The Lily Plague Crisis

by Lyda Mae (RavenDove) Huff

Chapter Twenty-Five: The White Flag

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Chakotay, Ona and Mathias approached the commissary gates of Camp One with a white strip of cloth held in front of them. Chakotay called out to the man on the prefab buildings roof. "We would like to speak with your leaders."

A Ktarian and a man of unknown race poked their heads up a little higher than their barricade then ducked low again. "Who are you?" one of them called out.

"I am Captain Chakotay of USS Voyager, this is Ambassador 'dia Ona of Trill and Lt. Commander Mathias from Deep Space Nine." he gestured to the two ladies with him. "We know that you are angry over the conditions here and what happened earlier, we just want to end this before anyone else gets hurt."

There was only silence from the commissary and Ona began to talk. "I would like to speak with the father of the child that was killed."

"Why do you want to speak with him?" the same voice yelled back.

"Because my daughter is one of the hybrids that is sick, and I don't think he wants to see any more children die today."

There were many moments of silence then a creaking sound as the doors of the building opened enough to let three men exit and come within closer range of the gate. Each man held a phaser or some other kind of energy weapon. At the center was the Ktarian. "I am Krendrar." He said heavily. "I am the father of Dania."

"Dania is a very beautiful name." said Ona.

"She was beautiful child." Krendrar said with anger.

"Would you like to see my daughter?" Ona asked as she pulled a locket from around her neck.

Krendrar backed up with skepticism.

"I will place her picture through the gate and one of your men can retrieve it." Ona moved very slowly as she closed the gap between her group and the fence.

She then began to retreat after placing the locket on the ground through the fence, but her tunic caught on the wire. One of the men by Krendrar rushed forward, but was shot down by a blast from a man on top of a near by building.

More shots were fired by men on top of the commissary and Chakotay rushed forward to try and free Ona, but Krendrar and his other companion had pulled the gate back and ripped Ona's sleeve free. Then Krendrar was holding his phaser to Ona's head and the shooting stopped.

"We are going back into the commissary." he yelled. "You will not shoot again." His companion drug their injured comrade back to the building while Krendrar forced Ona to walk backwards with the phaser pressed to her head.

Once the rioters had retreated again Chakotay and Mathias retreated themselves. "Who fired that shot?" Chakotay yelled.

A green recruit was ushered down from the building where the shot had come. Chakotay was ready to yell at the crewmen when the man slumped to the ground. A woman in a blue uniform ran a tricorder over him and looked up at Chakotay. "He's part El Arian1 Captain." She said. "I'd say he's in no shape to have been pulling duty up there."

"Is it possible he was hallucinating?" Chakotay asked.

The medic looked down at the man as he was placed on a stretcher. "We may never know, Sir."

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Lt. Commander Tom Paris2 looked at the forward viewer on Voyager's bridge. "We're still getting a clear signal from the Ambassador's transponder Captain. We could just beam her out of there."

"I don't think so Tom." Chakotay shook his head. "She had a mild sort of an episode after reaching Topaz Command that required Isobromine."

"What does that mean?" Tom asked.

"It means that another trip through the transporter today could kill her." said Dr. Kaz from the turbolift doorway. "If they have injured her in any way then the chances that a transport could cause a fatal case of shock are even higher." the Trill continued as he walked down to the command level.

"If she has that much trouble with transporters then why was she willing to use one in the first place?" Paris asked.

"Most of the time they don't give her trouble, but if she is stressed they can cause her problems." Kaz continued. "I was just looking at her medical file." he admitted. "I was able to pull up her most recent scans from check in at Camp Six after she transported down to Camp One. She has survived two bouts of Host Rejection syndrome3 and I think she is about to go into a third."

"If her joining is that unhealthy why wasn't she unjoined after the attacks on Trill like so many others?"4 Chakotay asked.

"Because it was determined that Ona would not survive unjoining or transplantation to another host when she recovered from the first bout shortly after joining with 888dia." Kaz's pronunciation of the Ambassador's full first name was more than a little strange. The first three syllables were enough to make many humanoids develop laryngitis by trying to say them. "It's because of how Trey Ona died. It damaged Ona to a point that the symbiont should no longer be capable of joining with any host, yet 888dia and Ona are still joined somehow."

"We'll just have to figure out how to end this without taking more risks to the Ambassador than we have too." said Chakotay.

"With a hostage the rioters may grow more bold." said Paris.

"Even worse is what her husband might do." said Kaz.

"What do you mean?" said Chakotay.

"Xenexian Men are not known for acting rationally when their mates have been taken prisoner."5 said Kaz.

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1. This race name may not be spelled right, but it is suppose to be the same race as Guinan.

2. Tom Paris was promoted to Lt. Commander after the return of Voyager to the Alpha Quadrant. His appointment as first officer of Voyager was not official at the end of Spirit Walk Book Two, but I'm willing to bet on it.

3. (See Star Trek: Deep Space Nine third season episode Equilibrium.)

4. The Worlds of Star trek : Deep Space Nine: Volume Two: Trill: Unjoined.

5. See any Star Trek New Frontier Novel for the behavior and customs of Xenex.

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