From: Kenneth Field (envision_at_fidalgo.net)
Date: Fri Jun 22 2007 - 18:24:45 PDT
"When the Abyss Looks Back"
(continues from Jerome's "Flesh Harvest")
Location: GS-2
Stardate: 2.70622.1824
Scene: Unknown
"I can't see the stars any more," Gene said in a hoarse whisper.
He felt Kemal Roh's presence beside him in the darkness, knew the razor edge of his knife lay at his throat. He was beyond terrified now. The adrenalin had abandoned him, and he was growing resigned to the fact that in a few moments he would be dead.
"That's not altogether out of the ordinary," the renegade Ranjen retorted, "since there is no exterior access for viewing in this room."
"That's not what I meant," Gene whispered again, the sadness in his voice welling up, "and you know it."
"Ah, then you meant it metaphorically? You will soon go beyond the need for grammatical allusions. I will send you to the Prophets, and they will take you to the stars."
Gene could sense the fanaticism burning in the other man. Kemal had long since past the point of logical discourse. Their short conversations had made that abundantly clear. Kemal Roh was set on his course. At first Gene had hoped to keep the man talking ... about anything ... and give his fellows time enough to locate and subdue the man. As time passed he began to realize the likelihood that even if they found him now, it might well be too late.
"I don't believe," Gene said simply.
"You don't believe? In what?" Kemal demanded, straightening up suddenly.
"The Prophets. I don't believe in them. You may kill me in their name, as you've done the others, but it's pointless."
"That's not true," Kemal snapped back, laying the blade against the Counselor's naked throat. "They will save us from ourselves. And I will help them."
"You will kill me out of a mistaken assumption," Gene managed to mutter around the dolocaine sap's effects. "I do not believe in them. Nor do I believe in their opposites, the Pagh-Wraiths. All superstition. All children's morality tales dressed up for adults. There is nowhere for me to go when you end my life, but here. And here I will remain, in whatever condition you leave me. Eventually it will not matter to me."
Kemal hissed at Gene's blasphemy.
"I am not a sacrifice to the Prophets," Gene explained. "You save no one by killing me. You cannot send me to something I do not believe in. And when it is your turn to face the darkness, there will be nothing there to welcome you either."
"I know you!" Kemal Roh shouted at him. "You are the hero of Tinuviel Valley. You've commanded ships and men, done great deeds. You are honored on BAJOR. You must believe!"
"No. All of this is meaningless. Which means that whatever you do to me means nothing. You are just a murderer, just a butcher. There is no Celestial Temple waiting for either of us. At least I had something here and now. All you had was a mistaken idea of how the universe worked."
The man leaned in close to him again, his breath warm and sour.
"It only matters that I believe."
"No," Gene said again. "Unless we share a common ground, then there is nothing of value here. Finish it. I'm tired of this," he commanded the man.
He felt the point of the blade dig into his skin.
**Love you, Xana,** he thought. **Love you, Dahlia."
-------------------- =/\=
NRPG: Something I've wondered about. A little esoteric maybe, but something to consider. I'm not sure that anyone but the fanatic has to believe, but surely what the victim believes must also be important. This is just the beginning of darkness for Gene.
-------------------- =/\=
Kenneth Field
envision_at_fidalgo.net
aka Commander Gene McInnis
CNS/GS-2
aka Lt. JG Mowree Nurunyon
aCNS/GS-2
aka Tomas' Alexei Vukovic
Former Chief of Staff to Ambassador Xana Bonviva
currently with the BORG
aka Maury R. Tee
Professor of English (Retired)
Proprietor of "Impulse Drives,"
a little shop of horrors
GS-2, Promenade
"I start fighting a war, you're definitely gonna see something new." Malcolm Reynolds -- "Serenity"
From HyperNews_at_youth.net
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