Alternate Conclusions
By H.W.
Chapter 18
Mara was sitting at her office going over one of the PADDs Torres had given her; basic information on just what exactly comprised the Torres Holdings. She heard the door to the quarters open and looked through the open door to the living room to see if Torres or Seven were coming back because they forgot something, considering that they left only fifteen minutes before. Much to Mara's surprise it was a Denobulan woman; a very young woman. Mara quietly got up and moved to the door so that she could keep an eye on the woman that clearly had not seen Mara in her office.
The woman walked over to the kitchen unit and removed some of the cleaning supplies stored in the cabinets. Clearly the woman knew that Torres didn't want the replicators to be used to replicate any cleaning supplies because Torres thought it gave a strange taste to any food replicated after that. The woman then went over to the replicator and replicated several pitchers of water to put into a bucket.
Mara smirked. Well, water was considered food stuff, so that would indeed be allowed. There was no rule that said that you weren't allowed to use drinkable water for cleaning instead. Mara did find it interesting though that the woman used old fashioned cleaning ways instead of using modern ways like the handheld dematerializer.
The woman started to hum a song in a pleasantly, and surprisingly on key, tone. Then she turned to start cleaning the next item and suddenly saw Mara standing there observing her. She dropped her bucket in a startled reaction and immediately bent to pick it up again. But it was too late and the water had already emptied out across the carpeted floor.
"Aw, crap," The woman said, only to look back at Mara in horror when she realized that she had spoken out loud. It was very clear to Mara that this woman still had her slave mentality firmly in place.
"Don't worry; I didn't hear that," Mara assured with a grin before asking, "Who are you?"
"My name is Vesena, Mistress. Mistress, may I please clean this?"
Mara frowned. She didn't like the sound of being called 'Mistress'. It somehow sounded cool when she heard Seven say 'Mistress' to Torres, simply because the word was always filled with emotion. Now it sounded fake; trained. Which it of course was. "My name is Mara, but if you are uncomfortable with that, I'd be alright with ma'am, and yes you can clean up the water."
Vesena quickly went back to the cabinet that held the cleaning supplies and returned with a couple of rags and started to dap at the floor, trying to get the water out of the carpeting.
Mara frowned. "You'll never get it dry like that. Why don't you use the dematerializer?" Mara asked as she walked over to the cabinet and took out the said unit.
"Oh no! Please Mistress, don't," Vesena said with wide eyes.
"Mara, or ma'am," Mara reminded as she kneeled besides Vesena and placed the dematerializer on 'scan' modus and scanned a piece of the carpeting so that the unit would know which things to ignore and therefore didn't actually removed the carpet with the water.
"Please Mis... ma'am. Please don't," Vesena pleaded almost in tears.
"Why not?" Mara asked confused.
"The Intendant doesn't want a dematerializer unit to be used in her quarters. She will kill me if the device is used."
"If she doesn't want it to be used, then why keep it?" Mara asked as she stood up.
"I don't know, Mis... ma'am," Vesena said as she tried to soak more water out of the carpet.
"Well, I would say that she has it in case she drops something and doesn't want to get someone in here to clean it," Mara guessed. "I noticed that Torres isn't above doing little things herself if the asking or ordering would take more time than to just do it. So I guess that the problem isn't in using the unit, but with who uses it. So, why do you think you aren't allowed to use it, and why are you so sure that you will get killed if you do use it?"
"Because she already killed a slave before for using a dematerializer unit in her quarters," Vesena said, clearly still worried.
"Really?" Mara asked surprised, she had heard a lot about Intendant Torres long before she even met her adoptive parent, and by now she had read up on even more. So Mara knew that Torres was capable of being... quite drastic, as Mara liked to think of it. But still, killing a slave because he or she had used a cleaning device just didn't sound like Torres.
Mara decided that there had to be more to the story. "So Torres had forbidden the use of the dematerializer, yet the slave still did it; which resulted in Torres killing him?"
"No Mis... ma'am. The slaves were allowed to use the unit before, just like the other cleaning supplies stored in the cabinet. The only rule was that they did not use the replicator to replicate any cleaning supplies. If they needed something they had to leave out the empty container, or leave out the units that were low on power. The Intendant would then make sure that the units were charged the next time, and the cleaning supplies were filled again."
"That just doesn't make sense," Mara said. Then she frowned. "Will you stop dapping at that stupid carpet and stand up?"
Vesena reacted immediately and nearly jumped onto her feet. "Sorry Mis... ma'am. Please forgive me."
Mara sighed. "Tell you what, forget about the ma'am. You always catch yourself around the 'Mis' part of mistress, so just call me Miss instead, alright?"
"Yes Miss."
"Alright. Now," Mara started slowly, wanting to get to the bottom of the matter. "I get the feeling that we are skipping a part in the story, so why don't you tell me why you were once allowed to use the dematerializer unit, and now not."
"Yes Miss. The slave that got killed... one day he was using the unit and accidentally dematerialized a micro-data crystal. The Intendant got angry when she found out, killed the slave, and forbid the use of the unit from then on."
That seemed more in line with Torres, Mara had to admit. Still, she had a feeling that there was still a part missing. "You say, 'when the Intendant found out'. You mean when she was told?"
"No Miss. The slave, he hoped that the Intendant would not miss the crystal right away and would only realize that it was missing later on and not make the connection between it missing and a slave cleaning before."
Now Mara finally understood. And it now did indeed sound so like Torres. First of all, the slave was killed, not because he had accidentally destroyed the crystal, but because he hadn't told anyone. Mara could only assume that the whole story had come out when Torres started to ask him a few questions, in her particular way.
After all, even if Torres had first truly not suspected the slave of destroying the crystal, it really should have been obvious to the slave that when the time came and Torres wouldn't be able to find the crystal, that she would go and ask the last person that was in the quarters besides herself some questions. And after that, Torres had in her typical 'getting rid of the problem' way simply forbidden the use of the unit to make sure that something similar could never happen again.
"Alright. I get it," Mara said with a nod. "Well, since I know for sure that Torres will want a dry carpet, and since it is kinda my fault, I now give you the permission to use the unit."
Wanting to make sure that she had all sides covered, Mara added, "But only if I'm in the quarters."
Vesena looked down at the unit with clear fear on her face.
"Don't worry, it's alright," Mara assured. "I give you my word that if Torres does object to you having used the unit, that I will take all the blame. I promise you this on my Honor, and my name as Mara, daughter of Torres."
Hearing the assurance, and knowing how much Klingons valued their word, Vesena sank to her knees and took the dematerializer. "Thank you, Miss," she stated, before she started to remove all traces of the water.
"No problem," Mara assured. "And when you are finished with the water, you can take out the extension and use the unit for the rest of the carpet of the quarters as well."
"Yes Miss, thank you Miss."
"You say that the slaves were allowed to use the cleaning units before. That sounds like you weren't one of those slaves," Mara noted.
"I was not, Miss," Vesena agreed. "I was only assigned to cleaning duty in the Intendant's quarters after the accident."
"Accident?" Mara asked. Getting information out of Vesena sure wasn't easy.
"Yes, Miss. When the slave that normally cleaned the quarters before came in here and the targ was in here while neither of the Intendants were here."
"Did he survive?" Mara asked, having no illusions about Toby being an innocent animal simply because she had managed to find a way to get along with him.
"He did, and once the doctors reattached his arm he also regained full use of it after a few weeks of therapy."
"Ouch," Mara said with a cringe. She looked at how Vesena moved her hand over the carpet, making sure that she hadn't missed a wet spot. When she was apparently satisfied that all the water was gone she placed the dematerializer unit on the counter before taking the bucket again and starting to fill it with water once more.
"I said that you can use it for the rest of the floor as well," Mara reminded.
"Yes Miss. Miss, if it pleases you, I will first clean all above the floor and the floor last. That way I will also clean up all that fell onto the floor while cleaning."
"Duh, of course," Mara said as she slapped herself against the head. "Well, as I said, you can use the other units as well."
"Miss, thank you, I will later. However, I do have a certain way of doing my cleaning fast and efficient the way I know. If it pleases you I would prefer to do the cleaning like this, that way I will be a hindrance to you for as short a time as possible."
"You do as you want," Mara said with a shrug. "And you aren't a hindrance; more of a distraction that got me to stop reading very stuffy text. So I don't mind you being here at all. By the way, there is no reason to be so damn painfully polite; you can leave out the 'if it pleases you' before it starts to annoy me."
"Yes Miss."
Having a feeling that her words were misunderstood, Mara added, "That annoyance would not have any negative results for you, so don't worry about slipping up or anything. Look, I know you have been trained to watch every word you say, all I'm saying is that you don't have to watch literally every word you say."
Mara frowned as she went over her own words, then she shrugged and continued. "Anyway, if you clean these quarters on a regular basis we will see each other more often since I do my studying here during the time that my parents are off to do boring Intendant meetings and stuff like that. I'll only join them if they go somewhere more interesting than the meeting room."
"Yes Miss."
This time Mara chuckled. "Real improvement. We went from 'yes Miss' to 'yes Miss'." Seeing Vesena look at her uncertainly, Mara added, "A joke."
She followed as Vesena moved to the next counter for cleaning. "So if this other slave survived, why are you here cleaning and not he?"
"After the accident some changes were made," Vesena explained. "He and a female pleasure slave that he was close to were reassigned to serve captain Var'Ck."
"What?" Mara asked as Vesena stopped talking and got a slight frown on her face.
"N..." Vesena stopped when she remembered that she was talking to a Master. You did not say 'nothing' if a Master asked you 'what?' "Miss, it is merely that I never understood why a female pleasure slave would be assigned to captain Var'Ck; a woman of whom it is well known on this ship that she is exclusively interested in men."
"And if the male cleaning slave was reassigned there so that he could serve the Captain, then the pleasure slave would still have no reason being reassigned," Mara said in understanding of Vesena's musing. "Who knows, Torres probably had her reasons. Anyway, so he was relocated and you were assigned here?"
"Yes Miss. Though the system was changed. Before cleaning was done once a week, but the accident was used as an opportunity to change the system that needed changing anyway. By the time of the accident there were two people and a targ living here; more to clean. If for nothing more than the targ's hairs."
"And now there are even three people living here," Mara corrected. "And a targ."
"Yes Miss. So now the system is changed to where a signal is sent to where I live if the sensors detect that neither of the Intendants nor the targ is here. I come in to clean at those times."
"And what if they come back before you are finished?" Mara wondered.
"Then the Intendants are with the targ and he will not attack me. I then leave and wait for the next time they are not here to come in again and continue the cleaning. I will let the Master Slave... I mean, Master Servant, know that the settings of the sensors need changing to include you as well Miss. That way I will not disturb you a next time."
"Don't," Mara said, only to then explain, "As I said, I study here if I'm not out. So that will take a lot of time away that you could clean in here."
Mara pointed to her office. "That office there is mine. If the door is closed then I'm in there and don't want to be disturbed. You can then clean the rest but not my office."
Vesena didn't say anything, but nevertheless still asked a question by glancing to the side where the bedrooms were located.
"That bedroom is mine, and the bathroom behind it as well," Mara said, understanding the unasked question. "Hmm, you got a point; I could be sleeping or taking a bath. But that's easy to change," Mara assured before addressing the computer.
"Computer, change the lock command for the doors to my bedroom and bathroom. From now on when I say 'computer, lock the door' the door of the room that I'm in will be locked and only Intendant Torres, Intendant Phoenix, and I myself can unlock the doors by giving the command 'computer, unlock the door'."
A beep indicated that the order was accepted and Mara grinned at Vesena. "See? Problem solved." Understanding only too well that the servant would be cleaning her quarters as well since they were a part of the completer set of quarters, Mara added, "From now on, if the door opens, you can enter, simple as that. If the door opens and I do happen to be in there, you can consider that your permission to start cleaning and just ignore me."
"Thank you, Miss," Vesena said before moving on to the next thing to clean.
Mara watched her in silence for some time. Vesena had the brilliant blue eyes that were normal for all Denobulans, but what Mara found really interesting was how Vesena's jet-black hair color set off the eyes even more, to the point that the light blue seemed to glow slightly; it fascinated Mara to no end.
When Mara couldn't see those eyes anymore because Vesena was looking down, the Klingon's eyes drifted down the Denobulan's body. Her clothes were plain and had a loose fit which hid most of Vesena's forms, but there still was a clearly visible swell in the chest area that made it clear that Vesena certainly wasn't flat-chested.
Mara leaned slightly to the side so that she could see Vesena from behind. Again, most of the forms were still hidden, but there was enough roundness in the hips to make Mara guess that Vesena would have an hourglass figure, and the roundness of her behind indicated that there were some nice shapes to be found there as well. Mara was so engrossed in her observations that she didn't even notice the start of the shaking until it was a clear tremor.
"What's the matter with you?" Mara asked.
Vesena didn't answer, but Mara could see a clear look of total misery on the Denobulan's face. Mara looked at how Vesena moved the damp rag over the counter with a shaking hand. It seemed to Mara as if Vesena was trying to turn away from her without it being noticed.
Then it finally dawned on Mara. On a hunch she stated, "Don't worry; I don't take what doesn't want to be taken."
The shaking became less and Mara now knew that her guess had been correct. "I apologize. You are very attractive, Vesena, and my eyes have a tendency to wander a bit. It is a thing my parents already noticed as well. They like to tease me about it when they see it happen. They credit my age and hormones for it. I merely credit the fact that I have tastes for it. Some things I simply really like seeing. Please be assured that I meant nothing by it and had no plans."
"Yes Miss."
"You do realize that you are protected by law now, right?" Mara asked. "You are no longer a slave; you are a servant. If someone forces themselves on you it's a rape and you can report it to authorities and action will be taken."
"Yes Miss," Vesena said as she sank to her knees and started to clean the lower parts of the cabinets.
Mara frowned at that, only to chuckle right after that. "Vesena, it's alright to bend over; really. I won't deny that you have some shapes I happen to like the looks of, but I give you my word that I won't do anything to you that you don't want. Keep in mind just who my parents are. You know, being an example and all? My mothers are the law, last thing I want to is break the law. Trust me on that."
Finally Vesena looked at Mara and gave her a small smile. "Yes Miss, thank you."
"How old are you anyway?" Mara asked.
"Sixteen standard years, Miss," Vesena said after a moment of hesitation.
"You didn't believe a word when I said that you have rights now and could report a rape and actions would be taken," Mara said, having not at all forgotten the non-reaction Vesena had given to that statement.
"Miss," Vesena merely said, not really knowing how to react. She knew that she was terrible at lying and that the Klingon would recognize a lie, yet at the same time she knew that she could not share her private thoughts on the matter.
Mara sighed, and then a thought came to her. "Tell you what, it worked once before. I promise you on my honor, and on my name that I won't tell anyone what you say in here in the next... well, let's just say until you leave these quarters this time."
Vesena merely looked at her uncertainly.
"Come on; is it so hard to believe that I would be interested in knowing what you think?" Mara prompted.
"Miss, I know the truth," Vesena started hesitantly.
"The truth?" Mara repeated. She really wanted to tell Vesena to stop the damn cleaning and sit down, but Mara had a feeling that Vesena was still doing the cleaning just so that she had a familiar action to do.
"About the ending of slavery, Miss."
"Vesena, we went through this before. The full story please or else I have to wrack my brain on just which question to ask; I don't feel like doing that." Mara made sure to add a small smile to her statement, wanting to make sure that the Denobulan didn't start to worry about the impatience that had been clear to hear in her voice.
"Miss, the Master Slave... Servant... explained to us that the Intendant had told him the plan so that he could make sure that we didn't get any strange ideas."
"Plan?" Mara prompted again.
"How slavery hasn't really ended. How the long contract term was introduced to keep the slaves in the places where they really belong. Then in a couple of years slavery will be implemented again and the owners will have to buy back their former slaves; resulting in the Coalition coffers earning a fortune."
"There is no such plan," Mara said right away, which only resulted on Vesena looking at her with clear disbelief. "Honestly," Mara insisted.
Disbelief was still clear to see on the Denobulan's face, so Mara tried something else. "Alright, then tell me this, if there was such a plan, then what about the age forty exception?"
"What exception?" Vesena asked confused.
"The age forty exception," Mara explained. "Yes, a former slave has to serve a long contract term with their former owner. But if they reach the age of forty standard years during that contract they can renegotiate the contract, or leave if they prefer. You must have read this during the last Grand Assembly. At least my parents told me that the file was sent out at that time."
"I know nothing of this, Miss," Vesena said confused.
"Can you read?" Mara asked.
"Yes, Miss. Klingon, Cardassian, and Bajoran," Vesena said with clear pride.
Mara chuckled at that. Seeing the Denobulan's face fall, Mara assured, "I'm not laughing at you. I was laughing at the irony. I like to think of myself as pretty smart, but you know what? Give me a PADD written in Cardassian and I wouldn't be able to understand a word from it. I only know Klingon."
"Really?" Vesena asked surprised as she watched how Mara walked over to the Intendant's office.
"Really," Mara assured before walking into the office, taking a PADD and coming back to Vesena. When Mara showed Vesena the PADD the Denobulan literally pulled away from it.
"What now?" Mara asked confused.
"That's the Intendant's seal. Miss, if I touch that PADD I will get killed."
This time Mara knew that Vesena was telling the truth since Torres had told Mara the rules she had for people touching her PADDs, right before she told Mara that besides Seven, Mara was now also an exception to the rule, and that from now on, Torres would indicate PADDs with the word 'private' if she wished that Mara didn't read them. Mara had not come across such a PADD yet though.
"You are right; normally you would get killed," Mara agreed. "But I have the permission to touch and read these, and right now I am showing this to you. I take full responsibility for you reading this. I promise you that you will not be held accountable for reading this PADD. I promise you this,"
"On your honor and your name?" Vesena finished, right before biting her lip for daring to make such a statement.
"Right," Mara agreed with a chuckle. "Tell you what, from now on, when I say that I promise you something, let's just say that I added that other part as well. Now, this here is the official file of which a copy was sent out at the Grand Assembly. I didn't see the Grand Assembly myself, but my mother suggested that I read up on the files since it can be considered the new start for the entire Coalition. Do you think that the Intendant would call it a new start, even in private, when it was nothing more than a plan to get some credits? Here, read this sub-file; it's the one I was talking about."
Vesena hesitantly took the PADD but didn't start reading yet. "You didn't watch the Grand Assembly, Miss?"
"Nope. Since I'm not yet twelve years old I didn't have to watch it."
"You are younger than twelve standard years, Miss?" Vesena asked surprised. While she could see that Mara wasn't that old, she would still have described her as a woman. Alright, a young woman, but definitely not a child.
"I won't be twelve for two more weeks, so I guess you can say that I'm pretty much twelve years now, just didn't have my birthday yet. Let me guess, you thought I was about fourteen or sixteen, right?"
"Yes Miss," Vesena admitted. "More to the sixteen than fourteen."
"I've always been a big girl. I guess you can say I grew up fast." Mara really didn't want to add that she knew that children of mixed species often had the tendency to grow up faster as children of those species that had been mixed. Mara didn't mention it because she saw herself as fully Klingon. That there was a part Human in her was something she felt best to be ignored. "Anyway, read the file."
"Yes Miss," Vesena said before she started to read. Within moments there was a frown on her face. Once she had finished the sub-file she looked back up at Mara. "Miss, I never heard of this."
"It's true," Mara assured. "Believe me, I'm sitting right here in this room when my mothers discuss different ideas every day for making the Phoenix Alliance a success. I give you my word, Vesena; you have all the rights, and yes, duties, that a Klingon, Cardassian, or name any species you want, long contract servant has."
"But why would the Master Sl... Servant, not tell us this?" Vesena wondered as she looked at the PADD again.
"Now, that is a very good question. Why don't you start reading that file from the start? Just the first few sentences of each sub-file and then you tell me if it sounds familiar."
"Miss, I am not yet finished with cleaning the quarters," Vesena said, not really knowing how she could tell Mara that she didn't have the time to read the files.
"Oh, Vesena, trust me on this; my mother will find the result of you reading that much more interesting than whether you finished the cleaning," Mara assured.
~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~
Donatra was confused. Nobody was saying a word, with the exception of the occasional, 'could you pass the whatever', and yet her lover was blushing so much that her face was red all the way down to her neck, and probably further.
"Are you all talking mentally?" Donatra finally asked.
"No," Kastra said hesitantly. "It's just, well, I, um, when I told you yesterday that Betazoids prefer to be home when they, um, for the first time. I, um, well, kinda, um, you know, left something out there."
"I think I will take some pity on my poor sister," Deanna spoke up. "From what I hear her mumble I gather that she told you that we Betazoids normally prefer to be at home when we make love to another person for the first time in our life."
She shook her head a little. "While I understand why she explained it like this, she could perhaps have worded it differently. Because that explanation gives a wrong impression because it can also be not being at home but being around Betazoids that are good friends, or be somewhere where there are no sentient beings around. From her mumbling I also understand that she didn't tell you why. Donatra, such an intelligent person like you surely knows that for about half of the species in the Coalition there is a breaking of some kind of mental or physical barrier involved when people of that species lose their virginity."
"Yes," Donatra said, wondering why the subject was brought up. "So?"
"We Betazoids have that as well. With us it is a breaking of sorts of a mental barrier. Man or woman, doesn't matter. When we Betazoids are introduced for the first time to the pleasure of making love to someone else... to feel those feelings... and even more importantly to experience that mental connection with our lover; a mental barrier of sorts is broken. Since this wonderful feeling is so totally new to him or her, the Betazoid doesn't know how to focus that feeling and therefore it flows from the Betazoid in all directions like heat from a heat source."
Deanna gave a short nod in the direction of Kastra to indicate the young woman. "Which brings us to the part that has my sister blushing so much. Donatra, if you were standing close to that heat source, could you protect yourself against that heat by just covering your eyes with your hands, or turning away from the heat source? No; all you would do would be to expose another part of your body to the heat. The same here. We Betazoids have no defense against this wave of strong emotions that comes from a Betazoid that is making love for the first time. Whether we want it or not, we will feel it."
"So, you are blushing so much because they know we made love?" Donatra asked Kastra. It still didn't make sense to her. They put Kastra and Donatra in one room with one bed and treated them as a couple. She just couldn't understand why it would be considered so strange that they also made love in that bed.
"No," Deanna spoke up again. "My guess is that the reason why she is blushing is because this mental wave is not of a set strength. Clearly, if a Betazoid's first experience is so lousy that he or she wonders what is supposed to be so special about making love, then the mental wave will be small or even nonexistent. And if the experience is really bad then it won't happen at all and we still consider that person a virgin even though they may have had sex."
"It doesn't count if it isn't any good?" Donatra asked, half amused half confused.
"More like you may have had sex, but you didn't make love," Deanna corrected. "And you only loose you virginity while making love. But on the other hand, if the experience feels incredible to that person, then the mental wave will be a lot bigger. The better it feels, the bigger this wave is. And that's the reason why my sister is blushing; she knows what kind of wave she sent out last night. Let's just say that she does not have to tell us for us to know that you are a very talented lover, Donatra, very talented indeed."
"So you are blushing because they know we made love, and because they know I'm good?" Donatra asked her lover. Then she looked around the table before stating rather bluntly, "Well, it's not really any of your business, but I have always believed that if you make sure that you are good in giving and enjoy to give, then you will always get your pleasure no matter how good or bad your lover is. And as Kastra told me that at least Lwaxana knows, I had my fair part of experience. Is it really that strange to you that I would use that experience to make my lover feel good?"
"That's not the point, and we are all glad for my baby sister that her first time was incredible," Deanna disagreed. "You see, the main reason why my sister is blushing so much is that if this mental wave of pleasure is strong enough then the Betazoids exposed to it cannot help but be affected by it. My sister knows how strong this wave she sent out was, she knows that it must have affected us."
"Affected?" Donatra asked.
It was Jadzia that answered that question. She pulled her shirt down a little to expose her neck, and two very visible hickeys that covered part of her spots there. Then she winked and said rather smugly, "I for one didn't mind one bit."
The smugness of her statement also explained to Donatra why the Trill had more than likely not removed the love bites; she liked the marks and what had caused them.
"I should be really angry with you for not telling me this," Donatra said to Kastra annoyed.
"And you would be in your right," Kastra agreed, "And yes, that is why I didn't tell you." This last part was in reaction to Donatra's thoughts of guessing that Kastra hadn't told her because if the Romulan had known up front that making love to Kastra might be something that the others in the house could feel as well, then the Romulan might not have wanted to make love; no matter how much she liked to make love.
"But this is a one time thing, right? This is over now since you lost your virginity?"
"I didn't lose my virginity," Kastra said softly. "I know exactly where it went; I lost nothing, but I gained so much."
"I stand corrected," Donatra agreed with a dip of her head. "Still, that's over now, right?"
"Kinda," Kastra said slowly. "See, the thing is that this wave is not just a one time thing. That wave is there every time I make love, but it's said that we Betazoids manage to control that wave really fast."
"And it's true," Deanna spoke up again. "The first time we can't really do much about it because we never experienced it before. But after the first time we know the feeling and learn how to focus it in as fast as two or three times more. But the next time Kastra should already be able to focus it enough to where we might still feel it, but it won't affect us."
"Pity," Jadzia said with a smile.
"You really think that I would make love to Kastra again here in the house now that I know that you can feel it?" Donatra asked in disbelief.
"It would be better if you did, yes," Deanna said, now very serious. "You see, yes, we Betazoids might feel it, but we know what it is. When that wave affected us last night, I knew only too well why I needed Jadzia, and I had warned her up front of what may happen. When I quite literally jumped her, she just laughed and enjoyed the ride. But just think, what do you think would have happened if you had made love to Kastra for the first time on Torres' ship? Surrounded by Klingons that like to have sex a lot and that had no warning that suddenly a wave of, for them raw lust, would overtake them? It would not have been a pretty scene, especially not considering how strong this wave was."
"Sorry," Kastra said with a crestfallen look on her face when she caught the thought that flashed across Donatra's mind.
"No, I'm sorry, and I apologize to you," Donatra said softly. "Please, you know that I don't really think that. That falls into the 'I hate my job' thoughts category. Believe me; I'm not at all really sorry that I fell in love with a Betazoid."
"I know it may not look like it now," Lwaxana spoke up, "But since you mostly do like the fact that you are in love with a Betazoid, you should really like this turn of events. You should be thrilled to know that Kastra will always send out a mental wave when she makes love."
"Why?" Donatra asked.
"Because, as Kastra just already mentioned, the wave will be there every time you two make love. It is just that others will no longer feel it and be affected by it because Kastra will learn how to focus that wave and therefore it doesn't even travel to others and therefore obviously can't reach them. But, think about it, if it gets focused, it still needs to go somewhere, as that focused energy."
"Me?" Donatra asked.
"Believe me, it feels wonderful," Jadzia spoke up. "Better than any physical touch ever can. You will crave to feel that feeling. You will love the feeling you get when you feel your lover's feelings as she goes over. It will send you over as well. Just so that you know, in a strong relationship with a Betazoid it's impossible for only one of you to have an orgasm. It doesn't matter who is doing and who's body is being touched, if one of you goes over, you both do. Every single time."
"Not last night," Donatra stated, but then she answered her own statement, "Because last night this energy went everywhere. You are talking about once Kastra focuses it all on me."
"Right," Jadzia agreed.
Suddenly Donatra looked at Kastra again when something came to her. "Last night, for a moment I thought that I could feel you. That I could actually do more than that; that I could... read... know... however you describe it, that I knew some of your thoughts. But it was only for a second and I was kinda busy doing something else so I thought that I was just imagining it. I wasn't, was I?"
"You weren't," Kastra agreed. "And that's what Jadzia was talking about. This moment where you felt me; it will get longer. Eventually it will be so that you will feel me from the first kiss of our lovemaking all the way to where we go to sleep, after. You will feel me just like I will feel you. When we make love, it will always be just as much mentally as physically."
"I will feel everything, even how you feel when I kiss you?"
"More than that. It's rather complex, but don't worry, I have been told that learning to deal with it is an automatic thing. In fact, there is no real learning involved. You see, the feeling goes both ways. Take that kiss. I will first feel that you want to kiss me, and you will feel that I feel that, and want that. Then you will feel your own sensation of kissing me, and feel my own sensation of being kissed by you. Then you will also feel how I feel about feeling how you feel when you kiss me, and so on."
"So," Donatra said slowly, "Just one single kiss will result in me feeling that kiss maybe ten times in different ways because I will also feel how you feel about me feeling about you feeling... damn this is confusing."
"Let me give you some advise as someone that is in love with a Betazoid but isn't one herself," Jadzia spoke up. "Don't think of it like that. This mental back and forth of feelings goes so quickly that you only see it as separate levels of feelings if you study it. Don't do that. Instead just feel without caring just who the emotion is coming from at that moment. If you do than it's just the simple matter of kissing your partner... and even the simplest of kisses being a mind-blowing experience."
Kastra sighed before suddenly saying, "You are right mother, and she deserves to know. Besides, I think now is a good time to tell her."
Then she looked at her lover before explaining what clearly had been a mental conversation between Kastra and her mother. "As my mother just very rightfully pointed out, I started to talk about you feeling my feelings, but didn't really answer the fact that you thought that for a second you could read my mind. The clear cut answer to that is that you could do that as well. It's not necessarily tied in with us making love, but more about your mind learning to connect to mine. Eventually you will be able to read my mind just like I can read yours, but in the beginning these are only flashes. Mostly when my telepathic moments are very active and your brain is picking that up. Like when we make love, or if we were to fight, things like that. But now that your mind has picked up my mental waves this will become more and more common and I guess that in half a year or so you will be able to read my mind like I can read yours, and about half a year after that this will have evolved to where we can talk mentally with each other."
"I will evolve telepathic abilities?" Donatra asked amazed.
"Yes, but only for me," Kastra tried to explain. "It's a lover's thing."
"But, we Romulans don't have any telepathic or even empathic abilities at all," Donatra pointed out. "Vulcans do, but even though we have the same routes, we Romulans lost those abilities long ago."
"That doesn't matter," Kastra assured. "It's because of 'my' abilities. It's kinda like me sending out messages over a com. link. If the message is strong enough you can pick that up even without having a com. link yourself. Something as crude and basic as a copper wire will already do; if, as I said, the signal is strong enough. From the other side, if the receiver, me, is strong enough it can still pick up messages sent with a broken com. link device where the microphone doesn't work anymore. Simply because other parts in the com. link also pick up the vibrations of your voice and sent that 'echo' along over the active com. link even though it seems like you aren't sending anything."
"Com. link," Donatra repeated. "A broken com. link at that. So you are saying that I'm broken and something any sane person should no longer bother with?"
"Ah, but that would only make me insane for sending a signal to that broken com. link, and not reflect on you," Kastra countered with a smile. "Well, other than the fact that you are a broken com. link along with billions of others. Just that you happen to pick up a frequency those others don't receive. Alright, so it was the only example I could think of right now. But it's really kinda like that. You could consider your mind a crude and basic broken com. link, and my mind a very powerful com. link that can nevertheless pick up the signal of your broken com. link. If we are deeply enough in love with the person we Betazoids get a connection like that with our lover no matter what their species is. The only exception to that are the species that we can't read the minds from anyway like the Ferengi and the Breen."
"If it's anything like between me and Deanna here you will reach the point where you can hold conversations as easily as I am now with you, and you will know Kastra's thoughts then," Jadzia explained, "But that's it. As much as I can hear Deanna now, I can still not hear a mental conversation between Deanna and Kastra for instance. If they were to have such a conversation, Deanna would have to 'talk' to Kastra and then 'talk' to me to tell me what Kastra said to her or what she said to Kastra."
"This private link between lovers is one of the main reasons why we Betazoids are so fiercely monogamous," Lwaxana explained. "We are very capable of loving several people at once very deeply, as deeply that some species consider those feelings to belong to lovers. We may even have sex with those other people; more that goes to it being seen as us having several lovers. But we do not see it that way. With us true lovers are only the people that have this mental link. Other people we might love, or we might have sex with; but we only have one lover."
Lwaxana gestured to one of the pictures hanging on one of the walls. "Take me and Kastra's father. We were married three times, and divorced three times. Besides that I had a child, Deanna, from someone else and Kastra's father and I both had other people in our lives. In fact, I still own the body servant that fathered Deanna. Yet I only had a single lover in my entire life. Reittan Grax; the father of Kastra and her brothers. It is this mental link that makes us lovers; that something that we share with nobody else."
"But he is not visiting you on Family Weekend," Donatra pointed out.
"He would have, if he wasn't too far away on business," Lwaxana disagreed. "Even though Reittan and I are divorced at the moment, we still interact. We don't get along enough to be a married couple, but we are good friends and do meet regularly to do things together. One of which is, yes, to make love since he is the only person I ever make love to. To simplify it for you and borrow the example Kastra just used; you could see this connection between you and Kastra as having a private com. link between Kastra and you that nobody can listen in on."
"Except for other Betazoid," Donatra pointed out.
"Except for other Betazoids," Lwaxana repeated to indicate that Donatra had a point. "But they would never comment on it because this would show that they listened in, which would be considered extremely rude. For instance, we Betazoids here around the table can communicate mentally with each other, and as you just saw, sometimes we do just that. As such we can for instance communicate with Deanna, yet at the same time we would not hear what she is saying mentally to Jadzia because we are not concentrating on that. If there is something that we should hear then Deanna will do it in a way that we all, including Jadzia, can hear it."
"So," Donatra started to surmise. "This link between Kastra and me will get stronger, and the best way to develop it is by strong emotions like her and me fighting or making love?"
"Right," Lwaxana agreed.
"Kastra told me that around noon some family members I haven't met yet will visit, so that means that between now and noon there is nothing planned?" Donatra suddenly asked.
"Not really," Lwaxana said, confused about the sudden change in the conversation. "Because people travel to families of partners on different days, we have to allow for some travel time for those cases that live outside transporter range, but still close enough that they can go visit within a few hours. So it is normal that on the first day of Family Weekend the important activities are scheduled more in the morning, and on the second day they are scheduled more in the evening. Normally the people already present just spent some time together informally until that time, why do you ask?"
Before Donatra could answer, Lwaxana saw that Kastra was starting to blush once more and she guessed that her daughter was picking up certain thoughts from her lover that the others would only pick up if they were to focus on Donatra like Kastra was doing.
"Well, the way I see it," Donatra started to explain, "I have the mother of my lover telling me that I should make love to my lover to strengthen the connection between us. And I have an Intendant that is strongly suggesting that I make love to my lover, her sister, several times yet before I leave Betazed again. If they both think that it is for the best that I spent time loving my lover, who am I to disagree with my mother-in-law or not follow the advice of an Intendant? If Kastra is willing we will retire to her room until noon after breakfast is over."
Donatra tried very hard to sound as casual as possible as she said this, but in reality she was still very nervous about making love to Kastra again while knowing that the others would feel when they were making love. But she could see that Deanna had a point about it being better if Kastra learned to control her feelings while around people that knew what the feeling that suddenly washed over them was, and why it was happening.
"That is a very good idea," Lwaxana agreed, and now that Donatra was no longer being overloaded with information, she could hear from the tone of voice just how serious the Matriarch thought this matter to be. They may have been talking about it in a way that seemed casual, but it nevertheless still came down to the fact that they were dealing with Kastra giving away her virginity and her family helping her through that as best they could.
It was at that moment admiration conquered fear and Donatra realized that being brought into a family of Betazoids really wasn't a bad thing at all. It merely meant that she had to get used to some things being done differently. Still, the rewards easily outweighed the sometimes uncomfortable feeling of having to learn to accept that from now on her thoughts were no longer solely her own.
Then she looked to her side and at her lover. Hmm, it was new, yes. But the rewards most definitely could be worth it. She couldn't wait to feel the emotions Kastra felt when she heard the words 'I love you'.
~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~
Mara was glad that she had finally been able to convince Vesena to sit down while reading, but as soon as the door opened the Denobulan jumped to her feet and took a step back. It was only then that she realized that she was still holding on to the PADD and looked at it in horror. The Intendant had just walked in and had caught her reading one of her PADDs.
Torres looked at the young woman and wondered why she was getting the reaction that she got. It hadn't been the first time she and Seven had walked in while Vesena had been cleaning, but she had never acted so scared. Then she saw the Denobulan looking at the PADD in her hand and Torres started to get a pretty good feeling why Vesena was reacting like she was. But seeing that Mara had been sitting besides Vesena, Torres assumed that there was more to the story.
"What is going on here?" She asked in a to Vesena surprisingly calm tone.
"Mother, can you give us a moment?" Mara asked before she literally pulled Vesena into her bedroom, leaving Torres and Seven looking at each other in total confusion.
~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~
"Look, I promised you that you would not be held responsible for reading that file," Mara said. "That's true. When we go back out there I can sent you away and tell my mothers myself what we discovered, or you can stay and we both tell them."
"I would rather leave, Miss," Vesena said right away.
Mara nodded slowly. "Your choice. But let me ask you this; you read the files. You now know the true extent of your rights, and you know that this is for real. Tell me, what do you want from your life? Do you want to hide in fear those ten years of that contract and then probably simply get the same contract after that, or do you want to start living? Alright, so part of your contract is that you are on call every minute of the day so that you can come in here to clean if my parents, and Toby, aren't here. But I know how much time they spent here. You have most of the day where you do nothing but wait. And it's not uncommon that they don't leave at all for a few days, if what they told me is correct."
Mara took hold of both of Vesena's shoulders so that the woman would stop looking away and instead would focus on her. "Are you going to spent ten years hiding in your room for every hour of the day just so that you can come out to clean some every day? Or are you going to use that time to live? Have fun? You can also be on call when you are in one of the meeting areas, or the holodeck, you do get holodeck time now; you read that in the other files I let you read. You now know the terms and conditions of the contract you are serving with mother. All you have to do is tell the computer where to sent a warning signal that the quarters are empty and you can be everywhere on this ship and still be on call. What are you going to do, Vesena, hide, or live?"
"I don't know, Miss," Vesena said in a desperate tone. "I really do want to believe, but, Miss, I."
"Then look at it this way," Mara said, trying a different approach. "Today you can end your live as a slave. You can go out there with me and stay, and one of two things will happen. Either you will see that all I'm saying is true, or you will be killed. Either way, your slavery is over. But if your leave, you will still be a slave; even if it's just a slave to your own fears. Go on, take a chance. Live Vesena, live."
After a long moment of indecisiveness, Vesena finally gave a weak nod.
"Are you sure?" Mara asked.
This time the nod was sure and firm.
"Alright," Mara said before adding with a grin, "I promise you, on my Honor, and on my name, that you won't be sorry."
~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~
"Mara, what's going on here? Why was there a servant reading one of my PADDs, and you sitting beside her while she did so?" Torres asked clearly not pleased, as she indicated the PADD she was now holding.
"Mother, I handed that PADD to her because I wanted her to know that it was the original file that had been sent out at the Grand Assembly."
"Why? She already knows this."
"That's the point; she didn't know it all. Vesena, tell her the sub-files you didn't know."
Vesena started to talk with a stutter that was clearly from fear, but when she noticed that what she was saying was not brushed off as nonsense, she became more secure.
"Seven?" Torres said once Vesena had stopped talking.
"She is telling the truth," Seven assured.
"Um, I forgot to mention that Seven is really good at telling if someone is lying, didn't I?" Mara asked with a grin.
"What I would like to know is why the moron would think that he would get away with leaving out five of the sub-files, would make up that nonsense story, and on top of that, would think that he could get away with it."
"He did get away with it until now," Mara said, only to get a growl from Torres. She lifted her hands in defense. "Hey, just pointing out. He got away with it until now, and if I hadn't accidentally scared Vesena into dropping a bucket of water we might never have started on the conversation we had, and we still wouldn't know."
"This really doesn't boat well for the Coalition as a whole when even the Master Servant on my own ship is playing games like that," Torres pointed out while looking at Seven.
"I am quite surprised about the fact that it is actually the Master Servant that is doing this," Seven said thoughtfully. "We were expecting situations like this to come from former owners. That is the very reason why we made so much publicity about those random checks by the Klingon Security Department, and its equivalents in the other factions. Apparently that approach worked since Martok told us that they were finding a lot less problems than they had been expecting."
"Well," Torres interrupted, "It became a lot less than expected after the first inspections were done and people that messed up were dealt with publically. Once people knew that we weren’t kidding when we said 'we will find you', people stopped doing things we would have to find them for."
"True," Seven agreed. "But the fact remains that, clearly owners did not want to run the risk of being subjected to a random search from the Klingon Security Department, or the Tal Shiar, or the likes, and them actually finding something."
"Maybe he thought he could get away with it exactly because it is your ship, mother," Mara suggested. "After all, would you have ever checked if your rules were followed on your own ship? And at the same time, would any of the former slaves have dared to ask anyone if your plan truly was just a scheme to make extra credits? I think the answer to both is no."
Then Mara looked at Vesena and suddenly asked, "Hey, Vesena, do you happen to know how old that Master Servant is?"
"No Miss," Vesena said after thinking about it for a moment.
"But I know," Torres spoke up. "He will be forty in half a year."
"Are the servants on this ship paid any wages?" Mara then asked.
"Not really," Torres said with a shrug. "I pay a small wages to every servant on the ship, regardless of who they are serving; only a hundred credits a month each though. I mostly just did that to do that 'give the good example' crap. You know, show that I actually pay my former slaves in more than just replicator rations and a little holodeck time."
"I get paid as well?" Vesena asked, making it very clear that this was total news to her.
Mara nodded her head, now having a good idea about what was going on. "Let me guess, making sure that the servants get paid is the job of the Master Servant."
"Of course," Torres agreed. "And I see where you are getting at. But he never struck me as stupid. Why would he risk his life for so few credits?"
"Few?" Mara asked. "Just how many servants are on this ship?"
Torres had to think about that for a moment. "Well, there are the appointed servants for the higher ranks. Then we have the common use ones; the ones that do the grunt work in Engineering, the ones that go around and do the cleaning of the lower rank personnel and the ship in general, the common use sex servants... I would say all in all you will find about a thousand servants on this ship. That is of course not counting personal servants that people themselves own and that I don't pay."
Mara crossed her arms as she shook her head a little. "With all respect mother, I think that we need to have a little talk about just how much is a lot of credits."
"We need to have a little talk?" Torres repeated amused.
"Well, you know what I mean," Mara grinned. "But think about it. A thousand servants, that make one hundred credits a month, and he hits the age of forty in six months. If he had managed to hide what he is doing... if our guess is right of course... he would have managed to collect 600,000 credits. And that's not even taking into account what he already managed to hide ever since you started to pay wages. That's already a damn big number for a Klingon to have, but for a former slave that never owned a credit in his life? That has to sound like an endless amount. Here let me prove it; Vesena, do you know how much a good breed pit targ would cost?"
"Um... five hundred credits, Miss?" Vesena guessed.
"How about a dinner at the most expensive restaurant on Qo'noS?"
"Um... forty credits, Miss?"
"I see that I have to tell Donatra to check if basic comers has to be added to the school curriculum so that the former slaves will be taught the actual value of the credits," Seven noted.
"And I see that I have to have a friendly conversation with my Master Servant," Torres said calmly.
"Are you going to punish him because of what I said, Intendant?" Vesena asked hesitantly.
"No, I'm going to question him because of what you said," Torres corrected. "With Seven at my side to see if his side of the story is true. Then, depending on what he says I will punish him for what 'he' said. It seems that Seven's speech at the Grand Assembly about not misusing the situation was not heard by all. If my Master Servant is truly guilty of what we think he is guilty of, his execution will be broadcasted live throughout the Coalition as a 'must see' broadcast that will be mandatory for the ages eighteen and up. A gentle reminder for all to show them what will happen to them if they don't stick to the fucking plan."
"For eighteen and up?" Mara asked, surprised about the high age line. Normally broadcasts of executions were allowed to be watched from twelve and up, and children a little younger also weren't that hard encouraged to not watch it. Mara herself had already seen three broadcasted executions.
"I believe that my Mistress is planning to make a very clear statement," Seven explained. "If he is guilty his death will not be swift, and more than likely very painful."
"Oh yeah," Torres said in full agreement. "Vesena, you can go now. You can finish the cleaning tomorrow."
"Yes Intendant," Vesena said and turned around to leave.
"Vesena, what's the matter?" Mara asked, having seen the same small hesitation that she had seen several times before by now. There was something Vesena wanted to say, but she didn't dare to.
"Miss, I, I was wondering if the Intendant would let people know who told her about the differenced between the original files and what we slaves were told."
"Servants," Torres corrected. "And you don't have to worry. One way of giving the impression that I know everything is by not letting people know how I know something. That way they never know if I'm just guessing or have actual proof."
"I see. Thank you, Intendant." Vesena said and she turned around once more. As the door opened to let her out, she heard Mara say 'see you tomorrow'. And Vesena realized that Mara would be in the quarters studying again when Vesena came in to finish the cleaning the next time. "Yes, Miss."
Vesena was just about to leave the quarters when Mara spoke up again. "Oh! Wait, come back for a moment."
"Miss?" Vesena asked as she turned around and stepped out of the sensors range, letting the door close behind her.
"I have to cover something," Mara said before looking at Torres. "Mother, because I saw it as my fault that Vesena dropped the bucket with water, I allowed her to use the dematerializer to dry the carpet and said that she could also use the other units. I told her that she was only allowed to do so if I'm in the quarters. Would you object to her using them even if I'm not here?"
Torres thought about that for a moment. Then she walked over to Vesena. She took hold of the Denobulan's chin and forced her head up until Torres was looking into vivid blue eyes that put even Seven's blue eyes to shame with their brilliance. "Listen to me very carefully. You know what happened to the slave that destroyed a data crystal of mine and didn't tell me?"
"Y... y... yes I... Intttenddantt."
"Remember that. If something ever happens; tell me, don't hide it. Everyone makes mistakes. Mistakes I can forgive if honestly admitted. Stupid mistakes will at most result in you losing the privilege of you being allowed to use the appliances. But if you ever try to hide something from me, well... be smart and just don't, alright?"
"Yes, Intendant," Vesena said, now a lot more secure. She couldn't believe that she was actually allowed to use the cleaning appliances.
"Good, now get going."
"Yes Intendant," Vesena said again and headed for the door once more. As she passed Mara she hesitated for a moment before saying softly, "See you tomorrow, Miss." And then she was finally gone.
~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~