"Please, please, I am begging you. She is my child! She is my legacy!", Loiza fell to her knees begging the Romulan not to shoot T'Loridel.
"She is not your child. She is a Vulcan who botched a mind meld and kept her memories!", the Romulan Tal Shiar Fighter looked at Loiza.
"Please!!", Loiza repeated.
"Dr. Lau, you are not Loiza Coren, Head of the Betazoid Matriarchy, you are a conjoined Trill. You are a gift to Admiral Illyan Coren and you were brought here to keep Elizabeth Coren from doing something stupid.", the Romulan snapped.
"I am begging you.", Loiza knew no better. In her mind, she was Loiza Coren and T'Loridel Coren was her daughter Orchid.
The Romulan fired two shots killing T'Loridel Coren.
"Why? Why?", Loiza begged.
Why Indeed??
Rear Admiral Deveniss stood with Praetor T'Ros of Romulus, "We will not let Section 31 dictate how Starfleet controls the threat to the rings of Betazed and the great house therein. I cannot sit by while these agents kill Branson and kill Viceroy and destroy the King's Fleet and all that it stands for."
"Whatever Federation? You are serving on a King's Fleet station.", T'Ros mocked.
"Do you know what you are authorizing?", T'Ros looked at Deveniss.
"I am not authorizing a thing, Praetor. I am indicating that there are those in Starfleet who see the value in the King's Fleet and its service to the Betazoid region. We are not prepared to give that up in exchange to allow a Vulcan survivor and a mind meld mistake.", Deveniss looked at T'Ros.
"It will be done, Rear Admiral.", T'Ros looked at the Selayan Federation Officer.
Nicole Branson was given the news in her office on Camelot. She fell to the floor in tears. T'Loridel was not Orchid. Nicole knew that but it was the last remnants of her one true love.
Vincent walked in to find Nicole laying on the floor. She was sobbing and mumbling more about the Black Widow legend and about losing everything again. Vincent helped her to her feet and put her in the chair.
The Admiral looked at Branson, "The threat has been eliminated."
"Someone died, Vincent!", Nicole snapped.
"It is not a threat. It was a person.", Nicole repeated.
Tears welled up in her face. She knew she was alone. They were alone. They were the King's Fleet. They were expendable. They were too small to interfere in Federation politics and Starfleet logistics. They were nothing. They could be manipulated by Section 31. They were manipulated by the Romulans. They were pawns in a much bigger game.
Vincent looked at Nicole. She was right. T'Loridel was a person. Vincent looked at her, "We will make this right."
Nicole was sitting alone in her thoughts. Saehir Marrus came walking in, "Governor."
"Commander.", Nicole looked at the Romulan.
Saehir looked at Nicole, "The Tal Shiar secured the mission."
"It was not a mission!", Nicole snapped.
"Someone was killed, for god's sake. How is this gotten all off track? We travelled to the Omega Planet to build a home for all, to build a place where people could come together. We built something very special and then into the Beta Quadrant to do the same. Now we have behaved so badly that the Bajorans drove us from Ephyra and we were party to the murder of a Vulcan. We made deals with Romulans.", Nicole glared at Saehir.
"Would you shut up and quit your infernal complaining! You are a spoiled rotten brat who has been given everything. How the hell do you get a colony charter in a place so important?", The Romulan looked at Branson.
"What the hell are you doing here, Commander?", Nicole sobbed more like a spoiled teenager than as the leader of a world of over 1 million people.
"Branson, the mission revealed something that you may be interested in. Section 31 has kept files on everyone. The Tal Shiar has gathered some of those files. Section 31 needed to have information for control of Admiral Marcus-Brutus Pan'Taar. They learned that Pan'Taar and Tiberius faked the whole thing. The Admiral did not want Marcella and you to be together.", Saehir looked at Nicole.
She tossed a Romulan grey PADD on to the table, "Marcella is alive."
Nicole stood up, "Marcie!!!"
Posted by:
Nicole Branson
Governor
Camelot
King's Fleet
Admiral Vincent Viceroy
Commander in Chief
King's Fleet
