EIDOLON
by Avalon (avalon99@telusplanet.net)
http://members.dencity.com/avalon_online
J/C, PG-13, 2/7
EIDOLON II
Stars trailed past the shuttle in a continuous stream as Janeway and her captor sat in strained silence. Finally the woman spoke again. "Where are you taking me?"
"My home planet. I have...some...unfinished business."
She was somewhat surprised that he had even bothered to reply. Following up on her momentary advantage she pressed for more answers. "Why did you attack my crew?"
"They were in my way. Besides, they annoyed me. As do you.
Shut up, Kathryn, or I shall shut you up permanently." The conversational
tone of his voice was belied by the very real threat lying beneath it.
For a moment Janeway debated doing just that...being a good little
hostage and hoping she would get out of this alive...but that had never
been her style. No one had ever accused her of being timid.
Reckless sometimes, idiotic on occasion, and even damned annoying, but
never timid. Besides, any information she could gain would help her...and
Chakotay.
"I don't think so," she said aloud.
Eidolon gave her an annoyed glance. "Don't what?"
"I don't think you can kill me just yet. We might be travelling along quite nicely on automatic for now, but unless you've had a crash course in piloting Starfleet shuttlecraft, you need me. So I suggest you keep your threats to yourself."
He leaned closer to her, and Janeway had to suppress the urge to flinch backwards. This was all wrong. This was Chakotay's body. He wasn't supposed to behave like this; she wasn't supposed to be afraid of him... But Chakotay wasn't in control right now, the Captain reminded herself.
Eidolon smiled, a menacing parody of Chakotay's warm expression. "There are worse things than death, you know, Captain. I could make you wish you were dead, while still leaving you quite capable of landing this ship..."
He didn't miss the faint flicker of fear in her eyes. And neither did she. Janeway's chin came up and the fear was replaced by challenge. 'Try it,' her suggestion seemed to say, 'and you will more than regret it.'
For a moment Eidolon was tempted. There were... things... he could do to her that would have her screaming for oblivion, but despite what he said, he wasn't sure she _would_ be able to pilot the shuttlecraft afterwards. Perhaps when they landed... Eidolon looked away, allowing his mind to dwell on what he could do to her when they arrived. When he no longer needed her... His smile widened as he stared out the window.
Janeway noticed the smile out of the corner of her eye and shuddered
slightly. She might have just miscalculated, she realized.
'Time to think of a plan, Kathryn', she decided, 'because you probably
won't get a chance later...' Unfortunately though, her mind remained
frustratingly blank. The only course of action she could see was
to keep trying to draw him out in conversation, and that had its own dangers,
as she had already discovered. 'Oh well, in for a penny...'
"How did you get on board my ship?"
The question startled him, and he turned back to her in annoyance, dragging his mind away from whatever thoughts had been occupying him. Suddenly Janeway realized she didn't want to know what those thoughts had been. The expression on his face was not a pleasant one.
"Has anyone ever told you that you are a very irritating female?"
Janeway swallowed, but carefully maintained her composure. "Lots of times. And you haven't answered my question."
"Through the hull. What else do you want to know?" Sarcasm coloured his voice.
"What you are. What your intentions are. What you've done with Commander Chakotay. Where we're going. Why..."
He cut her off in mid-flow. "You are definitely the most annoying human I have met. I can't imagine why Chakotay was so attracted to you."
That silenced her, but Janeway quickly rallied. "Fine. Then we'll just go back to my ship, you give Chakotay back his body, and you can be rid of me. No problem." She stared determinedly out the window, refusing to dwell on what he had just told her.
"I'm afraid that's not an option right now, Kathryn." She flinched at his use of her name. "It bothers you, doesn't it?" he continued.
"What?" she asked harshly.
"The fact that I accessed his thoughts and memories before I killed him."
Janeway flinched again. "He's not dead," she said. He couldn't be. She wouldn't let him be dead. This damned alien may have stolen his body, but he was still in there somewhere. She was sure of it. He had to be...
Eidolon gave her a puzzled stare. "Why do you insist that I'm lying, Kathryn? I told you he's dead. Why do you refuse to believe me? Or is it that you harboured some feelings for him too? If so, you really should have acted on them. It would have saved the poor man so many sleepless nights..." His voice took on a mocking tone.
"Enough!" Janeway's hands clenched into fists and she refrained from launching herself at Eidolon's throat only by the sheer force of her will. It wouldn't help, and it might just get her killed. Still, the thought was tempting... As for the rest...she could feel her cheeks beginning to burn. Great. Not only was she being held captive by a body-stealing alien, but now she was blushing. Damn. She fought to get her emotions back under control.
When she spoke again, her words were calm, even though her cheeks remained a rosy pink. "I don't believe you because you've given me no reason to. There's no proof that what you've told me is anything but a lie. And as for Chakotay's thoughts, they're his thoughts and they're private. I don't want to hear any more."
Eidolon was beginning to enjoy this. There were obviously more
ways to torment this human than he had originally anticipated. "But
Kathryn," he said, "I could tell you such things about him. And his
feelings for you. Did you know that..."
"Shut up. Or the shuttle goes off-line right now and we drift
through space until Voyager catches up with us." Her tone held no
compromise.
For a moment Eidolon hesitated then decided that she probably meant it. One could push these humans too far, he had discovered. And reaching his destination was more important than enjoying himself. Perhaps later... "As you wish," he replied tauntingly. A strained silence fell.
* * *
If her mind had been blank before, it was a veritable void now. Janeway couldn't have summoned up enough strength of mind to tie her shoes, let alone devise an escape. Chakotay... No. Don't think about it. Think about getting out of this mess, getting that...parasite... out of his body, and dealing with...that...later. Much later. She took a couple of deep breaths and stared unseeingly out the window as her poise slowly returned.
* * *
Chakotay watched his Captain trying to regain her composure and cringed inwardly. For a moment he was almost glad that he couldn't speak to her. Bad enough that he had physically hurt her...now Eidolon was playing with her emotions, toying with her like a cat with a string. And there wasn't a single thing he could say or do to help her. She was on her own.
His mind turned to the rest of the conversation. Did the alien really believe he was dead? Was Eidolon truly unaware of Chakotay's presence, trapped somewhere in the back of his mind? If that were true, he might be able to use it to his advantage. Somehow. And...why wasn't he dead? A possible answer flickered across his thoughts -- he had been meditating when Eidolon had taken his body, had already partially been...elsewhere. Perhaps the trance had protected him. If so...he might be able to use that to free himself. With a sudden upswing of hope, Chakotay turned his thoughts toward last night, trying to ignore the sight of Janeway as Eidolon watched her through hooded eyes.
* * *
It had taken a while, but Janeway had finally regained mastery of her body's reactions and control of her mind, and, as a not-so-inconsequential side-effect, a plan. True, it wasn't much of a plan, but it was the best she could do at the moment. And it wasn't as if she had a lot to work with. Ignoring the fact that someone more logical or less desperate would not call it a plan at all, but almost certain suicide, Janeway went over the details once again in her mind.
It seemed she wasn't a moment too soon. A distant, M-class planet was growing larger in the viewscreen and beside her Eidolon sat with barely suppressed impatience. She looked at him for the first time since his revelation about Chakotay, and a pang went through her. What if the alien were telling the truth? What if Chakotay were really... 'No. Don't think it. He's not dead. You'd know if he were dead...' Ignoring the alarming emotions that that thought generated, Janeway returned her gaze to the planet ahead.
It was small and greyish brown, with hints of blue here and there. There were a few small oceans, but overall it consisted of several large continents joined by vast land bridges. There was little cloud cover. Janeway wondered about the atmosphere. If it were anything but oxygen and nitrogen-based, Eidolon wouldn't be inhabiting Chakotay's body for long. Of course, neither of them would be around to celebrate that fact... 'Stop borrowing trouble, Kathryn,' she told herself firmly, 'You have enough to worry about.' She reached forward and set the shuttle back on manual, taking the instruments and heading for a low-level orbit. Eidolon watched her, but said nothing.
"Where do you want me to land?"
The alien brought up a schematic on the computer and pointed. "There." Janeway glanced across. It was in the Northern hemisphere, not far from the Equator. She angled her trajectory a little more and sent the shuttle soaring through the exosphere. Turbulence buffetted them and she quickly realigned the shields as they sank deeper into the atmosphere. She spared a quick glance at the sensors and was relieved to note that it was breathable...there was a bit more nitrogen, a bit less oxygen, and a few exotic trace elements...but other than that it might have been Earth. Good. She really hated breathing gear... Although she doubted she would ever get the chance to use it if her plan failed... Janeway had the nasty suspicion that Eidolon intended to kill her as soon as they were on the ground. Well, he wasn't going to get that opportunity, she told herself firmly.
They passed rapidly through the stratosphere and then they were skimming low over rocky terrain, the shuttle casting a swift-moving shadow over patches of small, stunted vegetation and the occasional weathered tree.
"Over there." Eidolon pointed straight ahead. Over there, indeed. Janeway suppressed a smile. That would do nicely. There was a series of rocky outgrowths -- tall towers of rock and stone, some linked at the top by capstones, with narrow canyons threaded between them. Eidolon was indicating the clear space just to the left, but Janeway ignored him. With a sudden jerk of the controls, she sent the shuttlecraft swinging onto its side, heading straight toward the monoliths. Caught by surprise, the alien clawed frantically at his chair.
"What do you think you're doing?" For the first time, there was a trace of fear in his voice.
Janeway had no time to respond. She was too busy threading the shuttle between the first two towers, taking a narrow passage that had never been designed to accomodate something so large that was still moving at nearly half the speed of sound... Pillars whistled by, perilously close. Janeway clenched her jaw and ignored everything except flying the shuttle. 'Down a bit, through there... careful!' The shuttle dropped at an alarming rate to dive under a capstone, then practically stood on its nose as she wrenched it around to avoid a rock wall directly before them. The inertial dampeners whined at the sudden demands on them and then they were swooping around in a steep bank that should have stalled the engine...but didn't. Janeway braced herself against the effects of the turn and threw all her strength into her battle with the controls. Seeing a narrow gap, she threaded the shuttle through it, resisting the impulse to close her eyes. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all...
Beside her, Chakotay's face had gone pale as Eidolon watched the canyon walls speeding past them. "Are you insane?" he shouted, trying to maintain his balance.
"Probably." Janeway turned the ship completely on its side to pass through the far end of the canyon, then continued the roll as something sheered off the starboard side. The ship shuddered, dipped slightly, then regained altitude, albeit in an inverted position. Eidolon looked _up_, saw the ground rushing by above his head, and promptly turned grey. Managing to prise the fingers of one hand from his chair, he reached for his phaser.
"Get us out of here. Land this thing now." He waved the weapon for emphasis.
Janeway didn't spare him a glance, being too busy coaxing a series of aileron rolls out of the reluctant shuttle while dust and rocks were kicked up in their slipstream, obscuring the rear sensors. "If you shoot me now, we both die," she managed to say. Then all her attention was caught up in pulling the ship into a steep climb to avoid a fallen boulder. They soared up and over it then she threw the vehicle into a quick snap roll and dive, sending the shuttle screaming back into the ravines.
No, this was definitely not one of her more brilliant notions, she decided as something else ripped away with a tortured scream of metal. Crash the ship. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time... She would be ready for the impact, Eidolon would not. She could use that advantage to take the phaser, gain control of the situation... But now that the moment had arrived, Janeway was finding it incredibly difficult to send the ship plummeting into the ground. Purposely crashing a shuttlecraft was not something they had covered at the Academy. Most of her teachers' efforts had involved keeping the things in the air. 'Still,' thought Janeway as the ship bucked again and she neatly lopped off a small outcropping of rock, 'crashing the ship might not be a problem after all, given the way things are going...' Ahead lay a dizzying labyrinth of stone and she caught her breath.
The end came when they were once more inverted, sailing through a shuttle-sized hole in a monolith the size of a small barn. Janeway snap-rolled again, hit the reverse thrusters and spun the ship back on its previous course to avoid an thick tangle of towers. The ground rushed by only inches below them. Ahead lay another inpenetrable thicket of stone. Janeway was preparing to swing the shuttle around it when she felt fingers clutching tightly at her arm.
"Land. Now!" His voice was hoarse with panic.
Janeway jerked free, but that was enough. All her options had suddenly vanished. Taking a deep breath, she abruptly shed all speed, hit every reverse thruster she had, and aimed the shuttle at the ground in a shallow dive, ignoring the strangled cry that came from Chakotay's throat.
For an long moment they sailed along the base of columns the size of redwoods, then Janeway braced her feet, let go of the instruments, and threw up her arms to protect herself. Another heartbeat passed and then they were down, cutting a deep wake in the sandy ground. Despite this, the shuttle did not slow noticably until one side hit a pillar. The ship veered left, digging itself even deeper into the sand while the rear rudder was torn completely away. The tormented shriek of metal drowned out the sounds of the straining engines. Inside, the inertial dampeners flared then exploded. With one more bucketing leap and a last painful scream the engines stalled, and the shuttle settled deeper into the earth like a wounded bird. Silence slowly descended.
END OF PART 2