MAQUIS
Act 3 - Scene 1
When Kathryn returned to her bunk, she put a phaser under her pillow, it made sense to be prepared. She was pretty sure that Seska was trying to kill her and she felt uneasy whenever she was on her own with Mr Suder, she had to rely on her instincts and they'd never failed her yet. The following day she had been assigned to the late shift. She wanted to chat to the other crewmembers, it would be nice to find some allies.
She lay down on her bunk and closed her eyes trying to get some sleep. Since Voyager had been destroyed, she'd been finding it difficult to sleep. As soon as she closed her eyes she saw images of the fresh faced young men and women who had started this journey with her but were now dead. She had a recurring dreams that Voyager had survived the attack and she was still in command, with the only loss of life being the crewmen who'd died when they were abducted from the Alpha quadrant. She would wake up smiling until the grief and loss hit her again.
Scene 2
She knew it was getting late so she went to the kitchen to get some warm milk to help her sleep. The kitchen was in darkness, so she switched on the light and was startled to find Mr Suder sitting at the one of the tables.
"I'm sorry I frightened you Kathryn, I have trouble sleeping, so I sit here in the dark, to soothe my senses."
"I'm having trouble sleeping as well, I thought some hot milk might help, would you like some?" she tried to sound normal to cover her unease.
"No thank you, it was kind of you to offer, it's a refreshing change to have a friendly face around, I don't think the other crewmembers like me very much."
"I'm finding it difficult to integrate with the crew, I don't suppose it helped that I was a Starfleet officer!"
Suder smiled but it never reached his eyes, his gaze was very intense. Kathryn tried to distract him from his examination of her with small talk
"You're from Betazed aren't you, do you have any special telepathic abilities?"
"No I'm afraid I was a sad disappointment to my family, When I was a child they told my mother and father that I had a personality disorder that suppressed my telepathic abilities, my father said it was a cheap trick to get more money out of him for therapy, so I never found out why.
"I'm sorry, I think I'll try to get to sleep now, good night."
"Goodnight Kathryn, sweet dreams."
Suder was extremely happy, she actually wanted to know more about him! He worried about telling her about his childhood but she seemed to be sympathetic. He'd never shared anything about himself with the others. He admired her so much, especially her grace, strength and fragility. He returned to his bunk to relive every moment of their conversation..
Scene 3
In the morning, Kathryn finished some personal chores then set out to make friends. Her first stop was the mess hall to get some breakfast. There was a seat empty by Seska and B'Elanna but she quickly dismissed it as a suicide mission. There was a female crew member sitting by herself in the corner, so she walked over to the table.
"My name is Kathryn, is this seat taken?"
"I'm Mariah, nothing personal but we were warned not to fraternise with you,"
She glanced over at Seska to show her who had issued the threat, then stood up and moved to sit by B'Elanna. Kathryn sat down at the empty table. she looked up and caught Seska grinning delightedly at B'Elanna, who didn't look quite as spite filled.
Ayala came in to get some breakfast before he hit the sack after his night shift. When he saw Kathryn sitting by herself and all the female crewmembers sitting at one table with Seska, he knew she was being ostracised.
He waited until she looked up before he spoke, "Do you mind if I sit here?"
Kathryn smiled, "I don't think anyone else will sit there so be my guest."
"I'm Ayala, I don't think we've had the chance to get acquainted yet."
"I'm glad you've introduced yourself, thank you for accepting me as a part of the crew and for allowing me to take your position."
"Don't mention it, I like having less work to do, it will give me more time to socialise with the bitches onboard," he said while looking straight at Seska to make sure she knew he was talking about her.
Kathryn grinned, "Thank you but I'm not sure that will help matters."
"I don't like her anyway so it's not going to affect me at all," he replied.
Chakotay appeared at the door, "Ayala and Janeway, with me please."
Seska waited until the Captain was out of earshot , "Did you see Ayala, he was almost making out with her."
"I thought he was just being polite," said B'Elanna reasonably.
"She is going to cause a lot of trouble onboard, the sooner we get rid of her, the better."
Scene 4
Chakotay felt a twinge of jealousy when he saw Kathryn and Ayala sharing breakfast. He was quite surprised as he wasn't the jealous type normally.
Chakotay explained, "We have discovered a rogue planetoid, which appears to have large deposits of raw dilithium. If we can mine as much as we can carry, it can be swapped for other supplies or we could find a planet where it can be processed and sell the excess."
"When you say the planetoid appears to have deposits, what makes you doubt the scanners," asked Kathryn astutely.
"A gut instinct, the deposits seem too large for the size of this minor planet."
Kathryn looked at the results again, "The largest deposits seem to be in a series of caves, ten to twenty kilometres below the planet surface, there is a breathable atmosphere, so we could take a small team down to make more detailed geological survey."
"I agree, Kathryn you're with me, we'll go down to before the others to start the survey," then he turned to Ayala, "When you receive our signal, send down Seska, B'Elanna, Suder and Dalby, you will be in command until I return."
Scene 5
Kathryn collected her phaser from her bunk and followed Chakotay to the transporter. When they arrived in the caves, they switched on their wrist torches and started to explore the caves.
Kathryn looked puzzled, "I can't find any traces of dilithium, there should be huge deposits where we're standing."
I'll signal Ayala to send the others down, we can cover more ground."
As soon as everyone arrived in the caves they split up to search for the dilithium. B'Elanna was relieved not to be paired with Suder because he gave her the creeps. Suder and Seska barely tolerated each other. She believed that he had severe psychological issues and was possibly sociopathic and borderline psychotic. He sensed that she was hiding in plain sight, he recognised a fellow predator when he saw one.
The only thing everyone agreed on was there was something suspicious about these caves.
Chakotay and Kathryn were exploring a gloomy, dank tunnel when she saw something in front of them dart out of sight.
"Did you see that Chakotay, do you think it was an animal?"
He went ahead of her and moved cautiously down the tunnel.
"I think it was humanoid, we'll assume it's hostile until proven otherwise," he turned around to make sure she was okay.
She smiled to herself, it had been a long time since anyone thought she needed protecting. They forgot about their discovery when they heard a loud roar of rage and horror. Chakotay knew it was B'Elanna who was screaming and rushed towards her last known position. He used the unending stream of Klingon expletives to find her. Finally they saw what had upset her, she was kneeling by Dalby's dead body. She started to sob again, when she checked her tricorder.
"Something has stripped his body clean, all his organs are missing, but there are no entry or exit wound. Who would manufacture technology that could harvest organs so efficiently?"
Seska and Suder arrived at the scene out of breath and curiously were not affected by the news of Dalby's murder, Seska knelt by her friend, totally amazed that something or someone had frightened her this much, B'Elanna was half Klingon, she didn't scare easily.
Chakotay knelt down on the other side of B'Elanna, "Do you think you could tell us what happened?"
"We were walking along this tunnel when Dalby told me that he thought somebody was following us. I thought he was just spooked so I ignored him. We continued to explore the tunnel when Dalby cried out, I turned around to see this monstrous creature, at the back of him, who appeared to be made from scraps of skin and tissue from other species. Dalby was lying on the floor as the creature sealed his organs in separate vacuum packed containers. After I screamed he turned around and disappeared through that rock, the rest you know."
Chakotay gave out his orders, "B'Elanna take Dalby's body back to sick bay, ask our friendly physician to conduct a full autopsy, I need the results as soon as possible."
He turned to the others, "We need to find this monster and deliver justice for our friend and fallen comrade. Information about these creatures is equally important, the more we know about them, the easier it will be to avoid them."
"Shall we split up again," asked Seska, hoping to stay with Chakotay."
"I think we'll stay together, there is strength in numbers."
"Which rock did you say he walked through?"
B'Elanna pointed at the opposite wall of the tunnel. Chakotay started to scan the surface.
"This isn't rock, there is a forcefield in place, allowing these creatures to move around these caves undetected."
"Seska do you think that you can get us access to whatever is behind there."
"Help me find the control panel and I doubt it will take longer than fifteen minutes."
They found the panel behind a large boulder and left Seska alone to do her work. As she predicted, fifteen minutes later, she gained access to whatever the cave monsters were hiding behind their forcefield. Chakotay took the lead, followed by the others.
Scene 6
They found a repository for humanoid organs, skin, different body parts and hair. To call it a chamber of horrors would have been an understatement.
Suder was enthralled, he saw a jar of eyes, right next to ears and noses. He forgot about those jars when he saw the perfectly preserved whole brains. He could imagine the care needed to remove it whole and undamaged, one nick and it would be useless.
Chakotay and Kathryn felt uneasy when they watched him gazing at these horrors in awe and wonderment with an unhealthy fascination. They both knew that they were going to have to talk about Suder, sooner rather than later.
"Someone is coming," shouted Seska, who had been left on guard. They hid as the creature who killed Dalby packed his organs away on a shelf, neatly labelled. As he went to leave, B'Elanna took him by surprise, twisted his arm behind his back, then pulled a knife and held it tightly to his throat.
"Who or what are you? I suggest you explain yourself quickly before my hand gets restless."
He rasped "You will have to remove the knife before I can talk."
B'Elanna reluctantly took the knife away from his neck, while Chakotay tied his hands and pushed him into a chair roughly.
"I am a Vidiian, two thousand years ago my species was attacked by a disease that we call the Phage, which destroys our genetic codes and cellular structure. We survive by harvesting organs from healthy bodies and using them to replace our diseased tissues."
"Why did you murder our crewman?" asked Chakotay.
"We had to become monsters in order to survive, rarely, in times of great need, we are forced to remove organs from living donors."
Kathryn asked the next question, "Who is responsible for organ collection?"
"I am part of an organisation called the Honatta, we are responsible for organ collection."
"How do you collect the organs without damaging the body?"
"We have a special device, it is a medical scanner and surgical instrument, it uses a neural resonator to anaesthetise the victim while a quantum imaging scanner is used to collect a micro-cellular analysis of the whole body. It can record everything about a victim's body down to DNA sequencing."
"I am sorry about your friend, we were desperate, due to a severe shortage of organs ."
"I'm sorry that I have to kill you, I understand that you are fighting for survival but I cannot allow the death of one of my crew to go unavenged. I need to send a message to your people that we will retaliate if they attack any of us again."
"Chakotay, can I talk to you privately please?" asked Kathryn desperately.
"We will talk afterwards Kathryn, it would be cruel to make him wait for his punishment."
He turned around, B'Elanna handed him her knife, he moved to the back of the Vidiian and expertly slit his throat. He made sure that he was looking at the Vidiian as he died, to show he wasn't a coward.
Kathryn ran past him with tears running down her face, he went after her to explain.
"I'm sorry Kathryn, this is not the Alpha quadrant and I'm not the Captain of a Starfleet vessel. We have to survive and I don't have the firepower of Voyager to intimidate our enemies. We need the aliens in the Delta quadrant to believe that we will be ruthless if they attack us."
What he didn't tell her was that killing the Vidiian had made him sick to his stomach. He was a man of peace and senseless violence disgusted him but he was the Captain of the Val Jean with responsibility for the whole crew and he was determined there would be no more deaths for him to lose sleep over!