Chapter 9: Arise as a Queen

Mallor looked out across the waters of the home that was her's, a smile gracing her features. Everything felt right. It looked right. It was everything she had ever wanted. A husband, kind and dear. A life, simple and unburdened by cares. How could she deny it was right?

And yet. It wasn't.

She looked at Tom, climbing off a bicycle, his muscles seeming to bulge with every motion. Sweat jumping off him with every movement. She chuckled as she watched him then charge for the lake and jump in, and massive splash exploding from the lake. He was her Tom. This was what she wanted.

And yet. It wasn't.

"Jump in!" Tom called out from the lake and she began to move forward. Jump in and get wet. A big grin across her face. She would enjoy this. It was what she needed.

And yet. It wasn't.

He continued to beckon her forward, but right at the water's edge, about to step in, realization hit her. Her smile dropped as she thought: What am I doing? I have no right for this. Common people get to choose the lives they lead. Leaders don't. And I've abandoned my people.

"What's the matter?" Tom called, "The water's not bad."

Mallor turned on her feet and began to walk away. This wasn't right. She needed to leave. And she knew that the edge of the trail was where she could leave this fiction she had created. Bubbled in her own imagination. She needed to leave.

But, the more she walked away, the thicker the grass grew, knotting itself and trying to catch her. Rose bushes grew and their thorns became larger and larger, threatening to shred through her. Holes began to appear without warning before her feet, and behind the holes massive trees grew, blocking her way out. Tom's voice turned from pleading to demanding.

She fought her way though, but thistles grew and tripped her. She fell flat, her body scratching from the thistles as they cut into her, the scratches growing and not shrinking. As she panted, a shadow fell over her. She turned to look, and it was Tom, grown a million times his size, his fair skin turning red and green, stench of death heavy upon him. He pointed his finger down at her and laughed booming over the land.

"One does not escape the Trap of the Mind," he croaked, "They must submit or perish."

"Leave me alone!" she shouted as a massive hand reached down from the sky above, "I want to live! Q! Help me."

A rumbling was heard in the sky and waves of red and yellow rippled through the sky and the land cracked. The house, lake, trees, even the mountain tumbled into the opening maw of the earth. She forced herself up and pushed forward, shoving aside anything that stood in her path. She was making it, and standing at the edge of the trail, arms open, was Q. She ran towards him...

The clapping of hands greeted her. She stopped running, and looked around, the whole landscape turned from mountains and rivers to white clouds bellowing in blue skies, rushing by her. She turned, and saw her father standing there, as he looked before the Borg.

"Hello Mallor," he smiled, walking up to her, scar-free, "You have done yourself proud and made me proud."

"Your implants?" she asked, running a hand across his fine chiseled face, "Where are they? Surely Q would have let you keep your true appearance?"

"Q had nothing to do with this," he said, then with a pause added, "Mostly."

"So how fares the Empire?" Mallor asked, looking with wonder upon both of his eyes, something she had not seen since so long ago.

"It burns," he shook his head sorrowfully, "If only I could be there, I could have stopped this madness."

"You are leading some of the Empire's finest troops," she reasoned, "You can defeat any-"

"I'm dead," he said, holding up a hand to her lips, "Died at Bajor."

"Dead?" she asked, a feeling of thunder seeming to strike her.

"Let that not happen to the Empire," he said, putting his hands on her shoulders, "You have finally grown up. It is magnificent to see. The girl is gone, and there before me stands a woman. Be everything you can be. And save the Empire. Riker will be a difficult opponent to beat, but an alliance has formed, and you will find you have more allies than one for your aid. Now, my daughter, awake."

"Her EG reading have shot off the scale," the Doctor said.

"What does that mean?" the Hirogen Alpha asked.

"I have no idea," he said, but when he turned around, the Empress' hand shot up and wrapping around the throat of the nearest Terran security officer yanked hard down of the windpipe and twisted slightly. The guard fell in a heap of gurgling death. The second Terran in the room caught a foot to the chin that hit at an angle that stunned him, and then Mallor was upon him, her fingernails tearing into his throat and under his chin and tearing off mass of flesh and the rubbery windpipe.

"What is this?" the Hirogen bellowed as the only other guard in the room, a Bolian, couldn't turn around fast enough to prevent having his arm thrust behind him, thrown to the ground and Mallor foot come crashing on the back of his neck, breaking it in a clean motion.

"That's impossible!" the Doctor exclaimed as Mallor pulled the daggers out of the guards sheaths and crouched as the Hirogen prepared to pounce, "She's been in a coma for six months! Muscle atrophy should make her unable to move."

The Hirogen charged forth, throwing his armored gauntlet to knock aside the first knife she threw. But, right behind the first one came a second dagger and he dodged it with great ease. However, he wasn't fighting a simple Terran warrior or even a Klingon. Mallor had been trained in the Special Forces and they taught her a very key lesson. It was to direct the enemy to the third blade. And he learned this lesson as his dodge resulted in opening himself just enough to find the third dagger blade driving up through his chin and inbed into the base of his brain. He collapsed without a struggle.

The Doctor moved against her at impossible speeds with a hypospray of a formula for induced coma, but with a swift motion, the Empress pulled out a blaster and in the same fluid motion fired a single shot. His matrix fell apart as the holographic emmiter was destroyed in a shower of explosions.

"I am Mallor," she growled, her face an eternal snarl, as the doors burst open and guards begin to enter, brigning phasers set on stun to bear, "Empress of the Terran Empire! And I will destroy all who oppose me."