Path: newsspool2.news.atl.earthlink.net!stamper.news.atl.earthlink.net!stamper.news.pas.earthlink.net!elnk-pas-nf1!newsfeed.earthlink.net!priapus.visi.com!orange.octanews.net!news.octanews.net!news-out.visi.com!news-out.octanews.net!petbe.visi.com!yellow.newsread.com!news-toy.newsread.com!netaxs.com!newsread.com!POSTED.newshog.newsread.com!not-for-mail Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated Approved: ascem@earthlink.net Organization: Better Living Thru TrekSmut Sender: ascem@earthlink.net Message-ID: From: "Layla V." MIME-Version: 1.0 Mailing-List: list ASCEML@yahoogroups.com; contact ASCEML-owner@yahoogroups.com Subject: NEW VOY "Absolute Power" Chap 2b 5/21 (C/P, J, AU) [NC-17] Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Lines: 451 Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2004 12:55:13 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.198.142.218 X-Complaints-To: Abuse Role , We Care X-Trace: newshog.newsread.com 1092142513 209.198.142.218 (Tue, 10 Aug 2004 08:55:13 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2004 08:55:13 EDT Xref: news.earthlink.net alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated:82604 X-Received-Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2004 05:55:18 PDT (newsspool2.news.atl.earthlink.net) TITLE: "Absolute Power" Chapter 2b (July 2004) AUTHOR: Layla V CONTACT: v_layla@hotmail.com WEBSITE: http://www.geocities.com/laylatrek ARCHIVING: Personal website, CPSG, Cha_Club, ASCEML SERIES: Star Trek Voyager RATING: NC-17 for violence, sex and language PART: 5 of 21 CODES: C/P, J/m, P/T implied, All Voyager characters, AU, Angst, H/c, OCC SUMMARY: Voyager's encounter with an intergalactic STORY NOTES: Evil!Janeway alert. See Part 1 of 21 for the details. DISCLAIMER: All characters, other than the original ones created by me, are owned by Paramount. I am merely playing. No copyright infringement is intended. NOTES: Thank you, Britta, for your clearheaded suggestions CHAPTER 2b Kathryn picked up the ornate gold-rimmed chalice, and delicately sipped at the sweet Kel'zian wine. Hmm, a little too sugary, she thought. There was a slight zing to it that gave the impression of fine aging, but it was nowhere near as stimulating as the 2313 Cuvée de Frontignan from her father's premium collection. Perhaps not even comparable to the fine wines she used to stack in her duplex in San Francisco before Voyager. But still, it was passable, she reluctantly yielded. Barely. Certainly better than anything she'd ever tasted in the Delta Quadrant before. Definitely better than that barely-drinkable distilled hooch Chakotay continuously passed on as a Delta Quadrant vintage to her, she sneered, bringing bottles to those forever dwindling working dinners. But then, what would Chakotay know about vintage wines, she sniffed. The man barely swallowed two sips per occasion. The backward cultures on Dorvan V obviously didn't teach the proper etiquette of wine drinking. She took another sip as if to dispel the bad taste those unwanted thoughts had brought, and then shifted her gaze to look at her host. Despite her earlier reservations, Kathryn had found herself warming to Kel'kar'vheel's charms. It had to be said: the man definitely knew how to treat a lady. He was eloquent, well-mannered, educated and cultured, and best of all he treated her as nothing short of a queen. She had known many men in her life and she always instinctively knew when someone with ulterior motives was playing her. She got no such vibes from the Chieftain. Unless you considered the exclusive wining and dining the Chieftain had bestowed upon her for the last day as 'playing' and his intrinsic desire as a well-bred man to please a woman as sensitive to the finest of tastes as she was as 'ulterior motives'. She felt a smile grow on her face. Ah yes, she had particularly enjoyed getting all the details about the technology of the space station where Voyager was currently docked. It was unquestionably an extraordinary structure, exhibiting an astounding use of unconventional technology. The Zokaa'r Sovereignty and its 'alliance' with the Kel'zians may have been built on the dubious foundations laid by primitive patriarchal thinking, but she had to admit that they had indeed created a powerful system. And from what Kel'kar'vheel had told her so far, it had not been achieved by solely depending on the male halves of the populations. There was something almost profound about this tale Kel'kar'vheel had woven, something sagacious and almost sublime in the pureness of his words as he'd spoken to her in that mellifluous voice of his. She had sensed a terrible loneliness in him that spoke of past injustices and his resolve to overcome any obstacles in his difficult path to serve as the true sovereign of his world. To uncover the truth. To take revenge. This tale of an older sister he'd once had, this scientist who'd lost her life amidst the despicable cruelties of war, this sibling he felt intense love for, almost had the ring of a fairytale. This strong woman scientist, who was ahead of all her peers, who was fiercely strong and driven by the passion to succeed at all costs, who was unbearably beautiful and feminine in all her needs, and who had to live in the atrocious barbarity of this antiquated patriarchal society. This strong, unfortunate, desperate woman, who found cures for ailments no one around her cared to remedy. The ailment of loneliness, of wanting to reach out to the universe, of wanting to escape the oppression she must've faced here every day. The oppression of being simply the best and finest of all breeds, of being above everyone else around her. Kathryn utterly hated to assign platitudes to her personality, but she could see a little--or perhaps a lot--of herself in this woman. Or maybe it was the way Kel'kar'vheel told the story, the way he related how she was the first female of any true merit or meaning he'd come across in the years since he'd grieved for his fallen sister. Kathryn Janeway: the first woman who was strong enough to rise above the rest and to challenge the male dominated faux-supremacy so prevalent in the universe in general. She sighed. It was as if he knew her, as if he truly understood her--and the more he spoke the more she felt like she knew him, too. There was still that look in his eyes, the look that brought that familiar lightness into her heart. It was a look that told her that she had arrived. After years of loneliness in the Delta Quadrant, she'd finally found someone who could meet her on her own terms. This realization gave her an exhilarating, nerve-tingling thrill that brought a gasp to her lips and a sudden wetness to her heated feminine core--a wetness that was almost reminiscent of those torrid sensations the sweet scents of the old wood of her father's writing table had brought to her, when she was but her Daddy's little girl, the only one Daddy truly loved, the one who frequently fell asleep under Daddy's oak table in his study, filling her lungs with his familiar smells even when he wasn't there. Daddy was dead long ago, Kathryn felt her eyes glaze with bruising memory, but she had heretofore vowed that what she couldn't have with Daddy, she would have with those who wanted her the way she liked to be wanted. The way she liked to be *worshipped*. She found Kel'kar'vheel's appreciative gaze sluggishly scorching her frame and tilted her head to stare deeply into his purple eyes, beckoning him with a broad, slow-building smile that spoke volumes. Yes, she would have what she desired, just as she'd always gotten everything she'd ever wanted. There were no two ways about it. Kathryn Janeway was born to succeed. On her terms, at any cost. # # Tom Paris hated giving into a morbid frame of mind so early in the game. Never one to appreciate staying dejected for long durations, he couldn't believe his mood had swung back to morbid in such a short time. Especially since he had no real professional reason to feel so pathetically despondent. The ride from the banquet hall after the meeting was over had been pleasant enough. Their housing in the Imperial Suites was luxurious and more than accommodating. The rooms he'd been assigned were beautifully decorated with lush carpets enhancing the black of the gleaming stone floor. The large bed was comfortable and the cool breeze coming in from the adjoining back garden was a pleasant diversion. Plus it wasn't like they had faced any resistance from the Zokaa'rian and Kel'zian cabinet members to any of their intended trade proposals. The mission had been progressing like a charm. Their initial requests and the drafts of Voyager's overall requirements that they had brought up in the negotiations seemed well within the Zokaa'rian's domain. In fact, the Zokaa'rians seemed very interested in the prospective information exchange. Voyager's database had billions of terraquads of information on everything from the Borg to the countless species they'd come across in the Delta Quadrant, to the many diverse cultures and traditions from the Alpha Quadrant. While Chakotay's sharp yet well-cultured form of diplomacy had paved the way for the more in-depth negotiations, the data exchange presentations the three of them had given to the gathering appeared to have literally sealed the success of the mission for them. All in all, it had been a very fruitful first day--one that in normal circumstances should've left Tom Paris in the happiest of moods. Yet all he could think of were Chakotay's pointed words at the end of his last conversation with him. No matter how hard Tom tried--and damn, he had tried really hard; he'd racked his brain, stomped across the stone floor, wrinkled his brow in deep thought, balled his fists in consternation--he couldn't help but think that Chakotay's comment about his 'dubious post-Starfleet past' had been a deliberate taunt. He tried to think of Chakotay's warm eyes then, the playfulness he'd seen in them, but every time he tried to focus on that he got distracted by the memory of those words ringing in his ears. Couple that with the unbelievably pretentious comment about Chakotay knowing all of Tom's secrets, especially the ones he himself didn't know about, and all Tom could think of was the moment in the shuttle where Chakotay's eyes had held that accusatory glint to them. What the fuck was going on? Had B'Elanna told Chakotay what a loser Tom Paris really was? Was that the secret Chakotay was talking about? Or was he talking about Tom's less-than-respectable pre-Maquis days? Had he been such a big disappointment to Chakotay that everything he did now would be judged on the basis of his 'dubious past'? Tom shook his head, struggling to sort out his thoughts. He had a nagging suspicion that he was overlooking something, or maybe reading too much into the whole situation. But every time he tried to straighten his head out, the recollection of that look in Chakotay's eyes would fog his thoughts. Dammit all to hell, Tom huffed. Chakotay had *always* caused him major agitation. He didn't know why but the man had been a serious distraction in Tom's life since they'd met. Tom never really knew where to place him or how to handle him without his heartbeat thundering in his chest. His reactions to Chakotay had always been so damn extreme. Extreme anger. Extreme anguish. Extreme distrust, loyalty, pain, adversity, joy. Everything was extreme when it concerned Chakotay, so it was no wonder these circumstances had gotten such an extremely suspicious reaction out of Tom. He sighed. If only he could ponder his situation, his relationship with Chakotay like a normal human being. Tom paused in the midst of his mental wrangling when he heard a noise. Someone was at the door. He walked to the ornate glass door, pressed the controls, and watched as it slid open. There was no one there. With a frown, he stepped out into the corridor and looked around. There was no one anywhere close by. He could see the four Kel'zian security guards standing at their posts at each end of the corridor but that was all. He looked at the doors to Chakotay's and Tuvok's suites on both his sides. He saw no lights visible from under the doors. With a shake of his head, he stepped back into his room and closed the door. He saw the silken curtains on the garden doors in his suite swirling in the cool night air and wondered if the garden was secure from outside. As he turned to walk back to the bed, he heard the noise again, and this time he knew which direction it had come from. The sound was coming from Chakotay's suite to his left--a knocking, or perhaps a tapping of some sort. What could Chakotay be up to at this hour? A sudden sense of alarm filled Tom. Forgetting about his pent-up anger towards the man in question, Tom grabbed his phaser and made for his main door again. The whir of the Zokaa'rian transporter halted Tom's stride before he could reach the door. A sharp blow to his head landed before he could turn and see who his attackers were. Thick alien arms grabbed him before he fell to the floor, unconscious. Within seconds, he was transported out of the Imperial Suites to the location where one of his companions had already been deposited--a secret, hidden cloister which their abductors had chosen for the fulfillment of their sinister plans. # # Forensic analysis of a dead body often unearthed evidence that could lead one to its slayer, but what was to be done when it was not the slayer you were after but the accomplices of the one slain? Tuvok stared at the dead Kel'zian lying on the morgue bed and mentally went through the procedural queries he was going to ask the security personnel on the surface in the wake of this incident. He watched the frenzy of chaotic activity in and out of the morgue, his Imperial hosts gathering all relevant personnel together, stacking up the security measures, and wondered if all this could have been avoided if he had been a bit more alert. He watched the Zokaa'rian Great Overseer, Resh'lon enter the morgue with Minister Jess'phan, amid a small group of security personnel, and walk up to him. The tall alien looked at Tuvok, his face troubled. "Commander, forgive us. We don't know how this could have happened. We had no indication at all that a mishap of this magnitude could occur at such a peaceful time." Tuvok was sorry as well. If his phaser had been set on stun, this Kel'zian would've been alive and he could've led them to those who had been behind this entire episode. As it was, in the wake of the unexpected attack he'd faced, which undoubtedly was part of the attempt made on his shipmates, he had fired a phaser burst at his would-be abductors. It had proven deadly for this individual. In the end, as the security guards outside their rooms had been alerted, his remaining attackers had been forced to flee sans Tuvok. However, his better fortune did not obliterate the fact that Commander Chakotay and Ensign Paris had in fact been abducted. "I am aware of your disquiet, Great Overseer," Tuvok said to the Zokaa'rian High Council member. "Nevertheless it is the question of my shipmates' wellbeing that concerns me." "Observer," Resh'lon looked into Tuvok's eyes, "please be assured that every inch of the chosen ones' rooms are being scanned and examined at this very moment. We will not sit back until we've recovered the First One and the Guide." Tuvok looked at his two hosts. He could tell that the Great Overseer was sincere in his deep concern. He had been one of the most enthusiastic members from the Zokaa'rian group at the previous night's negotiations and the fact that he was in fact the highest ranked Zokaa'rian council member in the Kel'zian government had been a source of great relief for the Voyager team. However, mere concern would not help his two shipmates at the moment. They had to act now if they were to make any true progress. "There were signs of a struggle in Commander Chakotay's rooms," Tuvok said, having thoroughly gone through the two suites himself. "Some articles of furniture were overturned, and there were signs of phaser fire on the walls. However, no such signs were found in Ensign Paris's quarters, except for the fact that he too, like Commander Chakotay, is nowhere in the vicinity of the Imperial Suites." "The guards saw no one enter the rooms of either Commander Chakotay or Tom Paris during the night," Jess'phan replied. Tuvok recognized the situation as grim and that it called for a firm disposition. He straightened his spine as he looked at the two Zokaa'rians. "You must at once take down the planet-wide shield grid so that I can alert my vessel of this incident. We have to get our security personnel down here to do a proper search for Commander Chakotay and Ensign Paris." Resh'lon shook his head, his eyes contrite. "That won't be possible, Commander. We *cannot* take down the shield grid at this time." "Why is that?" Tuvok felt his frown deepen. "Surely you cannot adhere to your strict traditional regulations when an incident of this gravity has occurred. The three-day rule--" Resh'lon interrupted him in the middle. "This has nothing to do with the three-day tradition of hospitality, Commander. We cannot take down the grid because," he sighed, "the generator that powers the grid is missing as well. Someone sabotaged the facility during the night and has moved the generator to a location we as yet know nothing about." The Vulcan resisted an urge to sigh in dismay. "And the shield grid cannot be taken down if we do not have access to the generator." Resh'lon nodded, the grimace on his face indicative of the dilemma he faced. "Not until the three days are over." "What occurs after that?" "When the grid doesn't come down at the scheduled time, the Kel'zian Guard Patrol should be alerted," Jess'phan replied. "On the Chieftain's orders, they can and should cut power to the emission beam connected to the grid regulator and the grid should come down from the outside." Tuvok nodded, his mind scrambling to logically untangle the threads of this muddled affair. "Until that happens, we have no way of communicating with anyone outside." "Unfortunately, no," Resh'lon said. "But we have full planet-wide resources at our disposal, Commander." His eyes locked with Tuvok's as he tried to reassure the Voyager Security Chief. "Since the grid hasn't come down, we know that wherever they are, the First One and the Guide are still somewhere on the planet. We will search for them and find them at any cost." They had no other choice. The logical course of action would obviously be to make the most of those resources and do their best to locate the two missing officers. "I would like to interview the security guards that were posted outside our quarters," said Tuvok. Relief showed on the Great Overseer's face as if the simple act of doing something had in fact relieved much of his load. "Very well. I will call for them at once." Tuvok stepped back to wait, his sharp eyes looking at all the security personnel moving about the room. He listened carefully as Minister Jess'phan consulted the Great Overseer over the arrangement of more security guards for Tuvok's safety and stepped closer to thank them for their concern, even though he didn't think he was in any danger. He wanted to speak to the security guards and to every council member who had been present at the proceedings the previous night. His hosts assured him it would all be arranged as soon as possible. Unbeknownst to him and his companions, alien eyes watched his every movement, keeping tabs on him and the Zokaa'rian council members around him--their ears perked to instructions that made their way inside even through the energy barrier. # # END CHAPTER 2 Continued in Chap 3a _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ ASCEM messages are copied to a mailing list. 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