by Dabin Reece
91004.1700
-=One hundred fifty years ago, Symbiosis Commission, Trill=-
91004.1700
-=One hundred fifty years ago, Symbiosis Commission, Trill=-
Twenty men and woman waited patiently for Felani to arrive. Patiently, but not comfortably.
This room was the main meeting place for the greatest minds of Trill medicine. The walls were adorned with hand painted portraits of past holders of the prestigious Equilibrium Chair. So named because its holder’s chief duty was to maintain the delicate balance between the Trill hosts and their symbionts, for the mutual benefit of each half of their interwoven species.
From the ceiling, bright pure white lights bathed the entire length of the onyx table in illumination for those seated around it. Each man and woman wore a long white lab coat, as was expected for official meetings of this sort.
Civilian clothing was acceptable for less formal functions, such as training sessions, birthdays, or the occasional Terran pizza party. But this afternoon formality was expected, and Felani would not be arriving with a stack of large deep dish Hawaiians to share.
Halfway down the table, Tolarum was, of the entire group, the man sweating the most bullets. He dabbed nervously with the cuff of his robe at he forehead, to no avail. The cuff was already saturated with perspiration and not able to absorb any more, even though the stream of sweat showed no signs of stopping.
It was, after all, Tolarum’s Temperament Initiative that had created this whole mess. Granted, everyone was involved with the experiment and shared some of the blame, but it was Tolarum’s brainchild and ultimately his responsibility. Felani had been briefed and approved the funding, but everyone knew she was certainly not going to volunteer to take the fall for what had happened.
The chime of the clock coincided perfectly with the opening of the doors to the conference room. Felani entered, and whatever small chatter had filled the room ceased immediately.
Each head in the room turned towards her, and followed her slow almost gliding motion towards the head of the table. Each head that is, except for Tolarum, who suddenly had taken a great interest in his own hands as a good excuse not to look up towards Felani. Standing at two meters, she was, in fact, the tallest living female on Trill. She was wire thin, with streaks of interlacing black and white color to her shoulder length hair. Her facial and arm bones were easily visible beneath her skin.
Despite her height, with no chest to speak of, she weighed no more than fifty kilograms. A pair of impossibly small eyeglasses sat perched at the end of her long pointed nose, leaving some to wonder who she could possibly see anything through lenses that were in fact smaller than the actual diameter of her eye. The rumor was that there was nothing wrong with her eyes and the glasses were worn purely for intimidation.
It worked.
Felani was something akin to the nun from parochial school that still invaded your nightmares even though you graduated at age seventeen and are now eighty-five. She had no fighting ability to speak of but her glare alone over the top of her glasses from two meters high was enough to send a Klingon warrior in search of a corner to cower in.
Still, she was a perfectly pleasant woman when she was not angry. Today, however, she was angry.
When she arrived at the head of the table, she dropped the bundle of medical records she was carrying, set her palms down on the table, and leaned towards Tolarum. He was seated a good five meters away, but when she leaned over, she was practically in his face. Tolarum swore he could smell her lunch on her breath as she spoke, and it smelled like dead Trill researcher.
“You screwed up royal.”
Tolarum did not move. Neither did anyone else for that matter. Everyone was suddenly as interested in his or her hands as he was. Her words hung in the air for a minute.
“Don’t you have anything to say for yourself?”
“We can fix this, Felani. It is not a big problem.”
“Not a big problem? Not a big problem? People are actually signing over their life’s savings and property to him. A lot of people. So much that it is beginning to have an effect on the entire economy of the planet. Do you know what happens when the economy of Trill takes a hit?” Felani asked.
“No ma’am.” Tolarum said in a barely audible voice.
“Well, I will tell you. When the economy turns sour, voters start to get upset with their representatives in government. When that happens, the politicians fear for their political careers, and that makes them upset. This leads them to find out why the economy is going bad, so they can fix it to save their own sorry hides. Do you know what they found when they started looking?”
“I think so, ma’am.”
Felani stood up straight and folder her arms across her chest. “Then please, enlighten us.”
“Ladron Reece and the Temperament Initiative.” He reluctantly admitted.
“That’s right. And when they found that, they called me, and reminded me that my position is one appointed by the Trill government and that I can be replaced at any time. I will not be replaced, Tolarum. You were the one that introduced us to the studies of temperament types from Earth and suggested we should test the population for the most extreme cases of each type. You were the one that suggested we should bring them here under the false pretense of enrolling them as initiates, so that we could join them with the symbionts.”
Felani stalked around the table as she spoke, making eye contact with everyone to drive home the point of exactly why all of this was Tolarum’s fault.
“You were the one that suggested that the data collected would give us great insight as to how symbionts react to individuals with the most extreme personality types. Well, your plan worked just a little too well didn’t it? Ladron gains more followers with each passing day. Reece’s experience has turned an idiot with no remorse for exploiting people for his own gain into a genius capable of forming a planet-wide cult.”
Felani was directly behind him now. She leaned over his shoulder, twisting her neck almost like a serpent to look him in the eye.
“And you, are going to fix it.”
“But, how?” Tolarum asked.
“Get rid of him!” She hissed.
“I… I won’t kill him.” Tolarum stated defiantly.
Felani was returning to the head of the table. She paused and spun back around, her already angry face somehow looking even more upset. “We are not murderers, Tolarum! The government is going to provide us with a ship. You will ensure, one way or another, that Ladron is on that ship. I don’t care where you send him, but get him off of Trill. Once you have gotten rid of him, his movement will end. Ladron will live out his life in peace on whatever world the two of you end up on.”
“The two of us?” Tolarum asked.
“Well of course. He can’t be left entirely alone can he? If he were to die without us knowing, the Reece symbiont would die with him, and we can’t have that. I will personally make sure the next host is prepared to deal with the fall out from this joining. So either you escort him, or spend the rest of your life in prison for this rogue project of yours.”
“Rogue project! You approved the funding for it!” Tolarum shouted, a little too loud.
“I did? Funny, because there are no records on file to support your claim.” Felani looked around at the rest of the room. “And if any of you do not wish to spend the rest of your lives in prison as well, I suggest you all forget you ever had any involvement in this project. Any of you can be made, just as easily, to be the leader of this project, and take the fall for it. Is that clear?”
The other nineteen heads in the room bobbed in agreement.
-=Two days later=-
“And remember beloved children, the only way to elevate yourself to the next plane of existence is to help me spread the word of Wonderland, and to do that I need your support. Your donations, the deeds to your land. All of these will be meaningless to you once you have obtained enlightenment, but on this world filled with fools and nonbelievers, I still must work in their feebleminded monetary system to be able to spread the word. So please, be generous in your support. The more you help, the quicker we will all be able to ascend to Wonderland. Thank you my friends, and good night!”
Ladron surrendered the microphone, to the sound of thunderous applause and cheers. Men and women both wept from their knees, begging him to stay for just another moment so that they might bask in his glow. As he stepped off stage, Ladron’s bodyguards flanked him, and took him to a special visitor that had arrived to meet with him.
“Tolarum!” Ladron said, with a cautious smile. “My friend, how are you. Have you come to learn more about Wonderland?”
“Of course. You have proven to be my greatest recruit into the Initiate Program. I wanted to see the product of my labor, and future that all Trills will have for following your word.”
Ladron smiled broadly now, and took his old friend up into and hug. He was dressed completely in white, which made Tolarum slightly nervous. He had not done well lately with individuals dressed in white.
“Wonderland will have a special place for you my friend. Had you not joined me with Reece, I would never have obtained Enlightenment, nor been able to share the Word with the people of Trill. One could say this entire movement would never have gotten off the ground if not for Tolarum.”
Tolarum could not help but snicker at the irony of that statement. People most certainly had said that this movement would never have occurred if not for him.
“Can we speak alone for a moment?” Tolarum asked.
“Of course!” Ladron waved his guards away, and stepped behind a curtain with Tolarum. Once they were alone, Tolarum reached into his pocket, and drew out a small injection device. Ladron still had his back turned, and never saw it coming, as Tolarum pressed it into his back, and Ladron fell to the ground in a heap.
He pulled a large burlap sack out from where it was hidden under his shirt, and slid it over Ladron’s head. Tolarum didn’t know if this was it all necessary, but this was what kidnappers always seemed to do in the Pictures. Tolarum had never kidnapped anyone before so he was doing the best he could.
Next, he clipped the transponder device Felani had given him onto Ladron’s clothing underneath the sack, and tapped it. This was supposed to activate the transporter. Tolarum had only heard about the technology, but had never dared to try it yet.
He shut his eyes, and when he opened them he was indeed on the ship in orbit of Trill. He looked longingly out the cockpit window at the planet below, hoping one day he may be able to return, when it was time to bring Reece home to be rejoined.
Felani had picked an unexplored class M world for him to take Ladron Reece too, with the instructions that they avoid any native population if one happened to be there.
“It’s just you and me now, Ladron..” He said to the lifeless body on the floor. Tolarum tapped the autopilot control on the panel and the ship jumped to warp, leaving Trill behind in an instant.
Commander Dabin Reece
Chief Science Officer
(and owner of lonely hearts)
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Chief Science Officer
(and owner of lonely hearts)
USS Serendipity NCC-2012