EIDOLON
by Avalon (avalon99@telusplanet.net)
http://members.dencity.com/avalon_online
J/C, PG-13, 5/7
EIDOLON V
Janeway woke with a start. For a moment, a wave of disorientation swept over her, then her vision cleared and memory returned. Eidolon...the shuttle...that damned insect. Chakotay! She looked hastily at her prisoner.
He froze in the act of rising, his startled gaze meeting hers. He was still bound, she noted thankfully. Janeway hastily raised the phaser, ignoring the jolt of pain that ran up her arm.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"Not dead yet?" he asked sardonically. Janeway clenched her jaw and didn't answer. Eidolon continued. "Well, come on, Captain. Time is passing. Don't you want to reach that power source today?" The taunting note in his voice increased with every word.
The Captain ignored him. She was too busy trying to deal with
the pain sweeping over her. It hurt. Everything hurt, right
down to her eyelashes. Yesterday she had thought nothing could hurt
as much as Eidolon's attempt to take over her mind; today she wasn't so
sure... And to make matters worse, she was still nauseous.
'Sitting here isn't going to help,' she told herself firmly.
Ignoring the fact that all she really wanted to do was lie down and whimper,
she reached back with her free hand and, using the tree behind her, slowly
climbed to her feet. It took a good deal longer than it should have
-- all her muscles seemed to have mutinied and the pain increased with
every movement. Finally though, she was standing, albeit leaning
heavily against the tree. She looked across the clearing at Eidolon.
* * *
She looked like death warmed over. When Eidolon had first opened his eyes in the early dawn light, Chakotay had felt a sharp burst of dread go through him. She was so still, lying propped up against that gnarled tree, her skin the colour of old ashes...But then her eyes had opened. The relief that had poured over Chakotay had left him weak and shaking in its wake. She was alive. For now. But unless he did something soon, she wouldn't stay that way. 'Think, man,' he told himself. 'She needs you.'
Once more his thoughts returned to the moment when Eidolon had flung him aside and usurped his body. The trance. That had to be the key... With an effort, Chakotay put his fear and concern for the Captain out of his mind, and focused on the trance. And freedom...
* * *
It was a little better, now that she was standing, Janeway found. The pain seemed to ebb to a manageable level, and, if she took quick, shallow breaths, the roiling of her stomach subsided. Somewhat. She refocused her gaze on Eidolon, trying to ignore the starbursts of pain exploding in her temples.
He was smiling again -- a cold smile she had never...ever...seen on Chakotay's face. And his expression... He was just waiting for her to fall over and die, she realized. 'Well, I'm not going to give him that satisfaction,' she thought grimly. 'I'm a Starfleet Captain. Surrender is not an option' With an effort she straightened her shoulders and stepped away from the tree. It felt like someone had tied lead weights to her ankles, but she was standing. And moving. So far so good. She spoke, somewhat surprised that her voice sounded sure and firm. Pity about the rest of her...
"Let's go."
Eidolon's eyebrows climbed and a fleeting expression of surprise crossed his face. "I must admit I didn't expect you to say that, Captain," he said.
She ignored his conversational gambit. "Move. You can annoy me while you're walking."
He bowed slightly. "Of course. I'm always willing to humour a dying woman..." He turned and strode at a rapid pace into the desert, listening to her struggle to keep up behind him. It wouldn't be long now...
* * *
Standing might have been better, but walking was infinitely worse. Janeway was certain tha every step was going to be her last but she forced herself to keep moving just the same. 'I will not give in.' It became a chant, that she recited over and over. 'I will not give in...' Ahead, a distant chain of hills began grew larger. Janeway concentrated on them, ignoring the increasing weakness in her limbs as the sun beat down upon her. Eventually, Eidolon slowed and glanced over his shoulder.
"Why don't you just give up?"
"No." She couldn't spare the breath for a longer reply.
Eidolon frowned. "What is it about you humans? Why won't you accept your limitations? The reality of your situation?"
Janeway kept walking. "Because that's what we do," she said slowly. We see what can be, not what is, then we do whatever it takes to change it. I don't expect you to understand."
Eidolon resumed his pace. After several moments he broke the silence. "That's really quite admirable."
"Thanks. I'm glad we meet your approval." She couldn't quite produce her usual level of sarcasm but she was fairly proud of the effort, given the circumstances.
"I think we could have been friends under other conditions," he said.
Janeway shot him an astonished look. "Friends." She snorted, then fell silent.
"I don't see why not. We're really quite similar. We both refuse to accept the status quo. And we're not afraid to do whatever it takes to get what we want."
Janeway stopped and turned to face him. "Let's get something straight." Her voice was stronger now. "We are nothing alike. You take what you want at the expense of other lifeforms. Their suffering means nothing to you. You are a selfish, self-absorbed parasite who wouldn't even begin to understand concepts like friendship, or self-sacrifice, or love. You have more in common with a leech than humanity." Righteous indignation was doing wonders for her condition; Janeway was feeling much better...
"I think I could change your mind. Especially in this body."
Righteous indignation turned to incredulity. "What?" she asked dangerously.
"I could make you forget all about Commander Chakotay," He took a step closer, gazing intensely into her eyes. "You need a friend, Kathryn. Someone to talk to, to help you. I could be that friend...if you would let me." He took another step.
Janeway's mouth had dropped open but she closed it with a snap. Her hand tightened around the phaser. "Back off. Right now." Eidolon stopped. "I'd probably be laughing right now, if you weren't so pathetic. You have absolutely no notion of what it is to be human, do you? A set of stolen memories and some second-hand emotions, and you think you're an expert. It doesn't work that way." She punctuated her words with a wave of the weapon. "Chakotay is my First Officer and my friend. Nothing will ever change that. And I'm going to find a way to return his body to him, if it's the last thing I do. Understand?"
"It might."
"What?"
"It might be the last thing you ever do."
Janeway regarded him for a long moment then turned away. "I know," she said tiredly, almost to herself. Then she straightened and flicked her hair back. "Keep going," she said firmly. Eidolon paused then looked away and resumed his pace. Once more they strode across the desert.
* * *
They had reached the shadow of the hills by late morning and had entered
a narrow gorge that ran through the russet-coloured rocks by noon.
Behind them, the air shimmered in the sun, while overhead a bird wheeled
in the cloudless sky.
The shade helped a little she found, but Janeway was almost past caring.
Her vision kept blurring at regular intervals and the pain was beyond measure.
It was becoming difficult to breathe. But somehow she kept going.
Together Janeway and Eidolon rounded a corner...and stopped dead. Ahead lay an impossibly deep gorge. Janeway took one horrified look over the edge then promptly backed up several paces, halting only when her back met the rock wall behind her. Her heart pounded uncomfortably and the sudden burst of adrenaline that shot through her left her trembling in its wake.
Eidolon peered over the side for a long moment, while the Captain's stomach churned with more than nausea, then turned back to her, his shoulders unconsciously tensing against the ropes that bound him. "Well?" The word hung between them.
Janeway swallowed and tried to regain control of her nerves. The trouble was, she felt as if she had just run a marathon. Waves of pure, unadulterated terror swept over her, leaving her weak and shuddering and she was caught between frozen horror and the desire to bolt back the way she'd come...and to hell with everything else...
Eidolon watched her with unalloyed interest. "Afraid of heights, are we?" he asked.
Janeway looked away. It was true. She had always feared heights, ever since she was a child...but she wasn't about to tell him that. Firmly she met his gaze. "No. Not at all."
His mouth quirked in a half-smile, and he leaned precariously over the edge to look down. Janeway's stomach lurched. "That's good," he said, "because it's a very, very long way down. One could fall forever..."
Janeway hastily looked away, her fingers digging into the cliffside behind her. A small fragment of rock came away in one hand. She stared down at it blindly and concentrated on breathing. Breathing always helped. Over the years she had found that she could contain the fear, given enough warning. It was only that first sickening jolt of terror that she had never quite managed to control. 'Breathe, Kathryn,' she thought raggedly, 'don't think about it...'
It worked. Slowly. After an eternity, she managed to move away from the cliff at her back. Carefully not looking at the chasm before her, her gaze fell on a narrow rock bridge, a little way to the right. She paled even further. It was narrow and crumbling. Years, perhaps decades of erosion had weakened it to the point of collapse. Janeway swallowed. They couldn't cross that. She couldn't.
* * *
He was close. Very close. As Chakotay sank deeper into a trance, sound and light began to recede. 'At last...' A brief flash of fear went through him, momentarily distracting him. What if he could not find the way back...? He banished it immediately and refocused his efforts. His thoughts went one last time to Kathryn before he put her reluctantly from his mind and plunged even deeper into the darkness...
* * *
Kathryn.
'Chakotay?' Janeway started, and dragged her gaze away from the yawning chasm to the man beside her. No. It was still Eidolon. But she had heard him. Chakotay. Janeway swallowed and gave herself an inward shake, wondering if the next stage of this disease involved hallucinations.
This wasn't doing any good. Hallucinations or not, they had to reach the power source...and soon. She didn't think she could last much longer... They had to cross the gorge. What was one little phobia compared with her life and Chakotay's? Janeway squared her shoulders and took another cautious step forward. So far so good. She turned back to the alien.
"You're not thinking of crossing that, are you?" he forestalled her. "Have you looked at it? That's not a bridge...it's primitive art!"
She said nothing, merely looked at him, the phaser in her hand.
He sighed. "I know, I know. 'Get going.' This is becoming very monotonous, Kathryn."
"You first."
Eidolon cast the bridge a dubious glance, then reluctantly turned and took a cautious step onto its surface. It held. Just. A small avalanche of fragments fell from the sides into the endless void, but it held. Eidolon squared his shoulders and moved lightly forward.
Janeway allowed herself one more moment of sheer panic then bit her lip, took a deep breath that blurred her vision and made the ground lurch crazily, and followed him, her spirit quailing within her.
* * *
She was doing surprisingly well. By staring intently at the back of the red uniform before her, Janeway could almost forget that she was crossing a crumbling deathtrap suspended several kilometres above a sea of rocks, and that even the slightest slip would send her plummeting over the side. Almost. And then the man in the red uniform skidded a little, one foot sliding toward the edge. Janeway's breath caught in her throat and she froze. The wraith wavered for a moment, unable to use his arms to regain his balance...and then pulled himself back from the brink by sheer force of will. He paused for a moment, recovered his footing, then resumed a steady pace. A few more seconds and he had reached the other side, and safety.
All right. He was over. 'Your turn, Kathryn,' she told herself. Nothing happened. Her limbs refused to obey her. She tried again. Still nothing. Janeway stood paralysed in the middle of the rock bridge, her mouth dry, adrenaline flooding through her body. Time stilled. A dry wind played with the edges of her hair while overhead a bird began to circle.
* * *
Eidolon breathed a sigh of relief as he reached the far side then turned back to watch her progress...or lack thereof. She was only halfway across and not moving a muscle, an expression of pure terror on her face. A smile crossed his lips.
* * *
Janeway was talking to herself. She had worked her way up from logical arguments to pleas and threats. It didn't help. Her legs still felt as if they were rooted into the rock and her eyes kept straying to the fathomless drop below her. 'That is not being very helpful, Kathryn,' she told herself as she resolutely dragged them away. 'Move, damn it! Nobody is going to come and rescue you. You have to do this yourself...' She focused on the other side -- in time to see Eidolon vanishing around a corner. A few choice curses flooded through her mind.
Perhaps it was the anger but suddenly she found she could move. A little. If she didn't look down...didn't breathe...didn't... She took a careful step forward, and then another. She was doing it. Slowly, tremblingly, she crossed the final few paces and reached solid ground. Behind her, the bridge groaned alarmingly. As more shards fell, she collapsed against the cliff wall, trying to still the shaking in her limbs...and the pain that was returning now that the adrenaline saturating her system was fading. For a long moment she leaned against the rocks, eyes closed, unwilling and unable to move.
* * *
She never heard him. Suddenly without warning, he was on her. Eidolon burst out of the shadows, the frayed and broken edges of the cable still wrapped around his wrists. Janeway jerked upright, but not in time. In one flying movement he had tackled her, knocking her to the ground. The phaser skittered away out of her grasp and came to rest precariously near the chasm's edge. Janeway gasped as Eidolon's elbow connected with her sore ribs and then her Starfleet training...and something else...took over. Suddenly she didn't care that she was ill, in pain, unarmed, and definitely outweighed. She had had enough of this. Enough of Eidolon's taunts, enough playing the role of victim in all this, enough allowing this usurper to use Chakotay's body against her. Her knee came up, hard, even as she doubled both fists together and caught him solidly against the jaw. Eidolon rocked back from the twin blows then redoubled his assault. He reached for her throat with one hand only to find he held a hissing wildcat. Janeway launched another punch while simultaneously finding the leverage to kick him in the kneecap. Together they rolled closer to the edge of the ravine...
Eidolon rolled on top of her and reached once more for her throat with both hands. As his grasp tightened, Janeway bucked futilely beneath him. No good. She could get no leverage, and he was ignoring the blows she rained on him. Exhaustion and illness dragged at her but something kept her fighting on...even as her vision began to darken...
* * *
Chakotay had reached the centre. His centre. The darkness around him was replaced by swirling lights and images. Thoughts and memories assailed him. A feather-light touch of...something...grazed his mind, beckoning...
Suddenly a sense of urgency clawed at him. Kathryn. She needed him. He had to hurry. Without hesitating, he flung himself into the river of streaming lights.
And then he could see again, through his own eyes. Could see Kathryn struggling, weakly now, as Eidolon choked the life from her...and he knew. Knew how to get this parasite out of his mind. With a silent echo of a war cry that had not been used in generations, Chakotay flung himself into battle.
* * *
Janeway's thoughts were blurring. The world was growing more distant, the reasons to keep fighting more obscured. It would be so easy to let go, to rest... And then something brushed her mind...and the shadows were gone. She could see again. Better than that, she could breathe again.
She dragged a painful, dust-laden breathe of air into her starved lungs, and was immediately seized by a fit of coughing. Now she was sure she was going to die. Some driving sense of urgency though, made her ignore her tearing eyes and the pain in her chest, and lift her gaze.
Eidolon still held her by the throat, but lightly now. Janeway blinked again and focused on his face. It was contorted, as if with pain, and his breath came in great gasps. 'Chakotay!' The thought flared through her. 'He wasn't dead. Somehow, he was buying her time. She wasn't fighting alone...
Relief ran through her and with it her energy returned. Thought became motion. Twisting like an eel beneath him, Janeway broke his grip on her throat and reached for the fist-sized rock just to her left. Her scrambling fingers pulled it closer, even as the brief glimpse of Chakotay in the face above her began to fade... No! But he was gone again. Only the alien remained...and he was reaching for her again...
With the last of her strength, Janeway hit him hard across the head. There was a sickening thud as the rock connected with his temple and he sagged momentarily, his weight pinning her to the ground. She twisted again, reaching for the phaser lying close by.
There. She had it. Immediately she rolled onto her back, ignoring the complaints from her side and leg, and aimed upward at the man half kneeling across her legs. Eidolon froze, his gaze caught by the weapon. Another cut on the side of his head had joined the first one, and blood ran freely, soaking his hair. For a long moment neither moved, then:
"Get off." It was no more than a whisper, but it was the best that Janeway could do.
He wasn't going to obey her this time. She could see it, reflected in his eyes. He was going to take his chances... Janeway's finger tightened around the trigger.
"You won't shoot." His voice was hoarse, his breathing laboured. "Think of Chakotay."
"I am," she whispered, "and I know he'll forgive me." And then she pulled the trigger...
END OF PART 5