London, Conference for Intergalactic Cultural Exchange 1000

It was supposed to be some huge delegation of officials from at least thirty different planets, along with the requisite officials and their entourage at least one hundred other prominent individuals ranging from athletes to performers had also managed to get an invite.

Car'ro sighed, it was boring being security for the event. You would have thought that he would have had more to do. But Starfleet had its people there and the normal security for the convention centre had all been temporarily demoted to lesser roles.

Still Car'ro couldn't really complain. He would take an ordinary uneventful time to a life of excitement and adventure anytime. He knew from experience that excitement wasn't always a good thing. In fact almost a decade ago he had had enough in his childhood to last him the rest of his lifetime. Watching at least forty people be summarily executed and being told you were one of the chosen and that's why you were spared tended to do that to a person.

Car'ro glanced at the security monitors noting how tight-ass Starfleet officers were busy checking almost every person that so much as sneezed wrong, and then turned back to the holo monitor he was watching. It was a few hundred years since they had first started but day-time soaps hadn't changed much. He flicked to a news channel and settled back to watch. Stock prices in shuttles were fluctuating, some miracle drug had been discovered in the Cantera sector, and the list of boring ad endless minutiae continued parading past. Car'ro had all but tuned out the listings until a news clip about tarsus IV caught his attention, apparently one of the Tarsus nine had been discovered. Poor bastard Car'ro thought and raised the volume. He listened with interest and then froze as the clip ended and an old audio of what was supposedly Kodos began playing.

As the sound bit finished he got up. It was a short walk to the conference room where everybody was listening to some lecturer. A quick excuse got him through the doors and then he was in. He wove through the tables quickly, trying to find his target before he was stopped. The man turned toward him as he asked his name and then he had seconds to be surprised as he disintegrated from the fire of Car'ro's phaser set to kill. Three more bolts of light lanced out with glaring accuracy and then with a final motion Car'ro raised his phaser and fired into his own chest. The security guards that had been trying to reach him watched as he glowed with the phaser's corona. In the milliseconds before his body molecularly disintegrated he had a small hint of satisfaction as he thought about how his actions would serve to further the plan. His sacrifice was necessary. The sacrifices of the many and the works of the few... the phrase was the last thought he ever had.

New York ... Short range Transporter terminal.

"Move along, move along."

Lacy hitched her bag higher on her shoulder and glanced at the security officer moving towards her. She saw the mini phaser he had at his belt and was sure he was one of "them". Before he could reach her she slipped through the crowd settling on bench near the incoming terminal. She liked to watch the sparkles of light as passengers materialised. It all felt so hopeful, something from nothing.

Like creation...something from nothing...Like god's work.

Not God's work there isn't a god, you know that? I'm right aren't I?

Lacy knows what's right without...

"Shut up, shut up." Lacy put her hands over her ears drowning out the voices repeatedly pestering her. She started rocking back and forth and humming as the voices grew louder, arguing back and forth.

A hand touched her shoulder causing her to flinch; she looked up seeing a woman in her late forties leaning near her. Lacy pulled her hands off her ears to hearing the woman's voice mix with the others.

Leave she's one of them.

He's right it's not safe here.

"Are you okay dear?"

GET AWAY FROM HER!

Lacy stood up barely remembering to grab her pack and raced away from the startled woman.

She dodged through the crowd until she arrived in the dim interior of a coffee shop, it was one of the ones' at the outskirts of the Terminal and rarely frequented, plus coffee wasn't as popular as it had once been. She settled in the corner of a table. There was only a two people in the whole shop. A girl about her age in a corner watching the old Holo monitor projecting the news and the store owner behind the counter.

She was safe for now, the voices continued to talk but they were quieter this time, it was easier to ignore them. The atmosphere in the coffee shop was familiar and she hadn't slept in days, she wanted to sleep but she feared she would be found if she did.

Her eyes grew heavier and heavier and then she was fast asleep.

She awoke to a soft voice above her. Instantly her eyes snapped awake, her hands moving towards her pockets for the small laser knife she had.

"Relax Lacy it's just me."

A young man was standing over her. She recognised him as one of the workers in the coffee shop. His name was...she tried to remember but couldn't even though she had known him for several months now. Names...Times...those things were always hard to remember she couldn't really concentrate on them enough to memorise them, because the voices were always interrupting.

The man settled down carefully across from her. And smiled sadly. "So what's going on?"

"N-n-n-nothing..." She glanced around trying to avoid his gaze. A man at a table nearby stood up causing his chair to set down with a loud thump. Lacy jumped at the sound, already half rising from her seat, ready to run. Flashes of memory surged through her. Standing in her school yard as solider divided the students and took one group away. She and the others were marched in another direction, but that didn't mean she couldn't hear the faint screams in the distance of the others as they started up.

"Lacy, it's a customer."

She glanced up trying to concentrate. Between the flashes of memories and the voices it was hard to think.

Stop talking to him, he's...

He's not right.

"I l-l-like him." Lacy said the words loudly drowning out the voices momentarily. She blushed as she realised what she had said.

But the young man, Kevin—she remembered his name now—smiled a little more and glanced back at the middle aged-customer who was just exiting the shop. "Yeah, Mr. Peis is nice but isn't he a little out of your age-range?" Kevin teased.

Lacy blushed even further. "N—n—n-not... She broke off the sentences as she paused to listen to the voices.

Kevin was speaking but she couldn't listen. She shook her head clutching her knees and rocking back and forth as the voices reached a crescendo.

Finally Kevin stopped speaking and simply stared at her. She wasn't aware of his gaze; instead she was watching the Holo monitor in the corner. The news was on, something about one of the Tarsus nine being discovered, the fragments of the news anchor were hard to keep track off, in between the voices already vying for her attention. An old degraded audio clip started playing and strangely everything faded away but the words.

The start of a new revolution has begun...Challenges that we all must overcome...Sacrifices are necessary...

The clip stopped abruptly and the sound in the small shop seemed to come back like somebody had cranked up the volume.

Lacy stared around the shop, having no idea how she had gotten there. Ignoring the young man sitting at the table with her, she raced out. The voices had disappeared and instead were replaced by one, that she was still she never had heard before but was strangely familiar.

Kodos. He was disappointed with her, she hadn't followed the plan, she was supposed to be a part of a new dawn and instead what had she done to further the plan?

The voice whispered in her ear, telling her what it wanted her to do. She shivered as she was forced to watch the images flashing across her mind. Somebody bumped into her and her eyes snapped open, she was standing in the middle of the transporter terminal, and people were swarming around her.

Wasted beings, weak pitiful beings, Do they really deserve to be alive?

The voice kept talking, its voice rising, until it was shouting, urging her to do what it wanted. People were stopping and moving towards her. Lacy remained unaware, kneeling in the middle of the terminal. Her hand shook as she slowly removed a knife from her pack.

Good now, see that guard over there? He's near the control beam for the main transporter, get to them and scramble the next beam.

Fifty people would be arriving in less than a few minutes that would never arrive at their destination.

"No!" Lacy had risen to her feet, somebody had reached her now, and they tried to grab her arm. But the hand was too slow; before the person could react she had brought the knife up to her own neck. Blood spurted out, spattering the crowd. Te world tilted, she fell to the ground, her vision fading as horrified screams echoed in her ears

...But that was okay, because at least now, for the first time in years, the voices were blessedly silent...

Darkness closed in...Bringing a final silence.

New Horizon Mining ship: Deep Space

"This is the fifth planet we've stopped off at that's been strictly business" Lyons stabbed a bite of salad with his fork and shovelled it in his mouth.

His friend, Ichards grimaced at the motion but was used to his friend' eating habits and instead of commenting on the lack of table manners answered. "Yeah, well Dilithium means profit and they don't give a sh- about keeping us happy in the process."

"I'm not saying that they can't get profits, but what's the problem with mixing a little business with pleasure."

"There's a little pleasure on this ship" Ichards remarked as he glanced over Lyons shoulder.

Lyons turned to see where he was staring at and snorted. "If you mean Chelsea, I've seen people less cold when we were mining that time on that Ice planet a few sectors back."

"Okay, maybe you're right but she is nice on the eyes." Ichard's said still staring at the half-Argellian pilot.

"Whatever, I'm just saying this is the last time I sign up for this rig."

"You said that the last three signups admit it the pay's to good."

'Pay's no good if you can't spend it."

"Quit griping we've –" Ichards abruptly broke off as Chelsea

"Mind if I sit here?" Before either could respond she had placed her tray on the table and slid uncomfortably close to Lyons. She took a bite of her sandwich and then with preamble said. "So I heard what you guys were saying and I just want to set the record straight. I can be real warm with the right people, but sadly Ichards you who think that unless you've marked ever female from here to Alpha Centurai on you scorecard then you've lost, don't count as the right people."

"What? I was just saying—"

"Save it."

Ichards turned to Lyons. "A little help here would be nice." His friend didn't even act like he had heard; his entire attention was focused on a news clip that was being broadcast across the screen.

Lyons attention had faded away from the bantering conversation and drifted far back as he glanced to the Holo screen in the corner of the mess hall and he caught the beginning of a news clip. His breath caught in his throat as he remembered what he had tried to forget almost a decade ago. He had just been a kid at that time, but he had been one of the chosen. His parents had been one of Kodos supporters and so he had been spared the mass execution and then systematic hunt for the remnants of the failed colony that Kodos had named the condemned. But even though he had lived and hadn't directly been responsible for anything that had happened he couldn't forget the guilt he felt , at being chosen to live while hundreds of others that he knew and were no different from him were slaughtered because of a madman's idea of what was right. And now after all that time it was coming back, even running far way into a deep space job, where civilization was light-years away at best hadn't spared him from his past.

Lyons felt memories creeping around the edges of his mind as the woman talked and pictures of Tarsus flashed by on the screen. Ichards and Chelsea both feel silent as they noticed the subject of the News feed. One of the Tarsus Nine has revealed their identity. Starfleet refuses to confirm whether the person's statements are true but he claims to have seen Kodos and actually heard the man's original speech before his mass execution of almost a thousand people on the doomed colony Tarsus IV. Few remains of actual evidence have been disclosed by Starfleet, and they claim to have no actual audio that is recognizable from Kodos. However a leaked audio, appears to give us a glimpse at Kodos as he actually was. Please note that the voice you hear has been digitally reconstructed but is still very distorted and we cannot account of that accuracy of the words 100%. Also the speech is largely fragmented due to the severe denigration of the original source. We warn you that some subject matter that you are about to hear may be disturbing to younger viewers...

By order of the Governor of Tarsus IV you are to be put to death...

...I take no pleasure in what must be done, but on the path to a better Galaxy there will be losses...

...We must each sacrifice, the weak must be cast away, and the strong shall remain...

...This policy of the inclusion of all has weakened the federation...for every flock to flourish the unnecessary must be culled to make room and allow the others to grow even stronger...

Your deaths are just the beginning; the federation will fall and must. Success will be gained, with the sacrifices of the many and the works of the few, by such mechanisms greatness will be achieved...

"What you just heard was the original audio from a speech that is reported to have been made to a group of condemned individual's right before they were executed. I –"

Lyons felt like his head was splitting. He slumped forward holding it in his hands, memories were flashing by, and fragments of the speech were swirling through his mind. Abruptly he straightened up, his sudden headache was gone. He stood up, ignoring his friends questioning glances. When one of them asked where he was going he replied, the answer was hastily constructed and wouldn't have stood up to any long scrutiny however at this point all he needed was a few minutes. His walk was controlled as he exited the mess hall, he answered the friendly remarks of the unfamiliar crew that he passed in the halls, but he was focused on what he had to do.

Ichards and Chelsea glanced at each other as Lyons walked away. He ignored the question they directed at him like he hadn't even heard.

"Okay that was weird." Chelsea said as Lyons disappeared through the mess hall door.

Lyons made his way to the environmental controls and crept up behind the tech who was half-asleep in his chair reading a data padd. He glanced up as Lyons approached."Hey, you what are you doing down here? Rusty decided to spread the boredom around? I—" The man broke off mid-sentence as Lyons broke his neck. The techs body sagged in his seat. Lyons dumped the body to the ground and then overrode the controls locking himself in the control room. Carefully he selected the dials that would lower the oxygen levels throughout the ship. Then he sat back and waited. In less than ten minutes everybody on the ship would be unconscious and by the time anybody realised what was happening it would be too late. In twenty minutes from everybody being unconscious they all would be dead.

Lyons settled back to wait. He had plans to make. The ship was carrying large cache of dilithium; it was enough fuel for several ships. He knew what he needed to do: find the others, and make contact. Then they could proceed with the plan. He flicked on the security feeds throughout the ship, watching as his crewmates began stumbling and collapsing. Briefly he lingered on the security feed of the mess hall and watched Ichards and Chelsea collapse. He briefly felt a twinge of guilt that was quickly washed away.

A phrase suggested itself easing his discomfort. The sacrifices of the many and the works of the few.

Next update will be Jan 30th . I apologise for the slow updates but I'm getting read to start 20 credit hours of work, and so managing to even update is a challenge. Plus , yes and don't be angry, but I'm working on a Tarsus IV story, basically my take on what happened when Kodos took over, I know it's been done before but mine is a little different. Plus, I got another cold and so in between work and fanfic I'm resting up and becoming hooked on SpN.