taxonomites | [Location: Sanctuary Square] Part the Fifth: Second Attempt at a Game

Nazca is mostly over seeing Locke (as much as she can be, since she's still adamant that it was a trick, but some small part of her can't believe that it was). She's still uneasy from the setting, and the mind control, and waking up this morning on a mint. (She broke it up to experiment with at the bar, but her hair still smells like it. She supposes there are worse things.)

Caritas seems to cater more to the taste of the city than her own tavern; to be fair, however, the inhabitants of this city don't cater much to the taste of The Last Mistake, either. If she's going to do anything with it other than live there, she'll need a new strategy. She also doesn't think most of the city would be interested in her proposals about the economy: not yet, at least. Tony Stark, maybe, but she hasn't spoken with him in a bit, and one person hardly makes up a city. Helping Ax has given her something to do, but it's his project really, not hers.

This afternoon, she's sitting at a small table she set up in Sanctuary Square - in the shade - shuffling a Camorri deck of cards idly. A small hand-painted sign says, "Learn a game/teach a game."

There have to be people out there as interested in some weekend diversion as she is. And if not, well, perhaps she'll see someone she knows.

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"Camorr?" B'Elanna repeated. The name was clearly unfamiliar to her, but she took that in her stride. "Your home planet?"

At last, she sat down. Nazca seemed harmless enough. Friendly, even. B'Elanna knew that she could defend herself if she had to, even if she was on unfamiliar territory at the moment.

"Sounds good to me," she added, "Next time, we can rope more people in to the game."

"No - Camorr's the country. I've been calling the world Therin - we always just called it 'the world' at home." Ah, the joys of pre-space travel.

She shuffled the deck. "Do you mind me asking where you're from?"

Her opinion of Nazca shifted subtly when she realised that her new acquaintance came from a world - or a time, at least - without space travel or warp technology. She was impressed that she'd adapted so well to life in a clearly alien city.

"No," said B'Elanna. Not here and now, anyway. "Although I don't know if the names will mean anything to you. My father was from a planet called Earth and my mother was born in the Klingon Empire. I ... grew up between the two."

Which meant that she didn't really come from anywhere. Except Voyager.

"I know of Earth - most of the people I've met here are from there, and I'm told the city is somewhat modeled on it. At least in the number of heavenly bodies and architecture."

She offered B'Elanna the cards. "I've not heard of the Klingon Empire, though."

"This city could be modelled on any city in the Federation," said B'Elanna dismissively. The people who had designed Taxon had drawn on structures and shapes that were found throughout the quadrant. "Our captors might be twisted, but they're definitely not original."

She picked up and scanned her cards carefully.

"It's a collection of planets, that's all."

B'Elanna continued to struggle with her Klingon heritage.

"Are you familiar with the suits?" They're close to European earth's four suits, though not precisely the same.

"A Federation and an Empire - are they at odds? Or do the dates not match well enough for that."

"We called them diamonds, hearts, clubs and spades," she said, "I'm going to guess that you use different names."

That was the nature of parallel universes, after all. Outwardly the same, but different when it got down to the details.

"They were," she said, after a moment of hesitation. Nazca wasn't from her world. She wasn't from a world close to her world. It couldn't hurt. "But things are getting better."

Nazca nods. "That's what Casey said, when he taught me poker. We can use those names - I remember them easily enough."

She took the cards back, reshuffling them.

"I'm glad. Wartime isn't good for anyone but politicians."

"And I'm guessing that you aren't a politician either."

There was something curious about Nazca. She was the most secretive person that B'Elanna had met in Taxon, despite being the first person she'd actually sat down and relaxed with. It was an interesting mix.

"No, not quite." She smiles a little. "I have a tavern, here, but I'm not very good at it yet. There aren't really enough of us to support it in addition to Caritas."

Nazca was selective with the truth without thought; it was simply smart policy, she found. Besides, she had seen what happened to those who didn't make an effort to get along with their fellow captives.

"I'll have to take a look," she said, "Caritas is a bit too ... noisy for me."

That wasn't strictly true. Although karaoke wasn't her idea of fun, it was the reactions of the other customers that put her off. The people who frequented Caritas - including the 'vampire' who had greeted her after she'd arrived in the city - took one look at her forehead and thought she was some sort of demon.

Nazca looks thoughtful. She'd never have described the Mistake as quiet at home, but perhaps she could market that here.

"It's usually very empty; I don't let Extras in."

"Good," said B'Elanna, fervently. "They're unnerving. I thought they might be holograms at first, but I haven't been able to find a projector. And they're not robotic. They're flesh and blood without any sort of consciousness."

Nazca shakes her head.

"Back home, a particularly nasty stripe of noblemen had a process they called 'gentling.' They'd do it to break horses, sometimes pet dogs. It removes all personality, all spirit from the creature. The Extras aren't quite the same, but they remind me of it."

And she's always found gentling repellent. If the Extras ever were people, what they are now is worse than dead.

That description was both unpleasant and accurate.

"I wish I knew what they were for," she said, "Unless these 'hamsters' think they'll make the rest of the prisoners feel more at home."

She wasn't entirely convinced that they were hamsters, either. They just appeared as them, which wasn't the same thing.

[Location: Sanctuary Square] Part the Fifth: Second Attempt at a Game

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