The Third Nature -Book One of the Triad

Voyager fantasies by Lt Taya 17 Janeway

objects in the distance

Myriam had called them to the war room. On the way there, Chakotay explained whatever he'd learnt of the Preeminence society's workings to Janeway.

"It's basically a matriarchal society," he said. "There are sixty-three worlds in the Preeminence right now. The number has been fluctuating, but it's more or less there. In the old days, each world was considered as one House, but other large bodies, such as multisystem corporations or large extended familial clans were also conferred the title of a House. Each House is ruled by a Coordinator, and she has a sub-Coordinator, and so on. All positions of power are assumed by women, while the males- the woman's mate, most of the time- are their advisors. He has no true power in that sense, as the woman can choose to ignore his advice. All these Coordinators together formed the Senate of the Eminence, and the ruling Coordinator is given the title of Preeminence, the Empress. Custom dictates that the Empress must be Coordinator of a familial House, passing the throne down to her oldest daughter when she dies or decides to retire. Males generally don't have many privileges- they are born without family names, betrothed to a Mage girl before they are a year old, and don't have educational or voting rights."

"No educational rights?"

"They can learn menial trades like, say, quantum engineering or agricultural techniques, but they can't learn how to Cast. This puts them at a distinct social disadvantage to the women."

Janeway nodded. "As Josh said, it's an interesting reversal."

They arrived at the war room, only to find it fairly crowded with Mage as well as a few Voyager crewmembers. The Mage gathered in clusters around makeshift copper tables, poring over holographic displays of maps, silently conversing telepathically amongst themselves with the occasional murmuring. Meanwhile, Voyager crew was gathered around a central ovoid table that Myriam must have pulled from somewhere. On top of the table were rows of largish metal spheres, each one of them about the size of a watermelon. They gleamed dully in the light streaming in from the central hole in the ceiling.

Torres was there, running her hand repeatedly along the rows. "Whatever you're trying to tell me," she said in some exasperation to Myriam, "doesn't work at all."

Harry, standing beside her with Janae at his arm, shrugged. "Maybe you're just not doing it right; after all, the Delaney sisters managed fine. Look!" He ran his hand over the spheres, and in response one of them glowed red dimly. "Stop trying so hard. If it wasn't easy, the women here wouldn't let me do it."

Myriam gestured to Torres. "One of your crew is having problems identifying her strengths," she explained to Janeway. "She has so much power within her, but she can't seem to use it. Could you help her?"

Janeway and Chakotay stood in front of the rows of spheres. "What are these?" Janeway asked with some curiosity. "They're some kind of detector?"

"More or less; they help you sort out which sphere you use optimally and which order you belong to." At Janeway's blank stare Myriam shook her head. "Never mind. I'll explain later." She took Janeway's hand firmly in hers and ran it over the set of spheres. "Now, imagine one of them lighting up."

Suddenly, the sphere in the leftmost corner lit up with a brilliant glow.

"There. Excellent. A wielder of Scarlet Fire; we can't have too little Mage with talents like yours."

"Just try it," Janeway said softly to Torres.

The half-Klingon ran her hand over the spheres, but nothing happened. Janeway shook her head and tried demonstrating again, lighting up the same sphere as she did before. Torres shook her head. 

"Hey, both Jenny and Megan Cast with Fire as well," said Kim, trying to change the topic. "And so does everyone else on the ship who's tried… I bet B'Elanna does, too."

"And that's a good thing?" Chakotay asked.

"Ashkar mainly uses the Fire sphere. It'd be hard going for you if you weren't optimized to it," explained Myriam. "It's alright if none of this terminology means anything to you; I'll explain later." She frowned. "But B'Elanna here, she can't get any of the spheres to respond. That's a physical impossibility- as long as you exist in this universe you wield power of some kind… my feeling is that you're somehow suppressing these powers."

"Either that, or I don't exist," said B'Elanna dryly, but her voice was tinged with a touch of bitterness.

Myriam sensed her disappointment, and patted her arm in a friendly manner to quell it. "Maybe you're too tense. We'll try again tomorrow."

B'Elanna nodded. "Seven and Tuvok have returned to the ship to supervise the repairs. I guess I'll go help them," she muttered, and walked out of the door.

Janeway glanced after her in concern. Chakotay put a hand on her shoulder. "Give her some time to brood. She'll be fine soon; I'm sure Myriam can find a way to help her."

The lean Coordinator nodded. "I've seen many cases like hers; but the next few days will be hectic." She gestured to around her. "We're launching an offensive against House Maldor; we need to prepare."

Harry glanced at Janeway. "Janae told me about this. It's mainly going to be a battle on ground, but they'll also have to hold off troops from the Eminent armada in orbit around Algaroth. I've seen some of the royal navy specs, and I think Voyager can handle them."

Myriam pulled a thin microstorage wafer out of a pocket and inserted it into a slot grooved into the side of the table. Immediately the holoimager in the center of the table projected a large screen in the air above them, displaying the specifications of a long sculpted starship. "There are about twenty of these ships we have to deal with. They have their own strengths and weaknesses, and we've actually devised a plan to subjugate them… but we need someone to carry it out."

"At the current rate we're going, the repairs to Voyager will be completed in by tomorrow," said Janeway. "We should be prepared enough by the time the battle comes."

Myriam sighed. "When dealing with Maldor, you can never be prepared enough."

The feast that night was held in the central clearing of the daer; somehow they managed to accommodate for more than three hundred people from both Voyager and the daer itself. The senior crew and the high Council for the daer sat around the central table, by the fire that roared in the center of the marble slat. The sun had long ago set, and the stars could be glimpsed amongst the trees and pillars of stone rising up from the ground.

The council was composed of an elite group of high-ranking women, all of whom wielded the strongest combinations for spheres and orders, either Scarlet Fire or Ocher Smoke. Seated at Myriam's right hand was Nydea, their head Warrior, a well-muscled woman. Then there was Kes, their chief Healer. Not far away were Janae, the young Healer/Warrior, and Tabitha, a satyr with elegant horns, a sleek reddish brown coat and a well proportioned upper torso to go with cloven hooves. And there was Dione, an ethereal creature with silver hair, glittering eyes and shimmering skin like gold-dusted porcelain.

And then there was a dark, sculpted woman with fine delicate features framed by wavy brown hair. Kes had introduced her as Loess, their chief Seer. As Myriam regaled the table with tales of bravery and fortitude, she remained silent, gazing at Seven with unusually limpid emerald eyes. Janeway noticed this, and found it odd.

Finally Loess spoke, addressing Seven. "The… metal over your eye, it is an implant, yes?"

Seven regarded her in a strange light as a sudden hush fell upon the table. "That is so."

Loess nodded slowly. "It helps you see."

"Yes."

"You see things others do not." It was not a question.

Seven frowned slightly, considering her words carefully. "Yes…" she said slowly.

"It is a gift." Loess folded her hands together, satisfied. "We worked very hard, and very long to decipher our Auguries. We foresaw that with the Emissary would come our ninth seer."

"I am not a seer."

Loess closed her eyes. "On your starship Voyager you work in a room full of screens and consoles. Each of them is connected to sensors which help you seek clues about your surroundings. You take these clues, and you arrange them into a possible truth, a hypothesis." She opened her eyes to gaze at Seven again. "Am I wrong?" When the ex-Borg declined to reply, she continued, "That is what Seers do. We have a gift for seeing patterns in multiple dimensions and extrapolating on them. We can tell the drift of a current just by looking at the twigs drifting on the surface."

Seven tilted her head slightly. "Do you always speak in metaphors?"

Loess replied in kind. "Do you always speak like a machine?"

Polite chuckles broke out across the table. Janeway decided that Loess had a point.

Seven cast a basilisk glance at Paris, who was giggling the loudest of all, before returning her gaze to Loess. "It seems unlikely that I have been in possession of this skill and not been able to manifest it for such an extended period of time."

"I wouldn't know about that," Neelix rebutted. "After all, the captain has never manifested any magical powers herself…"

"Except taking one small ship through the most treacherous regions of space intact," interjected Kim.

"That wasn't magic, it was sheer luck and determination on all our parts," said the Doctor, in mild irritation. "After all, what would the crew have done without their medical practitioner?"

Janeway didn't push the point with him, knowing that their doctor was slightly miffed by his apparent inability to Cast: although Myriam insisted that there was a way for him to harness his magic, so far he hadn't responded to any of the spheres. Well, at least he had a comrade in Torres, as well as most of the men at the current time. Instead she turned to Seven. "Well, there's no harm in trying some predictions. How do you think the Battle for Haldon will turn out?"

Seven stared at her like she'd grown an extra head. "Make a… prediction?"

Myriam nodded, interested. "How do you think the battle will turn out?"

Seven's frown deepened. "There are only two outcomes to the situation: success and failure. Since the two forces at work are equally matched, it falls to random factors to determine the outcome; hence the statistical probabilities of success are"-

Paris cut her off with a wave of his hand. "We don't want to hear the mathematical part of it, we want to know what you think."

"Close your eyes and tell us what you see," added Kim.

Loess held up her hand. "Don't push her." She shook her head. "The path to true sight must be spontaneously sought out; it cannot be forced. It must come to her naturally."

"Perhaps some meditation might assist you in achieving the proper state of mind for these… revelations," suggested Tuvok. He was obviously proud that Kes, his former protégé, had come thus far, and was now looking to Seven as a potential new student.

"Give her some time, Tuvok," said Chakotay. "Everyone is new here. We still have so much to learn; there isn't enough time to learn others which people already know."

Seven nodded in agreement. "Thank you, Commander," she said softly, relieved. The prospect of everyone's hopes hinging on whatever she said was slightly unnerving, even for the ex-drone.

All through the feast Torres had been silent. Finally she spoke. "We should prepare ourselves as much as possible for combat with the Maldorian forces." There were murmurs of agreement; there was still so much to be learned. "We only have three days."