Star Trek:

Voyager

The Q & I

Chapter 3

The peasant limped and stumbled as he walked; his badly damaged leg simply could not support him well. Nonetheless, he worked his way towards the enormous palace that was still a great mystery. It had shown up just fifteen cycles ago, and the man who dwelt inside was hardly ever seen, save by the people he had taken into servitude. And that was why the man came.

Now the man was in the palace. The two massive wooden doors that led to King Quana's chambers were opened and he was ushered inside. He felt a moment of fear and contemplated running away. That option was taken away as the huge doors were shut and locked. The man looked toward the end of the great hall. He saw the king, seated on his throne, surrounded by the most elegant and expensive decorations. To the left and right were the doors to the dungeons, each guarded by two men. Each door led to a row of cells, and each cell had its own heavy locked door as well, also guarded by two soldiers. Anyone wishing to escape had to get by a great many guards, all with powerful weapons. The guards were something of a mystery to the people. They must have come with King Quana, for they were not of a race the oppressed people had ever seen. But there were many of them, and they seemed to come out of nowhere when the king summoned them. Their weapons, too, wore more than they appeared to be. The seemingly simple whips and blades did much more damage than they should have been capable of.

The man had now reached the throne. He bowed and said, "My lord, I seek an audience with your greatness."

"You may speak," King Quana said, "but mind carefully your words, knave."

"I wish to beg for the release of our people. We allowed you to be king, believing that Medea sent you to be our leader, but you have done nothing but harm to us. You imprisoned our people and have destroyed many historical landmarks. The city has elected to ask you to leave. If you do not, I will petition that we remove you by force."

"I have a better idea." Quana said. "Why don't we just imprison you before you can spread any more ideas around this stupid little village."

"No, please! I beg of you! Do not imprison me!" The man screamed.

"Oh, very well." Said Quana. "I'm not wholly unreasonable. You hate the thought of being in jail, don't you, knave?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Very well then. Guards! Take this man outside and execute him."

"NO! PLEASE, KING, HAVE MERCY ON MY POOR SOUL!"

"I've had enough of his whining. You have your orders!" Quana said to the guards. They dragged him away, and his screams could be heard fading into the distance. Kathryn Janeway had witnessed the entire spectacle, as she peered through the bars of her cell.

"What kind of hellish place is this, Q?" She screamed at the man on the throne. He paid no attention to her. One of the guards did, however.

He yelled, "Shut up, prisoner!" and then hit her in the face, hard. She fell onto her back, the force of the impact driving her back a few feet. She turned to face the rest of her crew. Janeway was there, along with Chakotay. Tuvok, Harry Kim, Seven of Nine, and Tom Paris had also been brought to the dungeon. B'Elanna was also here, but in a different cell; communication with here had proven to be less than productive and more than painful. Hopefully, the rest of the crew was still on Voyager, though from what Q had said, it was possible that they were facing extreme danger.