Chapter 8
Once the door had shut behind her, she grabbed the first thing her hands could find and flung it across the room. The chair crashed loudly into the Cardassian antique mirror that hung on the wall at the far end of her quarters where, in a normal room, one would have expected a window. But since the base was underground, mirrors were an adequate substitute. The slightly stained reflective glass shattered noisily into a thousand tiny fragments. Unfortunately this still did not make her feel any better. She was consumed with a burning rage.
Although she had never really loved Chakotay, her ego was wounded at the thought of him preferring the company of a hostage, a Starfleet captain -- the enemy! Then again, she herself was the enemy, but poor old Chakotay did not know that. Oh, this insult would cost him bitterly! So far she had been very kind to him, giving only tiny snippets of information to her people, because she had enjoyed his company. She had enjoyed it quite a bit, actually. Even after he had put an end to their relationship, almost 11 months ago, she had still tried to get him back from time to time. And although she had never succeeded, she had been certain that she would one day. It had become an entertaining game. But now he had withdrawn himself from her completely, gone to another, and she would not tolerate it. This would cost him all he had worked for since he had joined the Maquis, and more! The fool! Seska approached her personal replicator and removed the control panel, revealing a small device that resembled a tricorder. In fact it was a long-range communications device, given to her by the Obsidian Order. Seska had infiltrated Chakotay's cell as a Cardassian spy who had been genetically altered to appear Bajoran. Every three days she was to report to her contact in the Obsidian Order, giving him as much strategical information about the Maquis and their plans as she saw fit. This was what had originally prompted her to get to know the Maquis captain better. However, after a while she had come to enjoy his company. Not only had he satisfied her personal needs -- after all, he was a very attractive man by most standards and an extremely passionate lover -- but he had also granted her privileges, like the personal replicator, and he had treated her with respect until today. It was all over now, and she was going to teach him a lesson he would not be able to forget easily. Seska entered an encryption code into the communications device, which was now resting on a table in front of her. Her voice was hushed... "This is Seska to Gul Camet. Respond!" The tiny viewscreen came to life, at first showing only static, but then clearing up to reveal the upper body of a Cardassian man. The black of his eyes and hair and the prominent cartilages that corded his face and neck lend him an imposing presence.
"Seska! Your report is not due for another twenty-eight hours. I take it you have important news." the Cardassian's voice rasped over the transmitter.
Seska smiled almost seductively, clearly pleased with herself.
"Oh, I have news alright. Enabran Tain will be very pleased with me this time, Camet. I will transmit the data to your computer. It contains the phase variance for the modulation of the shielding that protects the Maquis base, as well as details on their defense systems." the woman beamed.
Excitedly she continued,
"And there is more. Just today the Maquis managed to abduct a very impressive Starfleet vessel. It's a prototype. It must have taken them years to develop it. It will give the Order great power over the Federation. Simply having their most recent technology will be of great help, should we enter into a war with them. But now we can have the ship as well!" She had the gul's full attention now. He was clearly excited about the prospect of securing the Starfleet prototype for the Order. No doubt his superiors would be very happy with him, if he could bring them such a treasure. And Starfleet would never know who had run off with their prototype. They would probably presume that it had either been destroyed or taken by another Maquis cell. His eyes became almost predatory as he acknowledged what she had revealed.
"This is promising news! I'm glad you finally made some progress with you investigations. I was beginning to think you were keeping things deliberately from us."
"Now why would I do a thing like that, Camet?" she chanted innocently.
Camet ignored her.
"Where is the crew of the Starfleet vessel now?"
"The Maquis are keeping them in their brig. Chakotay wants to start interrogating them tomorrow. He's already started with the captain."
"Do you know who the captain is? Anyone I might know?"
Seska hesitated for a moment. Now that she thought about it she really knew very little about the Starfleet captain, except for the fact that it was a woman.
"I'm afraid I can't give you a name yet. The only thing I know is that it's a woman."
The Cardassian's ears almost visibly perked up at her last remark.
"Can you describe her to me?" he asked with a sudden urgency that Seska could not comprehend.
"No, I haven't actually seen her yet."
Camet frowned.
"Find out who she is and report back to me straight away. I will inform Tain of your report. We'll keep you updated about any further plans. Camet out!" the Cardassian hissed just before the small screen went blank.
A vicious grin of satisfaction on her face, Seska returned the transmitter to its hiding place.
Several light-years away, Gul Camet agitatedly paced his office on his Galor Class warship, the Tokar Zebok. He was very excited about the information Seska had just relayed -- not only about the strategical details, but mostly about the identity of the Starfleet captain.
For over a decade now he had been preoccupied with tracking down an escaped prisoner, with whom he had unfinished business. Then just an ensign, the woman had been captured together with a Starfleet Admiral, whilst they had attempted to land their shuttle on one of the moons of Urtea II, no doubt to collect intelligence from an array the Federation had installed there months before.
Camet, who had been in charge of their interrogation, had suspected that the array was not simply gathering scientific -- but also strategical data on the Cardassian military. The conflict between the Cardassian Empire and the Federation had been at its peak then. War had seemed imminent. They had taken the old man and the young woman to one of their prison camps and started interrogation on the Admiral immediately. No matter how much pain they had inflicted on him with the torture device that they had implanted in his body, no matter how many times they had brought him to the edge of death with their torment, the man would not tell them anything. In the end Camet had decided to get the answers elsewhere -- from the young woman. He, himself, had gone to fetch her. They had kept her in a small pen, not tall enough to stand or even sit upright. She had barely enough air to breathe, and not a single ray of light had been able to make its way through the solid cold metal casing.
When Camet had opened the panel to get her out, she had barely been able to stand, her eyes squinting and her head lowered as a defense against the harsh light that assaulted her senses. As her legs buckled back into the fetal position they had been forced to hold for hours, while she had been caged in the pen, he had steadied her and for the first time really taken in her appearance. Although shivering from the cold that had crept from the metal box right down to her bones and disheveled from her ordeal, he could not help but notice that she was extremely lovely. And while speaking false words of comfort and apology to her, he had secretly decided to give her his full attention later that night. If she would not talk during interrogation, maybe she would talk once he got his hands on her in a more... intimate way. In his experience, this special way of interrogating female prisoners had proved to be extremely effective, and when the subject in question was as attractive as this one, it was a special joy on his part. By the time they arrived at the interrogation chamber he had run a dozen possible scenarios of amusing himself with her in his mind. He wanted to run his fingers through her soft auburn hair right then and there, touch her soft pale skin and make her scream in agony as he forced himself upon her time and again...
But first things first. After all, he had not desired the wrath of his superiors to decent upon him for not following proper procedure. So he had gone through with the standard questioning. Her name, she had told him, was Kathryn Janeway. She had informed him that they had been on a scientific mission to collect data on massive compact halo objects from the array they had previously established on the moon. When he had asked her why the array contained extremely sophisticated surveillance devices, she had feigned ignorance and even boldly accused him of paranoia. Her courage had impressed him -- he had not expected it from an ensign. He had had no doubt that she would go a long way in Starfleet, given the opportunity. Of course she would never get the chance to prove his point, since she was never going to get out of the prison camp alive. He might make her his mistress for a while, but eventually she would be killed, and he was planning on seeing to that personally... Not getting anywhere with her the gentle way, he had threatened her with the torture implant, making it quite clear that once he would start inflicting pain on her, there would be no stopping him. It was a control game he loved to play. He got great satisfaction from completely breaking another being, and he had told her so in no uncertain words. Yet she had proven to be most uncooperative. Not wanting to deface her too much, so he could still enjoy her beauty whilst giving her the special treat he had in mind for her, he had her taken back to the pen and submitted her to the screams of her superior officer, as the torture device brought him countless times to the brink of insanity and death. Remarkably, still neither the ensign nor the admiral had relented.
He recalled the incidence as if it had been yesterday.
"Alright, Kathryn Janeway, have it your way! Guards! Take the admiral into the yard! Assemble the firing squad!"
Turning back to Kathryn he rasped into her ear,
"You, my dear , will have the pleasure of watching your superior die! Then we'll have a little party, just you and me -- alone, in my quarters..."
He gave her a leer that sickened her to the stomach, his foul breath nearly suffocation her. Then he forced his lips over hers, holding her head tightly in place with his large reptilian hands and crushing her mouth in a bruising caricature of a kiss. The assault lasted for what had seemed like an eternity to Kathryn. She thought she was going to die of revulsion right there and then -- his vile breath forcing its way past her lips, invading her body, causing the bile to rise up within her, despite the fact that she was doing her best to hold her breath. Horror crept over her skin like a thousand leeches...
When he finally let her go, she knew with indubitable certainty that she and Owen Paris were going to die in this prison, but the admiral had decisively gotten the better deal... She began to shiver uncontrollably as her mind unbidden conjured up images of what Camet would do to her before he would finally allow her to join the admiral...
Gul Camet decided to finish the preliminary paperwork on the case, before giving the order to terminate the admiral, so that he could enjoy the rest of the evening without having to finish off reports. He ordered the admiral to be tied to a post in the prison yard, whilst Kathryn was shoved back into the metal pen. The report was only going to take him half an hour...
He was forever to regret this move . The admiral and the young woman had been rescued by Starfleet rangers before he had finished writing his report, leaving Camet to explain his failure to his superiors. They had -- to say the least -- not been pleased. He had been demoted from chief interrogator of the prison camp to ordinary guard in a Bajoran labor camp, a great dishonor within the Obsidian Order, but he was lucky he had gotten away with his life.
On top of that he had been so aroused at the prospect of taking the young woman that he was left with unbearable sexual frustration. A few hours later, news reached him that his second born son had been killed in conflict with the rangers. Rumor had it that Kathryn Janeway had been the one to kill him with a phaser. Since then, Gul Camet had kept his eyes wide open for the woman. He still wanted her just as much as on that fateful day, over more than a decade ago, even more so, because now he had a personal score to settle with her. He had felt deeply ashamed of his second-born. He had died in dishonor -- shot by a human woman who had by all means been weakened from her time in the prison, and who should have been utterly defenseless. How she had managed to get hold of a phaser was beyond him. Once he had gotten word about her through a Cardassian spy who had infiltrated a Starfleet vessel. He had asked the spy, who happened to be a friend who owed him a few favors, to go through the Library Computer Access and Retrieval System aboard the Starfleet vessel and look up her name. That had been almost five years ago, now, and the computer had found one match only -- one Commander Kathryn Janeway. Considering her previous progress in the command structure she should have made "captain" by now. There were not that many female captains in Starfleet, as its very military structure did not seem to appeal very much to human females -- and the large majority of Starfleet captains were human, since the organization was based on Earth and required Earth standards to enter its Academy.
He had never found himself so eagerly looking forward to Seska's next report. He had a feeling about this one -- he was almost certain that he had finally found her. A predatory grin crossed his coarse features as he contemplated a possible reunion with his former prisoner.
The door chime sounded.
"Come in, Lojal!" Chakotay called out as he walked from the dining area to the lounge room to receive the Bajoran. Lojal entered the room, barely fitting through the doors, weighed down as he was by the mountain of blankets, sheets and pillows.
"You can put it down on the couch. Thank you, Lojal. I really appreciate this." he said, tapping the Bajoran's shoulder.
"Don't mention it, Captain."
Having alighted himself of the bedding he stood awkwardly, taking in his surroundings. After all, he had not just come to do his captain a favor. He wanted to know what had happened to the Starfleet captain. Stealing a look through the doorway that led from Chakotay's lounge to the dining room, his eyes finally fell on her as she sat at the dining table.
At first he almost had not recognized her in her civilian dress and with her hair down. She was even more beautiful then he had thought. No wonder Chakotay had spent nearly the entire day with her. Lojal could not resist the temptation to address her...
"Feeling better, Captain?" Lojal asked, increasing the volume of his voice, so it would carry into the next room, and looking straight at her. A little startled, she looked up and was just about to answer him, when Chakotay hinted none to gently,
"That will be all, Lojal. Thank you. I'll see you in the morning."
Realizing that his absence was desired, Lojal left Chakotay's quarters -- a little disappointed -- but at least he had actually seen the Starfleet captain, which was more than most of the Maquis could claim.
Kathryn Janeway stepped towards the couch and began to spread one of the sheets over it, tugging its ends under the lush upholstery.
"I'll do that, Kathryn."
Chakotay declared, taking the sheet out of her hands and continuing where she had left off. Incredulously she stared at him.
"I can make my own bed, Chakotay." she objected a little bemused.
"You'll have the bed." he stated matter-of-factly, gesturing towards the bedroom. She was not going to give in this time.
She needed to be in the lounge room tonight. It was the only room with a door that led out of his quarters. She had to make an attempt at escape. It would be difficult enough with him sleeping two rooms away from her, in the bedroom, but there was no way she was going to make it out of here with him camping out next to the door like a guard dog. And anyway, did this big Indian really think he could fit onto that small couch? Even she would have to crouch a little to be able to sleep on it, and she was considerably smaller than he.
"Chakotay, I appreciate the gesture, but I'll take the couch."
Before he could argue she added,
"I'm smaller than you and far better suited to take the couch."
She gave him a glance that clearly communicated that she would not take 'no' for an answer on this matter. Having scrutinized her for a moment, he eventually let go of the sheet and relented, albeit hesitantly. Of course she was absolutely right. He could not argue with her logic. And it was not like she could escape to anywhere. The door would only open with a special code which only he knew, and even then she would not be able to get out of the base, unless she could find her way through the labyrinth of tunnels to one of the docking bays.
"Alright, you have the couch then. I'll be in the bedroom. Good night, Kathryn."
Standing next to the couch she nodded.
"Good night." she said, as he left for the bedroom, then returned her attention to the task at hand.