Part 25
Ms. Danoob walked around the device; it was the size of a one-man submarine, and roughly the same shape. "It's so small," she commented. "This will produce the power we need?"
"It will exceed your current reactor output by one hundred sixty-four percent," Seven informed her. "Fusion is an efficient means of energy production."
Ms. Danoob shook her head. "Amazing, truly amazing. With this and the endless supply of the sea we can make unlimited jumps. Thank you, Seven."
"You can thank me by sending Mara and myself away from this place," Seven said.
"I'm sorry, but I do need you."
"Then save your thanks, as they are clearly hollow."
Ms. Danoob shook her head. "You should really try and be more personable, Seven."
"After what you did to Mara, it is all I can do not to choke you where you stand. Do not presume my behavior is my failing, it is due to your own."
"I'm not interested in a lecture from you,” Ms. Danoob said dismissively, eyes never leaving the new reactor. "Guards, return her, and have Mara cleaned up and brought to me." She must have somehow sensed Seven's reaction. "Not for that," she assured the Borg before she could react. "I just want to talk with her, that's all."
"About what?" Seven demanded.
"If she chooses to share it with you, that's her prerogative." Ms. Danoob laid a hand alongside the reactor, as if it were a newborn child. "But it's between her and I as far as I'm concerned."
--------------------------------------------------------------
Kara and Lara were both assigned the same quarters; they didn't know it but they were identical to Seven and Mara's. It wouldn't have mattered even if they did know. As soon as the door closed they began kissing passionately heading towards the bed, and while neither had ever been with another woman before, they soon performed quite well for a pair of beginners in making love.
Of course, that wasn't enough for Lara. "You know,” she said, holding Starbuck in her arms, like a teddy bear, "I didn't get to actually tickle you before - really tickle you."
"That's true," Starbuck admitted. "Does that bother you?"
"Yes," Lara said. "Yes it does. It's a situation I think we need to rectify immediately.
Starbuck offered a smile that threatened to split her face in half. "Oh well, if you insist."
Lara took the manacles attached to the bed and stretched her out as she locked each limb in place. "Now," she said darkly, "where should I begin?"
"Well-"
"I wasn't talking to you," Lara said sharply. "You do not speak until spoken to. And if I hear one more word out of you, I'm going to tickle your armpits right now, is that clear?" She glared at Starbuck. "Is that clear?" she said emphatically.
"Yes, ma'am."
"That's it," Lara said, dropping her nails into Starbuck's armpits, "you were warned. Now take your medicine." Starbuck let out deep chuckling as Lara scratched all over her armpits. "Have you learned your lesson?" Lara asked. "Have you?!"
"YES!" Kara screamed.
"I said no talking!" Lara scolded, and began tickling even more furiously, causing Starbuck to shriek and bounce with laughter.
After a little while Lara stopped and walked down the side of the bed, drawing a finger over Starbuck's body. She giggled and squirmed the whole way. "Are your feet ticklish?" Lara asked. Starbuck nodded firmly. "Ah, you're learning," Lara said.
"Thank you," Starbuck said with a shit-eating grin. Immediately she exploded with laughter while Lara tickled her feet.
"And you were doing so well," Lara said pitiably. "I almost thought you'd actually learned. She held Starbuck’s toes back and tickled feverishly up and down her sole. Starbuck whooped and struggled but Lara had a firm grip, making escape impossible. She shrieked with laughter as Lara started going after the base of the toes. "How wonderfully sensitive," Lara commented.
"HAHAHA! OH GODS! STOP! PLEASE NOT THERE!!!"
"Did I give you permission to speak?" Lara asked, still tickling away.
"WA-HAHAHA! PLEASE LARA! NO MORE! I CAN'T TAKE ANY MORE! HE-HEHEHEHAHAHA!!!"
Lara sighed wearily but stopped for the moment, letting Starbuck catch her breath. "I thought you were made of sterner stuff, my dear."
Starbuck just panted for breath. "You're just too much for me," Starbuck said.
"Is that so?" Lara asked, lying atop her on the bunk. She put her hands on Starbuck's inner thigh and slowly drew her nails up, wriggling them a bit, Starbuck began tittering almost immediately. It turned into deep belly laughs when Lara dug in, kneading her thigh. "How's this?"
"HAHAHA! IT TICKLES!!!" Starbuck cried.
"Is that so?" Lara asked again, because she liked to tease. "Even here?" she asked, and worked further up the thigh. "And here?" She was at the point where the thigh met the body. "Or even here?" And she slipped her fingers in and began tickling along Starbuck's sex. Starbuck still laughed, but there was an undercurrent of enjoyment to it now. She moaned a little even as she snickered and giggled, and Mara continued her delicate stroking, teasing all throughout Starbuck's womanhood while drinking in the feel and sight and smell of her lover. With each laugh and moan Lara could feel her own passions starting to rise, and she slipped a hand into her own pussy to encourage it. Their voices mixed as they played on, until at long last both were satisfied.
"Oh gods," Starbuck said. "That was even better than I thought it'd be."
"Was it?" Lara asked, undoing the manacles.
"Oh yes," Starbuck said. "Lara, you've got to try it. You'll love it."
"Will I?" Lara asked. Starbuck nodded. "Hm, well, if you say so, I shall at least give it a go. After all, what's the worst that can happen?"
--------------------------------------------------------------
Ms. Danoob was seated on a deck watching the ocean when Mara was brought to her. She'd been given a set of tailor-made clothes, almost as good as her old gear from her assassin days. She toyed with a moment of reliving the good old days just for her captor's case, but quickly decided against it. Ms. Danoob was too clever to try such blunt methods on. "Beautiful, isn't it?" Ms. Danoob asked without turning towards Mara. "I'd let Seven look as well, but I'm afraid it would be lost on her."
"I think you underestimate Seven's humanity," Mara said, walking closer. "And frankly, you overestimate your own. Seven may have been Borg once but she is capable of far more compassion than I've seen from you."
"That's a point of view," Ms. Danoob said. "We can debate it if I were so inclined... but I'm not. We have some things to discuss, now that we've ironed out most of the issues."
"Is this the part where you get my cooperation by threatening Seven?" Mara asked. "You used me against her, but now that you've got your damn reactor she's disposable, right? "
Ms. Danoob turned towards her. "What an awful thing to say. Seven is unique; I'd stomp on a dodo egg before I deprived the universe of something as precious as she is."
"And yet you torment her often," Mara said. "Either directly, or through me."
"I do what I must," Ms. Danoob said.
"You didn't have to do those things to us," Mara said. "You had to know that I couldn't make you blasters, and you must have known that Seven would be more resistant if you chose this means. Why?"
Ms. Danoob turned towards Mara, then slowly rose to her feet. She took her sunglasses off and looked into the eyes of the Emperor's Hand. "Hit me," she said.
Mara was momentarily caught off guard. "Don't tempt me," she said finally.
"I'm not tempting you," Ms. Danoob said. "I'm telling you. Hit me. Go on. Give it your best shot." Mara scoffed. "How disappointing. You're supposed to be the Emperor's Hand, not some child who's gone soft."
"That's enough," Mara warned.
"I should have taken Isard instead of you. She at least had some guts, stepped in to fill the void and grab opportunities while you tried to disappear like a coward."
"Shut up," Mara growled.
"Seven would've probably liked her better."
Mara swung, and in that punch she put all the rage and frustration of her time at Crossroads facility, and all the torment of her time in the wake of the Emperor's death. It was a blow that could fell a Wookiee, and would have lifted the small administrator right off her feet, if Mara hadn't missed. That was embarrassing. What was even more embarrassing was that Ms. Danoob never moved. "You call that a punch?" Ms. Danoob asked.
Mara growled and swung again, her fist passing over Ms. Danoob's left shoulder. Another, and it went over the right. She tried an uppercut, but it came up in front of her face instead.
"What the hell's going on?" Mara demanded.
"Just making a point," Ms. Danoob said, sitting back down while she pulled her sunglasses out. "I trust the lesson is obvious."
"You didn't answer my question," Mara said through her teeth.
"Well, it is a rather vague one, isn't it?"
Mara made a noise of annoyance. "I tried hitting you, but every time I missed. You didn't even move!"
"Quite right."
"Why?!"
Ms. Danoob looked up at her. "After Seven was crazed with rage over what happened to you, and seriously injured two of my guards, I still left alone with her, with no means of restraint. Didn't that strike you as being a little careless of me?"
Mara stopped seething for a moment. "You knew she wouldn't try anything with me in custody," she said.
"Yes," Ms. Danoob said. "But still, Seven can be unpredictable when she gets emotional. She isn't accustomed to having to control them, and she's never been in love before. It was dangerous... for anyone else but me."
"And what makes you so special?" Mara asked. "The same thing you did to me you did to her?"
"And Kara and Lara," Ms. Danoob said. "Your tickle sessions, while as fun as they were, were not just to torment you, or try to get you to accept my bidding. They lowered your defenses, made you open to suggestion."
Mara stared at her with malice. "You brainwashed me."
Ms. Danoob took up a cocktail of some kind. "That's a very blunt word," she said.
"That's because I don't play games with the truth," Mara said. "You brainwashed us, no matter how you color it."
"I suppose in a sense that's true," Ms. Danoob said. "Though it hardly qualifies. You see, Mara, I've just implanted a command to prevent you from performing any action that will result in my harm. Hardly diabolical, and given the number of threats the four of you have made, it was entirely appropriate."
“Perhaps if you hadn't treated us like slaves we wouldn't have felt inclined to smash your face in."
"True," Ms. Danoob said. "But that's neither here nor there. We can argue this, Mara, or we can get down to brass tacks. You can't hurt me, nor can Seven, so plotting against me is pointless. So at least listen to me, all right?"
"Why bother?" Mara asked. "If I don't you'll just make me."
"I don't know," Ms. Danoob said. "Perhaps you'll be inclined to see reason for once. With the new reactor we can make unlimited jumps. Countless realities are open before us. My investors see it as a means of turning a profit. Seven sees it as a tool of exploration. What do you see?"
Mara looked away, still upset at being used, but drawing this out would accomplish nothing. "Power," she said. "Anyone who could do that could have unlimited power."
"Exactly," Ms. Danoob said. "I knew your mind would be suited to it. You can, of course, guess who would possess that power."
"You," Mara said with contempt.
"Yes. And, of course, whoever stood at my side."
Mara laughed. "What?"
"You heard me. You're cunning, skilled, and very dangerous. You could have power to go with those abilities if you used them to help me." She put the drink down. "What am I saying, Mara? I'm saying that I want you as my hand."
Ms. Danoob walked around the device; it was the size of a one-man submarine, and roughly the same shape. "It's so small," she commented. "This will produce the power we need?"
"It will exceed your current reactor output by one hundred sixty-four percent," Seven informed her. "Fusion is an efficient means of energy production."
Ms. Danoob shook her head. "Amazing, truly amazing. With this and the endless supply of the sea we can make unlimited jumps. Thank you, Seven."
"You can thank me by sending Mara and myself away from this place," Seven said.
"I'm sorry, but I do need you."
"Then save your thanks, as they are clearly hollow."
Ms. Danoob shook her head. "You should really try and be more personable, Seven."
"After what you did to Mara, it is all I can do not to choke you where you stand. Do not presume my behavior is my failing, it is due to your own."
"I'm not interested in a lecture from you,” Ms. Danoob said dismissively, eyes never leaving the new reactor. "Guards, return her, and have Mara cleaned up and brought to me." She must have somehow sensed Seven's reaction. "Not for that," she assured the Borg before she could react. "I just want to talk with her, that's all."
"About what?" Seven demanded.
"If she chooses to share it with you, that's her prerogative." Ms. Danoob laid a hand alongside the reactor, as if it were a newborn child. "But it's between her and I as far as I'm concerned."
--------------------------------------------------------------
Kara and Lara were both assigned the same quarters; they didn't know it but they were identical to Seven and Mara's. It wouldn't have mattered even if they did know. As soon as the door closed they began kissing passionately heading towards the bed, and while neither had ever been with another woman before, they soon performed quite well for a pair of beginners in making love.
Of course, that wasn't enough for Lara. "You know,” she said, holding Starbuck in her arms, like a teddy bear, "I didn't get to actually tickle you before - really tickle you."
"That's true," Starbuck admitted. "Does that bother you?"
"Yes," Lara said. "Yes it does. It's a situation I think we need to rectify immediately.
Starbuck offered a smile that threatened to split her face in half. "Oh well, if you insist."
Lara took the manacles attached to the bed and stretched her out as she locked each limb in place. "Now," she said darkly, "where should I begin?"
"Well-"
"I wasn't talking to you," Lara said sharply. "You do not speak until spoken to. And if I hear one more word out of you, I'm going to tickle your armpits right now, is that clear?" She glared at Starbuck. "Is that clear?" she said emphatically.
"Yes, ma'am."
"That's it," Lara said, dropping her nails into Starbuck's armpits, "you were warned. Now take your medicine." Starbuck let out deep chuckling as Lara scratched all over her armpits. "Have you learned your lesson?" Lara asked. "Have you?!"
"YES!" Kara screamed.
"I said no talking!" Lara scolded, and began tickling even more furiously, causing Starbuck to shriek and bounce with laughter.
After a little while Lara stopped and walked down the side of the bed, drawing a finger over Starbuck's body. She giggled and squirmed the whole way. "Are your feet ticklish?" Lara asked. Starbuck nodded firmly. "Ah, you're learning," Lara said.
"Thank you," Starbuck said with a shit-eating grin. Immediately she exploded with laughter while Lara tickled her feet.
"And you were doing so well," Lara said pitiably. "I almost thought you'd actually learned. She held Starbuck’s toes back and tickled feverishly up and down her sole. Starbuck whooped and struggled but Lara had a firm grip, making escape impossible. She shrieked with laughter as Lara started going after the base of the toes. "How wonderfully sensitive," Lara commented.
"HAHAHA! OH GODS! STOP! PLEASE NOT THERE!!!"
"Did I give you permission to speak?" Lara asked, still tickling away.
"WA-HAHAHA! PLEASE LARA! NO MORE! I CAN'T TAKE ANY MORE! HE-HEHEHEHAHAHA!!!"
Lara sighed wearily but stopped for the moment, letting Starbuck catch her breath. "I thought you were made of sterner stuff, my dear."
Starbuck just panted for breath. "You're just too much for me," Starbuck said.
"Is that so?" Lara asked, lying atop her on the bunk. She put her hands on Starbuck's inner thigh and slowly drew her nails up, wriggling them a bit, Starbuck began tittering almost immediately. It turned into deep belly laughs when Lara dug in, kneading her thigh. "How's this?"
"HAHAHA! IT TICKLES!!!" Starbuck cried.
"Is that so?" Lara asked again, because she liked to tease. "Even here?" she asked, and worked further up the thigh. "And here?" She was at the point where the thigh met the body. "Or even here?" And she slipped her fingers in and began tickling along Starbuck's sex. Starbuck still laughed, but there was an undercurrent of enjoyment to it now. She moaned a little even as she snickered and giggled, and Mara continued her delicate stroking, teasing all throughout Starbuck's womanhood while drinking in the feel and sight and smell of her lover. With each laugh and moan Lara could feel her own passions starting to rise, and she slipped a hand into her own pussy to encourage it. Their voices mixed as they played on, until at long last both were satisfied.
"Oh gods," Starbuck said. "That was even better than I thought it'd be."
"Was it?" Lara asked, undoing the manacles.
"Oh yes," Starbuck said. "Lara, you've got to try it. You'll love it."
"Will I?" Lara asked. Starbuck nodded. "Hm, well, if you say so, I shall at least give it a go. After all, what's the worst that can happen?"
--------------------------------------------------------------
Ms. Danoob was seated on a deck watching the ocean when Mara was brought to her. She'd been given a set of tailor-made clothes, almost as good as her old gear from her assassin days. She toyed with a moment of reliving the good old days just for her captor's case, but quickly decided against it. Ms. Danoob was too clever to try such blunt methods on. "Beautiful, isn't it?" Ms. Danoob asked without turning towards Mara. "I'd let Seven look as well, but I'm afraid it would be lost on her."
"I think you underestimate Seven's humanity," Mara said, walking closer. "And frankly, you overestimate your own. Seven may have been Borg once but she is capable of far more compassion than I've seen from you."
"That's a point of view," Ms. Danoob said. "We can debate it if I were so inclined... but I'm not. We have some things to discuss, now that we've ironed out most of the issues."
"Is this the part where you get my cooperation by threatening Seven?" Mara asked. "You used me against her, but now that you've got your damn reactor she's disposable, right? "
Ms. Danoob turned towards her. "What an awful thing to say. Seven is unique; I'd stomp on a dodo egg before I deprived the universe of something as precious as she is."
"And yet you torment her often," Mara said. "Either directly, or through me."
"I do what I must," Ms. Danoob said.
"You didn't have to do those things to us," Mara said. "You had to know that I couldn't make you blasters, and you must have known that Seven would be more resistant if you chose this means. Why?"
Ms. Danoob turned towards Mara, then slowly rose to her feet. She took her sunglasses off and looked into the eyes of the Emperor's Hand. "Hit me," she said.
Mara was momentarily caught off guard. "Don't tempt me," she said finally.
"I'm not tempting you," Ms. Danoob said. "I'm telling you. Hit me. Go on. Give it your best shot." Mara scoffed. "How disappointing. You're supposed to be the Emperor's Hand, not some child who's gone soft."
"That's enough," Mara warned.
"I should have taken Isard instead of you. She at least had some guts, stepped in to fill the void and grab opportunities while you tried to disappear like a coward."
"Shut up," Mara growled.
"Seven would've probably liked her better."
Mara swung, and in that punch she put all the rage and frustration of her time at Crossroads facility, and all the torment of her time in the wake of the Emperor's death. It was a blow that could fell a Wookiee, and would have lifted the small administrator right off her feet, if Mara hadn't missed. That was embarrassing. What was even more embarrassing was that Ms. Danoob never moved. "You call that a punch?" Ms. Danoob asked.
Mara growled and swung again, her fist passing over Ms. Danoob's left shoulder. Another, and it went over the right. She tried an uppercut, but it came up in front of her face instead.
"What the hell's going on?" Mara demanded.
"Just making a point," Ms. Danoob said, sitting back down while she pulled her sunglasses out. "I trust the lesson is obvious."
"You didn't answer my question," Mara said through her teeth.
"Well, it is a rather vague one, isn't it?"
Mara made a noise of annoyance. "I tried hitting you, but every time I missed. You didn't even move!"
"Quite right."
"Why?!"
Ms. Danoob looked up at her. "After Seven was crazed with rage over what happened to you, and seriously injured two of my guards, I still left alone with her, with no means of restraint. Didn't that strike you as being a little careless of me?"
Mara stopped seething for a moment. "You knew she wouldn't try anything with me in custody," she said.
"Yes," Ms. Danoob said. "But still, Seven can be unpredictable when she gets emotional. She isn't accustomed to having to control them, and she's never been in love before. It was dangerous... for anyone else but me."
"And what makes you so special?" Mara asked. "The same thing you did to me you did to her?"
"And Kara and Lara," Ms. Danoob said. "Your tickle sessions, while as fun as they were, were not just to torment you, or try to get you to accept my bidding. They lowered your defenses, made you open to suggestion."
Mara stared at her with malice. "You brainwashed me."
Ms. Danoob took up a cocktail of some kind. "That's a very blunt word," she said.
"That's because I don't play games with the truth," Mara said. "You brainwashed us, no matter how you color it."
"I suppose in a sense that's true," Ms. Danoob said. "Though it hardly qualifies. You see, Mara, I've just implanted a command to prevent you from performing any action that will result in my harm. Hardly diabolical, and given the number of threats the four of you have made, it was entirely appropriate."
“Perhaps if you hadn't treated us like slaves we wouldn't have felt inclined to smash your face in."
"True," Ms. Danoob said. "But that's neither here nor there. We can argue this, Mara, or we can get down to brass tacks. You can't hurt me, nor can Seven, so plotting against me is pointless. So at least listen to me, all right?"
"Why bother?" Mara asked. "If I don't you'll just make me."
"I don't know," Ms. Danoob said. "Perhaps you'll be inclined to see reason for once. With the new reactor we can make unlimited jumps. Countless realities are open before us. My investors see it as a means of turning a profit. Seven sees it as a tool of exploration. What do you see?"
Mara looked away, still upset at being used, but drawing this out would accomplish nothing. "Power," she said. "Anyone who could do that could have unlimited power."
"Exactly," Ms. Danoob said. "I knew your mind would be suited to it. You can, of course, guess who would possess that power."
"You," Mara said with contempt.
"Yes. And, of course, whoever stood at my side."
Mara laughed. "What?"
"You heard me. You're cunning, skilled, and very dangerous. You could have power to go with those abilities if you used them to help me." She put the drink down. "What am I saying, Mara? I'm saying that I want you as my hand."
