Chapter Text
The knife was under the pillow, though T’Ralia had not yet decided if she would use it. She had dismissed Conroy’s suggestion at first, coming to the conclusion that her own situation was not so unpleasant as to justify killing or the upheaval removing a captain would cause. She lived and worked with Terrans, sometimes she thought like they thought, yet she had never felt the impulse to be moved to violence by any slight inconvenience. However, Conroy’s new offer made the endeavor seem a bit more logical. T’Ralia had no interest in being First Officer, but that position would put her close enough to become captain if Conroy were to meet an unfortunate end. Ambition was not her motivator, but to take command of the ship, if she could act quickly could end this coup before it started. Spock was right, and T’Ralia came to the same conclusions. With the old ways, the Terran Empire was unstable, doomed to fail in a matter of decades.
T’Ralia laid back on the bed in the captain’s quarters, as she waited for Albrecht to arrive, her typical routine lately. She was dressed in a sheer black silk robe that displayed her body. Her dark hung loose down to her shoulder blades, wavy from being worn in tight braids all day.. Her uniform was neatly folded at the edge of the bed. While she waited she continued to weigh out her options, considering every possible outcome and calculating in her head the odds that each of those outcomes would come to pass. Even if she was the captain, she would have to deal with a very determined admiral who would be well within her rights to take command of the Portland if anything went against her well-laid plans. It was a delicate balance.
There was no chime at the door when Albrecht entered. Why would she, coming back to her own quarters? In her right hand, the captain held a bottle of champagne and in the other a pair of flutes. T’Ralia sat up, her eyes on the captain as she moved into the room. She had no feelings of desire toward Captain Albrecht, but from the first time they were involved she learned that Albrecht preferred even feigned interest
“It might be a bit early to celebrate,” Albrecht set down the flutes and began to uncork the bottle. While she was usually an elegant woman, her struggles to open the bottle were decidedly awkward. She squeezed the bottle under one arm to hold it steady and popped the cork with her other hand. After a brief struggle, the cork shot out and hit the ceiling. Albrecht held the bottle away from her body as a stream of bubbles flowed out. A nervous half smile as she tried to recover and pour the champagne, the glasses filled to overflowing with effervescent foam that dissolved away within seconds. “But I’m thrilled with how things are going, especially considering my initial skepticism.” She offered a glass to T’Ralia, who took it and held it delicately in her hand. “Have you ever been drunk before?”
T’Ralia perched on the edge of the bed. “Drunk? No, but I have been mildly intoxicated under very similar circumstances.” She took a small sip of champagne. “Three years ago, when you first became captain.”
“I had nearly forgotten about that. I nearly put my eye out with the cork that night, didn;’t I?” Ablrecht sat on a nearby chair and set her glass down on the desk before she began to slip off her boots. “Did you think we’d make it this far, back when the admiral first came on board?”
“I thought her assertions seemed highly improbable, but not completely impossible.” T’Ralia showed no difference in her mannerism,
“What an objective way to look at it.” Albrecht leaned back and silently studied the Vulcan for a moment, licking her lips. “But I’ve been thinking. I was always so dissatisfied back when we were first involved, I have a few suggestions.”
“What do you have in mind?” T’Ralia leaned to prop herself on one side, imitating what she thought was a human approximation of sensuality. In the past, Captain Albrecht had always responded favorably to such displays.
“In bed you were so cold and clinical, except for the one time when you were in Pon Farr and I thought you were going to literally use every bit of your Vulcan strength to tear me apart.” She reached to pick up her glass again and took another long sip, slowly crossing and uncrossing her legs.
“Captain, I’m afraid you will have to wait nearly five years until my next Pon Farr.”
“I know,” Ablrechted sighed. She rose from her chair and sat next to T’Ralia on the bed, placing a hand on the Vulcan’s thigh. “But tell me, doctor, is there any way to make it come about artificially?”
T’Rallia considered her answer carefully. “It’s theoretically possible, but the risk of death is high.”
“I don’t give a damn, I can replace you. But for now…” Albrecht drank down the rest of her champagne and swung her legs around to straddle T’Ralia as she threw her glass to the floor, where it shattered and any remaining liquid turned into a bubbling mess “Surely you remember what it was like, losing that careful control you always have over yourself. I bet you could do it on your own if you wanted to, if you weren’t afraid of being no better than an emotional, illogical Terran.”
T’Ralia saw her chance, and she took it. She threw her glass against the wall, grabbed Albrecht’s shoulders and pinned her down. This was not losing control, but a calculated move. She had to act now, while Albrecht was not likely to fight back against an attack, and she behaved like someone eager for rough sex, only a half hearted attempt to playfully struggle even as T’Ralia’s hand closed around her throat. With her free hand, T’Ralia pulled the knife from under the pillow and held the blade to Albrecht’s throat. In that moment, Albrecht realized that this wasn’t part of some rough play and panic filled her eyes.
“Wait, T’Ralia!” She begged. For all of her bravado, when her life was in immediate danger she was just as frail and frightened as anyone. “Think about if this is what you want. You’re the captain’s woman now. If you kill me, you’ll go to Conroy, and he won’t be as gentle as I was.”
“Conroy and I have discussed this outcome. He agreed to release me from this obligation.”
“And if he lied to manipulate you?” Albrecht’s eyes were wide and wild, her eyes glistening with tears, and her whole body shaking.
“My ambitions are set to captaincy. I intend to deal with him in the same way that I am about to deal with you.” Those were the final words T’Ralia spoke to Captain Albrecht before she slit the captain’s throat. For another moment, T’Ralia kept the captain pinned down the bed, waiting until she was sure the woman lost enough blood that she would not be making another move, even if she did make a few final, desperate gasps for air.
She didn’t look back at the body before she picked her communicator out from the pile of her neatly folded clothes. “T’Ralia to Conroy.”
“Go ahead.”
“Captain Albrecht is dead. Congratulations on your promotion.”
T’Ralia had quickly changed back into her uniform before now-Captain Conroy arrived with the Admiral, but she didn’t have enough time to re-braid her hair, and dark uncombed waves hung loosely down her back. Conroy smiled and chuckled to himself as he studied the lifeless, bloody body on the bed, his hands clasped behind his back. “Well, done, Doctor! I was beginning to think I’d be having the conversation with someone else, it took you long enough to act.”
“Your final offer was what moved me to action, Captain. With the offer to become First Officer, it would be illogical for me to refuse the opportunity.”
“Leave it to a Vulcan to find a logical reason to murder, and after Spock I thought your kind cared more for altruism and ‘the needs of the many.’” the Terran La’an added. She wore her usual stern expression, her posture tall and rigid as ever, and seemed entirely unbothered by the sight of a murdered body. This was not her first time witnessing such an assassination, and she approached it as if it were an unremarkable occurrence.
“I still have personal ambitions, Admiral,” T’Ralia explained her motives with the same plain and easy coolheadedness one might use to explain the solution to a complex math equation. “However, I am moved to follow them by logic rather than by passion. My relationship with Albrecht put me in an ideal position to easily end her life.”
“If she was unable to defend herself from your attack, she deserved this fate, but I can’t help but feel a sense of disappointment. She agreed to submit to me once I become emperor.” La’an narrowed her eyes and gave Conroy a sideways glance and spoke through clenched teeth. “I will not be extending the same offer to you.”
“No hard feelings, Admiral,” Conroy kept his demeanor cool and professional. “You still have my loyalty and my oath to support your ambitions by any means necessary. I hold the same contempt for Spock and his weakening of the Empire as you do, and I only hope you will remember the assistance I gave.”
“Of course,” La’an nodded. “You, your crew, the augments, my associates on Terra Prime…Restoring the Empire has not been a solitary effort, and you have my promise that those who made it possible will be honored and rewarded to the best of my ability, and those who dared to defy me will be punished in turn.” Her eyes narrowed on T’Ralia. “Which brings me to you, Vulcan. As the new executive officer, personnel matters are under your jurisdiction. Captain Albrecht liked to act as though every member of her crew had her unyielding loyalty, but I’ve been around long enough to know that even the best captain cannot know everyone and everything. Investigate and observe, I want any signs of dissent reported to me directly so I can deal with them myself.”
“Understood, Captain,” T’Ralia answered with an obedient nod.
“Admiral, permission to speak freely,” Conroy spoke up, stepping closer to the admiral. He was much shorter than her (though his frame was considerably wider), and the way he puffed out his chest and tilted his head to look up at her made him look like an annoyed little brother.
“Go ahead, Captain.” La’an rolled her eyes. She leaned toward, which exaggerated their heigh difference. “But choose your words wisely. I have free reign to take your ship right out from under your nose, and I will not hesitate to use that authority to my own advantage.
“I only mean to say that I think I should be the first to know if any of my crew on my ship have any…troubling inclinations.”
“Under normal circumstances, I would agree.” La’an clasped her hands behind her back and stepped away, turning her back on Conroy and pacing the room as she spoke. “However, our circumstances are far from ordinary. This is deeper than one of your crewman being dissatisfied with their captain, they would be defying their future emperor. Not only do I require perfect compliance to successfully carry out this coup, but I want to start my reign already having set the precedent of swiftly and thoroughly punishing disloyalty.”
“Duly noted, Admiral.” Conroy nodded. Once again he scanned the room, his gaze landing on Albrecht’s dead body before he wrinkled his nose. “Let’s get someone to clean up this mess. I’m going to moving into these quarters soon, and I’d prefer not to see the blood stains of my predecesor or to smell her corpse.”