The Secret Of Angalaria
by Gine
Chapter 4 At the abyss
"Finally it's just you and me, Captain."
Salox had sent the guards away and Maran was nowhere to be seen. Salox stood directly in front of the cross, intently studying the face of the woman who was secured to the beam for the third time.
"Maran was a fool. He tried to feed his own mind behind my back and almost killed you in the process. His thirst for power was unquenchable. The lost soul of an Angalarian can never be restored, not even by someone as strong as you are. Most people he melded with never lived through the first time." Salox nodded at the reaction that he saw in Kathryn's eyes.
"Yes, he was an Angalarian once, a pure soul full of light. He was still young and so innocent when I captured him. I thrived on his powers for a very long time, but his service was no longer needed. He almost destroyed the best chance I've ever had of finding his home-world. The guards made sure he would never see it again." Salox grinned smugly at Kathryn.
"Ah, Captain. Do I see pity in your eyes? That is uncalled for. His death was quick and painless. You however are going to know every facet of pain until I have what I want."
Salox reached for a cylindrical object, the top of which was gleaming red. "The coordinates of the polara, Captain?"
Kathryn no longer looked at him, answering his threats with silence. Salox was quickly loosing his patience.
"You will talk to me, woman, or I will beat every little syllable out of your fragile body."
He raised his arm high over his head and aimed the glowing device at Kathryn's body. When it came down, an orange plasma beam lashed out from it and met Kathryn's left thigh with a loud hiss. The pain was different from the one that she had faced from Maran's hands.
Although her leg appeared unharmed, her skin felt like it had been ripped from her. Hot searing pain shot up her leg, making it strain against the tight straps around her ankle.
Before she could recover, Salox aimed at her other leg. Blow after blow followed, the sound of the plasma-whip now mixed with agonized screams. Her desperate attempts to suppress the urge to cry out had been lost when the whip had met the sensitive skin of her breasts. As much as she had tried to steal herself against the torture, this was beyond every expectation and no Starfleet training could have prepared her for the brutality of Salox's assault. The excruciating sensations raced though her body, spread into every single cell and made her feel like they would burst.
Her hands cramped into fists and her breathing quickened alarmingly. Her skin was wet with perspiration and glistened in the cone of the harsh light that surrounded her.
"The location of the Polara!" Salox was rapidly loosing his temper, constantly demanding an answer, but all he got from the captain was a breathless "Go to hell!"
Faster and faster the whip placed burning kisses on Kathryn's convulsing form. She no longer felt the difference between the single hits. Her body was one great mass of fire and Salox was constantly pouring oil into it.
The word polara echoed through her consciousness, but she never gave voice to her knowledge of it. When her vocal chords gave out and her head dropped, Salox knew he could never break her with the whip.
Icy water shocked Kathryn back to awareness. Salox was out of sight, but she felt his presence close to her. Two gloved hands touched her hips from behind the cross. She felt the rough texture of leather and metal move in slow circles on her still oversensitive skin. Cold long fingers crept over her stomach and traced patterns in the mix of sweat and water. One hand made its way upwards, while the other dangerously trailed downwards. Salox was breathing heavily behind her. His mouth close to her ear, he whispered to her.
"You're a beautiful woman, Captain." His right hand contoured over the soft skin of her breast, while his left started to invade her most private of places, tearing at wet hair and fumbling over delicate skin.
Kathryn froze inwardly. Her breath wanted to stick in her throat, but she willed herself to breathe evenly. This was hurting her beyond any physical pain, but she knew if she flinched at Salox's molesting touches, he would certainly take advantage of her resistance and assume this could be a more promising way to torture her.
His touches grew more demanding, his hands both at her breasts now hurting her with bruising squeezes. The metal that was attached to the fingertips of the gloves started to vibrate and when Salox touched her now, Kathryn felt again the melding pain that she had experienced earlier with Maran. This time it cut deeper. The blood in her veins seemed to boil and it crept through her body like a snake of lava. The forced stimulation of her synapses increased the sensibility of her already overstressed senses to the limits of endurance.
"This little device allows me to control the melding process much better. I can mutilate every emotion, Captain. In the end, dark shadows will be all that is left of your soul. I ask you one last time. Where is the polara?"
Again silence was his only answer, and that angered Salox more than anything. He came around the cross and reached with both hands for Kathryn's head. A strong electrical shockwave raced through her when the humming metal connected with her temples.
At first all she felt was a slight headache, but it quickly became stronger until the pain hit like blows from a hammer. She squeezed her eyes shut at the constant pounding. The sound of her own hammering heartbeat echoed in her ears, red and white spots affecting her vision. Nausea threatened to overwhelm her and she gasped to fill her straining lungs with much needed air.
The pounding turned into stabbing and it felt like thousands of sharp needles were piercing her brain all at once. The pain in her head exploded in a supernova of bright streaming light and her mind completely lost control of her nervous system. The last barrier was broken and Kathryn's deepest emotions were violently pulled into the open. The essence of her soul was finally exposed to the hungry darkness and Salox started to infiltrate her emotional memory core. He could not read her mind, but she could no longer hide her deepest fears and protect her most precious feelings from the desecration that Salox was executing at her.
Her whole body reacted to the adrenalin flash that was released at the flood of suppressed emotions. Pictures and sounds of her own life raced through her mind like a film being viewed at warp-speed. The face of her crying mother, a broken shuttle in a desert of ice, Chakotay's dimpled smile, the howling of a little dog, screams in the darkness, Justin's earnest eyes, Mark stroking over her hair, Kes leaving Voyager, the Maquis Captain on Voyager's view-screen, the exploding Equinox, the shrieks of an ape, Chakotay's naked shoulder under her hands, the human Borg-drone crying in her arms, Tom aiming for a pool-ball, Tuvix's last words at her, a beautiful necklace, Chakotay leaving her ready room, Belanna shaking hands with Joe Carey, Tuvok blowing out his birthday candle, Chakotay's tattoo, Naomi in the arms of her mother, Harry playing the clarinet, the Doc small as a dwarf, Chakotay's brown eyes, Boothby's rose, Seven singing a duet with the Doc, her mother's house in Indiana, a beautiful beach in the sunlight, Chakotay toasting her with a glass of cider, Chakotay's angry face, the moon over Lake George reflected in Chakotay's eyes, Chakotay's voice calling her Kathryn for the very first time, Chakotay's hand locking with hers…Chakotay. His face was her last constant in the chaotic maelstrom that threatened to drown her.
Salox had sensed the powerful bond that Kathryn shared with someone else and knew he had found her greatest strength and her greatest weakness. He adjusted the devices on his gloves to the highest possible setting and began his final conquest. His hands wandered again over Kathryn's nude body, while his face was only inches from hers. His right hand came up and his index finger slowly trailed over her lips, burning the soft skin there. His face came closer and closer until his cold mouth almost touched her cheek. He put out his rough tongue and slowly began to lick the mix of sweat and tears from her face.
She could not move away from him. One of his strong hands held her head in place, while the other was roaming her body.
Salox was moaning in arousal as his tongue hovered over Kathryn's parted lips. When his mouth pressed over hers, Kathryn's heart shattered. She closed her eyes in a last desperate attempt to detach herself from the brutal reality around her. Chakotay's smiling face came to her, a saving light in the darkness, but when she reached out to him, the love in his expressive brown eyes started to vanish. They turned stone grey and cold. The familiar contours changed rapidly and Salox's cruel face entered her thoughts. Her screams only sounded in her mind.