The Sequel to "Yesterday's Terrors"
Disclaimer: It all belongs to Paramount and I'm just having a little fun with it.
Summary: Sequel to my story "Yesterday's Terrors" which you should really read before you start "The Evil That Breeds Within".
PrologueApproximately 3 months after the events in "Yesterday's Terrors"
Hunched in the shadows crouched a figure clad from head to toe in black, features obscured by a balaclava, alert obsidian eyes shining like glittering coals in the shadows. He had made it to the very heart of the control center without too much trouble. Certainly, there had been a few close cuts, but altogether this had almost been too easy, and that worried him. The mission was almost accomplished. All he had to do now was tap the access code into the door panel, introduce the virus into the main computer and get out of the Cardassian Military Headquarters without being detected, but then it was a miracle he had come this far, so everything was possible. There was a first time for everything.
Lemok frowned. This was too easy. The whole thing felt wrong, almost as if someone was deliberately granting him access.
I'm getting paranoid, he thought, as he entered the access code, given to him by one of the rebel leaders, into the door panel. He braced himself for attack, tensing like a tiger before the jump. He was about to run into the heavily guarded control center - a suicide mission, he knew... but it would be worth it.
Obediently the doorway slid open with the smallest of hydraulic hisses. Lemok stormed into the room, disrupter first, securing the entire chamber even before the door automatically shut behind him.
The control room was deserted. No one was there, not even a skeletal crew. He had expected at least half a dozen guards. There was no movement from any of the eight access doors, not a sound to be heard. Maybe Cardassian Central Command was getting just a little too sure of itself? With newly found confidence he approached the main computer core that dominated the octangular chamber. Its extensive database contained classified information on each and every Cardassian citizen, and then some more. Lemok's task was to introduce a virus into the system that would not only destroy all the stored information, but also disable Central Command's planetary defense and surveillance systems. He removed his balaclava, which had begun to stick to the ridges on his forehead, and began to work.
He had joined the rebels two years ago, after the show trial of his father, the legendary Legate Togal, who had been a member of the Cardassian government for forty odd years, before he was charged with and convicted of treachery. An inconceivable accusation, which had brought dishonor upon his entire family.
Togal, a high-ranking and respected politician, had been as loyal a citizen as the Empire had ever seen. He had conveyed to his son a great love for Cardassia and filled him with pride for his origins.
In typical Cardassian fashion Togal prided himself of his ancestry, regarding all other species as inferior. He reveled in telling stories of great Cardassian military victories of the past, stories of warfare in which Cardassia time and again colonized uncivilized worlds and subdued their respective people, returning home with unspeakable treasures that made a dying economy thrive once again. There was no question. Every living fiber of Legate Togal was dedicated to the Empire.
However during his final years he had more and more felt the need for reform, had advocated a change in the distribution of power between the Detapa Council, the Military and the Obsidian Order. Like many other politicians in the Council he had come to realize that the Military was the only real power in Cardassia. The Empire's democratically elected leaders were nothing more than powerless show-figures -- a pretence of democracy to keep the people happy. In fact the Empire had become a police state in which everyone feared for his or her safety, and no one was certain of their future; a society in which corruption was rife, the black market thrived, neighbor turned against neighbor -- in short, the Cardassian Empire was run by a military dictatorship that ruled with the hand of terror.
Naturally the Military did not care to relent even the smallest part of its power, and so Legate Togal had signed his own death sentence by openly speaking out against its dominant role in the Empire. In the best of Cardassian traditions he was convicted of treason before the trial, which was broadcast to all households throughout Cardassian space. The punishment for treason in Cardassia was death, however, the Nestor, the Cardassian equivalent of a judge, showed mercy of sorts and changed the expected death sentence to life-imprisonment.
Lemok's father had been sentenced to spend the rest of his days in a labor camp on a godforsaken ice planet, far away from home. A few days after the sentence had been carried out, Lemok got news that his father had been killed in an attempt to escape. According to the officials the old man had managed to break out of the high security prison camp and fled into the glacial hills, where, after several hours of hot pursuit by the guards, his body had been torn apart and consumed by Toskanar dogs. There had been too little left of him to justify a funeral ceremony. It was all too much for Lemok's mother who committed suicide by taking poison.
As the memories came flooding back to him, Lemok squared his jaw in silent fury and bit back the tears, which stung his eyes. This was not the time to reminisce - it was time for revenge! With new determination he drew the virus infected computer chip out of the pocket of his jacket and was just moving to insert it into the system when he thought he heard a sound somewhere in the vicinity of one of the access doors. Suddenly all eight doors to the chamber opened and guards stormed through them, disruptor rifles pointed straight at him.
Time froze. Lemok stood anchored to the ground, his heart beating wildly. The sound of an only too familiar voice from somewhere behind him made his heart sink.
"Lemok!"
"Father..." another voice joined the first one. Slowly he turned.
He beheld the sight of his wife and six year old daughter, their faces covered in tears and bruises as they were restrained by military guards, vicious looking disruptors pointed at their temples.
"Ah, Lemok! What a pleasure to see you again! It is unfortunate that the circumstances, which lead our paths to cross, are always unpleasant. First your father's trial, and now your family's execution."
Enabran Tain, who in his capacity as Head of the Obsidian Order had been a key witness in the trial against his father, stepped forward with a malicious smirk. Lemok had recognized the 'officially retired' Tain immediately by the sound of his voice. He remained motionless, his face an unreadable mask. Inwardly he was desperate, his palms moist, the bile rising from his stomach, but he would not give Tain the satisfaction of showing the slightest sign of weakness.
Tain continued with a joviality that seemed entirely out of place, "Of course I would spare your wife and child if you told me who is leading the rebels... such a pretty little girl, and so very bright for her age..."
Tain's coarse hand grated against the little girls cheek.
Lemok was a man torn in half. His loyalty was sworn to the rebels, but his family was his life. He was fully behind the rebels, but at this moment he wished he had never have joined the movement. The guilt he felt over having dragged his family in this danger was threatening to consume his soul. His family and friends were unaware that he had joined the reformist. He could only guess at how confused they must be over what was happening here.
But then, maybe Tain was just bluffing. Would he really kill an innocent woman and child? Even Tain could not be that ruthless... or could he? There was only one way to find out.
Lemok steeled himself and spoke with a confidence in his voice that he did not feel,
"You must think very little of me if you believe that I can be shaken by such idle threats."
Tain shrugged.
"I suppose I thought your love for your family was greater than your loyalty to your fellow renegades, but I see I was in error. A pity..."
Tain gave a brief nod to the guards holding the child and woman. Lemok looked on in terror as the guards fired the weapons that were pointed at their prisoners' heads. During the last few seconds of his existence Lemok felt a pain infinitely worse than any death as he watched his beloved wife and daughter die. Then the pain was gone. Lemok lay in a puddle of his own blood. Lemok's blood mingled with that of his young family where it puddled together in a pool of crimson in the center of the room.
"Someone clean up this mess," Tain bellowed on his way out.
In a small dimmed room in a building nearby Dunar watched in horror as the lifesigns he had been monitoring on the screen of his scanning device vanished. His hands tightened into a fists and made rough impact with his desk. Another good man had just lost his life. He could only hope that Lemok had told them nothing before he died, otherwise the entire underground movement was in jeopardy.
It was time to call in some old favors...