*Read “Part 1, The Attack” before you read this otherwise you won’t get it (Well,
duh. There’s a reason why they call this Part *2*). Read all the notes too. The
disclaimer is at the end.
*As you might already know, Queen Dearba is named after one of my best friends
Debra. One of the reasons why I made her the bad guy (sorta) is because she says
that “Star Trek” is a “boring” TV show. AS IF!!!! NO WAY!!!! Oh, well. She’s
still one of my best friends….I don’t know *why* though. 🙂 hee hee!
*This part is dedicated to my other best friend, Christina. You see, I have to
dedicate this part to her otherwise she’ll get mad at me…he he he…just kidding!
She proof read this for me because WordPad sucks; it doesn’t have spell check or
a thesaurus. Thanx Christina!
*As always, *any* comments are appreciated (especially since this is my first
attempt at Voyager fanfiction). Send them to cvu@ix.netcom.com Thanx a
bunch!!! J
Dilemmas: Part 2, The Betrothal
by Cherry Vu
B’Elanna’s eyes searched the empty prison room confusedly. She was the
only person in the room now. One minute Queen Dearba was talking to Captain
Janeway; the next minute, B’Elanna found herself alone in the room. Queen
Dearba had disappeared along with all the Voyager women, although B’Elanna
suspected that Dearba hadn’t transported onto Voyager with them. Suddenly,
B’Elanna felt the ship go into warp. Not many people can *feel* a ship’s
movements the way good engineers, pilots, and captains can. B’Elanna had heard
that expression somewhere before.
Aggravated and not knowing what to do, B’Elanna rose and paced around
the large room. She never seemed to be able to stay in one spot for long when she
was angry. Finally, B’Elanna took a seat on one of the couches. Two minutes
later, she began to pace again, not realizing what she was doing.
“Calm down. As I said before, we are not going to hurt you,” came a
voice from behind her.
B’Elanna whirled around quickly, ready to defend herself as her Klingon
instincts suddenly kicked in.
“There is no need for alarm. I am not going to hurt you.”
“Queen Dearba! It took you long enough. What am I still doing here?
Why–” B’Elanna started.
“I will answer all of your questions, but not here. A prison is no place to
talk about this..this…*delicate* subject,” Dearba said.
With that, Queen Dearba turned around and walked towards the door. She
had decided not to use the transporter this time, since there was only one prisoner.
She paused before the door and turned around to see B’Elanna still standing
confused.
“Well, come now. I am not going to hurt you,” Queen Dearba said,
repeating her last statement for the third time.
Reluctantly, B’Elanna started towards the door. Queen Dearba smiled, but
it was a fake smile–B’Elanna could tell. There was something wrong with this
Queen. B’Elanna could sense it, but couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was wrong.
She seemed absolutely perfect. She looked radiant by human standards and when
she spoke, her words came out with such clarity, it was as if you were talking to a
wise man instead of a beautiful Queen.
*That’s it! She’s *too* perfect* B’Elanna thought to herself.
*So? What’s wrong with being too perfect?*
*It’s not normal.*
*Well, what’s normal?*
*Huh?*
*Never mind, this is getting too confusing* B’Elanna thought. She
always argued with herself and it always ended with B’Elanna getting a bit rattled.
Queen Dearba could sense B’Elanna’s confusion and said, “Do not worry, I
will answer all of your questions once we reach the M’Ehin.”
“The M’Ehin?”
“A kind of conference room,” explained Dearba. She gave B’Elanna
another “fake” smile.
B’Elanna was beginning to hate it when Dearba smiled. It reminded her of
the evil witches she often heard about in fairy tales when she was a little girl.
They pretended to be ignorant but their false smiles usually gave them away.
She decided not to think about Queen Dearba and evil witches anymore
and instead settled on looking around the ship curiously. They were walking
down a long, wide corridor similar to that of one on Voyager. However, the walls
on the Rapizin were elaborately decorated. There were blue markings painted
delicately onto the beige walls and the black markings looked much like the
markings on Queen Dearba’s neck. From the looks of the ship’s decorum and
from the presence of Queen Dearba, B’Elanna guessed that the Rapizin was a ship
for royalty.
They turned to the right when the corridor suddenly split at an
intersection. As they passed other crewmembers on the ship, B’Elanna saw them
take one look at the Queen, abruptly stop walking, and bow deeply before her.
The Queen would only continue walking, barely acknowledging that they were
even there. B’Elanna looked back at the bowing officers after they passed them
and saw them get up nervously. She could smell their fear of the Queen and she
shuddered inwardly. *I *knew* something was wrong with this lady* she
thought. She also thought that it was curious that they had passed only women
crewmembers. B’Elanna had yet to see a Capacian male.
Queen Dearba stopped walking and stood next to a door on the left
waiting for B’Elanna. B’Elanna, who hadn’t been paying attention to where they
were going, nearly walked right past the Queen.
“B’Elanna!” Queen Dearba called.
Startled, B’Elanna turned around. “How do you know my name? I haven’t
told you that yet,” she asked suspiciously.
“We learned a great deal about you and your people from the analysis we
performed,” said the Queen. As if to prove that what she said was true, Dearba
continued. “Your full name is B’Elanna Torres and you are half-Klingon, half-
Human. You were with a group of outlaws named the Maquis when your ship
and Voyager were taken to this part of the galaxy against your will by an entity
called the Caretaker. Now, you strive to reach your part of the galaxy which is
70,000 light years away.”
B’Elanna seemed only slightly surprised by what Queen Dearba had said.
There were many races in the Delta Quadrant that knew about Voyager and their
predicament; races that they hadn’t even met yet. But people in the Delta
Quadrant had heard a lot more about Voyager after the Kazon had commandeered
their ship and went gallivanting around bragging about their latest triumph.
However, there was no way that this Queen could have known that she was half-
Klingon, that her last name was Torres, and that she had been part of the Maquis.
The Queen observed B’Elanna’s reaction for a moment, noting that it was
one that the Queen hadn’t expected.
“Well, we are almost there. We can continue this conversation in the
M’Ehin,” said the Queen.
She walked into the room as the doors split apart automatically, like the
doors on most ships in the Alpha Quadrant would.
“This doesn’t look much like a meeting hall,” B’Elanna commented once
they entered the room.
The room was rather tiny compared to the prison. In the front of the
room, to the left of the doors, there was a small, raised platform. A console faced
it several meters away towards their right.
“That is because this is not the M’Ehin,” Queen Dearba explained, “This is
what you would call ‘a transporter room’.”
*That explains it!* B’Elanna thought. Out loud, she said, “It’s a rather
small transporter room, isn’t it? You wouldn’t be able to beam more than two
people away at a time.”
“That is because this transporter room is only used for site-to-site transport
aboard this ship. The ‘transporter rooms’ that are used to ‘beam’ people away for
missions are on another part of the ship.”
“Site-to-site transport?”
“Yes. We do not use ‘turbolifts’ on our royalty ships. Site-to-site transport
is faster.”
Queen Dearba then walked over to the console, punched in a few codes,
and then climbed up onto the platform. B’Elanna followed her and about ten
seconds later, a purple beam enveloped them and they disappeared.
B’Elanna watched as everything turned into a pink haze. *Funny* she
thought *Aren’t their transporter beams purple?* She didn’t think anymore of it
once the pink haze disappeared and B’Elanna found herself in one of the most
enchanting rooms she had ever encountered.
B’Elanna turned around slowly to look at the entire room. The M’Ehin
was a large, spacious room that seemed endless to her. She estimated it to be at
least four times larger than the bridge on Voyager. The room was shaped in a
perfect oval and where there was supposed to be walls and a ceiling, there was
clear glass instead allowing the occupants of the room to stare out at the infinite
expanse of space. B’Elanna looked out at the glass and noted how clear it was,
seeming as if nothing was there at all. To her they looked more like forcefields
than windows. She felt as if she had just walked out of the ship into the vacuum
of space and it was absolutely breathtaking. *How is someone supposed to talk in
this kind of room?* she thought *I’d rather just sit here and enjoy the view.*
“It is rather beautiful, is it not?” Queen Dearba said with quiet pride after
a while of silence.
“Beautiful is an understatement. I’ve never seen anything like this before,”
B’Elanna said in a hushed tone, although there really was no reason for her to
whisper seeing as how she and Queen Dearba were the only people in the room at
the moment. “The M’Ehin tends to have that affect on most people,” Dearba
said as she watched B’Elanna take in the immense room with awe.
The only furniture in the room was a long rectangular table in the center
of the room which bore markings very similar to the walls on the Rapizin. There
were about ten seats on each of the long sides of the table and one seat on each
short end. The seats were a deep velvet color and looked rather plush and very
comfortable.
“Please, take a seat B’Elanna,” the Queen said, indicating the table with
her hand. Queen Dearba then took a seat at the end closest to her. B’Elanna
followed the Queen and took a seat to her left.
“Is there anything that you would like to eat or drink? My servants have
prepared only the best foods and beverages of our entire system,” offered Queen
Dearba.
“Actually, now that I think about it, I am rather thirsty,” said B’Elanna.
Queen Dearba nodded and tapped a button on a tiny console that was on
the table.
“Bring in two chris’Sanjenmars please.”
Two seconds after Queen Dearba had issued the order, a man appeared in
the room the same way Dearba and B’Elanna had. He was the first Capacian male
B’Elanna had seen on the Rapizin. B’Elanna couldn’t help but stare at him wide-
eyed. The servant was the most handsome man she had *ever* seen. All
thoughts of Tom instantly flew out of her mind for a moment as she gazed at the
tall man. He was wearing nothing but a pair of loose-fitting dark brown pants
which left his upper body topless. B’Elanna gazed at his hairless chest admiring
the rippling muscles and she suddenly felt an urge to run her hands over his tan
chest. Her eyes wandered over the rest of his body and she noticed the many
muscles on his arms as well. She looked up at his face and saw that it was
expressionless as most servants were. His blond hair was slicked back to make
him look more like a servant to royalty rather than a common servant.
B’Elanna immediately flushed a dark red when she realized that Queen
Dearba had been talking and she hadn’t heard a word of what she had said. She
discovered that she hadn’t been able to take her eyes off the servant even as
Dearba spoke. The man didn’t seem to notice B’Elanna’s eyes on him, or if he did,
he didn’t seem to care much. Instead he placed two glasses on the table and
began to pour a greenish-bluish liquid into them. Once the glasses were full, he
left the pitcher on the table, and transported out by tapping a button on some sort
of device around his wrist. B’Elanna felt a bit disappointed that the servant had to
leave so soon, but she knew that if he had stuck around, she wouldn’t have paid
any attention to Dearba but would’ve most likely directed all of her attention on
the man.
“B’Elanna, are you all right?” Dearba asked bringing B’Elanna out of her
reverie.
“What….uh..yes, I’m fine,” B’Elanna said, dipping her head so that the
Queen wouldn’t see her fierce blush of embarrassment. “I was just wondering
what kind of drink this is…”
Queen Dearba went on to describe the chris’Sanjenmar to B’Elanna which
left her time to calm down and remove the blush from her face. The Queen
hadn’t seemed to notice when B’Elanna had been gaping at the servant. B’Elanna
was grateful for that. Thinking of the servant again, she instantly felt guilty for
staring at him as an image of Tom popped into her head. She felt relieved that
Tom wasn’t here to see her ogling the servant.
“Please, drink. You said you were thirsty and this should relieve your
thirst,” said the Queen.
B’Elanna took the cup and smelled it first, suspiciously.
“Do not worry. We do not wish to harm you. If we wanted to hurt you or
drug you, I assure you, we would have done so already,” Queen Dearba said.
B’Elanna didn’t smell anything suspicious and thought about what Dearba
had said. She took a tiny sip of the drink and it was unlike anything she had ever
tasted before. It felt as though the drink was melting in her mouth and each of
her taste buds savored the taste. B’Elanna took another gulp of the drink,
realizing how thirsty she really was, and then set the glass back on the table.
“Now that we’re done with all the pleasantries, do you want to tell me why
you’ve kept me here?” B’Elanna asked coldly.
“Well, it is a long story–”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
The Queen sighed. This was going to be more difficult than she had
originally expected. For one thing, the woman sitting to her left was incredibly
stubborn and refused to respect the fact that she was speaking to a Queen. While
it was a bit refreshing to hear someone talk to her as if she was a normal person,
the Queen couldn’t help but find it rather irritating at the moment. She noticed
that B’Elanna was getting restless, so she began.
“I am currently at the age in my life where it is necessary for the Queen to
choose her successor if she does not bear any daughters, according to Capacian
custom. This is the case for me, for I only have one son. Traditionally, my
family, the family of Q’Ella, bonds with the family of Sri’Phana, another royal
family of course. Therefore, it would mean that my son, Prince Kae’Si, would
unite in marriage to the eldest daughter of the Sri’Phana’s, Princess Myana, thus
making her the new Queen of Capacious.
“Unfortunately, a civil war has begun on my world. The Q’Ella and the
Sri’Phana are the two main opposing sides. A marriage between Princess Myana
and my son is virtually impossible now. A case like this is completely
unprecedented on my world. My successor must be chosen as soon as possible to
ensure that if anything were to happen to me, Capacious would still have a
Queen. Kae’Si and I have searched our planet for a woman that would make a
good wife *and* a just ruler. Finding none that fit our standards, we have
broadened our search to the stars.”
Dearba stopped suddenly and tapped the comm button on the tiny console.
“You may join us now,” she said.
At that, another purple beam appeared to Dearba’s right, taking the spot
that the servant had occupied minutes before. As the beam faded away and the
tall man in the beam came to sight, B’Elanna stifled a gasp. She felt her heart
quicken and her breathing stop as she looked over the man. The servant that
B’Elanna had gawked at earlier was down right *ugly* in comparison to this man.
He was dressed in a similar pair of pants, except that these were dark green which
brought out the color of his piercing jade eyes. Unlike the servant, he was not
shirtless. He wore a long sleeved, light-gray dress shirt that hung loosely on his
broad shoulders. His jet-black hair matched his mother’s as did the markings on
his neck. His lips, however, were not blue it seemed as though only the women
possessed that rather exotic trait. As B’Elanna’s eyes ran over his body, she
couldn’t help but admire his tall, muscular build.
Suddenly, B’Elanna realized that it was incredibly silent in the room. No
one had said a word for several minutes after the man had beamed in. This time,
Dearba was watching B’Elanna as she had been staring at the handsome man.
Embarrassed yet again, B’Elanna tried her best to put a straight face on and
forced her eyes to leave the man and return to Dearba. The Queen had been
smiling the entire time that B’Elanna had been gazing at the man.
“Lieutenant B’Elanna Torres, I would like you to meet Prince Kae’Si of
Capacious,” Queen Dearba said in a formal tone.
Prince Kae’Si then walked over to where B’Elanna was seated and
lowered himself onto one knee before her. He took her tiny hand in his warm
hand, pushed her sleeve up slightly, and laid a gentle kiss on the inside of her
wrist. “You are the woman that I have been searching for,” he said in a low,
husky voice that made B’Elanna feel all warm inside.
She managed to get out a weak, “It’s nice to meet you too,” before she
forced herself yet again to turn back to Dearba. “But you haven’t told me why
I’ve been kept on this ship yet.”
Dearba looked surprised. “You still do not know?”
“Of course I still don’t know! You haven’t told me anything yet, except
for a little history,” said B’Elanna, irritated.
“You have been chosen.”
“Chosen? For what?”
“You have been chosen to be the wife of Prince Kae’Si and to become my
successor. You are now officially betrothed to my son, B’Elanna.”
.to be continued
(well, duh you didn’t think I’d just leave it at that, did you???)
*Disclaimer: (oh, yippee ) Everything Star Trek belongs to Paramount and
Viacom yadda yadda yadda .but *I* own all the other characters (Queen
Dearba, Prince Kae’Si, etc.) *especially* that yummy looking servant!!! He he
he . I also own this whole dang story, so there!!!! J
*Thanx again to Christina for proof-reading this!!! Otherwise, this story
would’ve been FULL of mistakes!!!