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From: "Keith & Jessica Bratcher" <campbratcher@psci.net>
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Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2004 12:17:19 -0600
Subject: [ASCEM-S] NEW DS9: Solitary 1/1 (PG; female changeling; O/K implied)
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AUTHOR: C. Zdroj
TITLE: Solitary
PART: 1/1
RATING: PG
SERIES: DS9
CHARACTERS: Female Changeling (O/K implied)

SUMMARY: Set after "What You Leave Behind." The female changeling reflects.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Originally done for a livejournal, this piece has 
recently been adapted for inclusion in a longer work of mine, but I 
think this version stands pretty well on its own.

~~~

Solitary
by C. Zdroj

They send only the Vulcan to speak with me now--now that the admirals 
and commanders and Starfleet dignitaries have had a look at the animal 
in its cage. Now that their curiousity has been sated, most of the time 
I am left to myself.

It is better so. I dislike being on display, and I have nothing to say 
to them.

The Vulcan is to be my advocate in the forthcoming trial, and sometimes 
tries to engage me in conversation, assuring me that the privacy of our 
communications is guarded by something known as privilege. I cannot say 
I have much trust in that.

Curiously, I have not been abused in any way--except in the deprivation 
of freedom, which of course I agreed to. Perhaps these solids hope that 
I will begin to feel comfortable in this cage, relaxed around my 
keepers, and that I will divulge some secret they can use against the 
Great Link.

It is of no consequence. My kind are so far beyond them that nothing I 
could reveal would be the slightest use.

And so I await my trial. Their "justice," as Odo would call it. By now 
he has no doubt returned to our people. I am informed by my keepers that 
the other changelings have been healed as I was, and as long as the 
Great Link survives, what happens to me is of no importance.

In truth, I do not like to think much about Odo. There are too many 
contradictions for which I have no answers. I am pleased that he has 
returned to his own kind--as I always knew that he would. Yet this 
knowledge does not bring me the satisfaction I had expected. I am still 
trying to sort out exactly what happened between us in that last 
link--the one that healed me--just before I surrendered myself to life 
behind this forcefield.

Even now I am surprised to find myself here, a prisoner by my own 
choice. I am forced to contemplate the idea that Odo may have shared 
with me some piece of information--some emotion or memory--which has now 
tainted my thought processes when it comes to these solids. I know that 
he did not return to our people in order to learn the wisdom of the 
Link. Quite the reverse. He now believes that he knows what is best for 
us. He was, indeed, a completely different creature in that last link I 
had with him than he was during any of our other encounters. For this I 
have no explanation. He believes that the Bajoran woman loves him at 
last. But I cannot believe that such an insignificant morsel of 
happiness--possibly based on a false perception--would effect so great a 
change.

No. It is not possible. He will learn the error of such thinking as he 
communes with the Link and discovers true knowledge of himself. Of this 
I have no doubt.

The Vulcan is pressing me for an explanation of as to why changelings 
"fear" solids. To be more precise, he wants a rationale for the war we 
initiated with the Alpha Quadrant. I do not know yet how to answer him. 
Or rather, I do not know how to give him an answer that will satisfy the 
need for what he calls my "defense." No matter. That is his worry, none 
of mine. The only possible judge of my actions can be the Great Link itself.

But I do not expect that I will ever see it again.

-- 
Join the Odo/Kira Fanfic Discussion List: 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/odokira/




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