As she nudged the vehicle around the city, Juliette realized while Vulcan telepathy shielded her from the raw emotions the Sklan inspired in the Uwda, Betazoid techniques - far more sensitive to emotion - would be more effective in locating the Sklan. Her experiments were as successful as they were painful, and from the opulent darkness of the vehicle, she pressed her thumbs against her temples to stave off the pain and watched their hidden world.
The Sklan were more numerous than she initially thought - young or old, affluent or poor, they seemed evenly distributed amongst the Uwda. While the Sklan seemed aware of each other, they were not particularly social and lived as parasite loners with no society of their own. She imagined with amusement the irony of the Sklan she stumbled upon before trying warn the others, Brethren, there is an alien that travels amongst us. We cannot easily see it, and we do not know its purpose.
Late in the afternoon, she discovered not one, but two Sklan close together. She abandoned the vehicle and driver at the edge of a meandering park and stalked the looping paths which parted green fields, small copses, and manicured playgrounds. Near a small pond, she found the pair sitting as bookends to a pair of Uwda enjoying a picnic. The Uwda sat on a blanket spread out on the ground, nestled against each other, their meal basket unopened. His hand rested on her shoulder; her hand delicately over his. Juliette smiled at the affection they radiated and looked sadly to her own gloved hands and sighed.
The Sklan closest to the young man murmured into his ear. The young man spoke the whisper aloud and Juliette felt a chill replace the warm glow of affection from the girl. She looked at him abruptly, her eyes flashing as the other Sklan prompted her terse reply. The Uwda's tender moment became a bitter back and forth, orchestrated by their Sklan.
Their anger burned white-hot in her mind, but Juliette focused beyond the pain to see how the Sklan removed themselves from the perceptions of the Uwda, to make themselves entirely unobserved. Amazed, she studied the phenomena as long as she dared, until her eyes blurred with the compounding pain, and was forced to look away, her stomach boiling.
Despite the waves of nausea, Juliette was desperate to try the technique herself. She sat folded over on a bench and clutched at her head as she gulped air until the turmoil in her head and stomach became tolerable. She rose shakily and hunted for a test subject. Further down the path, a solitary Uwda sat at the edge of a fountain, reading a book. She watched him, felt his awareness, then gently touched with her mind. At first, she fumbled removing herself from his scene and he glanced over toward her, sensing something, but as she found the rhythm, he settled back to reading. When he surreptitiously looked about before discretely scratching at his ear, Juliette forced herself not to explode with laughter.
Juliette lightly slid off her perch and stood right in front of him, close enough to touch. Oblivious to her presence, he remained focused on his book. She playfully brushed a page of his book back. He flipped it back without so much as a look in her direction. She grinned as she pushed another page. A rush of energy accompanied his annoyance as he flipped the page back. She felt the remnants of her headache fade and her stomach settle enough for her appetite to return.
Satisfied with her experiment, she sashayed to the edge of the park and located an outdoor café. She snatched foodstuffs from one table, a beverage from another with scarcely a ripple of recognition from the patrons. She ate at an empty table, the world preoccupied and unaware, when she felt another presence against hers.
Lieutenant Commander?
The contact seemed familiar. Ensign Bonin?
Are you alright?
I am. Where are you?
I'm close by, sir.
Is Commander Syvok with you?
No sir, he's back on the ship. How can I help?
I don't know yet. I need to understand the nature of the Sklan before I can take action. I knew Commander Syvok would hamper that effort. I think somehow a Sklan is influencing him.
What should we do?
I'm figuring that out, Ensign. The Sklan seem to attach themselves to a particular person and help bring out their negative emotions – sadness, misery, confusion.
I know. Isn't it delicious?
Sri felt a chill worm along her spine, and glanced quickly around, trying to pick out the Sklan from the thin crowd of diners scattered amongst the cafe. You're not Bonin.
You're not Uwda. You're another in a mask.
And you hide from the Uwda. Do they even know you exist?
Only the mad. What kind of face do you have under that mask?
Truer than yours. My face can be seen. Why do you torment the Uwda? Is it for the energy they give off when they're upset? She withdrew from the Sklan's presence.
The Sklan followed, easing into Juliette's consciousness. They're where they want to be, thinking of themselves. They get their obsessions, and we get - something wonderful.
As his presence pressed deeper, she switched her perceptions inward. Her mind became a world, feeding the conventional senses - sight, sound - as real as any - mostly. She let her mindscape match her surroundings and recreated the cafe at the edge of the park. She maintained her Uwda appearance and let the Sklan define his own. He appeared before her, uncomfortably close. Did he choose to be naked to shock her? Or was his host likewise naked? His body was elongated and stretched to stand at least two heads above her, his fingers were slender spears. Thin fibers grew out of his back that formed a fabric that drifted like a veil waving in a ghostly wind and gathered to form a thick, fibrous cord that trailed outward as far as Juliette could see - possibly an umbilical of some kind to the Uwda host.
Juliette quickly backed away from the Uwda, before turning to run. The Sklan followed with long strides. The park's neatly manicured pathway became a narrow passage flanked by rough-hewn basalt walls with knifelike edges. For most, despair as a maze was an allegory. But Juliette had walked the walls many times, through careful meditation and sleepless nights. She moved quickly, being careful to avoid the sudden dead ends and the cliffs that opened into nightmares. Still, not everything was avoidable. Gusts of memory blew through them - the terrors of a girl barely twelve, lost among those who held She was trapped with aliens that held their emotions in vaults and kept to themselves, pleading to come home. The ache was familiar but tempered by discipline and the knowledge that she eventually did return to Betazed. But only Juliette was distracted by the clutch of the memory; the Sklan barely paused its pursuit.
Juliette followed the brooding corridors to memories of a young women returning to a Betazed no longer her home, who locked herself from the eager emotional turmoil - so unlike the Vulcan she was used to. But she was Betazoid, wasn't she? Joys and burdens were to be shared. Those that couldn't were pitied; those that didn't... The chagrin of her friends and family locked away. Worse than those who couldn't share - one that didn't... The hurt was fresh as ever. Lara and Kanara had been so patient, easing her out of her shell - they had been so close. However, the Sklan barely noticed, and Juliette lost ground.
She pressed her awareness back to push at the Sklan. Do you prefer your miseries fresh, or are they only pleasurable when you cause them?
These hurts have long been healed. Why would I care for them?
Juliette fled - the icy panic within her growing - not from the Sklan - but from what lay ahead. The maze walls smoothed and the corridors became dotted with columns. Onyx stairways led to punishing meditation cells. Juliette pushed through her growing fear to the naos of her regrets.
The hallway ended abruptly at a neat circular chamber her only exit behind her. The dusty gray floor centered around an antediluvian pillar, notched and worn that plunged into the angry clouds.
The memory housed within the naos was a tangle of recollection and nightmare. At first, there was just the faded shade of Papa - far younger than he was now - on his knees before a still younger Juliette. She awoke to telepathy earlier than most and had felt the moment of Grandmother's passing, and how the family had been with her - comforting her in her last moments. The idea she was somehow gone scared her, but Papa's thoughts had been gentle. When you're older, you'll join the circle. We ease the passing from this world - it is our greatest gift and duty.
The scene changed and a bed framed in black marble sat in the middle of the room, surrounded by a sterile rank of monitors that recorded the failing body within. How unlike mother the patient looked, so drawn and sunken, with blankets draped over her thin form. Her withered arms hung slack, suspended as two of her attending daughters held her hands. - Lara on the left, Kanara on the right. Papa somberly clasped Kanara's hand and reached, along with Lara, toward Juliette to complete the circle. Their palms were open, inviting.
But Lara had died two years before mother's passing. Yet Juliette always pictured her there, her face dark with disappointment.
Why Juliette? Why did you abandon the matron of House Sri when she needed you most?
Juliette avoided looking at her mother in the bed. She always got better when she was sick.
Kanara's shade shook her head. We kept a place for you.
Please, I wouldn't have gotten to Betazed from the Academy in time - it was four days!
Lara sighed. Only death kept me from being there. What was your excuse?
I wouldn't have made it in time!
Papa let silence carry his disappointment until all asked in unison, Why did mother die alone?
Juliette dropped to her knees before her chorus of accusers, her vision blurred with tears.
She didn't. She had you. I- I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.
Juliette felt the Sklan behind her. It's cold, bony finger brushed her cheek in mock tenderness.
Now that's much better - and now you have nowhere to run.
Juliette took a deep, shuddering breath. No. This is mine.
She dropped the walls and floor. Even the boiling sky became a vast emptiness. Of the maze, only the pillar remained, stretching infinitely above and below. Behind the Sklan, its umbilicus traced their path - a path that twisted and dipped and looped back on itself. She sent a portion of her awareness back to where the Sklan had entered her mind and pulled hard. The slack disappeared. Loops whistled over her head as they tightened. She twisted to avoid the blur of the Sklan as it was roughly drawn inward and collided with a wet, heavy crunch, its umbilicus knotted around the pillar. Her head pounded from the effort, but stood and wiped her eyes as she floated. The Sklan was tightly entwined against the rough side of the pillar, its breathing labored as it strained against its own umbilicus that bit into its pale flesh.
You will release me!
After you release my commander, and the rest of the Uwda. She studied the thick, fibrous umbilicus that dug deep into the Sklan, and traced it with her fingertips around the Sklan and outward. She placed her hand on the taut, fibrous cord. Her awareness crept along its length back to the Uwda host - an aged, frail man perched on a nearby bench who wallowed in a vague sense of dread that he was getting older and that his wife would leave him. His angst flowed syrupy to the Sklan. With a squeeze, Juliette took it for her own, a slow but steady surge building up in her. She felt the Sklan's helplessness as it struggled. She took that, too.
Stop! That is meant for me.
Release my commander.
I do not have him! Please.
One of you has him. I saw it next to him. She pulled more of the Uwda's misery and frustration into herself. Now there was no pain, only an exhilarating rush of energy, such that she almost forgot about the Uwda, who groaned in agony. Stop!
If the misery was a jolt, its pain glowed like a nova of ecstasy. In her hand, the umbilicus had become withered and dark - a dry root in her clenched fist. The Uwda at the other end collapsed off the bench. Could she remove it? There were so many fibers, and they were deeply burrowed into the Uwda. Such an effort would take days, and the outcome was uncertain.
Her attention returned to the Sklan, who clawed desperately at the pillar, hissing weakly. The energy she had taken roared within her, and she threw the Sklan out of her mind with blasé dismissiveness and turned her perception outward with a thunderous sound. Now she had the attention of other Sklan, who regarded her with wary curiosity. She snatched one's umbilicus before it could flee. She savored the rush of the Sklan's terror.
Juliette grinned, content to let those who had tormented the Uwda for so long experience a little discomfort of their own. Both Uwda and Sklan became docile as she took what she could, and used that to find other. The energy shimmered against her perception, and there was still so much more to take. She pictured the Sklan on the Oppenheimer. Did Bridgeway find her warning? Were they hunting the Sklan that had attached itself to Syvok? Or was it preparing to bring more to the ship, to attach to the rest of the crew?
The thought pulled her bemused smile away and left her with a dark scowl. The Uwda as cattle for the telepathic Sklan was terrible, but the idea the Sklan would journey to other worlds created a flare of icy rage so sudden she nearly drained her current Sklan dry. How much energy would it take to extend herself back to the Oppenheimer? How many Sklan would she have to drain? A dozen? A hundred? An entire city? She promised herself to take no more than was needed - even if it was all of them.