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A/N - I was watching the episode "Worst Case Scenario, and I wondered what it was that made Seska decide to leave so I came up with this idea.
The Beginning of Seska.
Harshly combing her hair out of it's Starfleet regulation hairstyle, wincing in pain each time she tugged and pulled too hard for her liking, Seska glared furiously at her reflection hating the sight of the weak-foreheaded sight of her Bajoran disguise that had somehow managed to last this length of time, through all the skirmishes against her own people in the Badlands, up and down the DMZ and then later here, in the hell hole that was the Delta Quadrant!
Seska, like all Cardassians, was naturally xenophobic though deep down she didn't believe her people were the all-powerful gods those uptight fools in Central Command believed; if they were then the Federation would be nothing than a memory, the humans and all of the other races who believed in their precious "paradise" and their ridiculous ideas about freedom would be under the Cardassians the same way the Bajorans were. Empires like the Klingons and the Romulans would have been ground into dust, and she wouldn't be anywhere near here!
Seska groaned in frustration and stopped tugging on her hair, wincing a little in pain as she did. She was angry, yes, but that wasn't an excuse to rip her hair out but she still wanted to find something to vent her rage on after the day she'd just had. She had had enough of Janeway and her precious Starfleet and Federation rules, after all, what good had they done them out here?
Stranded in the middle of an unfriendly quadrant, surrounded by enemies on all sides, shunning their potential allies who just wanted a few pieces of technology, wandering around and studying every single weird thing they came across. Sure, Seska knew that back home on Cardassia the Central Command ordered ships to explore space, but Janeway should have put more priority on getting them home instead of blundering from one crisis to the next!
Who cared if races like the Kazon fought to the death for a single replicator? They were leaving and besides their lives were more important than the balance of power.
Worse, she was starting to see a change in some of her "fellow Maquis" crew. Seska had no real interest in her "friends." She didn't care about Chakotay, B'Elanna, Mike Jonas, Hogan, Lon Suder (oh, how much of a breath of fresh air that psychotic maniac was - unlike the rest of the Federation he didn't care about hiding who he was), Hogan. Ken Dalby was just an angry hothead, and the less said about the others the better, but she had never anticipated what being cooped up on Voyager, forced to obey Starfleet and the same Federation rules they had turned their backs on to fight against her people. It made her laugh, it really did. Like all Feds, when you got down to it, all of the Maquis would bow down to Federation dogma. The weakness sickened her. Sure, one or two of the Maquis crew from the Val Jean were finding it hard to adjust to life as Starfleet drones, but overall all of them were just buckling down and getting on with it.
But what surprised her the most was just how quickly Maquis like Torres and Chakotay had just settled into roles as senior officers. Chakotay, she could more or less understand, he was trying to keep all of them together while playing liaison with Janeway, but Seska saw him as nothing more than another Federation puppet. Okay, so he was trying to keep the peace on Voyager, and he had done a good job, but Seska had been on this damn ship long enough to see Chakotay was changing since he was made the first officer. That was nothing compared to B'Elanna.
Seska sighed as she rubbed her eyes tiredly. While she didn't really care if she lived or died, though if they were still in the Alpha Quadrant and she delivered Chakotay's cell to her people on a plate, B'Elanna Torres was someone Seska did have soft spot for. She wasn't sure what it was, the fact the pair of them had such fun together, or the fact B'Elanna was more of a realist to the universe than the rest of the crew. All that had changed now.
B'Elanna had hated the thought of being tied to Starfleet; her stories about her time at their vaunted Academy may have been dull especially since Seska hadn't been interested in Torres' sob story about how unfair life was to her because she was a half-Klingon, but Seska had always thought the other woman was a kindred spirit. The pair of them had absolutely hated the fact they were stranded in the Delta Quadrant thanks to Janeway's self-righteous stance to defend the Ocampans, and she had applauded Torres when she had punched Carey in the face. The bastard had it coming.
But there were differences between them. Whereas B'Elanna had made the effort when she had been made the chief engineer of Voyager to replace the previous guy to integrate with the crew, Seska had never been interested in making friends (that time where she had joked with Paris and Kim before they arrived at Sikaris didn't count - she was just enjoying a laugh).
Seska closed her eyes and let out an angry breath as she thought about Sikaris. She didn't feel sorry for manipulating Torres into pursuing the spatial trajector technology of the Sikarians which could have gotten them home by mentioning her fictitious brother after she had learnt Janeway, once more being the holier than thou Starfleet captain had decided once more to worship that stupid prime directive by refusing to find ways of acquiring the trajector so they could get home.
Seska didn't feel bad for manipulating B'Elanna. Far from it. She had done it because she had decided enough was enough. The longer they were stuck in the Delta Quadrant, they would probably get killed because of Janeway and her need to explore. She didn't regret the part she'd taken even if it had revealed they couldn't have used the Sikarians technology to get closer to the Alpha Quadrant because it was incompatible with Federation technology. It had nearly caused a warp core breach. B'Elanna had taken the fall for them along with Tuvok, probably the only decent thing the Vulcan had ever done for them, but Seska didn't care what Janeway did if she ever discovered who had worked with Tuvok and B'Elanna to steal technology behind her back.
Why should it matter if it got them home?
Seska sighed and let out an angry hiss. She was tired, but she was still too angry to really get to sleep even if she had to work in the morning. She looked around her darkened quarters trying to think of something meaningful to do with her time, but she couldn't find anything. She glanced at the door and cocked her head thoughtfully before she nodded. She would go to the holodeck, see if there was anything meaningful or inspirational for her to do with her time while she cooled off, and if any of the senior officers - including Chakotay or B'Elanna tried to stop her - then she wouldn't care one bit. If they didn't like her having time to herself, then that was just too bad. After getting out of her nightclothes and slipping into an outfit that was more comfortable, Seska left her quarters and headed for the nearest holodeck. When she arrived she just strolled through and checked the wall panel to see what was in the directory, mentally crossing each one in the catalogue. Why were Federation holodeck choices so boring? She wasn't interested in sporting or recreational programs now she was here, she wasn't interested in the historical programs, or the stupid holonovels written by non-Cardassian authors.
After five minutes of checking through the catalogue, Seska lost patience and decided to look into the private programs of the crew to see if they had anything interesting. Like all members of the Obsidian Order, Seska was very good at computer hacking. Federation computers were incredibly easy to break into when you got used to their layout. When she had boarded Voyager, which was thirty years or so more advanced than the lump of metal Chakotay had favoured, Seska had spent a good few weeks studying Voyager's computer. Her duties on the bridge and then later in the transporter room and in main engineering had given her all the access she had needed. The hard part was avoiding Tuvok's continuous checking of the computer network, but she had managed to route her hacking through half a dozen relay points in the network in order to avoid the Vulcan's notice. Once she had mapped out the network she had begun hacking her way into various crew members personal computers. It had taken Seska a few months but she had written quite a few backdoors into the computer in case the crew discovered the truth about who and what she really was. There was no doubt in her mind they would try to take her into custody; she was a Cardassian spy, and she was dangerous after all. There was also no doubt in her mind Chakotay would drop her in an instant if he ever found out who she was and that the thing they shared was a myth. She was only using him.
Seska was cut out of her thoughts after she had scrolled through the private directory that could only be accessed by the voice-prints of the crew when she had found something tucked away.
"What's this?" she whispered to herself as she studied the program. It looked like someone had tried to delete the program, but it had not worked. "Computer," she said aloud, "display program "Insurrection Alpha."
Seska was unimpressed when she ran the program, only to find herself in the decidedly unimpressive Voyager corridor. She sighed and walked down the corridor, her mind racing as she tried to make sense of the program and what it was. She was surprised when she heard the sound of footsteps, though she guessed she shouldn't have been since it would have made even less sense if the corridor was empty.
Looking down she noticed that her casual outfit was gone, replaced by the Starfleet uniform she usually wore.
She looked over her shoulder and was surprised to find Chakotay there. No, she reminded herself, this is a hologram.
"Where're you headed?" The Chakotay hologram asked.
Seska shrugged. "I don't know," she replied honestly, mentally cursing the writer of this program for being incredibly cryptic about what the program was meant. Even the title could have meant anything.
Fortunately, the hologram of Chakotay seemed to be adaptable. "Hey, I'm heading to the bridge. Why don't you tag along?"
"Okay," Seska agreed.
"So, how's it going?" The Chakotay hologram asked, and Seska had to suppress a snort; while she found the program so far trying, she had to applaud whoever had written the personality of Chakotay. The hologram was spot on with the personality of the man.
Seska shrugged, momentarily unsure of what she could say. "Fine, I guess," she replied.
"Tuvok still giving you a hard time?"
"A bit," she replied in a neutral manner.
"I don't know about you but when I think about sharing the ship with the same guy, it gives me a headache," the hologram said as they walked close to the turbolift. "Maquis and Starfleet."
Seska frowned as she noticed the emphasis on the Maquis part of that sentence, but the turbo lift doors opening stopped her from asking anything else and they both stepped inside. Seska barely noticed when the hologram of her sex toy told the lift where to take them as she tried to make sense of what this was. Whoever had written this program had done it very well, right down to how well the first officer's personality was portrayed, but she was still unsure of what was going on…
Who had written this program? The clue in the name "insurrection alpha" had something to do with Chakotay, but she wasn't sure just yet though she knew whoever had written this program had specifically written the way Chakotay approached her outside in the corridor, so she decided to wait and see how this part played out.
"So what do you think?" the Chakotay hologram asked her, and out of the corner of her eye, she could see the way he glanced at her without turning his head.
"About what?" Seska asked in a fake coy voice, hoping to dig for more information from this speck of light. Patience, one of her old instructors had once lectured her, was the key to gaining the best success on a mission. It was something she'd expect to hear from a Ferengi and not a Cardassian, but she appreciated it.
The hologram even had Chakotay's patience. "About what I've been saying," it said, "about how a lot of the crew aren't too happy about our chief of security. For that matter, I doubt Captain Janeway is not winning any popularity contests either. Don't you agree?" the hologram asked and looked at her in a pointed manner that she had often seen on Chakotay's face and once more marvelled at how almost flawless this version of her toy boy was.
"You're testing me, right?" Seska pointed out herself, remembering all of her initial training when she had joined the Obsidian Order where all new agents inducted into the Cardassian secret police force had to undergo training in the basics of subterfuge before they moved onwards and gained further knowledge before going out to the holosuites and putting their training to work where they would practice for a short period and then develop them against normal people.
She had been in this turbo lift for a minute now, and this hologram, programmed or not, was as transparent as glass. Whoever had written this program had not really developed it at this point. She thought it was poor.
The holo-Chakotay didn't even miss a beat. "I'm interested in your opinion."
"Why?" she pressed as she gave in to the fool programmer's idea this was subtlety. Meanwhile, ideas about what this program was all about rushed through her mind as the holographic Chakotay went on.
"You're a good officer and I like you. I don't want to see you get hurt."
She had just about had enough of this now. She was done playing games, especially with holograms. It offended her to her being as a spy.
Besides, she was getting an idea of what this program was all about.
"Halt turbo lift," she snapped at the simulated computer as she stood in front of the unaffected hologram. "What's all this about?" she asked bluntly, entirely fed up with the riddles and really annoying innuendo.
The holo-Chakotay smiled softly. "There are going to be changes around here," it said. "All the Maquis are in line, and we've got 25 of the Starfleet people on our side."
"Mutiny?" Seska whispered in disbelief, though truthfully she wasn't that surprised since she had begun to guess what this program was about.
The clues were there! The title, the setting on Voyager, the way the holographic Chakotay seemed to be testing her, seeing what she was going to do. It all made sense, though she had no idea how the program would have played out if she had refused to take part in the mutiny.
"Yes. When the shooting starts, you're going to have to pick a side."
Seska re-entered her quarters and double-locked the doors - she had learned a long time ago to always watch her back, and like all good intelligence operatives she had learnt her lessons well, but unlike earlier when she had been so angry she had been barely able to think straight after that mess with Sikaris, this time she felt a bit more rested now she had discovered something worth her interest.
As she cleaned her teeth, Seska walked to her bed and climbed in before she turned off the lights. As she lay on her bed and checked the time, she was relieved she had only been gone for two hours. She would probably need some strong coffee in the morning but she felt the night had been worth it.
Seska lay on her back and looked up at the ceiling, thinking about the holoprogram she had spent the last two hours playing.
While she didn't know who had written it yet though she knew she would have more than enough time to discover who had done it at some point the next day, she had to admit that poor and unimaginative beginning aside, it was actually well written even if she found her holographic self a bit…flirtatious towards Chakotay.
Seska rarely flirted with Chakotay on Voyager, and when she did it was either private or along more subtle lines because she didn't want to be pulled up by one of Starfleet's insane regulations. It was a conscious choice on her part. Seska had taken advantage of many people during her career as an intelligence operative, and she had learnt the best way to do it was not to be too obvious, to always think through what she wanted, and then apply it gradually. It had worked a great deal over the years, and she saw no reason why it shouldn't work now.
But she didn't want to have problems on the more rigid Starfleet rules. In the Maquis, she had been slow and cautious in seducing Chakotay, but on this ship, she didn't want Tuvok lecturing her, but she also wanted to concentrate on other matters.
She had played the program three times with different combinations; it was irritating that the program began with Chakotay escorting her to the bridge, she had tried to say she was heading for a different location, but it hadn't worked and she knew that part of the program was written in with no way to change it.
Fortunately, she could play mutineer or loyalist when they got to the bridge. All she had needed to do was simply grab a phaser, shoot a few of the Starfleet crew (while she thought he was attractive certainly, she sometimes found Kim's never-ending preaching about how wonderful Earth was annoying, and his endless belief that the Federation was great was really trying on her temper), and she was fighting alongside Chakotay…. and herself and heading for the Mess Hall.
Seska shook her head at the clearly obvious low opinion the writer of the program had portrayed Neelix. While many of the crew liked the Talaxian (she did herself as long as he stayed clear of her and didn't make misassumptions of Bajoran culture), many found him annoying. (Again, she thought he was annoying, particularly with how little he was actually giving the crew like helping them avoid potential enemies).
It had been quite eerie walking through a corridor with a holographic representation of herself, rounding up the locked up crew members and taking them to a cargo bay where Chakotay made his speech, but she had to give credit to the person who'd written her character. It was scarily accurate in every way, such as her disdain towards Starfleet in general, and the way she viewed many of the crew, especially Kes.
But as she had walked with herself, helping the holographic her round everyone up, and mindful of the time, Seska had thought about who had written the program, but because she just didn't have the time to dig around in the computer to find out who had written the program. She had little doubt whoever had done it had covered up their tracks, but there were ways to seal files. It was just a question of knowing how to do it, but she was still not in the mood to hack Voyager's computer.
Anyway, she had decided to reset the program, and see what would have happened if she had decided not to become a mutineer. Needless to say, she had enjoyed it even less. Spending time in the brig with Kim and Tuvok, having to listen to that tedious lecture from the supercilious Vulcan was enough to try the nerves of anyone organic. Holographic, no.
Seska would have played the program out a bit more on both fronts, but it was too late, and she was tired. So she had closed the program down and placed it back in the same file it had been before - she doubted anyone would just find it again unless the writer returned, but that was doubtful since the program had not been touched in a while - and had headed back to her quarters so she could sleep and think things through.
As she started to drift off to sleep, Seska decided to just wait and see what had happened since she never made plans out unless she had everything she needed to make them work out.
Until the next time...