It was a short time later that the warriors returned, a young Orion girl escorted into the room by them. She was late teens, perhaps early twenties...always hard to judge with Orions, Cleo thought. Her facial features mirrored Cleo's almost perfectly...though it seemed the girl was slightly taller than Cleo...aside from that and the pale green skin, they looked like mother and daughter...and if Eva's information was correct...they were.
The girl sat her eyes shifting between Eva and Cleo...her mouth opening slightly in shock when she got a good look at Cleo...she started to speak then apprently thoughht better of it. There was a bit of a long silence before Eva spoke "Please state your name and duty assignment."
"Marta D'yon." The young woman replied "I am an Ensign aboard the IKS D'klave, assigned to the fabrication division."
Eva nodded "Your parents names?"
Marta hesitated "My father is Na'gan D'yon...my mother was Linda D'yon."
Eva lifted an eyebrow "Was?"
"She died giving birth to me." Marta replied. Her gaze drifted to the Starfleet Officer sitting beside the General...the woman was obviously a human...former Borg...and her face was like looking in a mirror...perhaps a mirror some years from now...but the resemblance was remarkable.
"What do you know of your Mother and father's lives before you came along?" Eva asked casually
Marta shrugged, a bit confused by the question...actually the entire situation was confusing to her "Not much...my father was a Doctor...he served on several ships until I was born and mother died...after that he settled on Orion and raised me."
Eva nodded again "Do you know if he served on board a vessel called the Melconus?"
Marta shook her head "I don't know General." She paused then asked "Why are you asking me? You could call him in here and ask him couldn't you?"
Eva simply shook her head "Your father attacked an agent who went to summon him here to be questioned....his current whereabouts are unknown...though I am fairly sure he is not on Orion at this point."
Marta's eyes widened in shock "Why would he do that?" she asked...more a vocalized thought than an actual question.
Eva slid her PADD across the table "We believe he ran because he was the Medical Officer on the Melconus...and that he was responsible for conducting illegal medical experiments while in that position...add that to the fact that the Melconus was a slave ship, a trade that the high council outlawed many years before..." She trailed off as Marta looked at the data on the PADD
Marta opened her mouth and then closed it several times "There has to be some sort of mistake...my father...he wouldn't do these sort of things."
Eva indicated the Federation Captain sitting beside her "This is Captain Mavendorf...She is here because she was captured by the crew of the Melconus when she was a cadet. According to the information I have uncovered, your father cloned her while she was their prisoner...he then used the cloned DNA to attempt to produce Orion hybrids."
Marta was completely stunned into silence...she locked her gaze onto Cleo's face but couldn't speak past the shock as she was starting to realize what this meant.
"They found out I was not your average human." Cleo said quietly "I have some...genetic traits that they felt would be very valuable if they could isolate and reproduce them." She reached down and with very little apparent effort, picked up the table by one leg and lifted it before setting it back down
Marta coughed in surprise...humans were not supposed to be that strong "The...the Borg made you stronger?" She finally asked
Cleo shook her head "No...I was this strong before they took me."
Eva spoke up "I can verify that...she and I have known each other a long time."
Marta looked down and tried to make the room stop spinning "So...my father...he was lying to me all my life?"
"I'm afraid so Marta" Eva replied softly "And because of that, you are now a target. There are several Houses that will attempt to take custody of you so that they can look at your DNA."
Marta looked up and blink "Why? I'm not strong like she is!" She poited to Cleo "Until today I had no idea I wasn't even fully Orion!"
"I pulled most of this information about you from House Targ's database...they already have an operation in progress to acquire you" Eva told her "So it's only luck that I got to you first...Colonel Maktur was due to hand you over to House Targ in a few days."
TBC