A proposition of don-ship

Posted on Friday, 13 May 2022 - 9:44am by Lieutenant JG Adrianna Eberhardt

Mission: Shore Leave

As with every occasion of shoreleave, Adrianna did some research to catch up on where her family were at and how they were getting on. She may have moved on in terms of not feeling as much of a pull anymore, but they were still family. Her eyebrows raised at one tidbit of information and then a smirk crossed her lips a little. She stood up and headed for some supplied and then the door. The woman decided not to tell her husband where she was going because she knew he'd try to talk her out of it.

A few hours later, Adrianna had inconspicuously gained access to her family's home in Rome in the dead of night. She had made her way into her father's office, shutting the door behind her. Removing her balaclava, she placed her feet on the desk, leaning back in the office chair with a little squeak showing its vintage, something her inner child had wanted to do but knew she'd be screamed at for it. Her fingers played with a small dagger, weaving in and out of the fingers, whilst the other held something under the void of the desk, out of sight of those who would inevitably enter the room. Her eyes danced round the room, taking it all in. Even though her brother, Giovanni, had taken over the business, he had not changed a thing in her father's, now his, office. The ancient books still graced the shelves, ranging from the Art of War to biographies of great leaders of history long written. The nostalgia held within the room seemed eerie. Was Giovanni just wanting to be their father instead of making the business his own?

The door opened and Giovanni stepped in. He quickly shut the door behind him and went to pull a weapon upon seeing his sister– an unwelcomed intruder. Adrianna whipped out a phaser rifle that she'd been concealing under the desk and offered a smile, "sit."

Giovanni raised his hands in defeat and did as told. He was slow and cautious, though held quite the poker face. He wasn't scared of his sister because he knew she believed in honour and wouldn't actively kill a family member. Once sat, he sighed, "Adey, to what do I owe the pleasure."

Adrianna offered a forced welcoming smile, and relaxed her gun arm on the desk, sitting up properly and removing her feet from the desk. She still kept her finger on the trigger, untrusting of her brother. He had no honour– he was power mad, "I'm here to make a proposition."

"A proposition," he scoffed, "why would I make a deal with you and help you, Fleeter. You are no longer Baciami, are you not an Every Heart now?"

"Eberhardt and you're losing the empire our ancestors began building back in the nineteenth century," she began, "there is a distrust in the new leadership because of the crack in the family– me joining Starfleet. You are not Don Baciami, but rather Don Baciami's son pretending to be a new Don Baciami. Your network and power is slipping through your fingers like sand and there is seemingly nothing you can do about it. How can the Baciami's be so powerful when they cannot control their own family?"

Giovanni sat back in the chair, mulling over her words. There was a tense silence as he ran between emotions and thoughts. He eventually scratched his six o'clock shadow and nodded, opening her mind a little, "I'm listening."

"I propose we change the narrative," Adrianna offered, laying her metaphoric cards on the table, "it has been long enough, me leaving, that if information, albeit false information, were to be leaked, it may just be believed. It would make sense for Baciami's to keep secrets."

Giovanni cocked his head to the side a little, intrigued as to where his sister was going with this, "change the narrative how?"

"We leak that it was always the plan to have me join Starfleet so that you could gain insider information, and try and stay out from under the radar, continuing runs and business in general," she answered, "we state that our father being arrested was just collateral, but you are speaking on behalf of him until he gets out. That way, the trust rebuilds and the empire is not lost. It may even grow."

The man sighed, "and what is it you want in return?"

"Access to contacts and information should I ever need anything pertaining to our missions," she said bluntly, "since leaving, I don't hold as much presence as I used to. I need that back for an upcoming mission."

Again, the tense silence filled the room. There was a lot at stake, and equally an ego or two. It was clear Giovanni was thinking it over. Adrianna knew the rules of negotiation though: whoever broke the silence first would lose. She watched him, trying to gauge his mind track. It seemed like an intense few minutes before Giovanni finally nodded, "what stops me from just killing you and making a point that Baciami's clean up their own messes."

"Power," came the simple response, "that and you know that I'm right." Adrianna paused before giving a dark insight. He voice was controlled and threatening, "equally, I just survived months of torture in an ekosian prison– on parr with nazi Germany's concentration camps– there is no death you could bring me that would scare me. Death, himself, even felt sorry for me, forcing me to live. He deprived me of being able to skip through the gates of hell and to overthrow Satan himself to gain my rightful crown to rule. Even the way our father trained us– nothing could hold up to months in that prison."

He nodded and offered a small smile, though there was a darkness behind it, "father always said that you'd make a better don than any of us."

"Now that we have an agreement, I need contact details for a mutual friend…"