Path: newsspool2.news.atl.earthlink.net!stamper.news.atl.earthlink.net!stamper.news.pas.earthlink.net!elnk-pas-nf1!newsfeed.earthlink.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 3b 7/21 (C/P, J, AU) [NC-17] Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 396 Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2004 12:55:17 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.198.142.218 X-Complaints-To: Abuse Role , We Care X-Trace: newshog.newsread.com 1092142517 209.198.142.218 (Tue, 10 Aug 2004 08:55:17 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2004 08:55:17 EDT Xref: news.earthlink.net alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated:82606 X-Received-Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2004 05:55:22 PDT (newsspool2.news.atl.earthlink.net) TITLE: "Absolute Power" Chapter 3b (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: 7 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 3b The shock of betrayal from those whom you had trusted with your life was always the toughest to endure. As the Zokaa'rian Great Overseer to the Kel'nohr homeworld, Resh'lon of Du'kazinon IV--the largest mining settlement in Sector III of the home system--had always considered his duty to the Sovereignty the highest honor. His task was tremendous and the challenges unending. But since the rewards were clearly manifold, it had always been a pleasure to perform. His love for the Kel'zian people and their appreciation of his devotion had always made his work very fulfilling. As a young progressive, Resh'lon had always believed in equality for all races and genders. All his peers in the Sovereignty, even within a system that was bound in centuries-old patriarchal traditions, permitted the infusion of these ideals because they recognized the need to grow and adapt to the changing times. In fact, he believed that the reason the Monarchy had survived all these centuries was because it had always allowed open deliberations on all levels. Like any modern patriarchy, Zokaa'r too had evolved from a purely male-dominated system into one that had opened its perimeters to free, unobstructed, inter-gender ideals that held a limitless potential for the growth of all within. However, while on one hand, his appointment as the Great Overseer to Kel'nohr had been a source of great joy to him, for the fair-minded people of this world had literally welcomed him with open arms, on the other it had also brought him a great deal of trepidation. For in the last many years, he'd encountered contentious issues at such a high level of the hierarchy that, as the lawful councilor to the Sovereignty, he was simply unable to accept. In his utter frustration, Resh'lon had come to the realization that this beautiful breathtaking world, with its potent resource of a fast-paced cosmopolitan populace, was slave to an autocratic inflexible few who dissented to the merest notion of change. These coteries still adhered to the bygone conclusions of males dominating the law, holding females captive with virile stalwart preeminence. Over the years, his interactions with the Kel'nohr royalty had left him feeling dissatisfied--time and again. Therefore, it had been a most favorable diversion, for him personally as well as for the Sovereignty collectively, when the gallant crew of the alien ship Voyager, with its formidable female captain, had arrived in the domain. The tiny ship with its poignant tales of striving to reach a faraway homeland, fighting enemies day in and day out, had impressed Resh'lon immensely. Not to mention the tremendous respect the chosen ones, whom he'd conferred with via the commlink before meeting them in person, had seemed to have for their captain and her many accomplishments. Resh'lon had been very sorry that, bound by tradition, he'd not had the chance to meet with this graceful woman. However, meeting the negotiating team that had come down to the surface, led by the ship's cultured First Officer--the gentle-hearted Chakotay--had eliminated all his disappointments. It seemed that the chosen ones had indeed been chosen well. For all his progressive ideals, his faith in the age-old traditions that were the basis for the Sovereignty's existence had never wavered, and as always those traditions had worked their charm and chosen the most efficient and able of those who could represent the alien crew. And thus, it was this fondness he'd felt for the aliens he'd met that now caused this turbulence in his heart, for he had surely failed them. Being the Great Overseer, he had been responsible for the negotiation's progress on the surface, and now that two of the aliens were missing--had in fact been abducted, creating this shameful predicament for him--he felt entirely reprehensible for the whole unfortunate occurrence. In his initial discomfiture regarding this mishap, the first thing he'd thought of were those prejudiced divisions within the Kel'nohr government--the ones that continually opposed his ideals of gender and racial equality--to have been behind the offense. The dead Kel'zian involved in the Observer's attempted abduction also indicated their involvement. For what else could have been the reason behind this incident, this wrongful snatching of these gentle aliens, who in the minds of those bigoted few had committed the ultimate aberration by serving under a female captain? But then to hear of the involvement of his own people, true-blooded Zokaa'rians, under oath to serve the august Sovereignty with their utmost devotion, being traitors to their own Monarchy? Resh'lon had never felt more distressed or disconcerted in his entire life. And then this further peculiar murmur that hinted at the involvement of a third party. The rumor was that a new species, a people Resh'lon knew nothing about, was connected to this scandalous violation along with some unscrupulous Zokaa'r and Kel'nohr citizens. Who were these people? Were they also behind the recent attacks on various settlements in the home system? Resh'lon had much questioning to do of his informants. They had to catch these individuals, find out who these new aliens were, and find the Voyager people in one piece. And no matter how distasteful it was to him, no matter how disgraceful it made him feel, he was honor-bound to share all this information--to the last letter--with the Observer, Tuvok, that ingeniously perceptive Vulcan from the alien ship Voyager. Resh'lon just hoped that the ignorant Kel'kar'vheel was treating the distinguished Voyager captain with the dignity she deserved. # # Seven of Nine settled the empty tray back on the galley counter and giving Neelix a curt nod, walked out of the mess hall. It was almost time for the Gamma crew to come for their late night meals and she wanted to get back to Astrometrics before anyone stopped her to engage in idle chatter. The latest data Ensign Kim had shared with her, as well as the somewhat ambiguous readings she had gotten from the space station and the planetary shield grid, was enough to occupy her late night shifts. As Seven stepped into the turbolift and ordered her destination, she pondered the latest developments in the situation. She could see that while these most recent observations complemented the data the Zokaa'rians had previously shared with them, they didn't shed any new light. The shield grid and the exact role the radiation coming from the system's sun played on its frequency remained a mystery. The station's power control system, which regulated the radiation emission, was protected by a nearly impervious shielding which not even her Borg sensors could penetrate, and that made close scanning a near impossibility. All these impediments had made any observations she could make on the shield grid inconclusive. Was the shield solely dependent on the generator on the surface or could it be taken down by disabling the control system on the station? She wasn't sure. The fact that she was even thinking along these lines, when the behavior of none of the Zokaa'rians she'd met on Voyager had indicated the possibility of any danger for the away team, was perfectly in character for her. She felt it was inefficient to be unprepared for any eventuality, any complication. She knew that the away team was stuck down on the planet for at least three days and she wanted to be sure that when those three days were up the team would come back to Voyager safely. As she stepped into Astrometrics, she thought of the other issue she'd discussed with Ensign Kim. He had spoken of the monthly datasteam from Starfleet Command that was expected to arrive within the next few days and the exchanges they'd had with the Zokaa'rian engineers about the technology they used to open the fold in space. Seven had ascertained that while this technology was similar to a Borg transwarp conduit, instead of opening an artificial rift in subspace as transwarp did, it used a naturally occurring subspace compression anomaly to travel long distances. Where this anomaly existed and why they hadn't found any traces of it in any of their scans, Seven didn't know. She frowned at the controls on the console in front of her. She was getting used to encountering frustrating obstacles ever since they'd entered Zokaa'rian space and it irritated her no end. Take Captain Janeway for instance, Seven grimaced. The one person on the ship who had always been the most accessible to Seven, had suddenly become unwisely and almost recklessly elusive. Her commlink had been, for some ungraspable reason and without any kind of warning, encrypted with privacy protocols, which meant no one could comm her. Seven had thrown caution to the wind and gone to her Ready Room on three separate occasions with reports that needed to be reviewed by the captain, only to be turned back from the closed door by Janeway's cryptic instructions to not disturb her. What was even more incomprehensible was the fact that the fourth time she'd gone to the Ready Room, she'd found three security guards posted outside who'd turned Seven back without even letting her press the chime. Seven found herself completely confounded by the captain's strange behavior. She was aware that the captain had important meetings with Kel'nohr's Chieftain but nowhere in the Zokaa'rian First Contact Protocols was it written that the informal meeting that was to occur on the alien ship would have to be as clandestine as the one occurring on the surface. Moreover, these were issues that simply could not be ignored, Voyager's and the away team's safety was in question. There were facts and figures at hand that needed Janeway's critical point of view. Why had the captain locked herself up in the Ready Room? Even the brief conversation she'd had with Mr. Neelix in the mess hall had confirmed her suspicions that Captain Janeway had in fact not stepped out of the confines of her Ready Room for the past thirty-five hours to speak to anyone on the ship. What could be the reason behind this most peculiar course of action? Seven of Nine picked up a padd from the console, stared at it for a second and then dropped it back as she shifted her gaze to the Astrometrics viewer. The datapadd held no answer to her quandary and neither did the viewscreen. # # It was amazing how little effort it took to dupe a shallow, egotistical despot when one knew which strings to pull. His Excellency, Chieftain of the Kel'nohr home world, Kel'kar'vheel the Eighth, sat in the Ready Room of Voyager's captain and lovingly spun yet another installment of the Tale of the Fallen Sister to the woman in question. Representing Kel'nohr to the Sovereignty, Kel'kar'vheel had spent decades pulling such strings, and spinning such tales, when reporting to the System Kings. His inherent contempt for these unenlightened overlords had never once gotten in the way of his enormously creative wisdom. Like his erudite father before him, he too had learned how to manipulate his way up the bureaucratic ladder by ingeniously embrangling his superiors into a web of eulogistic tributes and obsequious compliments. And thus was the case with this alien captain as well. Handling Kathryn Janeway, he thought, was akin to handling one's composure when searching for secret treasure hidden under heaps of fetid refuse in a blind alley. There was but one way a dignified person could accomplish such a task: with one's nose pinched shut from the revolting stench. Although, he had to admit, Janeway's repressed inclination towards degenerate sexual expression had found a companion in his own twisted mind. It had taken very little for him to wrap her around his little finger. A few well-structured fallacies. A sprinkling of over the top flattery meant to befuddle an egotistical mind. And he had at hand the entire means to completely intoxicate this woman's lack of imagination. Besides, it was not as if everything he'd said to her had been false. The Tale of the Fallen Sister had certainly not been made up. There were elements of absolute and unalterable truth in it. He *had* had a sister named Shai'lla. She in fact had been a most accomplished scientist. She had also been instrumental in creating subspace travel technology that had brought about a revolutionary change in the Sovereignty's scientific circles. And she indeed had been killed during a wartime skirmish in a faraway outpost on a planet in the Muka'o sector of the system. What he hadn't mentioned was that it had been he himself, as the Sovereign of Kel'nohr, and the Maker of all Decisions in her life, who'd sent her to that post against her will. Shai'lla had never been an ambitious individual. She had, in fact, like most females, been a terrified weakling, awkward and clumsy in her decisions, completely wretched and hopeless. She had known nothing about politics and policy making and could focus only on the pursuit of what she claimed to be the scientific truth. His sister had been a pathetic contender, a disgrace to the family name. Indeed, her only saving grace had been her indisputable beauty--a feminine comeliness he'd felt a most unnatural longing for and subsequently despaired the unavailability of. Shai'lla's error had been the decision to approach the Academy of Sciences with her research without first obtaining his consent. Her abnormal and one-time bout of defiance against him had earned her a lifelong incarceration in Muka'o sector under the guise of significant scientific exploration. Her untimely death, a mere three months later, in that skirmish had brought on a system-wide mourning, with Kel'zians and Zokaa'rians alike joining hands to remember the beautiful scientist, Shai'lla of the Kel'kar'vheel Dynasty. Her research work had of course not gone to waste. It had been rightfully submitted to the Academy of Sciences under the proper family name. The subspace travel technology had since then been successfully developed and experimented with and he had never forgotten Shai'lla's extraordinary contribution to it. Of course, Kathryn Janeway didn't have to know all this. In fact, Kel'kar'vheel didn't even think Janeway wanted to hear the whole thing. She was someone who would listen to a lengthy dissertation and pick up only the parts that suited her frame of mind, which made her feel better about her own self-image. Therefore, when he told her that the tyrannical Zokaa'rian regime perpetuated improvident religious practices on Kel'zian soil against his people's wishes, Janeway, being a godless woman who didn't agree with the concept of a religion herself, utterly believed him. And when he told her that Shai'lla had been a victim of a Zokaa'rian conspiracy for no one in the Academy of Sciences had wanted a woman getting such a technological distinction, Janeway, who herself had spent a lifetime thinking herself a victim of male predominance, was completely convinced. Kel'kar'vheel indeed would have laughed at these circumstances had he not been aware of the solemnity of the overall situation. The activities on the surface, under the protection of the shield grid, had been progressing just as he had wished. The stage was being set for another illustration of the instability that had been taking root in the far reaches of the Zokaa'r Sovereignty. His wish that every last Zokaa'rian would leave Kel'zian soil and let him rule his people the way he wished would come true sooner rather than later. And if it took the likes of Kathryn Janeway to help him complete this task, then so be it. After all, His Excellency, Chieftain of the Kel'nohr home world, Kel'kar'vheel the Eighth, had perfected the art of pinching his nose shut in unsavory circumstances a long time ago. # # Continued in Chap 3c _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ ASCEM messages are copied to a mailing list. Most recent messages can be found at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ASCEML. NewMessage: