Warning: there is no tickling in this chapter. Sorry.
Part 31
Those days were covered by haze. They were in the distant land of memories allowed to grow dusty by the passage of time, and perceptions that had been constrained by the limited perspective of young children.
He had seemed a towering man to her then, his wrinkled visage grinning at her in a way that only made her grip the hand that led her here tighter. Her talent was raw and weak, but with someone like him, it was impossible for even her not to sense the power that existed in dimensions only the eye of the mind can see.
"So," he said in a voice that seemed to crawl from his mouth, "you are Mara." Mara just nodded; she didn't want to speak to the big man. "I'm glad you could come, Mara. I, and my servants, are going to teach you a great many things." He bent over to look into her green eyes; his own yellow ones seemed to flare slightly. "Yes... I can see how strong you can become, child. In time... you will be my hand."
--------------------------------------------------------------
Mara looked about the interior of what she assumed was a Borg ship of some kind. It was poorly lit, with all the conduits and tubes and such left exposed, because the Borg had no need for ambience. The place chilled her, and she understood immediately why Seven wouldn't want to return. "Take your positions," she said, and Lara and Starbuck quickly fanned out, blasters held at the ready. So far there were no signs of drones, but that could change in an instant.
Seven was doing the real work, cutting through the connections between the alcove - the technology they'd come to steal - and the ship itself. It was designed to be easily replaced, just like the drones, but it was supposed to involve several drones at once, not a single ex-drone working by herself.
Unfortunately, some drones appeared around the corner, and probably not coming to lend a hand.
--------------------------------------------------------------
She was nine, sitting in a chair opposite the Emperor's throne. He stared at her; it was the most uncomfortable stare she'd ever felt, but she couldn't turn away from it. His face bore that same grin that had never lost its sinister edge.
"You can hear me," he said. The frightening thing, however, was that his lips had never moved.
"Yes, master," she said, fear saturating her voice.
"Do not speak with your lips," the Emperor said. "Speak with your mind."
"How, master?"
The grin deepened. "Feel the thread between your thoughts and mine. Do you sense it?"
Mara gasped slightly. "Yes, master."
"Good," he said in a long, drawn out tone. "Now, think the words through the thread. Let your thoughts pass into them." Mara closed her eyes tightly. "It is not necessary to strain, child. Simply do it. Take the thread with your mind and tell me what it is you want to say."
And Mara did it, without thought. She reached through the link and spoke without words. But she still didn't have control, so she said one small thought. "I'm afraid."
And at that, the Emperor chuckled, low and rumbling. "Very good," he said quietly. "Yes... I sense your fear. You are very wise to be afraid of me."
--------------------------------------------------------------
"How much longer?" Mara yelled, firing at the lead drone.
"Two minutes," Seven called back, moving very quickly over the controls. Unfortunately, two minutes was an eternity in a combat situation.
"More on our six," Starbuck said, turning and firing up the corridor the opposite way. She was holding a blaster rifle, putting precise blasts into her target. Lara, on the other hand, had chosen the more familiar twin guns method, using her blaster pistols to lay down cover fire, at least in theory. The problem is that cover fire presumes the other side doesn't want to get hit; the drones didn't seem to mind. Two more shots to the chest of the lead one, and Lara inched further up towards them to buy some time.
And then it came. Seven had warned them about this, but there was no way to know for sure - now they knew. The Borg had the ability to analyze and adapt to weaponry, and after enough shots, they had understood how blasters worked. The green beams flew through the air and stopped inches short of their mark, dispersed by an invisible energy shield.
"Mara," Kara shouted, "we have a problem!"
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Emperor stood at the window of his sanctum, gazing across the nighttime bustle of Imperial Center. All was under his domain, every vehicle and occupant his to command, every building within his domain, even the stars twinkling above held worlds that answered ultimately to him. He was quite literally the master of all he surveyed, from the sky above to the world below. Mara stood a short distance away in silence.
"What is power?" he asked her without turning. "Define it."
"The rate at which energy is consumed," the girl said.
"I'm referring to the more practical definition," the Emperor said, still without turning. "What is power in a contemporary sense?"
Mara thought about it; it was one of those things she knew but couldn't express. "I'm not sure, my master."
He turned back to face her. He seemed smaller now to the girl now than he used to, although that was solely her eyes talking. Her other senses saw a giant hiding behind the face of an aged man. "Power," he said slowly, "is the ability to make your will manifest. That was the lie the Jedi told themselves, even as they claimed to serve they were nevertheless using power, adjusting the galaxy to fit their will, even if that will was themselves as servile agents." He crossed to his throne. "This is why all beings struggle for power in some form, because without it we have no control. If we lose our power we are helpless."
--------------------------------------------------------------
Mara fired again, but it was hopeless; the blast stopped against the adaptive shielding, and the drone just kept on coming. "Crossroads," she said, "they've adapted. We need evac."
"You're too spread out," came the voice of Mrs. Danoob back. "We're locking onto Lara and Kara; rendezvous with Seven and we'll get you two as soon as the Gate's been cleared."
There was a hum and Lara and Starbuck vanished, but it also meant there was no one to slow down the drones. Seven, always focused, was still stripping the alcove as Mara started heading back. She fired into some kind of conduit, and a stream of plasma emerged, blasting the drones. That counted for something, but for the most part she felt pretty helpless, looking up and down the hall at all the drones. They were the ones in control here.
--------------------------------------------------------------
"The power I wield as Emperor," he continued, gnarled hands folded before him as he stared at Mara, "is useful. Yet it is a power removed... layers of bureaucracy or military commanders must be used to implement it. It is a limited thing."
The Emperor unfolded his hands and pointed to her holster. "That blaster you carry - is it a form of power."
"Yes, master," Mara answered. "It's a tool to kill those I wish."
"Correct," he said. "Take it and point it at me, child."
Mara didn't hesitate. She'd been trained to obey the Emperor without question. And besides that, she feared him, and it was easy to point a weapon at something you were afraid of. Her hand blurred with speed as she reached down and pulled the blaster from her holster, pointing it center of mass without the slightest tremble - not bad for a twelve-year old girl.
The Emperor opened his hand, and the blaster leapt from her grip and into it. He offered that grin to her. "It is a form of power," he explained, "but in the end, it too is limited. Fortunately, child, you have another power that cannot be plucked from you so easily."
--------------------------------------------------------------
"It's fini-" Seven began, but it descended into a cry as a drone reached out for her, and she shoved it back. Seven was the strongest human Mara had ever met, but it was clear that a full drone could outmuscle even her. Mara raised her blaster and aimed for the drone's face. It was a perfect shot, the kind they hand out trophies for, but it was pointless since the adaptive shield covered even that.
Mara's arms dropped and she watched the drone continue, oblivious to the attack, intent on getting Seven. Seven had explained what would happen: it would grab her and use assimilation tubules in its hand to puncture her neck. This would allow thousands of nanoprobes to flood into her system and begin changing her, until her body would stop obeying her thoughts. Then they'd take her away, put things in her head, and replace parts of her with machinery. Then she would be one with the hive mind, and Seven as Mara knew her would cease to exist. She would be exactly like one of them... just like she was before her miraculous escape. Just one gesture, and she'd be lost to Mara forever... and Mara was powerless to stop it.
--------------------------------------------------------------
"The Force itself is not the epitome of power," the Emperor continued, still holding Mara's blaster. "The Jedi possessed the Force, yet they fell. They followed the path of the light, and that limited their power. There were things they could and could not do, say and could not say, think and could not think. I am as capable of cruelty as I am of kindness, yet the Jedi constrained their vision. If power is the ability to make one's will manifest, then an enslaved will will always have limited power. That is why the Jedi fell, and why the dark will always be stronger than the light.
"Your fear," he crowed quietly, "your anger, your hatred... these are reflections of your will. These are where the power of the dark side is forged. It is power at its purest, and the beauty, child, is that the more you use it, the stronger the dark side grows within you, until the barriers are gone, and you will find there is nothing you cannot do." He set the blaster down on the desk as if it were some unseemly thing. "Once you walk the dark path, child, you will see it is the only way to find what you desire. All other forms of power are subservient to that one... and all other things are subservient to power." Inside, Mara shivered. "All things."
--------------------------------------------------------------
Mara stared at the drone; as it reached out for Seven, time slowed to a crawl. She could sense that Seven's tight control on her emotions was gone, replaced by sheer terror. And Mara stood there, helpless, eyes locked on the drone that was going to destroy the one person who had shown true love for her.
Mara feared the drone.
Mara was angry with the drone.
Mara hated the drone.
There was only one thing in the universe she wanted, and that was to kill that thing! But all her weapons were useless... powerless. All that she had was sheer will, and the emotions that fueled it. It was there, rumbling around inside her mind, howling at her to open the cage doors and let it out. I can give you everything you want, it promised. All you have to do is ask. Mara trembled, afraid of what paced within. I can save her if you take that one last step... and in the end, isn't it such a little step?
Mara's face twisted into a mask of hate, and she stepped forward, hand held out towards the drone. She squeezed her hand into a tight fist, and as she did it began shaking and sparking, until there was a discharge in its neck and it collapsed to the ground. And Mara watched it fall, and grinned.
And if she had a mirror, she'd have recognized where she'd seen that grin before.
Seven grabbed her arm, and immediately, reality came rushing back. They grabbed onto the alcove while Seven contacted Crossroads Facility, and a few seconds later, they all vanished back to their own reality, none the worse for wear... at least, that's what it seemed.
Part 31
Those days were covered by haze. They were in the distant land of memories allowed to grow dusty by the passage of time, and perceptions that had been constrained by the limited perspective of young children.
He had seemed a towering man to her then, his wrinkled visage grinning at her in a way that only made her grip the hand that led her here tighter. Her talent was raw and weak, but with someone like him, it was impossible for even her not to sense the power that existed in dimensions only the eye of the mind can see.
"So," he said in a voice that seemed to crawl from his mouth, "you are Mara." Mara just nodded; she didn't want to speak to the big man. "I'm glad you could come, Mara. I, and my servants, are going to teach you a great many things." He bent over to look into her green eyes; his own yellow ones seemed to flare slightly. "Yes... I can see how strong you can become, child. In time... you will be my hand."
--------------------------------------------------------------
Mara looked about the interior of what she assumed was a Borg ship of some kind. It was poorly lit, with all the conduits and tubes and such left exposed, because the Borg had no need for ambience. The place chilled her, and she understood immediately why Seven wouldn't want to return. "Take your positions," she said, and Lara and Starbuck quickly fanned out, blasters held at the ready. So far there were no signs of drones, but that could change in an instant.
Seven was doing the real work, cutting through the connections between the alcove - the technology they'd come to steal - and the ship itself. It was designed to be easily replaced, just like the drones, but it was supposed to involve several drones at once, not a single ex-drone working by herself.
Unfortunately, some drones appeared around the corner, and probably not coming to lend a hand.
--------------------------------------------------------------
She was nine, sitting in a chair opposite the Emperor's throne. He stared at her; it was the most uncomfortable stare she'd ever felt, but she couldn't turn away from it. His face bore that same grin that had never lost its sinister edge.
"You can hear me," he said. The frightening thing, however, was that his lips had never moved.
"Yes, master," she said, fear saturating her voice.
"Do not speak with your lips," the Emperor said. "Speak with your mind."
"How, master?"
The grin deepened. "Feel the thread between your thoughts and mine. Do you sense it?"
Mara gasped slightly. "Yes, master."
"Good," he said in a long, drawn out tone. "Now, think the words through the thread. Let your thoughts pass into them." Mara closed her eyes tightly. "It is not necessary to strain, child. Simply do it. Take the thread with your mind and tell me what it is you want to say."
And Mara did it, without thought. She reached through the link and spoke without words. But she still didn't have control, so she said one small thought. "I'm afraid."
And at that, the Emperor chuckled, low and rumbling. "Very good," he said quietly. "Yes... I sense your fear. You are very wise to be afraid of me."
--------------------------------------------------------------
"How much longer?" Mara yelled, firing at the lead drone.
"Two minutes," Seven called back, moving very quickly over the controls. Unfortunately, two minutes was an eternity in a combat situation.
"More on our six," Starbuck said, turning and firing up the corridor the opposite way. She was holding a blaster rifle, putting precise blasts into her target. Lara, on the other hand, had chosen the more familiar twin guns method, using her blaster pistols to lay down cover fire, at least in theory. The problem is that cover fire presumes the other side doesn't want to get hit; the drones didn't seem to mind. Two more shots to the chest of the lead one, and Lara inched further up towards them to buy some time.
And then it came. Seven had warned them about this, but there was no way to know for sure - now they knew. The Borg had the ability to analyze and adapt to weaponry, and after enough shots, they had understood how blasters worked. The green beams flew through the air and stopped inches short of their mark, dispersed by an invisible energy shield.
"Mara," Kara shouted, "we have a problem!"
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Emperor stood at the window of his sanctum, gazing across the nighttime bustle of Imperial Center. All was under his domain, every vehicle and occupant his to command, every building within his domain, even the stars twinkling above held worlds that answered ultimately to him. He was quite literally the master of all he surveyed, from the sky above to the world below. Mara stood a short distance away in silence.
"What is power?" he asked her without turning. "Define it."
"The rate at which energy is consumed," the girl said.
"I'm referring to the more practical definition," the Emperor said, still without turning. "What is power in a contemporary sense?"
Mara thought about it; it was one of those things she knew but couldn't express. "I'm not sure, my master."
He turned back to face her. He seemed smaller now to the girl now than he used to, although that was solely her eyes talking. Her other senses saw a giant hiding behind the face of an aged man. "Power," he said slowly, "is the ability to make your will manifest. That was the lie the Jedi told themselves, even as they claimed to serve they were nevertheless using power, adjusting the galaxy to fit their will, even if that will was themselves as servile agents." He crossed to his throne. "This is why all beings struggle for power in some form, because without it we have no control. If we lose our power we are helpless."
--------------------------------------------------------------
Mara fired again, but it was hopeless; the blast stopped against the adaptive shielding, and the drone just kept on coming. "Crossroads," she said, "they've adapted. We need evac."
"You're too spread out," came the voice of Mrs. Danoob back. "We're locking onto Lara and Kara; rendezvous with Seven and we'll get you two as soon as the Gate's been cleared."
There was a hum and Lara and Starbuck vanished, but it also meant there was no one to slow down the drones. Seven, always focused, was still stripping the alcove as Mara started heading back. She fired into some kind of conduit, and a stream of plasma emerged, blasting the drones. That counted for something, but for the most part she felt pretty helpless, looking up and down the hall at all the drones. They were the ones in control here.
--------------------------------------------------------------
"The power I wield as Emperor," he continued, gnarled hands folded before him as he stared at Mara, "is useful. Yet it is a power removed... layers of bureaucracy or military commanders must be used to implement it. It is a limited thing."
The Emperor unfolded his hands and pointed to her holster. "That blaster you carry - is it a form of power."
"Yes, master," Mara answered. "It's a tool to kill those I wish."
"Correct," he said. "Take it and point it at me, child."
Mara didn't hesitate. She'd been trained to obey the Emperor without question. And besides that, she feared him, and it was easy to point a weapon at something you were afraid of. Her hand blurred with speed as she reached down and pulled the blaster from her holster, pointing it center of mass without the slightest tremble - not bad for a twelve-year old girl.
The Emperor opened his hand, and the blaster leapt from her grip and into it. He offered that grin to her. "It is a form of power," he explained, "but in the end, it too is limited. Fortunately, child, you have another power that cannot be plucked from you so easily."
--------------------------------------------------------------
"It's fini-" Seven began, but it descended into a cry as a drone reached out for her, and she shoved it back. Seven was the strongest human Mara had ever met, but it was clear that a full drone could outmuscle even her. Mara raised her blaster and aimed for the drone's face. It was a perfect shot, the kind they hand out trophies for, but it was pointless since the adaptive shield covered even that.
Mara's arms dropped and she watched the drone continue, oblivious to the attack, intent on getting Seven. Seven had explained what would happen: it would grab her and use assimilation tubules in its hand to puncture her neck. This would allow thousands of nanoprobes to flood into her system and begin changing her, until her body would stop obeying her thoughts. Then they'd take her away, put things in her head, and replace parts of her with machinery. Then she would be one with the hive mind, and Seven as Mara knew her would cease to exist. She would be exactly like one of them... just like she was before her miraculous escape. Just one gesture, and she'd be lost to Mara forever... and Mara was powerless to stop it.
--------------------------------------------------------------
"The Force itself is not the epitome of power," the Emperor continued, still holding Mara's blaster. "The Jedi possessed the Force, yet they fell. They followed the path of the light, and that limited their power. There were things they could and could not do, say and could not say, think and could not think. I am as capable of cruelty as I am of kindness, yet the Jedi constrained their vision. If power is the ability to make one's will manifest, then an enslaved will will always have limited power. That is why the Jedi fell, and why the dark will always be stronger than the light.
"Your fear," he crowed quietly, "your anger, your hatred... these are reflections of your will. These are where the power of the dark side is forged. It is power at its purest, and the beauty, child, is that the more you use it, the stronger the dark side grows within you, until the barriers are gone, and you will find there is nothing you cannot do." He set the blaster down on the desk as if it were some unseemly thing. "Once you walk the dark path, child, you will see it is the only way to find what you desire. All other forms of power are subservient to that one... and all other things are subservient to power." Inside, Mara shivered. "All things."
--------------------------------------------------------------
Mara stared at the drone; as it reached out for Seven, time slowed to a crawl. She could sense that Seven's tight control on her emotions was gone, replaced by sheer terror. And Mara stood there, helpless, eyes locked on the drone that was going to destroy the one person who had shown true love for her.
Mara feared the drone.
Mara was angry with the drone.
Mara hated the drone.
There was only one thing in the universe she wanted, and that was to kill that thing! But all her weapons were useless... powerless. All that she had was sheer will, and the emotions that fueled it. It was there, rumbling around inside her mind, howling at her to open the cage doors and let it out. I can give you everything you want, it promised. All you have to do is ask. Mara trembled, afraid of what paced within. I can save her if you take that one last step... and in the end, isn't it such a little step?
Mara's face twisted into a mask of hate, and she stepped forward, hand held out towards the drone. She squeezed her hand into a tight fist, and as she did it began shaking and sparking, until there was a discharge in its neck and it collapsed to the ground. And Mara watched it fall, and grinned.
And if she had a mirror, she'd have recognized where she'd seen that grin before.
Seven grabbed her arm, and immediately, reality came rushing back. They grabbed onto the alcove while Seven contacted Crossroads Facility, and a few seconds later, they all vanished back to their own reality, none the worse for wear... at least, that's what it seemed.
