shadowsong26 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shadowsong26) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
rainbowfic2013-09-13 07:37 pm
shadowsong26) wrote in rainbowfic2013-09-13 07:37 pm
Transparent #2, Feldgrau #11, Mikado Yellow #2
Name: shadowsong26
Story: 425839X
'Verse: The Institute Files
Colors: Transparent #2. Breath, Feldgrau #11. battle, Mikado Yellow #2. Man is Nature's sole mistake.
Supplies and Materials: photography, fabric, novelty beads, yarn, beading wire, glue ("Nothing is quite as it seems. Struggle as you might, it's still challenging to see what's behind the curtains.")
Word Count: 1512
Rating: R
Characters: 425839X, The Diplomat
Warnings: Attempted murder, theft of biological materials, experimenting on people, espionage
Notes: Constructive criticism welcome, as always.
9/13/20--
Subject: #425839X
Entry: 001
Status: Accepted
As agreed with the covert Ambassador from _______, one of his people has presented herself for an informational exchange between our species. She seems somewhat young and inexperienced, but there is no reason to believe the Ambassador lies. Of course, precautions will be taken to ensure she does not learn any secrets that need to remain under human control.
She relaxes minutely once she is safely in the room that was prepared for her. Her atmospheric requirements are different from her hosts’ and while of course all of these things were discussed before her arrival…
She does not trust them. And He, who spoke with them and still speaks with them at length, does not trust them. They mean to play false, she is sure of it. She does not expect to emerge from this place where she was taken.
Still, she may yet learn and transmit something before the end. She rests against the glass seeing-panel in the wall and tries to take comfort from that.
10/23/20--
Subject: #425839X
Entry: 012
Status: Compliant
Subject is placidly cooperative with everything asked of her. She answers questions with a ready easiness that may be genuine or may be deceptive. The Diplomat is not sure, claiming her youth and the less-controlled circumstances of their discussions run counter to his experience with others of her species, but he believes she is genuine. No decision has yet been reached when to move on from nonthreatening cultural exchange to the information truly desired from her.
They play games, she and the Diplomat. Figurative ones, mostly—dancing around and around the real questions they are both here to have answered. Not that what information they are sharing is uninteresting, but it isn’t what they’re here for.
And they play literal games, too. He joins her in her sealed room, trapped in a sealed helmet where she can’t read his face even if she knew how to read human faces, teaching her strategy games of his kind while she teaches him her own.
It is…the whole experience is far less unpleasant than she had expected, on the whole. In fact, it borders on boring.
3/4/20--
Subject: #425839X
Entry: 082
Status: Resisting
A gradual shift has cautiously been made towards questions with actual importance, and the Subject has not been fooled by it. She continues to answer some, but on others maintains a stubborn silence. The Diplomat urges a temporary retreat, to rebuild her trust.
The Diplomat takes one final deep breath of natural air before locking himself into his helmet. He hates the thing, hates having to devote half his mind to making sure his protections are secure when he enters 425839X’s environment. If he could, like in normal talks with her people (and others, from planets and moons with incompatible atmospheres), engage with her through a specialized barrier, he would make faster progress. He’s sure of it.
But the Directors have demanded more direct contact, and he does as he’s told.
At least she isn’t unpleasant to communicate with, or she wasn’t, anyway. The occasional awkward silence when he poses dangerous questions has marred that somewhat of late. Still, he has permission to return to safer ground, at least for a few days. He’ll get the information and concessions they need from her. It would be better if he had more focus—but since he can’t have that, he’ll get himself more time.
11/27/20--
Subject: #425839X
Entry: 137
Status: Watchful
Subject has learned or put into practice the habit of deflecting questions with questions. While the Diplomat has not fallen into her traps and this has led to some interesting anthropological data, this endeavor remains disappointing in the arena of gaining practicable intelligence from this exchange.
She has learned far more from the Diplomat than she’s letting on. It helps, she thinks, that he can read her no better than she can read him, despite his long practice with her species. He is, after all, depending on the tech in his helmet to make up for the way it limits his natural senses. Natural senses, even ones hard-wired for different types of faces, will win out over computerized ones every time.
She can’t, however, keep this up for long, and she knows it. Humans grow frustrated quickly, and she knows they have a deeper game in play, even if their questions aren’t quite so dangerous as they were before.
They’re still dangerous. Everything about them.
So she watches, and does her best to gauge exactly how much she can string the Diplomat along before risking her own safety and that of her entire species.
8/18/20--
Subject: #425839X
Entry: 273
Status: Angered
The Diplomat’s interrogatory exercises have been consistently smooth and productive of late. A decision has been made to proceed to biological research. Subject refuses to cooperate with it, but has not withdrawn completely. No resolution has been found for this stalemate, and the Diplomat strongly cautions against use of force.
If they would just tell her why they want little pieces of her, she might consent to it. Might. Her relay to the Ambassador has fortunately remained undisrupted. So long as vibrations can pass between them, they can communicate, and they do, frequently. But he has relayed no clear instructions on this matter, only a vague sense of caution and alarm.
At best, they want to use her material in their efforts to produce synthetic hybrids to advance their own species. While the thought makes her uncomfortable, she would consent to that. Humans are better at biological and genetic engineering than any other species hers has encountered. It is something of an obsession for them.
But even if that is all they claim…
The only thing humans are more talented at or more devoted to than genetic engineering is the creation of weapons.
She might privately admit to curiosity about hybrids, but she is not about to give an uneasy ally the key to her own people’s destruction.
1/31/20--
Subject: #425839X
Entry: 392
Status: Wounded
The Diplomat has filed a formal complaint with regard to the drastic measures taken to gain samples from the Subject. It has been documented together with the medical report and the objection lodged by the Ambassador, but will not be acted upon unless either party pursues the issue.
Months--years--of work, and they throw it all away in their impatience to get their goddamn biosamples from her.
Only his decades of experience with far more infuriating, far less understandable creatures keeps the Diplomat from putting a fist through the wall in rage.
A crack—just a crack in her environmental shields, and she nearly died, and he saw them take a quick sample of blood, of skin. At least they don’t know much about how her species reproduces, or they’d been even more invasive.
And he knows them. They’ll swear that all the samples were destroyed, but they’ll keep them, analyze them for experiments, all in the name of Progress and Medicine and Defense.
And they’ll be left wide-open to a war with her species when the theft is inevitably discovered.
The Diplomat takes a deep breath, then shakes his head. No matter what he does now, his career is over. Either he’ll be able to conceal it, smooth the ruffled feathers, and be unable to face his next assignment for shame of it, or he’ll fail and be blamed for their mistake, for their war.
But he has to try. Two species’ survival is worth more than his own piddly little career.
He takes another deep breath, and settles at his desk to plan his approach, once she’s well enough to see him again.
5/17/20--
Subject: #425893X
Entry: 409
Status: Reserved
Subject has fully recovered, but refuses to continue discourse. She has requested an end to her mission, and her Ambassador has backed it. They have not pursued their investigation into her accident. There is some debate as to whether they will do so if we refuse to release her, and how to weigh that risk against the loss of future intelligence gained by keeping her.
She failed.
It’s there, plain and simple, in the cracks in her respiration and circulation. She failed to keep them from gaining access to the means to make war on her people if—when—they find it expedient.
They are human. They make war.
And she—her blood, her body, and maybe even something she let slip—gave them the means.
Still, she might salvage the situation, if they release her. She and the Ambassador might be able to analyze what they’ve gained by her presence here, to counter their moves in the game. If only they let her go.
And she has a secret weapon, one that might make all the difference.
She has deposits, of the Diplomat’s skin, from when he tried to revive her when she started to struggle to breathe. They didn’t wash her down as thoroughly as they needed to, because their anatomical knowledge of her species is mercifully pitiful. So long as they never find them…
When the message comes that her request has been granted, it’s all she can do to maintain decorum and keep from dancing with joy.
The humans may be better at engineering genetic weapons, but with the samples she has, her species stands a chance.
5/18/20--
Subject: #425893X
Entry: 410
Status: Lost
Story: 425839X
'Verse: The Institute Files
Colors: Transparent #2. Breath, Feldgrau #11. battle, Mikado Yellow #2. Man is Nature's sole mistake.
Supplies and Materials: photography, fabric, novelty beads, yarn, beading wire, glue ("Nothing is quite as it seems. Struggle as you might, it's still challenging to see what's behind the curtains.")
Word Count: 1512
Rating: R
Characters: 425839X, The Diplomat
Warnings: Attempted murder, theft of biological materials, experimenting on people, espionage
Notes: Constructive criticism welcome, as always.
9/13/20--
Subject: #425839X
Entry: 001
Status: Accepted
As agreed with the covert Ambassador from _______, one of his people has presented herself for an informational exchange between our species. She seems somewhat young and inexperienced, but there is no reason to believe the Ambassador lies. Of course, precautions will be taken to ensure she does not learn any secrets that need to remain under human control.
She relaxes minutely once she is safely in the room that was prepared for her. Her atmospheric requirements are different from her hosts’ and while of course all of these things were discussed before her arrival…
She does not trust them. And He, who spoke with them and still speaks with them at length, does not trust them. They mean to play false, she is sure of it. She does not expect to emerge from this place where she was taken.
Still, she may yet learn and transmit something before the end. She rests against the glass seeing-panel in the wall and tries to take comfort from that.
10/23/20--
Subject: #425839X
Entry: 012
Status: Compliant
Subject is placidly cooperative with everything asked of her. She answers questions with a ready easiness that may be genuine or may be deceptive. The Diplomat is not sure, claiming her youth and the less-controlled circumstances of their discussions run counter to his experience with others of her species, but he believes she is genuine. No decision has yet been reached when to move on from nonthreatening cultural exchange to the information truly desired from her.
They play games, she and the Diplomat. Figurative ones, mostly—dancing around and around the real questions they are both here to have answered. Not that what information they are sharing is uninteresting, but it isn’t what they’re here for.
And they play literal games, too. He joins her in her sealed room, trapped in a sealed helmet where she can’t read his face even if she knew how to read human faces, teaching her strategy games of his kind while she teaches him her own.
It is…the whole experience is far less unpleasant than she had expected, on the whole. In fact, it borders on boring.
3/4/20--
Subject: #425839X
Entry: 082
Status: Resisting
A gradual shift has cautiously been made towards questions with actual importance, and the Subject has not been fooled by it. She continues to answer some, but on others maintains a stubborn silence. The Diplomat urges a temporary retreat, to rebuild her trust.
The Diplomat takes one final deep breath of natural air before locking himself into his helmet. He hates the thing, hates having to devote half his mind to making sure his protections are secure when he enters 425839X’s environment. If he could, like in normal talks with her people (and others, from planets and moons with incompatible atmospheres), engage with her through a specialized barrier, he would make faster progress. He’s sure of it.
But the Directors have demanded more direct contact, and he does as he’s told.
At least she isn’t unpleasant to communicate with, or she wasn’t, anyway. The occasional awkward silence when he poses dangerous questions has marred that somewhat of late. Still, he has permission to return to safer ground, at least for a few days. He’ll get the information and concessions they need from her. It would be better if he had more focus—but since he can’t have that, he’ll get himself more time.
11/27/20--
Subject: #425839X
Entry: 137
Status: Watchful
Subject has learned or put into practice the habit of deflecting questions with questions. While the Diplomat has not fallen into her traps and this has led to some interesting anthropological data, this endeavor remains disappointing in the arena of gaining practicable intelligence from this exchange.
She has learned far more from the Diplomat than she’s letting on. It helps, she thinks, that he can read her no better than she can read him, despite his long practice with her species. He is, after all, depending on the tech in his helmet to make up for the way it limits his natural senses. Natural senses, even ones hard-wired for different types of faces, will win out over computerized ones every time.
She can’t, however, keep this up for long, and she knows it. Humans grow frustrated quickly, and she knows they have a deeper game in play, even if their questions aren’t quite so dangerous as they were before.
They’re still dangerous. Everything about them.
So she watches, and does her best to gauge exactly how much she can string the Diplomat along before risking her own safety and that of her entire species.
8/18/20--
Subject: #425839X
Entry: 273
Status: Angered
The Diplomat’s interrogatory exercises have been consistently smooth and productive of late. A decision has been made to proceed to biological research. Subject refuses to cooperate with it, but has not withdrawn completely. No resolution has been found for this stalemate, and the Diplomat strongly cautions against use of force.
If they would just tell her why they want little pieces of her, she might consent to it. Might. Her relay to the Ambassador has fortunately remained undisrupted. So long as vibrations can pass between them, they can communicate, and they do, frequently. But he has relayed no clear instructions on this matter, only a vague sense of caution and alarm.
At best, they want to use her material in their efforts to produce synthetic hybrids to advance their own species. While the thought makes her uncomfortable, she would consent to that. Humans are better at biological and genetic engineering than any other species hers has encountered. It is something of an obsession for them.
But even if that is all they claim…
The only thing humans are more talented at or more devoted to than genetic engineering is the creation of weapons.
She might privately admit to curiosity about hybrids, but she is not about to give an uneasy ally the key to her own people’s destruction.
1/31/20--
Subject: #425839X
Entry: 392
Status: Wounded
The Diplomat has filed a formal complaint with regard to the drastic measures taken to gain samples from the Subject. It has been documented together with the medical report and the objection lodged by the Ambassador, but will not be acted upon unless either party pursues the issue.
Months--years--of work, and they throw it all away in their impatience to get their goddamn biosamples from her.
Only his decades of experience with far more infuriating, far less understandable creatures keeps the Diplomat from putting a fist through the wall in rage.
A crack—just a crack in her environmental shields, and she nearly died, and he saw them take a quick sample of blood, of skin. At least they don’t know much about how her species reproduces, or they’d been even more invasive.
And he knows them. They’ll swear that all the samples were destroyed, but they’ll keep them, analyze them for experiments, all in the name of Progress and Medicine and Defense.
And they’ll be left wide-open to a war with her species when the theft is inevitably discovered.
The Diplomat takes a deep breath, then shakes his head. No matter what he does now, his career is over. Either he’ll be able to conceal it, smooth the ruffled feathers, and be unable to face his next assignment for shame of it, or he’ll fail and be blamed for their mistake, for their war.
But he has to try. Two species’ survival is worth more than his own piddly little career.
He takes another deep breath, and settles at his desk to plan his approach, once she’s well enough to see him again.
5/17/20--
Subject: #425893X
Entry: 409
Status: Reserved
Subject has fully recovered, but refuses to continue discourse. She has requested an end to her mission, and her Ambassador has backed it. They have not pursued their investigation into her accident. There is some debate as to whether they will do so if we refuse to release her, and how to weigh that risk against the loss of future intelligence gained by keeping her.
She failed.
It’s there, plain and simple, in the cracks in her respiration and circulation. She failed to keep them from gaining access to the means to make war on her people if—when—they find it expedient.
They are human. They make war.
And she—her blood, her body, and maybe even something she let slip—gave them the means.
Still, she might salvage the situation, if they release her. She and the Ambassador might be able to analyze what they’ve gained by her presence here, to counter their moves in the game. If only they let her go.
And she has a secret weapon, one that might make all the difference.
She has deposits, of the Diplomat’s skin, from when he tried to revive her when she started to struggle to breathe. They didn’t wash her down as thoroughly as they needed to, because their anatomical knowledge of her species is mercifully pitiful. So long as they never find them…
When the message comes that her request has been granted, it’s all she can do to maintain decorum and keep from dancing with joy.
The humans may be better at engineering genetic weapons, but with the samples she has, her species stands a chance.
5/18/20--
Subject: #425893X
Entry: 410
Status: Lost
no subject
no subject