by Shards
Harry pressed the button even as he realized it was too soon to activate the laser pulse. The tiny probe wasn't in position yet. A beam of blue light deflected off B'Elanna's leather vest, burning a deep scar across the brown hide. Klaxons sounded along with lurid flashing lights.
"Security alert!" Harry scrambled to activate the self-destruct. The image on the screen went up in a puff of smoke.
"What happened?" Tuvok demanded.
Harry was astonished at himself. It was a novice mistake to let his emotions interfere in his work. His sense of professional pride was stung. "I rushed my shot."
If Tuvok was disappointed, it didn't show. "How long before you can assemble another probe?"
"I'll have to collect some of the components. It could take a few days."
"No matter, I have another plan. Did you bring the holocube I requested?"
"Yes." Harry handed over the device, shutting his emotions down tight. He had needed that kill; he had been tracking B'Elanna for months, and having her within his sights, then losing her, was too much. He almost hoped she would panic and run. Even if he didn't personally get to finish the job, he could take a measure of satisfaction in flushing her out of hiding so someone else could.
B'Elanna waved at the smoke, trying to clear it so she could see if there were any remains of the device that had imploded. The particle beam had gotten her attention, to say the least. It had punched her in the back, and the blue light had blinded her for a moment. She had her reinforced leather vest to thank for her life.
The device had been reduced to ash. Her gaze darted around the room, expecting another attack. She almost ran to the transporter room to get to the safety of the ship. But what then? Crell Moset would have to come with her, and he was probably the one behind this. He had been increasingly impatient with her delays, and he had just returned to the complex. Was he trying to drive her out?
She wasn't ready to face the Regent. She would be mentally overwhelmed, and she wouldn't be able to defend her decision to verify Moset's theories instead of returning at once to Qo'noS. After Monor Base had fallen from the sky on her watch, nothing less than a proven success would resurrect her life. And she almost had it.
I'm not ready yet!
When Tuvok shifted the screen aside, he found Kes deep in a mind-meld with B'Elanna. Kes eased out, truthfully reporting everything she had discovered. "B'Elanna confronted Crell Moset, but he denied knowing anything about it, naturally. He thinks that they've been discovered, and he's really shaken. He just left the complex again. Ishka thinks a business associate is behind the attack, and she's ordered upgrades on her security system. B'Elanna is holed up in her room again."
"Frightening her out will not be easy," Tuvok said. "Klingons typically become aggressive when cornered, but she is reacting in quite the opposite manner."
"It's the telepathy. She feels other people's thoughts as her own, so she's confused about herself."
Tuvok came closer, trying to bridge the formal distance that had sprung up between them. "Kes, this is very important. You must discover what B'Elanna wants above all else. Something that will make her leave the complex to get it. Press on that. Make her think that she cannot live without it."
"She needs to find out how to control her telepathy. If she knew I was here, she'd probably claw through the rock to get to me."
"Anything but that, Kes. Make her use the transporter to go someplace outside the tunnels, to her ship or anywhere else on Archanis."
"Why?"
"Because you can push her into inputting coordinates that will transport her into this." Tuvok held up a palm-sized cube. Tiny silver conduits snaked over the surface. "The rebellion obtained this device during the raid of an Alliance research facility. It is a self-powered quantum storage unit, capable of converting a subject's transporter pattern to a holographic matrix and encoding that matrix in its memory core."
"So, B'Elanna will still be alive?"
"Yes, along with Crell Moset, who will also be placed inside."
"B'Elanna won't like that."
"That is not my concern." Tuvok gestured. "Rest now, and later you may be able to reach out to B'Elanna again."
When Kes woke from a short nap late that night, she searched mentally for B'Elanna and found she was also awake and on her way to Moset's laboratory. He had left again, shortly after the probe attack, and had not yet returned. B'Elanna ordered the lights on and sat down at his terminal. The data on the telepathy research were in neatly organized files.
B'Elanna copied the entire set of files into a capsule carrier. She shoved the capsule into a hypospray and injected it into her upper arm with a grunt. It was a lot larger than the standard pharmaceutical dose and left a bump under her skin. Now B'Elanna had everything that the Regent would need to create his own telepaths.
As she went back down the corridor, Moset returned moist and fragrant from the baths. B'Elanna's nose wrinkled at the sexual fog clouding his mind. His bath girl had been imperious with him tonight. He had kissed her toes as he had dreamed of for so long, and the sight of her smug face leaning over him had satisfied him as no other woman ever had. His memory of her was miraculously perfect, obviously idealized past any resemblance to the real bath girl. B'Elanna was sorely tempted to smack him across the head.
Kes was deep inside B'Elanna's mind, and her own hands clenched with desire to strike the blissful old man. She had suggested to Tuvok that Seska assume a more assertive role with Moset. Apparently, it was working.
"Ha'DlbaH!" B'Elanna sneered.
Moset trembled, but he held his ground. "We must return to the Alliance. I could lose everything I built for myself, my decades of hard work and my home on Chin'toka II. What if they declare us dead? If we wait any longer, it may be too late."
She shook her head. "I need more time."
"Then I'll go alone," Moset insisted. "I'll explain that you're working on mastering your skills. I'll explain everything."
"I know what you'll say! You'll tell them that it's my fault we came to Archanis, that I made you work on the telepathy research. You'll make sure you get the rewards, while I get all the suspicion and punishment!"
B'Elanna closed with him threateningly. She had to intimidate him into agreeing with her; she would be stronger if they stood together.
But the stirring in his groin was an altogether different response. Her display of dominance excited him. He had seen her fight before and had been terrified and aroused. Now that she was swaggering over him, he wanted to creep at her feet like a worm.
"I'll do whatever you say," he promised, holding up his hands clasped together.
Snarling, she almost vented her frustration on his ugly gray face. More than his misplaced lust, she hated the fact that he was so utterly sure of himself. No matter what he felt or did, he knew exactly where he stood with his people. He knew his discovery would bring him fame and fortune, benefiting his large extended family as well as himself. He was eager for their gratitude; they had supported him, aiding him with official appointments and serving as a buffer against the excesses of the Alliance.
B'Elanna was alone.
"I'll tell you when it's time to go," she ordered through gritted teeth. His spasm of delight disgusted her, but it would serve her purpose. For now.
She whirled and stalked away from Moset. Kes leaned hard on B'Elanna's feelings of loss and failure, suffering her own shame. Kes knew exactly what it felt like to make every mistake along the way.
B'Elanna caught sight of herself in the mirror as she returned to her quarters. She had donned her full body armor, and the crest on her chest mocked her. Miral had never added the symbol to her crest to indicate that she had borne a daughter.
Why not?
B'Elanna fought under this very crest. It was a deliberate insult every time she wore it.
As if I don't really exist.
Miral had helped her all she could, but that had been for her own benefit. Certainly, her mother had been disgraced
by B'Elanna's first failed command, or she wouldn't have been "promoted" to Intendant of Earth. Was Miral mourning her daughter's death, or was she glad to be rid of her? Was she glad to be finally rid of the shame of having borne a half-Terran child?
Kes wallowed in B'Elanna's pain, encouraging her self-pity and her self-righteous need to know the truth. Perhaps Miral had lied to her. Perhaps B'Elanna was truly Terran, loathed by all Klingons including her own mother. Loathed even by herself-
"Tuvok! I've done it," came from the other room, breaking into Kes's concentration.
Kes knew she had found the key to B'Elanna, but that was Seska reporting in. She withdrew from the mind-meld and crept to the archway.
"I've convinced my target that we should return to Cardassia now. I made up a story about my boss pressuring me for sexual favors. He turned puce, you should have seen it." Seska's manic grin was frightening in the midst of the body paint that streaked down her cheeks as if she had been crying. She looked like the kind of woman who could turn on a loved one in an instant and rip out their throat. "He should be back in the complex by now. He said he would meet me at the ship within the hour."
Tuvok signed off and appeared in the doorway just as Kes resettled herself. "Quickly, Kes. Crell Moset is leaving."
Kes sank into the required frame of mind. She found Moset peeking from his room into the corridor to be sure B'Elanna was no longer there. He had nothing in his hands to show that he was leaving; data rods were secured in his pocket along with the tissue samples, everything he needed to ensure his glorious future. As a bonus, he would get his bed warmed every night. He fantasized about taking his little bath girl to his fine home high on the hill overlooking the lights of the city, where he could lift her above everyone, serving her in every way possible.
He entered the transporter room and ordered the lights on. Kes leaned on him as he input the coordinates. He was so excited he didn't realize that he had keyed very different numbers from the ones he had intended. The coordinates he input would transport him inside the holocube sitting on Tuvok's desk.
Moset took his place on the transporter disc, patting his pocket one last time to be sure he had his research materials. He had wiped the copies from Ishka's computer and hadn't noticed that B'Elanna had copied them before him.
Kes mentally willed him to go, feeling the first tendrils of thoughts of someone else approaching.
"Energize," he ordered.
Through his eyes, she saw the hanging panels of brocade that decorated the transporter room begin to shimmer as the beam took hold of him. Suddenly, sparks shot out of the console reaching nearly to the ceiling. She flinched as Moset wanted to, but he was too deep in the dematerialization process to move. The last thing she saw was an even bigger burst of sparks.
Kes gasped as their link was severed. "S-something happened," she stammered. "The console exploded."
Tuvok moved too deliberately for her taste as he checked the holocube. "Empty."
"He's not there? What happened?"
"You tell me, Kes."
She didn't want to say it, but the way the link had been snipped was too stark to ignore. She had felt Crell Moset disappear, painless though it was, snuffed out.
She sat cross-legged directly on the floor, seeking her meditation position to help calm herself. After a few moments, she found B'Elanna in Ishka's transporter room.
B'Elanna was infuriated that Moset had forced her to kill him this way; she had laid her transporter trap as a fail-safe right before she had copied his files. I should have beaten in his face for even considering abandoning me. It would have been more satisfying.
She opened the underpanel of the console and, using a sonic wrench, began removing the restrictor circuit she had placed there. The only place Moset would transport to was the ship, so B'Elanna had programmed her trap to trigger automatically if a Cardassian used the transporter. The circuit blew the redactor coil at the critical moment. She had a spare redactor coil in her bag that she intended to install.
Kes broke the mind link and returned to Tuvok. "It was B'Elanna! She killed him using the transporter. Because he was leaving without her."
"That is unfortunate." Tuvok positioned the holocube in exactly the same spot on the desk. "Please continue your surveillance, Kes."
That was too much. "She killed him, Tuvok! How can you be so blase?"
He frowned, looking distinctly pained. "Kes, I will mourn each and every death that happens here for the rest of my life. I am complicit in their demise, and I will have to atone for each one. Believe me, I do not take this lightly. I have surrendered my very being to our cause. I have done things I deeply regret-deceiving you is just one of them. I do these things only because I know it will prevent suffering as this part of the galaxy has never seen before. I would do it for no less."
Sincerity rang through his words. She didn't need to meld with his mind to see that he was an honorable man making his way as best he could under a regime of terrible oppression. He had pledged to protect a secret that could destroy his people, and he would die keeping that pledge.
But she hated what he had forced her to become. She didn't want to lie or hurt people, but she couldn't sit back and be a good girl when that meant Neelix was dying of a broken heart.
"I don't have to like it," she finally said.
Tuvok gave a slight nod, acquiescing. "I understand that I have sacrificed our friendship, and for that I am truly sorry."
Kes didn't want to accept his apology, but she had to. "Thank you for that, Tuvok."
It took longer than usual to calm herself, as she reached out again to B'Elanna. The Klingon hybrid was completing the repairs and closing the panel back up, even more agitated than before, dwelling on the betrayals she had suffered. B'Elanna tapped the console, cycling the transporter through a self-diagnostic.
Ishka appeared in the doorway. "What's going on here?" Her silk robe hung loosely on her, but it couldn't hide the saggy flesh under her chin and around her ankles. Her drooping ears were puckered, as was her ridged nose.
B'Elanna was repulsed, but at least the Ferengi was wearing something. Ishka preferred nudity when at home, but neither Moset nor B'Elanna appreciated the elderly Ferengi form.
"If you must know, I caught Crell Moset sneaking off without me. He was going to claim all the credit for our accomplishment."
"It's about time someone did. Why are you still here, hiding away in my home? When are you going to profit from what you've discovered? More important, when am I going to profit?"
Kes whispered into B'Elanna's mind, She knows your mother despises you, or she wouldn't speak to you this way.
"This isn't about you!" B'Elanna sneered. "I had to defend myself."
"So you killed him? In my home? Using my transporter? It wasn't enough that you've killed two of my slaves-two of them! Who do you think you are?"
She knows what your mother thinks, Kes taunted. Ask her what your mother thinks of you.
B'Elanna pounded her fist against her chest. "I'm Miral's daughter! Why didn't she change our crest? Why has she denied me?"
Ishka drew back. "Have you lost your latinum? You've been acting odd ever since you started the treatments. Your mother wouldn't stand for your behavior, I can tell you that."
She knows! Kes goaded. Your mother hates you. When she finds out you're alive, will she be happy or mad? If you could read your mother's mind, would you find love or contempt?
"I can't stand it!" B'Elanna screamed, clasping her hands over her ears, as if she could somehow stop Kes's voice in her head.