo all of this, but I'll do anything to make up for it somehow. I just... You can never imagine finding yourself in this sort of position, just... Out of nowhere."

Whidbey inadvertently rolled his eyes, he meant to hold that feeling inside but he couldn't help it. Sure he could tell Akuvek was remorseful but he felt to an extent she was trying to hard. He also couldn't find it in him to truely feel bad for her, she was a criminal, a thief who had now murdered one of his people, be it intentional or not. Annoyance persisted in his voice even if he didn't want it to be there. "Well I'm sure we will have things figured out in good time. For now you are obviously going to be staying here." He paused for a moment letting slip his true feelings. "I can't really imagine how something like this was unexpected for you. As a thief I'm sure you were associating with quite a few untrustworthy people."

She frowned briefly at the Lieutenant's sudden capricious behavior and blatant display of vitriol. Something she would have never expect from the Chief Security Officer, then again. It had been quite a... frustrating and stressful day. She could hardly blame him but the truth was the Reman was anxious enough as it was and she was certain his comments wouldn't make things any better. Hopefully the Lieutenant's peculiar behavior would leave soon enough. For now she would help calm her down again for surely the Lieutenant didn't really mean for it to come out the way it had. It was just stress. "I'm sure he didn't mean it that way." She said with another reassuring smile albeit one more tense then it had been awhile ago. "But, if you would excuse us we need to go over the information and data from this day to figure everything out. Let us know if you have any other information or need anything else." She smiled once more before leaving the room with the other two Lieutenants.

There was no way that she was going to argue against what the Lieutenant said. It would have just wound her up in more trouble... And she didn't think she had the energy for it. Instead she just remained in a stunned silence and watched as the three then headed out, leaving her to sit there in horrid reflection of the day's events.

Two Security officers escorted Akuvek into the interrogation room. After doing so, one went to leave and the other went to stand by the door. Neither had spoken to her about why she had been brought back here.

It was during another morning of being sat in silence that she found something unusual happening - two security officers lowering the holofield to her cell in the brig and escorting her into here. This room was cold, dimly lit -- it seemed that even Starfleet weren't above the fear factor in interrogations. This is what this was, right? An interrogation room? They were finally doing something, but that something was terrifying... As indicated she took her chair and couldn't help but wring her hands in front of her, trying not to think of whatever might happen next. Starfleet had been hospitable so far, but that didn't mean they had to be forever.

After a few minutes of there being no one come into the room, the door finally slid open, and a Ferengi in a yellow uniform entered the room. It was impossible to tell Dagis apart from any Security officer just by looking at her. The only thing that made her stand out was the lack of Type-2 phaser holstered on her belt. The COO slowly approached the Reman, looking down at her as she got closer, until she eventually came to a stop on the other side of the table. She pulled out her PADD from her pocket and began scrolling, listing off information as she did. "Akuvek, Reman, unknowingly planted a Romulan-built bomb, thought it was a simple 'drop off' of sorts. Am I right?" She asked rather casually, now looking at the woman sitting in front of her.

It had been a good couple of minutes sat there in silence. For a time the Reman had considered saying something to the two guards - maybe this was some sort of tactic of theirs, maybe they wanted her to speak first - but she had opted to stay quiet instead, fearful of getting into trouble... Any further trouble, that is. When the doors slid open she was surprised to find a Ferengi walk in... And what was that rank on their collar? Three bars was something important, right? Most Ferengi she had spoken to had been for business... And none of them acted like this one, with the way she looked down at the Reman analytically. It almost made Akuvek squirm, and the eerily casual tone that was used to state her information only served to make her feel even more uncomfortable. "Y-Yes - that's correct," was all she could say in reply, already fearful of where this was going to go.

After the Reman had confirmed what she said, the Ferengi began walking around her and the table slowly, staring down at her PADD as she did. "You came here to deliver the bomb, not knowing it was a bomb. But did you not know? Or are you just saying that? As for the bomb, you say it was a package drop off, and you kept it stored along with things you had stolen. You admit stealing, you admit placing the bomb, you admit the bomb came from Romulans. Why did they want it to be placed here? Was it meant to go off here? You are probably too low down the food chain to know." She said, now finally in front of the woman again. Dagis seemed calm, collected, casual, until what she did next. She put her PADD away in her pocket, before slamming her hands down on the table, staring the woman in the eyes. But it wasn't just her behaviour that changed, it was her tone, and her way of speaking in general that suddenly shifted. "But it doesn't add up, does it? Why would Romulans want to bomb us? We're at peace with them, we helped them. There's something more. I don't know if you're hiding it, or are as clueless as a month-old Ferengi is at making Profit, but I frankly don't care either." She said, having kept her volume surprisingly quiet the entire time. She slowly stood up, before pulling down on the sleeves of her uniform jacket. "The Romulans rather conveniently didn't show up to PACT, and then a Romulan bomb went off. I don't think that's a coincidence. Do you?" She asked, now back in her completely casual tone.

The Security officer guarding the door didn't even so much as flinch when Dagis slammed her hands on the table.

To begin with it seemed that the Ferengi was going to throw a myriad of questions at her and let her try to keep up with them all at once. Akuvek had no idea if this was some sort of official interrogation tactic but she didn't like it - every time she tried to stay something, tried to defend herself, the officer had already moved on to something different and cut off any attempt to interject. Rather swiftly she worked out to keep her mouth closed instead of saying anything at all. Instead she could only give slight nods of the head - shoulders tense, hands clasped tightly together to the extent that her nails dug into the backs of the opposite hands, and trying not to betray her fear... But as soon as that security officer slammed her hands down upon the table - completely out of nowhere - the Reman jumped and tears sprang to her eyes. The nodding swiftly became her shaking her head instead, no to the not adding up, no to the helping them, no to the 'do you.' It was only when the officer's tone had settled back to the casual one it had conveyed before that Akuvek dared to speak, mouth dry and stumbling over her words. 777_divider

20:42

"I- I don't know anything, I don't know their motives, I don't know why... L-Like you say, I didn't even - I didn't even know what it was, I just... I didn't know. But-" She blinked hard and tried to swallow against the lump in her throat, the tears threatening to spill over. "But there's - Mol'Rihan isn't the utopia that people think it is, or think that it's trying to be, or- It's- There's a lot of discontent that they t-t-t-try to hide - probably from you, because they don't want the Federation to withdraw help... Again." Her voice wavered on the 'again,' but even its mention was crucial. Everyone knew how controversial the Federation's decision had been to withdraw evacuation support before the Hobus supernova occurred. Dastardly engineered plot or not, their withdrawal had been entirely unconventional and inhumane. "There's discontent towards D'Tan, to the Republic's goals... They're not the Star Empire, but they're still not p-perfect. And then that extends... So the discontent is towards the Federation, t-too..."

In contrast to how she had behaved up until this point, Dagis remained silent as the woman spoke, continuing to stare at her analytically as she did. She slowly pulled her PADD out again and started typing away as Akuvek spoke, ignoring the minor pain in her hands from slamming them down so hard. It was only as the Reman said the discontent was towards the Federation as well that the Ferengi stopped typing. The clearly very upset woman in front of her had just said exactly what Dagis wanted to hear... Or rather, didn’t want to hear, but thought was the case. She went over to the corner of the room and grabbed an empty chair, bringing it back and placing it in front of the table so she could sit eye-to-eye with the Reman. “Would you think it entirely possible for someone, or some group on Mol’Rihan to want to attack the Federation over this ‘discontent’, as you worded it?” The Ferengi asked calmly. She now came across just as she had done when she originally entered. She was calmer, more laid back. But there was also a hint of understanding seeping through into her tone. In truth, Dagis didn’t want to upset the woman sitting in front of her, but she wanted to know if the theory she had been working on had any grounds.

"I..." She paused and drew in a slow inhale, trying to calm down. In normal circumstances she might have been reassured by the way that the officer's tone had shifted a little, almost sounding calmer, but the continued shift in emotion only made her more afraid of what might happen here. The Federation wouldn't do anything untoward, would they? This wasn't New Romulus. This wasn't New Romulus. The things she could explain, the things she could tell - but even thinking about it all hurt, it hurt, and all she could do to stop herself from panicking was focus on the questions and just answer them as best she could. The Federation weren't like them. This officer was just playing bad cop. The Federation weren't like them... "I don't know. I don't know how b-b-bad it's gotten. P-People usually fear any sort of physical action, they're p-p-political instead, with rallies and petitions and things... No one w-w-wants to go back to the devastation that the Tal Shiar brought. But -- there are m-m-maybe still some people out there, more militant... The Republic might have t-t-taken steps forward but y-y-you-" The Reman broke off, voice hitching, and she had to stare down at the table to try to stop herself from crying. "C-C-Can't erase all of those years of b-b-being so vile."

Dagis listened intently as the woman spoke, watching her behaviour very, very closely. At least sitting down made her look less intimidating, right? Either way, once Akuvek had finished talked the Ferengi started typing away again on her PADD. “I see. Well, I think I got the answer I suspected was the case.” She responded rather simply, before standing up again. “You’ll be returned to your cell now, unless you have any questions or concerns?” Dagis asked with a slightly raised eyebrow ridge. She honestly felt quite bad for the woman, but at the same time she didn’t like how coincidental it was for her to unknowingly place a bomb. She must’ve known who she was dealing with, she must’ve been working for them, but she had no proof and she probably never would, and nor would anyone else.

The Reman blinked and looked to the officer - finally drawing her gaze away from the table - at the talk of 'answer I suspected was the case.' What answer? What had the Security officer suspected? Akuvek wanted to ask but the thought of asking out of turn was terrifying, so instead she just kept quiet, trying not to cry, desperately trying not to cry. It was with a shake of her head that she responded to the 'questions or concerns.' Everything was a concern right now, but she didn't want to talk about it. Didn't, couldn't. It hurt too much to even try to consider asking. This was the Federation, though. This was the Federation. They were not them. They were not them.

The Ferengi nodded in response to the Reman shaking her head. "I see. Well, you'll be heading back to your cell now. I appreciate your cooperation, and I wish you the best. Our counselling services extend to yourself should you wish to use them." Dagis said rather plainly, before turning towards the door to head out, but stopping briefly and looking back at Akuvek. "I recommend you do. They're good people." She said more softly, before turning back to face the door and heading out of the interrogation room completely.

The Security officer who was outside the interrogation room re-entered as the Lieutenant Commander left, and both Security officers quickly went to escort Akuvek back out and to her cell.