I had a random concept to do with the challenge proposal so scribbled it down. I don't expect to win the challenge with this entry - there'll undoubtedly be ones that surpas this in every way possible - but I had to get the idea out there.
Word Count: 2050
THE GREATER GOOD
Fifty Years After The Dominion Invasion ...
1.
Captain Weyoun of the starship Enterprise shifted in his command chair as the dreadnought surged through space. It had been near fifty years since one of his predecessors had been at the forefront of the invasion - since then, the political landscape of the Alpha Quadrant had changed dramatically. Down had fallen the independant political organisations, the United Alpha Quadrant had fractured, and in its place had been constructed the Dominion: Alpha Quadrant Division.
And Weyoun XXIII had found himself in command of the divisions flagship - the name, Enterprise, sat uncomfortably on his tongue. Fifty years ago, an earlier version of the ship had been the flagship of the Federation before its collapse - when it had come to naming the Alpha Quadrant Divisions flagship, some bright Vorta had suggested Enterprise.
It's just like when Christianity 'borrowed' a lot of Pagan festivals, he considered, making themselves appear to be less of a threat to the natives - snakes in the grass.
Another step in this direction, the enrollment of Alpha Quadrant natives into the Alpha Quadrant Division. The slim Vulcan woman standing next to him was only one of the examples of such on the Enterprise, his First Officer, Commander Toral.
Toral had prooved an exemplary second-in-command, her devotion to the Founders seeming to be second only to his own. She knew that her position had begun as one of tokenism - a public relations stunt intended to quell the political unrest that had been rumbling across the Alpha Quadrant.
A fragment of such unrest was their eventual destination - an uprising on a world out on the frontier. They had murdered the Founder who had been positioned to oversee their sector, had managed to massacre the garrison of Jem'Hadar that had been stationed on their world -
Enterprise, a political relations stunt capable of blowing up the planet with one well aimed hadron torpedo, would diffuse the situation. Return the inhabitants to quiet obedience or else - the Omega Sanction would need to be resorted to. And, as devoted to the Founders as Weyoun was, even he found the Omega Sanction difficult to stomach.
2.
The planet lay below them, a mirror of the scorched expanses of Earth, lush and verdant green. Selene IV was one of the garden worlds of the Alpha Division, a mass producer of several foodstuffs that simply could not be produced anywhere else on such a scale. Of course, the Founders didn't eat and neither the Vorta or Jem'Hadar were much fussed about what they actually ate, but in the eyes of the Founders, keeping the masses of the Alpha Division fed would help in the slow destruction of any resistance.
That was, however, until some bright spark on Selene IV itself had realised what importance the planet was and had decided to use that to their own advantage. With their Founder abducted, they had begun negotiations, which had led to the Founders ordering the Jem'Hadar garrison to eliminate the dissidents - leading to the massacre of the garrison and the firing of the Founder into the local star.
Exactly how the dissidents had been able to achieve what they had, remained to be seen. Assuming the Omega Sanction was never pursued, it would be one of the prime mission directives of the Enterprise.
Weyoun leaned forward in his chair as the Enterprise adjusted her orbit, coming to a position geo-stationary above the planets capitol, the seat of the dissident rebels. His command crew, two thirds of them from Alpha Quadrant planets with the other third being junior Vorta, had taken up their positions the minute that the mighty flagship had entered the Selene system.
Vulcan. Cardassian. Andorian - even a lone Cygnian female - surrounded him. He wondered, as always, how much he could really trust them but, when he thought that way, he reminded himself that the Jem'Hadar and Vorta onboard vastly outnumbered the natives.
"Mister Sherek, hail the dissidents," Weyoun ordered. The Cardassian worked his panel -
"I've got them."
"On-screen." The holographic area at the front of the dreadnoughts bridge came to life, presenting the leader of the dissidents - wearing a golden metallic mask to obstruct his identity - in what, he presumed, had been the local Founder's office. There were no decorations apart from the desk and two chairs - the Founder would simply not need them.
"Under the law of the Alpha Quadrant Division, you," Weyoun emphasised the 'you', "are comitting a criminal act by witholding vital supplies from your fellow citizens -"
"Spare me," said the dissident, waving his hand. Weyoun nodded to Toral who was standing outside the view of the holographic capture device. The Vulcan XO stepped into the turbolift - "Your laws were forced upon us when you invaded, laws accepted when our governments unanimously surrendered - but we never surrendered, we continued the fight ..."
Weyoun was counting quietly in his head. He knew what was coming.
"... and we, my friend, will ..." In a frantic moment of movement, Toral escaped the grasp of the transporter beam and took the dissident leader by his neck, her hands slipped easily around it and her Vulcan strength made snapping it just as easy. The poor man never had a chance to finish his sentence.
With the leader gone, the rest of the rebellion would, no doubt, be easy to quell.
Toral stepped forward, being fully captured by the holographic capture device for the first time - her eyebrow raised as the body of the dissident leader slumped to the floor, she turned back to the holographic representation of Weyoun.
"Primary objective completed, Sir," she revealed. "Ready for receipt of Jem'Hadar garrisons to quell the other dissidents ..."
Weyoun nodded to sh'Threk, his Andorian Jem'Hadar Liason, who relayed the order to dispatch two of the four garrisons that the Enterprise carried down to the planet.
"Toral out."
The signal cut, the holographic generator faded - the main-screen went back to providing a view outside, from the top of the Enterprise's hammerhead saucer section.
Weyoun sat back, enjoying the rather alien sensation of pride in a job well done.
3.
Commander Toral, First Officer of the Dreadnought Enterprise, used a towel to wipe her face as she returned to her quarters from her regular exercise routine, running through the corridors and climbing through the access conduits - she had to admit, with a smile, that she was proud that her exercise routine had become so well known on the ship that there were several other crewmembers already following her example.
Which, of course, made the secondary objective of her exercise routine ten fold more difficult, given that in one of the access conduits was a small access hatch that had been installed - fake - with which to hide messages, written on pieces of paper, to be passed between the several members of the resistance movement that were in position on the Enterprise.
Although Toral was the First Officer, she was not the most senior member of the resistance on the ship - that distinction fell to a man, she presumed it was a man, who went by the codename of The Blind Man. She had no idea who this person was, no wish to uncover it - if the people remained oblivious to each other, then they could hardly betray each others identity.
At any rate, the mornings routine had yielded a message from The Blind Man, explaining that the pieces were in play for their latest gambit which would place Toral in command of the Enterprise, even if only for a short period and that, due to the potential discovery of the pieces, the gambit must be unfolded immediately.
Toral knew what she had to do - and she did it on her next duty shift, two hours into the shift itself. As the crewmembers worked at their various stations, she scanned the information on a PADD - mimicked a look of puzzlement, shifted in her chair.
Some people claimed that Vulcans could not act, that was untrue - and, in any event, the description of Vulcan did not apply to Toral given her relatively unique heritage which had been hidden from view by her paternal grandfather, the well regarded Vulcan diplomat, Spock. Her mixed Human/Romulan/Vulcan blood gave her a distinctly Vulcanoid appearance, biology and abilities whilst it also allowed her to indulge in the more unsavoury act of downright deception.
Toral crossed to the communications station, slid the PADD over to the junior Vorta on duty -
"I am, to use a Human expression, puzzled. There are a number of unauthorised communications from somewhere onboard this vessel - these communications are somewhat politically volatile ..."
"You believe them to be ..." the Vorta began.
Toral finished the statement. "To be a sign of an insurrectionist at work onboard this vessel. I need you to figure out exactly who this person is - and inform me, and only me, of their identity. Am I understood?"
The Vorta nodded and went to work. Exactly thirty minutes later, the Vorta looked up from his console, waved her over - revealed that the communications had been routed through several locations onboard the ship, unusually because there was nobody at the other consoles, but the ultimate origin of the communication was ...
Toral feigned shock.
"Oh, my."
4.
The doors leading from the turbolift slipped open, allowing Captain Weyoun XIII to step out onto the bridge and come, face to face, with the end of a phaser rifle held by the ships Senior Jem'Hadar - the Prime First. Toral was stood behind the Prime First, sh'Threk and Sharak (as Second Officer) both nearby with their weapons drawn in the event that something could occur.
Weyoun's mind whirred into motion -
"Captain Weyoun, you are being stripped of rank and title, and will report to the upload centre in order to be eliminated ..." The information that Toral and the junior Vorta had discovered revealed that Captain Weyoun had been contacted and, more to the point, was working with a known resistance group composed of defective copies of Vorta. An earlier Weyoun clone had the same defect, so the transpired revelations weren't exactly unfounded either.
The rules were clear that, if such a situation occured, the Vorta would be removed from duty and the First Officer (in most other cases, another Vorta) would assume command of the ship. Which meant that Toral would assume command, being the first Alpha Quadrant native to hold the captaincy of a Dominion vessel -
Toral thanked her lucky stars that the seeded information had held up to scrutiny that sh'Threk and the Prime First had thrown at it, it wouldn't have done to have the information uncovered as fraudulent and revealing the existence of a cell of resistance members onboard the flagship.
"Prime First," ordered Toral. "Escort Weyoun to the upload centre."
The Prime First gestured with his phaser rifle, indicating that Weyoun should cross the command deck - the upload centre was close to the Bridge, it was more sense to walk and a traitor shouldn't be given the luxury of an easy journey to their fate.
Weyoun stopped as he passed Toral, cocked his head - looked at her and, for a moment, she feared he KNEW what she was involved with and what had occured. Like he could smell the conspiracy radiating out from her.
But - nothing, then he spoke, eleven words and it stunned her.
"Sometimes even the blind man can see what must be done ..." he said before he was pushed onwards by the butt of the Prime Firsts phaser rifle, outwards into the corridor, the doors sliding shut behind him.
Toral exchanged a cautious look with sh'Threk, the powerfully built Andorian, as she settled into the command chair - she contemplated what the former Captain had just done, realising that maybe those events linking him to the Defective Vorta was actually and that he'd sacrificed himself to put her into a position that made true rebellion possible.
The Defective Vorta had offered a branch of truce to the rebellion and she would take it with open arms - she just had a few more obstacles in her way before the Alpha Quadrant Division would fall and the Dominion would follow.
Word Count: 2050
THE GREATER GOOD
Fifty Years After The Dominion Invasion ...
1.
Captain Weyoun of the starship Enterprise shifted in his command chair as the dreadnought surged through space. It had been near fifty years since one of his predecessors had been at the forefront of the invasion - since then, the political landscape of the Alpha Quadrant had changed dramatically. Down had fallen the independant political organisations, the United Alpha Quadrant had fractured, and in its place had been constructed the Dominion: Alpha Quadrant Division.
And Weyoun XXIII had found himself in command of the divisions flagship - the name, Enterprise, sat uncomfortably on his tongue. Fifty years ago, an earlier version of the ship had been the flagship of the Federation before its collapse - when it had come to naming the Alpha Quadrant Divisions flagship, some bright Vorta had suggested Enterprise.
It's just like when Christianity 'borrowed' a lot of Pagan festivals, he considered, making themselves appear to be less of a threat to the natives - snakes in the grass.
Another step in this direction, the enrollment of Alpha Quadrant natives into the Alpha Quadrant Division. The slim Vulcan woman standing next to him was only one of the examples of such on the Enterprise, his First Officer, Commander Toral.
Toral had prooved an exemplary second-in-command, her devotion to the Founders seeming to be second only to his own. She knew that her position had begun as one of tokenism - a public relations stunt intended to quell the political unrest that had been rumbling across the Alpha Quadrant.
A fragment of such unrest was their eventual destination - an uprising on a world out on the frontier. They had murdered the Founder who had been positioned to oversee their sector, had managed to massacre the garrison of Jem'Hadar that had been stationed on their world -
Enterprise, a political relations stunt capable of blowing up the planet with one well aimed hadron torpedo, would diffuse the situation. Return the inhabitants to quiet obedience or else - the Omega Sanction would need to be resorted to. And, as devoted to the Founders as Weyoun was, even he found the Omega Sanction difficult to stomach.
2.
The planet lay below them, a mirror of the scorched expanses of Earth, lush and verdant green. Selene IV was one of the garden worlds of the Alpha Division, a mass producer of several foodstuffs that simply could not be produced anywhere else on such a scale. Of course, the Founders didn't eat and neither the Vorta or Jem'Hadar were much fussed about what they actually ate, but in the eyes of the Founders, keeping the masses of the Alpha Division fed would help in the slow destruction of any resistance.
That was, however, until some bright spark on Selene IV itself had realised what importance the planet was and had decided to use that to their own advantage. With their Founder abducted, they had begun negotiations, which had led to the Founders ordering the Jem'Hadar garrison to eliminate the dissidents - leading to the massacre of the garrison and the firing of the Founder into the local star.
Exactly how the dissidents had been able to achieve what they had, remained to be seen. Assuming the Omega Sanction was never pursued, it would be one of the prime mission directives of the Enterprise.
Weyoun leaned forward in his chair as the Enterprise adjusted her orbit, coming to a position geo-stationary above the planets capitol, the seat of the dissident rebels. His command crew, two thirds of them from Alpha Quadrant planets with the other third being junior Vorta, had taken up their positions the minute that the mighty flagship had entered the Selene system.
Vulcan. Cardassian. Andorian - even a lone Cygnian female - surrounded him. He wondered, as always, how much he could really trust them but, when he thought that way, he reminded himself that the Jem'Hadar and Vorta onboard vastly outnumbered the natives.
"Mister Sherek, hail the dissidents," Weyoun ordered. The Cardassian worked his panel -
"I've got them."
"On-screen." The holographic area at the front of the dreadnoughts bridge came to life, presenting the leader of the dissidents - wearing a golden metallic mask to obstruct his identity - in what, he presumed, had been the local Founder's office. There were no decorations apart from the desk and two chairs - the Founder would simply not need them.
"Under the law of the Alpha Quadrant Division, you," Weyoun emphasised the 'you', "are comitting a criminal act by witholding vital supplies from your fellow citizens -"
"Spare me," said the dissident, waving his hand. Weyoun nodded to Toral who was standing outside the view of the holographic capture device. The Vulcan XO stepped into the turbolift - "Your laws were forced upon us when you invaded, laws accepted when our governments unanimously surrendered - but we never surrendered, we continued the fight ..."
Weyoun was counting quietly in his head. He knew what was coming.
"... and we, my friend, will ..." In a frantic moment of movement, Toral escaped the grasp of the transporter beam and took the dissident leader by his neck, her hands slipped easily around it and her Vulcan strength made snapping it just as easy. The poor man never had a chance to finish his sentence.
With the leader gone, the rest of the rebellion would, no doubt, be easy to quell.
Toral stepped forward, being fully captured by the holographic capture device for the first time - her eyebrow raised as the body of the dissident leader slumped to the floor, she turned back to the holographic representation of Weyoun.
"Primary objective completed, Sir," she revealed. "Ready for receipt of Jem'Hadar garrisons to quell the other dissidents ..."
Weyoun nodded to sh'Threk, his Andorian Jem'Hadar Liason, who relayed the order to dispatch two of the four garrisons that the Enterprise carried down to the planet.
"Toral out."
The signal cut, the holographic generator faded - the main-screen went back to providing a view outside, from the top of the Enterprise's hammerhead saucer section.
Weyoun sat back, enjoying the rather alien sensation of pride in a job well done.
3.
Commander Toral, First Officer of the Dreadnought Enterprise, used a towel to wipe her face as she returned to her quarters from her regular exercise routine, running through the corridors and climbing through the access conduits - she had to admit, with a smile, that she was proud that her exercise routine had become so well known on the ship that there were several other crewmembers already following her example.
Which, of course, made the secondary objective of her exercise routine ten fold more difficult, given that in one of the access conduits was a small access hatch that had been installed - fake - with which to hide messages, written on pieces of paper, to be passed between the several members of the resistance movement that were in position on the Enterprise.
Although Toral was the First Officer, she was not the most senior member of the resistance on the ship - that distinction fell to a man, she presumed it was a man, who went by the codename of The Blind Man. She had no idea who this person was, no wish to uncover it - if the people remained oblivious to each other, then they could hardly betray each others identity.
At any rate, the mornings routine had yielded a message from The Blind Man, explaining that the pieces were in play for their latest gambit which would place Toral in command of the Enterprise, even if only for a short period and that, due to the potential discovery of the pieces, the gambit must be unfolded immediately.
Toral knew what she had to do - and she did it on her next duty shift, two hours into the shift itself. As the crewmembers worked at their various stations, she scanned the information on a PADD - mimicked a look of puzzlement, shifted in her chair.
Some people claimed that Vulcans could not act, that was untrue - and, in any event, the description of Vulcan did not apply to Toral given her relatively unique heritage which had been hidden from view by her paternal grandfather, the well regarded Vulcan diplomat, Spock. Her mixed Human/Romulan/Vulcan blood gave her a distinctly Vulcanoid appearance, biology and abilities whilst it also allowed her to indulge in the more unsavoury act of downright deception.
Toral crossed to the communications station, slid the PADD over to the junior Vorta on duty -
"I am, to use a Human expression, puzzled. There are a number of unauthorised communications from somewhere onboard this vessel - these communications are somewhat politically volatile ..."
"You believe them to be ..." the Vorta began.
Toral finished the statement. "To be a sign of an insurrectionist at work onboard this vessel. I need you to figure out exactly who this person is - and inform me, and only me, of their identity. Am I understood?"
The Vorta nodded and went to work. Exactly thirty minutes later, the Vorta looked up from his console, waved her over - revealed that the communications had been routed through several locations onboard the ship, unusually because there was nobody at the other consoles, but the ultimate origin of the communication was ...
Toral feigned shock.
"Oh, my."
4.
The doors leading from the turbolift slipped open, allowing Captain Weyoun XIII to step out onto the bridge and come, face to face, with the end of a phaser rifle held by the ships Senior Jem'Hadar - the Prime First. Toral was stood behind the Prime First, sh'Threk and Sharak (as Second Officer) both nearby with their weapons drawn in the event that something could occur.
Weyoun's mind whirred into motion -
"Captain Weyoun, you are being stripped of rank and title, and will report to the upload centre in order to be eliminated ..." The information that Toral and the junior Vorta had discovered revealed that Captain Weyoun had been contacted and, more to the point, was working with a known resistance group composed of defective copies of Vorta. An earlier Weyoun clone had the same defect, so the transpired revelations weren't exactly unfounded either.
The rules were clear that, if such a situation occured, the Vorta would be removed from duty and the First Officer (in most other cases, another Vorta) would assume command of the ship. Which meant that Toral would assume command, being the first Alpha Quadrant native to hold the captaincy of a Dominion vessel -
Toral thanked her lucky stars that the seeded information had held up to scrutiny that sh'Threk and the Prime First had thrown at it, it wouldn't have done to have the information uncovered as fraudulent and revealing the existence of a cell of resistance members onboard the flagship.
"Prime First," ordered Toral. "Escort Weyoun to the upload centre."
The Prime First gestured with his phaser rifle, indicating that Weyoun should cross the command deck - the upload centre was close to the Bridge, it was more sense to walk and a traitor shouldn't be given the luxury of an easy journey to their fate.
Weyoun stopped as he passed Toral, cocked his head - looked at her and, for a moment, she feared he KNEW what she was involved with and what had occured. Like he could smell the conspiracy radiating out from her.
But - nothing, then he spoke, eleven words and it stunned her.
"Sometimes even the blind man can see what must be done ..." he said before he was pushed onwards by the butt of the Prime Firsts phaser rifle, outwards into the corridor, the doors sliding shut behind him.
Toral exchanged a cautious look with sh'Threk, the powerfully built Andorian, as she settled into the command chair - she contemplated what the former Captain had just done, realising that maybe those events linking him to the Defective Vorta was actually and that he'd sacrificed himself to put her into a position that made true rebellion possible.
The Defective Vorta had offered a branch of truce to the rebellion and she would take it with open arms - she just had a few more obstacles in her way before the Alpha Quadrant Division would fall and the Dominion would follow.
Sorry to be so brief, but you did well!
