The league of extraordinary ladies.
By H.W.
Chapter 3
"What are you looking at?" Zani asked when she noticed that Seven had suddenly stopped in front of one of the store windows. It was the first shore leave that Voyager had taken since Zani joined the crew three months before, and she and Seven were greatly enjoying the time together. More so because Sam had offered to take Shanzia so that Seven and Zani could enjoy their first shore leave together alone.
Zani also looked into the window and saw a set of short swords proudly displayed. From the handhold downwards the blades of the swords were about forty-five centimeters long (18 inch) and of the kind that was sharp at one side and had the full thickness of the blade on the other side.
One of the most interesting features of the swords was that where the blade flowed into the handhold the sharp edge continued on over the hand protector to finally end on the other side of the handhold in a sharp point. This way the hand was protected by metal while the handhold could actually also be used to cut and slice. The tip on the end could then be used to jab at an enemy if the sword was held in such a way that the blade was resting along the underarm in order to protect it.
Even though the weapons were beautifully decorated, it was clear to see that they were designed with deadly function in mind, and that the decorations were only added later on in an effort to masquerade the true effectiveness of the weapons.
"Those are Zadenian battle blades," Seven pointed out. "Their species was assimilated by the Borg almost ten thousand years ago. I do not know how these weapons ended up here, but I do know that the secret art of their creation died out when the Borg assimilated the Zadenian and considered the knowledge of making these weapons irrelevant information that could be deleted out of the hive memory."
"Which means that those have to be at least ten thousand years old," Zani concluded. "Either they were never used, or they are of an extremely high quality. They sure look like new ones. Maybe they are imitations."
"May be," Seven admitted. "But I doubt it. For it to be imitations you would first have to know the originals, and secondly, why would they imitate them if nobody knows their true meaning? Look, the other items are mentioned by name. If the merchant knew what these were they would name them; even if they were just copies."
"Only one way to find out for sure," Zani said as she walked to the door. "Come on."
Once inside the store, Zani wasted no time bringing up the swords in the display, pointing out that there had been no price for them, unlike the rest in the display.
"Ma'am, those are very rare. One of a kind actually," The man said, showing that while he might not know what he had exactly, he sure knew that they were valuable. "They are made of a metal so strong that if you try to sharpen them with a normal sharpening stone, you wear down the stone without even putting a scratch on the metal. I'm afraid that I can't sell them for anything less then fifty thousand silvers."
"And I sincerely doubt that you will find anyone soon that is willing to pay that amount of money for it," Zani said amused.
"Probably not," The man agreed. "In fact, I myself had only gotten them as a payment of sorts from another merchant. I might end up eventually using them myself as a payment to another merchant, but the fact is that I exchanged them for goods that would have brought me fifty thousand in normal sales, so that's the price."
"I believe that we should move on," Seven said, knowing only too well that between the two of them, Zani and she only had two hundred silver to spare since every crew member had gotten an 'allowance' of one hundred silvers to spend at their discretion during the shore leave.
"In a moment," Zani said as she took off the little backpack she had been carrying. After fishing inside for a moment she looked up at the salesman and asked, "You said that you gotten the weapons as a payment of another merchant. Would you be interested in a little exchange of goods instead of money?"
"That depends what you have to offer," The man said, always on the lookout for a good deal.
"Tell me, do you know of any merchants that have dealings inside feline territory?"
"Sure, I actually have a couple of friends that do the Bindie-Alda run, if you know what that is."
"I know what it is," Zani assured. Indeed knowing only too well that it referred to a very profitable merchant route between two solar systems, one of which was located inside feline territory. "In that case, would you be interested in exchanging the swords, their Scabbard, and a few other interesting things out of your store in exchange for... this?"
At the word 'this' Zani took a sphere the size of Seven's closed fist out of her backpack and placed it on the counter. The sphere seemed to be made of extremely thin glass and inside there was a bluish and reddish gas slowly swirling around and through each other, but never really mixing.
"What is it?" Seven asked, surprised that the perfectly round ball wasn't rolling off the very clearly not so horizontal surface of the counter.
"That, my dear, is a blessed sphere," Zani explained. "This sphere is blessed by the feline patron goddess of travelers and traders and it will bring the rightful owner good luck in their trades and protection in their travels."
"And I see about one of them every month," The trader spoke up. "All of them as fake as this one surely is."
"I assure you that it's real. You are free to test it... you do know the tests that prove that it is real?"
"I sure do," The man said as he bent down and after a moment of searching his cabinets came back up with a hammer in hand. He brought it down on the sphere knowing for sure that it would break in a thousand peaces just like all the other fakes had always done. It was a crude, but very effective test. But to his surprise, it wasn't the sphere that broke, but the glass counter beneath it.
"Um, right, I meant to do that," The man said as he took the sphere from between the broken glass and moved a little bit to the left where another counter stood. "I'll, um..."
"Look, I am the rightful owner of that sphere which means that it's indestructible. Why don't you take it with you to the back and test it in any way you want? That way you won't be breaking any more counters."
The man didn't say another word, but did take the sphere and moved to the back of his store.
"Are you not afraid that he will not give it back to you?" Seven asked as soon as the man was gone.
"No. He knows how to test if the sphere is real, that means that he also knows that if the sphere is not in the possession of the rightful owner it will become extremely breakable and if the gases inside escape they will find him and enter his body; bringing him bad luck for the rest of his life."
"I find it hard to believe that the gases would actually search for him."
"Annika, we aren't just talking about any gases. That sphere has been created by the patron goddess of travelers and traders. The gases don't really follow the laws of physics, they follow any law the goddess thought up, even if those laws strife with the laws of physics."
"And how did you get into possession of that sphere?"
"Simply; she gave it to me. Which is why it doesn't work for me, but it still is my rightful possession. He can only become the rightful owner if I sell it to him or trade him for it."
"She gave it to you? You mean you met her? Literally meet her I mean? You met a goddess? Would this goddess not be upset about you selling the gift she gave you?"
Zani smiled. "Easy on the questions there sweetie. You have to remember that she is the patron goddess of travelers and... traders. She would only be upset with me if I didn't get a decent price for it, and I fully intend to get a decent price. The sphere is intended to be sold; as I said, it doesn't work for me because I'm the first owner. As for meeting her... Yes, I met her literally. She showed herself to me shortly before we two met. She gave me the sphere then, telling me that I would soon leave on a voyage and I would need the sphere at one point to exchange it for something that would be a gift to someone. She was right; those swords will be a gift to someone. I will give them to you for safe keeping, and you will give them to B'Elanna when the time comes for her to have them."
She chuckled. "And since I know you are dying to ask, we call our gods just that; gods. But from what I read in those damn PADDs I have to read all the time to 'catch up,' Captain Janeway would compare them with the Q. The only real difference is that the Q tromp all over the galaxy because they don't have a real home, and our gods don't tromp around since they do have a real home; feline territory. Our gods are more than happy to just stay and play in the twenty-six solar systems that fall under feline territory."
Seven was wondering how Zani would know that Seven would give the swords to B'Elanna at some point, but she had learned that Zani simply knew a lot of things from her keen sense of observation. Seven liked to give gifts to the people she really liked. Zani, the little mouse, and now B'Elanna too. There was bound to come a time that it would be a good moment to give a Klingon some weapons as a gift. So, Seven decided to not ask the who but simply the why. "Why are you making it possible for me to give B'Elanna those swords as a gift? You are trading for them; you should give them to B'Elanna."
"Annika, trust me on this, those swords will have a lot more meaning to B'Elanna if she gets them from you."
More questions of Seven were stopped by the man coming back and placing the sphere back on the counter. "While I whish that I could pretend otherwise and really get this at a cheap price, I have to admit that it is real."
"And I know only too well that it's worth," Zani added. "You can sell that to any trader that goes to feline space and easily ask one million silvers for it. And the best part is that unlike the swords, they will be glad to pay you real money for it, and not just other goods."
"Which brings me to the question of what exactly you want for it. You said the swords and their Scabbards; you have them. What else?"
"Don't worry, I won't be asking you one million worth of goods. See, I have a small problem. Right now that sphere is worth a lot of money because people know what it is. But the starship I'm on is traveling away from feline territory and will never be back. In only a couple of months that sphere is nothing more to people than a ball with nice colors inside, worth only a few silvers. I have to sell it on this planet or I will never be able to sell it for a price that such an item demands that I ask. I could go to other traders, and I will if your price is too unreasonable, but they won't have those swords to throw into the deal. So this is what I ask. Those swords, the Scabbards that go with it, and my love and I will get to chose anything else in your story that we want for at most half a million silvers worth, not counting the swords."
The man obviously realized that even if these women did take half a million worth of items and the swords, that still would leave him with a profit of almost half a million. "Alright, you have a deal."
"How will be we able to spend half a million silvers?" Seven wondered, and the tone in her voice made it clear that doubted that there were so many things in the store that she actually wanted to have.
"Annika, love, there is one thing I noticed about this store when I walked in; he doesn't sell fake cheap stuff. Why do you think I didn't ask him to show me the swords so that we could make sure that they were real? There are things in here that are small, but still cost a lot of silvers. There is also something 'I' want."
Zani walked down the line of counters until she came to one that held rings of all sizes and designs. She took along time to look at all of them and ignored the salesman and Seven who and joined her at the counter, if only at different sides of it.
"There, that one." Zani pointed to a ring made of a blue/yellowish metal that was a few millimeters across and had a symbol on it that was repeated over and over again over the entire length of the ring. "Is there a specific meaning to that symbol?"
"Sure is. It's a wedding ring and the symbol is simply the written version of the word 'one' in our language."
"Perfect," Zani said with a smile.
Seven frowned and wanted to ask what Zani needed a wedding ring for. Sure she loved Zani, but thinking of marrying her just didn't feel right, at least not at the moment. But before she could say something, Zani continued talking and it became clear to Seven that Zani wanted the rings for something entirely different. And now Seven could only smile.
"Can you get me that ring in the following sizes, using the sizes used on your planet? A sixty," Zani held up her middle finger to indicate for who the ring was meant.
Seven decided not to let Zani in on the fact that to Humans the gesture that she was making was actually considered quite rude.
"Then I would like a twenty-five for my love here. I would also like that ring in a Twenty-nine." At Seven's frown, Zani simply said 'B'Elanna' before continuing. "A size twenty-eight." Zani looked at Seven before adding, "The little mouse when her body stops growing."
Seven merely shook her head and decided not to wonder how Zani could possibly know what ring size the little mouse would have when her body had fully matured. Seven knew for sure that if she asked, Zani would have a perfectly logical explanation.
"A twenty-three... Naomi."
This was no surprise for Seven since Zani had already told her that she would be very surprised if the little mouse and Naomi did not grow up eventually being lovers and spend the rest of their lives together.
"And finally a nineteen."
"For whom is the last ring?" Seven asked surprised. Seven had relatively fine hands and had a ring size of twenty-five in the scale used on the planet. So for an adult person to have a nineteen, that person needed to have very delicate hands.
"I... I don't know," Zani said, and for the first time since knowing her, Seven saw a clear look of confusion on Zani's face. "All I know is that I feel like I should get one more ring, and that it should be a size nineteen."
"Then I guess you should get the ring," Seven merely said.
"Does... doesn't this sound strange to you?" Zani asked, not caring in the least that the man was listening to every word they said.
"Actually, no. It makes sense to me now. Since I know you, you have said things, known things, which you should never be able to know, no matter how good your ability of perception is. But now that you told me that you met your goddess in person, and that she gave you that sphere, it is clear to me that she has given you more than only that. She has given you some information you can use on your travel; a personal blessing for you if you want to call it that. You have done well until now to use that knowledge; do not stop now."
Zani looked at Seven for a long moment before finally turning to the salesman with a smile. "Well, you heard the lady. I would like six of those rings in the sizes I just mentioned. Do you have them?"
"I don't have them here," The man said. He was confused by the strange conversations these women were having, but he was a salesman long enough to know that you concentrated on the deal, and not on the person you were dealing with. "Normally I would say that this piece of art is so rare that duplicate copies have to be especially made and that they would be ready in four short cyclists... but since it's part of the deal, I can have them brought here from the warehouse by this afternoon. Mind you, the fact that more than one exists doesn't take away from the fact that these truly are work of art. They are worth every silver of the fifteen thousand silvers that they cost per ring."
"I believe you," Zani assured. "Please tell me, honestly, simply so that we know how to take care of them, how fragile are they?"
"Well, they are made of Puraj... part of the high price tag by the way... so with normal usage and normal work they shouldn't even scratch. If you work with acids, even mild ones, you might want to take them off. That's the only thing Puraj can't really take that well."
"We would wear gloves when handling acids," Seven pointed out.
"I'm sure you would, if you have half a brain, but still it is known for some acids to actually react with Puraj through gloves. Also, you would be surprised how many mild acids there are in soaps and even in foods. Why take the risk? Better take off the ring for the time being and have a ring that can outlive you. Mind you, it's not that mild acid will eat up the ring, it's just that it will dull the shine of the ring to the point where it looks like nothing more than normal steel."
Suddenly the man moved to the counter with the broken glass. "Tell you what, since your... lover?... over there is making me such a nice deal, why don't you pick some necklaces from this display and I'll throw them in at cost price."
He bent and pulled out a draw which he placed on the unbroken counter. "You could pick one of these pendants to attach to the necklace. They are all water and air proof and you could put the rings in there if you can't wear them around the finger."
He pointed at one of the pendants. "If I may suggest, this one comes in different sizes, that way you can have a pendant that looks the same, but that can snugly fit the smallest ring, and a bigger pendant that can snugly fit the biggest ring."
He took one of the necklaces that was made of a fine braided metal that looked like gold and then looked at Zani, who was obviously the one with the goods to pay for the bill. "I normally suggest this necklace with the pendant; they look beautiful together. Now, don't let the delicate necklace fool you. It and the clasp have a tested braking strength so high that... well, we actually had to weaken it to the point where it breaks just before a head is detached from the body; safety you know? Since your lover here was wondering about there being enough goods here that you like to make the half million line, why not take one necklace and pendant with every ring? I'll give them to you at cost, which is just under two thousand silvers per combination. So let's say two thousand to keep the calculating easy."
"Cost you say?" Zani asked amused.
The man chuckled. "Alright, alright, but it's a small profit marine only."
Zani looked at the necklace and pendant for a moment before nodding. The pendant was a small tear-shaped box that was just thick enough to hold the ring, so it was still quite thin and looked elegant. On the front there was a small but deep etching of entwined leafed branches. "I like the etching; it goes well with the symbol on the ring and makes a good combination. And I like the idea in general. On our ship we aren’t allowed to wear jewelry that is visible while in uniform. The necklace and pendant would be allowed because we can wear them under the uniform."
The man smiled broadly at her, easily recognizing the signs of customer surrender. "Well, there you go then."
Fine, throw them in the deal," Zani relented.
"Humans and Klingons have a mild form of acid in their sweat; does it not interact with the rings?" Seven asked. While it was nice to have a place to put the ring if you took it off, it would also be nice to know if she could even wear it.
"I don't know," The man said honestly. "Mind if I scan your hand?"
Seven didn't mind and a minute later her hand was scanned.
"Nothing to worry about," The man assured. "But just so that you know, acids that are about twenty times as strong will start to affect the rings."
"Alright then," Zani said while rubbing her hands in delight, "Six rings as fifteen thousand silvers each. Six necklaces and pendants at two thousand for the combination. That makes a little over one hundred thousand. Now let's see that else we can find."
The man pointed to a counter a little further away. "If you still have some room left after having selected thing you like, may I suggest these?"
He had moved to the counter and pointed at gold ornament. "If nothing else they make good decorations around the house. But the reason why I suggest them is because they make excellent trading goods. Something you can use even years from now in exchange for other goods on other planets. I haven't yet heard of a species that doesn't value gold. Maybe it's not the most expensive metal with them, but it's normally always worth quite some."
"Good point," Zani approved. "We'll keep them in mind. Bet first let us have a look at your other goods. Oh, actually, there is one more thing."
"And that is?"
"Whatever we pick, you will deliver it to our ship. I don't feel like carrying stuff around."
The man laughed at the final part of the deal. "I think I can arrange that."
***
"It was very interesting," Janeway assured while inwardly she was thinking 'why me?'
She loved being the captain, and she loved almost every aspect of the job. One of the things she didn't like though, was having to suffer through evenings of organized boredom.
Where the rest of the crew could go and do the things they wanted, she had to suffer through dinners, art exhibits, or as in this case, boring theater plays. How she longed to simply go out into nature and do nothing but enjoy real nature for a couple of days.
Instead she had sat through a boring theater play of people just standing still and reciting texts without anything visual at all to back up the stories; not even simple stage decorations.
The 'play' had been about how two species had shared the planet; one ruling the day, the other ruling the night. In the day time one species became the hunted, in the night the other species because the hunted. Then one day an alien species landed on the planet intent on conquering it and settling there. Neither of the two species could fight them off.
The day rulers, as they were called in the 'play,' couldn't fight them off because they were simply too weak, and the night rulers couldn't do it because they suffered from a disease that made it impossible for them to be in direct sunlight. Just seconds of exposure to sunlight would make the night rulers' skin boil off and within a minute they were dead.
The aliens had quickly learned that. The night rulers were strong, and could defeat the aliens. So what the aliens had done was hunt down the night rulers over day while they couldn't move out of their hiding places, and then go into the cities at night and kill of the day rulers.
Eventually, after years of slaughter, the aliens had ruled the planet and the night and day rulers were nothing more than a few groups of people that had escaped the slaughter by hiding in places where the aliens hadn't been to... yet. In a last attempt to take back their planet the night and day rulers had finally come to their senses and formed a pack. The day rulers had the medical knowledge to heal the night rulers' disease and they did so in exchange for the promise that the night rulers would hunt down the aliens and not the day rulers.
Being able to finally move in sunlight, the night rulers had kept to their promise to hunt down the aliens and not the day rulers and within one year of battle after battle the aliens were defeated and the planet once more belonged to the night and day rulers.
Until there, Janeway had actually kinda liked the 'play' despite it being more boring than reading departmental reports. But then the rest of the play dealt with how the day rulers had grown fearful of the night rulers once more and had used the technology the aliens had left behind to start hunting down the night rulers. Since the day rulers were now hunting down the night rulers, the night rulers started once again to hunt the day rulers and soon they were once again back to the one ruling the day and the other ruling the night. The only difference now was that the day rulers used the alien technology to hunt the night rulers at day and night, and the night rulers used the fact that they could now tolerate sunlight to hunt the day rulers both at night and day.
To Janeway the story had only meant a total waste of a good four hours because clearly both parties had learned nothing of the ordeal. There had only been a time of almost four months in which both species had lived peacefully together before the killings had started again.
But in the end, as far as Janeway understood it, the day rulers had 'prevailed' and thanks to the alien technology they had hunted the night rulers into extinction. Of course, like always with such a story there was the rumor of one single night ruler escaping the slaughter. The oldest, strongest, wisest, and not to mention most ruthless. This one night ruler had managed to survive only to kill innocent and careless people that foolishly wandered about in the night time.
It was clear to Janeway that any person killed by 'foolishly wandering at night' was simply killed by the wild animals that lived on the planet. Voyager's scan had shown that the forests surrounding the cities and parks were literally crawling with large animals. Animals that would not hesitate to make a meal out of anyone that was foolish enough to go into the forests without weapons and enough people that at least two people could stand guard at all times. The only truly safe parts of the planets were the cities and the large parts of forest that were 'secured.' Both of which were 'secured' by being surrounded by walls so high that they were sticking out far above the trees.
Once the inhabitants of the planet discovered transporter technology they did away with travel outside existing cities and simply used the transporters to travel from city to city. The only exception being the mining sites on the planets, but even those were tucked securely behind walls, even if these walls were only energy shields that could be moved as needed. But, despite that, the cities and parks were open and friendly to off-world visitors, and Janeway tried to give a shore leave at least once very three months to make up for all the fights and close calls that the crew had to suffer through the rest of the time.
So she found herself in the company of the second first minister... whatever that meant. All she knew for sure was that she had to play nice so that the rest of her crew could enjoy a much needed break.
"That is one of my most favorite of plays," The minister assured. "But then, I'm probably a little biased since my great-great-grand-father was the president of the day ruler that was so prominently mentioned in the play."
"You mean that actually happened?" Janeway asked, suddenly a lot more interested, and trying very hard not to show that a cold shiver was running down her back. "How long ago did it happen?"
"We defeated the Chakan four hundred years ago, and we destroyed the last group of night rulers almost sixty years after that. Now if we could only find that damned last night ruler, our planet would be completely safe."
"I find it interesting that you would consider a planet safe if one can still get killed the moment one steps out of the protective city walls," Janeway pointed out, glad that the genocide these people talked about so proudly was at least a few hundred years into their history and not recent history. "Besides, surely after four hundred years this last night ruler must be dead as well."
"We don't worry about the beasts outside because they aren't sentient, Captain Janeway. Sure they might kill someone that is stupid enough to actually go outside unprepared, but they don't plan like a night ruler did. A night ruler would hold a grudge, want vengeance. A night ruler would follow someone, would find someone's family and kill that family just so that that someone they hate would live in agony. A night ruler would come over those walls and kill you in the night. Why do you think there are guards on those walls? You should also not mistake a night ruler for a normal person with an average life span. You see, a night ruler would feed on the life force of its victims. As long as a night ruler has victims to feed on, will the night ruler lives. You would be more correct if you called the night rulers demons of sorts. We always... excuse me."
The minister took the communication device that had interrupted them out of his pocket and opened it, thereby stopping the extremely annoying tone that made Janeway want to put her fingers in her ears just to shut it out. But unfortunately proper Captains didn't do things like that so she had simply suffered in silence for the half minute that it took the minister to take out the communication device and open it.
Once the minister had shut off the device he beamed at her. "Wonderful news, Captain Janeway. You are extremely lucky that you are visiting us at this moment, for if you want you can see history in the making."
"What do you mean?"
"We did it, Captain Janeway! We finally captured the last of the night rulers."
**
Half an hour later, Janeway found herself outside the walls in the middle of a heavily armed group of guard and some other people, including the minister. Tuvok was there was well. As soon as he had heard that Janeway was leaving the city, he had insisted that he come along. Truthfully, Janeway hadn't put up much of a fight; she wanted to have at least one person around her that she actually trusted with a phaser.
They were standing around some kind of trap that had captured someone in a box of force-fields, and at the moment some people were pushing small neutralizer rings into the force-fields so that small openings would appear. Nothing bigger than a hand, but big enough to shoot through.
"So are you simply going to kill this person now? Shoot it with phasers like an animal?" Janeway asked. She hadn't really gotten a good look at the person since the red force-fields were obscuring her view. All she could see was the general outline of a humanoid body that was about as tall as Janeway herself.
"Oh, no..." The minister said while shaking his head. "I wish we could do that though. No, you could shoot the night ruler with a phaser set so high that it would vaporize us, and you would only hurt it. It's just like they are immune to it or something. There are certain ways of killing a night ruler, but it involves getting really close and having the chance of them killing you. No, what we will do is shoot it with tranquilizer darts until we are sure it's unconscious, and then we will move it so a secure site where it can't escape and then we starve it to death."
"You are what?!"
"Starve it to death; best way to kill a night ruler and survive."
Janeway had heard enough. It was clear to her that the shore-leave was over. There was no way that she could let her crew enjoy time off on a planet whose government would so easily kill someone of whom they didn't even know if they were guilty of anything.
Until now all they could assure Janeway of was the fact that the night ruler was that; a night ruler, but not that it had actually committed any crimes. They were simply going to kill it because it was a different species. No, they couldn't stay on the planet any longer, but there was one thing Janeway could do.
"Alright, put it out," The minister said and someone stepped up to one of the holes in the force-field and shot a dart into the cage. Janeway only saw a blur of motion and in less than a second the person in the cage had caught the dart and thrown it back out through the opening; directly into the neck of the man that had shot the dart. When the man immediately collapsed Janeway truly realized just how strong the tranquilizer drug was.
"Fools, two people shoot it; it can't capture two darts." But within seconds the minister was proven wrong and now three men of the group were lying unconscious on the ground.
"Minister..."
"One second please, Captain Janeway. You four, shoot it... well go on. Go on, I tell you, it only has two hands, it can't capture more than two." This time the minister was proven right, and a moment later two more men were lying on the ground while finally two other darts had hit their mark.
"Shoot it again," The minister shouted almost hysterically when the form inside the force-fields refused to drop. Only after being hit with nine darts did the form finally fall down and didn't get up. Luckily for the group, the first two darts had slowed the night ruler's reflexes down to the point where people could actually duck out of the way before half of the darts came flying back.
"Impressive," Tuvok merely said. The minister though that it was a compliment to them for putting the night ruler to sleep, but Janeway knew that Tuvok had been talking about the fact that it had taken nine darts to put the night ruler to sleep, while the others that were struck by the darts were already unconscious before their body hit the ground.
"Minister," Janeway started once more. "I must admit that I can't simply stand by and let you kill this person. I personally can't stand for that, and the rules we live by on our ship won't allow me to stand for it."
"I'm sorry to hear that," The minister said with surprise clear in his voice. "But I don't see how we can do anything about it; we surely aren't going to let it free again simply because you would like us to."
"I didn't think you would," Janeway assured. "How about if we were to take the night ruler with us when we leave?"
"What? Are you nut... um I mean... I... Well... I think..." The minister sighed and looked at the force-field cage for a long moment before looking back at Janeway. "My main concern is that this night ruler never sets foot again on our planet. If you were to take it with you, know that it would be a one way trip. You would be escorted to the border of our space and if you were to return for any reason at all at any time in the future; your ship would be immediately destroyed without us first asking questions."
"Minister, as I told you already, we are on a course to the Alpha Quadrant, there is no way that we will ever come back here."
"But if you take it with you, it's bound to do something to you or your crew."
"Then we will deal with it then. At least the punishment we will give it then will be punishment for things we actually know it did, and not a punishment for simply being of a certain species."
Janeway mentally kicked herself for saying those last words. She hadn't meant to say that thought out loud and she could clearly see the minister bristle at her words.
"And just how do you plan to contain it if you need to? As I told you, phasers don't work on a night ruler, and tranquiller potions aren't that easy to administer either, as you saw."
"Can it be beamed from one place to another?"
"Sure, but if you are thinking of using a transporter to kill it; forget it. We tried it in the past but for some reason a transporter always puts a night ruler back together as they were originally."
"That may be, but that doesn't stop us from transporting the night ruler to the center of some star that we are passing at the moment," Janeway said with a smile that certainly wasn't pleasant. Of course, there was no way that she would ever actually do so. At the worst they would leave the night ruler behind on some uninhabited planet, but she figured that maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to show this man that she could deal with whatever would happen. "The point is, as I said, we would then be punishing it for something it did to us, which we are allowed to do according to our rules."
"Well, if you really want to," The minister relented. "The night ruler is certain to be asleep for the next two days. Their bodies fight the drug, but once they surrendered, they sleep just as long as one of us would. If you really want to take the night ruler with you, then I'm sorry to say that you will have to leave in one day and take the shortest route out of our space. This means that the rest of your planned shore-leave will have to be cancelled."
"If that is what it takes," Janeway said with a tone of reluctance in her voice, but inward she was actually glad that at least she didn't have to deal with having to explain to the minister why she was canceling all shore-leave.
***
"Doctor," Janeway merely said as she walked into sickbay.
"Captain, I finished my initial examination," The Doctor said as he walked up to Janeway, only to then walk together with her to the bio-bed that was isolated from the rest of the sickbay with a level one decontamination force field. "It would have been nice if you could have given me some information to work with though."
"I'm sorry, Doctor, but all real information I had was stories told for hundred of years by the people that killed off her kind. When we were leaving, I had Tuvok scan the planet for signs of her species. All he could find were remnants of mass graves of thousands of her kind, but apparently she truly is the last living member of her species... or at least the last of her species that lived on that planet. I decide not to tell you the stories of how the glorious day rulers were victorious over the demonic night rulers. I thought that cleaned up stories of genocide were the last thing you wanted."
Janeway paused for a moment before asking, "Is she biologically safe?"
"She is," The doctor assured. "I'm merely waiting for your official order that the bio-screen can be dropped."
"Alright, do it." Janeway ordered and moments later she finally got her first un-obscured look at this 'demon' as the minister had called the night ruler. Janeway shook her head a little while thinking about the entire fleet of ships that was escorting them to the border of their space to make sure that they wouldn't turn around.
Janeway was surprised by what she saw. She had found out that the night ruler was a female as soon as she had been beamed to sickbay and the doctor had talked about a 'her', but after all of the stories that the minister had told, Janeway was expecting something else than the woman in front of her.
The woman was actually a little shorter than Janeway and clearly quite slender, but not skinny. Just like Janeway she had red hair, but where Janeway had autumn red hair, this woman's hair was the blazing red color of hot metal. Where Janeway had experimented over the years with different hair styles that would hide the fact that she actually had very thin hair, this woman's hair looked thick and strong and was so long that it easily reached to her waist.
She looked to be not much older than twenty-five, but her age was really anyone's guess until she woke up and actually said how old she was. From the minister's talks about 'not a normal life span,' Janeway got the impression that these night rulers simply had been of a long living species, and for all Janeway knew this twenty-five year old looking woman could actually be two hundred years old, or two thousand; there was just no telling.
All in all Janeway had to wonder why the day rulers had been so afraid of her... and then she noticed that her arms and legs were restrained and the memory of just how many darts it took to put her to sleep came back to Janeway. Clearly this woman wasn't what she appeared to be at first.
"What's with the restraints?" Janeway asked.
"She kept hitting me and grabbing me; it was quit annoying to work like that."
"She kept grabbing you? How is that possible? She has enough drugs in her body to put the entire crew of Voyager to sleep."
"About enough to put twenty five percent of them to sleep, actually," The doctor corrected. "Don't you find it amazing how much she looks like a Human? If she was on Earth she could easily pass as one."
"You are right," Janeway agreed before taking another look and adding, "Well, a Human of whom one of her ancestors had been Vulcan. Some of her face angles are just a little bit off to be a full Human, but she could certainly pass for an eighty percent Human. Of course, if we didn't know the Vulcans I would be simply saying that she looks exotic and still think she was fully Human."
"Well, that comparison is only skin deep; literally. The reason why she kept grabbing me is because her brain doesn't stop to process information."
The doctor walked to one of the body length screens and activated it, showing the woman just as she was lying on the bio-bed; only on the screen she was completely naked. Janeway sighed but decided that now was really not to time to point out that showing someone a fully naked body scan was just not right, even if it was in an honest attempt to show differences. Really was it so hard to show the figure with some underwear? And at that moment, Janeway noticed that the woman's genitals were actually marked as one of the places that were different. "She doesn't have a clitoris?"
"Really Captain, do all Humans only think about sex?" The doctor asked annoyed, he was just about to explain about the woman's brain and her senses, and Janeway had to basically go and look between her legs... so to speak.
"Let me remind you that you are the one that is showing her scan in this way," Janeway said equally annoyed. Now the Doctor was making it sound as if she only had sex on her mind while she had learned long ago to only think about sex on her weekly private visits to the holodeck.
"Well, to answer your question," The doctor said, figuring that it was best to just get it over with so that they could move on to things that were actually important. "No, she doesn't have a clitoris as most of the Alpha Quadrant species' females do. A Clitoris is the result of nature having to deal with the fact that the genetic information of the male and female gender are packed in the same DNA. Therefore, the same 'parts' are sued, but merely evolve differently by gender. Breasts are such a clear sigh of being female, and yet almost everyone forgets that men have breasts to. The Clitoris is the same thing that becomes a penis if nature decides that the body is going to be male."
"I got that far in biology," Janeway noted. "I do know the basics, I was just surprised that she doesn't have one."
"In a way she does," The Doctor disagreed. "The information for both genders is still there, just located a bit differently. With her the stimuli nerves are located around vaginal entrance. And if the body becomes male instead then this ring of nerve endings evolves into the penis with the opening for urination in the middle of it. I would actually argue that this is a more beneficial design because this way the nerve endings will be stimulated when she is being entered, and by the feeling of, um, something, moving in and out. Yet, she can also be stimulated by herself or someone else rubbing over the entrance to her vagina without ever entering."
"Interesting," Janeway couldn't help but notice. She knew her own body only too well, and loved to indulge in self-pleasure. Because of that she couldn't help but wonder how it much feel to have every stroke in and out feel as if it was moving directly over her bundle of nerves as well.
"As you will see with the rest of the information," the Doctor said with a bit more enthusiasm since he himself found this part interesting, "Her body seems to be made up out of mixes. With her sexual organ it is as if it was designed specifically to that she would get the most satisfaction possible from having a male partner, having nothing but the penetration already being enough to bring her full pleasure. But at the same time it seems as if the design kept same sex intercourse in mind. Or more to the point, kept sex in mind where penetration is not a part of the cast."
"Evolution keeping same sex intercourse in mind?" Janeway asked in disbelief.
The Doctor looked from the scan back at Janeway. "Not necessarily same sex intercourse. A lot of people forget that for a lot of species there is no penetration involved during sex, but merely a contact between genitals that are pressed together as semen is exchanged. This design covers both options. As if the body was designed for sex between two differed species at least. As if Evolution knew that at some point existence of the species would come down to compatibility of body parts and that have more options would give a better chance of survival. It's amazing actually; the first time I see something like it. Especially The ring of nerve dings entirely around the vagina opening. Even with species that copulate without penetration there is normally only one focused spot of nerve endings, if there is one at all in the species. I have never yet seen a design that gives the full sexual pleasure without encouraging penetration. It is as if penetration was just another extra in this design."
"Amazing," Janeway agreed.
"Now as for her brain," The Doctor continued, hoping to have satisfied Janeway's curiosity for the moment. "As I said, even at this moment the brain still registers all that the senses pick up. She as actually hearing every word we say, though I highly doubt that she will remember it when she wakes up. And when you, or in this matter, I come to close to her, her body reacts with reflexes."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning that she can grab my arm, but she can't actually hold on because having her arm lifted for a longer time, and having her hand closed, aren't reflexes but are motions that require conscious thought."
"So does that mean that when she is awake she is just as fast as Zanitear?"
"Very doubtful. My guess is that she will be about just as fast as B'Elanna is thanks to her Klingon heritage; a little slower than Seven is thanks to her implants. Her initial reflexes on the other hand..."
"Yes?"
"Well, for instance, don't challenge her to a Velocity match; you will lose. Even if the disk was coming at her from her back, her senses would pick up on it and she would duck or swirl out of the way before the disk can hit, and then she would turn around so fast and shoot the disk that you will only have time to register that the disk missed her before the disk hits you. This could all actually happen so fast that she doesn't even do it consciously; it's all just her body reacting. In fact, I think that she would actually be able to avoid a phaser being shot at her. Not that she is faster than a phaser beam..."
"I get it Doctor, she would see the fire button being pushed and would have moved out of the way before the person pushing the button actually fully pushed the button."
"Right. As in that aspect, she will be extremely fast, but she can only do that while staying pretty much in the same place, or dodging something while running. But the running itself will not be surprisingly fast."
"But why are her reflexes that great to begin with?"
"Well, that brings me to the next point; her muscles and skeleton. Where your muscles are mostly made up out of muscle fibers, hers are mostly made up out of tendons. If you were to feel them, you would feel that her muscles are extremely hard. Her body still has a soft layer which makes her look and feel so much like a Human, but that is simply the flesh, fat, and skin that covers the muscles. This muscle makeup, in combination with the extremely supportive skeleton, also makes her surprisingly strong."
"How strong?" Janeway merely asked.
"This once again is an educated guess, but I would say that if she has the footing to actually support her body while she is doing it, she should be able to lift about five hundred kilos."
"What? Her?" Janeway asked while she turned to look at the real woman instead of the scan. "But she looks even weaker than me."
"That's because you have the body of a Human while she has the body of a... night ruler. But like I said, she will only be able to do that if the has the footing for it. For instance, she would be able to lift one side of a plasma coil since the other side would still be resting on the floor or supported in a different way, and because of that she is lifting with an upwards motion. But if she had to carry a dead weight in front of her she would probably keel over forward if the weight was more than about two times her own body weight. Not because she can't carry it, but because she has no secure footing and also can't produce a counter weight. No matter how strong she is, she still is a slave to the laws of physics."
"Alright, what else?"
"One thing that I haven't quite been able to figure out is the fact that she has two digestive systems. Here," As he spoke, the doctor highlighted the two systems on the screen. "It's not uncommon for certain body parts to be left over, so to speak, because evolution decided that they are no longer needed. With Humans the most famous is the appendage. It is also not uncommon to have 'backup systems.' Again, with Humans the most commonly known is the kidneys. A Human has two, but only needs one. Same with the lungs, a Human has two, but can live a perfectly healthy and active life on just one."
"And let's not even go in to just how many 'backup systems' a Klingon has," Janeway said amused.
"Let's not," The Doctor agreed. "But until now I have never seen, or heard, of having two completely separate digestive systems. And not only are they not attached to each other; they also work in a completely different way. What I assume is her primary system, exists out of a stomach and intestine system that isn't that much different than yours is, Captain. But this smaller system here... I have never seen anything like it. Most of it is located directly behind the heart and about the same size as the heart, but see these two tubes there? They go all the way up through her throat and actually end in her eyeteeth, which are hollow."
"As if the entire system is made for drinking only... drinking by sucking liquids through her eyeteeth," Janeway observed.
"Right. I assume that the organ can expand to hold any liquids she drinks. From the 'room' in her body left around the organ I would guess that it can expand to hold a little more than six liters of liquids."
"Maybe she processes food differently," Janeway ventured to guess. "Solid food goes into the first digestive system while liquid food goes into the other."
"I believe that that is a little too simple of an explanation Captain. What is she were to eat something that also contains liquid? Is she going to eat, or drink, a bowl of soup?"
"Point taken," Janeway had to agree. "Well, I guess that we will have to ask her herself when the time is there."
"My thought exactly," The Doctor agreed. "For any other chances we have to actually look at her DNA. Frankly; it's a mess."
"Doctor?"
"Her DNA. It's a mess. I can only assume that the evolution of her species went differently than most. Just as the parts of a body that aren't really needed anymore, there are normally always parts in the DNA that are leftovers from evolution. From where two species mixed, or where a jump in evolution was so big that the change was actually more of a disease that worked out for the better of the species than a gradual step in the right direction. But in her DNA there are so many loose ends that I'm amazed that her species didn't self destruct at some point. It seems that every time something changed, it was simply added without removing the parts that were no longer needed. Her DNA string is actually six times as long as the longest known DNA string known to the Federation, that of the Klingons, and ten times as long as that of a Human."
The doctor pointed at a part on the screen. "I mean, take a look at this part here; it really baffles me. If you had given me the information of that part alone I would have assumed that it was from a complete species. The other things are leftovers; fractions of DNA strings. Half a different DNA string at best. But this part is a completely different, and I would guess complete, DNA string inside her DNA string."
"How can something like that happen?"
"I have no idea. My guess, which is honestly nothing more than a shot in the dark, is that her species evolved from a parasitic animal which over time added things to its DNA that it could use. Which, come to think of it, might also explain the two digestive systems. That way she is able to eat or feed of twice as many things as any other species can."
"This part of space sure is a goldmine for new species. First Zanitear, and now her," Janeway said thoughtfully. "What's with her eyes is the scan off?"
"Because they are red? No, that's how her eyes look." The doctor walked over to the woman and opened one of her eyelids, showing Janeway the eye underneath it. As he did so, the woman moved, clearly reacting to his presence and trying to move away.
"Her eyes too are something I have never seen or read about before. See how they are completely red?"
Janeway took a closer look and saw that the eye was just one entire pool of lighter red with no pupil in it. "She doesn't have a pupil? How can she see?"
"She does have a pupil, of sorts. But it's located inside the eye. All the things that are needed to focus and the like are actually happening underneath the layer you see when you look at her eye. Really, the difference is in how the eye is created."
The doctor let go of the eyelid and it closed once more. "The really interesting thing is that because of how her eyes are made up, she has perfect night vision... more than perfect actually."
"How can it be 'more than perfect'?"
"Well, see, Seven has perfect night vision because her Borg implants, especially the eye piece, simply enhance the light that is around to the point where Seven can see at night, even if what she sees is in shades of green. Zanitear on the other hand has eyes we know from cats; pupils that can dilate about six times as much as that of a Human, and on top of that a reflective layer in the eye that reflects and enhances the little light that is around. Because of that she can still see in what you would call total darkness, but for her too things get harder and harder to see the darker the environment becomes. But with this 'night ruler,' her eyes are made in such a way that I expect that she doesn't even see a difference between light and what we consider darkness. Well, I think she would know because things shift from being colored to shades of gray since there is not enough light left to show color. But even at the darkest of nights she will be able to see better than you do during the day. The only way she won't be able to see is if she were in a room with no windows or doors and made of metal or stone; no way whatsoever for even the smallest amounts of light to come in. Then, and only then, would she be just as 'blind' as you would be in that same dark room."
Janeway looked back at the scan of the woman, and especially at her eyes. "Well, I think that looking her in the eyes will be something that will need getting used to. Just the idea of having red eyes looking back at you is quite creepy. But we will manage, I'm sure. Anything else, Doctor?"
"Not at the moment. For any other answers to questions you might have, you have to ask her when she is awake."
"Alright. Let me know when she wakes up. Until that time, keep her behind a force-field. I don't want her to go nuts when she wakes up. She was captured in a forest, and now she wakes up on a starship. I don't even know if she has even been on a starship or even if she knows what one is."
"Yes Captain."
***
"Where's the fire, Doc?"
"Fire?"
"Yeah, when I said that I was kinda busy you said that it was an emergency... so... where's the fire?"
"The force-field is fluctuating, but when I tell the computer to regulate it the computer tells me that the force-field is working within acceptable parameters."
"Doc, that's not an emergency," B'Elanna said annoyed. "If you had been fluctuating, now, that would have been an emergency. I have tons of work to do. I left Vorik doing the..."
"And I'm sure that he is more than capable of doing the... whatever, Lieutenant."
"Look, we had this problem before, remember? Simply shut down the force-field and activate it again. By doing this the force-field is reset and the problem is solved."
"And that is the emergency part. I can't do that. She is about to wake up... actually should have been awake for more than an hour now according to my estimates. If I drop the force-field and she manages to get out before the Captain has talked with her, I'll be in a lot of trouble I don't want to be in. The force-field has to be stabilized while it's active."
"Fine. I'll fix your damn force-field, but the next time you call me for an emergency it damn better be a life or death thing."
B'Elanna ordered the computer to beam the case with tools she needed into sickbay and as the tools appeared she noticed that the doctor was still standing beside her. "Don't you have something to do? I don't work on this if you're going to watch every move I make. Next thing we know you'll be adding Engineering subroutines to your matrix and I have to go and sort it all out again."
The doctor merely huffed at the mentioning of his ill-fated attempt to enhance his programming and walked away.
"Works every time," B'Elanna said with a smile as she took the Engineering tricorder out of the box and started to scan the force-field. As the tricorder scanned, B'Elanna took the time to have a good look at the woman lying on the bio-bed. Of course, the Captain had updated them all about their new guest at the senior staff meeting mere hours before. But somehow B'Elanna just couldn't combine the stories with the woman she now saw lying on the bio-bed.
She looked so frail; delicate. B'Elanna knew that when standing, the top of the woman's head would only come to the level of B'Elanna's eyes. B'Elanna thought that she looked beautiful, which was kind of strange because the woman was certainly not her type. In women, B'Elanna preferred women that were taller than her... and blonde. Which was probably one of the reasons why she just loved the way Seven looked, and also the way Zani looked. Though they were of different species, both had the tall blonde thing going for them. Though in Zani's case it was different shades of blonde, from almost white to light brown, but all in all it was still blonde.
The woman's skin was more of a pale white color, which only made her flaming red hair stand out the more. But the skin color really didn't surprise B'Elanna. After all, she had heard the story about the night and day rulers, and how the night rulers hadn't been able to be in the sunlight until only a couple of hundred years ago. It only stood to reason that after a whole evolutionary track of living only during the night, the woman's species had developed a fondness for the night just like most Federation species preferred the day over the night.
B'Elanna's eyes drifted to the woman's breasts which seemed to be a little smaller than B'Elanna's own, but in proportion to her body her breasts still looked the same size as B'Elanna's because the woman's body was smaller as well. Lower the eyes drifted over the flat stomach down to nicely rounded hips and slender legs. B'Elanna came to the conclusion that the woman's bodily proportions were just right. If you would see her on a screen without having a reference to her height, her body looked just like Seven's... except for the breast size that was. It was only when you actually saw her up close that you would notice that she was only one and a half meters tall.
B'Elanna's observation was interrupted by the beep of the tricorder and reluctantly she concentrated on the job at hand. The problem was actually something else than B'Elanna had first assumed; which was a good thing. It meant that nothing more than a little programming change was needed and that the problem would be fixed in a few minutes. This was something that could be done with the force-field running and B'Elanna got to it. As soon as the changes were made, B'Elanna stood up again with a self-satisfied smile... only to have the crap scared out of her when she suddenly stood only a few centimeters away from the woman that had lain asleep on the bio-bed mere moments before.
"Kahless," B'Elanna said as she took a step back to get a more respectable distance between them. She looked down into the red eyes that were looking back at her, and B'Elanna couldn't control the small shiver that ran down her spine. There was something about those eyes. Something that pulled B'Elanna to this woman. Something that made B'Elanna want to please her in whatever way she wanted to be pleased.
"What's your first name, Lieutenant Torres?" The woman asked, having only heard the Doctor address this woman as Lieutenant, and as Lieutenant Torres when demanding her presence in sickbay.
"B'Elanna," B'Elanna heard herself say. Just as with her eyes, there was something about that soft, smoky voice that simply made B'Elanna want to please her.
"B'Elanna," The woman repeated, and the way she made the name sound made B'Elanna's knees weak. "B'Elanna. You know that I don't need to be held behind a force-field. Why don't you just let me out of here so that we can... talk... a little more comfortably?"
B'Elanna knew that the woman was right. This woman could never hurt anyone. "Computer, deactivate the f..."
"Lieutenant, just what the hell do you think you are doing?" The Doctor interrupted. "Computer, lock out all of Lieutenant Torres' commands. Medical emergency override, Alpha one-three."
"Wha..."
"Security to sickbay. Captain Janeway to sickbay."
"Doc... wh... what was I just doing?"
"You were about to deactivate the force-field, don't you remember?"
"Well, actually... no. I was just checking the force-field when..." B'Elanna didn't finish her sentence but instead looked at the woman that was looking back at her with a sweet and innocent smile.
"Sorry about that, B'Elanna. I don't really care much about being kept behind force-fields and I knew that you could fix that problem."
"That's alright," B'Elanna heard herself say. Somehow she knew that she could never be angry with this woman, and she still felt like she wanted to please her.
It was at that moment that Tuvok, Zani and Janeway entered.
***
"What have you done to B'Elanna?" Janeway asked from the head of the table in the conference room. The woman was sitting across from her, and B'Elanna was sitting to one of the sides. Tuvok was sitting on the other side beside the Doctor, while the last person in the room, Zani, stood behind the unnamed woman and performed her duty as security officer to perfection.
"Nothing that will hurt her... unless I ask her to do something that will hurt her."
"What... have... you... done?"
"I made her my pet, my servant, whatever you want to call it. She'll do anything I ask of her... within reason."
"Undo it."
"Now, why would I want to do that?"
"Because otherwise I'll undo it by beaming you off this ship."
"And that's supposed to be a threat to me?" The woman asked with a laugh. Somehow, despite the situation the laugh still sounded pleasant. "I have been living outside for my entire life, sending me back is doing me a favor; not punishing me."
"Look behind me," Janeway said. "Do you think you can get such a view of the stars from on the planet? We are by now two days away from the planet you lived on, and I made the promise that we won't go back. In fact, if we were to go back, this ship would be destroyed simply because you are on it."
"What?" The woman asked, and it was clear to see that her confident facade had slipped completely away. "You mean that the day rulers just let me go?"
"I wouldn't call it 'just,' we had to promise that we would never come back, and more to the point that we would make sure that you would never be back."
"I see."
"I apologize for just taking you away from your home, but I just couldn't stand by and have them kill you," Janeway said softly. She had a feeling that she was close to some kind of breakthrough with this woman. She also had a feeling that achieving that breakthrough would be the way to help B'Elanna turning back into the woman they all knew. Not the quiet person that just sat looking at the unnamed woman without giving any real reaction to anything that was said.
"I asked the 'day rulers' exactly what your crimes were, and the only thing they could prove that you did was simply that you are of a different species than them. I told them I was willing to take you with us, to which they assured me that you would only do something that we could not allow. I agreed that this might be the case, but I pointed out to them that if you did something and we had to punish you for it, at least you would then be punished for something we know you did."
Janeway pointed at B'Elanna before adding, "And right now you are on a direct line to us indeed having to punish you for something."
"Like you would really give me a real chance of a normal life. As soon as I let B'Elanna go, you'll be hauling me off to a cell for charming her; why else do you have security standing right behind me?"
Janeway gave a small smirk, making sure that it was an amused smirk and not a superior one. "Let me see, you do something to one of my crew members. You give me an attitude. Not to mention that I know that you have the physical capabilities to get to me and kill me... which is something you would do according to the stories I heard, and you really wonder why I have security in this room? If you worry so much about the fact that I have security here, you should take into account that I also know that you are the strongest person in this room and that phasers only hurt you at worst. The only thing security can really do is keep you busy long enough that we can instruct the computer to beam you to the brig."
"So what is it that you want with me?"
"Maybe I simply want to hear the story from your side? Maybe I want to give you something here on this ship that you didn't have before; a life without having to look over your shoulder every minute. But one thing I do know for certain is that I want you to undo whatever it is that you did to B'Elanna. She is looking at you as if you are her entire universe."
"That's because I am," The woman said. She knew that she couldn't keep controlling B'Elanna. B'Elanna had a very strong will that needed continued effort to control. Not that this was a hard thing to do for the woman, but it was a little distracting. She looked B'Elanna in the eyes, and B'Elanna sat up a little; basking in the attention she was getting.
"B'Elanna, my dear. You were a wonderful servant, but I release you from my will. Now and in the future you never again have to do as I ask of you."
Janeway nodded her head slightly when she saw B'Elanna shake her head a little and look around her confused. "What...," Was all that B'Elanna could say before the memories came back to her. She now remembered that from the first second she looked this woman in the eyes, until only a moment ago she was the most important thing to B'Elanna.
"Thank you," Janeway said before asking, "You said 'now and in the future,' does this mean that she can't be brought back under your control?"
"It really doesn't work like that. I can control her again, if I want to, but it would take me a lot more effort that it did now. What I basically did was tell her subconscious that it is alright to try and resist me the next time."
"Not that there will be a next time," B'Elanna spoke up, basically pissed about the fact that this woman had been able to control her so easily.
"There won't be a next time, B'Elanna. I assure you," The woman said. "Besides, even if there was a next time, that time around you might not be able to resist me, but because you now know about what I can do, you will know that I'm controlling you. Rest assured there is no way that I can ever again control you without you knowing it."
"Are you a telepath?" Janeway asked to get the conversation back to the woman and not B'Elanna.
The woman wiggled her had back and forth a little. "Eh. Yes and no. No, I'm not a telepath or empathic even. I can't hold conversations mentally, nor can I feel the emotions of everyone around me. But on the other hand, I can do what most telepaths can't do; I can control someone that is of a species that isn't a telepathic species themselves. It is more like I can 'spell' them, that's what we... well, there is no more we, is there? That's what I like to call it anyway. I can control people and they will then do what I tell them to do."
"What are the limits of this 'spell'?" The doctor asked.
The woman shrugged. "It's really only limited by two things. First, how strong the mind of the other person is. The stronger the mind, the harder it is to control. The second thing is that if you control a person, what you are really doing is making suggestions sounds like the reasonable or smart thing to do. But there is a limit to that. For instance, when I suggested to B'Elanna that she should let me go then this sounded reasonable because I'm just this weak small, innocent, woman that could never do anything wrong. Besides, B'Elanna knew that she could certainly prevent me from leaving if needed... or so she thought. So it sounded like a reasonable thing to do. But if she had pointed a phaser at me, I would have been able to tell her to put it down, but I wouldn't have been able to bring her to shoot herself. Putting the phaser down isn't a bad thing to do, but killing yourself sure is."
"Just what is your name anyway?" B'Elanna suddenly asked.
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