Path: newsspool2.news.atl.earthlink.net!stamper.news.atl.earthlink.net!elnk-atl-nf1!newsfeed.earthlink.net!newshosting.com!nx01.iad01.newshosting.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 8a 17/21 (C/P, J, AU) [NC-17] Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 643 Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2004 12:55:43 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.198.142.218 X-Complaints-To: Abuse Role , We Care X-Trace: newshog.newsread.com 1092142543 209.198.142.218 (Tue, 10 Aug 2004 08:55:43 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2004 08:55:43 EDT Xref: news.earthlink.net alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated:82616 X-Received-Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2004 05:55:48 PDT (newsspool2.news.atl.earthlink.net) TITLE: "Absolute Power" Chapter 8a (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: 17 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 8a "The Evidence" Resh'lon felt as if everything he had held his utmost faith in was crumbling to pieces around him. If these had been normal circumstances, he would've found the behavior of the System Kings entirely inconceivable. Their outright dismissal of the possibility of Kel'kar'vheel's misdemeanors, even in the light of the evidence that had been recovered, was baffling to say the least. Their explicit indictment that it had been the female Voyager captain who was categorically responsible for all this madness was nonsensical. Yes, she was responsible for the actions she took--Resh'lon would never deny that, he had witnessed the repercussions of that pandemonium--but to say that it had been her, and the gentle-mannered Chakotay who had been involved in conspiring against the Sovereignty, was blind and foolish. It was unbefitting the wisdom of the Sovereignty's crowned elders. Or had that wisdom been lost in the midst of this chaos? Had it ever existed in the first place? Had Resh'lon been a fool when he'd taken his oath and given his faith, his loyalty to the Sovereignty? Moreover, these were not normal circumstances, were they? Nothing that had happened lately was anything that Resh'lon had ever encountered before. He was offended by how the elders were treating the First One. Lining him up to face the Zokaa'r inquiring committees as if he were a criminal, the one at fault. This was a man who had been wronged by his very hosts. In conjunction with certain corrupt citizens of the Sovereignty, he, along with his crewmate, had been abducted and abused by aliens who had penetrated the supposedly protected borders of the Monarchy due to inadequate security procedures. This was the Sovereignty's fault. It was Resh'lon's fault. If they had taken proper steps, Chakotay and his crewmate would never have suffered the abuse they did. If they had been more alert, the female Voyager captain would never have availed the opportunity to cause the mayhem she had. If they had kept a check on that bigoted Kel'kar'vheel, he would never have exploited these aliens the way he did. But if the System Kings did not even believe that Kel'kar'vheel was at fault, who could he blame, where was he to go? One thing was sure: he was not going to abandon these aliens now. He had failed them once; he was not going to fail them a second time. He would do everything in his power to help the First One and his crew. And if it meant he had to stand next to Chakotay and argue with the System Kings to stop the incarcerated captain and First One from being executed in a Zokaa'rian court of law, then he would do it. # # Chaos and individuality. Three years on board Voyager and Seven of Nine was still coming to terms with the complexities prevalent within these concepts. She saw Lieutenant Torres order Crewman Hamilton and Ensign McKenzie to shut up or take the fight out of Engineering and stifled a sigh of frustration. Crewman Hamilton was an irrational and disorderly individual and his incongruous ravings about Commander Chakotay and Ensign Paris had obviously become disruptive for everyone around him. Ensign McKenzie had apparently taken exception to his remarks about the First Officer and that was where the argument had exacerbated. Keeping all these facts in mind, Seven wasn't sure if merely telling them to take their fight out would solve the problem. They would continue fighting outside as well, and that could further escalate the tense situation. With that thought in mind, she picked up the hyper-spanner she had been working on the binary relays with, and followed Lieutenant Torres to the office area on the side of the warp core. She could see the Chief Engineer was still angry at the argument she had just broken up, her stance rigid as she worked at her console. Considering the complex relationship she shared with Ensign Paris and Commander Chakotay, Seven could imagine why the lieutenant would find herself distressed at the turn of events. However, it was time to stem the flow of the dispute at its source. "Lieutenant," Seven stood straight and began, "I do not believe telling Crewman Hamilton to simply shut up would stop his dissentious behavior from spreading any further." With a scowl, the half-Klingon looked up at Seven and a scathing glint--which in the last three years, Seven had gotten used to seeing regularly in the lieutenant's eyes--appeared in her eyes. "Oh, I am sure you would think *that*, Seven," Lieutenant Torres chewed her words, her face screwed with contempt. "After all, all this must be very difficult for you." Seven raised one brow in query. "What are you talking about?" "The situation with Janeway, of course," B'Elanna spat. "You were always very close to her, weren't you? I wonder how sorry you are that your mentor went berserk and killed fifteen members of her own damned crew." Seven stared at the infuriated Chief Engineer and felt a fresh wave of irritation spread through her body. She knew B'Elanna Torres had never gotten along with her in the past but that gave the engineer no right to misjudge her intentions so completely. As she took a deep breath and attempted to calm her nerves, Seven realized she had to set the record straight once and for all. Especially in the light of all that she'd witnessed in the last few days, realigning her crewmate's misconceptions was an essential task. She looked into her companion's flaming dark eyes. "It is true that when I was first liberated from the Collective, Captain Janeway was the one I most looked up to for guidance." She saw a look of derision cross the engineer's petite features and pressed on. "In fact, she made sure that I had no reason to go to anyone else if I had a problem. The chain of command, which exists for the rest of the crew, did not exist for me. When I had a question, I was allowed to circumvent the hierarchy this ship normally adheres to and go straight to the captain for clearance." The Chief Engineer rolled her eyes. "Gee, thanks for *enlightening* us." Seven ignored the sarcasm. "As strange as it may sound, Captain Janeway, who was so strict on everyone else regarding the following of proper protocols and regulations, encouraged me to disregard the same because she expected me to report only to her." "And of course, that's how you went all this time." B'Elanna Torres clenched her teeth. "Most of the time." Seven looked coolly at the lieutenant. "In the beginning, when I was studying the ship's command structure and getting to know the procedures the entire crew followed, I tried to do the same." "*Really*?" The Chief Engineer sounded bored. "Captain Janeway wasn't pleased." "Seven," B'Elanna Torres heaved a staggering sigh. "Is there a POINT to this conversation?" "In the last two years," Seven continued. "During our private conversations, Captain Janeway stressed on the importance of strictly following all her orders at all instances..." "Seven!" "...and at every opportunity that arose..." Seven looked straight into the former Maquis' eyes. "She tried to convince me of the insignificance of Commander Chakotay's authority on this ship." "WHAT?" Lieutenant Torres' mouth dropped open in shock. "I found it perplexing for the captain to be trying to persuade me to disregard the First Officer's command disposition. Especially since my research suggested his position as the Executive Officer was of far more importance than she was trying to portray." The lieutenant had fallen silent as she listened to Seven's monologue with wide eyes. "For a while I thought it was because Commander Chakotay was a wanted felon in the Alpha Quadrant," Seven said. "I believed it was his status as a Maquis criminal which was the reason behind the captain's distrust of him. "But everything I observed told me otherwise. Despite the captain's private feelings regarding the commander, I found his own professional and off-duty conduct more than adequate. Even the results of my discreet inquiries amongst the Starfleet crew regarding their opinion of him were surprisingly favorable. His command decisions over the years have been consistently competent, and his behavior with the crew--Maquis and Starfleet alike--has been fair and efficient. And yet, all this time, Captain Janeway did everything to establish the irrelevance of Commander Chakotay's influence in Voyager's everyday life to me." The Chief Engineer finally found her voice. "Seven, if you disagreed with Janeway's behavior, then why the hell didn't you ever tell her off?" "I believed it would be prudent to quietly observe the situation," Seven replied and then she frowned. "However, I am curious about one aspect of their relationship." "What?" "I was led to believe that Commander Chakotay and Captain Janeway had never been romantically involved." The lieutenant frowned. "They HADN'T." Seven slowly nodded. "That was precisely what I thought all this time." "Well, believe it," Lieutenant Torres snorted. "Nothing has ever happened between them." However, there was often chaos within the individual mind, Seven thought. Delusions, illusions, misapprehensions, false suppositions. All were part and parcel of being an individual. Seven had learned this the hard way. "Seven," the lieutenant was staring at her, "where did this come from?" Seven looked at the Chief Engineer and tried to straighten her own muddled thoughts. "It was not my intention to... eavesdrop on a private conversation, but I was present in Jeffries tubes section alpha 53 above Deck 6 two nights ago at approximately 2033 hours when a discussion of an... intimate nature was taking place between the captain and the commander." "How intimate?" The lieutenant's tone was apprehensive. "The captain... seemed distressed at the commander's supposed betrayal of her, since he and Ensign Paris had become intimately involved in the Kel'nohr prison." Seven saw B'Elanna Torres flush at the mention of the commander and ensign and looked calmly at her. "Lieutenant, I was present in the Sickbay when the away team was beamed onboard after their rescue. I am perfectly aware of the exact condition the commander and ensign were found in." Lieutenant Torres swallowed. "What was Janeway saying?" "She was accusing the commander of breaking his promises of waiting for her," Seven replied. "She felt his actions on the planet, which she felt were despicable, were unbecoming of a Starfleet officer and that he should've done everything to avoid the situation he'd gotten everyone into." "The situation HE'D gotten everyone into?" the lieutenant cried and then tried to lower her volume. "That's BULLSHIT," she growled. "She was the one who made the decision that got them in the mess in the first place." Seven raised her chin. "She also implied it was unprofessional and unethical of him to get involved with the man who was his subordinate, and to create problems between him and the person he claims to be his best friend." The lieutenant's mouth worked for a few seconds and then after a struggle, she reacted with a strangled, "Me?" Seven pursed her lips, feeling her face tighten. "I don't believe I'd ever seen the captain physically manhandle another individual before." "WHAT?" Torres stared at her and then huffed, "Seven! Did you report this incident to Tuvok that night?" Seven shook her head. "Unfortunately not. The captain had moved into the next phase of her plans before I could report anything." "So why are you telling me all this now?" There was renewed anger in the dark eyes. "The damage is already done. What possible difference could any of this make?" Seven stared at her, her voice cool. "I am telling you all this because we are in a dangerous situation and more damage will be done if any impending conflict isn't immediately contained. In the past few days, I have observed that you have been somewhat troubled by the situation between Commander Chakotay and Ensign Paris. And while that is something you cannot alleviate at once, it has the potential of passing on to those who work right under you. Those are the few dissentious individuals who have the capacity of creating further discord between crewmembers." "You're wrong, Seven." The Chief Engineer stared hard at her. "I am not at *all* troubled by what Chakotay and Tom shared. I wish them all the best." Seven looked into the lieutenant's eyes. "Then perhaps, you should show everyone that you do in fact wish them all the best by being the friend that Chakotay has always claimed you to be. It may not change the last three years, but it may just make the crew understand the exact danger Chakotay's possible incarceration could put Voyager and its crew into. He needs everyone's support right now, not scurrilous accusations." The lieutenant's eyes were wide with wonder and as Seven picked up the hyper-spanner and walked back to her previous task, she thought she saw a hint of humility in their simmering depths. Now, she had to concentrate on helping B'Elanna Torres get Voyager back in shape. # # Impulsive, aggressive, and highly achievement oriented. Explosive speech patterns often accompanied with flaunting gesticulations. Loud, boisterous personality that always strived to achieve more in less time. Invading other people's personal spaces in order to intimidate, persuade, or coerce. There was no doubt about it. Captain Kathryn Janeway was a classic Type A Behavior specimen. As Voyager's Emergency Medical Hologram studied the latest scans the computer had generated of his patient, he realized that even now it was nearly impossible to determine whether it had been the accumulation of stress that had caused her breakdown, or simply the instigation of her latent sociopathic tendencies--lying dormant all these years--which had brought on the collapse. Hmm. He squinted at the monitor and then scowled. Just as he'd told Commander Tuvok three days ago, there was hardly anything unusual in these scans. The elevated metabolic activity shown in the basal ganglia demonstrated what he'd long ago termed 'normal' for someone of her vociferous personality. As was often the case with some rare and excessively hyperactive Type A individuals, the colored areas in the brain scans showed a slight chemical imbalance in the circuits that ran between the frontal lobes and the basal ganglia, due to the brain's struggle in coping with repeated stimuli. Since Captain Janeway was a Type A inclining towards a rather acute sociopathic personality structure, it wasn't hard to conclude why her metabolic levels always appeared to be going through the proverbial roof--as opposed to other Type A individuals on the ship. Thus, over the years when he'd studied her brain scans, even though he knew they'd shown unusually high levels of metabolic activity, he'd not considered the possibility of them being abnormal in *her* case. After all, Captain Janeway had always been highly animated, exceedingly fervent, particularly garrulous, and full of that intense self-possession that was all her own. She always seemed to be on the run, rushing from one activity to the next, never finding time to relax, always pushing herself to succeed at any cost--facing challenge after challenge, surmounting one conquest after another. And another. And another. Now he wondered if he'd neglected to notice the obvious signs of what had undoubtedly turned out to be a severe mental disorder. As he referred to case studies of other such cases in Voyager's database, he realized that what he'd termed in Kathryn Janeway's case as Type A Behavior leaning towards sociopathic structure could even have been a type of bipolar manic-depressive syndrome. He felt his frown deepen and pursed his lips in concern. Her manic episodes could have been the overly keyed up moods she often was discovered in when she had seemed on top of the universe, so utterly sure of herself, and acting like she could conquer anyone or anything. Or they could have been those cold bouts of anger she displayed when any attempts to interfere with her activities or objectives were made by one of the members of her command crew. She could turn quite hostile and abusive when impeded in any way. She had confined Commander Chakotay once to the brig and once to his quarters because he had disagreed with her actions. She had quite spectacularly thrown Mr. Paris into the brig for one whole month for disobeying her orders. No matter how much Mr. Paris got on his holographic nerves, and despite how much he himself had ragged the lieutenant on his sudden demotion, the EMH did not think such an extreme reaction had been necessary. Her down times--what surely must have been the depressive episodes, the EMH thought--had been rare but when they had come, they had been profound enough to be noticed by the whole crew. That episode, for example, when she had locked herself into her quarters for a whole month simply because she couldn't bear the thought of facing her crew in the so-called Void should certainly have been noted by him as a blatant example of a severe personality disorder. But he hadn't noticed anything. The signs had always been there; had always been existent within her personality. But since Captain Kathryn Janeway always seemed to get the job done--never mind the methods she chose to keep everyone in line--he had ignored them, turned a blind eye to them. By failing to notice the inconsistencies within Captain Janeway's personality, the EMH had failed his crew. So many precious lives had been lost because of the devastation she had deliberately caused. And now the Zokaa'rians had apprehended Commander Chakotay in the implication of his involvement with Captain Janeway's chaotic plans. When he thought about it, he realized the Zokaa'rians accusations against the commander were even stranger than him not noticing the psychopathic patterns in Captain Janeway's personality. How could anyone in their right mind believe the commander to have been involved in conspiring against anyone while in that prison? The neuropharmacological scans he'd run on Ensign Paris and Commander Chakotay after their rescue had shown that both their nervous and endocrine systems had gotten a blow unlike any they'd ever experienced before. Their endorphin levels had skyrocketed dangerously, and their epinephrine infusion was equally exhaustive in their bloodstreams. Furthermore, Commander Chakotay was the more affected of the two since he was exposed the most to the Xaoln toxins. He had also endured the most attempted mental probing from his captors. There was no way he could have been in any shape to conspire with anyone on anything whatsoever. The EMH frowned. What in Zimmerman's name were the Zokaa'rians thinking? # # "Why the hell won't they give us an update on his status?" Tom Paris bellowed. Harry stared at his best friend's face as he paced the living room of his quarters and sighed. "Tom, I just spoke with Governor-general Rah'toveem's aide and things are very hectic down there. They're not letting any unauthorized personnel through." "Unauthorized?" Tom stopped and turned to him in amazement. "I was part of the last away mission, wasn't I? I've been trying to get in touch with Resh'lon and there has been no response and Tuvok..." "I did get a chance to speak to Tuvok," Harry interrupted him. "And from what he told me they're NOT letting anyone from Voyager get anywhere near Resh'lon. Tuvok knows you've been trying to get in touch with the Great Overseer, Tom." He stared into his friend's agitated blue eyes. "The Zokaa'rians don't like it." Tom's face twisted in anger. "The Zokaa'rians can go screw themselves. Resh'lon spent the most time overseeing the previous... thwarted mission, he knows Chakotay was not involved in any damn conspiracies." "That is exactly the problem," Harry stressed. "Don't you get it? They think Resh'lon is too 'close to the outsiders' to maintain any kind of objectivity in this matter..." He saw Tom's mouth open in complaint and pressed on, "AND while you and I may know this to be the bullshit it is, THEY have zeroed in on this thing as the ultimate cause of everything that went wrong." Tom stared at Harry. "And what about Resh'lon's minister, that... Jess'phan? He worked closely with Tuvok." Harry shook his head. "He's been blocked too. Tom, they're not letting anyone who had any contact with you guys down there get in touch with us." "But that's ridiculous." Tom threw up his hands. "How can we defend Chakotay if we aren't allowed to get in touch with anyone who can give us any information about our time on the planet?" "Tuvok is the only one allowed down there," Harry said. "He is the commander's sole counsel." "Goddammit, Harry!" Tom huffed, his hands balled into fists and turned around, resuming his pacing. This didn't look good. Harry felt his brows furrow. B'Elanna had told him Tom had been freaked out about the entire situation from the moment they'd been rescued. Tom had been worried about the situation with Chakotay--admit it, he was worried about his 'relationship' with the First Officer, Harry sighed--and the current circumstances didn't seem to be helping. And it wasn't just Tom. The whole ship, the entire crew was furious, angry beyond belief at the turn of events. First Captain Janeway went crazy and then their brain-dead hosts came and arrested the First Officer for a conspiracy he couldn't possibly have been involved in because he was being tortured by aliens in a prison cell at the time. Tuvok was down on the planet with Commander Chakotay and in his absence, Tom was the most senior officer on the Bridge and B'Elanna was the senior officer in the ship's hierarchy. And while B'Elanna was handling things as effectively as she could, diffusing tense situations between crewmembers demanding to find out about their First Officer's predicament, Harry wasn't so sure about Tom's condition. "Tom," Harry stepped forward, worried about his friend. "You have to relax. You have to take a step back and look at things rationally. You look sick." "I'm *feeling* sick, Harry." Tom's breath was ragged. "The last time Chakotay was in the midst of these people, he was abducted by rabid fucking aliens." Okay, Harry could understand that. But the situation was different now, wasn't it? "Nothing of that sort is going to happen now," Harry said, hoping he sounded more convincing than he felt. "Tuvok is with him. And the governor-general's aide tells me that all those Xaolns have been thrown into prison." "But those who conspired with the aliens are still OUT, Harry." Tom ground his teeth. "What if they try to hurt him?" Harry closed his eyes for a second and took a deep breath. And then he opened his eyes and stared at his friend. "I think it would be better if you concentrated on being positive right now. The commander needs your positive energies, Tom, not these bleak thoughts." For a moment, the blond looked at him, his eyes shimmering, and then he took a deep breath. "We have to help him. But how do we do that from Voyager?" Okay. A new task. Finding a strategy. He could help with that. "We... try to gather evidence that he is innocent," he said. "That he was a victim of an abduction. That he got hurt. That he couldn't possibly have been involved in conspiring with the captain." Tom's face was impassive for a while and then his eyes sparkled. He grabbed Harry's elbow and turned to the door. "Let's go." "Where?" "To Captain Janeway's quarters," Tom Paris replied. "We're going to find that evidence." # # Continued in Chap 8b _________________________________________________________________ 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: