The evening was borig for the commander of horde prison camp 9, it was a routine night, the usual chores, like feeding, selecting, disciplining the prisonners were al geting boring.
It was considered a better than average war for the horde, the federation was loosing because it had been arrogant, but assuming that they were going to win would be becoming as arrogant as them.
To make things worst, there was no longer any new faces around, many prisonners had been selected and sent away to serve as slaves or as lab rats.
A few more lucky ones had been executed for crimes against the horde, but the realy unlucky ones were either fed to some of the horde'creatures or turned into war cyborgs and used against their former people.
Yes there was times when the commander knew why they were nicknamed the evil horde, he himself had tasted some of the evil pleasures of the horde, for exemple, he always liked to demonstrate the fonction of his two slimepits to the prisoners, using some of the prisoners to demontrate what would happen to those that try to escape.
But he was educated, trained and condition to be a soldier for the horde, not a warden, and not a torturer, and during the last six weeks the horde had not taken any prisonners, so he was feeling lonely with only a few troopers he did not liked, and a few broken prisonners to keep him company.
Some horde commanders had entertaiument for them, but his camp was in a dome, on a smal, lifeless isolated planet the size of Earth'moon.
He had read al his books, reports from the front were more rare lately, there was no art and no television on the planet, he did not liked the games available in the camp's bar, he did not drink and never did smoke.
The prisonners were to broken and to terrified to speak with him even if he had tried to convince them that he would not harm them, and conversation with the troops were formal and borin.
He did not had pets or plants, and unlike other horde officers, he would not rape the female prisonners.
Yes, under other circumstances, in another time and another place he would had become a good man, he tried to convince himself of that.
That residual goodness was why he was assigned to this shithole, as a punishment for refusing to cary out evil orders, and as an insurance that the ambitious, cruel horde administrators would be kept in order.
But his disappoval of horde methods could not convince him to betray the horde, he was to honourable, to loyal and much to weak to do it.
Everytime he had something to remind him of that he was feeling disgusted by himself, and he understood the people who opposed the horde even when they were traitors.
He even respected the federation although his investigation revealed that it was one of their agencies Known as section 31 who fired on his ships without provocation.
The few reasonnable hordmen like him were satisfied that section 31 met a gruesome death at his hands, but the fanatics were in power.
Now to make things worst, they had taken him away from the battle field and placed him where he was much less useful.
Besides he heard the one who replaced him was less competent than him.
The only hope he had was a message he had just received, he would be sent back to the front if he did a favour to a horde officer who was due to visit him in one hour.
When the visitor came, he was first happy to see him because he was his only friend, but he did not liked what he saw.
A few female prisonners who had been striped of thei uniforms and tied were being brought to him.
First he feared that a rape was being organised , but he knew the man to well to believe that.
When he asked why they were here,and why they had their uniforms removed, the other officer told him that they were to be slimed in the slime pit.
The commander asked why, and the answer surprised him.
One prisonner caled seven of nine, the most beautiful one, and Ezri Dax the youngest smalest one had the knowledge to create new weapons for the horde, one named Deana Troy had special telepathic powers, and if the transformation was succesful, al her species was to be transformes into slime monsters, which was probably going to happen since her home planet was being conquered by the horde.
When he asked about the other prisonners, he had been told that they were tests, one named Beverly Crusher and was a friend of Deana, if the transformation was succesful, Deana would accept to put Beverly in the slime pit.
The last two were Janeway and ensign wildman, friends of 7of 9 who would serve to a similar test.
The transformations were succesful, and a special protocol was establihed for the occupation of betazed.
The betazoids who were considered weak,old or dissabled were al killed, the others between age 14 and 50 were sent straight to the many slime pit that the horde instaled on Betazed.
Nine mounths later a truce was signed without the Federation knowing what was happening on Betazed.
The truce lasted a record time of 18 mounths and the negociations were not going anywhere at al.
It meant that what was happening to the betazoids was almost complete.
The horde commander, now a commodore remembered the role that he played in this tragedy and killed himself.
THE END