Unbeknownst - Chapter 12

[mousling1014]

Author: Mousling1014
Story: Unbeknownst
Chapter 12 of ?
Rated: T
Pairing: AOS Spock/Uhura
Warnings: Mind-control, sexy times (rating will change to R for that)
Synopsis: What happens when you thought you were in control, but you're not....
Disclaimer: I don't own them - Paramount does and I'm making nothing from this.


Chapter 12

Planet Atbar Prime - Cardassian Union

Soft sunlight streamed through the window overlooking the formal gardens of the small dwelling. The gardens were shared by a commune of like dwellings, each facing inwards to the gardens creating a kind of courtyard. Right now small children played, their voices rising and falling with their laughter. It was a warm day considering the planet was in its fourth cold phase, altogether an ordinary day.

Pelif stood by the window watching the familial scenes. One of the children, a boy of about 10 years old was busy trying to wrestle another boy, slighter smaller, to the ground. To outsiders the play would appear to be very aggressive, blood had already been spilt and more would probably follow before their families stepped in. But the play had a purpose within Cardassian society, it honed skills, separated the strong from the weak; it was necessary. Cardassians prided themselves on their strength; their society after all was modeled after one very simple fact. They were the one and only true masters of the Alpha Quadrant, the Universe really if one listened to the military hype. Cardassians never felt their ideas or beliefs were xenophobic, it was simply that other species were of lower origin than they. Other species were simply there to serve Cardassian interests, and those that resisted were dealt with swiftly and with deadly consequences, as shown with the Cardassian acquisition of Bajor, their newest conquest. The Bajorans had fought with everything they had, but in the end were no match for the might of the Cardassian Union.

Pelif returned his gaze to stare back out of the window to the children, he saw an elder female standing with the 10 year old boy, blood dripping down his face, he was shaking his head at her while she tried to wipe the blood away. Ahh, obviously the boy’s mother. It brought memories back to Pelif, memories that he would not rather dwell upon. He was an enigma within Cardassian society. Pelif was independently wealthy, owing nothing of his holdings to the Cardassian military. No-one really knew of his family and Pelif provided no information on the subject, refusing genetic testing, which under normal society rules he would never have gotten away with. However, Pelif could refuse. Pelif was an orphan. Cardassians, while family orientated, had no place in their society for orphans, who were considered an unfortunate by-product of a tragic event, an orphan under Cardassian law was one who had not reached his or her majority at the time of the loss of the parents, the majority being the legal standing to which he or she could conduct their own affairs and be considered an ‘adult’ within Cardassian society. Orphans in the grand scheme of Cardassian society ranked less than a slave. Pelif had been luckier than most, he had come from a prominent family on both his paternal and maternal sides and he was highly educated, always the top of his classes. His father Fretev had taken pride in his only child’s achievements, and his mother Jiana had always shown a wondering amazement at her only offspring’s accomplishments. Pelif had led a charmed life, which was only enhanced by his mother’s brother, V’rosth. V’rosth who throughout Pelif’s childhood had been steadily rising through the ranks of the Cardassian military. V’rosth who would regal his young nephew with stories of conquest and Cardassian might, infusing the young boy with his own dreams of power and glory. Young Pelif could see his future plans unfurling like a rich carpet before him.  He would bring such honor and glory to both Cardassia and his family…such plans… the memories flowed away back through the years and Pelif remembered…...

Pelif had been a mere two years from his majority, a teenager; when his parents and his maternal grandmother had been killed in what Pelif had learned at the time was a shuttle accident en route to Cardassia Prime. Shock and grief had not even settled through Pelif when he arrived at the family home, a large estate in the city of Q’illin on Atbar’s eastern continent, only to find that the touch plate on the main door would not register him. Pelif had stood outside screaming and pounding on the door until two of the family guards had pulled him away and taken him via flitter to the outskirts of the city and unceremoniously dumped him out and left him there, at no time even acknowledging him in any way. Pelif had managed to pull himself together and had slowly made his way to the city’s military compound, a sprawling mass of buildings within the city center, there he had hoped at least to be able to speak with his Uncle V’rosth. It had made no difference. V’rosth simply informed his personal guards to take the boy to the processing center; there Pelif was processed much like the slaves were and given an assignment to whoever needed the help.  Not many orphans were even that lucky, most would perish on the streets or even worse, medical facilities always needed test subjects and slaves and even prisoners had some value. Pelif’s Uncle had at least shown him a kindness with the simple act of sending him to processing. There a slave mark was permanently inked onto the skin of his neck scales, a mark that even the molting of skin that Cardassians undertook every three months could not erase.

Pelif had been given to a merchant of Cardassia’s lower caste, a man by the name of T’ihardak who owned a small fleet of shuttles and traded on the Cardassian borders with whoever was willing to offer the right price. It was more than instructional for Pelif. He performed manual labor for T’ihardak, cleaning shuttle manifolds of grease and grit and moving and stocking all sorts of merchandise. It was grueling work and the only pay was a cold floor to sleep on and the scraps off of T’ihardak’s table. The charmed life of Cardassia’s upper caste was now a dream of the past for Pelif, this was now his reality. He had been with T’ihardak for two years before the merchant had finally taken him on one of the smaller runs he made to the outer borders, The outpost of Mekarr was little more than a lump of space rock, but it was known for being one of Orion’s black market bases. A place where anything could change hands for the right price. Orions were useful, they were smugglers and traffickers and Cardassia had only benefitted from not enslaving them. In return the small outposts on the borders paid the Cardassians a stipend, something the Orions routinely haggled over.

T’ihardak dealt mostly in stolen technology, especially those pieces that came from either the Romulans or the United Federation of Planets. Pelif had shown exceptional skill with working with technology, any technology and T’ihardak was benefitting from this skill. The Cardassian Union despite being a strong military might was less technologically superior to either the Romulan Empire or the Federation. Understandable in the Federation’s case, they could boast membership of one-hundred and fifty planets so far, all willing more or less to share information between themselves. The Orion black markets abounded with these Federation ‘prizes’. Of course the Cardassians in no way thought of themselves as inferior, it was simply viewed as another way to show Cardassian might, the acquisition and utilization of alien technologies.    It had been one such load of these ‘prizes’ that T’ihardak had obtained from Mekarr that had contained within the various technological devices, two vials containing an iridescent liquid that fairly shone with blues and greens when put up to a light source. T’ihardak had taken one look at them and declared them nothing more than junk and not even worth selling, Pelif had had to beg T’ihardak for them, prostrating himself on the ground, making himself even lower, and a Cardassian symbol of total subservience before the merchant. There was something about them, something tugging at Pelif to keep them.  T’ihardak had eventually let Pelif have the vials and Pelif had stood there next to their shuttle wiping dirt and grime off of his knees and the front of his chest, the vile smells of the market floor still in his nostrils, the vials now tucked firmly away within the inner pocket of his tunic.   Once T’ihardak was finished with business they would return to Atbar Prime and Pelif would be able to study the vials much more closely.

It had been many months since Pelif had obtained the vials when things began to change. The Federation had upped its patrols of the neutral zones of both the Klingon and the Romulan Empires; interrupting the flow of marketable materials that T’ihardak was able to acquire and thus making business for the Cardassian merchant much more difficult, this of course meant life was becoming more difficult for Pelif as well. T’ihardak was not adverse to taking his frustrations out on the young Cardassian, and as a result Pelif was routinely beaten and starved; T’ihardak wasn’t yet likely to kill him, Pelif still had use when T’ihardak did acquire new merchandise, but those times were becoming fewer and farther apart. It had been another of T’ihardak’s ‘dry runs’ that had brought things to a head. They had stood on Mekarr staring at the small barrel of replicator parts, sub-standard replicator parts, when T’ihardak had turned to Pelif and snarled.

“This is your stinking fault! The Federation should have killed you when they killed your father and mother. You’re nothing but a useless piece of Frag!”   With that T’ihardak had turned back to the barrel and kicked it over scattering parts. “Pick that up!”

Pelif had stood there simply staring at T’ihardak, trying to make sense of what the merchant was saying; finally he lowered himself to the ground and spoke softly. “Master, what do you mean? My parents and grandmother were taken by an accident, that’s what the Processing center informed me. The Federation killed…them...why? I don’t understand?”

“Listen whelp, your family was pretty prominent weren’t they? You can trace your stinking lineage back to the great Gul Jendor can’t you? Great Cardassian leaders showing up all over your family tree. Even now your Uncle is vying for the position of Gul of the Union Guard.” T’ihardak shook his head. “Yeah, you heard me whelp, your Uncle. The poor glitaa that runs against him won’t be alive for too long. Anyways, you think I didn’t check up on you before I took you on? Not so stupid now am I? You think it wasn’t known that your father had had dealings with the Federation?”

Pelif had shook his head, it couldn’t be. His father Fretev had been a physician, a scientist of the highest caliber, he was known throughout the Union, what type of dealings would he have had with the Federation? Pelif continued to sit in front of the barrel. It was only when he had felt the sharp pain his side from a sharply aimed kick that made him aware that T’ihardak was muttering at him again. Pelif had quickly gotten the replicator pieces back into the barrel and holding his side had taken them back into the shuttle. He had sat down by the barrel within the shuttle’s storage compartment and waited for lift off. He needed to talk to T’ihardak again, needed more information. Thoughts of his family were swirling in his head, what T’ihardak was implying simply could not be. His father had not been a traitor.  Pelif had quietly unloaded the barrel from the shuttle once they had returned to Atbar Prime, T’ihardak making swipes at him with fists and booted feet. Pelif would endure the abuse; he needed to if he was going to obtain information. After T’ihardak had eaten, not throwing any scraps in Pelif’s direction, he now sat drinking the Romulan ale he kept, Pelif decided to try to engage the merchant into talking again about his family. The merchant by now was becoming quite drunk and more than happy to insult Pelif’s family. Pelif pushed the merchant as much as he could and T’ihardak answered him.

“You think your father a hero whelp? There was talk about him, you know. He was meeting with them Feds, there was even a holo-pic taken. Your father and one of those Feds. Of course that holo-pic’s gone missing since V’rosth started his bid for Gul. But copies have made their way around, have one myself...you know, like I said, I did my checking up on you.” T’ihardak said, his speech slurring slightly.

He had reached into his tunic and pulled out a holo-cam. He pushed the button on the front and an image formed. Pelif could only stare as the image of his father formed alongside that of a tall, slim humanoid. The humanoid’s dark hair was short on the sides with a fringe at the front that covered his forehead but allowed his slanted eyebrows to clearly show. The humanoid’s ears, while in the same position on his head as those of a Cardassian, tapered up into points. The humanoid’s skin too was vastly different than that of a Cardassian. It was more like those of the Bajorans, smooth and flat, but with a greenish cast to it.

“That’s a Vulcan.” T’ihardak spat out. “It’s told that the Feds use them to obtain secrets, use them as interrogators. They’re telepaths; they can torture you just by touching you. Your father was probably babbling like a child at the teat by the time this one was finished with him.” T’ihardak had started to laugh at this, his hand reaching out to clumsily grab the bottle of ale and knocking it over instead.

This had angered T’ihardak and he made a grab at Pelif, pulling the younger Cardassian to him, ready to strike him. Pelif had tried to pull away and T’ihardak had ended up pulling part of Pelif’s tunic off and Pelif could only stare in dismay at the piece of material that T’ihardak now held in his hand along with the two vials. Pelif made an attempt to grab the material back only to be pushed down to the ground by the merchant. He made a garbled plea.

“Master! Please! You are right, I am from unworthiness, and my father was nothing, a traitorous frag! Please master; let me have those bits back. They are nothing.”

T’ihardak had stared hard at him and smiled a slow vicious smile. “You’re right. They are nothing.” And with that T’ihardak had made a show of tightening his fist on the vials and had slowly crushed them.

Time then had seemed to slow, Pelif had watched the merchant’s face go from grinning to terrified as he started to make choking sounds. The ridges of his skin seemed to go from the typical sleek grey color to becoming mottled like a stain was growing just under the skin. His eyes had rolled up into his head as a sickening tearing sound could be heard. The sound of skin being torn apart. Pelif had watched in horrified fascination almost trance like as T’ihardak’s body was systematically ripped open from the inside out by what appeared to be sensors and other devices. Pelif had finally come to his senses when he saw T’ihardak’s body shudder like a jolt of energy had been coursed through it. The merchant’s left eye was now sliding down his face as another sensor had ripped through the eyeball, a laser like appendage appearing through the now vacant opening. Pelif had scrambled up onto his feet and had made a dash for T’ihardak’s sleeping quarters. He knew that the merchant kept a phaser there and found it quickly, holding it with a trembling hand. Pelif had then heard the sound of heavy deliberate footsteps coming towards the sleeping quarters. He waited in the room, phaser pointed out in front of him at the entrance. He hadn’t waited long. T’ihardak, or what was left of him appeared in the entrance. The merchant was only just recognizable as Cardassian. His face bore no emotion, like a walking corpse. He appeared to be analyzing the situation, the sensor of his left eye whirling, the red of the laser moving up and down Pelif’s body. He had stepped forward towards Pelif and Pelif did the only thing he could. He fired at T’ihardak repeatedly with the phaser, not even stopping when the merchant’s body had fallen down onto the floor, sensors beeping and whirling. Pelif had continued to fire until T’ihardak’s body had stopped twitching, the beeping sounds fading and then finally stopping altogether. Pelif had ended up dropping to his knees, the phaser still tightly held in his hand, his chest hurt from breathing so fast and from taking great gulps of air. He kept vigil on the corpse far into the night, his eyes firmly glued for any signs of life. Morning brought with it the realization that T’ihardak was truly dead. Pelif had finally plucked up the courage and with the phaser still trained on the dead merchant, had made his way around the corpse to exit the room. Whatever had been in those vials had destroyed T’ihardak; Pelif couldn’t believe that the merchant had actually been truly living when he had appeared in the sleeping quarters. Those vials had come from a shipment pilfered from the Federation. Pelif had needed to know more, needed to know what had been in the vials to create such a change in a person so rapidly. Did the Federation have that kind of might, that kind of power? That power could make them even more powerful than Cardassia itself, something that Pelif could barely wrap his thinking around.

Pelif had then spent the rest of the day figuring out how to not only preserve the sensors attached to T’ihardak’s body, but also do it in such a way that he would have no contact with either the body or the sensors. Pelif did not want to find out if there could be any contamination if he were to touch the corpse. He also would need to find a way to explain why his master no longer was going with Pelif to the markets, though that was a relatively easy task since he had been taking Pelif with him. Pelif using his computer skills simply changed the pass that he had to carry with him to show he was T’ihardak’s property to allow him more access, the explanation had been simple, T’ihardak would not want to risk his own life in the current economic crisis, but his slave was expendable. The Cardassians bought into it as did the marketers that T’ihardak usually dealt with. So with T’ihardak’s death Pelif had gained life once again and a means to operate both within and without Cardassian society...

His mission had become clear.   The years Pelif had spent not only building up trade and actually thriving from his former master’s business and analyzing the sensors he had taken from T’ihardak’s body had shown him many things. The Federation was a threat to Cardassia that much was clear. They had weapons beyond anything that the Cardassian Union had ever seen, they could not only destroy the Union, but the Klingon Empire and the Romulans, though in truth since no Cardassian had seen a Romulan or knew what they looked like, who would know if the Romulan Empire fell, the Federation could destroy whomever they saw fit. The technology Pelif found was of a nano-design that he had never seen, nor had any other Cardassian scientist that he had allowed to survey his experiments, though each scientist had made great strides with working with the sensors to a point that now they could be handled without fear of contamination, they could be adapted. He had deeply regretted having to kill those early scientists, but each of those gave new insight into how this adaptable technology could be used, and the blueprints of Pelif’s mission began to take shape, he had begun to recruit to his cause quietly, those that could be trusted with the truth, that Cardassia was in mortal danger. One of his recruits a young scientist called Theol had found that the sensors could be adapted to utilize brain activity, to actually create a link between a host and a subject. Pelif had witnessed this experiment first hand and had watched fascinated as the subject, based on suggestions given, had taken her own life by slashing her own throat without even blinking. Theol had postulated that such technology could be made even more potent if the hosts and subjects were even slightly telepathic. It had been a heady feeling for Pelif.   This was a weapon, an unbelievable weapon and Pelif was not about to just hand it over to the Cardassian military. Or to his Uncle V’rosth, now Gul V’rosth. No Pelif’s plan was simpler. There was family honor, the Federation had taken his family, and T’ihardak’s words had haunted him. His father had been more than likely tortured by the Federation. Pelif had not only spent his time studying and experimenting on technology. Time had been spent studying the Federation and its founders. And one of those founders was Vulcan. T’ihardak had said Vulcans were used by the Federation because of their telepathic ability, the picture of Pelif’s father standing next to a Vulcan could have meant many things, but Pelif could not get T’ihardak’s words out of his head. His father more than likely had been tortured by the Federation ergo Vulcan. When the time came Pelif and his followers would give Cardassia the weapon, but first the Federation would need to be shown that they were not invincible, that they could be controlled. On a more personal level for Pelif, Vulcan must be made to pay for his father. This was the gift that Pelif wanted to hand to his Uncle. To Pelif his cause was a just one. He now could see the steps his life had taken him all leading to the greater good of the Union. The technology had been a gift given to him. Another gift had been in the form of an outside intervention. The Romulans had attacked a Federation ship, a ship called the Kelvin. The Romulan ship had been reported to be massive, larger than any recorded. The Romulan Empire had denounced the attack, but damage had been done. For the Romulans now had a face for both friend and foe to see and that face was familiar to Pelif…the face could have been a Vulcan. Through his cause’s network Pelif had learned that the Vulcans had tried to distance themselves from this new information. The Federation had not known of the common ancestry of one of its founding members and the Romulan Empire. The fallout had been swift; the insular Vulcans had not imparted information crucial to the safety of the Federation or its member planets. Some planets refused outright to deal with the Vulcans, others, such as Earth stood publicly by Vulcan, but its own people were loud with retributions. It would take many years before healing from the damage would begin to show…

During those years Pelif’s cause had grown and now as he stared out at the garden and at the young boy being comforted by his mother his thoughts turned to the future. The time was coming; the pieces were being set to play. Soon it would be time and Pelif’s mission would be complete…

TBC