[Naked Crook]

The elevator stopped on deck 9. Vernette stepped out, again, with Dancar in tow. Dancar: Where are we going? Vernette: The cybernetics lab...where I typically do most of my work...legal or otherwise. Nobody save for myself goes in there... Vernette paused. Vernette: I prefer my privacy when it comes to my work. Dancar: Such secrecy is almost impossible to maintain with my kind. The fact that my father was able to live the life he did without anyone finding out...he was either incredibly fortunate...or incredibly sly... Vernette: A bit of both if I was to guess. He did some rather risky things... Dancar: He opposed The Covenant...that was enough for me. I don't care how he did it...as long as he did... Vernette: Correct me if I am wrong...but... don't think you and he even spoke during the war...he thought you were dead. Hell...I thought you were dead. Dancar: My father was once part of our organization...but he deserted them after the conflict the initial conflict on one of your worlds. The Obsidian Hierarchy felt he had become far too benevolent towards your kind. We felt he would become a danger to us...we felt he would lose his objectivity towards our goals. I also felt this way... Vernette: That is very cold... Dancar: Cold? Vernette: A metaphor...for...something horrible...tragic...something like that. Dancar: As cold as it was...the entire Hierarchy agreed that his ambivalence towards your kind was unacceptable. We told him to choose...your kind...or us... Dancar paused. Dancar: Whatever you did to him...it was lasting. He refused to let go of the things you told him. The hierarchy ejected him...cast him out. Vernette: I never knew this... Dancar: After I was rescued from your planet...when I was found in the utterly horrible shape that I was in...I was told about the decision. When I learned why it was done...I decided it would be best to never let him know that I survived. I rather would want my father to think of me as dead than a traitor. But...just because I felt his new-found ideologies were a threat to our goals...didn't mean that I cared any less about him. I didn't want him to think I had betrayed him... Vernette: That's...unfortunate.